Chapter 6
They stood, looking down into the hole leading to the twisting complex of channels and cells that was now a scorching firestorm.
"What was that for?" Clara asked, after a considerably long silence.
The Doctor turned to gaze down at her,
"The shadows can be destroyed by fire, so I set fire to them. Nothing more."
"But they… they didn't have to die… they were just lost, said something about a portal, didn't they? They were lost, I think, and you just… you killed them!"
"Ah," The Doctor gasped, "About that… I forgot. And yes, I may have just destroyed all chances of them ever getting home."
"How could you..? That's disgusting!"
"But, and it's a bit but, there may be a few more shadows and there may be some way we can still find the portal and lead them back home."
"You mean, you didn't destroy all of them?"
"Well, there's always that chance…"
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"Maybe should have planned this out…" The Doctor sighed.
"Yeah, that would have been good…" Clara agreed, kicking at the ground.
They both looked around.
They had been searching for ages and to no avail, not a portal or a shadow in sight.
"May I offer an idea?" Clara asked.
"What?"
"Could they be from an alternate universe, slowly leaking into our world? Just a thought that came to me, sounds mad, I know…"
The Doctor looked at her, surprised – maybe, impressed – absolutely.
"Haven't lost your intelligence, I see?" He grinned, "That's a good idea, you know!" And he grasped her hand again, dragging her along.
"Where are we going?" Clara asked, confused.
"The TARDIS."
"The what?"
"Ah, yes, you'll have forgotten that, too, won't you. Not to worry, the TARDIS is my time machine. In fact, you could say it's my home, too. And yours… it's on invisibility mode at the moment though, so- oof!"
He stopped in his tracks, looking as if he had just slammed into something.
"I think we found it…"
The Doctor pressed a button on the sonic glasses and the TARDIS slowly materialised.
"It's a box," Clara said, unimpressed.
The Doctor thought it best to let her stay outside. Forgetting everything, then being revealed to the word and having an alien take you along to his space/time machine that was, in fact, invisible, then finding out if was bigger on the inside might be a smidgen too much for one day.
He entered the TARDIS and hopped out a moment later before Clara had the chance to wander off.
Sonic screwdriver in hand, he turned the time machine back onto invisibility mode.
"Try not to use this thing too much anymore," he said, twirling the screwdriver between his fingers, "But I can make an exception to that. Now, you alright?"
Clara blinked, slowly, at him before smiling softly,
"Yeah, I'm OK."
"Good, let's go!"
"What is that thing?" Clara asked, astonished.
She and The Doctor had used the sonic screwdriver to lock onto alien signals drifting through the air, traced it and eventually pinned it down to an old abandoned house on a misty old street.
A few sparks had been flying out of the wall when they entered, then the signals from the sonic went insane and subsequently stopped.
The Doctor had uncovered a flap where the sparks were coming from.
When opened, it revealed a glistening red combustion. It lit up the dark room.
The Doctor shaded his eyes,
"Seems to be the infamous 'portal' all the creatures keep nattering on about…"
"Shall we go through?" Clara whispered.
The Doctor stuck his hand into the red, flickering thing.
It seemed to suck at his hand and began to drag him in.
He grasped Clara's hand with his other hand and she was drawn in, too…
"Clara?" Was the first thing she heard when she woke, "Are you OK?"
Clara opened her eyes, gradually. She had squeezed her eyes shut when they had entered through the thing, and now her legs were weak and shaking.
"Yeah," she replied, softly, "I'm good."
The Doctor patted her back, gently,
"Good."
He looked around: shadows everywhere.
They flocked about the duo as they had done before, whispering things, eerie things.
'Master…'
'We have another…'
'Take them…'
'Take…'
'Must…'
'Live…'
'So cold…'
And then everything was silent.
Then the noise slowly returned, the cat sounds.
Vision slowly returned.
Around them was dirt, falling off the walls, off the ceiling (it was a high ceiling, too) and a single shadow sat in the centre of the room, larger than any of the others, presumably their leader.
It hissed, not out of its mouth like a cat, but like a deflating balloon.
