CHAPTER 94
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A GATHERING OF EVIL
"Uh, doesn't anyone else think that we should just hurry up and get out of here in the TARDIS before it's too late?" Ron asked in a nervous voice as he warily eyed the steadily growing group of inmates that were slowly gathering around the Avatar.
"No, we can't do that, Ronnie. They'll get out of here within minutes if we do, and then we'll probably never be able to recapture them all. This little jailbreak of theirs has to be stopped right here and now before it's too late," I said in a determined voice.
"People escape from Shada on a weekly basis anyway though so what's the point?" Ron asked.
"Oh, it's not as bad as all that, Ronnie. It's only every other week," I joked.
"Oi! What's wrong with him anyway? He usually doesn't complain this much, yeah?" Rose asked.
"I have absolutely no idea. Rose is right, Ron. What's the deal here? If you hadn't wanted to come along with me and Dad, you should have just said so. No one made you go," Allison complained.
"Well, I thought we were just rescuing Mum, Rose, and maybe Rose's father from the middle of a prison break. I didn't know we'd have to go up against Tall, Pale, and Extremely Ugly here again too. He almost wiped us all out the last time that we met in case you've forgotten, Ally," Ron said in a nervous voice.
He immediately looked away from me with a guilty look, but he really didn't have anything to feel guilty about whatsoever in my look. I knew exactly why he didn't want to be there at that moment and I completely understood.
Oddly enough so did the Avatar.
"I wouldn't judge him so harshly if I were you, Sister. Perhaps he wishes to leave because he's the only one among you to still possess even a modicum of common sense. Or perhaps he's worried about leaving his new little girl without a father, hmm?" The Avatar said with an evil smirk.
Ron looked at him in absolute terror now as the Avatar laughed and said, "That's right. I know all about her. I've been keeping up with everything that's changed in Mother's life since the Brethren brought me back again. You left your darling child behind on Gallifrey with your precious Isabella and my Aunt Freya, didn't you? Maybe once I'm finished here I'll pay them a little visit and give them the bad news about your premature death in person."
A white hot look of fury immediately spread across Ron's face as he said in a cold voice, "You're right, Mum. We can't take any chances with any of this lot especially him. Spread his atoms all over the landscape."
"Don't lose your head, Ronnie. That's exactly what he wants you to do. He wants you to rush forward and be the first one to attack. He knows the others are much too afraid of me to make the first move themselves even gathered together in a large group like this," I said with a smirk.
The Avatar smiled at me evilly even as I said this because that reaction from Ron was exactly what he had wanted to happen. Why though I wondered. Somehow I didn't think that it was just to spur his new groupies into action. No, there was definitely something more behind all of this even if I didn't know exactly what just yet.
"I think it's more Rose that they're afraid of than you, Mum. Most of them have probably never even heard of you," Allison said as she rolled her eyes at me.
"You just had to rub it in didn't you, Ally? There I was trying to give myself a much needed ego boost, and you just had to take all of the fun out of it. I've really got to go to work on raising my image among the scum of the universe sometime so that I can scare the caca out of them too whenever I drop by to say hello. Why should Rose have all of the fun?" I said with a fake pout.
"Is this her way of trying to relieve the tension among her family?" Borusa asked Rose with a confused look on his face.
"More like she's trying to make the prisoners here think that she's completely mad so that they'll underestimate her. She does that," Rose said with a grin.
"Mission accomplished then," Allison said to Rose who immediately started laughing as I gave them both the evil eye.
"Ah, I see. I wondered why she was acting that way. She always appeared to be completely normal back when I knew her. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was something that I did," Borusa said to Rose with a guilty look.
Robin immediately began to look incredibly jealous once more, and I could tell that he was actually beginning to wonder if that was true or not. I definitely had to squash that idea as quickly as possible.
