CHAPTER 53

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THE MATRIARCH'S MASTERPLAN

As Oswin heard screams of fear all around her while the new Daleks swarmed across the surface of Gallifrey, she knew that she had to lead them away from there before anyone was killed. The Time Lords had had enough pain because of the Daleks, and she wasn't about to let them cause them anymore if she could help it.

"Hey, Daleks, you want me? Come and get me!" Oswin shouted as she started to teleport away.

Unfortunately just before she left, Melody grabbed her arm and went along with her. Oswin was briefly filled with horror as she realized that Melody was going to be in danger from the moment that they reappeared.

As soon as Oswin and Melody reappeared, it was on the surface of an uninhabited world in the middle of nowhere. It was one of many Dalek outposts spread throughout the universe that they used to use as a part of a supply chain during their many wars against other species. Basically it was a storage depot that had been used whenever Dalek armies were running low on supplies. That was why she had come here so that no one else but her would ever get hurt.

She had never counted on Melody going along for the ride though.

"Why did you do that? You would have been safe back on Gallifrey. Now you're in as much danger as I am when the Daleks show up, and there's no one here to help us," Oswin said in a furious voice.

"That's why I came. I didn't want you to be alone. I didn't want you to die because you've been so good to me. You're the first person that I've met who's been kind to me in a long time, and you don't deserve to die like this. I won't let you die!" Melody shouted back.

Oswin couldn't help but smile even as she said, "I don't want you to die either. Didn't you ever think about that?"

"I'm not that important," Melody said.

Oswin shook her head as she said, "You're wrong. You have no idea just how wrong. A friend of mine once said that he'd never met anyone who wasn't important. I wholeheartedly agree with him, Melody."

"You know who I am?" Melody asked in surprise.

"I've known for a while now. You are important, Melody. Don't ever let anyone else tell you any differently. Always remember that no matter what happens," Oswin said as she hugged her.

"I wish my mum had told me that at that age. It might have changed my whole life," Ace said from a couple of feet away.

"Remind me to go back and give her a piece of my mind sometime," Rose said.

"Naw, she's not worth it. I have a real mum now anyway so what she said or didn't say really doesn't matter anymore," Ace said.

Oswin turned her head to look at both of them and smiled to see the way that Rose's face lit up as Ace said that to her. She wanted so desperately for that to be her someday with Clara. She hoped that even if they did wind up arguing a lot that they would still always love one another deep down.

"Why am I not surprised to see that you two followed me here? You do know that the new Daleks are going to find me soon, and we're going to be overwhelmed here," Oswin said.

"I wouldn't have it any other way. It's just like Melody said. We couldn't leave you to die, yeah?" Rose said with a warm smile.

Suddenly she felt eyes watching her from behind, and she turned to see Melody looking at her with a strange almost wistful expression on her face. She couldn't help but wonder what the little girl was thinking in that moment.

Before she got a chance to ask her though, the new Daleks finally found her at last. There were hundreds of them suddenly swarming all around her, and they were all prepared to blast her into atoms instantly if they got half a chance to do so.

"You know you're not anywhere near as good as the real Daleks at tracking people down. They would have already found me way before now. You're just a bunch of Dalek wannabes. So who made you? Let me guess. She looked just like me but she wasn't half as sweet, right?" Oswin asked as she defiantly stood her ground against these new separatist Daleks as she was now calling them in her head.

"THE MATRIARCH IS THE TRUE LEADER OF THE DALEKS. SHE IS OUR NEW CREATOR NOW BECAUSE SHE HAS RETURNED THE DALEKS TO THE UNIVERSE EXACTLY AS THEY SHOULD BE ONCE MORE. THANKS TO HER THE DALEKS HAVE BEEN REBORN, AND NOW WE WILL REPAY HER FOR THIS BY EXTERMINATING YOU AND YOUR FALSE DALEKS ONCE AND FOR ALL. ALL WHO ARE NOT PURE WILL BE WIPED FROM EXISTENCE!" A Black Dalek, who was obviously the leader of the others, shouted.

"Oh, boy. So we're back to the whole impure thing now are we? I had so hoped that the Daleks had moved past this sort of nonsense now. It's become so old and tired," Oswin said with a sigh.

"It was old back when I was still just the Doctor's companion. That's one thing that I can always seem to count on with you lot though. You're the ultimate survivors. No matter what happens to you, you always come back just as filled with hate as ever and twice as ugly," Rose said with a frown.

"I bet they still blow up just as easily though," Ace said eagerly as her hands started to glow with power.

