CHAPTER 10
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A STAR'S WRATH
Just as the TARDIS landed at UNIT HQ, Rose suddenly appeared in a burst of golden energy at the doorway. The Doctor knew from the expression on her face that she wasn't just there for a visit. He knew that something was wrong.
"I'm so glad that I caught you before you went outside," Rose said.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked getting to the point.
Rose looked away from Clara with a guilty look on her face as she said, "Clara can't go on this adventure with you, Doctor."
"What? Why?" the Doctor asked confused.
"That's what I'd like to know. What is this?" Clara asked upset.
Rose took a deep breath and then walked over to her friend and looked her straight in the eyes as she said, "You know that I can see the future, right?"
"Yeah, you have mentioned it about five hundred times since I first met you," Clara said trying to smile despite how upset she now felt.
Rose placed a sympathetic hand on Clara's shoulder as she said, "I'm so sorry, Honey. I don't want to make you stay in the TARDIS but you have to. Just this once you have to."
"Why? Tell me what you've seen in my future," Clara said.
"I can't go into too much detail for fear of changing things that shouldn't be changed. There is one thing that I definitely will change though if I can help it. I've had a vision that you're going to die soon. If you go out there, you definitely will. Your only chance is to stay in the TARDIS until this particular threat that Martha has called you about has been dealt with. I want you to promise me that, Clara. Promise me that you won't leave the TARDIS until this is over with," Rose said in an emotional voice.
"How much of a chance is there that this will happen?" the Doctor asked.
"Ninety-nine percent. I've never had a vision of the future that likely to happen before. At this moment, an agonizing death is Clara's most likely future, and the only way that she can avoid it for sure is to stay in here," Rose said.
Clara started to shake in terror, and Rose immediately felt awful for doing this to her. She didn't want to scare her, but she also didn't want her to die either. Both she and the Doctor would be completely devastated if they lost her. She really was just like a member of their family now, and they both loved her dearly.
"I'm sorry, Sweetie. There's nothing to be worried about though. Just stay in the TARDIS and you'll be perfectly safe," Rose said in a soothing voice
"I need to be out there in order to protect him. He needs someone to watch out for him," Clara protested.
"I can do that, Clara. I did it long before you were born," Polly said.
"I suppose so. I mean you are immortal so we know for sure that you can't die," Clara said sounding defeated.
"How do you know . . ." Rose started to say and then she looked at the Doctor and saw the recent past play out before her eyes.
"Oh, how tactful of you, Doctor. Way to break it to her gently," Rose said chastising him.
"Now you're acting just like Clara. What did I do?" the Doctor complained.
"You told Polly that she was immortal like you were discussing the weather. You should have broken it to her gently. You don't just blurt something like that out without preparing someone for it first," Rose said.
"I'm sorry, Polly. I didn't mean to upset you," the Doctor apologized.
"It's alright, Doctor. What I don't understand is why no one told me about this sooner," Polly said.
"We couldn't tell you until Mary and Alex had left because we didn't want them to know what your granddaughter Polly was going to do to you. We didn't want their knowledge of that to change the future. It would create a paradox. I was going to tell you after they left, and then I went into labor and things just escalated and grew worse from there. I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner," Rose explained.
"So I really am immortal? I can't be changed back? Does that mean I'll be like Jack then where I'll come back from death no matter what happens to me? I'm not sure I want that," Polly said shuddering.
Rose looked from Clara to Polly with guilt as she said, "Well, It looks like I'm really depressing and frightening everyone today. I'm so sorry for that. Yes, you're like Jack now. You'll come back to life no matter what is done to you, and you'll never die. The good news is that you won't become a giant head though like Jack did. That's something, right? Your granddaughter didn't mean to do this to you, Polly. It happened because she had never done something like that before and was too inexperienced with her power to heal you properly. She made the same mistake that I did with Jack. She brought you back to life but did it forever by making you a fixed point in time. She'll become very upset about it when she finds out according to my future self, and she'll refuse to use her powers again for a while because of it. I probably shouldn't have told you even that much, but I just wanted you to know that no one did to this to you on purpose."
