CHAPTER 23
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ALTERNATE LIVES
The TARDIS broke through to Pete's World within moments, and the ancient ship soon materialized right in the middle of a large house. The Doctor guessed from looking at all of the pink items that were in the room that it must be Rose's home. Who else would have pink curtains after all?
"Rose, did you change the coordinates?" The Doctor asked knowing full well that she had.
"Well, obviously. I didn't want to wind up coming a year later after all by trusting it all to you now, did I?" Rose said with a smirk.
"Oh, that sounds just like you, Doctor. Do you know that he once promised to take me to see Space Florida and we wound up in the state of Florida instead? We ended up getting caught up in an adventure looking for the Fountain of Youth with Ponce de Leon. I never did get to see Space Florida come to think of it, Chinny," Clara said with a smile.
"We found out the truth behind the Fountain of Youth though. That's much cooler," The Doctor said.
"I'd really like to hear all about that later but right now I need you to look at the Doctor. My Doctor I mean. I can feel that he only has a few more days left to live at the most," Rose said with a worried look as her eyes briefly glowed.
"So you call him Doctor then?" The Doctor asked as he scanned Rose with his sonic again.
Ten silently exchanged a glance of concern with the Doctor who quickly gave him a thumbs-up sign. Clara noticed however that both men still looked worried though. Rose meanwhile looked at both of them with a soft smile. Clara could tell from her body language that she thought that they were both worried about nothing.
"Yes, of course I do. He's you after all even if he is half-human. My whole family calls him Doctor except for our kids and grandkids of course. He goes by the name of Jamie McCrimmon though whenever he has to give someone a regular name. And yes, I do know who he is to you now even if I didn't get that little reference that you made to him when we met Queen Victoria," Rose said with a fond smile.
The Doctor and Ten both smiled at that as the Doctor said, "Good old Jamie."
"What's wrong with Handy, Rose?" Ten asked with a serious look.
"Now don't go calling him that if you don't want an earful, Doctor," Rose said with a chuckle.
Then her face became completely serious as well as she said, "He's dying of old age, Doctor. His body is finally wearing out. I thought that we were going to live a normal life together, and then the universe decides to play a sick joke on both of us and makes me immortal. My Doctor says that he doesn't care about that and that he likes it that I got to come back. He told me once that he wouldn't have wanted to go on without me anyway. What he doesn't understand is that I don't want to go on for the rest of eternity without him."
Rose began to tear up and Ten immediately wrapped his arms around her and held her as he did his best to comfort her. She gave him an appreciative smile and then gently pulled away from him.
"I finally get it now, Doctor. You didn't want to stay with me because eventually you would have had to go on without me too. It would have torn you apart wouldn't it? I really think that it would have because thinking of going on without my Doctor is already starting to tear me apart," Rose said in an emotional voice.
"Rose, I'm going to do my best to help him. Sand Shoes and I both are," The Doctor assured her as he too wrapped his arms around her now.
"We all will. I'm never going to stand by and let any version of the Doctor die if I can help it," Clara said.
"I wonder if I could help," Marion said thinking out loud.
"Could you?" Rose asked with renewed hope in her eyes.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure mind you, but I can certainly try. The Web of Time doesn't say that he has to die soon after all so I don't see why I couldn't do something to help save him. I wonder if I could attempt to make him into a full Time Lord. Maybe it would just be simpler to rejuvenate him though. I hate to muck about too much with his biology when it's as complex as his is. I might wind up making things worse somehow," Marion said.
"I wish that I could control my powers better. I could fix him myself. I saved Jack after all," Rose said.
"You remember that now?" The Doctor asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I do. Is he angry at me? Does he hate me?" Rose asked in a hesitant voice.
"No, of course not. You know better than that. Jack loves you, Rose. He understands all about what happened," The Doctor reassured him.
"He doesn't hold anything against you, Rose. In fact, when he thought that I was you he was very happy to see me," Marion told him.
Rose smiled and said, "Thank you. I'm so glad of that. It's one of the things that I regret the most in my life so I'm so glad that I didn't turn him into a complete basket case."
"Rose, are you asking about this because you're thinking of doing the same thing to your Doctor?" The Doctor asked.
