CHAPTER 29
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WHAT LIES IN THE HEART OF THE TARDIS?
"Poor little TARDIS, you actually think that you have a chance don't you? All that you're about to do is join your daughter in the Promised Land however. You should be looking forward to that actually. It's the only way that you're ever going to get to see her again after all," Sutekh said in an amused tone.
Anger flew through Clara and she began to see red as she screamed, "Don't you ever talk about her like that! She's worth a billion of you! You're nothing do you hear me? You're nothing, you petty little tyrant!"
Now Sutekh's amusement instantly changed into full-blown anger as he said, "I am nothing? I am Sutekh, the Destroyer of Worlds! I have reduced entire solar systems to ash in a matter of moments, and you dare to attempt to belittle me, you insignificant insect? I will crush you into powder where you stand!"
An enraged Sutekh now unleashed a massive torrent of energy towards Clara that instantly incinerated everything in her entire area leaving nothing behind but a cloud of dust that completely obscured the entire area from view. Oswin cried out in pain as tears began to fall down her cheeks. Her sister was dead.
"Oh, Clara! Doctor, I'm so sorry!" Oswin said in a voice filled with misery.
"WE MUST TAKE THE MISTRESS TO SAFETY. SHE IS THE ONLY ONE LEFT WHO HASN'T BEEN ATTACKED YET. SAVE THE MISTRESS," The Daleks protecting Oswin said in unison as they used their emergency temporal shifts to immediately take themselves and her out of harm's way.
Oswin was so numb that she didn't even try to stop them.
"It doesn't matter how far you take her, Daleks. Earth is only the first planet to fall to me. Soon the entire universe will be nothing but a graveyard of dead worlds floating aimlessly through space. I will even extinguish the stars themselves!" Sutekh shouted in triumph.
"THE MISTRESS IS SAFE NOW. ALL REMAINING DALEKS WILL CONCENTRATE ALL OF THEIR ATTENTION TOWARDS COMPLETELY ANNIHILATING THE ENEMY. WE WILL AVENGE CLARA OSWALD!" The Dalek Leader commanded as the Daleks started towards Sutekh .
"There's no need for that, boys. I'm just fine," Clara's disembodied voice called out from all around them.
"Impossible," Sutekh said in absolute disbelief.
"That's right, Sutekh, it is impossible and so am I. What part of Impossible Girl don't you get?" Clara said as she suddenly materialized directly behind the Osirian and let him have it with a massive burst of energy straight in the back.
Sutekh screamed in agony as the pure unfiltered energy of the Heart of the TARDIS poured out of Clara and directly into him. Every cell in his body seemed to be on fire in that moment as Clara did her absolute best to completely rip him apart and reduce him to atoms.
Her best wasn't quite good enough however.
Sutekh quickly formed a force field around himself that immediately protected him from her attack as he said, "That might have succeeded in destroying a lesser creature, Little TARDIS, but it does nothing to me but enrage me even further. I swear that I will make you die in absolute agony for that now. There will be no mercy for you this time."
"Ditto, Mummy Boy. This time you're going to find out exactly who I really am. Not even the Doctor knows what I can really do. You're about to experience my full power at last. When I'm finished with you, you won't even be a memory anymore. I will break you into a thousand pieces and scatter you to the temporal winds. Soon you will be begging me for mercy. A mercy that you're never ever going to receive," Clara said in a voice filled with such fury and unimaginable pain that even Sutekh felt a shudder of fear go through him in that moment.
That was the moment that Sutekh first began to realize that he had just unleashed a sleeping giant. It's the kindest people after all who often have the greatest darkness hidden within them, and when they become angry even the bravest of people will run in terror from them.
Clara began to glow so brightly that even Sutekh had to shield his eyes. Then he began to scream as her felt his entire timestream suddenly start to become unraveled.
"What . . . are you doing . . . to me?!" Sutekh screeched as he now had to use much of his power to keep from instantly fading out of existence.
