CHAPTER 28

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REWRITING HISTORY

"I suppose I'll stay just long enough to let Romana know that I did what she wanted me to do and then I'll leave, Professor," Ace said in the TARDIS on the way back to Earth.

They had just finished dropping Count Grendel and what little was left of the Kandyman off at the Shadow Proclamation. Now Ace was wondering what happened next. She wanted to stay for at least one more trip, but she wasn't sure of her place on this new Doctor's TARDIS.

Would he even want her there now? Was he anything like her old Doctor at all anymore?

"Really? You're going to leave just like that?" The Doctor said in a disappointed voice.

Ace smiled with relief as she said, "Well, maybe I could stay for just one more trip. I have to admit that it did feel good to be back on this particular TARDIS again. My TARDIS is nice but she's just not the same. Yours was the only one that ever really felt like home to me."

"Why just one? You're welcome to stay as long as you want as far as I'm concerned, Leather Girl," Clara said.

"Is that how you feel too?" Ace asked the Doctor.

"You don't have to ask me. She's the boss. If she says it, then I automatically have to go along with it. You saw what happens to whoever makes her mad. I'm not worried so much about myself, but I don't want her to do anything to my fezzes. They can't defend themselves after all," The Doctor said with a worried look on his face.

As Clara rolled her eyes at him, Ace laughed and said, "I didn't think it was possible, but it seems like you've actually gotten crazier since I left you."

"Oh, I know he did. Take my word for it," The Master said.

"That's not nice, Kosch. I mean you're basically calling me mad too when you do that. I am his clone after all," Jenny said with a grin.

"I'd say that he's not too far off the mark actually," Merry joked causing Jenny to pretend to glare at her.

"Watch it, Shorty," Jenny said with an angry look which quickly became a warm smile.

"Yeah, I'm really scared alright. What are you going to do? Hug me to death?" Merry said with a chuckle.

"That sounds more like something that Clara would do actually," The Doctor said.

"You really are pushing the boundaries today, aren't you? Feeling brave, Chin Boy? You're just lucky that I'm in such a good mood after getting Merry back or I'd slap that smug look right off of your face," Clara said with a barely concealed smile.

"I think I see why you've gotten worse now," Ace joked.

"Oi! I really don't appreciate that remark, Leather Girl. I had enough of that sort of talk from Grendel," Clara said as her smile finally emerged completely now.

The Doctor was so happy to see that smile there after the way that she had acted earlier. He was also glad that she could say Grendel's name without her face twisting with anger anymore. As soon as she had Merry safely back in the TARDIS, the old Clara had returned almost immediately he noticed and he was so glad for it.

"I'm fine," Clara said in a reassuring tone as she noticed the look on his face.

The Doctor nodded and gently kissed her forehead in response making her smile back at him.

Ace felt so happy for him in that moment. She had never seen her Doctor that filled with joy in the entire time that she had traveled with him. She had to admit that Clara seemed to be very good for him because she hadn't seen the extremely sad look that she sometimes saw her Doctor have on this Doctor's face once since she had come onboard. He was always smiling from ear to ear at Clara especially when he thought that she wasn't looking at him.

"Sickening," The Master muttered as he saw the Doctor and Clara staring deeply into each other's eyes.

"Stop it," Jenny whispered as she hit him in the shoulder.

Then she grinned at him evilly as she said to him in a conspiratorial whisper, "Besides you know that you're secretly happy for both of them even if you'll never admit it."

"You're right," The Master said.

"Really?" Jenny asked in surprise.

"I admit nothing," The Master said with a grin.

"Idiot," Jenny said with a sigh as she playfully hit his arm.

Ace smiled at them happy to see that the Old Girl was still a home as much as she had ever been back in her day. She began to wonder if that old saying was wrong and maybe you actually could go home again.

That was when the TARDIS finally materialized right in the middle of 10 Downing Street.

"Are you sure that the Prime Minister will appreciate you suddenly appearing in the middle of his office out of nowhere, Doctor? You might not get the reception that you're hoping for," Clara warned.