Rose nodded at his perceptiveness as she admitted, "I remember what I did to Jack in order to make him the way that he is now. I thought that if worst came to worst that I could probably do it again. Do I really want to curse my Doctor that way though? Would he wind up resenting it? That's really why I came to you. I wanted you to find another way to help him or at least tell me how he would feel about being immortal."
"I never wanted to be immortal, Rose. If I had to be though, then I don't think that I'd mind it so much if I could spend eternity with you," The Doctor said with a warm smile.
Then he suddenly looked at Clara with a massively guilty look on his face as he said, "That's how he'd feel about it I mean."
Clara gave him a tender kiss as she said, "It's alright. I know that you still love her, and I'm okay with that."
"I love you too though and she has him. I shouldn't be . . ." The Doctor said as he looked away from her with shame.
"You can't help how you feel, Doctor. I understand," Clara said as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her.
"I love you too, Clara. So much," The Doctor said as he finally looked at her again with a scared look on his face.
"I know. I love you too. Everything's alright so don't worry. You need to worry about the other Doctor not me," Clara reassured him as she gave him another kiss.
"Just to make it clear to everyone, I don't want any other Doctor. I love mine. He's become my one and only Doctor now, and I don't ever want to try and replace him," Rose said.
"Rose, I never . . ." The Doctor said apologetically.
"I know that, Doctor. I just wanted to say that so that Clara wasn't hurt. She seems like a good person, and I don't want you two falling out over me," Rose said.
Clara smiled at her as she said, "We're alright, Blondie. Honest. Don't worry."
Then suddenly she stiffened and had a shocked look on her face as she said, "What? It couldn't be. Could it? Of course it could though. This is a parallel universe after all. Of course she's here."
"Clara? What is it?" The Doctor asked as he looked at her in alarm.
"Doctor, I think that I may have found someone who can help Rose. If I'm wrong though, then I don't want you or anyone else getting hurt. I'm going on to find her by myself. I'll bring her back if everything goes okay," Clara said as she started to punch in coordinates into her Vortex Manipulator.
"Clara, wait!" The Doctor said still not understanding what she was talking about.
"I love you," Clara said with a warm smile as she started to activate the manipulator.
"Oh, no you don't! You're not going anywhere without me!" Jenny shouted as she quickly grabbed ahold of her best friend just as she vanished.
"Clara! Jenny!" The Doctor screamed in an upset voice.
"What just happened?" Rose asked in confusion.
Marion suddenly gasped but said nothing. The Doctor instantly turned to look at her now with a demanding look on his face because she knew. She knew what was going on!
"Where is she going, Marion? Tell me," The Doctor said in an extremely upset voice.
"Leave her alone. I'm sure that if she doesn't want to tell you that it must be for a very good reason," Ten said defensively.
"I need to know if Clara's in trouble. You don't understand. Clara is Alura," The Doctor insisted.
Ten's eyes widened even as he said, "I thought that she was just someone who looked like her. I saw someone who looked like her once before at the Library only she called herself Oswin. Then again I'm always imagining that I see Alura. I've thought that I've seen women who look like her my whole life. I'd catch a quick glimpse of them out of the corner of my eye and then they'd be gone. I thought it was because I missed her so much."
"No, it wasn't. They were all Alura, Sand Shoes. She's always been there beside us all of our lives in one form or another always watching over and protecting us. I'll explain later. Right now I need to find her so that I can protect her for once. Marion, tell me where she is before anything happens to her," The Doctor pleaded.
"Alright, Doctor, but you're not going to like this," Marion said.
"I don't care. I have to know. Tell me anyway," The Doctor said.
After Marion told him, the Doctor's jaw dropped in horror as he said, "I have to stop her!"
"It's too late. She's already found her," Marion said.
Meanwhile back on Earth at that very moment (Don't you just hate me right now?), Tish was fast asleep but her rest was far from a peaceful one. Ever since she had closed her eyes, she had been having nightmare after nightmare in which her family were all attacking her over and over again. In some of her dreams, she had Martha on her side in these arguments, but in other dreams even Martha was against her making her feel as if she was so alone.
After an hour of one relentless assault on her mind after another, she finally woke up screaming and covered with sweat. When she realized that it had only been a dream, she put her head in her hands and began to silently weep.
