CHAPTER 44

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This story takes place before my version of The Time of the Doctor.

THE EIGHT CLARAS PART 2

The Daleks and the Cybermen had only been fighting for five minutes, and they had already destroyed the house of the Latimer children's adopted parents. The house was now a pile of rubble while Nina looked at it in absolute despair.

"I'll fix all of this somehow. I promise," Oswin said as she saw the horrified look on Nina's face.

"Just worry about keeping us alive for the moment, Sis. We'll worry about the massive destruction all around us later," Clara said.

"Yeah, don't pay any mind to the fact that this fight could spill over and threaten a ton of innocent people," Time Lady Clara from the reality where she was in love with the Doctor said.

"I didn't mean it like that and you know it. I just meant that she should stop worrying about the house for now," Clara said.

"Give her a break, Clara. She's just as concerned with helping people as we all are," Clara Idris, the Clara who was also the TARDIS, said.

"Sorry. I just really don't want to be here right now. I want to go home not be caught up in someone else's fight. I need to be there," Time Lady Clara said in an anxious voice.

"I'm sorry. I'll send you back as soon as I figure out how to," Cydonia said.

"That makes me feel so much better," Time Lady Clara said in an angry almost panicked voice.

"I'll send you back if she can't. Don't be so grumpy," Oswin said.

"Grumpy?! I'll show you grumpy if you don't send me back soon!" Time Lady Clara said in extreme anger.

"You know those improper thoughts that I was having before?" John asked.

"Yeah?" Oswin asked.

"They're all gone now. One of you is definitely enough," John said.

"Yes, but which one of us is really the one that you're searching for? I think that you may find me much more appealing," Claranamon said as she blatantly flirted with him.

"That's it! I've had enough of you, sister!" Oswin said as she punched Claranamon in the face and gave her a black eye.

"How dare you?! I am the Princess Claranamon! No one may assault me so and get away with it!" Claranamon screamed as she punched Oswin back.

"Hey! We don't have time for this! We have armies of Daleks and Cybermen tearing this place apart. Remember?" Clara said in disbelief.

"Are they always like this?" Jenna asked.

"Oswin isn't usually. She's usually very friendly. Claranamon is usually pretty easy going as well but a huge flirt. That's definitely a dangerous combination here though because she was just flirting with Oswin's boyfriend," Clara said.

"I think I'm with the other Clara. I don't belong here. I just want to go home," Jenna said.

"Someone will send you all back even if I have to go to Madame Vastra and get her to contact the Doctor for us. I promise you that. Stop worrying, Jenna. If you can't trust yourself then who can you trust, huh?" Clara said trying to smile at her encouragingly.

"Well, I certainly don't think that the two Claras who are currently pounding the stuffing out of each other can trust themselves, can they?" Jenna said.

"Good point. You can trust me though. This me that is. I'm a very reliable me. Uh, well, that is . . . Well, you know what I mean," Clara said.

"You've definitely been around the Doctor way too long, Sis," Cydonia said.

"I know because what I was just saying actually made sense to me," Clara said in a sad voice.

As Oswin and Claranamon continued wailing away on each other, Clara Idris suddenly stepped in-between them and separated them by blasting both of them with a low level Vortex energy blast that sent them flying. Both Claras got right back on their feet and glared at Clara Idris as she said, "Enough! You can both fight over the handsome guy later. We have Cybermen to deal with here. It's not like he's the Doctor anyway."

"You're in love with the Doctor too? That's just not right," Clara said.

"Hey, don't knock it," Oswin said.

Clara looked at her in shock as she said, "Don't tell me."

"Yeah, I had a bit of a crush on him too until the timeline changed," Oswin admitted.

"Really?" John asked in a jealous voice.

"That was in another timeline. In a way, it was another me entirely. Besides, nothing ever came out of it anyway. The big idiot was oblivious to how I felt about him or at least that's how he pretended to be," Oswin said.

"Well, as long as you're not pining away for him I guess that's alright then," John said.

