CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe; and River Song, the Shadow, and the Black Guardian come from the present day of that universe from just before the last couple of chapters of War of the Guardians.

Mary Wilkes just kept looking at her future unnamed daughter in amazement. She couldn't believe that she was real. She hadn't even met the father yet, and here was her child already full grown. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. She started to shake as it all hit her at once.

"It's okay, mum. I know it's a little too much to take. That's why I didn't want to tell you. That's one of the reasons why you're not supposed to know about your own future," Mary's daughter said as she lightly stroked her mother's hair to calm her down.

"The other is because you might accidentally change it or even worse intentionally change it," the Doctor said as he walked up to his future granddaughter.

"I know I shouldn't be here, grandfather, but I couldn't let my great grandmother die. She's supposed to live. She told me about someone from her future coming back in time to save her from dying, some mysterious woman who then made her younger again. She told me about that all of my life. I never knew that it was me though. Not until today. She never told me who it was. She just said that it was some woman from the future who never even said her name," Mary's daughter explained.

"How did you know to come here then?" the Doctor asked, surprised at her answer.

"I didn't. A crack in time suddenly appeared in front of me, and I was sucked into it. It was so strong that I couldn't get back out of it even with my powers. It's good that I didn't anyway because it brought me straight here. Once I got here, I knew what I had to do. I finally realized then that the woman who had saved my great grandmother was me!" Mary's daughter said with a large smile.

"A crack in time?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"Yes. It seems like it was the Web of Time fixing things the way that they were supposed to be to me," Mary's daughter said.

"Or someone was manipulating the Web of Time for their own ends," the Doctor mused.

"What are you saying, Professor? That Polly being saved was a bad thing? That it'll cause the universe to be destroyed or something? I don't buy it. If someone did save Polly by bringing that girl here then what possible harm could it do? Polly's a good person, and I don't think that adding more years to her life could ever be a bad thing," Ace protested.

"Normally I would completely agree with you, Ace. It's just that I'm very wary about anything that messes around with time like this," the Doctor said.

"The Shadow was messing around with time too though, wasn't he? If he had gotten his way, then I would be dead right now. If that happened, then my daughter would never have even been born. Why didn't he want her to be born?" Mary asked.

"The Shadow?" Mary's daughter said as if she knew something that she shouldn't say.

"What do you know?" Mary asked her.

"I can't tell you. I shouldn't even be here," Mary's daughter said.

"She's already said that she never even told us her name. She said that I told her that in the future. She can't tell us anything that she knows, Mary," Polly said as she stood next to Mary and her unnamed great-granddaughter.

"I would like to know why all of this happened. Why was I almost killed? Why wasn't I supposed to get married and have a daughter?" Mary asked furious.

"You were supposed to. That much is obvious. The Shadow was trying to change history so that your daughter wasn't around in the future. She must prevent something terrible from happening. That's usually how the Shadow and the Black Guardian work. They try to create chaos and destruction in the universe, and the more of it the better," River explained.

Mary's daughter smiled as though River had gotten it right even though she still said nothing.

"We shouldn't talk about this anymore. What little we have learned could have already damaged the timestream," the Doctor warned.

"Don't worry, Doctor. The timestream remains unaffected. Until now that is," the Shadow said as he suddenly returned in a burst of dark energy.

"How did I know that was going to happen?" River said as she rolled her eyes.

"Scumbags like that never go down for the count, that's why," Ace said.

"It's over, Shadow. You've lost. Mary was saved, and Harmony is no longer under your control. You might as well give up and leave," the Doctor said.

"It's not that easy, Doctor. It never is," the Shadow said as he moved closer to them.

"That's what I always say, but he never listens to me either," River quipped.

"This isn't the time, Harmony," the Doctor said as he glared back at her.

"Harmony? Is that what she told you her name is? You have quite a sense of humor, Professor. Let's see if you can keep it when I'm through with you," the Shadow said as he drew closer to River.

"Your little password to my mind is not going to work this time. I was unprepared for it before, but now I am. It won't affect me at all anymore no matter how many times you say it," River insisted.

"Oh, I agree with you. So maybe I should try a different tactic this time," the Shadow said with a dark undertone to his voice.

