CHAPTER 30

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NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON

As the Valeyard laughed in triumph now that his forces and the Doctor's were currently locked in a standoff with one another, Clara instantly became filled with anger as she realized that she had had more than enough of all of this. She was more than tired of having either her life or those of the people that she loved threatened lately. Now with the revelation of a dark Doctor who wanted to completely ruin any chance that she ever had at happiness, she had finally reached her limit at last.

If the universe wanted to play dirty with her, then she could give it back just as good as she got.

Clara's eyes glowed with power as the soldiers standing next to the Valeyard all suddenly turned their guns towards him in unison and spoke in one voice as they said, "Lower the gun and give up now. Don't make this have to get nasty, Dark Boy. Well, nastier anyway."

"Clara, no. This isn't the way," The Doctor protested as he instantly realized what she was doing.

"You don't have to worry, Doctor. She won't kill me. She could never bring herself to do that no matter what. I know you see because I've been inside of her head after linking with her or at least the future version of you that I came from has anyway. That means that I know her even better than you do. That's why I'm so certain about the darkness that lies inside of her. Does that threaten you that I know the woman that you've secretly loved your entire life so much better than you do, Doctor? Does it anger you?" The Valeyard said with mocking laughter.

The Doctor's face filled with fury as he said, "You obviously don't know anything about her if you think that the way to win her hearts is to give the world that she's come to love over to a bunch of genocidal lunatics."

"Excuse me?" Pete's World Klein said in an insulted voice.

"Shut it, Fascist Girl. One delusional idiot at a time. Don't listen to him, Doctor. He doesn't know me at all no matter what he says. He's just trying to get under your skin," Clara said in anger.

"Oh, I know you far better than he ever will, Alura. In fact, I'm about to make absolutely certain of that. This staser will instantly kill you, Doctor. Not even an infinite regenerative cycle will save you from it," The Valeyard said with pure hatred in his eyes as he pointed his gun straight at the Doctor now.

Before the Valeyard could pull the trigger though, Clara violently hurled him back inside of the TARDIS with a single telekinetic shove.

"Tell me. Did you know that I was going to do that, Dark Boy? That surprised look on your face says no," Clara shouted to him with a defiant smile.

"Incredible. If I could have her power for my own, I'd be unstoppable," Pete's World Klein said in awe.

Her former flunkies now instantly turned their guns on her at Clara's silent command as the Time Lady said without even looking at her, "Don't even think about it. All you're going to do is go home where we'll sort your universe's particular little mess out later."

"The Boss Lady has spoken," Ace said with a chuckle.

"Yes, I am the boss . . . at least of my own life anyway. Always was, always will be. It's about time that I let everyone know it too especially each and every version of the Doctor who thinks that they can tell me what to do," Clara said as she gave the Doctor a smile filled with meaning.

"I wasn't trying to tell you what to do, Clara. I just worry about you. I always worry about you because I never want to lose you again," The Doctor admitted.

"Well, you're definitely going to lose me if you keep treating me like I'm a little girl. Got it, Fez Boy?" Clara said in a firm tone.

"Now you're getting it. Good for you, mate. Tell him what for," Marion said with a pleased smile as she and Ten appeared before them in a burst of golden energy.

"Marion! You're just the person that I was looking for," The Doctor said with a warm smile.

"My sentiments exactly, Doctor," The Valeyard said as he instantly reemerged from the TARDIS with a glowing object in his hand.

Marion looked at him with undisguised amusement as she said, "Am I supposed to be impressed by your little cosmic doohickey there, Valeyard?"

"You will be, Rose, once you find out what it's done to you," The Valeyard said with a smug grin.

"Yeah, it's blocking my access to my powers making me completely vulnerable to you just like it's doing to Rose. I knew that before I even came here," Marion said with a shrug.

"And yet you still came anyway. Why? Did you think that I would still show you mercy even in your helpless state? If so, you were very much mistaken," The Valeyard said with an evil laugh.

