CHAPTER 4
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A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Merry pushed a small button on the locket Clara had given her to wear around her neck, and suddenly she looked different even to herself. She looked human just like Clara now, and it upset her at first.
"Merry? Are you okay?" Clara asked her with concern as she saw the upset look on her face.
"This isn't me, Clara. I don't like it. It feels like I'm someone else now. I feel like I'm never going to be myself again. It's like you're so ashamed of me that you want me to be somebody else," Merry said in an upset voice.
"No, honey! That's not true. I don't want you to feel that way. I never want you to feel like that. I just need you to hide your true appearance so that you won't get hurt. This planet isn't really ready for aliens yet. Some people, not all of them but some, would hurt you if they knew that you were from another world. That's the only reason that I'm making you wear the perception filter. I'm not ashamed of you. I'd never be ashamed of you. I love you just the way you are. I don't want you to change not one bit. I just want you to be safe, okay? Do you understand?" Clara asked with tears in her eyes.
Merry looked in Clara's eyes and saw that she meant what she said so she nodded. Then she hugged Clara to show her that she was alright.
Clara smiled and kissed the top of her head as she said, "I'm glad that you understand. Remember that you can't tell anyone who you really are or where you're from, okay? I know that doesn't sound right, but that's the way it has to be. Only my closest most trusted friends can know the truth about you. To everyone else, you're just Merry Oswald, regular Earth girl."
"Merry Oswald. I like that name. It means you're my mother now, doesn't it?" Merry asked.
"Yes, honey, it does," Clara said nodding.
"Does . . . does that mean that I have to call you Mum then?" Merry asked hesitantly.
"No. Not if you don't want to. I'd never make you call me that," Clara said.
Merry nodded as she said, "It's not that I don't want to. It's just that I . . . I'm not ready for that. I still have memories of my family. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be mean. I just . . . I'm sorry."
Clara smiled at her as she said, "It's okay, Merry. I understand. You don't think of me as your mother. It's okay. It's all happened so quick that I'd be surprised if you suddenly started calling me Mum right away. It's alright. Don't worry."
"Are you sure? The last thing that I'd ever want to do after everything that you've done for me is to hurt you," Merry said truthfully.
"It's okay. I mean it," Clara said in a soft voice as she stroked the little girl's face.
She hugged her then and didn't let go for a while. She enjoyed having a child in her arms, and she could tell that Merry enjoyed having someone to hold her too. She couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since the little girl had last had that.
After several minutes of this, they were suddenly interrupted by the door opening, and Angie and Artie standing there looking at Merry in surprise. Clara hadn't told them about her yet so she knew that they would have plenty of questions about her and vice versa.
Merry became very nervous and hid behind Clara. Clara immediately brought her back out from behind her and held her hand to let her know that everything was okay as she said, "It's okay, Merry. These are my friends, Angie and Artie Maitland. You can trust them completely, alright?"
"You mean I can tell them who I am?" Merry asked.
"Yes, of course you can," Clara said.
Merry smiled and turned off her perception filter as she said eagerly, "Hi, I'm Merry Gejelh and I'm from Tiaanamat. Sorry, I guess I should say that I'm Merry Oswald now. I'm Clara's adopted daughter."
"What?" Angie asked in shock while Artie said, "You're an alien? That's awesome!"
Artie immediately rushed over to Merry in excitement as he said, "What kind of powers do you have? Can you do anything cool?"
Merry smiled, grateful for the attention, as she said, "I have telekinesis and a little bit of telepathy. I'm much stronger with the telekinesis though. I've gotten very good with it."
"I'll say. She once threw me across the room and pinned me to a wall when she got mad at me," Clara said smiling.
"Cool! Can you do that to me?" Artie asked hopefully.
"No, she's not. You're never to use your power on others, Merry. Got it?" Clara said firmly.
"Aw, Clara! Can't she just make me fly? I want to fly!" Artie protested.
Clara laughed as she said to Merry, "Alright. Levitate him off the ground some but not too high and be careful with him, okay?"
