Hello! I hope you all are okay! I want to apologize for my absence that lasted a week, it was the last week of work and I was doing 10h a day, sometimes more, and have been doing this for 7 weeks. I was too shattered to write.
Thank you all for the faves and follows, for the reviews and the views of course.
As always, thank you Myrtle Turtle 1 for your support, I'm really enjoying talking to you by PM, you are such a nice and funny person! A big thank you to Freya Astrid Nova for her proof reading and her support, you girl are brilliant!
So here comes chapter 36, the last about the Snowmen episode (I hope I didn't butcher one of the greatest episodes - in my opinion).
I do recomend you to read the part where they come back at the Darkover house while listening to Missy's theme (Doctor Who - "Missy's Theme"/"Heaven" - Extended Mix on Youtube.) as I wrote it while listening to it (hit replay if need be, didn't find a better mix than this one yet)
Enjoy and don't forget to leave your impressions :)
Melody - x.
Chapter 36
Doctor Simeon stormed in his office to face a lizard woman standing next to the Doctor who was sitting at his desk, casually resting his feet on the exotic and expansive wood.
"You promised us something. Have you brought it?" he asked.
"Big fella here has been very quiet while you've been out." the man in a bow tie answered. "Which is only to be expected, considering who he really is. Do you know what this is, big fella?" he asked to the entity occupying the glass globe, getting up and holding up the box with the London Underground printed on it.
"I do not understand these markings."
"A map of the London Underground, 1967." he said. "Key strategic weakness in metropolitan living, if you ask me. But then I have never liked a tunnel."
"Enough of this." the Intelligence cut in. "We are powerful, but on this planet we are limited. We need to learn to take human form."
The Doctor put the tin box on the desk and took out his sonic screwdriver. Hiding it behind his back he changed the pitch of the Intelligence's voice.
"The Governess is our most perfect replication of humanity and we can integrate it into a living body, making it invincible." the Intelligence said, its voice becoming one of a child.
"What's happening to its voice?" asked Vastra.
"Just stripping away the disguise." said the Doctor.
"No, stop! Stop that. Cease, I command you!"
"It sounds like a child..."
"Of course it sounds like a child." said the Time Lord. "It is a child. Simeon as a child. The snow has no voice without him."
"Don't listen to him, he's ruining everything!" the childish voice exclaimed.
"How long has the Intelligence been talking to you?" he asked to Simeon who was now looking like a very afraid old child, stuck between his desk and the Doctor dominating him with his height.
"I was a little boy. He was my snowman. He spoke to me." he answered with a little trembling voice.
"But the snow doesn't talk, does it?" said the Doctor. His eyes were reflecting some sort of shadow, darkening the green of his gaze. He loved humans but sometimes he could not accept their darkest side. "It's just a mirror. It just reflects back everything we think and feel and fear. You poured your darkest dreams into a snowman and look, look what it became!"
"I don't understand." said Vastra.
"It's a parasite feeding on the loneliness of a child and the sickness of an old man!" he summed up. "Carnivorous snow meets Victorian values... and something terrible is born."
"We can go on and do everything we planned." the Intelligence said.
"Oh yes, and what a plan." the Doctor said sarcastically, turning around to face the globe. "A world full of living ice people. Oh dear me, how very... Victorian of you..."
Suddenly turning back into Doctor Simeon and leaving the scared child on the side, the old man defiantly said:
"What's wrong with Victorian values?" as he grabbed the tin box, opening it.
"Ah-ah-ah." the Doctor stopped him. "Are you sure?"
"I have always been sure." he said, not taking his eyes off the Doctor as he grabbed what was inside. Suddenly, what he was holding emitted a little noise and as he looked down, the memory worm bit his hand.
His breath cut, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Good. I'm glad you think so, since your entire adult life is about to be erased." said the Doctor, that shadow not leaving his eyes. "No parasite without a host. Without you, it will have no voice. Without the governess, it will have no form. Without Clara, it will have no body."
"What- what-... What's happening? What's happening? What did you do?" the Intelligence asked, the voice glitching.
"You've got nothing left to mirror any more. Goodbye."
But suddenly, as the Doctor thought he was winning seeing the snow fall down inside the globe, it started to swirl again, as if a strong wind was blowing inside.
"Did you really think it would be so easy?" the Intelligence said, its voice deep again.
"That's not possible. How is that possible?" he whispered, not understanding.
"But you were just Doctor Simeon." said the Time Lord. "You're not real. He... dreamed you. How can you still exist?"
"Now the dream outlives the dreamer and can never die. Once I was the puppet…"
And as Simeon was getting up behind the Doctor, his body cold and covered in ice, he shouted looking almost like a zombie:
"Now I pull the strings! I tried so long to take on human form. By erasing Simeon, you made space for me. I fill him now!"
As Simeon approached the Doctor, Vastra took out her katana ready to attack. But in one strong movement, he gave her a whack that sent her to the ground, unconscious.
"More than snow, more than Simeon. Even this old body is strong in my control!" he exclaimed, knocking the Doctor down, putting his icy hand on his face.
"Do you feel it? Winter is coming!"
The Doctor screamed as ice was starting to cover his own skin, trying to turn him into an ice form. He tried to fight, but Simeon was too heavy, too strong.
"Winter is coming!"
But suddenly, as the Doctor's body was getting dangerously cold, the thunder cracked the sky with a lightning bolt and the snow swirling inside the globe turned into water. The snow falling outside turned into rain, making a rattling noise against the windows.
Simeon suddenly stopped, as if he was choking and he leaped off the Doctor, falling to the ground. Dead.
Vastra who was waking up, walked to the Doctor and helped him getting up. They both looked at the glass globe and at the windows, not understanding.
