CHAPTER 67

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THE FINAL FATE OF ELLIE OSWALD

Even though it had only been a short time since Neko, the Christina de Souza of a previous universe, had been made into the new leader of the Grace, she already felt the weight of that responsibility lying heavily on her shoulders. It was at times like this when that pressure felt almost unbearable that she would venture out onto the planet Chaos' surface and watch the never ending rain there. It always helped to soothe the turmoil within her somehow in a way that nothing else ever could.

Something was coming. Something terrible. She could already feel that even if she had no idea what it was or when it would occur. She just hoped that when the time came that she would finally prove herself worthy of her new title.

She never wanted to fail her new universe like she had her previous one.

She was more than grateful for the interruption of this morbid train of thought as she suddenly felt the presence of someone standing behind her. She couldn't help but smile despite her current mood. She was definitely getting much better at using these new abilities of hers she thought to herself with satisfaction because she already knew exactly who it was without even having to turn around.

"Well, it certainly took you long enough to come, didn't it? I mean one minute you act like you're going to break your neck getting here, and then weeks pass and there's not so much as a peep from you. I don't mind telling you that I was starting to feel very hurt, Clara," Neko said with a grin.

She was met only by silence however and that was when she had to resist the urge to turn around as she said, "Hey! Say something, will you? You're starting to make me wonder if I'm just standing here talking to myself."

Oswin immediately laughed and Neko quickly let out a relieved sigh as she said in an annoyed voice, "You idiot."

"Sorry, Chrissy Two, I just wanted to see exactly how all knowing that you really are now. Apparently not as much as you thought you were," Oswin said with a chuckle.

Neko finally turned around now to see Oswin standing there with a mischievous smile on her face as she said, "Yeah, mock the near omnipotent being in training. That's really funny, Dalek Girl. You'd better be glad that I have a good sense of humor is all I can say or you might find yourself teleported right into the middle of a neutron star somewhere."

"Oh, please," Oswin said with a dismissive wave of her hand that made Neko chuckle.

Then Oswin suddenly became completely serious as she said, "I've been dying to come here actually, but Rose and I have just been so busy lately dealing with one universe threatening crisis after another that we really haven't had the time. Plus Rose is so certain now that she and my mother really are the same person that she felt like it would be a waste of time to come all the way here just to confirm what she feels like she already knows. I guess I should be glad that she seems to have accepted me as quickly as she has, but that's kind of hard to do when she keeps making me feel so uncomfortable lately."

"What do you mean?" Neko asked curiously.

She actually knew exactly what she meant, she really was near omnipotent after all, but she wanted to hear about it in Oswin's own words.

Oswin looked more than a bit bothered by the very thought of what had been happening as she shuddered and said, "It's nothing bad. It's a very good thing actually. It's just that . . . every time she sees me she keeps constantly hugging me and kissing my forehead or my cheek. Plus she's always smiling at me like I'm the most wonderful thing that she's ever seen in her life. I know I sound terrible especially if she actually does turn out to be my mother but I can't help it. It's really starting to get on my nerves."

"Now you know how the Doctor feels with you hugging him twenty four seven," Neko said with a smirk.

"I think you've got me confused with the other Clara. I'm the one who hugs Daleks twenty four seven," Oswin said with a wicked grin.

Neko shrugged as she said, "Same difference. We both know that you'd be hugging the Doctor like that too if you could. My point is that Rose is just showing her affection for you like you show yours to him. She's just going a bit overboard about it since she feels guilty that she didn't know who you were to her all of these years."

Oswin's jaw fell open now as the full impact of what Neko was saying slowly began to sink into her mind.

"So . . . it's true? She really is my mother?" Oswin said in a stunned voice.

"Why are you so surprised? You already knew in your heart that it was true the moment that you heard it, didn't you? It explains why you've always felt so close to her," Neko said with a soft smile.

Oswin nodded as she said in voice filled with joy, "Yeah, but it's one thing to believe it and another to actually know it for certain."

"That still doesn't explain how Ellie and I are the same person though, yeah? I think I already know how it might have happened, but I'd like to know more about it from you since you're the great high cosmic muckity muck," Rose said as she suddenly appeared next to Oswin in a burst of golden energy.

"Hey! I was wondering when you were coming," Oswin said as she gave her a warm smile.

Rose smiled back but said nothing. Even more tellingly she also stayed a respectful distance away from her.

Oswin's heart fell as she realized that Rose had been listening to what she had told Neko. She had never wanted her to hear that, and she definitely had never wanted to hurt her.

"Rose, I didn't . . ." Oswin started to say with a guilty look on her face.

