CHAPTER 35

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This story takes place before Adventures in Time Chapter 5 & And the Story Goes On Forever Chapter 20.

THE FUTURE OF THE DALEKS

"What is your answer, Clara?" The Great Intelligence/Victoria asked in an impatient voice.

"Don't do this, Oswin," Molly begged her.

Oswin was torn. She didn't know what to do. If she gave her power to the Intelligence, she would be destroying the Doctor; and if she fought it, she might never find her children. Either way she would lose. There had to be a third option.

Then she thought of Davros. Davros would have a way to break into the renegade Daleks' net. Surely he would know some kind of backdoor into it that no one else knew. He created them after all.

There was only one problem with that. Something had happened to Davros recently, and he couldn't talk anymore. She would just have to find some other way of communicating with him. He had to help get her out of this.

That possibly solved the problem of controlling the Daleks, but it still didn't solve the immediate problem. How did she get to Davros while the Intelligence was still in her face and not have it find out about it?

Oswin had to hope that she had gained enough control over her powers that she could pull this off without tipping her hat to her enemy. She suddenly grabbed Molly's hand just before she froze time all around them with a single gesture.

She looked at the Great Intelligence frozen in place and smiled. It had worked. The Intelligence had no idea what was going on. She had to act quickly because she didn't know just how long she could keep time frozen especially once she had left the immediate area.

"Did you do this?" Molly asked her in amazement.

"Yes. If I wasn't holding your hand, you would be frozen too. Come on. We're going to visit Davros. He has to come up with a way out of this. He's the only hope that I have left of getting the kids back without sacrificing the Doctor," Oswin said.

"It's good to know that your friends in this life still matter to you too," Molly said.

"Of course you do. Both of my lives matter to me, Molly. I love all of my friends past and present even if I haven't always shown it lately. I'm sorry," Oswin said.

"It's okay. I still love you, and I know that they do too, Sis. Just don't ever do it again or I'll have to beat you, Daleks or no Daleks," Molly said as she smiled at her.

"You don't ever have to worry about it again I promise," Oswin said as she embraced her.

The two of them teleported away and quickly reappeared inside of Marissa's TARDIS. As soon as Oswin arrived, Marissa said, "What are you doing here? Isn't school supposed to be going on right now?"

"My old enemy, the Great Intelligence, teamed up with my other old enemies, the Daleks, to kidnap all of the kids right out of school; and now I need Davros to tell me how to control them so that I can get them back. When did my life get so complicated? I remember when my biggest problem was getting Artie to go to bed, and now I have all powerful old enemies. I also have good friends though so it's not all bad. I'm so sorry for ignoring you," Oswin babbled away as she hugged Marissa tightly and kissed her cheek.

"What did you say?" Marissa asked Molly as she glared at her.

"Nothing. I just asked her to pay more attention to us. Was that bad?" Molly asked.

"I didn't tell her to say that, Oswin," Marissa said.

"I know but you agree with it, don't you?" Oswin said.

Mira came running into the Console Room shouting, "Oswin, you can help Davros, can't you? You have all of those powers now, right? Please help him!"

"I'll try," Oswin said as she followed Mira to the room that she shared with Davros on the TARDIS.

"He can't say anything or even more his arm anymore. He's trapped in there, but I know that he wants to say something. He just keeps acting like he desperately wants to tell me something but he can't. Can you help?" Mira pleaded.

"It looks like we're about to find out," Oswin said as she began to glow with golden energy.

Then she almost cursed out loud as she realized that it wasn't Davros' mind in his body. She also saw exactly whose it really was. She instantly realized what he must have done and why and immediately wanted to rip him apart for it.

She had given him a second chance, and this was how he had repaid her?! She was more angry at herself than at Davros though. How could she have been so naïve?

She knew why she had done it though. She had done it for his sister because she had believed in him and loved him so much.

She would never make that mistake again though. This time Davros would gain no more mercy from her. She wouldn't kill him for his sister's sake, but that was all of the slack that she was going to cut him from now on.

Oswin used her gauntlets to instantly travel to the exact point in the future where her Guardian senses told her that Davros went as she took Anthony along with her. She was going to fix this right now.

