Liv sat on the couch chair in Clara's living room, growing dizzy as Clara paced back and forth mumbling things to herself. "This has gone in a whole other direction," Liv admitted and leaned back on the chair, eyes drifting to all the different colored post-its set around the living room.

"Shush!" Clara thrust a pointed finger at Liv while she dialed fast with her other hand.

"Clara!" Danny Pink's cheery voice soon answered.

"Shut up!" went Clara again.

"Poor Danny," Liv remarked at Clara's jittery state.

"Is that how we communicate now?" Danny asked, a bit confused yet amused.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up. I need to talk to you!" Clara announced.

"All right. Well, I'll be there in a couple of minutes, so-"

"No, no, Not while you're in the room!"

"Oh, stupid me. The very idea," Clara could almost see Danny sarcastically rolling his eyes.

"Shut up!" Clara went again.

"Okay-"

"Stay shut up. Things to say! Not all of them good!" Clara stopped pacing and took a deep breath.

Oh, wouldn't it be better if I was actually there?"

"Oh, Danny, everything is better when you're here-"

"Aw," Liv laughed in the background but Clara ignored her.

"-but maybe-" Clara glanced back at a series of post-its all lined up on her shelf. "Maybe not this. Okay Er. Okay, before all of that. Before all of the stuff that I did wrong-" she pulled one of the notes that said 'just say it' and sighed, "-I love you."

"I love you," Danny said back, but it was not as good as he thought.

"No, not like that. Not like it's automatic. Not like it's how you end the phone call, the sign off, the pat on the back."

"Clara-"

"Danny, I'll never say those words again," Clara made a promise there and then. "Not to anybody else, ever. Those words, from me, are yours now." But she heard a loud 'crack!' on the other end followed by silence. "Okay, Danny? Er, there's more but that's kind of the headline." Still nothing. "Okay, Danny, please speak to me, This is, this is killing me," Clara bit an index nail.

"If I wasn't already dead I probably would be with these feelings," Liv put a hand on her heart, feeling monumental amounts of Clara's feelings at the moment.

Clara waved her off and tried getting ahold of Danny again. "Danny, I love you. And you are the last person who's ever going to hear me say that."

"Hello?" a woman was suddenly on the other line.

Clara had to pull away from her phone just to make sure she was still on the line with Danny. "H-hello? Who's this?"

"I just picked up the phone, I'm sorry. I found it," the woman sounded in despair.

"Oh. Er, okay. Er, can you please just put me back on the phone to Danny? I was talking to Danny-"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the woman began to sob.

"Okay, er, what are you sorry about? Could you please just pass the phone back to-"

"He was crossing the road. I found the phone, it must have just got thrown. The car, it just came out of nowhere!"

There was a different pang in Liv's heart that she knew was all Clara. Before Liv even got up, Clara bolted out of her apartment. Clara literally ran all the way to the spot she knew Danny had last been. And when she got there, she nearly felt like dying herself.

~ 0 ~

"You ready, then?" Minerva was nervously looking at the Doctor across the console.

"Always," the Doctor gave a firm nod, but even he had to admit he was nervous of Clara's reaction when they told of her (and Liv) of their plan.

They landed right in Clara's flat, thinking they would meet the brunette right on time. However, when the two emerged, all they saw was Liv in the living room.

The blonde woman turned around, looking both relieved and dreadful. "You're...early," she glanced at the clock that read 2:30, just thirty minutes before Clara was expected to arrive.

"Sorry about that," Minerva had also seen the clock.

"Where's Elias?" Liv waited for the toddler to emerge from the box as well but that never happened.

"On the Monsoon," the Doctor responded slowly, exchanging a look with Minerva.

Liv was too delved in her own thoughts to see the bit of knowledge she didn't know yet.

"Liv, we need to talk with you and Clara," Minerva decided to get the story going. It wasn't going to be easy but they had to do it for their son.

"No," Liv said calmly, "I want to talk with both of you first. Please. It's...it's important."

"Right, but-"

"Minerva I am begging you to let me go first," Liv clapped her hands together. "I swear on my half life it's important."

"Okay, fine," Minerva relinquished the authority over to her. "Go right ahead."

Liv sighed. There were many ways to begin to explain, but she didn't feel the energy to go through all the proper ways to explain. She was sure that was Clara's feelings and not hers.

"Liv?" Minerva waited, now a bit concerned. Even the Doctor was detecting something completely off.