"I never believed that they did, Rose. That poor girl. I hope she's alright," Polly said.
"She will be. Don't worry," Rose said.
"So I guess I'll just stay here then. I'll just stay here and be useless," Clara said depressed.
"Stop that. You're never useless, Clara Oswald," the Doctor said as he put his arms around her to comfort her and kissed her forehead.
Rose smiled at his display of affection as she said, "That's right, Clara. I want you to stop feeling sorry for yourself. I mean what was that about trying to sacrifice yourself to the Shadow because there were other Claras? You may not believe it but you're special, Clara. You're just as special as all of us are. You're not a copy or a knockoff. You're different from even your echoes or Oswin. They may all be similar to you, but none of them are you. Just because you've been split into other selves or there is another version of you from another timeline that doesn't mean anything, and it doesn't mean that we don't need you or wouldn't miss you if you were gone. Why do you think that I came here to warn you for? I can't lose my Clara. I've already been through that, and I was an emotional wreck. The Doctor was even worse. I mean he stopped traveling, Clara. He was so depressed he actually stopped traveling. What does that tell you about how much we need you?"
Clara smiled and felt better than she had since the day that she met Oswin as she said, "Thanks. I needed to hear that. Your Clara, huh? I didn't know that I belonged to you, Rose."
Rose surprised Clara by wrapping her arms around her and kissing her cheek as she said, "You're like my own child, Clara. That doesn't mean that I think you're a child or that I think of myself as your mother. What it means is that I think of you as highly as I do one of my own children, and I'm just as protective of you. You're my family, Clara, and I love you."
"I love you too," Clara said in a touched and deeply emotional voice.
The two women embraced as the Doctor and Polly both smiled at the tender scene before them. The Doctor hoped that this cured Clara of ever feeling inferior or not worthy of being alive ever again. He should have known that Rose would help her. She always was better at domestics than he was.
"Well, hopefully I've made everyone feel better now so I guess I'll go," Rose said.
"Do you have to?" the Doctor asked starting to pout.
Rose kissed him as she smiled at his pouty face and said, "Yes, I do. I'll be back though. Don't worry about that. I could never leave that face for long."
The Doctor smiled in triumph and said, "Still got it."
Rose shook her head at him with an amused grin on her face and then she said, "Clara, stay here. Polly, take care of him and keep him from hurting himself."
"Do you want her to change his diaper too?" Clara joked feeling in a much better mood now.
"No, he should be able to do that for himself now. He is 1200 years old now. Or are you older?" Rose said mischievously.
"Are you?" the Doctor shot back at her.
"Don't even go there if you value your bow ties and your fezzes, Doctor," Rose said.
"You wouldn't dare," the Doctor said.
"One word, Doctor. I just need one word to stop you. Flamethrower," Rose said smugly.
"You're . . . you're . . ." the Doctor said pouting.
"Pick your next words carefully," Rose said as her eyes started to glow ominously.
"You're so uncool sometimes," the Doctor said.
Rose laughed at him and gave him a tender kiss then she disappeared in a burst of golden energy.
The Doctor's pout was now transformed into a large smile. Rose's kisses always did that to him no matter how bad a mood he was in.
"Come on, Doctor. Martha's waiting. She probably thinks that we're never coming out," Polly said.
"I'll see you two later then. Good luck," Clara said.
The Doctor and Polly exited the TARDIS to find Martha there already waiting for them. The Doctor could tell that Martha was visibly surprised to find Polly with him instead of Clara.
"What happened to Clara? Is she alright?" Martha asked.
"It's a long story. Let's just say that Rose said she had to stay in the TARDIS," the Doctor said.
"Oh, it's that Bad Wolf doom and gloom stuff that she always does then. That's too bad. I think Clara would have loved this one. I'm happy to see you too though, Polly. Don't get me wrong," Martha said.
"Oh, good. I was beginning to think that I was chopped liver. Here Clara thought she was the useless one," Polly said.
"Now don't you start too," the Doctor said.
