CHAPTER 57

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A SAFE PLACE? YEAH, RIGHT!

Donna's TARDIS materialized just outside the high gates surrounding Masada, and the Bad Wolves all came out to look at it in amazement. The entire area was supposed to be protected by every ward against vampires known to man and walled off from the rest of the world in an impenetrable (even by mist) dome. It was a safe haven for vampire hunters and victims alike to go to in times of trouble. Many vampire hunters lived here and others came here for help when they needed back-up against a particularly nasty nest of the bloodsuckers.

Katherine knew that Amanda would be completely safe here if she could get the vampire hunters who controlled it to let her inside. There was only one problem with that. They never ever let in any vampires under any circumstances! Even if they did, all of the protective wards built into every inch of Masada would have instantly incinerated them anyway. The only exception to that rule was Ileana because she was under the protection of Rose, and she was the wife of Abraham Van Helsing. Even in that case, there were many inhabitants of Masada who were wary even of her.

Katherine knew all of this of course, but she didn't want Amanda to know it. She wanted her to believe that there was a chance that she might get inside too so that she wouldn't fight coming here so much. She knew that she would be heartbroken once she got inside and found out the truth, but at least she would finally be safe.

Donna didn't know any of this either and actually believed that she could somehow convince the vampire hunters to let Katherine inside too. Katherine wouldn't put anything past Donna's abilities (she did defeat the Daleks singlehanded after all), but she wasn't sure even she could prevail in this case.

As the Wolves walked up to the front gate of Masada, they were met by a single guard who looked at Katherine and the other vampires in the group suspiciously. He immediately stood in front of them and blocked their path with a huge wooden stake in his hand as he said in a cold voice, "No vampires. Period."

"Listen, buddy, my friend and her little girl want to come here to live. Yes, my friend is a vampire, but she's the nicest person that you'll ever meet. Anyone else would be proud to have her live with them. She's all the family that little girl has too so you're not going to break them up, do you understand that?!" Donna threatened as she got up in the man's face.

"No. Vampires. Period," the guard said in a flat, unemotional tone.

"I want to speak to your boss. Who's the head of this place? Call them out here or I'll go inside and drag them out myself!" Donna shouted.

"You can try," the guard said with a trace of a smile on his face.

"I'll do more than try," Donna said as she put her fists up.

Ileana quickly stepped in-between the two of them as she said, "There's no need to start World War III here. Can I just see Mina please? She's the one who'll have the final say on this anyway. I'm . . ."

"I know who you are, Ileana Van Helsing. I'm afraid that no one can see Mrs. Harker today. She's very busy. Apparently there has been a new outbreak of vampires in a nearby village recently. It always concerns us whenever vampires come this close to us," the guard said in a snooty tone as he looked pointedly at Katherine, Alina, and Stefania.

"They're with me. They're good people," Ileana said.

"Dracula's wife is a good person?!" the guard said skeptically.

"She's changed, you big jerk!" Amanda shouted as she kicked the guard's leg.

"Amanda!" Katherine said as she pulled the little girl away from him.

"I'm tired of him looking down his nose at you. He doesn't even know you. Just because you're a vampire doesn't mean you're bad. I'll gladly take you over most humans any day especially that one," Amanda said as she glared at the guard.

"This is the child that you wish to stay here? I don't think that she'll be invited. A vampire lover like her will not be appreciated within these walls I assure you," the guard said in disdain.

"Good because I don't want to be here anyway," Amanda said as she continued to give him the look of death.

"You'll be safe here though. That's all that matters to me," Katherine said.

"It's not all that matters to me. I don't want to be around a bunch of thugs that hate all vampires just because they're vampires. They think that you're all evil, and I know differently. There's not an evil bone in your body, Mum!" Amanda said in an emotional voice.

The guard snorted in derision. He knew that Amanda had been brainwashed to believe that. He could never accept any vampire as good not even Ileana. The only reason that he put up with her was because he was told to by the Director of Masada, Mina Harker.

She may have been fooled by Ileana but he wasn't. He knew that all vampires were the same at their core no matter what positive image that they displayed for the humans around them. They were all twisted and evil in their black hearts. Mina herself was proof of that. She hadn't aged in over a century after having her blood tainted by Dracula's own when he had attempted to turn her into his slave. She hadn't had a normal life since then and had established Masada to keep that sort of thing from happening to anyone else.

"So you're not going to call Mina or anyone else to come and talk to us then?" Ileana said in growing irritation.

"No, I'm not. None of you are getting inside. We don't need some vampire loving child in there contaminating the place anyway," The guard said firmly.

"Oh, I'm all broken up about that. Boo hoo!" Amanda said mocking him.

"Come on, Katherine. We'll keep both of you safe back home. I promise," Ileana said.

