CHAPTER 22
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Holly came out of the Doctor's TARDIS as she heard everyone sounding happy and cheerful again. She was a terrible coward, and she knew it. She had just stood by and did nothing while all of these events had been happening around her. This wasn't her world, and she knew it. She was willing to risk being killed though to make sure that her friend was okay.
She had watched Lily become someone else and was actually scared for her for a while. Now she was back. She could tell by the way she acted that it was her Lily again. She ran out to greet her as she cried in Robin's arms.
"Lily! I'm glad that you're okay. I was so scared for you. I thought that you were never going to be yourself again," Holly said happily.
The Doctor was amazed at the change in Holly. She had stayed quiet and looked terrified the entire time that she had traveled with him. He had almost considered asking her if he could take her home several times, but he always saw the determined look in her eyes every time he looked at her. This made him reconsider the thought each time he saw the full level of her devotion.
Now that Lily was safe, he felt that he was getting to see the real Holly for the first time. She had felt out of place in their world but was willing to put up with it for the sake of her friend. He admired that a lot.
Lily looked down in shame as she said to Holly, "Don't you mean you were scared of me instead of for me?"
"No. I mean 'for you'. You're my friend, Lily. I was never afraid of you. I know that you would never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. It's just not in you to do that," Holly said with absolute certainty.
"I knew that too, Lily. It was the only thing that I could think of to shock you out of what had happened to you. I had to bring the real you back by trying to make you do something that you would recoil at. I knew that you would never hurt me," Robin said confidently.
"I'm glad that you knew it. I didn't. I was scared that she would kill you, and that we would lose her forever," Allison admitted. She felt ashamed at her lack of faith.
Lily, as usual, knew how she was feeling just by the look on her face. She put her arms around her and hugged her tightly.
"There's no need to feel ashamed. I'm the one who should be ashamed. I could have hurt Robin. You had every reason to believe that I would. I was gone, Ally. I was just a small voice in the back of my own head. It took the thought of killing Robin to make me gather all of my will together and come back. Even I wasn't sure that I could do it in time," Lily told her softly.
"Isabella never lost faith in you. She believed you would come back when no one else did," Allison admitted.
"Maybe I underestimated her. I owe her a vote of thanks I think. Both for keeping everyone else going and for her relationship with Ron," Lily said with a smile.
Lily stood in front of everyone with an apologetic look on her face as she said, "I'm so sorry for what I just put you through. I went to a terrible place inside myself because I lost my children. I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"
"There's nothing to forgive, mum!" Ron said as he hugged her tightly.
"He's absolutely right. It just shows how much you love us. We love you too, mum. Don't worry about it. No one here has anything against you. We're just all glad that you're okay again!" Rose said as she hugged Lily too.
Everyone nodded in agreement with Rose's words, and Lily felt somewhat better than she had before if not completely guiltless.
It had seemed like everything was over now. It was time for them all to go home. It wasn't quite over yet though.
The assassin who had originally captured Lily in the first place and started all of this had been with them every step of the way, and he was watching them even now. He still hadn't gotten paid anything yet for all of his trouble, and he wanted his money. He was going to make something off of this deal one way or another.
He eyed the golden ring that Rose still had with her that she had gotten from the Slitheen. If he could at least grab that, then this whole mission would have been worth it. He could take that and have more than what he would have made off of the Zygon kid. He would have him a pretty good deal from this whole mess just with that ring alone.
The problem of course was getting it without being attacked by the Bad Wolf or worse yet Lily. He realized with a shiver that she had gone easy on him before. From what he had seen, she could have easily demolished him. He was afraid to ask for more trouble by trying to get the ring, but he was even more afraid of coming back home empty handed. He needed to make something off of this deal. Time was money for a guy like him.
He came up with the only thing that he could think that might get him out of this with the ring and no pain. He planned to appeal to their obvious respect for life.
He got the Zygon out of his ship and held a gun to his head as he walked with him toward the others.
"Hello, people! I'm going to blow this kid's brains out right now unless I get that ring that you have with you, Bad Wolf. Give it to me now, or the kid is history," the assassin said with a smirk.
"How about I just make you pass out right now with a snap of my fingers instead?" Rose said ominously.
"You could do that, yes. Can you do it before I pull the trigger? Can you?" the assassin asked with a wide grin.
Rose wasn't so sure that she could. She hesitated.
Suddenly the assassin received a terrible pain in the back of his head, and he fell to the ground unconscious instantly. Everyone turned in shock to see Holly standing over the assassin's body with a huge piece of equipment from the Doctor's TARDIS in her hands. She had used it to hit him in the back of the head!
"I've wanted to do that ever since he kidnapped you, Lily!" Holly said with a huge grin on her face.