Oswin and Anthony appeared right next to Davros, and Oswin instantly grabbed ahold of him before he could run away from her. Her eyes flashed with anger as she said, "You betrayed me. Not only that but you also betrayed Mira and Cassie. It ends now, Davros. I know that you must have a backdoor into the Dalek Net. You're going to tell me how to get into it now or I'll tell Cassie the truth about you. You don't want that, do you?"

"No, don't do that. You'll ruin her happy day. Just switch us back and take me away. You can do whatever you want with me. I deserve it. Just don't tell her. Please. I want her to be happy. I realize now that she would never be happy with me," Davros said in a sad voice.

Oswin could see the utter devastation on Davros' face and knew that he had finally given up on her. She could practically see that his heart was breaking right in front of her. Part of her thought that he deserved it and the other part felt bad for him. That part won as she said, "I'm sorry."

"I can truly see myself now, Oswin. I see myself through her eyes, and I don't like what I see. I deserve it. I deserve to have my heart broken. I've never brought anyone anything but sorrow. Now it's my time to have a little too. I know that with all of the lives that I've ruined that my pain is nothing in comparison," Davros said.

Oswin touched both Davros and Anthony and instinctively switched them back without really knowing for sure how she did it. Anthony smiled at Oswin as he said, "Thank you. I don't know how I can possibly thank you."

"Don't tell her what happened. Let her be happy," Oswin said.

"I won't. I promise," Anthony said as he hugged her in thanks.

"Oh, Oswin, Davros! What are you doing here?" Cassie asked as she walked in.

"Davros just wanted to say something. Didn't you?" Oswin said as she quickly restored his voice and hand to him with a single gesture.

"I just wanted to wish you a happy wedding and a good life, Jacqueline. That and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I've ever caused you any pain," Davros said.

Cassie walked over to him and hugged him as she said, "I knew you'd do the right thing. It just shows that there is some good in you."

"You knew?" Davros asked in surprise.

"Please. I'm not that dense. It took me a while, but I figured it out when you suddenly withdrew from me after asking me about how I felt about you," Cassie said.

"I didn't ruin your wedding, did I?" Davros asked.

"No. I'm going to be fine. How about you?" Cassie asked.

"I think that I will be for the first time in a long time now. I've finally started to rediscover the person who I used to be. Good bye, Jacqueline, and thank you for that," Davros said.

Cassie looked at Anthony and he nodded. Then she kissed Davros and said, "I hope that you've finally found the person that I've always seen hiding inside of you. He deserves to see the light of day again."

Davros said good bye to Cassie and Oswin took him back to the present day to the prison area of Marissa's TARDIS . "I'll give you what you want, Oswin. You are the future of the Daleks now. Show them what they should become and lead them onto the right path," Davros said.

Then he told Oswin his own secret way to hack into the Dalek Net that he was sure should work on any Dalek no matter how far removed that they were from his originals. He slumped over in his chair in defeat at last and seemed to quietly give up.

"You know it doesn't have to end here. I might still need some help in leading the Daleks onto that path. I'm good but I'm not that good," Oswin said with a smile.

"You're a good person, Clara Oswald. I should stay here or some other similar cell on Skaro though," Davros said.

"Oh, I agree. For now at least anyway. I mean I trusted you before, and it blew up in my face, didn't it? That doesn't mean that I can't come and ask you for advice though. Maybe I'll take you on the occasional field trip anyway," Oswin said with a grin.

"I look forward to it," Davros said as he briefly smiled and then lowered his head in sadness once more.

"It'll be okay. At least you know that she doesn't hate you. Neither does Mira," Oswin said.

"She knows too?" Davros asked in fear.

"Yes, she knows and if you didn't look like you were about to keel over from a broken heart at any moment I'd punch you right in the face! I don't know how I can hate you so much and yet still want to hug you at the same time," Mira said in anger.

"You love him. It's what families do. They forgive you no matter how much you screw up," Oswin said as she thought of Marissa and Molly with a smile on her face.

"You're right. I'm going to stay with him for a while. Is that okay?" Mira said.

"Sure. Just don't let him out, okay?" Oswin joked.

"Believe me I won't. If I did, I might be tempted to beat him to death right now for what he just put me through," Mira said.

"I'm sorry," Davros said.

"I'll forgive you someday, Davros. For right now though, I just can't," Mira said but she took his hand and held it in hers anyway Oswin noticed.

