The End Is Where We Start From

by loulouflowerpower

11/OC-Time Lady. The Doctor and the Hatter have managed to escape Lake Silencio with their lives and reunited themselves with their infant daughter. But with Astra with them, will they be able to balance parenthood and their adventures? How will losing the Ponds affect them? And a new, impossible mystery is looming that is something quite personal for the Hatter to have to solve.

27. Chapter 27 Nightmare in Silver, Part 2

Nightmare in Silver, Part 2

"Hatter," the Doctor could barely contain the fear bubbling up inside him, the panic he felt as he held the Hatter's limp body in his arms, her hat toppled off on the floor somewhere by his feet. She just wasn't moving, her eyes were closed and while she had at least stopped screaming, the silence was almost worse. He cupped the side of her face and stroked his thumb against her cheek, "Please, please, wake up, Hatter," he pleaded desperately, bringing his forehead down against hers, squeezing his eyes shut. He just didn't know what to do, how to help her...this was new territory, even for him, he wasn't completely sure what was happening to her, what those Cybermites might be doing to her, and that terrified him, "Hatter, just open those beautiful, brilliant eyes of yours and say something, anything! Come on, Hatter..."

She awoke with a great gasp and suddenly jolted forward, very nearly smacking straight into the Doctor, who barely had enough time to move back from her. She positively shot out of his arms, the movement so quick and awkward, that she ended up tripping and falling onto her knees, where she remained frighteningly still, hunched over, her hair falling down passed her face, blocking her expression from view. Slowly, the Doctor edged closer to her, his mouth dry because this just wasn't right...he felt it, almost like a prickle on the back of his neck. Slowly, he reached out a hand towards her shoulder.

"Hatter..." he said slowly, gently, "Are you alright?" his hand touched her shoulder and she immediately jumped up onto her feet, whirling around to stare blankly down at him, her eyes, usually so bright and full of amusement or light, just empty and cold.

"Incorporated," she said, her voice flat of emotion, but also somehow deeper and darker sounding all at once. A small blinking, metal device had appeared along the left side of her face, modelled to her jaw line and spreading up over her left cheek, hugging her face, almost.

A bucket of ice water over the top of his head would have felt warmer and more comforting right now, and the Doctor slowly climbed onto his feet, swallowing, hard, as he stared back at her worriedly, "Hatter?" he said slowly, not even attempting to conceal his fear.

Nothing close to warmth or affection so much as flickered in her empty gaze as she simply smiled back at him, her lips curling in a frightening little smirk, "Well, well, well..." she lifted her left hand up towards her face, considering her fingers and flexing them, almost experimentally. Her wedding and engagement ring sparkled on her ring finger, though she didn't seem to be interested in that, "This is quite fascinating, indeed," her eyebrows lifted then, very slightly, and her left hand suddenly covered her chest, over her hearts, "Ooh, I am unfamiliar with this pulmonary system, it's rather impressive, for an organic organism. And this nervous system!" she wiggled her fingers again, "Nervous system hyperconductive! And this brain processing speeding!" she laughed, but it was high and cold and nothing at all like the Hatter's true laugh, spinning briefly around on the spot, "It is incredible! It's wasted on you! Truly remarkable!"

The Doctor felt sickened, but more than that, he was furious, furious standing here and having to watch while someone paraded the Hatter around like she was a puppet, using her voice and body against her will, when he knew that she must be screaming inside. He could barely stand it without wanting to either vomit or shout. A Time Lords mind was precious to them and messing with it in anyway against that persons will was an act of violation for a Time Lord. His fists clenched tightly at his sides.

"Stop it," he snapped, struggling to keep his voice level. She paused and glanced up to him, her eyes still empty and cold, but her eyebrow lifted, almost mockingly. He stepped closer to her, struggling to keep his glare firmly in place, because even if it wasn't the Hatter staring back at him, it was still her. Had he ever used that sort of tone with the Hatter before? Even during one of the rare times that they argued? He sincerely doubted it. He inhaled deeply, "Just stop it and let her go," he demanded, forcing himself to keep his voice calm, because if he didn't...he feared what the thing currently taking over the Hatter might just do to her, in punishment.

She laughed, high and cold and lacking any hint of humour, "Now, why would I do that?" she asked him, casually crossing one foot behind her left ankle, looking perfectly at ease, "She's just simply so perfect for our plans, your darling Hatter".

"Take me instead," he said instantly, stepping closer to her and gesturing to his own chest. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was practically begging right now, but for the Hatter, he'd do anything to keep her safe. She laughed again and his fingernails dug painfully into his palms, just from the effort of not shouting, "I mean it," he growled with barley restrained fury, "Whatever you want me to do, whatever you want, use me to do it, just let her go!"

"Hmm," she paused, considering him briefly, lifting her left index finger up to lightly tap her lips, before she suddenly broke into a dark smirk, "Nah, not going to work for me, but thanks for offering yourself up on a silver platter," her smirk grew into a chilling sneer, "Love truly is a futile emotion, it makes you so weak, Doctor. That shall be the first emotion that will be deleted from this form..."

She suddenly gasped and jolted backwards, her head snapping sharply to the side as she cried out loudly in pain. It was almost as if someone invisible had just come and slapped her across the face. The Doctor froze and reached out towards her, ready to catch her should she suddenly collapse again, it might not be the Hatter speaking to him right now, but it was still her body and he was going to make damn sure she didn't get so much as a paper cut, when her head suddenly snapped up and her eyes widened. She met his gaze, warmth and intelligence filling those lovely, hazel green eyes, tinged with fear and worry.

"Doctor?" the Hatter breathed, her voice shaking very slightly, "I...I can't fight it for long".

The Doctor had his arms around her in a flash, cradling her to his chest desperately, "You're going to be okay, Hatter," he told her firmly, her arms immediately circling him, clutching him tightly, "I swear, just...fight with everything you've got, whatever you've got to do, just fight!" he pressed a kiss to her temple, "You're the strongest person I know, you can win any fight..."

Her grip on him began to loosen and he held her tighter, "I can't hold on much longer," she breathed, her voice sounding strained and almost pained, "Doctor..." she groaned and pushed him away, forcing him to stumble back slightly from her. Her hands flew up to her head, her hands tangled in her hair, almost pulling fistfuls of it as she squeezed her eyes shut, "Just...get out of my head! You have no right!"

She jerked back again and again the Doctor's eyes widened in horror, literally watching as the light in her eyes completely disappeared again, right before him.

...

The Hatter glared furiously as she stormed across the massive room that made up her own mental landscape, which looked not so dissimilar to a very large library, save for the fact that it seemed to be filled with mist that hung thickly in the air, obscuring many of the features of the room. Massive bookshelves that were so tall they literally disappeared above the mist seemed to make a circle within the chamber-like room, but there was no books on the dark wooden shelves and standing within the heart, stood a woman who looked just like herself, only with a much colder expression and emotionless eyes, while a metal device blinked as it sat against the left side of her face, running along her jaw line. She stormed across the room towards her, utterly outraged.

"I told you to get out!" she shouted furiously at the other version of herself, she supposed the Cyberplanner, if such a thing had a name, pointing at her, "This is my mind and you have no right to be inside it, attempting to rummage through my memories! Those are mine; you have no right to be here!"

She was almost panting by the time she finished, she probably would have even chucked a book at the Cyberplanner, if any were held on the shelves around them, she was simply so angry. Her mind was no one's playground to be messed with without her permission, rarely did the Doctor even enter her mind, knowing well enough that her past experience with the Master tampering with her memories had scarred her somewhat of the idea of having anyone inside her mind, even the Doctor, who she trusted without question or fear, she still felt somewhat reserved about having in her mind without her permission. She just...she couldn't forget what the Master had done to her, so having someone in her mind, trying to sift through her memories against her will, was almost like that violation was happening again, only she was completely aware of it, unlike when the Master had done it to her as teenagers.

"Ooh, you're certainly making it tricky," the Cyberplanner commented lightly, fixing her with a dark, narrowed eyed glare, "But try as you might, even your mental defences aren't strong enough to hold centuries and centuries of memories back from my eyes, for instance..." she reached out blindly towards one of the bookshelves and suddenly, a large, dark red leather bound book appeared on the shelf, which she picked up and flipped open, "Clara..." her eyebrows lifted and her head snapped up from the book, while the Hatter glared back at her, pressing her lips into a tight, hard line, "I do wonder who she might be, someone special, I see".

"Shouldn't you tell me who she is?" the Hatter shot back sharply, though she couldn't help smirking smugly and gesturing towards the book, "After all, it should all be in there, right?"

The Cyberplanner sneered at her and snapped the book shut, throwing it carelessly over her shoulder, where it disappeared into the mist, "You're still doing quite the job of only telling part of the story," she said tightly, annoyance and frustration lacing her tone.

She lifted her chin proudly, her smile widening, "I was tutored by the best in the business," she shrugged lightly, "Borusa, for all of his many flaws as a good person, made for an excellent teacher. He always did say I possessed something of a gift for this sort of thing, though I've got to admit, the Master was always better at hypnoses, though that's rather off the subject..."

"Clara," the Cyberplanner cut across her, voice sharp and cutting, stepping closer towards her, "Who is she? Why have you been thinking about her so much, so much that her very memory sits so painfully close to the surface? Hmm?" she narrowed her eyes slightly, before she broke into a mocking grin, "Oh, dear, is this one of those love triangle things? Does lover-boy know you've been thinking about another lady?"

She grimaced, looking briefly nauseated and disturbed, "I think I'd rather we relieve a memory from my childhood right now," she muttered in disgust, finding the idea of some sort of love triangle between herself and Clara and the Doctor utterly disgusting to even briefly imagine, Clara was, kind of, possibly, somehow, her niece...gross, on so, so, so many levels. But at least it showed just how little data the Cyberplanner had managed to access, which was good, it told her that her mental shields were holding up much better then she thought.

"Speaking about lover-boy..." the other version of her went on in a low drawl, peering around at the empty bookcases with narrowed eyes, "You do seem to be desperately trying to conceal anything about him from me, perhaps more so then anything else, but..." she paused and lifted a finger, frowning slightly, "For one other thing, perhaps. Don't think I can't sense it, but if you think you can hide it from me forever you are very much mistaken..." she looked back to the Hatter, regarding her with a smug look, "I'll know all of your secrets before much longer..."

"Try," the Hatter replied coolly, glaring right back and crossing her arms firmly across her chest, "If you think for a second that I shall allow you anything that might bring harm to those that I love, think again, for I'd rather die than let that happen".

She couldn't let any of her memories of the Doctor or Astra to slip through even the smallest of cracks in her mental shields, she just couldn't bear to have the Cybermen know anything more about them then they already did, and her memories...if they had access to those, they'd know everything, everything to destroy them, everything to hurt them in ways that even death would be merciful. She wouldn't let that happen, her family was off limits.

"Oh, I believe you, your love and protection for them is near sickeningly overwhelming, it drives you, doesn't it? That's why you fight so, so hard to try and keep me at bay, but even it won't be enough before long. Emotions are weakness, Hatter".

"No, they're strength," she argued immediately, "My strength, which is far stronger then what you have".

The Cyberplanner laughed, then, and clapped mockingly, "I'll give you this, you do have a talent for this," she said with a wave a hand around them, "How intriguing, a complete mental block. Highly effective tool..."

...

The Doctor felt helpless as he could only stand by and watch as the Hatter seemed to switch between two personalities, one he recognised instantly as her, the other...colder, icy, cutting...it was the Cyberplanner, he imagined. He listened to her muttering, some words spoken with much greater passion then others, and he knew those came from the Hatter, her fight and sprite shinning through, giving him hope, before it would be replaced by the low, harsher words of the thing possessing her. He simply held onto her shoulders, making sure that she wouldn't suddenly collapse or hurt herself. It was frightening, though, he had to admit, hearing the conversation going on inside the Hatter's own mind as she battled mentally and verbally, but she was fighting to protect him and Astra, that was plain enough for him to hear, even if he could barely stomach hearing the Cyberplanner threatening to learn all of her secrets, practically goading her. He just wanted to step inside her mind and hug the Hatter, but he couldn't. Suddenly, she jerked away from him and stumbled back from him, laughing loudly, not even seeming to notice him at all, which only made it all the more unsettling as she giggled.

"Oh, calm down, calm down!" she grinned, but it was horribly condescending, twisting the Hatter's features into a horrible, mocking mask, "There's really no need to get all shouty, you know?" she twirled around on the spot, then, before turning to start skipping around the table, playfully drumming her hands against the table top as she went, an action that could have been so much like the Hatter, but somehow it was completely alien to witness, "This would all go so much more smoothly if you'd just let it! Accept it, sweetie, you're being upgraded into the Cyberiadas as Cyberplanner, that's an honour even you couldn't turn down".

She tripped then and suddenly half-collapsed on top of the table, her eyes wide and filled with horror as she looked up frantically to the Doctor, who was staring at her, lost as to what to do. It was the Hatter, his Hatter, and she looked truly worried now.

"No!" she gasped, bracing herself against the table, "If you think I'm just going to let you do that to me, think again, now for the last time...get out of my head!"

She jolted violent and her knees gave way beneath her.

"Hatter!" the Doctor cried, and dashed around the table towards her...

...

The Hatter was back in her mental landscape again, but there as now some books on the book shelves around the room, not many, she noted, but still some...she frowned and turned her attention back to the Cyberplanner. She glared at it, while the other version of her stood there, smirking smugly back at her, toying mockingly with a copy of her own signet necklace.

"You really do think that I'm the only one being exposed right now, huh?" she asked the Cyberplanner lightly, lifting an eyebrow. She looked pointedly around at the book shelves, now sparsely littered by new volumes, some thicker than others, but most covered in either red binding or black...she imagined the black ones held her darkest or worst memories, "A few books here and there, a couple of memories I've allowed you to see?" she scoffed slightly and looked sharply back to the Cyberplanner, who no longer looked quite so pleased, "Oh, I'm sorry, did you think you had done something clever? That you were winning?" she laughed, tossing her head back as an ugly scowl marked her other selves features, "Please, I let you have these memories...a bone, if you will".

"What are you babbling about, fool?" the Cyberplanner demanded angrily, marching several feet forward, until they stood a foot apart.

She leaned closer towards her face, grinning, "I see you," she told her in a sing-song voice, before laughing as the Cyberplanner stared blankly back at her, "You're a hive mind, yes?" she smirked, taking great pleasure in seeing the look of anger that replaced that blank expression, "You're the one who gets all the signals from all of your other tin solders out there, more than just a few, too, I expect," she leaned back on her heels and winked, "That's the thing about fools...you can never trust them, sweetie".

...

"Hatter..." the Doctor called gently, cradling her in his arms. It gave him some sense of relief to hear his Hatter sounding just so...her, still fighting, still being clever, still with that edge of mocking that was typically resaved for only those few that truly angered her. That was the woman he knew and loved most in the Universe, and even though she certainly had a battle on her hands right now, he knew she wasn't going to give up, not that he ever expected that she would. Far too stubborn for that.

Another loud laugh escaped from her lips, then, and his hearts dropped, clenching with anger and despair, because that wasn't her laughing. It was the thing trying to completely destroy the Hatter and everything that she was, after all, take away the Hatter's ability to feel or have compassion, then he knew that she would likely declare that there was no point to living any longer. If she couldn't feel the love for himself and Astra, then what point was it all?

