CHAPTER 32
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The Avatar stood and grinned evilly at Lily as she quickly went through several scenarios in her head of different attacks that she could use against him. None of them worked. This was only one way that she knew of to stop him and that was to break her promise to Allison. She hoped that it wouldn't come to that.
The Avatar had silver skin and a humanoid form with no discernible gender to it. Its body was actually see-through because you could look right through it and see what was behind it. It glowed with an inner energy that gave it a blindingly white glow all of the time that nearly blinded everyone who looked at it.
Its voice had a spectral, unearthly quality to it as though it were speaking from beyond the grave as it said, "I'm finally free at last! Being close to you again after all of these millennia reawakened me as I sensed your presence and gave me the strength to break free of the prison that you placed me in. Aren't you glad to see me, Mother? It's been so very long since you put me away. Did you even give me a passing thought in all of the thousands of years since then?"
"Not really, no. You are not my child. You are a nightmarish abomination that was a part of Rassilon's genetic experiments. He used my genetic material and combined it with the living metal, Validium, to create a new being that he could use as a weapon against the Great Vampires. Only you didn't stop there. You had to turn against the Time Lords as well. I could understand hating Rassilon but all of us?" Lily asked passionately.
"You don't understand me at all, Mother. I don't hate the Time Lords. Does a human hate an ant, after all? I feel nothing towards them whatsoever actually. They are a lesser species compared to me as are all others in this universe. I am destined to rise above them and be their superior. The universe will enjoy my rule I think. I shall be a magnificent leader," the Avatar said with a wicked smile.
"Not so fast. You will obey my commands, creature. I have the means to control you, and I will use it. The Coronet of Rassilon, it forces others to do my bidding. No one can resist its commands," the War Chief said as he came out of his TARDIS wearing the aforementioned item.
"You idiot!" Lily said as she groaned.
The Avatar laughed as it saw the War Chief wearing that ancient relic from times long gone. It wasn't concerned at all, and this made the War Chief pause and wonder if he should have listened to Lily after all about nothing being able to control it.
"Rassilon already tried that on me long ago. It doesn't work on me. It only affects creatures of lesser intellect," the Avatar said.
The War Chief was stubborn though, and he tried it anyway. He concentrated hard as he commanded, "Bow down before me!"
The Avatar continued to laugh at him and remained unaffected by the Coronet's power. It then vanished and reappeared next to the War Chief in the blink of an eye. In the next second, it had put both of its hands through the War Chief's chest where both of his hearts were! The War Chief instantly fell to the ground dead.
Everyone looked at the scene in horror as they realized for the first time just how dangerous the Avatar really was. It had killed the War Chief in the blink of an eye. He had never even seen it coming.
"Next," the Avatar said laughing.
Lily knew that she had no choice now. The Avatar would surely kill someone that she loved next if she didn't stop him now. She had to break her promise.
She turned to Allison and said with a mournful expression, "I'm sorry, Ally! I have to do this."
Allison instantly knew what Lily meant; and she said, "No. There has to be another way. Don't, Mum! Don't!"
It was too late though. Allison could tell by the change in her expression that Lily had already allowed her other self to emerge and to take control once more. Sekhmet had returned!
The Avatar noticed the change in her as well as it said, "At last! You were the only one who was my equal before but only when you just let go and embrace your true self. Welcome back, Mother."
Sekhmet's only response was to power up her regenerative energy and blast the Avatar with it at full force as she poured the power of an entire life cycle into the Avatar at once, and the glare from this attack temporarily blinded everyone watching.
The Avatar had been knocked out flat on the ground by the impact of Sekhmet's attack, but it quickly recovered and shakily got back up on its feet once again. It began to laugh and said, "That's more like it! I actually felt something there for just a minute. Give me more. Challenge me!"
Sekhmet powered up with regenerative energy once more and channeled it into her hands and arms as she increased her strength to superhuman levels. She then proceeded to pound on the Avatar with the force of a bomb exploding with each punch that she landed on it. The Avatar actually began to scream from the pain, but it also was laughing at the same time. It actually seemed to be enjoying the pummeling that it was receiving.
"Yes! I have a real challenge from you at long last. Now I have a chance to prove myself in battle against you. Only this time, I know will win. Let's make things more interesting for you so that you won't grow bored," the Avatar said with glee in his voice.
The Avatar then disappeared and reappeared with its arm around Allison. It started crushing her in an extreme version of a one-armed hug. Allison screamed in pain and started to go pale.
"I noticed that you seemed to care about this one. How about I use that against you? Let's play a game, shall we? How fast can you get over here and stop me from hurting her? Can you get over here before I can do anything, or will you be so slow that I'll have plenty of time to rip her in half before you can make it halfway to us? Let's find out! Ready! Go!" the Avatar said as it started to apply more and more pressure to Allison's body as it attempted to hurt her as much as possible.
Sekhmet surprised even the Avatar with her speed as she was at the evil being's side in less than a second and had pulled it away from Allison. Sekhmet's face was a mask of fury, and she was now crushing the Avatar's hands in hers with her enhanced strength.
"NO ONE HURTS MY DAUGHTER!" Sekhmet screamed at it.
Sekhmet began to glow brighter and brighter with energy and poured all of it into the Avatar through its crushed hands. The Avatar screamed and screamed, but Sekhmet continued to pour more and more of her limitless supply of regenerative energy into the creature's body without mercy.