Rose's smile widened and was clearly genuine as she said, "I know. I understand, Clara. I've been going overboard lately. Just a bit."

"I'm sorry. I never meant for you to hear that," Oswin said in an upset voice.

"It's fine. It needed to be said. Besides your sister already let me have it about that the other day and looked just as guilty as you do now afterward. Apparently you're the nice one. I'll have to remember that," Rose said with an amused look.

"You're not mad?" Oswin asked curiously.

Rose hesitated as she said, "I was when your sister first exploded with anger after she told me to stop. I mean she was proper scary. She even made me shudder and I've been given death stares from experts. The Doctor was hiding behind the console muttering something about a volcano, and I was thinking to myself that he hadn't seen anything yet until he saw me blow my top. I was about to let her really have it when I saw how upset she got in the very next minute. I could tell that she felt so ashamed and that's when I realized that I must have really been bothering her for her to act that way. I did the same thing to Jenny once, you know? I felt so guilty about missing so much of her life that I was smothering her too. She didn't like it any better than you lot did either. I swore to myself once when I was a little girl, the first time around, that if I had kids that they'd always know that I cared about them so I guess I . . . tend to overdo it sometimes, huh?"

Oswin smiled and hugged her appreciatively as she said, "From time to time. Don't worry about it, okay? We're good."

"Thanks," Rose said as she eagerly hugged her back.

"Knew you couldn't go two minutes without hugging her. Now you finally know where you get it from, Clara," Neko said with a smirk.

"Shut up," Rose said with a grin.

"It's time that we had a much overdue conversation, Rose Tyler. Don't you agree?" One of the Grace, the mysterious force behind the Guardians, suddenly said from behind Neko making her cringe.

Oswin's good mood now suddenly completely changed in an instant as she saw the somber look on the faces of the other members of the Grace.

"Sorry, girls. They must have detected that someone was feeling happy and came here to squash it as soon as possible," Neko said with a frown without even turning around to acknowledge the others.

"We appreciate your attempts to help ease the recent burdens on Rose and Clara's minds, Neko, but this conversation is long past due. It's time for both of them to hear the full story of Ellie Oswald at last," One of the Grace said in an impatient voice.

Another member of the Grace now turned to Oswin and said in a sympathetic tone, "Exactly how much do you know about your mother's past before she met your father?"

Rose now looked at Oswin with undeniable interest since she had never really heard any details about what Ellie's life had been like before she met Dave. Despite Rose being the only person that she could talk to for some time now, Ellie had never discussed the subject with her. Not even once. It wasn't something that the Oswalds really liked to talk about since it raised more questions than it actually answered.

Oswin had a feeling that was all about to change in just a moment though.

"Well, Mum didn't really remember a lot herself to be honest. You see her first memories are of suddenly finding herself in Blackpool a few years before she met Dad and having absolutely no idea of who she was or how she had gotten there. She didn't even know her own name. She just woke up in the middle of a park wearing torn, ripped clothing that barely covered her and dealing with an enormous headache that made her afraid that her head was about to explode at any moment," Oswin said.

Rose exchanged a knowing look with the Grace in that moment that made Oswin groan. They definitely knew much more about what had happened than she did but weren't willing to tell her anything more at the moment.

No, that wasn't irritating in the slightest.

"Go on," One of the Grace urged Oswin when she hesitated.

"Mum was soon found by this very nice old woman named Karen Ravenwood who took her into her home and let her stay with her until she could get a place of her own. That wasn't an easy feat either since she didn't have any form of identification on her whatsoever. Luckily for Mum however she looked like she was about the same age that Karen's daughter would have been if she hadn't died as a child so she just used her birth certificate to quickly establish a new identity for herself and became Ellie Ravenwood. Mum later asked her why she had trusted her like she had, and she told her that it was because she had reminded her so much of her daughter. She looked like a grown up version of her she had said. Mum often wondered if maybe she actually was her and had been given a second chance somehow."

"Not quite," One of the Grace said mysteriously.

Oswin's frown deepened even more as she continued her story and said, "So Mum gradually built a life of her own and moved out of Karen's home. She continued to keep in contact with her though because she was the closest thing that she had to a mother and Karen adored her. Mum never remembered anything more about her life before the day that Karen found her though than she had before. So she continued to try to build a future for herself despite having no clue about her past. Then when she met my Dad, she finally started to move forward with her life and stopped thinking about it. They quickly fell in love and were married and then they had me not long after that. I was told early on never to mention the real truth about Mum's past to anyone so that she wouldn't get into trouble for impersonating someone and that's the way it's always been ever since then. We never really knew where she came from, and I don't think Dad really cared. He was just so happy to have her in his life . . . until the day she suddenly wasn't there anymore."