"Oh, you are good," she said, her voice low and filled with a bitter amusement. How odd it was that a Cyber-being could feel any sort of emotion, but the Doctor suspected it likely laid in the fact that it was in the Hatter, soaking up her memories, her thoughts, and perhaps just a dash of her personality. Once it had done what it intended to do to the Hatter, which was never going to happen, it would likely revert to being utterly emotionless, as a Cyberman or Cyberplanner ought to be, he expected. Her eyes snapped open and he reluctantly released his hold of her, watching with a deep, heavy frown as she rose back onto her feet smoothly, far to smoothly then the real Hatter could ever manage, before spinning on her toes, "I must say...I thought you were all just talk, but you're far, far more then that!"

The Doctor could only watch as she began to move around the room, skipping in places before throwing in a sudden, utterly random twirl in the middle of it. If it had been the Hatter, he probably wouldn't have blinked an eye, in the past she was well known to just start skipping or dancing on the spot, usually she used it as a tool of disarming people or sometimes just simply out of the amusement of seeing her companions or his, for that matter, simply look exasperated, but this version of the Hatter wasn't like that and even if she did...she would never look like that. Her eyes were frightening blank, cold, emotionless, empty, contrasting against the twisted smirk that crossed her lips, which looked utterly wrong. He wondered if it was actually the Hatter doing all the dancing and twirling, just attempting to regain the upper hand again, it would make sense. Somehow he doubted a Cyberman would be putting on a ballet performance right now, as amusing and disturbing as that was to imagine.

"I always believed myself to be cleaver, but now..." she laughed again, clapping her hands together and lacing her fingers together, bringing them up to beneath her chin, giggling excitedly as she spun on the spot, "Oh, I am immeasurably clever now! This brain, my goodness!" she grinned widely and brought her hands suddenly up to her head, threading her fingers through her hair, almost tugging on it. The Doctor barely contained himself from grabbing her hands and pulling them away, fearing that it might be hurting the Hatter, "So far beyond a human brain, it's utterly incomparable, of course..." a sly look crossed her features and she slowly turned, her gaze, cold and empty, fell on the Doctor. He tensed immediately, staring back at her carefully and her lips lifted into a frightening smirk, "There's always improvements to be made, I'll have to completely rework the neural interface..."

"Don't you dare," the Doctor snapped instantly, storming closer to her, until he stood just a foot away from her. He curled his fists by his side, just barely containing himself from reaching out and taking her by the shoulders. If it was the Hatter, he would have, mind you; if it had been the Hatter there wouldn't have been anything to be worried about right now. It still frightened him to hear her voice saying these words, her face staring smugly back at him. He glared dangerously, "If you do anything to hurt her or harm her in anyway, I'm warning you I'll..."

"What?" she cut across him, actually regarding him curiously now, her eyebrows lifting mockingly, "What could you possibly do to me that wouldn't cause harm to your beloved Hatter yourself? And we both know, Doctor dear, that you would never hurt her..." she leaned closer to him, forcing him to inch back slightly, feeling ill having her that close to him...it wasn't the Hatter, just someone puppeteering her body around, "And that is something you could never do, Doctor. I don't need to be inside your head to see that plainly".

"I'd never hurt her, you're right," he nodded, but his voice was frightening soft, filled with restrained anger, "But I will always do whatever I have to to keep her safe and if you knew anything about the Hatter and I, you'd know that, so I wouldn't be so quick to be so sure what I might do when it comes to protecting the ones I love".

She paused briefly, regarding him, before her lips lifted again, "Adorable," she said scornfully, "Both of you are just so sickeningly devoted to one another...it's a wonder you can accomplish anything..." she scoffed and spun away from him, moving straight for the table in the heart of the room, "But I shall change all of that, as Cyberplanner this body will archive more than it ever could or has!" she used the edge of the table to hoist herself up onto of it, spinning around and holding her arms out before her, while the Doctor watched on worriedly. If she slipped that would be quite the nasty fall for the Hatter to take...She paused, then, and frowned, bringing her left hand down to lightly tap her bottom lip, "Hmm...but maybe not the best name, perhaps a little too obvious. I ought to take a leaf out of your book, go for something a little more discreet, like...Mistress Brainy!" she grinned widely and laughed, clapping her hands together, "Yes, that'll work! Ooh..." she paused, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, "Ooh, there is just so much raw data running through this brain, so much to absorb..." she gasped, then, and her eyes flew open, but she was staring off into the distance, "The Time Lords, so much data on them, enough to practically fill a library. Oh, that is just so perfect!"

She jerked suddenly, and the Doctor dashed forward, reaching up to try and balance her...

...

"You don't have to enjoy this so much, you know," the Hatter grumbled, finding herself back inside her mental landscape once more, crossing her arms across her chest. The book shelves where now half full of books now, while a large bookstand had appeared in the middle of the mock library between herself and the Cyberplanner. She watched as the Cyberplanner eagerly flicked through the yellowed, dry parchment pages of the thick volume that sat on the stand.

"Is that a note of concern I detect?" the Cyberplanner flickered her gaze over to her, smirking mockingly.

She laughed, "You still don't get it, do you?" she smiled, shaking her head lightly in amusement, watching as the Cyberplanner instantly narrowed her eyes at her, "All of the raw data you have at your fingertips right now, and you still fail to understand the obvious".

"Which is?"

"I am allowing you to see only what I wish you to see. You think that you're winning right now, but this is still my mind and I alone still know all of its secrets. I alone am allowing you access to my knowledge of the Time Lords, specifically...Time Lord regeneration".

The Cyberplanner slowly stepped away from the bookstand, staring at her, hard and cold, but with obvious frustration, "If that is so..." she said dubiously, "Then why would you do that? You are giving up a possibly vital strategic element".

The Hatter grinned widely, "I am, aren't I?" she agreed, but she sounded almost close to laughing now, "I suppose you can consider it to be a...threat, if you will," she went on lightly, casually looking away from her and shrugging, as if it was of little concern to her, "Warning is far too light of a manner to describe my intentions, because I truly do intend to carry it out if I'm forced, so threat it is," she looked back to the Cyberplanner, meeting her own, cold, empty gaze with a dangerous glint in her own, "And I never threaten without fully, whole heartedly, intending to carry through with it".

The Cyberplanner stared at her for a very long moment, genuine concern starting to cross her features, "What threat?"

"I will regenerate," she replied instantly, her tone not shifting once, still laced with danger, but deadly calm, "Here and now, I'll trigger my very own regeneration and burn every single one of your Cybermites from my brain, if need be," she paused and lightly lifted a shoulder, shrugging lightly, "I don't wish to do it, who knows what impact having you lot in my head while I regenerate could do to my next body, let alone how horribly confusing it will be for...certain people..." she just caught herself before she said Astra's name, but she carried on as if she hadn't almost slipped, "But I've always done what I felt was best for the sake of others and destroying you...that would be something worth dying for".

"You're bluffing," she accused, but she did look truly worried now, staring back at her with wide eyes.

The Hatter smiled faintly.

...

The Doctor swallowed thickly...she really would kill herself if she believed it was the only means of stopping the Cyberplanner from taking over herself, she'd make that sacrifice without pausing. It broke his hearts to think that she might kill herself like this, just to destroy the enemy...but he understood it. He would have done it himself, in the same position, because it was the right move to make and sometimes you truly did have to make a sacrifice. He just wished it was him having to make it. The Hatter jerked again and dropped onto her knees on the table, coming close to almost kicking him in the face, but he managed to dodge it before she made contact. She remained still for a very long moment and he slowly edged around the table, eyeing her closely. An ugly look was on her face now, a look not even he had ever seen before on any version of the Hatter that he knew, a look of absolute contempt and fury, disgust and frustration, mingled with reluctant resignation.

"If that is how you wish for this to go..." she said icily, before moving to slip off the edge of the table, dropping down onto the floor with a much harder bang then truly required. The Doctor winced and frowned deeply...the Hatter would likely be feeling that later, "Fine. Consider us to be at a stalemate, then, but one of us still needs to control this brain," she went on sharply, reaching up to stab her left index finger harshly into her temple, "You can't pretend as if that isn't so, attempting to buy more time will help you little in the end, Hatter. Right now we're standing on the cusp of one of us taking the victory..."

Her entire body jerked sharply and she briefly lost balance, tripping sideways before she corrected herself, her head snapping upwards. Her eyes were bright and warm again, but full of an anger that the Doctor recognised as the Hatter. She narrowed her eyes off into the distance and scoffed.

"Who's trying to buy time now, huh?" the Hatter shot back, smirking very faintly, "Oh, have I actually gotten you a little worried, perhaps? Not quite so smug now, because you know very well that I mean it. I'll regenerate before you ever have a chance of actually taking over my body and mind, Cyberplanner..."

She gasped in pain as she jolted to the side again, as if someone had just slapped her, and the icy, furious glare was back once she straightened.

"You never would," she spate back, before flinching again.

The Hatter pushed her hair back from off her face, her gaze falling onto the Doctor, softening as she stared back at him, "I'll do whatever I must for those that I love," she said strongly, not dropping her gaze from his, "Whatever the cost might be to myself".

"Hatter," the Doctor began worriedly, shaking his head, "There's got to be another way".

The Time Lady gave him a sad, tired look, right before her entire body jolted again and any hint of the Hatter left her gaze, just emptiness and ice.

"As I said...stalemate".

...

"You have put up a decent fight, I shall give you that much," the Cyberplanner told the Hatter with a cool glare, narrowing her eyes at her from across the short distance between them within the mental landscape, "But we still each control forty nine point eight, one percent of this brain," she went on, reaching up to point at her own head, before turning the finger onto the Hatter, "However, point two, three, eight of the brain is still up for grabs," her lips stretched into a deadly smile, "Whoever wins that...gets it all".

The Hatter regarded her carefully, "Shall we play for it?" she suggested, eyeing her closely, "That's how the Time Lords of old once solved their disagreements, so how about it? A nice, civilised game of chess".

"Chess?"

"Yes, chess. Do you know how to play?"

"Naturally the rules of chess are in my databanks," the Cyberplanner replied, eyeing her with a note of suspicion, "You wish for us to play chess in order to end this stalemate?"

"It worked for my ancestors," the Hatter shrugged lightly, her expression hardening, "If you wish to end this stalemate and fully take the last portion of my brain that's up for grabs, then you're going to have to beat me at chess. That's the deal," she held her hand out towards her to shake on it, narrowing her eyes challengingly, "Take it or leave it, because I'll never stop fighting you".

The Cyberplanner simply eyed her for a long moment, before slowly reaching out to accept her hand, shaking it only twice, before releasing it quickly. And so the deal was set.

...

The Doctor smiled very slightly, watching as the Cyberplanner paced the length of the room they stood in, looking positively agitated and annoyed now. He felt a touch easier now, knowing that the Hatter seemed to be handling the situation quite well from her end, she didn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort, she didn't even seem all that angry any longer, just simply incredibly determined to win. He was still almost out of his mind worried, of course, but just slightly less so. The Hatter knew what she was doing, he knew that and trusted in that, too, she could handle a couple of tin insects attempting to take over her brain easily.

"You really do believe that you're going to win," she sneered angrily, almost hissing the words as she glared at nothing, just simply pacing. Her body suddenly jerked and she caught herself on the edge of the table, just as she was passing by it.

The Hatter grinned cheekily, flicking her hair back off her face, "Well, that is rather the whole point, yeah," she said brightly, casually leaning back against the table, "How foolish of me would it be to suggest it, unless I knew I would win".

Her body jerked again and her expression morphed into a dark glare, "The arrogance of a Time Lord," she laughed coldly, "It will be your downfall, Hatter, because once I win, the Cyberiad will fully have control over your mind and memory. Everything that you are, everything you hold so very dear to your weak hearts, will be deleted and upgraded beyond such meaningless things such as emotions," she practically spat the last word out, as if it was vile.

She jolted again and the Hatter was back, grinning widely, "I may have the arrogance of a Time Lord, but what's you excuse?" she laughed, and even the Doctor couldn't hold back a laugh of relief, making her smile widely and turn to him. She immediately held up her hand to high five him, which he eagerly returned, taking the chance of having her back in her own mind again to press a kiss to her cheek and give her a proud look. She reached up and lightly touched his cheek, before turning away and stepping back over to the table, "Have you perhaps paused to considered what I shall do when I win, Cyberplanner, because let me tell you...when this is all over and my head is rightfully my own again, you will release the children you have taken hostage and everyone else on this planet will remain safe and whole. No one..." her tone grew harder, firmer, "No one will die, do I make myself clear? No one!"

She met the Doctor's eyes and gave him a determined look. He grinned widely back at her. Check out his girl, not letting anything, not even a pesky Cyberplanner inside her brain; stop her from trying to save the day.

...

The Doctor was the one who retrieved the chess board from the chess room in Webley's little museum/exhibition building, bringing it back to the Hatter. They set it up on the middle of the circular table in the heart of the room and within a few seconds, the game was on. He stood across the board from her, watching while she switched between herself and the Cyberplanning, but even he had to admit, given all the strange things he had witnessed during his long, long and rather eventful life...this was really taking the cake for top ten most weird ways to spend an evening. It truly was very odd, but he had to admit it reminded him keenly of the fact that he truly did know the Hatter very well, he doubted if he would be able to tell who was speaking, if it wasn't for the very slight differences, the way that the Hatter stood, the way that the Cyberplanner seemed to scowl more deeply then the Hatter typically did. It was those little, fine details that gave it away.

"I don't see why we're bothering with this," the Cyberplanner remarked, placing her white piece down on the board, scoffing slightly, "The game is merely a chance for you attempt to buy yourself more time, Hatter. Don't pretend otherwise".

Her body jerked slightly and her head snapped up, the Hatter breaking into a small smile as she carefully examined the board before her, "So what if that was true?" she replied lightly, lifting one of her pawns up, lightly toying with it as she continued to consider where to place it, "Perhaps it is just a bid for more time...or maybe you're just nervous and trying to throw me off. It won't work," she smirked ruefully, placing the piece down on the board, "If you think that anything you have to say to me could possibly throw me, you clearly haven't paid enough attention to my memories of my mother".

She flinched and the Cyberplanner was back, glaring harshly down at the board, "Is that so?" she sneered, picking up her next piece, but she didn't immediately place it, either, her eyes narrowing off in the distance, "Tell me, Hatter...how is it that there is no record of you or lover-boy anywhere to be found in any of the databanks of the Cyberiad?" she sat the piece down on the board.

The Doctor instantly tensed when her gaze landed on him, narrowed and sharp, staring straight at him, before her eyes widened very slightly in understanding. The Hatter jumped back to herself and she grimaced, catching his eyes across the board.

"Caught onto that, did you?" the Time Lady sighed very slightly, her voice tight as she took her own turn, managing to take one of white pawns. She was starting to grow tired...it had been centuries since she had last ever even needed to practice attempting to conceal her memories like this, after all, the few rare times that she and the Doctor did dabble in memory sharing for a bit of fun, she never needed to conceal anything from him. She was hardly any closer to losing the battle, of course, but it was slightly worrying...her mental shields were slipping very slightly, information she hadn't meant to let slip through was, and if one crack had began bleeding then more data would spill out. If anything about Astra slipped through...

