A/N: Just a quick note at the start, I have skipped Heaven sent as Raven isn't in the episode and the episode itself hasn't changed as it is the Doctor wanting to safe Clara and not Raven and so its straight onto Hell Bent and the Time Lords.Enjoy. :)
The Doctor walked through the halls of Gallifreys Citadel to the Extraction Chamber with the General following, along with Ohila of the Sisterhood of Karn. Having already gotten Rassilon out of the way.
That teleport bracelet Ashidlr forced on him had sent him into his confession dial where he had spent 4 1/2 billion years trapped and repeating the same day over and over again, only surviving if he kept away from the creature following him or confessed his guilt. He was only in there because the Time Lords wanted to know what he knew about the Hybrid prophecy. Which in actually fact he didn't know much about very well. He had a few good guesses but none were 100% accurate.
He had managed to break through the wall eventually, ended up on Gallifrey, gone back to the barn of course, where the Shabogans welcomed him home and gave him soup. That was nice of them. It had been a very nice soup.
Then Rassilon and the General came with a few soldiers and forced him into the city where he tossed Rassilon and the council away, became president himself. And said all he knew about the Hybrid while getting more information from them. Two warrior races that would destroy the universe. Of course there was a selection.
Ashildr-a human with a Mire repair chip that had been keeping her alive for centuries.
River-a human with Time Lord biology thanks to having been born in the time vortex.
Himself- he had told people before that he was half human on his mothers side. Wasn't true but it certainly helped to save his life a few times.
Raven- well, he didn't want to go there and bring her into this. She had nothing to do with this and was just dragged along.
The less Raven knew the better.
And then there was the Daleks, after what happened in Skaro and they now had a bit of his regeneration energy. But Daleks hated anything un-pure. So that cancelled that out.
He needed Clara, he needed his companion by his side and so he stormed straight down to the Extraction chamber, got the technicians to lock onto the woman just before her death, able to get her onto the planet a moment before her death, locking her on her last breath. She asked questioned of course but he wasn't answering any until he had gotten Raven here, the quick way as well. She didn't deserve to have to go the long way home when he could get her here now. And she wasn't dead so that was an added bonus, the Time Lords wouldn't complain, just complain about who her family was.
Not only did he want her by his side as well but she deserved to come home again.
She deserved to step foot on Gallifrey again. He knew how much she missed their home.
~
"Raven..."
Raven glanced up against the silence at what she could swear to be the Doctors voice. Only to blink at the blinding light at the doorway, squinting to see the Doctor standing there, arm out to her.
It was just her now, Rigsy had gone to paint a memorial or something in Clara's memory and Ashildr had run off with the confession dial, she no longer cares about the street and Raven didn't care to bother chasing after Ashildr. If she really wanted too she would easily be able to find her, it wasn't like she could get on Earth by herself.
"Come with me."
Raven arched an eyebrow at that. Was he seriously cooking a finger at her and beckoning her like a dog? "What?"
He huffed, "just get over here."
She stared a moment longer, looking past him and into the white room behind him. No, she frowned, that looked very much like an Extraction chamber on Gallifrey. She slowly stood and walked over, ignoring his hand and stepping into the light, blinking at the white Extraction chamber. Where the Doctor stood with Clara Oswald, and the General in his robes and glory along with two technicians dressed all in white.
"You're kidding me!"
"Lady Raven." The General nodded tensely to her.
"Seriously!" Raven punched the Doctors arm, "Gallifrey! Really?"
"Stop hitting me!" He complained, ducking behind Clara at the dark look.
"Er, can I ask my questions now?" The human demanded, rolling her eyes as the Doctor used her as a shield despite he was a good head taller than her.
"And some answers would be good, Doc." Raven frowned at him. Clearly he had used the Extraction chamber to get Clara a moment before her death, getting her first so she herself didn't complain or stop him. She was dead, and the dead should stay dead. She had died for who she was, brave until the end. Surely he could respect that. He had seen loads of his humans die and hadn't tried to stop them from dying.
