CHAPTER 91

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A SECRET DISCOVERED

It turned out that I never did get a real chance to decide whether I forgave the Matriarch or not since she faded out of existence just before Rose finally undid all of the changes that she had made to reality. Or at least that was what she had led us all to believe at that time anyway. Later on I would find out the real truth about her ultimate fate, but that wouldn't be for some time yet.

As soon as Rose rebooted the universe and fixed it back to normal, I and everyone else who had fought by her side was automatically returned to the exact time and place that we had been in when the Matriarch had changed things. In my case, I was suddenly back onboard my TARDIS once again as Robin and Ron carried the still living Bella to my medical bay.

It was just as if nothing had ever happened and to them it hadn't. Neither one of them remembered a thing about the other reality. I knew that the Time Lords in my family would though, and they would have plenty of questions for me soon I was sure.

For now though, it seemed that I was still going to get a chance to find out the truth behind Bella's mysterious return after all. I just really, really hoped that it would turn out to somehow not be yet another evil plot by someone to destroy and/or revamp me, the universe, or anyone that I cared about.

After what I had just been through lately, I could really use a break from that sort of thing for a while.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" Robin asked as we walked to the medical bay together.

"No, everything's just fine for once, Robbie. I hope," I said with a warm smile just before I gave him a tender kiss.

"What just happened?" Ron asked as he gave me a scrutinizing gaze.

"Happened?" I asked with a wide grin.

"Don't try to play dumb, Mum. I know better. Something happened. You've got that 'I'm hiding something from you' face on. So what happened that you're not sure that you should tell us about?" Ron asked.

"I'll tell you what happened. Reality was just completely changed all around us, and I got to meet Mum's parents," Allison said with a smile as she, Aishwana, and Freya suddenly joined us.

"So did I. Your mother was really nice and sweet and your father had all of these wonderful stories that he told me about your childhood, Mum. I'm so glad that I got the chance to meet both of them," Aishwana said happily.

"What? History was actually changed that much?" Robin asked in disbelief.

"Yeah plus I was all grown-up in that world. That was really weird. I even had kids of my own," Freya said.

"You did?" I asked with surprise.

Then I suddenly recalled the memories of that reality, which I still possessed, and remembered that Freya had been married to a grown-up Richard who doted on her as if she were the center of the universe and had had two beautiful children with him, a boy and a girl.

I could see the pain in her eyes as she had to deal with the fact that those children didn't exist anymore. That didn't mean that they might not still exist someday in the future though, did it?

"Why don't I remember any of this? Was I there?" Ron asked in confusion.

"You really don't remember anything?" Allison asked.

"No, nothing," Ron said with a sad, mournful look.

"Neither do I and that sounds like something that I would really like to have remembered," Robin said in a tone filled with regret.

"Why don't they remember? Is something wrong with them?" Allison asked me with a look of concern.

"No, it's because they're not Time Lords like we are, Ally. We can still remember changes to the timeline like that even after things have returned back to normal, but they can't because they're human," I explained.

"That really, really bites. I would have wanted to remember meeting your parents," Ron said in an angry voice.

"They liked you and Robin if that helps any," I said in a gentle tone as I put my arm around him.

"Not really. That only makes it worse somehow," Ron said in a disappointed tone.

"That's why you didn't want to tell us about what happened isn't it?" Robin realized as he placed a sympathetic hand on Ron's shoulder.

"Yeah. I wasn't sure that you'd want to know," I admitted.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. I didn't know that you wouldn't remember any of it," Allison said to Ron apologetically.

'It's okay. It's not your fault," Ron said as he briefly smiled at her.

It was really wonderful to see them actually be nice to one another for once. Usually they would act as if they were just barely able to tolerate each other. I knew the truth though of course. They loved one another deeply even if they would never openly admit it.

"Ah ha! So you do like each other after all," Aishwana said with a knowing smile.

Both of them glared at her as I said, "Shush, Aishy. That's a carefully guarded secret that you're not supposed to talk about."

"Yeah, because if you did then you might actually get them to hug or something and that would blow a hole in the universe," Freya joked.

"I have no idea what she's talking about," Allison said with a frown.

"Neither do I. She's always been a little bit too imaginative though," Ron said as he smiled at Freya to let her know that he was just teasing her.

"Well, it certainly beats having no imagination at all," Freya said with a brief smile before she started to look troubled once again.

"I'm sorry," Ron said as he put his arm around her knowing that she was still upset over being returned back to her old life again.

I could tell that she had really enjoyed the other reality where she not only had our parents and brother back again but also a happy life with Richard. To be honest, so had I. I couldn't help but wonder if I were given the choice, which version of the universe I would choose.

