CHAPTER 3
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WHO IS NIGHTSHADE?
"Tell me, Cassiopeia, how do you think that your mother will handle watching you die for the second and final time? Can you even imagine what imaginable pain that you're about to put her through?" Nightshade said with a smug smile on her face as she faced off against Cassiopeia.
"You really are a sadistic monster aren't you? You're enjoying this. You're actually enjoying this!" Cassiopeia said in disbelief.
"Why shouldn't I? I've had to suffer so much because of your mother. My every hope and dream has been shattered to pieces because of her. It's long past time that she was paid back for that. It's more than that though. She's been upsetting the natural order of things for far too long now by changing things left and right based on her own judgment of what should and shouldn't be with a level of power that no one has a right to have. She's unnaturally changed this timeline one time too many and now Time itself has brought me back in order to put an end to that. Don't you see, Cassiopeia? This is the way that it's supposed to be. It's destiny that I've returned when I have," Nightshade said with an almost fanatical gleam in her eyes.
"Or maybe you're just a complete psychopath who's justifying every rotten little thing that they do by saying that a higher power than them wanted them to do it. Trust me. I've been there. It doesn't make you feel any better at the end of the day though. It's just one long convenient lie," Cassiopeia said.
Nightshade's face twisted with fury at her words as she said, "What do you know about anything, girl? You've been nothing but a mind-controlled pawn most of your life and a cosmic jackanapes for the rest of it. You were no better than your father in the last few months as you traveled throughout time in your TARDIS interfering whenever and however you liked with no rhyme or reason. You know nothing of the inner workings of the universe and despite what you were forced into doing you don't know a thing about true darkness. I think it's long past time that I gave you a lesson in it though. It will be your final one just before you die."
That was when Nightshade began to attack Cassiopeia with a massive blast of energy as Rose screamed, "No! Leave her alone!"
Nightshade smiled in triumph as she imagined Cassiopeia disintegrating right in front of them in a moment. Surely Rose would lose her self-control and show her true nature now.
Unfortunately for Nightshade, Cassiopeia didn't play along with her game. Just before the massive blast would have hit her, Cassiopeia suddenly disappeared into thin air.
It was almost as if she had never even been there at all.
"What?" Nightshade asked in confusion.
"Now!" River shouted.
That was when several versions of the Doctor's TARDIS materialized around Nightshade in a circle completely surrounding her. Before Nightshade could even attempt to understand what was going on, her mind suddenly started to feel like it was being ripped apart as unimaginable pain tore through it. Nightshade started to wail in agony as River smiled at Cassiopeia.
"What's . . . going on?" Rose asked in an even weaker voice than before.
River smiled as she said, "Well, I figured since you called so many Doctors here to help that they might as well be useful for something. So I used a hologram of Cass to lure Nightshade away from you, and then I put an extra special plan of mine into action. I talked a few of the alternate Doctors into using their TARDIS' telepathic circuits to boost their own brain power and then had them all simultaneously attack Nightshade's mind at once with a massive psychic blast. Now it's time to initiate Phase Two while she's distracted. Cassiopeia, would you do the honors?"
Cassiopeia smiled as she fired one arrow after another into the momentarily paralyzed Nightshade in rapid succession. Now Nightshade began to visibly weaken as each of the arrows immediately started to take effect.
River smiled in triumph as she said, "I bet you're wondering what was in those, dear. Some of the arrowheads contain particles of Vortex shielding that will immediately spread out through your entire bloodstream completely blocking you from the Vortex so that you can't use your powers. Others are filled with Treswines Radiation which Rose has a deadly allergy to and I know that you do too. And the rest . . . are filled with energy from the Key to Time."
Nightshade practically hissed at her as River said with a smirk, "That's right, dear. I know exactly who you are because I've studied the blood that you so graciously left behind in my TARDIS when you attacked me. It revealed all sorts of interesting secrets about you that I couldn't wait to capitalize on as soon as possible. Once I knew your true identity, I realized right away that I could use your weakness to the energy of the Key against you. I'm hitting you with four different devastating, punishing attacks at once now. Feel free to keel over at any time."
"I hope she doesn't personally. I'm not through beating her to a pulp just yet," Amy said in an angry voice.
