Allons-y Impossible Girl
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who
Chapter 34
Clara watched in horror as the golden energy poured from the Doctor's hands and head, the ache inside of her so painful her chest might just break. The time stream pulled at her threatening to tear her apart as punishment for her failure to save him. Clara almost wished it would, but the Master had made her too real.
Jack had his arms wrapped firmly around her, and Rose, Donna and the echo were stood watching in horror. Clara again felt images swarm before her eyes, the ones she had locked away deep in her mind, of a funny man with puppy dog eyes, a bow tie and a big chin. Something felt wrong about that, and still she felt her tug of longing.
Then, with effort, the Doctor aimed both his hands at the jar containing his spare hand. They watched as it absorbed all the energy and the Doctor was released, looking just the same.
"Now then. Where were we?" He said. They stared at him, completely stunned. He knelt down beside the glowing spare hand. "There now." He blew on the jar and the glowing stopped. He looked up at them "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me." He gestured to himself and grinned at a slowly recovering Clara. "So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand. Remember?" He looked at Rose "Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"
Clara took a tentative step forward and looked at him. Then she threw herself into his arms and kissed him long and hard.
Finally they broke apart and turned to look at Rose and the echo. She smiled.
"So, you're another one" Clara said, her voice colder then probably necessary.
"Yup!" The echo said "I... I was meant to save him when the cybermen came. But I didn't die. After that I could remember everything. So I went to Torchwood, because I didn't want to die."
"They fixed you?" Clara raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
"We're not even sure how" Rose chipped in "Just after a lot of work she had a normal human timeline and we destroyed the instincts that kill you upon the Doctor's death. She doesn't even have the thing that makes her sacrifice herself for you anymore"
"Not that I wouldn't" the echo said hastily, smiling at the Doctor. He grimaced. "Look" she took a step forward. "I know you have your Clara. But I had to find you. I can remember everything, your adventures together that is, and I love you! I had to find you!"
The Doctor stared at her pleading face unsure what to say. The the power cut out. "They've got us!" He said "Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop"
The TARDIS tilted with a jerk. "There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination." Jack said.
Donna looked at the Doctor and Clara. "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"
"Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?" The Doctor looked at his ex-companion as a shadow crosses her face.
"The darkness" she said hopelessly.
"The stars were going out" Donna murmured.
"One by one" Rose confirmed.
"We've been building this dimension canon thing" the echo explained "So I could cross to this universe."
"Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything." Rose looked at the Doctor desperately.
Donna looked at the echo. "In that parallel world you said something about me"
"The dimension cannon could measure timelines, that's partly how we sorted me out" the echo said "and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."
"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick." Donna looked both confused and terrified.
The scanner beeped. "Welcome to the Dalek Crucible" Clara murmured.
The metallic voice came from outside. "Doctor you will step forth or die"
"We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in"
"You told me nothing could get through those doors" Rose said, recalling the first time they met.
"You've got extrapolator shielding" Jack said.
"Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power." The Doctor said.
"They're experts at fighting TARDISs. That wooden door, is just a wooden door" Clara said.
"What about you dimension jumps?" Jack looked at the echo and Rose.
"They need twenty minutes"
"Your teleport?" Clara asked Jack.
"Went down with the power"
"Right then" the Doctor took a deep breath. "All of us together. Yeah. Donna? Donna?"
She snapped out of her daze. "Yeah" she said.
"I'm sorry" the Doctor said, tightening his grip around Clara's waist. "There's nothing else we can do"
"No. I know" Donna said softly.
"Surrender Doctor and face your Dalek masters" the metallic voice came from outside once more.
"Daleks" Rose said, her voice tightening with fear.
"Oh God" Jack voiced what everyone was pretty much feeling.
"It has been good though" the Doctor said, trying for a smile "All of us. All of it. Everything we did." He looked at Donna "You were brillient" he looked at Rose "And you were brillient" he looked at Jack "and you were brillient." He stopped and looked at Clara. "And you were..." He couldn't finish, only leaned down and kissed her, warm and tender. A goodbye. Just in case. "I love you" he whispered.
"I love you too" she whispered back.
Then he led them out the TARDIS into the Crucible where the daleks were screaming "All hail the Daleks!" Donna and the echo hung behind though.
"Donna, Clara you're no safer in there" the Doctor yelled behind him. Then the door slammed shut, trapping them inside.