"Reveal yourself to us at last, my master," the Shadow said.

Mary's daughter began to scream, and then the energy surrounding her became darker and darker as a black hood and cloak suddenly appeared around her. The Black Guardian had taken her for his new body. The Shadow and the Guardian began to laugh in unison as their real plan was finally revealed before everyone.

"You see, Doctor, we had a back-up plan in case we failed. We decided that if we couldn't kill Mary Wilkes and prevent this woman from being born that we'd do the next best thing. We knew that she would come here to save Polly if events proceeded as they were supposed to. Once she arrived here, my master would then take her by surprise and take complete control over her. Now all of the things that she is supposed to do in the future will never happen because she will no longer be there to do them. Also my master has a brand new supremely powerful body in which to kill all of you with!" the Shadow explained with glee in his voice.

"You can't do this. You'll be changing time on a grand scale. You're obviously from the future so all of this has already happened for you. That makes all of this a fixed point in time. Killing any of us will cause untold damage to time. It may make it unravel entirely. You're not supposed to be here at all because we're not relative to you in the causal nexus. You could cause the destruction of everything if you continue on this course," the Doctor protested.

"Oh, no. You misunderstand our motives entirely. We're not interested in killing any of you directly. We're going to take my master's new body and go forward to our time with it. We will use this supremely powerful body to finally kill our greatest enemy once and for all!" the Shadow boasted.

"That would create a major paradox. If you kill who I think that you're going to kill, then your new body will no longer even have existed because her father will never have been born if I'm guessing his identity correctly," River said.

"Exactly. This entire universe will then be destroyed and erased. I will survive though because I am a higher being of pure consciousness. Then I will remake the universe in my own image, and no one will be around to stop me this time," the Black Guardian said with an evil, mocking laugh.

"You can't do this. You can't be sure that even you will survive the destruction of everything. It's too risky," the Doctor said.

"It's too late, Time Lord. Say goodbye to everything that you have ever loved. It will soon no longer have even existed. It won't even be a memory once I have finished," the Black Guardian said as he began to glow with power.

The Doctor didn't have much time left to act. Once the Black Guardian left and went forward into the future, then it would all be over with.

"That's the easy way though, isn't it? Isn't that just like you? It just shows that you have to result to dirty tricks to beat me because you can't do it any other way. I'm just too smart for you," the Doctor said smugly.

"I would say that it is I who is the most intelligent, Doctor. You and your friends defeated us twice, and yet I am the one who will still be standing at the end," the Black Guardian said.

"You've only won because you had to resort to breaking the rules. You cheated, Guardian! That's the only way that you could win is to cheat. You would never have a chance otherwise. You're just a miserable, pathetic loser. You and your wrinkled up little friend over there are both losers. I've always beaten both of you in the past, and you've been defeated here. So what do you do? You react like all sore losers, and you change the rules so that you and only you can win. Just like a child would!" the Doctor said with his voice filled with anger and conviction.

The Black Guardian was furious now. He had had quite enough of this meddling Time Lord. He was going to finish him off once and for all.

"Maybe I'll just create the paradox right here and now. If I kill you, the same thing happens. It's not as sweet as killing my original target, but right now I don't really care. You've just nominated yourself as the means by which I will achieve my final victory," the Black Guardian said.

"Like I said, you're just cheating. Now you have to resort to killing me to shut me up because you don't want to hear the truth. You're just a loser who has to change the rules in order to win, Guardian. You'd never beat me in a fair fight," the Doctor challenged him.

"Let's see then, Doctor. Let's just see. You pick the battle, and I'll win it. I'll beat you at your own game once and for all," the Guardian said as he responded to the Doctor's challenge at last.

"Master, he's just trying to get you to make a mistake. Don't listen to him," the Shadow warned.

"No, I want to do this. I want to show this petty little man once and for all that I was better than him. As he faces oblivion, I want him to know that I am his superior. I want him to die with the knowledge that I have beaten him at last," the Guardian insisted.

"Come on then. I'm waiting," the Doctor said.

"What is your game, Doctor? Give me a challenge, and I will beat you in it," the Guardian said.

"Well, I was thinking about maybe we could play a game of poker. How about it? Do you think that you could beat me at a simple card game without cheating? If you can beat me fair and square at poker, then I'll let you go ahead and do whatever you want. I won't even try to stop you," the Doctor said.