"I'm fine now, Mother. You worry about me far too much. They don't call me the universe's most dangerous woman because I'm easy to kill," River reassured her.
"I'm your mother, Melody. I'll worry about you all I want. That's my job. It's also my job to rip anybody apart who dares to lay a hand on you. Let's not even go into the fact that I've wanted a piece of this woman ever since I realized that she was after Rose. I'm tired of people like her messing around with my family. It's about time that they learned that if they bother them they're going to have to answer to me, and I think we both know who's the most dangerous between us, Mels," Amy said.
River smiled as she said, "Dad would certainly agree with that."
"Would he now? I'll just have to have a little talk with him later about that then won't I?" Amy said as she smiled back at her.
"I'm so glad that very soon now that such sickening displays will quickly become a long-buried part of the past," Nightshade said as she attacked both Amy and River at once with a massive blast of energy that immediately knocked them both out cold.
Cassiopeia, who had been left to face her all on her own, stared at her in horror as she saw that there were now two Nightshades. One of them was still being attacked by the Doctors while the other flashed Cassiopeia a deadly smile that sent chills running down her spine.
"Confused, child? Let's just say that I learned a trick or two from Oswin Oswald's friend, Angela, who can create perfect duplicates of herself by asexual reproduction," Nightshade said.
"Oi, that's way too much information, Poison Girl! I'd really rather not hear about your personal life if you don't mind. What you get up to in the privacy of your own home should stay there as far as I'm concerned," Donna said as she and the rest of the Bad Wolves picked that moment to intervene.
"You know you really should be thanking me, Donna. If it wasn't for me, most of you would be dead right now. I'm the one who saved you all from Missy when she had all but slaughtered the lot of you because I wanted her to think that Rose had done it so that she would go after her. Don't make me regret that decision," Nightshade said.
"Oh, you're going to have plenty of regrets besides that to worry about soon. The biggest one is going to be what you've done to Rose. Rose is my friend, Lady, and no one does that to anyone that I care about and gets away with it," Donna said.
"That's right, whoever you are. All of the Doctor's friends look after him and his family because they're like a part of our own family. No one touches any of them without having to go through all of us first," Martha Jones said.
Nightshade laughed as she said, "Gladly. You've all had this coming for a very long time now for helping those two interfering Time Lords for as long as you have. I'm going to truly enjoy crushing each and every one of you. First though, I'm going to free my other self. Ladies, snap to it!"
Suddenly Nightshade began to start creating several different copies of herself, and each one rushed towards a different TARDIS in order to attack its Doctor. The Bad Wolves rushed forward to help the Doctors, but they were quickly halted in their tracks by the first Nightshade copy who started to attack them with a series of deadly energy blasts.
Cassiopeia tried to help the Wolves by attacking the copy from behind, but all that earned her was a quick back-handed slap that immediately sent her crashing to the floor in a daze.
"I'll get to you in a minute, child. Kindly wait your turn," Nightshade said with an evil chuckle.
Then she proceeded to continue tearing into the ranks of the Bad Wolves as one after another of them fell before her in rapid succession. Somehow by sheer luck none of them were killed even though Nightshade was definitely not pulling any punches. In only a matter of moments, every last one of the Wolves lay before her in utter defeat as she laughed gleefully.
"If that was the best that this universe could do, Rose, it truly doesn't deserve to exist," Nightshade said as she finally returned her attention to Rose at last.
"Oh, I think you'll find out that there's still a bit of fight in this universe yet," Rose said in a voice so low that Nightshade had to strain in order to hear it.
Nightshade laughed as she said, "That probably would have sounded far more convincing if you had actually been able to speak, Rose. As it is, it just sounds incredibly pathetic."
Then she sighed in relief as she said, "Ah, the last Doctor who was attacking the original me has fallen to my other selves. Now all I have to do is purge my original self of those pesky arrows and all of the things that came from them before they kill her. That shouldn't be too hard."
Nightshade concentrated for a moment and then the arrows all fell out of her original body as it teleported away from where it was and reappeared next to her. The original Nightshade smiled as she already started to feel better.