It was Obvious he had yet to tell Clara herself that, she couldnt wait for the woman to yell at him for it.
"So this is Gallifrey," Clara repeated, "what...what exactly did I miss?"
"Well, we're several billion years in the future and the universe is pretty much over, so, quite a bit." The Doctor explained.
"We're at the end of the universe." Raven breathed.
"Yeah, sorry." He at least had the decency to wince knowing she had issue with the end of the universe.
"Young lady," the General stepped forwards, "Miss Oswald," he added as both girls looked at him, Raven with narrowed eyes, "I'm afraid we only have a very few minutes with you."
"Who's he?" Clara whispered.
"The General."
"According to the Doctor," the man continued, "you can tell us something about the creature known as the Hybrid."
"The what?" Raven blinked. "whats the Hybrid?" She remembered Missys words back on Skaro. The enemy inside the friend. Everyone was a Hybrid. She didnt know what it meant back then and still now it confused her.
"Oh, that's weird." Clara clasped her eyes at the sudden feeling, an emptiness, like something was missing, "What's wrong with my ears."
"Nothing." The Doctor stated quickly.
"Oh, it's weird. Everything sounds wrong."
"It's a side effect." He waved off.
"I can hear you. I can hear you fine. It's like, I don't know, it's like, er. It's like something's missing."
"Doctor, we have to tell her." The General informed him, "We always tell them."
"Tell me what?" Clara demanded, "What's he talking about? Doctor? Doctor, what's going on? Raven..."
The Doctor hung his head a moment before looking at the woman, "Clara, there's a sound you've been living with every day of your life, but you've learned not to hear."
"What sound?" She frowned, "What's wrong? Just tell me. Doctor, what sound?"
"Your heartbeat. Your physical processes have been time looped. Frozen between one heartbeat and the next. Even your breathing is just a habit. You don't need it."
"If I'm frozen, how can I…how can I be walking about?"
"Because the Time Lords are very clever. It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it matters to me!"
"Clara, you sort of died," Raven called, "you died on that street, facing the raven. You're dead. And if we are at the end of the universe then you died billions of years ago. I'm sorry, you're dead, Clara."
Clara blinked slowly at her, seeing the truth in her eyes. "Doctor?" She looked at him for confirmation.
Out of the pair of them, she knew the Doctor was the one who lied more, who withheld the truth.
"We have extracted you at the very end of your time stream to request your help." The General spoke as the Doctor remained silent, "Once we're finished here, you will be returned to your final moments. Your death is an established historical event and cannot be altered. I'm sorry."
"Doctor, will you just talk to me!" Clara snapped.
He looked up at her, "I'll try not to break your jaw."
"What?" Raven whined, "what did I do this time?"
"I wasn't talking to you." He turned and punched the General in the face, grabbing his gun and aiming at him
"Doctor, you can't do this." The General shook his head, "You know you can't."
"No, General, I don't know that. Everybody, stay exactly where you are! No moving about." He glanced warningly at the two technicians, "On pain of death, no one take a selfie!"
"These people are unarmed."
"So are you."
"Doctor, I will not let you leave here. That's the sidearm of the President's personal security. There isn't a stun setting."
"I will not let Clara die." The Doctor determined.
"She's been dead for half the lifetime of the universe. If you tried to change that, you could fracture Time itself. Doctor, Lord President, are you really going to take that risk?"
"Youre president?" Raven gaped at him, "Again? What happened to Rassilon?"
"It doesn't matter." the Doctor huffed.
"Doctor." Clara cut in gently, "Please, I don't want this. Put it down, please..."
He ignored her, cocking the gun, "Regeneration?"
"10th." The General answered.
"Good luck."
"You too, sir." He closed his eyes as the Doctor fired at him, sending him to the ground.
The Doctor spun to one of the technicians, "I want a neural block. Human compatible. Quickly! Come on!" He snatched it as the technician scrambled around with it as he grabbed both Clara and Raven in his hands, pulling them out the room.