Polly laughed but said nothing. The Doctor smiled as he realized she was just playing around with him and wasn't really mad at all.
Martha smiled at their playful interaction with each other as she said, "I called you here, Doctor, because several of our night watchmen for this base have been found missing lately, and the only trace that we've found of them is their burned outlines into the wall. That's not all though. We also have this."
Martha pulled out her cell phone and played a video for the Doctor and Polly that showed a man with glowing eyes facing another man who was shrinking away from him in terror.
The man with the glowing eyes said, "Give me back what was taken from me."
"I don't know what you're talking about," the horrified man said as he crouched on the floor in absolute terror.
"Give me back what was taken or burn," the man with the glowing eyes said.
"I don't know what you mean or I would give it to you. Leave me alone. Leave me alone," the terrified man said.
"Burn with me. Burn with me," the man with the glowing eyes said, and then he set the terrified man on fire with the touch of his hand.
Polly looked away in horror as the man burned alive and screamed in agony. The Doctor immediately became outraged and was determined to prevent any more needless deaths right away.
"It's the same thing that we encountered on that ship in the future, isn't it? It's a sentient star possessing and killing people," Martha said.
"Yes, it certainly seems to be. I have no idea what it could want this time though. What could have been stolen from it? Do you have any idea?" the Doctor asked Martha.
"The only thing that I know is that it thinks that we have something that it wants. It always searches through a different part of the base every time it kills someone because we find things thrown about and burned where it has been. It's searching for something, but I have no idea what," Martha said.
"We have to know or there's going to be more killing. That's the only way that we stopped one before was to give it back what was stolen. It seems that the only way I'm going to find out the truth is to ask the creature itself directly," the Doctor said.
"How are we going to do that? It's not like we have its phone number, Doctor," Polly said.
"No but I have another way of communicating with it. I was once possessed by one of them and that opened up a psychic link in my mind. I've long since shut that off, but if I can just tap into that and call it back here with it then I can find out what's going on," the Doctor said.
"Either that or it'll wind up possessing you through it again and use you to kill both of us," Martha said in alarm.
"Well, yes, there is that chance. It's very small though. I'm sure it won't come to that," the Doctor said confidently.
"I'm not. You're not doing it, Doctor. That's final. I told Rose that I'd take care of you and I meant it," Polly said stubbornly.
"That's right, Doctor. We'll come up with something else. Something slightly less suicidal," Martha said.
"This is the only way to get the creature to communicate with us without someone else being possessed or having to die first," the Doctor said.
"You're not doing it, Chin Boy. Got that?" Clara's voice said over the TARDIS' outside speaker.
"Clara, are you listening to everything that we say on the monitor?" the Doctor said surprised.
"You bet your life that I am. I may be stuck in here, but that doesn't mean that I'm being totally left out of the action," Clara said.
Martha and Polly both laughed as Polly said, "I should have known that you'd find a way to still be a part of things somehow."
"I'm very clever, Polly. Nothing can keep me down for long before I find a way around it," Clara said.
"Fine. Eavesdrop on my conversations then," the Doctor said.
"You're just mad that I'm not agreeing with you," Clara said.
"I am not," the Doctor said like a pouting child.
"Do you have any better ideas then getting ourselves all killed?" Polly asked Martha.
"Well, our scientists at UNIT think that we've discovered a frequency that we can use to communicate with the creature. It's based on the energy emissions that it gave off whenever it appeared. I'm not sure if they're right or not, but it's worth a try," Martha said.
"Let's do it then. That sounds far less dangerous," Polly said.
"It's far less efficient too. I bet that it doesn't even work," the Doctor said skeptically.
"I guess we'll soon find out," Martha said as she pulled a small device out of her pocket and turned it on.
It emitted a loud noise as it began broadcasting on a special frequency that Martha hoped would bring the star right to them so that they could talk to it. Part of her hoped that it would be a no show though because she still had nightmares about her experiences with the last star that she had come across.
"That's why I wanted you here, Doctor. I didn't want to use this thing without some heavy back-up to help me when the star came," Martha said.
