CHAPTER 20

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This chapter takes place before Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel Chapter 74.

HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE CLARA?

Clara was still feeling more than a bit upset over sharing a body with Rose so she decided to do something to help take her mind off of that for a while. She had decided to go on an expedition to explore the TARDIS. She thought it might be nice to take a tour of the place that she now considered her second home while she wasn't on the run for her life from something trying to kill her for once.

I'm glad that you decided to do this, Clara. There's so much of the TARDIS that even I haven't seen. The Doctor's made a lot of changes to it since it used to be mine. Rose said in Clara's mind.

That's still so weird to me to think that you once owned the TARDIS. It just seems so linked to the Doctor in my mind. Clara replied back to her.

Well, it is his now basically since he's had it for so long, but I still like to say it's mine just to watch him get angry. I love doing that. It gives me an excuse to kiss and make up with him afterwards. Rose admitted with a chuckle.

You cheeky girl! Clara answered back as she shook her head at her.

Clara slowly walked through the corridors of the ancient ship as Rose guided her, and together they slowly discovered all kinds of wonders hidden deep inside of it. One thing that they discovered that really fascinated Clara was a room filled with what must have been thousands of Gallifreyan Flutterwings, Gallifrey's version of butterflies, flying all around a lush grassy hill filled with trees.

"It's beautiful," Clara said in amazement.

Rose smiled as she said, "I love this room. We used to sit and watch the Flutterwings fly across the sky together back when we were young on Gallifrey."

"That's why I have this room. Before I found you again, I used to come here and remember you in it especially when I was lonely or upset about something. I used to think that you were here with me somehow sometimes and that by being here it would bring me closer to you," the Doctor said as he suddenly appeared behind her.

"Maybe I was even if I didn't realize it at the time," Rose said smiling.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked.

"When I was young, the human me I mean, I used to have these dreams about butterflies. I would dream about thousands of butterflies flying all around me, and sometimes I would feel like someone else was there watching them with me. Someone whose face that I could never see. Those dreams never made any sense to me then. Now though maybe they finally do," Rose said with a grin.

She leaned forward and gave the Doctor a kiss on the cheek as he wrapped his arms around her. He made sure not to be too forward though since this was his friend's body and not Rose's.

"So you really think that the two of you were connecting somehow even then?" Clara asked with a warm smile.

The Doctor shrugged as he said, "Who knows? Anything's possible you know. If anyone can understand that you can, Clara Oswald."

"Yes, I do. I also understand what it means to lose someone and to miss them. I know what it is to want to do anything that you can in order to reconnect with them in some way," Clara said sadly.

The Doctor held Clara closer to him and hugged her tightly as he said, "You were already upset over your mother when I first met you, and now I've done nothing but add more to your pain. I'm so sorry that this has happened to you. You've already suffered enough because of me."

"Will you stop that? I jumped into your timestream to save your life despite knowing that it might do something to me. I knew the risks and I took them. As for what happened with Rose, I wasn't about to let my friend die when I could do something to stop it. Yes, this is irritating having to share my life with her for a while, but I can think of far worse things to have happened to me than to be stuck with a nice person like Rose in my head for a while. At least I know that I can trust Rose not to try to take me over or do something to me against my will," Clara said.

Somewhere deep inside of Clara, Rose felt ashamed because she knew that she was indeed doing something to Clara without her knowledge. She was increasing Clara's connection to the Vortex and making it much, much stronger so that both of them could survive the coming fight with Rassilon that she saw coming very soon in the future. She knew that it would mean the difference between life and death for both her and Clara. It still bothered her though because she never wanted Clara to think that she would ever hurt her or betray her in any way. She would never do anything like this under normal circumstances. Ever.

She knew that she should have told her about it, but she was afraid to let her know what was happening. Rassilon would be able to read her mind instantly, and she didn't want him to know about it. She wanted it to be her secret weapon against him that he would never see coming. She just hoped that it didn't cause her to lose her friend over it when she inevitably found out or she would never forgive herself.

"Come on, Chin Boy. We're all starting to get depressed, and I started this trip to keep that from happening. Show me some more of the local sights. Didn't you say that you had a dinosaur in here somewhere?" Clara asked as she became chipper once more.