"Are you trying to say that you think breaking up with you drove me mad, Borusa? Is that really what you think? Ha! I'll have you know that I was mad long before I ever met you. I just hid it much better back in those days because I had a daughter that I had to raise. All by myself too I might add. Now I simply don't care who knows about it anymore. It sounds like someone has to learn how to get over themselves. And here I thought the Doctor had the universe's biggest ego," I said with a chuckle as I gave Robin a reassuring smile.
Even as Robin started to look relieved once more, Rose immediately gave me a warning look because Borusa looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock at that moment. She had only just gotten back together with her father after all.
I simply couldn't help myself though. I wanted him to know in no uncertain terms exactly how I felt about what he did to me. I might have moved past most of those bad feelings towards him a long time ago, but I certainly never forgot about being completely abandoned like I was. He couldn't blame it all on Kali either because he had refused to acknowledge Rose long before he ever met her. That was ultimately all on his own head, and he knew it too judging by the shamed look on his face.
I thought it at least deserved some kind of mention if only to reassure Robin that there was absolutely no danger of me ever wanting to revisit that disastrous relationship again whatsoever.
"Are we going to have a fight or what? Anything's better than listening to Crazy Lady over there talk for another hour about her love life," One of the prisoners said in an impatient voice.
"How rude," I said in an indignant tone before smiling evilly.
"Yes, I'd like to be long gone before the High Council finds out what's happening here. They're slow but not that slow," Another inmate said with worry.
"Well, let's just rush forward without any semblance of a plan whatsoever and get instantly mowed down then. Yes, I like that idea so much better. Tell you what. Why don't you go first and I'll watch? If you survive longer than two seconds, then I'll join in too. Deal?" The familiar voice of the Monk said from somewhere behind them.
As the two inmates shuddered in fear, it instantly made me feel extremely good about myself despite the fact that they were looking at Rose. They could have been afraid of me too after all.
What? It could happen.
I couldn't help but wonder just why the Monk was so reluctant to have his fellow prisoners fight with us though. Any other time he'd be more than willing to have anyone that was willing take a shot at wiping me out.
What was going on here?
"Why did he have to be here?" Allison said in a disturbed voice as she looked at the Monk with a troubled expression.
I could instantly tell from the traumatized look on her face that she was currently reliving the exact moment when he had almost killed her once. That had been one of the reasons why I had gone into my crazy Lily routine almost as soon as she had arrived. I hadn't wanted to give her time to think about him possibly being there among the crowd that had gathered to fight us.
Thanks a lot for letting her know that you were there anyway by opening your big mouth, Mortimus. I can always count on you to help me out.
Just like the time that you killed me as a matter of fact. To be honest, I haven't actually felt completely like myself since then and I'm not just talking about the fact that I regenerated either.
That version of me was the one that found Rose again after spending far too long without her and grew to know her as a friend as well as a daughter. I wasn't anywhere near ready to lose that part of me just yet and certainly not so soon either.
You're not about to take anything else away from me and certainly not my Allison.
"Don't worry. He's not going to get anywhere near you this time, Allison. I can promise you that. In fact, none of them are going a single step further," I said to her in a reassuring tone.
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that, Mother. Surely you didn't think that the only thing that's been holding me back all of this time was the irrational fears of this bunch of second-rate mental incompetents did you? Oh, no. I was merely stalling for time until I could finish carrying out my true plan. And now I'm finally ready at long last," The Avatar said with a malevolent smile.
"Ready for what? Exactly what is this plan of yours anyway?" One of the inmates asked.
"Why your complete and total mental and physical subjugation of course. You see I've been using my power to slowly alter every single cell in your bodies the entire time that I've been standing here. Think of me as being like an airborne virus that's been gradually contaminating you this entire time and secretly replacing each and every bit of you without you even realizing it. Now all I have to do is finish the process and then . . . oh, and then my friends, you will begin your final apotheosis. Or at least I will anyway because you will all become . . . me!" The Avatar said as he began to laugh maniacally.
I watched in horror now as every single one of the prisoners surrounding the Avatar began to start slowly changing into exact duplicates of him. They all began to scream in unison in what must have been indescribable agony as each and every cell in their bodies was radically changed.