Liv licked her lips and just came out with it like ripping a bandage off. "Danny Pink died three days ago."

At first, it was like no one had heard her. The sentence, the statement...it was just...too impossible.

"I-I'm sorry, come again?" the Doctor rubbed his ears.

"Danny died," Liv felt awful repeating the sentence. "He was on his way to talk to Clara and he got hit by car. He didn't make it. Now Clara is a full mess but not even the sort of mess who lets it out like you're meant to. She's bottling in, and she's...she's pushing me away. She's staying at her grandmother's right now."

"So then why aren't you…?"

"She's pushing me away!" Liv flapped her hands at the Doctor. "I can feel-" she patted a hand over her heart, "-her dread. Her endless pain. I can feel it. And it's awful. You have to help."

"What can we do?" the Doctor glanced at Minerva. "It's not like we can go back and save her. It's not the way."

Liv ran her hands through her long hair. "You have to do something! Think if it was Clara-"

"No," Minerva gritted her teeth. "Don't even say that."

"Just, just think about it, please?" Liv once more put her hands together. "Remember the dread you felt when Amy and Rory died and you couldn't go back to save them."

"Yes, exactly, we couldn't go back!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"But this isn't like that! We're talking about a regular human who was hit by a car! You have to know something!"

"Like what!?"

"The afterlife!" Soon as those words left Liv's mouth, she looked to Minerva.

"Oh…" Minerva took the stares with a sway of her head. "Oh, sure. Turn to the only one that actually believes in the afterlife."

"Minerva, I'm serious!"

"As am I," Minerva defensively argued.

"Okay, look," Liv rushed up the blonde. "You always talk and talk about the different afterlives species have. You are always a firm believer-"

"I still am," Minerva calmly clarified.

"Yes! And today is the day to prove it!" Liv exclaimed.

"You want us…" Minerva slowly began, "...to find an afterlife...where Danny Pink might be?"

Liv nodded her head. "Absolutely. For Clara. Because she's like my sister too, Minerva. And I would go to hell and back for her."

Minerva's face softened. "For Clara, you would do that?"

"Yes!"

Silence passed by and Liv couldn't think of another moment where time passed by so slowly.

Minerva took a breath in, meeting the Doctor's gaze. "Well, dear, I've always wanted to find an afterlife. Care to find one with me?"

"I'm never one to deny you," the Doctor turned back for the TARDIS.

"Thank you Minerva, thank you Doctor," Liv sighed of relief. "Really, thank you so much!"

"For you and Clara, we'd do anything," Minerva promised and followed the Doctor into the TARDIS.

~ 0 ~

When Clara heard the TARDIS outside the powell estate, she hoped to God it was just a dream. She didn't want to see anyone, much less them. In the end, however, Liv appeared and forced Clara to come out.

Clara languidly pushed the TARDIS doors open and stepped inside. "What?" she expectantly waited for a good reason to be given on why she should even be there.

"You can kick, you can shout, you can cry, but you're coming with us," Minerva snapped her fingers and the doors shut behind Clara, and since Clara was still so close the brunette flinched.

"I don't want to travel right now," Clara mumbled. She was sure Liv already told them about Danny, and the last thing she wanted was for those pity looks everyone was giving her nowadays.

"This is a special sort of trip," the Doctor promised her. "We're going to Hell."

"Scuse me?" blinked the brunette.

"We're finally making a trip that I've always dreamed about," Minerva pointed, a bit, shamefully, excited. "We're going to the afterlife."

"Or wherever it is people go when they die," the Doctor amended, less spiritual than his wife.

"What?" Clara wasn't sure if her ears were just deceiving her or if they were being serious.

"They're going to try and bring Danny back," Liv took her hand, squeezing it comfortingly.

"We...we can do that?" Clara's eyes drifted back to the other two.

"If there is anywhere. Wherever it is, we're going to go there and we're going to find Danny," Minerva promised her. "And if it is in any way possible, we're going to bring him home. Almost every culture in the universe has some concept of an afterlife so we're bound to find something."

"So...so you're going to help me?" Clara couldn't finish processing.

"If it's possible, of course," the Doctor pulled the lever to get them going. "Now come here."

Obediently, Clara came forwards.

"Switching off the safeguards, turning off the nav-com. Remember, we did this before," the Doctor positioned her exactly where she needed to be. "We plugged you into the Tardis telepathic interface."

"We ended up all over Danny's timestream," Clara recalled the messy trip.