Merry smiled as she slowly lifted Artie off the ground and moved him across the room as he flung his arms out in front of him and pretended that he was really flying. He yelled with joy as Merry moved him around seemingly effortlessly. Clara could see that Merry was really enjoying how happy she was making Artie from the look on her face.
Angie meanwhile didn't look so happy. She took Clara aside out of earshot of the others and asked, "Are you sure you're safe? Are you absolutely sure she won't hurt Artie?"
Clara looked at her in surprise as she said, "Of course I am. I'd never take you around anyone who was dangerous."
Angie lifted an eyebrow at that as she said, "What about the Cybermen?"
"That was different. The Doctor didn't let me know everything that was going on or I would have insisted that we leave. I'll never do that to you again. Believe me. Merry is a nice, sweet girl who's having to adjust to living on a new planet with a new species. She's not dangerous in any way whatsoever. I want you to treat her like any other little girl, okay? Don't treat her any different. I want you to be her friend, Angie. She needs one, okay?" Clara said.
Angie smiled and then nodded as she said, "Alright. I'm sorry if I overreacted. It's just that after the Cybermen I tend to freak out whenever I think about aliens. Being around them just makes me nervous."
Clara looked at her skeptically as she said, "I don't make you nervous and neither does the Doctor."
"You two don't count. He's my friend and you're . . . more like family. I just meant that I'm nervous around aliens I don't know. I guess that makes me sound bad but after what the Cybermen did to me I'm just afraid that it'll happen again," Angie admitted.
Clara smiled at her as she said, "Trust me, Angie. That little girl is just as afraid as you are if not more. Up until now my friend Tish and I are the only humans that she's ever met."
Angie smiled at her but didn't correct her mistake of referring to herself as human as she said, "I get the message. I'll be nice to her. I promise."
"Good. Can you two go play with her and try to show her a good time then? I have another friend of mine coming over, and I have to tell her the truth about me. I'd rather tell her about me first and then ease her into Merry later," Clara said.
"That's going to be awkward I bet. Alright, I'll take her and let her play some video games. Wait a minute. Does she even know how to play video games?" Angie asked.
"I doubt she even knows what a television is. She'll get the gist of it quickly enough though. It's just that her technology is so far advanced from yours that it's going to seem very primitive to her," Clara said.
Angie smiled at her as she said, "You sound a little like the Doctor now."
"Well, there's no need to be insulting," Clara said with mock anger.
Then she smiled at her as she said, "Sorry. I'll try to tone it down."
"No, I wasn't complaining. I was just pointing it out," Angie said as she gave her a hug.
"Well, keep pointing it out and keep me human, will you?" Clara asked.
"I will," Angie promised and then left to take Merry to the television and show her about video games while Artie floated along beside them.
Clara couldn't help but laugh at the image of the boy floating next to them as they walked away. Her life was definitely not going to be ordinary in any way from now on. Not that she cared.
Just as the children went off to play video games together, Martha finally arrived with Tish. Clara took a deep breath and then opened the door.
"Hey, Clara. Tish insisted that I come here today because she says that you have something very important to tell me," Martha said.
"That's right. Martha, this might be hard for you to hear at first," Clara said and then hesitated.
"It's okay, Clara. I think she can take it. I mean if I can I know she can," Tish said.
"Take what? What aren't you telling me?" Martha asked starting to get agitated.
Clara took another deep breath and said, "Alright I might as well tell you everything at once. Clara, I'm . . ."
Suddenly the Doctor's TARDIS materialized nearby shocking Martha who looked at Clara and Tish in disbelief as she said, "Is that it? You're traveling with the Doctor?"
"That's only part of it, Martha. Martha, I need to tell you. I'm a . . ." Clara started to say again.
That was when the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and said, "Martha, hello! It's so good to see you again!"
"I'm going to kill you, Doctor!" Clara muttered under her breath making Tish almost laugh as she heard her.
The Doctor immediately rushed to hug Martha as she looked at him in surprise. He hugged Martha tightly and then pulled away and said, "Oh, yes. I forgot that I regenerated since the last time that you saw me. I'm not Matchstick Man anymore. I'm so much cooler now. I wear bow ties."
