'Wasn't that the date of the Battle of Canary Wharf?'

The Doctor's head shot up so fast, Clara wasn't quite sure how it was still attached to his neck.

'We can't be here,' he said urgently. 'Back to the TARDIS. Quick!'

He grabbed her hand and, ignoring her complaints, started dragging her back the way they came. They were almost back to the office that housed the TARDIS when she heard the familiar sound of Cybermen marching.

'Other way,' he urged, spinning them around. Clara wasn't complaining this time. In fact, she was slightly ahead of him as they hurried down the corridor.

They rounded the corner and came face to face with another Cyberman.

'All humans are to be upgraded,' it said with its mechanical voice. 'You will be taken to the processing chamber.'

'Not today, thank you very much. Maybe next time,' said the Doctor, backing away.

'If you do not surrender, then you will be deleted,' replied the Cybermen, raising its gunned arm.

They were close enough to the stairwell door for Clara to open it. Wasting no time she pulled the Doctor through and started running up the stairs. It wasn't long before they reached the top and came face to face with yet another Cyberman. This one however was holding a different sort of gun. Even stranger was the fact that it didn't seem to want to capture or kill them.

The Doctor and Clara stared at it for a moment before the sound of their pursuers on the landing below them brought them back to the situation at hand. The strange Cyberman pushed past them and turned to face its fellow Cybermen.

'You shall not pass.'

Clara and the Doctor looked at each other in confusion.

'What is the meaning of this?' asked one of the Cybermen.

'You shall not pass.' the strange Cyberman repeated, firing its weapon. The two other Cybermen exploded under the firepower and fell to the floor.

'Well, that's different,' said the Doctor.

The Cyberman turned to him. 'You will go,' it said.

'Why did you help us?' asked Clara.

"I did not help you,' replied the Cyberman. 'I did my duty for Queen and Country.'

More Cybermen could be heard ascending the stairwell. 'We will retreat through the breach,' they were saying.

'Through the door! Quick!' shouted the Doctor.


'How are we going to get back?' asked Clara as they raced down another corridor.

'Another stairwell,' replied the Doctor.

The Cybermen seemed to have other plans, however, and soon enough the Doctor and Clara were skidding to a halt in front of three more of them and turning to run in the opposite direction, only to see more Cybermen rounding the far corner.

'In here,' said Clara, pushing the Doctor through a door. Once he was safely through, she took one last look at the approaching Cybermen and then followed her friend.

She had barely closed the door behind her when the Doctor suddenly put his hand over mouth and pulled her behind a desk. He made a "shh" gesture and removed his hand. That's when she noticed that they were not alone in the room. She peered above the desk and almost let out a gasp of surprise at who she saw.

It was the Doctor… but not the one that she had come to know. This Doctor was the one she met in Elizabethan England, the one with the great hair.

Of course the Doctor would have been here, she thought. Who else would have made all those Cybermen disappear?

On the other side of the room was a blonde girl whom Clara didn't recognise. She was about to ask the Doctor about her but stopped short at the way he was looking at the blonde. It was a mixture of fondness and great sadness. On any other man, Clara might have called it yearning. But the Doctor didn't yearn for people. Did he?

The younger Doctor was talking quickly.

'When it starts, just hold on tight,' he was saying to the blonde as they each headed to great big levers attached the floor. 'Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in void stuff. Are you ready?'

The blonde girl nodded and turned to face the window. 'So are they,' she said.

Clara followed her gaze and saw four Daleks flying towards them.

'Let's do it!' cried the younger Doctor just as the older one grabbed her and pulled her further below the desk.

Clara didn't know what the younger Doctor and the blonde girl were doing but she heard a computer's voice say 'Systems online,' and suddenly the Daleks were hurtling out of control through the window and straight over her head.

The howling wind was deafening and soon the cries of Daleks and Cybermen joined it as they all flew through the room.

'The breach is open! Into the void! Ha!' she heard the younger Doctor yell.

'What's happening?' she asked her Doctor, shouting a little to be heard over the noise.

'They opened the void,' he explained. 'The Daleks and Cybermen are being sucked into it.'

'What's keeping us safe?'

'Only things which have travelled through the void are being sucked through, except for the TARDIS of course. She has defence mechanisms for this sort of thing.'

Clara nodded her understanding and peered around the desk. She could see the younger Doctor holding on to some sort of clamp on the wall. Despite his situation, he was smiling. Laughing even. Clara peered over the top of the desk and saw that the blonde girl wore a similar triumphant expression.

'The void is trying to pull him in too. Why not you?' she asked the older Doctor. 'You're the same man.'

'New body means a clean slate,' said the Doctor. 'This body has never been through the void.'

Another Dalek came crashing through the room, missing Clara by inches, and hit one of the levers before continuing into the open void. The lever sparked and began to descend back towards the floor.

'Offline,' said the computer as the stream of Daleks flying into the void slowed down.

The Doctor was looking at the blonde again and made a move to get up but Clara put her hand on his arm to stop him.

'Should we interfere?' she asked, knowing full well that the answer was no. Intervention in one's own timeline could have disastrous consequences. He had told her as much when she had tried to make him save Danny.

The Doctor looked like he wanted to argue but he knelt back down behind the desk.

'You're right,' he said but Clara could tell how much he wanted her to be wrong. She kept a hold of his arm. She had a feeling that this was not going to end well for him - either of him.


The Doctor watched as one of the worst days of his life unfolded in front of him. Rose Tyler, his Rose, was reaching for the fallen lever.

He flinched as she let go of the clamp that was keeping her safe and grabbed hold of the lever instead.

'I've got to get it upright,' she said, using all her strength to try and push it back up. The Doctor wanted desperately to help her. To hold her steady until the void collapsed into itself and she was safe on this side of it where she belonged but he knew he couldn't. Clara was right. They couldn't interfere. Changing this moment would change everything.


Rose had gotten the lever back to its upright position.

'Online and locked,' said the computer and the void was open once more. The last of the Daleks flew by but nobody paid them any attention. All eyes were on the blonde woman hanging on to the lever for dear life.

'Hold on!' yelled the younger Doctor, making a futile attempt to reach for her.

Clara's grip on the Doctor's arm tightened as she watched the blonde girl's fingers start to slip. And then, with an agonising scream, the blonde lost her grip and started to fall into the void.

'ROSE!' yelled the younger Doctor, his screams combining with hers.

Clara stifled a gasp at the audible pain. She heard the Doctor muttering under his breath beside her.

'Any second now,' he was saying. 'Any second now.'

Clara continued to look on in horror at the scene in front of her. Rose was twirling towards the void and the Doctor was screaming until, after what felt like a lifetime, Rose disappeared into the void and it closed in on itself.