Oswin laughed as she said, "No, I think my pining days are over with. Besides if Rose even thought that I still felt anything for the Doctor, I'd be scattered atoms floating through the air right now."

"I definitely wouldn't like that," John said.

"You wouldn't like it, huh? How do you think I'd feel?" Oswin said.

As Claranamon saw how they acted toward with one another, she knew that she had no chance with him. She smiled at the both of them together as she said to Oswin in a soft voice, "I'm sorry."

Oswin looked at her in surprise for a minute as if she had forgotten that she was there as she said, "It's okay. I guess I can't blame you too much. We both have the same taste after all."

"Well, now that we've finally gotten that resolved how about we fight the Cybermen instead of each other. I mean you two were really taking 'stop hitting yourself' to a whole new level there for a while," Clara Idris said grinning.

Oswin laughed as she said, "Okay, that sounds good to me."

"How disappointing! I was actually enjoying watching you beat each other up. It saved my Cybermen the trouble. You do realize that your Daleks won't keep them from you forever, don't you? They're about to break through their lines to get to you even now," Miss Hartigan said as her projection suddenly appeared in front of Oswin.

"Let them come. I'm more than ready for them. It's not like I haven't fought Cybermen before. In fact, I need a few more Cybermen heads for my trophy wall so I can finally fill it up," Oswin said.

"I think I'm the one that's going to be filling up my wall by the end of the day . . . with the heads of Claras. Eight of them as a matter of fact," Miss Hartigan said.

That was when the Cybermen finally broke through the line of Daleks that had been protecting the Claras up until now. They marched toward the Claras at lightning fast speeds while Oswin smiled.

"Let's make some Cyber soufflés, girls," Oswin said as she began firing her gauntlets at the Cybermen on full power.

John quickly cleared his throat and she added, ". . . and boy."

Several Cybermen fell even though they were speeding along so fast that Oswin could barely catch up with them. She had quickly found herself having to predict where the Cybermen would be instead of firing on where they actually were at that moment because they were moving way too fast to hit any other way.

Clara Idris wasn't having as much of a problem hitting her targets as she was just disintegrating every Cyberman in sight with her Vortex powers. Any of them that did manage to get close enough to her to grab her were greatly disappointed as she would quickly dematerialize before they could touch her. Then she would materialize at a safe distance away from them and disintegrate them from there. She quickly started doing devastating damage to the ranks of the Cybermen as one large group of them after another quickly fell before her.

This was why she hadn't already gone back to her own universe which she easily could have since she had all of the powers of the TARDIS. She had decided not to since Oswin and the others so obviously needed her. It was the humanity inside of her that she treasured so dearly that was keeping her from abandoning her other selves.

Cydonia was doing her fair share of fighting as well. She found out early on that her mind blast powers did little good against the Cybermen so she had to fall back on her new Guardian powers. She remembered that Oswin was the Guardian of Life and Death so she concentrated on sucking the life out of the Cybermen, and they immediately began to crumble to dust all around her even the metal parts of them.

The more that she did this though, the more upset that she became. She had been enough of a warrior in her long life. She was sick of dealing out death. She had been doing that for a long time now and had finally had enough of it. She decided to see if she could use her new powers for something else instead.

She reached out with her mind as she concentrated on the life side of her power instead. Suddenly the Cybermen began to scream as their bodies started to turn from metal to organic.

Oswin looked at this with complete surprise as she said, "Look at her, John. She's only at this for five minutes, and she's already better at it than me. I never even knew that I could do something like that. She's taking a page out of Rose's book and making them human again. How is she doing that?"

"Maybe it's because she's just gotten so sick of death after the war. It so revolts her that it's made her able to do things with the life part of your powers that you can't since she wants to save lives so much more," John theorized.

"You could be right. Maybe she really was meant to do this. It's fine by me. I love having to work for my victories and not getting them so easily," Oswin said.

"Well, you've certainly gotten your wish here today then," John said.

Cydonia smiled in triumph as several of the Cybermen around her now became fully human once more and looked around them in complete confusion. She felt like her powers had been greatly drained by doing this so she wouldn't be able to do it again for a while, but otherwise she felt wonderful. For once she had saved lives instead of destroying them.

