CHAPTER 59
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CAN ANYONE STOP PSYCHO CLARA?
"It's only a matter of time now, Oswin. Soon now, very soon, you too will experience the gift of complete and final piece of mind. I always love to help my alternate selves with that the most of everyone especially if they haven't met Danny Pink yet. It saves them from any future sense of loss," The psycho Clara said as she steadily annihilated row after row of Daleks from both Oswin and the Mentor's armies at once without even breaking a sweat.
"It also saves them from actually having a life too," Oswin said as she did her best to help her boys fight back by attacking the psycho Clara with everything that she had every time that she got an opening to do so.
Not that anything that she threw at her, not even her most powerful attacks, seemed to do any real good whatsoever. Nothing she or any of the others did seemed to even make a scratch on Evil Her.
"After your Danny dies, you won't care if you live anymore, Oswin. Believe me on that," The psycho Clara said in a voice that was completely devoid of emotion.
"I'm not involved with Danny. I married someone else instead. Do I still have to die or can I be the exception to the rule?" Oswin asked as she just barely dodged a blast from the parallel her that completely incincerated a small army of Daleks from both sides.
"It doesn't matter. Life will still take that person away from you too sooner or later. I'm still doing you a favor," The psycho Clara said while not skipping a beat.
"What if I told you that I was pregnant?" Oswin asked as she desperately tried some way to reach her.
Surely a child would do the job. All Claras loved children after all.
"I'm truly sorry," The psycho Clara said with the first trace of real emotion that she had displayed since she had met her.
Oswin never saw the determination to kill her leave her face though as she immediately added, "It's better this way though."
"You're right, Eppy. She is definitely nothing like me," Oswin said in a horrified voice.
That was when Oswin made the most difficult decision that she had ever had to make. She didn't want to do it but she wasn't about to let this woman kill her baby. There was no way that she was going to allow that to happen.
"Epsilon, if you can't stop her any other way, then I want you to . . . to . . ." Oswin said in an emotional voice.
"WE WILL EXTERMINATE HER IF WE HAVE TO DO SO," Epsilon finished for her.
"Thank you," Oswin said as she tried not to break down.
She swore to herself that she was never going to do that again. It just felt too wrong somehow.
"YOU'RE NOT HER BY DOING THIS AND YOU NEVER WILL BE, CLARA. THE EMOTION THAT YOU'RE DISPLAYING NOW IS THE PROOF OF THAT," Epsilon said to her in a compassionate tone that Oswin found so strange to hear in a Dalek voice.
The psycho Clara laughed as she said, "I can't believe you're getting so worked up over a single death, Ozzie. I thought you were the leader of the Daleks. Doesn't that job description have a certain bit of ruthlessness as a prerequisite?"
"NOT ANYMORE. THE DALEKS HAVE EVOLVED. WE HAVE EXACTLY THE LEADER THAT WE NEED NOW AND SHE IS THE FUTURE OF THE DALEKS," Epsilon said.
Suddenly a massive blast of energy came down from the sky and made the entire area shake with its impact as it basically annihilated everything and everyone in its path. Every Dalek that had been in the ray's impact area was instantly gone without a trace now.
"THAT STATEMENT IS INCORRECT. THIS IS THE FUTURE OF THE DALEKS," A Dalek voice said as it seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"Ooh, I must admit that was pretty impressive. Where can I get one of those?" The psycho Clara shouted up to the sky.
"Great. That's just what we needed. Eppy, what was that?" Oswin asked as she kept one eye on the sky and one on the psycho Clara.
"SENSORS INDICATE THAT THE RENEGADE DALEK FACTION HAS JUST CREATED A NEW WEAPON BASED ON THE REALITY BOMB RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY DAVROS. THIS WEAPON WAS IN OUR DATABASE BUT WAS NEVER FULLY DEVELOPED. IT DISSOLVES THE BONDS BETWEEN ATOMS IN EVERYTHING IN AN ENTIRE AREA INSTANTLY. IT WAS CALLED THE REALITY CANNON AND WAS MADE TO BE PLACED ON A DALEK COMMAND SHIP SO THAT IT COULD BE USED TO ANNIHILATE AN ENTIRE PLANET FROM ORBIT WITHIN MINUTES," Epsilon said.
"Oh, I like that. Finally there are some Daleks with some useful ideas around. They're definitely better than your bunch of wimpy tin cans, Ozzie. I think I'll take that idea off of that lot after I kill them. I can always use a way to kill more efficiently after all. It makes my job a whole lot easier," The psycho Clara said.
"YOU WILL NOT LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO KILL ANYONE ELSE. WE HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU ARE TOO UNPREDICTABLE TO TRY TO TURN INTO OUR SERVANT AFTER ALL. EXTERMINATE!" The same Dalek voice as before said from all around them.
