CHAPTER 67

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

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

THE END OF BRAXIATEL

I paced back and forth impatiently just outside of the High Council's meeting chamber as I waited for the questioning of Braxiatel and Omega to begin. What was taking them so long anyway?

"Will you sit down?" Allison said to me for what was probably the tenth time that day.

"I can't. I've got places to go, people to see, and trouble to get into. Can't they hurry this up?" I said impatiently.

"Mum, sit down or they'll throw us all out. A lot of them are already giving us dirty looks because of what you're doing," Ron said.

"Oh, who cares? Just let them try to throw me out. They might get a little surprise if they do," I said as I made my hands glow with regenerative energy for a moment.

"Lily, if you don't sit down, I'll come down there and slap you myself," Karen Pond, the current President of the Time Lords and clone of Amy, said in an annoyed voice.

"Well, you don't have to be so blunt," I said as I sat down in a huff.

"Sorry, but you were starting to drive me nuts," Karen said.

"Your methods are a bit unorthodox, but I appreciate their results. It's hard to believe sometimes that she is the oldest living Time Lord when she engages in such juvenile behavior," Chancellor Flavia said.

"Oi! Who are you calling old?" I said indignantly.

"I just love how her calling you a child is okay, but she's crossing the line when she calls you old," Allison said as she rolled her eyes.

"You're pretty old yourself, Ally. You were born a billion years ago, you know?" I said.

Allison winced as she said, "Hey, don't say that so loud! I'm not old, okay?"

"See? You don't like it either, do you?" I said with a triumphant grin.

Suddenly Commander Maxil appeared in front of me as if out of nowhere with a troup of goons, I mean guards, behind him. He glared at me as he said, "Do you want me to remove this person for you, Madam President?"

"No, she's going to behave herself from now on. Aren't you?" Karen said in a warning tone.

"Fine, I'll behave like a good little trained monkey just like everyone else in this borefest," I said with a sigh as I sat down and started twiddling my thumbs and tapping my foot.

"Will you stop fidgeting?" Ron complained.

"Well, I just can't do anything right today, can I?" I said with a groan.

That was when Robin leaned over and whispered something in my ear. I smiled at him as I said, "Do you promise?"

"Of course, my lady," Robin said.

"You know I've really missed you calling me that. Okay, I'll behave," I said.

"What did you say?" Allison asked Robin in astonishment.

"Yes, what could you possibly have said to get her to behave?" Ron asked.

"A gentleman doesn't talk about such things," Robin said with a mischievous grin on his face.

Then Allison and Ron's eyes widened in horror as they both said at the same time, "Ew!"

"Whatever you said, I don't want to know about it. I'm just glad that she's finally stopped acting worse than the Doctor on a sugar rush," Karen said.

"Hey, that one was really hitting below the belt!" I said indignantly.

That was when they finally, finally brought Braxiatel into the chamber along with Goth and a man who I immediately recognized as Omega, who was suddenly back in his original body again. It seemed that all three of them were going to be grilled today.

"Who's that?" Allison asked as she pointed at Omega.

"That's Omega. They gave him a copy of his old body from his Biodata Extract in the Matrix apparently. I guess they finally got tired of him doing his usual body hopping," I explained to her.

"Now that our guests are all here, let's get to the point. Where is Discord's Archangel Network located on Gallifrey?" Karen asked.

"If I told you what you want to know, would they reduce the sentence against me?" Omega asked.

"I'd make sure of it," Karen promised.

"What is the sentence as it stands without me telling you anything and what would it be if I did talk?" Omega asked as he considered his options.

"Traitor," Braxiatel hissed.

"I'm a traitor to no one. I never believed in your organization for an instant. I only serve one person, myself. I was only using you to make myself Lord President. I could care less about Discord," Omega said in anger.

"That's an attitude that perhaps I should imitate as well since the C.I.A. are currently not lifting a finger to help me," Goth said.

"You knew that going in. That's told to you up front as soon as you join," Braxiatel said.

"It's different being told that it would happen from actually experiencing it happen to you firsthand though, isn't it?" Goth said.

"The High Council is willing to offer you a reduced sentence from execution to forced chameleon arching instead," Chancelor Flavia said.

I inwardly winced at that. That would almost be as bad as death to me. To have your entire past stripped from you and to be made over into someone else sounded good in some ways if you had a past as bad as mine, but ultimately your life whether good or bad makes you who you are and to change all of that is just the same as killing you to me. It really wasn't much of a difference in punishments.

"We would be turned into humans? Forever?" Omega asked.