"Oi! Marion didn't just walk in here completely unprepared. Obviously she has a plan or she never would have come," Ten said with a smug grin.

"You have no idea what her plan is, do you?" Clara realized with a giggle.

"No, but I'm sure that whatever it is that it's absolutely brilliant. Tell them all about it, Marion," Ten said with absolute faith in his voice.

Marion only gave him one of her face wide grins in response. The Valeyard instantly started to laugh in response as he realized exactly what that meant.

"How can you not have a plan when you're walking into an obvious trap?" Ten instantly berated her.

"Well, it always works for you, yeah?" Marion said with a smirk.

"You've got a good point," Ten replied with a hopeful but still quite uncertain smile on his face.

"She has no plan, Doctor. She never did. She came here because she knew that my ultimate victory against her was inevitable no matter how far that she fled from me. Finally one of you is showing some true wisdom at last. Now that even you have fallen to me no one will be able to stand in my way. I finally win!" The Valeyard said in a smug tone.

"Hang on now a minute. I never said that I walked in here expecting to give up did I? Despite how it might appear, I actually do have a plan of sorts even if it isn't all carefully thought out well in advance," Marion said with conviction in her voice.

"Really? What is this 'plan' of yours then that isn't actually a plan?" The Valeyard asked in a taunting voice.

"They are. They're my plan. They always have been. They're the cleverest people in the universe and you've just royally ticked them all off plus they brought back-up. You're the one who's going to wind up having nowhere to run, mate," Marion said as she pointed to the Doctor and Clara.

The Valeyard started to laugh maniacally now as he said, "You truly are doomed. You always did have far too much faith in the Doctor's invincibility. They're going to need back-up, Rose. They're going to need all of the back-up that they can get, and it still won't be enough."

That was when the glow from the device in his hand started to slowly spread up his arm and he smiled at them with undisguised glee while he said in response to their shocked gazes, "You still don't understand, do you? This wasn't just about trapping you, Doctor. It was also about trapping Rose, both of her at once. Now that I have the full power of both Roses together I am the new Bad Wolf. None of you have a hope of stopping me now not even Clara. I will get what I want this time, and no one will be able to oppose me."

"You used me! You never told me about any of this. I really can't trust any version of you, can I?" Pete's World Klein said in a furious voice.

"You're just now figuring that out. You're even worse than I was," Original Klein said with a sigh.

"Oi!" The Doctor, the Metacrisis, and Ten all said in unison.

"Oh, don't worry, my dear. I fully intend on letting you have both universes just as I promised. Why should I care about either of these worlds when I can have the entire multiverse at my feet and the woman that I love at my side?" The Valeyard said with a dismissive tone.

"That last part is definitely never going to happen. I can guarantee that," Clara said as the soldiers under her control all aimed their guns straight at the Valeyard's head.

"Let them fire and see what good it does you, Alura. Let them fire!" The Valeyard challenged as his entire body glowed with the power of the Vortex.

Clara hesitated now because the Valeyard was right. She could never do anything that would deliberately kill the Doctor. She had spent her entire life protecting him. It was too hardwired into her for her to overcome that now.

"Doctor, I'm sorry," Clara apologized even as the Valeyard laughed.

"You see, Doctor? I win at last. Now you will surrender all of your regenerations to me, and then I will finally kill you once and for all. Do it or everyone else here but Clara will die in a single instant," The Valeyard threatened.

Clara now looked at Merry in horror as she realized that he was even including her in his threat. She was truly at war with herself at that moment as her unconditional love for each and every side of the Doctor fought with a mother's need to protect her child while she struggled to decide what to do next.

"You'll just kill them anyway whether I do or not so what exactly is my motivation here again?" The Doctor asked.

"You don't know that I will for sure though do you? There's still some faint glimmer of hope left for you that they might survive even if you won't, and that hope no matter how small is what will finally make you give yourself up to me, Doctor. I'm right, aren't I? See? I know you just as well as I do Clara only far, far better," The Valeyard boasted.