"Because you and he are linked. Strongly linked," Minerva pointed. "Your timestreams are intertwined. So if he's anywhere at all, that link will hold."

"Give me your hands," the Doctor motioned. He took her hands and put them into the orange gloop meant to serve as telepathic connections. "Think about Danny. Think about the man you lost. Let it hurt. Let it burn. But don't bleat. Don't ask, why him? Why me? Forget all that. Ask one question. Just one. Ask, where is Danny Pink now? Where is he now?"

Minerva smirked when the time rotor started again. "Well...the Tardis thinks he's somewhere."

Clara pulled her hands from the console, surprised herself it had actually worked. "Where are we?"

"Nav-com's offline. We'll have to do this old school," Minerva informed after checking the console.

"But this is where Danny is?"

"Almost certainly not. It's where there's a connection with Danny," the Doctor corrected. "According to the TARDIS, this is where it's most likely that your timeline will re-intersect with his. And that won't do."

"What won't?"

"You won't. Look at you. I need skeptical, clever, critical. I don't need mopey."

"Doctor," Liv scolded.

"It put years on your face!" he continued. "And what if people see us together? It looks like you've been melted."

"Pull it back, dear," Minerva walked on by. "You're forgetting the reason why we're here!"

"M-Minerva!" the Doctor went after her seeing she was so prepared to check what was on the other side without care.

They appeared to be in some sort of high maintenance lobby. The place was dark, needing the Doctor to shine a torch with his sonic. Slowly, they made it forwards, ignoring a large urn on a plinth with an eternal flame burning in it. The Doctor shined the torch/sonic on a small plaque with a company logo on it.

"Rest in Peace, We promise," Liv distastefully read.

Minerva stared at the endless glass-fronted cubicles lined on either side of the building. Somewhere off they could hear water running.

"Fish tanks?" Clara stopped by one of the cubicles.

"In a mausoleum?" the Doctor repeated, not too convinced they were in the right place anymore.

They went up the steps to the urn, continuing to observe. Liv scowled at the urn.

"What the hell does that mean?" she winced at her choice of words. "Never mind."

"What it means…" the Doctor came up, "...is that those are definitely not fish tanks."

Minerva shook her head and decided to keep going. Something wasn't sitting right with her. She gasped at the sight of more cubicles, or tanks by this point, with skeletons inside each of them, sitting on a chair.

"Why?" was all that Clara could say after the sight.

"I don't know," Minerva swallowed hard. She was glad Elias was not with them and was just enjoying himself on the Monsoon.

"Okay, I'm assuming they didn't actually drown in there," Liv tapped a finger against the glass wall.

"No. They were placed, after death," the Doctor looked at the rest of the cubicles. "These are tombs. Water tombs, some sort of fluid, anyway."

"With chairs?" Liv stared after him. "Yeah, that's not how the afterlife works."

"And how would you know?" the Doctor countered, turning around. "You haven't exactly gone there, remember?"

Liv crossed her arms, not too amused.

"Oh, God. Am I going to find Danny now?" Clara's heart clenched at the idea. "Is that why the TARDIS brought us here? I don't want to see him like that."

"Good point. Tombs with windows. Who wants to watch their loved ones rot?" the Doctor murmured. "Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to keep watch on the dead?"

"Someone with a plan," Minerva went after them.

"Over here," Liv called, reappearing in front of a book on a lecturn. The Doctor got there first and opened it up, making a cube rise up from it.

"Explanations, I hope," Minerva mumbled as she came up beside him.

Soft music played in the background as a woman's voice began to speak words that scrolled down. "3W. Death is not an end. But we can we help with that. Ever since 3W encountered the truth about the death experience, 'we have been working hard to find a better life for the deceased. At 3W, afterlife means aftercare."

"Okay, bit strange," Clara admitted, even for all this to be an 'afterlife'.

"Very. Why have the scrolling and a voice?" the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Is it difficult?"

"Yes, I don't think she meant that, dear," Minerva patted his arm. "Alright," she began to call in a louder voice, startling the Doctor. "Who ever is in charge here might wanna step up!"

"Minerva-" the Doctor was going to tell her perhaps it wasn't wise to mess with the afterlife's leader when a dark-haired woman passed right through the logo, making it disappear altogether.

"There we go," Minerva's lips curled into a smirk. "And a woman. Even easier!"

