CHAPTER 88
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HER EYES ARE UPON YOU
The universe is a vast place filled with beauty and wonder. In fact if all that you did on a regular basis was just look at the magnificence of the stars and the breathtaking beauty of an alien landscape then you might become deluded into thinking that that's all that there was to the universe. You would be so wrong though because right alongside that majestic glory are also unimaginable horrors just waiting to rip it all apart right in front of your eyes just before they do the same thing to you.
What's standing in-between you (and the universe) and those horrors you ask?
Well, there used to be this man, this magnificent man, named the Doctor and his brilliant and loving wife called Rose Tyler. The Oncoming Storm and his Bad Wolf. Together they would protect everyone everywhere from the evil that always lies in wait.
They're no longer here though and now all that we have is their daughter who while she has a good heart and nothing but the best of intentions isn't quite up to the task if the truth is told. Therefore the universe needs a new protector. It needs someone to take care of it and guide it into a new future. A cosmic mother if you will.
That's where I come in because that someone is me. I am the Matriarch but you can call me Clara.
Surprised? Yes, that's right, readers, I've hijacked the narration of this story for a chapter in order to give you my point of view of things since I've been so unfairly maligned up until this point. I'm sure that no one will notice.
Time Lord Prime certainly didn't. He thinks that he's actually putting up Lily's narration instead just as she dictated it to him. He's definitely going to be surprised later on isn't he? That's one of the perks of having incredible mental powers of course. You can actually hypnotize people into switching one chapter for another, and they don't even realize it until later. Of course the fact that I pretended to be regular old sweet and cuddly Clara in order to get close enough to him to do the job probably didn't hurt either since he would probably do almost anything if she/I asked him to nicely enough.
I can already hear you grumbling out there but don't worry. I won't be changing the focus of this chapter. I'm not suddenly about to start talking about my love of soufflés or the many different recipes for them that I've discovered (as interesting as that would be) or even how much I love conjugating verbs. No, I'm going to keep Prime's promise last time about the content of this chapter despite hijacking his story (honor among thieves and all that) so we will definitely still be talking about Lily and the current events of her life. The only difference will be that we're going to be doing it from my point of view instead of Lily's for a change.
Besides who better than me to be the omniscient narrator anyway since I can see into the hearts and minds of everyone now with my new almost limitless power? I'll be much better at it than Lily or Prime I'm sure.
Maybe by the time that I'm finished I'll have even changed some (or maybe even all?) of your minds about me. Maybe you'll realize that I'm not the monster that Prime and the others make me out to be after all.
It's certainly worth a shot anyway isn't it?
So where to start then, hmm? Oh, I know. Let's start with the dirt first. That's always what I like best anyway then we can get to Lily's grandchild later. I mean I like children and all (Hello, just look at my name!) but I'm dying to get to this part of the story first. To me, it's the most important part and it might hopefully be interesting to quite a few of you out there as well.
After Lily received renewed hope that the Doctor and Rose would return someday from listening to Calliope's story, she immediately thought of someone else who she was sure would be glad to hear it. This was someone who she hadn't visited (much less thought about) in quite a long time now so she was a bit hesitant to see him at first. She quickly convinced herself that she owed it to him to go however. He deserved to feel just as hopeful as she did at that moment after all because she was sure that he would at least be worried about Rose's well-being if not the Doctor's despite how much that he had changed over the centuries.
He had always cared about Rose no matter what.
I wonder why that is, hmm? I mean why would this person, whoever he is, care anything about Rose? I'm asking that as a rhetorical question of course because I already know the answer. I am Future Girl after all. I already know everything that's going to happen which means that I'm also in the perfect position to alter it.
That's just yet another perk of being me.
After Lily explained to Robin what Calliope had told her, his face noticeably brightened and he said, "See, my lady? I told you not to give up hope."
"Yes, so you did," Lily said with a warm smile as she gave Robin a loving and very passionate kiss.