Rose looked away from her in shame at that moment even as Neko said, "Rose, you gave her far more of a life than she ever should have had. In fact Time was trying to erase her from history that day when you saved her life because she was never supposed to even have existed in the first place. You have nothing whatsoever to feel bad about."

Rose shook her head vehemently now as she said, "She should have never been in that situation in the first place. If I hadn't stopped my last regeneration, then she would have been . . . should have been me."

"You had no way of knowing that a Watcher who mimicked what would have been your now abandoned future incarnation's appearance had been created then. If you had, you would never have left her on her own," One of the Grace said.

"That really doesn't make me feel any better, yeah?"

"Okay, exactly what is a Watcher for those of us who aren't in the know?" Oswin asked impatiently.

Rose gave her an apologetic look as she said, "Sometimes when a Time Lord is about to regenerate part of our future self is sent back in time as a sort of an observer of the whole process. They basically just stand around and watch the final events leading up to that regeneration unfold around them. That's why we call them our Watcher."

"Why do they do that though? Do they ever say? I mean do you find out later when you are them or what?" Oswin asked curiously.

Rose looked just as confused as Oswin herself felt as she said in an uncomfortable voice, "No one really knows. It's one of those great cosmic mysterious of the universe, yeah? It's just something that's happened to Time Lords since as long as we can remember, but it's just as much a mystery now as it was back in the days of Rassilon. The Watchers sometimes talk to the Time Lords who are about to regenerate and warn them that it's coming soon, but that's about all that they'll really say. Sometimes they'll actually help us out in some way if we ask them to in order to ensure that the upcoming regeneration happens as smoothly as possible. The Doctor once told me that he asked his Watcher to take some of his friends away to safety in the TARDIS when the entire universe was in danger of collapsing around them. Mostly the whole experience is just very creepy, and we don't like to talk about them period. We pretty much always hope that we just never have to meet one. It's like those legends here on Earth of meeting your doppleganger being a warning to you that you're about to die. Only in our case they look like our future selves instead."

"That is weird. So my mother was one of those? Why can't she remember it then and how did she get in Blackpool?" Oswin asked with a puzzled look.

"I don't know," Rose admitted as she looked to the Grace for answers.

Neko took up the story now as she said, "When you interrupted your regeneration before it could finish and locked yourself in your current body, Rose, your Watcher had nowhere left to go. Watchers usually are absorbed back into the bodies of their Time Lords just before regeneration begins after all, but you had just put an end to that possibility for good."

"I know," Rose said in a sad voice.

"So having nowhere left to go Ellie was cast adrift in time and space without an anchor because she was now no longer linked to your timeline at all anymore. She was basically just an anomaly with no past, present, or future since the Rose Tyler that she would have been now had never existed. Time itself instantly tried to heal the wound by sending Reapers after her," Neko said.

Rose winced and looked even guiltier than ever as Neko continued, "She still had access to the power of the Bad Wolf though so she fought them off. She was able to kill them all and save herself but it had cost her dearly. She was so weakened by their attack that she was dangerously close to dying. One of her hearts had been stopped forever and she had no power to regenerate. If the Reapers came again, she was finished. So she did the only thing that she could do since she was already dying. In order to save her life and permanently throw the Reapers off of her trail, she used her rapidly weakening connection to the Vortex to forcibly change herself into a normal, healthy human being since they only needed one heart to live. In the process, she picked a random location on Earth to deposit herself in so that the Reapers couldn't find her again. The entire process was so painful and traumatic for her though that it completely wiped her mind of all of its memories. She just blanked the whole thing out."

"And then I just happened to come across her later completely by accident when my first self was dying and asked her to take care of Bad Wolf for me while I became Rose?" Rose said skeptically.

"You were naturally drawn to her since she was a part of you even if neither of you realized that then, Rose Tyler. Who better to be the receptacle of your power and to keep it safe for you until you were ready to reclaim it once more after your return from Pete's World?" One of the Grace explained.

"I guess you could say that it was all timey wimey," Oswin pointed out with a smile.

"Yeah, or someone pushed me along in the right direction so that I could find her right when I needed to the most," Rose said as she looked at the Grace suspiciously.

"Could be. You never know," Neko said with a knowing smile.

"Uh, huh," Rose said as she rolled her eyes at her.

Oswin immediately changed the subject now as she said, "This is all well and good but what I'd really like to know is how does this help us to save Mum from having her consciousness stuck in the Vortex? Or can she be saved?"

Rose gave her a thoughtful look as she said, "Now that I know for sure that she's me and exactly where she fits in my life I think she can, yeah."

