CHAPTER 11

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WILL THE TRUTH COME OUT AT LAST?

"Leave her alone!" Courtney screamed as she suddenly appeared out of nowhere and rammed into Martha as hard as she could.

The impact from this surprise attack caused Martha to drop the syringe before she could give Clara the full dose of truth serum. Clara knew that it was only a matter of time before what she had been given started to affect her though, and then she wouldn't be able to lie no matter how hard that she tried.

She had to take care of Martha somehow before that happened or her secret was as good as gone.

"Now you have children fighting for you? That's a new low even for you," Martha said to Clara in disgust as she tried to pull the furious Courtney off of her without hurting her as the little girl started to punch her as hard as she could in any vulnerable spot that she could find.

"Courtney, stop!" Clara said even as a plan started to form in her mind.

She needed Martha's full attention for it to work though. She certainly couldn't have that with Courtney attacking her like she had completely lost her mind.

"I won't let her take you away just because you're an alien. You haven't done anything wrong," Courtney said in a stubborn voice as she continued to hit Martha as hard as she could.

That was when Clara saw the Doctor start to slowly come up behind Martha with a sleep patch in his hand. She had to admit that it would be a lot better than her idea. If it worked that is.

She tried to focus all of the attention in the room on Courtney now so that it would as she said, Courtney, everything's alright. I'm not going anywhere I promise."

"Don't lie to me. I'm not a little kid," Courtney protested.

"Courtney, look at me," Clara said in a commanding tone.

Courtney stopped now and looked at Clara with tears in her eyes as she said, "I won't let them take you away to experiment on you or kill you. I'll die first."

"Why am I suddenly the bad one now? How do you always do that where you make everyone think that you're the good guy? That's exactly what you did to me before when you turned everyone even my own mother against me," Martha asked Clara in disbelief as she rubbed her now heavily bruised stomach and legs.

In that moment while she was completely distracted by both Courtney and Clara, the Doctor finally slapped a sleep patch on the back of Martha's neck at last. Martha immediately started to collapse to the ground in an unconscious heap causing the Doctor to have to catch her to break her fall.

This gallant gesture left him completely unprepared however when Martha suddenly sprang back to life and injected him with a second syringe she had been carrying that wound up knocking him out cold instead of her. It was Martha's turn to keep the Doctor from hitting the ground now as she looked at him apologetically.

"I thought that you might pull that trick so I gave myself an antidote to the sleep patch before I came in here. Sorry, Doctor. I know that it's not your fault," Martha said as she gently laid him on the TARDIS floor.

"You lied, Clara. She's going to take both you and the Doctor away," Courtney said in anger.

"I'm not here for the Doctor. I just want her. She's going to pay for what she did to my family," Martha said in a cold voice as she started towards Clara once again.

"Stop this, Martha, before you wind up doing something that all of us will regret. You don't understand the whole story yet," Osgood said as she tried to get in-between the two women.

"I understand that she has everyone here under her control even the children of this school apparently. That's what I understand, Osgood. That means that I can't believe anything that any of you say," Martha said as she pushed past her.

"Martha," Lucy said in a loud voice now as she finally stepped directly into Martha's line of sight.

Martha looked at her in shock for a moment as she said, "That's impossible though. You're dead."

It was that brief moment of surprise that gave Clara just enough of an opportunity to sneak up behind Martha and grab her from behind in a headlock. By doing this, she forced her to look directly into her eyes whether she wanted to or not.

"Martha, sleep," Clara commanded as she started to use the hypnotic gaze of the Master on her at full force now.

"Oh, no you don't. You're not hypnotizing me. I came prepared for that trick too. I'm wearing special contacts that were specially designed by UNIT to protect someone from being hypnotized. They came up with that after one too many run-ins with you," Martha said with a triumphant smile.

"Did they come up with a way around this too?" Clara asked as she shot Martha in the chest at point blank range with the laser screwdriver that she had been concealing up her sleeve until that moment.

As Martha finally slumped over for real this time, it was Clara's turn to look at her apologetically as she said in a sad voice, "I'm sorry, Martha. I'm so sorry for so many things. Go to sleep for a while. I hope this will at least bring you some peace if only temporarily."

"What was her problem anyway?" Courtney said as she looked up at Clara with a relieved smile.

