AN: I don't feel I can give an adequate description of the story as every few chapters will be a new adventure, all tying in to a finale in which the two sets of adventures combine to tackle a big bad. This one however goes along the lines of...

An Untimely Diner

It's the year 2340 and an old diner on the corner of Yeadon Way receives something very unexpected. A customer! But not just any customer, one who knows all about Miss Clara Oswald and insists she and Ashildr investigate a temporal anomaly that may threaten the future of humanity.

On this Tuesday the sky was grey and solemn. The wind harsh and bitey, carrying the scent of salt from the sea all the way through the winding roads and alley ways. It lashed at the trees dressed in their autumn hues. Leaves of oak and silver birch soared far from their high places, succumbing to the inevitable pull of gravity. Like so many of their brethren in the early hours of the day, they held themselves helplessly in a state of dread, awaiting the pitter patter of childrens feet to smash them and mash them, beat them and crash them, until they became the dirt themselves. For this was a leaf that fell in a play park and the school bells were always just around the corner. Swinging softly on the swing set, Clara Oswald tucked the thick woollen tail of her scarf into the front of her coat, the knitted ringlets warming her skin when she turned her chin down into the fabric. Sodden leaves slapped wetly against her shoes in another violent breeze and she thought back to when her shoes were smaller, as was the rest of her, a muddy child playing football in the leaves, going home to find another. A leaf above all others, precious and preserved long past it's years in her mother's book. That was just under three hundred years ago now. Three hundred years and three children buried. The forth, after less than a week in her arms, she handed into the local care system believing it a mercy compared to the fates of her other children. This was her five minutes of grief. The five minutes she took everyday until the pain was lighter. That was a rule she had learnt from...someone, she couldn't recall who.

The weather was no silent thing and she hardly heard the footsteps creeping up behind her even with the plethora of leaves for boots to slip and slosh against. She did however hear the creaking of the metal swingset, as the seat besides her was made no longer vacant, Ashildr could be a silent thing when she chose to be.

"Your sad." she observed, matching Clara's slow rhythm on the swings with a push of her feet.

"Yeah, I am. Good day for it an all,"

"Did you see her off or did they just,"

" I did. Her foster mother seems like a good sort. She's got a good job. I left the naming up to her." Ashildr whipped her head round at this.
"You always wanted to call your first daughter Ellie"

"I know, but as of today I never had a daughter." she sighed audibly, "It's better this way isn't it? Is it? No of course it is." she pleaded with Ash, the woman who could seem a decade younger than her but in actuality carried infinitely more experience on her shoulder than what would seem. It was this experience that encouraged her to smile, her hand outstretched on Clara's shoulder in an offer of comfort. Her words that followed, did so with ease and only hesitation long enough for her to observe it had been a question on repeat in her head for some time now. "It is. And if this happens again you'll be ready for it. We're not cut out for this life anymore Clara. It's not our normal."

"Normal," she pondered the word in a more chipper tone, though most likely she was dismissing the hurt, "Do you remember what that use to be like?"

Ashildr crossed her brows in a mock rendition of thoughtfulness, "Well it's been a while, but a young woman once told me it involves soufflés," At that Clara chuckled honestly, the recollection of several kitchen mishaps aboard there shared TARDIS brought to the forefront of her mind. A trio of boys, varying in age squabbling and cheering over half baked goods. Her laughter died naturally and the two were left in peaceful silence paired with the squeek creek of rusting metal. " Where do we go from here then. Do you want to stay. Be sad for a little longer."

"Are you eager to leave Ash?" Clara inquired.

"I'm well acquainted with the slow path Clara. We can stay put as long as you need, I just don't know if that's best for you. It's your decision."

In a way that choice being up to her was unwanted. How easy it would be to just follow someone else's direction, not to be stuck between running from grief or being engulfed by. Neither was healthy, she knew that. And for moments like these she and Ash had adopted a new way of communicating to each other; a bit of friendly lying.
"You want to go somewhere don't you," said Clara, her voice speaking with well learned presumption but her eyes asked something else. 'Take me away from here,' Ashildr read, and quickly summoned a reply.

"Well, in the year 3010, there a meteor strike in Russia. I saw the aftermath but missed the impact." by watching Clara, the young immortal hoped to assess if her idea was catching her interest, she was nodding agreeable, "Might be interesting."

"Might be, might be," she agreed, and jumped from her swing onto the crunching earth, "let's get going then," she was by the gate before Ashildr had upped to join her. Arm in arm they walked down the meandering paths towards the north of the city. They favoured lengthy conversation over public transport and so it took them near forty five minutes to arrive at the place they called home. Still in the heart of town, just off from a busy vein of traffic, tucked in the generously sized space between two blocks of three storey town houses was a single storey building from the twenty first century. The windows were shuttered and the lights were out, and for many months now it had become and ignored part of the landscape. Clara and Ashildr were the diner's only two keyholders and when they entered it was no longer the dark abandoned hovel it seemed from the outside but a warm inviting space. They could face the windows and see the outside world as if the shutters were not truly there because in truth they were not. It was a trick of perception, compensation offered by the TARDIS to it's pilots in regards to it's ineffectual chameleon circuit. Once inside they walked through to the back door, past that and into the TARDIS console room. Still arranged in it's white spacey desktop, the two women had grown somewhat fond of the design. And, upon lengthy study of the ship's manual, with their limited understanding of written galifreyan, they discovered what they believed to be instructions for redesign to look dangerously similar to the instructions for deleting whole rooms at a time.

They were in no hurray to leave, removing shoes and hanging coats on the appropriate stand. Ashildr was first to notice something odd though, whilst Clara attended to the console preparing for flight Ash was caught by the screen on the far wall, currently showing the inside of the diner with a lone women sitting at the bar.
"Uh, Clara. We've got a customer."

"We've got a what?" she asked incredulously, meeting her by the screen.
"A customer. An actually customer, that's never happened before. Did you lock up properly?"

"Of course I locked up properly, I always do!"

"Well obviously not if someone got in."

"That's not possible." said Clara, watching the woman on the screen, still waiting, occasionally glancing to the door which leads to the console. Clara abandoned the screen, walking towards the room which housed their wardrobe.
"Are we not going to go out there then?" Ashildr asked as Clara moved out of sight.

