CHAPTER 28

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THE DEATH OF OSWIN OSWALD

Oswin screamed in pain as her mind was assaulted by Kali's power. Far off in the distance, she could hear Marissa begging Kali for mercy for her and receiving none.

Then the pain stopped. Suddenly Oswin stood up as if nothing was happening. She couldn't understand what was going on. Everyone else was still in agony, but she felt nothing anymore.

"How?" Kali asked.

"I have no idea, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth," Oswin said as she unleashed the power of both of her gauntlets at once against Kali.

Kali deflected both blasts with her telekinetic powers, and they struck the far wall of Marissa's TARDIS instead. The TARDIS shook from the impact even as Kali used her telekinesis to shove Oswin into the wall and hold her there.

As Kali moved towards Oswin to resume her attack on her, Marissa stood in-between the two women as she said, "You're not going to touch her, Kali. I've had enough of this!"

"You would side with her over me?" Kali said.

"I'm not siding with anyone. I love both of you, and I don't want to see you fighting over me. I am still your sister, Kali. Nothing will ever change that. Oswin has become my sister too though. Can't I have another sister, or am I not supposed to have any friends? Is that it?" Marissa said in anger.

"She's trying to take my place," Kali insisted.

"No, she's not. You would understand that if you were in your right mind. You're sick, Kali. You're not thinking clearly. Please just stop this," Marissa said as she tried to reason with her.

"She must die," Kali insisted.

"Then you're going to have to kill me first," Marissa said without moving.

Kali hesitated, and her face softened as she said, "I could never kill you."

Then she punched Marissa in the jaw and knocked her cold. As Marissa fell to the floor, Kali said, "I'm sorry, Ushas. I'm so sorry."

"You actually do love her, don't you?" Oswin said.

"Of course I do. She's my sister. I'll always love her. That's why I won't let you take her from me," Kali said.

"I wasn't trying to. I don't think anyone or anything could take her from you except for maybe you yourself," Oswin said as she struggled to get off of the wall.

Kali held her head in her hands for a moment as she stood silent in front of Oswin. She knew that Kali was experiencing some kind of mental distress.

"Kali, let me help you. Marissa told me that you were sick. Maybe I could use Dalek science to fix the imbalance in your mind and make you normal again. It's obvious that your mental powers are too much for your mind to take, and it has unbalanced it. Let me try to help you for your sister's sake," Oswin said as she tried to get through to her.

"No one can help me because I've never been normal. I started to go mad long ago when I looked into the Untempered Schism. My powers have only made things worse. It ends for me in only one of two ways. Either I dominate and enslave everyone or someone kills me," Kali said in an extremely sad and weary voice.

"Is that why you're here? Do you want me to kill you?" Oswin asked.

"You? Don't make me laugh. You don't have a chance. I'm here to kill you because you're trying to take her away from me. She's the only one who cares about me, and you're trying to steal her. I won't let you take away the one good thing in my life that I have left. I'll rip you apart first!" Kali said.

She started tearing apart the Console Room with her powers and throwing huge pieces of it at Oswin. Normally Oswin probably could have dodged all of them if it weren't for the fact that Kali was also using her telekinesis to keep her pinned against the wall at the same time. She had to admire the incredible power that Kali had even as she could see her impending death rapidly approaching her.

Oswin quickly used her temporal shift to escape and appeared directly behind Kali just as she would have been flattened. Before Kali react, Oswin used her temporal shift again to take both of them out of the TARDIS. The two of them arrived on Skaro where they were quickly surrounded by an army of hundreds of Daleks.

"PROTECT THE EMPRESS! EXTERMINATE THE ENEMY!" the Daleks chanted as they began to fire on Kali.

"Insects!" Kali shouted as she used her telekinetic power to push all of the Daleks around her away from her in one massive shove that sent them all flying hundreds of feet away from her.

"You can throw every Dalek on Skaro against me, but it won't do you any good. I won't stop until I rip you apart. Prepare to make your peace with whoever or whatever you believe in. Good bye!" Kali said as she used her power to rip Oswin's belt and gauntlets off of her and throw them several feet away.

Oswin knew that she was completely defenseless now. Kali had just taken away her last chance to survive.

"Your sister wouldn't want this. Do you really want to hurt her this way?" Oswin said as she began backing away from her.

"She will thank me for it later when she realizes what you were trying to do. This is what I will do to anyone who tries to come between us. Now you will pay the ultimate price for your actions," Kali said.

A huge force of Daleks assaulted Kali as they desperately tried to save Oswin. She pushed them all away from her as easily as she did the others. A massive wave of telekinetic power threw them away from her, and they all screamed in surprise and outrage as they went flying backwards from her in all directions.

"No one will save you now. It's over. Accept that. Stop trying to fight me, and I promise that I will make your death as painless as possible. I'm only correcting a mistake in the timestream anyway. You're not supposed to be here. You should have been erased long ago. I'm only fixing that error," Kali said in an almost compassionate voice.