I was sure I knew what Freya's choice would be. It was written all over her face.

"You're actually being nice again. I wonder if reality is still being tampered with after all," Freya said in an emotional voice as she tried to make a joke to hide her feelings.

"Anything's possible I suppose," Ron said with a warm smile as he kissed the visibly upset Freya's forehead.

"I think I picked a bad time to come back to life," A very familiar voice to me said from somewhere in-between Robin and Ron.

"Whoa," Ron said in a startled voice as he almost dropped Bella upon hearing her speak.

"Please don't drop me on my head. I've only just started clearing it. It's taken me forever to regain enough control of my body to speak as it is," Bella said with a weak smile.

"Mum, is she . . . ?" Allison started to ask in a wary voice as everyone started to look at Bella suspiciously right from the start.

"I think it's the Bella that I know, Ally. If it is, then we're completely safe. She wouldn't harm a fly," I said in a reassuring voice.

"How can you be so sure of that though, my lady?" Robin asked as he looked at Bella with clear apprehension.

"My lady? Nice. I bet you just love that, Lil," Bella said with a soft chuckle.

I could tell that she was still barely able to speak much less move so she was definitely no danger to anyone at the moment. I honestly didn't think that she was a danger to us period to be honest. She acted exactly just like the old Bella once again.

"So you recognize me then?" I asked.

"Yeah, I still have Nightshade's memories but definitely not her personality or extreme homicidal tendencies so don't worry. Love the current body by the way, but I definitely liked your other one better. Shame on you for not telling us that you were a Time Lady or Rose's mum by the way. You could have at least told me. I'm very good at keeping secrets," Bella said with a warm smile.

"Not as I remember. You always told everyone everything that you knew. Often you'd blurt it all out just as soon as you knew it," I said as I laughed at her.

This was the same old goofy but lovable Bella once again. I was sure of it.

"So what do we do with her? Are we still taking her to the medical bay?" Ron asked as he continued to look at Bella suspiciously.

"Are you kidding, Ronnie? Yes, of course we are. After floating around in space for hundreds of years, I'd say she's way past due for a little check-up," I said.

"Thanks, Lil, but I think I'm okay. Or at least I will be anyway. Ever since the universe was returned back to normal, I've started to slowly start feeling stronger again. It must be my new Vortex powers finally kicking in at last. I really wish they'd hurry up a little though. I really don't like being a living piece of deadwood. I definitely wouldn't recommend it," Bella said.

"Well, while I have you finally talking to me at last I'd really like to know exactly how you wound up with Vortex abilities in the first place. I'm pretty sure you didn't have them before unless you're much better at hiding secrets than I thought," I asked curiously as I motioned to Ron and Robin to continue taking her to the medical bay anyway despite what she had just said.

I needed to know exactly what had happened to her because she definitely wasn't human anymore.

Bella laughed as she said, "No, I definitely didn't have powers all along. They developed slowly over the years after I was exposed to the Untempered Schism back on Pete's World by that universe's version of the Rani."

"What? What are you talking about? You weren't captured by the Rani. Rose rescued you," I asked in complete surprise.

Then I glared at her as I suddenly had a whole new set of memories pop into my head that I knew for a fact weren't there before. I had a feeling that the Matriarch had nothing to do with it this time either.

"What did you do?" I demanded.

"Now that sounds like a mum alright. I'm so glad you're not my mother. I bet you and Jackie together might be just enough to keep Rose under control though. Might," Bella said with a giggle.

"Bella, tell me what you did. If you didn't know what you were doing . . ." I said in a persistent tone.

"Oh, don't worry so much. I had some help from someone who I'm pretty sure I could trust to do it right. She's even older than you are after all amazingly enough," Bella said.

"That's not possible. Nobody's older than she is," Violet said as she joined us now.

"You do realize that you're putting yourself down too don't you?" I said.

"Not really. I'm a clone so I'm actually only a few years old," Violet said smugly.

"Huh. So you actually have a clone? She looks just like you used to too. What is that like to have another person who's so much like you wandering around?" Bella asked.

"Annoying and that's on a good day," I said as Violet stuck her tongue out at me.

"How are you doing, Bella? Are you okay?" Violet then asked in concern.

"I'm fine. Erin's plan worked perfectly. That was her name by the way. The woman who helped me I mean. Erin Reese or you might know her better as Discord," Bella said.

