Talk of TORCHWOOD and familiar faces!

-skwick

Chapter 2 - Call me Ashildr:

"It was an awful lot of books, but not as many as I was thinking. When you said that you wanted I get all your journals which hold all the stories of your life, I thought we were talking billions." Clara sat perched on one of the bar chairs with Ashildr across from her.

"Hm." She said softly, and Clara leaned a little closer. "Bigger on the inside." Ash smiled. "Really?! How did you pull that off?- it's timelord technology!" Clara's eyes widened and she eagerly waited for Ash's story.

"Do you know about TORCHWOOD?" Ash asked. Clara nodded. "Only a little. The doctor told me that they work with UNIT to fight aliens they way he does, but they are humans based on earth."

"Yes. Apparently when I met the doctor for the second time in the 1600s, he warned me about another immortal he'd created, and I decided to seek him out. I found him in the 21st century. Captain Jack and I were friends for a long time…" She was visibly trying very hard to remember. "But I think when I left earth for the first time he wouldn't come with me. Anyway- that's not important. During one of his adventures with the doctor- I don't remember the details- he came to have a case that was bigger on the inside. He and his crew (with my help) were able to track down the exact components to make a large box fit inside a little box. He didn't want to make the tech saying it would 'mess with human's evolution' or something, but I convinced him to let me make my journals bigger on the inside so I'd be able to keep my memories with me, however many I gained. There are one hundred. It took me a very long time to transcribe all of the normal books I had into a timelord one, but when I did what I had took up very little room. Today, there are three and a half left blank."

"Wow! That's crazy that there was another immortal." Clara was fascinated by her companion's stories.

"In the universe, there…" She trailed off. "WERE for me, ARE for you, nine human-immortals. I've met seven of them, two live together hidden from the world and I've only heard of them." Ashildr looked very distant. Like she was trying to hold a kite of people she'd known with her mind but the winds of her long long life kept trying to take it away. "None of them were like me… I know that jack didn't even forget his memories the way I do." She said bitterly. "Four of us were the doctor's fault. I don't even think he knows about-" she cut herself off and glanced nervously at Clara.

"It's ok, you don't have to tell me." Ashildr shared a small smile of gratitude and idly stroked the cat who had hoped onto the bar and curled up between the two women.

Clara caught Ashildr's eye and pointedly looked at the her hand petting the cat. "Looks like you've made a friend after all." Ash scrunched up her nose and pulled her hand away. "Oscar pushes his head under my hand and I pet him without even thinking about it. You can't blame me- doesn't mean we are keeping him." She said defensively.

"Oscar? You named the cat?" Clara smiled wide. "I want it ok recorded that it wasn't me who named him. Once you name an animal you have to keep it!" Ash rolled her eyes- an action that made her look even more like a teenager than she already did. Clara was very surprised Oscar had been able to win over the immortal so quickly.

"Which records would you like to access?"

A monotone male voice said from behind Clara's shoulder. Her eyes widened and she felt her throat tighten. That voice. She shot up to her feet and turned around quickly. She couldn't believe what she saw- she tried to reach out to him but her arm wouldn't move. She was frozen.

"Danny?" She managed to say. Danny just stood there looking blankly past both of them.

"Who's Danny, Clara? Who is that?" Ashildr questioned frantically.

"I am not Danny Pink. I am the Voice interface." Clara's heart sank and she could feel her eyes start to water. "Oh. Um.. yes of course." 'Stupid. Stupid me. That's not Danny. Danny is dead. ...He's dead.' Ashildr appeared at her side. "Clara?" Clara wiped at her eyes fiercely and stepped a little away from Ashildr and the image of her dead boyfriend.

"I am the Voice interface." He Repeated. "Which records would you like to access?TARDIS inhabitants, Trip records, previous maintenance-"

"Uh, we don't actually want the records. But maybe you could tell us a little more about the ship? And why is 'Danny' what you look like? Where did that come from." Ashildr took point so Clara could recover. She felt chilled even though she wasn't susceptible to temperature now that she was dead and all. Clara stood slightly behind Ashildr to shield herself from not-Danny.

