After a trip to the TARDIS, a change back into regular clothing, and a short jaunt the two day walk to the property the Father had told them about, they emerged from the doors of the TARDIS.
"The readings say we will find what we are looking for here," he said in a whisper. The Doctor and Clara walked up to the gates of the small cottage. Smoke billowed from the chimney. It had a small garden in the front and flowers growing all around the trellis and doors.
"It's beautiful," Clara said in a whisper. "A little slice of heaven, like a portrait." She said in awe as they walked through the gate.
"It is an illusion," he said looking around. "A perception filter, if you will," he said looking around the area. "But I cannot see beyond it yet."
They continued up the path toward the house. The Doctor froze, hearing something that was clearly lost on Clara. He grabbed her hand, weaving their fingers together as he listened to the sound. He pulled out the Sonic and scanned the area. Clara stopped as he grasped her hand, ready to run the moment he gave the slightest motion to do so.
"Please, no," Mercy's voice chimed as the Doctor started to scan with the Sonic. Her bell like voice chiming over the illusion as the door of the cottage appeared to open. "Enter and you will be able to see clearly."
The Doctor held onto her hand as they walked toward the door, the Doctor keeping the Sonic at the ready as he took the lead just ahead of Clara. She peeked around his arm to see as they walked into the cottage.
The moment they entered the door the cottage interior was quaint but far too perfect. The wood smooth, the floors polished, no dust anywhere. For a 19th century cottage, it was entirely too clean. He looked around in awe of the room.
"You're a Cedranite," he said in awe. "I've heard of them, but never seen one," he said moving into the room. Her eyes lowered and looked away. Clara looked at the Doctor then to the woman standing near a quaint table and chairs near a small fireplace. A warm glow coming from the fireplace. "The Keepers."
The woman seemed to gather her courage, taking in a deep breath and then shaking her head.
"He was," she said softly. "But he has been too long from the stars." She said honestly. "He is flesh and blood now, but his mind still travels. A true Cedranite can never be seen by those still in flesh bodies, unless they are in one." she said softly. "It was supposed to be temporary," she said softly, sadly as she turned away from them. "Just one life," she whispered. "All of them must spend one life in the flesh, to learn what they feel."
Clara looked to the Doctor with a quizzical look.
"A Cedranite is a being made entirely of energy. They were the inspiration to Rassilon that the Time Lords could ascend into beings of energy, free of the constraints of time and space. He was so short sighted though, even the Cedranites are bound by time and space," he said softly walking up to the young appearing lady before him. "But you dear, are far too humanoid to be a Cedranite," he said with a smirk. "Cedranites cannot take a flesh form that allows communication with the sentient species of the planet," he said softly looking around the room. "Where is he then?"
"Doctor, I don't understand," Clara said befuddled. "Where is who?"
"He is there," she gestured at the bed, or more beneath it. "Where he sleeps. He wakes when I need him," she said softly, her bell like voice coming around the room again.
"The Daleks have it wrong, she is along for the ride," he said softly to Clara. "They are damaging her, to get her to look for me. They have figured out that time doesn't affect her as it should, but not what she really is. They have a small bit of knowledge about me, from her most likely.
"But she isn't the traveler; she's just along for the ride." He said as if lightning had struck, his hands flying to his hair. "Of course! You aren't human at all, but you are stuck in his vision of you made by the Sister of Karn and the Time Lord that brought the both of you here," he deduced.
Clara shook her head. "So she isn't real?" she said arching a brow.
"Oh no, she's real," he said with a smile on his lips. "She's as real as he is, she's his decoy," he said brightly. "They brought her here to protect him. They were not meant to stay. So where is the ship they used, the Time and Relative Dimension in Space?"
"Look around you, Doctor," Mercy said softly. "And I am not a decoy!" Mercy said softly, tears filling her eyes. "I am not just a pawn. I am real," she said as a tear slipped down her cheek. "Mother and Father told me to take care of him."