The woman, who had stark blue eyes, and was dressed in a Victorian-like attire, came forwards. "Hello," she spoke in an English voice. "I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?"

The Doctor reached for Minerva's arm to try and pull her back but the blonde swatted his hand away. "Well, there is, er, no immediate hurry. We're just, er. We're just-"

"Browsing," Clara said.

"Yeah, yeah, browsing-"

"Please, take all the time you need. At 3W, you always have the rest of your life," the woman assured.

"Riiight…" Minerva drawled. "And, uh, what exactly is 3W?"

"Apologies. Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package."

"Clearly not," Minerva gave a tilt of her head.

And then the woman surprised her with a very hard slap across the face. The Doctor caught his wife in his arms, widened eyes that threatened in the next second. Clara gasped behind and Liv was just confused.

"You hypocrite," went the dark-haired woman with a straight face.

With a hand on her cheek, and mildly disheveled hair, Minerva gaped at the woman. "Oh I don't think so-" she balled her fist that instantly billowed icy smoke.

"No!" the Doctor grabbed her by the waist and turned her around so that his back was facing the dark-haired woman.

"Doctor you better let me down so I can kill the afterlife!" raged Minerva.

"You also have not received the official welcome package," the dark-haired woman looked at Clara next.

Liv then fully appeared in front of the woman, eyes narrowed. "I think the hell not." The woman was surprised to find Liv there. She had definitely not seen Liv yet. "Start explaining before my sister kills you, again," Liv ordered.

"I am Missy. Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface. I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you."

"I'll help you in a minute!" Minerva had stopped fighting against the Doctor and so he turned back to Missy but still kept his arms tightly around Minerva. "Why the hell did you slap me-"

"Aaaah, darling," the Doctor cut in before she said something more.

"I am fully programmed with social interaction norms appropriate to a range of visitors. Please indicate if you'd like me to adjust my intimacy setting," Missy responded.

"I'd be-" Minerva pushed some of her hair away from her face, "-glad to show you!"

"I-I need to speak to whoever's in charge here," the Doctor spoke over Minerva.

"I am in charge!" Missy promptly responded.

"Well, who's in charge of you?"

"I'm in charge of me."

Minerva had lost patience with Missy. "Well, who repairs you? Who, who maintains you?" she angrily demanded.

"I am programmed for self-repair. I am maintained by my heart."

"Your clever words are gonna earn you a snowy smack on the face," Minerva warned.

"Who maintains your heart?" the Doctor tried again but was wearily watching Minerva's fists that were glowing blue.

"My heart is maintained by the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Doctor Chang!" Missy suddenly screamed and walked away.

"I've never wondered if it was possible to kill someone from the afterlife," Minerva released a shuddering breath.

The Doctor reached for one of her hands despite it freezing cold. Feeling the instant warmth of his hand, Minerva immediately dropped the coldness for his sake. She didn't want to hurt him.

A man walked towards them, presumed to be Dr. Chang coming to greet them. "So. Hey. Condolences."

"Condolences?" Liv reappred again, arms crossed.

"It's a mausoleum. It's our hello," Chang explained. "Is there a particular dead person you want to talk to?"

"Plenty, but I think I'll wait before fully moving on," Liv responded in a flat manner.

"Yes, we're quite interested in how you do that appearing trick…" Chang eyed her for a moment.

"She means to say we do have someone to talk to," Clara took her chance to speak with Danny.

"This way then," Chang motioned for them to follow him.

"Are you okay?" Minerva glanced at her, forgetting about her temporal problems for Clara.

"No."

Liv walked back to take Clara's hand and pulled her after Chang and the others. "There would be something very wrong if you were."

~ 0 ~

Chang led the group into an office and the very frist thing they saw was another of the tanks set right at the center.

"Come in, come in. Going to need to take a reading off you," Chang took Clara to his desk.

"A reading?" asked Clara.

"Won't hurt."

"What won't?"

Minerva and the Doctor had gone straight for the tank with a skeleton sitting in it.

"How does the body keep its integrity? Why isn't it just a bunch of bones floating about?" the Doctor desperately wanted to know.

"Each body is encased in a support exoskeleton," Chang responded.

"An invisible exoskeleton?" Minerva glanced at him.

"It's only invisible in the water. There's a specially engineered refraction index in the fluid so we can see the tank resident unimpeded by the support mechanisms."

"So each skeleton is inside something?" the Doctor stared at the skeleton with even more curiosity than before. It sure seemed like a lot of care for the dead.

