CHAPTER 16
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You may wish to read Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel Chapter 37 before this chapter, but it won't be necessary to do so in order to understand this story.
Oswin had been having a pretty bad day so far, and it didn't look like it wasn't going to get better anytime soon. Marissa had decided to go to the planet Florana in order to see if a woman claiming to be her dead daughter, Shehzadi, was the real thing or not only to find out that the Silence were there once they arrived.
Oswin was forced to use her temporal shift to take Marissa to Jenny's TARDIS because the Silence had a weapon that could make a TARDIS incapable of traveling through time so she had decided not to land hers on the planet and risk it. Oswin then had to listen to Marissa and Amy get in a heated argument in Gallifreyan because Marissa didn't exactly take too well to the idea that River Song would turn out to be her future daughter's role model, and Amy took great offense at that.
Luckily Jenny had managed to put a stop to the fighting, and now Oswin and Marissa were going down to the prison cells in Jenny's TARDIS so that they could speak to this woman calling herself Marissa's daughter in person. Marissa was furious and convinced that someone was impersonating Shehzadi so this was sure to be another big fight. Oswin was not looking forward to that at all.
She really didn't want to be here. The only reason she had come was because Marissa was her best friend. She had her own problems lately after all. She kept having strange dreams and sometimes even visions about a woman that looked just like her named Clara. The dreams always had something to do with the Doctor and several adventures that this Clara had with him, and she would really rather go ask him about them than be here right now.
The dreams were really starting to bother her. She couldn't sleep at night anymore thanks to them as it was. She hadn't told Marissa or anyone else about them yet, but she knew that she would have to talk to someone soon before they drove her crazy.
Just before they reached the cells, Marissa turned around and looked at Oswin for a minute as she studied her face. Her anger about the current situation receded for a moment as she said, "Oswin, are you alright? You look like you're upset about something. You don't have to come in if you don't want to. This isn't your problem. It's mine."
"It's not that. There's just something that I need to talk to someone about. I think that I'm going insane," Oswin said in an emotional voice.
"What is it? Talk to me about it. You know that you can tell me anything," Marissa said in concern.
"I'll tell you later. Right now you need to go find out what's going on here," Oswin said.
"Are you sure?" Marissa asked.
"Yes. It can wait," Oswin said with a reassuring smile.
"We're going to talk about this later. I don't want you to think that you're all alone. I'm always here to talk to you and help you about anything. You're more than my friend, Oswin. You're the sister I always wanted," Marissa said with tears in her eyes.
Oswin smiled at her and said, "It'll keep for now. Just go ahead and talk to that woman in there. Thank you for saying that though, Mari. I feel the exact same way about you."
The two of them hugged each other briefly, and then Marissa went ahead into the prison area. She started inside still full of anger at what she had assumed was an imposter, and then she stopped in her tracks as she saw the woman in the cell next to Joan Redfern.
"Shehzadi?" Marissa said as she slowly walked forward as though she was in a nightmare.
Shehzadi turned to look at Marissa in horror as she called her name. She had never expected to see her here.
"Mum. I can explain," Shehzadi said.
"I found a body. It was yours. I know that it was yours. I checked it over and over again," Marissa said in a cold, emotionless voice.
"It was a clone. I cloned myself and staged my own death. I had to, or I would have died for real," Shehzadi said.
Marissa continued to stare at her without speaking as though she were in a trance. Shehzadi looked as if she'd rather be anywhere but there at that moment as her face was filled with a combination of fear and guilt.
Oswin walked forward and asked Marissa, "Are you okay?"
Marissa suddenly flew into a rage and screamed, "How could you do that to me?! How?! You could have at least told me about it! You never said a word!"
Shehzadi's face was quickly covered in tears as she said, "I'm sorry! I didn't want you to know because if you did, you would be in danger too."
"In danger from who?!" Marissa screamed.
"The Thorn. She would kill me if she knew that I was still alive. She has to continue to think that I'm dead. Does anyone else know that I'm here? Do they?" Shehzadi asked with pure fear on her face.
Marissa's anger was quickly replaced with worry and concern now as she realized that she may have unwittingly endangered her daughter by coming here.