Martha laughed as she said, "I can see that. You're definitely the same old Doctor though despite how you've changed on the outside. I can tell."
"That's true, Martha. I'm still the same person that you knew before even if I have changed. I'm still your friend," the Doctor said as he looked pointedly at Clara.
Clara smiled at him now seeing what he was trying to do. Martha caught wind of it too even though she wasn't entirely sure what was going on.
"What are you trying to tell me, Doctor?" Martha asked.
"Good old Martha. You were always so clever. I knew you'd get it right away if anyone would. Clara? Go ahead," the Doctor said.
Martha now looked at Clara expectantly as Clara pulled out her fob watch to show to her as she said, "Martha, I'm a Time Lord."
Martha looked at her in surprise but not in an angry or upset way which Clara took as a good sign as she continued to say, "I'm still the same person that you knew. I promise. Tish told me that you already know about the Chameleon Arch. Well, I used that on myself and became Clara. I've been living a normal human life ever since then until now when I opened my watch recently and remembered who I really am. My real name is actually Alura, and I'm an old friend of the Doctor's. I'm still going to be calling myself Clara though. I plan on staying as her. I've even adopted a little girl. Do you want to meet her?"
Martha blinked and then said, "I can't believe it. I knew you even before I met the Doctor. It's as if I was destined to meet him."
"Seems like it doesn't it?" Clara said grinning.
Martha smiled at her and said, "I'd love to meet your daughter. It's alright, Clara. Don't worry. I can adapt to a lot very quickly. I had to learn how to in order to travel with the Doctor. He takes a lot of getting used to."
"Oi! I do not. I'm very easy to get along with," the Doctor said.
"Of course you are, Chin Boy. Of course you are," Clara reassured him with a grin.
Then she called Merry into the room and even though Martha saw right away that she was an alien it didn't even faze her. She warmly greeted the little girl as she said, "Hello, I'm Martha. I'm a good friend of your new mother's. It's so nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too. I thought that maybe people here wouldn't like me, but you're all so friendly. Humans aren't like the Master said that they would be at all," Merry said with a smile.
Martha's jaw dropped as the Doctor said, "Yeah. I had that reaction too when he showed up again. Wait till you hear the rest of it."
"Did I say something wrong?" Merry asked in an upset voice.
"No, you didn't do anything wrong," Clara quickly reassured her.
Martha could see that Merry still looked uncertain so she said to her with a warm, friendly smile, "She's right. You didn't do anything, okay?"
Merry smiled and said, "Okay."
"Why don't you go back to your game now, Merry?" Clara said.
"Okay. I'm beating Artie and Angie at the same time, Clara. I like video games. They're fun," Merry said in excitement as she ran off.
Clara smiled at her and then frowned as she saw Martha's shocked look.
"Here I thought telling you that I was a Time Lord was going to be the hardest part," Clara said.
"You're hanging around the Master?" Martha said in anger.
"He's an old friend of mine from Gallifrey. He and the Doctor used to be my best friends back then," Clara said trying to explain.
"She doesn't understand, Martha. Tish and I have both tried to explain it to her, but she still doesn't understand what he is now. She still thinks he's the same person he was when we were all young," the Doctor said.
Some of Martha's anger vanished now and was replaced with concern as she said, "You need to listen to them, Clara. He's pure evil. He'll pretend to be a nice man, but he'll stab you in the back in the end to get whatever it is that he wants from you. He did it to my mother. He told her that the Doctor was evil and out to hurt me, and she believed him. It was actually him that was the evil one though."
Clara nodded as she said, "He's told me what he did but that was in the past. He's changed now. He isn't that same person anymore. He promised me that."
"See what we're up against? She wants to believe the best of him," Tish said to Martha.
"There is no best in him," Martha insisted to Clara.
"I think you're wrong, Martha. I believe in him," Clara said stubbornly.
"She wants to go traveling with him," Tish said.
"You're allowing this?" Martha asked the Doctor in disbelief.