"I guess we're about to find out. I bet it's going to be fun," Melody said with an evil grin as she suddenly pulled a gun out of nowhere and pointed it at the Daleks.

Oswin looked at her in surprise as she said, "Where did you get that?"

"I'm an expert at hiding things," Melody said with a giggle.

"Fine. Don't tell me then," Oswin said in exasperation.

Rose laughed as she watched the two of them interact. It seemed all too familiar to her somehow. If they weren't all in deadly danger, she might just find the whole thing amusing.

They were in great danger though and that was definitely proven in the next minute as the separatist Daleks began to all open fire on them at once. The entire area turned into an enormous kill zone now as Oswin and her allies began to fight for their lives. Even as she began blowing apart the separatists with her gauntlets, she couldn't help but worry about Melody. She would never forgive herself if anything happened to her.

Plus there was that whole temporal paradox thing that would result and tear apart the entire universe as well. It seemed that even as a child Melody Pond was trouble.

Oswin didn't know the half of the trouble that the universe was in however as at that very moment on Skaro the entire planet was under attack by a massive army of separatist Daleks that had suddenly appeared all over it at once. So far Oswin's Daleks were more than holding their own against them but that could easily change at any moment. That was why Angela was trying over and over again to reach Oswin, but she had had no results thanks to what she thought was separatist Dalek scrambling of all communications from the planet. They were determined to make sure that neither Oswin or anyone else knew what was happening there.

She was slowly beginning to realize that for better or worse it was going to be left up to her and Epsilon to save the planet by themselves now. She only hoped that she was up to the challenge and at that moment she was terrified that she wasn't even though she was trying her best not to show it.

"THE ENEMY DALEKS WILL BREACH THE OUTER DEFENSES OF THE CAPITOL IN LESS THAN A HUNDRED RELS. WE MUST BE PREPARED FOR THEIR ARRIVAL HERE NOT LONG AFTERWARDS. THE EMPRESS IS NOT GOING TO BE HERE THANKS TO THE ENEMY'S INTERFERENCE WITH OUTGOING TRANSMISSIONS SO WE MUST SAVE OURSELVES THIS TIME. WE ARE THE SAME SPECIES THAT BROUGHT THE TIME LORDS TO THEIR KNEES HOWEVER SO WE WILL PREVAIL. THE DALEKS WILL CONQUER AND DESTROY ALL OF OUR ENEMIES ESPECIALLY THESE FALSE DALEKS," Epsilon said.

"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY! DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!" The other Daleks in the area suddenly chanted together.

Somehow Angela felt a little better about the situation after that. She couldn't help but wonder if that hadn't been Epsilon's intention all along.

Then something happened that sent her newly gained self-confidence spiraling down once again as one of Epsilon's subordinates shouted, "ALERT! ALERT! TWO OTHER ENEMY FACTIONS ARE CURRENTLY APPROACHING SKARO. THEY HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS THE TIME LORD DALEKS AND THE THALS."

"When it rains it pours," Angela said with a frown.

"YOUR ESTIMATION OF THE AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION ON THE PLANET AT THE MOMENT IS BOTH INCORRECT AND IRRELEVANT," Epsilon said.

"It was just an expression that I heard from the Empress once. Never mind that right now. What's important is that we're now under a three-way assault. The Matriarch must be behind this. It can't be a coincidence that they're all coming at once like this," Angela reasoned.

Suddenly the Matriarch appeared right in the middle of the Dalek Control Room and smiled as she said, "I'd keep this one, Epsilon. She's good. Then again after the three armies that I sent here to kill you get through with you, you won't be around to make any decisions anymore so I suppose my advice is a moot point, isn't it?"

"EXTERMINATE!" All of the Daleks in the area shouted as they began to attack her.

"Oh, really? Are we really going to do this so soon? I was planning on making a big speech and baking you all a nice soufflé before I killed you," The Matriarch said with no concern whatsoever as the Daleks' blasts bounced harmlessly off of her force field.

"So that's how you planned on killing them, eh? With your soufflés?" Angela asked with a smirk.

"You really have been around dear old Oswin too much haven't you? She's already rubbing off on you," The Matriarch said with a chuckle.

"She's been teaching me a lot lately including how to deal with people like you," Angela said as she briefly glowed and then split into six identical duplicates of herself.

The six Angelas now began to join the attack on the Matriarch as they blasted her from all sides with their energy blasts while the Matriarch smiled and said in a low voice, "So that's how it started. I always wondered about that."

"How what started?" The original Angela asked.

"Nothing. You'll find out one day. Or you would have if I had allowed you to live anyway," The Matriarch said as she finally began fighting back.

