Chapter 38: An Unfair Street Fight

Although the Doctor did his best to cheer Clara up following their visit to London, no matter what he did, she was mentally struggling to cope with everything she had learnt. It was safe to say that her life had certainly spun out of control... Every time they were together in the control room, the Doctor could see the pain eating away at her. He had to give her credit where credit was due as she did do her best to hide what she was feeling. However, every now and then he caught a glimpse of her when her thoughts wandered back to it all.

That particular day as the Doctor was piloting the TARDIS and trying to find a suitable destination in the hope to take Clara's mind off recent events, he glanced over at her. She was leaning on the other side of the console, her thoughts a million miles away.

He sighed to himself before walking around to her, completely unnoticed. He was genuinely struggling to find the words to say to her. She meant so much to him so seeing her so out of character actually tore at his hearts.

"Hey…" he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

She sighed and relaxed into his arms as her thoughts subsided. She smiled weakly and turned to look at him over her shoulder.

"Hey…" she responded.

They stood there for a few moments, just enjoying each others embrace. The Doctor wanted to speak; he just didn't know what to say when talking to her. The obvious question would be 'are you okay?' yet that would be daft to ask. Of course she wasn't okay but what else can you say in that circumstance?

"Do you want to go somewhere?" he asked softly.

Clara sighed and nodded slightly. "Yeah." she replied, "Somewhere good though."

The Doctor smiled weakly and kissed her hair before pulling away. He then returned to the control panel and began hitting random levers.

"So what ya got in mind?" questioned Clara.

"I was thinking the Smiling Nebula Café." he told her.

Clara smiled genuinely for the first time in days.

"Let me guess," she began, "It's just a little café on a planet, no link to any kind of nebula and above all, nobody smiles?"

The Doctor laughed and rolled his eyes. It was nice to see the old Clara returning slowly.

"It's a café on a little asteroid orbiting the Smiling Nebula." he explained, "Well, when I say little… It's inside a market complex."

Clara raised her eyebrow slightly. "Is that like a shoppin' centre of some sort?" she asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Do you wanna check it out?" he questioned.

Clara shrugged her shoulders. "Depends." she stated, "Can we go shoppin' after?"

The Doctor frowned slightly but attempted to hide it with a nod.

"If you want." he agreed.

Clara smiled. He was just like any other typical man, he hated shopping. However, she found it quite sweet that he was willing to agree to do it just to make her happy.

The first few seconds in the Time Vortex were smooth flying which a rare but nice change. However, it didn't last long.

"Whoa!" cried Clara as the forces sent her into the rail behind her.

The TARDIS shuddered a couple of times before it stopped suddenly. The Doctor quickly pushed himself up off the console and looked over at his less than happy companion.

"You alright?" he asked.

She scowled slightly. "Why am I stuck with the one spaceship in the entire universe which has more tantrums than a toddler?" she questioned.

The Doctor smirked slightly before returning his attention to the scanner. He had to be honest; he was pretty fed up with the amount of times the TARDIS had been pulled off course lately. The sooner he found why, the better.

"So where are we?" questioned Clara as she made her way over to him.

"Um… Earth," he replied, "In the year 100,021."

Clara's eyebrows raised in amazement. She had never even thought about that far into the future. To be honest, she was slightly surprised the Earth still existed. Back home, everybody was worried about global warming and natural disasters yet it was still there in the year 100,021.

"So much for the 'Smiling Nebula Café'." she stated with her usual hint of cheekiness, "Seriously Doctor, if you didn't want to take me shoppin', why didn't ya just say so?"

The Doctor smiled at her happiness. It was nice to see her like that once again. He extended his hand which she gratefully accepted before running down to the door and exiting the box.

Clara's jaw dropped when she saw what was waiting for them outside. The entire area was filled with crowds and crowds of people, some human and some alien. They were in some sort of street market and people zoomed passed them at phenomenal speeds. The noise was overpowering almost as bad as the chorus of sobs back at Bramwell Mine.

A shell-shocked Clara turned to the Doctor whose frown was engraved into his face.

"This is Earth?!" she cried.

The Doctor gulped slightly and nodded, not taking his eyes off the people around them.

"Apparently so." he replied.

The entire street looked wrong. The buildings were all crammed next to each other, a clear safety hazard. God help them if there was a fire. Then there were the people, there were so many of them that even he himself found it rather uncomfortable.