The Doctor now turned to the Master as he said, "Do you have any ideas on how to stop him? You've always had plenty for killing me in the past. Not that any of them worked all that well."

"Those were all well thought out far in advance, Doctor. Believe it or not, I haven't been thinking of any ways to kill you lately. I promised someone very special that I wouldn't after all," The Master said as he looked at Tish.

"Now you listen to me," Tish said with a groan.

"You actually thought them out first? I always thought that you were like me and you made them up as you went along. They were so incredibly awful that I was sure that had to be the case. Just forget it then. If that was what your plans were like when you thought them out ahead of time, then they probably wouldn't work anyway," The Doctor said dismissively.

"Doctor, you're being rude," Rose pointed out with a grin.

"Good. If anyone deserves it, he does," The Doctor said in an uncaring tone.

"That's enough, Doctor. This isn't helping anyone," Clara said in an irritated tone.

"Oh, do continue, Doctor. This is amusing me greatly to watch you all squabble amongst yourselves first before the inevitable occurs," The Valeyard said with a chuckle.

"So no one has any kind of plan to kill me whatsoever? What use are any of you then?" The Doctor said in growing agitation.

"Only you would be angry that none of your friends had any secret plans to kill you, Professor. If you keep talking to us like that though, you might not need to wait too much longer before we actually do come up with one though," Ace said in anger.

"I'm sorry, Dorothy. I'm just . . ." The Doctor said in an exasperated tone.

"I know, Professor. Apology accepted, okay? We're all on edge here," Ace reassured him.

That was when Jenny said with a tortured look on her face, "Actually, Dad, I, uh, I do have something that just might work."

"What?" The Doctor asked in stunned surprise because Jenny was always the sweetest and kindest one of the group.

"You have a plan to kill your Dad?" Merry asked in disbelief.

"It wasn't designed to kill him, okay? It was actually something that I came up with to stop him if an enemy ever turned him against us. I'm a soldier, Merry, so I always plan ahead for all possibilities in combat. It could possibly work to kill him too though. I don't know for sure," Jenny said as she looked away from her father in shame.

"It's okay, Jenny. I know that you never planned to use it except to protect the others," The Doctor said as he put a reassuring arm around her.

The Master actually looked at her with awe as he said, "I'm actually more than a bit jealous right now. I should be the one coming up with the plan to kill the Valeyard if anyone should."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Jenny screamed in anger.

"I didn't mean . . ." The Master started to say with immediate regret.

"I know alright. I know you didn't mean it that way. Just shut up though. Just shut up," Jenny said as she struggled to hold back a torrent of emotion.

The Master now joined The Doctor in embracing her as she struggled not to cry. Clara couldn't help but watch them both with pride. The Master had come so far now she realized. She wasn't about to lose all of that progress now.

Both of her boys would survive this day no matter what she had to do. She promised herself that.

That was when Jenny suddenly felt a gentle nudge in the back of her mind and realized exactly what it was. Clara had just stolen her plan from her thoughts and was going to use it against the Valeyard herself.

"No, don't!" Jenny screamed as Clara's hands began to glow with regenerative energy.

"Jenny, what was the plan? Show me quickly!" The Doctor shouted as he pressed his hands to Jenny's temples.

"No! Clara!" The Doctor screeched as Jenny sent the entire idea to him telepathically in a single instant.

"What is it? What is she planning on doing?" Tish cried out in alarm.

The Doctor didn't take time to answer though as he raced after her immediately while Clara slowly walked towards the bemused Valeyard who watched her with eager anticipation as he waited to see exactly what she was up to now.

"And what exactly was Jenny's plan, Clara? She never told me anything about it in the original timeline so I have to admit that I'm more than a bit curious," The Valeyard asked.