Then the Reality Cannon fired once more from orbit and hit the psycho Clara head on this time. Its impact was so powerful that it violently flung Oswin, Epsilon, and everyone else around the psycho Clara a mile away from it. If Oswin hadn't had her force field activated, she would have been killed instantly.
As soon as the ringing stopped in her ears and she regained her sense of balance, Oswin used her gauntlets' sensors to quickly scan her body and sighed in relief as she saw that the baby was okay. Thankfully her force field had protected her . . . this time. She definitely didn't want to risk being anywhere around that thing the next time that it went off.
"Well, at least psycho me is dead anyway," Oswin said to herself as she saw that the other her was gone now.
Even as she felt more than a bit guilty for thinking such a thing, she heard familiar laughter echoing from nearby as the psycho Clara said, "Oh, if only it were that easy, Ozzie."
Oswin now looked up in the direction of that laugh and saw that her alternate self was still alive and glowing like Skaro's sun. She gasped in disbelief and then her sense of shock continued to grow even more as she saw the psycho Clara fire an enormous burst of energy upwards towards space.
A massive explosion went off moments later and filled the entire sky. Suddenly this world had a new sun that even blotted out the glow of the psycho Clara as the renegade Dalek command ship was completely disintegrated!
"How . . . How can anyone beat someone like that?" Oswin said in a frightened voice.
"They can't, Ozzie. Not on a thousand times a thousand worlds in just as many universes. No one can stop me. No one," The psycho Clara said from up above her with mocking laughter.
"IN THE NAME OF THE MENTOR, NEUTRALIZE HER!" The leader of the Mentor's Daleks shouted.
"FOR ONCE, WE ARE IN AGREEMENT ON SOMETHING. EXTERMINATE HER!" Epsilon ordered.
Both groups of Daleks opened fire on the psycho Clara at once and hit her with everything that they had. While simultaneously yet another renegade Dalek ship started to fire on her from high above the planet. As the attacks of three groups of Daleks began to converge on her at once, the psycho Clara began to smile.
"I love it when they put up a good fight," The psycho Clara said to herself just before she disappeared amidst a massive explosion of energy and was instantly lost to sight.
Even though they could no longer see her, the three Dalek factions continued to fire on the psycho Clara without stopping. They weren't about to let up this time after seeing how easily she had shrugged off all of their past attacks.
"The Mentor reports that more reinforcements are now arriving from the planet Skaro. She has finally taken the planet at last as planned," One of the Mentor's Daleks said.
"What?" Oswin asked in anger as she overheard this.
"THAT EXPLAINS WHY WE HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO CONTACT THE HOME WORLD. ALL OF OUR TRANSMISSIONS ARE BEING BLOCKED. THE MENTOR HAS STABBED US IN THE BACK AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT. WE SHOULD RETURN HOME INSTANTLY AND REMOVE HER FROM THE CAPITOL," Epsilon said.
"No, not right now, Epsilon. I'm angry about it too. In fact I'm beyond angry. We have to finish things here first though. If we can't stop Psycho Clara, it won't matter who rules Skaro. They'll just be the next one on her hit list. We'll worry about the Mentor later. Concentrate on getting rid of evil me first," Oswin ordered.
"I OBEY," Epsilon said with more than a trace of reluctance as he continued to fire on the area that the psycho Clara was last seen in.
Suddenly they all heard the psycho Clara's laughter once more as Oswin said in disbelief, "Oh, my stars. She's even worse than the Matriarch."
"I don't know who that is but I'm sure of it, Ozzie. I'm getting bored now so I think I'll just finally finish this. This just isn't fun anymore plus I'm way behind schedule. I set myself a personal goal of destroying a hundred planets today and I've only done fifty. Good night, Oswin," The psycho Clara said with malicious glee.
"EMPRESS, THE PSYCHO CLARA IS SHOWING POWER LEVELS OFF OF THE SCALE NOW. SHE IS ABOUT TO . . ." Epsilon said in alarm.
Then he was suddenly cut off in mid-speech as a massive explosion went off from the area where the psycho Clara had been earlier that instantly disintegrated everyone before it. The last thing that Oswin saw was Epsilon falling over her in a protective manner just before her entire world went black.
"Mentor, all transmissions from the area where the psycho Clara was encountered have ceased," One of the Mentor's Daleks informed her back on Skaro.
"Not one survivor?" The Mentor asked in a stunned voice.
"Not a single transmission has been detected. There has been a planet wide blackout. We aren't even picking up any signals from Empress Oswin's Daleks or the renegades in orbit. They must all have been neutralized," The Mentor's Dalek said.
"This is impossible. She can't be that powerful," The Mentor said in a stunned voice.