"A card game?! You're betting the entire universe on a card game?" the Guardian asked in disbelief.

"That's my game. Take it or leave it," the Doctor said.

"I'll accept your challenge, Doctor. Once I beat you, then I'll go ahead and go through with my original plan. Then I'll destroy all of you anyway," the Guardian said confidently.

"What if I win?" the Doctor asked.

"Name your prize," the Guardian said smugly. He was already assured of his own victory, so he was unworried about whatever the Doctor might demand.

"If I win, I want you to leave that girl's body; and then go back to the time that you came from and stop trying to undermine the future by altering the past," the Doctor said firmly.

"Very well, Doctor. I agree to your conditions. Let's play then. I ask for someone else to deal the cards. Someone who isn't you," the Guardian said.

"Agreed. How about you, Harmony? I bet you know a thing or two about card games," the Doctor said with a smile.

"I might have picked up a few things here or there," River said enigmatically.

"Check the deck to make sure that it hasn't been marked. He must be planning to cheat himself in some way," the Shadow insisted.

"Why do cheaters always think that everyone else is a cheater too just because they are?" the Doctor said as he shook his head.

The Doctor produced a card deck from his pocket and let both the Guardian and his servant check it for themselves. When they both nodded their approval, the Doctor took the deck and gave it to River.

"You've had some crazy ideas before, but this one takes the cake," River said with a huge grin on her face.

"If you're so worried about me cheating, then why don't you play my companion then? Or are you afraid of being beaten at poker by a teenage girl?" the Doctor asked with a sneer.

"I can beat him easily, Professor. I bet I'm much better at playing cards than you are anyway," Ace said confidently.

"I would be willing to do that. I can beat either one of you. It doesn't matter to me which one of you it is," the Guardian said.

"Are you sure, Ace? The fate of all of time and space relies upon this," the Doctor said with a serious face.

"I'm sure, Professor. I can beat anyone at card games. I'm an expert at them," Ace said confidently.

"Why am I not surprised?" the Doctor said with a small smile.

"When your name is Ace, you kind of have to be good at cards. It's practically expected of you," Ace explained.

"Let's start the game. I'm anxious to be on my way," the Guardian said impatiently.

"Pretty cocky, aren't you?" Ace said.

"I have no worries about being able to outplay a little girl like you," the Guardian said with a superior attitude.

"Oi! Who are you calling a girl?!" Ace said with great offense in her voice.

"Ace! Just play the game. Once you beat him, you can argue with him all that you want then," the Doctor said impatiently.

River began to deal the deck to both of the players while Polly whispered to the Doctor, "Surely you have something more up your sleeve then this, don't you?"

"Trust me, Polly," the Doctor whispered back.

Polly tried to smile at him, but her face showed more worry than optimism in it.

Each of the players was handed some poker chips that the Doctor just happened to have in his pocket. Both of them had chips that were equal to the amount of a thousand pounds if they had actually been worth anything.

"Okay, here are the rules. The first one to win all of the chips wins everything. Each hand is worth 10 pounds so the game should go pretty smoothly but not end too quickly. Do both of you agree to this?" the Doctor asked.

Both of them nodded, and then they began to play. Ace quickly lost the first couple of hands, and the Guardian laughed.

"It seems that you chose the wrong champion, Doctor," the Guardian said.

"Why don't you let me play? I'm pretty good at poker," Alex said.

"Oi! I'm doing just fine. You stay out of it," Ace said.

"Sure you are. You've only lost every hand so far," Alex said sarcastically.

"I'm just warming up, that's all," Ace said.

"Right," Alex said as he rolled his eyes.

"Professor, shut him up; or I'm going to be stuffing these cards down his throat," Ace threatened.

"Alex, leave her alone," Mary commanded her younger brother in a forceful tone.

Alex grumbled under his breath but didn't say anything more to Ace after that.

"I like you already, Mary," River said with a grin.

"You would have liked her mother too. She always did get her father told whenever he did something that she didn't like," Polly said with a giggle.

"Grandma!" Mary said in an angry voice.

"I think you're going to have to start calling her something else. She looks more like your older sister now, dear," River joked.