"At last a true challenge. Now I can unleash my real power at last. I can find out what I can really do. I knew that if I threatened the human that that would make you go all out. You love your precious humans too much. They are your weakness. It's a weakness that I will use against you in order to finally win. I'm going to kill your favorite human, the one that even now you look at with absolute love, and make you watch!" the Avatar said as it suddenly jerked itself away from Sekhmet's grasp.
The Avatar was quickly standing next to Robin now and had swiftly broken all of his arms and legs before Sekhmet could stop it. Robin was left writhing in agony on the ground as the Avatar let him go, and he slumped over like a rag doll.
"Now let your anger fuel your rage and make your power grow. Show me what you can really do once you're properly motivated," the Avatar said with a heartless cackle of laughter.
Sekhmet took one look at Robin, and she lost all of her self-control. She no longer cared about what happened to her as long as the Avatar was unable to hurt someone that she loved ever again. She was going to use her final option.
"Your existence has come to an end!" Sekhmet promised the Avatar.
She then grabbed ahold of the Avatar in an unbreakable grip with one arm and opened the doors of her TARDIS with the hand of her other one. She broke open the Heart of her TARDIS and exposed both of them to the energy of the Vortex at once. Both of them screamed and vanished in the blink of an eye.
"No! No! No!" Ron screamed as he saw his mother instantly disappear along with the Avatar.
Isabella ran to him and hugged him to her in an attempt to comfort him.
"She's not dead. She has a way to survive. I know that she does. She always survives," Isabella said.
The Heart of the TARDIS automatically closed itself as a safety precaution. Those of Lily's friends who could still walk under their own power raced into her TARDIS to see that there was nothing left of either Lily or the Avatar.
"She can't be gone. She can't!" Ivy said in a dead voice.
"She has a plan," Isabella said in a voice filled with faith.
"I'm afraid it's over this time. The oldest and in many ways the noblest of all of the Time Lords is now dead," Romana said with a voice filled with regret.
"I barely knew her, but I liked her a lot. I'm sorry that it had to come to this," Frobisher said sadly.
"No, she's not dead. My lady could not die so easily," Robin said in denial.
"He's right. This is Lily we're talking about. Lily always pulls off crazy stunts like this all of the time and comes out smiling," Allison said with her voice full of faith in her mother as well.
"She's gone. We just have to face it. I'm sorry about it too, but it can't be changed. No one can look into the Heart of a TARDIS and survive!" Romana said.
"Rose Tyler did," Allison said.
"She was a special case. She had already been mutated by the Vortex into something new," Romana said.
"Yes, and her genes came from Lily. Don't you think that she may have gotten that ability to survive the Vortex from her?" Allison asked in a hopeful voice.
"I suppose it's possible," Romana admitted.
"Listen to all of you. Oh ye of little faith! I'm not gone but ten seconds, and you're already giving up on me. I thought I taught you better than that. Always expect the unexpected around me," Lily said from inside of her TARDIS.
Lily was standing there fully intact with a huge smile on her face as her entire body glowed with regenerative energy.
"How?" Ron asked as he ran up to her and hugged her tightly with relief.
"I'm a lot harder to kill than even I thought. My body reconstituted itself back together from its individual atoms. You want to talk about pain. Now, that was pain! I'm back though. I'm okay," Lily said as she hugged Ron back.
Lily then walked up to first Robin and then Allison and healed both of them completely with her regenerative energy. She then took pity on the War Chief and brought him back to life as well.
"Why did you do that? I was going to kill you all," the War Chief said in confusion.
"I guess that's one of the big differences between us then, Magnus. I still believe even now in the sanctity of life," Lily said.
The crisis was now over. The Avatar was gone forever, and this whole mess was now concluded at last. Lily returned Frobisher back to 1930 and managed to steal all of the money away from Lucardo that Magnus had given to him so that he couldn't use it to disrupt history.
Magnus was sent to Shada, the Time Lord prison planet, where he had the Valeyard as his new roommate. That didn't work out well because both of them hated each other with a passion. They were both driving each other crazy and frequently attempting to kill each other within a week.
Romana had decided to stay with Lily and to continue traveling with her at Lily's request. She had felt more alive with her in this one adventure than she had since her days with the Doctor. She found that she had missed that feeling and wanted to experience it again.
Everything was tied up now except for one last thing. Lily had an apology to make.
"I'm so sorry that I broke my promise, Ally!" Lily said with heartfelt emotion.
"It's okay, Mum. I understand. It was the only way to stop that monster. I can see that now. Nothing else would have had any effect on him. I'm just glad that you're okay. I had faith in you this time. I believed that you would return, and you did. I'm learning, mum. I'm finally developing a healthy amount of belief in your particular brand of craziness and your ability to use it to accomplish the impossible with," Allison said proudly.
"That's good, Ally. If you stick around me long enough, you'll come to expect the unexpected to occur around you like clockwork. It'll become as much a habit as breathing with you. The unexpected will become a part of your everyday life. Once you accept the possibility of the unexpected happening without even a moment of doubt, then I think that will be my greatest gift to you," Lily said with all seriousness.
"I look forward to it. Life will never be boring around you, mum. I know that for sure," Allison said with a warm smile.
Next: Lily crosses over with War of the Guardians' current storyline as the Doctor, Rose, Lily, and their companions continue to confront a powerful enemy attempting to take over the Land of Fiction for his own dark and sinister purposes.