Chapter 11: Ultimatum

The Doctor was gone. Literally.

Momentarily absent from all planes of reality, the Doctor floated in limbo. Light pierced through him, and he shot awake. Darkness clouded his vision as he stirred from unconsciousness. Reality swirled into view and charged him with a spitting headache.

He groaned and shifted slightly on the cold kitchen floor. It felt like he had been out for hours, but with a quick check to the clock, he realized he was only unconscious for less than a minute.

He drew in a deep stabilizing breath and clutched at the screwdriver that had clattered away from his hands. Pain crackled through every nerve, and his legs refused to obey him. Using a chair as a crutch, he hauled himself up with some difficulty, temporarily disoriented.

Realization dumped over him like ice water. He startled to awareness and looked at his hands, praying that his experiment had worked.

An almost invisible sheen outlined his body. It couldn't be seen except when he moved, then it had almost liquid-like qualities, shimmering in the cold January sunlight like a ghost. A perfect perception filter.

It worked. He was ready. The Doctor felt a primal anger stab through his hearts. He pressed the button on the screwdriver to scan the phone to see from where Clara had called. He had the coordinates telepathically in seconds, and he burned them into his mind.

The Doctor shoved the screwdriver into his rope belt and yanked the door open. The icy air caught him almost immediately, but he didn't feel the cold. Hot vehemence surged through his veins. His face was an enraged scowl, eyebrows in full attack mode and teeth bared.

He growled lowly and hopped onto the balcony rail. He spread his wings. The dim light emitted by the windows of the complex enshrouded every feather. The black sparkled with a dangerous sheen like the darkness before a storm. The top-feathers were as black as death itself, highlighted by the thin rays of light filtering through the breaks between layers like lightening.

The blood-red of the underside seemed to be actively bleeding the crimson fluid. It flashed out like the hottest flame, and blared its colors with a warning like one that a venomous creature gives when it wants to frighten away its enemies.

The Doctor was an awesome sight. The furious Angel, the fallen Angel. His face looked as if it could breathe fire and his eyes were a storm. He clutched the balcony rail tightly like a dragon about to take off and made the mistake of looking down.

He was three stories up, and he didn't know how to fly. Momentary fear rocked him, but he immediately shoved it down.

'I'm already dead. What's the worst that can happen?' he resolved.

He steeled himself and prepared to jump. He could easily flounder down and irreversibly damage himself for all eternity on the icy concrete below.

"For Clara." he gritted out from behind clenched teeth, and jumped into the wind.

The wings turned out to be as functional as they were useful, and caught the air currents easily. He soared straight up, high above the building tops. He leveled out and found that he instinctively knew exactly what to do. He calculated the coordinates in his mind in the fraction of a second. Clara was eight streets down, behind the old abandoned Shelley's Department Store.

The Doctor drew his screwdriver from his belt and gripped it tightly in one hand in front of him like Superman. Light snow flurried around him and stuck to his eyebrows. The icy air bit through his thin layers. He watched the cars and people below briefly, milling about their way with absolutely no conception of the flying alien Angel directly above them.

The Doctor brought his wings in closer to his body and dove like a falcon, letting gravity control him. He instantly arrived to the alley and could hear the clamor floating in the wind. Clara was arguing with Missy, and the Daleks were shouting. The Doctor immediately felt his mood brighten slightly at the sound of Clara's voice. They hadn't killed her yet.

He swooped down and aimed his screwdriver at a Dalek mercilessly. He pressed the button, and a sharp whirr emitted from the device. The Dalek screamed and fired in the air. The blast hit the bricks of the old building. Chunks of debris rained down on the horde. The damaged Dalek continued to scream and flail around in circles.

"SENSORY IMPUTS IMPAIRED! I CANNOT SEE, I CANNOT HEAR!" it shrieked, searching wildly with its blinded eyestalk.

By the time the other Daleks fully grasped what had happened to their comrade, the Doctor reared up and took out four more. The screwdriver had an extremely limited range, so he had to fly up to each individual, but a solid shot could completely disorientate a Dalek for a few minutes.

"UNDER ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN! IDENTIFY YOURSELF! IDENTIFY! the Daleks demanded.