All of them did but one that is. I noticed almost immediately that the Monk was completely unaffected by all of this and in fact was smiling right in the middle of all of the heart wrenching screams around him.
Why was I not surprised in the slightest by that little revelation?
"Mum, does that mean that we've been infected? Will we start changing too?" Allison said in horror.
It was the Avatar who answered her as he said, "All of you will, Sister. You're further away from me so it will just take a little longer. Rest assured though that soon each and every person on this entire planet will become me and as such will be extensions of my will. That is when we will become a telepathic gestalt and through you and thousands more like you all adding your willpower to mine, I/We will then become a god!"
"And what do you get out of all of this, Mortimus?" I asked as I watched the Monk's smile continue to grow ever wider by the moment despite the truly horrific scene that was currently unfolding next to him.
"Besides the utter irony of seeing you become an unwilling mindless servant to the son of your oldest and greatest enemy and freedom from this nightmarish place you mean? Why I get what I always wanted from the start of course. I will get to help Erebus and the Brethren decide the future course of this reality. You see once Erebus is finally freed from his imprisonment in the Void he will completely change the entire Web of Time to suit his own desires just like he wanted to so very long ago, and I'll be right there alongside him to offer my own suggestions about what he should do based on my own experiences altering timelines. He actually wants my expertise in that area, and we'll explore each and every possibility of history together until we create the perfect universe. On that day, my greatest dream will finally come true at last!" The Monk said in a voice filled with joy.
"Actually they won't be requiring your services any longer I'm afraid," The Avatar said with a malevolent grin.
"What?" The Monk said in a shocked voice.
The Avatar laughed as he said, "Idiot! Do you really think that someone who has seen as much of time unfold before him as Erebus has really needs your help to decide how best to restructure the universe? You were never anything more than the bait that we needed to keep Mother here so that she wouldn't leave in the TARDIS before I had time to start corrupting both her and Rose's genetic structure. She never wanted you to be able to escape again after all so I was sure that alone would keep her from leaving, and I made sure of it by threatening Ron's family as well. Now that your usefulness is done however, I'm afraid that you're no better off than any of the others. Now it's time for you too to join the ever expanding legions of me as well."
"No!" The Monk shouted in anger as he too started to transform now.
"You wanted to see the look on his face after you explained that to him first before you started, didn't you? You're just as sick as you always were," I said to the Avatar in disgust.
"Why should you care? You hated him, Mother, for what he did to you and Allison. I know you did. I could tell by the look on your face when you first saw him," The Avatar said.
I shook my head as I said, "Yes, he wasn't one of my favorite people by any means but I never wanted this to happen to him . . . or to me either for that matter."
"Interesting. Even at the end you still hold onto your principles. I may never fully understand you, Mother, but I must admit to having a sense of grudging respect for you for never changing who you are no matter what. Too bad that won't be enough to save you from me though," The Avatar said with an almost regretful look.
"Mum, I – I feel different," Allison said in a frightened voice.
"So do I. He's in my head, Mum. I can feel him in my head!" Ron shouted in a panicked voice.
"It's all going to be alright. You know that your mother will save the day somehow. She always does. You just have to believe in her . . . just like I do," Robin said as he tried to comfort the two of them despite what I could see were plenty of unspoken fears in his own eyes.
"You see? It's already too late now for all of you, Mother. Soon you will all join my legions as well," The Avatar said.
"Izzy, I'm so sorry," Ron said in a mournful tone that completely tore both of my hearts apart.
I watched with growing revulsion now as the prisoners of Shada including the Monk continued to make their gruesome transformation right before my eyes even as I knew that I and my family would soon be joining them. And the worst thing about it was that Robin was wrong. This time I had no idea at all what to do. There was absolutely nothing that I could do about any of this.
Well, almost nothing.
"And how do you expect to leave this place I wonder without a TARDIS?" I asked.