"Who are we talking about here?" Clara said confused. A low deep growl was her answer as the white bull terrier stepped out of the console under-panel coming around next to the young woman who knelt down to pet and scratch behind the dog's ears.
"Him," he said softly gesturing to the dog who just growled again taking stance between Mercy and the Doctor. "He is the Cedranite."
"Okay, so he is this creature of energy doing a stint in a flesh form to learn about life. So who is she?" Clara said softly.
"I have no name, none I can speak," she answered. "People call me Mercy. I let them," she said simply.
"Why are you staying and letting the Daleks puppet you?" he whispered, concern and confusion in his voice.
"Doctor, if the one person in the universe you loved more than anything in the world could only get home if somehow it attracted your attention, the king of attention deficit disorder," she said with a charitable smile, "you would do anything for them."
"But if he goes home, what happens to you?" Clara said with worry in her voice. Two more tears left the young blond woman's eyes as she looked into the dog's eyes once more, causing him to let out a whine. "I don't know. I live on? I go home? Where is home, Doctor?"
"A Time Lord and a Sister of Karn, neither one very forgiving of the other. Your father would be labeled a deserter of the War, and your Mother a deserter of the Flame of Eternal Boredom," he said shaking his head.
"Eternal Life," Clara and Mercy said in unison.
"That's the one!" the Doctor said with a heavy sigh. "So what are we to do with you?"
"I don't know," Mercy said softly. "But if he remains in this form he can never return to the stars, he can never go back to the untempered schism and soothe the children of Gallifrey, never attend the stars," she said softly rubbing his muzzle as she spoke. "He must, he must go and he knows this but he won't leave me until I am freed, and I must remain captive to find you so he can get home."
Clara took in a breath, her fingers covering her lips as she realized the paradox of their situation.
"The Daleks think she is the key to finding me," he said softly. "They are using the same type of things as the nanocloud on the Asylum to keep her transmitting clue after clue to try and trap me," he said backing up from Mercy.
"You are safe here Doctor, their technology cannot get through the shield around this place," she said softly. "I can only return here after the nanopods burn out of my system. Every time they put them back in, I am forced to travel again. So I go where I know you have been. You weren't supposed to stop in 2013 London, I thought you were moving onto 2014,"she said softly.
"Wait, if this is a TARDIS, why don't you take him home?" Clara said canting her head.
"Human, one heart," she said tapping her own chest. "I cannot pilot the ship. TARDIS?" she said looking at the Doctor.
"Yes yes, Time and Relative Dimension in Space, T.A.R.D.I.S.," he said looking at her with a wide grin. "So how is it you are here now and not being held by them?"
"They use stronger and stronger nanopods to keep me disabled. Send their puppets to keep injecting the pods into my system, but it buys me time to find you. The pods rebuild old and damaged tissue, renewing my body all the while crippling it to keep me compliant.
"But this time here, they cannot touch me."
"What do you mean, you burn them out?" the Doctor said. "Once you are hollowed out by those pods, they turn you into a Dalek," he said scanning her over again. Reading the sonic again he canted his head. "Ooookay, that's just impossible," he said tapping the Sonic on his hand before scanning her again. "The Sonic says "Hello Doctor", and isn't giving me a reading!"
Despite her tears she turned her watery eyes to him. She sighed, closing her eyes and the Sonic began going on and off on its own. The Doctor dropped the Sonic and plugged his ears. "Okay! I get it now!" he yelled. Clara just looked around confused and dove for the Sonic. Picking it up as the Doctor tested unplugging his ears, realizing the offending sound was gone. She looked to Clara who had put herself between Mercy and the Doctor.
"I didn't harm him, just resonated with his Sonic. A bit louder I think than he would have liked," she said apologetically. "I do the same thing to the nanopods, but it takes time. They cycle every 24 hours, but they change frequency and I have to find the new frequency," she said softly. "They started using Cyberman technology, that upgrades itself every time I find the frequency but it conflicts with the Dalek nanopods program to disable me, so I wait until the program conflict creates a new frequency and use it to escape." Mercy explained as she sat down hard on one of the chairs, clearly looking exhausted.