Clara and Missy were nearly shaken off their feet by a bumbling Dalek near them. They searched the sky frantically. Something invisible, something in the corner of their eyes was attacking the Dalek fleet.

Clara chased the figure in the corner of her eye, and there the Doctor flew in his full enraged glory. She could see him because she expected to see him there. Protecting her, as always.

"Doctor." she breathed, hope and surprise filling her mind. She could feel his presence, worry and relief flooding in, telling Clara to close her eyes and trust that he would always keep her safe.

She shut her eyes immediately, knowing that he would crash if she continued to look at his flying statue. The Doctor instantly reanimated to life and touched the blinded Daleks, sending them into the time vortex itself where the time winds would rip them to shreds. He wanted to send Missy back too, but found that she had some kind of time shield surrounding her, preventing any kind of space-time displacement.

Everything happened within thirty seconds, and nearly half the Daleks were wiped out when Missy finally took her umbrella and slammed the point into the ground like a staff.

"That's enough!" Missy shrieked, the sound causing everyone to jump. She immediately realized that the Doctor had put a perception filter on himself and saw straight through it once she knew what to look for. The Doctor froze into stone immediately and crashed violently into a Dalek.

Clara covered her mouth with her hands and bit back a sob. That had to have hurt. The Dalek now had a huge dent in its side leaking Dalek blood, and it screamed in agony. Clara knew how hard it was to damage a Dalek even with the best weapons. If the collision could do that to the heavily-armored Dalek, then what had it done to the Doctor?

Missy grinned triumphantly and twirled her umbrella once in victory. A small fire had started somewhere by a damaged Dalek, and the flames reflected dangerously in her dark eyes. She took the tip of her umbrella and prodded the statue, frozen in a fearsome grimace, the wings shimmering like a pool of blood in the firelight. The statue itself didn't seem to have any kind of damage, and she was mildly disappointed.

"Can't kill a stone." she smirked, annoyed.

"It's about time you showed up, Doctor. You're always late to the party."

Clara took advantage of the chaos and lunged for a piece of debris thrown from a nearby exploding Dalek. The metal was Dalekanium, stronger than any earth metal, and sharper than a knife, warped and twisted into a deadly triangular blade. Clara snatched it from the ground, still hot from the explosion and covered in grime.

She growled under her breath and steeled herself for what she was about to do. Clara was going to kill Missy. She was not a murderer, but her hatred for Missy shot through the roof when the Doctor crashed.

Missy had almost killed her with their last two encounters, and had successfully killed many others throughout her long crooked life. Now she was hurting her Doctor, and Clara felt something snap. Clara nearly killed Missy in the graveyards, and this time she would not hesitate to kill her again.

Clara aimed carefully, and threw the metal like a dart as hard as she could with a strength she didn't know she possessed right at Missy's exposed back.

The missile sliced through the air. Clara had aimed perfectly. In its current trajectory, the metal should impact directly into Missy's upper back, hopefully to sever her spinal cord and punch out both of her hearts.

Within a fraction of a second of hearing the projectile whistle through the air, Missy stabbed a button at the hilt of her umbrella. A sound much like one of the warbles the Tardis makes emitted from down the alley.

Inches from its target, the metal halted- frozen in the air. Missy turned around slowly and smirked at Clara proudly. "Not such a damsel in distress as I thought. You really are perfect, Clara." she encouraged with false kindness.

She shifted her gaze to the projectile, "Oh, now would you look at that." Missy gasped in mock surprise, staring down the sharp tip of the shrapnel. "That would have been a nasty hit. I know you're a feisty little thing, but you should be more careful with pointy things, Clara. You might put somebody's eye out someday." she tapped the air around the metal and it rippled like water at her touch.

"How?" Clara coughed. The throw had knocked the air out of her. The freezing air she was trying to breathe in burned and constricted her lungs. Anger and hopelessness stabbed through her, and she looked up at Missy through a fiery haze.

"Time Lock, dearie. Like a bubble of time, frozen in place while the time stream continues to flow around it." Missy explained, admiring her handiwork.

