CHAPTER 84
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LILY MEETS TWELVE
"Wake up!" I heard a gruff voice keep saying over and over again as I struggled to regain consciousness.
"Who?" I asked in a momentarily confused state.
"Doctor, leave her alone. She looks sick," The unmistakable voice of Clara Oswald said.
"She can be sick later, Clara. I don't have time to babysit her right now. I still have Evil You to catch," That same gruff voice said in irritation.
I frowned as I said, "So this is the new you, Doctor. I must say that Koschei is right about you. You definitely don't improve with age."
"Stop wasting time bantering, Persephone. I hate bantering. See, Clara? She's just fine. Now can we go?" The Doctor asked impatiently.
"Your concern for me is deeply touching, Theta," I said as I tried, unsuccessfully, to get up.
"Doctor, she is definitely not fine. Look at her. She can't even stand up," Clara said in an angry voice as she immediately gave me a hand so that I could get onto my feet.
As I looked closely at Clara's concerned face, I suddenly remembered everything as I cried out, "Robin! Where's Robin?"
"Was Robin here with you? We didn't see him. So far we've only found you. I don't even see your TARDIS. Is it nearby? Lily? You're not saying anything and that's just not like you at all. Usually no one can get you to shut up. Lily, are you alright?" Clara asked as she looked at me with deep worry written all over her face.
"Clara, why do you insist on asking her so many questions when it's obvious that she's only half-conscious at the moment? Stop wasting time and leave her to recover under that tree over there. No one in their right mind is going to bother her believe me. We have to find Evil You right away. Who knows what damage that she's already done here?" The Doctor said with a continuing lack of empathy clearly evident in his tone.
"I'm not going anywhere without Lily. We are not leaving her behind here. She's coming with us and that's final. Oh, and stop calling the Matriarch Evil Me!" Clara commanded.
The Doctor actually cracked a smile (a very small one) as he said, "Yes, Boss."
"Yes, I am and don't you forget it," Clara said with a warm smile as she kissed his cheek making him wince.
"No kissing. I don't like the kissing," The Doctor complained.
"That's funny. I never hear you complain about it when Rose snogs your brains out," Clara said with an evil smile.
"Now with that horrible mental image so deeply implanted in my brain that I'll never get it out I'm finally fully awake at last. Thank you, Clara," I said with a deep groan.
"See? She's fine, Clara. She's already giving us an excellent example of her famous wit. There was never anyone else as good at Persephone at handing out poisonous comments left and right while simultaneously cutting someone's ego down to size with her various witty little putdowns," The Doctor said.
"And with you I always had such ample material to work with too. Where is Robin? For that matter, where is the other Robin? They were both here when I passed out after attacking the Matriarch. At least my head feels better now anyway. Making myself collapse from mental exhaustion into a forced sleep seems to have done wonders for it. I wouldn't recommend risking a massive stroke for getting rid of a headache though for future reference," I said as I tried not to let the worry that I felt seep into my voice.
"So the Matriarch did this to you?" Clara asked with a guilty look on her face.
"Well, I did it to myself actually but the Matriarch didn't really help any either. If it makes you feel any better, she wasn't going to hurt me if you can believe that. She definitely didn't feel the same way about Robin though so I wasn't about to just sit back and let her kill him. That's why I'm so worried about not seeing him here. She's obviously taken my TARDIS too just like she wanted," I said.
"She took your TARDIS? Why? She doesn't need it. She can already travel through time and space on her own. Do you know what she was up to? Did she say anything?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh, so now you're interested in me when you think that I have some information that you need to know, eh? Typical," I said with a sigh.
"Tell me everything that you know, Persephone. There isn't any time to waste. Evil Clara could be about to completely rewrite history at any moment," The Doctor said.
"All I know is that she wanted my TARDIS. She didn't say anything else," I said.
"It's just as I thought. You didn't know anything. Come on, Clara. We're wasting valuable time here when I could be finding Even Bossier Clara and saving the universe from her. Who would have ever thought that you'd make such a clever villain? I must say that Evil You is rapidly climbing up the ranks on my list of enemies," The Doctor said.
"Thanks. I don't know whether to be insulted or feel good about that or both," Clara said with a frown.
"He was actually paying you a compliment believe it or not. He likes people that can give him a good challenge. For the record, I definitely like the sweet version of you a lot better," I said.
"Well, I'm glad that someone appreciates me," Clara said with a smile.