"So that's supposed to make me feel good about you killing me?" Oswin asked as she continued to slowly back away from her.

"I don't care how you feel. It ends now!" Kali said as she used her power to squeeze Oswin's windpipe together so that she couldn't breathe.

Oswin struggled to breathe even as she fell to her knees. She began to see scenes of her life played out in front of her and could only smile. It hadn't been such a bad one, had it? Maybe Kali was right. Maybe it was time.

Oswin passed out and slumped to the ground even as Kali continued to deny her oxygen. The renegade Time Lord actually looked sad for a moment as she said, "I'm sorry."

Then her anger quickly returned, and she began to smile as she could feel Oswin's heart stop beating even as she checked her pulse. She had won. The treacherous woman was dead at last.

"Your Empress is dead, Daleks. That is the fate of anyone who tries to take from me what is mine," Kali said as she began to walk away from Oswin's lifeless body.

"EXTERMINATE HER! THE EMPRESS MUST BE AVENGED!" a huge army of Daleks from all around Skaro chanted in unison.

"Do you think that I'm afraid of you? I'll destroy this entire planet if I have to!" Kali shouted as she began to fight back against them and violently shoved them away from her as well.

"YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID OF ME!" Dalek Epsilon shouted as he suddenly appeared behind her and blasted her in the back.

Kali fell to the ground in pain, but quickly got back up again as she laughed. She used her mind control power to attempt to take control of Dalek Epsilon but found to her amazement that it wouldn't work!

"Your will is strong. There are very few people who can resist me. I'm impressed. I'm still going to kill you though," Kali said.

"NO. YOU WILL DIE. YOU KILLED MY EMPRESS. MY FRIEND," Epsilon said as he began firing every weapon in his casing at her as he darted in and out of all of her attacks by using his temporal shift abilities.

"You're very good, Dalek. I have to admit that you're almost a worthy opponent for me. Almost isn't good enough though. All I have to do is get lucky once," Kali said.

"SO DO I," Dalek Epsilon said as he suddenly appeared behind Kali at the same time as Dalek Omega appeared in front of her. Both of them blasted her simultaneously, and she crumpled to the ground with a scream of pain.

"SOMEHOW SHE IS STILL ALIVE," Dalek Omega said.

"SHE HAS A TELEKINETIC FORCE FIELD THAT ABSORBED MOST OF THE BLAST. SHE'S COMPLETELY HELPLESS NOW THOUGH. EXTERMINATE HER," Dalek Epsilon ordered.

Kali suddenly came back to life and started to use her powers to squeeze the two Daleks inside of their casings. They both screamed as they felt as if they were being crushed. They could already feel their bodies being pushed past their limits and knew that it was only a matter of moments before Kali would rip them apart.

Then to everyone's surprise, Oswin suddenly appeared out of nowhere and touched Kali on the forehead. Kali screamed as she could feel her lifeforce being sucked out of her.

"I can bring life, but I can also bring death," Oswin said.

It was Kali's turn to fall to her knees now as she became weaker and weaker by the moment. She collapsed on the ground as she whispered, "Forgive me, Ushas."

"Is this really what you want?" Oswin asked.

"What are you? You're not the same woman as before. You feel different somehow," Kali said in a weak voice.

"You're right. I'm not the same. When you killed me, it triggered the release of my hidden powers. Now I am reborn. I finally know what I'm still doing here in this universe. I know why Rose saved me. It was because I have a purpose, Kali. I'm not a mistake, and I'm much more than an anomaly. I know who I am now. I am a Guardian of Time. I have the power of life and death in my hands. I didn't just get those powers from the Scythe of Anubis. I had them all along. The Scythe only awakened them. Right now I have the power to finally end all of this forever," Oswin said.

"Please don't. Please don't kill her," Marissa pleaded as she came running up behind Oswin.

"She killed me. She tried to kill everyone on our ship and every Dalek on this planet," Oswin said.

"I know. I know all of that is true, but she's still my sister. Please don't kill her. I'm asking you as a sister, please let her live," Marissa pleaded.

Oswin smiled at her as she said, "I was never going to kill her. I haven't changed that much, Mari. I meant that I'm going to fix her mind if I can. I have no idea what I can do now, but I was going to at least try."

Before Oswin could even attempt it though, Kali disappeared right in front of her eyes. An image of the Black Guardian appeared in her place as she said, "I was hoping that Kali could wipe you out before you could find out the truth about yourself. I should have known though. You're just as annoying as Rose Tyler and just as hard to kill. No wonder she likes you so much. You're both two of a kind."

"Thank you," Oswin said with a grin.

"That was not a compliment," the Black Guardian grumbled.

"I chose to take it as one though," Oswin said happily.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a new Guardian or not. I will still dance on all of your graves in the end. I will destroy Ishtar and all of her little puppets soon including you," the Black Guardian said as she vanished.

Dalek Epsilon and Omega swiftly surrounded Oswin in excitement as Epsilon said, "YOU'RE ALIVE. I THOUGHT I HAD LOST YOU."