"Her plan was to force herself to regenerate and to use the regenerative energy's ability to forcibly manipulate and rearrange the cells of a Time Lord against her father. In her case, she would use most or all of her regenerative energy on the Doctor to manipulate the cells in his brain just enough to induce a temporary healing coma and put him to sleep for a while. It could theoretically also be used to rearrange and/or mutate each and every one of the cells in his brain or any other part of his body in a very different way though and cause him, or in this case you, massive internal damage. Of course the downside to that is that there probably won't be any energy left to use on myself to create a new body for me so I'll die too. It's more than worth it though," Clara said without hesitation as she continued to move forward.

"Clara, you can't do this," The Doctor pleaded as he raced to catch up to her.

"Listen to him, Clara. We'll come up with another way," Tish pleaded.

"Don't even try to talk me out of this, Doctor. I told you that I'm in charge here. It's my life and I'm the one who decides what to do with it. Well, I've decided. I'm going to use it to save my family," Clara said in a determined voice.

"No, you're really not you know," The Doctor said as he looked at her with a warm smile as he too began to glow with regenerative energy now.

"No, don't!" Clara screamed as she realized at the last moment what he was doing.

"I'm the one who's going to do it," The Doctor said as he exploded outwards with a massive burst of regenerative energy that instantly knocked Clara out cold even as he assaulted the Valeyard at full force.

The Valeyard laughed as he said, "Do you really think that this will work, Doctor? That the power of one of your paltry regenerations can really overcome the power of Time itself? The power of the new and undisputed God of Time! You're very much mistaken. The Web of Time itself now obeys me. What use is the power of one paltry regeneration compared to that?"

"Well, I had to try, didn't I?" The Doctor said even as he felt his life ebbing away from him more and more by the moment.

"I'm actually glad that you did. It saves me the trouble of killing you, and it keeps Clara from harming herself. You've just done me a huge favor, Doctor," The Valeyard said as he laughed at him mercilessly.

"Always glad to lend a helping hand," The Doctor said as he began to stumble.

"Even now you refuse to give up don't you? Bring it on then, Doctor! Bring it all on!" The Valeyard shouted as he opened up his arms to accept the massive amount of energy flowing his way.

That was when the Valeyard began to scream as each and every one of his atoms began to be ripped apart at the seams.

"No, this can't be happening! It can't!" He screamed in disbelief.

Marion began to smile as she said, "It is though, yeah? I didn't spend centuries saving them only to have them all die now after all. I foresaw this long ago . . . and planned for it. You see I didn't just give the Doctor and Clara unlimited regenerations when I left them. I also gave the Doctor a small part of my power because I knew that this day would come. I hid it inside of his body so well that not even the TARDIS' best equipment could detect it. And you were so full of yourself that you just sat back and let him hit you with the full power of the Vortex and let it rearrange and scramble up your molecules because you thought that nothing could possibly touch you."

"No!" The Valeyard screamed in just as much frustration as he did agony.

"Oh, yes," Marion said as the power of the Bad Wolf flowed back into both her and Rose now.

The Valeyard completely disintegrated in that moment with one last massive scream of defiance.

The Doctor then looked back at the unconscious Clara and said with one last smile, "My Clara."

That was when he suddenly toppled forward and hit the floor with a sickening thud that the others could all instantly feel in their bones.

"Dad!" Jenny screamed in terror as she became convinced that she had just helped to kill him.

"It's okay, Jen. I planned for this too. Look," Marion said as she pointed towards the now glowing Doctor.

"What?" Jenny asked in disbelief.

"Blimey! You're just full of surprises today aren't you?" Rose said with an appreciative grin.

"Well, I did say that I foresaw all of this, didn't I? That means that I also saw this coming too, and made sure to up the power of this particular regeneration by just a bit," Marion said proudly.

"Just a bit, eh?" Rose said chuckling.

"Luckily I could change all of this without having to worry too much about how it would affect the Web of Time since none of this was supposed to happen in the first place. All that was supposed to happen originally was that the Doctor regenerated today, and I've made sure that that still happened if not quite the way that it was supposed to before. The end result is still the same though," Marion explained.