"Could all of you please stop talking right now? I'm trying to concentrate on the game," Ace complained.

"Yes, do stop. She seems to need all of the concentration that she can get," the Guardian taunted.

"I'm going to have to remember to put some Nitro-9 down your pants when I win," Ace said with a hiss.

Even with the silence, Ace still continued to lose hand after hand. Finally, Ace was down to her last ten pounds. This next hand was going to be the most important one. Everything could be lost depending on what happened in the next few moments.

Ace finally started to win just when she needed to the most. Ace won the crucial hand and gave more time to herself and all of creation as well. Then she started to slowly win all of her money back a little bit at a time. Sometimes she would still lose, but more than half of the time now she would win. Despite her previous losses, she soon had 500 pounds of it earned back. That was when she proposed a very daring deal.

"I propose an all or nothing deal. If I win this next hand, I win everything. If you win, I lose everything," Ace said.

"Ace, are you sure?" the Doctor said with a worried look.

"Yeah, Professor. I can do this!" Ace said confidently.

The Doctor nodded and said nothing else. The Guardian laughed and said, "I agree to your deal, girl. It will make my victory come all the more quickly."

River dealt them their last cards, and then both of them looked at their final hands. Ace seemed to look disappointed, and this made the Guardian start to laugh even more. He was sure that he had finally won.

"I've won! Show me your hand and make it official," the Guardian commanded.

The Doctor and Polly exchanged worried glances as Ace slowly started to turn her hand over. Ace turned the hand over to reveal that she had four aces!

"No!" the Guardian screamed.

"Now, where's that Nitro-9? I owe you a good explosion," Ace said as she had a very huge grin plastered all over her face.

"It's over, Guardian. Time for you to go," the Doctor said with a triumphant grin on his face.

"I would rather crush my real enemy at the hands of one of her trusted friends anyway. You haven't defeated me, Doctor. You've just delayed the inevitable," the Black Guardian said.

The Black Guardian glared at the Doctor one final time. Then he upheld his side of the bargain, and both he and the Shadow vanished. They both went back to the future where they would soon face off against Rose Tyler in a battle to the death. Hers.

The Doctor hoped that whatever the Guardian was up to in the future that his future self or one of his friends would be able to fix it. He was worried about the Guardian's last comment and about who his real enemy, was but he knew that that would have to wait for another time and another Doctor. For now, everything was over except for the tying up of loose ends.

"I have to go now, Mum. You'll see me again someday, but it won't be for a very long time. I also won't be in much condition to say anything back since I won't be able to talk yet," Mary's daughter said with a snicker.

"I'm going to miss you, Polly. Take good care of yourself!" Mary whispered into her daughter's ear.

The girl stared at her in shock and whispered back, "How?"

"I decided to name you that right after I found out who you were, that's how. I'm your mother so I can name you whatever I want," Mary said in a voice low enough where only the future Polly could hear it.

The two of them hugged each other tightly, and the future Polly then said good bye to everyone and returned to her proper time. When she returned, she found her Grandma Rose waiting for her.

"Did you create that crack in time that sent me to the past?" Polly Tyler asked as she saw the smile on her grandmother's face.

"You know me, Pol. I'm always trying to help the Web of Time along wherever I can," Rose admitted.

"My mother was so sad to see me go. I'm not sure I should have told her so much. Did I mess anything up?" Polly Tyler asked with concern.

"No. Not a thing. Everything is as it's supposed to be," Rose assured her.

"I'd still like to know why the Black Guardian wanted to kill me so badly. I've helped a lot of people and done some important things so I guess that's it. I still can't think of any big reason to want to erase me before I've even been born," Polly Tyler said with confusion.

"I suppose we'll never know. Who knows what motivates a crazy madman like that?" Rose said.

Polly knew that her grandmother was holding something back from her but didn't press the issue. She wondered if she would ever find out on her own.

Rose did know what the real reason had been. She knew that one day many, many years from now, Polly Tyler was going to become the White Guardian. She had seen it with the power of the Bad Wolf. Polly would take over from Ishtar when she was ready. She would then become the former Black Guardian's new boss ironically enough!