Oswin quickly hurried back to Gallifrey to meet up with the Intelligence, who she hoped was still frozen. Luckily for her it was. Oh, the Intelligence was going to get such a surprise soon!

Well, at least one of them was anyway. She hoped that it wasn't her.

Oswin reappeared in front of the Intelligence and briefly laughed before restarting time for it once more. The Intelligence apparently didn't have a clue that anything had even happened as it said, "Tell me your decision now, Clara."

"No," Oswin said.

"What?" The Intelligence asked in shock.

"I said no. Let's see what 'your' Daleks say about that, shall we?" Oswin asked.

Oswin pulled out a small handheld device that she always used for many purposes. It was like her personal version of the sonic screwdriver, but it looked more like a PDA. She quickly input Davros' back door into it and ordered the renegade Daleks holding the children to bring them back to her.

She smiled with relief as several Daleks quickly appeared escorting the children back to her. They let them go and then quickly surrounded the Great Intelligence.

"No, this isn't possible! You obey the Valeyard now," the Intelligence protested.

"WE ONLY OBEY THE EMPRESS. ONLY SHE COMMANDS US NOW," the once renegade Daleks began to chant in unison.

She had reprogrammed them in a matter of moments using their own net. Now even more Daleks were hers to command. She knew that she hadn't gotten all of the renegades under her control just yet, but she was sure that she had just put a big dent in the resistance movement. Now she had them on the run.

She hoped it was only a matter of time before they all worked for her. She would truly sigh in relief that day as she would finally know that the threat of the Daleks would be over with at last.

That day hadn't come just yet though. The Great Intelligence quickly vanished right under the Daleks' figurative noses.

"Yes! You did it. See, Janine, I told you that she'd come through. Oswin's almost as good as saving the day as the Professor and Mum," Ace said happily.

"Almost?! You know for that little remark I should keep you disconnected from the Vortex permanently. I mean I just figured out how to fix you, and I was really going to do it too out of the kindness of my heart. Now though I just don't know," Oswin said as she pretended to be angry.

"You wouldn't do that, would you? Then I'd have to ask Mum, and she'd get mad if she found out that I lost my powers because I smarted off to the Great Intelligence," Ace said warily.

"Actually I'd think that she'd be proud of you for doing that, Dorothy. I can call you Dorothy, can't I?" Oswin asked with a sinister grin on her face.

"You're blackmailing me, aren't you?" Ace asked in irritation.

"Let me call you Dorothy like you do Janine, and I'll reconnect you to the Vortex without telling your Mum about it," Oswin said.

"Fine," Ace growled.

Oswin smiled as she gestured at Ace and reconnected her with the Vortex in an instant. As Ace powered up again, she said, "Thanks, Oswin."

"You're welcome, Dorothy," Oswin said with an evil smile.

Oswin wasn't too surprised when her little handheld device blew up in her face just a few seconds later. Instead of being angry though, she only smiled at Ace as she said, "Still worth it!"

Then the ground beneath Oswin blew up and sent her flying several feet up into the air.

"How about now?" Ace asked with an evil smile of her own.

Oswin's answer was unprintable.

"You're evil, Dorothy," Janine said with a sigh.

"Oh, she'll be okay. She's a Guardian now," Ace said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Dorothy, what's Oswin doing hanging off of the side of that building? What did you do?" Rose called out to her in an exasperated voice.

"Nothing, Mum," Ace lied.

"This is so humiliating! Give me the Great Intelligence any day over Ace," Oswin said.

She knew that that wasn't the last that she had heard of the Great Intelligence. She was sure that she would see it and Victoria again soon.

She was right. The Great Intelligence already had a new plan for destroying the Doctor, and it was going to need the remaining renegade Daleks to help it do it. This time it would make sure that Oswin couldn't ruin its plans by switching bodies once more right under her nose.

She would never guess in a million years whose body that it would take next, and that was exactly the way that the Intelligence wanted it.

If you're interested in what the Intelligence is up to, you can see the beginning of its plan and find out who it decides to take over next in Adventures in Time Chapter 5.

Next time: The renegade Daleks start to become desperate as they can feel their time running out. This leads them to desperate actions as they decide to create a new leader for themselves. A human one. One still made to think like a Dalek though of course. Meanwhile Koschei returns and tries to fix his troubled relationship with Marissa. Maybe Oswin can help lend both of them a hand.