She then unleashed a massive shockwave attack that quickly knocked all six Angelas out cold instantly. Five of them then disappeared leaving only the original while the Daleks continued to attack. One of the Daleks then quickly pulled the remaining Angela to safety.

"Definitely in its early stages then," The Matriarch remarked with a grin.

"THE THALS AND THE TIME LORD DALEKS ARE NOW FIGHTING WITH THE SEPARATISTS. FOR THE MOMENT, WE ARE NOT UNDER ATTACK SAVE FOR BY THE ENEMY LEADER," One of the Daleks reported to Epsilon.

"YOUR PLAN IS ALREADY FALLING APART. YOUR ALLIES ARE NOW FIGHTING WITH AND WEAKENING EACH OTHER. SOON THE TRUE DALEKS WILL EASILY WIPE OUT THE SURVIVORS," Epsilon said to the Matriarch in a proud voice even as he continued to fight with her.

"We'll see," The Matriarch said with a mysterious smile on her face.

Meanwhile Oswin and her group were actually doing quite well against the Daleks that had been sent to kill her. To Oswin's surprise, or maybe it shouldn't have been so surprising at all considering who she was going to be one day, Melody handled herself just like a professional already. She had already helped them to defeat several Daleks and had more than held her own against the others.

Then things suddenly went horribly wrong as one of the Daleks finally managed to get lucky at last and the impact of one of its blasts managed to knock Oswin to the ground. Oswin momentarily had the wind knocked out of her and was completely stunned and helpless for a brief moment. Even worse than that, Rose and Ace didn't even seem to notice that the Dalek that had stunned her was now rapidly closing in on her.

In another moment, it would have surely killed Oswin . . . if Melody hadn't been there.

Melody fired her gun straight through the Dalek's eyestalk and instantly blew it to bits. She both smiled and shuddered at the same time as Oswin finally regained her senses and saw her standing there in shock.

"Melody, are you alright?" Oswin asked her in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I . . . It's just that was the first time that I ever killed anyone before," Melody said looking bothered now.

"I'm so sorry," Oswin said as she hugged her.

"No, it's alright. I'd do it again to save you," Melody said without hesitation.

It made her feel guilty to be a part of a child killing under any circumstances, but she knew that there was no other choice. It was either them or the Daleks. That still didn't make her feel any better about it though because she couldn't help but feel as if she had just been set on the road to becoming an assassin right in front of her and that didn't sit well with her at all.

She should have done something to prevent it somehow.

Despite Oswin's misgivings about the situation, the four of them working together made a very formidable team. In no time at all, the separatist Daleks' numbers had been reduced down to nearly zero, and the survivors eventually fled as they realized that someone had to report on their failure to the Matriarch.

Or maybe these were the smart Daleks who simply didn't want to die.

"Ace! We did it. We really showed them who's the boss, didn't we?" Ace said in an excited voice.

"I don't think that it's over with yet, Dorothy. I'm afraid that this was all a distraction to keep me away from Skaro. There's something even worse going on there right now. I know it. I have to get back and protect them. They need me," Oswin said in a worried voice.

"Somehow I think that they can protect themselves, Clara. They were doing it long before you came along," Rose said.

"Maybe so but I still worry about them. I always will," Oswin said.

"Lucky them," Melody said in a low voice.

"What?" Oswin asked.

"Nothing, Clara. So are we going home now?" Melody asked.

"I am. You're going back to the school with Rose," Oswin insisted.

"You'll need my help," Melody protested.

"No, I won't. I'll be just fine. I'll see you later, okay?" Oswin said smiling at her as she kissed her forehead.

Then she quickly disappeared with her temporal shift before Melody could protest any further.

"She thinks that I'm just a kid," Melody protested.

"That's because you are just a kid, Half Pint," Ace said.

"You take that back!" Melody shouted.

Rose smiled at her warmly as she said, "Listen, Melody. I know that you're a lot more than just a kid and so does Oswin, yeah? She just doesn't want anything to happen to you because she cares a lot about you, okay?"

Melody looked happy about that as she said, "She does?"

"Of course she does. Now come on, sweetheart. Let's get you someplace safe, alright?" Rose said as she felt weird talking to the future River that way.

"She cares about me," Melody said with a smile as she willingly went along with Rose and returned to Gallifrey.

Oswin meanwhile suddenly found herself in the Matriarch's hidden base in the future instead of on Skaro. She had no idea where she was and definitely had no inclination to remain there.

"What the?" Oswin said to herself as she started to attempt to go to Skaro once more.

"No, wait," An extremely weak voice said nearby.

"Davros?" Oswin asked.