"I tried but she won't listen. I'm going along to make sure he doesn't try anything though and so is Tish," the Doctor assured her.
"Well, you can count me in that number too then. The next time you take a trip with him I want to be there," Martha said.
"Okay. It'll be next Wednesday then on my day off," Clara said.
"Good. I'll be here bright and early then. I still don't understand how you can ever think that a man like that would ever tell the truth to you," Martha said.
Clara looked sad for a moment as she said, "He wasn't always the man that you knew. I want to tell you a story, Martha. Once I do, maybe then you'll understand why I won't just give up on him despite what all of you are telling me about him."
Gallifrey, Centuries Ago
"Come on, you two! Normally you two are the first ones to want to get into some trouble. Is it because you're protecting me? Is that it? You know I don't approve of that sort of thing. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that you have to protect me. I'm as tough as both of you combined. There's absolutely no difference between me and the two of you. We're exactly the same in every way," Alura said stubbornly as she led the way to the Omega Arsenal.
Theta and Koschei looked at each in disbelief as Theta said in a low voice, "You are so not the same as us in every way."
"What?" Alura asked with the hint of a smile on her face.
"Nothing, Lura. I still don't know why you want to break into a collection of dusty old weapons in the Time Vaults for. That's more Koschei's sort of thing than yours," Theta said perplexed.
"Was that a crack against me, Thete?" Koschei asked with a smirk.
"No, it's just true. You've always loved looking at deadly things that could kill thousands or even millions of people. I've always hated them. I hate weapons of all kinds. I used to think that Alura did too," Theta said in a slightly disturbed voice.
"Maybe she's finally grown up and stopped listening to all of you inane talk about peace all the time. Sometimes weapons are necessary, Theta. Sometimes the universe needs a little war or two in order to keep it in line," Koschei said.
"I don't believe that. I think it just needs someone to fix it whenever and wherever it breaks and to make the people in it better than they are. Violence is never necessary," Theta argued.
"You are so naïve. I'm glad that you've finally come around to my way of thinking, Alura," Koschei said with a small grin of triumph.
"I haven't come here because I've suddenly developed a taste for war or weapons, Koschei," Alura said as she stopped before the door of the Omega Arsenal after finally finding it.
"Why did you want to come here then? How do you even expect to get in anyway? It's been locked for several millennia," Theta said.
Alura grinned mischievously as she said, "You forget just how good that I am with computers, Theta. There's nothing that I can't hack."
Alura immediately went to work on the electronic lock and within seconds the door opened for the first time in several centuries. The dust of ages immediately blew in the faces of the three teenaged Time Lords and made them all cough as Alura grinned with delight to see all of the weapons there.
"It's just like in my dream," Alura said as she dashed inside.
"What? What dream?" Theta asked in confusion.
"You never said anything about a dream. Is that what this is about, Alura? Are we doing all of this based on something as silly as a dream?" Koschei asked indignantly.
Alura glared at him as she said, "What's so silly about it? Do you think I'm stupid for doing this, Koschei? Is that what you're saying?"
Koschei immediately looked apologetic as he said in a gentle voice, "No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that at all. I'm sorry, Alura. I just don't want you to get into any trouble."
Alura smiled at him as she said, "You worry too much, Koschei. I've memorized the entire schedule of the guards around this place after studying them for several days. They won't pass by this spot for at least another fifteen minutes. We can be in and out before they even know that we were here."
"I hope so. I don't want you to get into any trouble either. Me and Mr. War over here are used to getting into trouble so it's nothing new to us, but you've got this squeaky clean image so they might be even harder on you if they catch you here. Why do you want to be here for anyway, Lura? Tell me," Theta implored her.
Alura smiled at him as she said, "I love it when you call me Lura. Okay, I'll tell you why we're here if you promise not to laugh. I had a dream. In the dream this woman kept telling me to come here. She said if I came here that I would find out who truly loved me. She said that I would find out who my soulmate was here."
Both Theta and Koschei scoffed as Koschei said, "That's nonsense. It was just a dream. That's all. Besides that there's no such thing as a soulmate."