"Not necessarily. You would be allowed to pick your species, appearance, and where you would live. We would allow you to do that because it would be forever. There would be no fob watch so there would be no chance of ever being able to turn back. You would live out a normal lifespan of whatever species that you choose and die. You would be allowed to start over again from birth as one of that species and given a family to take care of you. Neither they or you will ever know who you really are. It will be a second chance which is more than either of you deserve," Chancellor Flavia said.

"Will I still have my intelligence?" Omega asked.

"You will have your natural intelligence, but you won't remember any of your current knowledge or skills," Flavia said.

Omega nodded and I could see that he was thinking it over from the tortured expression on his face.

"So what do you say?" Karen asked.

"If either of you do this, you won't live to regret it," Brax warned them.

I really wanted to punch that guy right now. No, I wanted to do far more than that to him. I wanted to crush him into powder for what he had done to my daughter. To my poor Arkytior.

"I accept this deal. Better to live with a chance to start over again as far as my intellect could take me than to die. At least this time there would be no Rassilon to stand in my way. Maybe I'd finally get the kind of life that I deserve," Omega said after only a second's hesitation.

"I accept the deal as well. It's always better to live another day than to lose all chances to live altogether," Goth said.

I shook my head. I would not want that happening to me. It would be one of my worst nightmares. I mean I'd gone through several millennia of only having half of my memories and that was bad enough. I certainly wouldn't want to lose them all.

I can't even imagine what Rose went through having to do that. It didn't seem to hurt her in the end, but I think that's only because she never liked her old life to begin with. That's something that's caused me no end of regret every day too. It feels like my fault somehow that she felt that way no matter how much I try to tell myself that it isn't.

Parents do that, you know? They often guilt trip themselves into feeling terrible when their children aren't happy whether it's their fault or not. We feel that it's a part of our job to give them a happy life no matter what or we've failed as parents.

I know it's illogical, but that's the way that it is.

"Now in order to keep your end of the bargain, you need to tell us where to locate the Archangel Network on Gallifrey and where to find the ones on every other planet as well along with these planets' locations. We need to shut Discord down once and for all," Karen said.

"What I'd really like to know is why hasn't Discord already used her networks by now to carry out her plan? What is she waiting for?" I said out loud without thinking about it.

"You will not interrupt the meeting," one of the Council members said.

"I think that she has a good point though. Do you know the answer to that question?" Karen asked Omega and Goth.

"Don't tell them," Brax said in a threatening tone.

"She has to wait until she's sure that Arkytior is out of her way first. She has some kind of plan to stop her, and she has to wait until that's successful before she'll try it. She doesn't want her plans undone by her and Ishtar yet again like they were before when she tried to reboot the universe. I don't know what the plan is. Only Braxiatel knows all of her secrets. I can tell you about the networks though. The one on Gallifrey is in . . ." Omega started to say when he was blasted by a burst of energy that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Omega slumped over looking very, very dead as Discord suddenly appeared in the room. She disintegrated both Omega and Goth and then freed Brax from his shackles.

"That is the price of traitors. I don't care about the C.I.A., but I won't have my own plans stopped by anyone not even the High Council of the Time Lords. Where are your precious Guardians at now, hm? Suddenly they're nowhere in sight now that I'm here to destroy you. Say goodbye to your dominion over time and space," Discord said.

I immediately raced towards her as I prepared to fight with her. She smirked as she saw me approaching.

"I see that you do have at least one champion ready to fight for you. Let's see if she can fight my champion though," Discord said as she gestured at Braxiatel.

Braxiatel began to glow with power as she granted him some of her power. I watched in fascination as Braxiatel glowed with energy. My fascination quickly switched to horror as he began to use his new power to start attacking the High Council. He reduced two of them to ashes in a matter of seconds as he started to attack them.

"I see that my job here is done. I'll pop back in later to see how you're doing, Brax. Make me proud," Discord said with mocking laughter as she disappeared.

I was soon to learn what she was really laughing about.

"Why didn't she do this from the start? I could have easily overthrown the High Council ages ago with power like this. It doesn't matter because now I have it, and I'm going to use it to make all of my dreams come true. Gallifrey will belong to me and the C.I.A at last, and we will reshape the Web of Time to our own design," Braxiatel said as he began attacking the entire Council with his new powers.

That's when I let him have it with my own power. I poured several life cycles' worth of regenerative energy into his body at once, but he only smiled as he said, "That tickles."

Then he started to attack me with a massive blast of energy which I quickly dodged as he said, "No, actually that's not true at all. I don't even feel it that much. It doesn't hurt a bit."

"Now who's the freak?" I said as he continued to attack me and I ducked and dodged each and every one of his attacks.

I was trying to get all of his attention focused on me as everyone else ran out of there in a mass panic. Well, okay, that wasn't the only thing that I was trying to do. I had just realized something that Brax hadn't yet, and I was going to take full advantage of it in order to stop him as quickly as possible.