"I can't take this anymore. I should . . . I should just leave. Yes, I'll just get in the TARDIS and leave this place and never come back," Tish said to herself in a choked voice.
"Really? That's your solution? Running like a coward when the chips are down? Being human really has killed my spirit hasn't it?" A very familiar voice suddenly said.
Tish looked up to see her second incarnation standing there in the schoolgirl outfit that she had once loved so much. Romana II was glaring at her future self with disdain, but yet Tish could also see an undercurrent of sympathy in her eyes as well.
"It's true isn't it? We used to have such fire in us. We'd never let anything get us down not even being ruthlessly tortured by the Shadow or constantly having our mind assaulted by Pandora. We always overcame everything that was thrown at us. Now look at us. Ready to run at the first sign of trouble," Romana I said as she suddenly appeared next to Romana II.
Romana I wore a long white gown and wore her hair up in an almost regal manner looking every inch the future Lady President that she would one day become. She too looked at Tish with disdain, but unlike Romana II she had very little sympathy for her reflected in her eyes.
"I have no idea why you care so much about staying here anyway though to be honest. I mean I have nothing against humans personally, but they're such limited creatures. We belong on Gallifrey among our own kind or out in space having grand adventures," Romana I said.
Romana II frowned as she said, "Still so arrogant about the natural superiority of the Time Lords over the rest of the universe, aren't you? You'll learn just how special that not only humans but all species are while you're having those adventures, Romana. You'll soon learn to see them and the Time Lords in a different light. Then one day you won't ever want to go home again once you do even though we'll eventually wind up there anyway."
"Why are you two here? Is this another dream? Yes, it must be. I certainly don't remember this happening before," Tish said.
"Does it matter what it is? The two of us might not agree on much, but we both agree that you need to stay here and fight to keep your life. We've never run from anything before, and I certainly don't want us to start now," Romana I said.
"You don't understand. My family will never accept Koschei. He did far too much to them for them to ever even consider the idea of my being married to him. It's a losing battle right from the start," Tish protested.
Romana II smiled at her as she said, "Didn't the Doctor teach you anything? A battle where you're almost sure that you're going to lose is the best kind of battle. In fact, those are the only battles really worth fighting."
"Don't do this. Don't you remember how terrible it felt to lose Alura? She was our only family, and when she disappeared we were all alone for so long until we finally found a new family again with the Doctor. Do you really want to go through that again? If these humans really are your family now, then you must fight for them. Fight for them with everything that you have," Romana I said.
Tish smiled as she said, "You're right. I was starting to forget who I really was for a while there, but you've both reminded me of her again for the first time in a long time. I am Romanadvoratrelundar and I never run. Not from anyone or anything. I didn't back down from Rassilon and I didn't back down from the Black Guardian so I'm not about to start with my own mother. No matter how human that I've become I can never forget who I really am. Never."
Both Romanas smiled at their future self as they said in unison, "Now go and get her back."
Tish then woke up from the second dream that she had been in and smiled with newfound confidence. She was going to make this work somehow.
It was sometime later while Martha and Francine were having a talk about the Master that was quickly degenerating into a screaming match that they both heard a familiar sound. Martha smiled as she guessed exactly what was going on.
Tish's TARDIS immediately materialized around both women, and Francine looked at Tish's Console Room in a combination of shock and awe as Tish smiled at her.
"I thought that might get you to be quiet for a minute, Mum. Now that you've finally stopped screaming it's time for us to talk. Really talk. Do you know that I almost left today? I came this close to leaving Earth behind forever. I'm not going to though. I'm going to get you back, and I don't care how long it takes. We're not leaving here until we talk this through," Tish said firmly.
Francine looked at her in horror and more than a bit of guilt at the thought that she had almost caused her to leave forever so she remained silent. She had never wanted her to leave. She had only hoped to shock her into leaving the Master for good. The fact that it had almost done the opposite made her feel sick inside.
"Good plan, Tish. Kidnapping her. That'll really make her want to listen," Martha said.
"Do you have a better idea?" Tish asked.
"No, not a one. I'm so glad that you stayed no matter what crazy idea that you came up with," Martha admitted.
"It's alright, Martha. Let her talk. I at least owe her that," The still visibly upset Francine said.