"She's angry over something that happened years ago, Courtney, and she has a perfect right to be too," Clara said even as she worried that the truth serum would kick in at any moment now and she'd tell her far more than that.

She had to get her out of there before she asked one question too many.

"Maybe so but I'm sure that you had nothing to do with it whatever it was. You're the sweetest person I know. She's just a nutter whoever she is blaming you like that," Courtney said without a moment's hesitation.

Clara smiled at her as she said, "Don't you have a class to be going to right now? What are you even doing here anyway? I thought you left."

"I came back because I saw her coming in here and was worried about you after I saw the angry look on her face. When I watched her actually opening the TARDIS that's when I knew that she was trouble. I quickly propped one of the TARDIS' doors open a little with a book before it could close on me and listened just outside of the doorway where she couldn't see me until I could find out exactly what she was up to," Courtney explained.

"That was brilliant as usual, Courtney. Then again I wouldn't expect anything less from you. Why don't you go on to class now? Everything's fine here at the moment so you don't have to worry anymore. I promise," Clara said in a reassuring voice.

"Well, okay. If you're sure," Courtney said in an uncertain tone as she started to leave.

"I'm sure. Go on to class, okay? I'll be there in no time so that you can have plenty of time to make fun of my extra wide face," Clara said with a warm smile.

"It's a deal," Courtney said with a large grin.

Then she suddenly kissed Clara's cheek and hugged her tightly just before saying, "If you ever tell anyone that I did that, I'll deny it."

"I wouldn't dare besmirch your bad name around here like that. Go on, you," Clara said with a chuckle.

"See you. You'd better be there too or I'll be very cross with you," Courtney warned as she raced out of the TARDIS with a brief look of concern back at her before she finally left at last.

"Finally," Clara said in relief as the TARDIS' doors closed behind her.

"How long will she be out?" Lucy asked as she looked down at a still sleeping Martha.

"At least an hour I hope. I wouldn't put it past Martha to even have a way out of this though somehow so we may not even have that long. She's really gotten good since the last time that I saw her, and she was no pushover then either. You've really got to hand it to someone who can defeat you without even firing a shot," Clara said as she looked at Martha with a smile filled with respect for her.

"What do we do with her when she does wake up though? You know that she's going to reveal who you are as soon as she can. I hate to say this but we need to wipe her memory or something somehow while we still can," Lucy suggested.

"Or we have to find some way of convincing her that she's wrong by then instead. I like that way much better really, Luce. I really don't like messing around in people's noggins anymore. It just isn't me now," Clara said.

"You were still going to put her to sleep though?" Osgood pointed out.

"Yeah, but there's a big difference between doing that and just casually wiping someone's brain clean whenever you feel like it, Inhaler Girl. I could wind up wiping half of her childhood out of I'm not careful," Clara said dismissively.

"Don't give me that. You're an expert at mental manipulation, Clara. I should know. You're just afraid of doing it because you don't want to become the Master again," Lucy said.

"Of course I am. That is what the old me would have done, Lucy. I'm not about to start making those mistakes again," Clara admitted.

"What other choice do you have though? She's never going to stop any other way," Osgood said.

"I'll find something. There's always another way, Osgood. The Doctor taught me that," Clara said stubbornly as she began to wrack her brain for a solution to all of this.

Unfortunately she had just run out of time in that moment because that was when the sodium pentothal finally hit her at last. She instantly cried out in despair as she felt it starting to go into effect and make her become groggy and disoriented.

"Oh, no," Lucy said as she realized what was happening and made Clara sit down in the Captain's Chair before she could hurt herself.

"Well, it's too late now. Martha will probably snap out of it before she does," Osgood said with a sigh as she watched Clara go into a daze.

"You've got that right," Martha said as she suddenly became awake once again.

"What are you, part Cyberman?" Lucy said in stunned disbelief.

"I wasn't kidding when I said that I came prepared. I had a specially prepared fabric sewn into my clothes that UNIT created specifically to protect its soldiers from the effects of alien weaponry. Luckily for me it even protected me from the Master's laser screwdriver. I wasn't sure about that until just now though," Martha said.

"So you were faking this entire time then. You heard everything," Osgood said in a horrified voice.

"Yes, I did. I heard enough to know that she actually seems different somehow though. She really seemed to care about that little girl. Either that or she knew that I was faking. I still haven't decided about that yet. I guess I'll know the truth soon enough won't I?" Martha said with a determined look on her face.