Then her face instantly took on a troubled expression that Robin knew all too well (I just love getting to say things like that now that I'm the narrator!) which immediately caused him to say, "You're going to see him about it aren't you?"
Lily smiled reassuringly as she said, "Don't you dare be jealous, Robbie! I haven't thought of him that way in a very long time now, and even when I did the love that I felt for him didn't even come close to what I feel for you. You're the one that I love the most and always have been and don't you forget it."
"I'm not jealous. I just don't like what seeing him and what's become of him always does to you because you still care about him. I know you do. It hurts you every time to see what he's become," Robin said in a sympathetic voice.
"Yes, it does take its toll on me but I have to do this. I know that he's heard about what happened to the Doctor and Rose by now. Word spreads fast even in a place like Shada. He has a right to know that Rose has a good chance of coming back again," Lily said.
So this mysterious person is in Shada, eh? And the plot thickens.
"That doesn't mean that you have to be the one to tell him. You could tell Commander Maxil and he could get word to him there for you," Robin suggested.
"Yes, Maxil, there's a great choice alright. He's a regular fountain of warmth isn't he? I'm sure that he would make everything so much better with his well-known compassion and sensitivity," Lily said sarcastically.
"Well, it could be someone else then. Why does it have to be you?" Robin asked.
"You know why just like you know why he has to hear about this," Lily said.
Ooh, mysterious much, Lil?
"Then I'm going along then this time, my lady. It's the only chivalrous thing to do," Robin insisted.
"Well, if you insist, Robbie. At least it'll give him another chance to see who he lost out to if nothing else. Maybe that'll shock him back to his senses to see just how totally outclassed that he is in every way compared to you. I doubt it though," Lily said.
"It's okay to admit that you really don't want to do this, you know? You don't have to put on a tough act all of the time, Lily," Robin said as he put his arms around her.
Lily smiled at him both because he knew her so well now and because she was so grateful that she could just be herself with him without any fear of judgment (I truly love getting into Lily's head like this.) as she joked, "Who said that it's an act? Maybe I really am this tough? Did you ever think of that?"
Robin laughed as he said, "Oh, I know that you are but even you need to talk to someone sometimes. Don't try to tell me that you don't either. You're not a cold and heartless monster, Lily, not even when you're Sekhmet. I know better than that."
"Yes, and you're always there for me aren't you? That's one of the many reasons why I love you. Thank you, Robin. I know that you don't want to do this anymore than I do. Thank you for coming along anyway though," Lily said as she kissed him gratefully.
Then she headed toward the Console Room of their TARDIS as she said, "Let's do this then. If we go in and out fast enough, hopefully the others won't even notice that we're there. I definitely don't want a repeat of the last time where Allison got in a shouting match with him. I was half afraid that they were going to throw her in Shada right alongside him before she was finished."
"Yes, she really, really didn't like him at all, did she? Not that I can blame her," Robin said laughing.
Lily quickly entered the coordinates for Shada into the console and then she asked the director of the prison planet for permission to visit before she dematerialized. She was almost disappointed when she was told that she could come. At least she would have had a good excuse not to go if she had been told that she couldn't from on high.
Soon enough Lily's TARDIS materialized and she and Robin quickly made their way to a certain cell in particular. One that Lily knew all too well now unfortunately.
As she was let into the cell, Ex-President Borusa, the Doctor's old teacher and mentor who once tried to become the eternal President of Gallifrey while scheming to gain the secret of Rassilon's immortality for himself, smirked at Lily. She knew right then that he was in one of his megalomaniac moods where all he wanted to do was rant now.
Lucky her.
"Come to gloat about the Doctor having gone missing, Persephone? I'm sure that you're enjoying that almost as much as I am," Borusa said happily.
"No, I'm really not surprisingly enough," Lily admitted.
Borusa sneered disdainfully as he said, "You always were too soft on him despite how much that you pretended to hate him, Persephone. You know just as well as I do that he was never who Arkytior should have married. He was never the right person for her. I see that now."