She reestablished eye contact with Clara and reached up. She plucked the metal from the air and weighed it in her hand. Missy smirked wickedly, her scarlet lipstick blurring with her sharp teeth. At the distance where Clara stood, the smile casted the illusion of a bloody set of teeth, ready to snap her up and tear her limb from limb. With that look, Clara knew Missy was done with playing games. She backed away slowly, nearly bumping into a Dalek behind her.

Missy examined the metal and felt the tip. "Dalekanium. Nice choice, Clara. I'd bet this would have taken out just about anything. And what an arm you've got on you, girl. I'm proud of you, sister." Missy smiled malevolently.

She dropped the metal and it clattered to the floor harmlessly, skidding into a small snowdrift against the wall.

"Seize her." Missy ordered the Daleks nonchalantly in an innocent voice.

The Daleks behind Clara instantly came to life, pointing their guns inches from her body. "PREPARE TO BE DETAINED, CLARA OSWALD." a Dalek announced.

Clara held her breath, not daring to move. A million emotions lanced through her mind. Joy that the Doctor had come, hatred for Missy, fear of the Daleks, sadness that the Doctor now laid helplessly as a statue on the pavement.

She choked back a sob at the onslaught and wondered briefly why the Doctor hadn't attacked Missy while she was talking to her. She must have him frozen in a time lock along with the Dalek he injured, she realized, suddenly aware of the absence of said Dalek's screams.

Missy turned back to the Doctor. She closed her eyes, pushed the button on her umbrella, and unfroze him from the time lock for a fraction of a second. She immediately pressed the button again and shot her eyes open. There the Doctor laid, in the flesh. He couldn't turn to stone within the lock, but he could see, feel, and hear everything in real time.

Clara gasped, finally able to properly see him. He physically looked almost exactly as he had before he turned into an Angel. His skin was pink, his hair was silver again and soft-looking. His wings were even more beautiful in this stone-less reality, causing her to catch her breath at their sleek, dangerous beauty.

She studied his face and all the thoughts running rampant in her mind halted. His eyes. She had missed those eyes the most. They were an angry blue, swirling like a bottomless whirlpool into the fathomless darkness in his pupils. He looked alive, he was alive, and she could finally see him for the first time in over a year.

He was hunched over in the position of where he had crash-landed. He didn't seem to have any obvious injuries, but she could tell by the way his mind cried out to hers in the fraction of a second when he was released from the initial lock that he was in agony.

He was crumpled against the pavement, and the snow melted slowly beneath him. His wings were splayed out, casting a shadow over Missy, darkening her sharp cheekbones and the hollows of her eye sockets.

Missy crouched down to his level and grinned darkly. "That was a clever trick, Doctor, with the perception filter. You should have thought of that sooner."

He could hear her every word clearly. Pain lanced through every nerve in his body. He looked to Clara and would have gasped despite the pain if he could. Her eyes. He could see her eyes. They were wider than ever, the deep chocolate pools staring into and melting the ice in his soul.

For less than a second, they made eye contact, and he attempted to reach out for her in his mind. The time lock prevented this, so they just had to rely on reading the millions of emotions streaming through each other's eyes.

For once, he was grateful for Missy's actions. He was in pain, and probably defeated. Missy would probably have the Daleks attempt to kill them both. The situation was beyond grim, but the Doctor and Clara still felt the tiniest spark of hope stir within their three hearts.

Missy continued, looming above him as if she was about to crush him like an ant, "I'd bet you're in agony right now." she crooned in mock-pity, "But I do know you like being tied up like this." she smirked devilishly, and something dark flashed in her eyes, "Isn't that right, Clara, or haven't you gotten there yet?" she turned around and Clara merely stared back at her bewilderedly.

"Seriously? I could have come in at any time. I knew what happened to the Doctor the moment it happened. It was very sweet of him to sacrifice his life to you like that. Of course, he didn't think about how that would make me feel, did he? I was haunted by the shattering of the mental bond for days."

"We had kept that bond for centuries from when we ran together as children. That's why we have never been able to actually kill each other; the bond was still there. Looks like it took someone else to finally kill the Doctor for good. The moment he died, believe me, I knew about it."

