CHAPTER 66

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A SHOCKING CONNECTION IS REVEALED

"Mother, I just can't believe it. I . . . What in the world has Clara gotten you involved in now?!" Dave said as he stared at his now twenty year old mother in stunned disbelief after he finally regained consciousness again an hour later.

Abby smiled at him mischievously as she said, "Just calm down, Dave. It's not the end of the world just because I'm suddenly even hotter than usual, you know?"

"Oh, let's not even go there. I don't even want to think about you dating or how you'll probably be trying out the so-called clothing that young women today are wearing that knowing you will be showing more of you than I ever wanted to see," Dave said with a sickened look on his face.

"Watch it, Dave. You're starting to sound like my father instead of my son," Abby joked in amusement.

"Well, maybe that's because you look like Clara's sister instead of her grandmother now. That's what people are going to think anyway. How else will I be able to explain you? Everyone's going to wonder who you are and what you're doing here you know. They're never going to believe that you're the same Abby that they knew before. Aliens are one thing because people have seen plenty of evidence of those in the last few years, but suddenly rejuvenated grandmothers are quite another. What happened, Mother? What caused this? Is there any way that you can reverse it?" Dave asked in an almost frantic voice.

"One of the Claras with cosmic powers did this to me so that I could help save the Clara who runs Skaro who was in trouble. It's easy to see why. I always was great in a fight. You had to be if you wanted to survive more than five seconds while traveling with the Doctor. And to answer your last question, I can have it reversed any time that I want," Abby said.

Dave instantly breathed out a sigh of relief as he said, "Wonderful. Finally something's going right for once. So the Clara who did this to you is going to be coming here soon to fix it, right?"

Abby hesitated now as she said, "She actually did offer to but I told her no."

Dave glared at her in shock now as he said, "What? Why?"

"I have my reasons," Abby said in an evasive manner as she decided not to tell him about speaking to Ellie again because she knew that it would tear him apart to know that she was trapped somewhere.

"Is this because you want to go traveling with the Doctor again? Is that what this is about? Trying to recapture your youth?" Dave asked with a perplexed look on his face.

"The Doctor has nothing to do with it. This is about Clara, Dave. In case you haven't noticed, both of our Claras are always in a great deal of trouble and someone needs to be there to help them out," Abby said.

Dave sighed as he said, "You're not exactly telling me something new here, Mother. Clara's always been in trouble ever since she was young, and both of us have always been there for her each and every time. You don't have to be even younger than she is in order to help her with that."

"These days the trouble that our Claras get into is of a much more universal nature, Dave. It's not just dating or job troubles anymore. We've moved way past that now and into daily major threats to time and space instead. They need someone who's well enough to go traveling alongside them and guard their backs and more importantly they need someone who's always going to be there to listen to them whenever they're troubled. Someone who understands what it's like to live in the Doctor's world. That's why I needed to do this, Dave. They need their grandmother around to guide them and keep them safe, and they can't live for the rest of eternity without her. Who knows what trouble they'd get up to without me around?" Abby explained with a wry grin.

"The rest of eternity?" Dave said in a low voice as his jaw dropped even lower.

"Both Claras are effectively immortal now, Dave, so I needed to be too. I know that this is a lot to take, but believe me it was completely necessary," Abby said in a sympathetic tone.

"A lot to take?! Suddenly you come back decades younger after disappearing for hours with no explanation, and now you're telling me that you're going to live forever? That's more than just a lot to take, Mother. This is cataclysmic!" Dave shouted in a near hysterical tone.

"I know. Believe me. I need to do this though so that I can go traveling with my Claras and keep an eye on them," Abby said.

"They're both grown now, Mother. In fact, one of them is hundreds of years old now as hard as that still is to believe. I think they can probably take care of themselves by this point," Dave said as he rolled his eyes at her.

"Don't you give me that look! I am still your mother even if I don't currently look like it, and I'm actually strong enough to put you over my knee again so don't think I won't do it!" Abby said in a furious voice.

Both of them then immediately burst into laughter. As they held onto each other to keep from falling over while Little Clara looked at them as if they were both completely mad, Abby finally relaxed at last.

That was when she knew that everything was finally going to be alright between them.

As soon as he finished laughing, Dave immediately said in an amused tone, "Now that would definitely be hard to explain if anyone saw us."

"Yeah, it would. That's why it's best not to risk my wrath so that you don't have to, isn't it?" Abby said with a smirk.

"Mother, are you sure about this?" Dave said in a serious voice.

"I'm as sure as I've ever been about anything in my life. They need me, Dave," Abby said in a resolute tone.

