"So, what about that hyperjump-thingy?" Clara asked, circling around the console.
The Doctor stumbled against the console. The TARDIS. He was in the TARDIS. And there—there was Clara.
"Where is she?" he said. Missy. Where had she gone? She'd been so bright, shining there in his dying mind.
"Where is—who?"
He circled around the console, away from Clara. Of course. Everything had reverted. Clara didn't remember. "No one. Sorry. Hyperjump."
"You call it a she?"
"Yes. Problem?"
"No."
Missy was gone. She'd given her life for him. For his universe. In the end, in her own way, she had saved Gallifrey by saving his version of the universe.
Her whole universe would have been annihilated by the blast. An entire parallel timeline, wiped out in a single second. But it was inevitable. One universe or the other. One Doctor or the other. Only one could survive.
He pulled up the scanner. "It's gone. Closed up. Only there for a second. We'll have to try again some other time."
"Oh." Clara moved more slowly around the console and took his hand. "I'm sorry, Doctor. There'll be more chances. Maybe it wasn't Gallifrey anyway."
"You're right, it probably wasn't."
Missy hadn't found another way. That was what he couldn't wrap his head around. They had been the same in every respect, but when it came down to it, he had found another way to save the universe and the Master hadn't. She had still destroyed Gallifrey.
"You okay?" Clara was right in front of him now. Her eyes were doing the thing where they inflated.
"Don't do that. How do your eyes get so big?"
"Doctor. Are you okay?"
It was truly for the better that Clara didn't remember any of what had happened. It was for him and him alone. It was his lesson. The Master could never truly be good. There was always a catch.
"Yes, I am. I'm absolutely fine. You choose."
"I choose—what?"
"Where to next? All of time and space."
She grinned at him.
He allowed a smile back. All of time and space. This was what they did best. He and Clara, but also he and parallel Missy. He would miss her, but he would meet her again, he was sure of it. There was a spark of her in the Missy he knew. Just as there had been a spark of him in his parallel self.
He began to set the TARDIS controls for flight. He banished the thought of the Master from his mind as he whispered to himself, "Until we meet again."
And...that's all folks! Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a review before you go, tell me what you thought of it. Thanks!