"No, it's just the people on this TARDIS, me, Oswin, and my daughter from the future that I just met today," Marissa said.
"Can you trust them not to tell anyone else about it? What about her? Who is she?" Shehzadi asked as she looked at Oswin suspiciously.
"She's my best friend. She'd never betray me," Marissa said firmly.
"Everyone will betray you for the right price. You taught me that," Shehzadi said.
"I was wrong. You shouldn't listen to what I said in the past anymore. I'm not that person now. I've changed," Marissa said.
"Yes, I'm beginning to see that. You are different. You're one of those goody goodies now, aren't you? Did my 'death' affect you that much?" Shehzadi asked.
"Of course it did! You know it did. That was what started it all. I began to doubt everything that I had ever thought of as right especially that much vaunted wisdom of mine that you were just quoting a minute ago. Experiencing the Time War and all of the needless death and destruction involved in it just made my transformation deepen, and becoming a human being made it complete. I learned that the way that I had lived my life was all wrong, and I became convinced that it was by teaching you the wrong way to live that I had condemned you to destruction. I blamed myself for what had happened to you. I convinced myself that I had killed you and that it was my fault. Do you know what that put me through? Can you even begin to know?" Marissa asked with a haunted look in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I had to do it. I didn't do it to hurt you but to save myself," Shehzadi said.
"You still won't tell me who this Thorn is and why she's after you," Marissa said.
"The less you know, the better," Shehzadi said stubbornly.
It was at that moment that Oswin began to have a vision of the woman named Clara again, the woman who looked and acted so much like her. This time she saw the inside of a long abandoned and dying TARDIS with energy flowing from where the console should have been. Clara was about to fling herself into that energy in order to save someone, someone important to her. The name of the place where all of this was taking place suddenly came into her mind then. It was a name that she had never heard before but yet at the same time seemed as familiar to her as her own name.
"Trenzalore. Trenzalore. Trenzalore," Oswin repeated over and over again as she suffered through this vision.
"How does she know that name?" Shehzadi asked in complete and utter terror.
"I don't know. I've never heard her say it before," Marissa said.
"She's one of them, isn't she? She's going to tell them that I'm still alive," Shehzadi said as she began to hyperventilate and panic.
"Oswin, can you hear me? What is Trenzalore? Can you hear me? Talk to me," Marissa said.
"Silence must fall when the question is asked. It's the question that must never be answered. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor who?" Oswin said as she was completely caught up in her vision.
"She's one of them!" Shehzadi screamed in terror.
"Stop it, Shehzadi! She's not one of anybody. She's my friend. I know her. You don't have to worry about her," Marissa said as she tried to calm Shehzadi down.
Oswin then came out of her vision and looked at Marissa blankly for a moment before coming back to her senses once again. She remembered what she had seen and said, but it made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever.
"Is that what you were going to tell me about?" Marissa asked.
"Yes. I keep having these odd visions and dreams. They're about someone named Clara. I don't know a Clara, but yet she looks just like me. Now I'm having ones about the Doctor lately too. This one was about his name. When he says his name, it means the end of everything according to this last vision," Oswin said.
"You're one of the Silence. That's what they believe. She's trying to fool you, Mum. Don't believe her! She just wants to kill me!" Shehzadi said half-mad from worry.
"No, she's not. She's not one of them. If she was, she'd be on the side of the ones outside that are fighting with Jenny right now," Marissa said.
"They're here? Now?!" Shehzadi asked in complete fear now. She began to sway back and forth as her eyes rolled back in her head.
"She's passing out," Marissa said in fear.
Luckily Shehzadi stayed conscious and just laid down on the floor of her cell where she looked up at them with a very sick look on her face. This Thorn, whoever she was, must obviously be one of the Silence; and she had scared Shehzadi half to death from just the fear of her alone.
That was when Jennifer, Jenny's dark side, passed through without even looking at them. She was on her way to see Joan Redfern obviously because she paused in front of her cell. Patrick soon followed her, and they began to talk to each other.