"Clara and Epsilon . . . are dead?" A voice said from behind the Mentor.
"What? You can't be fighting me. My will is superior to yours," The Mentor said in surprise.
"You got my friends killed because you prevented me from helping them. You killed them!" Angela said in a furious voice as she instantly shrugged off the Mentor's control and began to glow with power.
"Mentor, my sensors are telling me that the female has just linked minds with numerous near exact duplicates of herself across the planet. She has just formed a telepathic gestalt of incredible psychic power," The Mentor's Dalek warned.
"Mentor, reports are coming in all across Skaro. The clones are fighting alongside Oswin's Daleks and the Thals in a mass insurrection everywhere. We are being completely toppled from power," Another of the Mentor's Daleks said.
"She's the focus of it all. Neutralize her," The Mentor ordered as she pointed to Angela.
Several of the Mentor's Daleks fired on Angela but they quickly vanished with a single wave of her hand.
"The Legna have just pronounced sentence on you, Mentor. The sentence is . . . banishment. You and all of your forces will be returned home immediately. I almost wish that I could commit an evil act so that I could exterminate you. You killed my friends," Angela said in a voice filled with anger.
"You can't defeat me no matter how much psychic power that you have. I am . . . No, don't!" The Mentor shouted as she felt her life support systems beginning to rupture at a single gesture from Angela.
"Stop fighting me and I'll allow you to return home where your original life support system is stored. Your portable one will last just long enough for you to make it back there. That's the price for what you have done, Mentor. You've just lost your freedom," Angela said in a cold voice.
"You will pay for this!" The Mentor shouted in a furious voice as Angela sent her and the rest of her Daleks in the room away.
"I already have," Angela said as she broke down and started to cry.
Dalek Omega now entered the room and looked at Angela with what a human might almost call sadness for a brief moment before he said to the Daleks with him, "AS OF THIS MOMENT, I AM TAKING TEMPORARY COMMAND OF THE EMPIRE UNTIL THE NEW EMPRESS IS READY TO ASSUME FULL AUTHORITY."
"WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS, ACTING EMPEROR?" The Daleks with him asked.
"EXTERMINATE THIS PSYCHO CLARA. NOT OUT OF A SENSE OF VENGEANCE FOR THE DEATH OF THE EMPRESS BUT IN THE NAME OF UNIVERSAL PRESERVATION. THE EMPRESS WANTED US TO BE PROTECTORS AND THAT IS WHAT WE WILL STAY. THAT IS HOW WE WILL BEST PAY TRIBUTE TO HER MEMORY," Dalek Omega said.
"WE OBEY," The Daleks said in unison.
Now the oncoming reinforcements sent from Skaro were given new orders from Dalek Omega: exterminate the psycho Clara at all costs.
Even as all of Skaro prepared to come down on the psycho Clara at once, Cassiopeia, the Doctor and Rose's daughter, and Clara were about to receive a special surprise visitor at the apartment that they shared together back on Earth. As the doorbell rang several times, Clara hurried toward it with a sigh.
"Alright, alright. Keep your shirt on, whoever you are. It's only the middle of the night. You'll have to expect me to be a little bit slow when you've woken me out of a sound sleep," Clara said grumpily.
Then Clara opened the door only to scream out at what she saw there.
"What is it?" Cassiopeia said in alarm as she burst out of her bedroom to help her.
She gasped in surprise as she saw Oswin lying there in the doorway next to a broken down Epsilon who could barely move and who had lost most of his casing. Epsilon's suction cup arm was hanging loosely at his side as if it was barely attached.
"Eppy, what happened?" Clara asked as she started to check over Oswin to see if she was still alive.
"I . . . I . . ." Epsilon tried to say in a weak voice.
"He can't talk. He's too weak. It probably took all of his strength just to knock on the door," Cassiopeia said in a sympathetic voice.
"Oswin's alright. She was just knocked out by whatever it was. Epsilon must have shielded her from it," Clara said.
"It wasn't just him. It was also me," A voice said from the doorway.
Both women turned to see a naked John Harkness standing there and immediately turned their heads away from him as Clara said, "Would you please come inside and put some clothes on, John? Now's not the time. Besides that I have a new boyfriend now and he might not like the neighbors telling him about you visiting me in the middle of the night in your birthday suit."
"I'm not just doing this for fun, Clara. They were burned off of me when I dived in front of Epsilon at the last second," John explained as he came inside.
Cassiopeia looked at him in surprise while she handed him a bathrobe as she said, "You're just like your father then. You can survive death just like he can."