"Martha, she really has changed. Do you think that I'd be here with her if she hadn't especially after everything that Harry did? Please let this go and let her have a second chance. Please," Lucy pleaded.

Martha shook her head defiantly as she said, "Do you really think that I'll believe you? The Master manipulated you into believing exactly what he wanted you to before, Lucy. Why couldn't the same thing be happening all over again? No, I'm afraid I'm going to need a lot more convincing than that."

"It's no use, Lucy. She's much too stubborn," Osgood said in anger.

"I can't really blame her, Osgood. You don't remember what he . . . what we did. She does," Lucy said in a voice filled with guilt.

"I don't blame you for any of that. I never did. You were as much a victim as any of us to my mind," Martha said with a small smile.

Then her smile quickly turned back to anger as she faced Clara. She pulled a small video recording device out of one of her pockets and aimed it right at her as she prepared to question her.

"Now talk. Tell me exactly who you are. What is your real name?" Martha demanded.

Lucy and Osgood looked on in defeat as they watched the extremely confused Clara start to speak. It was far too late to stop this now they both realized in despair.

"I – I . . ." Clara started to say in a slurred voice.

"Tell me who you are," Martha demanded.

"I'm . . ." Clara said in a weak voice.

"Just say it," Martha said with growing impatience.

"I'm Clara. Clara Oswald," Clara said completely shocking everyone in the Console Room.

"What? No, that can't be possible. You can't lie now. I know you can't. Tell me the truth. Tell me who you are," Martha said in an anguished voice.

"Oswin. I'm Oswin Oswald . . . and I am human," Clara said in a disoriented voice.

"What?" Martha said in confusion.

Then Clara's accent suddenly changed as she said, "Clara Oswin Oswald at your service, mate."

"What is this? What's going on? She doesn't even sound like the same person anymore," Martha asked in shock.

That was when the Doctor finally woke up at last and said, "She's not really. What you're hearing is a result of her having been fragmented into countless echoes when she entered into my timestream to save me once. She became so many different Claras with so many different lives that sometimes it unbalances her mind. She actually thinks that she still is one of these Claras whenever she's under severe stress. It isn't just Clara either. Sometimes she even thinks that she's the Master now ever since she ran into Missy. It's only temporary of course and then she quickly becomes herself again."

"What?" Martha said as she stared at him intently as if trying to judge the truth of this for herself.

Lucy smiled and started to play along as she said, "It's true, Martha. We just humor her until she recovers again. It actually helps to keep her calm having me around for some reason. That's why the Doctor travels with me."

"She isn't really violent or anything though. She's just a little out of her head is all it is. She even created her own laser screwdriver so that she could be more like the real Master. It's a harmless delusion and nothing more though. Her blast didn't hurt you because it was set to stun not to kill. It doesn't even have a kill setting on it. See?" Osgood said as she showed Martha the weapon.

Martha looked visibly upset now as she said, "It's . . . possible I suppose but I'm still not sure that I believe it. The Master's far too clever. This could all be some kind of post hypnotic suggestion that she planted in all of your minds for all that I know."

"Oh, come now, Martha. Do you honestly think that the Master could ever hypnotize me? I've been immune to that sort of thing for a very long time now. Just let this go before you embarrass Clara any further. She really doesn't want anyone to know. She's afraid that she'll lose her job and she really loves working with the children here. I have no idea why though," The Doctor said with a frown.

"I'm still not sure," Martha said in a hesitant voice as she studied Clara intently.

"We're actually trying to help her come up with a way to fix all of this. I had this extremely promising lead on some mental control techniques on the planet Seras V that I was going to investigate soon. They might just help her overcome her problem soon," The Doctor added.

"What problem? I don't have a problem. I am the Master. Do you hear me? I am your Master and you will obey me," Clara said in a deep voice that sounded nothing like her usual one.

Then she began to cry as she said in a panicked tone, "No, that's not right. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm . . . I . . . I don't know where I am. I don't even know who I am. I don't know who I am!"

Lucy immediately went to her and wrapped her arms around her as she said in a reassuring tone, "You're okay, Clara. You're safe."

Martha immediately felt sorry for her as she switched off the recording device and erased what was on it. She finally believed her now. There was far too much anguish in her voice for it not to be real.