At the end of the street was a large, white square block, almost like a stage. The two sides on the left and right from where the Doctor and Clara were had two doors which were linked to some sort of pod. The Doctor expected that's how people probably entered the area. The other two sides were walled off by clear fences making the area look vaguely similar to a 21st Century boxing ring. The reason his eye was drawn to it was because the majority of the people were trying to crowd around it.

"What is that?" questioned Clara, referring to the area.

"I don't know." confessed the Doctor, "Maybe some sort of… entertainment arena, I'm not sure."

Suddenly, a loud bell rang throughout the street, starting at the strange arena. In a matter of seconds the commotion hushed and complete silence descended on the street. The Doctor was rather confused. He had been to Earth countless times but not once had he ever heard of anything like this. Then again, he rarely came to this time period.

A buzzer sounded and they both watched as one of the doors opened and revealed a rather large alien. He looked about 6 foot 2 and looked so strong that he could probably snap a human in half as easily as a twig.

"Was is that?" asked Clara in a whisper.

"A Niktorian." the Doctor replied, "One of the strongest humanoid aliens in this galactic sector…"

The alien who was dressed in some sort of metallic coloured suit began to walk around the arena, posing in order to hype up the crowd.

Moments later, another buzzer sounded and from the opposite door came a young human. She was probably only 19 or 20 and very small, clearly no match for the Niktorian. She was small, thin and above all nervous as she entered the arena. The crowd cheered with delight as she appeared, apparently all thinking the same thing: She was going to lose... whatever the game was.

The Doctor and Clara's eyes never left the two competitors as the third buzzer sounded, the start buzzer. The large one seemed to smirk and the two of them began to speak. There was no doubt in the Doctor's mind that the young girl wasn't going to get seriously hurt.

"This is so unfair…" whispered Clara, "She's got no chance!"

The Doctor nodded in agreement. He seriously couldn't believe what he was seeing!

After a moment, the fight got into full swing. By this point, the clear barriers were glowing a canary yellow, symbolising the type of fight it was. The crowd were cheering as the Niktorian hit the young woman in specific areas on her body.

The areas were marked out by little pads. There was one over her upper abdomen, one on her back and two on the back of her hands. The Doctor could see they were designed to deliver a small electric shock to the person when struck by their contestant. The Niktorian was also displaying some but the young human had no chance to reach them as she futilely attempted to defend herself.

Clara shook her head in disbelief. "This is sick…" she whispered.

The Doctor concurred. He had never imagined humans playing such brutal games just for people's entertainment.

A buzzer sounded suddenly as the match ended. The Niktorian proudly showed off to the crowed as the fences began to flash a deeper yellow. However, the Doctor's eyes were drawn to the young woman. She looked a wreck! Her once blonde hair was starting to be dyed with rose-red blood leaking from a large cut over her right temple and she was struggling to move as her door opened.

A final buzzer sounded and the crowd soon began to disperse from around the area. The Doctor began to scan the area with his screwdriver while Clara watched as the arena powered down. Her eyes were glued on the young woman who had managed to crawl halfway through her door. As the power died, she gasped when she saw the woman fade away into nothingness.

"Doctor!" she cried without taking her eyes off the area where the woman had been.

"What?" he questioned as he turned around to her.

"She faded away." she told him, "She wasn't real…"

"What do you mean she wasn't real?" he queried.

Clara quickly skimmed her memories in order to compare it to something.

"She looked… holographic." she responded.

The Doctor's head immediately snapped up towards the arena. He visually examined it before scanning it with his screwdriver.

He turned to face her and nodded slightly. "It was…" he confirmed, "The match was being transmitted from somewhere else."

Clara frowned. "Can you find out where from?" she questioned.

He nodded rapidly and was just about to scan the area when another sound emanated from the arena. This time the fences began to flash a deep grape purple and the market immediately became still again.

"Selection commencing." a monotone computerised voice announced.

The Doctor looked around as people in the crowd were suddenly pinched away by some type of transporter beams. The arena beeped five times before the selection ended. Three people seemed to be chosen during each beep. That was at least fifteen people who had just been snatched from their lives.

The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. "This is so wrong…" he whispered.

He then turned around to Clara, or to the place where she should have been. However, there was no sign of her.

"Clara?" he questioned, looking around intensely, "Clara!"

He sighed and felt himself begin to grow angry. He should have expected it really. She was gone, taken away from him… again! There was definitely something in the universe playing an evil trick on him; probably because he made the fatal mistake of saying the universe didn't care about him. Then again, if it did Clara would still be at his side.

"Oh, come on!" he cried before looking up towards the sky, "Seriously?!"