"What happened?" she asked.
With a numb voice, the Doctor answered:
"The snow mirrors, that's all it does…It's mirroring something else now." before rushing to the window and opening it. "Something so strong, it's drowning everything else." He held out his hand, collecting some drops in his palm, Vastra imitating him. "There was a critical mass of snow at the house. I-if something happened there…" he said, not daring to think of it.
They both tasted the rain, the most worried look painted on the Doctor's face.
"It's salty. Salt water rain." said Vastra.
"It's not raining." he said weakly. "It's crying... The only force on Earth that could drown the snow: a whole family crying on Christmas Eve…"
At the Darkover House…
"No, you must fight. Hang on and fight, boy! You can do it." exclaimed Strax to Clara as he was trying to slower the mutation process.
"Captain Latimer." she called in a whisper, too weak. "Your children. They're afraid. Hold them."
"It's not really my... area." he answered, leaning over her, embarrassed and painful at the same time. He fancied her and she was so good with the children. He might have thought a few times of making her his wife instead of his governess.
"It is now…" she said faintly before closing her eyes again.
It was time.
A single tear ran down from Clara's eye.
Outside, thunder overpowered the snowstorm and turned it into rain.
The ice spike in her heart suddenly melted, making her wince a little.
A few seconds later, the whirring noise of the Tardis echoed and she soon materialized in the office, a small and warm breeze accompanying her in her landing.
Without opening her eyes, the slightest smile crossed Clara's lips.
The door of the time machine opened, letting out the Doctor and Vastra, both of them worried.
"The ice spike melted with the rest of the snow. I held back the mutation by keeping her temperature up, but the bleeding is starting as the cold is not narrowing the veins around the wound anymore." said Strax. "She has moments only…"
The little hope that was left on the Doctor's face vanished. He walked up to Clara as the little family was crying in one corner of the room.
Leaning over her, he stroke her forehead while taking her hand in his other hand.
"Hey… Clara…" he started, his voice trembling. "We saved the world you and me. We really, really did…"
"Are you going back to your cloud?" she asked, opening her eyes as the Doctor touched her. Brown eyes with a imperceptible green shimmer, like a veil.
"No, no more clouds…" he whispered to her. His eyes were so full of pain.
"Why?"
And as she closed her eyes, he whispered, a single tear rolling out of his eye:
"It rained…"
He closed his eyes, letting one more tear stream down his face before wiping them and straightening up, looking at her one last time, in her dark green Victorian dress, a large and dark stain on her chest, but her delicate face peaceful.
"Run." she said. It almost seemed she was saying it without even being conscious. Like an afterword. "Run you clever boy…" and suddenly her eyes opened again, looking straight into his. Green and green. "And remember…"
She closed her eyes, for the last time.
And the clock struck twelve, announcing Christmas Day as the whole family was crying, their tears being echoed by the night sky outside.
It was a sunny day.
The white flowers embellished the grey gravestone by which Captain Latimer and his children were standing, all dressed in black, mourning the loss of their beloved governess.
A few steps away, the Doctor, Madame Vastra and Jenny were observing the scene, waiting for their turn and leaving a bit of intimacy to the family.
"And what about the Intelligence?" asked the Silurian. "Melted with the snow?"
"No, I shouldn't think so…" said the Doctor. "It learned to survive beyond physical form."
"Well, we can't be in much danger from a disembodied Intelligence that thinks it can invade the world with snowmen." scoffed Jenny.
"Or that the London Underground is a key strategic weakness…" added Vastra.
"The Great Intelligence..." he mumbled, looking at Simeon's business card, distracted. "Rings a bell. The Great Intelligence..."
As the family left, the Doctor walked up to the grave and knelt next to it, resting a hand on it. Vastra and Jenny came closer and, seeing the astonished look on the Doctor's face, they called:
"Doctor?"
"I never knew her name. Her full name..." he said with a numb voice.
On the gravestone read:
"Clara Oswin Oswald
Born
November 23 1866
Died
December 24 1892
Remember me for we shall meet again."
Her voice echoed in his head, remembering:
"Oswin Oswald. Junior Entertainment Manager, Starship Alaska."
"Soufflé girl... Oswin. It was her..."
"Run, you clever boy."
"Run, you clever boy..."
He blinked, remembering both the times the same voice said the same words.
"And remember."
"And remember..."
"It was soufflé girl... again!" he exclaimed. "I never saw her face the first time with the Daleks, but her voice! It was the same voice!"
"Doctor?" asked Jenny, frowning and obviously waiting for more explanations.
"The same woman, twice!" he said, getting up, rubbing his hands as he was getting excited. "And she died! Both times! The same woman!"
"Doctor, please, what are you talking about?" tried Vastra.
"Something's going on. Something impossible, something… ah!" he said, excited like a child in front of a suitcase full of sweets. "Right, you two stay here. Stay right here! Don't move an inch!" he said, running off.
"Are you coming back?"
"Shouldn't think so!" he said over his shoulder.
"But where are you going?" asked Vastra, shouting as he was getting away.
"To find her!" he exclaimed, turning around. "To find Clara!"
"But Clara's dead." said Jenny to Madam Vastra. "What's he talking about, finding her?"
"I don't know, but perhaps the universe makes bargains after all..."
The door of the Tardis burst open to let the Doctor in. He ran around the console, pulling a lever.
"Clara!"
He pulled the red lever.
"Oswin!"
He pulled the other red lever.
"Oswald!"
He stopped in front of one of the screens showing a picture of Victorian Clara.
"Watch me run."
And he pulled the handbrake and the time rotor throttle, taking off.
I hope you enjoyed it, let me know :)