"Is it working? Nothing seems to be happening," Polly said.
"Oh, it's working alright," the Doctor said in a voice suddenly filled with pain and worry.
Martha knew that tone in his voice. She had heard it once before.
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. She thought to herself in terror.
"Martha, Polly, it's inside of me again. It must have chosen me because I've already been used by one of its kind before. That made things easier for it. I can hold it back for a little while but not forever. You have to get away from me. Get into the TARDIS. Now!" the Doctor warned as he quickly closed his eyes.
Then he began screaming in pain and when his eyes opened again they were glowing. Martha knew that it was already too late. This time the change had happened even quicker than it had before.
"Martha, run!" Polly said as she stood directly in front of the Doctor.
"No, don't," Martha said.
"Trust me, Martha. Go! Get in the TARDIS!" Polly said forcefully.
Martha started to run toward the TARDIS promising herself that the Doctor would be able to hold it back. He'd never hurt one of his friends. She was sure of that.
"Polly, you need to go too," the Doctor said through clenched teeth.
"Oh, no. I'm staying right here to give Martha time to get to safety. I want to be the first thing the creature sees if it takes control before then," Polly said.
Just as Martha reached the TARDIS, the door opened and Clara quickly jerked her inside. The two of them then screamed for Polly to get in.
It was already too late though.
"Burn with me," the Doctor suddenly said and Polly screamed in pain as the flames started up all around her.
"Close the door!" Polly screamed.
The two of them did so quickly as Clara raced to the controls. She had never done a short hop in the TARDIS before so she really hoped that this worked.
"What are you doing?" Martha said thinking that Clara was leaving.
"Saving Polly a lot of pain I hope," Clara said.
Meanwhile Polly's body was instantly healing itself just as quickly as the fire burned her so that she wasn't being instantly incinerated. She wasn't exactly in good shape either though. She was in a perpetual state of agonizing, almost constant pain instead, and she couldn't get away because her arm was quickly caught in the Doctor's now vice like grip as soon as she tried to leave.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor apologized in tears.
"It's alright. It's not your fault," Polly said through gritted teeth.
"I've already burned people alive before, Polly. I never wanted to do it again especially not to someone that I care about. I can't stop it though. I can't stop!" the Doctor said in an agonized voice.
"B-b-better me than Clara and Martha," Polly said as the pain became even worse for her now as the star within the Doctor escalated its attack.
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said as she screamed louder and louder.
"I forgive you. I know it's not you doing it," Polly said even through the pain.
Clara silently cursed as she saw the Doctor's iron grip on Polly's arm. She couldn't pull off her plan as long as he held onto her. This wasn't going to work.
"Don't worry. I'll help rescue her," a woman's voice said from behind Clara.
She whirled around in surprise to see a dark-haired woman with a slightly mad expression on her face smiling at her.
"Who are you?" Martha asked.
"More to the point, how did you get in here?" Clara asked the woman.
"My name's Sexy. I'm always here even when I'm not," Idris said.
"What? Was any of that supposed to make any sense?" Clara asked.
"Tell Fractured Girl that I'm going outside to distract my Thief so that the other girl can escape," Idris said to Martha as the doors to the TARDIS automatically opened for her to leave.
"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Martha asked still very confused.
"I don't fancy her," Idris said in a matter of fact manner.
"What? I don't even know you," Clara protested.
Idris walked outside even as Clara and Martha looked at each other in complete astonishment. Neither of them had the slightest clue what had just happened.
Idris walked behind the Doctor so that he couldn't see her and then without a moment's hesitation she bit him. The Doctor screamed in pain and surprise and immediately let go of Polly.
Polly then found herself suddenly inside of the TARDIS which had just materialized around her. Clara smiled as she realized that not only had her plan finally worked, but that she had done a short hop all by herself for the first time.
Polly instantly collapsed to the floor of the TARDIS unconscious as soon as she realized where she was. She had been running on pure adrenaline and willpower before so when she knew that she was safe she had finally let go. All of the pain had just been too much for her to handle.
"Polly?" Clara asked with worry.