"Just a moment," came the reply, "Finding the right outfit." as so she emerged in a waitress's attire, a size or so larger than the last as she had extra weight to accommodate. Ashildr quickly realised her intents but Clara informed her nonetheless, " I'll see her off if this is just a locked door incident. Keep watching that screen though. If it's anything else, do something clever. She must have something powerful if she managed to break into the TARDIS, we can't let her leave if that's the case." Clara was hopping into work high heels with mixed success.

"You want this to be a thing don't you?"

"What? Why would you think that?"

"Because you're out of breath from dressing so quickly and you're putting your shoes on the wrong feet." Clara looked down and saw it was true.
"Oh, so I am." She kicked them off and corrected herself, "I'm just looking forward to getting back to normalcy is all. A nice normal."

"Which kind of normal?"

"The best kind," A smile was shared and Clara launched herself towards one of the roundels where a notepad and pen were resting on the ledge.

When she re-entered the diner, she did so with an ounce of trepidation under a veneer of confidence that came natural to her. Three hundred years of flying a diner and not a single patron had passed those doors, no regular person could. And not a single person had sat in that seat at the bar since...him. Anxiety was not an unfair reaction. She assumed her place behind the counter, pad and pen in hand and saw the women properly for the first time. She looked older than her but not by much, perhaps approaching her late thirties but it could be said the woman's rather prominent nose was skewing Clara's assessment. Her hair was an organised mess of blonde ringlets pinned back with a simple clip and as for her attire she wore mostly black, a dark turtle neck jumper with a few accessories over which she wore a large coatigan of a more coppery colour. There was intrigue to be found in her eyes however, sharp hazel pools exuding confidence and, what made Clara tense when she realised, purposefulness. She was here for a reason.

"Hi, what can I get you?" she asked, maintaining the charade. It was a while before she got any response. The woman simply smiled at her for a long time, her eyes pouring over Clara's body with and odd expression across her face. Time passed naggingly, each tick of the clock more pronounced than the one before it. Pad and paper were abandoned, the waitress game not being played for this encounter. The women sniffled and finally asked,

"Where do you keep the petrol?"

"I'm sorry,"

"The petrol. The sign outside, it says 'Snacks and gas' but there's no pumps so where do you keep the petrol? Has no one ever asked that?"

"I think it's just a sigh mate."

"And who restocks the diner? Cos there never any delivery vans, yet the fridge is full and those slush machines are never going to run out are they. Can I have a coke."

"We don't stock coke."

"I had a peek at the fridge before you knew I was here, not the diet please, it's disgusting."

Clara, though wary, ducked down behind the counter to retrieve a can. She passed it over with some demur, her fingers wrapped around the metal till the very last minute.

"You've been watching us here." she gathered and when the woman tilted her head back for a long sip she glance over to the camera in the high corner, a silent gesture to Ashildr in the other room.

"I have a particular interest in this establishment." the woman informed her, lowering the beverage and pushing it aside, concluding that she did not like coke.

"And I have a particular interest in those who can get in here without a key."

"Oh. Well how interested will you be when you find out I that I in fact have a key." she left the comment hanging, leaning back in her stool and bringing out the key from her pocket, placing it on the pocket between them.

"Only two people have this key, how did you get this."

"My name is Joanna Madrigal and I know about The Doctor, I know you used to travel with him through time and space. I know you've been using your mother's name as a pseudonym, and under that name Clara Oswald gave birth to a daughter five days ago in St Mary's hospital and left her in the Blackwood Care system,"

"Ashildr," Clara called, her eyes never leaving those of Johanna's. An unseen speaker cracked with static, "Do something clever." she ordered and the lights in the diner went black, the shutters on the windows became real. There was the sound of something sealing and then a pale blue light made them visible to one another but little else.

"I've sealed off the outer shell and prepared the vacuum. One word from you Clara and all the oxygen in that room gets sucked away." Ashildr informed over the speaker. Johanna's shock was genuine.

"You'd really risk killing yourself." she asked to Clara.

"It won't kill me. Just you, unless you tell why you came here. Because if you think you can threaten me you've got another thing coming."

"No threats," Johanna assured, "It's proof."

"Of what?"

"I work for UNIT. I have access to the Black Archive, information on the Doctor and those he's travelled with. I am also something of a liaison with the Time Academy in London. Their technology showed that there had been a TARDIS stationed here for just under nine months now. And I need you help."

"Talk,"

"It's not just your TARDIS the academy picked up. Several temporal anomalies have popped up in this area within the last year. Most of them are small and assumed non-dangerous seeing as we have a dozen student bouncing around the place at any one time but there is this one anomaly. It's an industrial district in the south. Getting bigger and we don't know what it is." she had withdrawn a small metal square, when her thumb and index finger were place in each corner it stretched to a holographic screen on the table between them, showing a map with red dots for each incident.

"This is usually the part where your superiors call The Doctor in." Clara noted, and her guest looked upwards to her.

"Well that's why I'm here... Where might he,"

"This isn't his TARDIS Johanna it's mine. The Doctor isn't here, and I've no idea where he might be." Johanna fidgeted somewhat awkwardly in her seat. Clara told no lie in her words. It had been three centuries since she last talked with him. She had seen him however, once or twice they had crossed paths, her watching he from a distance, never interfering or making her self know. Once she had watched quite a event unfold when The Doctor's visit to Jane Austen coincided with one of her own. That was a difficult day for her, restraining herself to the position of bystander when someone she loved was at risk.

"Well, your record paint you out to be quite capable in these things. Perhaps you can fill in for him."

She contemplated for a while. For Johanna, the threat of suffocation was still very real. However after a moment and from no instruction of Clara's the light's flickered back to normal, the doors unsealed with a suctiony sound and the shutters were raised. From the back room Ashildr appeared, eyeing Clara with curbed enthusiasm.

"Oh come on Clara! You wanted something interesting!"

And so their decision was made.

"I'm not saying it's not impressive," said Johanna, exiting the door that joined the TARDIS console to the outer diner. Clara and Ashildr were right behind her, "It's just not really bigger on the inside. It's a diner, and it has an extra room attached. I know what a TARDIS is. Pardon if my reaction underwhelms you but I really don't know what you expect from me."

