Heh, you mentioning Aquilai inspired me to answer your curiosity in the story.
Chapter Sixty-two
Aquilai ran across the battlefield, forcing himself to ignore the strange creatures attacking his friends. Only one thing mattered, now. The only thing that should have
ever mattered.
But, it wasn't just his affection for his TARDIS that drove him. In the back of his mind, he wondered if, maybe, the TARDIS could give him an edge in this fight. As much as he hated to think of her that way, she was a weapon. And he sorely needed a weapon, right now.
Time Lords, for all their cunning cleverness, were really no more powerful than humans, after all. The TARDIS was all he had.
Aquilai nimbly ducked and dodged around whirling Hork-bajir blades, skirting away from hungry Taxxon mouths. He had to move quickly, or the hordes of controllers would easily surround him.
There it was! Unguarded, even, which was a bit strange. But, no, on second thought, it really wasn't strange at all. The entirety of Queen's forces were occupied with recapturing the renegade RAFians. Their escape, had been the diversion that had saved the TARDIS.
Besides, Queen already had a time machine. What did she need another one for?
Counting his blessings, Aquilai whipped out his sonic screwdriver, hastily finishing the repairs that would make his TARDIS time-worthy again. He'd almost been finished when he'd been forced to make a run for it, but even so, he had to hurry now.
He was just knitting together the final wires, when he heard a sound, right next to him. A familiar whooshing sound, like a metallic wind. But this sound, it was higher, more grating, more electronic, than the sound his own TARDIS made.
Appearing next to his own, was another TARDIS. But this one . . . the familiar police box was distorted into an octagon. And the light on the roof, was mounted on a jutting metal rod that pointed forward from the center. Like a Dalek eye-stalk.
Aquilai swallowed his fear, and frantically finished his work. His TARDIS would be fragile after such hasty repairs, but it would fly. He leaped inside, and immediately took off. When or where he landed, he didn't care.
No sooner had it appeared, though, than the
other TARDIS flickered out of reality once more. Somehow following after the first TARDIS, even as Aquilai vanished into space and time. A hungry predator, that had finally found its prey.
Demos panted as he fought the angelic creature that looked so strangely like himself. It wasn't an actual angel, he knew that much. Not without wings. And not with those horns, elegantly curved though they were, so unlike his own gnarled adornments. Yet, it had most of the same powers of a true angel. The holy fire, the paladin's touch, the incantations that burned Demos's ears like a Howler's howl.
But, even though its powers affected him the way an angel's powers would, his own demonic powers seemed useless against it. His hellfire, which normally sent angels running for their lives, only seemed to scald this creature. The false angel was in pain, so Demos's attacks were not
completely ineffective, but at the same time, it was so much stronger than an ordinary angel could ever have been against the son of Satan.
Demos stumbled, as yet another barrage of holy fire burned his skin, making him cry out in pain at the white hot light. He wasn't going to win this fight. Not like this.
But, he suddenly realized, there were forces he could call upon for help. Beings he had long forgotten. Other minds lying dormant inside his own.
Don't give up hope, a gentle, reverberating voice in his thoughts said.
You have more power than you know.Turn me loose, you weakling excuse for a demon! a far more hostile creature howled.
I'll kill that angelic filth!There was a flash of grey light. Suddenly, standing where Demos had stood, were two distinct figures. A hulking, hunchbacked demon carrying a battle-ax. And a regal, feminine, winged being, carrying a sword and a kite shield.
"Phobos," the false angel that called itself Lumos said knowingly, looking at the demon. He remembered these two characters, for they had once been part of himself, before he had been Reversed. "And Mars," he said, with an acknowledging nod to the true angel.
Demos could still feel his own mind, overlaying those of Phobos and Mars. His consciousness was split, like that of Rad and Ma'at, or Seal and DemonSeal. It was still his own mind, but his mind felt different now. When he acted as Phobos, he felt ruthless and angry, willing to take any life that he could. But when he acted as Mars, he felt kind and gentle, yet motivated to defend and protect his friends.
Even so, those two, the good and the evil halves of him, were connected. They were the same. Through him, through Demos, they could act as one.
Mars flapped her wings, landing and balancing delicately on the flat side of Phobos's battle-ax. In one fluid movement, Phobos swung, and Mars used the extra momentum to swing her sword at Lumos with deadly speed. Two blades, hitting as one, bit into Lumos, and bright red blood sprayed from his celestial white skin.
Lumos gritted his teeth. But he was smiling, despite the pain.