She jerked slightly to the side and suddenly she was laughing, "Oh, dear," she cooed mockingly, "You're slipping, Hatter, getting sloppy...almost as sloppy as you were eliminating yourselves from history. You are aware of the fact that you left two rather large holes in the data banks of the Universe that one could very easily reconstruct you from".

The Doctor winced...huh, that was something they really hadn't considered, but to be fair, they had been slightly busy, what with trying to figure out who Clara was, grieving the Ponds, dealing with a toddler. They had a lot on their plate, okay, so what if they might have missed some of the rather obvious details? Okay...maybe it was so obvious that they really should have thought about that before now, but...well, yeah. No excuses. That was their bad.

The Hatter jolted slightly and her eyes widened, nodding slowly, "Oh, yeah..." she cleared her throat, picking up one of her knights, "That was...a slight oversight on our parts, which I'm sure we would have remembered to take care of...eventually," she sighed and placed her knight down on the board, right before she flinched sideways slightly, as if someone had slapped her.

...

"You are aware that chess has an infinite number of moves one might make," the Cyberplanner glared at her from across the large table that had appeared within the mental landscape, a chess board on top of it, mimicking the one in the real world, "And you are but one single brain, while I can use other Cyberunits as remote processors. The chances of you winning are impossible".

"I love impossible," the Hatter said lightly, allowing her gaze to run over the board before them, but not with any concern or alarm, simply thoughtful, "In fact, I eat impossible cereal for breakfast...or I would, if it was a thing..." she paused, considering it, "Maybe it is a thing, maybe I could make it a thing! Ooh, now that's exciting..."

"Is this some sort of pathetic excuse to distract me? To somehow give yourself more time to consider your next move?"

"I don't need more time," she scoffed, her eyes sharp and firm as they flew back up to her, "It truly is astonishing to me, how much you see but yet seemingly haven't taken in at all, all of that raw data and yet you still fail to seemingly grasp one simple fact".

"What fact?" the Cyberplanner all but shouted, very nearly lunging across the table towards her.

"This is my brain!" she snapped angrily, suddenly furious again, reaching up to stab her left index finger pointedly towards her left temple, "Mine, not yours, which means that I am capable of still knowing what it is that I want you to know and what I don't! My childhood, who cares? Have at those memories! My wedding the Doctor, now that was a sacrifice to give up, but I still did it! All of my companions and my adventures with them, my time at the Academy...but you still fail to realise the fact that there are still great gasps of data that you have yet to even come close to accessing, because I have made it so! I have sacrificed parts of my very memories, just so that I can protect those that hold the true value to them, and you never noticed!"

"That's not possible! You can't hide anything from me, Hatter!"

"And yet, I have," the Hatter said softly, her lips turning upwards very slightly, "I told you before...I was trained by the best, Cyberplanner, and Lord Borusa always did teach that while it may be impossible to ever truly keep ones memories hidden, it is possible to conceal them from your enemies eyes, to hide them within other memories, to bury them deep, deep down within your own subconscious so that they become near invisible to only those trained in the art," she smirked and reached out to lightly tap a finger against the edge of the chess board, "Memories...such as the age old weakness of the Cybermen, such as gold and even cleaning fluid. Did you know that it used to be a useful weapon against you lot, scrambling your operating systems?"

The Cyberplanner eyed her closely, "Fascinating," she said flatly.

"Oh, it is," she insisted lightly, giving her a bright, cheerful smile, "You know, that's the problem of poking around someone's else's head...more often than not, it leaves you open, too," her smile widened, then, "So imagine my surprise when I came to discover that some of that old code that had that weakness still seems to be running through your system".

She smirked at that, dark, cool amusement lightening her gaze, "Is this supposed to be some sort of great reveal?" she asked her in a bored tone, peering at her mockingly, "Some sort of dramatic flair that you so enjoy, Hatter?" she laughed and shook her head, "If you truly believe that your great weapon is going to be cleaning fluid, I truly do fail to understand how you can be half as intelligent as you are".

The Hatter grinned proudly back at her, "Perhaps that's why I am so clever," she said happily, laughing at the confused look that crossed her face.

...

"Because everyone always likes to underestimate the fool..." the Hatter continued as she blinked and found herself looking back at the Doctor across the board, back in the real world, "You see, it's not the cleaning fluid you're got to watch for...it's the gold!"

And just like that, she brought her hand up and suddenly slapped the golden park ticket against the device on the side of her face, and instantly grimacing as it felt as though someone had just come up and lightly zapped her cheek with one of those zappy pens. It wasn't painful, exactly, just slightly uncomfortable, and she quickly shook her head try and relieve the sensation.

"Ho, ho!" the Doctor cheered proudly, immediately dashing around to her side of the table and grabbing her by her waist, making her laugh and wrap her arms around his neck as he picked her up, spinning her around and around on the spot as he hugged her tightly, "Like a charm, dear!" he grinned, stopping his spinning and lightly placing her back on the floor, but he didn't so much as loosen his grip on her. He pressed his forehead against hers, smiling softly, "That's my girl".

The Hatter quickly closed the small space between them and kissed him, slowly and gently, before forcing herself to pull away, smiling proudly at him, "Did you miss me, sweetheart?" she asked him cheerfully.

"You have no idea, Hatter".

"It's a very weird day," she remarked, shaking her head slightly as she pulled back from him, lightly reaching up to brush her fingertips over the gold ticket still stuck to her cheek, blocking the Cyberplanner from being able to take her over again, for now. She sighed and gave him a tern look, "But enough time wasting, Doctor. We've got work to do, we need to get out of here and find Astra and Clara".

He nodded immediately at that, now that the Hatter was back to herself, for the time being, they could worry about making sure that Clara and Astra were okay right now, "Right, dear," he nodded, and turned to point at Webley, who looked briefly confused, or as confused as an emotionless being could be, lightly touching the side of his head, "Okay, Webley, and you kids...things," he turned and pointed at Angie and Artie, before glancing at the Hatter, "I'll bring the chessboard, dear".

"Let's get out of here," the Hatter said eagerly, her eyes bright and excited, "I, for one, would very dearly like to see my little girl again".

And with that, she and the Doctor began gathering up the chess board and all the pieces, more then ready to leave and make sure Clara and Astra were doing okay with the rest of the human. How much trouble could they have gotten themselves in, after all?

...

It turned out to be quite an easy thing to determine just where in the park Clara might have decided to take the soldiers and claim as their stronghold. The Time Lords happened to stumble across an old, slightly lopsided sign of the park as they walked around and easily determined that the most likely place that Clara would have picked was an old, mock castle. It did have big, high and strong walls, comical as it was, and a nice moat around it, so of course, out of every other possible location in the park, it made the most sense for it to be used as a stronghold. It was also positioned right in the very heart of the park, meaning that it had fairly decent visibility all around it. So that's where they went, making their way through the park with Angie and Artie silently and emotionlessly marching along behind them, while Webley followed. It was a little odd, their companions being so silent and just simply following them, like mindless drones...which, technically, they were, but still. It was just another layer of weird to this whole evening.

They picked up the pace as they neared the castle, bright light spilling out of the high, stone windows, while a long, gravel road travelled all the way up to the huge front gate that went over the moat that surrounded the castle. It truly did look like a real castle, perhaps a little newer then one Clara would be used to seeing, but certainly not very different. They were just a few metres off from reaching the door, when they suddenly found themselves being swarmed by a number of very stern and grim faced looking soldiers, pointing guns at them threateningly. Hastily, the Doctor jumped in front of the Hatter and lifted the chess board up to shield his face, as if it would protect them.

"Argh!" he cried out hurriedly, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" he lowered the chess board to peer over it to the surrounding soldiers, "We're nice! Please, don't shoot!"

Suddenly, Clara came jogging into view, carrying a massive gun in both hands. Instantly, all the other soldiers seemed to step back very slightly and allow her to near the Time Lords, though they didn't lower their weapons.

"Clara!" the Hatter grinned widely, stepping around the Doctor to give her a wave, "Congratulations on not yet completely exploding the planet," she paused and frowned very slightly, looking thoughtful, "I must confess, there was a seventy percent chance that the captain was going to try it, but I see that the thirty percent when she didn't was a win after all. Well done," she suddenly fixed her with a very serious look, "Now, where's Astra?"

"Mummy!" a loud, excited squeal rang through the air, "Daddy!"

Astra came running through the gate of the castle as fast as her little legs would carry her, which was quite frighteningly fast for a two year old, though what could you expect from the Doctor and the Hatter's child. One of the female soldiers came jogging out of the castle several steps behind Astra, looking very slightly frazzled and with something that looked like a lopsided star drawn on her cheek from face paint, but Astra didn't so much as glance back towards the other woman, her whole focus on her parents. The Hatter quickly hurried forward to meet her midway, picking her up and hugging her tightly.

"Oh, Astra!" she squeezed her eyes shut as she hugged her tightly, just soaking up the feel of having her little girl back in her arms again, "I missed you so, so, so much!" she pulled back slightly to give her a gentle smile, "Were you good for Clara?"

"I got to paint, Mummy," Astra told her proudly, grinning widely. She had some yellow paint on her left cheek, "And I made you and Daddy a picture".

"I can't wait to see it, my little star," the Doctor said brightly, laughing as Astra immediately held out her arms towards him, wanting to have her turn of cuddling with him now. The Hatter passed her over to him, smiling as she watched the Doctor press a kiss to the top of her head, hugging her tightly.

The Time Lady turned her gaze back to Clara, "Painting?" she asked curiously.

"Had to keep her busy," Clara replied with a small shrug, "Figured it would be better to keep her away from the guns and, you know, fighting".

"Excellent idea, yes. Thank you for that".

"Did you get the kids, Hatter?" she asked her worriedly, suddenly looking quite anxious, "Are they alright?" she paused, then, and frowned, tilting her head slightly as she peered more closely at the Time Lady and the metal device and golden ticket stuck to her cheek, "What's going on?"

Astra leaned slightly out of the Doctor's arms to also examine the curious device more closely, reaching out to try poking at it. Gently, the Hatter reached up to take her hand before she could, kissing her little palm and giving Astra a soft smile, just to try distracting her. It probably wasn't the best thing to have a toddler poking at that right now.

"Er..." the Doctor grimaced very slightly, glancing sideways at the Hatter, "A bit of good news, bad news, good news again thing going on," he tried to explain to Clara, who narrowed her eyes and threateningly adjusted her gun. His eyes widened very slightly, "So...good news!" he fixed a slightly tense smile to his lips, while the Hatter winced, "We've kidnapped the Cyberplanner and right now the Hatter is sort of in control of this Cyberman," he gestured to the Hatter with his hand not holding Astra.

"Sort of being the key word," the Hatter muttered, sighing.

"Bad news?"

"That Cyberplanner he mentioned," the Time Lady began hastily, clearing her throat as Clara gave her a narrowed eyed look, "Em...well, it's kind of, sort of...in my head," she grimaced and tapped the tip of her finger against her left temple.

"And..." the Doctor held up a hand, stopping Clara as she blinked slowly in confusion, staring at the Hatter, "Different bad news..." he held up a finger, trying to break it to her as gently and delicately as possible...he somehow wondered how he ended up getting this job, when the Hatter was much better at breaking these sorts of things, but he supposed that he was probably least likely to have a gun pointed at him, considering that he had Astra in his arms right now, "...The kids are, well...it's complicated".

Clara stared at him very, very hard and slowly began to step towards them, a dangerous glint in her gaze, "Complicated how?" she questioned in a barely restrained, tight voice, full of warning and threat.

"Complicated as in...walking coma," he finished warily and stepped off to the side to reveal Angie and Artie standing utterly still behind him. Her mouth fell open in horror and she instantly lowered the gun, dashing forward towards the kids, looking from Artie to Angie, before she turned and fixed the Doctor with a deadly glare, moving to lift her gun. He instantly held Astra up before him, his eyes widening, "Holding a baby!" he shouted, making her still, "Don't shoot!"

"Doctor," the Hatter scolded him, giving him a disapproving look, "Don't use Astra to shield yourself from Clara's wrath!" she gave him a look and he sheepishly passed Astra back over to her, not that Astra seemed overly worried, in fact she was giggling.

"Funny, Daddy!" she cheered, grinning widely at the Doctor.

The Time Lady sighed heavily and shook her head lightly, because of course Astra would find her father using her as a shield against an angry Clara funny...not that the Doctor would ever actually use Astra as a shield if Clara had meant to cause any genuine harm. It was still the principle. She turned her attention back to Clara, giving her a sympathetic look.

"They're not in any pain, Clara," she reassured her gently, "I promise you; in fact, there's a chance they may not even remember any of this..."

Clara took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, "Please tell me you can wake them up," she looked at her carefully, making a great effort to try and stay calm.

"Hope so," the Doctor replied, grimacing slightly at the angry look Clara shot him.

"Of course we can," the Hatter corrected slightly more firmly, knowing that right now, Clara really didn't want to hear 'Hope so,' but rather a firm 'Yes'. And she was pretty confident that they could wake the children, just...with a little bit more time.

She sighed, "Other good news?"

"Ah, yes!" she smiled widely, pointing at her, "The other good news, it's rather exciting, actually. We've got an army of repaired and reactivated Cybermen coming right this way as we speak, and..." she reached up to lightly tap her temple, still grinning cheerfully, oblivious to the wide eyes stares everyone was giving her...even Astra looked rather confused, "The Cyberplanner currently taking part of my mind hostage is just installing a nice, handy little patch that will completely make all Cyber-units immune to gold..." she trailed off and slowly blinked, a horrified expression crossing her features as she looked to the Doctor, who looked rather frightened himself, "Oh, dear..." she breathed quietly, "That wasn't good news, that was horrible, terrible, very bad, bad news".

"Hatter," the Doctor stepped closer to her, eyeing her carefully, searching her face. He was likely trying to determine just how in control of herself she was right now, "Are you alright?"

"Um..." she hesitated, her eyes darting to Astra, who was watching her with a worried little frown. She forced a smile and laughed, lightly bopping Astra's nose, making her scrunch up her face, "Of course I am," she smiled cheerfully, desperately trying not to frighten or worry Astra, who giggled and instantly seemed to be distracted, "I mean, why wouldn't I be? I'm very close to winning this chess match and then everything will just be even better, sweetheart, but..." she looked pointedly to him, "I think I ought to get back to doing that rather quickly, Doctor. Things are...escalating, fast".

His lips pressed into a worried line, but he seemed to understand what she was trying to say, without saying it in front of Astra, "Let's get a shift on, then, dear," he nodded, and gently placed his free hand on her lower back, starting to guide her towards the castle.

"Um, what's going on?" Clara called after them, frowning deeply in confusion.

"We'll explain later," he told her over his shoulder, "In a bit of a hurry".

"I don't suppose there's a nice table and chair about the place?" the Hatter glanced back over her shoulder to Clara, before sighing and shaking her head, "Oh, and we'll be needing some rope...someone's going to need to tie me up!"

"I'll do that, dear".