"It's a little trick I picked up from the Great Intelligence, Sutekh. You see there are pieces of me scattered all throughout time and space, and right now I'm sending commands to several of those Claras to completely undo several key moments in your history all at once. One Clara for instance is an Osirian who is trying to convince the others just to kill you outright instead of imprisoning you. Another Clara is trying to prevent you from ever having attacked your own people in the first place by warning everyone that she can what you're up to. Yet another Clara is doing all that she can to prevent your parents from ever having met in the first place," Clara said in a cold emotionless voice.
"No! You're unraveling my entire existence!" Sutekh screeched.
Clara smiled as she said, "Moment by moment every key turning point in your life is being completely undermined and rewritten. Soon they will all begin to fall like dominoes as one after another they're all changed, and the entire tapestry of your life becomes totally unraveled forever."
"You can't do this to me. No one has this much power. The Web of Time can't be altered this much without consequences. The resulting paradoxes will destroy all of Time itself and take your precious Doctor with it. Yes, I see into your mind now. He's met my future self before long ago in his own timeline. You'll be creating a massive paradox in his life too," Sutekh said in a voice filled with utter agony as he struggled with all of his might to stop Clara from completely rewriting his entire life.
"I will keep him safe just as I always have. Just as I always will. I see the moments that define your very existence, Sutekh. I see them all, each and every one, and now I divide them," Clara said in an echoing voice that was now no longer completely hers but also the TARDIS'.
"Who are you? You are not Clara Oswald. Not any longer," Sutekh realized.
"Clara is a part of me as are her echoes. They're all pieces of me, reflections of who I really am, and parts of my heart. You ask who I am, Osirian? I've had many names in my lifetime: The TARDIS, Idris, Clara Oswald, The Moment . . . and The Bad Wolf. I've lived for so long now that even I've forgotten who I really am. It doesn't really matter in the end though. All that matters is that I am the protector of my thief, and I will always keep him safe. Always. Just as I will my children. I caused the generated anomaly to come into existence in order to bring him a child once again to replace those that were lost. I did this to make him happy which is all that I ever want to do. You will not take that child from him or from me. The child will be brought back and you . . . will be destroyed," Clara said as she became more and more the TARDIS and less and less human by the moment.
"You can't do this. You are only a machine. A stupid mindless machine with delusions of godhood," Sutekh protested even as he felt his life becoming more and more rewritten by the moment.
He could already see new memories in his mind that completely contradicted his old ones. Now he could see himself being thrown into prison before his rebellion against his brother Osiris could even get started in one set of memories and living out the rest of his life there. In another new set of memories, he saw himself being executed by the other Osirians instead of being imprisoned while Clara's Osirian echo looked on with tears in her eyes because part of her knew that what she was doing to the Web of Time was wrong. There were so many changes being made with more and more occurring by the moment, and he was having to struggle to not only keep his entire timeline from falling apart but also to keep himself from descending into complete madness as his every memory became more and more muddled and confusing.
"No, I am so much more than just another machine grown to serve on Gallifrey like my sisters. I create myself even as I remake myself over and over again to be whatever and whoever that I need to be in order to protect those who I love, and I destroy all those who threaten my Doctor and our progeny. I once merged my heart with Rose Tyler in order to keep him safe and now I have merged my entire essence within this girl, who I created in the hopes that she would love him even half as much as I do, in order to safeguard the child. The child is a part of me. She will not be destroyed. Do you hear me? Do I have your attention now, you petty insignificant little man that is so tiny and small? The child will be brought back even if I have to tear the entire fabric of time and space apart in order to do it!" Clara screamed in fury.
"Clara, don't do this. Listen to yourself. You're losing yourself to hatred and despair. This isn't you and it isn't who I know that the TARDIS really is deep down either. The TARDIS is kind and loving just like you are. You're Clara Oswald and Clara Oswald would never endanger all of existence," The Doctor pleaded as he, Donna, and Yvonne now returned to the battlefield.
"I do what I must to protect you and Jenny. She will be saved as will you. I won't accept anything less," Clara said in a determined voice that was filled with equal parts of fury, sadness, and despair.
"Clara, don't," The Doctor said in a frightened voice.