"Oh, yes! Smitty! You'll love him, Clara. He's very nice, and he just loves sweets. If you give him a piece of candy, he'll be your friend for life. His only problem is that he's telepathic, and he never shuts up. He's just constantly talking all the time on and on and on. It really gets on your nerves," the Doctor warned.

"Don't worry, Chinny. I'm already used to that kind of thing," Clara said with a wicked smile.

"Oi!" the Doctor said in protest which caused Rose to start laughing inside of Clara's head.

As the three of them started off to find Smitty, two intruders suddenly transmatted inside the Console Room startling its current occupants: Polly, Mikaela, and Charley. What startled them wasn't so much the fact that someone could break into the TARDIS even though that was shocking in and of itself, but it was the identity of the two intruders instead that alarmed them.

They were both first generation Cybermen!

"The Doctor's TARDIS now belongs to us. You will come with us to be converted while we search for the Doctor and the Bad Wolf. Do not resist us and everything will go much easier for you. Do not worry. Soon we will take all of your pain and suffering away . . . permanently," One of the Cybermen ordered in a sing song voice.

"No thanks. I like a little bit of angst every now and then. It does the body good I think," Polly joked.

"Watch it. You're starting to sound like the Doctor," Charley said with a grin.

"Well, there's no need to be insulting," Polly said laughing.

"Can you two stop bantering for five seconds? We need to get out of here right now or you'll never be able to banter ever again," Mikaela warned as she raced for the door into the inner corridors of the TARDIS with Polly and Charley right behind her.

Mikaela couldn't say that she was too surprised by her two friends' behavior though. They had slowly been becoming closer and closer lately, and Polly had taken on almost a maternal role towards Charley who admitted that Polly acted a lot like her mother. Mikaela knew that it was because both Polly and Charley missed their families. Charley couldn't go back to hers because of the constant threat of the Viyrans, and she still wasn't sure why Polly wasn't with hers in the future yet. She certainly was in her time.

Then again things seemed to be already changed in some ways from how she knew them in her time. For one thing, the Clara that she knew had no Vortex powers or at least none that she knew of anyway. The only power that she knew of that Clara had in her time was the ability to heal herself. She had always thought that she had received that ability from Rose since she never saw her using any other kind of power, but now she wasn't quite so sure about that anymore.

Ever since she had been ripped from her own time, she wasn't sure about anything anymore to be honest. River said that she wasn't changing anything by being in her own past and yet Clara seemed to already be changing from who she knew her to be in her time. She could only hope that it would all work itself out in the end and that she wouldn't accidentally erase her entire existence.

As the three women ran from the Cybermen, they weren't there to see the newest arrival in the Console Room as Krail appeared with two more Cybermen. Krail immediately went to the console and started inputting coordinates only to find that none of the buttons worked for him.

"I've been locked out of the console. The Doctor must have anticipated our arrival," Krail said.

"That's highly doubtful, Cyber Leader. The Doctor's TARDIS has always been known to be a temperamental machine. That was why it was sent to a museum and taken out of active service. It had developed an . . . erratic personality all of its own and could no longer be thought of as reliable or dependable in any way," One of Krail's Cybermen said.

"So the Doctor's TARDIS is as mad as he is in other words," Krail said.

"For lack of a better word, yes," The Cyberman agreed.

"Even his machine is overly emotional. They deserve one another it seems," Krail noted.

"What are your orders?" The Cyberman who had not spoken before asked.

"Stay here and continue to try to break into the controls. We must take control of this ship. The two of us will hunt for the two Time Lords and their companions in order to bring them to Gallifrey for conversion," Krail ordered.

"As you command," The Cyberman said obediently as he began to rapidly push buttons in an attempt to hack into the TARDIS' computer.

As Krail and the other surprisingly knowledgeable Cyberman with him began to search the corridors for the TARDIS' crew, the Doctor, Rose, and Clara were walking through a primeval forest with Smitty. Smitty it turned out was a very pleasant being for a Velociraptor with razor sharp claws who could cut them all to pieces with a single swipe if he wished.

"I'm glad to see you in such a good mood, Smitty. So the TARDIS has been treating you okay?" the Doctor asked.

"I thought you said that Smitty was a plant eater, Doctor. Velociraptor weren't known for eating plants," Clara said as she continued to eye the dinosaur's long pointed claws warily.