As mother and daughter finally started to talk without screaming at last, back on Pete's World Clara was doing some screaming of her own at Jenny. Both women had found themselves on a deserted island far from civilization that Clara's Manipulator had tracked a specific mental signature down to moments earlier. Clara was worried sick about Jenny because she had no idea what condition that the owner of that signature would be in when they found them.
"Why did you do that? I have absolutely no idea what she's liable to do. I'm okay with risking my own life to help Rose but not yours. I'd never forgive myself if anything ever happened to you. You're going to take this Manipulator, and you're going back to your father right now," Clara said in a furious voice.
"Look, I know it's not my brightest idea. I usually plan ahead before I enter into a dangerous situation, but this time I ignored my instincts because I'm not about to let you go off by yourself alone. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to you either, you know?" Jenny said.
Clara smiled at her and hugged tightly as she said, "You're an idiot, Jenny. You're my idiot though."
"I feel exactly the same way about you," Jenny said with a chuckle as she hugged her back.
"Jenny?" A voice said from somewhere deep in the giant mass of palm trees covering the island.
"Jenny, get behind me!" Clara shouted in fear.
"Who is it? Who did you come here to find?" Jenny asked as Clara protectively pushed her behind her.
Jenny gasped in surprise as she saw an exact duplicate of Clara come walking towards them. This Clara however had a haunted look in her eyes and a look of pure sorrow written all over her face.
"Jenny, it is you," The other Clara said in a voice that sounded so impossibly old and yet young at the same time as though every ounce of energy and vitality had been sucked out of its owner.
"Stay away from her. I don't care how powerful that you are I won't let you hurt her," Clara warned.
The other Clara looked at her with sadness as she said, "I'd never hurt her. Not this time. I'll never hurt her again."
"What do you mean by never again?" Jenny asked in a scared voice as she realized just from the way that this Clara was talking that she was completely unhinged.
"I killed you. I killed you, the Doctor, the Master, Tish, and all of the rest of the Time Lords when . . ." The other Clara said before trailing off into a grief-filled sob.
"When you lost control of yourself after you started using your powers," Clara finished for her.
"So this is a reality where you didn't stop yourself in time," Jenny said with a shudder.
Clara looked confused as she said, "That can't be though. She can't be from here. Things would have turned out differently in this universe. They had to because the Doctor said that there were no Time Lords here. He never detected any."
"You're right. I'm not from this universe. I came from an alternate reality where I destroyed the Time Lords. When I realized what I did it drove me half-mad for a while, and I fled to this universe in a blind panic in the TARDIS. The Time Lords of this reality soon detected me though and found out what I did to their counterparts in the other universe. It wasn't long before they tried to destroy me too. I tried to settle things peacefully. I really did. They just wouldn't stop trying to kill me though. I should have just let them because in the end they pushed me too far, and I snapped again and wiped them out too. That's when I hid here and closed my mind off completely from the outside world hoping that no one would ever find me again," The other Clara said through a flood of tears.
Clara began to shake with fear, not for herself, but for Jenny as she said, "I haven't come here to bother you. I came because I sensed you and thought that you might be able to help save a friend of mine. Just forget it though. We'll just leave and never bother you again, okay?"
"See? This is why I followed you here. All you do is get yourself right into trouble when you're left alone on your own for too long," Jenny said as she unconsciously clung to Clara in fear.
Clara started to use her Vortex Manipulator to leave when the other Clara gestured at it, and it suddenly went dead. Clara's hearts began to speed up as she realized that they really were trapped there now while the other Clara started to come closer to them.
"If there's anything of me still left inside of you, don't hurt Jenny. Just let her go," Clara said.
The other Clara continued to move forward though despite Clara's pleas and before Clara could attempt to stop her she put her to sleep with a single gesture. As Clara fell to the ground, Jenny began to slowly back away even as she prepared a plan in her mind to deal with the other Clara.
"Don't do this. I don't want to have to hurt you but, I will if you don't stop. You see I came up with . . . a method of stopping Clara if there was no other way back when she still had her powers. I never used it because I just couldn't do it. I loved her too much. You're not my Clara though so I will use it against you if I have to," Jenny said.
Suddenly in the flash of an eye and before she could do anything, the other Clara was standing right in front of her. Jenny knew then that she had to do it. She didn't want to, but she had no other choice.
