A/N: Hello, dears! So, I wrote this awhile ago, before Death in Heaven came out, in an effort to keep from freaking out. I didn't get very far and I can't continue now that the episode's already aired and I'm afraid of making it sort of like the episode.
I tried to take my Whouffle goggles off. That didn't really work too well.
Though I thought I'd share it with you!
"Y-you can't be the Master! The Master is dead." the Doctor said, staggering backward. It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. While still looking at the woman- Missy - he climbed the stairs, feeling the need to get back inside. Clara, his poor Clara who had just lost her boyfriend and would most likely join him soon if he didn't help her, was in there. "Besides," he muttered, "I don't think the Master would ever choose that form."
Missy smirked, taking a few steps toward him. Every time she took a step forward, the Doctor took one backward. "I see you've changed yourself, Doctor." she spat.
Her smirking face was the last thing he saw before the doors closed behind him.
Clara was pressed up against the door. Her eyes never took from the cyberman. It was taking it's time coming toward her from across the room, almost as if it knew that no one was there to save her. In which it was wrong; the Doctor would save her. He always did.
They had run into cyberman before, back in Hedgewick's World of Wonders. Clara remembered it well. It was back when the Doctor had been silly and childish and had worn bowties and fezes despite the fact that no one did. He had cared for her- loved her, even- and she had done just the same.
But when he had regenerated, it had caused her too much pain. It hadn't been fair to him; it wasn't like it was his fault, but she just kept hoping that the man who had once been the face before him would somehow escape the body he was trapped in.
She had gotten over it quickly. Although it might not have seemed like it, his new face cared for her just the same; maybe even more. He was much more in control of their relationship, which could be for better or worse.
The Doctor was the only thing on Clara's mind when the cyberman had almost reached her. It raised it's arm, most likely to blast her into bits, when the doors opened abruptly behind her and she fell onto the tile floor. A long, tan hand extended in front of her to offer her help to get up, and she took it. His grip was strong; stronger than she would have imagined it would have been.
The Doctor pulled them both down, avoiding the pink blast from the cyberman's arm. It passed through one of the chambers that had originally held the "dark water" and it exploded against the wall, taking a large chunk out of it. He slammed the double doors shut, his hand still in hers, and pulled her along through the corridor.
The Doctor didn't even know how to begin.
What was he suppose to do? Come out and say, "Oh, yeah! The Master, my worst enemy, is probably here to kill us. And, yes, it's Missy!"
No, he couldn't say that. But he suddenly grew aware of his hand in her's and dropped it.
As they turned the corner, three cyberman turned to meet them. The Doctor took her hand again, turning in the other direction. Three cyberman had flanked that side, as well. They were trapped with nowhere to run.
Missy stepped out from one of the chambers, smirking as she saw the two of them. She made a series of gestures, most likely telling the cyberman not to attack her poor little Doctor and his trustworthy companion- the one who had recently gone to great lengths to try to get back her boyfriend, something that involved throwing all of his seven TARDIS keys into the lava in a dream state. He couldn't help but wince at the memory.
She walked in circles around the two of them. "I suppose you haven't told her who I am, then, Doctor." she sneered.
Clara glanced over at him with a questioning face. It was true; he hadn't told her. The Doctor didn't want to scare her; didn't want to make her regret stepping into his TARDIS that first time.
"Well, I'll answer for you." Missy said, pausing to stand directly in front of Clara. She took a deep, teasing breath. "Oh, yes, the Doctor and I go way back." she glanced between the two of them. "I suppose you two do, also, no? I've been watching you, Clara. I know your little secrets and your little desires. And I've picked you well, very well, for my little trap." she smiled widely.
Clara felt a sense of panic. It was her fault they were in this situation. If she hadn't pressed the Doctor this way to save Danny, they wouldn't be here in the first place. Her love with Danny had been a trap. Her whole life had been a trap. If the Doctor didn't care so much about her, he wouldn't have agreed to helping her. Missy had expected for Clara to run to the Doctor for help when Danny died. Everything had slid perfectly into place. And now, here they were.
The Doctor never peeled his eyes from Missy. He didn't know what to do besides just to stand there, watching her, his hand squeezing Clara's.