I've always eaten plants despite my species' proclivity towards being carnivores, Miss Oswald. I am entirely benevolent I assure you. I quite love humanity and would never think of eating one of you especially a nice, lovely person such as yourself. Smitty said to her telepathically in a very thick and well-mannered British accent.

Clara had to restrain herself from laughing at the absurdity of this dinosaur speaking to her with a posh accent while it sipped tea from a cup and ate jammie dodgers. It was just so absurd that it was beyond belief and yet it somehow didn't seem strange at all in the Doctor's world. In fact with all things considered, she was probably the strange one here in a bigger on the inside time ship filled with aliens and a talking dinosaur.

"Thank you, Smitty. I appreciate that believe me. It's so very nice to meet you. How did you become able to speak telepathically anyway? I've always heard that Velociraptors were intelligent, but I never heard of anything like this," Clara asked.

My kind were specially bred by the Silurians before your species even existed. Unfortunately, I am the last of them now. I would be extinct as well if it were not for the kindness of the Doctor who rescued me from a group of human hunters who were about to kill me. Now I get to stay here where I can be free and safe from anyone who would seek to harm me. Smitty replied.

"Wanna bet?" Mikaela said as she ran towards them with Polly and Charley.

"What's going on?" Clara asked in alarm as she saw the terror on their faces.

Then they all saw the four Cybermen including Krail coming fast behind them, and it was all self-explanatory.

"Run!" Charley shouted as she raced past the others.

Clara allowed Rose to take control of her body however instead of starting to run, and Rose stood and faced the Cybermen head on with the Doctor at her side. Krail then stopped to confront them while the other three Cybermen continued on after the others at his silent command.

"So, Krail, pardon me if I come off as a bit rude since I have been accused of that from time to time, but aren't you supposed to be dead?" the Doctor asked with his sonic screwdriver pointed at the Cyber Leader as he scanned him.

Krail stared intently at who he thought was still Clara as he said, "Yes, your companion did kill me, Doctor, but luckily for me I was found and rebuilt by some of your own people, namely The Celestial Intervention Agency. They thought that they could reengineer me to serve them on some of their covert missions. They thought wrong, Doctor. Now so many of them serve me. I have already taken over one cell of them, and soon I will spread my influence to all of the others and from there to the entire planet. I'll need a TARDIS in order to accomplish this however so I've chosen yours since you have been given unlimited freedom to come and go on Gallifrey as you will. I find it oddly appropriate that it would be you that would help me to achieve my final victory. If I had emotions, I believe that I would be highly satisfied at this outcome."

"You haven't won anything yet, Krail. This is our TARDIS, and it's going to stay that way," Rose said defiantly.

"No, Clara Oswald, it will not. Soon it will belong to the Cybermen, and I will use it to deliver the Time Lords into the hands of the Cyberiad. You, however, I will not give the gift of conversion to because you are far too dangerous to be left alive in any form. I will kill you with my bare hands instead," Krail said as he started to slowly march towards Rose who he still thought was just Clara.

"I think you're about to have a huge surprise coming your way," Rose said with a wide grin as she prepared to hit the Cyberman with everything that she had in one blast.

"As are you," Krail said as his hands began to glow with power.

"What?!" Rose said in surprise.

"Duck!" the Doctor shouted as he pushed Rose down just in time to save her from being hit at point blank range by a massive blast of staser fire coming from both of his hands at once.

"I have been given the same power as one of your Time Lord weapons, Doctor. I can now kill one of your species outright with a single blast while permanently disabling your ability to regenerate at the same time. Just think what it will do to your precious human companion if it will do that to you," Krail said as he continued firing staser blasts from his hands.

"Well, someone's certainly out for blood, aren't they? I thought Cybermen didn't have emotions, Krail," Clara joked as she momentarily took control.

"That's right, Krail. Could it be that you're not so pure in your Cyberness anymore? Maybe you've become corrupted by being around us lesser emotional beings for too long," the Doctor said mocking him as he and Clara continued to dodge Krail's lethal blasts.

"If you seek to anger me into making a mistake, you will be very much disappointed, Doctor. I do not make emotional errors. I am completely and totally logical in every way," Krail said as he continued to do his utmost to annihilate both of them.