"Oh, it's perfectly fine, Clara. I do it all the time," The Doctor said dismissively as he walked out the front doors of the TARDIS with a huge smile on his face.

"Hello, I'm the . . ." The Doctor started to say as soon as he left the ship.

Suddenly he was tackled hard to the ground by a dozen guards as he said with a sigh, "It's the bow tie, isn't it? People hate the bow tie. I don't know why."

"Yep, that's always the kind of reception that he'd usually get back in my day too," Ace said with a chuckle.

Clara hesitantly stuck her head out of the TARDIS as she said, "Uh, Hello. I think that there's been some kind of mistake. We were expected by Tish Jones. She works for the Prime Minister."

As soon as they turned to look at Clara, the guards immediately saw the inside of the TARDIS behind her. They all looked at one another for a moment with shocked looks on their faces before they slowly let the Doctor back up again.

"Sorry about that. You must be the Doctor," One of the guards said in a slightly embarrassed tone.

"You mean the blue box appearing out of nowhere wasn't enough to tell you that?" The Doctor said with a frown as he quickly got to his feet.

Then he groaned as he said, "Just look at what you've done. I think that you flattened my bow tie. I loved that bow tie."

"Stop pouting, Chinny. It's not like you don't have a whole closet full of them," Clara chastised him.

"That's not the point. Every bow tie is special to me. They're just like my own children. They mean just as much to me as Jenny does," The Doctor said in an angry tone.

"I don't mind telling you that I feel more than a bit insulted right now, Dad," Jenny said as she began to become angry too.

"You really shouldn't, Jen. He's comparing you with his bow ties. That's the highest compliment that he can give you. Believe me," Clara said with a warm smile.

"I suppose," Jenny said in an uncertain voice.

The Doctor immediately hugged her as he said, "Okay, maybe you rank just a bit higher than my bow ties."

"Thanks. I think," Jenny said as she smiled at him.

The guards all looked at them as though they were insane as one of them said, "Just wait right here. The Prime Minister is already in a secure location so he couldn't be here to greet you. Miss Jones should be here shortly. She'll be your guide through the building."

"In order words, she's supposed to keep him out of trouble," Ace said with a chuckle as she looked at the Doctor.

The Doctor ignored her as he said to the guards, "Something's wrong isn't it? So what's changed in the time since I last talked to Romana and now?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it, Sir. It's a matter of national security," One of the guards said.

"Oh, pish tosh. You can talk to me, boys. I'm the Doctor. I have clearance to know everything. I know that something's happened here. You said yourself that the Prime Minister had been taken to a safe location and you tackle me as soon as I arrive like you're already on edge about something. So what is it? Have the Cybermen invaded again? The Daleks? Oh, I really hope it's not the Sontarans again. It's not is it? You'd recognize them instantly if you saw them. They look something like a potato only with an attitude," The Doctor said.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it, Sir," The guard said again without changing his expression.

"Hello, Bill. Surely you can tell me what's going on, can't you? I have the highest level of clearance or at least I used to anyway," The Master said as he finally left the TARDIS.

"Prime Minister Saxon? Aren't you dead?" The guard said in surprise.

"I got better. I do that. Can't you tell me what's going on for old time's sake? You did used to work for me after all," The Master asked with a warm smile.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but you're no longer cleared for that sort of information because quite frankly you're . . ." The guard said in a slightly nervous voice.

"A major league scumbag?" Ace finished for him with an evil smile instantly earning herself an angry look from the Master.

"I believe he was going to say something about your having gone off the deep end and trying to destroy the world, Koschei. It's alright, Bill. The Prime Minister was fully aware that he would be here. I'll take care of things from here," Tish said as she finally entered the room.

"Yes, Ma'am," The guard said as he and the other guards immediately left the room with a visible sense of relief.

"I see that you still have a winning way with people just like always," Tish said to the Master who smiled mischievously but said nothing.

"What's going on here, Tish? What were they so jumpy about?" Clara asked.

