CHAPTER 13
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DARK ALURA
House, now in complete control of Clara, smiled evilly as he slowly walked towards the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor knew that he was about to use it to leave for Gallifrey at any moment, and he didn't even want to think about what would happen next. Would even the Time Lords be able to stop the combined power of Alura and House?
The Doctor quickly pulled out his sonic screwdriver and sent the TARDIS two seconds out of sync with this time before House could reach it. As soon as the TARDIS vanished, House spun around with a murderous look on his face.
"That won't do you any good, Doctor. I'll just kill you and take that sonic device off of your dead body," House said.
"Will you know how to use it to bring the TARDIS back though?" The Doctor countered.
House paused and then smiled as he said, "I can always use Alura to pluck that knowledge from your mind."
The Doctor then screamed out in pain as House attempted to do exactly that. He could feel him using Clara's power to attempt to break into his mind, and it was taking every ounce of willpower that he had in order to keep him from getting inside.
Doctor, I'm sorry. He heard Clara's voice say even as he fought as hard as he could.
Clara, fight him. You can do it. I know you can. The Doctor answered back.
I can't. He's too powerful. Clara answered in despair.
Let me help you then. If we combine our wills together, we can drive him out. The Doctor pleaded.
I – I don't know. What if . . . what if we only make things worse? What if we awaken my full power, and I become some horrible thing? A walking nightmare? Clara answered in a scared voice.
Do you really think that House won't do horrible things too? We have to take that chance and stop him before it's too late. The Doctor pleaded.
Alura, I hate to admit it but he's right. Let us help you. It'll be just like the old days. It'll be the three of us together against the universe. The Master now said as he broke into the conversation.
No, not three. Four. From now on, it's the four of us together because I'm never letting Clara die again. Let's do this, Clara. Let's throw House out of here and save the Ood from him. I believe in you, Clara. You won't suddenly become evil just because you use your power a little. I know you won't. Now let's show this House the front door. Jenny said as she used her telepathic abilities for the first time in her life.
Clara began to smile at Jenny's prodding, and then she and her three friends joined their wills together to challenge House. Suddenly it was House who was screaming instead of the Doctor as he had to fight the combined wills of four Time Lords at once.
The Great Intelligence hovered nearby watching this with interest as he now debated on whether he should attempt to intervene or not. He decided to wait a bit longer. He was still so weak that he had to pick the right moment to strike or risk Clara completing the job that she had started on Christmas.
House immediately called upon the minds of all of the Ood and combined them with his own as he attempted to overwhelm the Time Lords with the sudden addition of their psychic strength. Now the four Time Lords were immediately on the defensive once more as it took everything that they had to keep from having their brains smashed open like watermelons by House's newest psychic assault.
The Great Intelligence silently laughed as he wondered whether he'd have to intervene after all. House might just do the job all by himself.
Clara knew now that unless she took a chance and used her full power for the first time that they would all die. She just couldn't help but wonder if the same result would happen anyway no matter what she did. She hesitated because she would rather die than to become some corrupt, twisted version of herself.
Then she heard Jenny begin to scream and flinched as she saw her body convulsing in pain. Jenny was the first to fall because she was the youngest and least experienced. Clara's mind was now decided in an instant.
Right or wrong, the full power of The Oracle would have to be used to save her friend's life. She just hoped that the others didn't live to regret it.
Clara now opened her mind up fully for the first time and felt her true power begin to course through it. She smiled as she wondered why she had ever worried about a being so insignificant as House before. To think that she almost let herself by killed by such a petty nuisance.
In the nineteenth century just outside of Madame Vastra's door, the Moment shuddered.
Jenny Flint opened the door and stared at her with surprise as she asked, "Yes?"
The Moment didn't respond though. She just stood there shaking.
"Are you alright, Miss?" Jenny asked with concern as she moved forward to help her.
"It felt as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened," the Moment said as she swiftly recovered.
"What?" Jenny asked in surprise.
"She's quoting a movie called Star Wars that won't come out for almost another century. You're one of the Doctor's friends I take it?" Vastra said.
"Yeah, I am. You know I used to watch that movie all the time with Mickey, and that quote seemed to be pretty appropriate considering what I just felt. I'm so sorry, Clara," the Moment said in tears.
"What? What happened to Clara?" Vastra asked with concern as she and Jenny now had their full attention focused on the Moment.
