CHAPTER 92

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THE FULL STORY IS REVEALED AT LAST

Most stories of the founding of Time Lord civilization state that there were three key figures there at the beginning. There was Rassilon who harnessed the power of the Eye of Harmony which made time travel possible, Omega who created the stellar manipulator that created the Eye in the first place, and the mysterious figure known as The Other who created the half organic/half machine vessels that would one day be known as the TARDIS.

These three created a billion year dynasty that lasts to the present day. They are the ones who gave a once insignificant planet complete and total control over Time itself.

This is not the entire story however because there was another figure there at the founding of the Time Lords who if he had succeeded in basing Time Lord civilization's founding principles on his ideas would have changed the entire history of the universe forever. He is not spoken of in any of the stories of those times however because after he was defeated and driven into exile in a titanic battle with The Other his name was stricken from all of the official records.

Afterwards they did their best to erase him from the public memory and try to pretend that he didn't even exist. This was done not as much out of malice but out of fear. Fear that one day he might return.

Unfortunately this man like the ideas that he represented simply refused to die. Not long after he was driven into exile by Sekhmet Ravenscliff, otherwise known as The Other, a doomsday prophecy emerged among the Sisterhood of Karn that talked of his eventual return and of that being the day that Gallifrey itself would fall and become twisted and corrupted by his perverse notions of what the Web should be.

It was a day that even the most courageous of Time Lords feared because if this particular Time Lord were to ever gain control over the Web of Time then no one would be safe.

In this prophecy they actually dared to speak his name out loud which is why it is forbidden to be spoken of outside of Karn. His name was Erebus, otherwise known as He Who Lives In Time's Shadow, and he was the son of Rassilon.

The prophecy was not filled with complete darkness however because it also ends on a far happier note. It stated that there was a chance however small that Erebus could still be defeated once he returned. The prophecy spoke of the return of the near mythical Other just when she was needed most and stated that she would be joined by two other legendary figures who would stand by Gallifrey in its darkest hour. It doesn't call these other two by name but instead described them as a cosmic schemer who would mend time whenever it would break (who according to my colleague Professor Song just has to be the man called The Doctor because according to her he's always the hero of every fairytale) and the protector of Time itself who would possess all of the power and ferocity of the wolf.

Professor Song was less than enthusiastic about this second person's identity for some reason and subsequently mumbled something that sounded like "she always gets all of the fun".

Perhaps it is from this second individual whoever she is that Erebus gets his other name if these accounts are true. He was also known as The Huntsman and was said to fear the Wolf of the prophecy most of all. In fact, it was said of these future times that it would soon become uncertain exactly who was hunting whom.

-Taken from the still existing fragments of The Secret History of the Time Lords by Professor Arthur Candy of Luna University which was never published after it suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.

Gallifrey, the Present Day:

Yes, that rather dusty old passage was definitely included here for a reason which you'll most certainly figure out in time. And no I didn't steal the thing. I've got far better things to do with my time thank you very much.

Besides didn't you just see River's name in that story? Come on, people. Pay attention.

Now it's finally time to bring you back to exactly where we left off before. I was just about to explain the full story of my life together with Rose's father Borusa to the others.

"I first met Borusa back when he was fresh out of the Academy and had just started on his way up the political rungs of Gallifreyan high society. I was a minor member of the High Council in those days back when I still called myself Persephone. Even then, he already had this burning desire to become Lord President of Gallifrey one day. I suspect that he's had it since he was a child. I fancied him right from the start of course and he definitely fancied me because his first words to me were to ask me for a date. The gall of the man! It didn't matter though. I still liked him despite this though or maybe even because of it," I said with a fond smile.

"So you said yes to him when he asked for a date then?" Aishwana asked with a knowing smile.

That smile was quickly ripped off of her face as I said, "No, I didn't. In fact, I told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn't interested in him in any way whatsoever. End of story."

"Really? That doesn't sound like you at all," Aishwana said in surprise.

