CHAPTER 5
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From the Chronicles of the Sisterhood of Karn:
In the distant past back in the Dark Times there were three individuals who would come to be known as the founders of Time Lord civilization. They were named Rassilon, Omega, and the Other.
Rassilon, of course, was proclaimed most widely as the founder of the Time Lord civilization and their ability to travel through time. Many sources say that he stole much of the credit for this from the other two however.
Omega was the one whose experiments helped create the Eye of Harmony from a black hole. The Eye of Harmony was the singularity that was used as a power source for all of Gallifrey's technology and TARDISes. Omega's equipment was sabotaged by Rassilon so that he was sucked into the black hole that he was harnessing, and he eventually wound up trapped in an anti-matter universe. Rassilon then took the credit for the creation of the Eye of Harmony from Omega.
There was also the Other. According to many historical accounts, the Other was the true grand engineer and architect of much of Gallifrey's technology and of its ability to travel through time. The Other's true name has been lost to history as have their accomplishments. Even their true gender is uncertain. Some accounts have the Other as male and others as female.
What is known for certain is that the Other was a mighty warrior who fought in the First Great Time War against the Great Vampires and they became so powerful and feared in their battle prowess that all feared them and none dared to oppose them in battle. The Other though, despite this great skill as a warrior, hated war and always kept a happy, cheerful attitude as well as making sure to always keep the value and dignity of life first and foremost in their hearts.
Many accounts say that it was the Other who led the rebellion against Rassilon's tyranny when he showed his true colors and became a dictator who oppressed the other Time Lords behind an iron boot. The Other helped capture Rassilon and imprisoned him in the Dark Tower for millennia until the day that he was released once again to fight in the Last and Final Great Time War.
Once Rassilon was deposed, the Other disappeared into the recesses of history to travel through time and space on their own. No one knows what happened to them. Some accounts say that the Other committed suicide in despair over the crimes committed by Rassilon. Other accounts say that the Other lived on and became immortal. Their immortality coming from the same unknown source as Rassilon's supposed immortality. Some legends say that the Other travels through time and space even today over a billion years since they were born. He/she still fights for the rights and happiness of others and overthrows tyranny wherever he/she finds it. The Other is a renegade and a rebel, but they have always had a strong sense of what was right and they have followed it throughout their long, long life! The Other continues to watch over the Time Lords and to seek to guide them away from those internal and external forces who would seek to destroy them!
The Present Day:
Lily looked on in anger at her old nemesis, Cleopatra; and her face transformed from its usual kind, happy expression into a hardened mask of steel and determination. She had slipped under the mask of the warrior and her emotions were shut down. All that mattered was stopping Cleopatra and preventing her from hurting her friends or any other innocents that she might prey on.
Robin Hood looked at her in shock and surprise. He had seen her fight before of course, but this time was different. His loving Lily was gone and replaced by a stranger. He looked at her in despair over this sudden change.
Lily obviously noticed this change in his demeanor, and she grabbed hold of his hand briefly and squeezed it. Robin smiled briefly as he understood that this was her way of reassuring him that she was okay.
"Playtime has ended. Your little reign of terror is ending now!" Lily said in a fury filled voice.
"There we are! The anger and fury in her are revealed at last! Now you can all see just how fake her gentle, laughing kind hearted act really is! It's what she does you see. She gets you to become her friend by pretending to be this lovable oaf, but then when the chips are down she stabs you in the back! Her true self is revealed then, isn't it? What are you calling yourself these days anyway? You've had so many names and so many faces. Is it Lily now? I always preferred Persephone myself. Even that isn't your true name though. Do you even remember what your true name is or what you originally looked like in your very first incarnation so very, very long ago? How long have you lived, Persephone? How many faces have you worn? Have many identities and personas have you adopted? How many people have you known and lost? Even I'm not sure, and I've known you longer and better than anyone," Cleopatra said to Lily with a taunting smirk.
"I'm not interested in discussing the past. I'm here to discuss your future or lack of one," Lily threatened the Queen.
"Hello, Cleo! Long time no see. Not that I've missed you any. I have to say the whole time traveling vampire thing is new though. It doesn't suit you! You should have had the good sense to bow out with the asp," the Doctor said with a slight smirk on his lips.
Cleopatra looked at him for a moment and then said, "Ah, Doctor! I thought that you were familiar. You're so forgettable though that I almost wiped you out of my mind completely! Still loving and leaving them?"
"I never loved you. You came onto me and tried to seduce me into doing your bidding. When it didn't work, you tried to have me killed. That's hardly a relationship that I'd choose to remember either," the Doctor shot back to her.
"Seems like you're the one that does the whole stab people in the back thing," Lily said to Cleopatra as she gave an appreciative glance to the Doctor.
"I learned from the best," Cleopatra said with a glare at her.
"It's time for you to stop playing games with time. You're way too old to be acting like such a child," Lily said.
"I can't believe that you of all people are talking about age," Cleopatra shot back.
She turned to look at the Doctor and asked him, "Have you never wondered just how old she is? Did you ever really research her life story?"
"This isn't about her. It's about you, Cleo," the Doctor told her. He was unconcerned about Lily's so called secrets.
"You can just stop trying to divide and conquer here, dearie. The Doctor's not listening to you," Lily said to her with a haughty air.
"Scan her, Doctor. See if you can determine her real age," Cleopatra challenged him.
The Doctor couldn't help himself. Just to get her to shut up, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it to look at Lily.
The readings that he got back made him do a double take, and he had to double check them. Then he checked them again.
"Doctor, we can talk about this later," Lily said. She knew what he had found.
