"We've got to go," the Doctor said finally, extracting herself from her friends.

She saw Mickey say something to her, but he was too quick for her to lip-read. But she understood what he was trying to tell her easily enough. He was holding Tricky. But Tricky had been shot. Tricky was different now. He was a man. A young man.

The Doctor smiled sadly. "How?" She asked.

She concentrated hard on Mickey's lips, and was able to understand that the soldier had shot her. But the soldier was dead now.

But Rory tapped the Doctor on the arm, to get her attention. He held up his phone, on which was written; why isn't he awake?

The Doctor took the phone and wrote; give it time. He'll be just fine eventually.

She handed it back to Rory without another word. "We have to go," she announced, speaking much too loud. Her voice thundered around the chamber.

Clara nodded. "We do. Come on. Let's get out of here."

Then came the dreaded question, the one she'd been hoping nobody would ask - "How?" It was Amy who'd asked.

Clara shook her head. "We'll find our way..." she said, hoping she sounded convinced.

The Doctor had Mickey and Jack lift Thomasina onto the silver operating table. She pushed Thomasina's eyes shut, and forced her tongue back into her mouth, pushing her chin up to close it. She then placed her hands on her stomach, resting one on top of the other. She looked peaceful, Clara thought. More peaceful than she'd ever been in life.

"We'll leave her here," the Doctor mumbled, "I'll tell the Time Lords what's happened. They'll collect her."

And then, without a backwards glance at Thomasina, the Doctor marched from the abattoir. The crew followed her hastily, not wanting to spend another second in the awful place. Jamie and Rory took Tricky, Rory holding his legs, Jamie gripping him under the arms.

Clara was the last to leave. Unlike the Doctor, she did take one final glance backwards at the room. The Other lay on the operating table, and the machinery had shut down. The Panoptican's owner was dead. It too was dying.

Clara took a deep, shaky breath and turned around. As she did, she heard a deep voice behind her.

"Jolly well done, lassie. You did it!"

She wheeled around. The room was empty. But in the tank of fluid, a face floated faintly across the surface. Omega's face. With a broad, bearded smile, the face dissolved away. Had it been there at all?

An hour later, they were still walking.

"We're lost!" Jo said sullenly, as the Doctor suggested they turn back for the hundredth time. "Face it!"

The Doctor didn't hear her. The team traipsed back the way they came, and ended up at a junction of four corridors. Clara looked at the four pathways in dismay. She could have sworn it hadn't been here five minutes ago...

The corridors were dark and quiet. No wooden doors appeared any more, and nor did any monsters.

"Let's try this way," the Doctor said, leading them down the left one. Nobody, not even the Doctor, had much optimism that it was the right way.

Jamie was on the verge of tears - he'd been so sure that he'd remembered the way out! But every instruction he'd given had been wrong! He'd been lugging Tricky along with Rory, so maybe hadn't been paying attention. But now he was up front with the Doctor, whilst Jack and Mickey had taken over with Tricky.

And he didn't have the first idea about where to go. Nothing they came across looked familiar.

They'd been given a nasty dose of false hope earlier - they'd somehow managed to stumble upon Thomasina's office, buried deep in the Panoptican. A can of coca-cola sat on the wooden desk, waiting to be drunk by it's owner, who would never come. The Doctor pocketed it. But there had been a window in there! A window leading to outside!

Except it wasn't. It was a hologram window, designed to keep the victims of the harvest calm as they met their end. It wasn't a way out. It was a solid wall.

Lady Me had burst into tears at that point. Now, she and Clara were walking along at the back, Clara's arm wrapped around her.

"We won't get out..." Jo said suddenly.

"Oh don't say that!" Jack said.

"But we won't! There's no way out! Everything's changing!"

This set Lady Me off again. Suddenly, everyone was talking over each other hysterically, telling each other not to panic, whilst they themselves were panicking. Only the Doctor stay silent.

"S'cuse" she mumbled. Everyone ignored her, and continued ranting, coming up with contradicting suggestions of which way to go, ordering one another to calm down...

"Oi!" The Doctor bellowed loudly, making everyone jump. Her voice was so loud when she wanted it to be...

The Doctor looked this new corridor. Her hearts sank - ahead was another crossroads, with not four, but eight different directions to take! She shrugged, and pointed at Mickey. "Phone." She said again. He produced it from his pocket, and she took it and began typing.

She finished, and showed it to the group, making sure everyone read it.

There's gotta be a way out, but the trouble is I'm not clever enough to work it out. There's only one way out of this.

Clara read it and stared at her. "What?" She asked blankly.