"Of course regular Clara is the preferable version, but I have to admit that Dark Clara is very intriguing," The Doctor said.
"Please, Doctor. Who are you trying to kid? If Clara ever turned against you and really became your enemy it would completely devastate you. You love her so much that it would break your hearts despite how you're currently acting like you don't have any," I said.
The Doctor rightfully looked more than a bit shamed not to mention afraid after that remark just as I meant him to be. This version definitely needed to be cut down to size more than any other that I had ever met before. He would grow far too arrogant without someone like me or Clara around.
"It's okay, Doctor. It would never happen," Clara reassured him in a comforting voice as she gave him a hug.
I noticed that he didn't protest that hug anywhere near as much as he had the kiss. Even this new darker crankier version of him obviously still cared very deeply about her.
"Well, now that we've got that sorted out and I'm starting to feel better again it's time that we found the Matriarch and Robbie. Since you obviously have no clue as usual, Mr. I Have No Plan, it's up to me to take the lead," I said as I started to search the forest for any clues as to what had happened there.
"Wait a minute! Who asked you to come along? I already have a companion thank you very much," The Doctor protested.
"Let's get this straight right now, Theta Sigma. I am not nor will I ever be your companion. I am your equal and partner in this at the very least, and if I'm being honest I'm probably the one who's best suited to be the leader among us. So let's stop wasting time trying to determine who's leading who and get going already," I said in an angry voice.
"Are you going to argue with her, Old Man, because I'm certainly not?" Clara said with a grin.
"I'll let her lead the way for now if it'll get her to shut up," The Doctor said.
"You're still too proud to admit that you need my help, aren't you?" I said in amusement.
"I don't see you helping so far, Persephone. You're only taking more cheap shots at me," The Doctor said.
"Can I help it that that's so fun especially with this new version of you? This much more irritating incarnation might as well have come to me all gift wrapped under the Christmas tree. You're right that I need to do something though. As it is, I have been trying to find out something through my link with Robin this entire time. You see I haven't exactly been just spinning my wheels this entire time despite what it looks like," I said.
The Doctor smiled as he said, "I should have known better. You're always been sneaky and treacherous."
"You're being rude again, Doctor," Clara pointed out.
"I meant it as a compliment," The Doctor said.
"Of course you did. I'll just ignore that for now, Prune Face. Thankfully I've learned through our link that Robin is definitely still alive and well and being held prisoner in my TARDIS right next to the other Robin Hood. In fact, they're in the Console Room with the Matriarch at this very moment. She's piloting the TARDIS to somewhere in this time zone from what I can see through Robin's eyes, but I can't tell any more than that. I've been listening for her to say something this entire time, but unfortunately she hasn't said anything. Why did Evil Clara have to be the quiet one?" I said with a frown.
"At least we know that she hasn't accomplished her goals whatever they are just yet anyway. I would have figured you would be one of those talkative megalomaniacs who liked to boast endlessly about their plans, Clara. I'm so glad to be proven wrong. Evil You just keeps going up in my villain rankings," The Doctor said.
"Stop calling her Evil Me and quit giving me backhanded compliments," Clara protested.
"It's the only kind that Time Lord Laborious knows how to give it seems," I joked.
The Doctor glared at me as he said, "You do know that by not kidnapping you too that she almost certainly left you here as a way to lure me into her trap, don't you? She wants us to follow her."
"You don't know that. Maybe she just thought that it wasn't safe to move her. Lily said that she seemed to be concerned about her," Clara said.
"As much as I'd like to believe that, Clara, it's just not so. For once he's right. I was left behind to lure the Doctor into a trap," I said.
"Well, let's not disappoint her then. I'm going to see if I can track her down. Rose has been teaching me more and more about how to use my powers lately so it's time to test some of them out and see if I'm as good a student as I am a teacher," Clara said as she began to glow with the power of the Vortex.
While she was doing that, I suddenly saw the Matriarch begin to smile through Robin's eyes. She turned around and looked straight at Robin as she began to laugh.
"I'm glad to see that you're alive and well, Lily. It seems that I managed to save your life after all if dear old Clara Prime is already looking for me in the Vortex. Stay out of this. I mean it. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. This is between me and the Doctor not you," The Matriarch said.
Then her hands began to glow as Robin quickly blurted out, "Lily, she's headed for the Tower of London!"
"You naughty boy!" The Matriarch reprimanded him before she fired a blast of Vortex energy straight at him.