"And what's that supposed to mean exactly?" I said with a teasing smile.

"It means that it's very unlike you to turn down a chance to have a date with anyone that you fancy," Ron said.

I grinned even as Robin looked away with a disturbed look on his face, "True. That was the way I used to be before I met the perfect person for me . . . again. Yes, I'm talking about you, Robbie, so cheer up already. In those days though, I wanted to keep a low profile. I had become homesick and decided to return to Gallifrey after being away from it for far too long so I didn't want to be discovered as being an immortal quite so quickly. I had even taken the fake identity of Persephone Lupinesglen from a funny dream that I had where I was told by a mysterious voice that my house would be the House of the Wolf. So at this point I didn't want to date and risk having my secret discovered by someone else no matter how much I liked him."

"So what changed then?" Freya asked as she became more and more intrigued by my story.

"He simply wouldn't stop asking me. That man never gave up no matter what I told him. I don't think even that would have worked in the end though if I hadn't learned the hard way that I could trust him," I explained.

Even Robin looked at me with an intrigued look on his face despite hating every moment of this story of my time with another man as Allison asked, "What do you mean? What happened?"

"There was an explosion in the Capitol that wiped out half of the High Council in one blast. It was a particularly nasty weapon called The Life Eater that had been used by a group of Gallifreyan terrorists who were protesting some of the High Council's current temporal policies. The weapon basically burnt out the entire life cycle of every Time Lord in its vicinity when it went off. It was so horrific that no one could survive it. Everyone in my area of the meeting chamber was instantly killed . . . except me. I was only knocked out cold instead because I had far too many lives for the bomb to steal. I could have easily been discovered and experimented on for the secrets of my power right then and there. Thankfully Borusa, who was also there that day and had immediately gone looking for me, had the presence of mind to drag me away to the other part of the meeting chamber before anyone could discover that I was still alive. Then he claimed that I had been just close enough to be hit by the effects of the blast but not killed by it," I explained.

"Yeah, you definitely had to date him then . . . at least," Allison said with a chuckle.

Then she looked apologetically at Robin as she said, "Sorry, Dad."

"It's alright. This was all a long time ago and has nothing whatsoever to do with what your mother and I have today," Robin said in a completely unconvincing tone.

"You're absolutely right, Robbie. It's ancient history despite what Rose has discovered," I reassured him with a warm smile.

Robin began to smile a little more now as I said, "I can't believe that I even have to say that to you, you jealous idiot."

"You still visit him on Shada all of the time. Those are hardly the actions of a person who's done with someone," Robin pointed out.

"Yes, I'll always care about him . . . as a friend and a friend only. I'm not in love with him anymore and haven't been in a very long time now. Don't worry. I'm getting to that part of the story soon enough now," I admitted.

"So you stopped resisting him when he saved you then? I have to admit that would have broken me too," Freya said with a faraway look in her eyes.

I rolled my eyes at her as I said, "You know you're still just a kid, Freya. I don't care if you do have memories of another life where you grew up. Having you talk about things like that is just weird. To answer your question though, that's exactly when I stopped resisting him. He showed that he truly did care about me by what he had done. He also showed that what I was didn't matter to him when I told him about how I couldn't die. So I decided to take a chance and we started up a relationship with one another. That was when things took a completely unexpected turn that I never saw coming: I became pregnant."

"Why was that so unexpected?" Ron asked curiously.

Robin now gave me a sympathetic look as it was my turn to become disturbed as he said, "You don't have to say anything, Lily. I know that you don't like to talk about it."

"Okay, I'm officially confused now," Ron said.

"Just stop talking. It's none of your business anyway," Allison said completely surprising me.

Robin must have told her I realized. Either that or she was just that clever to be able to figure it all out for herself.

"What's none of my business? What are you all going on about?" Ron asked in an extremely irritated voice.

I sighed and said, "I couldn't get pregnant. What Rassilon did to me had made me become sterile."