Oswin became filled with hope once more as she said, "You've already figured out a way to do it haven't you?"

Rose looked extremely sad instead of happy however as Oswin would have expected as she said, "Yeah, there's only one way really. I have to finish the regeneration that I stopped and absorb her consciousness into my body. Then we'll become one person like we were supposed to be in the first place."

Oswin was more than a bit troubled by that thought as she said, "And if you did that, what would happen to you? I mean would you be more like her or would you still be Rose or what?"

"I don't know. I might still be me or I might be her or I might be some weird mix of both of us. I could have a new personality altogether for that matter. It's why I didn't want to change because you never know for sure what you'll get even when you've had training on how to shape your new body at the Academy," Rose said in an unhappy voice.

Oswin immediately shook her head now as she said, "Rose, don't even think about it. We'll find another way to save Mum. I'm not about to have you sacrifice the life that you have now on the off chance that you might help her. You're finally happy as Rose in a way that you never were before as Arkytior and I don't want you to lose that. We don't even know if Mum's mind would even survive the process for sure anyway."

"It's the only way that I know of to give her a body that her mind won't eventually destroy though since it's connected to the Vortex now. Mine is the only one that will hold her and only if we merge while I regenerate," Rose explained.

"It's too risky and I don't want to wind up losing you both," Oswin warned.

"You wouldn't no matter what happened. I'd still have the same feelings for you no matter who I was, Clara. I'd still love you. That would never change," Rose assured her with a loving smile.

"If you weren't Rose anymore, then you'd never be completely happy again I bet. You'd always feel as if you had lost something," Oswin pointed out.

"Maybe I'd still be Rose and maybe I'd be like your Mum at the same time. That might not be so bad. I like Ellie," Rose said in a hopeful tone.

Oswin smiled as she said, "Of course you do. How could you not like her?"

"Well, The Doctor never likes his other selves. It happens," Rose said with a giggle.

"Rose, what does Mum say about this plan of yours?" Oswin asked as she got directly to the point.

Rose sighed and said, "She thinks it's a terrible idea just like you do. She's yelling at me right now and telling me to listen to you by the way. She keeps calling me a bloody idiot for even thinking about it."

"That sounds like her alright," Oswin said with a chuckle.

"So what are you going to do?" Neko asked Rose.

"You mean you don't already know?" Rose asked in surprise.

"Not even we can predict what the Bad Wolf is going to do next, Rose Tyler. Your power is so vast and all encompassing that it constantly warps reality around you at all times and makes it subject to your every whim. You could easily alter the direction of the entire timestream of this universe with a single action and it's this ability that can often hide your future even from our eyes since it changes so rapidly depending on your actions," One of the Grace answered.

"If you think that's bad, try living your entire life with that kind of power. It's why Arkytior turned out as bitter and frustrated as she ultimately did," Rose said with a forlorn expression.

"I hate it when you talk about yourself in the third person," Oswin said with a frown.

"That's because she's almost like another person to me now. She's me and yet not me . . . if that makes sense. I mean are you the same person that you were when you were a kid?" Rose explained.

"No, definitely not. I used to hate boys back then for one thing. That's definitely changed now," Oswin said with a wink.

"Yeah, believe me I've noticed. It isn't just boys though, is it?" Rose said with a wicked smile.

"Nina was just a phase," Oswin replied as she repressed a smile of her own.

"Tell that to Mary. Your sister's head over heels for her even if I can't get her to admit that yet," Rose said as her grin widened even further.

"Well, Clara and I always had a bit of a crush on our favorite writers. I would have gone after Mary Shelley myself if I hadn't gotten married. Either her or Jane Austen. Maybe Marcus Aurelius and Charlotte Bronte. Oh, and I'd pay a visit to Charles Dickens too while I was at it," Oswin said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"Oh, he definitely would have liked you alright," Rose said with a snicker.

"Okay, this is getting weird. I mean you're . . . you're my mother. We're not supposed to talk about stuff like this. It's against the laws of nature or something," Oswin said with a look of repugnance on her face.

"So is using time travel as a way to meet dates," Neko said with a smirk.

"I was your friend too long before I was your Mum though so I'm definitely entitled I think. Don't worry though. I'll stop. Don't want to weird you out too much," Rose said with an evil grin.

"Yeah, a bit too late for that now," Oswin said with a grimace.

"Sorry," Rose said apologetically as she kissed her forehead.

"We still wish to know your actions, Rose Tyler," The Grace demanded in unison now as they all spoke with one voice except for Neko.

"That's never not going to be weird for me," Neko said in a low voice to herself.