"It's not an extra room. It's an infinity of room. An infinity of rooms that move through time and space. Just...I don't know. Drop you jaw. Do a lap of the exterior or something. You make It sound so mundane,"
"Leave it Clara," urged Ashildr gently, and then directed her words to their guest, "Sorry. Sometimes she forgets we're not longer in the twenty first century. The world has moved on, and they've set a higher bar on what it takes to impress them. Evidently." Her words rang with truth. To the societal circles to whom such topics concerned, time travel, space and aliens were no longer subjects of theory only. They had been passing through an age of experimental time travel and even bigger on the inside technology was beginning to enter the world in theory. "And the outer shell does leave a lot to be desired."

"It's awesome," Clara defended.

Once she and Ashildr switched into clothes more suitable for running and near winter winds they departed. It was deep in the night when they landed, such was preferable when breaking and entering was one's intention. Ashildr hoisted a large backpack on her shoulders as Clara locked up. It was a bulbous piece of equipment, with metal prods and scanners poking out of the pockets and a secondary device she attended to in her hands. Johanna pressed forward. Not far enough to be ignorant of Clara and Ashildr's preparations, but far enough so that their discussions were distant and not a distraction. She listened, breathed in the air and heard the sounds of metal crashing against metal. Flames bellowing and sparks falling in a downwards spiral through black. The ragged breathing of a youth overwhelmed with adrenaline and fear.

"I don't think we're alone." she told the pair upon turning, "Can you hear that?" They all listened and there were some sounds carried on the wind.

"They'll be night workers in some of these factories. Others look vacant though. We'll stick together," said Ashildr, waving her handheld device about until there was a strong beeping. "We go this way," she instructed, and they followed.

Some walking and sudden turns later the trio stopped at a chained fenced. The links joined at an electric interface at waist height. Clara knelt down and pulled out from her front pocket a pair of sunglasses. Once on her face she saw every possible combination to unlock it. It zoomed across the lens as binary and with the touch of a button the glasses whirred, the interface sparked and the chain fell limp, the gate unlocked.

"Interesting glasses," said Jo after flinching from the sparks.
"Have I finally found something that impresses you, Johanna?" Clara teased, as she pocketed her glasses.

Johanna conceded, "Perhaps,"

"It's sonic tech. And very useful." she informed, the gate swinging open unto a large vacant warehouse. They had no reason to assume this building was in frequent use, beyond the reality that every other building in the area seemed to be in frequent use. Here, there were no cars parked, not one for night labourers, cleaners or security. No allocated space for management or high ranking administrators. To the building's front were broad garage doors and to it's right were it's offices, or so assumed by the quantity of windows

"The source of the anomaly should be behind those shutters," Ashildr indicated with her head nodding towards the garage doors. Clara contemplated what could be waiting for them on the other side.

"It'll be a big room, lot's of equipment. Easy to take us by surprise,"

"Round the side then?"

"Round the side," the pair agreed. "Johanna, you stay here."

"What? I don't think so. This is my investigation, I found it and I'm going to see it through."

"This is no game!" Ashildr exclaimed in hushed anger.

"Doesn't stop you two enjoying yourselves." Johanna observed and for a moment Ashildr was silenced. But just for a moment.

"You're a liaison, a pencil pusher. There's no way you'll know what you're doing on the front line."

"Girl, compared to you I'm ancient with more than enough field experience to boot. I'm coming with you."

"Time machine," Clara countered abruptly but not unkindly, "I think you'll find we'll always have more field experience than you Jo. But okay."

"Okay?" Johanna inquired.

"You can come. But keep up and keep quiet. Ashildr does that thing have a silent mode?"

"No," she replied.

"Then ditch it outside somewhere. We go in through the offices."

The door creaked open for them to find more signs of it being an unused facility. There were desks and chairs at the reception but no equipment, coat hooks and lockers, brand new with a key still inside each slot. Ashildr silently inquired if they should turn the lights on, Clara gestured with her head no, and then put on the glasses once more.

"Ash, check upstairs. Jo and I will head into the warehouse," she whispered.

"We're splitting up?!" Johanna protested quietly, as if this was the most ridiculous thing she had heard that evening and simultaneously the most promising. Clara only acknowledged her question with a nod before they went their separate ways.

Ashildr slinked up the stair way with well practised stealth whilst Clara unlocked door after door with her glasses, trusting her companions expertise to find other ways into forbidden rooms in her absence. Their uneventful procession brought them to the warehouse, having only mistaken rats and shadows for actual threats so far Clara was feeling somewhat underwhelmed. The warehouse was large oblong stretch of empty space with three levels of walkways and railing above them leading to rooms which would certainly need exploring later. Later, as in not now. As in the moment upon entering the room her eyes were pulled helplessly to a heavenly glow against the back wall. Her legs followed, and she was kneeling at the source.

"Is that a crack in time," Johanna asked, equally enraptured by the light.

"You've studied at the academy. You tell me." Clara urged curiously, though knowing it to be true.

"A crack in space time. A fracture in the skin of the universe." she began kneeling down to be at level with Clara. Then she rubbed furiously at her eyes with her right hand, blame sinking in. "All those time travellers back at the academy. How many little paradoxes could they have caused when they went unchecked. Missed birthday's, cancelled dates, sick loved ones. Could they have caused this?"

"Humanity plus time travel." said Clara in conjecture.

"Does that label not apply to you Clara?" Johanna asked and Clara tilted her head to face her.

"No, it does. Just not completely anymore. I think," she replied with uncertainly, then stared deeply into the light. At times she thought she saw figures on the other side. Blurry silhouettes of a person, people or things. Hushed whispers drew her face closer.

"The last crack I saw, there were people on the other side. A whole planet trapped in another dimension."

"But just a dozen tiny paradoxes. Would they have such grand consequences. In theory a crack space time can lead to anywhere. Another dimension yes, but also the past, the future. Perhaps Australia is on the other side of this crack, or Belgium. Should you really be running your hands along it?" Johanna asked as Clara was doing just that.

