Chapter 1 – Blast From The Past

Nestling on the banks of Lake Ontario, the Canadian city of Toronto was enjoying a bright, sunny day. There was barely a breeze in the air so the people walking through the Downtown area were surprised to be hit with a sudden gust of air that seemed to circulate down the street. A couple of people could hear a metallic sound, similar to a chain grinding across a set of gears but they paid no attention to the noise. If they had looked carefully, they would've seen a 1960's style British Police Box materialising out of nowhere down a narrow side alley.

The Police Box solidified in the alley and moments later, a young man flung the door open, "Ah sunny Rio", he said cheerfully and stepped outside. He was dressed in a dark pair of trousers, blue shirt and a dark waistcoat. Thrown over his clothes was a dark purple velvet dress coat that he smoothed out with each step. He paused at the end of the alley and adjusted his bowtie, "If we're quick we should be able to get a place on the beach", he added, brushing his floppy brown hair away from his eyes.

Another person stepped out of the box and closed the door behind them, a young woman in her mid twenties. She had shoulder length brown hair with a slight kink that hung loose around her shoulders. The woman was wearing a red dress that stopped just below her knees. This was teamed with a dark pair of tight and flat ankle boots. A grey hooded cardigan and her trusty red shoulder bag completed her looked. "Funny", she began, "I would've thought Rio would be a little warmer". She rubbed her arms, even with the extra layer she was still feeling the cold.

"Must be an atmospheric disturbance", the man brushed off her concerns, "localised ionic storm, oversize cloud, something like that", he waived his hands around with each word, "trust me Clara, I've got this right this time".

"That's what you said the other three times", Clara replied, sighing with exasperation. She joined her travelling companion and took a good look at the city. They had landed in the commercial area of the city. The retail buildings hung close the pedestrian street, giving the illusion of a canyon made out of concrete and glass. Clara paused and inspected the large structure that loomed over. She chuckled to herself and shook her head, "Correct me if I'm wrong Doctor but isn't Rio overlooked by the statue of Christ the Redeemer".

"Course it is", The Doctor replied, "I was there when they laid the foundation stone", he reminisced, "the architect still owes me a hundred pesos and a chicken". He clapped his hands together and smiled, "I really need to stop gambling with poultry, becoming a bit of a habit".

"Not to burst your bubble chin boy", Clara snorted, "but we're not in Rio".

"Don't be ridiculous", he turned round to face the brunette woman, "what makes you say-". He voice trailed off when he spotted the same structure Clara had noticed. It was a concrete and steel spire that stretched hundreds of feet into the air, interrupted by a bulbous glass platform three quarters of the way up, "Well who put that there", he chuckled, running his hands through his hair in embarrassment.

"That's the CN Tower", Clara pointed at the structure, "which means we're in Toronto, not Rio".

"Always did have a problem with Rio", The Doctor mumbled to himself, "but this is good, I know a fantastic pancake house in this time period. The owner used some special imports from the third moon of Durillo, makes the dish just come alive".

Clara had tuned out The Doctor's ramblings, focusing instead on a discarded newspaper on a nearby bench. She took one look at the date and turned sharply back towards her friend, "Yeah I don't think that place you're talking about is open". Clara slapped the paper against The Doctor's chest, "It's May 23rd 2014, not only have you lost Rio but you've missed the twenty third century by three hundred years". She rolled her eyes and began backing away down the street, "Basically you've brought me somewhere I could've reached by plane".

The Doctor dropped the paper on the ground, "Oops", he whispered, "Clara wait, I can make this up to you". He tried to catch up with Clara but she was walking at a furious pace, forcing him to break into a jog.

This was one of the problems when you were a wonderer in the fourth dimension, sometimes you took a wrong turning in the Time Vortex and missed your destination by several hundred years. The Doctor was an alien, the last of the Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey. His companion, Clara Oswald, was a school teacher living in London. Together they travelled through time and space in a machine called the TARDIS, or a snog box as Clara once nicknamed it.

The relationship between the pair was an interesting one. From Clara's point of view, everything between them was purely platonic. She did have eyes though and sometimes her gaze did linger on the Time Lord for a little longer than necessary. Sometimes Clara caught him looking back in return and if she was honest, she enjoyed the attention. The Doctor though was bad boyfriend material, he was easily the most eccentric person that she had ever met. That was fascinating to a point but it wasn't the basis of a romantic relationship. The Time Lord was her best friend and that's all he would ever be to her. Whether he thought any differently, that was a topic she hadn't really brought up with him.

As the pair moved briskly toward the corner of an intersection, they were on a collision course with another woman. She was a similar size to Clara, maybe an inch or two taller. Like the British woman she was wearing a dark red dress and dark tights. She had a black coat but this was unbuttoned at the waist. Her brown hair was matted together into dreadlocks that were tied back into a bun. She had a pink coloured mobile phone pressed against her ear, "Don't worry about me Felix, I'm just getting some fresh air", she spoke down the phone with a soft American accent.

"You don't need to tell me that Cos", the man on the other end of the phone responded with a heavy British accent, "but Sarah asked me to check up on you".

Cosima Niehaus pushed her dark framed glasses up and rubbed her eyes, making sure not to smudge her heavy eye makeup, "It's just a walk around the block, I need to get out of DYAD Headquarters for a while. No need for Sarah to call the cavalry and come charging in with all guns blazing".

Felix sighed audibly down the phone, "I know that but she worries about you", he paused for a moment before adding, "we all do Cos, especially with your illness you should really be taking it easy".

