The Doctor was slowly regaining his composure to some extent, although, whenever he chanced a look at Clara, his synapses would seemingly decide to start exploding again. He tried his best to focus on the situation at hand, looking at everyone who was there in the room. The group had definitely gotten larger but he had been hoping that more people would have turned up by now. He bit his lip in thought, opening and closing his hands as his mind whirred a million times a second.
"Status report," he said to Kate as he pointed at her. She was initially put on the backfoot by the sudden instruction, still trying to process what had just happened in front of her. She knew that the two of them were close but that was on a completely different level. Though, judging by his reaction, it was a recent development.
"We've been busy during your...absence," she replied. She gestured to the three Zygons, who had grown even more baffled by the appearance of the mad Scotsman. "We've already been able to make progress with the Zygon population who are now willing to help us in the fight." He approached Hayley, who he could tell was the true leader of the trio.
"Good, good," he mumbled. Anything to focus on something other than the woman closest to him. "I'm sure they tried to wow you with their best diplomatic team." The way he said it made it perfectly clear that he felt any such department was severely lacking. Hayley looked at him in confusion.
"They were incredibly impressive," she said. "Although I don't think they had much experience in such talks, despite what they tried to tell us."
"Pardon?"
"Who do you think I'd trust with a task of such importance?" Kate asked him. She gestured to the people surrounding him, a couple he hadn't seen in a while.
"Really? That's...excellent! Colour me impressed. I just assumed that UNIT would leave it to some brain dead politician. Not the proper experts!" He moved over to Wilf, shaking his hand. "It's been a while. Oh, I'd say two regenerations since I last saw you."
"You're him?" Wilf managed to utter, taking in his new appearance. He knew he was going to be different from their brief phone call but it was still taking some getting used to.
"You haven't explained to us who he actually is," Hayley reminded them, John nodding his head by her side.
"I'm the Doctor." Her eyes widened, immediately recognising the name from the tales that had spread from their arrival on Earth. "You might have heard of me. The man who strives for everlasting peace but often has to settle for a nice cup of tea."
"How long did it take you to come up with that introduction?" Clara asked him with a cheeky grin.
"Shut up," he responded with a glare. She was happy to see that their usual form of conversation hadn't been damaged too much by the kiss. It was a positive sign at least. "But you know that already, don't you Perkins?" He smiled at the engineer, who had been trying to stay in the corner of the room. "Had second thoughts about joining us on the Tardis yet?"
"You're the one who brought me here," he answered. "But I'm glad you did. This is already proving to be more exciting than anything I've experienced since the Orient. Even if it is also incredibly frightening."
"That's often the case. Wait...I brought you here?"
"He had some sort of teleportation device on him that we were able to use," Graham told him, seeing as he had been the one to make that happen. "It was in that book you gave us."
"Interesting. I'll have to deal with that at a later date, I guess. Hold on!" He turned back to Wilf. The problem with his brain going so fast was that he was processing conversations at different rates. "Weren't you with Brian when you called me?"
"Well, not exactly," the old man responded. "He was on my laptop. But we came here together, yes."
"Where is he then?" It was a meeting that he didn't want to really do, especially in the current climate, but one that he knew needed to happen, if at least to ease the pain in his hearts.
"Another thing we need to tell you," Kate butted in, regaining his attention. He seemed a lot more distracted than usual. "Mr. Williams was a part of a team sent to the Silurian colony we recently discovered. We lost radio contact a while back."
"Putting that ominous sign to the side for a moment, where was this colony?"
"A small village in Wales. We couldn't believe it when some of our operatives stumbled across it." The Doctor's thick eyebrows descended so that they were right on top of his eyes.
"No. That's not right." He was moving about again, fidgeting with his hands like he normally did. "I found that in 2020." He glanced at his watch. "It's not 2020, is it?" Clara shook her head as he glanced at her. "That's not good. They definitely hadn't been woken up before I got involved." He tapped his head in frustration as he though about the implications. "Let me think. Sequence of events. The rift opens. As far as we're aware, nothing untoward happens. Probably because of the force field. But there's a gap in between those two events. Maybe not long but enough. The time energy leaks out and creates a temporal anomaly, i.e the colony being plucked out from five years in the future."