"Doctor!" Raven gasped as she pulled her arm free.
"You kill that man!" Clara cried, "you shot him! He's dead!"
"I don't care!" The Doctor snapped.
"Since when?" Raven glared, "since when did you kill for fun? That was always my mother and considering you're so desperate to think you aren't so similar...you really are very similar."
He paused at her words. How often Missy said that they were alike. Maybe they were, a part of him always knew it. But they major difference between them was that Missy killed for fun while he did it for defence and always felt bad afterwords. He did feel a little guilty for shooting the General like that but he wouldn't have anyone speaking to his Clara like that.
"Where are we going?" Raven demanded, following into the lift at the end of the corridor.
"The cloisters."
"I thought you said Gallifrey was frozen in another dimension?" Clara shook her head as they stepped back out.
"Well, they must have unfrozen it and come back."
"How?"
"I didn't ask. It would make them feel clever." He led them into the dark cloisters, tossing the gun aside where it stopped before a statue of a chained up Weeping Angel. "Happy?"
"You still killed him." Raven pointed out.
"Tell me what a neural block is." Clara ordered.
"Never mind." He waved off, "This way."
"What did you mean, human compatible?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Raven..."
"What do you think?" She scoffed, "human compatible...works on humans."
"What does it do?"
"No idea."
Clara eyed her a moment longer, trying to work out if she did know what the neural block was. She couldn't work it out but whatever it was, if the Doctor wanted it human compatible that meant he would use it on her, or at least that was his plan.
"The Cloister Wraiths." The Doctor explained instead, "Sliders, we used to call them. They guard the Matrix. We're safe in here."
"Why?" Clara breathed.
"They only attack if you make any attempt to leave."
"How long are we planning to stay?"
"Or, actually," he winced, "if you try to stay."
Raven punched his arm, "you know how that conversation went right?"
He rubbed his arm, "Starting to, yeah, a bit. This way," he led them off, "I'm fairly sure. According to the stories, there's a secret way out. If you find it, the Sliders let you go."
"Shit!" Raven cursed as the turned down a corner only to be greeted by a Dalek, wrapped by vines.
"It's ok," the Doctor soothed, "look at it."
"Exterminate...me..." the Dalek pleaded.
"Is it trapped?" Clara breathed.
"Don't worry, it's been neutralised. Those aren't vines. In your terms, they're fibre-optic cables, they're alive and growing. We're inside the biggest database in history. Sometimes, people are stupid enough to break in."
"Like us." Raven groaned.
"And?" Clara asked.
"It's a database." The Doctor deadpanned, "it gets filed."
"Probably a leftover from the Cloister Wars. There's nothing we can do. Come on." The Doctor led them off, Raven quickly walked behind him so not to get lost, he seemed to know the way out.
Only for Clara to run into a Weeping Angel, managing to slip past only to walk into a cyberman.
"Keep away from them!" The Doctor pulled her out of the way, hurrying off, "The Matrix can use them as a defence. It means the secret exit must be close."
"Whats to defend in a crypt?" Clara questioned.
"It's not just a crypt. More like a stone circuit board. This is the Matrix database."
"Database? What do you mean, database?"
The Doctor ushered her to the side noticing she was stood on a circular patterned floor, different from the rest of the area. He shuffled his feet to remove the thin layer of dirt, "Looks like the primary service hatch. Just have to work out the key. When Time Lords die, their minds are uploaded to a thing called the Matrix. This structure, it's like a living computer. It can predict the future, generate prophecies out of algorithms, ring the Cloister bells in the event of impending catastrophe. The Sliders, they're just like the guard dogs, the firewall. Projections from inside the Matrix itself. The dead, manning the battlements."
"Was I supposed to understand any of that?" Clara blinked.
"Probably not." Raven smirked, "youre only human."
"The Time Lords have got a big computer made of ghosts," the Doctor explained, "in a crypt, guarded by more ghosts."
"Didn't hurt, did it?"