At least she hoped she had. The Cybermen started to attack their former members just as fast as they were attacking the Claras, and now Cydonia had to rush and save them.

While Cydonia rushed to save her newly humanized Cybermen, Clara meanwhile worked together with her fellow non-powered Claras to fight back in the best way that they could. She and Time Lady Clara, Claranamon, and Jenna worked together to herd the Cybermen toward Nina as they chased them. Nina then used the gun stick in her hand to rapidly shoot the Cybermen down as soon as they reached her. She was soon joined at this by Marie and Mr. Thanatos as well. The three of them were soon tearing the Cybermen that the other Claras were leading towards them apart at phenomenal speed.

After just half an hour of fighting both the Claras and the Daleks, the army of Cybermen were almost completely devastated. There were so few of them now that Claranamon was able to fight them off using the fighting skills that she had learned in Ancient Egypt for self-defense against the ones who had already been wounded or damaged in some way of which there were many now. Even Clara, Jenna, and Time Lady Clara were able to use their limited fighting skills now to help stop the few remaining Cybermen.

Soon Miss Hartigan had little choice but to reluctantly order a full retreat of the few Cybermen who remained still able to function. Her holographic image glared at Oswin as she said, "This isn't over. I will return and next time you won't have your other selves around to save you. Then we'll see whose side is really better," Miss Hartigan said as she vanished along with the rest of her Cybermen.

The remaining Cybermen returned to the ruins of Telos which was still trying to recover from the attack of Cliodna long ago as they gathered together to decide what to do next. There they gathered together to meet with the current Cyber Planner.

"It appears that even using the mind of another human female to lead us was not enough to overcome the Dalek Empress. Perhaps a new tactic is needed," the Cyber Planner said.

A door opened and another much older model of Cyberman appeared and said in a weird almost but not quite human voice, "We must adopt a different strategy. We must use the Doctor's own wisdom against him. It is well known to us that the Doctor only chooses who he considers to be the best of humanity as his companions. Why don't we choose one of his own to use against him? We will make them the new leader instead of someone who has already failed against him. She was limited by her emotions such as her arrogance and pride, and the original on which she was modeled eventually turned on us anyway. We should retire the mental imprint of Miss Hartigan back to the Cyberiad pending possible permanent erasure."

The assembled Cybermen all agreed to this new idea and then began to discuss which of the Doctor's companions would make the best candidate. Even as they did, Miss Hartigan was listening to them through the Cyberiad and was not amused to say the least.

"So they wish to erase me, do they? I'm not about to stand idly by and let that happen. They may be surprised if they try to find a replacement for me. Things may not turn out exactly as they think they will," Miss Hartigan said to herself as she already started to plot and plan a way to survive.

Back in the nineteenth century, Nina looked at her former home in shock even as Oswin said, "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure that between us we can fix it back to the way it was in no time. Watch."

Cydonia began to concentrate on restructuring the house while Oswin tried to guide her through it. Clara Idris also added her Vortex powers to the mix and between the three of them what was left of the house started slowly coming back together again.

Nina and the others watched in awe as the three of them rebuilt the house piece by piece and bit by bit. Nina could hardly believe that they had such power. She began to wonder if everything were possible in their future world. Not only was she back to life in everything but name, but now they were completely repairing the damage that had been done to her new home.

She could already tell that she was going to enjoy the new world that she was now becoming a part of here. This was completely opening up her eyes to just how much more to life that there was than just being a barmaid or a governess. She couldn't wait to see her other selves again sometime to see just how much more that they had to show her.

She smiled as she realized that she was going to get to see all of time and space after all just as the Doctor had promised her sooner or later, and who better to see it alongside than herself.

Once the house was back to exactly the same state that it was in before, Oswin gathered the others together and said, "Now that we've repaired the damage that was done to this place it's time to send those of you who don't belong here back home. Go on and do the honors, Cydonia."

Oswin then walked Cydonia through it as she began to send them all back home.