Clara handed the Sonic back to the Doctor and looked to the dog and then to Mercy, then to the Doctor. The Doctor had taken up pacing; putting away the Sonic he took up rubbing his hands together in thought. Clara smiled knowing the wheels were turning in the Doctor's head.
The Doctor stopped dead.
"Is there any part of you out there right now that is being controlled by any of the other races?" he asked honestly.
"Not at this moment, no," she said softly, her eyes looking to him watery and in question of his statement.
"Don't go back to them, don't make yourself vulnerable again. I found you now, there is no need," he said softly as he knelt down beside her putting his hand on her shoulder.
"He needs to go home Doctor," she said as the tears started anew. "Please."
The Doctor sighed. "I will take him home," he said softly. "I need to run some tests on you before we take him though, to see what is going to happen to you." The young woman just nodded.
"It's almost over, soon you can go be free amongst the stars again," she whispered to the obviously beloved dog. "Soon Lanche, you will be free amongst the stars." Although the dog whined, his tail wagged a bit at the same time.
Clara stayed silent, just watching quietly. "What about this ship Doctor? We just cannot leave it here," she said softly.
"No, we cannot," he said honestly. "One emergency at a time." He came over bowing before Mercy and offering his hand to her. She curled her hand into his and stood up, Lanche falling in at her side as they walked out. "First we determine the effects on Mercy, then we determine what to do with the ship."
~~~~~~~~~
The Doctor stared at the screen on the console of the TARDIS, scanning Mercy occasionally, then back to the screen again. Clara sat near Mercy on the edge of her seat with anticipation.
"Well," the Doctor finally said after a hefty time of intense anticipation. "I can find nothing that his separation from you should cause you physical harm," the Doctor said softly. "I cannot say how much it will hurt emotionally," he started to say. One look from both Mercy and Clara had him restating that. "Alright, yes I can," he said softly. "I have a question, Mercy, if you don't mind."
"Of course, Doctor," she answered softly.
"You gave me information, things from my past," he said softly. "You could have just told me that you were coming here, and I would have followed. Why the cat and mouse?"
"The nanopods, they reported back to the Dalek," she said softly. "I couldn't outright tell you to be here. They would find the ship," she said softly. "So the puzzle seemed the best way to keep your attention," she admitted softly, her eyes casting downward. "Not cat and mouse as much as a scavenger or treasure hunt?" she said giving a hopeful glance to the Doctor.
Clara got up and moved toward the Doctor, her eyes full of suspicion as she put herself firmly between Mercy and the Doctor. "Doctor…"
His hands came to rest on Clara's shoulders. "I know Clara."
Mercy looked up the tears slipping down her cheeks. "Just promise me you will take him home," she said softly. Lanche got up and moved to Mercy, tail wagging.
"You don't want us to take him home, Mercy," the Doctor said cryptically.
"You wanted inside this control room," the Doctor said causing Lanche to turn to him and cant his head curiously.
"And now that you're here, what do you want?" Clara said her eyebrow raised as she crossed her arms, canting her hip in complete attitude that radiated 'I dare you'.
"I don't want anything, but you cannot stop him, he is fighting for control now so please get me out of here, take him home, leave me to my fate," she said as tears slipped now only from her right eye.
"Doctor…" Clara whispered. "I don't think hitting her will help this time."
"Indeed not," he said softly, but loud enough for Mercy to hear them.
An evil smirk came over her face, Mercy slowly went to stand up finding herself stuck to the chair. "Oh dear, not this again! What is with you and tying people to chairs!?"
Clara shook her head. "Hello Mr. Clever," she whispered. "Had to know that the Daleks didn't know that they had imprinted you into the nanopods when Mercy kept burning out the ones that were strictly Dalek design," Clara said with a heavy sigh.
"Oh my, haven't you gotten smart," the woman in the chair said with a smirk. "And how did you determine that?"