Just before she could put her plan to kill the mad Clara into action though, she was completely taken by surprise when the Time Lady suddenly started to hug her tightly. The other Clara continued to hug her tighter and tighter as she began asking her over and over again to forgive her.
"What?" Jenny asked in disbelief.
"I'm so sorry," The other Clara repeated over and over again.
Jenny realized now exactly what she had to do as she said in a gentle voice, "I do forgive you, Clara. I only hope that you can forgive me."
"For what?" The other Clara asked.
"This," Jenny said as she injected her with a microscopic needle in the base of her skull.
The other Clara began screaming in agony while Clara woke up to this scene in shock. She could see tears dripping down Jenny's face even as she watched the Time Lady suffering.
"What did you do?" Clara asked.
"I injected her with nanites that I created from technology that I stole from the Daleks and the Cybermen. The nanites will completely rewrite her brain and should make it just like a normal Time Lady's. I didn't want to use it because it's never been tested. I'm not sure if it'll take away her powers or kill her. I didn't want to kill her but I couldn't let her go free after she killed so many people. I'm sorry, Clara," Jenny said as she continued to cry while Clara put her arms around her and held her.
"You were going to use that on me once weren't you?" Clara realized.
"I couldn't do it. I love you too much. I could barely do it to her because she looks like you. I definitely couldn't have used it on you," Jenny admitted.
"It shows just how smart that you really are though, Jen. You knew that the solution was reshaping my brain even before anyone else figured it out. Luckily I had Elissa to help me, but there was no one here for this Clara," Clara said sadly as she watched her parallel self continue to scream in agony.
"I don't want her to die. What she did wasn't her fault. Her mind was just as warped as yours was," Jenny said.
"Hey, you don't know if she'll die or not. She might just return to normal because of you and that would be wonderful," Clara said in an optimistic voice.
"Clara," The other Clara said in a voice filled with pain.
Clara turned to see her alternate self smiling at her as she said, "My mind is clearing and I can think again."
"Well, that's good, yeah?" Clara said as she crossed her fingers hoping that this was a good sign.
"I can feel my mind being reshaped as I speak which is why I need to do this before it finishes," The other Clara said.
"Do what?" Clara asked warily.
"Do for you what no one could ever do for me. I'm going to fix you," The other Clara said.
"Wait! She's already had her brain fixed! Stop!" Jenny screamed.
It was already too late though. Clara could feel her brain erupting in fire even as the other Clara gestured at her.
"Stop it! You're killing her!" Jenny screamed.
"Jenny, what's happening?" The Doctor asked as he and Marion teleported to the island finally finding her just a moment too late.
"Dad, I was trying to stop the other Clara, but I only made things worse. Marion, please help her. Please!" Jenny pleaded while Marion watched both Claras screaming and was unsure of what to do for either of them.
"Jenny, I can't. This is a fixed point in time. I can't interfere," Marion finally said shocking both Jenny and the Doctor.
Meanwhile back at Rose's house (Feel like killing me yet?), Ten had just finished his examination of the Metacrisis Doctor with the advanced equipment from the TARDIS. Rose looked at him expectantly with eyes filled with hope as he finally turned to look at her to give her the results.
Her hopes were immediately dashed however as Ten said, "I can't save him. He's too far gone. The only thing that I know of that could help him now would be your or Marion's power to manipulate reality."
Rose sighed as she said, "And of course Marion has to go running off with the Doctor. How much longer does he have?"
Ten looked at her sadly as he said, "Three days at the most. It's probably more like two though."
"Doctor, should I try to make him like Jack?" Rose asked.
"I don't know what to tell you about that, Rose. I know that any of me wouldn't mind spending eternity with you, but I also know that just going around creating fixed points willy nilly is just asking for trouble. It's up to you to decide what do next, Rose. You're the one who'll have to live with the consequences of it. Forever," Ten said with a sympathetic look on his face.
"So will he," Rose said in a low voice.
"It was better when you had all of the knowledge of time and space in your head wasn't it? It's much easier to make decisions when you already know how they're the most likely to turn out, yeah?" Rose's own voice said behind her.
She and Ten both turned to see Rose's younger self back when she had the full power of the Bad Wolf standing there. She smiled at them as she waved happily.
"Hello. Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt anyone," The Bad Wolf said.