"Why would it target a small rural area though?" Clara asked. He shrugged his shoulders.
"Who knows? Barring its origins, the rift is a completely natural event. Its events could be entirely random. Or maybe that day was of significant importance, the start of a relationship between two species even if it failed to bring that about initially. Something like that...in the context of time, it could be like a flashing beacon. Look at me! I'm important in this planet's history and future! And the rift sees it and targets it."
"Can we try and determine what other events it might focus on, now that it's got nothing to stop it?" Kate queried. She hadn't expected the largest invasion force in Earth's history to be the least of her worries.
"No idea. So many moments to choose from. It might not have any profound effect or it could bring the meteor that killed the dinosaurs crashing down on us here. I say meteor...more like a cyber ship. Poor Adric."
"Just brilliant. What do we do then?"
"Nothing! There's no point worrying about something we can't control. I'm actually kind of curious to see what happens." Clara hit him on the arm to tell him he was being insensitive. "Like I said, it might not actually be disastrous. It might help us!"
"And how have you determined that?" Graham asked. "All what you said just then sounded worryingly apocalyptic."
"Imagine armies throughout time landing on our doorstep. Convince them to help us and you'd have a force equal or maybe even greater to what's facing us. I wouldn't get your hopes up though. Time leakages are a surprisingly slow process. By the time things begin to get properly out of sync, the planet will likely be on the brink of destruction anyway. Positive thinking people!" Clara had to hit him again. She reckoned he did it on purpose most of the time just to get a rise out of her.
"I liked our prospects a lot more when he wasn't here," Hayley commented.
"Change is good. For instance, we still have cybermen right outside but they're now beginning to take on an enemy they didn't expect to be fighting against. Thanks to my natural charisma."
"Thanks to you trading my ship for support," Jack bitterly corrected.
"I'll get you a new one," the Doctor said dismissively.
"I can tell you're really eager to tell us what you've done so that you can show off your brilliance," Clara commented. He looked at her to wink at her but his breath was almost taken away by how adoring her smile was towards him. It practically took him off balance.
"You know me so well." Concentrate, Doctor! "Right. You've amassed an army of Zygons." He stopped to bow theatrically towards that trio. "And hopefully the Silurians will be quick to join us. In the meantime, I've got us the meanest, baddest law enforcers in the galaxy. Judoon."
"You're speaking nonsense again, Doc," Graham moaned, flapping his arms in the air.
"Space police that look like rhinos. How isn't this simple for you by now?" he countered with incredulity.
"Doctor," Clara warned, practically growling at him.
"Right, yes. Sorry. I'm a little bit all over the place." They all wondered what he would be like if he completely lost it. "Me and Jack visited the Shadow Proclamation. Basically the universe's judging system. They provided some fire power to our cause. The Judoon have already taken out one group of Cybermen but I'm betting there are a lot more."
"We don't have exact numbers yet," Kate said, knowing he wouldn't like what she was about to tell him. "Thousands, maybe millions. But they're not just invading London. They've sent forces to every corner of the country." The Doctor grimaced.
"Not their usual tactic. Normally they'd concentrate their power here. Take the capital and the rest usually falls into place. Apart from when I prevent that from happening. No. It's like they're wanting to completely destroy Britain. No thought about upgrading the population. Annihilation. And they've planned this out."
"Think back to what the Daleks told us," Clara prompted. "That's what they said would happen."
"All because I couldn't stop the Time Lords in time."
"That wasn't your fault."
"I can't focus on that now anyway. It's in the past. We just need to find a way to first stop this invasion."
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Yaz asked. "Millions of soldiers trained to kill against...us."