Oswin had no idea how Jennifer had gotten here, but she knew that Rose must have brought her since she had been trying to find her. If Rose was here, then that probably meant that the Doctor must be here as well. She had to go talk to him and see if he could make sense out of what had been happening to her lately before he left again.
Oswin suddenly saw Joan go running off down the corridor towards the console room after thanking who she thought was Jenny. Jennifer must have had a change of heart because apparently she had helped Joan. Maybe she wasn't so dark after all which suited Oswin just fine. The last time one of Rose's daughters went dark she had almost killed her!
"Marissa, can you handle things from here? I need to go talk to the Doctor about these visions," Oswin said.
"I think you should. It's okay. Go on," Marissa said.
After Oswin left, Shehzadi said, "The Thorn is the Silence's deadliest assassin. She wants to kill me because I accidentally discovered who she is. I'm the only one who knows, and the Silence don't want anyone else to find out until it's too late."
"Who is she? What secret could be so important that they would kill you over it?" Marissa asked.
"I can't tell you. If you don't know then they might let you live," Shehzadi said.
"You need to tell the Doctor at least. They hate him, and they may send her after him. He'll need every advantage against her that he can get," Marissa said.
"No! I don't care about the Doctor. Let him take care of himself. I'm only worried about you. You're the only one that I care about, Mum. I won't tell so that they don't hurt you," Shehzadi said with determination.
"I told you that you can't think that way anymore. You must tell me so that we can stop them," Marissa pleaded.
"No! I can't. They may spare you as long as I don't tell them," Shehzadi said.
At this point, Jennifer and Patrick had gone and left Marissa and Shehzadi all alone in the prison area with a now unconscious Sister Pestilence. Jennifer had to knock her unconscious in order to separate Joan from her safely.
Mother and daughter didn't stay alone for long though. A mysterious red headed woman suddenly appeared out of thin air startling both of them!
"You're right of course, Shehzadi. I will spare your mother but not you. You can't tell anyone what you know. You managed to hide from me for so long since even before the Time War, but now it's over at last. No one can run from me forever. Not even you. That you would be undone by your own as yet unborn sister is just so ironic to me. I love that part the most! I saw her abruptly disappear, and I followed her out of curiosity. Now I'm so glad that I did. I used my special abilities to enter your TARDIS exactly when you did, Ushas, but you never even saw me. I've been following you around this entire time listening to you in secret and now that the so-called Empress is gone it's time for me to strike. It's over, Shehzadi! Say goodbye to your mother for good this time!" the Thorn said as her hands began to glow with dark energy.
"No!" Marissa shouted as she got in-between Shehzadi and the intruder.
"I'm afraid so. Say good night, Ushas!" the Thorn said as she blasted Marissa with a burst of dark energy that quickly put her to sleep.
"She's alive?" Shehzadi asked in concern.
"Yes. I kept my word. She lives because you told no one. Now only you will have to die. It's better this way. She's already had time to mourn and get over you so it's not like it'll be all of that jarring to her anyway. Besides her, no one will miss you anyhow. I'm doing you a favor, Shehzadi. You were only a waste of space. You contributed nothing to the universe whatsoever except pain and sorrow. It's time that I put you out of your misery," the Thorn said in a cold, heartless tone.
"Good bye, Mum! I'm so sorry for everything!" Shehzadi said as she looked at her mother one last time.
"I'll tell her that you said that. It's the one decent thing that I've ever heard you say," the Thorn said with an almost sympathetic look on her face for once for the first time since she had arrived.
Shehzadi closed her eyes tightly as she waited for the Thorn to shoot. She filled her last moments with childhood memories of her and her mother together. The Thorn had no idea why Shehzadi was smiling as she pulled the trigger, and she really didn't care. A job was a job after all.
Oswin meanwhile was oblivious to all of this, and she walked up to the Doctor and Rose who were about to leave to take Joan Redfern to see Donald and River. She had to talk to the Doctor before he left.
"Doctor, I need to talk to you urgently about something. I've been having these horrible visions, and they seem to involve you. Have you ever heard of a place called Trenzalore?" Oswin asked.