"I think that she might be in great danger or more likely we are. Still I can't give up hope. Vastra, I need your help. Like I said, I am a friend of the Doctor's, and I've come to see if you know where a woman named Elissa is. Captain Jack Harkness told me that you would be able to find her," the Moment said.
Vastra immediately became suspicious and defensive and said, "How do I know that you are who you say you are? How do I know that this isn't some trick by the Cybermen to capture Elissa? Their agents have been here before posing as ordinary humans in order to trick her into going with them. How do I know that I can believe you?"
The Moment sighed and knew that she was running out of time the longer that they wasted here as she said, "You trust the Doctor and Jack don't you? Well, I'm a good friend of both of them. I just hope that maybe they've told you about me at least once so that you'll know that I'm really on your side. My name is . . ."
The Moment hesitated. She knew that Vastra wouldn't recognize her true name though, and she had to save Clara while she still could. So she had to lie.
"My name is Rose Tyler," the Moment said.
Vastra's face suddenly became very serious as she said, "Come in. I'll contact her right away."
"So I take it you've heard of me then? It must have been from Jack," The Moment said as she followed her inside while Jenny shut the door behind them.
Well, those certainly seemed to be the magic words, didn't they? The Moment thought to herself with a small grin on her face that quickly vanished as she continued to worry about Clara.
At that same moment back in the twenty-first century, Tish was still holding her head as a massive amount of pain shot through it. She had felt it the moment that Clara started to use her full power just as the Moment had.
"You felt it, didn't you?" the Time Lord who had come to take her back asked.
"Yes. She's already started using her powers. What made her do that? She was too terrified to use them before," Tish said.
"We'll tell you once you finish here. Now do you see why I wished you to hurry?" the Time Lord said impatiently.
Tish nodded and said, "Just another moment."
Francine now looked at her in fear as she turned back to say good bye and Francine's voice shook as she said, "Tish, I should have told you the truth. I was just so afraid of what would happen if you knew. We just found you one day on our doorstep along with that watch and secretly adopted you as our own. We had been trying to have children for the longest time and couldn't so having you suddenly appear like that was like a godsend. It wasn't until later that we finally had Martha and Leo. I never, ever thought that you were one of them though."
"Does that matter? I still feel like me even though I remember everything now. I know that what the Master did hasn't exactly left the best impression of Time Lords with you, but we're not all like that. I've always tried to help others, and I'd like to think that I've made a difference especially in E-Space. The Doctor opened my eyes a long time ago to just how wonderful that the universe really is, and the more I traveled with him the more that I wanted to protect that wonder and keep it safe. Despite that though, I really don't want to go. I want to stay here on Earth with all of you. I have to go though in order to keep everyone including you safe. I'm sorry," Tish said in a sad voice.
Francine and the others nodded even as she asked Tish, "Are you ever coming back though?"
"Yes, I will. I promise. I'll find some way to return even if it's only for a little while. You haven't seen the last of me. You can't get rid of me that easily," Tish said as she tried to smile.
"I never wanted to," Francine said in tears as she hugged her.
"I'm sorry," Tish said as she started to cry now too.
"Go, Tish. Go sort all of this out and then come back to us," Clive Jones said to the woman who he knew was still his daughter no matter where she came from or who she was.
"I will, Dad. I'll be back before you know it," Tish said.
"Tish, watch the accent," Leo said.
"What?" Tish asked.
"I've just noticed that you talk all posh with the fellow in the robes and like Tish with us. Be careful that you don't lose who you are when you go back around all of them again. I don't want to lose you especially since it turns out that you're a Time Lord. Maybe you can help me invest my money in the right places. I mean you do know the future and all," Leo joked.
Tish looked at him in surprise for a minute and then laughed and said, "I won't. I promise. I won't make any promises to tell you the future though."
"Do I really do that?" Tish whispered to Martha.
"Yep, you do. I noticed it earlier, but I didn't say anything. I figured that you had enough to worry about already. Don't worry about it. I don't care how you talk as long as you don't forget us," Martha said.
"Not a chance," Tish said as she hugged Martha tightly.
She hugged the others as well and then she waved good bye as she walked over to the Time Lord and grabbed his hand. He then used his Time Ring to take both of them back to Gallifrey.
Once Tish was back there, the High Council quickly told her everything that they knew about Clara. By the time that they had finished, Tish looked at them in horror and desperately hoped that she would still be in time to save her cousin.