Sometimes being mostly unnoticed and invisible had its advantages when it came to sneaking around. The assassin hadn't had a clue that she was even there.
"Thank you, human!" the Zygon said with a smile on his face.
"Don't mention it," Holly said.
"I wish to reward you though. You saved my life and possibly prevented my planet from going to war. I am the son of the leader of the Zygons. This worthless creature on the floor was paid to kill me and blame it on another planet in order to create a war for local arms dealers in the area to profit off of. You've saved so many other lives in addition to my own. I owe you a reward for your help, Holly," the Zygon said.
Holly blinked at the use of her name for the first time by the Zygon.
"Your finally calling me by my name instead of 'human' is kind of a reward in itself," Holly said with a grin.
"Not reward enough, Holly. I shall give you much more than that. I shall make you my bride!" the Zygon said with a smile.
Holly looked in terror at Lily. Her eyes were pleading with Lily for help.
"I'm sorry, my friend. I'm afraid that Holly can't become your bride though," Lily said.
"Why is that?" the Zygon said looking upset. He seemed to be genuinely infatuated with Holly now.
"She is already spoken for. She's married to the Prince of Freedonia already. Isn't that right, your majesty?" Lily said as she turned to Rose.
"Oh, yes. She is my brother's wife. I am the rightful Queen of Freedonia. You cannot take her from us. She belongs to my country," Rose said with a mischievous smile.
The Zygon looked crestfallen, but he nodded.
"Of course she had to be royalty. Such a wonderful woman could be nothing else. Then I will give you another reward, Princess. I will give you this," the Zygon said as he handed her an official looking document with a seal on it.
Holly took the piece of paper but had no idea what it was. She looked at him with a questioning gaze.
"It is an official Zygon document. It says that the bearer of the document has the complete and total support of the Zygon government. Just use it anywhere on any of our worlds, and they will give you whatever you want. You will be able to enlist their help in any way that you desire. I hope that it may come in handy to you someday," the Zygon told her.
"Thank you! I really appreciate it," Holly said as she did something that she would have considered impossible when she first met him.
Holly gave him a big hug; and then asked, "What is your name anyway? I never asked."
"It's Skaren. It was nice to meet you, Holly," the Zygon said with a smile.
"It was very nice to meet you too, Skaren!" Holly said.
The two of them embraced again and parted as friends. They would meet again someday when they would least expect it.
The Doctor took everyone back to their respective homes, and the assassin was taken to Skaren's father for trial. The assassin didn't like his odds. He knew now that he should have quit while he was ahead. It looked he was going to have to change his name now. He would certainly no longer be able to call himself Kildridge the Undefeated with a straight face anymore.
The ring that he had wanted so badly was taken by Rose and given to Vrestin along with the now repaired Isop-tope. She hoped that the ring could buy them the help that they would need to start to repair the damage that the Animus had done to Vortis. She couldn't think of a better use for it.
Lily, now back with the others on her own TARDIS, dropped Holly off back home in 1890.
"Are you sure you don't want to travel with me? You were great back there! You really came through and saved the day!" Lily said with pride.
"No, Lil! That's your world not mine. I'm happy just to stay here. I might change my mind someday though. You never know," Holly said with a smile as she looked at the Zygon document in her hand thoughtfully.
Lily smiled back, and then returned to her TARDIS. She was sure that someday she would wear her friend down and be able to bring her along too.
She looked on at her other friends and her son with a soft smile. She had never appreciated just how lucky she had been before until she had almost lost it all. She wouldn't take any of that for granted ever again.
"Mum, I have something that I have to tell you," Ron said hesitantly.
"Go ahead," Lily said in a soft encouraging voice.
Ron grabbed Isabella's hand and walked up to his mother with a determined look on his face.
"Isabella and I are engaged," Ron said with a huge smile.
"I decided that I needed to stop being so timid and to tell him how I really feel. I want to be with him forever," Isabella said happily.
Lily smiled at both of them with an enormous grin.
"Well, it's about time! I knew the two of you were meant to be the moment you met each other," Lily said happily.
"How did you know that?" Allison asked her with a skeptical look.
"I'm a Time Lady, Ally. I can see it when two people are meant for each other. Why do you think I brought us to Isabella's time in the first place? I saw her timeline intertwined with Ron's, and I was bringing them together. I didn't foresee getting shot by the Monk and regenerating though. That was a huge surprise. Oh, well. Nobody's perfect!" Lily said with a wide toothy grin on her face.
Robin smiled and put his arm around her. He was so glad that his Lily was back!
Next: An all new adventure begins! Lily's story crosses over with Rose Tyler, Time Lady and Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel for a big storyline that unites all three characters together. Also Lily gets to meet the Doctor's sister, Emmy, for the first time since the Time War.