Then I could no longer see anything as Robin was instantly knocked out cold. He was still alive at least because I could still sense his mind.
I must have cried out because Clara said, "Are you alright?"
"She just knocked Robin out, and I felt it through the link. My wonderful Robbie managed to blurt out that she was going to the Tower before she shut him up though," I said with a smile.
"The Tower? Again? What is it with you and that place? Everything seems to happen there lately," Clara said to the Doctor.
"It can't be a coincidence that she chose that place, Clara. She knows just like you do that it's UNIT's headquarters in the future," The Doctor said.
"It might have to do with UNIT or it might have to do with the fact that the Tower lasts for centuries into the future and is guaranteed not to be heavily disturbed," I mused.
"Maybe she wants to put something under the tower that won't go off until a certain time maybe like a bomb?" Clara speculated.
"Is that what you would do, Clara?" The Doctor asked.
"I wouldn't do any of the things that she's been doing, Doctor," Clara said.
"What if you were to be evil for whatever reason though, Clara? What would you do that involved the Tower? Think, Clara," I said as I realized what the Doctor was getting at with his question.
Who would know the Matriarch better than Clara after all?
"Well, I suppose that the time bomb thing sounds right. Maybe I'd try to blow something or someone up," Clara said.
"Who or what though? Think," I pressured her.
"I don't know! How could I? I'm not a demented psycho like the Matriarch," Clara said in an upset voice.
"She saved my life, Clara. She admitted it to me. I was dying maybe for good this time and she healed me. Maybe she's not as unlike you as you'd like to think," I said.
"It's hard to face up to the darker parts of yourself that you don't want to see, Clara, but sometimes we have to in order to move past them," The Doctor added.
Clara nodded as she said, "Well, if she thinks anything like I do, and she wanted to find a way to get rid of you for good that had something to do with the Tower then she'd probably. . . That's it! She's going to surround the Tower with Lily's TARDIS while it's posing as the Tower. Then when you bring your TARDIS there while you're looking for her, you'll materialize inside of hers without realizing it. Then she can trap the two TARDISes inside of each other forever. That must be it. She wants to trap you here in the past for good."
"I never should have told you that story about the time that the Master hid his TARDIS inside of mine and temporarily trapped me inside of it," The Doctor said with a frown.
"I thought it was kind of clever myself. You said that you just kept going from your Console Room to his over and over again in an endless loop," Clara said with a grin.
"Koschei got that genius from me of course," I said proudly.
"He also got all of your other fine qualities as well," The Doctor said without a trace of humor on his face.
"I'm going to ignore that for now, but I won't forget it, Doctor. You can count on that. Well, at least now we know not to go blundering ahead into her trap. I just hope that she doesn't realize that and have another trap planned in case that one didn't work," I said as I looked at Clara.
"I don't know what to tell you. It's not coming to me right away. It's hard for me to think like a villain," Clara admitted.
"Good," The Doctor said under his breath which made Clara smile.
"Clara, go ahead and take us to the Tower. I need to finish this either one way or another and get Robin back. Then I've got to go back to the Zygon homeworld. The kids might need my help there," I said.
"So you're finally fixing the situation there then? It's about time. You've been a bit slow about resolving that whole thing," The Doctor protested.
"Well, excuse me if having to fight a whole planet of mind-controlled Zygons and nearly burning my brain out slowed me down some, Doctor. Not all of us are perfect you know?" I said sarcastically.
"That's so true," The Doctor said without skipping a beat.
Clara rolled her eyes at him as she said, "Come along, Old Man, before Lily beats you senseless. We've got a date with Psycho Clara, and I'm sure that you don't want to keep her waiting. You know how angry that I get when you don't come on time."
"Yes, I still remember what happened when I brought the coffee back late the last time," The Doctor said with a frown.
"You are so the perfect foil for him," I said to Clara with a grin.
Clara winked at me and then snapped her fingers. The three of us suddenly found ourselves inside of my Console Room and directly behind the Matriarch.
The Matriarch whirled around in surprise and said to Clara, "Good work, Clara. You figured it out, didn't you? I really didn't think that you had it in you. It doesn't matter though. I've still brought the Doctor here even if it wasn't the way that I wanted to do it, and now I'm going to finally deal with him for good so that he can't stand in my way any longer."
Her hands began to glow with power and she started attacking the Doctor before he could move to save himself. She was delivering what I knew was a devastating attack that would kill him in moments if someone didn't stop her.