"You used to like him once. You once told me that he was your favorite student," Lily said sadly.
"That was a long time ago. I was a different man back then. I was a much more naïve man who hadn't yet seen the true darkness that lies within even the so-called purest of hearts. Finding out what the Celestial Intervention Agency, while being directed to by Braxiatel of all people, did to Ari truly opened my eyes. That's when I realized that I had to take control of everything and everyone in order to keep such horrible things from ever happening again to anyone else. I would have to become the President forever and make Gallifrey and by extension the universe into a better place so that what I thought was Ari's death at the time would not have been in vain," Borusa said.
Sounds like a man after my own heart.
"Oh, come off it, Borusa! You wanted the Presidency and probably immortality too long before then. I know that for a fact," Lily said with a frown.
"Yes, I did want the Presidency but only because I wanted to do something good with it. Only by achieving ultimate power can you really change things in this universe, Persephone. Nothing ever gets accomplished any other way," Borusa said.
Preach it, Teacher Man.
"And that's exactly why I left you. You started reminding me way too much of someone else that I used to know once. He had the same ideas about power that you do, and he wound up being just as bad once he got it too," Lily said.
Borusa glared at her as he said, "Don't you dare compare me to that man! I'm nothing like him! Nothing! He trapped me in the Dark Tower for decades in a living nightmare where I couldn't even speak or move, and then during the Time War I soon came to see just how well off that I had been there as he freed me only to do even worse things to me. I never told you what he did to me, did I?"
Lily looked at him with sympathy as she said, "I already know. The Doctor told me. I'm sorry that Rassilon turned you into an experiment by making you into a possibility engine to predict the future for him, Borusa. I already know what that feels like. I was once his experiment too."
"Yes, so you said even though you never went into any details. I can assure you that what he did to me was far worse though than whatever happened to you. My death while helping the Doctor to defeat the Daleks immediately afterwards came as a welcome relief. I finally thought that I had been freed only to find myself right back in the Dark Tower and trapped once again. Rassilon made sure that my spirit couldn't be freed even through death," Borusa said in anger.
Lily frowned as she said, "That sounds like him alright. Look I'm sorry about the past, okay? That's not what I came here to talk about though."
"No, you came to talk about Arkytior," Borusa suddenly said in a much quieter voice.
"Yes, I did. I wanted to tell you that she may not be lost after all. I've just been told something that leads me to believe that both she and the Doctor will be coming back one day," Lily said.
"I didn't even know who she was when I first saw her after I was finally freed from the Tower. I had no idea who this Rose Tyler that the Doctor was with even was. She was almost nothing like she was in her first incarnation. I didn't even recognize her," Borusa said in a disturbed voice.
"That's nothing to be bothered about. She changed a lot as a human. I almost didn't recognize her either when I finally found her again," Lily admitted.
"I didn't treat her well, Perse. I . . . I tried to harm her. I never would have done that if I had known," Borusa admitted in a shamed voice.
"I know. I know you wouldn't have," Lily said.
Robin was always surprised at how Borusa's moods could change so quickly like that. One moment he would be ranting about supreme power and the next he would express regret over how he had treated Rose. That was the nature of madness he supposed and Borusa was surely mad in his opinion.
All of the great ones with true vision are always thought of as mad aren't they? We're really just far ahead of our time of course.
Okay, yes I know that Borusa really was driven insane by what the Rani's sister, Kali, had done to manipulate his brain centuries ago (not that anyone else in this universe knows that) but that's beside my point. Just trying to gain power in order to remake reality in his own image so that the universe can be a better place doesn't make him mad in and of itself, you know?
I mean I know that I'm not mad for starters. I may be a bit ruthless at times but I'm definitely not mad.
"Borusa, did you hear what I said about Ari though? She could be coming back again. I wanted you to know that. I didn't want you to give up hope on her," Lily said as she tried to bring Borusa out of his sudden fit of sadness.