The Doctor smiled sadly. "You need to think like me." She said, taking the phone back to type more. The crowd stared at one another. What could she possibly mean by that? It sounded ominous.

The Doctor finished her reply and showed it to them. It said - it won't hurt. Let's put things back in order and start with Ian.

Ian Chesterton's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" He asked clearly. "What won't hurt?"

The Doctor just shook her head, and beckoned him over. He came willingly enough. She stood on tiptoe, holding him around the shoulders. Then she pressed her forehead against his.

And Ian saw everything. Every adventure, including his own with that mad old man, all those years ago. Every Doctor. Every friend, every monster. Every laugh, and every tear shed. And there was more - he saw a young boy, crying alone in a barn. Years later, an old man in a leather jacket, sitting in that same barn to make the hardest decision of his life...he saw death, he saw destruction...but he saw love. Joy...the entire history of the Doctor shot through his brain like a flash. It took two seconds.

Then the Doctor removed her forehead from his, and let him go.

Ian stood still. "I..." Ian began helplessly, "I...thanks. I love you, Doctor." Ian's eyes teared up.

The Doctor smiled and nodded. "Jamie." She called.

Jamie stepped forward, and the Doctor repeated the process. Like Ian, Jamie saw everything. He saw an angry old man. He saw a little man with a Beatles haircut. His Doctor. He saw himself and the adventures they had. Then, he saw everything beyond that. It was overwhelming!

The Doctor removed her head from his. Jamie didn't speak to her. He nodded and smiled, tears pouring down his red face.

"Jo." The Doctor called.

Jo came forward at once, and the process was repeated. She saw everything, including her own times with that uppity old fox with the curly grey hair. And everything beyond. The Doctor took her head away. "I love you." Jo said. Her lower lip was trembling.

Then it was Mickey's turn. He laid Tricky down gently on the floor and came over to the Doctor. She pressed her head against his own, and filled his head with...everything. Every Doctor, every time, every moment of sadness and joy...and he too cried.

Jack didn't. He simply pulled away and, not for the first time, kissed the Doctor on the lips. The Doctor was taken aback for sure, but had no particular objection. He was a very handsome man. She'd never looked at him that way before. Clara cleared her throat and he pulled away. "Oh yeah..." he said, smoothing his jacket, and winking at the Doctor. "Thanks Doc - very insightful!"

Then it was Martha's turn. She grinned broadly as her head was filled with the pages of the Doctor's life. And what a long book it would have been! She smiled and nodded. She couldn't speak.

Then came Amy. She didn't try either. Instead, she hugged the Doctor when the process is complete. "I know you can't hear me," she said to the Doctor, who's face was buried in her shoulder, "but I love you." And she pulled away.

Then came Rory. Unlike Amy, he burst into tears, and had to fall into Amy's arms after it was over. Amy patted him on the back. She looked faintly embarrassed, something the Doctor picked up on.

"I'd be proud," the Doctor mumbled, a stern note in her muffled voice, "if he were my husband."

"I am!" Amy said, turning a little red. She was ashamed with herself for feeling that way. Hadn't someone once said it takes a real man to cry? Who said that? Ah, doesn't matter. The point stands.

That left Clara and Lady Me. Clara walked slowly over and allowed the Doctor to press her forehead against her own. She winked at her. "Go ahead."

And she did - Clara saw everything. So many Doctor's, so many adventures...so much beauty.

Like Amy, she pulled the Doctor into a tight hug, making sure her lips weren't visible. "I do love you, Doctor." Clara said emotionlessly. "I always will. I always did, even when I was cross with you sometimes...I never stopped loving you. I hope you know that. I think you do."

She pulled away, and Lady Me silently strolled over. Tears appeared in her eyes as she saw all of the Doctor's life. "Thanks..." she said helplessly.

The Doctor sighed deeply. "I know," she said, smiling.

Clara frowned. "You know what?"

"That you love me." The Doctor said. "Quite right too. And I love all of you."

Her words were muffled and incoherent, but everyone could understand her perfectly. They knew her now. They knew the Doctor. How few people could truly say that?

She took Mickey's phone and again typed out something; now you all think like me...between us, we can get out. We've just got to think about it.

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. For a whole, long minute nobody spoke...Clara could feel the difference inside her now...she just felt more sharp. More intelligent. Like...like things made a lot more sense now...she wondered if it would last, or whether it would fade eventually, like many people's memories of travelling with the Doctor faded...

"The entrance is miles away," Rory sniveled suddenly. "I've been workin' it out. Miles."

"Yeah," Jamie said quietly, "but I think...I might know another way out."

"Where?" Everyone said.

