p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;" align="center"They followed the river along until they found him still lying under the tree and breathed a sigh of relief; it wasn't the first time someone had found him like this, sleeping serenely under the stars./p
p class="MsoNormal"But Marin felt suddenly uneasy; there was something uncanny in the way he lay emso/em still, his sleep emso/em deep/p
p class="MsoNormal"They moved closer and knelt beside him and Hadrel tentatively reached out a hand to gently shake his shoulder, he didn't so much as stir./p
p class="MsoNormal""My, Lord?" Marin asked./p
p class="MsoNormal""Doctor?" tried Hadrel. But there was no response./p
p class="MsoNormal"Marin took his wrist feeling for his pulses but felt nothing. He bent his head to the Doctor's chest and listened, moving from one side to the other, but heard nothing./p
p class="MsoNormal"He looked fearfully up at Hadrel who hovered his hand over the Doctor's lips but there was not even a whisper of breath on his palm. He shook his head./p
p class="MsoNormal"They stood and removed their helmets in respect./p
p class="MsoNormal"Clara stepped out from behind the tree and raised her hands as the two guards pointed their stasers at her./p
p class="MsoNormal""You! You killed him!" exclaimed Marin, advancing on her in anger./p
p class="MsoNormal""No, wait!" cried Hadrel, there was something familiar about the young woman, he could've sworn he'd seen her likeness before… a portrait on the council wall. "What's your name?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Clara, Clara Oswald."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Marin stopped short, had she really come back to accept her fixed point death?/p
p class="MsoNormal""Were you responsible for locking us in and disabling our technology?" he demanded./p
p class="MsoNormal"She smiled sadly, "I'm afraid so, indirectly at least. We had to you see, he wouldn't have wanted any of you to interfere and you couldn't have saved him anyway. This way he passed away peacefully with all his friends and family around him."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Accepting her story they re-holstered their stasers./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hadrel, go back to the Citadel and inform them of the President's death. I'll stay here with the body."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"Clara was sure the Doctor would have been embarrassed by the ostentatiousness of his funeral as it proved that despite his best efforts he hadn't quite managed to wean his people off ritual and pageantry altogether. But she could hardly blame them; this man had been their saviour many times over, it was only right that they would want to mark his passing./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"The Doctor's body lay in state on a raised dais in the middle of the Panoptican chamber as nearly the whole of Gallifrey filed past to pay their respects. After which he was borne on a bier along the corridors and outside the citadel to where a great pyre had been built out on the red plains. Reverently he was placed on the top of the pyre and, as the suns were just going down casting their last rays over the silver leaves of the trees and the stars were just coming out they set the funeral pyre alight./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"Clara stood by; watching as the flames slowly consumed his body knowing that the strange, mercurial man she had loved was at peace wherever he was now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"It didn't matter to her if there wasn't some beyond land where they might meet again, that simple knowledge was enough. She would go to her own death as she was supposed to, with courage and fortitude enough to make him proud./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"She wept as the wood sparked and the smoke billowed and dispersed in the clear night air./span/p