"Lily, this can't be right. I've checked it three times though. This shows your age as being at least one billion years old! How is that possible?" the Doctor said as he looked at her wide eyed and suspicious.
Allison just gaped at her.
"How in the world are you that old? That's not possible! Nothing lives that long!" Allison sputtered out.
Robin Hood looked at her in shock as well, but then he just smiled and his expression softened.
"Here I worried about being older than you, my lady. It seems I am but a babe in swaddling clothes compared to yourself. It matters not though. I love older women as well," Robin said to her with a grin.
Lily couldn't help but laugh at that. Bless that man! she thought. Only Robin could act like her being incredibly ancient was nothing. She really did pick the right man in every way.
"Then you came to the right girl," Lily said to him with a grin.
She gave him a peck on the check in appreciation for what he had just said.
The Doctor was not letting it go so easily though.
"How have you lived so long?" he asked her in complete curiosity.
Lily said nothing. She looked extremely uncomfortable and said nothing.
"I can tell you all about it. I learned about you from the vampires who made me. They knew all about you, Persephone. They told me about the experiment that Rassilon performed on you," Cleopatra said. She almost looked sympathetically at Lily for a minute.
"What is she talking about?" the Doctor asked Lily. He was fully absorbed in Cleopatra's words now.
Lily sighed and decided to tell him the truth. She didn't like remembering her past. It seemed that this was yet another attempt by Cleopatra to hurt her by making her relive it and by making her tell her friends and family about it. She was hesitant about their reaction to what she was going to tell them, but she would rather that they hear it from her than Cleopatra.
"During the war against the vampires, Rassilon was performing experiments to try to develop an inoculation for himself that would give him an immunity to vampire bites and to their hypnotic powers. He knew that this would prove very useful in winning the war against them. He had to use vampire blood in these experiments of course, and this proved to be very dangerous. He used many other Time Lords as guinea pigs in these experiments as he tried unsuccessfully to find an inoculation that would work and not give unexpected side effects," Lily explained.
"Unexpected side effects?" the Doctor asked.
"The vampire blood kept turning all of the test subjects into full blooded vampires or even worse, bizarre vampiric mutations. Then he gave the latest inoculation to me. I was terrified! They dragged me into his laboratory and forcibly ejected me with the latest serum. Up until then everyone had died or been changed into something horrible by the experiments," Lily said with a scared expression as she remembered the day her life changed forever.
The Doctor looked at her with a sympathetic expression and put his hand on her shoulder. Robin put his arms around her in an attempt to give her the strength to go on when she hesitated.
"I thought that I was going to die too. My body was wracked with pain for days, and I had the worst fever of my life. I just kept screaming endlessly for a week I was later told. Finally, two weeks later I woke up feeling perfectly fine. The inoculation had worked. I had no vampirism or any other nasty side effects. Rassilon tested me by letting a captured vampire into my room to attack me when I was asleep. He was such a wonderful fellow, old Rassilon! The vampire's bite had no effect on me at all. I didn't become hypnotized by it nor did I show any signs of turning into one. I was completely immune to their bite and their blood. Rassilon was ecstatic and immediately gave the inoculation to himself. It wasn't until later that I realized that there was one side effect to the treatment that not even Rassilon had anticipated," Lily said.
She stopped again and hesitated.
"What side effect?" the Doctor urged her. He had an idea that he already knew the answer though.
"Both Rassilon and I found out that the inoculation had made us immortal. We had achieved true immortality. We both were in a permanent state of perpetual bodily regeneration. I have an unlimited life cycle with an infinite set of regenerations. I didn't die at thirteen lives, Doctor. I just kept regenerating. I've lost track of how many lives I've lived and how many appearances I've had. After Rassilon realized what he had, he wanted to keep the secret to immortality to himself. He destroyed the inoculation program and all of the notes involved in it. He and I were the only ones to get the treatment. Then he tried to kill me so that I couldn't give the secret away with my blood. That's when I joined an already existing rebellion against him. We eventually overthrew him and locked him in the Dark Tower," Lily explained.
The Doctor just looked at her in shock.
"Lord President Borusa told me that Rassilon had achieved immortality, but I thought that he was just insane. He had obviously lost his mind, and I thought that what he had told me was just the ramblings of a diseased brain. Apparently he was right!" the Doctor said to himself with wide eyes.
"The inoculation wouldn't have worked on most people anyway," Cleopatra said.
"How do you know that?" Lily asked her suspiciously.
"I have the inoculation, Persephone. I went back in time and grabbed a sample of it before Rassilon destroyed it. I've been experimenting with it. It's the exact one that was used on you and Rassilon. It hasn't worked on anyone else so far. Apparently it only works on certain individuals. Everyone else it gives those horrible side effects that you mentioned. I experienced that myself when it changed my test subjects. I had to put them all down," Cleopatra said.
"You can't keep using it. You have to destroy it," Lily pleaded with her.
"Why? It's the ultimate weapon whether I can get it to work or not! It's a quick and easy way to create a world of vampires for me to control. You see I've turned the treatment into an odorless invisible gas! I've let it out in this area already!" Cleopatra said with a huge grin.
"What?!" Lily shouted in fear.
It was then that she saw Allison, Robin, and even the Doctor beginning to be effected by the gas. Allison was already starting to turn into a vampire.
"Help me!" she screamed at Lily as Cleopatra laughed at her.
Lily stood there in a panic. She didn't know what to do. How could she possibly help them? The others had never been cured! They had all had to be killed!
Cleopatra just kept laughing at her.
"This world will soon be mine!" she yelled with a huge smirk on her face.
Next: As the vampire creating gas spreads further and further, Lily must come up with a cure before its effects become permanent!