Then before anyone could stop me, I immediately used my TARDIS remote to send my TARDIS back to Gallifrey as quickly as I could. After it had vanished, I instantly destroyed the remote with a burst of regenerative energy from my hand.
"That will only prove to be a temporary delay at best, Mother. Eventually the Time Lords will send someone to investigate what happened here, and then I/We will still escape anyway. Now do you finally see at last, Mother? There's nothing even you can do to stop me this time. Lord Erebus' idea for this new use of my powers was far too brilliant for anyone to overcome," The Avatar said with a smug grin.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, mate," Rose said in an impossibly chipper voice.
That was when I realized something that I had been much too upset to notice before. Rose was smiling.
I also noticed something else now. I didn't feel strange at all. Not in the slightest and I hadn't the entire time. I had been much too worried about Allison and Ron to even realize this until now though.
"What are you up to?" I said to Rose with a warm smile as I began to suddenly feel a sense of renewed hope now for the first time.
"Don't look to her to save you, Mother, because she can't. Not this time. This time even the Wolf must fall before me since there was no way that she could have even known what I was up to until it was far too late to reverse it," The Avatar said with a sense of absolute surety.
"You're absolutely right unless, of course, your power couldn't affect me in the first place, yeah? Or did your boss never stop to think about that I wonder?" Rose asked without the smile once leaving her face.
I began to laugh now as I said, "Oh, I love it. This is just so you, isn't it?"
"Mum, I actually feel better now. I'm starting to feel more like me again. Are you doing that, Rose?" Allison asked in surprise.
"She must be because I'm feeling much better too. I'd actually given up hope for the first time ever on one of my travels with Mum for a few minutes there. I really thought that I'd never see Izzy and the baby again. Thank you, Rose. Thank you so much," Ron admitted in an emotional voice.
Rose nodded as she said, "Sorry about the wait, guys. It took me a while to understand how to undo what he was doing. I had to start with Mum first because I definitely didn't want him to gain her power. Even I wouldn't want to fight that."
"Smart girl," I said with a grin.
Then my grin widened even deeper as I realized that we weren't the only ones that Rose was helping. The prisoners, including the Monk, were now all slowly changing back to normal as well. That was definitely a close call for them since most of them had been almost completely transformed a moment ago.
"This isn't possible. How can you be doing this? You should have been affected too. Even Mother was at first. I could feel it working. I was in her head and she didn't even realize it. Maybe if I try harder. If I really stretch my power to its very limits," The Avatar said in disbelief as he looked at Rose with a deep look of concentration on his face.
"Go right ahead then. Give it your best shot," Rose said with no look of concern whatsoever.
"I – I can't fail. That's what I was sent here for was to convert you into me and completely get you out of the Brethren's way. It must work or they'll destroy me. It should work. I don't understand why it isn't unless you have complete and absolute control over your body at a subatomic level. Such a thing is absolutely impossible though even for a Time Lord," The Avatar said as he continued to try his best to alter Rose's body.
"Never said I was an ordinary Time Lord though, did I?" Rose replied with a smirk.
"I don't think anyone could ever accuse you of being ordinary in any way, Rose. Not that that's a bad thing," I said with a chuckle.
I could feel it now. We were actually going to make it after all. I didn't know how but Rose had come through for me yet again just as I needed her most.
Somehow she always did whenever the chips were down. That should be no surprise though. Long before I had ever heard the term applied to Clara I had always thought of Rose as my Impossible Girl after all.
Quite frankly it was impossible that she even existed at all since I was supposed to have been completely sterile and then somehow thanks to an amazing accident I wasn't. If that's not impossible, I don't know what is.
"What are you?" I suddenly heard the Avatar say in horror just as I thought this.
Rose said nothing but I could definitely see a troubled look come over her face at that moment.
"I can't affect you no matter how hard I try. I've even tried to reach across time to corrupt you as an infant long before you ever had any power but I can't touch you even then. What are you?!" The Avatar screeched in frustration.