"Our leader is dying…" The Doctor heard a shadow murmur.
"So what?"
"Save her."
"Oh, it's a 'she', is it? Lovely."
"Save her."
"How do you mean?"
"You know how I mean. Sacrifice."
"Myself?"
"Certainly."
"Don't even think about it, old man," Clara piped up.
"My name," The Doctor demanded.
"I think I'll just call you 'sir'," Clara said.
"Whatever you like," The Doctor replied, sighing and spun back round to the shadow, "And why would I give myself to save your 'leader', what would happen to me?"
"You would die."
"Lovely. And if I don't?"
"You would die."
"Wonderful lot, you are. Think I'll go for option two, myself."
The shadows began to crawl round him again.
"No, don't! Stop!" Clara blurted out, then clapped a hand over her mouth. What had made her say that?
Strangely, the wisps listened to her and released the Time Lord.
"I'll do it," Clara choked, "I'll… save her."
She couldn't control what she said, a feeling just struck her, as if she must save this 'sir'.
"What do I do?" Clara asked, clearing her throat.
"Clara, I'm warning you-"
"Close your mouth, Sir, I'm saving your days here, give me some respect."
"Clara-"
"I'm not her. Not anymore, at least… she might have listened to you, but you have to let me make my own decisions now, Sir."
Clara stepped forward to the apparent leader shadow.
'She' turned to her and two glistening red eyes snapped open to glower at her. Cold eyes.
She slithered toward her, stuck her face in Clara's and made that hissing sound she detested so much.
It crawled into her mouth, between her teeth and down her throat.
The Doctor was glued in place, unmoving.
Partly, he was thankful that she had saved him, but also fairly upset at her ignorance.
He turned to look at Clara… actually, no; it wasn't her anymore, was it?
"Hello, my name's Shadow…"
'She' said, opening her eyes, which were crimson on the iris, the kind of eyes the rest of the shadows had.
"Is she dead now, then?" The Doctor asked, accepting his friend's fate.
"Not yet," Shadow said, inspecting herself, "I'm slowly sapping her life from her, she can still see and hear everything, but she can't speak. When her eyes turn completely red, then she'll die and she won't come back. I will have life again and then I'll discard the body and move on. Bid your 'friend' goodbye."
The Doctor scowled,
"We'll just see about that," he snapped.
"She's been stupid," Shadow sighed, "But I appreciate it."
And she turned to her army of wisps (that's what we'll call them now, so as not to be confusing) and grinned, manically,
"Destroy this man," she commanded.
Cold.
So cold.
That's what it had been like: cold… and exceedingly nauseating.
Clara sighed, but no sound came out of her mouth.
Shadow spoke,
"Hello, Clara, feeling alright?"
"…I'm fine, I suppose…" Clara murmured.
"Oh? You're OK? What a shame…" Shadow replied, teasingly.
She was standing alone in that same room.
Clara could hear Shadow speak, and to Shadow, Clara was just that voice in the back of her mind.
Shadow rolled up her torn sleeves and looked around the room for something.
"What are you looking for?" Clara asked. She found that all she had to do was think to speak. After all, she was only a voice in her own head.
"Ah, here it is!" Shadow smiled, picking up a hand file and wiping it on her corset.
"What are you going to do with that?" Clara queried, cautiously, almost dreading the answer.
"Nothing bad," Shadow replied, and it sounded truthful. It wasn't a lie, as she began filing away at the wheel around her neck, "Then we can get rid of this thing."
She finished filing through one of the wheel spokes and soon started on the next one.
She began to wander in circles round the room, humming as she did, still filing away.
"What are you going to do with me?" Clara asked.
"Being very inquisitive today," Shadow replied, not quite answering her question.
"I said-"
"You already know."
"I…"
Shadow brushed a lump of dirt from the wall to reveal a shiny, reflective surface. Aluminium, it looked like, but not quite.
Clara could see just about see her scarred reflection, mirrored on the metal surface.
"…Look at me…" she murmured.
"I'm looking," Shadow replied, flatly.
"You did that to me…" Clara whispered.
"Not me exclusively. I'm not entirely responsible for what my children do."