"Yes, and thankfully I can bring my body back together a lot quicker than him too once it's been disintegrated. I think it's a gift from the regenerative abilities of my mother's Time Lord genes. What a way to have to find that out though, huh? Luckily I was able to provide Epsilon and Oswin just enough protection to save both of their lives, and then I used Oswin's emergency temporal shift device to bring us all here to you once my body came back together again. I really hope that the psycho Clara didn't notice us leaving," John said.
"Psycho Clara? Oh, give me a break. Don't tell me that there's another evil me out there besides the Matriarch," Clara said with a sigh.
"I'm afraid so, yeah. This one makes the Matriarch look like a nun in comparison," John said with a shudder.
"H – HOW?" Epsilon struggled to ask.
"How did I know where you and my Clara were when she didn't tell me where she was going? I'm still very bothered about that by the way. I don't need her protecting me. We definitely know that for sure now," John said with a frown.
Epsilon slowly moved his eye stalk up and down to signal a yes. Then it immediately fell off and hit the floor. Apparently it was as broken as the rest of him.
"Sorry, Eppy. I'm sure that you can get that fixed later," John said with a sheepish grin.
"Well? How did you know if Oswin didn't tell you about it?" Clara asked.
"You're not going to believe this. I'm still not sure that I believe it myself," John said.
"Try us," Cassiopeia said.
"Oswin's mother came to me in a dream and warned me. She said that she was in trouble and told me the exact coordinates to go to. She said that I needed to be there very soon in order to save her. Thankfully I got there just in time to throw myself in front of Eppy who was lying protectively over Clara," John said.
"You're right. I don't believe you," Clara said.
"I do. Mum's struck again," Oswin said in a groggy voice as she slowly woke up.
"Clara, are you alright?" John asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. And thankfully so will the baby," Oswin said as she checked herself with her gauntlets.
Then she looked at the mess that was Epsilon and said in an apologetic tone, "I'm so sorry, Eppy. I'll fix you up as soon as possible. I promise."
She then kissed the top of his casing only to have part of it fall off and hit the floor as a result.
"Sorry," Oswin said as she winced.
"Oswin, what is the deal with this psycho Clara? Is she a danger to Earth?" Clara asked.
"She's a danger to everyone, Clara, and I'm not sure that anyone can stop her. She's just as powerful as Rose but with absolutely none of her sense of mercy. She just took out three armies of Daleks at once like it was nothing," Oswin said.
"You've got to call Skaro somehow and get the rest of the Daleks to stop her," John said.
"I'm not sure that even the entire Dalek Empire can stop this psycho. I don't know that any of us can not with all of the Vortex users and the Guardians either down or having their powers all messed up. If she's as powerful as Rose not even the Great Old Ones will be able to stop her. Rose made mincemeat out of the most powerful of them combined once. We need someone with either great power or great genius to save us now. Someone who's a bit mad would probably help too," Oswin said.
"In other words, we need the Doctor and Rose," Clara said sadly.
Cassiopeia's jaw tightened as she said, "Then I'll have to do it then. It's all up to me now. Somehow I've got to stop this psycho Clara before she gets to Earth."
"Cass, you'll be killed if you go up against her alone. Trust me on that," Oswin warned.
"I won't be alone. I'm taking Jenny with me. She's the only Guardian with fully functioning powers for whatever reason. She'll be enough to protect me I'm sure. I mean if I can't rely on my sister who can I rely on?" Cassiopeia said.
"Me," Clara said without hesitation.
"Clara, your connection to the Vortex is too weak now. You'll die," Oswin warned.
"I won't lose her too like I lost her parents. That's not happening again. Not on my watch," Clara said stubbornly.
"Well, if you two are both determined to commit suicide then I'll send the entire army of Skaro along with you. I just hope that they'll be enough," Oswin said as she started to call home.
"She's that bad, huh?" Clara asked in disbelief.
"You have no idea," Oswin said.
Even as Oswin called Skaro and Angela started screaming with joy at hearing her voice once more, the Matriarch watched all of this invisibly with sad, weary eyes. It was happening all over again just like it had before.
She had tried to stop it by changing as many things as she could to prevent it, but it was still happening just the same. Cassiopeia and Clara were still about to fight the psycho Clara for the safety of the universe.
The Matriarch started to cry even as she tried to hold onto the last slim hope that she had left. She would change the future this time.
Time would be rewritten. She would make sure of it this time no matter what the cost was to her.
Next: If you want to see the outcome of the Psycho Clara storyline, be sure to read It's Better With Two Chapter 50 which is coming soon. If you don't want to read that though, you can just come back here next chapter where it will be explained in full detail even as Oswin tries to figure out exactly what's going on around her. It seems that her entire life has suddenly instantly changed and she's the only one who seems to be aware that it's all wrong. Can she convince her new sisters Clara, May, and Nina of the truth? Even if she can, can any of them do anything about it?