She was still an individual and had her own thoughts and feelings separate from the rest of the Grace who were more of a gestalt. She vowed to always keep it that way too.

"And why are you so interested exactly?" Rose asked the Grace even as she privately agreed with Neko.

"Because if you still wish to finish your regeneration, then we'd respectfully ask you to reconsider that action. At least hold off on that course until you've talked to Marissa Queen and Davros first," The Grace advised.

Rose now turned to look suspiciously at a smiling Oswin as she said, "The three of you came up with a plan to save Ellie, didn't you?"

"Sort of and while it may not work it's definitely a lot better than your idea I think. If you go back to Skaro with me, I can talk it over with you," Oswin offered.

Rose nodded and said, "Why not? I'm willing to at least listen to it anyway. I'm not too eager to go through with this regeneration. Believe me."

"Maybe you won't have to if this works," Oswin offered.

"Let's give it a shot then," Rose said eagerly as she wrapped her arm around Oswin and teleported them both to Skaro instantly.

Neko was all alone now with the Grace as she said, "Well, it looks like you've got what you wanted. I think she's changed her mind. Not that she seemed to be too thrilled about the idea of merging with Ellie in the first place."

"We can only hope that you're right. The future is already uncertain as it is. We need a Rose Tyler who we know that the universe can depend upon . . . when the time comes," The Grace said in unison.

"So you've felt it too?" Neko asked with a sudden uneasy feeling in her stomach.

"Yes, soon darkness will overtake us and many of us may not make it through to the other side," The Grace said in voices that were uncharacteristically filled with more than a hint of fear.

Neko shuddered then and found that not even the rain could calm her down this time.

Meanwhile back on Skaro, Davros listened to the Grace intently through a secret listening device that he had left behind on Chaos on his last trip to that world.

"Interesting," Davros said to himself with a thoughtful look.

"What is?" Marissa asked as she stared at him suspiciously while walking into his makeshift laboratory.

"You still do not trust me, do you?" Davros asked with an amused smile.

Marissa stared at him intently for a moment before she said, "You know I don't. I used to be just like you once, and that's why I know better than to ever trust you for a single moment. I'm not sure what you're up to, but if I find out that you're doing anything to hurt anyone that I care about . . ."

"If you're referring to your precious Oswin, I wouldn't touch a hair on her head. She's done my Daleks a world of good and continues to do so. Who better to teach them all about the human factor? I can see now that she's exactly the leader that they needed in order for them to grow," Davros said in what seemed to be a sincere tone.

Marissa stared at him coldly as she said, "For her sake and hers only, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to warn you right now though that if you ever do anything to hurt her, I will make you think of your days being trapped in that dying, old decayed body of yours as the best time of your life. Am I understood?"

Davros smiled in response as he said, "Perfectly, my dear Rani."

Marissa shuddered as she said, "I'm not that person anymore."

Davros chuckled as he said, "Of course you're not. In order to create an apparently much needed sense of trust between us, Rani, I'll tell you exactly what I was doing. I've been listening to a most interesting conversation between the Grace when they think that they're alone. I think you'll be most surprised about the topic currently under discussion."

Marissa actually looked more than a bit smug now as she said, "Oh, you mean that whole thing about a coming darkness that not everyone will make it through alive?"

Davros looked at her in stunned surprise as she smiled at him and said, "You're not the only one who had the idea to keep a constant watch on them. I don't trust them anymore than I trust you."

Davros actually gave her a warm smile in response as he said, "You're truly a remarkable woman, Rani. If only you hadn't made the mistake of marrying the Master instead of me."

"Nothing would have ever happened between us even if I hadn't, Davros. Nothing at all," Marissa said firmly.

"Perhaps," Davros said with an unnerving smile that made Marissa's skin crawl.

Whether he had truly reformed or not as he claimed, he was still one of the most unsettling people that she had ever been around in all of her lives.

"Are you okay, Mari?" Oswin asked as she and Rose suddenly appeared next to Marissa in a burst of golden energy.

Marissa immediately gave her a reassuring smile as she said, "I'm fine. So what did the Grace tell you?"

Oswin smirked as she said, "Yeah, like you don't already know."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Marissa said with a completely innocent expression.

"Uh, huh. Sure you don't. You and Koschei probably already know more about it than I do," Oswin said with a grin.

"Can I help it if he likes to gather as much information as he can about upcoming threats to the universe? It's what he calls being proactive. It's not like he's watching people shower or anything. At least I don't think he is anyway," Marissa finally admitted with a sly grin.

"Blimey! Don't even put that image in my head, Mari. I've really got to have a little talk with Koschei about intruding on other people's privacy sometime," Rose said with a grimace.

