CHAPTER 24

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this story.

Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.

Lily was traveling through the Vortex in her TARDIS when she started to receive a signal from Cleopatra. She hadn't heard from Cleo in quite some time so she immediately answered it. She had been worried about her lately.

"Lily, I'm kind of in a little bit of trouble here. I don't suppose you'd have time to come and help me out would you?" Cleo said.

Lily noticed that she looked very worried about something. She also looked like she hadn't slept in days.

"What is it, Cleo? I knew you were in trouble when you didn't call for a week. You always call at least every two days. You're as dependable as the sun rising and setting every day. What have you gotten yourself into now? I thought you were just going to visit friends and relatives back in Ancient Egypt. How do you get in trouble doing that?" Lily asked her with the motherly tone that she sometimes used on those she cared about.

"You're one to talk. You'd get into trouble crossing the street!" Cleo shot back with a bit of annoyance in her tone.

"That's very true. We're not talking about me though, are we? What is it, Cleo? Tell me, and I'll do my best to help," Lily said with a solemn, serious tone to her voice.

"The whole area's being invaded by aliens. Not just any aliens though. We're being invaded by Vespiforms. The others think it's a plague being sent to punish us. I know what really happened though. It's my fault!" Cleo said guiltily.

Lily understood now. Cleo had attacked the Vespiform home world years ago when she had been a vampire and had enslaved or killed several of them. Her vampire self had wanted to recruit them as a new group of soldiers to use to establish an empire. Many of them died resisting her and others were enslaved only to die later in pointless wars for her glory that saw them all quickly destroyed for her vampire self's pointless dreams of grandeur.

Now they had tracked her down and were paying her back for her vampire self's transgressions by attacking her home and her people. No wonder she had been hesitant to call Lily. She had been too ashamed to ask for her help for this.

"No, it's not! That wasn't you! You should have called me sooner. I'll be there as soon as I can. We'll stop them together somehow," Lily promised.

"Thank you, Lil! I can't thank you enough," Cleo said.

"There's no need for that, Cleo. I'm not letting anyone be punished for something that isn't their fault," Lily said determinedly.

Lily ended their transmission and started to head to Cleo's location.

"I was wondering why she had never returned. I have to admit that I was angry at her that she wasn't here to help us when the Animus possessed you and Ron," Allison said.

"I know she hasn't given you much of a chance to know her because she doesn't talk much to anyone, but you have to believe that she's a good person, Ally. She would have been right there by my side in a heartbeat if she had known that I was in trouble. She's my best friend," Lily said.

"I can see that she had her own problems now. I just wish she had been there. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid that I was going to lose you!" Allison admitted.

It was the first time she had talked about it since the Animus had fallen. Lily knew that what had happened to her still bothered her. She had gotten to know Allison very well now, and she could always tell when she was keeping something bottled up inside. She thought of Allison as her second daughter now, and she didn't want her to be worried about anything especially not her.

Lily smiled warmly at her and said, "Everything's fine now, Ally! You don't have to worry anymore. I'm back now, and I'm not going anywhere ever again. The Animus is gone, and Sekhmet is buried back in my head again where she's staying forever this time. I swear I'm fine now, sweetheart!"

Ally tried to smile but remained worried.

Lily's hearts hurt to see her upset. She put both of her arms around her in a tight hug as she said, "Sekhmet won't ever come back I promise! I know for sure that she won't return."

"How can you know that for sure?" Allison asked.

"She only comes out when I let her," Lily admitted with a shamed look on her face.

"You released her on purpose!" Allison said angrily.

"I didn't know what else to do. I needed her to save Rose and Ron. I had to risk letting her out so that I could get them back. I won't ever release her again! I promise. I'm so sorry for what I put everyone through!" Lily said with her eyes cast on the ground.

Allison saw such a painful look on Lily's face that she couldn't help but forgive her. It was her turn to hug Lily now.

Allison then smiled at her as she said, "It's okay, mum. I forgive you. I guess you were as frightened by the whole thing as I was. Promise me that she'll never come back though. Please promise me that!"

"I promise! She's gone for good," Lily said as her face brightened up.

Allison smiled and said nothing else. Lily was glad that she was feeling better about things now.

Lily's TARDIS landed next to the Sphinx, and the two of them waited for Cleo to greet them.

Allison looked at the still unbroken nose on the past Sphinx and looked at the face in wonderment. She recognized that face!

"Is that . . .?" Allison started to ask.

"It's the Doctor, yes! His ego truly knows no bounds. I finally broke the nose off myself in a fit of anger at him one day. He pouted about it for days!" Lily said with a grin.

Allison shook her head with a wide smile on her face. She wondered what other strange events of history could be explained by the Doctor's and/or Lily's interference.

"Quite a lot of them I'm sure," Lily said in response to her unspoken thoughts.

Allison laughed at how well Lily knew her now and said, "Don't do that. It freaks me out!"

"If you think I'm bad, you should see Rose. She takes knowing what other people are thinking just by their expressions and body language to an art form. I hear she drives her poor companions nuts with it sometimes," Lily said with a mischievous smile.

"Why isn't Cleo coming? Do you think the Vespiforms did something to her?" Ron asked as he came out of the TARDIS with Isabella.

"I very much doubt that. The lady Cleopatra is almost as skilled a warrior as my Lily. She will not be caught so easily," Robin said as he came out of the TARDIS last.

"I hope that you're right. I haven't known Cleopatra for long, but I like her. She's always been good to me," Isabella said.

Robin looked at her in surprise for a moment, but then he smiled at her. Isabella hardly ever spoke to any of them. She was extremely shy and didn't talk much, but now it seemed that she was finally opening up to them. Almost losing Ron had made her open up a lot more it seemed.

"I'm certain of it. She's safe," Robin said to Isabella.

Lily smiled at Isabella's attempt to join into the conversation. She was hopeful that Isabella would eventually feel comfortable enough around them to be as talkative as Allison. That was going to be necessary if she were going to be her daughter-in-law. She wanted Isabella to feel like a part of the family. That's who they all were to her whether they realized it or not. They were her family.

Cleo came running up to them out of nowhere in a blind panic.

"Why are you all standing around for? Run!" Cleo screamed at them.

They all looked at each other in bewilderment. They didn't see anything to run from. Cleo raced past them like she was on fire.

"Run!" Cleo screamed again from behind them.

Then they saw what she had been screaming about as they saw a massive swarm of giant wasp-like Vespiforms heading straight for them! There must have been thousands of them.

"Still loving traveling with me, Ally?" Lily asked with a smirk.

Allison shot daggers at her as they all began to run for their lives.

Next: Lily and company face off against a massive horde of angry Vespiforms determined to destroy the entire countryside to get to Cleo.