"These are not the Silence I've encountered before," the Doctor said darting around the consol, "This is before they started the religious order; they're unorganised and that gives us the advantage. Didn't know they could time travel but maybe they fell through a rift or something; some rifts, like the one in Cardiff, can take you anywhere and any when."
"So what are you doing?" asked Clara, interrupting his rambling.
"The Silent's are trying to cut off my connection to the TARDIS," the Doctor said, "Maybe I can use that against them, if I can just figure out how to block and reverse the psychic jamming signal." He looked at the computer screen. Clara hurried towards him.
"Psychic jamming signal?" she said.
"Yeah," the Doctor said, "I never knew they even had this ability. Course remembering the creatures themselves is virtually impossible but I've learned a lot about their organisation and telepathy was never mentioned. So maybe... Aha!" He snapped his fingers, "Their telepathic abilities get crippled permanently. But how do I do that?"
"How powerful is your telepathic bond with this thing?" Clara asked, ignoring the sound of the Silence trying to smash their way inside the TARDIS.
"Pretty powerful. Why?" the Doctor replied.
"You said we need to cripple their telepathic powers," Clara said, "So what if we all combined our minds with your machine? Is there any way you can get us to link to the TARDIS the way you do?"
"You're already linked," the Doctor said, "But the link's not strong enough. There's only one way I know to make it stronger but if that happens it could destroy all of our cellular structures. But if we can shield ourselves and just absorb enough of it to defeat the Silence...it might work. Wait here!" he charged out of the room and returned a moment later with something that looked suspiciously like a grenade. "Force field," he said, "We can stay connected to the TARDIS but won't absorb all the Time Vortex if we do, as long as you stay inside it. Listen when the Silence break in, you will get the urge to kill all of them on sight. Do not give into that urge because if you leave the force field you'll die." He tossed the grenade to the ground. Nina flinched but Clara simply looked at the device curiously. "Clara, we need to open this hatch," the Doctor pointed to the hatch that contained the Heart of the TARDIS, "Do you think you can hack into it?"
"Are you sure you want me to hack into your time machine?" she said.
"Well I don't think she'll let me see her lady parts," the Doctor said, "But you know what they say; all girls together. Besides she likes you; she has done ever since the Victorian version of you stepped inside her."
"You know I'm bisexual right?" Clara said.
"I can vouch for that," Nina piped up.
"Oh, just convince her to open up!" the Doctor said in irritation, "You've been able to hack into the path web of the Daleks before; this can't be much more difficult. Admittedly that time was different considering..." he stopped, not wanting to say that in one of her lives, Clara had actually been turned into a Dalek.
Then the doors smashed down as the tall, humanoid Silence stepped inside.
"Oi!" the Doctor yelled as a red force field sprang up around him, Clara and Nina, "The TARDIS spent a lot of time redecorating and you just had to ruin her work!"
"You are the Doctor," the lead Silent said, "The Last Child of Gallifrey, The Destroyer of Worlds, The Man Who Will Bring the Silence."
"You know you lot have tried to assassinate me before and you were a lot better at it last time I faced you," the Doctor said, "This time you're literally just smashing into my TARDIS. Where's the fun in that! Oh and it's also very bad manners; you should have waited for someone to answer the door."
"We need to kill these things," Nina said, under the effects of the post hypnotic suggestion to kill the Silence on sight. Despite the post hypnotic suggestion, the Doctor's warning combined with Nina's naturally cautious personality and common sense prevented her from simply trying to rip the Silence apart with her bare hands. Clara was still at the keyboard, seeming oblivious to the Silence since she'd forgotten they were there and was too focussed on hacking into the TARDIS to really pay attention to what the Doctor was saying.
"We will," the Doctor said, "Alright dear, let 'em have, it!" The TARDIS made an affirmative response as Clara hit the Enter key and the Heart of the TARDIS burst open. Golden light exploded out, swirling around the force field. Clara stared in wonder while Nina took her hand and watched the golden light warily.
"The Time Vortex!" the lead Silent stepped back in horror, "You are unleashing the Time Vortex!"
"Yes," the Doctor said, "So say goodbye to your cellular structures. And for good measure, the rest of your species can say goodbye to their telepathic powers." He closed his eyes and linked to the TARDIS. Clara closed her eyes and felt the sentient Time Machine's mind swirling around her. Linking to her was surprisingly easy; it was as though she had been in the TARDIS before, which, in a way, she had.
Clara gasped as she felt the Time Vortex's energy flow into her head. Then she felt the Doctor's mind brush against her own.
"Normally this would be fatal for a Human," he said, "But once the force field goes down, it will suck the vortex energy into the device. Just concentrate on the Silence!" Clara heard deep bellows of agony inside her head as the Silence felt their telepathic connections being severed. Not only was it happening in the present, but also the past and the future too. She felt a little bit of pity towards them. Their telepathic connections to each other were not just being severed; they never even existed and the Silent's were clearly in a great deal of pain as an ability that they used to, and at the same time never had, possessed, was erased. The Doctor's telepathic voice sounded inside her head again, "Time is being rewritten Clara; the entire biological history of the Silence is being rewritten."
The Heart of the TARDIS absorbed the Time Vortex's energy back into it and the force field went down, taking the energy that had been inside the Doctor, Clara and Nina into it. Clara and Nina both staggered, disorientated and unable to remember the experience that had happened to them only seconds earlier. The Doctor grabbed the grenade like device that had formed the barrier and hurled it into the Heart of his Time Machine just before the hatch slammed shut. Then the lead Silent, who was still in the doorway of the TARDIS and whose legs were turning to dust and then atoms before Clara and Nina's eyes, managed to unleash a blast of electricity towards the Doctor's unprotected back.
Nina, in an act of bravery that she hadn't even known she was capable of, threw herself between the electricity and the Time Lord and it hit her full in the chest. Since the Silent was dying it wasn't enough to turn her into ash but it was still a fatal attack. Nina collapsed and the Doctor spun around, just in time to see the Silent, glaring at him with an expression of hatred. Then the Silent turned into dust, then atoms, and then nothing as the Time Vortex eliminated all the cells in its body.
"Nina!" screamed Clara collapsing beside the other woman. The Doctor hastily scanned the dark skinned girl with his Sonic Screwdriver.
"Why did you do that?" he said.
"I dunno," Nina said weakly, "I was being crazy; I don't even know you."
"No, you were being Human," the Doctor said, "That's something I've always admired about your species; you're willing to sacrifice yourselves."
"Is there something you can do?" asked Clara desperately. The Doctor checked his Screwdriver.
"I'm sorry," he said, "The Silent may have been dying but it still had enough strength to unleash that fatal blast. Her body's shutting down."
"No," moaned Clara, "You're the Doctor; there must be something you can do." The Doctor knelt down beside her.
"The shock was too powerful," he said, "At least you can say goodbye; normally a blast from those creatures would turn its victim into ashes."
"Clara," gasped Nina and the smaller girl leaned closer, "Move on...be happy...but don't forget me."
"Never could," Clara said tears falling down her cheeks. Nina tried to say something else but then her heart stopped. Her eyes were still open and she was staring up at Clara but could no longer see. Clara closed Nina's eyes and then leaned down and kissed her, "I love you too Nina," she said, having guessed what she had wanted to say. Then she pressed her forehead to Nina's as she cried.