"Be sure and have that same talk with Davros too while you're at it," Marissa said making Davros smile at her in response.

"I make no attempts to hide my spying on the Grace. Like your husband, I too believe in trying to gather as much information as I can on future threats. In my case of course it's so that I can safeguard my Daleks' well-being," Davros said without hesitation.

Oswin bristled at his words as she said with a pointed look, "Your Daleks?"

Davros suddenly corrected himself as he said, "Our Daleks. They belong to me just as much as they do to you after all. I am their creator."

Oswin gave him a disapproving look as she said, "They belong to themselves not to either of us."

"And yet I've heard you refer to them on several occasions as yours," Davros countered.

"I just meant that in the sense that they're like my own kids. That's all," Oswin said in a voice that was rapidly filling with anger.

"And they actually are my children so let's not argue over semantics, Empress. What matters is that we both care about the Daleks' well-being and only try to do what is best for them," Davros said in a dismissive manner.

"I'd certainly like to think so," Oswin said as she looked at him suspiciously.

He was acting strangely all of sudden. In fact, he was a bit too much like his old self for her own comfort. She really hoped that he wasn't about to try something stupid because she had more than enough to handle at the moment.

Rose had already told her all about the Grace being afraid of some upcoming danger to the universe after all. You didn't need to plant listening devices around their home base if you had the Bad Wolf as your mother.

Oswin couldn't help but smile at that thought. She still couldn't get used to Rose and Ellie being the same person. They were completely different after all. Regeneration really was a lottery, wasn't it?

She finally changed the subject as she said to Marissa and Davros, "So Rose is willing to try out our idea to bring Mum, but she wants to learn more about it first before she makes up her mind."

"Yes, that's always the wisest course of action before making such a major decision. I shall tell you of my part in this then. As you know, years ago I unlocked the secret of how to grant the ability to safely access the energy of the Vortex to others, Miss Tyler," Davros said.

"Yeah, how could I ever forget?" Rose said with a frown as she remembered how Davros had more than once tried to kill her by creating people with similar powers to her own to send after her.

"Yes, well that's all in the past now of course. What matters now is that I can use that knowledge to grant the ability to manipulate the Vortex to anyone. That will become very important once we carry out the Rani's part of the plan since Ellie Oswald will need the body of a Vortex user in order to stay in this reality," Davros explained.

"And what's your part in all of this?" Rose asked Marissa.

"I will give Ellie the potion that can turn anyone into a Time Lord. That way she'll have a brand new regeneration cycle right from the very start. That's when Davros will carry out his part of the plan and grant her the ability to manipulate the Vortex so that she doesn't burn out her new body before she's even gotten a chance to grow used to it," Marissa answered.

Rose immediately gave her a questioning look then as she said, "I'm still not hearing the part on how we give Ellie a new body to begin with though. You're not going to clone one for her, Mari?"

It was Oswin who answered her as she said, "Actually we were hoping that . . . Well, that you could bring her back to life again like you did to Jack only without making her a fixed point in time."

Rose sighed as she said, "You don't understand. She's been dead for far too long now. Her death is already a fixed point in time. I can't undo that. Not without possibly creating a lot of problems anyway. You have to be very careful about that sort of thing. Trust me. I know exactly what I'm talking about here."

Marissa stared at Rose intently now as she said, "This whole procedure would have a much better chance of working out properly if we had Ellie's original body instead of a cloned one."

"Still playing Frankenstein I see," Rose said in an angry tone.

"Hey," Oswin said in a warning tone.

"I'm just trying to help my friend," Marissa said in a disturbed voice.

Rose immediately gave her an apologetic look as she said, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know that you're not doing this for selfish reasons. I just think that it's really a bad idea to play around with the timestream. It always leads to trouble on down the line."

Then her eyes widened as she was struck with a sudden burst of inspiration while she said, "I don't necessarily have to bring her back to life by using Bad Wolf though, do I?"

"What do you mean?" Oswin asked in a confused tone.

She soon got her answer as Rose's hands started to glow with regeneration energy.

"Wait a minute. I thought you said that you weren't sure about regenerating," Oswin said in an uneasy voice as she feared that Rose had already made up her mind against using their plan to save Ellie.

"Yeah, I'm not. I think I may have just found a way around it though. At least I hope I have anyway," Rose said in a hopeful voice.

Then she suddenly vanished as Oswin said, "Oi! Wait a minute! Where do you think you're going, Blondie?"

A moment later Rose reappeared with a now completely restored Ellie Oswald standing beside her. Or at least she had been restored physically anyway because she had a completely blank look on her face that immediately told Oswin that no one was home.