"Leave him alone!" Clara screamed as she began to attack the Matriarch with her own power.
The Matriarch with her greater skill though easily pushed Clara aside and knocked her out cold in less than a minute. Now it was up to me alone to save the Doctor from being ripped apart atom by atom by the Matriarch's furious assault.
"Stop this! Deep down on some level you're still Clara Oswald, and the Doctor is your friend. You love him. I know you do," I protested as I started to attack her with regenerative energy.
"Love has nothing to do with it, Lily. I have to get rid of him if I truly want to have unlimited control over everything. If I don't, we both know that sooner or later the Doctor will find some way to stop me. It's not that I want to kill him. It's just that sometimes it's necessary for some to die in order to bring about a greater good. The Doctor taught me that," The Matriarch said.
"You're been learning the wrong lesson then, Matriarch, because I'm pretty sure that he didn't mean committing cold-blooded murder," I protested as I continued to fight with her but with little success.
Then as I saw the Doctor's face contorted with agony and looking ashen, I decided to gamble on my theory that the Matriarch wasn't so unlike Clara as I deliberately placed myself in front of the Matriarch's attack. I was now being hit by the full brunt of her assault while I protected the Doctor from it.
"What are you doing?!" The Matriarch screamed.
"If you want to kill him, then you're going to have to kill me first, Clara. Can you do that? Can you really kill me when I know for a fact that you still care about me?" I said through gritted teeth as I could feel my body being torn apart by her.
"Oh, I see. Just because I saved you from dying you think that you've discovered my weakness is that it? You think that that means that you're safe from me, right? You're wrong. I will kill you, Lily. I don't want to but I will," The Matriarch said.
"You're going to have to do just that then, missy. Go on. Do it!" I shouted.
"Lily, no!" The Doctor said in a weak voice.
"Good bye, Lily," The Matriarch said as she began to increase her attacks and I now screamed in agony.
I realized in that moment that I may have just made both the worst and last mistake of my life.
I could feel myself actually being ripped apart and wondered when the pain would end and just how long it would take before I was completely disintegrated. I also wondered if I was about to be reunited with my parents soon. It was funny how I didn't want that as much now as I once would have long ago.
I guess building an all-new family that gives you a brand new reason to live once again will do that for you.
"Lily!" Robin screamed as he woke up to see me being atomized right in front of him.
"Good bye, Robbie. We had a good run didn't we? I wouldn't have missed it for the world," I managed to say while I briefly ignored the pain.
A single tear then poured down my cheek as I said, "I love you."
That was when the pain suddenly stopped as I heard a soul wrenching scream coming from the Matriarch. She was now looking at me with a mixture of guilt, sorrow, and confusion as I realized with a smile that she had stopped herself.
She couldn't bring herself to kill me.
"Why? Why can't I kill you?" The Matriarch said in disbelief.
She was instantly knocked to the floor by a devastating blast of Vortex energy as Clara surprised her from behind. Clara continued to let her have it with all of the power that she had until she had completely knocked her out cold.
"Maybe it's because in the end no matter how twisted that you are you're still way too much like me. I could never hurt any of my kids either," Clara said to her fallen dark side.
"Lily, Doctor, are you both alright?" Clara asked as she came over to check on us.
"Clara, no! Don't turn you back on her!" The Doctor warned.
"She's out cold, Doctor," Clara said.
"That's not what he meant. Look," I pointed.
The Matriarch vanished right in front of us now as Clara groaned and said, "I really should have seen that coming."
"Yes, you should have," The Doctor chastised her.
"Hey! She stopped her didn't she? That's better than you did," I said.
"Thank you, Lily. Finally a Time Lord who appreciates me," Clara said.
"My offer to come work for me is still open you know," I joked as the Doctor practically burned holes in my skull with the glare from those angry eyes of his.
I half expected the eyebrows to fly off of his face and cut me to ribbons.
"Lily!" Robin shouted with relief as he rushed toward me and gave me a passionate kiss that brought a huge smile to my face.
"You just made this whole thing worth it, Robbie," I said happily.
The other Robin Hood meanwhile saluted Clara as he said with a smile, "If you ever want to leave the angry old man and you don't want to work with Lily, then you could always join my Merry Men. I could use a Merry Woman in the group."
Clara began to smile from ear to ear as she screamed, "Lily, Robin Hood just asked me to join him! I can't believe it!"