"Doctor," Jamie said speaking clearly, "does this place have stairs? More than one level? Does it have a basement? Underground levels?"

The Doctor shrugged and pointed at her ear. Jamie nodded and took Mickey's phone. He held it, looking down at the weird little thing with fascination.

"How do you use this thing?" He said. Mickey sighed, and took it back. He typed Jamie's question out himself and showed it to the Doctor.

The Doctor frowned. "Probably. Why?" She said...then she thought about it a little. "Oh!" She exclaimed, a smile appearing on her face.

Jamie laughed. "Yes! it's right below us. If I'm right...and we've been there before, me and you."

"What is?" Ian said at once. Then he too thought about it. "Oh!" He repeated, "oh that's clever."

"What is?" Clara demanded.

"Our way out, I hope." Jamie said. "If only we can find some stairs..."

"I can help there," Amy said at once, "I've been thinking about the way we've been travelling...it's all a mishmash...ooh, there's a good word! But there is a pattern. We've been travelling sort of...mainly left. Whereas we should have been going mainly right. So...the most likely place there would be stairs is...the corners? Wouldn't you agree?"

The group looked at each other uncertainly.

"I would!" Jo screamed, making everyone jump. "It's basic, isn't it...massive great building, staircases in the corner. Worth a shot, isn't it."

"For sure!" Martha said. "So...if we've been going left so far, I guess we keep going that way?"

The Doctor, without Tricky's help, was finding it very hard to follow the conversation.

"We think we know," Jamie told her clearly. He pointed down the corridor. "We keep going."

She got the gist of it and nodded. The group set off again. Amy volunteered to help with Tricky now, and grabbed his legs. Captain Jack picked up his torso, and they staggered along with him.

There was a long way to go, and nobody was entirely confident about what they'd find. Apart from Amy. She knew. Basic common sense, isn't it? No? Maybe? All right fine - she hadn't a clue either. She only hoped. She loved feeling so intelligent though...was this how the Doctor felt every day? It was overwhelming, knowing the Doctor so well now...she was so much more than the raggedy man, the madman in the box...she was as ancient as the sky itself. She was so much more than she allowed people to believe.

Ian found that the hardest to comprehend. As they walked, his knees aching relentlessly, he thought back to that old man he'd known. That old man...what he became...it was immense...incomprehensible. Ian felt privileged to have known the Doctor in his youth. Ha! And he'd thought that the Doctor was a man past his time back then. How wrong can somebody be?

Half an hour later, they came across something new.

They reached a sharp corner, with a wrought iron door standing there, alone. There was a mesh-hole in the door. The Doctor bounded over at once and peered into the blackness beyond. Squinting, she thought she could make out a welcome (if somewhat scary) shape - the shape of a long, twisting staircase, leading down into the pitch black. There was, she noticed, a gust of air coming up that staircase from below. Cool, musty-smelling air tickled her face through the hole in the door gently.

"This ish ist." the Doctor said. She hadn't been concentrating, and the words came out wrong. She of course didn't know that. She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the door, which opened with a click.

"Anyone got a torch?" Jo said, peering down into the gloomy depths.

The Doctor was all over it - she pulled a huge great yellow torch from her pocket, and flicked it on. A dazzling white light erupted from the end, throwing the stairwell into plain view. It was a spiral staircase, made of metal like pretty much everything else in the Panoptican. It did go up. But that wasn't the right way. They had to go down...

"How far?" Amy asked the Doctor tensely.

Ian answered. "Not far. If we're gonna end up where I think we will..."

So down they went. It was hard work getting Tricky down. Eventually, they sat him down and just sort of slid him on his backside, keeping hold of his head so that it didn't get bumped too much.

Ian was right. It wasn't far down. Not as far as they'd feared. They ended up in a small, square room with another door. It looked different, this one...the Doctor went through first, and the rest of them filtered in behind her. Clara looked around in astonishment. They were in a huge, long room with a tiled walls, and a curved ceiling. The tiles suggested to Clara that they were no longer in the Panoptican... they'd come out of some sort of secret service entrance to the Panoptican. But to where? Where was this?

"I thought so," Jamie beamed.

Clara blinked. It looked like...no? Surely not?

"It's an underground train station!" Ian exclaimed, laughing.

And so it was. But it was unlike any underground station Clara had ever seen. They were standing on a platform, having come through a door which was sat at the end, by the tunnel. But it was so dark! And old! There were no lights, no passengers, nothing! It stank, an ancient, dusty smell, like something abandoned. From the light that the Doctor's torch offered, Clara could make out the edge of the platform, and the darkness of the tunnel, a gaping round hole into the darkness. From somewhere int he distance, she heard the oh so familiar clatter of a tube train in the distance. It would come through this station. But it wouldn't stop here. No trains stopped at this station anymore. They hadn't done for many, many years.

