A/N: I've had a great response for the first chapter so I decided to put the next one up early! Please continue to review, follow, and favorite! :)

"So why are we here, exactly?" Clara stared at the gigantic city in the valley below her, the towering skyscrapers gleaming silver in the light of seven moons. Plenty of noise, mostly chatter, drifted up to her ears, but the strange thing which struck her was that there were no lights shining anywhere in the city. In fact, there were no lights of any kind for miles. If it weren't for the moons, she wouldn't be able to see a thing.

"Power out or something?" she tried asking the Doctor again, turning to call over her shoulder.

The Doctor shut the TARDIS door with a familiar creak and buried his hands in his pockets. With a solemn air, he strolled to her side and looked up. "The stars."

Clara looked over at him in question, then followed his gaze into the sky where thousands upon thousands of twinkling dots stood bright against the black expanse of space. "O…kay. Stars. Lovely."

"The answer to both of your questions."

She raised her eyebrows at him and he rolled his eyes.

"You asked why we're here and why the lights are out. The stars."

Clara crossed her arms as a cool breeze blew across the hill. She directed her gaze upward once more. Of course the stars were beautiful, but she would have preferred to be among them rather than gazing at them from down below.

"It's that one, there." The Doctor bumped her shoulder with his and pointed up at the stars.

Clara leaned into the point of contact, letting her mind wander for just a moment. She was so infinitely grateful for him, more than she could ever tell him. Without him, she would be falling apart right now. Without him, she didn't know what she would do.

"You're not even looking. You told me to show you something amazing and you're not even looking at it!"

Smiling to herself, Clara rested her head against his shoulder and followed his finger with her eyes. She noticed one star that was much bigger than all the others, shining a bright blue with rings of red around it. "What's it doing?"

"Dying." He lowered his arm and stepped to the side, depriving Clara of her support. "It's the biggest star in the universe right now and it's about to explode." One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile.

Dying. She never realized how cold, how real the word was until two weeks ago. It would never mean the same thing again.

"But it's dying." She looked at the Doctor to find he was staring at her with wide eyes, as if she had insulted the whole trip. "Isn't that sad?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Do you know what a star does when it dies? It turns into a supernova and sends shockwaves of energy all over the universe." He waved his arm over his head to demonstrate. "And that energy creates new stars." He shrugged. "Or, sometimes it all just collapses in on itself and turns into a black hole, devouring everything and anything around it."

Clara turned on him, slightly concerned and entirely not amused by his callousness. "Are we going to be sucked into a black hole?"

"Oh, no. Not this time, anyway." He crossed his arms and tilted his head up. "Shush. It's starting."

One moment the star was there, and the next it was a burst of light. Red fire erupted across the sky and a tremor shook the planet. Clara wobbled and grabbed onto the Doctor's arm for support.

"The star was so close that they've been preparing for this for years," the Doctor explained in a reverent whisper, his eyes trained on the wonder above them. "The planet is surrounded by an invisible shield to keep out the fire, though not the shockwave, it seems. And any moment now they should…"

A sound rose from the city; thousands, perhaps even millions of voices put together. They began to sing a slow dirge in beautiful, rich voices like angels in a type of harmony and music that Clara had never heard before. The lyrics sounded like English in her ears, and she wished that for just a moment she could hear what the song sounded like in their own language.

O beautiful star, so mighty and bright

Tonight is your end

You've shone upon us for so long

But now your journey is done

Bring not the hole of black abyss,

But grant us with more stars in your dying wake

O beautiful star, so mighty and bright…

The burning sky was blurred in Clara's vision as the song went on. The sadness of it all only made her think of her own sorrows once more. She had always thought that the universe meant life, but perhaps she had been wrong this whole time.

Maybe everything pointed to death.


A/N: Sorry about ending the chapter on such a depressing note...it just sort of happened... Don't worry, more coming very soon!