"Exactly! The best odds I've had in awhile! Even with the Judoon, the Zygons, and possibly the Silurians...we can't beat them in outright warfare. So we need to be clever. Come on people...be clever."
"Is there any way we could get into their systems?" Clara asked. He clicked his fingers excitedly at her.
"Good thinking, Miss Oswald. They all have a shared consciousness. Like being on a group chat you really wish you weren't a part of. Trust me...Churchill and Cleopatra are always bickering." Clara wanted to learn more about this, slightly annoyed that she wasn't a part of this. "If we can hack into it, who knows how much of a nuisance we could be."
"There's just a small matter of finding a way of getting into their incredibly secure system," Kate pointed out.
"All we need is a cyberman. The issue is that the Judoon aren't the type to leave any remains."
"Do they have to be ones with this batch?" Graham queried.
"I...don't know. In theory, the base program hasn't changed despite the variations to their design. Why?"
"Well, there was a head. In the Archive bit. I noticed it before."
"See! You're all being clever. This is why you're all here!" His eyes lit up with the prospect of another idea. He rushed over to the Zygons. "We're going to be busy for a bit. But, once we're ready, we'll have to act quickly. Do you think you can get in contact with more of your community?" Hayley smirked.
"It shouldn't be a problem." With that, the three of them walked away, getting ready for the battle. That was one piece of the puzzle slowly moving into place. He turned back to the rest of them, slightly more confident about their chances now.
"Will you go and get that head then?" he asked them, a sentence he hadn't expected to be saying. It certainly wasn't the strangest he'd ever said. "In the meantime...Clara. You, me, Tardis, now." She arched an eyebrow, wondering what he wanted with her. All sorts of thoughts began running through her head, thinking back on the kiss they'd shared. Surely he wouldn't take time out from this to do anything like...that. She followed him though as he expected. He rushed inside the Tardis, taking a moment to enjoy being back inside his big blue box. "Hello, dear," he murmured affectionately. "Sorry for being absent. You know how it gets." Clara was a few seconds behind him, walking into the large console room with peaked curiosity. She didn't want to think about the deep pit of nerves in her stomach, fearful of what he might say to her. Biting her lip, she began to speak loudly, knowing she had to take advantage of this brief moment alone with him.
"Doctor, I know you probably want to talk about what happened. You probably have a lot of questions and I'm happy to answer...them." But he was nowhere to be seen. She frowned. This wasn't what she had predicted to happen. She slowly circled the console, dragging her hands along some of the levers and buttons. How could he move so quickly?
"Clara!" he shouted, his voice distant. He was below the console, somewhere rummaging through all of the things he kept down there. She had to smirk as she quickly made her way down to meet him. It seemed that he was going to ignore the elephant in the room for the time being. She was saddened by that but put it to the back of her mind. He was probably just too preoccupied with the looming threat.
"What are you doing?" she asked with a chuckle. He looked at her, as he was reaching deep into an old wooden chest, as if it was obvious.
"Getting a cyberman," he answered.
"And you just happen to keep one onboard without telling me before this point?"
"Of course not! You've met him before. I couldn't leave him behind. And maybe there's just a chance that he can help one last time." He kept grunting as his arm went further into the ornate box. He produced an assortment of objects but none that were what he really wanted. Clara couldn't make out the majority that was in there but swore she had seen his clockwork squirrel, as well as a recorder. After a few more minutes, he yelled out in triumph, his body near enough inside the crate. Realisation dawned on her.
"Is this chest bigger on the inside?"
"What did you expect?" His voice was muffled and she could tell he was straining through the effort. He eventually reappeared fully, brandishing a familiar silver face. It was covered in rust and there was no sign of light coming from it but she knew who it was straight away.
"Handles! I never expected you to bring him back."
"I can sometimes show a bit of sentimentality," he admitted quietly. She knelt down by his side and squeezed his cheek. His eyes were locked with hers before he somehow found the willpower to look away before he did something he regretted. It was like she had a superpower. She had to compose herself when the spell was broken. They really needed to talk about this soon.
