A short time later, Clara was placed on a table in the Study. Mother Superior used her wand on Clara, with fairy dust coming from it, while Strax used some of his technology on her opposite side. The TARDIS was parked in the corner of the room, and beside it was Belle and the Professor. They both had their arms around each other's waist.
Captain Latimer went up to the table where Strax and Mother Superior worked and spoke up. "That green woman said she was dead. How can she be alive now?" he asked.
"This technology has capacities and abilities beyond anything your puny human mind could understand. Try not to worry," Strax said.
"And I'm doing all I can," Mother Superior added. "Fairy magic is the purest magic of all, but if it does work and heals her, she will have a half-life. A cursed life."
The Professor walked over to them. "The price of magic," he sighed and sat next to Clara, stroking her body. He felt a lump in her dress pocket and put his hand in it, taking out the heart. The heart he made for her. He smiled down at it.
Mother Superior looked at him curiously. "What is it?" she asked.
"I made this heart with melted ice and put an enchantment spell on it so it would never melt or break. I guess it worked." He put the heart in his pocket, picked up Clara's hand, cupped it in his hands, and placed it on his forehead.
Meanwhile, Madame Vastra entered the TARDIS and found the Doctor scanning the ice fragments from the Ice Governess. "Isn't the creature still a danger? It could reform," Madame Vastra said.
"No, not in here," the Doctor said.
"Then you should be with Miss Clara. And your son." "She's going to be fine. I know she is. She has to be."
"Doctor, her injuries are severe. That equipment will bring back anyone for a while, but long term- "
"It was my fault. I am responsible for what happened to Clara. She was in my care." "What is the point of blaming yourself?"
"None. Because Clara's going to live," the Doctor said, exiting the TARDIS and going to Jenny, where he handed her a London Underground Souvenir tin, which rattled, before going over to Clara. "Hey. Hello," he greeted.
"They all think I'm going to die, don't they?" Clara asked.
"But I know you will live," the Professor said.
"How?"
"My love for you. It's illuminating me." The Professor smiled and kissed her forehead while the Doctor gave her the TARDIS key again.
"The green lady. She said you were the saver of worlds once. Are you going to save this one?" Clara asked, taking the key slowly in her hand.
"If I do, will you come away with us?" The Doctor asked. "Yes."
"Well, then. Merry Christmas." The Doctor straightened his bowtie and then took the tin from Jenny before going over to the front door to talk to Walter Simeon. "I have in my hand a piece of the Ice Lady. Everything you need to know about how to make ice people. Is that what you want?" Walter outstretched his arm, but the Doctor never gave him the tin. Instead, he said, "See you at the office." The Doctor slammed the door and returned to the TARDIS, with Madame Vastra and Mother Superior following him.
"So then, Doctor, saving the world again? Might I ask why? Are you making a bargain with the universe? You'll save the world to let her live?" Madame Vastra asked once all three were in the TARDIS.
"Yes. And don't you think, after all this time and everything I've ever done, that I am owed this one?" The Doctor said.
"I don't think the universe makes bargains."
"It was my fault."
"Well, then. Better save the world," Madame Vastra said as the TARDIS engines started up.
The Doctor and Madame Vastra had arrived at the Great Intelligence Institute, and they were all early. Waiting for Walter Simeon, he finally appeared through the doors and turned to the Doctor. "You promised us something. Have you brought it?" He asked in a stern tone.
"Big fella here's been very quiet while you've been out. Which is only to be expected, considering who he really is," the Doctor said, getting up from his seat and holding up the tin to the Snowglobe. "Do you know what this is, big fella?"
"I do not understand these markings," the Snowglobe said.
"A map of the London Underground, 1967. Key strategic weakness in metropolitan living, if you ask me, but then I have never liked a tunnel."
"Enough of this. We are powerful, but on this planet, we are limited. We need to learn to take human form," the Snowglobe said as the Doctor turned around and faced his colleagues in the room. He took his sonic screwdriver out of his coat pocket and pointed it behind him – at the Snowglobe itself. Giving the screwdriver a whir, the Snowglobe's voice rose in pitch, sounding like a young boy.
"The Governess is our most perfect replication of humanity," the Snowglobe continued. "What did you do to its voice?" Mother Superior asked.
"Just stripping away the disguise," the Doctor said.
"No, stop! Stop that. Cease, I command you," the Snowglobe said again.
"It sounds like a child," Madame Vastra noted.
"Of course, it sounds like a child. It is a child. It is Simeon as a child. The snow has no voice without him," the Doctor said.
"Don't listen to him. He's ruining everything," the Snowglobe said.
"How long has the Intelligence been talking to you?" The Doctor asked Walter.