She immediately rushed to his side and saw that he was in terrible shape. She knew that he didn't have much longer to live at this point as he motioned for her to come closer to him.

The future Davros spoke in a voice that Oswin could just barely make out now as he said, "Clara, I interrupted your return to Skaro so that the Matriarch wouldn't catch you in her trap as well. That's just what she wanted you to do. She's already manipulated the Thals and the renegade and separatist Daleks into attacking the planet all at once by telling them all that you were gone and that the planet was vulnerable. It didn't hurt that she let down the planetary defenses without the Daleks even being aware of it. That's more information that she learned from you in the future."

"Then they're all in danger then? I have to go and help them," Oswin said in alarm.

"No, you'll just be cut down as soon as you arrive. If the Matriarch's plan goes like she thinks it will, then everyone on Skaro is going to die soon. You shouldn't be there when it happens. You're the future of Skaro. You can always revive the Daleks with the information that you received from the Dalek Net and bring them back as they should be no matter what happens. If the Matriarch kills you though, then that means that she'll finally win completely and change the future forever," The future Davros warned.

"I know that but I still have to go. I have to save them if I can. They're just like my own kids," Oswin protested.

"Very well. At least I warned you anyway. Good luck, Clara, and goodbye," The future Davros said as he began to have trouble breathing.

"Davros?" Oswin asked in alarm thinking that she was about to witness his final end at last.

Suddenly Jacqueline appeared and began healing Davros as she said with a grin, "There you are! I finally found you. I can't let him out of my sight for a minute without him getting into trouble, Clara. You go on ahead. I've got this."

Oswin then leaned forward and whispered in her ear.

Jacqueline smiled and nodded as soon as Oswin had finished speaking.

Oswin then immediately left as she laughed to herself. Jacqueline it seemed was always going to be looking after Davros no matter how old that he got. She still couldn't understand what she saw in him, but she had to admit that she definitely owed the future him a favor. She would have walked straight into a trap if it hadn't been for his timely intervention.

Thanks to that warning, Oswin now appeared just out of orbit with her force field protecting her from the effects of space where she could safely observe what was happening on Skaro without being detected by the invading armies below her on the planet's surface. In that position, Oswin had a ringside seat now as she saw the three invaders tearing themselves apart while her Daleks attacked them with everything that they had. She smiled thinking that maybe the Matriarch's plan, whatever it was, had failed after all and that she didn't even need to interfere.

She was then proven so so wrong in the very next moment as every separatist Dalek on the surface suddenly started to explode! She looked on in horror as the Matriarch's Daleks just kept on exploding everywhere including in the Capitol apparently which suddenly went up in flames.

"No!" Oswin screamed as all of Skaro became filled with explosions everywhere.

"Oh, yes. You see I never wanted any of them to win, Clara. I wanted them all to die at once and rid the universe of every single one of them! Now I'll wipe out the Thals and every single Dalek in existence together. My new universe will be so much better off without them because they're too dangerous to be allowed to survive. Now I just have to kill you, and my plan will be complete," The Matriarch said as she suddenly appeared next to Oswin.

"That's not going to be as easy as you think it's going to be," Oswin said.

"Really? Why is that? Your allies are either all dead or dying by now surely. You're all alone now," The Matriarch said with undisguised joy.

"Let me tell you something that will just completely ruin your day then. I was warned about you so I called in reinforcements just in case," Oswin said.

"Nice bluff but I'm not falling for it," The Matriarch said with a laugh.

Suddenly they both found themselves inside of the Console Room of a TARDIS as it materialized around them. An old man in a black suit with large eyebrows glowered at the Matriarch as she practically hissed at him.

"Hello, Not Clara. It seems that I've finally hunted you down at last. You've been causing a lot of trouble here in the past but that all ends now. You cannot be allowed to meddle around anymore with established history. I'm going to make it all end here today either one way or another. Don't think that being a part of my best friend is going to save you from me either," The Twelfth Doctor said with a determined look on his face.

"I ran into the future Jacqueline and got her to call her Dad. Now who's in trouble, Psycho Me?" Oswin said with a triumphant grin.

The Matriarch's hands began to glow as she prepared for the fight of her life even as Skaro continued to be decimated by explosions everywhere. Oswin crossed her fingers as she hoped against hope that the future Doctor would help make the difference here.

Either way, she knew that she was about to have the fight of a lifetime on her hands now.

Next: It's Oswin and the Twelfth Doctor versus the Matriarch high above Skaro while on the surface Angela and Epsilon struggle to survive and save the planet from complete destruction. Which side will win? Will history be changed forever? Will anything ever be the same again?