"Good job. You only teleported my body and left all of the contaminants in it behind. I'm completely back to normal now," The original Nightshade said to her copy with a grateful smile.
Then she killed her with a single blast that utterly disintegrated her! She then did the same thing to all of her other copies until she was the only one left.
"There's gratitude for you," Rose said with a faint smile.
"They all had their purpose, Rose, and they fulfilled it. End of story. There can only be one me," Nightshade said with no concern whatsoever.
Then she smiled as she saw Cassiopeia still lying unconscious on the floor. She moved towards her with glowing hands as she said, "Now where were we? Oh, yes. I was just about to kill her and make you watch."
Rose began to become filled with terror as she desperately hoped that someone, anyone, would come to help her in time. No one else was coming though. Everyone in the immediate area was all in various states of unconsciousness at the moment, and the others were still locked in combat with Missy's androids. They were far too busy to notice what was going on here.
Rose now knew for sure that she was all alone. Her vision was finally about to come true at last.
Both she and Cassiopeia were going to die.
Meanwhile in the rest of the TARDIS, the Matriarch felt like she was dying herself as she fell to the floor while Missy's androids continued to relentlessly hammer her with one devastating attack after another. She knew that if she didn't get away from them soon that she would be dead within minutes.
Then she began to smile despite the intense pain that she was in as a plan formed in her mind and she said to herself, "If this doesn't work, it's going to be the stupidest plan in all of history. If it does though, it's going to be so cool."
The Matriarch gestured towards her attackers with every bit of power that she had left and crossed her fingers as she desperately hoped against hope that it would work. Suddenly the androids attacking her had liquid soufflé mix pouring out of every joint and opening in their bodies.
The Matriarch smiled as she slowly got back on her feet while she said, "What's the matter, guys? Feeling a bit under the weather?"
The androids screeched in protest before they all fell over and began to short circuit and catch on fire. The Matriarch's soufflé mix was completely ruining their inner circuitry and permanently jamming up their internal mechanisms.
"Feel the power of the soufflé!" The Matriarch proclaimed in triumph.
"That has to be the stupidest victory I've ever seen in my life and that's saying something," Oswin said behind her.
The Matriarch immediately whirled around even while she secretly hoped that she could avoid a fight with the other Clara until she could fully regain her strength. She decided to try to stall her instead.
"You just wish that you'd thought of it first. Admit it. That was impressive," The Matriarch said.
Oswin smiled and said, "Yeah, okay. It was kind of cool. That's only because it worked though. It was still incredibly stupid no matter how you look at it."
"I never said it wasn't. I'd like to see you do better with your back to the wall though," The Matriarch said.
"You're stalling for time aren't you? They really weakened you didn't they?" Oswin said with a knowing smile.
The Matriarch frowned knowing that she could never fool another Clara since she knew exactly how she thought and said, "So are we going to fight to the death now? Is that it?"
Oswin seemed to fight an internal war with herself for a moment and then said, "I'm worried about Rose especially since Clara told me about the visions of doom that she's been having. I want to find her before it's too late, and I don't want to waste valuable time with you that I could have spent looking for her. So here's the deal. You agree to let me pass without trying to stop me and I won't bother you. Deal?"
The Matriarch smiled and nodded as she said, "Deal. Don't think this makes us friends though. I will kill you later if I have to without a second thought."
Oswin looked at her sadly as she said in disgust, "I really don't see how you could be me in any way. Just go before I change my mind."
"I didn't say I wanted to do it. There's a difference," The Matriarch said as she walked away from her.
"Not to me," Oswin said as she hurried off to find Rose.
The Matriarch meanwhile continued on through the TARDIS until she came across Merlin, Nimueh, and Sophia along with several Doctors and their companions who were desperately fighting the androids but didn't seem to be getting too far with them.
"So does anyone else think that this is a losing battle?" Sophia the Sidhe said as she used her mystic staff to blow a massive hole in an android that quickly began to seal itself up thanks to the nanites in its circuitry.
Merlin shook his head vigorously while he temporarily destroyed several androids by telekinetically smashing them into one another as he said, "If there's one thing that I've learned in dealing with what seems like a new and different enemy every week it's that everything has a weakness. It's just a matter of finding it. We can beat them, Soph. We just need to figure out how."