"Goodbye, Clara Prime. It was . . . well, it was terrifying actually but it was fun. I have to admit that. It was a lot of fun. I'm not really sure that I want to do it again anytime soon though. How about we just stick to talking to each telepathically in the future, huh?" Jenna said.

"You've got it, Jenna. Sorry about all of this. Just go home and relax. Have yourself a soufflé on me, will you?" Clara said smiling at her as Cydonia sent her back to her own time and place.

Time Lady Clara said her own goodbye as well as she said, "I'm sorry for yelling earlier. It's just that you took me out of time just when I was trying to save my universe from being erased. Are you sure that you can put me right back where I was? My universe needs me. More importantly, my Doctor needs me."

"Don't worry. You'll be put exactly back in the same moment that Cydonia took you from, and I have a feeling that your universe and your Doctor are going to be just fine. Just call it a hunch," Oswin said winking at Time Lady Clara as she vanished and went back to exactly the moment that she had left just as Oswin had promised her.

Now it was Clara Idris' turn to leave.

"It was good to work with all of you. I'm never been more proud of myself than I am right now. I know that this sounds like I'm being arrogant but you're all the best. Each and every one of you," Clara Idris said.

"No, complimenting seven other versions of yourself doesn't sound arrogant at all," Oswin joked.

"Oh, shut up. Well, anyway here's hoping that we meet again sometime. I hope next time it's not a major life and death battle not that it wasn't fun. I'd better get going before the Doctor thinks that I'm never coming back again. He worries so much you know. I hate to say it, but I think he's just a bit obsessed with me," Clara Idris said grinning.

She then vanished as Cydonia sent her straight back to her proper place as well. She could have easily sent herself back of course, but Oswin had asked her to let Cydonia do it because she needed the practice in using her new powers. Clara Idris was all too willing to accommodate her with this request because the more she used her powers the more it reminded her that she wasn't as human as she had thought that she was since she had discovered her connection to the TARDIS and that still bothered her a lot.

Claranamon now said goodbye as she said, "I'm sorry again, Oswin, John. I shouldn't have tried to get between you. I didn't realize just how serious that you really were though. I hope that I'll be invited to the wedding despite that."

Oswin looked at her in surprise. It seemed that her Egyptian lookalike was more observant than she thought.

"If we do have a wedding, of course you can come. All is forgiven. I could never stay mad at myself anyway. I like myself far too much," Oswin said joking.

"Now there's an arrogant sounding statement if I ever heard one," John said.

"You shut up!" Oswin said.

"I have a feeling I'm going to hear that a lot more if I do marry you," John said.

"I think you're right. Marriage is great, isn't it?" Clara said laughing.

"You shut up too, Sis!" Oswin said as Clara continued laughing.

"Goodbye, everyone. Now be sure to bring me back for the wedding, Oswin, and to see the children," Claranamon said.

"Whoa! Don't hurry things so much. First you're trying to take him away from me, and now you're trying to give me an entire family with him. What's with you anyway?" Oswin asked.

"Let's just say that I'm trying to make up for what I did before because I can see just how much the two of you belong together. I hope that you can too. Goodbye, everyone," Claranamon said just before Cydonia sent her back home too.

Now it was time to clean up the rest of the loose ends. Epsilon was taking care of one of them personally as he lead the still disoriented former Cybermen toward a Dalek ship. They looked at him with fear even as Oswin tried to convince them that everything was fine.

"I WILL HELP TAKE THESE HUMANS BACK TO WHERE THE CYBERMEN TOOK THEM FROM AS BEST AS I CAN. SOME OF THEM MAY HAVE TO WIND UP GOING ELSEWHERE THOUGH IF THE CYBERMEN COMPLETELY DEVASTATED THEIR HOMES. I NEVER THOUGHT THAT I WOULD BE HELPING HUMANS. IT'S A VERY ODD FEELING," Epsilon said.

"I bet it feels good though, doesn't it?" Oswin asked smiling at him.