"Why didn't you tell anyone that you had given him and Clara unlimited lives though? I still don't understand that," Tish asked even as she watched the Doctor's regenerative energy continue to surround his body.

"I didn't want the Doctor to know that because knowing him he would study himself to see how it was done. Then he might discover the Vortex energy hidden in his body if he looked hard enough. If he found out about it, the Valeyard would know about it too. I couldn't let that happen so I didn't say a word," Marion said with a smile.

That was when the Doctor finally began to regenerate at last as energy poured out of his head and hands while the others watched in awe.

"Finally. Now I've made sure to keep time on its proper course," Marion said with undisguised relief.

"How did it happen originally?" Tish asked curiously.

"Originally he died at Trenzalore but thankfully Jenny changed all of that by bringing the Time Lords back way ahead of schedule. This particular version of him still had to die though sooner or later so I couldn't avoid that no matter how hard I tried. Sorry," Marion said apologetically.

"As long as he's still alive, that's what matters the most to me. He still has a wedding to attend after all. Thank you," Tish said with a smile as she hugged her with gratitude.

Original Klein meanwhile watched in stunned silence as Pete's World Klein, her soldiers, and the stolen TARDIS all vanished right before her eyes. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she never would have believed it. Then she looked at Marion who only winked at her in response.

That was when she knew that somehow Marion had set the timeline of that other universe back on its proper course once more and that had removed this particular version of her other self from existence. She could only hope that that version of her had gotten a second chance too somehow. The smile that Klein saw on Marion's face while she silently left the room to report back to UNIT told her that she was absolutely right about that.

Just when she thought that she had seen everything traveling with the Doctor, she had just been proven wrong once again she thought to herself with a grin.

"White hair. Oh, no. I'm old again. Not only old but I'm also very, very tetchy as well and a complainer. I love to complain. Oh, the Scottish accent again as well. I wonder why I like it so much. Maybe it was because of Amy this time around," The newly regenerated Doctor, who was now an old man, said to himself as he slowly got to his feet.

As he started to walk towards Clara, he said, "At least I don't have to walk around with a cane again this time so that's at least one upside. Now I almost regret that though. That's just one less thing to complain about."

As he reached Clara, he gingerly touched in a way that completely belied his new brusque nature, and she gently moaned as she woke up to see him standing above her. She immediately smiled with joy and hugged him tightly as soon as she realized who he was.

"No, stop. I don't like the hugging this time around. Stop," The Doctor complained.

That was when anger suddenly clouded Clara's face and she slapped him in the face as hard as she could.

"On second thought, the hugging's not looking so bad at the moment," The Doctor said with a wince.

"You did it to me again. You treated me like a child. You just had to protect me, didn't you?" Clara protested.

Then she smiled as she said, "For once though, I can't say that I'm too sorry about it. Just don't do it again, alright? From now on, there will be no more overprotectiveness towards me. Got it?"

"You can count on it if this is the thanks that I get," The Doctor said as he gingerly rubbed his face.

"Sorry. I have a bit of a temper at times," Clara said with a small smile.

"Really? I hadn't noticed. I did notice those eyes though. Were they always that big?" The Doctor said as he scrutinized her face closely.

"You'd better quit while you're ahead, mate, or you might just get slapped into your next regeneration way ahead of schedule," Rose warned with a giggle.

That was when the Doctor saw that Jenny looked extremely upset, and he immediately went to her side and put a comforting arm around her. He didn't smile or speak a word but the look of love and concern in his eyes that most people wouldn't have been able to see there but Jenny clearly could because she knew where to look for it still spoke volumes to her in that moment. She instantly smiled at him with relief even as she too hugged him while she cried a river of tears.

This time he didn't complain about the hugging. Not even once.

Next: The gang's all here and reunited once again so it's finally time for the wedding of the Doctor and Clara at last. This isn't Guardian Who so maybe I'll actually do a nice, simple completely attack free wedding for once. I mean it could happen, right? Don't look at me like that. It totally could.