DOCTOR WHO:
ALMOST CLEVER
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
(Contains spoilers for "Twice Upon A Time")
Clara Oswald felt like a precious and priceless toy everyone wanted to get their hands on.
Twice now she had been plucked from her moment of supreme destiny, as if a billion voices had heard the screams that were to come when the raven would pierce her heart and set her soul ablaze.
The first time had been the work of the man she stood before now, her love for him blooming even on a murky torn battlefield. Despite the advance in years, he was still very much her clever boy.
Well, almost clever.
He had ripped her away from Trap Street in a bid to protect her, to prolong her suffering at the expense of the fragile reality. The work the two had put into making the universe a neat and tidy place was in danger of unraveling.
He refused to put things right by leaving her to her fate, he refused to put her to rest that day.
And from then until the day she completed her return trip the long way, days, hours, minutes, and moments were meaningless.
She was frozen, time stood still for her. She could still feel things, but she would tire slowly of the stubborn routine of reality. To see the universe was the rarest of priveleges, but if you walk through eternity, you lose perspective of the splendour.
So she went back, to experiance death all too soon, and it was then she was taken a second time.
A very brief extraction, but one that ensured she would linger on as a memory made of glass.
When the time came to be summoned for a very specific purpose, she jumped at the oppertunity.
"Merry Christmas Doctor" she said as she shimmered into view before the pleasing gaze of her clever boy.
"Clara" The Doctor spoke, his hearts skipping some vital beats in excitement at the sight of her, and the sweeping nostalgia that coursed it's way through his cerebellum.
"Hello, you stupid old man" Clara said, opting to remind The Doctor, in an earnest loving way, of the critiques she had for his past behaviour.
"You're here, you're in my head, all my memories are back" he continued
"And don't go forgetting me again, because quite frankly that was offensive" Clara continued.
She would have liked to have said more, but maybe this was enough. She had helped a fellow memory, one of another companion for her clever boy, prove her point. Now it was the turn of more memories to bid him farewell, so he could go off and associate himself with more living memories that could join her in this life.
A part of her did feel reluctant to exist even in this state. Nothing is meant to linger forever, not even memories.
Yes, memories are preserved with videos, articles, and photographs. Even tombstones remember your name, where you were born, where you died, but the emotional attachment becomes scarser with each generation. All memories are to them are curious oppertunities , a history lesson, something to be taught, not lived or shared.
They say living memories were like experiancing heaven on New Earth. An incredible acheivement, Clara conceeded that it was indeed a clever notion.
Almost clever.