This really was Clara Oswald who only thought that she was the Master, and she couldn't feel sorrier for her for that. She couldn't think of anyone worse to be personally.

"I won't tell anyone, Doctor. I promise. I'm so sorry that I did this to her. I hope that you can find a way to help her soon," Martha said in a hopeful tone.

"She'll be fine, Martha. She always is once these little spells of hers wear off," The Doctor reassured her.

Martha nodded and started to leave the TARDIS now as she took one last look back at a still visibly upset Clara.

"I'm sorry, Clara. Tell her that when she comes to, Doctor," Martha said.

"I will. She won't hold any grudges over it I assure you. Like I said before, she's far too sweet sometimes," The Doctor promised.

"She sounds like just what you need then. Good bye, Doctor, and good luck with helping her," Martha said with a brief smile before she became sad once more as she quickly slipped out of the TARDIS.

The Doctor instantly locked the doors then as he let out an audible sigh of relief and said, "I'm glad that that's over. Now all we have to do is to wait for the effects to wear off, and she'll be her regular far too chipper self once again."

"Did you know that would happen? You don't seem too surprised by it," Lucy noted.

"I certainly hoped that it would happen. Her mind must be filled with thousands perhaps millions of memories that are and aren't hers from all of her echoes throughout the centuries after all. Clara always does a very good job at keeping them buried deep within her mind however. So good that no one would even realize that they were there or exactly how much they bother her sometimes. I hoped that the truth serum would loosen her control over those memories though and that they would all come spilling out at once along with the memories of the Master. I knew that if they did I could probably convince Martha that she wasn't who she thought that she was. I wasn't absolutely certain of that however. That's why I tried to use the sleep patch on Martha instead before I could find out," The Doctor admitted.

"Wait a minute. I thought Clara said the patch didn't affect you though so why did it put you out too?" Osgood realized.

"It didn't. I just pretended that it had. I wanted to be able to take Martha by surprise for real if I had to by making her think that I was asleep. Luckily it didn't come to that though because I really don't like the idea of having to attack a friend for any reason," The Doctor said with a relieved look.

"Is she going to be alright?" Lucy asked with concern as she softly stroked Clara's hair while the Time Lady whimpered and continued to babble incoherently.

"It should wear off soon now. She'll be just fine then," The Doctor said in a completely unworried tone.

"Does anything ever bother you? Clara's been reduced to this horrible state even if it is only temporary and almost had her whole life exposed to everyone and you're just fine with it? It doesn't even seem to bother you that you just lied, continuously, to one of your closest friends. I know that that certainly bothers me and I don't even know her that well," Lucy admitted in an angry voice.

The Doctor instantly gave her an angry glare now as he said in a voice filled with intense emotion, "I did what was necessary in order to save her, Lucy, because I didn't want anything to happen to her. I'm not about to lose her now that I've finally gotten her back again. I'll never let that happen again. Not on my watch. I'd gladly lie again if it would help to keep her safe and happy. Do you understand?"

Lucy nodded as she said, "Yes, I think I do. That's why I lied too."

"Me too. That doesn't mean that I have to feel good about it though does it?" Osgood said.

"No, of course it doesn't. You never feel good about doing it. Not if you have a soul," The Doctor said in an unemotional tone.

That was when Clara finally came to at last as she said in a worried voice, "What just happened? Where's Martha? Doctor, please tell me that I didn't tell her."

"Everything's perfectly fine now, Clara. There's nothing to worry about," Lucy reassured her as she kissed her forehead.

Clara smiled even as she said, "So the Doctor lied to her, huh? Is that what happened?"

"Basically, yeah. He told her that you were a bit . . . mad at times and only believed that you were the Master," Osgood admitted.

Clara gave him an angry look as she said, "You did what?"

Then she began to smile and laughed as she kissed his cheek and hugged him in gratitude.

"Thank you," Clara said in a heartfelt tone as she continued to hug him.

"Now I'm almost starting to regret helping you. If I'd have known that this would be my reward, I might have just let her have you," The Doctor complained as he struggled to free himself from her.

"I love you too," Clara said as she smiled back at him.

Next: The new identity of the Rani is revealed at last! Who is she now and where has she been all of this time? More importantly will she remember who she is again and if she does what will she do next?