"I am programmed to pick the form of a person of whoever sumon's me is comfortable with. Out of my infinite database this one best meets the criteria."

He replied.

"Well, change it! You are not Danny and so you have no right to use his form." Clara all but shouted at the interface. Ash glanced over her shoulder to Clara briefly. Danny changed into An image of The Doctor. He stood there with his crazy hair and attack eyebrows and Clara couldn't breath. (Not that she needed to- but if she did, she wouldn't be able to.) "No. Not Him ether." 'This is my TARDIS, I don't need a doctor in this one too!'

The interface changed to a projection of Clara's mother, Ellie. That she thought she could live with. After waiting a beat as if to see if Clara would protest to this form, the Interface continued. "What do you want to know?" Ellie asked Ashildr.

"Well for starters, I've been wondering, who does this TARDIS belong to? And can Gallifrey track us- do they know where we are?" As Ashildr performed a Q&A, Clara finally shook off her 'seen a ghost' feeling, and she felt like she could talk again.

"This unit belongs to Clara Oswald. Gallifrey has been blocked from Communications and therefore they cannot track our location." Clara let a small smile slip over her lips. The doctor's TARDIS hadn't liked her very much- but this was her TARDIS. 'And Ashildr's' her mind added fiercely.

Unaware of Clara's satisfaction in hearing the TARDIS state itself to be hers, Ash continued "Cut off Communications... who cut off communications?" "I did." Ellie replied. Clara's smile widened. 'You're up for the long way round' too, huh?'

A few hours later, Ashildr was still in the middle of her Q&A with the TARDIS. She had gotten her current journal and was taking notes all lots of topics. Clara had disappeared Into the depths of the TARDIS a while ago, and Ash hadn't seen her since.

Petting Oscar who was on her lap, Ash wrote everything Ellie said down. "Ok. I think I just have one more question." Ash glanced over her shoulder to make sure Clara still wasn't there. "What can you tell me about Clara's… condition? How long can she stay like that? Will there be serious side effects?" Ashildr was worried that having an immortal Clara was too good to be true. She bit her lip Anxiously.

"Clara Owslad has only one heartbeat left. She must be returned to her timeline as soon as possible." The interface explained coolly. Ash's heart sank. 'Surely that's just what she's programmed to say. That can't be true- she's been fine! I saw her die… but goodness knows I came back from the dead! Why can't she have this? Why can't I have this?'

She was still deep in thought when Clara came into the diner once again. Looking over her shoulder Ash saw that she was wearing the Sonic-Sunglasses the doctor had left. "Hey- are you done with your nerding? Can we go on an adventure now?" She strode over to where Ash sat at a Booth. "Yah, Alright."

Clara looked so laid back and happy. Ashildr didn't remember what that left like- she didn't even remember remembering what it felt like. We need the mayflys. That was one of the things that she kept hearing in her head. She couldn't pick out a single other thing from her second adventure with the doctor, but she remembered that. It had made her so mad- why didn't she ever deserve to spend her life with someone? Looking at Clara she thought 'I don't think you'd ever become like me. You'll always be a mayfly.' Even though it was her own thought, Ash couldn't decide if the idea made her happy or jealous.

"Great! So I'd thought we'd go to someplace really cold. I mean- I won't be able to tell if it is cold, but I like snow a lot… What'd you say?" She said excitedly. "Sounds good to me." She slipped out from under Oscar and carried him as she followed Clara to the control room.

"I don't know how The Doctor pilots his TARDIS alone, we barely manage it when we work together." Clara exclaimed as she started pulling levers and turning switches. Gallifreyen was one of the languages Ash hadn't been able to pick up over her long life, so the manual was mostly useless. She had been able out just enough through images and deduction to make the TARDIS a diner, but other than that she and Clara didn't know what they were doing.