"Tiny bit." He nodded dropping his knees and running his fingers over the grooves.
"Why would a computer need to protect itself from the people who made it?"
"All computers do that in the end. You wait until the internet starts. Oh, that was a war!"
"Do you know how to get us out of here?" Raven huffed, "hopefully alive."
"A long time ago, there was a student at the Academy." The Doctor began, "He got in here, disappeared for four days. Showed up in a completely different part of the city. Said the Sliders talked to him, they showed him the secret passage out. And we just need the code." He pulled out an old tattered notebook from his pocket, looking through the notes.
"And the kid told you?" Raven eyed him, not quite believing that story.
"Ah, no, he didn't tell anyone anything. He went completely mad. Never right in the head again, so they say."
"That's encouraging." Clara blinked.
"The last I heard, he stole the moon and the President's wife."
"Oh..." Raven sighed.
"Was she nice, the President's wife?" Clara smirked, recalling what Missy had told her. How the Doctor had stolen the moon and the presidents wife.
"Ah, well, that was a lie put about by the Shabogans. It was the President's daughter. I didn't steal the moon, I lost it."
"Only you can loose a moon." Raven shook her head. That was just so typical of him.
"I'd know you anywhere." Clara smiled fondly at him.
"I was a completely different person in those days." He shrugged them off, "Eccentric, a bit mad, rude to people."
"Look at me again."
"Sorry, what?"
"In the eye. Look at me. Just do it."
"What?" He looked at her, "What is it?"
"How long has it been for you since you last saw me?" She asked him.
"I was stuck on a place." He shrugged, "They..."
"They?" Raven frowned, "who?"
"They wanted something from me. Information. It really doesn't matter."
"What happened to your coat?" Clara asked, "The velvety coat. I liked that one, it was it was very Doctor-y."
"I changed it."
"Why?"
"Well, I can't be the Doctor all the time." He snapped, focusing on the grove again as it began to click into place, "I think I've almost got it. I think this is it."
"What did they do?" Raven demanded, "tell me now. Whoever they were- I don't care- just what the hell did they put you through to make you this." She gestured vaguely at him making him roll his eyes at her bluntness.
"Doctor." Clara glared.
He sighed but began to explain how the teleport bracelet of Ashildr had sent him into his confession dial, trapping him there, leaving him to repeat the same day after day, dying over and over, a thick wall made of diamond his only exit, punching through it and hardly getting anywhere.
"But you can break though anything given enough time." He finished.
"How much time?" Clara ordered.
"Miss Oswald..." they looked back at the Generals approach, now a dark skinned woman with a closely shaved head, standing there next to Ohila of the Sisterhood of Karn.
"Stay back." Clara warned.
"I'm sorry, but we have to find a way to extract you..."
"Take a step back," Raven threatened, holding out her perfume bottle and the pair lowered their eyes, taking a respectful step back, no idea what her perfume could do. And knowing her parents they didn't want to find out. "we'll bring her back once we're done."
She swallowed hard. She would easily take Clara back to her death if it meant the unvierse would continue and if she explained everything to Clara without the Doxtor around, Clara herself would take herself back. It was the Doxtor that was the problem, he was desperate to safe his human and wouldn't take no as an answer.
"The Hybrid, what is it?" Clara eyed the Doctor, "What's so important you would fight so long?"
"It doesn't matter what the Hybrid is." He quickly waved off, focusing on the floor, "It only matters that I convinced them that I knew. Otherwise they'd have kicked me out, I'd have had nothing left to bargain with."
"What were you bargaining for?"
"What do you think?" He looked up at her, "You. I had to find a way to save you. I knew it had to be the Time Lords. They cost you your life on Trap Street, Clara, and I was going to make them bring you back. I just had to hang on in there for a bit."
"How long?"
"It was fine."
"How long?" Raven repeated, staring at him, crouching before him, "tell me."
"It doesn't matter." He insisted, blocking her out, feeling her eyes on him.