"Are you serious? X-ray water?" Liv's eyes briefly glanced at the skeleton. "Nope, that's it. I'm never moving on."

"It's so cool," Chang sounded like he was trying to persuade her, despite not knowing her exact situation. "Look at this." He pulled a bucket of dark water from around his desk and set it over for the tohers to see. "We call it dark water." He dunk his arm into the bucket and let the others see how his wristwatch and jacket sleeve vanish. "Only organic matter can be seen through it. I keep saying they should use this stuff in swimming pools." He pulled his arm out and moved for a towel nearby.

"But why?" the Doctor asked.

"Think about it."

"I am thinking about it," the Doctor said, a straight face, "Why?"

"Doesn't matter. 3W, what kind of name is that? What does it mean?" Minerva returned to the desk, slightly on the fence about it all. "What kind of afterlife is this?"

"Well, you know, don't you? You're here on business or they wouldn't have let you in. Sorry. Should have checked. Who are you?"

"Mm," Minerva made a distasteful face. "Sort out your security protocols, they're a disgrace. And throw out that robot you have around here while you're at it."

The Doctor came over with the psychic paper in hand. He handed it to Chang for the man to see.

"Another government inspection? So soon?" Chang's eyes moved up to Liv. "And what's she, then? Some sort of trick?"

"A robot," Liv smirked. "High tech one, thank you very much."

"What does 3W stand for?" Minerva demanded again.

"Well, the three words," Chang said, but no one got it. "Seriously? You don't know?"

"Never mind what we know and what we don't know, just answer our question," the Doctor was close to losing his thin patience as well.

Chang was still hesitant to answer them. "Because people who don't know, when they hear about this, they can freak out."

"I promise you we're not going to freak out," Minerva said, very serious.

Chang glanced over to Clara. "If you've had a recent loss, this might be, this will be disturbing."

"She'll be fine," the Doctor said without a thought.

"Speak for me again, I'll detach something from you," Clara threatened but it just went over his head. "I'll be fine."

"You know how people are scared of dying? Like, everybody."

"But of course, it's the most fundamental fear in the universe," Minerva rolled her eyes at this mundane explanation.

"They'd be a lot more scared if they knew what it was really like," Chang pushed a button nearby on the desk and activated the see-through computer screen. "White noise off the telly. We've all heard it. A few years ago, Doctor Skarosa, our founder, did something unexpected. He played that noise through a translation matrix of his own devising. This is a recording of what he heard."

There came a new sound, that of multiple voices overlapping.

"Okay, people...voices…" Clara said slowly.

"So what?" Liv raised an eyebrow.

"Over time, Doctor Skarosa became convinced these were the voices of the recently departed. He believed it was a telepathic communication from the dead."

"Was he bored?" Minerva crossed her arms.

Chang shook his head. "He was able to isolate some of the voices, hear what they were saying."

"Oh, my bad, an idiot," Minerva corrected herself.

"Minerva," Clara shot her a look to cool it with her temper.

Chang turned off the transmission. "What I'm about to play you will change your life and not for the better. These are the three words which caused Doctor Skarosa to set up institutes, like this one, all over the world, to protect the dead. If you'd rather not hear these words, there's still time-"

"Can you just hurry up, please, or I'll hit you with my shoe," the Doctor asked very bluntly, probably meaning his threat.

Chang sighed and went back to the transmission, re-activtating.

"Don't cremate me. Don't cremate me!"

"There is one simple, horrible possibility that has never occurred to anyone throughout human history," Chang eyed the transmission wearily. "The dead remain conscious. The dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them."

"I'll have to correct you there sir," Liv dropped her words with disgust. "On grounds that I AM am already dead and I didn't feel a thing. All of this-" she wildly gestured to the room, "-is a mockery of all the dead buried!"

Even if Chang wanted to, he didn't understand her. "I promise you this is not a con."

"What's that beeping?" Clara's eyes scanned the area.

"Never mind about beeping. Who cares about beeping? The dead are dead," the Doctor thought this should be an outright logical viewpoint but then again there were plenty of actual idiots out there. 'They're not talking to you out of your television sets. They're just gone!"

"Well," Minerva had to admit that wasn't entirely true. "Maybe not 'gone, gone' but to say that they're still feeling? Please."

Chang didn't respond to their accusations. He went back to the buttons on his desk and ended the small beeping noise. He pulled out a tablet and did a number of swipes until they heard Danny Pink's voice.

