CHAPTER 20

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Oswin appeared on Earth as a full Osirian now as she walked toward UNIT HQ. This was the place where she was most likely to find some victims. She could take as many as she wished here because there were many soldiers on this base to quench her scythe's hunger.

As she walked toward the base, she was met by immediate opposition as the soldiers began to fire on her. She laughed at their bullets as they had no effect on her new form. The scythe projected a powerful blast from its head that tore the ground apart in front of her and sent several of the soldiers running for cover.

She continued to walk forward unopposed and smiled as she finally found her first victim. She quickly raised her scythe over her head to take the life of a scared soldier lying helpless before her. She smiled to herself as she prepared to feed her scythe's hunger at last.

Then she suddenly stopped herself in mid-swing. This was wrong. She could feel that. She was finding it harder and harder to remember why, but she knew deep down in her gut that what she was about to do was wrong.

She turned around and started to leave. She had no idea where she was going, but she had to get away from here before it was too late. Somehow she knew that the first life that she took with the scythe would bind her to it forever. She couldn't let that happen. She had to free herself from it somehow.

Several Daleks from the Dalek Resistance suddenly appeared in front of her led by Dalek Epsilon. They would ordinarily start firing on any foe immediately but not this time. This time they were all hesitating because they would be firing on someone that they all cared about. In fact, Oswin was the only being that any of these Daleks had ever felt any connection to in their lives. They didn't really understand the emotions that they felt for her but even they knew that they were there.

None of the Daleks wanted to be the first to attack Oswin. They all stood there floating above her as they waited for her to make the first move.

"PLEASE LET US HELP YOU, OSWIN. MAYBE WE CAN FIND A WAY TO SEPARATE YOU FROM THE WEAPON'S INFLUENCE," Epsilon said.

"If you want to help me, then stand still and let me kill you. My scythe is hungry, and it doesn't care who or what it kills," Oswin said as she fell under the scythe's control once again.

"IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY, EM- OSWIN. WE DON'T WISH TO EXTERMINATE YOU, BUT WE WILL IF WE HAVE TO," Epsilon threatened.

"Oh, that's rich. Now I've heard of everything. Daleks who don't want to mindlessly kill? What will they think of next? People who don't always meet each other in the correct order? Oh, wait a minute!" Oswin mocked them.

She began to run toward them with the scythe with a crazed look on her face. The Daleks all quickly moved out of her way and avoided each and every one of her attacks as she did her best to destroy them.

"STUN HER," Epsilon ordered.

All of the Daleks reluctantly opened fire on her with their gun stalks as they attempted to stun her into unconsciousness. After hitting her on their full stun settings several times however, they quickly realized that their weapons were having no effect on her whatsoever. The scythe was protecting her from them.

"Was that supposed to do something to me? I barely even felt it. You'll have to do better than that in order to survive," Oswin said.

"WE DO NOT WISH TO KILL YOU," Epsilon admitted.

"You're going to have to in order to stop me. Don't you understand? You have to kill me," Oswin said.

Epsilon could tell now that this was Oswin trying to break through to him. She was pleading with him to end this before she killed someone.

He couldn't do it though. He couldn't make himself kill the one who had showed him the truth about himself and had made him realize just how limited and pointless that his life had been before he had met her. He couldn't kill his Empress no matter what even if it meant that he himself would die, and he knew that all of the others felt exactly the same way.

"I CANNOT," Epsilon finally admitted.

"Please," Oswin pleaded as tears began to fall from her eyes.

Molly suddenly came running out of nowhere at that moment and didn't stop until she was standing right in front of Oswin. She now stood there with her arms spread out in front of her and leaving herself wide open to any possible attack that she might make on her.

"If you want to kill someone, then kill me and leave everyone else alone. I have no reason to live anymore, Oswin. My family are all gone. The Daleks killed them all when they attacked my town. Ever since that day, I don't want to live any more. I want to go be with them wherever they are. There's nothing here in this world for me anymore. It's all just empty and pointless. Just end it, Oswin. End it. I want you to. Do it!" Molly screamed at her as the pain that she had been hiding inside of her all of this time came gushing out of her.

"You lied to me," Oswin said in what almost sounded like her normal tone of voice.

"Yes, of course I did. I wanted to convince myself that they were somewhere else where they were safe and unaffected by what had happened. That was much better than the truth. I lied to myself for a while in order to keep going, and then I couldn't do that anymore. That's when I started trying to get myself into dangerous situations. So far though, I haven't gotten lucky and gotten myself killed. That's why I need you to do this, Oswin. Do it now before I lose my nerve!" Molly said in a highly emotional voice that kept breaking while she tried to hold back her painful sobs.