"Doctor?" Donna called from inside "What have you done!"
"It wasn't me!" He protested. "I haven't done anything!"
"We're not staying behind!" The echo shouted, pounding on the door.
"What did you do?" The Doctor asked the red Dalek furiously.
"This is not of Dalek origin" it replied mechanically.
"Doctor!" Donna and the echo yelled.
"Stop it! She's my friend. Now open the door and let her out." The Doctor demanded in fury.
"This is Time Lord treachery." The Dalek declared.
"Me? The door just closed on its own."
"Nevertheless, the Tardis is a weapon and it will be destroyed." A trapdoor opened underneath the TARDIS and it dropped.
"What are you doing!" The Doctor shouted "Bring it back! What have you done? Where's it going?"
They watched as the TARDIS was destroyed on the screen, Donna and the Echo inside it.
The Red Dalek turned to the Doctor. "The TARDIS has been destroyed. Now tell me Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"
Clara looked up at him, staring at the blank space. He looked empty. "Yeah" he replied.
"Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you" the Dalek said.
"Yeah?" Jack said, stepping forward. His eyes were alight with anger. He pulled a revolver out his pocket. "Feel this" He shot at the Dalek, but with a single zap of its gun Jack lay dead at their feet.
"Jack. Oh my God!" Rose knelt beside him in horror.
"Rose, leave him" the Doctor said, pulling her away.
"They killed him"
"I know." The Doctor said soothingly "I'm sorry."
"Escort them to the Vault" the Red Dalek ordered. "They are the playthings of Davros now"
They were lead down to the Vault, to where Davros was waiting for them. After threatening to physically extract Clara from the Doctor's side did they finally stand apart.
"Activate holding cells" three spotlights shone down on Clara, Rose and the Doctor. "Excellent. Even when powerless a Time-Lord is best contained."
"Still scared of me then?" The Doctor asked as Davros wheeled in front of them.
"It is time we talked Doctor" Davros ignored the question "After so very long"
"No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?" The Doctor leered at Davros.
"We have an arrangement" he replied stiffly.
"No, no, no, no, no. No, I've got the word. You're the Dalek's pet!" The Doctor could have almost laughed.
"So very full of fire is he not?" Davros turned to Clara "And to think..." He trailed off, moving closer to stare intently at her face "But no... I know that face... After so long"
"Not long enough" Clara muttered.
"But yes. It is you. The Impossible Girl" Davros laughed "Will he leave you behind once more? Allow you to rot and burn and scream before his very eyes and not even notice?"
"Leave her alone" the Doctor ordered fiercely.
"She is mine" Davros turned to him "they both are. To do as I please with"
"Then why are we still alive?" Rose asked.
"You must be here. It was foretold. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan." Davros said.
"So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames." They looked at the disgusting looking thing raised above.
"What is that thing?" Rose asked.
"You've met before. The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War, unprotected." The Doctor said.
"Caan did more than that. He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. Both of you. And her" he fixed his eyes on Clara, looking even more sinister if possible.
"This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die." Caan laughed his horribly high pitched cackle.
"Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna? Why did the Tardis door close? Tell me!" The Doctor demanded.
"Oh, that's it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is. Why so shy?" Davros taunted "Show your companions. Show them your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that too."
"I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed." Caan exclaimed.
"What does that mean?"
"We will discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins." Davros laughed.
"Testing of what?"
"The Reality bomb." His expression darkened "Behold. The apotheosis of my genius" he switched the screen on to show the holding area, full of humans. They watched the ray appear and the Doctor realised what it was.
"That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string. No, Davros. Davros, you can't! You can't! No!" He yelled. Not that it helped. They watched as the people atomised from the head downwards.
"Doctor, what happened?" Rose asked.
"Electrical energy" Clara whispered, the true horror dawning on her. "Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That was just in those people but full transmission..." She choked on the very horror of it.
"The stars are going out." Rose said in realisation.
"The twenty seven planets. They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength." The Doctor looked sickened.
"Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!" He finished his gleeful speech with a manic shriek.
There was not much to do but wait, and no one could see a way out. But then five or so minutes later the screen zapped up and Clara looked up to see the face of the one and only Martha Jones.
"This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat. Can you hear me?" She said.
"Put us through!" Clara yelled immediately, wincing as the Dalek part of her brain glitched in protest.
"It begins as Dalek Caan foretold" Davros said gleefully.
