Thank you so much for all your amazing reviews! I can't stress enough how grateful I am that you're taking the time to write a little response to my work and I'm so happy that you're enjoying it! But I believe we have some questions that need answering. . .

Chapter 26

The library was a maze made up of rows and rows of shelves filled to the brim with books and scrolls, everything that had ever been written on Gallifrey and countless writings from all over the universe. It was also a perfect hiding place and today, the Doctor really didn't want to be spotted.

He had sneaked into the building when Stonix had entered his little laboratory in the back and so far he had managed to evade every Time Lord who had come in to read. All those decades sorting books had taught the Doctor something very important: he knew the library better than the knew the insides of his own pockets. The Doctor hadn't come here to help his mentor or to clean up after the lazy readers, today he had come to help himself. He knew that there were books about memory wipes because he had seen them before, scrolls that would tell him just exactly how neural blocks worked. He refused to believe that his memories were lost forever if he truly was Clara's mentor. There just had to be a way to retrieve them and the Doctor vowed to find it, yet so far his search has been less than successful.

The Doctor glimpsed around the corner and noticed a young Time Lord standing in front of the shelf that held the book he needed, but to his frustration, he didn't appear as if he planned to move anytime soon. Still hiding behind the corner, the Doctor considered his options. Could he risk being seen by even one Time Lord or would that alert his mentor to his presence?

Just as the Doctor was about to make his move, the library doors suddenly swung open, hitting the walls behind with a loud bang and the Doctor flinched and instantly retreated back to his hiding spot. He had picked the perfect aisle for it, filled with books about the most boring era in Gallifreyan history that no one ever looked at. No one would disturb him here. The Doctor, on the other hand, had a nice view on the rest of the library from behind the shelf and he spied through a gap in the books to see who had entered.

At first, the Doctor saw nothing at all, then, one by one, the Time Lords that had been reading in here for hours were starting to move towards the exit, their heads bowed. In his mind, he tried to find a good reason for their behaviour that had nothing to do with what he feared was happening, but then the Doctor heard his voice.

"Stonix!" the Lord President's angry voice echoed in the hall when the last Time Lord had left the building and then the Doctor could hear his mentor's hurried footsteps. Instinctively, he ducked even though it was impossible for them to see him up here.

"Lord President," Stonix gasped when he had entered the hall, "wh-what are you doing here?"

The Doctor lifted his head just a little, spying through the gap to get a proper look at them. The President had come to the library in the company of two armed guards and even though he appeared to have come for Stonix, it made the Doctor a little uneasy. What business could they possibly have? Well, the Doctor assumed that he was going to find out soon enough.

"I am missing something from my private safe. You haven't seen a certain neural block lately, have you?"

The Doctor's hearts sank into his boots as soon as he heard those words and even though, in the back of his mind, he knew what it meant and what was going to happen, he didn't really want to believe it. Not his mentor. Not Stonix. He was doomed. Then, something surprising happened.

"No," Stonix replied. "Neural blocks are restricted items. And I can promise you, he took nothing from your safe. He has no idea."

"Well, there's only one alternative then, is there? Are you saying that my own daughter betrayed me?" the President asked, his voice menacingly sharp.

"Of course not," his mentor responded nervously. "But maybe one of your staff-"

"My staff is loyal to me," he barked. "It's your protégé I don't trust. I told you to keep him under control, Stonix! That was the deal we made when you begged me not to throw him into a cell!"

"I can promise you, Lord President, the Doctor is innocent," his mentor said and the Doctor finally realized just what was going on. Stonix was protecting him, covering for him even though to him it must have looked as if the Doctor had truly taken the neural block. That was why he had destroyed it, to keep him safe. Because the Doctor really was Clara's tutor, there was no doubt about that now.

"The Doctor can't remember a thing," Stonix went on. "He doesn't remember you or your daughter. He suspects the gap is his memory has been caused by a head trauma that happened before his regeneration."

"I want him locked up!"

"But you said-"

"I changed my mind," the President remarked with a shrug. "I'm the President. It's my right as well as my duty to make sure that my people are safe and they aren't as long as the Doctor is still walking this planet, corrupting everyone with his insane ideas, corrupting my own daughter!"

"But-"

"Enough!" the Lord President silenced his mentor, his voice cutting through the air like a sword. When he spoke again, he was calm and determined. "I expect you to hand him over the next time he shows up here."

When the President turned around to leave, his guards following on his heels, the Doctor knew that he had to get out. Only where would he go? He couldn't hide in the library because Stonix would immediately inform the President and he couldn't go through the city because there was no doubt that all the guards had already been informed. If he was caught, the Doctor would spend the rest of his life in a cell and he would never be able to see Clara again. He had to get her out. There just had to be a way. At first, the Doctor would hide at Missy's place because there was no one else he could trust. Missy would never betray him. But how would he even get out of the library?

Just when the Doctor was about to turn around, he felt a hand cover his mouth and he tried to glance over his shoulder to see who had caught him, but he couldn't see. It was over. They had him now.

"Quiet," Malaya's voice was nothing but a whisper and when she removed her hand from his mouth, the Doctor uttered a relieved sigh.

"Malaya," he breathed. "Rassilon's Ghost, you scared me."

"We have to go," she mouthed and waved her hand, gesturing for him to follow her. "I know a way through the Cloisters."

The Doctor had thought he had discovered every secret passageway, but as he followed the Shobogan woman through a hidden door in the library, down into the Cloisters, he soon realized that she seemed to know the ruins better than he ever had. He had never been in this part of the tunnels and he decided it was best to stick close to her so as not to lose the path. They didn't speak for a long time while the Doctor's mind was still trying to come to terms with everything he had overheard between his mentor and the Lord President. First, there was the confirmation he had been looking for, confirmation that he really was Clara's tutor, that the President had erased his memory, that he had intended to let him rot in a cell until Stonix had pleaded with him not to do it. Not that that still mattered now. The Doctor was a fugitive.

"What were you doing in the Citadel?" the Doctor demanded to know when he realized that he still didn't know how Malaya had come to be in the right place at exactly the right time to save him.

"I came to warn you," she replied, but the woman never turned around to look at him. Instead, her gaze was fixed on the path ahead while data ghosts roamed the tunnels around them. "The guards came to our camp last night, looking for a woman, the young woman you brought to us."

"Oh," the Doctor uttered in response because he had no idea what else to say. He had placed them in danger without even wanting to.

"Nothing happened to us, don't worry," Malaya reassured him. "But I'm not entirely sure that everyone they questioned kept quiet. You can't come back, neither one of you. It's too dangerous now that the President might know."

"I have nowhere else to go," the Doctor argued loudly. "Missy will hide me for now, but I can't stay there forever."

Suddenly, Malaya spun around on her heels and looked straight at him. Even in the darkness, the Doctor could feel her gaze boring into him as if she was trying to read his mind.

"Tell me, the woman you brought to us, is she really the President's own daughter?" the Shobogan woman wanted to know and suddenly, the Doctor realized that her voice was shaking.

He had no choice but to tell her the truth. The Doctor swallowed and nodded. "Yes," he confirmed. "Yes, Clara is his daughter."

Malaya took a deep breath. "Doctor," she said hesitantly. "We have to talk."

He had braced himself for a lecture, for anything, but as they continued to walk through the tunnels, along a path that would lead him straight to Missy's house, to safety, the Doctor had never expected to hear the story that Malaya was telling him.