"The Daleks are not looking for me," the Doctor said simply. "They were looking for Mercy to try and get her time resonance ability. They never figured out it wasn't Mercy doing it because their nanopods could only report what was happening to Mercy herself, not what was around her. They never realized Lanche was the real traveler, but we did."
Lanche backed away from Mercy, a low whine in his throat.
"So you laid a path of breadcrumbs the Doctor couldn't resist," Clara said with a sigh.
"Ok, so maybe your aren't quite as smart as I initially gave you credit for," the Cyber Planner within Mercy said viciously cutting her down. "I told you Doctor, and I will tell you again, you can be reconstructed from the hole in the information you left behind. Unless you kill off everyone you know, you are still so very, very vulnerable." The smirk on Mercy's face didn't sit well on it, like a possessed monster.
"That was all Mercy, Clara," he said softly. "Mercy's cry for help across time," he said softly. "Her body is fighting the Planner even now as we speak, and inside the TARDIS it cannot communicate with the Cybermen, or the Dalek," he whispered to her. "The Planner cannot even get out of her body right now. She has contained him inside herself," he said loud enough for the woman bound to the chair to hear. "The Planner hasn't been able to get messages out for a long time now."
"So we use the same thing you used, yeah?" she asked him in a small whisper.
"Oh sure you can, if you want to kill her," the woman bound in the chair said checking her fingernails boredly, smirking like a villain as she raised her eyes to the Doctor once more. "Unlike his brain, she has no regenerative capability and will surely die with such an intense shock to her brain. Not a Time Lord, remember?"
Clara sighed, looking to Lanche who had his tail between his legs, shaking and whining. Clara looked to the Doctor, a look of realization coming over her face as she knelt down next to the dog. She scratched over his head, behind his ears patting him gently. The Doctor realized what she was doing and went about doing the same. Providing comfort to the scared dog in pats and gentle scratching, and with soft words tried to comfort the dog.
Clara looked up and saw the tears trailing down Mercy's face from her right eye again. "You are scaring him," Clara said accusingly. Her words sounded vicious even in her own ears. Mercy shook her head, mouth open as if the words wouldn't come out.
The Doctor continued to pet the dog as Clara gave this woman a thorough tongue lashing.
"I thought you cared about him! How could you just let the Cyber Planner have you and expect us just to let him home and leave you to the Cybermen? Did you think he could possibly leave you in a state like this?" Clara said harshly.
Mercy's right eye continued to stream tears, then Lanche laid down and tried to cover his ears as the Doctor blocked his ears again. Sound not within human range obviously resounded through the area. Even the cloister bell tolled as the mechanical parts on Mercy's skin became visible, covering a major portion of her face and neck, down one arm and over the boot of her left foot.
"Quadroplegic indeed! You weren't a quadriplegic, you had that, that, that thing in your head!" Clara said angrily. "You were trying to keep him from worrying about you so you hid it from him!" Her eyes instantly softened. "Fight it Mercy. Fight him."
The sound emitted from Mercy became audible even to Clara, getting steadily louder. The TARDIS console began to smoke in some places, sputtering sparks into the air as some of the pieces began to fall away.
"No, you cannot have her! I will kill her first!" Mercy's throat screamed out. Lanche rose up and whined, the Doctor holding him back from going to Mercy.
"No, don't. You have to let her fight this," the Doctor yelled over the commotion. Clara went back to Lanche to help the Doctor hold the white bull terrier away from the woman now writhing in the chair.
The Doctor lunged for the console, pulling the lever with a loud thud. The TARDIS engines flared into life, dematerializing and obviously travelling. The Cyber Planner screamed out angrily again. The pieces falling away started moving around on the floor only to bump into a protective field flaring around Mercy's chair. The sparks continued until the cloister bell began tolling again, and all the lights went out. The emergency lighting came up a few moments later. Mercy was slumped in the chair unmoving, the bits of cybernetics, cybermites and other bits dancing around on the floor trying to find a way out of the field.