"Find me a TARDIS. I have to get to the Ood Home World right away," Tish ordered.
Meanwhile back at that very place, Clara smiled in triumph as House was finally expelled from her body at last and emitted a massive soul churning psychic scream as he went. Then she looked at the Ood who were still screaming in pain and frowned.
"What's your problem? I saved you didn't I? You're all so ungrateful," Clara said in an irritated tone.
"Clara, don't you understand? You're still in their brains after pushing House's influence out of them, and it's causing them massive pain. Your mental presence is too much for them to handle because your mind is too powerful," the Doctor said as he looked at her with worry.
"Fine. They're all just a bunch of whiners though if you ask me," Clara said as she finally withdrew from the minds of the Ood.
Every Ood on the planet collapsed at once and Clara smirked as she said, "This lot would all be bloody useless in a real fight. No wonder House took control of them so easily."
"Alura?" The Master asked in a worried voice.
Clara turned to see that both the Doctor and the Master were looking at her with worried expressions now. She had no idea why though. She had just saved all of their lives after all including those bloody useless Ood.
Then she saw Jenny lying motionless on the ground and immediately went to her side. She placed her hands on both sides of her head and entered her mind.
"No, wait!" The Doctor shouted as he worried that she might hurt Jenny in her current state of mind.
Clara removed her hands a moment later and turned to look at him with a warm smile as she said, "She's going to be fine, Chinny. I'm so glad. I was so afraid that she had suffered some brain damage from what happened."
The Doctor sighed in relief as he and the Master both looked at one another in concern. Clara immediately noticed this.
"What?" Clara asked.
"Clara, are you alright?" The Doctor asked.
"Sure, I'm fine. Why are you looking at me like that?" Clara asked.
"I'm not looking at you like anything," The Doctor said in a calm voice so as not to alarm her.
"Yes, you are. You're looking at me like you do the Daleks or the Cybermen. I remember that look from Oswin's memories. You're afraid of me," Clara said in an upset voice.
"No, he's afraid for you and so am I," the Master finally admitted.
"Why? What did I do?" Clara asked.
"Look around you, Clara. You just knocked all of the Ood out and didn't even care," The Doctor said in a disapproving tone.
"What are you talking about?" Clara asked in confusion and then she looked around her and gasped.
"I didn't . . . Oh, I did! I really did. It happened again. I took on House's personality after I forced him from my brain," Clara said as she started to shake in fear.
The Doctor slowly approached her as if he were afraid that she might attack him at any moment and then he carefully put his arms around her as he said, "It's going to be alright, Clara."
"You don't have to act like that around me like you're approaching a wild animal. I would never hurt you," Clara said in a shaky voice.
"Not normally, no," The Doctor agreed.
"Not ever," Clara said firmly with an angry tone.
The Great Intelligence saw that she was in a weakened emotional state right now and knew that now was exactly the right time to strike. So as what was left of House, who had basically just had his mind shredded by Clara, went floating by him the Intelligence took that moment to reach out to him and quickly merged with him.
The newly reborn Great Intelligence immediately gained a greater ability to travel across time and space that he hadn't really had before now plus much more power and skill. He finally felt as if he had realized his true potential at last.
Now he turned towards Clara with covetous eyes as he prepared to steal her power as well in her weakened emotional state. With power such as hers, no one would be able to stop him not even the Doctor.
The Great Intelligence immediately invaded Clara's mind, and she screamed out in surprise at his sudden intrusion.
"Clara, what is it?" the Doctor asked as she stiffened.
"Oh, no you don't!" Clara said.
Then as the Doctor watched in disbelief, Clara smiled as what he now sensed was the Great Intelligence came flowing out of her almost as if he were fleeing from her. Apparently he was judging from Clara's next statement.
"Oh, you have to know that you won't escape me that way, Brain Boy. If it wasn't for the fact that you're so early in your own timeline, I'd just rip you apart like I did to your friend. You still have so much left to do though unfortunately. Stupid Web of Time!" Clara said with a sigh as she gestured at the fleeing Intelligence.
The Doctor and the Master both heard the Intelligence's psychic screams and then winced as they were suddenly and abruptly cut off. They now turned to see Clara smiling in triumph, and both of them became very worried for her once more.
"What? I didn't kill him. I just weakened him so much that it'll take him a long time to recover. He still has to go bother you back in your own past after all and me too unfortunately. I wish I could just rewrite the Web of Time so that I could wipe him out but I can't. Not yet anyway," Clara said with a grin.
