CHAPTER 36

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Lily's TARDIS returned to the present day to pick up Robin, Allison, Ron, Isabella, Romana, and Ivy. She felt assured that she would need all of them for the huge fight ahead of her. Holly and Skaren were still onboard despite her pleas for both of them to stay behind in 1890.

"You're sure that it's the Racnoss?" Romana asked Lily with apprehension in her voice.

"It must be them. The description that Skaren gave me fits them to a T," Lily confirmed.

"How do you know that it's them for sure? No one but the Doctor has seen one since the Dark Times," Romana asked.

"I've seen one before, Romana. I fought them during their final war with the Time Lords," Lily admitted.

Romana looked at her in momentary surprise and then said, "Of course. I sometimes forget just how experienced you really are."

"You mean old, don't you? You can say it without offending me, you know? I'm literally older than the dirt on most worlds!" Lily said laughing.

Romana looked perplexed and said nothing. Lily realized that Romana didn't wish to say anything even slightly derogatory towards her because she held great respect for her.

"It's okay, dear. You don't have to treat me with such reverence. I'm just a flawed person with feet of clay just like everybody else," Lily said.

"You're one of the founders of our entire civilization if what I believe is true, Lily. I am deeply awed by that," Romana said.

"I wouldn't put too much weight behind those old legends about the Other," Lily said.

Romana noticed that Lily never denied that she was the Other. She swallowed hard at that realization. She had always regarded the Other as a personal hero of hers from the stories that she had read about them back at the Academy. From what she could see, Lily more than met the reality of those old legends and then some.

"You are not old at all, my lady. You are one of the most youthful people I've ever known," Robin protested at her earlier words.

"When are you going to stop calling me 'my lady', Robin? Call me Persephone or Lily. You've more than earned the right to use my name," Lily asked him in a straightforward manner.

"You are my lady, Lily Wright. You are the one who matters the most to me in my life now and forever. I call you 'my lady' to honor you for the important place that you hold in my heart. You are my entire world, Persephone. You always have been since the day that I met you, and that's never going to change not even if time itself were to stop," Robin said with heartfelt honesty.

Lily looked at him with pure unadulterated love in her eyes. She had never been more in love with him then she had been in that moment, and she didn't think that it was possible for her to love him anymore than she already did. Robin had a way of frequently proving her wrong about that though to her immense joy.

"Are you ever going to propose to me?" Lily asked him bluntly.

"Yes, once this mission is over," Robin said, surprising her.

"Why wait until then?" Lily asked after she recovered from the momentary shock of his answer.

"It's because I know you so well now. I know that you're afraid that we're going to die, and that's why you're asking about this at this moment. I want to wait and propose after this crisis is over because I want both of us to be ready for marriage. I want us to get married because that's what we want to do, and not because we're afraid that we might die soon and never get the chance to," Robin explained.

"You're a smart man, Robin of Locksley. I'll wait then. After we come back from this mission though, I'm going to hold you to those words. You're going to marry me, or I'm going to drag you before a judge and make you marry me anyway," Lily joked.

"You won't have to make me do anything, my lady. I'll gladly wed you once everything is over," Robin promised.

"I love you!" Lily said to him then.

"I love you too. I will forever," Robin said.

The two of them then kissed then and continued to do so for several minutes. The kiss sealed the deal between them. That was the beginning of a new phase in their relationship. It was the start of something new for them both. Persephone could now honestly say that for the first time in one billion years that she had truly found her soul mate.

Allison looked at them in growing apprehension. She knew that Lily and Robin wouldn't be doing this if the threat that they faced were not dire. She resolved to face whatever came as bravely as she could and to be worthy of her adopted mother.

Ron and Isabella felt the importance of the coming battle too, and they resolved to finally get married once it was all over with. They were already engaged but had been unsure of when the wedding date would be since one crisis after another kept occurring to delay it. They now decided to quit putting it off and get married as soon as the Racnoss crisis was over with.

Ivy was promising herself that Lily and those that she cared about would not die. She would protect all of them with every last breath in her body if she had to. No one was going to make a mockery of the beautiful moment between Lily and Robin that she had just witnessed today.

Holly looked at the scared but brave people before her with growing apprehension. She hoped that things weren't as bad as Lily thought that they were. She didn't want to die. She had barely gotten to live. Skaren, sensing her fear, put his arm around her in comfort. Holly smiled at him gratefully and rested her head against his shoulder.

All of the people gathered felt an ominous feeling in the air, and Lily knew that she was going to have to return soon. She could already feel time threatening to change around her. The time streams were starting to be warped already by the Racnoss' interference. They weren't supposed to be awake and active in 1890. Someone was changing the natural course of things for their own benefit. She sensed a familiar hand at work in these events. She earnestly hoped that she was wrong.

Lily suddenly had a bad feeling about all of this, and she knew that she didn't want to lose anyone. This was her fight and hers alone. She felt guilty for having come back to get any of them, and she was now going to offer them a chance to leave.