"Not Belgium," said she as the fingers of her right hand brushing across the coarse ledge. When they were half way across they bumped into something and she withdrew her hand with a sharp gasp.
"What? What was that? Are you all right?"Johanna asked with clinical concern. Clara was actually somewhat distressed, the first she had seen her rendered in such a state.

"I, I.. don't know. I think my hand just brushed against something, someone else's. I don't know." She shook the strangeness out of her hand and hurtled back to the crack, ear to the wall as the whispers reached out like snaky tendrils unwilling to release her until they had mutual understanding of one another. Johanna followed suit, her ear against the cold glow, each others facial features blending away in the whiteness.

"Can you hear it?" asked Clara.

"Someone's talking."

"Don't get too close!"

"I can't not, it's driving me mad all this not knowing."

"I hear... I can't hear...Crack...Fire...Run...Brie?"

"The cheese?"

"No. Shhss..." Clara scolded, then continued, "Stranger...help..."

"Danger."

"Yeah, I heard that too,"

"No." said Johanna as her breath hitched, as whilst Clara had been staring intensely into the glow, she, when not watching her, had her eyes scanning the room for possible threats or Ashildr's eventual arrival. On their way in they had stopped at many a shadow momentarily fearing it to be something else. In hindsight, perhaps some of them were. This shadow was certainly not what it seemed. For such a hulking mass she was surprised she had not heard it enter, the highest metal walkway from which it loomed over them would certainly have made a cacophony of noise with each of it's steps. Of course, she quickly realised, that meant it had been there all along. The inky shadow in the highest corner making all other shadows run and hide. How pale the night seemed when she gazed upon the shine of it's armour. Chance alone allowed her to spot it simply by the whites of it's eyes. Clara was staring at her now, not understanding why her eyes had up turned.

"No?" she inquired as to her negative. She looked around, but more importantly, looked away from Johanna. Her hair swayed revealing a glimpse of her skin and the flash of a tattoo upon her neck but that was irrelevant. This moment provided her with ample opportunity and Johanna dipped her hand into her pocket, searching for the small cylindrical item that she had been working on.

"Danger!" Johanna said again when she knew their silence was pointless. They were standing now and there was a snarl from above, the first time Clara spotted the beast and stepped backwards, startled, and into her waiting arms. Circling and angling her head to the right with her left arm, her right brushed the hair asides to expose the skin. Clara gasped and struggled, the snarl above them traded for a chorus of wet rabid growls. Johanna brought forth her tool, steadying the point in the middle zero of Clara's tattoo. It pierced the skin and Clara once again struggled against the intrusion for as long as she could. After a mere moment however her body turned limp and she dropped to the floor. Johanna lifted her into her arms, never taking her eyes of the shadow above her. The creature took it's first steps, proving itself to be humanoid in shape as the shadow dropped one foot after another down the flight of stairs. Each step sending waves of vibrations across the railings so she was surrounding by the harsh crash off metal. The sounds boxed her in, made the space feel small as the beast above drew closer.

She came to slowly. The blurry image of Johanna crouched by the door starting as three individuals then gradually settled into two, then one. She rubbed at her head groggily half trying to figure out the strange tingling she felt in it the other half simply wanting it to be gone. Johanna noticed her groan and turned to her, urging her silence with a string of shushes.

"Clara? Clara are you all right?"

"Ummm, yes. I think so."

"You took a nasty blow to the head," Johanna informed her, with one hand carefully exploring her cranium.

"I did?"

"The railings were falling down. Don't you remember?" Clara strained to think, she recalled crashing metal roaring in all four corners but she could not see herself in the memory, nor what ever knocked her unconscious. She believed Johanna to speak correctly however, and with her left hand soothed the ache at the back of her neck with little thought as to how became so sore.

"There was a shadow," Clara recalled, adjusting how she sat in the small cupboard they found themselves in. There was about three foot by three foot of space to be shared by Clara, Johanna and a mop bucket, and a series of shelves which forbade them from standing comfortably.

"It's not a shadow," said Johanna, pointing to the key hole Clara then assumed she had been watching through whilst she was out. They shuffled around, allowing Clara to peek through the hole. "Oh you're right," said Clara upon seeing the creature, "wow!" she said on an exhale. The creature was well over seven foot tall, three foot wide at the shoulder but she couldn't tell how much of that was the beast and how much was the armour it wore. It's coverings were black as pitch, bathed in whitish glow from where it stood hunched over the crack they were earlier attending. What proved it to be a creature, not machine, asides from the patches of exposed skin at the joints and it's hands, were upon it's head, whilst also enclosed in metal, the mask allowed space at it's sides for the growth of large horns of an oakish colour, pointing backward like spears a good two feet.

"Wow indeed," said Johanna.

"And we're still alive?! How come? What happened Johanna?"

"I thought it was coming for us too. It growled some, but once I stepped us aside it was more interested in the crack. Then I dragged you in here. Possible trapped us in doing so. And I've been watching it's behaviour."

"It's moving!" Clara exclaimed at the keyhole, her hand springing backward to Johanna's shoulder for support. The creature's movements were known without needing sight, there was a slight vibration in the ground that made the mop bucket rattle and those waves of shakiness travelled up their limbs and left them tingly and itchy.

"He does that every few minutes. Patrols the room, then collapses by the crack again."

"Is he guarding it?"

" Or refuling. I don't recognise the species. Do you?" asked Johanna, as she began to stand. She retrieve the small tablet device from earlier and extended a screen against the cupboard door.

"No, perhaps with out all that armour...What are you doing?" she asked Jo on a chance glance upwards.

"Entering it's characteristics into UNIT's database. See if we can find this beastie somewhere." she typed for a moment then the screen beeped indicated a negative. She closed the device, "Nothing."

"So it's new here," said Clara still looking up at Johanna. Suddenly, she began to register a wet spray against her right cheek. Her body tensed, and at the corner of her eye she saw the view of the warehouse beyond the keyhole was obstructed. Replaced with the mouth of the beast, his row of wretched canines clenched and spritzing hot saliva down the length of the keyhole with each exhale. Johanna took note of Clara's sudden stillness. "Whilst you were watching it, did it ever come to the door?" Johanna shook her head no. What happened next did so in less than a moment. As a rippling mannish roar thoomed on the other side of the door, Johanna was startled to her knees, allowing her to avoid the fist that then followed. The pillar of armoured flesh ripped through the wood that separated them, showering the cowering pair in a coating of fresh dust and splinters. It was withdrawn with some difficulty, the wood snagging at dents and exposers, granting the women a small window of reprieve.