"When I said things were escalating quickly, that wasn't quite what I was referring to," the Time Lady commented lightly, throwing him an amused look, "But I'll go with it, if you're game, sweetheart".

The Doctor actually stumbled slightly and his lips parted in shock, "Hatter!" he exclaimed, giving her a rather embarrassed, though very slightly intrigued look...before he cleared his throat, his cheeks positively bright red, "That wasn't...I didn't even think..."

"Hush now, Doctor," she lightly hushed him, though she was grinning and looking just a little too smug, "I need to get back in the game zone. Don't forget to leave my hands free," she wiggled her fingers pointedly before her, "Can't play chess with my nose...though that would be a sight".

The Doctor sighed heavily and shot her another worried look, just as they crossed the threshold of the castle. The more jokes and teasing, the more frightened he became. She was starting to slip away again and she could sense it and she was afraid. She just couldn't show it how she normally might, but she was and there was little he could do to help her. It was all down to her.

...

The chess board was set up just as it had been back in the Cyberman's lab, all of the pieces placed exactly in the same positions as they had been on a table in the middle of what almost seemed to be something of a throne room in the heart of the castle. Clara was nursing Astra in her arms, frowning as they watched the Doctor tying a long and rather thick length of rope around and around the Hatter's waist and upper body, securing her tightly to a short, golden chair that they had pulled from the side of the room up to the table, leaving her hands free for her to be able to just reach the chess board. Angie, Artie, and Webley stood stiffly at the end of the room, facing the chess board with their blank, emotionless expression.

"Right, excellent," the Hatter smiled as he leaned around her to bring the rope back around her, managing to loop it around her and the chair at least five times already, "Very well done, Doctor, it's almost as if you've done this before..." she shot him a cheeky look and he blushed, shifting around to knot the rope at the very back of the chair, far away from her reach...he had also gone through her pockets and removed everything from them, upon her insistence, just to be extra safe. She smiled and experimentally wiggled her free hands towards the chess board, "All nice and secure, no chance of escaping, but still hands free. This'll work".

"You're playing chess with yourself?" Clara eyed her with a frown, looking slightly dubious.

"Not just playing," she shook her head, giving her a bright smile, "I'm winning...kind of, but it's a close call," she shrugged lightly...or rather she tried to, only her shoulders didn't exactly move. She looked up to the Doctor as he stepped around from behind the chair and gave him a worried look, "Doctor...Astra," she dropped her voice slightly, "I don't want her to see me like...well, you know".

"Clara," the Doctor looked back over to the girl, struggling to contain just how anxious he was right now, "You had someone keeping an eye on Astra, didn't you?"

"Er, yeah," Clara nodded, eyeing them with a slightly concerned look, "I mean, I wasn't sure if that would be okay, but I also didn't want her to be around the fighting, so..."

"You did the right thing," the Hatter cut across her gently, giving her a slightly tense look, "Considering the circumstances, it was the best you could do. I...don't suppose she could be babysat for a little bit longer?"

Astra frowned and pouted slightly at the idea of having to go hang but with someone else when she had just gotten her parents back, that and she likely knew that something interesting was going on and wanted in on it. Clara didn't give her much of a chance to start arguing about it, though, turning and quickly ducking out of the room with the toddler. The Doctor double checked the ropes, fussing slightly over making sure that it was all secure.

"It's not hurting you, is it?" he asked her worriedly, moving back around to stand next to the table, peering at her intently.

"Not exactly," the Hatter shook her head, frowning faintly, "It is a little uncomfortable, mind, but..." she sighed grimly, "There's nothing to be done. Doctor..." she licked her lips, her expression softening as she looked up into his face, "I love you, no matter what things that...thing might make me say, what horrible, mean, cruel..."

"Hatter," he gently placed a hand on her cheek, cupping her face as he looked tenderly into her eyes, "No matter what, I know who you are and I know your hearts," he pressed a kiss to her forehead, her eyes closing at the contact, savouring the lingering, warm press of his lips, before he very slowly pulled away, "And I love you. There's nothing, nothing in this entire Universe or a hundred trillion Universes that could ever change that, okay? You just..." he brushed his thumb over her cheek, "Focus on winning this fight. Nothing else matters, it's just words".

"I just...hate the idea of someone making me say things I'd never say, Doctor. Words or not, they hold power..."

Clara slipped back into the room and she trailed off, an expression of resignation crossing her features. There was no point holding back any longer, now that she knew that Astra was somewhere safe and protected, far away from witnessing this...she felt better about letting go the last piece of control she had left. The Doctor pressed another painfully gentle kiss to her forehead, before he pulled back from her and took a step back from the table, though he looked physically pained as he did so, Clara coming to stand beside him, looking curiously and worriedly at the Time Lady. The Hatter sighed.

"Here goes nothing," she murmured, reaching up and very swiftly tearing the golden ticket from off her cheek. A loud cry of pain left her lips, before her entire body seemed to grow tense and oddly still in her chair, her eyes getting a cold, emotionless glare to them.

"Winning?" she scoffed, but her voice darker again, colder, "Hardly. In fact, there is less than a twenty five percent chance of her winning at this stage of the game," she mockingly scoffed and wiggled her left index finger, as if scolding an invisible person, "Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, especially with some of those moves at the very start...Oh," her eyes suddenly snapped up and fixed directly on Clara, her lips curling into a mean smirk, her eyes cold, "Hello there, human child. Isn't this just wonderful?" she laughed, but it was a rather unpleasant sound, and Clara's eyes widened slightly, "Allow me to introduce myself...I am the Cyberplanner".

"Doctor..." Clara began warily, crossing her arms across her chest as she eyed the Time Lady, "That doesn't sound like the Hatter..."

"Boy, someone's slow on the uptake, aren't they?" she sneered at Clara, who blinked and actually leaned back slightly in shock, never having seen such an expression cross the Hatter's features before. The Doctor grimaced, watching the Time Lady with a deeply troubled look, but she simply stared at Clara, "Haven't you been listening, silly child?" she snapped, her tone clipped and hard, "The Hatter's not in control here, I am! Now hush!" she narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze growing a touch distant, "My, my, these neurons are all a little battered..." absently, her she lifted her index finger up to tap against her left temple, frowning vaguely, "Ten complete regenerations, some slightly more smooth then others...now that would have hurt!"

Clara's eyes widened and she swallowed, hard, "She's really not the Hatter, is she?" she looked up to the Doctor, his jaw tense.

"Finally!" she rolled her eyes, just as he went to respond, glaring coldly at Clara, who looked quickly back to her. There was no warmth or kindness in her hazel green eyes, she barely even looked like the Hatter with her features screwed up like this, "How shockingly slow you truly are, Impossible girl," she practically spat the nickname out, her expression growing knowing, "That's what he calls you, isn't it?" she nodded towards the Doctor, who was so tense he looked as if he was barely holding himself back from lunging forward. Her lips lifted as Clara looked sharply at the Doctor and back to her, "Not just a simple nickname, I don't think...but what makes you so impossible, huh?" she lifted an eyebrow, considering her so intently that Clara shifted uncomfortably, "Ooh, they're so very interested in you, both of them".

"Okay..." Clara took a steadying breathe, meeting her dark, knowing gaze firmly, "Why am I impossible?"

"It doesn't matter," the Doctor cut in quickly, though he didn't glance at her, his gaze fixed on the Time Lady. He ignored the weight of Clara's confused gaze on the side of his face, simply staring hard at the thing possessing the Hatter, making her smirk smugly up at him.

She laughed, "Oh, but I do rather think it does matter, lover-boy," she said in a sing-song voice, actually waggling a finger at him, before switching her attention back to Clara, "Poor, poor, primitive child," she mockingly sighed, but her lips were stretched into a wide, gloating grin, "You truly have no idea. They have been naughty things, haven't they? Keeping you in the dark..." she suddenly shrugged, or as much as the ropes binding her allowed her to, as if it was of little concern to her as Clara frowned deeply and shot a sharp look towards the Doctor...he ignored it, his eyes fixed on the Hatter, "Oh well...something tells me you'll have much greater things to be fretting over," her lips twisted into a horrible, chilling smirk and her tone grew softer, her eyes darting between them, "They're waking up as we speak, in fact, and you'll do just perfectly. We shall require spare parts for us to strip down and build our spaceship to leave this pitiful excuse for a world, and then...the Universe shall be ours to make our own".

"More Cybermen," Clara realised, edging slightly closer, until she was nearly leaning over the chess board, eyeing her closely.

"Quite so, and they'll soon be fully awoken from their tomb," she nodded with another gloating smirk, "Soon, everyone on this world will either die or become one of us, there truly is no other option..."

Clara frowned, then, noticing that her hand was fiddling with something off to the side of the chess board. She glanced quickly down at it and barely held back her shock at the sight of her hand quickly scribbling something across a small notepad that had been left on the table beside her, a small pencil clasped between her fingers. She quickly glanced at the Doctor and he caught her eye, his jaw tense and a barely concealed look of anger on his face...but he nodded, just once, and looked pointedly back towards the notepad. The messily scrawled words read 'Slap me, Clara,' she realised as the Hatter finished writing. Still...she hesitated.

"The Doctor and the Hatter are going to stop you," Clara licked her lips, looking quickly back up to the Hatter's cold, empty eyes.

"Oh, please!" she scoffed, rolling her eyes mockingly, "The Doctor could never have the stomach to stop me, not when it means risking his precious Hatter, and she's just a puppet on my string..."

Clara slapped her clean across the face and the Hatter was sent briefly reeling backwards, a yelp of pain and shock escaping her lips as she blinked rapidly. Her hat even toppled off from the force of the blow.

"Bloody hell!" the Hatter exclaimed, reaching up to clutch her cheek as it already began to grow pink from the strike, her eyes darting up to Clara, who gave her a sheepish smile, "Blimey...that hurt! You certainly didn't hold back!"

"Hatter," the Doctor moved to her side, kneeling down by her chair and peering intently into her face as she rubbed at her cheek, though his voice immediately drew her attention to him. He reached up to gently take her hand from her cheek, instead replacing it with his own, cupping the side of her face gently, "Are you alright, dear?" he asked her worriedly, his eyes roaming her features carefully.

"Doctor..." she sighed in relief, breaking into a gentle, soft smile as she looked at him, "Yeah...yeah, I'm alright, that was just what I needed," she glanced at Clara, winking playfully, "Just a dash of sudden, unexpected pain to kick start a neural surge. Thank you, Clara...though, for future reference, maybe not quite as hard. I think my last regeneration just felt that..."

He laughed, his eyes lighting up in delight and he lifted himself slightly on his knees to press a kiss to her forehead, "That's my Hatter!" he cheered, just simply beyond thrilled to have her back, sounding like herself. God, he'd missed it.

"Hatter," Clara cut in sternly, narrowing her eyes on the Time Lady, and looked up to her sharply at her tone and frowned faintly, "Why am I the impossible girl?"

"I told you, it doesn't matter," the Doctor told her dismissively, still peering closely at the Hatter's face, frowning very slightly as he gently rubbed his thumb across her slapped cheek.

"I wasn't asking you, Doctor," she said with a slight huff, not dropping her gaze from the Hatter, "Well, Hatter?"

The Hatter gently reached up and took the Doctor's hand from her cheek, lowering it as she eyed Clara closely. It certainly seemed to have upset Clara somewhat to hear that they were possibly keeping something from her...which, to be fair, was perfectly normal and right for her to be upset about it, but it did make things a tiny bit awkward. She mentally cursed at the Cyberplanner, but she supposed it could have been a lot worse. They might have completely spilled everything to Clara without any attempt of being delicate.

"It's just a nickname, Clara," she tried to tell her, giving her a gentle smile, "Honestly...we'll explain it all to you later, but for now...there are slightly more pressing concerns".

Clara eyed her closely for a long moment, before nodding and dropping her gaze to the chess board, "Chess game," she said quickly, thankfully seeming to also agree that they had much bigger issues to be concentrating on, "Stakes?"

She inhaled deeply, "Right, yes...the stakes," she grimaced very slightly, her tone grim, "If she...or rather it, manages to win, it will win ownership of my mind, including all of my memories, which also happens to include quite an extensive amount of knowledge regarding time travel. However..." she paused, again, but her grimace remained firmly in place, "If I do manage to win...that will all still happen anyway and it will simply kill us all regardless, because there is no way in hell that the Cyberplanner will ever carry through with its end of the deal. So...there's that".

Her eyes widened in horror, "That's not reassuring!"

She blinked and frowned faintly, glancing at the Doctor with a slightly bemused expression...as if it had only just hit her what she had just said, "No..." she said softly, "It isn't, is it?"

"It won't come to that, Hatter," the Doctor told her firmly, meeting her eyes with a gentler, but fierce look, "I won't let it".

The Hatter gave him a small smile, though it was tinged with a touch of sadness and resignation, "I wish I could hug you right now, sweetheart," she sighed wistfully, "Your hugs always make me feel better, about anything and everything".

"Hatter..." Clara said with a worried frown, making the Time Lady looked quickly back to her, "Please tell me you can fix whatever happened to the children".

She stared up at her for a long moment, her expression briefly growing blank and her eyes...they had a funny, almost glazed over sort of look to them, "Ah, yes..." she nodded slowly, her tone still slightly vague, "The children, of course...I shouldn't concern yourself with them right now, Clara," she gave her a faint, though still slightly...lacking smile, "They're perfectly fine, presently, their brains are merely in standby mode".

"That is not fine!"

"Hatter?" the Doctor eyed her closely, his expression filling with suspicion.

The Time Lady sighed heavily, briefly lifting her eyes up towards the ceiling, almost as if she was exasperated by the conversation, "Look," she went on, her tone growing a touch sterner and sharper, narrowing her eyes on Clara, "The kids are fine, stop fretting over them...it's you who should be worried right now, because they have a lot more chance of getting out of this whole mess then you do".

Clara tensed in alarm, a slightly frightened look crossing her features as she looked quickly to the Doctor, who sighed grimly, his gaze fixed on the Hatter. He just looked so horribly sad, but also very, very determined, with a fiercely focused frown as he regarded the Time Lady carefully. She'd say he was readying for just about anything to happen next, he seemed to be bracing himself for any possibilities to arose...but none of those possibilities seemed to make him very happy. It set her teeth on edge, because she had never seen him look like that, not on all of their adventures together, the good and bad moments, had she seen him look like this. As if he was waiting for his entire Universe to start crumbling and he was trying to figure out how to save it, before it happened.

"Hatter..." she turned back to the Time Lady, eyeing her warily, though she had a pretty good idea already, "Which one of you said that?"

She peered up at her and her lips curled into a small, mocking smirk, "Wouldn't you like to know?" she laughed softly, winking playfully...but it only came off as being rather creepy, rather than light and teasing, like the Hatter's winks usually did. She rolled her eyes, suddenly, and dramatically flourished her wrists, considering that she couldn't curtsey or move anything else, "Oh, children, children, children, you really ought to pay attention. It's me! The Cyberplanner. Mistress Brainy! Now..." her tone grew heavier and darker, laced with a rigid, icy edge as her gaze moved between Clara and the Doctor, "If you would be so kind as to hush a little bit, I do have a rather pressing chess game to utterly destroy, while you two, dears, have your very pointless, impending deaths to look forward to...so go!" she made a shooing motion with her hands, her tone growing bored, "Don't forget to shut the door on the way out, it lets a terrible draft in".