Borusa nodded as he said, "Yes, I heard you. That's why I was expressing sorrow. I don't want Rose to think that I hate her. If she does come back, I want you to send her to see me. I need her to know that. That and . . . the truth about us."
The truth, eh? I wonder what that could be. Interesting isn't it, boys and girls?
"I . . . I don't think that we should tell her that," Lily said hesitantly.
"She deserves to know," Borusa protested.
"I don't think so. It would serve no good purpose," Robin said as he interrupted them for the first time.
"Who asked you? You have no business here anyway. This isn't your concern," Borusa said.
"She's my step-daughter so yes it is," Robin said.
"Step-daughter! Ha! As if that gives you any rights!" Borusa mocked him.
"Stop it, you two! I came here because I thought that you deserved to know that everything may not be as bad as it seems concerning her. I didn't come to start another Time War between you two or to talk about Rose finding out about something that she's better off not knowing. I'm not telling her about us, Borusa. End of story. Come on, Robin. Let's go," Lily said as she spun around to leave.
"One day she will know, Persephone. You can't hide the truth from her forever. One day I will tell her!" Borusa shouted after them as Lily and Robin left.
"One day I'll apologize to her too," He said to himself in a much softer voice.
See? He's not all bad. He can love as well as hate. No one is either all one thing or the other. People are much more complex than that.
So am I.
Now as I said before, we finally arrive to the more light-hearted moment of this chapter as only a few minutes after Lily and Robin returned to the TARDIS and dematerialized it Isabella approached them with a worried look on her face. Lily knew immediately what it was about of course. She had had three children of her own after all.
"Lily, it's the baby. She's coming. My water just broke on the way here. I'm sorry about the carpet by the way," Isabella said.
"Oh, who cares about the carpet, Izzy? The TARDIS can take care of that. Don't worry about that right now. You need to worry about yourself and the baby. Well, to be more accurate I'll do the worrying for you. You see I already planned for this way ahead of time. I have the coordinates where I can find quick and immediate help for you already on speed dial," Lily said with a grin as she hit a single button on the console.
"The TARDIS has a speed dial?" Allison asked as she joined them with an amused look on her face.
"Of course it does. I invented one for it. You think that I'm going to let the humans keep that particular idea all to themselves," Lily said proudly.
"What is a speed dial?" Isabella asked in confusion.
"That's definitely not important right now, Izzy. Mum, the baby's coming!" Ron shouted as he finally caught up to his wife.
"Yes, so I've heard," Lily said as she smiled at his worry.
"I don't feel any pain at the moment, honey. Don't worry," Isabella reassured her husband.
"Oh, you'll feel pain soon enough alright. It just hasn't started yet. The TARDIS is blocking it until we get to where we're going," Lily said.
Isabella looked at her in surprise as Ron said, "What?"
"I didn't want her or you to get upset until we found help if this happened away from home, Ron. Therefore I had the TARDIS specially attuned to her body so that it would block the pain signals from the contractions from reaching her brain at first. It's only temporary though unfortunately. Sorry I can't give you a painless childbirth, Izzy," Lily apologized.
That Lily! She's always thinking on her feet. I like to think that she got that from me when I was her nanny.
"Where are we going?" Allison asked curiously.
"I decided that I would only use the best to bring my grandchild into the world, Ally. We're going to see . . ." Lily said and then she was cut off by the TARDIS suddenly materializing and its doors immediately opening.
Grace Holloway rushed into the TARDIS then with a fully prepared team immediately finishing Lily's answer for her. They all carried Isabella out of the ship quickly as they prepared for her to go into labor at any moment now.
As soon as Isabella left the TARDIS, she started to scream as it no longer protected her from the pain once she left its interior. That was when the waiting began as Grace went to work right away to help Isabella deliver the baby safely even as she scanned her for signs of any problems with the pregnancy.