Missy continued, frustrated, "I could have come after you immediately, Clara. I could have sent all of the Doctor's enemies raining down from hell onto you, but I didn't. I was nice. I set up all your little incidents, Clara. I sent the robber, I lit the gas in your apartment. I caused all of these things to bring you two closer together once again. I let you two have your little reunion while I watched. I decided to bide my time for a few days. I assumed that you two would have gotten it on by then."

Clara gaped and blushed furiously at Missy's implications, and although he was unable to show it, the Doctor was having the exact same reaction.

"When your little Angel sent me back to the past after I finally showed up, I could have come back at any time. But I waited. I waited two weeks, and I applaud you on your progress. The Christmas dance was very impressive."

"You..." Clara was seething with rage, still bright red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, "You saw all that?"

Missy nodded and winked suggestively. "But, I eventually got tired of waiting and decided to meet up with you today for a little chat. You two can be so violent sometimes. I didn't want to create a fuss. I just wanted to hold a civilized chat." she changed the subject.

She turned back to the Doctor, "I have a plan, Doctor. Don't you wonder how I survived that shot from the Cyberman in the graveyard so long ago? Guess what, I didn't."

"I don't understand." Clara interjected.

"Oh, don't be thick, Clara! Think it through! I died and went to our friendly little Angel heaven and saw many familiar faces. I admit, it was a shock to me too, and old Rassilon was as insufferable as ever." She nodded to the Doctor, "But they celebrated me there as soon as I devised my plan."

Missy cackled and danced as if she were divulging the deepest dirtiest secrets of the universe. "Do you remember the House, Doctor? The sentient asteroid that smells like armpits and eats Tardises? They sent me there, and it took me almost a year, but I built myself a Tardis. You should see her, she's a beauty. She has a few glitches now and then, and looks like the Frankenstein version of a Tardis on the inside, but she is powerful. Your Tardis belonged in a museum from before you were born. Most of the broken Tardises I borrowed from had many new settings to play with."

If he could, the Doctor's eyes would have widened. He looked to Clara, obviously just as surprised as he was. Missy's power had just increased exponentially now that she had a working Tardis. There wasn't much she couldn't do now, and the Doctor's last advantage over the Master disappeared.

"Using the heart of my new Tardis, an abandoned spirit wandering alone amongst the graveyards of her sisters, I rescued her, and used her time energy to revive myself. The time drain caused the House's pocket universe to collapse, and I barely escaped back into ours."

"I was battered, but I was alive. My wings vanished, and I was free." Missy smiled, gesturing with her hands.

"So then I got an idea." she crawled up to the Doctor until her nose was inches from his face. "If I could restore myself with one jury-rigged Tardis, then imagine what all we could restore with two Tardises. Your Tardis has an immense amount of time energy from all the traveling you do, and two opposite time machines colliding with each other should reset the flow of time. Time Lords are connected to the vortex in body and soul. A total vortex reboot should release enough time energy to save everyone. Imagine who we could restore." she said crazily with genuine excitement.

"Remember when I said that Gallifrey was in another dimension, but not lost? I wasn't kidding. The bomb you used to end the Time War was a crude, huge version of a dimensional shift bomb. When it blew, it destroyed the planet and all of its occupants- Daleks and Time Lords alike. It then reassembled them on another plane. It restored everything, except for the lives that were taken that day. An empty planet, remade to the finest detail, waiting to be repopulated."

Missy reached out and cupped his face through the time lock to establish a manual mind-meld, brushing her sharp fingernails over his cheekbones. She stared deep into his soul and telepathically made herself at home in his mind. The Doctor could do nothing but stare right back, a million emotions flashing by in his expressive eyes. Surprise, horror, and hope broadcasted clearly across the telepathic link.

"We can save Gallifrey, Doctor. You and I. The Time Lords can live again, and walk through the thick red grass once more." Missy finished, proud of herself.

"I just need your keys, and I need you to pilot your ship. I can take care of the rest. We can finally undo your mess, Doctor. What do you say?" Missy grinned convincingly.

The Doctor and Clara were beyond baffled. Clara's jaw had dropped so low, she was afraid that she would build up a snow drift in her mouth if she didn't close it soon.

The Doctor's brain worked on overtime trying to process the bombshells Missy had just dropped on him. His emotions and logic ran rampant, and even the searing pain from the crash was smothered by the clamor in his head.