Alura looked at him in shock as she said, "Do you really believe that? That a person's one true love doesn't exist?"
Koschei hesitated and said in a careful voice, "I'm not saying that I don't believe in love. I do believe that love exists, but I don't think that anyone has a soulmate or one true love that they're destined to be with from the beginning of time. I don't believe in destiny. I believe in creating what we want. We shape our own destiny, Alura, not the other way around."
"What about you? What do you believe?" Alura asked Theta.
Theta looked at her thoughtfully before saying, "I don't know. I've never seen any evidence to support it, but I've never seen any against it either. I'd like to believe that such a thing were possible. I really would. I guess that's just the romantic in me speaking though."
Alura smiled at him and said nothing. Theta smiled back happy that she seemed to like his answer. Koschei meanwhile was mentally kicking himself for what he had said. He couldn't lie to her though.
For some reason, he had never been able to lie to her. Even when he tried to she always saw right through him every time.
"I have to say that this is a weird place to find your true love though. It really would be ironic wouldn't it? Finding love in a place of war?" Theta said chuckling.
Alura stood there in the middle of the arsenal waiting for something, anything, to happen. She stood there in silence for several more minutes, but she had no results.
"What did you expect to happen? Did the dream tell you?" Koschei tried to ask in as neutral a voice as he could manage when it became apparent that nothing was going to happen.
"I don't know. The dream just said to come here. I'm sorry, boys. I guess we should go now. The guards will be here in about five minutes if they stick to schedule," Alura said in a disappointed voice.
"Good. Let's head on out then as fast as possible just in case the guards decide to come down here . . . ," Theta said.
"Halt! Who's in there?" A guard's voice shouted.
". . . sooner," Theta finished with a sigh.
Two Chancellery Guards stood staring at the three young Time Lords with their stasers drawn as one of them said, "Do you realize that you've just broken into a maximum security facility? Why are you here? You'd better have a good answer or all of you are in deep trouble."
Alura started to tell them the truth but to her surprise Koschei opened his mouth sooner as he said, "It's my fault. Theta and I were daring each other to do it. He didn't think that I would, but he was wrong. See, Theta? I opened the door. You didn't think that I could but I did it!"
Theta was surprised at first and then he quickly started to play along with him as he said, "Okay, okay. I can admit when I'm wrong, Koschei. You won the bet, okay? You're officially braver than I am."
"Well, it's good to finally hear you say so. It's always nice to know who your master is, isn't it?" Koschei said smugly.
"All of this was over a stupid bet?" One of the guards said with a smirk.
"That's right, sir. We didn't mean any harm whatsoever. It was just Koschei showing me that he's better than I am. Again," Theta said.
"What about her? What's her role in all of this?" The guard asked as he pointed to Alura.
"She didn't know anything about it until we got here. She didn't even know where we were. I lied to her and told her that I was taking her on a date," Theta said.
"Are you sure that this wasn't an attempt by both of you to impress her?" One of the guards said in a knowing manner.
Koschei immediately caught onto that and went with it as he said, "Alright, you caught us. We were both trying to impress Alura. Only I impressed her more because I actually did it. Didn't I, dear?"
Alura looked at them both in disbelief as they lied more than she had ever seen them do in her entire life. She was surprised at how easily lying came to both of them especially to Theta. She was a bit disappointed in him at that even though she knew that he was doing it to protect her.
"I have to confess something. I'm . . ." Alura started to say.
"You're not interested in either one of us, are you?" Theta quickly said in a disappointed voice.
"See? All of that to impress a girl, and it was all for nothing. Do you know how much trouble that you just got into over her? Why would you do that? Is she really worth it?" One of the guards asked.
Without even thinking about it, Theta said, "I'd do anything for her. She means everything to me."
Both Alura and Koschei looked at him in shock, and then Koschei's shock quickly turned into anger as he glared at Theta for saying it first before he could. The guards now completely believed their story because they could both see that the two of them had feelings for Alura.
They both looked at one another and one of them smiled as he said, "Alright, you three can go. If you ever come down here again though, it'll be a different story."