"I hate to break it to you, Little Brother, but I don't think that these things have any weaknesses. They certainly haven't shown any so far, and it's not been from lack of trying to find them on my part," Sophia said as she continued to blow apart one android after another only to have them start to repair themselves once more.
"Explain to me again why I'm the Little Brother, Soph, especially since we're not even really related," Merlin said as he melted several androids with mystic blasts of energy from his hands.
"Because I said so. That good enough for you?" Sophia said with a chuckle.
Nimueh rolled her eyes at them as she said, "I can't believe that you two are still having this same stupid conversation. I've been listening to this almost from the day you first met. Do you ever plan on stopping? If not, just tell me so that I can walk in front of one of these machines and let it finish me right now."
Then she immediately proceeded to blow apart a dozen androids at once with a massive lightning bolt from her hand.
"Yeah, somehow I don't think that I have to worry about them hurting you," Merlin said with a grin.
Nimueh kissed him as she said, "Probably not, no. I'm not making much progress in stopping them either though. At this rate, we'll never stop Missy's plans not to mention get our hands on Nightshade, and I really owe her one for what she did to Morgana. She twisted her into some dark, hate-filled version of herself that I barely recognize anymore. I'm not about to let her get away with that either. When I see her, I'm not going to hold back. I'm not going to stop until I completely tear her apart."
"What happened to your code against killing?" Merlin asked in a worried voice.
Nimueh smiled as she said, "Don't worry. I'm not going back to my old ways. I don't honestly think that I can kill her. Not permanently anyway. It would be nice to make her suffer a little though. Now that would be worth bending my own rules for a little especially after all of the trouble that she's caused us back home."
The Matriarch smiled to herself as she realized that this was yet another person from another reality who Nightshade had seriously ticked off. She really would love to see her go down to one or more of these people. She would probably even help them herself.
Then she smiled to herself with an evil smirk as she suddenly thought that that wasn't such a bad idea. Why not help the others against their common enemy? She immediately turned invisible and then began concentrating on the androids as she tried not to laugh.
She would help them defeat the others in secret and then when they were lulled into a false sense of security that's when she would attack!
"What the?! What's happening?" Sophia asked in surprise as liquid soufflé mix suddenly started pouring out of every android around her.
"Are you doing this?" Merlin asked Nimueh.
"No, it's not me. I don't even know what that stuff is much less how to make it," Nimueh said in a mystified voice.
"I know what it is. It's soufflé mix. What I can't figure out is how it got inside of them," Baroness Clara said in disbelief.
"Yet another way in which soufflés can be a deadly weapon," Baroness Clara's Reinette joked.
"Oh, shut up, Jeanne," Baroness Clara said with a smile.
The Matriarch chuckled at their utter cluelessness. This was fun. It was going to be even more fun later when she revealed herself to all of them. They were really going to have a dumbstruck look on their stupid faces then.
For now though she continued to proceed through the ship stopping Missy's shiny new toys wherever she found them and slowly freeing up the others to fight elsewhere. Maybe some of them would even go on to attack Nightshade or Missy.
She could dream couldn't she?
At that very moment in every universe in creation a massive army was rapidly sweeping across the face of every reality. Some of them had only conquered one small corner of their universe, some of them had already conquered entire galaxies, and others had nearly taken their entire dimension. They all operated at different speeds but one thing was constant no matter what universe they were in. No one could stand against the Time Lords as they used their vast control over time and space to slowly dominate every part of their respective realities.
Soon there wouldn't be an independent thought left anywhere in the multiverse.
Even as this was going on, back on the Gallifrey that Missy's TARDIS had landed on meanwhile Missy was still facing off against the Doctor and Clara as they used weapon after weapon in their new arsenal against her. From the Black Scrolls of Rassilon to the Tear of Isha to the segments of the Key to Time itself, the Doctor and Clara had been using them all to relentlessly hammer away at Missy for some time now without stopping.
The Doctor could tell that she was weakening despite her continual nonsensical banter and the lack of any concern on her features. He knew her too well to fall for her bluffs. They were very close to having her on the ropes now. It would only take a little while longer.