Dave nodded as he said, "How are you going to handle this then? People are going to be expecting to see the older you. They're going to wonder where you've gone and who the new young woman living here is."

"Don't worry about a thing. I've already made a call while you were having your little afternoon nap that should completely sort things out. This is where it helps to have family members who run top secret organizations. John's father is going to pull some strings in the government in order to give me a new identity. From now on, I'll be Clara's distant cousin from Cardiff who just happens to have the exact same name as your mother because I was named after her. I was living there most of my life until recently when your mother graciously offered to let me live here while she goes on a long trip around the world for the remainder of her twilight years. She's also given me full access to all of her banking accounts and signed her house over to me out of the kindness of her heart. She's not really going to need it anymore anyway after all."

Dave looked at her skeptically as he said, "And you think people will actually believe that?"

"I don't see why not as long as you and Clara both call me Abby while we're in public," Abby said with a shrug.

"This . . . This is just beyond weird," Dave said with a groan.

"And don't worry. I don't plan on dating since it wouldn't be fair to someone to make them think that they're dating someone who isn't quite as youthful as she looks. As for the revealing clothing . . . I make no promises on that one," Abby said with an evil smile.

"Oh, God," Dave said in a defeated voice as he held his head in his hands.

"Hey! I was just kidding . . . mostly. It won't be so bad. I promise," Abby said in a soothing voice as she lightly stroked his hair.

"So judging from that horrified look on his face, I take it that you told him, yeah?" Clara said with a hesitant grin as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the room in a burst of energy.

"You think?" Abby said with a frown as she continued to gently stroke Dave's hair.

"Well, he's certainly taking it much better than I expected. I thought I might have to wind up visiting him in the hospital later today," Clara said with a light chuckle as she tried her best to keep up a light attitude.

"The day isn't over yet," Dave said in a miserable voice as he continued to hold his head.

"You're going to be okay though, right? If you're not, then I'll make sure that the M – Louise undoes this," Clara said in a worried tone.

Dave smiled at her briefly as he said in a reassuring voice, "Louise? I take it that's the other you Mother mentioned. Don't worry, alright? Everything's going to be fine . . . eventually. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd have to get used to my mother being younger than my daughter. What's happened to my life?"

"I ask myself that every day. I usually end up smiling afterwards though because it's all just so completely wonderful now. I really wouldn't have it any way," Clara said with a huge grin.

Dave studied her thoughtfully for a moment and then he smiled as he said, "Yes, I suppose you wouldn't would you? I guess as long as you're happy that's all I can ask for then isn't it? Well, that and maybe some grandchildren."

Clara groaned as she said, "Isn't Little Clara enough?"

"Yes, for now," Dave teased her.

"Give her some time, Dave. I only just became young again. I don't need Clara giving me more great-grandchildren quite so soon so that I can start feeling old already," Abby said as she winked at Clara.

Even as Clara smiled back at her gratefully, Oswin was far from feeling like smiling back on Skaro. She had immediately returned there with John just as soon as she could while leaving Epsilon and Daphne in charge of the cleanup (possibly while in-between dating one another from what her grandmother had told her) in the Mentor's universe. She was a woman on a mission after all and that mission was to save her mother.

She now had both Marissa and Davros working alongside a now fully recovered Angela and the most intelligent Daleks on Skaro to find a way to give her mother a body again. Some of the finest minds in the universe had devoted themselves to this problem, and that was why she was less than amused at that moment to have them already telling her that there was nothing that they could do about it.

"What do you mean that you don't have a solution? You're barely spent a couple of hours working on one. You could at least spend a full day on it before you start to give up," Oswin said in a hurt voice.

"Clara, you just don't understand the volatile nature of Vortex energy. Almost nothing in the universe can withstand its full power for long not even the strongest of substances, and your mother is now irretrievably linked with that power. There really is nothing that we can do for her. Not unless we come up with something really innovative somehow. At the moment, however, we're far from being able to do that just yet. That doesn't mean that we're giving up though. I promise you that we're not. I just wanted to be completely honest with you about what's the most likely outcome to all of this, Sis. I didn't want to give you any false hopes," Marissa said in a gentle tone.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry for getting so upset," Oswin said in a suddenly lifeless voice that was just barely above a whisper.

"Clara, are you alright? She didn't say that you should give up hope yet, you know?" John said with concern.

"No, but she might as well have. Let's just face it, John. My mother is going to be trapped in the Vortex forever with no way out, and I have to live with that every day for the rest of my very long life," Oswin said in an utterly depressed tone.

"No, Clara, don't do that. We're far from giving up on this just yet. I promise. You didn't give up on me when I needed you the most so I'll never give up on helping you. Never," Angela said in a firm tone.