Raven turned and faced the General again, "how long was he trapped for? Tell me now, or I'll spray..." she extended her arm her.
"We think 4 and a half billion years." Ohila answered, eying her actions almost bemused by them.
The Raven was clearly not the young lady she had once been, whatever she had seen and done since she had left Gallifrey with the Master had obviously changed her quite a bit.
"He could have left any time he wanted." The General added quickly as both of them gave them a dark look, Ravens finger slowly lowering to spray and they really didn't know what it would do. With her mother it could be anything from a sleeping drought to turning their skins inside out, "He just had to say what he knew. The dial would have released him."
"And what if he didn't know anything?" She narrowed her eyes. She didn't know why she felt protective of him right now but after all he had done for their people this was certainly not the way he should be greeted.
Clara seemed more caught on how long he had spent in there more than what he knew or didn't know, "4 1/3 billion years?" She gaped at him.
"If she says so." He shrugged.
"No," Clara stopped to her knees besides him, cupping his face in her hands, "Why would you even do that? I was dead! I was dead and gone. Why? Why would you even do that to yourself?"
"I had a duty of care." He answered, "Listen, I'm nearly through here. If I'm right, there should be a service duct under here. We'll be able to get to the old workshops. They'll have TARDIS there."
"Listen." Clara cut him off, "I have something to say."
"We do not have time."
"No, my time, my time is up. Doctor, between one heartbeat and the last is all the time I have. People like me and you, we should say things to one another. And I'm going to say them now." She leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "don't worry Doctor, they'll be looking at me."
"What?" Raven frowned but Clara winked and stood back to face Ohila and the General.
"Come on." The Doctor murmured to Raven, opening the floor hatch and once sure no one was acknowledging them and dropping down, Raven following into the corridor below, "alright?" He glanced at her as she landed on a crouch.
"Are you?" She shot back.
"I'm always alright."
"So am I."
They stared at each other a moment longer both knowing they were lying before coming to a silent agreement to say no more and they hurried off to the TARDIS museums.
"Thing is Doctor..." Raven panted as they reached the row of TARDISes, "yours was unlocked these..." she trailed as he pushed one of the cylinder TARDIS doors open, "aren't."
"You were saying?" He smirked at her.
"Fuck off." She grumbled, stalking past and into the white room.
"Language!" He chastised following her to the console and the pair quickly dematerialised materialising upstairs, around Clara, the woman smirking as the General and Ohila disappeared from her view.
"You were quick." Clara commented as she moved to the console.
"Time machine." Raven reminded her.
"We backed up a bit." The Doctor agreed.
"Doctor!" Ohila yelled through the doors, "face me! Can you hear me boy?"
"Boy?" Clara raised her eyebrows at that. How old was that woman to call the Doctor a boy? She glanced at Raven in disbelief as the Doctor actually did as told for once and stepped back out, closing the doors, Clara pressing an ear to listen in.
"You have gone too far." The woman spoke, "You have broken every code you ever lived by."
"After all this time, after everything I've done, don't you think the universe owes me this?" The Doctor countered.
"Owes you what? All you're doing is giving her hope."
"Since when is hope a bad thing?"
"Hope is a terrible thing on the scaffold."
Raven jumped back as the Doctor re-entered, shaking his head at her guilty face having clearly been caught eavesdropping but didn't saying.
"What do you think of the new colour scheme?" He asks sending them off the planet.
"Basic." Clara nodded.
"It's the original desktops all TARDISes are grown with." Raven informed her, "I miss my chair."
"It's all white."
"Classic!" The Doctor beamed, "Check your heartbeat again. I think that you'll find you have one."
"Yeah?" Clara smiled, checking her pulse on her wrist, not noticing Raven staring at her, face full of regret.
"It should have restarted when we broke free of Gallifrey's time zone. You're alive!" He cheered, "Now we just have to shake off the Time Lords. There's only one place we can do that. What do you say to lunch, followed by breakfast? Because we're time travellers and that's how we roll. Then cocktails with Moses. Then I'm going to invent a flying submarine. Why? Because no one ever has and it's annoying. And maybe we should use this TARDIS to find my proper one. I need to change my shirt."