"Tell me, Krail, in your logical well-thought out plan to kill us did you anticipate any kind of random factors that might interfere in the battle and affect its outcome? Like things that you didn't know about ahead of time?" the Doctor asked in an amused tone as he could feel Rose regaining control of Clara's body through their link together and preparing to strike once more.

Just as Rose glowed with the power of the Vortex and attacked Krail with a massive burst of energy, Krail deflected it away from him instantly with one hand as he said, "I did actually. I was fully prepared for Clara's powers to increase in some way so I covered myself in Vortex shielding to prevent them from affecting me. Was this your surprise plan to defeat me, Doctor? If so it has failed miserably."

"Well, that was part of it, yes. It wasn't the only part though," the Doctor said with a hopeful look on his face as he looked behind Krail.

"What was the other part then? Continuing to try to manipulate me through my non-existent emotions?" Krail asked with what almost seemed like disdain.

"No. It was to distract you from noticing my dear friend, Smitty, who's coming up behind you," the Doctor said.

"What?" Krail said in surprise.

He turned around just in time to have his chest plate ripped open by Smitty's sharp claws as the raptor started to attack the hapless Cyberman. Now Rose joined in on the attack as she used her power to temporarily increase Clara's strength to superhuman levels and started attacking Krail with her bare hands using a devastating array of martial arts moves that she had once learned personally from Jack himself.

Rose couldn't help but smile as she began to cause major damage to the Cyberman while working alongside Smitty and the Doctor who was disrupting his circuitry and slowly overheating it with his sonic screwdriver. Luckily this burned out his staser abilities so at least they didn't have to worry about that anymore. The three of them working together were soon making Krail fall to his knees in agony as he screamed in protest.

"Not emotional, huh?" Rose said with a smirk.

"You . . . haven't . . . beaten me . . . yet," Krail said in a weakened voice as he managed to place his hand on Rose's head for a split second.

Rose screamed in agony as Krail sent a psionic disruptor wave through her mind and immediately knocked her out cold. This left Clara back in charge as she was immediately sent back to the forefront of her mind with a sudden jolt. She now stood there in horror not knowing what to do.

"Rose!" the Doctor shouted in fear as he pulled Clara to safety as Krail tried to attack her again.

"No, it's me, Doctor. Rose was knocked out cold by whatever he did. What are we going to do now? Rose was the big gun," Clara said.

"It looks like we'll just have to fall back on the tried and true, Clara," the Doctor said as the two of them began to fall back and let Smitty handle the Cyberman.

"You mean make things up as we go along and hope that we get lucky?" Clara said with a nervous smile.

"I wouldn't put it like that. I just wait until a clever idea hits me. That's all. It should come along any minute now," the Doctor said reassuringly.

"That's very reassuring, Doctor. I really hope that Rose wakes up soon," Clara said as the two of them ran from Krail's attacks.

As the Doctor and Clara ran from Krail, Polly, Mikaela, and Charley were doing the exact same thing from their three Cybermen. Finally Polly grabbed the other two women and pulled them into the Wardrobe Room with her.

"What are you doing?" Mikaela asked in surprise.

"Just trust me," Polly said.

The three Cybermen paused outside of the Wardrobe Room and started to enter it to look for the three women when they were surprised to find Krail slowly walking towards them. They immediately stood at attention and waited for orders as Krail stopped before them.

"I have already searched this area, and they are not in here. Continue to search in the other corridors. We must find them," Krail said.

"Yes, Leader," One of the Cybermen said as he immediately raced away with the other two right behind him.

"Is he gone?" Mikaela asked from behind a large coat.

"Yes. That should buy us a little more time anyway," 'Krail', aka Polly, said as she took off the fake Cyberman head that she was wearing.

"Why would the Doctor have an empty suit of Cyberman armor just lying around the Wardrobe Room for? It's kind of creepy," Mikaela said with a shudder.

"Who knows why the Doctor does what he does? He always collected all sorts of junk. What I want to know is how you got Krail's voice so perfect. You could have fooled me," Charley said in amazement.

"I'm actually quite good with disguises. I pretended to be a boy once in order to fool some pirates and it worked. I don't know whether to be proud of that or worried though," Polly said with an evil grin.

"I don't think you need to be worried at all. I think that you're just that good," Charley said.

"I still can't get over that Cybermen armor. Why?!" Mikaela said in disgust.