"IT FEELS . . . DIFFERENT. I COULD GET USED TO IT, BUT I THINK THAT IT WILL ALWAYS BE STRANGE TO ME TO HELP INSTEAD OF DESTROY. I THINK THAT I PREFER IT THIS WAY THOUGH," Epsilon said.

"Why is that?" Oswin asked curious.

"IT'S WHAT YOU WOULD WANT ME TO DO, AND I NEVER WANT YOU TO BE ASHAMED OF ME," Epsilon admitted sounding very human in that moment.

"You never have to worry about that, Eppy. I promise," Oswin said as she embraced him or at least tried to anyway.

It's very hard to put your arms around a Dalek after all.

"OH, AND EMPRESS?" Epsilon said.

"Yes?" Oswin asked.

"GOOD LUCK. I STILL THINK THAT HE'S A TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR YOU. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND HIM THOUGH, THEN I HOPE THAT HE PROPOSES. YOU CAN TELL HIM THIS THOUGH. IF HE HURTS YOU, I WILL TAKE GREAT PLEASURE IN EXTERMINATING HIM PERSONALLY," Epsilon said.

"I heard that," John said.

"I KNOW," Epsilon said with what sounded like a happy tone to his voice as he led the now human Cybermen into one of the Dalek saucers as all of the Daleks ships now left.

Now everything was just as it had been before as it was just Nina, her three new sisters, and John now. Nina turned to the four of them and said, "I hate to sound ungrateful since you rebuilt the house for me, but I suppose you should all be going now. I'd hate to have to try to explain why there are so many mes to the Latimers' adopted parents."

"I understand completely, Nina. We still haven't explained everything to Clara's family either," Oswin said.

"I don't think we should even try. I can't imagine how much seeing more than one of me would freak them all out much less trying to explain how that there are other mes spread throughout time and space. I lived it and I still don't completely understand it so I certainly can't explain it to them either," Clara said.

"You will come back to see me again sometimes though, right?" Nina asked hesitantly.

"Of course. You won't get rid of us anytime soon, Nina. Don't you worry about that," Oswin said.

Then they all said their goodbyes to her as they returned back to their own time and Clara's home. Now that they were here and it was just her and her closest sisters Oswin wanted to talk to John about what he had meant earlier at last.

"So," Oswin said as she tried to signal to him to start talking.

"What do you mean 'so'?" John asked playing coy.

"You know what I mean. Were you going to ask me to marry you or not?" Oswin asked.

"Well, I'll have to think about it," John said.

"What?!" Oswin said in a cold voice.

"Careful, Oz. You're starting to sound like one of your Daleks," Clara said.

Oswin glared at Clara who held up her hands in surrender and said, "Now you're starting to act like them too."

Oswin glared at her for a few seconds longer and then turned her full anger to John as she said, "You'd better be kidding or I'll . . ."

Then John completely surprised her by kissing her. At first she was too shocked to respond, but then she eventually started to kiss him back.

After several minutes had passed, John finally pulled away from the kiss and then said, "I do want to marry you, Clara. I'm afraid that I don't have a ring just yet though, and I want to ask you right. You see it wasn't until we were about to fight for our lives that I knew for sure that I wanted to stay with you for the rest of mine. I don't want to lose you, Clara, so I hope that you don't get angry if I don't propose right away. I just want to get the ring and do it right first."

"Ask me anyway though. Just for practice," Oswin said.

John smiled at her as he said, "Clara Oswald, will you marry me?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Oswin shouted with joy as she kissed him again.

"It's a good thing that I didn't speak or he would have had to marry me," Clara joked.

"No, she would have just had Epsilon exterminate you and then had him ask her again," Cydonia quipped.

"Yeah, I think you're right. It's a good thing that I didn't give into temptation then, isn't it?" Clara said grinning.

As Oswin continued to kiss John, she reminded herself to kick Clara in the shins later.

Next: The Cybermen of course aren't very big on romance so they're just itching to kill Oswin before she can even receive a formal proposal from John. Next time they put their plan on converting one of the Doctor's old companions into their leader into action even as Miss Hartigan tries her best to make sure that she's never ever replaced by anyone. What happens next may just surprise everyone.