"I'm sorry. You should have told me. I could have helped. We could have talked about it," Oswin said as she started acting like her normal self again.

The Daleks looked on hopefully as they watched the emotional scene unfolding before them. Dalek Epsilon began to hope now that Molly was starting to get through to her by unintentionally appealing to her caring nature. The irony of a Dalek actually feeling a sense of hope about anything was lost on him in that moment.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing would have helped me anyway. Just do it. Kill me. KILL ME!" Molly screamed at Oswin with every ounce of emotion that she could muster.

She then sank to her knees and buried her head in her hands as she broke down sobbing. She was totally helpless before Oswin now. She would never even see it coming. It was better that way.

"Well, you asked for it and here it comes!" Oswin said as the scythe took control of her once more.

She began to swing the scythe right at Molly as she sat there helplessly. Suddenly Molly looked up at her as she saw the blade coming and screamed, "Please don't! I changed my mind. I don't want to die. Stop!"

Right before the scythe would have reached Molly, Oswin redirected it away from her at the last minute and hit the ground next to her with it instead with such an impact that it made the entire earth shake.

Molly finally realized just how close that she had just come to actually dying, and she passed out from the shock of it all.

"I know you don't. You just wanted someone to realize that you needed help," Oswin said to the unconscious girl lying in front of her.

Oswin then let go of the scythe with a tremendous force of will as she automatically started changing back to her normal self. The scythe was doing everything in its power to keep her bound to its will, but she was finally successfully fighting back now. She was no longer going to be its puppet anymore.

Come back to me, and I will give you power beyond your wildest dreams. Surrender your cares and all of your worries to me, and let me take care of you. I can give you everything that you need. Think about this. You can live forever, and everyone would bow to your will as unlimited power would be yours. All would fear you and do whatever you wanted. All you have to do is feed me. Feed me a few insignificant lives like that girl's. The scythe called out to her in her mind.

"I only have one thing to say to you," Oswin said out loud as she now became her full human self once more.

That you accept? The scythe asked with a smug sense of victory in its mental voice.

"Tell Anubus I said hello when you see him," Oswin said as she unleashed twin blasts from both of her gauntlets at full power straight into the scythe at the same time.

There was a blinding flash of light, and a scream that pierced the soul of everyone nearby as the Scythe of Anubus finally joined its owner in death. It then disintegrated into a pile of ashes that were swiftly blown away on the wind as though they were never there.

Oswin stood in triumph with a smile of gratitude on her face. She was free. She had done it. It was over at last.

"THAT IS WHY YOU ARE THE EMPRESS," Epsilon said.

Oswin wasn't listening though. She was checking Molly's vital signs to make sure that she was okay. She let out a cry of joy when she realized that she hadn't harmed her. Molly was going to be okay.

Marissa finally arrived on the scene in her TARDIS and ran out of it breathlessly with a worried look on her face. As soon as she saw that Oswin was human again, she looked at her with a huge smile of relief as she knew that the danger was finally over with now.

"You're a little late, aren't you? What kept you?" Oswin asked with a grin.

"I was trying to come up with a way to save you that didn't involve killing you. Molly slipped out while I was deep in thought about it. I never even noticed that she was gone until just now," Marissa admitted guiltily.

"Neither of us seemed to notice her when she needed us to. That's going to change from now on. I promise," Oswin said as she looked at Molly with a determined look on her face. She swore to herself that she was going to help her friend through this no matter what.

Far off in the ruined Tomb of Anubus, the hologram that had guided Oswin through her tests smiled to itself. It now knew that it had finally succeeded in finding a way to free itself at last as it could feel that the scythe was gone.

The tests had finally done the job that they had been designed to do so long ago. They were designed to find a noble person who would be able to resist the scythe so that person would be the only one to be able to get through to it while those of lesser character would be kept away from it.

The designers of the tomb had not been able to destroy the scythe because they were all proven to be too susceptible to its corrupting influence to be able to get near enough to it to do the job themselves. Therefore, they had placed the hologram and the tests here until the right person would come along who would possess enough will and moral character to finally destroy it forever.

"Free. Free at last. Thank you," the hologram said as it switched itself off for the last time.

Its job was finally done at last.

Next: Oswin has a heart to heart talk with Molly as she tries to help her work through her problems. Maybe giving her a position at the new school that's starting up could help. Meanwhile, Koschei appears and meets Shehzadi for the first time. He'll have many questions for Marissa now including just who Shehzadi's father is and why she wants someone as dangerous as her on her ship. Oh, and things get even more complicated as Lissa picks that moment to visit and Koschei meets his future daughter for the first time.