What was really worrying him was Missy's army of Time Lords in each reality that were already doing who knew how much damage to their respective universes on her behalf. How could they possibly stop them now?
He already had a few ideas about that actually and he knew that if he did the other him would too so that wasn't really what was worrying him though.
No what was worrying him was the fact that Rose had slipped away from him in the confusion of the battle. He knew that River and Cassiopeia had gone after her right away once they realized that she was gone and that River had a plan to defeat Nightshade. He didn't know what the plan was, but he knew that it existed. River always had a plan.
No plan of River's could possibly make him feel better about Rose not being by his side though. He didn't want to be there fighting with Missy. All he wanted at that moment was to be with Rose.
All he wanted was to protect her because if he ever lost her again he would no longer care about protecting anything else. Who cared if he saved the universe if he lost her?
"Go," The Doctor from Missy's reality suddenly said to him breaking him out of his thoughts.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Go to her. I know you want to. Go find her and help her. Both of you. Clara and I can take it from here," The Doctor from Missy's world said in a firm tone.
Clara looked at the Doctor hesitantly and then said, "Doctor, let's go. I want to help her too. I'm worried about her. I feel like something's wrong."
"I do too," The Doctor admitted.
Then he quickly handed all of the weapons to his counterpart while Clara did the same to hers. The two of them raced off to find Rose even as the other Doctor said in a low voice, "At least one of us should get to spend the rest of our lives with her."
The other Clara smiled at him and kissed the side of his mouth as she overheard this.
"You old softy," She said.
"Not from where I'm sitting he isn't. That last attack really hurt. So, Doctor, it's just you and me now just like it should be. You're just wasting your time though. My loyal soldiers are still going to plant my umbrella down on every world in the multiverse and mark it as mine. Then they'll be coming for our universe and your precious Earth. Even if you do manage to defeat me, life as you know it will never be the same again. You can't defeat them all. Not even you can think your way out of this one," Missy said with a confident smile.
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that. You said that they would only obey you, but you're not the only Master in town, Laughing Girl," Master/Clara said as she suddenly appeared to join Missy's Doctor.
"And not all of us want to see you in control of the entire multiverse especially after you threatened to kill my daughter," Koschei said as he joined the others.
"Or kidnapped me," The Master of Clara/Alura's universe, where Clara was a Time Lady who was one of the Doctor's oldest friends, said as Clara/Alura joined him with a triumphant grin.
"Yeah, that's right, Missy. I finally found him on your TARDIS and let him go. Now that I have I can finally turn my full attention to fighting you. I think you're about to have a change of heart and call off your people before it's too late. Don't you?" Clara/Alura said as she started to use the incredible mental powers that she had been born with to attempt to take over Missy's mind and force her into surrendering.
She hated to use her power that way, but this was definitely a special case.
"Doctor, Doctor! How far you've fallen! Do you really think that you can overcome me with a Clara knockoff and a bunch of losers who used to actually be halfway cool once until they turned all goody goody?" Missy said as she laughed at them with seemingly no concern whatsoever.
This was just an act however. She could already feel the three Masters combining their wills with Alura to overcome her mind while the Doctor and Clara of her universe did their best to wear her down physically. It was a two-pronged attack and it was already working despite her attempts to pretend that it wasn't.
She knew that if she didn't think of something quickly that they might actually succeed in getting her to call off her armies. She hated to admit it but her only hope now was Nightshade. Where was she anyway? What could possibly be keeping her?
Nightshade was about to have problems of her own at that moment though.
She was holding the still unconscious Cassiopeia up by the neck and was smiling at a severely weakened Rose as she said, "This is it, Rose. Do you have any last words that you want to say to your daughter before the end? I know that she's unconscious but maybe, just maybe mind you, she can still hear you."
"Stop this, whoever you are. Just kill me if that's what you want but leave her alone. Just leave her alone!" Rose said in tears.
Nightshade grinned from ear to ear as she said, "Kill you? Whoever said that I wanted to kill you, Rose? No, that would be far too easy. I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to take away everything that matters to you, and then when you've finally lost it all including your last bit of hope that's when I'll finally give you exactly what you deserve. That's when my revenge on you will finally be complete."