"You TARDIS is back in 21st century London," Raven deadpanned, "where it has been since the street."
"Right."
"Doctor," Clara cut in, "I still don't have a pulse."
"Oh, you just haven't found it yet." He rolled his eyes, "Try again."
"I know how to take my pulse," she glared, moving to her neck. "Look, I know how to do it. See, no pulse, right?" The Doctor set the sonic shades over his eyes, looking at the tattoo showing the 3 zeros in the back on her neck, "Is it still there? Don't lie to me."
"It's still there." Raven murmured. It would always be there.
"Er, maybe we just have to fly a little bit further," the Doctor suggested, tossing the glasses aside and moving back to the console, "give it a bit more welly."
"They said," Clara swallowed, "your lot, that if you saved me, Time would fracture. What does that mean?"
"Oh, they're exaggerating. They exaggerate all the time. History will be fine. Time will heal. It always does."
"Always?"
"Yeah. It'll sort itself out. It'll be all right. You'll have a heartbeat. Or don't you trust me anymore?" He yelled at her.
"No, not when you're shouting." She snapped back, "Where are we going?"
"Nowhere in space, forward in time. We're going to the last hours of the universe. We're going long past where the Time Lords were hiding. Literally, to the end. They won't be able to track us there. We'll just be there for a minute. I just need to. I need to make an adjustment."
"I don't want to go back there." Raven mumbled, "I don't like it there."
"It's not that place," he rolled his eyes.
"What do you need to make an adjustment to?" Clara frowned.
"It's nothing, really." he waved her off, "its this..." he held up the human compatible neural block.
"The neural block." Clara eyed it, very unsure and untrusting of its name and use, "Human compatible, that's what you said."
"We don't have to stay here long. Er check your heartbeat again. Your timeline must have started by now. A pulse, yeah? You have a pulse, yes? Pulse? Let me do it." He rolled his eyes as she shook her head.
"Doctor." Raven sighed, "Stop this. She'd dead, nothing can bring her back. I'm sorry, I really am. Both of you." She looked between them. Clara had lost her life and now the Doctor was failing to save it, too late.
"What if one last heartbeat is all I've got?" Clara asked, not afraid, just questioning him and she really didn't want to go back to her death and die with him angry and telling like those "What if Time isn't healing? What if the universe needs me to die?"
"The universe is over!" He snapped, "It doesn't have a say anymore! We're standing on the last ember, the last fragment of everything that ever was. As of this moment, I'm answerable to no-one!"
At that moment there was four knocks on the doors.
Clara gasped as she turned, "how can anyone be out there."
"That's just rude." Raven huffed.
"It's always four knocks." The Doctor grumbled moving to the doors, "both of you stay in here." He ordered.
"What's out there?" Clara breathed. This was the end of the universe and from what Raven said about those future kind creatures with razor sharp teeth she didn't want the Doctor going it alone.
"Me." He answered shutting the door as he left to speak with Ashildr.
Clara moved to the monitor, switching on the screen to see the Doctor speaking with Ashidlr, the last survivor of the end of the universe, sat in an armchair a chess board set out before them, the surrounding area crumbling to dust.
"Raven..." Clara called softly, "please, tell me what a neural block is."
"Memory wipe." She answered honestly, "set for humans. He thinks he can wipe your mind and make you forget about all this and you can continue living your life without knowing you were on your last heartbeat."
"What?" She exclaimed, glaring at the doors moving to give him a piece of her mind at that when Raven held her back.
"I've got a better way to get back at him."
"What?"
"Send it back on him." She flashed her sonic in the neural block, reversing the polarity flow so when he tried to wipe Clara's mind he'd end up wiping his own of Clara.
"That's, um, that's not very good Raven."