"Down Street." Ian said, tapping the wall. The Doctor flashed her torch onto it, and sure enough, the words "Down Street" were printed on the wall. "Down Street Tube Station," Ian repeated. "Closed in 1932. Used as a shelter in the Second World War, occasionally open for tours...but no trains. There's places like this all over the tube system. Disused stations, closed to save money usually."

"This is creepy," Amy exclaimed softly, looking around the derelict old station in awe.

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Jack said quietly, "look down there."

The Doctor flashed her torch where he was pointing. Down at the far end of the platform. Dozens of bodies lay rotting over there in a pile. Some of them were still decomposing, but others were skeletal. They'd been there for many years now...they didn't smell, mercifully. Presumably the Other had seen to that, so that her servants could continue coming down here to dump more of them without vomiting.

"Oh my goodness," Jo said, holding her hand to her mouth. "How many?"

"Dunno," Clara said quietly. "She killed a lot of people over the years...these ones are the people she could get away with "vanishing." Anybody who would be missed had to be dumped up top."

Jamie rounded on Ian, "I though' ya said they did tours?"

Ian shrugged.

"They don't notice them." Clara said sadly. "All of the bodies are fitted with a perception filter. We only noticed because of everything we've seen today..."

"Let's go." Martha said. "Come on. Up through the station, and out."

"The entrance is locked, of course." Ian said. "But the Doctor can sort that."

"Och, it might be easier to walk through to the next station," Jamie said, peering into the tunnel. "That'll be open, righ'?" He and the Doctor had done that, many years ago.

"Yes," Ian said, "but the track's electric. And..."

He stopped. They all did. It was suddenly very windy on the platform. A roaring, thundering noise came from the tunnel behind them.

"Ah, yes." The Doctor mumbled. "Guys - get down."

The group staggered to the floor at once, and moved well away from the edge of the platform. Just as Ian finally sank to his front, his face pressed against the dusty stone floor, a tube train came thundering through the tunnel, moving horrifically quickly just a few feet from the crew. It didn't stop. But with a thrill of dismay, the Doctor realized too late that her torch was still on. Had anyone seen them? The driver? The passengers, maybe? Ordinarily, it was too quick and too dark to really make the station out, but with the torch on...

Finally, the long tube train came fully through the old forgotten station, and out the other end. The Doctor got to her feet.

"Let's go." She said simply.

Jamie nodded. His long brown hair was windswept. "Maybe not the tunnel..." he said weakly.

Moving up through the station was a nightmare. The old lifts had been ripped out long ago, the shafts standing bare and empty. They had to take the crumbling, stone staircase up, somehow dragging Tricky along with them. It was harder taking him up a flight of stairs than it had been lowering him down. Much harder. The station was obviously dangerous. At the top of those stairs, the lift doors were open. Take the wrong step, you'd plunge down the empty shaft. There was such poor lighting, and the stairs were so derelict. Finally, Mickey and Jack's limbs aching from pulling Tricky along, and Ian needing the support of Rory and Amy, they came to the top. A long, tiled tube of a corridor greeted them.

"Got to be this way," the Doctor said, setting off down the corridor. They all staggered on down it, trying to avoid the exposed wires dotted here and there (just in case). Up another flight of stairs...and then...

Clara could have wept with joy. There was a locked metal door. But beyond it, the sound of voices...

The Doctor used her screwdriver and pushed it open. Clara rushed out first.

The burst into tears, and sagged to her knees. Above her, the night sky twinkled beautifully, the stars shining down. The cold night air slapped her face. They were on Down Street. Just around the corner from the Panoptican. She wheeled around - everyone was staggering out of the door, most of them crying. She was glad there weren't any police around. They'd be done for trespassing. But she noticed that part of the old station building was now a newsagents. With a CCTV camera. She giggled through her tears. There'd be some interesting footage tomorrow.

Ian was the final person to come through onto the street. He staggered through the door, his old body finally exhausted, Amy and Rory holding his arms. The Doctor shut the door behind them. There was graffiti on it this side, and a blue "keep locked" sign.

They were out. All of them. It was finally, finally over.

Note: Down Street Underground Station is a real place, if anyone was wondering. You can see photos of the old platforms etc online, rather creepy. There's lots of abandoned stations like it.

Three more chapters left. One to wrap up the "Interval" story-line, one to wrap up the main story line, and an epilogue. None of them will be particularly long chapters.