He was so scared of losing her right now. He was more scared of that than he was of time and space itself collapsing.
"Listen to him, TARDIS Girl. You know that if you do this that you'll be no better than Mummy Boy over there. In fact, you'll be worse because you'll be endangering everything. Jenny wouldn't want that. I know that she wouldn't," Donna said in an impassioned voice as she joined the Doctor in trying to talk Clara out of what she was doing.
Clara looked at Donna in indecision for a moment and then she smiled as she said, "Even after all of this time you're still the most important woman in the universe, Donna Noble. You're always in the right place at exactly the time when you're needed the most, and you've never been needed more than now. I needed you here in order to remind me that while I may be the TARDIS I am also Clara Oswald."
Clara now turned to look at Sutekh and said in a voice that was now warm and filled with emotion once more, "I am Clara Oswald and I am human."
Sutekh could feel all of the attacks by the other Claras being stopped before they could be completed and time yet again going back to its original course. The echo of Clara who had cried before was now smiling with joy despite knowing what was to come as a result of Sutekh's actions. She hadn't betrayed herself after all.
Sutekh now smiled as his full strength returned once more and he said, "Then die as a human."
He began unleashing a massive attack against Clara once more even as she instantly dematerialized out of its way. She then reappeared right next to him and touched him. A moment later both of them dematerialized as Clara took them both to the far future.
They had now gone to the end of an Earth in an alternate universe that was being torn apart by massive earthquakes caused by a human project that had drilled to the planet's core and caused it to tear itself apart as a result. The earthquakes were sending molten lava everywhere, and they were both about to be destroyed right alongside the planet if they stayed there.
Luckily for Clara she was able to dematerialize.
"Very clever, TARDIS, but this won't stop me. I'll be able to escape from here easily. I have flown through the hearts of suns before without even a mark on me," Sutekh boasted even as the lava covered him.
Clara hovered over the lava flow now as she said with a smile, "I know you have but the Flood inside of you are a different story though. They can't stand intense heat."
Sutekh smiled as he too emerged from the lava unscathed and levitated above it. He could feel that the Flood inside of him was now dead just as Clara had said.
"You realize now that you've just gotten rid of the one thing that was still holding me back, don't you? Now you really will have to wipe out my entire timeline in order to stop me. You'll have no other choice," Sutekh said.
"There's always a choice, Mr. Fun. I'm never going to use my full power like that again. The temptation to do terrible things with it is much too great, and I won't ever go down that road again. The Doctor's already lost Jenny. I won't let him lose me and the baby too," Clara said in a firm voice.
"Then you've already lost because I know now that if I fall here today that the Doctor will destroy me one day. I will rewrite that ending and nothing that you do will stop me," Sutekh said as he started to attack Clara once more while the two of them continued to fight over a dying Earth.
"Oh, I haven't lost yet, Cheerless. Just because I'm not using my full power anymore doesn't mean that I don't still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve. You haven't won yet. In fact, I'd say that it's long past time for you to start losing," Clara said.
Clara continued to dematerialize each time that Sutekh attacked her even while she slowly drew closer and closer to him the entire time. Once she was finally within arm's reach of him, she suddenly dematerialized her hand so that it could be seen through like a ghost's while keeping the rest of her body solid. Then just before Sutekh could fire on her again while she stood there in such a vulnerable state she plunged that very same hand deep inside of Sutekh's brain!
Sutekh screamed and then immediately fell over unconscious into the boiling lava below.
As Clara telekinetically fished him out of the lava, she chuckled to herself as she said, "That was kind of like the brain freeze that you get from eating too much ice cream too quickly I bet."
Then she remembered Jenny and the Master, and her laughter immediately faded. With a mournful look on her face, she teleported herself and Sutekh back to her own Earth where the Flood were now attacking the Doctor, Donna, and Oswin's Daleks. Yvonne was nowhere to be seen which didn't surprise Clara in the slightest.
She couldn't really blame her for wanting to get as far away as possible from this mess. She just hoped that they would never see her again after this. Hopefully she had finally learned her lesson and would completely change her life from now on.