"We're being attacked in a cupboard any ideas on how to get out?!"

"We're in a cupboard, there is no way to get out. Why would you think that?! Why did you think this would be a good place to hide?!" They could scarcely hear each other over the sounds of splintering wood. When the fist pulled away she caught the tail end of Clara's mumblings. "Can't die, can't die" she seemed to say to herself.

"All that talk about field experience and you've got nothing?! Seriously? Time and space, the Doctor's assistant, was I lied to because I was kind of told you were brilliant, now we have an alien knocking down our door and your not thinking of a plan to win this?"

The next impact was lower, an armour knee poking through at eye level. The pair flinched again, their backs jostling against the mop and bucket before struck an idea and it showed on her face as a wide eyed smile.

"Does a mop and bucket constitute a plan?"

"If you use it right."

"Okay then," began Clara, encouraged to work fast as the sound of their assailants knee withdrawing spoke of the doors imminent collapse. She relieved the bucket of it's mop and arranged her self so that she was lying straight in the small space, her back arching upwards against the wall, her feet pressed against the foot of the door and the mop end angled upwards and ready to strike.

"Stay low. If this works I'll reach back in and grab you, just be ready to run."

The air whistled with the oncoming fist, the door splitting from the force as the armour arm made it's appearance once more. That was when Clara thrusted the mop upwards, the wooden end catching in a crook as she saw the splinters had earlier and she drove the armour fist upwards and forwards. The body of the beast soon followed and the door was no more. Clara used the force of it's fall to propel herself under the shower of splinters and between the beast's arched legs. That was when she heard it's howl, a pained noise and a promising sound. She had hoped the beasts strength would give them an advantage, hoped it's fist would become stuck in the concrete wall as it had the door but she had no time to see if this was true. Reaching back under the armoured archway she grabbed Johanna hand and pulled her to safety. Both incredibly relieved they allowed laughter to overtake them for a moment, before charging up the stair way to the unexplored rooms to form a plan.

Her feet padded silently through the upper corridors, her body recalling lessons learnt eons ago even as her mind allowed those lessons to fall away. Armed with a hair pin she had forced her way into several locked rooms before she reached this final flight of steps. All had been empty and she expected to find more of the same. The stair led only to a door on the upper most floor. There was no landing or corridor, just a single door with yet another electric panel to break through before entering. She wielded her pin, the metal already contorted for the purpose, into the grooves of the screws that kept the panel in one piece. It came away to expose the wiring which she cracked with ease expected of a practised burglar breaking into a mediocre domestic security system. There was an affirming beep, which to an amateur at the art might prove gratifying. Ashildr opened it with deflated enthusiasm, her hopes of a good night waning after the fifth bare room. She wondered how Clara was faring, but thoughts of Clara led her to thoughts of Johanna, and then an internal rant on UNIT's competency if this anomaly proves to be a something and too late, or nothing and a waste of time. Why only Johanna? Why not a whole team? Ashildr began but put the thoughts on hiatus as the room proved to have a more curious air to it than she expected. It was a single room spanning the whole floor with not a speck of furniture save for one item which she found herself walking to. Against the back wall, centre place was a single filing cabinet, about four feet high and forest green from what she could detimine from the moonlight pouring in on two sides. Each draw had a simple lock, requiring a key, no electricity and so Ashildr sacrificed more pins and with them all hope of hair symmetry. When she was inside the first draw she saw it filled to the brim with files and paper work. Nothing she could read properly in such poor light but she grabbed a handful, about three files and sat under the window where the moon shone through. The first file was thick, on the first page she was drawn to a set of photos, each showing the same boy, first as an infant, the second as a toddler and the third a boy about eight. Beneath them, and for pages after, was information, his birth date, weight and height, school information, several pages of notes, she set it aside. On to the second. A much thicker file, the first page showing a photo set of female from childhood to adult year. She saw similar information scanning through, with the addition of occupational data, a page devoted to the list of names under the heading 'sexual partners', and most interestingly a death date, last year, so Ashildr observed. Her nerves were beginning to get to her, she lifted her head away from the file, feeling just how much space there was in the room, how empty it was and how dark it was in all four corners desipite the moon, or perhaps a cloud had obscured it's rays because Ashildr could not help but feel the darkness grow heavier and her isolation amplified, her every vulnerability exposed as she sat solo in the moonlight with a file in her lap. A file of a life observed in it's entirety, and a cabinet full of lives in the shadows to her left. Naturally, a young woman outgrows the superstition of her childhood, spirits did not lurk in the shadows waiting to pounce, but live long enough and that superstition is replaced with reality. It may not be a spiteful spirit lurking with her, but as she poured over the pages once more finding more intimate details, everything but a name, she realised there was someone out there, be they curious alien or human psychopath, who was watching people lives day in day out. And it was here, in this room, where he made his notes, filed his records, where he would inevitably return but when? Was he here now? She felt her childhood guide her and slowly, dreadfully peaked behind her, half fearing the psychopath or spirit was outside the window, above her, scowling down at her as she soiled his plans, whatever they may be. But instead she saw only the moon, as pale and ethereal as she always was and her fears abated. She rationalised, objectified until she was sure of her safety. She would inform Clara of this later, as the vacant warehouse with a cabinet of lives certainly warrants suspicion. Closing the file and setting it aside, she had forgotten she had picked up a third, she had also remembered there was an anomaly to investigate and almost didn't peer inside. Once she did, only a single photo fell in her lap, no pages, no data. She rose it up into the light so she could read it's colours properly but once she had that light receded and he was behind her in the window again, leering downwards as dread filled her head to toe. Or it could've been a cloud. She begged it was a cloud. In the photo was her and Clara, taken without their notice as they dined at a cafe. Clara in this photo was still heavily pregnant, and this proved to be important to their photographer. Turning it over, on the blank side was written,

"One week to wait!"