I laughed at her as I said, "Go ahead, Clara. I'm sure that Robin will actually tell you when you do a good job unlike some people."
The Doctor looked terrified and Clara's smile quickly faded as she saw that.
"Sorry, Lily, Robin, I can't do that. The Old Man needs me. He'll just get everything wrong without me there to keep him on the straight and narrow," Clara said.
"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself," The Doctor protested.
I laughed out loud at that as I said, "Yeah, tell it to Rose. Shut up while you're ahead, Doctor. She wants to stay with you. Don't make her change her mind."
The Doctor wisely remained silent now as Clara smiled and hugged him again while he protested. I was beginning to love seeing that annoyed and yet also happy look on his face whenever she did that. I loved it so much that I hugged him myself.
Now this time he really was annoyed, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Even as I wrapped up things in the past, in some other place far beyond where I was events unfolded that were entirely unknown to me at the time. A woman in a governess' outfit frowned as she looked down on the still unconscious Matriarch. She shook her head even as the Matriarch suddenly woke up and looked at her in surprise.
"That was very sloppy. You would have been caught if it hadn't been for me. You should have never let your feelings for Lily get in your way. I would have thought that you knew better than that," The woman said chastising her.
"Who are you?" The Matriarch asked in confusion.
The woman smiled evilly as she said, "I'm Missy and we're just going to be the best of friends from now on. I already know it especially since we have so many things in common. First and foremost of course are our mutual feelings towards the Doctor."
The Matriarch smiled as she said, "Tell me more."
Back on the Zygon home world meanwhile, Allison smiled in triumph as she said, "It took forever but I finally did it."
"Did what? What is that thing?" Ron asked as he looked down on a small metal globe that Allison had been working on for hours.
"It's a satellite. All I have to do is launch it into orbit, and then it will quickly cover the entire planet with its beam in no time and cure all of the Zygons. All I need to do now is push this button in order to make it launch itself," Allison said proudly.
"Wait a minute. Won't the rest of us wind up like Holly if you do that?" Ron asked in concern.
"No, I've fixed the ray where it won't be able to affect non-shape shifters," Allison said.
"What about Holly? Have you found any way to help her yet?" Skaren asked hopefully.
"Don't raise anyone's hopes up, Skaren," Holly said as she looked pointedly at Richard.
"I'm still working on it at the moment. I've been working together with Aishwana and getting a little help from Freya who picked up a few things living with Mum, and I'm sure that I've almost come up with a way to reverse the process though. I almost have it. I know I do. Just hold on a little longer, okay?" Allison said to Holly.
Holly nodded but looked unconvinced by Allison's words.
Allison vowed to herself to redouble her efforts until she came up with a solution even as she activated the satellite. Within no time, the satellite was slowly fixing every Zygon on the planet once it had achieved orbit.
Mass cheering began to break out everywhere as the Zygons loudly proclaimed Allison as a hero. She definitely didn't feel like a hero when she saw the weary, anguished look on Holly's face though.
What happened next wasn't going to help her much either.
The ray from the satellite had finally reached their area, and Allison held her breath as everyone began to be bathed in its rays. The Zygons who hadn't been fixed yet were now rapidly changed back while she and the others remained unaffected just as she had hoped.
"It worked, Sis! You're now officially a genius. Congratulations," Ron said happily.
Then Allison's good mood came crashing to an abrupt halt as Holly began screaming.
"What's happening?" Skaren said in horror.
"Mum!" Richard said in terror.
Right in front of everyone Holly suddenly completely disintegrated!
"No! It wasn't supposed to do that. The satellite's ray wasn't supposed to do anything to her," Allison said as she stared at the spot where Holly had once stood in shock.
"Holly?" Skaren said in a numb voice as he kept waiting for Holly to reassemble herself.
She never did though.
Suddenly Holly woke up to find herself in a strange new place that was momentarily filled with white light until it suddenly became a beautiful garden. Now she could see that she was at a table with a woman in a governess' outfit who smiled at her warmly.
"Hello, Holly. I'm Missy. Tea?" Missy said as she offered her a cup.
Next: More on Missy, Holly, and the Matriarch. I know I certainly want to see what they're up to and what happens to Holly next. I'm rooting for her even if I have no idea how she's going to get out of this one or even if she can or not. I guess I'll have to wait just like the rest of you until Lily tells us all about it next time though.