She suddenly sucked in a sharp breathe and blinked rapidly, her eyes widening slightly in horror as she gaped up at them.

"I am so sorry," the Hatter breathed, utterly mortified that those words had actually left her mouth, though she had little power in preventing them from escaping her lips, "Clara..." she gave her a comforting look as Clara stared at her, looking quite stunned, "I am truly so sorry, I am, you can't take any of that to heart, honestly. The kids are going to be alright, I promise on my life that I won't allow anything to happen to them," she curled her hands into fists on the edge of the chess board, determination filling her expression, "No one is going to die today. No one!"

Clara eyed her for a long moment, "Hatter?"

"Yes," she nodded instantly, giving her a brilliant smile, though her eyes were full of wryness. She looked tired, drained, even, but no less determined, "I swear on...on the Doctor that it's me right now".

"It's her, Clara," the Doctor confirmed, reaching out to place a hand on the Hatter's shoulder, his gaze fixed steadily on the Time Lady.

"Sweetheart," the Hatter focused on him, giving him a desperate look, flinching very slightly as she tried to reach up to cover his hand, only to be reminded very quickly of the ropes binding her wrists. She brushed it off, though, "I can't hold on for much longer, but the Cybermen are coming. You have to stop them, even just for a little bit".

"I'm not leaving your side..."

"You have to, for the sake of everyone on this planet..." she gave him a pointed look, then, and he froze, knowing without her needing to say Astra's name. Even now she was still fighting to keep their daughter a secret from the Cyberplanner. She gave him a tired little smile, when he pressed his lips into a hard line, "I've got this handled".

"Always, dear," he replied instantly, knowing that she would understand that he was referring to keeping Astra safe, leaning down to drop a kiss to the top of her head, his lips lingering briefly on her hair, before he pulled back. He met her gaze firmly, "You can do this, Hatter. I know you can".

The Hatter gave him a broad smile at that, her gaze not leaving him as he took Clara's hand and turned to march out of the room, not once looking back...because they both knew that if he did, he'd likely struggle to keep going, but he had to. Clara had done a wonderful job of leading the soldiers this far, but an entire army of Cybermen required something a little more.

...

It hurt to leave the Hatter behind, but she was right to insist on it, even if he couldn't claim to like it at all. However, the truth was that there was nothing he could actually do to help the Hatter right now; it was down to her to help herself, as difficult as that was for him, but he knew she could do it. She was brave and strong and so incredibly brilliant, she had this handled, the army of Cybermen marching directly towards them...that, on the other hand, was so far from being handled, it was a good cab ride and three buses away from being even slightly handled, in his eyes. Winning this battle, or just avoiding a battle in the first place, meant that the humans and Astra, most importantly, remained safe and alive, and that as what he was going to make sure happened today. No deaths! That was always the goal, but today...today it was going to happen...aside from the deaths that had already happened, naturally.

Stepping out of the mock throne room of the castle and out into the courtyard, the Doctor briefly cast his gaze around at what was left of the platoon...there was less then he remembered, quite a few less, in fact, but he could work with that. One of the men, a young, ginger haired man in glasses immediately dashed up to them as he caught sight of them, clasping a very large energy weapon in both arms to his chest. He looked hurriedly to Clara.

"What news is there?" he asked quickly, looking just a little nervous.

The Doctor glanced at Clara, who turned to him, waiting for him to explain...he, however, simply pattered the young man on the arm and continued walking, heading towards the open gate of the drawer bridge. They were still Clara's men, after all, and he didn't exactly have much desire to suddenly become their captain...he'd had enough of that in his life. He'd rather be the scientific adviser, now that was a job he liked! Clara was much better at giving orders; anyway, she was a bossy little thing, after all. Let her do all the boring stuff, like shouting and...whatever else it was that she'd been doing, he just wanted to get a sense of their situation.

Clara cleared her throat and glanced at the ginger man, easily falling into step alongside the Doctor, "Apparently there are more Cybermen on the way," she informed the solider briskly.

"There's at least a dozen more shots left in the gun before it needs to recharge," the solider informed her hurriedly, nodding to the gun in his arms.

"Well, that's not going to help us much," the Doctor remarked grimly, frowning thoughtfully as he reached the bridge, looking around at the entrance thoughtfully. Porridge and several other nameless soldiers stood gathered there, too, seemingly guarding. He paused, then, and quirked an eyebrow, "Not unless we can convince them to stand behind each other..." he grinned slightly at the glanced at Clara, who gave him a flat look. He sighed, "The Hatter would have laughed at that..." he grumbled to himself, before focusing intently onto a length of cable on the ground, running back into the courtyard, "That right there, that cable. What's that for?" he looked to Porridge, though he could guess already, going on swiftly, "Power line to the park, yeah?"

Porridge glanced at the cable, too, "Yeah, it is..." he nodded, turning back to him with a small, confused frown.

He broke into a grin and looked back to Clara, "I've got an idea".

Clara eyed him briefly, before glancing at the cable, and then back to the moat and the water bellow them. Her eyes widened in understanding, "You're going to drop the end of it into the moat and turn it on?" she asked, just to clarify.

He clapped his hands and pointed at her, "Bingo!" he smiled very slightly, "It'll fry the Cybermen's circuits".

"Can Cybermen fly?" she asked, glancing back to the soldiers and Porridge. Slowly, they began to smile.

"No, ma'am," the ginger haired man replied, grinning in excitement.

"There we go, then," the Doctor smiled widely, though inwardly he knew it would only be a very short amount of time before the Cybermen got a patch to upgrade themselves against it...but it would distract them for a tick, and that might just be all they needed.

Clara laughed slightly, "First good news of the day," she said in relief, turning to the men, "Do it".

The Doctor barely held back a laugh of his own, watching as the soldiers immediately hopped to follow out her orders, dashing off to find tools to cut the cable. Clara really did suit this role well, though he kept that to himself as he stepped aside, allowing the humans to finish cutting the cable, before they carefully moved to dangle the end with wires poking out of it down over the bridge, into the water below them. The second it hit the water, sparks flew and the soldiers laughed in celebration, before they began to raise the drawer bridge. It gave him some hope, but only briefly. The Cybermen wouldn't be stumped by that one for very long.

...

The Hatter considered the board before her carefully, feeling her fingers twitch as she hovered over several pieces, weighing every move carefully. It was an exhilarating match, she had to admit, but she did wish it would end already...though, she would prefer it to be more in her favour. She licked her lips, tasting the very slightly saltiness of sweat, and picked up one of her pieces and moved it across the board, before placing it. In the next second, her entire body jolted and she gasped in a lungful of air, her entire body arching in the chair, before she blinked and she was back in the mindscape library again, stumbling very slightly and reaching up to place a hand over her hearts.

"That wasn't very nice," she breathed heavily, turning to glare at the Cyberplanner, "Not nice at all. I felt it".

"Why are you so shocked?" the Cyberplanner scoffed at her, staring at her with a steady, hard gaze, "They've been asleep for so long now...but now it's time for them to wake up," her lips curled into a wicked smirk and voice dropped to a whisper as the light around the room grew cooler in tone, almost blue, the same blue as the Cybermen, making the Hatter's eyes widened in horror, "That's right, wakey, wakey, it's the dawn of a new age!" she laughed, throwing her head back, "An age of metal!"

The Hatter's mouth went dry as a high pitched trilling noise began to fill the air, while the light grew darker and more gloomy around them, almost obscuring the bookcases in shadows. The Cybermen had awoken from their tomb; she could feel it in her hearts, feel them. They were coming.

...

The Doctor smiled as he watched Astra proudly show him all the drawings she had made for him during her little stint away, smiling and nodding and making all the right encouraging, proud daddy noises that he was supposed to, while at the back of his mind he fretted over the Hatter, over the army of Cybermen that was about to reach them...and the fact that his little girl was stuck right in the middle of it, blissfully unaware of it all, but still very much in danger. He had taken up a seat on a box that one of the soldiers had brought with them to the castle, Astra sitting on his knee, while Clara spoke quietly with Porridge on the other side of the courtyard, having something warm to try and ward off the morning chill in the air from a small cooking pot. The air was tense and wary, but Astra had no idea what was going on, for which the Doctor couldn't be more grateful.

"You are such a clever little artiest, my little star," the Doctor told her proudly, smiling with pride as he snuggled the little girl closer to his side, while peering down at a rather curious looking, oddly shaped looking picture of what was supposed to be the TARDIS, but what looked more like a large, misshapen square in a field of yellow dots, "And these..." he pointed with his hand that was wrapped around her tiny waist, slightly awkwardly, towards the yellow dots, "...are the stars?"

Astra rewarded him with a brilliant, toothy grin and nodded excitedly, "Lots and lots and lots of stars!"

"They're very good, Astra," he smiled down at her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head, his hearts melting into a puddle of goo as she snuggled closer to him, reaching up to play with the lapel of his jacket, "Very pretty. You got that from me, of course," he grinned.

"Daddy," Astra began in a sudden, very serious voice, peering up at him. He glanced down to her and frowned in concern, seeing how very intently she was eyeing him, "Is Mummy sick?"

He blinked at her in shock, before he carefully rearranged his expression into a look of concern, "Now why would you ask that, my little star?"

"'Cos you look worried, Daddy. Where's Mummy? I want to see Mummy".

"Astra..." he sighed, carefully slipping her drawing into his pocket for safe keeping, and to show the Hatter later, so that she could stash it away for safe keeping and memories. He gently lifted Astra's chin, making her look at him as he gave her a gentle smile, "Mummy is just...not really herself right now," he tried to explain, hating the thought of having to lie to her completely, "And she was worried it might frighten you, but she's okay, I swear. Mummy can handle anything and everything, okay?" he grinned wider, "You'll get to see her very, very soon, and have lots of hugs and kisses and show her how very pretty your pictures are, yeah? That'll be good, won't it?"

Astra frowned faintly up at him, but she nodded slowly, "But why can't I see her?" she whined very slightly, giving her very best pout, "I promise I want get scared, Daddy! I'd never be scared of Mummy".

"Doctor?" the Hatter's voice suddenly called through the courtyard, making him freeze, feeling everyone swiftly turn their gaze onto him. Astra immediately brightened, "Doctor! I need you!"

The Doctor frowned, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked over towards the door to the mock throne room. It sounded like the Hatter...maybe if he hadn't known her as well as he did. The Hatter calling out to him, saying that she needs him like that? Bit odd for her, she'd usually say something more like 'I need you to give me a hand' or 'Check this out!' It was the little things that gave people away, the big stuff was easy to pretend and fool, and lie about, but the little details...not so much. He looked down to Astra.

"How about we go and play with Clara for a little, hey, Astra?" he grinned at her, giving her a bright, encouraging smile as he easily picked her up from his lap and rose from the box.

"No!" Astra huffed angrily, giving him a rather annoyed glare, for a toddler, "Don't wanna play with Clara, want Mummy!"

"Astra," he said more sternly, placing her down next to Clara, who quickly placed a hand on her little shoulders. He knelt down in front of her, giving her a firm look, "Listen to me, please. You are to stay with Clara, this is very, very serious, grown-up stuff right now and daddy really needs you to be a good girl for me, otherwise there won't be any more adventures," he ignored her angry pout and glare, ignored the way that she crossed her little arms firmly across her chest and looked quite ready to just simply throw herself onto the floor in the next few seconds, keeping his gaze steady and sternly on her, "I mean it, Astra. No more fun adventures, we'll just leave you with Max and Alice or Sarah if you don't behave. You know the rules, don't you?"

Astra huffed sulkily, though she did drop her gaze from his, "Yes," she muttered.

"Hey, Astra," Clara smiled brightly, and the little girl looked around at her with a moody little scowl, "How about some soup, yeah?" she suggested, pointing to the pot that Porridge was stirring, "It's very, very yummy and I hear that you love tomato soup".

The Doctor sighed in relief as Astra, be it rather reluctantly, peered curiously at the pot, allowing Clara to even gently turn her away from the Doctor and guide her over towards Porridge. That was a very, very close meltdown tantrum there, right down to nearly having Astra stomping her feet and throwing herself to the ground, where she would scream and scream, until she would hold her breath for as long as she could...before, of course, having to gasp for air. When that failed, the tears would come, and after that...she would sulky concede defeat. He gave Clara a grateful look and turned to hurry out of the courtyard before Astra could try and spy where he was going, dashing back into the throne room to find the Hatter smiling broadly at him as he stepped into her view. It should have instantly lifted his hearts and made him felt as if he was flying, seeing her smile like that at him...but it only made a cold sense of dread wash over him.

"Oh, Doctor!" she laughed, looking utterly delighted to see him, "I've missed you, you and that lovely bowtie".

The Doctor forced himself to smile back at her, if only for the pretence, "You called?" he said instead, unable to stomach saying anything else, until he knew for certain that his instincts were wrong and it was, in fact, the Hatter.

"Yes, quite," she nodded at once, lifting an eyebrow, "I wished to ask about how the defences are going outside. They'll be here soon..." she frowned deeply, looking worried, "Are we ready? What's our weapons strength presently?"

He came to a stop across the table from her, eyeing her carefully, "You sound very worried," he said lightly considering her reaction closely.

"Of course I'm worried, Doctor, how could I not be?" she paused, then, and her eyes widened slightly with hurt, "Oh..." she breathed, and it took everything inside of him not to cringe, "You...you don't trust me, do you?"

"I don't know if it's really the Hatter talking to me or the Cyberplanner, of course I'm a little cautious. Can you blame me?"

"No, I don't, Doctor, but I swear it is me. The Hatter..."

"Prove it," he cut across her, his tone sharp, hard, his gaze fixed on her.

The Hatter stopped and sighed heavily, looking away from him, "Really, Doctor?" she said in a sad voice, looking almost miserable, "I thought you knew me better than this silly nonsense, that you would know..."

"Prove it," he insisted, his tone rising very slightly, "Prove to me that you are the Hatter".

She frowned at him, but nodded slowly, "If you insist," she sighed heavily, her expression the picture of misery and hurt, and it pained the Doctor to see it...but he needed to be sure and his instincts told him that it was the right thing to do, "Ask away, Doctor, anything you want to know that I'll prove that I truly am the Hatter".

The Doctor eyed her for a long moment, allowing the silence to stretch on, but she didn't so much as blink or shift uncomfortably, her expression open and honest. Rassilon, he had better be right about this. Asking her little things wouldn't do it, he'd have to trick her, that would reveal the truth.

"Tell me about the first time I told you I loved you," he said at last, his voice soft, but his expression guarded.

She smiled gently, her eyes sparkling with delight, "We were in the TARDIS," she began, her voice full of nostalgia, "We had just escaped the Family of Blood and you cornered me into confessing that I was in love with you. You were just so insistent and I just couldn't keep running from it anymore, and..."

"Wrong," the Doctor cut in loudly, and she instantly stopped short, her lips parting in shock. He gave her a knowing look, "I know my wife, Cyberplannner," he edged slightly closer, "I know her every face, her every smile and laugh, her every tear, do you honestly think I wouldn't know when you're pretending to be her?" he scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Please".