Rose's smile had completely faded by this point. She looked extremely upset now but she still said nothing. I wondered if she had any more idea of what he was talking about than I did because I definitely had no clue.
"What do you mean what is she? She's my daughter," I said defensively.
The Avatar shook his head now with a frightened look in his eyes as he said, "No, that can't be all that she is. I've never seen such power before from any Time Lord or even a Guardian. It's almost as if . . . she had complete control over not only her genetic and atomic structure but also her entire timestream as well from beginning to end. That's impossible though. It's impossible! Nothing I do to her seems to affect her in the slightest. Nothing!"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I think you've finally completely lost your marbles at last, and your grip on reality was never too great to start with to be honest," I said in an angry voice because I was really starting to get tired of this.
"You don't understand, Mother. I can see the circumstances of her birth, and they don't make sense. She should have never been born. You were completely sterile," The Avatar said.
"There was a freak accident that occurred that made me capable of having kids again. It was a one in a billion occurrence that just happened to work out for me somehow, and I'm so glad that it did," I said with a smile even as I continued to worry about how truly upset that Rose looked now.
"Hasn't it ever occurred to you just how odd it is that you haven't had any children since then despite being back with Robin for years now?" The Avatar said in a frightened voice as he slowly backed away from a now visibly shaken Rose.
"So what? I had already had Ally and Aishy so I probably wasn't likely to become pregnant again in the first place after having already had three children," I said as I wondered just what in the world that he was getting at.
"You don't understand. It's almost as if . . . Time itself was specifically altered just so that she could be born. No wonder I couldn't stop her. I see now exactly why Erebus fears her so. What is she?" The Avatar asked in a small, scared voice as he continued to look at Rose in absolute terror.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up and leave me alone!" Rose screamed as she finally completely lost control at last.
She began to glow with so much power now that she was lit up like a small sun. There were several screams of terror from the inmates of Shada now as they all fled in terror before her. I could tell that they were convinced that she had gone absolutely mad in that moment.
She wasn't mad though just very, very scared.
"Rose, calm down. It's going to be alright, okay? Just calm down," I said in a gentle voice as I slowly started to approach her.
"Mum, don't!" Allison warned.
"She won't hurt me. She could never do that," I reassured her as I continued to move forward.
"Lily, be careful. She may not intend to hurt you but she could easily do so in her current state," Robin said.
"Listen to him, Mum," Ron said in a worried voice.
I completely ignored them though. All that I knew in that moment was that Rose needed me. That was all that I needed to know.
The Avatar meanwhile continued to back away from Rose in terror as he shouted, "Stay away from me!"
"It was all a lie. Admit it. It was nothing but a lie. Tell them it was a lie!" Rose demanded.
"Who are you? Erebus, who is she?" The Avatar called out in an uncertain voice that sounded just as scared and lost as Rose herself did in that moment.
Apparently Erebus didn't answer because the Avatar's eyes grew wider and wider by the moment the closer that Rose got to him. Then just before she would have gotten within arm's reach of him, he instantly teleported away.
That was when I heard a sound of anguish like I'd never heard come out of Rose's mouth before as she unleashed a massive burst of energy that completely shook the entire planet to its core. I was truly terrified now. Not terrified of her but for her.
I was so scared that she was going to wind up hurting herself somehow if I couldn't calm her down in time. At the moment I couldn't even reach her though thanks to the massive earthquakes that she was creating.
Luckily for her, I didn't have to as it turned out.
As if he had suddenly come out of nowhere, Borusa was suddenly at her side with his arms wrapped around her as he said, "Rose, it's going to be alright. Do you hear me? It's okay. It doesn't matter how you were born or why. All that matters is that you're here now and that you're loved. Your mother loves you, your husband and children love you, and I love you. I always have even if I wasn't smart enough to always show it to you."
The glow around Rose instantly began to fade now and she eagerly returned his embrace as she said, "I love you too, Dad."
I couldn't help but smile as I saw that Borusa had finally stepped up and started acting like a father at last. It was about time.