Though Ash didn't remember having met Clara before, she supposed that they two of them had 'clicked,' because they could fly the TARDIS together mostly without problems, and it was know that timelord ships had an attitude. "Hold on." Ash said, putting Oscar down. Clara did just that, and the TARDIS went zooming off through the time vortex. The two women

-and the cat- were thrown about the control room before they landed with a shutter of the diner.

"This planet is called Ragous, The Doctor took me here once but we didn't stay for long." Clara was bouncing on her heels with excitement. "When I was here, there was a war between the two countries of this planet. But now, if I've got my timing right, the war is over and the planet is peaceful." 'I've lived so long and yet there are so many places I've never heard of.' Ashildr thought to herself while Clara continued to tell tales of cybermen in the snow. "Well let's hurry up and go explore then, if you are so excited!" Ash cut Clara off. "Yes- right. Ok. But first, we need to get changed."

Not ten minutes later, the two immortals stepped out into the snow in big fuzzy coats and warm boots. Clara waved at Oscar who was meowing at them through the glass door of the diner. She locked the door and the TARDIS vanished. That part still unsettled Ashildr. She placed a tentative hand on the invisible ship and felt the diner wall under her fingers.

Turning back to her, Clara said "Ok. Oh, one more thing." Clara held out her fist to Ash. With a questioning look, She held out her palm to receive whatever it was Clara had in her hand. Clara placed her fist in Ash's hand, and spread out her fingers, lacing them with Ash's until she was holding her hand.

Ashildr stared at their clasped hands. She didn't know what to say or what to think or how she felt. She hadn't touched another person in… in long enough for her to not remember when she last had. Ashildr had closed herself off a billon lifetimes ago, and being alone was all she could ever remember. She had a husband and family when she was very young, and for a long time she had Jack, but she had forgotten everything about anyone she had ever loved. And yet there she stood, in the snow, on an alien planet outside her TARDIS with the hand of another immortal who treated her with so much affection in her own.

Clara's hand was warm despite it being so freezing cold outside- it must have been warm on Trap-street. She was wearing as much snow gear as Ash, even though she couldn't feel the biting cold -Both because neither of them new if the cold could affect her, and because anyone who saw her would take notice of in-proper clothing in this weather. With a giggle, Clara snapped Ash out of her bewilderment. Clara pulled Her along as she started to trudge through the snow. She followed a part of the ground that was less deep than the rest, presuming it to be a road.

They could see the scattered lights of civilization ahead when the reached the top of a nearby hill. They were walking stride for stride as the snow fell slowly around them. "Me?" Clara's small voice disturbed the quiet of the moment. -Ashildr very carefully didn't wince. Even though it was her who insisted her companion call her by that name, she hated the way it sounded coming out of Clara's mouth. It just didn't feel right- like it wasn't her who Clara was addressing. "Mhm?" She responded.

"You don't remember anything about what happened on Trap-street, do you." She said it like a question, but it was more of a statement. "I don't… but you know I know what happened." Clara didn't say anymore for a while, and Ash didn't press it.

Ashildr heard her own voice start to say something before she knew she'd decided to talk. "Clara..." She gathered her thoughts and continued. "You and the Doctor are the only people still alive who met me when I was mortal. I never forgot the two of you, even when I forgot what specifically we had said to one another or what had happened when we were together. I met you a second time, and you died by my power… and now we get this extra- this 'wiggle room,' and-" she didn't quite know how to say what she was feeling. "I guess I just wanted to say thanks. You are one of my only friends in the universe, and I've loved these past few days with you. Because you are my friend, and you knew me before I was who I am now, I think it would be ok… it would be nice if you called me Ashildr." She said tentatively.

Clara rested her head on Ashildr's shoulder as they walked. "Ok." She said sweetly. "And, you are very welcome, Ashildr."