Rose smiled in triumph then as she said, "It worked,"

"What worked? Drop the mysterious act and just tell me what's going on for once," Oswin demanded.

Rose answered her in an excited voice as she said, "I'm finishing the regeneration that I stopped before, Clara. It's the very same regeneration that created your Mum in the first place so it only made sense that I use it to bring her back again."

"So this is really her?" Oswin asked in amazement.

"No. Not yet she isn't. Her mind's still in the Vortex so this version of her is mindless. That's just about to change though. Come on, Ellie, let's send you back home," Rose said as her eyes glowed with power.

Then as Oswin and the others watched in stunned silence a massive burst of energy came out of Rose's mouth and headed directly into Ellie's body. A moment later Ellie's formerly blank stare quickly vanished and she started to blink as she turned to look at Oswin with a smile.

"Clara," Ellie said as she began to cry.

Oswin's heart skipped a beat in that moment and the entire world seemed to stand still around her as she stared at her mother with a longing look. Could it really be true? Was she actually coming back again?

That's when the full truth of this situation finally hit her at last.

"You just gave up one of your regenerations to give her a body again. You poured an entire regeneration's worth of energy into her grave and used it to restore her back to life, didn't you?" Oswin realized with a sad look in her eyes.

"It was the only way, Clara. The only reason it worked at all is because she's a part of me. I seriously doubt that trick would have worked on anyone else. Don't look so sad. If this works out, it will be more than worth it. Don't you think so? The way I see it I'm just giving her back the life she should have had in the first place anyway," Rose said without hesitation.

"She's still not going to have any regenerations though because she'll still be human and that's where I come in," Marissa said as she quickly handed Ellie the potion that would make her into a Time Lady.

Ellie eagerly drank it and then exploded outwards with regenerative energy as she suddenly added a whole new life cycle to her body.

Rose studied her closely for a moment while her eyes glowed with energy and then said, "I was hoping that she might have Vortex powers but she doesn't. She must have permanently cut herself off from it when she became human so that the Reapers couldn't track her."

"Then that means that it's time for my part of the plan," Davros said as he gestured to Ellie to come closer to him.

As soon as Ellie did so, he attached a number of electrodes to her body that connected to a large machine that sat in the corner of his workshop and said, "This machine will completely rewrite your body's chromosomes so that you will be capable of tapping into the Vortex and manipulating its power without any harm coming to you. I must warn you however that the process can be quite painful. No matter how much it hurts you must not attempt to remove the electrodes before the machine is finished or you may do irreparable damage to your body's genetic structure. Is that understood?"

"Yes," Ellie said as she gritted her teeth together and prepared herself for what was to come.

She soon found out that Davros wasn't kidding as pain like she had never experienced in her life wracked every part of her body. It seemed to her as if she had been screaming forever until finally mercifully the machine suddenly stopped at last.

Ellie instantly tumbled to the floor head first with the electrodes still attached to her body. Oswin immediately rushed forward and caught her before she could finish her fall however.

"Could you have possibly made that any more painful for her?" Oswin said to Davros in a furious voice as she helped her mother back to her feet again.

She winced as she heard Ellie softly moaning in pain.

"I did warn her. When I created this procedure, I wasn't particularly concerned with the pain that it would cause my test subjects," Davros said with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders.

"I just bet that you weren't," Oswin said as she shot him a dirty look while she softly stroked her mother's hair in an attempt to make her feel better.

"I do believe that you owe me more thanks than scorn, Empress. If not for my process restoring her access to the Vortex, your mother's mind would have even burnt out her original body in a short time," Davros said with a smug look.

Oswin nodded and took a deep breath before saying in a much friendlier tone, "Yeah, I suppose you're right. Thank you, Davros."

"No thanks are necessary, Empress. I've already received all of the thanks that I need through the help that you've given to the Daleks," Davros said with a small smile.

Oswin nodded even as she thought that she wasn't sure if she liked that answer or not. Something about it had seemed almost sinister somehow.

Then again Davros had always been more than a bit creepy anyway, hadn't he?

Ellie suddenly seemed to regain her senses in that moment and looked at Oswin with a smile of relief as she said, "They did it. I can feel it. I'm finally back to normal again. I'm me again. The real me I mean."

"The real you?" Oswin asked with concern.

Ellie smiled at her warmly and kissed her cheek as she said, "Don't look so upset. I'm still your mother and I still remember everything that I did as Ellie. I remember a lot more than that now though. I have all of Rose's memories too from her earliest memories as Arkytior to just a few minutes ago. I'm whole again. It's funny how I didn't even realize just how incomplete that I really was until now. I'm sure you must have felt the same way yourself when you finally remembered being Clara again."

