{WARNING:I ACTUALLY WILL END UP MAKING USE OF CAPALDI'S TENDENCY TOWARDS WORDS LIKE FUCKWAD. I might write a version utilizing a TARDIS swear filter and post it elsewhere. It all depends on who says what about this story.}
December 17th, 1985
LONDON
The crater was still smoking at the edges; steam rising from a wooden box embedded in the concrete. Teenagers gathered around the object in question, daring each other to touch it. Adults stood nearby, questioning in strained voices if it was a new type of rocket bomb. Some others commented on it as being Goldstein's work. Not far away, a tiny child dressed in what looked like rags ran away in terror, screaming about Eurasian soldiers.
The doors to the box opened up, revealing two figures. One was a young woman of average height, wearing a polka-dotted dress. The other one was fairly tall, and looked to be around fifty years old. They were both standing inches from each other's faces, arguing for everybody to hear.
"YOU tried to cross your own timeline. You yourself told me that you're not allowed to do that!"
The Doctor held up his hands in surrender. "Clara, it was an accident-"
"No, don't give me the 'Oh, it was a mistake' line. You KNEW what you were doing when you said you wanted to go back to Midnight," she shouted at him.
"I just thought you might like the spa!"
Clara shook her head. "Does it look like I travel with you through time and space to end up in a space spa?" She placed emphasis on the last two words.
"No, not exactly. But I thought it might be a nice surprise. I suppose the time I went there...slipped my mind." His expression drooped a bit, admitting a form of defeat. His attention went to studying the background behind Clara.
"I just thought that someone like...like you wouldn't really...forget things. Oh well, what's done is done." She did a quick turn-around, surveying their surroundings at a glance. "At least we ended up back where we started. Made a bit of a mess here, though." She took notice of his face, which seemed to have aged several years. "What is it?"
The Doctor took a hold of her shoulders and, gently, turned her around, lifting her chin to the air as he spoke. "Look again, Clara."
The setup of the structures was almost identical to that of London, but everything was either nearly or completely dilapidated. Cardboard and tape covered a good portion of the windows on the street; the rest were simply left in their broken state. The building to their right was reduced to nothing more but rubble. Looking at the people instead, even they looked slightly off; dirtier and without hope.
"Doctor, where are we?" Clara was still taking in the bleak landscape that encircled them.
"I honestly have no idea." He withdrew from his coat his sonic screwdriver and flipped it about in his hands, his attention still on their surroundings. "That's the problem. Should I ever cross my own timeline by mistake, the TARDIS is programmed to automatically return to its' last known location. By the look of things around here-" he paused to indicate the ruined version of London all around them "-I'd say that we're not where we're supposed to be, but I don't know where this is. The future, perhaps?" He turned around and stepped back into the TARDIS. "I'm going to try to get our coordinates. Clara-"
She was already in motion. With some difficulty, Clara climbed out of the hole and walked over to one of the teenagers, a girl with a heavily made-up face. "Um, hello. Do you know what the year is?"
The teenager lifted up an eyebrow in amusement and spoke in a strange accent. "The year? 1985, o'viously."
Clara looked over her shoulder. "Doctor? Did you hear that?," she shouted in the general direction of the TARDIS.
"1985, yes. Just recently 1985, by the look of it," he replied just as loudly. Faint flashes of light came from the box.
She stepped back in the hole and into the console room, ending up right behind the Doctor's shoulder. "How can you tell?"
He shrugged while he searched through a mess of dangling wires. "Couldn't you see it? Everyone looked sad. People never look that sad unless their year doesn't meet their expectations."
The concept confused Clara a little bit. "That's a thing?"
"For ordinary people? Oh yes." He grabbed a bright pink wire and connected it to a new monitor he had assembled for the console.
The TARDIS was silent for a moment while Clara was thinking out her next question. The only sounds were that of the Doctor attaching wires to the monitor and her shoes tapping on the floor.
"So, how can this be 1985? We just went to London in 1985, and it looked so much nicer than this."
"I'm working on it right now." He turned the sonic screwdriver on and off in an irregular pattern, all the while keeping it pointed at the monitor's power button.
Three tinny beeps came from the monitor's speakers. A strange circular map appeared on the screen which rotated around a red dot. Clara had never seen anything like it before. A string of numbers popped up on top of the map display.
The Doctor's face went slightly pale when he saw the numbers.
"Not again." The words escaped from his lips as barely more than a whisper.
Clara regarded him with concern. "Doctor? What's wrong?"
He looked up at her, still shaking his head. "Clara, we're not in our own universe anymore."