He couldn't speak. He felt the need to protect Clara, tell her it wasn't her fault, but he knew she wouldn't believe him. Even now, her eyes were trained on the floor, refusing to look at him in the eyes.
And Missy never peeled her eyes from the Doctor. She had a sly grin on her face. He knew she could kill them in just seconds, even without the cyberman, but she didn't. That got the Doctor's mind whirring. He breathed steadily, challenging her to do something. She took one step after another towards him until she was standing so close that their noses almost touched.
"I see I've caught you off guard." Missy says, her eyes narrowing.
The Doctor swallowed. "Why don't you just kill us now?!" he asked allowed, winning a slap on the arm from Clara. He looked down at her to finally meet her gaze. She gave him a look that said what do you think you're doing?
He poked Missy in the chest. "I know you, Master. Why haven't you killed us yet?"
Missy's laughter rang through the air. She returned the poke in the chest. "Because, Doctor, you have the key." and with that, she waved the cyberman off.
The Doctor already knew what she meant. Missy- The Master - wanted his TARDIS for herself. It wasn't like the TARDIS was his; he had stolen it; but the Doctor and she now had a great bond. She claims to have stolen him and not the other way around.
The Doctor couldn't let it happen. His expression intensified. "You know I won't give her up willingly."
"No," Missy replied, her smile growing wider. She clapped her hands twice. Two cyberman came around the corner, each one taking one of Clara's arms and yanking her hand away from the Doctor's.
"Get off me!" she screamed, her voice cracking. She repeatedly tried punching the cyberman in the chest, but it only made her fist throb in pain.
"Clara!" the Doctor yelled after her. He started running, but the double doors slammed shut behind him. She was gone. He turned to face Missy, his eyebrows twitching in anger.
"Oops!" Missy said sarcastically. She walked off in the opposite direction, disappearing behind the corner. The Doctor followed after her.
Danny's whole body shook. It felt as if his whole life flashed before his eyes. He saw his mum; his poor mum, who hadn't even heard he'd died yet. He saw images from the war in Afghanistan and the horrible experience where he'd killed the little boy without even meaning to.
And he saw Clara, beautiful Clara Oswald, who had walked into his world. She'd lied to him. She kept running away with another man on wild adventures all across time and space without him.
He loved her, and despite her telling him the same, he felt as if she wasn't saying it to him, but the Doctor. He felt like he always needed to go the extra length to impress her, but no matter what he did, she was never impressed. Clara had caused him so much pain and she didn't even realize it.
He pressed "delete". His body immediately broke out in a horrible pain. It felt like he was on fire, which he wouldn't doubt. Danny's arms turned to black crisps and his screaming stopped.
Seb, still smiling, walked calmly over to his crippled body. He brushed away the burnt crisps of his forehead, almost like it was a routine, and extracted the brain from his body. He then walked out of his office.
Clara struggled against the grip of the cyberman. She tried yelling at them repeatedly, but she was quickly reminded they didn't have any emotions. She sighed in defeat. She still didn't understand who Missy even was, except for the fact that the Doctor knew her and had an interesting relationship with her.
There were six cyberman in all in the room with her; three guarded the front door and three guarded the back. She'd already tried pushing past them to get to the door, but they would just raise their arms, like they were going to shoot, and she would run back into the middle of the room and curl up into a ball until she felt like getting back up.
Clara didn't know if the Doctor would save her, this time. He seemed too caught up in Missy, at least back in the hall he did. Her heart swelled when she thought of him. She hoped he was alright wherever he was.
Missy knew the doctor was following her before she even heard his footsteps. She whipped around to face him as soon as they were in front of two big metal doors.
"Give her back to me."
She smirked, walking up to him and cupping his face with one of her hands. "You're so cute when you're protective." she faked a pouty face and turned back towards the metal doors, opening them.
The Doctor saw his precious ship in the arm of a crane being dragged across the room. His eyes widened, and when he turned to Missy, he found her already smirking.
"Give up your key now, Doctor, and no harm will come to Clara."
He growled at her and the lines on his forehead became more noticeable as he furrowed his eyebrows. He fingers the string in which the key is attached to around his neck, tempted to just give it up at that moment.