"But didn't he...die?" She winced as she asked the question, knowing how much it had meant to him during his long and agonising time on Trenzalore.
"In a sense. The power source inevitably failed but that can be replaced. I always meant to sort that out but I had someone else to occupy my time with."
"So I'm your occupation?"
"Oh, Clara Oswald. You are much more than that." Before she could ask more questions, desperately wanting to know what he meant by that, he was standing up straight again and itching to get back out there. He took a few steps before stopping, turning back to give her a hand to help her up from the floor. She was mildly surprised by his uncharacteristic show of gentlemanlike qualities so rewarded him with a quick kiss on the cheek. She didn't notice him place a tentative hand where her lips handed as she walked away, letting out a long, worried sigh.
When they emerged back into the room, the first thing Clara noticed was Graham holding the severed Cyberman head, his expression one of agitated fear and worry. He was left searching for words when the Doctor stepped out with Handles. Graham wanted to throw his hands up in the air but realised that it was a bad idea, not knowing what would happen if he dropped it. He didn't know in the first place why he had been the one chosen to carry it. It was probably because he had come up with the idea. That taught him for opening his mouth.
"Why did you tell me to get you this if you already had one?" he moaned.
"Mainly to keep you all busy. Got to keep those brain cells active," he answered simply, not noticing the other man's exasperation. "It's also better to have two, isn't it? Safety in numbers." He held Handles in front of Perkins, who gave him a questioning look. "Why do you think I called for an engineer? I need you to get into them and find the mental receptor that links all of them."
"But I don't know the first thing about Cybermen!"
"Then use this as an opportunity to learn something new." They were interrupted when Osgood let out a gasp. They all immediately turned to her in anticipation, watching as she had to use her inhaler.
"Oh god," she muttered sadly. She brought up a new display that had appeared on one of the screens, enlarging it so that they could all see.
"What's it showing?" Wilf asked.
"The Cybermen were just the first to arrive," the Doctor said solemnly. "The others have got here now."
"They're doing it in a coordinated and isolated fashion," Malcolm explained. "Each invasion is targeting a different area. We can't get a reading on every part of the globe but we know the Sontaran force is centred on Russia. Dear god. Daleks, Doctor. Across the entirety of the American continents."
"Okay, okay. This is no time to panic."
"If this isn't the time to panic, I dread to think what will entail when we can," Yaz bit out. What had she done? She'd run off with a strange man, saying that she'd help save the day. But she'd left her family alone when Earth was facing its greatest crisis. She was beginning to regret her decision.
"The good news is that there's loads of us so we can split up," the Doctor pointed out. "We need people at every point of attack. With the majority of the population currently in hiding to the best of their abilities, it may reduce the number of casualties for the time being."
"You're being far too optimistic," Kate said.
"Well, what would you want me to do, Kate?" he thundered back. "Do you want me to tell you that you have no to very little chance of getting through this? Do you want me to tell you that you may as well pack your bags and try and flee? What good would that do? I'm giving you a plan. Regardless of their numbers, each species out there has a weakness of some sorts, like the shared system the Cybermen have. So, if we split off into groups, we can deal with them properly and hopefully find a way to stop each mini invasion."
"What are you going to do?"
"Focus on the nearest problem first. If we can get rid of the Cybermen, then we don't have to worry about personally being bombarded. We just need the help of someone who has expertise in destroying them."
"And you have someone like that lying around?" Jack asked.
"Pretty much. He owes us a favour after we helped him out the last time." He glanced at Clara, who was trying to figure out who he was talking about. "Me and Clara will go see him. Fingers crossed he has a soft spot for us...well, it was Clara last time. You can get cracking with designating who's dealing with which monstrous race. Pick straws or something."
"You always give us the easy jobs," Kate replied sarcastically.