Ron's jaw dropped now as he said, "How do you explain Aishwana then not to mention Rose? They both came after you were changed."

"Aishwana was born through a crazy once in a lifetime potion that I received from the Sisterhood of Karn that gave me a chance to have a child once and only once by strengthening my almost dead eggs to the point where they gained temporary new life. That was another reason I was so devastated when she died because I thought that she was my last chance to have a child. Then there was Rose. Now she was something truly special," I said with a small smile.

"Special in what way? Do you mean that the potion worked for longer than you thought or something?" Ron asked.

"No. Amazingly enough Borusa and I eventually figured out that it was some kind of bizarre after effect of the bomb that I was exposed to in the High Council's meeting chamber. It had temporarily killed me for a brief moment and when I came back it was like my body was reset back to its original factory settings at least as far as having a child went anyway. It was almost like I had started over completely from scratch with an entirely new life cycle. Rose really was a very special case of serendipity in action. She was a very happy accident to me," I said with a huge smile.

Then my smile faded as I remembered what happened next and this caused Aishwana to say with a frown, "He didn't want the baby, did he?"

"No. He didn't care if I had her and raised her myself but he didn't want to admit to being the father. He was just starting his political career in those days you see and he didn't want anyone to find out that he had been dating someone of a different social order not to mention that he was having a child with her. Your social status mattered so much more back then on Gallifrey than it does now. They were so stringent about that sort of thing that they wouldn't even allow aliens on the planet because they weren't even Gallifreyans. It was stupid. I thought so then and now. None of that mattered to me at all but it did to him so I reluctantly told people that I had created Rose from a loom using my own genes. Rose never believed that though. She always knew that it was a lie somehow even before she got her powers," I answered.

"So basically he was a rat even before he lost his mind. So that's when you dumped him then," Allison said with a sage nod of her head.

"Yes, for a while," I said with a small smile.

"A while?! That would have been all that she wrote for me," Allison said in disbelief.

"This was decades later after Rose had graduated from the Academy and become an Ambassador to Mars. Borusa had started to regret cutting Rose out of his life especially after being her teacher for so long and watching her grow up. He convinced me that he had really changed and no longer cared about people finding out the truth about him being her father anymore. We were just about to come clean with Rose at least if no one else when he suddenly started to act mad and become almost a different person overnight. As he slowly became worse and worse, that's when I eventually decided that it would be best if Rose never found out the truth. Who wants to find out that their father is completely mad and absolutely power hungry for the Presidency after all? Maybe I made a mistake though," I said with a deep sigh.

"Only maybe?" Rose's voice said behind me.

The others all exchanged nervous glances now as Robin said, "Maybe we should give them some time alone."

Robin then started to lead the others into another room as Rose looked at me with a strange combination of anger and sympathy. She couldn't help being angry but she also knew that she was upsetting me at the same time and that bothered her.

"Go easy on her, Rose," Allison said as she stood her ground and gave Rose a stern look instead of leaving with the others.

I couldn't help but smile at that. That was just like Ally to stand up to anyone on my behalf even her far more powerful sister.

"I'll try," Rose said with a small smile.

"You'd better. I won't even let you hurt her. Understand me?" Allison said defensively.

"Ally, don't. Rose isn't going to hurt me, and she isn't wrong to be angry. I really can't blame her at all for it," I said.

"Neither can I but that still doesn't mean that I want her to upset you," Allison said as she gave Rose a warning look.

Rose immediately hugged her as she said in a low voice, "Don't worry about it, yeah? I promise I'll go easy on her, alright? I don't exactly want to hurt her either, you know?"

Allison nodded and briefly smiled before she finally reluctantly left the room at last.

"Blimey! I think she'd actually have a go at me if she thought that she had to," Rose said with a brief smile.

"She's very protective of me. She has been ever since we both realized who she was to me," I explained.

"Yeah, she's a lot like Jenny that way. They both spent so long without a family that it really affected them. Jen would probably be doing the same thing as she's doing if one of her brothers or sisters was angry with me over something," Rose admitted.

