Chapter 36.

"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."

-Robert Fulghum

POV: Mara

Date: November 8, 2014

I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Doctor," the Cybermen said in unison, and bowed their heads to him.

Missy grinned, and leaned against Dad's shoulder. "Tiny bit pleased?" She smacked him in the chest when he didn't react. "Oh, go on, crack a smile. I just gave you an army of infinite power and the key to your wife's prison. It's the least you could do."

Dad stared down at the jewel around his neck, and looked up at Mum. They stared at each other for a moment before he broke the gaze to look around at the Cybermen in bewilderment. "All of this. All of it just to give me…an army?"

Missy pushed herself away from him. "Well, I don't need one, do I? Armies are for people who think they're right. And nobody thinks they're righter than you. Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill." She pointed to Mum's crystal. "But it wasn't just to give you an army, if you recall."

Dad reached down to wrap his fingers around the crystal, but kept his eyes on Missy. "I don't want an army!"

She sighed. "Well, that's the trouble! Yes, you do! You've always wanted one!" She spun around with her hands extended. "All those people suffering in the Dalek camps? Now you can save them. All those bad guys winning all the wars? Go and get the good guys back!" She pointed to the crystal again. "With your wife at full power by your side there's nothing the two of you couldn't do." She looked at Mum with a wicked smile. "I see why you chose her now. She's so like you." She giggled to herself, and then turned her eyes back on Dad. "Not a bad deal, ay?"

Dad shook his head. "Nobody can have that power."

"Which power?" Missy asked. "The power an unlimited army can give?" She glanced around him then to point at Mum. "Or hers?"

"Yes," Dad said.

She scoffed. "Well, you will, because you don't have a choice. There's only one way you can stop these clouds from opening up and killing all your little pets down here. Conquer the universe, Mister President." She went into a curtsy again. "Show a bad girl how it's done."

Dad ripped the bracelet off his wrist and threw it to the ground. "Why are you doing this?"

Her face turned pleading. "I need you to know we're not so different. I need my friend back." Missy waved towards the Cybermen. "Every battle, every war, every invasion. From now on, you decide the outcome." She looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "What's the matter, Mister President? Don't you trust yourself?"

Dad stared at her for a moment, and pulled in a breath. I felt it. The moment something shifted inside of him. All that anger he'd just been directing at Missy abruptly vanished to be replaced by...gratitude?

"Thank you," he said. "Thank you so much." He leaned forward to kiss Missy's cheek.

My eyes widened. What was he thinking? I felt his gratitude then give way to mania. That was almost a never good sign with him.

He started running around in circles. "I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes. Thank you!"

"You weren't sure about what?" Jenny asked.

He paused in his running, and stood up tall. "I am not a good man!"

My hearts stopped.

He held up a finger. "I am not a bad man. I am not a hero, and I'm definitely not a president." He turned to Danny. "And no, I'm not an officer." He ran over to Jenny and I. "Do you know what I am?"

My sister and I shared a look. "Frustratingly cryptic?"

He laughed. "Oh, Jen, no. I am…an idiot!" He smiled widely.

I blinked. "What?"

He laughed, and threw his arms out wide. "An idiot! With a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning." He spun around to face Missy. "I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them." He waved a hand towards Clara and Danny. "And now, I've got them, too." He waved another hand towards Jenny, Mum, and I. "Because love, it's not an emotion." He paused in his rant, and looked over at Mum. "Love is a promise."

I saw her smile at him softly, and at the other side of the graveyard plot we were standing on, I saw Danny wrap his arms around Clara.

Dad pointed to the two of them. "It's how I know he will never hurt her. PE, catch!" he shouted, and threw the bracelet to Danny, who caught it with ease. Dad turned back to Missy. "You didn't notice, did you? While you were doing all your silly orders, while you were showing off, you didn't notice the one soldier not obeying."

Missy's eyes widened and she shook her head. "No, that's wrong. That's impossible."