The two Time Lords looked at her in disbelief as she said, "I was joking. I don't have any abilities to manipulate time. Get a sense of humor, Mr. Chin. You too, Blondie."
Both of them just continued to look at her with worried eyes as Jenny woke up and said, "Does anybody have anything for a headache?"
"Sure, Jen. Wait a minute," Clara said as she gestured at her.
Jenny's look of pain immediately changed to one of relief as she said in surprise, "How did you do that?"
"If it has anything to do with the brain, I'm your girl," Clara said proudly.
"Headaches have nothing to do with the brain," the Doctor said.
"It's the same area," Clara said with a shrug.
"Are you alright?" Jenny asked Clara who she realized was acting differently from before.
"I'm fine. Why does everyone act like I'm going to suddenly start killing everyone in sight for? I feel great. I thought that using my power would make me go all dark, but nothing's happened at all. I should have done this a lot sooner. The only thing I have to worry about is absorbing people's personalities, but that only seems to happen for a little while so it's okay," Clara said.
"No, it's not okay, Clara. Look what you did to the Ood!" The Doctor said.
"Clara did this? I thought House did it," Jenny asked in disbelief.
"That happened after she absorbed part of House's personality for a moment. What happens if it ever becomes permanent?" The Master said in an upset voice.
"Stop worrying, Koschei. I'm okay now. If it's going to worry you all so much, I won't use my powers anymore, okay? I don't exactly understand why I can't use them since everything's basically fine, but I won't if you're going to keep going on and on about them so much. Are you satisfied now?" Clara said with a sigh.
"No, I'm afraid that's not going to be good enough," Tish's voice said from behind them.
"Tish?" Clara asked as she turned to see Tish standing there with a large army of Time Lords armed with stasers behind her.
"Tish, what are you doing?" the Doctor said in a warning tone.
"I'm sorry, Doctor, but we have to take her back to Gallifrey now while we still can. I'm sorry, Clara," Tish said as she gave her a guilty look.
"Tish, why are you doing this? You know me. I would never hurt anyone," Clara said with a betrayed look on her face.
"Look at what you just did to all of the Ood on this planet, Clara. Yeah, you didn't hurt them seriously but how long until you do? We have to take you back home and remove your powers for good," Tish said.
"Do you really have a way to do that?" Clara asked warily.
"Not at the moment but we'll come up with something soon I'm sure. I'll make sure that whatever it is isn't dangerous before I let them use it on you. You know that I wouldn't let them do anything harmful to you, Clara," Tish said in a soothing voice.
Clara could see the hardened looks on the faces of the other Time Lords though, and she knew that they weren't planning on being gentle with her. They had obviously led Tish to believe that but she knew better.
"No, I don't think so. I'm not going anywhere but traveling with the Doctor," Clara said firmly.
"Clara, please listen while you're still in your right mind. I've seen the future and it's not pretty. Most of your possible futures lead to you going completely rogue and assuming complete mental control over all of the Time Lords as you declare yourself Imperiatrix. You then force them to take over all of time and space in your name as you start off a brand new Time War. The other futures are even worse. They end with the Time Lords being forced to execute you in order to save themselves. Please let me help you while I still can. Please!" Tish pleaded.
Clara could see why they were all looking at her that way now, but she just couldn't believe it.
"I wouldn't do that. I know I wouldn't. Tish, someone is lying to you. They're just trying to come up with an excuse to take me home so that they can kill me because they're afraid of me. That's all it is," Clara said.
"No, I've seen what happens, Clara. It's all true. Unless we take your powers away soon, the entire universe will suffer and so will you. I just want to help you," Tish said.
"I know that you do but they don't. You can't hear their thoughts but I can. Just as I know that you're honestly here to help, I also know that they're all here to trap me so that they can get rid of me later. They're just using you to get me to go along without a fight because they know that I trust you," Clara said.
"What? No, that's not true," Tish said.
"Are you sure? Don't tell me that it's not something that they would do because I know better," Clara said as she eyed the Time Lords behind Tish with anger.
"Tish, call them off and let me and Koschei handle this. We'll keep her out of trouble," the Doctor said.
"Really, Doctor? It doesn't look like that's worked out for you so far," Tish said with a frown sounding more like Romana than her human self for a moment.
"I'm going with the Doctor and the Master, Tish. End of story," Clara said.