She felt the photo crumple in her hands, fierce protection being the consequence of three centuries of companionship after ages of loneliness and fleeting friends. He was still behind her though: the cloud-spirit-psychopath wrapping his fingers around her throat, savouring a slow kill, and she was dying, she knew what dying felt like, she had been close to it so many times. The vibrations woke her from her stillness, each wave accompanied by a thoom that brought her back into reality. She stared at the photo quizzically, then at the files and the shadows in all four corners but never behind her. The light returned and of course this meant the clouds had parted but some small part of her still feared a man was out their having ducked down beneath the glass allowing her to escape in some villainous interpretation of mercy. Another wave a movement motivated her to her feet, abandoning all she had found except that which she held in her memories. Towards the door and down the stairs she headed, never looking back. She pushed her thoughts towards Clara. Clara's in trouble. Clara's far away. Johanna is- No not her, she not important right now! Clara. Clara. Clara! It was working, it drove her forwards. Not once did she think back to the shadows she left behind, nor hear to door clink shut when she was far from the handle.

They closed the door with haste, and built a barricade.

"It's still coming after us this won't hold it off," Johanna observed as they both hauled a L shaped desk towards the entrance. Clara took one look at their resources and agreed, it really wouldn't. Johanna scrabbled for the second desk whilst Clara turned her attention to one of the windows. With her face pressed against the glass pane she could see a ledge about a foot wide a small distance below their window. Finished with the second desk, Johanna turned to see Clara thrusting a chair's legs into the glass, shattering it with a crystalline smash.

"What are you doing?!"

Clara was clearing the lower edge of it's sharp glass shards when she replied.

"There's a ledge, and a tree we can climb down. Once we've put some real distance between us and that thing, we can circle round and fetch Ashildr."

"She's young. You think she'll be alright on her own."

"She's more than capable. Come on. Stay close."

Clara tested her weight on the ledge with one foot before both, and she soon shuffled along the makeshift walkway with ease. Johanna followed with little reluctance or hesitation, admirable, so Clara thought, considering there was a fall of several storeys one wrong step away. The ledge continued to the end of the building and presumably circled it entirely. Once at the corner Clara could reach out to a sturdy branch belonging to an tall ageing tree which grew in another warehouse's territory.

"Once we're down, I want you to wait outside." Clara told her on their descent.

"I'm not leaving you alone."

"I won't be alone. I'll have Ashildr. Watch the entrances. If it gets out contact UNIT. If it doesn't, and we're not out in an hour, contact UNIT. Understood?"

"Contact UNIT. Understood." she begrudgingly agreed, dropping down from a branch into low bushes and autumn leaves. Clara followed suit, and on the other side of the fence they looked back at the factory, ominous and lightless it stood, now with a touch of vandalism thanks to Clara's hand. Within those walls a violent force prowled and Ashildr was completely ignorant to it's presence. To think of it made her heart feel caged and burdened. The worry was evident on her face, as she peered through the bars to the entrance they all took, her lower lip suffered quite the biting.

"She's still in there." she said to the air.

As she got closer, she increased her caution. The vibrations had subsided moments ago and questing for their source was like blundering hopelessly through a maze, they touched every corner of each room she entered and seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. But once she reached the large open warehouse she was certain this was the source. By the time she had entered, there were no goings on for her to observe or assist, that's not to say nothing piqued her interest. She was torn between what she found more alarming; the small cupboard that had been absolutely obliterated or the other worldly crack glowing on the bare. She settled on the crack, after confirming that within the remains of the side room her friend of many years and their new acquaintance had not been reduced to a bloody pulp in her absence. She looked on it with understanding of what it was, but not how it came to be. About two feet away from the crack, still within it's glow was something very familiar but also very out of place. When she approached she picked it up with puzzlement. In her hand she held her scanner, the same one she had left outside, severely aged, battered and augmented. The casing had been removed and put back together, to make room for a bunch of new circuits and gizmos inside. It didn't reseal properly, nor sit comfortably in her hand. But she had left her scanner outside?! How long must it have been abandoned for it to have returned to her through this crack? She asked herself these things when the tips of her ears were teased with a whisper. At that whisper all thoughts left her and she was left feeling blank intrigue towards the crack. She was about to lean closer as the nature of the unclear whispering urged her to do, when her attentions was snapped away by the recurrence of the thooming beats. Vibrations struck up to her knees, her legs locked and froze, instinct, but she willed herself to dive for the shadows and out of the glow of the incriminating light. It did her little good, as the beast plodded onwards in it's pursuit and joined her in the shadows. Enveloped in darkness, the beast was nothing but it's white eyes trapped behind a mask and the stink of it's breath as it let out a hoarse, horrifying scream.

The scream turned her brisk walk into a frantic run. Clara shoved open the main door with the point of her elbow, and she did this for each door afterwards, a dozen doors until she came to a screeching halt in the warehouse. Perplexed, was her expression, on seeing Ashildr unharmed, the beast lulled into a peacefully rocking motion, the pair of the them sat with their backs against the wall as if the crack was the plush back of a sofa, not a tear in reality. Ashildr met her gaze and beckoned her forwards with the movements of her hand. Each step was taken tentatively, Clara filled with unease even when she was on her knees between the pair of them and Ashildr passed her the device. The beasts head followed it's path from one human to the other. It beeped in her hand and Ashildr then explained,

"It's an anaesthetic, that beeping. It soothes him."

"Why does he need soothing," Clara eyed the beast, who in turned eyed his hands, the huge meaty paws moving in a manner odd to them but amusing to the man they were attached too. His throaty chuckle could almost seem menacing if it wasn't paired with the Clara's sheer relieve that his wasn't trying to kill them.

"The plates causes him pain, this metal." Ashildr reached out, cautiously, to the black plates of his shoulder. When he didn't flinch she stroked him gently. "It been growing non stop. Trapping him in his own skin,"

"So you've been lashing out," Clara addressed the beast with renewed sympathy. The beast, swimming in the anaesthetic, paid her no attention. Clara was shaking her head, still reeling in half knowledge. "How did you know what to do? You're scanner it's..."