I laughed. "Well, Clara is the impossible girl. It's no wonder she'd attract impossible people."

"Quiet you," Missy hissed at me.

"Watch your tone," Dad scolded. "That's my daughter you're speaking to. Not to mention her mum can turn you to dust."

Mum crossed her arms. "He makes a good point."

Danny put on the control bracelet before letting go of Clara to walk towards Missy. "The rain will not fall."

Missy raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why won't it?"

"The clouds will burn," Danny said simply.

"And who'll burn them?"

"I will burn them."

Missy crossed her arms and cocked her head. "How?"

"I will burn," Danny said.

Missy let out a snort. "One burning Cyberman is hardly going to save the planet, dear."

"Correct," Danny said, and pulled the bracelet up to his face. "Attention!"

All around us, every Cyberman snapped to attention.

"This is not a good day," Danny said. "This is Earth's darkest hour. And look at you miserable lot! We are the Fallen. But today, we shall rise! The army of the dead will save the land of the living. This is not the order of a general, nor the whim of a lunatic."

"Excuse me?" Missy crossed her arms defensively.

"This is a promise," Danny continued. "The promise of a soldier!" He lowered the bracelet and looked back at Clara. "You will sleep safe tonight," he promised, and ignited the rockets in his boots. He rose from the ground as all around, the Cybermen copied him.

We all watched as thousands of Cybermen shot into the clouds. And then, with a mighty boom, they exploded.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the fire shot across the sky. There was a moment where I could feel the blazing heat, and then the clouds cleared, and I felt a gentler warmth on my face.

I opened my eyes, and stared up into a sunny sky.

"Well," Clara said, and sniffed. "The clouds have all gone."

"Yes," Dad said. "Burned up. Totally burnt. Burnt to nothing."

I elbowed him in the ribs. "Rude."

"Sorry," he said.

"Ten zero eleven, zero, zero by zero two."

Dad blinked, and looked over at Missy. "What did you say?"

She looked at him with defeat on her face. "The current coordinates of Gallifrey. It's returned to its original location. Didn't you ever think to look?"

I felt that anger pour out of him again. "You are lying!" he shouted.

She ran forward to claw at him with desperation in her eyes. "We can—we can go together. Just you and me. Or the family, too, I don't mind. So long as it's us, together, just like the old days."

Dad looked at her from down his nose. "You'd be clapped in irons."

She nodded. "If you like."

Clara stepped closer and held up Missy's remote. "Doctor, I'm assuming you'll remember those coordinates?"

"Clara, no!" Jenny shouted.

"No," Dad said, and put himself between Clara and Missy. "Don't you dare. I won't let you."

"Old friend, is she?" Clara asked. "If you have ever let this creature live, everything that happened today, is on you. All of it; on you. And you're not going to let her live again."

"Clara, all I'm doing is not letting you kill her. I never said I was letting her live."

My hearts stopped. No. That couldn't be right. Dad wasn't a killer, not for anything.

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

He held out his hand for the remote. "If that's the only thing that will stop you. Yes."

She searched his face for a moment before handing over the remote. "Fine."

"Seriously?" Missy rolled her eyes. "Oh, Doctor. To save her soul? But who says she can still be saved? And who, my dear, will save yours?"

"I will." Mum stepped up to Dad's side. "That's my job, isn't it? Always has been."

Missy sighed heavily. "Oh darling, but how long can you keep doing it? Aren't you exhausted by now? Saving his sorry arse day in and day out. I know it'd drive me bonkers." She giggled. "Although, one could say I went mad long ago."

Dad held up the remote then.

She sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh…say something nice. Please?"

"You win," he said.

Her lips curled up into that smirk she was fond of. "I know."

"Don't!" I shouted, but it was too late. Dad had pressed down on the button, and Missy vaporized. I brought a hand up to my mouth in shock. I didn't think he was still capable of killing. I'd thought that maybe, after losing Jen and I the last time, that he'd learned something.

It looked as though I was wrong about that.