Delivering babies wasn't exactly Grace's area of expertise since she was a surgeon, but Lily trusted her to do it more than she would anyone else so she had agreed to it anyway as a favor to her. Grace really respected the old girl after all and who can blame her for that?
Not long afterwards the family finally welcomed a new baby girl into the universe. Just as Isabella had promised to do when she first found out that she was pregnant, she called the child Daisy Allison Rose Belle Hardy after Ron's three sisters and Jenny's twin sister (Let's call a spade a spade here. She's her clone) Belle.
"She's beautiful just like her mother," Ron said proudly as he held little Daisy for the first time.
"Can I hold her?" Freya asked as she looked at the newborn infant in fascination.
"She's human so you have to be very gentle with her," Ron said.
"I know that! It's not like I was going to throw her up in the air and play ball with her," Freya said with a frown.
"I'll do that when she's older," Freya quickly joked as soon as Ron handed the baby to her.
"You'll do no such thing to my little niece especially not with her being named after me," Aishwana said with a fake frown.
"Yeah, you're right. She's going to have enough troubles in her life already thanks to that," Freya said with a chuckle as she made cooing noises to the baby.
"Was she like this when you were little?" Aishwana asked Lily.
"She was much worse actually," Lily admitted making Freya stick her tongue out at her.
I can attest to that. Freya could be a holy terror at times even though she was basically a good kid at heart. She was nowhere near as bad as Sekhmet though. She was always getting into trouble even though most of the time it was completely by accident.
Maybe that's why I always liked her so much. I'm very protective towards people who constantly get into trouble after all.
At least Clara was anyway.
"Mum, what's wrong?" Allison said as she noticed Lily suddenly looking extremely sad.
She already knew what it was of course but she just wanted her to talk about it.
"I just wish that Rose could be here to see this. I really thought that she would be when Izzy first became pregnant. I know that Callie said reassuring things about the future but that still doesn't make me feel completely better at times like this when the whole family isn't here," Lily admitted.
"She'll be here later, Lily. I know that she will. Daisy will get to know her aunt soon enough," Isabella reassured her.
Lily nodded and smiled at the baby as she said, "Yeah, she will. I'll make sure of it somehow. I'll also make sure that this little girl never knows a moment of pain or want. I promise you all that."
The others looked at her skeptically for a moment but said nothing. After all, if Lily was finally happy for the moment then who were they to try to wreck her good mood?
I know exactly how Lily feels though of course only I feel that way about the entire universe instead of just one child. I'm going to take care of everyone and make sure that no one ever suffers again. I will watch over and protect them.
It's what a mother does after all.
And I am watching. I'm always watching. I'm watching everyone. I'm watching Lily, I'm watching Cassiopeia, and . . . I'm even watching you.
Yes, you.
Sorry. I didn't mean to sound all stalkerish there. It's not like I watch you when you sleep after all.
Not that would just be majorly creepy. Yes, I'm looking at you, Santa.
I just meant that I'm protecting everyone from any and all threats to the universe as a whole. For instance, I went after Missy once I found out that she escaped her Doctor. I made sure to completely erase her memories of both my universe and all of the other ones. She won't be coming back to any of them again I can assure you of that. Besides from what I know of her future she'll be too busy bothering her Doctor anyway to mess with the rest of us in the other universes.
You can all thank me later.
It's all preparation for my greater goal of course. It will happen one day soon enough now that the Doctor and Rose are no longer around to stop it.
One day soon I will gain complete control over this entire universe. My plan is already in motion. I will change the future this time and no one will stop me.
Maybe one day they'll even applaud me. Will you I wonder?
Next: Belle guest stars as she gets to meet her new goddaughter for the first time. Also Lily will find out something strange that will definitely make her question whether Bella is truly gone or not. Plus we'll see the Matriarch actually interact with Lily next time as she makes her an offer that Lily will find it very hard to refuse.
She can bring the Doctor and Rose back (and fix Borusa's mind on the side) . . . but only if Lily promises not to interfere in her future plans. Will Lily agree to it?