"I didn't think that you were. You are Rose after all no matter how much the Vortex has affected you, and Rose Tyler is not a cold-blooded killer. She's too sweet and kind. Why are you here though?" Ten asked.
Rose smiled at him for his comments as she said to her past self, "Are you here to help my Doctor? Is that it? Was this my plan from the start to help him? Was all of this, making me immortal and bringing this Doctor back to life, a part of my/our plan too? That was you, wasn't it?"
The Bad Wolf smiled as she said, "Of course it was. I made you immortal so that we could keep our promise of forever to the Doctor. You got a little bit of our power back as a side effect of that."
Then she pointed to Ten as she continued, "I saved your life so that the Moment/Marion wouldn't be lonely. I wanted to reward her for helping me when I couldn't help myself, and you're the best reward that I could think of, Doctor. I saved your mental essence just before regeneration would have erased it and created a body made out of Vortex energy for it. You're made out of the same thing that powers me now just like Marion is, and you'll be there for her forever now. You won't die in this body just like Marion can't die. You're both made out of energy after all, and energy can't ever be destroyed. That's why Marion wasn't killed by the Movellan ship exploding. You're both immortal."
Ten looked at her with his jaw opened as he said, "I don't feel any different though, and the sonic isn't showing anything."
"No, of course not. I didn't want anything to seem different for you because I knew that you'd hate that. Your body is the same as it always has been, Doctor. You have no powers or anything like that. The only difference between you now and before is that you'll never have to regenerate because your body is made out of energy even if it reads as being flesh and blood thanks to a little jiggery pokery that I did to its genes. I wanted you to have a normal life as much as possible," The Bad Wolf said with a gentle smile.
"Is that what you're going to do for my Doctor now? Are you going to do that to him?" Rose asked eagerly.
"No, not me. Someone else is about to do something about that I hope," The Bad Wolf said.
"Why can't you do it now that you're here? Why are you being so stubborn for? You of all people know how worried that I am. Please help me!" Rose begged.
"Trust me, Rose. You do trust yourself don't you?" The Bad Wolf asked.
"I trust you," Ten said with a smile.
"Well, that's one that I've won over anyway," The Bad Wolf said happily.
"You're also won over me if that helps you out any, Bad Wolf Girl," A disembodied voice said.
Suddenly Clara appeared next to the Metacrisis Doctor's bed along with a bewildered looking Doctor, Marion and Jenny. Another Clara, the one from the alternate universe, was lying unconscious on the floor next to them.
"What the?" Rose asked as she saw this.
"Don't worry, Rose. I'm just here to do what you wanted. It's time to finally give you your forever once and for all," Clara said as she smiled at her with a wide grin.
"Clara, what just happened?" The Doctor asked her in concern.
"I'll explain in a minute, Chinny. Right now I have a job to do," Clara said as she gestured at the sleeping Metacrisis Doctor.
"What are you doing?" Rose asked still not sure what was happening.
"Relax, Rose. It's all right," Clara reassured her.
Clara's eyes became distant now as she said, "Yes, that's it. That's how to do it. I see now. It's so simple when you know what you're doing."
"See what? What are you talking about?" Rose asked.
"There. That should do it," Clara said with a triumphant smile.
Suddenly the Metacrisis Doctor started to glow all over his body, and he instantly began to become younger and younger while the Doctor said, "Of course. You're rejuvenating him with psychic energy just like how I defeated the Master once on the Valiant. The amount of energy needed to do that has to be astronomical though in order for it to work. I got it from the mind of every person on Earth. Where are you getting it from?"
"I'm using the nearest source of psychic energy that there is, Doctor. Mine," Clara said as she continued to make the Metacrisis younger and younger by the moment.
"You mean your powers are back?" The Doctor said in alarm.
"The other Clara reshaped her mind. I tried to stop her but I couldn't," Jenny said.
"Don't worry, Jenny. This was supposed to happen," Marion reassured her.
The Metacrisis now woke up with a huge smile on his face as Clara said, "Rise and shine, Handy. Sorry, I forgot that you hate being called that. That's Step Number One finished now. You're young and incredibly handsome once again. Now for Step Number Two. Don't worry. Immortality is on its way. You and Rose are about to get your forever. Just give Marion a mo."