"You don't have to do this, any of you. Now that I've had some time to think about this, I think that I'm just going to handle it by myself this time. The Racnoss are just too dangerous. I really just think that I'll go this one alone," Lily said.

"You're not going anywhere without me," Robin said with determination.

"You'll get into too much trouble without me there to watch you," Allison said with a bravery that she didn't really feel. She wasn't going to let Lily face something dangerous by herself though. There wasn't a chance of that happening.

"I wouldn't miss a chance to fight side by side with my childhood idol," Romana said with awe in her eyes.

Lily winced at the look on her face. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable around the Time Lady. She knew that she was no hero, and she didn't want to be thought of as one either. Romana would do better to find a real hero to idolize like Rose.

"You always come through, Lily. No one's beaten you yet. I like our odds," Isabella said with a smile. She also had awe in her eyes which further made Lily cringe inside. She feared that she was leading all of them to their doom like a pied piper.

"What she said. I believe in you too, Mum. Besides, I'm not letting you go anywhere without me there to help you," Ron said warmly.

"I have to go to keep you from getting yourself killed," Ivy said with a chuckle.

"I definitely have to go. I have no other choice. They're my people, and my father's in danger too. There's no way that I'm going to hide when they're all in danger. There's no honor in that," Skaren said proudly.

"I'm going too. I'll need to be there. I can feel it," Holly said with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Why?" Lily asked her with a shiver running down her back all of a sudden.

"I think that I'll have to be there to comfort you!" Holly said ominously.

Lily looked at her with a strange expression on her face and asked, "You're having a premonition?"

Holly looked at her funny; and then smiled as she said, "No. I'm just being silly that's all. I don't know why I said that. Just nerves, I guess."

Then she went stiff all over and didn't move for a minute. Skaren looked at her in concern. He could feel her muscles tightening in her arms. She suddenly sprang back to life and screamed.

"The Shadow is coming. He brings the darkness with him. He's coming for the Wolf. He wants to destroy her. Protect her, Sekhmet. Protect her!" Holly shouted at the top of her lungs.

Then she blinked her eyes, and she was suddenly back to normal. She looked at Lily with terror on her face as she asked, "What's happening to me?"

"I think that your psychic abilities are being affected by the unnatural tampering with the time stream. Someone is behind all of this mess with the Racnoss. I believe that I know who too," Lily said.

"He is called Mortimus," Holly said with a glassy look in her eyes.

"You're in rare form today," Lily said as she looked at her friend with worry.

"The Monk!" Robin shouted.

"Yes, I can feel his hand behind all of this. He just loves trying to change history for his own amusement," Lily said.

"I'll rip him apart when I see him again for killing you!" Robin shouted with his eyes full of fury.

"Hey, I'm okay. I got better, and I got a cool new Scottish accent out of the deal," Lily said as she tried to make light of the situation and diffuse his temper.

"I almost lost you. He won't get a chance to take you away from me again," Robin promised.

"Be careful, Robin. He's a very dangerous man," Lily warned him.

"So am I when someone threatens the people that I care about," Robin said darkly.

Lily said nothing else as she dematerialized her TARDIS, and all of them sped off to the past to do battle with one of the Time Lords' greatest enemies of the past. Everything in Lily kept telling her to turn around and go back now before it was too late, but she couldn't. She had to keep time from being permanently altered by the Monk.

At that moment, the subject of Lily and Robin's recent conversation stood on the bridge of the main Racnoss warship as the Racnoss did battle with a fledgling Zygon fleet that was valiantly but futilely trying to protect yet another Zygon colony world. He laughed as he saw ship after ship fall before them. This was going to be a very interesting experiment indeed! The Monk thought to himself with sickening glee.

"All goes according to plan then?" A raspy voice asked from his communicator.

"Yes. The Racnoss are well on their way to destroying the Zygons, one planet at a time. History is being changed as we speak. More importantly, Persephone is coming just as you hoped. I look forward to being able to kill her again. Permanently this time!" the Monk said.

"Excellent! We will remove Sekhmet from the equation so that she won't be there to protect the Wolf when the time comes. I want Rose Tyler alone and helpless when my master returns. I want his revenge to be complete!" the Shadow told his newest partner in destruction.

"I'm looking forward to that too. I have no love for Rose Tyler either. I'll tell you that," the Monk said.

"Remember our agreement, Mortimus. Kill Sekhmet for me, and I will hand complete mastery of time and space over to you," the Shadow promised.

"Don't worry about it. I'll uphold my end of the bargain. You just remember to uphold yours. I want all of time and space for my own personal playground," the Monk said as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Don't worry. My master will remember your service to him when he returns," the Shadow promised.

"I hope to be able to report the death of Persephone to you very soon now," the Monk said with a grin.

The Shadow smiled to himself as he cut off communications to his new partner. He had no intention of honoring his side of the bargain, but the Monk didn't need to know that. As long as Sekhmet was destroyed, that was all that mattered. Nothing and no one must stand in his master's way this time. Rose Tyler must die!

Next: Lily and company confront the Racnoss at last in order to save the Zygons, and one of them will pay a terrible price!