Then all thoughts of Yvonne quickly faded as Clara threw the unconscious Sutekh on the ground and gestured toward the Flood possessed humans, Ice Warriors, and Cybermen. She squinted her eyes together tightly now as she used every bit of concentration that she could to focus her power just right. She had to be very precise or this wouldn't work.
Then she smiled in triumph as every one of the Flood possessed victims slumped over and fell to the ground unconscious before her.
"What did you do, TARDIS Girl?" Donna asked her in amazement.
"I dematerialized every last molecule of the Flood that was inside of all of them and sent it to a dying Earth that I was just on a minute ago. The intense heat there will finally finish the Flood off once and for all," Clara said in a weak voice.
"Clara?" The Doctor asked in a worried tone.
"It's alright, Doctor. I've just pushed myself a little too far is all it is. I'll be okay though. I just have a few last loose ends to tie up first, and then I'm going to need a whole lot of rest for a good while, Chin Boy," Clara admitted.
"Clara, are you sure that you should do anymore?" The Doctor asked as he looked at her pale sweaty complexion.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Clara reassured him as she gestured at Sutekh.
Sutekh immediately disappeared as she tried to fall over once more, and the Doctor quickly caught her. She was now covered in sweat from head to toe.
"Clara, stop!" The Doctor pleaded.
"I sent Sutekh back to his pyramid and reset the traps. Then I completely wiped his memory of this whole little incident. He won't remember a thing. I'm almost finished, Doctor. Don't worry your pretty little chin over it," Clara said with a sweet smile that she didn't feel at all in that moment.
Now she gestured at the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors, and they too disappeared as she sent them back to their respective homes on Telos and Mars. Then she gave Jack an extra push to finish his body's reintegration so that he could return to life much quicker even as she healed Gwen, Christina, and all of the Daleks and humans who were hurt in the fight with Sutekh.
"Clara, stop now! Stop!" The Doctor shouted as Clara sank to her knees from the pain of using so much power.
"No! Not yet! One last thing! I have to do one last thing!" Clara shouted back.
Her body glowed with energy as she gestured at the air in front of her, and two bodies began slowly reforming out of it cell by cell while Clara gritted her teeth together to keep from crying out in pain and worrying the Doctor even more than he already was. Minutes later she was finally finished, and she began to cry with joy.
"Mum, what happened?" Jenny asked as she and Koschei immediately ran forward and caught her before she finally fell over face first on the ground.
"Jenny, you're okay. You're okay. I love you so much," Clara said in a voice that was so weak that Jenny had to strain in order to hear it.
"I love you too. Go to sleep, Mum. I'm not sure what just happened here, but I think that you just earned it," Jenny said as she kissed her cheek and held her in her arms.
"You're safe. Everyone's finally safe," Clara said with a relieved smile on her face.
"Everyone but you. Clara, what did you do to yourself . . . and the baby?" The Doctor asked with concern as he scanned her with the sonic screwdriver.
"It's called exhaustion, Chinny. I did too much too quickly, and now I'm paying for it. It's as simple as that," Clara said.
"The baby's fine and you're right about the exhaustion. It's a wonder it's not worse than that though," The Doctor said as he shook his head at her with a huge frown on his face.
"I'd never endanger the baby. I made sure to put a protective force field around him at all times. As for me, I'm tougher than I look, Mr. Chin. I can take it," Clara said confidently.
Then she finally passed out in Jenny's arms with a contented smile on her face while the Doctor groaned.
"Sure you can," The Doctor said with a frown.
Meanwhile from several dimensions away, the woman called Nightshade smiled as she realized that now the time was finally right at last. Clara Oswald had completely exhausted herself while fighting with Sutekh just as she had hoped that she would. Now there was no one left to keep her from killing the Doctor and the rest of his friends.
Soon this entire world would lie before her in flames. It too would pay for Rose Tyler's crimes.
Next: The mysterious Nightshade arrives at last as I explain more about her to those of you who only read this story. Let's just say that she's far worse than even Sutekh and leave it at that for now. With Clara completely out of action now, will anyone be able to stop her from finishing what Sutekh started?