"The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die" Caan laughed.
"Stop saying that!" The Doctor snapped, casting a panicked side glance at Clara. "Put me through!"
"Doctor!" Martha said the minute they were through "I'm sorry! I had to!"
"Oh but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent."
Martha showed the Daleks the Osterhagen key, threatening to make the twenty-seven planets twenty-six by destroying the earth which Clara did not see as a viable option. Then Jack, Mickey, Sarah-Jane and Jackie appeared, threatening to blow the Crucible up with a warp star. Clara didn't like that idea much either. Neither did the Doctor apparently.
"Now that's what I call a ransom!" Rose said. "Doctor?"
"And the prophecy unfolds" Davros rolled forwards. "The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people And you fashion them into weapons."
"It's not true!" Clara screamed at him. She looked at her Doctor, pleading in her eyes "you'd never make a weapon"
"Oh really" the Doctor gave a hollow laugh "look at you. Split into a million versions of yourself to save me. And in the end what did you become? The greatest warrior in the universe."
Clara couldn't find an argument, it died in her throat. Davros continued. "Behold your Children of Time. Transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."
"They're trying to help." The Doctor argued feebly.
"Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."
"Who was that?" The Doctor frowned.
"Harriet Jones." Rose said, her voice catching "She gave her life to get you here."
"How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name?" Clara watched the Doctors face as he thought of the hundreds of people who had given their lives. "The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."
Suddenly the transmat snatched the others from their locations and dropped them in the vault. "Guard them! On your knees, all of you. Surrender!" Davros ordered.
"Do as he says!" The Doctor warned.
"Mum I told you not to" Rose said weekly, looking at Jackie.
"I know but I couldn't leave you" she protested.
Davros smiled sinisterly. "The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"
"You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!" The Doctor pleaded.
"Ah, ha, ha, ha! Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one!" Davros laughed.
But then... The wheezing noise of the TARDIS filled the room.
"But that's" the Doctor was stunned.
"Impossible" hissed Davros.
The TARDIS materialised in the corner and they all watched in shock as the Doctor, another Doctor, raced out with a strange gun like gizmo.
"Brilliant!" Exclaimed Jack with a laugh.
The other Doctor ran across the floor, but as the Doctor shouted "Don't!" Davros zapped him, causing him to drop the gizmo.
"Activate holding cell" called Davros, and the other Doctor was also trapped.
Donna raced out of the TARDIS behind him, with the other Clara. She scooped the thing up and looked around. "Doctor! I've got it. But I don't know what to do!" She yelled. Davros zapped her, sending her flying backwards, and trapped the echo in the holding cell before they destroyed the weapon.
"Why is there two of you?" Clara asked.
"Human biological metacrisis." The Doctor said "Never mind that. Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb."
"Stand witness, Time Lord. Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and. Oh. The end of the universe has come." Davros cackled.
The Supreme Dalek began to count down, but Clara's eyes were fixed on Donna. She watched her, a tiny smirk forming on her face. The Dalek reached zero, and an alarm sounded.
"Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there." Donna pressed a button on the panel she was thrown against while the others stared. The Daleks went nuts.
"Donna you can't change a plug!" The Doctor pointed out in confusion.
"You wanna bet Time Boy?" Donna grinned.
"You'll suffer for this!" Davros growled, pointed his zapper at her. She lifted a lever and the charge traveled up her arm and he screeched in pain.
"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion." Donna said simply. She continued to work the controls, rendering the Daleks weapons non-functional. "Phwor. Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix."
"How did you work that out? You're-" the Doctor stared at her completely lost.
"Time Lord. Part Time Lord." The metacrisis grinned.
"Part human. Oh, yes. That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna." Donna finished with a grin.
"The Doctor Donna." Clara exclaimed "Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna."
"Holding cells deactivated. And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work." Donna ordered, and they were all free.
"Stop them! Get them away from the controls." Davros screeched, sending the Daleks trundling towards them.
"And spin." Donna laughed, flicking a switch. The Daleks began to spin round and round on the spot.
"Help me. Help me" they cried mechanically. Clara doubled over laughing.
"And the other way" Donna announced.
"What did you do?" The metacrisis asked with glee.
"Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator." Donna said with a smirk.
"But that's brilliant!" The metacrisis said.
"Why did we never think of that?" The Doctor asked.
"Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for me." Donna exclaimed with total delight. "Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship." She held up her hand, waving her fingers "Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute."
"Ha!" The metacrisis laughed.
Jack raced into the TARDIS to retrieve the guns while Donna and the Doctors worked on sending the planets home. The others jumped on their feet and began to handle the Daleks.
Clara ran up to the three Doctors who were sending the planets home and said "So what exactly happened?"
Donna pointed to the Doctor and said "He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. I touched the hand, and he" she pointed to the metacrisis "grew out of that but that fed back into me. But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind." Her smile was so wide it looked painful.
"So there's three of you?" Sarah-Jane asked.
"Three Doctors?" Rose echoed.
"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." Jack smirked and Clara hit him.
"You're so unique the timelines were converging on you. Human being with a Time Lord brain." The Doctor said in awe.
"But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?" Davros croaked.
"Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time." The Doctor said.
"This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor." Caan said.
"You betrayed the Daleks." Davros screamed.
"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!" Caan said.
"Heads up!" Jack said as the Supreme Dalek descended into the Vault.
"Davros, you have betrayed us." It said.
"It was Dalek Caan." Davros protested.
"The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated." The Supreme Dalek zapped the control panel.
"Like I was saying," Jack stepped forward "feel this!" He fired a pulse from his gun and the Supreme Dalek was obliterated. Clara laughed.
"Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one." The Doctor grinned "But we can use the Tardis." He ran into his beloved time machine.
"Holding Earth stability. Maintaining atmospheric shell." The metacrisis said.
"The prophecy must complete." Caan said.
"Don't listen to him." Screamed Davros.
"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor."
"He's right. Because with or without a Reality bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped." The metacrisis said. Clara turned to him in horror.
"Just, just wait for the Doctor." Donna said nervously.
"I am the Doctor." He said fiercely "Maximising Dalekanium power feeds. Blasting them back!" He flipped the switch as Clara screamed,
"No!" She looked around her as the Daleks began to explode. Then her mind exploded in pain and she collapsed to the floor.
"Clara!" Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha and Jack ran to her as the Doctor appeared out of the TARDIS.
"What have you done?" He demanded angrily as he looked at the exploding Daleks and at where Jack had passed his gun to Rose and was carrying Clara as she convulsed in pain.
"Fulfilling the prophecy." The metacrisis Doctor said firmly.
"Do you know what you've done?" The Doctor asked aghast as he pointed his sonic at Clara so she went limp and her eyes fluttered open. Jack set her on her feet. "Now get in the Tardis! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!" He ordered. "In! In! In! In!"
"Sarah Jane! Rose! Clara.2! Jackie! Jack! Clara! Mickey!" The metacrisis said their names as they raced passed him into the TARDIS.
Once inside they turned to Clara. "What was that?" Rose asked.
"This idiot!" Clara snarled as she pointed to the metacrisis "Didn't think through the fact that annihilating the Daleks would include this one" she pointed to herself while the metacrisis looked horrified at himself. "But the Doctor shut me down. Regeneration energy will sort me out" Clara lied as the Doctor came racing inside.
"And off we go!" He set the TARDIS into flight as the Crucible exploded behind them.
"But what about the Earth? It's stuck in the wrong part of space." Sarah Jane said.
"I'm on it. Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?" The Doctor called.
Gwen Cooper's voice came through and said "Loud and clear." She appeared on the scanner "Is Jack there?"
"Can't get rid of him. Jack, what's her name?" The Doctor asked.
"Gwen Cooper."
"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, Are you from an old Cardiff family?" The Doctor asked as Rose squeezed in beside him.
"Yes, all the way back to the eighteen hundreds." Gwen replied in confusion.
"Ah, thought so. Spatial genetic multiplicity." The Doctor realised, grinning at Rose. "Yeah, it's a funny old world. Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me."
"Doing it now, sir." Ianto said.
"What's that for?" Donna asked.
"It's a tow rope. Now then. Sarah, what was your son's name?" The Doctor asked Sarah Jane.
"Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith." Sarah Jane replied desperately.
"Calling Luke and Mister Smith." The Doctor said "This is the Doctor. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg."
"Is Mum there?" A young boys voice came through.
"Oh, she's fine and dandy." The Doctor grinned while Sarah Jane rejoiced. "Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the Tardis. You got that?"
"I regret I will need remote access to Tardis base code numerals." The computer said.
"Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while." The Doctor groaned, but Sarah Jane pushed him out the way.
"No, no, no. Let me. K9, out you come!" She called.
"Affirmative, Mistress." The voice of the funny metal dog came through.
"Oh! Oh ho! Oh, good dog!" The Doctor said "K9, give Mister Smith the base code."
"Master." K9 said in acknowledgement "Tardis base code now being process is simple."
"Now then, you lot." The Doctor jumped into action "Sarah, hold that down. Mickey, you hold that. Because you know why this Tardis always is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed. Martha, keep that level. But not any more. Jack, there you go. Steady that. Now we can fly this thing. No, Jackie. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back. Like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the Tardis by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home. Right then." He looked around the group looking very pleased with himself as Clara and the Metacrisis came into a position to help fly "Off we go."
They pulled the Earth out of the Medusa Cascade and back to its home in the universe, next to the moon. They all began to laugh and cheer and celebrate, hugging each other. Then they flew below and landed in a park. They dropped Martha and Mickey and Jack and Sarah Jane home and then, to Bad Wolf Bay.
The metacrisis and Jackie stepped out of the TARDIS, followed by everyone else.
"You're back home." The Doctor said. Rose smiled and hugged him before stepping back with her mother.
"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened. It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now." Donna grinned.
Clara's echo was not happy "No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now." She said "I love you. I want to be with you."
"We saved the universe, but at a cost." Clara said from where she was leant against the TARDIS "And the cost is him." She nodded at the metacrisis "He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."
"You made me." The metacrisis pointed out.
"Exactly." The Doctor said "You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge. Remind you of someone?" He gave Rose a small smile "That's me, when we first met. And you made me better." Then he turned to the echo "He needs you. Just like I needed her"
"But it's better than that, though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you?" Donna asked "Tell her. Go on." She urged.
The metacrisis looked at Clara's echo "I look like him and I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart."
"So?" She asked.
"I'm part human. Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate." He said "not like him, or her. I've only got one life. I could spend it with you, if you want.
"We've got to go. This reality is sealing itself off for ever." The Doctor said.
The echo still looked uncertain, so Clara stepped forward. "Versions of us." She said. "The other echoes. It will take a thousand years before he will see them. And even so, we never get him. Not like I did. We also don't get to live, we never get to live. But you can do both. Live an actual life, with the Doctor by your side. Seeing you, and loving you."
The echo looked at her for a long moment, before she turned to the Doctor and kissed him. And the Doctor, Clara and Donna slipped away.
"I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?" Donna said in complete and utter delight as the drifted. Clara and the Doctor exchanged looks.
"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked sadly.
"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine." Donna announced.
"And how does that feel?" Clara asked gently.
"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary." Clara winced as Donna gasped for air. She thought back to a conversation, so long ago.
"Do you believe I'm human?" She asked, looking at him "Do you genuinely believe I'm a ordinary human girl, not some trap for you or a evil alien?"
The Doctor sighed. "I don't want to believe" he said "but Daleks don't just assume people as one of their own, and ordinary humans don't know the things you do. They can't. It would be like putting a time lords mind in a humans body, it would burn up."
There mind would burn.
"I'm fine." Donna said "Nah, never mind Felspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton." This time it hurt and she clutched her head "Oh, my God."
"Do you know what's happening?" The Doctor asked.
"Yeah." Donna resigned.
"There's never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why." The Doctor said.
"Because there can't be." Her eyes filled with tears. "I want to stay."
"Look at me. Donna, look at me." Clara whispered, stepping in her path.
"I was going to be with you two forever." She sobbed.
"I know." Clara soothed.
"The rest of my life, travelling in the Tardis. The Doctor Donna. No. Oh my god. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back." She pleaded, trying to step away from them.
"Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times." The Doctor said.
"No."
"The best. Goodbye." Clara finished, and then she pressed her fingers to Donna's temple, removing all the memories. She collapsed forward into the Doctors waiting arms.
He took her home, but Clara couldn't face it and she stayed in the TARDIS. She gently traced the wires in her arms, fighting back a scream. She didn't want this. She couldn't hurt him. Not when he had just lost Donna, and said goodbye to so many others. But she had to.
He came in through the door a while later, shutting it behind him. He was soaking wet, and his face was sad. So sad.
"So" he said across the console room "And now you?"
Clara tried to smile but the tears escaped. "I think we've reached the end"
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