"Nothing about our life is easy Felix", Cosima replied sadly. That was a major understatement from the woman. She was the result of a cloning project run during the early 80's, an extreme experiment to test the nature versus nurture theory. She had grown up in San Francisco, totally ignorant of her cloned status until she had accidently stumbled across this piece of information a few years ago. It was a lot for the young woman to take it, discovering that you're not completely unique in the world.

To help her come to terms with her cloned biology, she had reached out to two other clones. The first one she encountered was a Detective named Beth Childs in the Canadian city of East York. Beth introduced her to another clone, Alison Hendrix who lived in a nearby city. Despite sharing the same DNA, the three women were completely different from each other. Beth was a fitness fanatic and a workaholic whereas Alison was a suburban 'Soccer Mom' with two adopted children.

In contrast to Beth and Alison, Cosima was more a free spirit. Her adopted parents were extremely liberal, turning a blind eye to her recreational marijuana habit along with the string of questionable relationships she had turning her late teens and early twenties. Cosima had sexual relationships with both men and women, preferring to love the person rather than focusing on what gender they were. She was also a gifted scientist and until a few months ago she had been an honour student at the University of Minnesota.

It was about that time when everything began to unravel. Firstly Beth committed suicide, unable to cope with the knowledge of being a clone coupled with the news that someone was killing off her fellow clones across Europe. Shortly after this another clone, Sarah Manning, came crashing into her life and the rollercoaster ride truly began. The company currently running the cloning project, DYAD, had set their sights on Sarah's daughter. Things were complicated by the fact that DYAD was sponsoring Cosima's PhD. That should've created a conflict of interest but her loyalties were firmly with the women she had come to identify as her sisters. Sarah's foster brother, Felix Dawkins, rounded out the motley crew they had dubbed 'Clone Club'.

If life wasn't already complicated enough, Cosima had recently been struck down with a rehabilitating lung condition. The cloning process had been flawed and her lung tissue was literally breaking down. Despite her hours of research, Cosima had yet to find a cure and time was running out. The periods between painful coughing fits were getting shorter and she could feel herself getting weaker every day. Focusing on her research kept her mind away from her own mortality but Cosima was beginning to get desperate. The next attack could be her last, she was walking a tight rope and she was close to losing her balance.

Cosima was so focused on her conversation with Felix that she wasn't watching where she was going. Just as she reached the corner, someone bumped straight into her. In her weakened state, Cosima tumbled to the ground, dropping her phone and landing hard on her hands, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry", a soft British voice called out.

"No biggie", Cosima waived her away, "I totally wasn't watching where I was going".

"Still at least let me help you up", the woman attached to the voice crouched down next to Cosima. The dreadlocked woman immediately froze when her eyes met the dark brown eyes of this mystery woman. Her breath caught in her chest as a wave of long forgotten memories washed over her. She recognised that face but she couldn't be here, it was absolutely impossible. "Hello, you still with me", the woman waived her hand in front of Cosima's face.

"Erm, yeah", Cosima managed to stutter, "I'm completely fine", she quickly stood up and grabbed her fallen phone, "look I need to go", she moved as quickly as she could, crossing the street before the woman had a chance to stop her.

"Ah Clara, finally caught up", The Doctor wheezed breathlessly, "what are you doing down there?" he asked when he noticed her crouched down.

Clara watched the woman with dreadlocks hobbling down the street with a frown on her face. The woman had been desperate to get away from her but Clara had absolutely no idea why. It could've been for something she hadn't done yet, one of the downsides of being a time traveller. There was something about the woman though, a familiar sensation but she couldn't quite place her, "Just admiring the view", Clara finally replied.

"Well no time for that", The Doctor dragged Clara to her feet, "it might not be the twenty third century but there must be a decent pancake house in the city somewhere". Clara gave him a weak smile, still distracted by her encounter with that woman.

Across the other side of the street, Cosima moved as quickly as she could but her damaged lungs soon began to burn. She slowed to a stop and bend over, placing her hands on her knees. She glanced behind her and noticed that the woman she had run into was now speaking with a weirdly dressed man. Their conversation was brief until they began to move in the opposite direction. She was so lost in her memories that she had completely forgotten about Felix on the other end of her phone, "Cos", he cried, "are you alright".

Cosima shakily brought her phone back up to her ear, "Yeah Felix, I'm here".

"What the hell was happened?" he asked with a concerned voice, "I heard a massive crash, I thought you might've had a fit or something".

"No, just bumped into someone on the street", she replied absentmindedly.

"You alright Cos?" Felix replied, "you sound more spaced out than usual".

Cosima didn't reply for a moment, the eyes of that woman had taken her back to her teenage years. Back in San Francisco during her mid teens she had a girlfriend, someone who fully helped her accept her sexuality. Tragically this girl died when she was still a teenager but Cosima never forgot her, "Felix, did I ever tell you about my first love", she asked.

"All the time, it's sickening really", Felix said with a hint of humour in his voice, "bad enough I had to see you lezzing it up with Frenchie but to hear you going on about what you and Cassandra use to get up to-"

"Cassie", Cosima interrupted him, "she preferred to go by Cassie", she drifted away for a moment before whispering, "Cassie Oswald". She had come across several mysteries in the last couple of years but this one topped the lot. This mystery woman was identical to Cassie, except that she was about ten years older. Could they have another batch of clones wondering around the planet?

A/N – Ever had an idea that literally dominates your thought process and the only way to get it out of your head is to commit it to paper? This is exactly what happened with this story. Basic premise is that one of Clara's echoes was Cosima's childhood sweet who died many years ago and what would happen if the real Clara crashed back into town. Setting is post "Day Of The Doctor" for Doctor Who and towards the end of season 2 of Orphan Black. I do plan on adding more chapters but it will be sporadic. Enjoy.