The Black Guardian of the past had had no idea what was going to happen to him of course. He had just wanted to either erase or enslave Polly Tyler before she could become his future competition someday. He had only gotten a general feeling of the threat that she would one day become while traveling through the timestream and had decided to take care of her on the spot.

Rose wondered if he thought that maybe she would appear to help her and keep her from dying when they attacked her in the Celestial Toyroom. This may have been a preliminary strike against someone that they thought could potentially keep them from winning. Whatever the reason, she was glad that it had failed.

In the present day, The Doctor and Ace were now ready to say their own good byes to the others. They wanted to put this place behind them as quickly as possible especially Ace. Now she had even more of a reason to hate circuses.

"What are you going to do now with the added years of life that you've been given, Polly?" the Doctor asked her.

"I don't know. I'd like to explore space again. Maybe the kids and I could go with you and Ace?" Polly asked hopefully.

"Well, WOTAN did say that I would become the Doctor's companion," Mary added.

"He also said that you would one day marry my son. My son is happily married already and has been for several centuries. Plus he's a little bit too old for you I think," the Doctor said.

"You have a son?" Ace asked in surprise.

"Yes, but he and I haven't gotten along so well since my wife died. We don't talk anymore," the Doctor said sadly.

"You never told me about having a family," Ace said miffed.

"I don't like to talk about it. It's very painful for me. My wife was killed by the Daleks," the Doctor admitted.

"I'm sorry," Ace said in an upset voice and said no more about the subject.

The Doctor gently patted her on the back to reassure her that he was alright.

"Can we come then?" Polly asked again as she tried to change the subject.

"You're asking the wrong Doctor," River finally spoke up.

"What?" Polly asked.

"I need to take you three with me. I believe I know where you're supposed to be, and it's not traveling with that Doctor. I believe you're supposed to meet a future Doctor," River said.

"Not just believe. You know, don't you? You seemed to recognize Mary from the start. You know that she's supposed to travel with a future me, don't you?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, she's one of your future companions just like WOTAN said. I can't tell you any more than that," River said.

"I understand. I guess all of that talk about her being married to my son was just a smokescreen for what the Guardian was really up to by attempting to kill her daughter who somehow developed incredible powers. I mean it's not like she's really going to wind up marrying my son," the Doctor said with a laugh.

"Spoilers," was all that River said as she gave him a wide grin.

"Harmony?" the Doctor asked uncertainly.

River said nothing more, and she linked hands with Polly, Mary, and Alex as the three of them prepared to go meet the Eleventh Doctor. River started to punch in coordinates for her Vortex Manipulator which this Doctor had been good enough to fix for her.

She paused before putting in the final number as she said, "It's been nice meeting this version of you. I'm really starting to like this version of you a lot better now. Before I was just lukewarm about you, but now I like you. You're in my top three favorite Doctors at least. Of course no one could beat my favorite, but I won't tell you which one he is."

"Who are you to me?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm not your wife if that's what you're asking. You'll see someday. You should know better than to ask me something like that anyway. Shame on you!" River said with a big tooth-filled grin.

The Doctor just stood there speechless. This woman really knew how to push his buttons whoever she was, and she seemed to enjoy every moment of it.

"I'm going to miss you, Harmony. I could really use you around the TARDIS sometimes. Anyone that can leave the Doctor that speechless is okay in my book," Ace said with a large smile.

"Who knows, Ace? Maybe you'll see me around again sometime. I mean I could always come back to visit, right?" River asked.

"I hope not," the Doctor said in a low voice.

"Doctor! Here I was complimenting you, and you go and say something like that. Now you've gone straight to the bottom of my list of favorite Doctors," River said in a joking tone.

The Doctor was left speechless again as Ace laughed her head off.

It was just then that a forgotten Drax, who had been watching helplessly all of this time while the Shadow and the Guardian had gone through with their dark plans and was now free of their control, finally spoke up and said, "Thete, do you think that you could give me a lift home once you pick your jaw up off of the ground?"

River waved good bye to both of them and left to find the Doctor and Rose wherever they were. She had some very important people to introduce them to after all. One of them might just turn out to be their daughter-in-law someday.

THE END

River's story continues in The Further Adventures of River Song. Polly, Mary, and Alex will be seen soon in It's Better With Two.