"Your… children?" Clara echoed.
"The other wisps… if I die, they die. You're dim-witted: you're saving me, and saving them, consequently," Shadow laughed, "You do realise what you've done, right?"
"…Look at me…" was all Clara could say, "…Broken…"
Shadow stayed silent, then smiled,
"Get used to it, OK?"
A strange feeling surged through Clara's mind. Something flashed into her mind for a millisecond and then disappeared, like she remembered something but then forgot it again.
"Sir will come for me," she said, eventually.
"He's not coming back," Shadow said, a grim smirk on her face, gazing at her reflection one last time before turning away, "He knows you're doomed, and he doesn't want to go to the bother of rescuing you."
"That's not true."
"It is. He doesn't care. Admit it, you know it."
"Liar…"
Shadow turned away and finished filing through the last wheel spoke, then slipped it off.
"Better," she said, simply.
Clara breathed deeply and thought solely about The Doctor… or 'Sir'.
There was that flash of memory again…
It seemed to her as if she was recovering from her temporary memory loss. But she just shrugged it off.
The Doctor frowned. The wisps had dumped him in the middle of
Paternoster row. It was almost as if they knew he was familiar with that street.
He purposely avoided going into Paternoster House.
He knew he had to get his companion back… his foolish companion who ever so thoughtlessly sacrificed herself to save what they were trying to destroy.
The wisps weren't what they initially supposed them to be. They weren't from another universe, slowly leaking into another time stream, they weren't innocent people… they were… monsters.
The Doctor knew his friend only gave herself to save him, not the shadow, but he was still rather incensed towards her.
Still, he could forgive her when he got her back.
If he could manage to get her back.
He didn't know how exactly he could accomplish that, seeing as he couldn't set fire to the leader of the wisps, that would scar Clara… more scarred than she was already, anyway…
He didn't want to hurt her, but he needed to get rid of the shadow… how could that be possible?
Suddenly, he had an idea…
…an idea that would require the use of major inducement.
Memories steadily flowed back into Clara's mind.
Though she'd rather they didn't.
She had witnessed death, suffering and torture, sometimes only created by her own mind, based from sound echoing down the hall.
She tried, desperately, to calm herself but each time she tried to shut her eyes, she found she couldn't and all the revulsion seeped back to her… images of sheer terror that had left her with a palpable sense of trepidation.
"Feeling alright?" Shadow asked, out of the blue, breaking the heavy silence.
"Fine…" Clara spat.
Shadow smirked, an evil smile.
"I hope you die in a fire!" Clara retorted.
"Now, now, no call for that," Shadow replied, almost agitatedly, it seemed like to Clara.
"I always hoped I'd never be the foe…" Clara sighed, "But I am… aren't I?"
At that moment, they both heard a tremendous BANG and Clara's name being called.
"It's him, isn't it?" Clara asked, optimistically, hoping that Shadow would turn around to see where the voice came from.
"I should think so…" Shadow spat, hatefully.
"Take a message."
"So," Shadow started, hitting the hand file on the palm of her hand as though it were a club, "He comes back, does he?"
"Give her back," The Doctor commanded, strictly, "Now."
Shadow laughed,
"Why…" She sniggered, a wicked smirk upon her face, "…Would I do that?"
"Because of me," The Doctor said, expressionless, gesturing to himself.
"What?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow, "You? What's so special about you, huh?"
The Doctor noticed then that her eyes were almost red, the colour seeping out of her irises like blood."The last Time Lord in existence," The Doctor said, "You might have heard of me… does the name 'Doctor' ring a bell?"
Shadow's eyes widened,
"You…" She echoed.
"That's the chap," The Doctor smiled, "Two hearts, Time Lord brain, which is thoroughly overpowered, if I do say so myself. Think of the things you could do with a Time Lord body, eh, Shadow? You could run the world."
Shadow looked as if she was considering this option.
"Think of the possibilities…" The Doctor pushed further, "What do you say, Shadow? Leave Clara alone and take me."
Shadow was silent for a while, pondering.
After a bit, she smiled,
"My pleasure."