"How long will have passed for her?" Contar asked.
"Couple of hours. Best I can do," the Doctor answered solemnly, pressing a button on the side of the console then slamming down a lever.
After all the things Clara had been through since she was promised a scarf festival, being captured by space pirates didn't seem too bad. It was certainly less stressful than the Shadow Trial, and less tiring than being hunted through a forest by Judoon. For exactly 3 seconds, Clara had been subjected to the vacuum of space before being pulled into the hangar of a passing ship. That ship turned out to be a little less friendly than Clara had hoped for. She was actually quite content to just wait it out and behave like a model slave until the Doctor came and sorted everything out though. She knew he'd find a way to beat Contar Smitt, and then come rescue her. He always did.
Unfortunately, after just over an hour, her sight started to come back to her, and even with blurred vision she could make out all the other enslaved prisoners, and she could see the pirate with a whip beating the little girl.
Needless to say, Clara's actions at that point ended her short-lived career as a model prisoner. But it did end that little girl's pain, for now at least, and that was what mattered most to her right now. As they locked her up in a cage and readied the whip for her, Clara glared back at them, teeth gritted. She'd survived a chase through time, a day on an alien planet with a complete stranger as her only company, a fall from a cliff, an attack by the Judoon, the discovery of an underground civilisation, a day in a Shadow Proclamation prison, a Shadow Trial, betrayal, and a fall into space. She wasn't going to be beaten by a few short men with a complex and a whip. Her jailors had no idea how to react when she just glared back and them and growled: "Bring it."
The ship was just passing the central sun of the Kolo star system when the TARDIS landed onboard it. The look in the Doctor's eye as he stepped out to face them was enough to freeze most of the pirates. The blasts from Contar's gun, set to stun at the Doctor's insistence, dealt with the others. The Doctor grabbed the most scared looking of the bunch by the collar and slammed him against the wall: "I'll ask once and only once: Where is Clara Oswald?"
Clara looked up from her cage as the door to the slave quarters opened. She blinked, only now registering that she could see properly again as she heard the familiar screeching of the Sonic Screwdriver, and then the squeak of the cage door reluctantly opening. The Doctor took her hand and pulled her out. She didn't say anything as he grasped her cheeks, making her look him in the eye. "You can see?" he asked cautiously. "Yes," she answered as best she could with him pinching her cheeks. He smiled, releasing her, and stepping back. Then he looked at her properly and saw the scars and scratches on her arms and legs, and the blood red gash across her cheek.
"They did this to you?"
"It was me or someone else."
"Oh Clara," he looked down, so she couldn't see his face, "my Clara…" Then he hugged her as tight as he could. Clara smiled. Her body hurt like hell, but everything felt better now. "Let's get you home."
The pirate captain recoiled in fear as the TARDIS materialised on the bridge of his vessel. He heard the snap of fingers and the creak of the doors opening then he saw the silhouette of a thin man in a bowtie in the doorway raise a buzzing green device. And then he saw all the controls around him jam as the ship set sail for a direct collision with the Kolo sun. And then the TARDIS was gone.
From inside the TARDIS, nobody could hear the screams of the burning pirates, only now discovering that their slave workforce had not only been freed, but already taken all of the escape pods. Thus the fate of the 6th Space Jolly Rodger was fixed. Clara was blissfully unaware of the horrific scene taking place in the Kolo star system as the TARDIS flew her away from it all. She couldn't help noticing though, that Contar Smitt was very much still present in their time machine.
"What's he doing here?" she whispered, looking at the Doctor accusingly.
"We made a deal."
Her eyes widened as she realised what he was saying. She turned to him, forgetting her injuries completely: "Tell me you didn't…"
"You were on my TARDIS so you were in my care. I had to find a way to save you."
"But what about Time? What if, I don't know, the universe dies? Because you sacrificed it to save me? What happens then?"
"No idea."
"Then why? Why did you do this?"
"Maybe I decided the universe wasn't worth saving if you weren't in it."
The words hit Clara harder than any of the whips had. She lost all the words that were waiting to be said. She just stood there staring. She didn't even have time to process it before Contar interrupted.
"I kept my end of the bargain, Doctor. Clara's safe now. So now it's time to do your part."
"Yes, I suppose it is," the Doctor straightened his bowtie, but it didn't look like the act of a man about to win. It looked sad. Then he stroked his hand along the console, whispering as he did: "Sorry dear." He turned to look at Contar one last time: "I want you to remember that I tried to stop you. I gave you a chance to stop this."
"I'll make sure to remember that when I'm reunited with my family."
The Doctor looked down. Then up. Then at Clara. Then he kept his promise.
As the burning yellow light spiralled out from the inside of the TARDIS, the Doctor turned his back, grabbing Clara and clamping his hand over her eyes to keep her safe too. Contar's eyes started to burn bright blue as he drained the life energy from every Dorisian in the universe and exploded – blue flames erupting from his body and shooting into the heart of the TARDIS, burning every Jarlaton from time itself. And then the TARDIS snapped shut. And it was all over.
Writer's Notes: there are four more chapters to go and then it's all over! All going to be uploaded tomorrow so get excited haha