A bright, vibrant and pulsating light shone from between Clara and the Doctor, and he grabbed her pulling her away from the light. The light rose up and danced around the room gently swaying through an invisible breeze.
The TARDIS doors swung open revealing the darkness of space, stars twinkling in the distance. The light danced toward the doors, then around the center console.
The Doctor pulled his Sonic and reinforced the field around Mercy, the cybernetics shorting out as they slammed into it trying to escape falling dead to the floor with smoke and burned edges.
The moment the Doctor scanned them he shut off the field on the console and ran to Mercy's side. Releasing her from the chair he pulled her gently down to the floor, checking her vitals, listening for breathing. Clara ran to her other side taking her pulse before rising up and beginning compressions on her chest.
"Come on Mercy, don't give up on us," Clara said continuing the fast compressions on her chest. "Come on!"
The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the fob watches, putting it in Mercy's hand and flipping it open. Nothing happened.
"C'mon Mercy, c'mon, fight this," he said holding his hands around the blond woman's elegant fingers keeping her hold on the watch.
The dancing energy in the room slipped around the console and came to rest over Mercy's still form. The Doctor looked up and then down to Mercy's lifeless form. "Clara, Clara stop," he said softly putting his hands over hers on Mercy's chest and gently lifting them away. Clara's doe eyes dripped tears down her face as she looked at the Doctor stricken as he gently pulled her away from Mercy, coming around her body to be pulled into his arms. She sniffed back her sobs and looked to Mercy's lifeless form.
The light bumped into the console, rising again above Mercy's form.
The image of the Doctor, goofy daft face, ears and leather appeared. "This is a voice interface," the voice said gruffly, as if this was a bother to even be here.
"I provide soothing to the nightmares, I keep the stars, I dance in the vortex, and I have lost my voice." Clara looked at the Doctor then back to the interface.
"It's Lanche, he has no voice of his own, his language is not like ours," he explained softly. "That's not me, it's Lanche speaking." Clara looked back to the interface as the light came to settle directly over Mercy.
"Such joy and fluffiness you were," Clara said gesturing at the very put out interface image.
"She takes away my nightmares, soothes away my fears, battles races that even the Time Lords feared to save me," the interface continued to speak. "She is more of me than I am."
"If you do this, you will never be free again," the Doctor said holding Clara close. "You will be part of her for all eternity, a fixed point in space that can never be undone. You will not dance the vortex, soothe children's pain, soothe the nightmares of children seeing the schism."
"Children of time, children of Earth, children of the TARDIS, children of the Time Lords, Children of the Bad Wolf, Children of the Oncoming Storm, all the same, all the same dreams, seeing the same stars," the voice interface said. "She will not be alone, she will not be afraid, she will be free and in her freedom I shall chase away the nightmares and fears of all."
The Doctor just nodded and held Clara close who was watching all of this. The light paused and the voice interface looked at both of them. "She takes care of you, you take care of her, we are the same." The light became a solid beam, pushing into the fob watch in Mercy's lifeless hand. She arched up screaming Lanche's name as if shocked with a defibrillator taking in a deep inhale of breath as the glow surrounded her body in bright white and golden light.
"Oh boy, here we go!" the Doctor said half in glee, half in fear as he pulled Clara up on the stairs away from Mercy's body. Her body glowed brightly, her back arching as her arms flew out to her sides. Beams of white hot light flew away from her hands, feet, arms and head. Finally it faded leaving her motionless on the floor once more. The interface vanished and Clara was left in the Doctor's arms on the stairs staring in awe at the woman now breathing deeply as if asleep on the floor. Her features were serene, but had changed. She was no longer blond, red haired ringlets surrounded her pale and freckled face. She was taller than Mercy was. Clara stood up to take a better look but was pulled back by the Doctor.
And then, as if a wind had blown from the outside doors, she became nothing but particles and blew away out of the doors of the TARDIS. The doors firmly closed shut of their own accord once the glowing particles were fully gone out into the stars.
Clara looked to the Doctor, who looked back at her. Her face full of questions, and his full of wonder, glee and happiness.