"You don't get rid of me that easily, Eppy," Oswin said as she kissed the top of his casing.

"So you're alright?" Marissa said as she looked at her in amazement.

"I'm better than alright. I've never felt so good in my life. I still have no idea exactly what role I'm supposed to play in the universe or what I can do exactly, but I'm sure it's going to be fun finding out," Oswin said.

"I heard you say that you were a Guardian. How do you know that?" Marissa asked.

"I don't know how I know exactly. I just do. When I came back to life, I just knew that's all," Oswin said.

"You know maybe I was wrong. Maybe I should stick around and give dating you another shot. I've never dated a major universal entity before," John Harkness said.

"I'm not an entity. I'm just an ordinary girl with powers that I don't yet understand, and I'm still not interested," Oswin said as she corrected him.

John looked disappointed for a moment, but then he started to smile again. Oswin could tell that he hadn't given up on her yet. She could see that he was going to be trouble. Apparently he didn't know how to take no for an answer.

"There was never anything ordinary about you, Oswin. It seems to me that something about your life has always been special starting from the day that leaf first brought your parents together," Marissa said.

That was when Mira appeared racing towards them shouting, "Davros is dead. His life support was turned off."

Oswin looked at her with guilt as she said, "I'm so sorry. It must have been switched off when I died."

"You died?" Mira asked in surprise.

"Yeah but I got better. Weird things like that seem to happen a lot since I first met the Doctor," Oswin said.

"Is there anything that you can do for Davros?" Mira asked.

"He's alright now. He has been since you told me," Oswin said.

"What?" Mira said.

"Go back to the TARDIS. You'll see," Oswin said with a smile.

Mira raced back to discover that Davros was instead alive again.

"What happened?" Mira asked as she hugged Davros.

"I honestly don't know. Everything faded to black, and then I was suddenly alive once again. I heard Oswin's voice apologizing to me in my mind," Davros said.

"She seems to have some kind of new powers. Somehow she fixed you without being anywhere around you," Mira said.

"Interesting," Davros said with a sinister gleam in his eyes.

"Don't even think about it. If it wasn't for her, you'd still be dead. If I catch you trying to do anything against her, I'll knock you out cold!" Mira said firmly.

Davros looked at her in shock. She had never spoken to him this way before.

"I'm going to reform you, brother. You're going to be the person that you used to be again someday whether you like it or not," Mira said with a grin.

"You've changed," Davros said.

"That's right. For the better I think. I don't want you to be trapped with Oswin forever. I'm going to reform you so that both of you will be freed from each other. That's going to be my life's goal from now on," Mira said.

Oswin and Marissa came back to the TARDIS just at the end of this little exchange, and both of them smiled at one another. They would hate to be in Davros' place right now. They had a feeling that Mira was only getting started with him. No more Miss Nice Girl.

"So where to now?" Oswin asked.

"I suppose we should go back to the school and pick up Janine. I think maybe you need to go talk to Rose about what just happened anyway," Marissa said.

As soon as they arrived at the school, Ace ran up to them and said to Oswin, "Mum said for you not to go anywhere once you pick up the munchkin. She wants to talk to you before you leave. She had me here for what seems like forever watching for you to arrive. I'm so glad that you finally showed up. Now I can finally get out of here. Alex is driving me nuts."

"What's he been doing now?" Oswin asked with a grin.

"He keeps calling me his girlfriend ever since your friend with the big mouth made that little comment in class. He also keeps trying to hug me and worse," Ace said as she fumed.

"Worse? What do you mean by worse?" Oswin asked.

"He tried to kiss me! I made him regret that right away though," Ace said with an evil grin on her face.

"What did you do?" Oswin demanded.

Ace pointed to the doorway of the school where Alex stood with his clothes all ripped and torn and his hair all over the place. He stared at them with a dazed expression on his face as he tried to walk over to them, but he quickly fell over and hit the ground unconscious with a resounding thud before he could walk a step.

"I blew him up," Ace said proudly.

"Ace!" Oswin and Marissa both said in shock.

"It was just a little explosion. It's not life threatening or anything. That'll teach him to try to kiss or hug me in the future. I don't do hugs and kisses!" Ace said with an angry expression.

"I've seen Rose kiss you on the forehead or the cheek several times," Oswin pointed out.

"That's different," Ace said.

"Why?" Oswin asked.

"She's my Mum," Ace said as if that was self-explanatory.

"Oswin, we have a lot to talk about," Rose said as she suddenly appeared in the doorway.

Then she looked at the unconscious body of Alex lying on the sidewalk, and she glared at Ace as she said, "I'll talk to you later. I thought I told you no more blowing people up!"

"Aw, Mum! It was just a little explosion!" Ace protested.

Oswin tried not to laugh as she said, "Let's go inside and talk, Rose. You can ground Ace later."

Next: Oswin and Rose talk about what just happened. Exactly what has Oswin become? Is she really a Guardian?