"Hey, what about me?! What am I? Nothing?" Jenny asked perturbed at being consistently left out of the conversation.
"They don't know you, Jennifer, so they have no reason to trust you," Clara explained.
"And you really think that they'll trust the two biggest renegades in Time Lord history instead?" Tish asked with a smirk.
"Oi! The Doctor's saved the universe so much that I bet even he's lost count of how many times he's done it. As for the Master, he's . . . better these days," Clara said tactfully.
"She still sounds like Clara," Jenny whispered to the Doctor in a hopeful voice.
"Yes, for now," the Doctor whispered back.
"Enough stalling! You will come with us now, Lady Alura, or we will take you by force," Commander Maxil, the head of the guards behind Tish, warned.
"Really? I'd like to see you try," Clara said with a defiant gleam in her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Tish said to the guards as they all began to aim their guns at Clara.
"It's necessary, Madam President," Maxil said.
"I'm ordering you not to do this," Tish said.
"I'm afraid that we're taking our orders from the High Council not you. They commanded us to take her in by any means necessary," Maxil said.
"No, I never signed up for this," Tish said in alarm.
"I told you so, Tish. They've tricked both of us," Clara said.
"Stand down," the Doctor said to the guards as he saw where all of this was headed.
"I'm giving you one last warning, Lady Alura. Will you come willingly or by force?" Maxil asked in a cold voice.
"I'm not going anywhere. I don't want to fight with you especially since you remind me so much of one of the Doctors' other selves, but I will if I have to. Don't make me have to, Maxil," Alura warned.
"You heard her. Prepare to fire on my order," Maxil said.
"No, wait!" Tish yelled.
The Doctor wasn't sure if she was talking to Maxil or Clara.
"Boys, you have just made a huge mistake," Clara said as she gestured toward Maxil and the guards.
Once again screaming filled the air as Clara smiled, and the Doctor watched her in horror.
Meanwhile back in nineteenth century London, the Moment was waiting in Vastra's sitting room when a woman dressed similarly to Vastra with a veil over her face was finally shown into the room by Jenny Flint. The Moment knew right away that this must be Elissa.
"Hello, I'm . . ." The Moment started to say before she was interrupted by the Silurian.
"I know who you are, Moment, and why you told Vastra Rose's name. I also know why you've come here, and you have a right to be worried about your friend. Even now she is sliding further and further down the wrong path," Elissa said.
"Is it too late for you to help her?" the Moment asked in alarm.
"Not yet but the time that we have left to help her is quickly passing. Even now, things are getting worse for her," Elissa said.
"Maybe Vastra and I should go along with you to try and talk her out of what she's doing. She trusts us. She knows that we wouldn't hurt her," Jenny suggested.
Elissa removed her veil then surprising the Moment with her appearance. She didn't look roughly humanoid like Vastra. She was one of the other older tribe of Silurians who looked much more reptilian and had a third eye in the middle of their forehead that she had seen once in the Doctor's memories. The third eye had numerous psychic abilities she remembered.
"No, it's too dangerous for you to go around her now. She probably wouldn't harm you on purpose just yet, but she might by accident because she is becoming more and more comfortable with the use of her powers. Too comfortable," Elissa said in a worried voice.
"Do you still think that you can help her?" The Moment asked.
"Yes, if I can get close enough to her before she discovers me. We must go to her right away," Elissa said in an urgent tone.
"If I might ask, why are you so willing to help me? Not that I'm ungrateful. I'd just like to know," The Moment asked sensing that there was something more to her urgency.
"It's because I had a daughter once. She had the same kind of powers and thought that she could use them against the Cybermen when they first started to appear on Mondas. She did more harm than good though. Much more and only I was left alive out of all of our race as a result," Elissa said in a sad voice.
"You mean?" The Moment asked in a frightened voice.
"I mean that it wasn't the Cybermen who wiped us all out," Elissa said and then said nothing further.
"We have to get there as quickly as possible," The Moment said in alarm as she opened up a portal to where she sensed that Clara was.
As soon as she and Elissa stepped through it, she saw row after row of Time Lords falling to their knees in pain before a smiling Clara as all of her friends pleaded with her to stop.
"It may already be too late," Elissa said with a shiver as memories of her daughter played through her mind.
Next: Can the Moment and Elissa help the others stop Clara or is this the start of her long descent into madness? Is it really too late to remove her powers now? Maybe a special visitor from the past can keep Clara from going too far.