"London is currently under attack by an army that can appear out of nowhere and attack at a moment's notice. They've already occupied several parts of the city and placed it under their direct control. We've been expecting them to attack here next which is why the Prime Minister was evacuated to a safe and completely secure location elsewhere," Tish said.

"Who are they and how are they doing this? Do you have any information about them at all?" The Doctor asked with concern.

"Not much. As soon as they appear, all communications in the area instantly cease and there's a complete blackout. Then an enormous black dome pops up almost instantly that we can't see through at all. We really have no idea who we're dealing with here whatsoever," Tish said.

"We don't have any clues as to who they are?" The Doctor asked in disbelief.

Tish's expression suddenly became very serious as she said, "Just one. We know exactly how they're traveling from one part of the city to another. We can always see that much at least before communications go down."

Then she hesitated even though it was obvious that she wasn't finished speaking yet. That's when the Doctor immediately realized that something was very, very wrong.

"They attacked me as soon as the TARDIS appeared and yet they obviously weren't after me at all. These mysterious attackers of yours are traveling around in an exact duplicate of the TARDIS, aren't they?" The Doctor realized with a horrified look on his face.

Tish nodded as she said, "Yes. It's the only thing that we know for sure about them. At first the Prime Minister was certain that you had turned against us and was about to order the military to kill you as soon as they saw you. Luckily Kate Stewart and I just managed to convince him that it must be some kind of trick and finally persuaded him to trust us. We knew that it couldn't possibly be you that was doing all of this but someone posing as you instead. What I can't figure out is how they did such a good job of copying the TARDIS. It even moves like the real thing according to the footage that I've seen of it."

The Doctor turned pale now as he said, "That's because it is the real thing if what I suspect is true."

"What are you talking about? What is going on here, Doctor? You're got to tell me exactly what you know," Tish said in a frustrated voice.

"It all started back in the days when I used to wear a question mark sweater and Ace and I went to Colditz Castle, a Nazi prisoner of war camp during World War II," The Doctor started.

Ace immediately groaned as she said, "Oh, please don't tell me that it's her again. I thought that you took care of her."

"I did. This must be a version of her from before that. Although I don't quite understand how that could be since she was completely erased from history by the Time Lords. Well, almost completely anyway," The Doctor said.

"What do you mean by almost, Professor?" Ace said with a frown.

"Will you kindly tell us exactly what you two are talking about, Mr. Chin? The rest of us would really like to know," Clara said in an impatient voice.

"Tell us the whole story, Doctor. It could be the difference between life and death for the entire planet," Tish said.

The Doctor took a deep breath and then said, "When we went to Colditz, Ace accidentally left her CD player behind."

Tish's eyes widened in shock as she said, "And then the Nazis found it, didn't they? They found it and used its laser technology to win the war. They must have taken over the entire planet in that timeline."

The Doctor nodded while Ace turned her head away with a guilty expression. Clara immediately felt sorry for her because she knew her well enough by now to understand what that must have done to her to realize that she had accidentally changed history in such a devastating and horrible way.

"I presume since we're still here speaking English though that you fixed it all back though, right? So what does that have to do with this?" Clara asked.

"That's not all of the story though I'm afraid, Clara. Not by a long shot. You see I did fix things but not completely. There was a survivor of that world where the Nazis won named Dr. Elizabeth Klein. She was unaffected by the timeline being restored to normal and wanted to return it back to the way that it was before. She eventually did exactly that when she stole the TARDIS from me and used it to recreate her world. Her new Nazi empire was stronger than ever and even won battles against the Daleks and the Sontarans when they came to claim the Earth for themselves. Luckily though I was still around in this new timeline and possessed my memories of how things should be," The Doctor said.

"And that's when you came up with a clever plan to stop her, got the TARDIS back, and the Time Lords erased her from history?" Clara asked.

"Right. Only she wasn't erased. Not completely," The Doctor admitted.

Ace couldn't help but smile at that even while she felt furious at him as she said, "You couldn't do it though, could you? You talked them out of it, didn't you?"