"His doctor's on the other side of this crack,"

"Doctor?" Clara heard and all other words were a blur.

"His." Ashildr repeated, and with her hand requested the scanner back, "She could send through his but the cracks are only one way or so I'm told."

"We've got the TARDIS we can find him another doctor. Would you like that?" Clara made contact, patting her hand firmly against the plates of his chest.

"No," said Ashildr, whipping the smile from her face.

"No?" asked Clara.

"There's no where we can send him. He's the only one of his kind. He'd be experimented on before they think to help him."

"Then we can look after him."

"Really?!" Ashildr inquired and all too soon wished she wasn't so blunt.

"Yes really!" said Clara angrily, "We've got the space, we've got an infinite lifespan. What's a century to you and me, it's nothing! They'll be dead and dust in the time it takes for you to blink!"

"Clara, it's not-"

"Not what?! What is it Ashildr? Why do you always insist on us travelling alone?!"

"Wait what?!" Ashildr exclaimed, her point lost to Clara in the way of relevance. She stammer onwards, "I've just been trying to-"

"Turn me into you?! Yes, I've noticed that! You think I'm so fragile, that I'm so.. And you talked me into..." she trailed off, realising the tears that had began to form In her eyes and instantly tried to halt their occurrence. Ashildr knew where she was heading, where she was placing her blame. The photo she had memorised, taken at a cafe they frequented, where they discussed options and Ashildr, in an out pour of emotion she now felt selfish for unleashing, spoke of her own children, losing them to time, those who's faces were a featureless mask of pink, those who's likeness she had sketched in her diaries , and those conceived by accident and not done away with in the years where she felt more secure in her immortality. She wanted to protect Clara from the inevitable hurt, she knew this from the moment she said 'wiggle room', but she never wanted her influence to drive her to regret. He voice was torn away from the onslaught of her anger, but she was saved from response when she observed that this was a matter Clara had not intended to bring about. There was still the matter of the beast however.

"Clara we don't have as much time as you think, we can discuss this over our diaries later."

"I'm sorry." Clara said abashedly.

"Don't be, It's okay."

"It's just been a long day," she continued.

"I understand," said Ashildr, and when Clara looked to her she understood that she really did. That whatever regrets she might have kindled she shared them with her, and that was no small consolation.

"And about travelling alone..." Ashildr began and Clara took on a bemused face, having assumed they'd put this topic to rest, "-I'm not opposed to you having a pet." Clara spluttered something like a laugh, now picturing she and Ashildr with a dozen dogs in the diner watching a supernova through the glass windows. The beast gave a heady groan and Clara's concern was relit.

"What did you mean we don't have much time?"

"My scanner wasn't built for anaesthetic frequencies, even with the alterations the circuits will burn out if we use it much longer. Then he'll lash out and he won't stop until someone kills him."

Clara watched as his groans became more painful, gone was his fascination with his hands and he balled them into fists, his body still rocking steadily.

"How long have we got?"

"Minutes."

"And what should we do?"

"Johanna doesn't carry a weapon on her by any chance does she?"

"I didn't see one. And UNIT won't be here for over an hour. Is killing him really our only option."

"He'll only have a short life in pain if we let him loose. I have an idea that might make this painless or a hell of a lot worse."

"Go on then."

"The crack is a window to several places, not just his hospital. If I boost the frequency, a short blast of strong anaesthetic, and throw it into the crack he'll follow it and the energy would painlessly tear him apart."

"That doesn't sound like a friendly way to go. How could It be worse?"

"The energy doesn't tear him apart and instead drops him off on some unsuspecting time period with no anaesthetic."

"What are our chances."

"50, 50"

Both Clara and Ashildr lean back in contemplation. They both surveyed their patient, Clara wondered how much of their discussion had he understood, the TARDIS wasn't translating his groans into words of meaning. She chose to conclude this meant he was just a beast, an animal, or livestock, it made what they were deciding that much easier than if he had an opinion of his own for them to consider. He wailed once more, Clara turned to Ashildr who was turning down the frequency on the scanner. She tilted her head in question.

"It's overheating." she answered. They had not much time left.

"Let's do it then."

At her instruction Ashildr stood to her feet, Clara followed and the two put some distance between them and the beast. A test to see if their patient would indeed follow the scanner. He did, slowly, staggeringly, with a string of suffering on his hoarse voice. Ashildr made it quick. Abandoning Clara at the far end of the warehouse, once passed the beast she increased the frequency to lure him in and once his was two meters close to the glowing tear she threw it in. The beast wailed and hurried his stride, desperate for his medicine forever out of reach. Head first he dove into the crack, the light gobbling him up until his armoured legs had vanished, the vibrations from his steps faded to nothing and Clara and Ashildr were left standing in an abandoned warehouse with nothing but the shadows for company.

Once the beast was gone fixing the crack was a relatively text book affair. Ashildr retrieved her bag and scanner from a spot she had hid them in outside and did something clever that involves a lot of button pressing and dial turning from the gadgets in her bag. Confident that the warehouse was free of all things extraterrestrial, Clara and Johanna were beginning their walk back to the TARDIS. Clara no doubt filling Johanna in on what had passed and Johanna's face practically lit up as Clara described the beast, how he looked in the light. Ashildr held back a while longer. Left with the shadows and silence, she fidgeted with the scanner in her hand, a much more slim and sophisticated device to that she had use to lure the beast to his death but it was the same device through and through. Almost without thought she found herself treading up the office stair case once more to the room with nothing but a filing cabinet. The moon still poured in on two sides, unobscured by clouds, and the shadows in the corners were just shadows. She approached the cabinet. Glancing over to where she sat under the window, she saw the files had vanished. The cabinet draw was shut and locked and the clouds over the moon returned, the air heavy and oppressive. She halted her invasions, a tendril of childish fear creeping into her bones but she shook it away. She had killed a man this evening. There was no child in her. She held her scanner. A sleek device, reliable. Someday, someone here was going to need it. And with that in mind she placed it neatly on top of the cabinet. If not, she thought onwards, I can easily make another.