"Clara? Clara? Clara, are you there?"

Clara's eyes widened and she nearly ran into the desk. "Danny! I can hear you. Is that you? Oh, please, say it's you."

But just like that, it was cut off.

"Just lost the signal. But I can track it back, I'm pretty sure," Chang took back the tablet to work on it.

"I don't, I don't understand. What is happening?" Clara couldn't believe she'd actually been talking to Danny.

"We've been scanning you telepathically since you came in. You said you wanted to speak to someone who'd passed, and we've found you a match in the Nethersphere," Chang explained while he worked.

"The Nethersphere?" Minerva's eyebrows raised together. "That's what it's called?"

"This isn't possible," the Doctor shook his head. "The dead don't come back."

"Weeeell…" Minerva began but he continued denying it.

"What happened with Liv was a one-time thing!" he exclaimed. "And we all know that this her isn't even her - it's an echo of her soul!"

"I'd be really offended if I wasn't accepting of myself," Liv rolled her eyes at him.

"But it was him. It was his voice," Clara tried to believe it was actually real.

"If they scanned you telepathically, they could've lifted a voice print. It could still be a fake," the Doctor was acting on logical reasons.

"Clara, can you hear me?" they heard Danny again.

Clara practically snatched the tablet from Chang to answer. "Yes, Danny, I can hear you. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. Clara! Oh, God. Clara."

"What do I do?" Clara looked up at her friends desperately.

"Question him. Ask him questions only he'd know the answer to. Be sure," was all Minerva could say. Of course there was a chance that the Doctor was right, and while she hoped he wasn't, she had to be careful and warn Clara.

"You-" the Doctor pointed at Chang, "-with me."

"Where are you going!?"

"Gonna go to check out those tanks, clearly," Minerva saw through the Doctor's head.

"There's something that I'm missing," the Doctor started for the doors.

"I wanna know what it is," Minerva followed.

"I'll just go for privacy reasons," Liv smiled at Clara. "But listen, the Doctor, however blunt he is, can be right. So just be skeptical and critical, remember? Be strong, even if it breaks your heart."

"Connection's stabilised. It should be okay," Chang reassured Clara before getting up and going away with the Doctor and Minerva.

"Who would harvest dead bodies? I feel like I'm missing something obvious," the Doctor was sure he would berate himself after he discovered what he was missing.

"This smells like an evil plan," Minerva sighed.

Of course when they made it back to the gallery and saw the droid, Missy, standing in front of the tanks that now held standing skeletons while also draining itself from its waters, they figured something else was going on.

"Oh, my God. The tanks The tanks are activating!" Chang exclaimed. "They're not supposed to do that."

"I'm guessing the droid isn't supposed to be doing that either?" Minerva cast a glare at Missy. "Not to mention that all your dead are now standing. Skipped the headline again, huh?"

"Now, now, children. Naughty, naughty," Missy turned around wearing a taunting smile.

"Doctor Chang, your welcome droid has developed a fault," the Doctor stared at the woman.

"That's not a droid. That's my boss!" Chang revealed.

"You know, I might have been guilty of a just teensy little fibette," Missy came sauntering closer to them. "Doctor Chang, I really liked working with you. I've enjoyed every day of it."

"I'm sorry?"

"You know, I've even got a little photograph of you looking so sweet. I'm always going to keep it. Always!"

Chang realized what she was getting at and panicked. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Now, come on. Let's not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation, and I'm the one who's going to have to live with that."

"Please don't kill me," Chang stammered.

"Say something nice," Missy ordered ever-so-sweetly.

"Please, please. I don't, I don't want to die. You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"Say something nice."

"Please!"

"Doctor Chang, I've got all day. And I'm not going to kill you until you say something nice," Missy shifted on her hip.

"It has been an absolute pleasure working with you, and I truly believe that you'll never be able to find it in your heart to murder me," Chang did his best effort to put together that sentence in one go.

Minerva thrust a hand forwards and shot ice towards Missy in an attempt to save the man's life. It appeared Missy had been one step ahead of her because soon as Minerva fired she pulled out a small device and ducked, activating the device at the same time and firing a heat ray at Chang.

"Predictable," Missy went as she straightened back up. "As of late, anyways, which is a bit ironic...for you."

Minerva gaped, as did the Doctor.

The Doctor's attention was soon driven to the tanks when he spotted the water level dropping below the top of the skeletons' heads...revealing a silver metal surface. "Cybermen!"