Hope and distrust speared through his consciousness. He didn't think she was lying. The Master was, and always had been, a genius. Now she was asking him to join her side. Considering the possible rewards, the offer was extremely tempting.

But the Time War was a fixed point in time. Any kind of reset on that scale could disrupt the flow of the entire universe. Just restoring Missy shattered the pocket universe, what would restoring an entire race do to their universe? All of reality could crumble at their feet. The chance of success was extremely slim, and who was he to decide who lived and who died? He had made that call centuries ago, and regretted it every day of his life since.

And right there, hunched defeated between a Dalek and frozen pavement, he made the second hardest decision of his life. Missy unfroze him partially and closed her eyes, still restraining his limbs in the lock, to hear his reply.

"No." he grated out, so quietly that Missy could barely hear him. "It will shatter reality. Space and time will fracture, and every other inhabitant in the universe will die. I will not help you commit mass genocide, even if it's to save our own people."

Missy sighed in disapproval and rested her hands on her hips. "I had a feeling you'd say something like that, so I brought a few friends along," Missy smiled knowingly, nodding to the Daleks surrounding them silently.

"How did you manage to control the Daleks? You're a Time Lady. They should have killed you on the spot." The Doctor asked, hissing against the pain shooting through his muscles.

"Everyone has a price, Doctor." she grinned, withholding her secret gleefully. "You'll understand soon enough."

"Dalek sweeties, please escort Miss Clara to her chambers." Missy ordered suddenly to the remaining Daleks.

"What! No! No! Clara!" The Doctor called helplessly, straining against his bonds. "Do not hurt her! You want me, Missy! Let her go!" he growled menacingly.

Missy cocked her head to the side as if she was actually considering what he said. She snapped out of it and knelt to the Doctor's level to snarl inches from his face.

Something murderous and insane flashed in her eyes briefly, and the Doctor matched her gaze with equal hatred as a statue. Missy turned from him and twirled on the spot. "Oh, Doctor! You're always such a party pooper! Just let us have some fun! It's a girl's night out!"

"Where are you taking her?" he snapped at her turned back.

"Oh, don't worry, dear. I'll keep your darling Miss Clara company. She won't be all alone. I'll take good care of her, I promise." she smirked wickedly, making eye contact with Clara and widening the grin.

Clara felt a pit of fear settle in her stomach and siphon the air from her lungs. She swallowed thickly and braced herself. She had to be strong.

"Whatever she wants you to do, Doctor, don't do it! You said yourself that the universe is at stake! That's trillions of lives! Don't damn them all for this one! I'll be fine, Doctor, I know I will. Don't you dare!" Clara cried desperately.

"She will probably torture you and kill you, Clara! Please!" The Doctor pleaded, begging her to let him save her by doing as Missy asked.

"No, Doctor. You have saved me countless times already. Maybe it's my time to go. Let me go. Do as you are told." Clara sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I..." The Doctor struggled for words, forcing down the lump in his throat. He was going to lose her again, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

"I can't, Clara." he choked out quietly, "I need you. Let me save you. Please. I can't bear to lose you again." he hung his head against his restraints and his voice broke. He felt guilty for even thinking that he would sacrifice the entire universe to save Clara, but deep down he that he would do it without hesitation if the situation arose.

"Goodbye, Doctor." Clara whispered, stepping back into the Dalek line and bracing herself for impact.

Missy couldn't help smiling at her handiwork. "Aww, isn't this sweet? You two almost brought a tear to my eye. I almost don't want to send Clara to the Dalek Camps now. Almost."

Missy turned to the Daleks and raised her arms to the sky. "Transport."

"PREPARE THE FEMALE FOR TRANSPORT TO DALEK FACILITY! STAND BY!" the Daleks gathered around her, and a blue light surrounded them. The energy burned at her skin, hotter than any flame, and Clara could feel the transporter beam ripping her body and mind to shreds molecule by molecule. She screamed briefly before she was abruptly silenced.

"No!" The Doctor cried.

The light faded. Flurries began to cover her footprints left in the snow. The wind howled, and silence filled the air. Missy laughed, the Doctor cried.

Clara and the Daleks were gone.