Later, Clara walked into the console room as the TARDIS landed. There, she found the Doctor, the Woman, and River, who had a hand on his shoulder.
He looked up as she entered. "How is your neck?"
"Better." She smiled slightly, but then it faded. "Doctor, what will happen out there?"
"I don't know." The Doctor said. "But, I guess I'm okay if you and the Master…" He gestured awkwardly as he tried to get his point across.
"Like each other?" River put in.
"Yes, thank you. Maybe he's not as bad as he used to be. Maybe… the impossible girl has done the impossible thing of making him love. But, if I hear anything about him laying a finger on you, then so help me, I will…"
Clara ran and hugged him. "Thank you Doctor."
The Woman sighed. "Young love. So beautiful, yet so tragic sometimes."
The Doctor straightened his jacket. "Well ladies…" He nodded toward the door. "Our death awaits us."
They stepped out of the TARDIS, and Clara was immediately lost in awe.
They were in a large, circular room, the ceiling of which arched hundreds of feet over their heads. The roof was made out of glass, and the burning orange sky was visible, casting fiery light down upon them The walls were carved with many Gallifreyan symbols, some so big they covered a hundred feet. The floor was made of a shiny, black, marble-like substance, which seemed to glow slightly in the orange light.
"Marvelous, isn't it?" The Woman murmured.
Looking ahead of her, Clara saw a group of people walking towards them. They all looked like humans, even though she knew better. There were all wearing brightly hued orange and red robes, with funny crested headdresses and red caps. The one in the middle, however, wore no headdress and his robes had a darker hue, the edges of which were lined with gold. On his left hand he had a giant metal glove thing, which Clara decided didn't look very nice. He looked considerably older than the other Time Lords, and his hair was grey.
"So Doctor," The older Time Lord said. "We meet again for the last time, I hope."
"Rassilon." The Doctor greeted simply.
At that moment, the Master's TARDIS materialized next to the Doctor's. The Time Lord stepped out somewhat stiffly.
"Are you okay?" Clara whispered.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, though his voice sounded slightly strained.
Clara knew he was lying, though she didn't question the matter further due to the situation they were currently in.
"…you are to be tried for your crimes by the High Council and executed." The apparently Head Time Lord was saying coldly.
The Master cocked his head. "Really? Because it didn't go like that the last few hundred times."
"Shut up!" The Doctor hissed at him. "Don't make it worse than it already is!"
The Time Lord turned to the Master. "You never did learn how to respect your elders, did you?"
"Why should I respect you?" The Master stared at him coldly. "You may bear the title of Lord President, but that's not what you are. Sure, I may have done some bad things in the past, but you have killed Time Lords for much less. You would kill the Woman simply for opposing your plans to destroy earth!" He gestured at her. "All she wanted to do was save six billion humans!"
"These are the last days of the Time War." The Lord President said. "All morals are forgotten now. Any who threaten the survival of the Time Lords must die!"
"What about them?" The Doctor gestured to Clara and River. "They are not children of Gallifrey."
The Lord President shook his head. "I don't know what it is with you and those little beings from earth. You always drag them into the worst situations."
"That's right. I got them into this. They are not to blame for any crime that may have been committed against you."
"Now hold on just a second!" River took a step forward, but the Doctor stopped her.
"Do you want to die to?" The Doctor muttered.
She smiled. "Who says we're going to die here?"
The Lord President gestured to them with his metal hand. "Take them to the council room."
Five Time Lords stepped forward and grabbed them roughly, leading them off through one of the doorways.
It seemed that as the farther they progressed, the more amazing the rooms got. The first room they walked through was a grand hallway. One side of the room was entirely made of glass, looking out on Gallifrey. There were golden buildings, shining in the light of the blazing sky. Beyond that were fields of red grass and snow capped mountains. The only thing that seemed out of place was a whole bunch of buildings on fire. It looked like they had been smashed.
"Master." She leaned close to him. "Why are those buildings on fire?"
"The Time War." He said. "It's not as bad here as it is some other places."
They passed through another room with six giant statues around the outside. This room was rather dark compared to those they had seen previously. Clara tensed her muscles as they walked through it. She didn't like statues anymore.
Finally, they entered another large room. The ceiling arched high overhead, and tapestries embroidered with Gallifreyan hung down from it. The room was like a long hallway, and at the end there resembled something like a throne. The hall was lined with Time Lords on both sides, all of them wearing the same headdresses and robes. Clara looked at their faces, searching for any emotion. They remained impassive, though she thought she saw a hint of pity in their eyes.
The Time Lords shoved them roughly to their knees as the Lord President walked up to the throne and sat down in it, calling out: "Today, we put on trial the Doctor, the Master, and the Woman for the crimes they have committed!"
Clamor broke out through the room as the Time Lords called out various things.