But that would have been stupid. Without the TARDIS, there would be no escape for either Clara nor him. They would get shot down by cyberman before they could even get out the door. He would have to find another way to get her back.
Perfect.
Absolutely perfect is how Missy would describe it.
She leaned down into her arm where a communicator was hidden while the Doctor was distracted. He was staring wide-eyed at his TARDIS, his hands fidgeting at his sides. She remembered him doing that in his previous face.
"Code 977." she whispered almost silently, but she knew they would hear. They always hear.
Clara was now backing up slowly. Three of the cyberman had left. Three remained. And those three were slowly advancing toward her, teasing her, repeating, "Code 997" in their deep robot voices. What was Code 997? She had a feeling she was about to find out.
In a matter of seconds, she was almost towards the back of the room. Then, the advancing three stopped. They raised their arms up, slowly, steadily.
"Delete Clara Oswald! Delete! Delete!"
A sudden panic grew in her stomach. What had the Doctor gotten her into this time? She was now going to be dead, and it may as well be his fault.
She didn't know where the idea came from, or why she even followed through with it.
Clara took a confident but shaky step forward. The sound of her heel against the tile floor of the room erupted across the room, so it seemed to her.
"I'm not Clara Oswald." she said, "Clara Oswald has never existed!"
She had tried to sound confident, but she wasn't sure if she had. The blank cyberman faces stared back at her, their circular blue eyes giving nothing away.
She stepped forward and poked the chest of the middle one. Still, it didn't move.
Clara let out a giddy laugh. She had confused the stupid metal thing. Now, she could do what she did best. Save the Doctor.
Missy's attention turned back to her communicator when she heard it beep once loudly. That wasn't supposed to happen.
She looked down at it, her surprise building. The three cyberman had shut themselves down!
The things were so hard to trust. One minute, they're killing Clara Oswald, the next, they've shut down. A noise of frustration sounded in her throat and she bared her teeth.
She would have to find another obstacle for her.
Selene had never run faster in her sixteen years of life than she had now. There were these metal robots-metal things- that just came storming out of the building. No one was prepared for them. People lay in unmoving clumps all around her. She knew her mother was one of them. While she had had time to escape the local library, some others hadn't. Her mother was among the others.
One of them had it's robotic eyes trained on her. She could feel it. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight.
They were everywhere, the metal things. She had to move carefully to avoid getting killed. She sniffed and ducked into an alleyway. The cyberman walked straight passed it.
She took this time to get a good look at what was going on. Selene did not like what she saw.
It was complete chaos. There were more metal people then there were actual humans. She whipped her head back around and scrunched into a ball behind the trashcan that was keeping her cover. Two of them were passing by the alleyway. They stopped. She could barely breathe.
After about a minute, the two robots seemed to lose interest and stomped off again. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. The two metal people stopped again. They turned toward the trashcan and shot at her through their metal arms with incredible accuracy.
The next thing she knew, she opened her eyes. Selene was in a calm office space. "TIA" the name card read on the desk read.
A woman with straight black hair that fell down to the ears sat at the desk and smiled. "Hello. Welcome to the Promise Land."
It was hard to believe that there were actually real people's brains inside the cyberman. As Clara ran for her life, she detected no sympathy, no kindness, no emotion in them. They still had the order to kill her, and they didn't seem affected by it one bit, emotionally or physically.
All she knew was that she had to find the Doctor.
The labyrinth of hallways she made her way through were confusing, full of dead ends. It was easy to bump into one.
She finally heard groaning metal and the sounds of footsteps running hard. It was coming from around the corner.
When she walked another step, she saw her. Missy, standing in the doorway, gazing out of it. The Doctor was running towards his TARDIS, and she was letting him.
"You know, my dear, he chose the TARDIS over you." she smiled as though she was facing Clara, but her back was to her. How had Missy known Clara was standing there? She hadn't been very noisy at all.
"That is of no concern to me." Clara claimed, trying to sound confident. It actually made her hurt inside, the fact that the Doctor had chosen to save his ship, the stupid thing that didn't even like her, over her. She tried not to show it.
"Of course it is, Clara. We both know it." Missy says mockingly, stopping directly in front of her, almost as if sizing Clara up.