"I was a little boy. He was my snowman. He spoke to me," Walter answered, bringing back memories of speaking to a snowman he had just made as a child.
"But the snow doesn't talk. It's just a mirror," the Doctor continued. "It just reflects everything we think and feel and fear. So you poured your darkest dreams into a snowman, and look what it became."
"I don't understand," Madame Vastra said.
"It's a parasite feeding on the loneliness of a child and the sickness of an old man. Carnivorous snow meets Victorian values, and something terrible is born," the Doctor said.
"We can go on and do everything we planned," the Snowglobe said.
"Oh yes, and what a plan. A world full of living ice people. Oh dear me, how very Victorian of you."
Walter Simeon went up to the Doctor and snatched the souvenir tin off, starting to open it. "What's wrong with Victorian values?" He asked.
"Ah, ah, ah. Are you sure?" The Doctor asked.
"I have always been sure," Walter Simeon said as the memory worm crept out of the box and bit him.
"Good. I'm glad you think so since your entire adult life is about to be erased—no parasite without a host. Without you, it will have no voice. Without the governess, it will have no form," the Doctor explained.
The Snowglobe started to power down. "What, what, what's happening? What's happening? What did you do?"
"You've got nothing left to mirror anymore. Goodbye."
"What did you, did you-" the Snowglobe said, then suddenly, it filled with more snow, and its voice deepened again. "Did you think it would be so easy?"
"That's not possible. How is that possible?" The Doctor asked.
Madame Vastra looked out the window and saw more snow outside, falling to the ground. "Doctor?" She said.
But the Doctor was too busy with the Snowglobe. "But you were just Doctor Simeon. You're not real. He dreamed of you. How can you still exist?"
"Now the dream outlives the dreamer and can never die. Once I was the puppet..." the Snowglobe began, just as it reanimated Walter Simeon as an icy ghoul. "...Now I pull strings! I tried so long
to take on human form. By erasing Simeon, you made space for me. I fill him now." Madame Vastra went to fight the icy puppet, but it just knocked her out of the way - causing Mother Superior to go over and help her up - and grabbed the Doctor. "More than snow, more than Simeon. Even this old body is strong in my control."
"Argh!" The Doctor exclaimed, fighting against the strength of the Intelligence.
"Do you feel it? Winter is coming!" The Snowglobe said as Walter's touch started to freeze the Doctor's skin. "Winter is coming!"
Mother Superior took her wand out and aimed it at the Snowglobe and concentrated but dropped her wand suddenly. Madame Vastra went over and asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"
"The Snowglobe. It's too powerful," Mother Superior explained as she flexed her fingers. "Well, perhaps you need something more powerful. Something as equally dark."
Mother Superior shook her head. "No. You don't know what you're saying. It needs to be destroyed."
"So, what do you suggest?"
"I don't know. A miracle, perhaps?"
Back in the study of Darkover House, Strax was still trying to help Clara recover. "No, you must fight. Hang on and fight, boy. You can do it," he said.
Captain Latimer went over to Clara, where she said to him, "Captain Latimer. Your children. They're afraid. Hold them."
"It's not my area," Captain Latimer said.
"It is now," Clara said, as a single tear ran from Clara's eye, where it met one of the Professor's, and once the two teardrops met, it glowed golden-purple.
Back at the Great Intelligence Institute, the Snowglobe started to fill with meltwater, which made the Walter Simeon puppet let go of the Doctor.
"What's happening?" The Snowglobe asked.
"Doctor, the globe. It's turning to rain. The snow, look," Madame Vastra said as Walter Simeon died, which was noticed by Madame Vastra. "He's dead. What happened?"
"The snow mirrors. That's all it does. It's mirroring something else now. Something so strong, it's drowning everything else," the Doctor said, then went to Mother Superior, who had opened a window and outstretched his hand. "There was a critical mass of snow at the house. If something happened there..." The Doctor tasted the rainwater collected on his hand, like Mother Superior.
"How can rainwater taste salty?" Mother Superior asked.
"It's not raining. It's crying. The only force on Earth that could drown the snow. A whole family crying on Christmas Eve," the Doctor explained.
Minutes later, the TARDIS materialised in the study, and all three exited. The Doctor went over to Clara and the Professor, where Strax informed him of the situation. "I'm sorry. There was nothing to be done. She has moments only," Strax said.
"We saved the world, Clara, you and me. We really, really did," the Doctor said.
"Are you going back to your cloud?" Clara asked.
"No more cloud. Not now." "Why not?"
"It rained."
"Run. Run, you clever boys. And remember," Clara said before she died, just as the clock struck midnight.
"It's Christmas. Christmas Day," Digby said.