The Lord President slammed his metal hand down on the arm of the chair, causing a loud bang to echo through the hall. "Silence!"
Immediately, the hall fell silent.
"Firstly, the Master, amongst the many other crimes he has committed, stands accused of escaping Gallifrey while imprisoned and causing a temporal paradox."
"Oh, blah blah blah." The Master muttered, but fell silent as he received a kick from the Time Lord next to him.
"Paradox?" Clara whispered, looking around. River caught her eye, and she winked. It took Clara a moment, but then she realized. Melody. River Song. Time and space. Time Lord. She had met River in the past when she was a child, while she had known her in the future? She dismissed those thoughts. It was too confusing to think about.
"...he also stands guilty of attempting to kill me and several other Time Lords at the Panopticon."
"That's because you ruined my life!" Clara jumped at the Master's angry yell. "You put these drums in my head, and it drove me insane! I don't care if it was to bring back Gallifrey! It was maddening!"
The Lord President did not say anything more to the Master and addressed the Doctor. "You are accused of freeing the Master, and destroying the link that would bring Gallifrey back. You have opposed your own people, Doctor."
"No, you have. You rule over them by making them fear you! That's not how it's supposed to be!" The Doctor retorted.
"Then you try living through the Time War!" The President snapped. "Over and over, they die! Every day, they find new ways to die!" He turned to the Woman. "And you stand accused of opposing the Time Lords and escaping execution."
"That's right." The Doctor's tone was dangerously low. "You wanted to execute her, my mother, which means you're dealing with me now."
Clara watched as tempers ran high. The Master and the Doctor were both mad at the President. The President was mad at them. The Woman looked scared, and River was impassive. As for her, she felt terrified. All she had known over the past few days was that the Doctor had dropped another Time Lord off at her house, the Time Lord had taken her off on many adventures, and then he had been taken over by an evil Cyber Planner. Meanwhile, the Doctor had been looking for her all the while with angry Time Lords chasing them. And now, they were sitting in the middle of a trial, where her best friend's lives were on the line, and possibly even hers, depending on how this all played out.
"I propose we execute the Time Lords and send the humans back to earth where they belong."
Clara's head whipped up at the words.
Murmuring broke out among the assembled Time Lords. A lot of them looked angry at them. The pity was gone. Clara gulped. What kind of war was enough to turn people against one of their own? To her horror, she saw that almost every hand was raised in favor of their death.
The President gestured with his hand. "Take them to the cells, for now."
The Master sighed as he was dragged to his feet, as if this verdict was nothing new to him.
"You don't know what you're doing, Rassilon!" The Doctor yelled.
Rassilon smiled coldly as they were herded away. "This time, I do."
Clara grunted as she was practically thrown to the cold, hard floor.
"Oi!" She heard the Master yell. "Careful with that one!"
Clara stood up, brushing herself off as the door to her cell slammed shut with a bang. She looked around. They were each in an individual cell, made out of iron bars. It looked almost exactly like a prison would on earth. There were cells going down each side of the room, with an aisle in the middle separating them. There were no windows to be seen, and the room was dimly lit with light bulbs on the ceiling.
Clara knocked on the walls. They seemed to be made out of stone. "I guess we're not getting out of here anytime soon."
"No." She heard the Master say. "Not unless another Time Lord swoops in and saves us." He stared at the Doctor.
"Probably not." The Doctor said.
River was on the left of Clara, and the Doctor was on her right. The Master was directly across from her, and the Woman was to the right of the Doctor.
The Doctor fumbled in his pockets. "They took my sonic!"
"No kidding." The Master scoffed.
"Well what do we do?" The Woman asked quietly.
"Don't worry." The Doctor said. "I freed you once, and I can do it again. I just need to…"
The Master sat down on the floor of his cell. "I'll probably be the first one to go. I haven't got long." He shared a knowing look with the Doctor that Clara missed.
She clutched the bars, staring at him. "Don't say that!"
He smiled at her in that familiar, confident, arrogant way. "Don't worry about me. I'll be alright."
They waited for what seemed like hours. The only sound was the Doctor mumbling as he ran possibilities through his head. It was so quiet that they all jumped when the door slammed open, and Time Lords walked in.
One pointed at the Master. "Take him."
Clara ran forward, staring through the bars. "Please don't kill him!" She blinked, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to come forth.
"It'll be fine, Clara." She heard River mutter. "Just trust me."
"How?" She yelled, turning on her. "He's going to die!"
"No he won't!"
Ignoring her, Clara turned back to face the Master. The Time Lords had just taken him out of his cell and were beginning to drag him away.
"Please don't go." She said weakly.
He turned back to look at her. He looked sad. She had never seen him look like that before. Then, he opened his mouth and said three words that shattered her heart into a million pieces.
"I love you."