Oswin smiled at her appreciatively as she said, "Well, I wasn't about to leave family behind was I?"

"Exactly. If she's family to you, then that makes her family to me too," Angela said as she hugged her.

"Looks like you've got another sister, Clara. We're going to start running out of room on the family tree if this sort of thing keeps up. You're getting to be just as bad as Rose about having an unbelievably huge family," John joked as he tried to keep Oswin smiling.

"Ha! She's a rank amateur compared to me. Every Dalek on Skaro is my family, Harkness. Let's see her beat that," Oswin said with a brief chuckle.

"Give her enough time and she just might at the rate that she keeps having children lately," Marissa quipped which made Oswin laugh once again just as she had intended.

"I don't really understand it, Mira. They're going to such great lengths just to keep her smiling for a few more moments. It's all a waste of energy though really. Sooner or later, she'll just be miserable all over again because her problems are far from being solved at the moment. I would think that it would be far more helpful to her for us to continue to work on that instead," Davros said in confusion.

"It really has been a long time since you've been even remotely normal isn't it? They know that but they want her to have at least a few bright moments that she can hold onto if only for a little while so that she doesn't completely sink into despair. If she just keeps dwelling on things like she is now, that's probably what will end up happening. Got it?" Mira said as she looked at him in disbelief.

"I'm honestly not certain that I was ever normal in any way even before my accident, Mira. I was always far more advanced mentally than everyone else around me. I suppose that sense of alienation may have helped lead me onto the path that I eventually took. Perhaps you're right about the power of laughter, Mira. Maybe if I had instilled in my Daleks an ability to continue to laugh despite setbacks, it might have helped them greatly in the long term," Davros mused.

"And by long time, do you mean in terms of universal conquest?" Mira asked with a warning look.

"I meant in terms of their natural evolution of course. It would have greatly helped their species. Conquest had absolutely nothing to do with that thought amazingly enough," Davros said in a surprised tone.

"You're learning. I'll whip you into shape yet. You'll see," Mira said with a smile of approval.

"You can turn Davros into Little Mary Sunshine later, Mira. Right now I need his help saving my mother," Oswin said with an amused smile as she overheard them.

Mira was actually happy about her ribbing her however. Hopefully it was a good sign if she could still make fun of people. Maybe she wasn't quite so far gone after all.

"Now there's a horrible mental image," John said with a shudder even as he too seemed to smile with relief.

"And there's your good thought for the day. Don't everyone all thank me at once," Oswin said with a small smile.

"I'm not certain but I think that I may have just been insulted. I believe it was done in a good natured way however so I'll look beyond it," Davros said with a frown just as a piece of the equipment that he had been using in his research started to blink which instantly drew his attention to it.

"I see where the Daleks get their sense of humor from now," Oswin said with a brief chuckle as she tried her best to be her usual self despite the fact that she really just wanted to curl up in a ball and hide herself from the rest of the universe at that moment.

"Yes, well, I never really saw the point of humor I'm afraid. Perhaps I could have benefited by it as well come to think of it. None of that relates to our current dilemma however, and what I'm about to tell you does I believe," Davros said as he checked over what his equipment had just discovered with a completely fascinated look.

"What do you mean? Have you discovered something?" Oswin asked in a hopeful voice as Marissa looked at him in surprise.

"And why you didn't say anything about it to me?" Marissa asked suspiciously.

"That's because I just received the results back at this very moment. I'm afraid that I didn't discover a way to help Ellie Oswald or at least I haven't yet anyway. I did however discover something very strange that might potentially guide us towards a solution to her problem in the long run," Davros said.

"Like what?" Oswin asked in an eager voice.

"I was studying your mother's brainwaves based on the recording that your gauntlets took of her while you encountered her earlier in the thought that that might lead me in the right direction. That was very good spur of the moment thinking by the way," Davros said in a voice that was filled with respect.

"Yeah, as soon as I heard what the problem was in getting her out of the Vortex, I thought it might come in handy later on," Oswin said in a dismissive tone as she waited to hear what he said next.

Davros could tell that she just wanted him to get to the point so he quickly moved past his attempt to compliment her as he said, "While my equipment studied her brainwaves, it also brought up information on the brainwaves of Rose Tyler who you also recorded at the same time since both psyches were present at that moment."

"Yeah, so what happened? Was it a problem separating their brainwaves or something?" Oswin asked curiously.

"It was practically impossible actually because except for a slight difference that was barely noticeable their brainwaves are practically identical," Davros said in a mystified tone.

"What? Are you sure your machine isn't just glitching up?" Oswin asked in disbelief.