"Neithers wiping someone's mind without permission." She shrugged, "the Doctors understanding of good is arrogant and not absolute. I may never been good how he sees it but I am not a bad person either. I realise that now."
"Wow."
"And my god that man needs to stop thinking he's better than everyone else."
"What is the hybrid?" Clara asked hesitantly, the Time Lords seemed really caught on it.
"It's a prophecy signifying that two warrior races would threatened all of time and space."
"Like Time Lords and Daleks."
"Or Humans and Mire." She nodded to the monitor showing the Doctor talking to Ashidlr.
"And the Doctors thinks it's Ashildr."
"The Doctors lied that his mother was human."
"Was she?"
"Don't really care."
"What do you think?"
"Does it matter?" She countered before sighing, "I think you need to remember who gave you his number."
Clara blinked, recalling how it had been Missy. The woman had overheard her complaining her laptop hadn't been working and came over with a cockney accent claiming it was the best helpline in the universe. "Missy." She breathed. The woman who loved chaos and destruction and wanted the Doctor to love it too. "She didnt...she couldnt have planned all this, could she?"
"Planned your death?" Raven raised her eyebrows as she crossed her arms, "i wouldn't put it past her, but...I don't think so. I think she knew that the Doctor would go this far to save you."
Clara quickly turned the screen of seeing Ashildr standing as she and the Doctor headed to the TARDIS entering a moment later.
"You ok?" The Doctor looked at her.
"Yeah." She nodded, trying not to look guilty for having been watching, "just...no pulse."
"Yeah, we'll fix that somehow. I promise. You remember Ashildr, of course."
"Yeah, sure." It had only been a few minutes ago for both her and Raven.
"I thought you'd be more surprised to see her." He eyed her.
"You literally said it was Me outside." Raven defended, watching as the Doctor picked up the neural block on the console, "and if you dare use that without Clara's agreement it'll go back at you."
"You're going to trick me?"
"What were you going to do to me?" Clara argued.
"I'm trying to keep you safe."
"Why?" She scoffed, "Nobody's ever safe. I've never asked you for that, ever. These have been the best years of my life, and they are mine. Tomorrow is promised to no one, Doctor, but I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It's mine."
"Oh, Clara Oswald." He sighed, "What am I doing? You're right. You're always, always right."
"So what happens now?" She asked, "Hey? Me and you, what do we do now?"
"Thing is..." he frowned, "its human compatible. So even if Raven did reserve the polarity it still may not work. It'll do something to one of us. Better than flipping a coin."
"Doctor?"
He took the block, holding it out between him and Clara, "You and me together. Look how far I went, for fear of losing you. This has to stop. One of us has to go."
"You really don't know which?" She asked, hesitant. She glanced at Raven for confirmation, what if this way just his way to erase her memory while making her think it could end up wiping his memory of her. Honestly she didn't want that either.
"Let's find out. Let's do it like we've done everything else. Together."
Clara nodded, holding the other side of the block but had to make a weak joke, "How about we just don't? Why don't we just fly away somewhere?"
"Oh, that'd be great, wouldn't it?" He chuckled.
"God, yeah."
"Good luck, Clara."
"Good luck, Doctor." They both pressed the button at the same time as it whirred, "So, what happens now?"
"I suppose, we just, er, we just wait a minute, I suppose." He frowned. He really wasn't sure. Maybe it wasn't actually going to do anything at all.
"And one of us…one of us will." Clara swallowed not wanting to say it, "I don't think I could ever forget you."
"Clara, I don't think you're ever going to have to." He murmured, dropping the block with a gasp and stumbling against the console.
"No!" Clara cried.
"Run like hell," he told her, slipping to the ground as Clara hurried over and crouched before him, "because you always need to. Laugh at everything, because it's always funny."
"No. Stop it. You're saying goodbye. Don't say goodbye!"
"Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends."
"Stop it! Stop this. Stop it!"
"Never eat pears. They're too squishy and they always make your chin wet. That one's quite important. Write it down."
"I didn't mean to do this." She whispered, "I'm sorry."