As the three Time Lords quickly left, Alura continued to look at Theta in shock. It wasn't what he said but the way that he said it. He sounded like he was in love with her.
When they were out of earshot, Alura asked, "Theta, about what you just said did you mean that?"
"Of course I did. You're my best friend," Theta said as if he had no idea what she was hinting at.
"That's all? Is that all I am to you? Just a friend?" Alura asked.
It broke Theta's hearts as he said in a nonchalant way, "You're more than just friends. You're my best friends. You're both practically family. You and Koschei mean everything to me."
Alura tried not to frown as she said, "I'm glad to know that, Theta. It's nice to see how you really feel about me at last."
She quickly left the two boys as Koschei said, "Why did you say that? We both know that you love her."
"She could do so much better than me. She should do so much better. She'll . . . she'll just laugh at me anyway if I tell her the truth, and I don't want to lose her," Theta said in a frightened voice.
"You poor dumb idiot," Koschei said all of his anger at Theta quickly forgotten.
"You can't tell her, Koschei. Promise you won't," Theta said.
"Believe me, Theta, I never will," Koschei said with a sinister smile.
The Present Day, Earth
Clara told this story from her own point of view of course and had absolutely no idea about Koschei and Theta's conversation at the end. Once she finished, Martha and Tish both looked at the Doctor with a smile as he turned away in embarrassment.
Clara had no idea what the smiling was about so she ignored it as she said, "See, Martha? That's why I trust Koschei. He almost got into a lot of trouble just to protect me over some stupid silly dream that I had once. Both of my boys did actually."
"Yes, and I'd do it again," the Master said as he suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere.
They all turned to see him standing there next to his TARDIS. None of them had even heard him arrive.
"You had it set for silent running, didn't you? I hate it when you do that," the Doctor said.
Martha just glared at the Master as she said, "You may have her fooled, but I'll be watching you. You won't get a chance to do anything to hurt her if I can help it."
The Master sighed as he said, "When will you people believe me when I say that I'd never hurt her? Will I ever be able to live my past down?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Martha said.
Clara sighed as she said, "Are we going on an early trip or something? You do know that it isn't Wednesday yet, right?"
"I came here because he came here. I don't trust him not to go off with you all by himself," the Master said.
"You don't trust me?! That's a good one!" the Doctor scoffed.
"Boys! I said Wednesday and I meant Wednesday. Now both of you go away and don't come back until then. Got it?" Clara ordered.
Both Time Lords grumbled and pouted until Clara smiled at them and kissed them both on the cheek. They both began to smile again as she said, "Just go on ahead to Wednesday, okay? I'll still be here I promise."
They both left then and as soon as their TARDISes dematerialized, Martha and Tish both burst out laughing. Clara looked at them in surprise as she wondered what on Earth they could be going on about.
"What's so funny?" Clara asked.
"First of all it's hilarious to see you treat the two of them like they're little boys, but more importantly it's funny that you didn't even see just how lovesick that they both are over you both then and now. The Doctor meant what he said, Clara. He loved you and it just came out of him without him meaning it to. Then he covered it up as quickly as he could. That sounds just like him," Martha said.
"No, Martha. You weren't there. He just thought of me as a friend. That's all. I just misinterpreted what he meant and so did you," Clara said.
Martha shook her head as she said, "He loves you just as much as you love him. It's obvious to anybody."
"It's certainly obvious to me," Angie said as she came into the room.
"See?" Tish said with a grin.
"I do love him but he doesn't feel that way about me. Does he?" Clara asked in an uncertain voice.
"He totally does," Tish said.
"You really think so?" Clara asked.
"What are we talking about?" Merry asked as she and Artie joined Angie.
"The fact that the Doctor loves Clara, but she doesn't seem to realize it," Angie said.
"She doesn't? I thought he was her boyfriend," Merry said confused.
"He is. Trust me," Artie said grinning.
"He's not my boyfriend," Clara said with a groan.
The others only laughed at her, and Clara shook her head at them. They didn't know the Doctor like she did. She'd be the first to know if he was really in love with her.