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

"I know you're sorry, okay? I know that you didn't want to hurt me and that you wanted to tell me so many times but thought that it was best not to do it. I know all about it. I saw the whole thing when I rebooted reality. I saw all of your history in fact. That's my problem, yeah? I always see far too much. Much more than I really want to see," Rose said in a sad tone.

"And yet you still can't help being angry can you?" I said as I put my arms around her.

"No, I can't. I know that it's wrong and that it makes me a major hypocrite after keeping my own secret about my powers from you for so long. I know that but I just can't help it. I deserved to know that he was my dad," Rose said in a voice that slowly had anger seeping back into it once more.

"Yes, you did. I'm so sorry, baby," I said in an emotional voice as I started to cry.

"No, don't. Don't do that. Allison's going to think that I'm in here killing you," Rose said as she started to wipe away the tears from my face with a guilty look on her face.

"I can't help it either, Rose. I've had a lot of pent up sorrow built up inside over keeping this from you for so long," I admitted as I continued to cry.

That was when Rose put her arms around me and held me tightly as she said, "Don't. I don't want you to cry. I never did. I'm just trying to talk this out with you so that I can move past it and get on with my life. I don't want to hurt you. I just don't, okay? I'd never hurt you on purpose."

Rose started to cry too now and I couldn't help but laugh a little as I said, "No one would believe that we're quite as tough as we're supposed to be if they saw the two of us bawling away like a bunch of kids right now would they?"

"No, probably not. Clara would probably have some kind of cute wisecrack right now about the whole thing that she would use to try to cheer us up. Then the Doctor would put his foot in it somehow by saying something completely rude and insensitive. That's when she'd slap him," Rose said with a widening grin.

We both started to laugh together now as I said, "Thanks. I needed that."

"A lot more than you needed this conversation I bet," Rose said with a guilty look.

"These things needed to be said, Rose. This has been coming for a very, very long time now," I admitted.

Rose nodded as she said in a hesitant voice, "Can . . . Can I go and see him on Shada with you?"

"You don't need my permission to do that. You could have already done it by now all by yourself," I said.

"I know but I didn't want to do it behind your back that way. I want us to go together, okay?" Rose asked.

"Fine. Just don't expect much from him. He's too far gone now. He did say that he was sorry that he attacked you the last time that the two of you met though. He truly didn't recognize you because you had changed so much. He seems to still at least have some sort of soft spot for you at least anyway," I said with a brief smile.

"He always did really. I could usually get away with anything in his class. Now I finally understand why," Rose said with a chuckle.

Then she quickly added, "Not that I ever did anything like that of course."

"Of course not, sweetheart. You're not completely like me in that respect at all," I said with a knowing smile.

The two of us embraced in silence for a while and I could actually feel her starting to forgive me even as we did. Somehow this was all helping her far more than she was letting on.

Finally she said, "It isn't just seeing the past that's making me angry."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"I've seen the possible future too and I know that something terrible is coming our way soon, Mum. It's already started really and I'm doing my best to keep it contained as much as possible. I don't know if I can stop this one or not though. This time our enemies are really tricky and clever. So, so clever," Rose admitted with a troubled look.

"It really bothers you seeing as much of the future as you do, doesn't it? It finally takes its toll on you after a while I know. You think that I don't see it but I do all of the time now. It's in the way that you have to force yourself to smile sometimes because you know that something is coming that you can't even tell us about or in the way that you sometimes give some of us guilty glances that you never quite explain. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with that, Rose. It's too much to ask of anyone especially someone with hearts as big as yours," I said in a voice filled with sympathy.

"Sometimes I wish that I didn't have these powers and that I was just an ordinary Time Lady. Then when I use them to help people I can't help but be grateful for them. They're both a blessing and a curse at the same time, yeah? It's funny how that works out," Rose said with a soft smile.