"I'm currently attempting to make certain of that by comparing a recording of my own brainwaves to your mother's while simultaneously rerunning my first comparison of your mother and Miss Tyler's brainwaves once more. It should be done in a moment," Davros said.

Then just as he said that his equipment started to blink once more and he carefully studied it and then smiled as he said, "I was correct. My machine isn't in error in the slightest. My brainwaves are completely different from your mother's or Miss Tyler's. Yet again however it says that your mother's and Miss Tyler's are virtually identical however. The results are fairly conclusive I think."

"What? That can't be right though. Let me look at that," Marissa said as she briefly studied the equipment herself.

"So what does that mean and why is it making you freak out like that, Mari?" Oswin asked in alarm.

"It's not possible though. It can't be unless . . . There are at least two possible scenarios where it might have occurred I suppose but they both seem to be highly unlikely especially with the way that Rose feels about regeneration now," Marissa said to Davros as she ignored Oswin.

"And yet you see the irrefutable evidence of their connection right there before you. Now I believe I see exactly why Clara Oswald is so very important to the universe," Davros said as he looked at Oswin with a sense of renewed appreciation.

"Oi! What is going on? Someone tell me something right now if you don't want to get slapped off the planet!" Oswin said in an impatient voice.

"Talk to her, Mari. You're upsetting her with this whole mysterious act," John said in as he put a comforting arm around Oswin.

Marissa immediately gave Oswin an apologetic look as she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make things worse for you, Clara. It's just that I can't understand how this could be. It must be some kind of cosmic fluke of some sort or a temporal distortion."

"And yet if it's not then it could lead to a very real solution for saving Ellie Oswald . . . whoever she is," Davros said.

"What do you mean by that? Someone please tell me something," Oswin said in a desperate voice.

Marissa briefly hesitated and then finally said, "Clara, I'm not sure how or why it happened but Davros' test seems to prove that . . . your mother and Rose Tyler are the same person!"

"What?" Oswin said in a completely shocked tone.

"It's true, Clara. You are the daughter of the Bad Wolf. No wonder you and your many other selves can wield such power," Davros said with a look of what almost be called envy.

"Blimey! Let me look at that," Rose said in a stunned voice as she suddenly appeared in a burst of golden energy next to Marissa and began to study Davros' equipment.

"She really is always listening in, isn't she?" John said with a grin even as he attempted to wrap his mind around the idea that somehow Rose might be his mother-in-law.

His father was really going to be floored by this if it was true.

"Rose, you mean you didn't know? This isn't some deep dark secret that you've been keeping from me?" Oswin said as she actually began to look even more worried now.

Rose actually winced as she said, "I hope I haven't gotten quite that bad just yet, yeah? No, I'd never keep something like that from you. I don't understand. How could this be right? It doesn't make sense. Ellie was human not a Time Lord."

"It is though. It could be that Ellie Oswald is a future incarnation of you where you actually allowed yourself to physically change during a regeneration instead of preventing it with Bad Wolf like you did the last time.* Then she must have used the Chameleon Arch on herself for some reason. Either it's that or . . ." Marissa said before trailing off as she gave Rose a meaningful look.

"She's my Watcher. She must have come out of that last regeneration somehow. The one that I didn't let completely finish," Rose said in a horrified voice.

"Your what? Speak English please," Oswin said in a voice that was beginning to sound more and more upset by the moment.

"Clara, we have to go see the Grace. They're probably the only ones who'll know for sure if what I think happened is the truth or not. If it is really though . . ." Rose said as she gave Oswin a look of pure familial love.

"I still don't understand. Are you saying that somehow you and my mother really are the same person? How?" Oswin said in complete bewilderment.

"I don't know for sure but I'll find out, okay? I promise, sweetie," Rose said as she wrapped a comforting arm around her.

Oswin could only stare at her in astonishment because that was when she realized that Rose really did believe that it was true. She was treating her exactly like she would one of her own children at that moment and not just as someone who she simply thought of as her child. She now had that same proud smile on her face that she always had whenever she looked at one of them.

Oswin couldn't help but look back at her in a state of stunned bewilderment as she actually began to allow herself to wonder about the full implications of that.

What if it really was true somehow? What would that make her, Clara, Louise, or the echoes? Just what were they?

*See Time and Space Chapter 11 for the whole story of what happened.

Next: Is it really true? How could it be even remotely possible though if it is? We'll discover the true origin of Ellie Oswald and exactly who or what that she is in the next chapter as Oswin and Rose go to see the Grace for some definitive answers. Even more importantly though, Oswin and Rose will work on coming up with a way to free Ellie from the Vortex. Will whatever new information that they discover about her origins finally help them succeed in this at last somehow?