I smiled even more as soon as I realized that Borusa was completely uninjured.
"Told you she'd never hurt the people she loves," I said to the others in a proud voice.
"I could have though. I so easily could have," Rose said in a scared voice as she quickly checked Borusa to make sure that he was okay.
"No, you couldn't," I said in a voice filled with faith.
"Why did you do that? What if I had hurt you?" Rose asked Borusa.
"I was willing to take that chance, Rose, because I'd rather brave any risk to myself no matter how dangerous it might be in order to keep you from hurting yourself. I've stood by when you needed me far too much now and I'll never do it again. Never," Borusa promised.
Rose smiled and hugged him tightly in gratitude. I could instantly see her drawing strength from him as she began to act more like herself once again.
It was in that moment that I finally completely let go of all of my anger towards him. I would never again feel the same way that I felt for him so very long ago, but now I could at least say that I no longer resented him in any way. In fact, maybe just maybe we could actually wind up as friends someday.
That was a matter for another time though. Right now I was much more worried about Rose.
Just what had the Avatar been talking about and what if anything did Rose know about it? I had to find out if only so that I could make sure that Rose never reacted like that again.
How though?
I was still thinking about that when I heard Commander Maxil suddenly shout out from somewhere nearby, "I can't believe it. None of the prisoners have left their cells? I thought you said that there was a prison break, guard. Well? Speak up! You're the only one here who can possibly tell us since the rest of us were automatically locked out of this area when the alarm went off, and the whole place went into lockdown. While we're at it, you could also tell me about what caused that earthquake. That certainly wasn't normal."
"I – I thought that there was a break, sir. Then again I may have been hallucinating because I could swear that I died," A nervous voice answered.
"Nonsense, man! Maybe I should put you on a temporary leave of absence so that you can regain your senses," Maxil said in an irritated tone.
"Maybe you had better, Sir. I think I definitely must need one," The same voice said.
Borusa visibly stiffened as he said, "That's the guard that the Avatar killed. I watched him die. How . . . ?!"
"How do you think?" I said as I looked at Rose.
Rose only smiled and winked at her father in response.
"Why am I not surprised to see you here when there's trouble, Lady Persephone? And of course, Lady Arkytior is here as well. All the usual suspects have been gathered together I see. Where is the Doctor? I would have sworn that he would have been involved in this somehow," Maxil said with a smirk.
"Nope, he missed out on this one I'm afraid. It's not like we really needed him though. I usually get along just fine without him as a matter of fact," I said with a grin.
"As do I, Lady Persephone. At the moment I wish he was here for once though if only so that I could have someone to blame for all of this. Do any of you know what happened here? All of the security cameras went down, there were massive planet wide earthquakes that somehow managed not to harm anyone, the prisoners are absolutely terrified and refuse to speak to us about anything, and Mortimus is sitting in the corner of his cell in a completely catatonic state. Would you care to explain any of that to me?" Maxil asked.
I shrugged as I said, "I have absolutely no idea, Maxey. I'm just here to take Borusa back to Gallifrey with me like I was supposed to do. For once, I have absolutely nothing to do with anything whatsoever. I'm completely one hundred percent innocent."
Allison struggled to repress a laugh as Maxil looked at me in horror and said in an indignant tone, "Maxey? I don't know what's worse, Lady Persephone, your inane nickname for me or your obvious attempt to cover something up. As it seems as though I can't prove that anything actually happened other than some kind of false alarm going off that was possibly caused by the coming earthquake however, I suppose I'll have to take you at your word this time. A pity really."
"Yes, it is, isn't it? Well, if you'd kindly let us by I'd like to arrange for a TARDIS to pick us all up. The sooner that we're out of here the better I think," I said.
"I couldn't agree more, Madam. I couldn't agree more," Maxil said with an extremely relieved look on his face.
Next: How exactly is Lily going to find out more about the exact circumstances of Rose's birth? And what will she discover? The answer to that might just shock everyone . . . even Rose!