AUTHOR'S CHATTER: This might be the last chapter in a while. I adore writing this fic and these characters, but like it or not school starts up again on Monday. I'll write what I can, though I know it's probably a better idea to be writing up one of the billion essays I really should have done by now.

Thanks a bunch to everyone who's followed/favourited/reviewed already! (Who doesn't love Shona?)

She woke up in a web. Some stringy stuff that looked like spider silk was wound around her wrists and ankles, fastening her to the web behind her and keeping her hanging.

Clara was hanging opposite her, just waking up too. She looked at her surroundings and sighed loudly in exasperation. "Can't ever just have a normal day out, can we?"

Shona looked down, which made her even more dizzy. A huge pit stretched down below them, so far she couldn't see the bottom. Nothing but a few strands of silk was stopping her from falling down there.

When she spoke, her voice was faint and hoarse. "I said I wanted to hang out, I didn't want this..."

Clara sounded similar. "Yeah, me neither. 'Safest planet in Andromeda'..."

"Because we keep it that way."

A holographic screen appeared between them, floating in mid-air. A man in a black suit, face covered by his eight multifaceted, shimmering spidery eyes, stared out at them both. He was flanked by two thugs in balaclavas, their pairs of human-looking eyes looking like they meant business.

"You have been deemed suspicious and are being held captive for the safety of all inhabitants of Kraxos 5. Your trial awaits shortly. Do not attempt to escape! "

The screen vanished.

"I hadn't even finished my curry," Shona lamented. "If the Doctor had been with us, then-"

"Then we'd probably still be trapped here, only with the Doctor as well." Clara sighed. "Don't attempt to escape, huh? Now that is just temptation."

"What, are we going to escape?"

"Hell yeah we are!" Clara looked at her, smirking as if she was about to try something dangerous. Then the smirk wavered a bit. "But we'll have to think up a way of escaping first. Can you see any way out of here?"

Shona turned her head around, peering through the gaps in the web behind her. "Uh, there's some lever thingy here. And a door, there's a door! It doesn't look like there's a lock on it."

"Of course there's no lock, no point in having one if we can't get out of these bloody webs!" She shook against her restraints in frustration. Nothing happened apart from the web bouncing back and forth a bit. "How much can you move, Shona?"

She wiggled her left wrist, her right wrist, her left ankle, her... "One of my ankles is a little loose!" She wiggled that a little more, bumping the web binding against the top of her shoe and loosening the laces each time. Good thing she was never any good at tying her shoes.

With another tug of her foot, the shoe came off and tumbled into the pit. Now she could take her sock-clad foot out entirely , maybe even reach the door handle with it. She could probably get space shoes or something anyway.

"Can you reach anything?" Clara called over.

Shona tried bouncing the web. No good: it would bounce back and forth but not up and down, meaning the door handle was out of reach. She could reach something else, though: "What d'you think this lever does?"

"No idea! Is there anything written on it?"

"Nope! Should I whack the thing down anyway and we'll see?"

"But what if that drops you into the pit?" Clara looked at Shona's free foot: "You don't want to be following your shoe down there!"

"I'll grab on!" she yelled. "To the lever or something, I don't know!"

"Are you sure that's safe?" Clara was looking at her like she was mad.

"No!" And with that, Shona swung the web and herself back far enough that she could bring her foot down on the lever and send it down. Just as it clunked into the off position, the webs around Shona's wrists and ankles unravelled to nothing and she fell, grabbing both hands onto the bottom of the web just in time.

She let out a laugh in relief. "I'm free!"

"Shona, you know that was incredibly dangerous?"

"Yeah! Great fun too!"

Clara laughed. "That's the spirit!"

"Alright, your turn!" Shona climbed back up the web, one hand on the sticky silk after the other. She reached the top and turned her body around to face Clara: "I'm gonna jump!"

"Shona, what? No!" Too late: she was already bouncing herself back and forth on the web to build up momentum. As it came forward, she leapt forth, soaring across the empty air between them and clinging to whatever her hands found on the other side. This turned out to be a strand of web for her left hand and Clara's ankle for her right.

"Okay, that was even more dangerous. I don't think even I would have tried that." Clara sounded disapproving, but the smile on her face betrayed the truth.

"Good thing you've got me then!" Shona grinned back up to her. She climbed up this web, bringing her body through a big gap to be on the other side, then clutched the lever: "I'm gonna let you go now! Ready?"

"I s'pose so?" Even though she probably did things like this every day, she still sounded nervous.

Shona decided to do something about that. "Hang on to me!" she said, reaching up to take Clara's hand with her own free hand. She clasped it tight, no intention of letting go. "I'll count you in! Three... two..."

"One!" Clara's bindings disintegrated, and she swung her other arm round to grab onto the web. Still holding Shona's hand as if her life depended on it, she tried manoeuvring herself through a gap in the web to the other side.

"That'd probably be easier if you let go of my hand," Shona told her.

With a little reluctance, she did.

There was a door on Clara's side as well. Just as she'd predicted, it wasn't locked. Together, they left the room for good.