Clara smiled as the Metacrisis began to glow once again and looked at her in surprise as he asked, "Alura? Is that you?"
"You've got it, Pinstripe Man. It's me and I've got my mojo back. You can take it from here, Marion," Clara said.
Then Marion stepped in and looked at him intently for a moment before she said, "There. There's the right gene to switch on to allow perpetual bodily regeneration so that you can just keep on regenerating forever. Rassilon was looking for this for ages and there it was hiding right there in plain sight all along. You're a tricky little bugger aren't you? Now, little gene, do your thing."
The Metacrisis briefly glowed and then said with surprise, "I can feel it. I can regenerate again. How though? I'm half-human."
"So was River Song but it still worked for her. You just have to know how to alter the genes just enough to jump start the process, and I just figured it out. Now you'll be able to regenerate too just like she could," Marion said with a smile.
Rose finally began to smile from ear to ear with one of her face wide grins for the first time in a long time as she said, "Thank you, both of you. Thank you so much!"
"Couldn't you have done all of that by yourself though?" Ten asked Marion.
"Yeah, but I wanted to give Clara a chance to test out her powers. I could feel her just dying to show them off from the moment that she arrived," Marion said with a grin.
"Hey! It's not like you don't like showing off too, Rose Two," Clara said with a constant smile that just wouldn't leave her face.
"Rose Two? I have a name you know? It's Marion. How hard is that?" Marion said frowning.
"Marion's boring. I like Rose Two better or maybe Rose, Jr. Yeah, I like Rose, Jr.," Clara teased her.
Rose laughed as she said, "I don't care what she's called. I'm grateful to both of you."
Then she hugged them both before saying, "I'm grateful to you too, Past Me."
Just as she turned to thank her past self though she realized that she was gone. The Bad Wolf had returned back to her proper place in time and space where she belonged now that her final plan had finally been successfully carried out at last.
Rose Tyler finally had her forever at last, and she had created it for herself (with a little bit of help).
Rose now kissed the Metacrisis Doctor passionately even as Marion kissed Ten. The Doctor however just stood there looking extremely worried as he continued to look at an amazingly happy Clara.
"Chin Man, I'm fine. The other me reshaped my brain so that I not only got my powers back, but that I could safely use them now without them warping my brain. I'm not going to be as powerful as before because of that probably, but I'm still not bad, am I? I'm definitely going to have to avoid doing neat little tricks like that last one though. That's left my brain feeling completely drained," Clara admitted.
"Clara, I want to test both you and Rose as soon as possible. Handy too. You've all been changed far too fast for it to be safe," The Doctor said.
"Test away, Mr. Chin, but I'm fine and so are they. Marion knows that. She's the one that said that it was a fixed point in time after all for me to get myself rebooted. I'm glad that they're back as long as I'm not going to become Captain Crazy again. I love being able to use them to do cool things like helping you out," Clara said.
"Yeah, it's great," The Doctor said still looking extremely worried.
"What do we do with her?" Jenny asked as she pointed to the other Clara.
"Don't worry. I'll send her back to her own universe with her memory wiped of what she did. It wasn't her fault anyway, and she doesn't need to remember any of it now that she's lost her powers. I think that she was actually trying to make up for all of that anyway by restoring Clara's powers so that she could help people with them. She deserves a reward for that. She deserves to get to go home and hopefully get a much happier life this time around," Marion said as she snapped her fingers and sent the other Clara back.
"Dad, do you think that this really is a happy ending for all of us for once?" Jenny asked hopefully.
The Doctor gave her a brief smile that he didn't really feel as he said, "I hope so. If anyone deserves it, Clara certainly does after everything that she went through."
He hoped that just this once that the universe gave him this one. He hoped with every fiber of his being that Clara was going to be alright this time.
If she was then he promised that he would never ask for anything else for the rest of his lives. He just wanted Clara to finally be happy.
Next: The Doctor finds out more about the changes to Clara. Will she be okay and what can she do now? Rose and the Metacrisis make a decision about how they're going to spend the rest of eternity together and so do Marion and Ten for that matter. Tish meanwhile finally has her talk with her mother. Will she be able to change her mind? Oh, and just so that you don't think that I've forgotten that this is supposed to be an adventure story too, a very familiar villain appears who has taken a very special interest in the Master. I wonder who that could be?