"I...no!" she shook her head quickly, frowning up at him with big, pleading eyes, "Doctor, I swear, it's me! You have to believe me!"

"The first time I told the Hatter I loved her was the night before her first wedding," he informed the Cyberplanner coldly, his tone clipped, "She took it as love in friendship and I never corrected her for it, but that is the first time I confessed my feelings for her. The Hatter would know that, because I've told her".

"I...mistook what you said..."

"Stop, just stop it," he leaned down over the board, bringing them just a few inches away from each other, glaring angrily into the cool, empty eyes that should be smiling back at him right now, "The tricks up, Cyberplanner, so I suggest you stop pretending to be the Hatter and using her to try and get to me, before I get even more angry then I already am..."

The Cyberplanner smiled slowly, finally dropping the pretence, "How terrifying," she sneered, her gaze roaming his face, "Do you truly believe that your threats hold any power over me, Doctor? You would never cause harm to come to this body, your precious Hatter is the safest person on this entire planet right now, and all of your threats and warnings are just noise, meaningless, pointless, useless noise".

The Doctor nodded in agreement, his lips lifting very slightly, though there was no humour in his gaze, "You're right," he said lightly, "I'd never hurt the Hatter..." he paused briefly, glancing off to the side thoughtfully, "But I don't have to hurt her to stop you..."

And with that he suddenly reached over and began tickling her neck with his fingers, right between her shoulder and her neck, making her yelp in surprise and squirm away from him, but the shock of the sudden, unexpected sensation seemed to do the trick and the Hatter very quickly dissolved into giggles, real, proper laughter that he knew without a doubt was her.

"Doctor!" she squealed between giggles, actually snorting adorably, much to his delight as he broke into a grin, "Stop it! Stop it! This is...hardly dignified!"

"Since when did you care about being dignified, dear?" he asked teasingly, though he did retracted his fingers from her, smiling proudly as she shot him a look. Her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing slightly heavily from the giggles...she looked positively stunning to him.

She smiled and shook her head, "That's a good point there, sweetheart," she agreed brightly, giving him a little wink, "Thanks for that, by the way. Tickling, much better then you biting me or something".

"I thought you didn't mind me biting you, dear?"

She gave him a mock scolding look, "Let's not go there, Doctor dear," she said firmly, her cheeks growing a darker shade of red.

He grinned and leaned forward to press a kiss to her cheek...only for her arm to suddenly snap up between them, her hand latching onto his coat lapel like iron. Her eyes widened in horror and he blinked in surprise, glancing down...just poking out of the inside pocket of his lapel was the remote trigger detonation device that Clara had given him, for safe keeping. He couldn't move, he was stuck leaning over the table, his coat being partly pulled off his shoulder, just barely keeping himself upright without falling directly on top of the table.

"Hatter..." he began carefully.

"I can't stop it, Doctor," she breathed, looking truly horrified as she screwed up her face, desperately trying to pull back her hand, "It has control over my left arm, I can't..." she shook her head, biting her lip urgently.

"Hatter, it's okay, you just need to fight..."

He was suddenly sent flying, he barely had enough time to comprehend what had even happened before he found himself being tossed down onto the chess board, his back impacting the board and forcing most of the air from his lungs. He gasped in pain, groaning, when he felt the Hatter's hand pluck the trigger out of his pocket. She was still trying to fight, her teeth were bare as she fought desperately to try and stop her body from betraying herself, but there was nothing she could do as she dropped the trigger onto the ground by her feet.

"No!" the Hatter cried, almost in tears, "No, stop! Stop! No!"

Unwilling, her left foot rose and came down on top of the trigger, over and over again, until it was completely destroyed. She suddenly fell back against the chair, breathing heavily with a mortified expression, her gaze falling onto the Doctor, who slowly pulled himself up, staring back at her with wide eyes.

"Oh, my...Doctor," she breathed weakly, staring at him in horror, "I am so, so sorry, Doctor. Are you okay?"

"Me?" he shook his head slowly, "I'm fine, Hatter," he wasn't completely, he was still feel rather breathless and one of the chess pieces had dug painfully into his back, but he wasn't worried for himself right, "Hatter, it wasn't your fault," he told her firmly, slipping off the table, though he forced himself to keep his distance now, "You fought so hard..."

She squeezed her eyes shut, guilt filling her features, "It still got what it wanted, Doctor," she swallowed, thickly, her voice barely above a whisper, "The triggers destroyed," she opened her eyes to look back to him, her eyes shining with unshed tears, "I guess that means it's my move now," she gasped suddenly, her head snapping up frantically to the Doctor, "They're here, Doctor! The Cybermen, they've reached us!"

The Doctor didn't want to leave her, God didn't he want to go anywhere but by her side right now, but he had to do something. He gave her one last lingering look, his hearts breaking at the sight of how hard she was fighting, before he forced himself to turn and dash out of the room.

...

They were well and truly surrendered by Cybermen, one single glance over the edge of the stone battlements of the castle showed them that, thousands and thousands of Cybermen standing just on the other side of the moat, stretching all the way back towards the amusement park, just waiting for the command to commence the fight, or so the Doctor assumed. He frowned warily as he quickly fall back against the stone wall, before any of them could notice him and try shooting a well aimed shot at his head through the window, looking back to Clara and the other soldiers. Astra was clinging to Clara's hand, the Doctor wanted to make sure she was in his line of sight from now on, especially with an army of Cybermen on their doorstep.

"Remind me again what our weapons are?" he looked to Clara.

"One gun," she began listing off for him, "Five hand-pulsers, and that planet smashing bomb you told me not to let anyone use..."

"Which is destroyed, yeah," he cut across her grimly, earning a startled look from everyone.

"What?" she exclaimed, her eyes widening.

"But you signed for that..." the ginger haired soldier frowned very slightly at Clara.

Clara sighed and shook her head.

...

"Oh, you have taught me so much, Hatter," the Cyberplanner laughed, low and cold, looking across the newly set up chess board, "It truly has been a great education, but eventually the student must graduate," she smirked slowly, "You have put up a good fight, I'll give you that much, my dear, but it's time to end this little game, Hatter!"

She picked up one of the pieces and slammed it down on the board.

...

As one, all of the Cybermen suddenly began marching forward and the Doctor frowned, quickly moving to peer back out of the window at the noise of thousands of metal feet clanging on the ground. The others moved to gather around the window, too, though Astra was far too little to see over the window ledge, she did try desperately to stand on her tip-toes to see. They all stopped after less than a few paces forward, only for one single Cyberman to step forward, right down into the water of the moat, where it was immediately electrocuted, it body stiffing as it began sparking, before slowly almost crumbling in on itself at the waist. Everyone began laughing in delight, though the Doctor kept his gaze fixed on the Cyberman, watchful and alert.

"Brilliant!" Clara cheered, clapping her hands.

"Wait for it..." the Doctor muttered.

Suddenly, the Cyberman straightened, all the sparking stopped. It looked directly up at the window they stood in.

"Upgrade in progress," it said in a deep, monotone voice, before he swiftly began marching towards the castle once more, right through the water, with perfect ease, while behind it the rest of its fellows followed.

"Damn," Clara sighed heavily, her smile slipping clean off her face.

"It distracted them for a moment, at least," the Doctor commented lightly, before frowning, "Could have been a little bit longer, mind, but never mind," he whirled around from the window, fixing his gaze on the soldiers, one at a time, "Right, then...best shot, which one of you?"

"Probably it's me," a heavy built man replied, stepping forward very slightly.

"Great," the Doctor flashed him a bright smile, moving to pluck the large gun out of the ginger man's arms...he hesitated and shot Clara a questioning look, but immediately gave it up at her nod of approval. He then turned to shove the gun into the larger man's chest, which he quickly reached up to grab, his eyes widening very slightly as the Doctor gave him a very serious look, "You're in charge of shooting any of Cyberman that manages to make it across. Make every shot count!" he pattered him on the back, before glancing around to the other soldiers, "And as for the rest of you lot, defensive positions all around the castle, got it?"

They all nodded quickly, turning to dash off to do as they were instructed.

"Porridge," Clara looked quickly over to the man, who looked very slightly lost as to what he was supposed to do.

Porridge looked at her sharply, "Yes?"

She eyed him sternly, "Keep yourself safe," she ordered him.

The Doctor gave him a nod and turned to pick up Astra, settling her on his side, before he grabbed Clara's hand, tugging her away from Porridge and off through the castle.

...

"They're coming, Hatter," the Cyberplanner laughed darkly, dropping her gaze down onto the chess board before her, reaching out to lightly trace the top, rounded edge of the black bishop, almost caressing it, "And it's your turn, though you have a rather limited choice at hand," her lips curled into a smug smirk, "You could always take my bishop, it will allow you to continue on with this little pretence of yours for a while longer, or..." her tone grew softer, "You could always sacrifice your queen to me and you shall win the little kiddies back, however..." she held up a warning finger, laughing quietly again, "It will be mate in five moves and then I will have the great pleasure of acquiring your mind and all of your juicy memories".

Loud bangs and shouts were going off outside, when the Hatter's body jerked and she suddenly found herself back in the mock throne room again, back in control of herself...though, was she truly in complete control of herself anymore? That was somewhat doubtable. She briefly cast her gaze over towards the door, it sounded as if the Cybermen had officially breeched the walls of the castle and the soldiers were battling to try and keep them back. She licked her lips, barely keeping her thoughts from straying to Astra, her fears for her baby girl being out there right now...but she knew that the Doctor wouldn't allow Astra out of his sight with a battle going on around them; she would be safe with him. She sucked in a deep breath and briefly cast her gaze over the board...yes, it would cost her to sacrifice her queen, but there was it truly even a sacrifice if it meant the children would be free? In her eyes, absolutely not.

"Take my queen," the Hatter said with little regret or care, picking up the white queen and moving it off the board, "Take it, and you will give me the children. That's not what I would consider to be a sacrifice".

Her entire body jerked again, as if someone had slapped her, and the Cyberplanner was back, scoffing darkly.

"How pathetic," she sneered mockingly, "You allow your emotions to doom you, as always, Hatter. That was a foolish move, based on nothing but sentiment, and it's cost you the game".

She flinched and she was back again, breaking into a small smile, "You almost sound disappointed to end this little duel, Cyberplanner," she commented lightly, but her tone swiftly grew harder, "But end it will, for the sake of the children. Now, you will give them to me. Now!"

The Hatter looked quickly over towards Angie and Artie, needing to see that the Cyberplanner would hold up to its end of the bargain...Suddenly, the kids crumbled to the floor, as if an invisible rope tethering them upright had snapped, and they dropped to their knees, just as the Hatter was jerked to the side again. The Cyberplanner growled furiously, before she suddenly laughed, reaching over to pick up the white queen, eyeing it as she turned it between her fingers.

"You fool," she smirked, shaking her head lightly, "You care so much, even for those that you don't even know, especially for the little children...how sickening. Too bad it was such a wasted sacrifice, utterly meaningless in the end..." she mock sighed, just as Angie slowly straightened, looking around in the unfamiliar room in fright, glancing towards the noise of the fighting going on outside, "So, Hatter..." she went on with, still toying with the queen as she looked emotionlessly over towards the obviously confused and frightened teen, "Do tell me...the children's deaths, do you think that Clara will ever be able to forgive you for that? Or what about you're dear Doctor? Or...perhaps your sweet, innocent, Astra," she laughed, briefly closing her eyes, "Oh, yes, I know about that little secret now. You fought so strongly to keep her hidden from me, but I know...and I will make quite certain that her death will follow swiftly, rest assured of that, just like all the rest of your children".

Webley, moving in an odd, jerky sort of motion, began to turn towards Artie and Angie, "Welcome to Webley's World of Wonders, children," he said, stepping towards the kids, "Now presenting delights, delicacies, and...death," he lifted his gun arm up towards the kids.

Porridge suddenly dashed into the room, carrying a large box that contained the now useless bomb inside it. He stopped short upon catching sight of Webley advancing on the kids, while the Cyberplanner giggled and simply wiggled her fingers towards the kids, as if she was cheerfully saying 'Goodbye'. In a manner of speaking, she was.

"Hatter!" Angie cried fearfully, looking frantically over towards the Time Lady, trying to back away from Webley.

"Sorry, kids," the Cyberplanner called cheerfully, "She's not home at the moment!"

Porridge hurriedly placed the bomb on the ground and ran forward, sneaking up around behind Webley to slam his hand with a hand pulser strapped to his palm against Webley's leg. The force of the shock actually sent him flying and he landed heavily on his back, right next to the chess table, unconscious. It had stopped Webley, though, and he immediately shut down from the pulse, suddenly becoming like a stature. The Hatter's jerked sideways and her eyes widened, her gaze immediately dropping onto Angie and Artie.

"Angie, it's alright," she said quickly, while the young girl stared fearfully at Webley, "He can't hurt you now, I swear".

Slowly, Angie frowned and looked over towards her, her expression filled with confusion, "Hatter..." she began warily, "I don't understand..."

She gave her a gentle smile, "I know, it's very, very confusing, even for me," she admitted with a small sigh, "But it's going to be okay, just keep an eye on Archie, okay?" she gave her a soothing look, "You just focus on him, everything else is being dealt with right now..."

"Hatter!" the Doctor shouted, just as he came running into the room, Astra clinging to his neck with wide, frightened eyes, though she looked perfectly well, and so did the Doctor...a little windswept, perhaps, as if he had been running for his life, but what else was new.

"Mummy!" Astra immediately tried to wiggle out of his arms, just trying to get to the Hatter.

It broke her hearts to have to quickly shake her head, "Stay with daddy, Astra," she told her firmly, giving the Doctor a pointed look, "Mummy is...a little busy right now, darling..."

Her entire body jerked again and suddenly her expression darkened, her lips curling in a cold sneer, "Yes, kiddo," she fixed Astra with a dark glare, "Mummy's very busy right now..."

"Don't you dare speak to my daughter!" the Hatter snapped furiously, managing to regain control, though it pained her, her fingernails digging into her flesh as she fought to keep control, "She has nothing to do with this game, which I believe is your turn now, but before you do take it..." she forced herself to breathe, to remain calm, even though the presence of Astra in the room sent ice cold panic and fear through her, "Allow you to remind you that us Time Lords invented chess, this is our sport, so I wouldn't be so quick as to assume that because I sacrificed my queen that means you've won," she broke into a small, knowing smirk, "You're just about to walk straight into my little trap and I assure you, I will check mate you in three moves. Easily".

She jolted again, while Astra frowned deeply and looked worriedly up to the Doctor. He hugged her tighter to him, his gaze fixed steadily on the Time Lady.

"How?" the Cyberplanner demanded instantly, scowling angrily, "How?"

The Hatter jerked again, only to laugh loudly, "You mean that the mega-genius, robot super-controller can't figure it out?" she asked in a mock surprised, innocent tone, looking over to the Doctor with a smug look, "Oh, dear, me. That's got to be embarrassing".

She flinched again, only to shout furiously, "How?"

The Hatter was back and her face was positively lit up in delight, laughing as she looked proudly up to the Doctor, who grinned back at her, "Definitely embarrassing," she practically cheered, "One little old Time Lady, compared to the processing power of millions of Cybermen...and you still can't figure it out? There's a word for that, I believe..." she smirked, "Oh, yeah...sucker!"

