The Defender of Time

Twenty-Five

The silence coming from the pyramid's direction was unbearable. It could be a raging war happening inside, but the walls were thick and it was so far away. There was no way for Lea to know what was happening.

It went on like that for some time, before Lea spotted a small dot, gaining in size and proximity as it became apparent that it was Clara and Merry on the moped, speeding toward the amphitheater.

"CLARA!" Lea screamed.

The moped landed loudly on the ground and Lea ran forward, throwing herself into Clara's arms. "Oh, Clara, what happened?"

Clara hugged back, very weakly, and climbed off of the moped so she could help Merry back onto the ground.

"Isn't he frightened?" Merry asked. Her voice was shaking.

Clara replied with a sharp nod. "I think he is."

Lea's breath grew faster. "Clara!"

Merry gulped. "I want to help."

Clara sighed. "Me too."

"CLARA!" Lea tried again, but rather than respond, Clara climbed back onto the moped and zoomed back to the pyramid wordlessly. "Oh, dear," Lea whimpered.

Merry looked at her with worried eyes. "Will they be alright?" She asked.

"I don't know!" Lea cried. She took a moment and a breath to compose herself. Something boomed, and she looked at the pyramid as the sky erupted in orange smoke and the sun gained a ghastly face.

"Grandfather," Merry muttered. "He's hungry. They can't handle him on their own!"

It was then that Lea knew what she had to do, and that she was potentially going to stop her experiment before it even started. Father would be so upset with her, but why did it matter? He was dead now. He couldn't reprimand her.

She left Merry's side and pounded out of the arena, her legs moving as fast as they could carry her little body. When she arrived back Dor'een and the mopeds, she pulled the picture of her siblings from her bag and chucked it at her; could she ride a moped? Probably not, but she needed to get pyramid, and fast.

Music filled her ears, but she couldn't focus for long enough to distinguish the words. It was just like riding a bike, right? God, she piloted her own spaceship and she couldn't figure out a moped? She slammed her foot on the first pedal she saw and found herself moving through the bazaar at top speed. Trinkets toppled over as she passed them, but she steered directly into the arena and past Merry without looking back.

They were on the far side of the pyramid, and she might've leapt off of the moped before it was even over the ground. Clara looked at her, bewildered and furious and exhausted, and Lea swallowed hard. "I'm here to help!" She screamed.

Clara let go of her leaf ("The most important leaf in human history," she had said during storytime one night. Angie had sighed and looked back to her cell phone. Artie was already asleep.) as its remains evaporated into the rays of whatever god was eating them up. "I don't care if you're here to help!" She screamed back. Tears dripped down her cheeks. "Get away, Lea! You'll get hurt!"

But Lea ignored her. Instead, she turned to face the open sky, taking heaving breaths and doing her best to stare into the eyes of the Old God. "Janus hates me," she whispered. "He despises me, because I'm more powerful than he could ever be and that makes him so furious! He and Decla were supposed to be the only Gallifreyans in the bunch, besides Mayzie. But Mayzie's a Time Lord, and that's different. I took Time Lord and I took human, I took the two hugest and most powerful races and I took them for myself. Father liked me better, right? Because I was the bonus child, the baker's dozen! Oh, I hated it when he called me that.