There was another flash of grey, and two figures now stood where Lumos had once been. An angel with cold blue-tinted skin, her feathered wings glinting like ice. The corresponding demon was smaller, almost imp-like, with scorched-black pockmarked skin.
"Polaris," the new angel introduced herself. "And Noctis," the demon croaked. They wore identical grins as they stared down Phobos and Mars. "Anything you can do-" Polaris sang, "-I can do better!" Noctis merrily finished the song.
The battle resumed. Each pair fighting as a single unit, striking and countering now at twice the speed, with twice the fury.
Somehow, Demos thought bitterly to himself from within the minds of Phobos and Mars.
I don't think this really helped much at all.Gaz stared warily at her Reverse through the growing smoke. A fire had been started nearby. Right where Seal and Orca had been fighting, Gaz noted worriedly.
But Gaz decided to use the smoke to her advantage. She went into her mist form, solidifying to strike at her opponent, then vanishing again. Hidden, in fact almost completely invisible, in the swirling ashes.
But the wolflike creature that was her Reverse didn't look like it had even noticed the change. It continued to strike with its claws and teeth, ripping and tearing into the mist that was Gaz. It found purchase, slashing through the ether, and Gaz gasped in pain.
Impossible!
Nothing had ever been able to hurt her in mist form before. And, yet, a few drops of blood dripped down from the vapor that was her body, like rain from a stormcloud.
Zag grinned. The vapor that was Gaz swirled away, putting distance between herself and the wolf, before condensing into the form of a bat. The bat flapped through the smoke, trying to regroup her thoughts before she tried another tactic. But another bat, this one with grey fur and a distinctively canine muzzle, followed.
Underseen shifted into the form of a dragon, clawing at Overseer with teeth and claws. But Underseen's Reverse had shifted into an identical dragon, at that exact same moment. Matching Underseen precisely, in strength and size.
How did he do that, Underseen wondered briefly, but couldn't really ponder the question too long, as he was forced to defend himself from his draconic mirror-image. The two dragons battled, but neither could gain headway against the other, they were so evenly matched.
Thinking quickly, Underseen landed and became a Lerdethak, that strange creature made of living vines, hoping to ensnare the dragon from the air. But Overseer mirrored him again. The two of them wrestled each other with their dozens of tentacles. Once again, it was obvious that neither could make headway against the other.
Underseen turned into a Stegosaurus. Overseer did, too. That's when Underseen noticed that every time Overseer changed, he flinched. As if the Reverse RAFian was not expecting the switch. As if he wasn't in control of his own changes.
That's when Underseen grinned. They might be perfectly evenly matched, one incapable of becoming stronger than the other. But he could use this.
The willful shapeshifter then shifted into a small, adorable creature that looked like a marshmallow with stubby arms and legs. It was a creature made up of nothing but fatty tissue, no bones, no real muscles to speak of. It was called an Adipose, a creature from the Doctor Who universe. And it was quite perfectly useless in combat.
Nevertheless, Overseer was forced to become a perfectly identical, tiny cuddly marshmallow-creature. "Oh, you mother-"
Underseen headbutted Overseer in the stomach, forcing him to exhale a tiny squeak. Their 'battle' resumed, but neither one was really able to harm the other anymore. Which was quite alright with Underseen, who hadn't even been sure
why they were fighting in the first place.
From far across the battlefield, Dino roared in pain. The Reverse Dino was madly biting into her flank again and again. A single bite would have been easy enough to ignore. The Spinosaur's teeth were razor sharp, but so thin that they were not strong enough to penetrate Dino's armor.
But this brutal creature was far more determined than that. Over and over and over the Spinosaur bit the Tyrannosaur, doggedly determined to gain purchase against that bony armor. It was a frantic frenzy of attacks, the Spinosaur pushing and biting and clawing, never giving Dino an inch of space. A thousand tiny cuts in her skin (for her armor was actually underneath a slight layer of living tissue) were taking their toll.
Several of the Spinosaur's knifelike teeth were now lodged between the bony plates that covered Dino's back, the remnant jagged edges where they had broken only making Spino's bites sharper. Even a blow from Dino's club-like tail only gave her a few seconds of respite, before the other dinosaur leaped right back up and continued its crazed onslaught.
<Kill!> the Spinosaur said excitedly. Dino shivered with revulsion, as she realized that that was her own voice she was hearing. <Kill! Kill! Kill!>
That tiny distraction was all Spino needed. Drool gleaming on her broken teeth, the Spinosaur lunged at Dino's neck.