Suddenly...she tensed and her eyes widened, glancing over towards the door. The battle outside had just fallen completely silent, no shouts, no sound of energy weapons firing, no metal marching noises...just nothing. The Doctor frowned deeply, too, and quickly looked over towards the door.

"Okay..." she went on slowly, "What are you doing?"

She flinched and her lips curled into a nasty sneer, "Oh, Hatter," she cooed cruelly, "Thanks for the advice, I do need more processing power...in fact, three million Cybermen should do the job just perfectly, all to solve one tiny chess problem. How long do you reckon it'll take before we solve it?"

She gasped as she came back to herself, "Oi!" she huffed, annoyed, "That's cheating!"

The Cyberplanner laughed, high and mean, "Only a tiny bit, but it seems fair to me," she smirked, "You Time Lords have been known to play dirty yourselves, we wouldn't want to go against tradition now, would we?" she narrowed her eyes, then, "It's impossible for you to check mate me in three moves. Impossible".

The Hatter lifted an eyebrow, amusement playing across her features, "Ooh, it must be so frustrating not knowing," she smiled slowly, "Shall I explain it to you, since you seem to be struggling so desperately?"

"You're lying!"

"No," the Doctor cut in, then, his tone soft, but it instantly caught the Cyberplanner's attention. He smiled very faintly, "She really isn't".

The Cyberplanner glared at him, looking close to hissing like an angry cat...only for her to jerk her head to the side sharply. The glare melted from her face at once and the Hatter smiled broadly back at him, winking cheekily. She reached down, with some trouble, towards where Porridge was lying unconscious by the table and quickly slipped the hand pulser from his palm, straightening in her chair.

"Move one required a little helping hand..." she explained lightly, calmly reaching down below the edge of the table, only to slip the Doctor's sonic screwdriver from where it had been stuck into her belt out, "I needed the good old sonic, and the Doctor was more than happy to slip it to me when tying me up. So...officially, move one is activate the sonic..." she did just that and aimed it down at the hand pulser, "Move two, is activate the hand pulser..." her hands shook very slightly with the effort, but she managed it, and the pulser briefly emitted a trilling noise to signal it was ready, "Move three...amplify pulser..." she picked up the device and lifted it up towards her face, only for her right hand to come up, trying to stop her...she gritted her teeth and fought, "I wish I could claim that I'll miss you, Cyberplanner...but why would I lie?"

She slapped her hand with the device against the metal on the side of her face. It hurt...blimey, did it hurt, her entire body went utterly rigid and her eyes wide, but she refused to let more than a sharp gasp leave her lips, seeing Astra peering at her with big, worried eyes. She was frightened enough as it was, she wasn't going to scare her any more then she already was.

"That's cheating!" the Cyberplanner shouted, its last and final words, right before the Hatter felt her mind become her own, once more, the device sparking slightly and sending her toppling forward towards the table, though she caught herself before she fell completely.

Clara and the remaining soldiers suddenly dashed into the room, just as the Time Lady straightened with a grin, the metal device on her cheek literally disintegrating and falling from her flesh, not leaving a single red mark behind. Astra clapped in delight, seeming recognising that whatever had been wrong with her mummy was all fixed now.

"Not cheating..." the Hatter shook her head lightly, still smiling brightly, "Just playing dirty," she caught the Doctor's eye as he grinned broadly at her, "We wouldn't want to break with tradition, would we?"

"No, we wouldn't, dear," the Doctor laughed, and dashed towards her. He settled Astra on her lap, before pressing a kiss to her cheek, "You were...amazing, Hatter!"

"I guess I did alright," she smiled up at him, before frowning as she went to try to hug Astra...only to remember that her arms were still slightly restricted, "Um...could we perhaps get rid of these ropes now, Doctor?" she looked at him hopefully, "I would very much like to hug our daughter".

"Mummy," Astra peered intently into her face, her little forehead creased in concern. She reached up to touch the Hatter's cheek, over where the device had been, poking at the skin, while the Doctor quickly worked to undo the ropes, "All better?" she asked, eyeing her closely.

"Yes, all better, darling," the Time Lady nodded firmly, giving her a gentle smile and turning her head so that she could kiss her little palm, "And I am even more better to see you, Astra. I missed you so, so much".

"I don't understand..." Clara stepped closer, eyeing the Hatter warily, making the Hatter look up to her with a large, warm smile, "What happened to the Cyberplanner?"

Her smile dropped, then, and a frown quickly worked its way across her face, "Ah...yes," she said slowly, "The good news is that it's no longer running amuck inside my head...bad news, however, is that it's currently being redistributed across three million Cybermen at this very moment, readying to wake them all up so that they can start killing and using us all for parts to build their spaceship..." she grimaced as Clara stared at her, horrified, "I did mention it was bad news, didn't I?"

The Doctor finished undoing the last knot on the ropes and they easily fall from her body, freeing her at last to hug Astra tightly to her front. He quickly moved around the table and over towards where Porridge had dropped the bomb, just as the man himself began to wake up, sitting up slowly with a slightly confused expression.

"We need to destroy this planet before they can get off it," he said firmly, kneeling down beside the bomb, his sonic screwdriver in hand as he took a quick reading of it. He flicked the device and checked the results, "Okay, it has a fallback voice activation".

"The captain," the larger built solider said hurriedly, frowning deeply, "But she's dead".

"I think you should ask Porridge," Angie spoke up suddenly, her arm wrapped around Artie's shoulder, helping to steady him as he slowly came around.

Clara looked at her in confusion, "Why?"

"Well, he is the Emperor," she informed them pointedly, as if they should have all known. Even the Hatter blinked in surprise and threw Porridge a quick look, while the man sheepishly looked down, "I bet he knows the activation codes," she went on, before laughing in disbelief when Clara looked quickly between her and Porridge, her lips parted in shock, "Oh, come on. It's obvious. He looks exactly like he does on the coin, and on the waxwork, except they made him a bit taller, but look, am I the only one paying attention to anything around here?"

"That's..." the Hatter shook her head slowly, laughing slightly as she rose from the chair, clutching Astra firmly to her front, having no intention of letting her go any time soon, "That's brilliant, Angie!" she grinned proudly at the teen, who smiled smugly, "Well done!"

Clara smiled at Angie, too, "You are full of surprises," she commented affectionately, before whirling around to fix Porridge with a look, "Porridge?"

"She's right," Porridge admitted with a nod.

"So you can save us?"

"We all die in the end. Does it matter how?"

"We may all eventually die some day, Porridge," the Hatter said quietly, moving to stand beside the Doctor, who immediately placed a hand on her back, "But not this day, not my daughter..." she said firmly, gave him a pointed look and glanced down to Astra in her arms, "She's just a baby, Porridge, and Angie and Artie...they're only kids. As a mother I beg you, if you have the ability to save them, you must".

Porridge hesitated, his expression horribly torn with guilt, "I don't want to be Emperor," he told them softly, though he looked pained and he couldn't look at any of them, least of all the Hatter, "If I activate that bomb, it's all over".

"I understand what you're going through, Porridge," she said grimly, "I do...I know what it's like to have your entire future planned out for you by other people, and how desperately suffocating that can feel, but if you don't do this...never mind our lives, but consider the lives of all the other innocents that live in this galaxy. You will be willingly unleashing three million Cybermen onto all of them...isn't that what a true, honourable Empouror would do? Save his people?"

"Hatter..."

"Three million Cybermen!" the Doctor cut in sharply, glaring at him.

He sighed heavily, "The bomb, the throne, it's all connected," he informed them, though the Hatter had already suspected as much, "I just have to say, 'This is Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick, called Longstaff the forty first, the Defender of Humanity, Imperator of known space. Activate the Desolator,'" he looked down at the bomb, which immediately lit up with lights around the side of it and a small, blinking screen, "And it's done. It'll blow in about eighty seconds," he continued calmly, while a small countdown popped up on the bomb, "Easily long enough for the Imperial Flagship to locate me from my identification, warp jump into orbit, and transmit us to the State Room".

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, while the Hatter just had enough time to make sure that Astra truly was held tightly to her front, before there was a brief flicker of light and suddenly, their surroundings just seemed to melt away, replaced instantly with them now finding themselves standing with the very large, palace like room of the Imperial ship. Porridge opened his eyes and smiled very slightly, standing up on a pedestal before them all, directly in front of a massive window that looked down towards the planet below them, now safely within its orbit, as he had said. It was a nice enough space, very bright and spacious, with large, purple and gold trimmed flags dotted about the room. Two Imperial officers stood before separate controls panels at the back of the room, simply watching them calmly.

"Oh, yeah!" the Doctor nodded as he spun around, taking in the space eagerly, "Nice ship. Bit big..." the Hatter scoffed at that and gave him an amused look. Big? Seriously? This place was tiny, compared to the TARDIS. He flashed her a grin and shrugged, "Not blue enough, hey, my little star?" he tickled Astra's cheek, making her grin widely at him.

"Needs more blue!" she agreed immediately, nodding very firmly, "Lots and lots and lots of blue!"

"That's my girl!" he cheered, dropping a kiss to the top of her head, while the Hatter smiled fondly and lightly shook her head in amusement. He snuck a quick kiss from the Time Lady, too, before she could even blink, giving her a brilliant grin and winking, before he whirled around and practically bounced up the short steps to where Porridge stood, "Listen..." he leaned closer to him, making the man give him a slightly puzzled look, "There is a large blue box at coordinates six, ultra, nineteen, P," he rattled off swiftly, "I need it transmatted up here right away".

Porridge eyed him slightly for a moment, before nodding, "Right," he glanced over towards one of the ship's crew, standing before the control panels, "Did you get that?"

The woman nodded immediately in confirmation and turned to put the coordinates into the computer, which beeped a moment later. The Doctor grinned happily and bounced back down the short stairs, wrapping his arm around the Hatter as they moved to look out through the large window, down at the planet below them. The others came to join them.

"And that's that," Porridge remarked, also peering at the window, "Seventy six, seventy seven, seventy eight..."

"Get ready for the big boom, Astra," the Hatter said brightly, making sure that Astra had a perfect view of the planet.

"...seventy nine..."

In the next second, the entire planet below them went up in flames, utterly exploding right before their very eyes, the shock of the blast literally rattling the entire ship and causing them to almost be knocked off their feet, while the sudden, bright yellow light of the flames briefly blinded them all. It settled fairly quickly, though, leaving behind nothing but shards of shattered and broken rock floating through the inky blackness of space, surrounded by a plume of dark orange dust. The Hatter lowered her hand from Astra's eyes, having shielded them from the bright light, and sighed very slightly to herself. Yet another death of yet another planet she had witnessed, and so had Astra, this time. Her very first one. It was kind of a sad milestone.

"Farewell, Cyberiad," Porridge sighed grimly, frowning thoughtfully to himself, "You know, it was good to get away," his lips lifted into a wistful smile, "Good to be a person and not be to lonely, or Emperor of a thousand galaxies with everyone waiting for me to tell them what to do".

"You made the right choice," the Hatter told him gently, hugging Astra just that little bit closer. He glanced at her and nodded slightly, but he still looked slightly wistful.

"Can't you run away again?" Artie asked, sitting on the steps leading up to the throne.

"They'll be keeping a close eye on me this time," he replied with a shake of his head, "That's what happens when you're Emperor. Loneliest job in the Universe".

"You don't have to be lonely," Clara pointed out, giving him a small smile, leaning her chin against her palm as she sat on the steps below Artie and Angie.

The Hatter smiled at that, glancing sideways at the Doctor, who caught her eye and smiled softly back at her. Yeah, that was true...you didn't have to be lonely, you just had to find that person you...clicked with, be it as merely friends or more. But being lonely was never the only option.

Porridge's eyes brightened, then, "I don't," he agreed, as if it had suddenly hit him. He smiled and turned around to look at Clara, moving to kneel on one knee...the Hatter's eyes widened, "Clara, will you marry me?"

"What?" Clara blinked, while the Time Lady barely held back a giggle and the Doctor's mouth slipped open slightly.

"He said..." Artie began to repeat.

"She heard what he said," Angie cut him off with an eye roll.

"You're smart and you're beautiful," Porridge continued his little proposal, while Clara simply stared at him with wide, stunned eyes, "And I've never met anyone like you before," he smiled slightly, then, "And being Emperor won't be as hard if you're by my side..." the Doctor held up his finger and went to quickly step forward...the Hatter, however, grabbed his arm before he could, pulling him firmly back to her side with a warning, though amused, look, "And you'd rule a thousand galaxies".

The Doctor cleared his throat loudly, making Porridge and Clara look over to him quickly, "This sounds like an actual marriage proposal, Clara," he said knowingly, and he tried to step closer to them again. The Hatter only tightened her grip on his arm, "Tricky," he glanced at Porridge and back to Clara, lowering his voice slightly, as if Porridge couldn't simply hear every word he was saying. It was like Astra thinking she was whispering, when she had just lowered her voice a tiny bit more than usual, "Now, if you want my advice..."

"I think Clara has this one covered, sweetheart," the Hatter cut in lightly, giving him a pointed look, before throwing Clara a small smile.

He paused and glanced back to Clara, only to find her giving him a look. He shrugged slightly, as if to say 'Okay, then,' and pretended to suddenly find the opposite wall very interesting, even though he was evidently listening closely.

"Thanks," Clara nodded to the Hatter, before turning back to Porridge, her expression softening very slightly, "Porridge...I don't want to rule a thousand galaxies," she gave him apologetic smile and the Doctor, still pretending as if he was admiring the wall, gave her an approving thumbs-up.

The Hatter rolled her eyes. Yeah, because the Doctor was totally the expert on getting out of unwanted marriage proposals, had he forgotten the fact that he got married on their honeymoon to another woman? She most assuredly hadn't and she wasn't even the jealous type!

Porridge nodded slowly, his expression crumbling with disappointment as he lowered his gaze, "Yeah," he said after a long moment, trying to smile it off, "Silly of me".

"I'm really sorry".

"But that's stupid," Angie huffed, giving Clara a disbelieving look, "You could be Queen of the Universe," Clara smiled slightly, while Angie shook her head in exasperation, "How can you say no to that?" she gave her a stern look, "When someone asks you if you want to be Queen of the Universe, you say, 'Yes'. You watch," she titled her head proudly, smiling widely, "One day, I'll be Queen of the Universe".

The Hatter gave her a small smile, "Not all queens need a crown or throne, Angie," she told her knowingly, winking, when she turned to frown up ather, "You'll understand when you're older, trust me".

"Wise words," Porridge said in a mock, regal air, and the Hatter grinned and gave him a small little bob of her knees, slightly hindered from curtsying properly, with Astra on her hip. He suddenly frowned deeply and turned to the Doctor, fixing him with a authoritative glare, "Of course..." he went on, with much the same air, "I could have you all executed, which is what a proper Emperor would do".

The Doctor eyed him with a slightly confused frown, "You're not actually going to do that, though, are you?" he started blinking rapidly, when his expression remained the same, "Oh, you're...hey..." he broke into a relieved smile and pointed at him, when Porridge suddenly grinned.

"My adorable idiot," the Hatter laughed, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Go on," Porridge told them, mock threateningly, "Get out of here, all of you, before I change my mind".