"What are you talking about?" Brax said in anger.

Now I knew that I had him. He was completely invested in destroying me first and foremost just the way that I wanted it.

Sometimes I'm just not right in the head, folks. Then again I'm sure that you knew that already if you've been paying attention.

"You called my daughter a freak because of her powers and labeled her a monster for something that wasn't her choice. She didn't ask to become what she was, and she certainly never wanted the power that she got. Instead of being understanding of that or trying to help her, you tried to destroy her. Your own brother's wife! Now, you sanctimonious hypocrite, you wield the very same power that she had and don't think a thing of it. Funny how it's different when you're the one who has the power. You're not the freak for having it, are you?" I said in anger as I continued to dodge his attacks without fighting back.

"I will destroy you. You and your daughter! Then I'll rewrite history where neither of you ever even existed," Brax shouted as he continued to attack me.

"I still don't understand why you turned out the way that you did. What made you into such a cold, manipulative monster? I remember how wide eyed and innocent that you were when you were a child. What happened to that child, Braxiatel? I'd really like to know," I said.

"Shut up! Just shut up and die already!" Braxiatel shouted as he continued to attack me relentlessly tearing the entire council chamber apart.

Then he began to grit his teeth together, and I knew that it was finally starting. His end was coming at last now.

"It looks like you'll be dying first. Long before I do. Don't you feel it already, Brax? The pain?" I said as I continued to evade his attacks without fighting back.

He began to scream in pain as he suddenly stopped attacking me and held his hands to his head. I came closer and closer to him as I watched him start to burn up.

"What's happening to me?" Brax asked.

"Your good buddy, Discord, turned on you. That's what. She wanted to make sure that you'd never tell anyone where the Archangel Networks are. When I said that you had the same power as Rose I meant it. She gave you the power of the Vortex, Brax. That's what you've been using all of this time. Unlike Rose though, your body isn't capable of handling it. It's been slowly killing you, and I've made it worse by making you use it so much. While you've been so busy trying to destroy me, you've only been accelerating your own destruction instead. It won't be long now before the power that she gave you burns you up completely from the inside out. This is the end for you, Brax," I said gloating.

"I should have seen this coming. It was exactly what I would do to protect my own secrets," Brax said as he burst out laughing.

"Why don't you get her back and tell me where the Network is before you go?" I suggested.

"I'll never help you. I hope she wins. I hope she beats you and wipes you and every last one of your monstrous unnatural family out. In fact, I'm going to spend my last moments doing my best to help her starting with you," Brax said.

He started going all out in his attacks now. He wasn't holding back anymore because he no longer had anything left to lose. He unleashed every ounce of power at his command and created a huge explosion of energy. I barely got out of the room in time before he reduced the entire Council chamber to ashes in just a single moment.

"Mum, are you alright?" Allison asked as she came rushing up to me.

"I'm fine. The chamber's seen better days though," I joked.

"Look out!" Robin screamed as he pointed behind me.

I turned to see Braxiatel still alive and walking through the flames that were now spreading everywhere from what was left of the Council chamber to reach us. I positioned myself between him and Allison protectively as he came closer and closer to us.

"I'll . . . destroy . . . you!" Brax said in a voice filled with pain.

"Not in that condition you won't," I said.

Then to my horror he was suddenly behind me and grabbing Allison. He had teleported to her side in the blink of an eye.

Allison screamed at his touch as he laughed and said, "I'll destroy you by destroying her. I only wish that she were the other one. That would be perfect."

Allison started to scream in agony as his touch started killing her. Without even thinking about it, I jerked her away from Brax and threw her to the ground. Then I grabbed both of his hands and poured every ounce of energy that I had into him at once even as he did the same to me.

We both screamed in pain as each tried to kill the other with everything that we had. I could feel my body being roasted alive even as Robin, Allison, and Ron screamed my name in terror.

I just had to hope that my power killed Brax before his killed me.

Luckily his body gave out before mine did. Brax finally disintegrated into ashes, and I fell to the ground a horribly burned, barely recognizable mess.

"Lily!" Robin screamed.

I looked up at him with what I hoped wasn't too grotesque of a smile as I said in a very weak voice, "I was getting tired of that body anyway. It's about time that I had another one."

Then my body healed completely in moments, and I stood up to see the others looking at me in concern. I wasn't worried about myself though.

"Are you okay, Ally?" I asked as I saw the burns on Allison's arms from where Brax had held her.

"I'm fine. I'm more worried about you. Are you going to change again?" Allison asked.

"I'm afraid so but at least this time you'll know what to expect. Before I go though, I'll help heal you," I said as I touched Allison with my already glowing hands.

Allison healed in seconds and said, "Are you sure you won't need that energy?"