"Oh, no! We're not giving up that easily. That's what Mr. Stick Up His Bum here wants us to do. I'm not leaving until I speak to someone in charge. Got it?" Donna said in a stubborn tone as she locked eyes with the guard while silently daring him to say anything else to her.

The guard and Donna stayed in a staring contest for several minutes as Donna's eyes bore into his with more and more intensity the whole time. Finally the guard began to sweat and twitch nervously until he finally said, "I'll call someone."

"That's more like it," Donna said with smug satisfaction as she finally looked away and broke eye contact with the guard.

The guard sighed in relief as he quickly took out her cell phone and called someone inside Masada. "Yes, I need someone in charge to come and talk to some people out here about letting someone become a permanent resident of this place. Can you hurry please? The one with the red hair is scarier than any vampire I've ever met in my life," the guard said in a shaky voice.

Donna just smirked and winked at Ileana as she said, "Now, that's how you get things done, Lana."

Ileana just stared at her expressionless without saying a word as Donna asked, "What?"

"He's right. You are scary," Ileana said as her face finally broke into a smile and she started laughing.

"I'll show you scary if you don't pipe down, Fang Gal," Donna threatened.

"I like you already, Donna Noble," a voice said from all around them.

"Who?" Donna asked in surprise.

"I am Mina Harker. Welcome to Masada, Donna. I've heard a lot about you from my good friend, Ileana, so of course you can come in. All of you are free to enter except for the vampires among you. I'm afraid that they can't enter or they would be instantly incinerated," Mina said through the loudspeaker at the gate.

"What? You never told me that?!" Amanda said to Katherine as she suddenly became furious with her.

"That's because I knew you'd never come if there was no chance of me staying here with you," Katherine admitted.

"No! I won't stay here alone without you!" Amanda protested.

"Amanda," Katherine said in a soothing voice as she wrapped her arms around her.

"NO!" Amanda shouted.

The gates suddenly opened and a dark haired woman that both Ileana and Alina instantly recognized as Mina walked forward and asked, "Is this the child who wishes to enter our community?"

"I don't want to go anywhere. Leave me alone," Amanda said in a terrified voice.

"No one's going to force you to go anywhere, child. I can promise you that," Mina said in a comforting voice.

"I'm still not sure about leaving her here personally," Donna said.

"For the record, I'm totally against it. She needs to stay with her mother. No offense, Mina," Ileana said.

"None taken. So why would you leave the girl here alone for?" Mina asked Katherine.

"To keep her safe. She keeps being attacked by vampires and others where we live now. I need to know that she's somewhere where she'll be protected and well taken care of," Katherine said as she struggled unsuccessfully to keep any trace of emotion out of her voice.

Mina looked at her in surprise as she said, "You don't really want to leave her here at all. This is tearing you apart, isn't it? It's the same with her as well. I can see how tightly she's clinging to you. A vampire bonding with a human child and vice versa. I never thought I'd see such a thing especially with the vampire being his sister."

"I'm nothing like Dracula," Katherine said.

"I know. I can see that because you know love. It was always a stranger to him even when he was alive by all accounts," Mina said.

"Not always. Not when it came to me anyway," Katherine said.

"Regardless of that, I'm willing to make an exception and allow you and the child into Masada. If you can somehow survive inside that is. This place was made to incinerate vampires, and I can't undo that. If you could perhaps receive the same kind of help as Ileana has, then you would remain unaffected," Mina said.

"She already has it. I gave you the same kind of protection from Masada that I gave Ileana as soon as I found out that you wanted to come here," Rose said as she suddenly appeared next to Katherine surprising the guard who drew a gun on her.

"That's probably not a good idea. She tends to disintegrate people when she becomes angry," Donna said to the guard with a grin on her face.

"I do not!" Rose complained.

"Tell that to the Daleks," Donna said.

"Daleks? She disintegrates Daleks?" the guard said shaking even more now.

"They're terrified of her. So if they're scared of her what good do you think you'll do with your little pea shooter, huh?" Donna asked as her grin became even wider. She was really enjoying this.

"That's enough, Donna. Stop picking on the poor bloke. He already looks like he's going to wet himself. You can go inside of Masada and stay there now, Katherine, but you're not going to find it to be any safer in there than anywhere else," Rose said.

"Okay, what do you know, Flower Girl?" Donna said with a sigh.

"I don't know what you mean," Rose said.

"Yes, you do. You know the future and just can't bother to tell it to us mere mortals. I really hate it when you do that. You've become just as bad as the Doctor at doing that kind of thing," Donna said.

"That was a low blow, Donna," Rose said as she tried to hide the sadness inside of her over what was to come with a fake smile.

"What did you mean, Rose?" Katherine asked.