"I saved it because I thought it might come in handy sometime. That's why. Apparently, it did too, didn't it? That just shows you how much of a forward thinker that I am," the Doctor said proudly as he and Clara rushed inside the Wardrobe Room.

"Do you think that we lost Krail?" Clara asked.

"I think so. Maybe I should put the Cyber head back on just in case the others return though," Polly said as she put the head back on.

"Watch out!" Clara shouted as Krail burst into the room with Smitty still fighting with him.

As the Cyberman and the dinosaur continued to tangle with one another, the other three Cybermen finally returned at last. They stood there in indecision as they looked from one Cyber Leader to another uncertain as to what to do next.

Clara capitalized on that moment of indecision to use Rose's power to send a massive blast of Vortex energy at all three of them that instantly blew them to pieces. Clara then began to shake all over as she started going out of control and couldn't control the energy.

"Run! I can't handle it!" Clara said in an emotional voice as her hands started to involuntarily glow once more.

"Smitty, duck!" the Doctor yelled as he turned Clara to face Krail.

Smitty quickly threw Krail towards Clara and hit the floor as Clara started unleashing Vortex blasts left and right while the Doctor kept her turned away from the others who ran for cover. Even as Clara's attacks went out of control, Krail somehow managed to dodge each and every one of them as he drew closer and closer to her.

To the Doctor's horror, Krail was soon just inches away from Clara and grabbed her neck in his hands as he started to squeeze it in a vice like grip. The Doctor did his best to short circuit Krail with the sonic while Smitty rejoined his attack on him by attempting to bite one of his arms off.

It all seemed to be too little too late though as Clara's eyes started to roll back into her head and the glowing around her hands suddenly stopped. Krail was slowly asphyxiating her!

"No! Clara!" Mikaela shouted in tears as she gestured at Krail and her eyes began to glow.

Krail looked at her defiantly as he said, "Are you trying to use your power on me, Promised One? You may be able to command those pathetic clockwork men of yours, but I am a Cyberman. You have no power over me. There's absolutely nothing that any of you can do now to stop me from killing Clara once and for all."

Mikaela's voice filled with anger as she commanded, "KNEEL!"

"I . . . will . . . not," Krail said as he struggled to fight back.

"YOU WILL KNEEL!" Mikaela shouted in a voice that shocked the others as it sounded nothing at all like her own voice.

"I am . . . Krail. I yield to no human," Krail said as his knees began to buckle.

"KNEEL BEFORE ME," Mikaela commanded as her eyes glowed with unnatural power.

"No," Krail said in a pleading voice.

Then he finally let Clara go and knelt before Mikaela who said, "ORDER ALL OF THE OTHERS UNDER YOUR CONTROL TO SHUT DOWN AND THEN DO SO YOURSELF."

"I . . . . obey," Krail said.

Seconds later, the Cyberman in the Console Room shut down and so did the ones on Gallifrey. Then Krail himself shut down with what looked like one last glare of derision at Mikaela.

Mikaela's eyes stopped glowing, and she looked around with a frightened look on her face to see everyone watching her in complete and absolute shock. Mikaela immediately turned away from them in horror and ran out of the room in embarrassment.

"Don't look at me! I never wanted any of you to see me like that!" Mikaela screamed in anguish.

"Mikaela, wait!" Clara shouted as she went after her.

"I never knew that she could do that," Polly said with disbelief.

"Neither did I. No wonder the Symmetry want her so badly if she can even command the Cybermen that way," the Doctor said.

"She was terrified though, Doctor. I feel so sorry for her. She just wants to be normal, and then she has to show exactly why she's not to all of us. She must be so upset," Charley said sympathetically.

Even as Charley said this, Clara found Mikaela hiding in one of the storage rooms. Clara's heart broke as she saw Mikaela openly weeping in front of her.

Without saying a word, Clara sat next to her and wrapped her arms around her as she let her rest her head on her shoulder. Then she lightly stroked her hair and kissed her forehead as she let her continue to cry on her shoulder.

That was why Clara was and always would be Mikaela's best friend and why she had been willing to do anything in order to save her. Even bare her greatest secret for everyone to see.

Next: The fall-out from what Rose did to Clara reaches this story as the Doctor has to deal with the aftermath of what happens when Clara finds out the truth. What will Rose and the companions do to help? What can they do?