"I don't want to have to do this but it's necessary. I'm relying on you to hold off the worst of the ordeal." He was already running ideas through his head about going back to Gallifrey, hoping that closing the rift would be enough to stop the attacks. He sincerely doubted it now. None of them had a sense of mercy. He nudged Clara in the direction of the Tardis, stopping in front of Jenny. "Are you going to be okay? You can come with us if you want."
"There's no need to worry about me, even though it's nice to see your fatherly instincts kick in," she answered. "This is what I signed up for. The thrill of danger. They'll need my expertise in dealing with these sorts of races." The Doctor quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, I've got a lot of stories to tell you."
"I'll keep an eye on her," Jack said, putting a protective arm around her that they both grimaced at.
"Now go," she ordered. "Do your bit and we'll do ours. And talk to her. Properly talk." He didn't know what she meant with that but walked into the Tardis regardless, giving them one last encouraging smile. He immediately went to the console and, after making sure he had set the right destination (he often forgot to do this very simple task), he pulled down the lever and the column began to move as the Tardis disappeared. Clara looked at him curiously.
"So, where are you taking me? You haven't actually told me who this mysterious person is."
"You remember the time you first met the Cybermen?"
"Of course I do. Not something you'd forget. They've kind of imprinted themselves on me with what they've doneā¦" He gave her a sympathetic look as her thoughts turned to Danny and his sacrifice. She needed to move on. That's what he had wanted. Just to spare five minutes a day to mourn. She was allowed to move on, that was the important thing.
"The Empire there strived to defend humanity, mainly against the Cybermen but, like you normally do, you made a lot of enemies. That's not the point. I'm guessing that promise to protect transcends temporal restrictions too."
"Could you speak English please?" He frowned at her.
"Maybe they'll travel in time to help. Or maybe one person."
"Porridge!" she exclaimed with a smile.
"Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff the forty-first. Colloquially known as Porridge, our little friend. They'll have technology that is designed to take out Cybermen."
"They didn't seem too well prepared on Hedgewick's World of Wonders," she commented.
"Because that was a punishment platoon. The Empire itself could have weapons that may give us the edge."
"Do you think he'll agree?"
"I don't see why not. He also took a liking to you," he grumbled. Clara smirked devilishly as she moved closer to him.
"If I was being observant, I'd go as far as to say you were sounding jealous." He didn't say anything, which surprised her. The Doctor simply moved to the other side of the console, making sure the column was between the two of them. He had hoped his brain would be able to function perfectly fine but, with a lull in its usage for the moment, their close proximity and the private nature of their being together was making it incredibly difficult to concentrate. Clara obviously picked up on his awkwardness, hoping that it had nothing to do with...that. Maybe it was time for them to talk about it now. "What's the matter?" she asked softly, knowing she would need to be delicate with this situation. He risked a glance at her. He tried not to notice the way she was biting her lip in concern like she often did or the cute outfit she was wearing, a black jumper with a short grey skirt, or how her short hair was slightly curled at the edges. No. He was definitely not thinking about that. He instead persevered with messing with the consoles. "Doctor?"
"Nothing's wrong," he finally said. "Everything's perfect. I'm the king of perfect."
"Try telling your voice that." Why was she getting closer? "Is there something on your mind?"
"There's always something on my mind."
"But that doesn't usually make you this...agitated." He refused to comment, which just told her that she was right. "You know you can talk to me? I want you to talk to me."
"I know."
"Then why aren't you talking? People like us...we should stay stuff to each other before it's too late. I don't want to see the world burn and be left thinking of what I should have told you." She was far too close for his liking, which was unusual as he had been growing more accepting of her affectionate touches. He briskly moved away from the console, going up the steps and slowly walked around the balcony. Clara just wanted answers.
"Clara," he sighed, leaning on the railing. "I'm confused."
"That is allowed to happen, you know?" she joked. He was not in the mood for jokes. Her brief smile disappeared. "What are you confused about?" He couldn't look at her. He began fiddling with a piece of lint on his jumper.
"You kissed me," he mumbled. Why was he acting like a teenage boy? This is what she did to him. Made him a bumbling wreck. Clara took a breath. So, he was willing to talk about it, despite how reticent he appeared to be. She wished that he looked happier about it.