"I'll be fine. Now all of you don't get upset like you did last time. I'll still be me. I'll make sure of that. If I don't like my new persona, I'll just keep changing until I get it right this time," I said happily.

As the glowing spread around my body, I said, "Stand back. It's beginning. I just want to say that I love all of you. I'm sorry that this is the last time that this version of me will see you. I'm going to miss you. At least this me will. It was worth sacrificing this version to finally get rid of him though before he hurt anyone else. Imagine that. After all of these years, I finally got him back for what he did to Rose. I didn't enjoy it like I thought that I might though. All I feel is sadness and regret over what might have been. I also hate that I killed Calliope's baby. I didn't want to. He left me no choice. Tell her that for me. Tell her that I didn't enjoy it."

"Why can't you tell her?" Ron asked in confusion.

"I'm dying that's why. It'll be up to the next me to tell her. I just wanted you to let her know that this me didn't enjoy it either and didn't want to. I just want her to know that from my own lips. I know you don't understand but she will. It's a Time Lord thing. Goodbye, all of you," I said as energy poured out of my head and arms.

They were the last sight that I saw as I looked at them with eyes filled with love and tears even as this old body faded away and was replaced with another one.

They all stared in shock at the new me as they saw that I now looked to be around twenty years old and had long dark hair and large green eyes. I was about half a foot taller than I used to be as well. I spoke to them for the first time in my new Irish accent as I said, "Hello, everyone. Oh, that voice. I like it. Do you, Robin? I'll change it if you don't."

"I like it just fine. Are you alright?" Robin asked with worry in his eyes.

"I'm fine," I said just before collapsing in his arms.

"Okay, maybe I could use a little rest first, but after that I'll be as right as rain," I said as I looked up at him with a grin.

"That's it, Lily. You're going on a vacation. You're been through enough today. This time, my lady, you're going on a good long rest until I'm sure that you're fully recovered," Robin said firmly.

"Oh, I like it. This me likes it when you think you're in charge. It amuses me. Alright, I'll go along with it for now. You decide where we're going, and I'll just sit back and relax for once. I think after being burned alive that I deserve it," I said in a voice filled with joy.

"Lily, are you okay?" Karen asked as she came running up to me with concern on her face.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm going on a nice long vacation in a minute in order to rest up and make sure of it," I said.

"It looks like we've lost out on any chance that we had of finding out about the network but at least we've learned the names of the key members of the C.I.A from Lee McAvoy. Now that we know who they are, we can dismantle their entire organization especially with Braxiatel gone. I just wanted you to know that and to say thank you for saving us. You helped us to make sure that the C.I.A. are finished for good by finally stopping Brax. I just wish that we could say the same about Discord. Have a good vacation, Lily. You're more than earned it," Karen said.

"Thanks. Well, Robbie, it's off to fun in the sun or whatever you've got cooked up for me," I said with a huge grin on my face.

"Robbie?" Robin said perplexed.

"I think that's what this me is going to call you from now on. Why? Don't you like it?" I asked.

"It's fine. Just great," Robin lied.

"Don't lie to me, Robbie. You hate it. I know. I'll call you Bobby instead. Is that any better? No, wait. Bob. How are you doing, Bob old boy? How's that?" I babbled.

"You're still recovering from your regeneration, aren't you?" Robin asked as he shook his head at me with a grin.

"Yep. It causes me to babble as badly as the Doctor does. I'm doing it because my brain's still slightly scrambled from just having changed though. I don't know what his excuse is," I said happily.

"You're still making fun of the Doctor I see. I'm glad you're alright," Robin said as he kissed me.

"I'm glad that you're so willing to accept the new me this time. I love you, Robert," I said with a slight grin at my mischievousness.

"I love you too, Lily. I always will no matter what face you take. No matter who you become, you'll always be my lady," Robin said as he kissed me again.

"And you'll always be my gallant lord, R. Maybe that's what I'll call you. R. Yo, R! What's up?" I said as I kissed him back.

"Let's go, Lily, before I get any more of a headache. You can decide what to call me later," Robin said with a fond smile on his face.

As we entered my TARDIS, I said, "Alright, R. Sure thing. Come on, Freya, Ronny, let's go!"

"Freya? Please don't start that up again!" Allison groaned.

"Ronny?" Ron said as he frowned.

"Maybe that's who I am in this incarnation. I'm fun loving and annoying," I said.

"So what else is new?" Allison asked with a smile.

"Zip it, F!" I said as I hugged her before walking into the TARDIS with her.

Next: We get to know the new Lily a little better as she and her family attempt to take a relaxing vacation that soon comes to an abrupt end as she winds up crossing paths with a certain young warlock and his friends. Here's a hint as to who he is: I write a story for him too.