Oswin still wondered exactly what that meant for her as she asked in an uncertain tone, "So basically you're like a clone of Rose now. Is that what you're saying?"

Ellie shook her head as she said, "No. Back when I didn't have a past I set out to create a brand new life for myself so that I could at least have a future if nothing else and that's exactly what I did. I worked hard to create that life and I'm not about to give it up now. Why should I want to be Rose Tyler when there's already a Rose? No, I'm Ellie Oswald with her own set of memories and her own path to take in life, and I'm going to continue to follow it because I can't wait to see where it takes me next."

Rose nodded in approval as she said, "Good for you. Just so we're clear though. Clara is still my daughter too. Don't make me fight you over her."

Ellie laughed as she said, "As if you'd ever stand a chance of winning. I fight dirty when I have to."

"Oh, I know you would. I know all of your tricks, remember?" Rose teased her.

Ellie pretended to sound defeated then as she said, "Alright. You can see the Claras on weekends then. Is that fine?"

"And I still get to take Oswin's sister with me on the TARDIS with an option to take Oswin along too sometimes. This one's a real deal breaker here so don't even think about backing out of it," Rose insisted.

"I wouldn't dare. It's a deal," Ellie said as she hugged Rose tightly.

"Do I even have to mention to stay away from The Doctor?" Rose joked as she hugged her back.

Ellie laughed as she said, "Of course not. That's a given. Besides I have my own husband to go back to, don't I?"

Then she stiffened as she said, "Or do I? I mean . . . How is Dave going to take this?"

Oswin smirked as she said, "Please, Mum. You know the answer to that one just as well as I do."

Ellie smiled briefly as she said, "Yeah, but after he wakes up from being passed out on the floor how will he react then?"

"Well, there's no time like the present to find out is there?" Oswin said happily as she grabbed a reluctant Ellie by the hand and started to use her Emergency Temporal Shift to take them both straight to her father's house back on Earth.

"Wait," Ellie started to say but it was already too late.

They were both gone in an instant.

"I hope everything works out for her. If anyone deserves to get her old life back again, it's her after spending years trapped in the Vortex like she did. I'm so glad that I was able to finally help free her . . . before it was too late," Rose said in a voice that was both happy and sad at the same time.

"You know about this upcoming danger that the Grace are all worried about, don't you?" Marissa asked in an unsurprised voice.

Rose nodded as she said with a grin, "And why I am not surprised that you know about it too?"

"I don't know much just what I've overheard the Grace say about it which is about as vague as you can get," Marissa said.

"I think both of us would like to know more. You should show your gratitude to us for helping you to free Ellie Oswald by telling us everything that you know. It's the very least that you could do for us," Davros demanded.

"I didn't help Rose in order to get something out of the deal. I helped her because she and Clara are my friends," Marissa protested.

"She still owes us something for our aid despite what your reasons might have been for giving it at the time," Davros said.

"He's right and I'd be more than happy to give that information to both of you if I actually knew anything about it. All I know for sure though is that it involves the Eternal called Death. She's got something big planned up and somehow I don't think any of us are going to be safe from it," Rose admitted.

Marissa stared at her in fear now as she said, "The same Death who once made Koschei her champion?"

"Yep, that's the one alright," Rose said with a worried look on her face.

"Interesting," Davros said more to himself than the others.

"Don't even think about it, mate," Rose warned.

"Think about what?" Davros asked.

"Whatever you were thinking about just a minute ago. Just drop it right there. You told Jacqueline and Mira that you were going to stick to the straight and narrow, and that's exactly what you're going to do. Got it?" Rose said in a no nonsense tone.

Davros looked insulted as he said, "Of course, my dear. I'd never even think of breaking my oath to them."

Somehow that reassurance didn't make either Rose or Marissa feel any better however.

Next: How will Dave react to seeing Ellie alive and well again after all of this time and how will this change things for him? Will this make Abby change her mind about being immortal now that Ellie has returned? Plus we'll see Clara and Louise's reactions to their mother's return because I wasn't about to have a family reunion without them being involved was I? John and Little Clara will be there too and so will a certain Captain.Also just what is Davros up to anyway and what is with his newly found interest in Death's plans? Is he revertingback to his old ways already? Plusin addition to all of that Epsilon and Daphne go out on what might almost be called a date in some circles. Unfortunately for them however they both wind up face to face with some old allies of the Doctor's who are more than a bit skeptical about their claims to not be a threat to mankind. It looks like Oswin's really got her work cut out for her next time.