The Doctor nodded as he said, "I wanted to give her another chance because she had showed me that she wasn't a completely evil person but was extremely misguided instead. She was actually brainwashed by her superiors into believing that her ideology was what was best for the world and that the horrors that the Nazis of her reality committed were done by people who were the exception rather than the rule of her twisted society. So I convinced the Time Lords to change her timeline so that she had a totally different life and eventually became a scientific advisor to UNIT instead. I came back periodically to check up on her after that and there seemed to be no signs of her past self returning in any way."

The Master now interrupted him as he said, "I thought that name sounded familiar. I met her once and she was definitely another one of your goody goody types that you love so much so I can vouch for that. She actually helped you to defeat me once."

The Doctor smiled as he said, "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that. That was when you were posing as me wasn't it? I can't believe that people actually fell for that for a while. What absolute rubbish! Any of me are definitely much better looking than any of you."

"Tish may just differ with you on that, Doctor. She did marry me after all," The Master said with a smug grin.

"Yes, well her judgment seems to be seriously impaired when it comes to you, doesn't it? It's certainly affected her vision," The Doctor said dismissively.

Both Tish and the Master shot him angry looks as Clara said, "Doctor, I think that you're in enough trouble right now, don't you? You don't need to add the Master and Tish to your enemies list too."

"I never left it actually," The Master said as his smug smile returned.

"That's enough, Koschei," Clara said in a no nonsense tone that immediately shut him up and caused the Doctor to start smiling smugly at him now instead.

"So if this new version of Klein wasn't evil and the previous version of her was erased by the Time Lords, then what is going on?" Tish asked in bewilderment.

"Obviously she reverted back to type and stole the TARDIS again in the Doctor's future. As usual, his kind and forgiving nature backfired on him," The Master said.

"We don't know that for sure. It may not even have anything to do with her whatsoever, Koschei. It could be someone completely different this time," Tish said defensively.

Suddenly the familiar materialization sound of the TARDIS filled the air and the others all looked at one another in dread. It seemed that they were finally about to find out exactly what was going on any minute now.

An exact duplicate of the Doctor's TARDIS now appeared, and its doors opened to reveal a blonde woman with a malevolent smile who was pointing a gun at them. Behind her were several Nazi soldiers who also had their guns trained on them.

An instant later a black force field completely surrounded the entire building and blocked it off from the outside world. The Doctor could see it form from a nearby window as it plunged everything outside into darkness. He was sure that all communications to the outside had just been blocked as well.

"Hello, Doctor, Ace. It's so very nice to see you both again although I'm sure that it's not too nice for you right about now. So I see that you changed your appearance yet again, Doctor. That is you, isn't it? Only you could wear an outfit that atrocious," The blonde woman said.

"Hello, Klein. I was really really hoping that I would never meet this particular version of you ever again," The Doctor said in a sad voice.

Klein smiled at him as she said, "I bet you were. Did you really think that changing my timeline was going to stop me? You made a huge mistake by leaving me behind, Doctor, because I still remember the way things were before you changed them. I stole this TARDIS from that other Doctor and fixed things back to how they should be, and then I came looking for the real you. I couldn't find you at first, and then I realized that you had fled to another universe entirely. That's when I came here and started attacking this world's London. I knew that would flush you out of hiding sooner or later."

The Doctor looked at her in confusion now as he said, "Wait, what? Other Doctor's TARDIS? What are you going on about? That never happened before."

"Trying to play dumb, Doctor? You know better than that. I know you far too well now to fall for another one of your tricks again," Klein said.

Then she turned her head slightly and called out to some of the soldiers behind her in the stolen TARDIS, "Bring the two prisoners out here and show the Doctor exactly what I'm talking about."

"Oi! Get your grubby hands off of me, mate, before I shove them where the sun don't shine," A familiar voice shouted from inside the TARDIS.

That's when the Doctor knew exactly what was going on at last and realized just how much trouble that he was really in this time.

"Rose?" Clara asked in complete shock as Rose Tyler and the Metacrisis Doctor were brought out of the TARDIS in chains.