Before Rose could answer, Mina received a call from inside from someone speaking so frantically that the others could barely understand them. Mina immediately went inside after saying, "Masada is under attack by vampires!"

"What?! How could they possibly get inside?" The guard asked as he looked at the Bad Wolves suspiciously.

"Well, don't look at us, mate," Rose said looking offended.

"He'd better not look at me if he knows what's good for him," Donna threatened.

She began to stare at the guard with an even more intense gaze, and he instantly looked away. Despite what she knew was soon to come, Rose couldn't help but laugh just a little bit as she said, "Still making grown men shake in their boots, Donna?"

"You know it, Flower Girl," Donna said proudly.

Screams suddenly came from inside, and Rose began to stiffen and look horrified. Donna noticed this instantly as she said, "Why aren't you stopping this?"

"Can't you feel it? It's a fixed point in time. I want to interfere but I can't. I can't," Rose said as she began to tear up.

"I still can't get a feel of what's fixed and what isn't. Maybe it's because I really don't care. I'm going to put a stop to this, fixed or not! We're going in even if you're not! Let us in," Donna said to the guard.

The guard looked at her in indecision as Donna said, "Come on. Mina said we could go in earlier. How much worse could we make things anyway? Go on!"

The guard nodded and opened the gate. All of the Wolves except Katherine, Amanda, Alina, and Stefania then ran inside immediately. They stayed outside with Rose and the guard and looked at one another awkwardly.

"Why are you still here? I mean I know why you aren't, Katherine, because of Amanda. What about you though, Lina?" Rose asked.

"They can't go in there. They're vampires," The guard said.

"They're my Wolves. They can go wherever they want. I just gave them the ability to go inside," Rose said.

"Your Wolves?" Alina asked surprised.

"In a matter of speaking, yeah. I mean UNIT did take the name from me, didn't they? Plus, well, at the moment you are my Wolves. I'm your new commanding officer I guess you could say. I've been drafted by Kate to replace Martha while she's on sick leave," Rose said.

"What?! Why didn't you tell Donna that?" Alina asked.

"I didn't want Donna and the others to feel obligated to go inside there because I'm technically her temporary Commanding Officer now. I also would never have ordered her to do it because I can't interfere. It wouldn't be right to since I can't help her. I'm sorry. I just can't," Rose said.

"What do you mean you can't? Why can't you? I don't want to hear about your stupid fixed points either. That's my family in there! Now you go in there, and you help in any way that you can!" Amanda screamed at her.

The Time Lord in Rose Tyler wanted to argue with the little girl, but the human in her wanted to throttle the Time Lord for not doing it sooner. As usual, the human kicked the Time Lord in the tail.

"You're right. Maybe I can't interfere as the Bad Wolf or as a Time Lord, but Rose Tyler certainly can. Let's go," Rose said.

"I'll stay here if it's all the same to you," Katherine said as she looked at Amanda.

"No, Mum. You need to do this. You have to help. I'll stay in the TARDIS," Amanda said as she quickly took the decision out of her mother's hands by going inside the TARDIS without even having to be told.

It was then that Katherine realized at last that this was who Amanda was. She was truly the heart and soul of this group. She inspired them to do what others wouldn't or couldn't no matter what the reasons against it were. She argued against their adult logic and counteracted it with the emotion and clear headedness of a child that could see what was right and what was wrong with ease even if the adults couldn't.

"I was wrong to try to run from this, wasn't I? This is where she's supposed to be. I see that now," Katherine said to Rose.

"You were just being an overprotective mother. Believe me I've been there with my own kids and will continue to be in the future I'm sure. Come on, girls. Let's go see what's going on," Rose said as she gestured for the vampires to follow her.

"Yeah, like she doesn't already know," Alina said.

Rose couldn't help but wince at that. She did already know what they would find there. She also knew what day that this was too. This was the day that the vampires on this planet scored a major victory against those who hunted them.

As soon as the others ran inside, they saw Donna and the rest of the team fighting with an enemy that Rose had already met once before. They had large sharp teeth and could indeed bite and drain the life from their victims with them, but they weren't true vampires. That was how they had gotten inside. The wards were made to prevent the entrance of real vampires but not sexy fish vampires who drank water instead of blood. The actual vampires of this planet had finally found a way around Masada's defenses by working hand in hand with a new ally.

The Saturnynians had returned!

Next: It's the Bad Wolves and Rose together versus the Saturnynians for the fate of Masada and its inhabitants. Is Masada really doomed or can even a fixed point in time be changed every once in a while when the completely unexpected happens? Could the arrival of a new long awaited team member help alter the Web of Time in the Wolves' favor? See who it is next time as we also find out just who was behind this whole plan in the first place. Exactly who leads the vampires of Earth now?