"Yes."
"Why would you do that?" She wanted to yell out in exasperation but didn't want to scare him off.
"I thought you were dead. You should have seen how much of a mess I was when I got back to UNIT." That familiar sense of guilt welled up in his chest. "And then I saw your daft old face on that tiny screen and I was so happy. Thrilled. Because I thought that I had missed my chance."
"The universe does seem to want to give us a lot of second chances," he agreed. She was now moving away from the console, edging up the steps. He looked warily at her.
"Exactly. So I thought...what the hell! You don't understand what you mean to me. How much you have shaped my life. Making me feel special."
"Because you are," he quietly said. Oh, that just filled her with unbridled joy. "But why would you kiss an old man like me? You should find someone a lot more suitable."
"Because they're all boring, the blokes out there. I wouldn't be able to love them in the same way." She had said it. Finally. Properly. Now it was up to him to decide what to do with her. She was standing right next to him with a hopeful, almost pleading, look in her eyes.
"Clara Oswald. You are utterly bananas." She grinned despite it not being the best of responses.
"I was hoping for a different response but if you don't want to say it...just know, I completely understand."
"What do you want me to say?" He was looking at her intensely now. "That I'm completely dependent on you? That I don't think I'd be able to cope if you left me? That I have no idea how far I'd go to save you?"
"That's a start," she smirked, coming up behind him and squeezing him gently. She rested her chin on his shoulder as he patted her arms. "Just promise me something...don't send me away again. I really shouldn't have kissed you because you'll now think it's the sort of reward you'll get if you do it again."
"Now there's an idea." She playfully hit him on the head before it turned into her stroking his curly hair. They watched the column move up and down in silence for a moment. "Do you want to take it back then? What you did?"
"No! Not at all. You have no clue how long I've wanted to do it." He arched an eyebrow at her in a teasing fashion as he spun her around so that they were face to face.
"It must be a real difficulty, spending so much time with a masculine figure like myself."
"You have no idea."
"Just so you know...it works the other way too." Now that was interesting. She had a dangerous gleam in her eye as she slowly pressed him against the railing.
"What on Earth are you talking about, Doctor? I thought Time Lords were above all that. Temptation."
"The Time Lords are stupid. Why miss out on knowing someone like you?"
"You're saying exactly the right things. I'm almost surprised."
"Don't get used to it. This isn't going to be the norm. I've got a reputation to uphold."
"Then I'd best make the most of this...opportunity," she said huskily. She needed to be brave. And she had always been that. She smashed her lips to his with heated passion, letting all of those unspoken words finally be voiced through the kiss. Initially floundering, the Doctor eventually relaxed into it. It had been a long time since he had done this. He guessed that the last time had been with Clara, with his previous face and her Victorian echo. He struggled to comprehend why he had taken so long to do it again as his arms wrapped around her. They'd be able to save the universe if they were together.
As the Tardis disappeared from view, they were about to go about starting their plans to try and tackle the massive threats they were facing. As they began to split up, they were forced to turn back around as the wheezing, groaning sound returned soon after it had ended. They reasoned that they must have already done what they set out to do, using their time travel capabilities to return straight away. But Kate knew something was wrong, as did Jack. It wasn't the same Tardis. Well, it technically was. Just in a different part of its existence. As it came into reality fully, they were left speechless by its appearance. Kate wondered if he planned these occasions, just so that he could mess with her when she had the most to worry about.
"What's happened to it?" Graham asked. "It looks different." The doors creaked open and a young man stepped out with a beaming grin. They couldn't even concentrate on the sight of their comrades, who they had worried had gotten into a spot of difficulty in Wales. Jack began to chuckle as Jenny's eyes widened in recognition. The Doctor, putting his own surprise to the side for the time being, arched an eyebrow at them all.
"Well then," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm guessing you're just as dumbfounded as I am. Brilliant."