"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Rose asked in a voice filled with despair.
"You mean that you're really that stupid? You don't even have a clue? The Doctor knew. Even River knew. Don't tell me that you don't know, Rose. I know that you know! You just don't want to admit it. Tell me, Rose. Tell me who I am. Say my name!" Nightshade screamed as she held a glowing hand to Cassiopeia's head.
Rose shook with emotion as she said, "Yes, I know. I was just hoping so much that I was wrong. I know who you are."
"Say it then! Say it!" Nightshade demanded.
"Quite frankly I don't care who you are, Poison Girl. You're about to be hit with the combined mental power of a thousand Claras in a minute if you don't let that girl go right now, and then even you won't know your name anymore," Oswin said as she finally arrived at last.
Rose smiled with relief and her smile continued to widen even more as she heard a familiar voice say, "I'd listen to Clara if I were you. If you do anything to my daughter, I swear that I won't rest until I've hunted you down and completely wiped you from existence. This time I'll make sure that you never come back no matter what I have to do in order to ensure that. Don't even think that I'll hold back against you this time. Not in this incarnation."
"Doctor," Rose whispered with a warm smile.
"Rose," The Doctor said in an extremely worried voice as he could see that she could barely hold her head up now.
"What have you done to her?" Clara demanded in a furious voice.
"I've completely drained her of all of her Vortex energy now except for the bare minimum that she needs to survive. That's what I've done, Miss Oswald. She's completely helpless now with no powers at all whatsoever and not even able to stand much less walk. Now is when the real fun begins. I'm going to kill all of you and make her watch. Then I'm going to restart this entire reality so that none of this ever happened in the first place. She'll still remember though. She'll remember exactly what she's lost. I'll make sure of that," Nightshade said.
"Why are you doing this to her? What possible reason could you have to be this cruel?" Clara asked.
Nightshade practically growled at her as she said, "I have one very good reason. I was once one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and I was about to become its complete and undisputed ruler. I was so close to pulling off a complete coup d'état of the old cosmic order and totally remaking this reality in my own image. Everything everywhere would have been mine to do with as I please. Then she had to leave Pete's World and stand in my way. She took everything away from me and remade the universe as she wanted it to be instead. Then she finally killed me in one last titanic battle as I tried to regain what I had lost. I survived though. Just enough of me survived that I was able to go back in time and possess the body of Rose's sister. I was going to kill her then back before she became the White Guardian and therefore completely change the timeline, but Bella stopped me by destroying herself when she caused the lunar shuttle filled with nuclear weapons that we were on to self-destruct."
"What?" Rose asked in shock.
It wasn't her fault. Rose could scarcely believe it as she began to openly weep now.
It wasn't her fault.
"Yes, that's right. She deliberately killed herself in order to save you because she knew that you would come back to try to save her. That had been what I had been counting on as a matter of fact before she stopped me. That would have been the end even for me in my weakened state, but then almost as if I had been given a second chance again I was brought back along with Bella by Missy. She never even knew that I existed and still doesn't. She will soon though. Once I've killed all of you, she'll be next. Both her and that pathetic Matriarch. Everyone will die. I'll destroy this entire universe for what happened to me before I remake it again, and I'm going to make you watch every last minute of it, Rose! I want you to see it burn!" Nightshade screamed.
"Rose, you know who she really is, don't you? I can tell by the look on your face," Clara said as she saw Rose turn even paler than she was.
Nightshade laughed at both of them as she said, "Of course she knows. She's always known that someday somehow no matter what she did or how far she ran that I would come for her eventually. You've always known, Rose, that in the end you would eventually die at the hands of the Black Guardian!"
Next: Well, well! It seems that Missy isn't the only one who had a sex change is she? Next time it's the final chapter of this story at last as Rose and the others face off against the original Black Guardian who won't stop until everything and everyone that Rose loves is destroyed. That is if Missy's brainwashed Time Lords don't conquer everything first. Will anyone be able to stop Missy and call off her forces before it's too late? Will the Black Guardian be stopped in time before she gains her final revenge? Can anyone save Rose now or is it already too late? The final answer to that will definitely not be what you're expecting, and it will lead directly into the coming of The Storm.