I looked at her in complete surprise now as I said, "Discord? I never would have thought of her in a million years. Rose said she had turned over a new leaf these days though so maybe she felt like she owed Rose one for helping her with that. She definitely would have made the changes to reality correctly though so I suppose I don't have to worry about that too much. Now I just need to make sure that your body developed right too and that this new power of yours isn't slowly killing you."

"You mean that could actually happen?" Bella asked in surprise.

"Possibly. The Time Lords always had that occasional but extremely rare case of a person who developed some kind of deadly mutation after being exposed to the Schism. Add the disruptive influence of the power of the Vortex on top of that, and Rose was very lucky that it didn't outright kill her when she was transformed by it," I said.

"Oh, thanks a lot, Lil. You're really making me feel good right now," Bella said in a worried tone.

"I'm sure Erin took all of that into account, Bella. I'm just the kind of person who loves to make sure of things like that when it comes to the well-being of the people that I care about," I said as I gestured to the boys to set Bella down gently as we finally reached the medical bay at last.

As the machines there started to do a quick diagnostic check on her, I smiled and said, "Well, on first look at least I'd say that Erin did a perfect job of guessing exactly how the Schism would affect you. You're just like Rose now with the same ability that she has to access and manipulate the power of the Vortex with no harm done to you personally. Ooh, she is good! Or at least the Rani of Pete's World was anyway," I said in appreciation.

"Why? What do you mean?" Bella asked.

"I mean that unlike Rose or any other Vortex user you don't need the power of the Vortex in order to live. You could actually do without it forever and pass for an ordinary human being if you ever had to do so. With it though, you're going to be almost as powerful as Rose. I guess that's what a slow, gradual development of your abilities will do for you instead of an instant change," I said in an appreciative voice.

"I guess having my body blown up and the power slowly putting it back together again in a weird hibernation state as it floated through space might have helped some with that too. I'm glad my consciousness wasn't there all of that time or I'd have probably lost my mind," Bella said with a shudder.

"Thanks to both Nightshade and Erin though luckily that didn't happen. In fact, both your mind and your body seem absolutely fine now. You should be completely back to normal in no time with a whole lot of new abilities to boot. So . . . would you like to join my team? I could always use a good Vortex user on my team plus I've really missed you," I said with a warm smile..

"Not half as much as I have I bet," Rose suddenly said from behind me.

I turned now to see that she and the Doctor were standing there watching us. Rose looked elated while the Doctor looked as skeptical and suspicious as ever.

"I hate it when she does that," Allison said with a sigh.

"It's just her way. She loves to show off. She gets that from Mum," Aishwana said with a grin.

"Me? I'd say she gets it from the Doctor. He's obviously been a very bad influence on her," I said with a fake insulted look.

"Hello to you too, Lily," The Doctor said with a derisive snort.

"If anyone's been a bad influence on her, I'm sure it was you. You two used to be partners in crime together back on Pete's World. You were always constantly up to something together," Bella said with a chuckle.

"Really? Tell us more," Allison said with an evil smile.

"Yeah, I definitely want to hear about this so that I can bring it all up to her the next time she's giving me a lecture about something," Ron said with an evil look on his face as well.

"Tell them anymore and you'll die again, Bella," I threatened.

"I'm not sure that I actually can die now, Lil. At least Erin said I wouldn't be able to anyway. She said my new powers would just keep constantly rebuilding my body no matter what happened to it," Bella said.

I nodded as I said, "Of that I have no doubt from what I've seen. Rose, you'll never believe it. Erin was the one . . ."

"Who sent Bella's consciousness back in time to her past self so that she could change her own history, yeah? I already know. I saw that happening as I rebooted time, and I made sure to leave that little change in when I fixed the universe back to normal. I would have done something like that myself to save Bella if Erin hadn't already beaten me to it. I already changed a few other things for my other friends and family after all. I figured why not change a little something here and there while I was rebuilding things, right?" Rose said as she smiled at Bella with one of her face wide grins.

"Did you change anything for any of us?" Freya asked in a hopeful voice.

"I couldn't bring your family back if that's what you're hoping for, Aunt Freya. That would have disrupted the Web of Time way too much. Sorry," Rose said in a sad voice.

"No, that's okay. I understand," Freya said in disappointment.

"Although you might like what I saw of your future though," Rose said with that grin of hers instantly returning.

"What do you mean?" Freya asked with renewed hope in her voice.

"Let's just say that I thought that what the Matriarch did to your particular timeline was a good idea and that I made sure that two people in your future will definitely still be showing up. Your kids weren't erased. They're just waiting for you somewhere way on down the line, yeah?" Rose said happily.

"What about Richard? Will I still marry him?" Freya asked in excitement.