"I'm sorry, Clara. She snuck into our house and stole the TARDIS right under our noses. Bad Wolf was the only thing that protected me from having my memories completely erased of the real world. I'm lucky that it worked at all because she blocked my powers somehow with some kind of jamming device on her wrist. She has all kinds of neat little toys that she can use to do all sorts of unpleasant things, yeah? Her world's scientists seem to be even more advanced than Torchwood was," Rose said in a defeated voice.

"Now I finally understand, Clara. I understand all of it at last," The Doctor said with a sigh.

A sudden look of realization came over Clara's face now as she finally worked it all out as well and said, "Of course, Chinny. That was the only thing that it could be, wasn't it?"

Ace rolled her eyes as she said, "I'm glad that someone understands because I really need some enlightening right now, Mama Bear."

Clara winced at her new nickname for her even as she explained, "This is the Klein of Pete's World, Leather Girl. Obviously the Doctor of that world undid her original timeline but wasn't around for her to find when she became the only one left who remembered it. He was probably killed along with the rest of the Time Lords in that universe by that insane version of me from another reality who wiped them all out. Unfortunately for us though she did come across Rose's Doctor and stole his TARDIS instead."

"And then she used it to turn Pete's World back into Klein's World. Yeah, I get it now, Mama Bear. I just don't like it very much," Ace said as she finished the story for her.

Klein laughed as she said, "You're really not going to like it in a minute when I finish solidifying the force field around this building to keep the rest of the world out, Ace. That's when you'll be completely at my mercy at last, and I'll finally get my revenge on both you and the Doctor once and for all."

"I don't think so. I don't know what your game is or why you're wearing that face but this ends here," A woman's voice said behind the Doctor.

A very familiar voice.

Klein now looked completely shaken as she stared at the other woman and said, "What is this? How can this be?"

"That's exactly what I'd like to know. Care to explain, Doctor?" The other Dr. Elizabeth Klein said as she pointed a gun at her other self.

"Well, it's fairly simple really. Klein meet . . . Klein," The Doctor said in a sheepish voice.

"Let's explain things a little further than that, shall we?" The original Klein said in an irritated voice.

"Yes, well. You remember how you found out what you used to be, right? Right. So you're the Klein from our universe and this is a version of you from another reality who's still a Nazi and has used another version of me to take over her Earth and make it just like her original timeline which was also just like your original timeline. Now she's come to kill me and turn this world into a copy of hers too or in your case she'll make it just your original one. That should explain it simply enough I think. Any questions?" The Doctor asked with a mad grin.

"He's a complete idiot in any universe isn't he?" The Pete's World Klein said to her counterpart.

"Yes, on that we're both agreed I think," The original Klein said with a groan.

"Put the gun down or my soldiers will cut you and the others down where you stand. I only want the Doctor and Ace dead. The rest of you may still be useful to me especially you since you're another version of me. Your knowledge and intelligence may be essential to our overall goals. So what do you say?" The Pete World's Klein asked the original Klein.

"No. I won't ever go down that path again," The original Klein said defiantly.

"Too bad. I might have enjoyed having another me around. Kill them all," The Pete's World Klein said with what almost looked like regret on her face.

As the soldiers behind the Pete's World Klein prepared to open fire, Clara knew that she had to act quickly in order to stop them. Otherwise her soon to be marriage to the Doctor was going to end before it had even gotten started.

"We're never going to have a simple mother-daughter bonding day are we, Mum?" Merry suddenly asked from behind her.

"Doesn't look like it, sweetie. I'll guess this will just have to do for quality family time won't it? I'm sorry, Merry," Clara said with regret.

"It's okay. At least I'm finally getting to spend some time with you anyway," Merry said in an optimistic tone.

Clara couldn't help but smile at her for that. Only her Merry could think of the current situation in that way.

Then her smile immediately faded as the soldiers all began to squeeze the triggers of their guns at once.

Next: Can Clara save everyone from being gunned down by the alternate Nazis? Can the other Klein be defeated and will Pete's World's timeline ever be set back on its proper course once more? More importantly, is Merry ever going to have anything close to approaching a normal childhood? I mean really.