The Doctor turned pale as she mentioned that name. He knew it all too well since he had been told that he would go there by Dorium Maldovar during 'the Fall of the Eleventh'. He had hoped that particular prophesy would have been undone with Rose's changing of the timeline, but apparently he was wrong.
"Have you been having visions of someone named Clara too?" Rose asked Oswin.
"Yes. You know what it's all about, don't you?" Oswin asked Rose.
"Yes, I'm afraid that I do," Rose said.
"Rose, what's going on here? Who is Clara?" the Doctor asked.
"She's someone who I thought that you would never meet in this timeline since I changed it so much. It seems that the Web of Time had other plans though. Doctor, Oswin, it's time that I took you to meet Clara Oswald," Rose said.
"What?" Oswin asked in complete shock.
"It's time that I told you the full truth about yourself, Oswin. You've forgotten it because of all that you're gone through. You've forgotten who you really are or at least who you were," Rose said.
"I don't understand. I know who I am. I haven't forgotten anything," Oswin protested.
"You know who you are in this life. You've forgotten about all of your other ones though and who you originally were before you sacrificed yourself at Trenzalore to save the Doctor," Rose said.
Oswin's eyes went wide as she remembered the vision that she had earlier. "I'm Clara! I'm the woman in the visions! How though since you just said that there was a Clara in this universe already?" Oswin asked.
"You were the Clara of another timeline, one that was erased when I changed things. You're all that's left of that Clara. I saved you because I didn't think that you should be completely erased since you had made such a great sacrifice to save the Doctor. You were so different from the Clara of this universe since you had been made into a Dalek that I was able to bring you into the new timeline without causing any problems. I wanted something of the original Clara to survive. The Clara in this universe is similar to you but may be different than she would have been originally thanks to the changes that I have made. It seems that we may need to go see her yet. She may have to fulfill her role at Trenzalore after all if you're having these visions of her doing so," Rose explained.
"Is this the timeline that never happened then?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, it is. Apparently, it's going to happen again anyway despite the changes that I made. I just wonder how different it will be without the Great Intelligence here. It can't be him involved this time because he's dead," Rose said.
"What does he have to do with it?" the Doctor asked confused.
"He was the one who asked you your name in the other timeline. He's gone though so who could it be now?" Rose asked.
"It could be anyone. I have so many people who hate me. Why would it still happen though? If the Intelligence is dead, then why would the prophecy continue; and why would this universe's Clara have to sacrifice herself to save me? It should be over with now," the Doctor said.
"I have a feeling that's why the Silence are back, Doctor. The prophecy isn't over, and they know it. That's why they've returned," Rose said.
"I know. I've been afraid of that being the case all along," the Doctor admitted.
"So we're going to see this Clara then?" Oswin asked.
"Yes, I think that we should. She may soon become the only one who can save the universe if things start going like they did before," Rose said.
"Who's to say that she would be the one to save the universe though? If things have changed, then it may be someone else not her this time. If it even still happens the same way as it did in the vanished timeline at all," the Doctor said.
"I know but we still need to go get her and bring her with us just in case that we need her. It's about time that Oswin met her other self anyway and vice versa," Rose said.
It was at that moment that Lissa landed Marissa's TARDIS after being assured that the Silence's weapon had been destroyed and that the Silence themselves had been driven away. Just as Lissa appeared out of the TARDIS, Oswin said to her, "Tell your mother that I'm going with the Doctor and Rose for a while. There's someone that I have to meet."
"I will. Good luck, Aunt Oswin!" Lissa said with a knowing look on her face. She already knew what was ahead for her, but couldn't tell her anything about it of course.
Oswin left with the Doctor and Rose in the Doctor's TARDIS then, completely oblivious about what was taking place between Shehzadi and the Thorn. She was soon going to have plenty of problems of her own to occupy herself with as well. Meeting Clara Oswald would start her on a path that would only end with Trenzalore.
Next: Our two lead characters part ways for a while as Oswin travels with the Doctor and Rose to meet Clara while Marissa is left alone and unconscious as the Thorn prepares to kill her daughter. Is Shehzadi really finished for good?