Right?
Wednesday came fast and the Doctor and the Master soon arrived within seconds of each other early that morning. Clara smiled as she realized that they were trying to beat each other there in order to have both arrived as quickly as they did.
Clara was waiting for them along with Martha, Tish, and Merry as the two Time Lords emerged from their TARDISes. The Master sighed at seeing Martha and Tish again. Clara could easily see that he really hadn't wanted them to come along on their first real trip together.
She wanted them to go though. The sooner they saw that he really had changed the sooner that they would leave her alone about traveling with him.
"So where are we going? Did you come up with any really cool ideas while I was away?" the Doctor asked hopefully while everyone piled into his TARDIS.
"Well, I did think of one place. How about New York? I always wanted to go there," Clara said.
The Doctor looked horrified which surprised Clara as he said, "N-no. Not there. Anywhere but there."
"Why not?" Clara asked.
"I just don't want to go, okay? Please pick somewhere else," the Doctor said as he grabbed Clara's hand tightly without even realizing that he was doing it.
"You lost someone there didn't you?" Clara said finally understanding.
The Doctor nodded but didn't say anything more. Clara kissed his cheek and said, "It's okay. You don't have to say anything more. We'll go somewhere else then."
Martha couldn't help but wonder when this had happened. It must have happened after she had traveled with him because he certainly had no problems taking her there.
Clara thought about another destination for a moment and then quickly told the Doctor a time and place. He looked at her in alarm immediately.
"Clara, you can't go there. You can't let her see you. You of all people know that," the Doctor said.
"I'm not going to talk to her or anything. I just want to see her again," Clara said as tears threatened to well up in her eyes.
The Doctor nodded and set the coordinates on the Console as the Master asked, "Where are we going?"
"To see my Mum," Clara said.
The Master looked confused until Tish said, "Her mother died years ago. She wants to see her again one more time."
The Master nodded as he realized that she meant her human mother. He hadn't even thought about Clara becoming that attached to anyone on this world in order to miss them that much. It just showed him that he really didn't know anything about her anymore. He was going to learn though. He was going to learn all about Clara Oswald and what had shaped her so that he could understand exactly why she didn't want to give this particular version of herself up.
The TARDIS arrived in a park where Clara's mother used to bring her when she was little. Clara smiled as she hid behind a tree and watched her mother play with a little girl that she knew was her. As Ellie Oswald pushed the young Clara while she sat in a swing, Clara began to cry.
The Doctor silently took her hand and kissed it as he put a comforting arm around her. She then laid her head on his shoulder glad that he was there for her just as he always had been.
That was when everything plunged into chaos all around them as several Daleks appeared out of nowhere and began immediately firing on the Doctor. The Doctor immediately grabbed Clara's hand and started to run with her while Tish and Martha ran back into the TARDIS with Merry. The Master meanwhile raced after the Daleks in an attempt to protect Clara.
"IT IS THE DOCTOR. EXTERMINATE HIM! EXTERMINATE!" the Daleks cried out together while they chased the two Time Lords.
Clara sighed in relief as she saw her mother and her younger self make it to their car and start to drive away. At least they would be safe. She briefly wondered why her mother never mentioned this to her before her mind was completely absorbed by something else.
Suddenly a blonde woman carrying a huge gun appeared out of thin air in front of them and began attacking the Daleks. She destroyed several of them as she shouted to them, "Run! Get to safety!"
Clara looked at her in complete astonishment as the Doctor said in an almost reverential voice, "Rose."
The Master also stared at Rose in shock as he recognized her immediately as the one who had sent him back to this universe out of the Time Lock. Only this woman seemed different somehow from the one that he had met.
"Do I know you?" Rose asked the Doctor even as she continued to attack the Daleks.
Clara meanwhile just couldn't stop looking at her. This was the woman in her dream from so long ago. She was the one who had told her to go to the Omega Arsenal.
What was going on here?
Next: What are Rose and the Daleks doing in the past? More importantly where and when is Rose from and will she recognize any of our crew? Find out the answers to that in the next chapter.