It was not a silent walk back to the TARDIS. Johanna bombarded her with all sorts of questions about the beast, his appearance, his estimated weight, estimated height, estimated ecosystem of origin. The small spark of enthusiasm she had seen her bear towards alien life had blazed into a raving bonfire that she couldn't help but be pulled in by. Soon they were both discussing species they had both encountered, and a few Johanna had not. By the time they approached the TARDIS they were both pleasantly spent for conversation, and returned to more immediate matters, Clara feeling to rush to `fetch the key from her pocket.

"So what are you going to write in your report, if you hardly got a glimpse of it." Clara inquired curiously.

"I'll just have to forward what you told me. A shame it had to die. I would've loved to have spoken with it. If it was even capable of speech."

"I don't think it was. Just an animal in pain."

"Well not anymore. What you did wasn't necessarily a bad thing Clara. It was a kindness."

"Perhaps. But I don't think it's over."

"How come?"

"Ashildr said there was a 50% chance the beast would survive the crack and wind up in another time zone. That's a 50% chance that we got it wrong."

"But you can make it right. You've got a time machine and plenty of technology."

"I think we might just do that. And if we do..."

"What?" Johanna asked as to her unspoken words.

"Do you want to come with us?" The words were out, and Clara was waiting.

"Come with you?" was the replied, and Clara felt the overwhelming need to rush the words that followed.

"To find it. The beast I'm mean. It's a new species to add to the UNIT databases and you helped out when my head got hit. Of course it'll mean travelling through time and space, and we don't always land where we want to first time round and... and. Err. What do you think?"

Johanna smiled for a while. It was a kind smile, made of warm rouge lips and a hint of something else in the eyes she couldn't pin point. Her answer made her sigh in relief.

"I think I'd like that Clara."

"Oh good. Now we just need to break the news to Ashildr"

"Talk of the devil," Johanna nodded at Ashildr's approach. She did not look friendly in her face. The evening had taken a toll on her and what was, for the most part, and impatient desire for sleep was, by Johanna, being interpreted as an expressed dislike of her continued presence. She thought this even more so when Clara informed her.

"Why are still waiting out here?" Ashildr asked, as the three of them were standing outside the diner and the wind was bitter.

"We were just talking," Clara began, "about how Johanna's going to come with us to track down this alien."

"Is she?" inquired Ashildr, he face dumbfounded.

"Yes, I thought it'll be good for UNIT to get more field knowledge and besides you said you wouldn't so no to company." she had in fact said 'pets' but Clara altered that for appearance's sake.

"Of course," Ashildr conceded, her tone forcibly chipper. "Let's get her inside side then, we've got a beast to find."

(Some time later)

Johanna was carrying a box in hand, an assortment of objects within. None of them here but she had claimed them as her own for the sake of research. They were mostly books from the library and stationary from wherever she could find it, and she was carrying it to her room which she intended to devote to cataloguing all the aliens and creatures of interest they stumbled upon on their travels. Clara had already taken her to her first planet; a largely green world where trees were towering crystal structures, she had a sample somewhere in her box. She was carrying them to her room when she was diverted by the strange sound of a bird calling. She entered the strange room, one she had not stumbled across before and found it largely empty save for a raven caged and set of clothes suspended in a glass cylinder. It intrigued her enough for her to set the box aside and she approached the bird which thrashed widely in it's cage.

"The TARDIS shouldn't have let you in here." she turned, Ashildr was leaning in the door frame, eyeing her with a uneasy glare. She could think only of the bird.

"A raven shouldn't be kept in a cage this small."

"He's not a raven, he's an alien, perhaps you'd want to catalogue him. And his cage is bigger than it looks. Or do you still believe this TARDIS is just a room attached to another room?"

She did not answer, her mind still set on the raven.

"He's frustrated."

"It's Clara."

"Clara?"

"I just left her in the hallway. She confuses him."

"That's a strange thing to say about a bird."

"I told you he's an alien."

"An alien that looks like a bird. I'm just keeping things simple Ashildr. That's a nice outfit," she said with a nod to the glass cylinder.

"You can't touch it."

"...I wasn't intending to."

"In fact I don't think you should be in this room at all. I think it's time I told you some rules they'll be on my ship."

"You're ship?!"

"First rule, you never enter this room. Never again, Even if the TARDIS leads you here and he will, you walk away, leave what's in here alone. Understood."

"Last I checked Clara was the woman in charge."

"Rule number two!" Ashildr intoned more forcefully, "The room at the back of the library with the statues on either side of the door you never go in there either under any circumstances. Rule number three...Well, I'll think of that later. Have you any questions?"

The silence lingered between them. Johanna eyeing down Ashildr's pointed glare with her own deadfaced disappointment.

"Have I done something to make you so hostile to me Ashildr. Or do you just not want a third person in your's and Clara's little relationship."

"What?!"

"Because me being on board is strictly professional. It's a chance for me to learn not..er. Other stuff."

"Me and Clara are not in love!" she countered feeling a hot flush in her check at the thought.

"I never suggested you were." Johanna defended, circling around to her box still some distance from Ashildr so she wouldn't seem confrontational. "I just happened to notice you and her share a bond. I don't know how it started and I'll accept it's none of my business. But how long have you been travelling that it was just the two of you. Do you remember what it was like to be away from each other? When was that? What was it like?"

Eons of loneliness, her mind said. "I'm not in love," was her response.

"But you don't like sharing her do you?"

Ashildr thought back to what Johanna had said, they shared a bond, she and Clara. She knew that to be true. It was quite affirming to hear it from someone else's voice rather than her own mental ramblings but she didn't dare confess that to this interloper.

"We're the same." she told her, it was 'shared a bond' in her own words.

"And what is that sameness?" Johanna inquired, Ashildrs last comment striking her still.

Ashildr smiled and said, "It's complicated." and then she turned to leave, "besides I won't have to share her for long. I only need to blink my eyes apparently."

"How's your neck this morning?" asked Johanna, and Ashildr whipped her head around at the odd question.

"My neck?" she felt the skin beneath her hairline.

"Yes, your neck. You were rubbing it red raw last night. How's it this morning?"

"It's fine, thanks." she replied, her eyebrows never unscrunching at the strangeness even as she was far down the corridor.

Johanna gave a parting nod to the raven, and with her box continued onwards to her room.