Liv appeared between the two and Missy, staring at the tank in front of her. "We've got to stop them getting out!"

"Oh please someone has got to tell me how this one worked!" Missy was delighted with Liv's appearance, full of curiosity too. "But no, no, business first, right? The Nethersphere. You know it's ever so funny, the people that live inside that think they've gone to heaven."

The Doctor looked up at the globe in the ceiling, making a face as it suddenly became more familiar to him. "That's...that's a matrix data-slice. A Gallifreyan hard drive. Time Lord technology."

"Now how would you get ahold of that?" Minerva dropped her arms to her sides, giving Missy a full frontal stare.

"Imagine you could upload dying minds to that. Edit them. Rearrange them. Get rid of all those boring emotions," Missy gestured with her hands. "Ready to be re-downloaded. Meanwhile, you upgrade the bodies. Upload the mind, upgrade the body. Cybermen from cyberspace. Now, why has no-one ever thought of that before?"

"Who are you?" the Doctor demanded.

"You should know who I am, I thought I would leave an iconic memory in your lives," Missy said, rather put out she was being proven wrong.

"I don't recall sadistic Mary Poppins in my life," Minerva spat.

"Oh, way to ruin a surprise," Missy dramatically sighed at them then placed a hand over her chest. "Two hearts."

It didn't register.

"Two...hearts…" Missy stepped forwards but the two then took the same step backwards.

"You're a Time Lord," the Doctor put the pieces together after glancing up at the sphere again.

"Time Lady, please, I'm old-fashioned."

"Which Time Lady?"

"The one you abandoned, Doctor. The one you left for dead. Didn't you ever think I'd find my way back?"

Liv shook her head. "I'm getting Clara!" and she disappeared.

"I've had enough of this!" Minerva raised her hands, declaring herself out of the conversation.

"Oh right, go away, run away like the cowards the Moontsays are known for."

A deep fury came over Minerva for those words. "Excuse me?"

"Weak," Missy began again, moving for them in slow steps. "Poor. Out of control. Bothersome. Emotional fools. Fragile." Minerva trembled with her fury. But the final word drove it home. "Abominations," Missy stopped a couple inches from her.

The Doctor practically lunged on Minerva to stop her before she actually killed Missy. While Missy laughed, the Doctor fought to bring Minerva back with him, intending on getting the hell out of there.

"Don't bother with the lift!" Missy called, still laughing.

"Stairs!" the Doctor shouted.

"You let me go!" Minerva thrashed against him, but her heels went off the floor with his strength pulling her up. "I'll have her thrown into the dungeon! Last Time Lady my a-"

"Minerva! Control yourself!" the Doctor begged.

"I will never allow myself to be insulted by your idiotic species!"

"Yes, that's fine!" the Doctor agreed. He had no problem with that, but right now he just wanted to get her out safe and sound. He hoped Liv was already getting Clara out too. He managed to sonic the nearest door to the stairs and pulled Minerva out...of St. Paul's Cathedral?

Even Minerva stopped her thrashing to stare at the calm city in front of them. Humans were bustling about like normal.

"Oh, dear, Doctor. Didn't you realise where you were?" Missy appeared behind them.

Minerva whipped her head at the woman, breathing heavily from her small fight against the Doctor.

The Doctor pulled Minerva down the steps. "Get away from here! All of you, run!" he called to the nearest humans.

Cybermen were beginning to march out of the Cathedral.

"Go! Get out of here!" Minerva joined in on the rescue. "Run away!"

But no one listened, especially when Missy came by.

"I'm sorry, everyone. Another ranting Scotsman in the street - that and his pitiful American. I had no idea there was a match on."

"I am gonna throw you in a dungeon!" Minerva turned to her.

"Stop shouting, love. Stop making a fuss," Missy motioned with one hand, all too calm. "It's too late. All the graves of planet Earth are about to give birth. You know the key strategic weakness of the human race? The dead outnumber the living."

"Who the hell are you?" the Doctor came fast and got in front of Minerva.

"Oh, you know who I am. I'm Missy."

"Who's Missy?"

Missy sighed. "Please, try to keep up. Short for Mistress." And still nothing. With a smirk, she leaned closer and whispered. "Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, now could I?"

Missy truly loved the reactions from the two afterwards. It had been just what she'd imagined.


Author's Note:

Here we go...next chapter's the last one! Yah ready? ;)