The Hatter gave him a little wave, which Astra immediately copied, the Time Lady's gaze lingering on him. She felt for him, she truly did...he had tried so hard to escape from his birthright and had been forced back to accepting it, she just hoped that he lived his life well and found peace with it. She knew that it wouldn't be easy, but she believed it was possible. She had found peace in having her children, after all. It might not be for everyone, but she hoped that Porridge found whatever it was that he was missing, even if it might not be his freedom.

...

Clara was smiling brightly as she braced herself on her elbows against the console, watching while Angie and Artie said their goodbyes to the Doctor and the Hatter, who stood side-by-side by the console. Astra had practically fallen asleep in the Hatter's arms walking her back to the TARDIS, the poor girl was just so tired from the day, so the Doctor had happily volunteered to tuck her into bed before they set off to take the kids back home. It was kind of the Doctor's thing to tuck Astra into bed; he just loved reading her story books.

"Thank you for having me," Artie said, taking the Doctor's hand and shaking it politely, giving him a big grin, "It was very interesting".

"Our pleasure," the Doctor told him happily.

The Hatter gave him a small smile as he turned to shake her hand, next, "I don't do handshakes, I'm afraid," she warned him, and opened her arms. He immediately stepped forward to hug her, the Time Lady laughing, "It was a delight to have you come along with us," she pulled back from the hug, ruffling his curly, dark hair affectionately, "You'll always be welcome on the TARDIS, both of you," she gave Angie a grin at that, too, and held up her hand, which the young girl high fived with a small, reluctant little smile.

"Oh, before you head off," the Doctor suddenly held up his finger, before pointing at Angie, "We've got something for you," he turned and began to dash around the console, making Angie chase after him, leading her around the controls, "It's not from us, it's from the TARDIS," he corrected himself, stopping short when he found himself standing right beside the Hatter again, spinning back around to face Angie, as she caught up to him, too, "Ah!" he held out a mobile phone to the girl, giving her a grin...they did kind her owe her, considering that her own had been destroyed on their little adventure, "New phone!"

Angie took it, looking delighted as she looked down at the device, "Thanks".

"You're very welcome," the Hatter smiled, nodding to her.

"Sorry I said your box was stupid," she added with an apologetic smile, reaching out to shake the Doctor's hand, before turning to head for the door with Artie.

"Bye!" the Time Lords waved at them, smiling widely.

"Bye!"

"Thanks, Clara's friends!" Artie called over his shoulder from the door, just as he slipped through it with Angie, disappearing outside.

The Hatter glanced at Clara, who moved around the console, smiling fondly as the door closed behind the kids. She had been worried about taking the kids along with them at the start and she had certainly hated how close they had been to almost dying, but the kids seemed to love their trip and, in the end, wasn't that the whole point? They didn't need to know how lucky they, they were kids, good, clever, resilient, kids.

"Thank you," Clara said, still watching the door with a fond expression.

"For what?" the Doctor looked at her in confusion and surprise, while the Hatter lifted an eyebrow curiously at her, too.

"Kid's day out," she listed off, shrugging lightly, "Getting us off the planet alive. Whatever you were doing with the Cybermen," she frowned vaguely and glanced sideways to them, before smiling. The Doctor and the Hatter returned her smile, "Goodnight," she pushed off from the console, heading for the doors, "See you next Wednesday".

"Perhaps not next Wednesday, exactly," the Hatter commented lightly, throwing the Doctor a look, "Knowing his driving, but certainly one of these Wednesdays".

Clara didn't even bother to reply to that, simply giving the Hatter an amused look as she opened the door and slipped out, shutting it behind her. The Doctor sighed slightly, nodding.

"Okay, dear," he gave her mock annoyed look, "Maybe one of these Wednesday, but it'll defiantly be a Wednesday".

The Hatter laughed, reaching out to lightly pat his arm, "With maybe a Tuesday or Friday chucked in, from time to time," she teased playfully, and he mock pouted at her. She laughed, though it quickly died down as she looked back to the door, her expression growing thoughtful, "The Impossible girl".

Instantly, the Doctor frowned, shaking his head slowly, "A mystery wrapped up in an enigma squeezed into a skirt..." his tone grew darker, heavier, "What are you?"

"All will be revealed in time, sweetheart," she sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder, "I suppose...we'll just have to wait".

And hope for the best.

Finished! And, hey, it didn't take me two months! Crazy. I loved writing this chapter, I really did, I loved toying with what would happen if the Hatter was possessed by the baddie, it was just so much fun. Also, Happy Easter, guys! Enjoy lots and lots of chocolate.

Next chapter, Jen's back! One of the Hatter's old companions makes an appearance! And the mystery of River Song continues to baffle some...

I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did, tell me what you thought. Please review :)

Guest reviews:

Fan 1: No, I didn't know about Five and Jenny teaming up, but I love that idea so much! Especially considering that it was Five and not a different Doctor with her, but I am aware that they've been continuing her adventures in audio drama form, which makes me really happy. Thanks for letting me know :)

Guest (Review 1): Thank you for the recommendations. I have to admit, when I consider Big Finish, I do feel a little overwhelmed, like what do I even start with? There's just so much. So you would recommend Eight first, then? Before the other Doctors dramas? I do intend to get around to delving into Big Finish one day, I feel like it would be good to listen to when I'm working out.

Guest (Review 2): I can see what you mean about not being overly keen on Jenny, she was kind of a one-off character and played off as that, to a degree, in the Doctor's Daughter, and I do feel like it's very weird that they barely mention her again. I believe Clara referenced her once, when pretending to be the Doctor, but I mean, come on. Jenny was, technically, the Doctor's daughter, surely we'd get a bit more angst from that, but we never do and I do think it takes away from her death, in the end. I wish we knew why Moffat had Jenny live if he was never going to bring her back to the show, I guess he must have had a plot idea to want to keep her alive, but it just...didn't fit? I guess, but I feel like it was a waste of her character if you keep her alive, but never use her on the show. But as you pointed out...Jack came back, maybe she will, one day, I still have some hope in that regard, personally. In the mean time...I'm just going to have fun playing with her character myself :)

Guest (Review 3): Very, very interesting about them making Andy from Torchwood a companion to Eight, I think I kind of like the idea, mind you, it's been ages since I watched Torchwood, so my memories might be a little off from Andy, but he was the police officer, right? Gwen's partner before she left the force? I could so see that. And I'm glad they've brought the Curator back to Big Finish, I have a bit of a soft spot for him, I must admit. It's Tom Baker, though, who wouldn't?

Guest (Review 4): Honestly, I do kind of feel like they're building up to killing off Yaz at this point. I feel like they've kind of alluded to it, especially in the Christmas/New Years special, and I do feel like her loyalty to the Doctor seems to trump almost anything else in her life at this stage, which I kind of dislike about her character, but I do see them killing her off before she would actually decide to leave. I kind of thought that one of them would likely die, so I could so see it being Yaz.

Guest (Review 5): Does the Hillywood Show count as a fan film? They did one for Doctor Who and Sherlock, the Sherlock one is just brilliant. I adore it, seriously. But I think that's about it, I do watch a lot of Doctor Who tributes that have been made by fans on YouTube, too. I watch those fairly often, for the fandoms that I like. I haven't watched any, you know, sort of acted out videos that have been made by fans, though. I know that the Harry Potter fandom do a lot of those style vids, but I'm not a big fan of those sort. I don't know why, because they're actually look pretty good, but I just never have watched them.

Guest (Review 6): What time are we referring to when the Hatter stole her TARDIS? She stole it twice, the first time when she ran away and the second during the Time War. I'm assuming Time War, just because it makes more sense, so if she had died then, I think it wouldn't have made all that much difference. She was assumed dead back then, or at least the Doctor believed that she had been killed when her family home was destroyed on the last day of the Time War. The main difference, I suppose, would have been that I think the Doctor would have fallen slightly more for Rose then he did, and he would have fallen for River Song, too, and that would have become a romance between them. River is quite similar to the Hatter; after all, I could so see him falling for her, though, obviously not quite as deeply as he did for the Hatter. She would be that one person he simply would never speak of, ever, because it hurt too much.

Guest (Review 7): Much the same thing would have happened had the Hatter died during the Three Doctors as I said above, just that it would have complicated matters a bit more. I mean...who would have built the Moment? I'm sure time would have found a way to resolve that, maybe, but it's a thought.

Guest (Review 8): Probably the same thing, again, had she died during the Two Doctors. I kind of feel like if the Hatter had ever died before she came in season 2 of New Who, then nothing much would have changed all that much in regards to things. The Doctor would have been devastated, but he would have lived on. He would have had adventures and companions, and grieved, probably always for her, but it wouldn't have stopped him.

Guest (Review 9): The Valeyard killing the Hatter...ooh, now how awful would that be? Much worse, I think, for the Doctor then if she had died by any other means. This death, I do think, just ignoring what I said above, would hit him hard and I think he would likely do everything he could to stop himself from becoming the Valeyard, he'd probably retire to Earth and just try and act like a human, or something...I think he'd even consider just ending it all, to try and prevent himself from going just that far, but I kind of feel like the Time Lords wouldn't let him, just to preserve the timelines, or something like that. I could see them meddling, somehow.

Guest (10): If the Hatter had died during the Waters of Mars...it would have just destroyed the Doctor. He would have been devastated; I could see him choosing to just...end it all. I feel like he just wouldn't be able to live with the idea of going on without, not when he had a taste of what it was like to actually be with her and have her love him back, and then for that to be gone...it would just be too much for him.

Guest (11): I think that the Hatter would consider the Seventh Doctor to be one to watch. Not be wary of or concerned with, since she feels utterly safe with and around him and trusts him...but just watchful and mindful of the fact that he does have a much darker, ruthless, calculating side to him that is far more clear and close to the surface then his previous bodies. I think that there would be things that he would do or consider necessary, that would possibly disturb her quite deeply, manipulating Ace like she was just a chess piece, for one, would have come as a very worrying shock to her. I feel like it would be the first time that there would be any tension between her and the Doctor arise, during his Seventh body, and I one-hundred percent believe that Seven would have tried to manipulate the Hatter at some point...which he would never, ever do again, because she would immediately recognise what he was doing and shut it down. I imagine her saying something along the lines of 'Don't ever try and pull that one over me, Doctor, or you and I are going to have a very, very big problem to deal with'. That, I think, would be enough to make the Seventh Doctor quickly realise his mistake. At the end of the day, he loves her just as deeply as any of his other previous Doctors, I could see it as being quite a slap in the face and something of a turning point in their relationship, were he realises that he might be heading down a path that he really doesn't like.

Guest (12): I tried to watch the clip you sent the link for, but I'm afraid I couldn't get the link to work for me. Maybe you could try sending it to me again?

Guest (13): Thanks for clarifying. Ace is one of my favourite companions from Classic Who, I love the idea that she found love.

Marie: Oh my God...that song was perfect! It actually gave me chills listening to that song, exactly like the Doctor and the Hatter! Also, bonus, I love A Very Potter Musical. Brilliant, thank you so much for recommending the song and also, I'm delighted you liked the chapter. Thank you! :)

Guest (14): A stage play of Classic Who with the actual Doctor actors in it? How the hell did I not know about this? Such a pity that the actual footage was lost and it's just audio left, but how brilliant. Kind of makes me think of that little vid that Peter Davison did during the 50th and when they acted as if they were trying to get into the episode. That still makes me smile to think about.

Guest (15): I guess I vie Eight as being more of a romantic Doctor, more charming and relaxed and just sort of...free, I guess? Slightly more impulsive, mind you, I only really know him from his movie and he was spinning out on regeneration energy for most of that. But I also view him as a man who never wanted to fight, who tried so hard to avoid getting involved in the Time War for as long as possible, sticking to the fringes of it and doing his best efforts to protect the rest of the Universe from the fallout, until he had no choice but the join the fight.

The War Doctor, I view him as a man how became what he needed to become in order to help and protect and to survive. A reluctant solider, but still a warrior at heart, but not one who fought because he was forced into it, but rather because he felt it was right to do so. But I see him, later in life, as someone who became disillusioned by the fighting, someone who simply saw too much and who was tired, in the end, and just felt that he had to end it all, no matter the price of it or the cost, because no one else would do it and he couldn't stomach another day of fighting or death ant longer. He ended it because no one else would or could, even though it must have broken his hearts, but he still did it, because it was right.

Guest (16): Least favourite monster...probably the creature out of Love&Monster, but that might just be because I hate that episode and have literally only watched it maybe three times in my life. Hate it to pieces, seriously. Favourite monster, however..Daleks, though the Angels are a very close second.

Favourite companion would be, without a doubt, Sarah Jane Smith. I just think that she was such an inspiration and a trend setter for her era. I just wish she didn't always end up somehow hurting herself or crying over the Doctor, believing him to be dead, but hey, it was the late 70's, early 80's. It was lucky she wasn't just there to look pretty. My least favourite, however...Adam. I mean, he was barely a companion, but he just completely wasted his chance. But after him, not really sure, I'm not a huge fan of Rose, but I wouldn't say I hate her as much as I used to. Maybe Mel Bush? From Classic Who. Her voice was just grating and her screams hurt.

I don't have a least favourite Doctor, but I'd say my favourite was tied with Ten and Eleven. They were the ones I associate most with Doctor Who, and I just love the way that they portrayed both roles so differently, but so compellingly.

Guest (17): I think that if the Doctor had found the Hatter right before the Waters of Mars thing would have played the out the same way it had in the episode, but in the end I feel like the Hatter would have been horrified, certainly, but more sympathetic then she was. I think she would have hugged him and just apologised, really, for the fact that he had reached this point and insisted that he had to be better. I think she would blame herself to a degree and perhaps feel like it was a little bit her fault, because he had been alone for so long. Basically, she would have comforted him, rather then been so beyond being angry that she had to walk away from him.

Guest (18): I have never listened to any audio dramas or read any comics, I'm not a comic fan, but I am open to the audio dramas. The books, however, I have dived a bit deeper with them. I own a copy of basically one-shots that features the first eleven Doctors, one-shot featuring one doctor, so it's eleven mini-stories with their companions. For instance, my favourite one is the Tenth Doctor with Martha, and they basically end up in kind of like a story book world where all of these fictional characters pop up during the story. I am so going to turn it into a story one day with the Hatter, I could have so much fun playing with it. I love that book. It even has the First Doctor pre-junkyard in it with Susan, who makes a reference to her mum. Great book. I've also read a book called Lungbarrow online, which was quite an interesting story and features the Seventh Doctor and the First Doctor, before he left Gallifrey, and basically a murder mystery that features the Doctor's family on Gallifrey. Romana, I believe, also features in it. I would highly recommend it, though, if you want another insight into Gallifrey, since the story is based there.

Guest (19): Ooh, interesting, thank you for the recommendation. Like I said, I am very interested in the audio dramas; it's just so overwhelming to know where to start. But I will. There's so many companions I've only read about, some I know I probably don't even know, I feel like it's such a shave that I don't know them, that I feel like I can't reference them in the stories, because I just don't know them well enough to do so. I've heard of Lucie Millier, she's one that I have heard of and I have almost mentioned her before, but decided it against it, because, like I said, I still feel like I just don't know her enough to, you know?