"If you ever need anyone to talk to about what you've seen even if it's just in a very vague way, you can always talk to me," I offered.

"I know. Sometimes when I'm troubled about something talking through it even if I'm not really saying anything at all helps a lot. It works for when I'm angry too," Rose said with a grin.

I nodded with a smile of my own as I said, "So you've finally let it go then?"

"More or less. I'm working on it anyway which is better than nothing I suppose, right?" Rose said with a chuckle.

Then she became completely serious as she said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bothered you like this. I just . . . I just needed to talk about things with you. That always helps me even when it looks like it really doesn't. Am I making any sense whatsoever?"

"Yeah, perfect sense, Rose. You're basically saying that you're never too old to need your Mum," I said with a pleased smile.

"Yeah, I guess I am," Rose said with a sad smile.

"What's coming is really bad, isn't it? It's this Brethren lot isn't it? The attack on Donna and the Bad Wolves was just the beginning, wasn't it?" I guessed.

Rose nodded but said nothing.

Then she began to give me one of her patented enigmatic smiles as she said, "Mum, do you think that we can go see B . . . Dad now?"

"Of course. Why though?" I asked knowing full well that she knew something that I didn't.

"Let's just say that there was one other thing that I changed when I was fixing everything else that I didn't exactly tell you about," Rose said with a wide grin.

I began to laugh with joy as I said, "You didn't?"

"Oh, but I did though," Rose admitted with a wicked smile.

That was when Allison rushed into the room and said, "We just got a communication from Shada. They said that Borusa is suddenly completely sane once again. They have absolutely no idea how it happened. They're planning on releasing him today and want you to come and pick him up, Mum. Dad looked like he was going to have a stroke."

I groaned as I said, "When is he going to get it through his thick skull that I'm not going to dump him for Borusa? I'm really going to have to find some way to bolster his little self-confidence problem later. I'm sure that it'll provide a very fun challenge for both of us."

Both Rose and Allison looked sickened as Allison said, "Please stop right now before I develop any more of a psychological trauma than I already have."

I laughed as I said, "That's not what I meant at all, Ally. Have you been hanging around Jack Harkness again?"

"I don't have to when my mum's already the female version of him," Allison said with a grimace.

"Please. I'm nowhere near that bad," I said with a grin.

"So are we going to Shada now? I have a feeling that we'll need to very soon now," Rose hinted.

I nodded and realized that she was warning me about something without actually doing it as I said, "They're going to attack Borusa next aren't they?"

"Something like that," Rose said with no expression on her face.

Maybe it wasn't Borusa that they were interested in at all. My hearts filled with horror then as I realized in that moment that maybe it was everyone else there that they wanted instead.

They wanted to release all of the worst enemies of the Time Lords at once!

"Now you're getting it," Rose said as she realized what I was thinking from the look on my face.

"How long have you known about this?" I asked.

"I only saw it just now. I only knew about dad wanting to come home before a minute ago. This is completely brand new. Someone must have found out about it and used it as an opportunity to attack the place when they knew that we were going to be there. It's a trap for us, yeah?" Rose admitted.

"We've got to go there as soon as possible then before they can spring it. I just hope that you can actually spend some quality time with your dad while you're fighting for your life, Rose," I said with a sigh.

"When else do I ever get any kind of quality time with anyone, Mum?" Rose said with a chuckle.

I wasn't fooled by her attempt at humor though for a moment. She was extremely worried this time, and I really couldn't blame her. Some of her worst enemies were there after all, and she might just have to wind up taking them all on at once.

I guess it was a good thing that she was bringing me along too wasn't it?

Next: It's up to Lily, Rose, and the others to stop an attempted jail break on a massive scale before some of the worst criminals in the universe can escape. Do they even have a hope of preventing it in time? Plus Rose talks to Borusa for the first time as her dad. How will he feel about the fact that she knows who he is to her now? Will this be the beginning of a brand new relationship for both of them at last? That's always assuming that they survive the attack on Shada of course.