"Well, that's up to you two isn't it? I don't see why not though. I think your future's going to look very, very familiar to you one day," Rose said with a wink.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Freya said as she rushed forward to hug her.

"What are you thanking me for? I think you two would have still gotten together anyway with or without my help," Rose said.

"That's not what I was thanking you for, Rose. You've finally given me something to look forward to for the first time in a long time. Maybe one day I'll feel like I actually belong here in this time," Freya said.

"You already do," I said as I gave her a look filled with meaning.

Then Rose turned to Ron and Robin and said, "Oh, and here's a little something for you two."

She snapped her fingers and suddenly I could tell from their expressions that both of them suddenly remembered my parents and brother from the other timeline. Rose had given their memories of that other reality back to them.

"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me," Ron said with tears in his eyes.

"Oh, I think I do. They were really wonderful people weren't they?" Rose said with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah, they were," Ron said now smiling as he could finally share in that remembrance of them too now.

"Rose, I . . ." Bella started to say.

"I think I know what you're going to say, Bella, and I want to say the same thing to you too. How about we both say it at the same time, okay?" Rose said.

"Agreed. Let's do it then. It'll be on the count of three, then. 3,2,1," Bella said.

Then they both said at once in a voice filled with guilt, "I'm sorry."

The two of them both laughed as Bella said, "Yeah, there's not a huge amount of guilt going on there, no."

"Come on, Bella. We have a lot to talk about and work through, but I don't want to bother Mum and the others with it. I . . . I still can't believe that you're here," Rose said with a smile filled with joy.

"Neither can I," The Doctor said suspiciously.

"Stop that," Rose said with a groan.

"Is this version of him always like that with the doom and gloom bit?" Bella asked with a frown.

"You have no idea. This one makes Donald as rude as he was look downright pleasant at times," I said with a smirk.

Then my smile immediately faded as I saw the very serious look that had suddenly appeared on Rose's face. It was a pointed look that immediately told me volumes.

"You know don't you?" I said in a somewhat frightened voice.

"Know what?" Allison asked curiously.

"That's what I'd like to know as well. This is the first time I'm hearing about this," The Doctor asked as he looked at Rose curiously.

"I saw it when I was fixing the universe back. I couldn't help but see it, could I? I always wondered about who he was, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to know. I'm not sure how I feel about it now that I finally do," Rose said as she avoided the Doctor's intense gaze.

"Rose, I . . . I really need to explain all about it. I . . ." I said as tears filled my eyes.

Rose's expression became filled with kindness now which relieved me to no end as I said, "Don't get upset, Mum. I'm angry that's true. I'm very angry but I don't hate you. I could never hate you. I just want to know the whole story behind it all in your own words. We really need to talk after I get through with Bella, okay?"

"I agree. Come back whenever you're ready, alright?" I said as I tried to muster up a smile.

"Stop worrying so much. We'll make it through this, okay?" Rose said in what I knew she was trying to pass off as a friendly expression but was actually one that was filled with anger instead.

She may not hate me but she wasn't exactly fond of me either these days I could tell.

Then to her credit, she hugged me as she said, "I'll be back later. Come on, Bella."

She then snapped her fingers and she, the Doctor, and Bella all disappeared in a burst of golden energy. My family was now all looking at me with eyes filled with questions. All of them except for Robin of course since he already knew all about it and had no doubt immediately figured out exactly what would make Rose that angry.

"Okay, what was that about?" Allison demanded.

"It's what Rose really came here about. It wasn't just to collect Bella. It was to confront me with what she had found out. She finally knows the truth now," I said.

"The truth about what?" Ron asked in confusion.

"The truth about her father. She finally knows exactly who he is and why I never told her anything about him," I said in a tone filled with regret.

"Who is her father anyway? You've never told any of us either," Aishwana asked.

"Former Lord President Borusa," I said in a sad voice.

"Him? Mr. Nutty As A Fruitcake?" Allison said with a grimace.

"He wasn't always that way," I said defensively.

"Well, I should certainly hope not," Allison said.

"Can you tell us the whole story about what happened between you two then?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Yes, I mean I might as well, right? There's certainly no use in hiding it anymore is there?" I said as Robin grabbed my hand for support and I smiled at him gratefully.

Then I finally started as the others listened in rapt attention.

If you're interested in seeing the rest of Rose's reunion with Bella that will continue in The Adventures of Rose Tyler Chapter 117 which is coming in a few days.

Next: The full story behind the relationship between Lily and Borusa is finally revealed at last plus Rose and Lily have a long, long talk. This one's going to get pretty emotional I think before it's all over.