Then her attention was immediately diverted away from her unconscious friend as she could feel intense heat radiating from the TARDIS doors. She instantly backed away from them as she and Martha pulled Polly along with them.
"Kill all of you and incinerate me. Then it will be time for all of us to say hello," Idris said as she suddenly appeared behind Clara and made her yelp in surprise.
"What?" Martha asked.
"That's the answer to the question that you were just about to ask," Idris said.
"Give me back what was taken from me or you will burn!" the Doctor shouted. He was now completely under the star's control.
"My front doors won't be able to stand much more of that. Even I can't survive the heat inside the heart of a star," Idris said.
Clara's eyes opened wide as she realized exactly just who Idris was now. Rose had told her that the TARDIS' consciousness could assume human form when she wanted to.
"It's you. You're the TARDIS!" Clara said.
"You're the TARDIS?" Martha asked in disbelief.
"Get us out of here. Dematerialize," Clara commanded.
"I can't leave. I've been caught up in events. All I can do is make another short hop," Idris said as the console lit up, and the TARDIS dematerialized at her silent command.
As soon as the TARDIS landed, Clara saw that they were in a storeroom from the monitor. She immediately heard the Doctor burning his way through the door to the storeroom and knew that they didn't have long before he was at the door to the TARDIS yet again.
Clara opened her mouth to ask a question of Idris, but Idris beat her to it as she said, "It's in here."
"What the star is after?" Clara asked.
"Yes," Idris answered.
"What is it though?" Martha asked frustrated.
"I can't tell you. You'll have to find that out for yourself or as my favorite child says, 'Spoilers!'" Idris said with a huge grin on her face.
"Thanks for being absolutely no help whatsoever," Clara said sighing.
"I often feel the same way about you," Idris said with her nose up in the air.
"Why do you hate me so much?" Clara demanded.
"You're too hard to keep track of. There are too many of you. You're everywhere and everywhen. You make even my head hurt trying to keep up with all of you. I imagine that you even know more than I do about the timelines when you put your heads together," Idris said winking at her.
"What? Was that a hint? Is that how I find out what it wants? I ask my other selves?" Clara asked.
"Spoilers," Idris said again with a large enigmatic smile all over her face.
"I really don't like you," Clara said scowling.
"There's no time for this, Clara. We have an entire warehouse to search for something, we don't know what, that will save us from the star before it burns through the door and gets in here. We probably only have about five minutes or so before that happens so get busy asking questions of your other selves. Hurry!" Martha said.
"It's okay, Martha. We'll have it all figured out in no time. I've been in worse scrapes than this before," Clara said confidently.
"Really?" Martha asked.
"No, not really. I think I've been hanging around the Doctor too much. I'm starting to lie as much as he does," Clara said sighing.
"It was a positive lie though. I think I'll choose to believe it for now," Martha said.
"So will I," Clara said smiling.
Then Martha started searching through the warehouse in a hurry for anything that looked like it might be even remotely useful in making the star go away. Meanwhile Clara stayed inside the TARDIS as Rose had asked and silently asked every version of her that had ever existed for some help on finding out what the star could possibly want.
Idris meanwhile began fading away as she said, "My job here is done. I have protected them just as my Wolf asked me to. Now the rest is up to them. I really don't feel confident about leaving it all up to Fractured Girl though. Oh, well. Maybe she'll surprise me and actually do something right for a change."
"Oi! I heard that!" Clara said as she scowled in the direction of Idris' rapidly fading laughter.
Martha smiled in amusement at Clara for a moment as she looked at her through the open doors of the TARDIS and then started searching through the many boxes around her once again.
"Thanks for nothing," Clara grumbled as she went back to talking to her other selves.
They didn't have time to waste. The Doctor would be through that door at any moment now. They had to find whatever the star was looking for. What was it though?
What could it possibly want?
Next: The answer to that question is revealed in the next chapter. It may just cause double the headaches to our heroes though once it's revealed. Now there's a clue for you. We'll also see just why Rose wanted Clara to stay in the TARDIS.