"It's ok," he smiled at her, "I went too far. I broke all my own rules. I became the Hybrid. This is right. I accept it."
"I can't...There has to be something I can do."
"Smile for me. Go on, Clara Oswald, one last time."
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks at the Doctors goodbye, "how could I smile?"
"It's ok. Don't worry, I'll remember it..." he breathed, eyes closing as he slumped to the ground.
Raven silently moved round the console, both she and Ashidlr having allowed the pair to say their goodbyes in private neither cutting in.
"What now?" Clara sniffled, wiping her eyes.
~
"You're a terrible waitress." Raven commented as she sat at the bar on a stool of the American Diner the younger TARDIS had disguised itself as in the middle of Utahs dessert. She spun as Clara walked out from the back door, the sign claiming to lead to the restrooms but really led to the console.
"How's the Doctor?" She asked instead moving round the back of the bar and leaning on the counter.
"Still knocked out. In his TARDIS though not left in the street."
"See you do care." Clara laughed, "even just a little bit."
"He feeds me. Speaking of which...those milkshakes any good?" She nodded to the machine behind Clara.
The woman rolled her eyes, "let me guess banana?" She turned to make the drink having already checked to see if it worked, made it easier if she or Ashidlr ever suddenly got thirsty and didn't want to walk to the actual TARDIS kitchen.
"Like when we first met." She smirked.
"You going to keep an eye on him for me?" Clara asked sliding the glass to Raven who took a slip as Clara made herself a lemonade.
"Its that or stay on Gallifrey." she shrugged.
"And don't you want too?" Clara asked her.
It had been all Raven had wanted to do since they saved Gallifrey, she wanted to find it and go home and now she had gone back and had easily left again.
"I'll make sure you don't cross paths." Raven said instead of giving a proper answer, "You know because the universe may end otherwise." Clara laughed lightly, "no im serious."
"I'm so glad to be rid of you."
"So you're keeping this one then? You and Ashidlr?"
"Yeah," she nodded, "I reckon I can survive with what I know. Ashildrs reading the manual right now. She is pretty desperate to get away from Earth."
"I bet. Right, i'd best go check on the old idiot."
"Hey, hey, hey." Clara called as Raven stood and made to leave, "no glasses outside."
Raven raised a sceptical eyebrow at her, taking another sip, "cya Clara!" She waved as she left with the glass, ignoring Clara's shouts of complains.
At least if she ever did get bored of the Doctor there was another TARDIS for her to disappear in for a while.
~
The Doctor shot up with a start, narrowly missing hitting his head on the console.
"Look who's awake."
He turned at that see to Raven sat in her chair, smirking down at him, finishing a milkshake.
"You alright?" He asked her, standing up and moving round the console as a blue lit sonic screwdriver shot out of a shot in the console which he caught. "Where'd you get the milkshake?"
"Nicked it."
"Raven!" He whined.
"From Clara." She added, "Clara Oswald," she added, eying his reaction to the name, not quite placing his expression.
"Oh."
She squinted at him over the glass. Not quite sure how to take that. Like he was trying to place the name but just couldn't, or faking it. With the neural block having been human compatible they couldn't be sure it would have actually wiped his memory. He could easily be lying so Clara wouldn't come to see him. She really wasn't sure. She wouldn't say anything though.
"You didn't stay on Gallifrey." The Doctor frowned at her. He hadn't thought about it at the time, just left and forced Raven off the planet again. Didn't even give her a chance to say she wanted to stay. He just dragged her off again.
"Oh I didn't want too." She remarked with a shrug, "I guess you've worn off on me, Doc, I've grown fond of the travelling."
"Oh," The Doctor smiled, walking up too her and hugging her despite her complains, "you do care, really."
"No, I...alright," she sighed, "I care a little bit, and I don't like that the Time Lords tried to hurt you. That's mums jobs and I'm not impressed they hurt you for so long."
"I think that's another way of saying you care." the Doctor chuckled.