Alien ships still surrounded the Papal Mainframe. Three hundred years later, they were still eager to get onto the surface of the planet of Trenzalore and stop the message from being broadcasted.
The Doctor, the Professor and Clara walked down the red carpet in the main hall towards the podium, which stood Tasha Lem. On both sides of the rug stood Tahsa's guard, and amongst them stood the Silence.
Clara looked over at her. She tilted her head. "She hasn't aged much," she noted.
"No," the Doctor agreed. "She's against ageing."
"Approach," Tasha said. "Confess!" rasped a Silent.
"What are those things?" Clara asked, looking at it. "Confess!" the Silent repeated.
"Confessional Priests," answered the Doctor. "Very popular, genetically engineered, so you forget everything you told them."
Clara looked at the Doctor. "Told who?" "There you go."
Tasha led the three of them to a conference room, and they sat down at a table. She opened a chest on the table, and the Doctor looked inside. He sniffed inside it. There were marshmallows inside.
"Satisfactory?" Tasha asked him.
"Where are the pink ones?" the Doctor asked her.
"E-numbers. You're hyper enough as it is." Tasha walked back to her seat and sat down.
"So this is sweet," Clara said. "Middle of a siege, and you two have little chats?"
"She's right. This situation cannot continue."
The Doctor slammed the lid of the chest shut. "It can't end, either." He pushed the chest to the side."
A squad of Daleks arrived outside, and they approached Tasha's guard. They looked over at them. "Report," one ordered.
"The Time Lord has entered the trap," a soldier said. All the guards – including the Silence – now had mini Dalek eyestalks implanted in their foreheads.
"Why did you ever come to Trenzalore?" Tasha asked.
"Well, I did come to Trenzalore, and nothing can change that now," the Doctor said. "Didn't stop you trying, though, did it?"
"Not me. The Kovarian Chapter broke away. They travelled back along your timeline and tried to prevent you from ever reaching Trenzalore."
"That's who that was then?" the Professor asked.
"It's a relief, really," the Doctor said with a nod. "I thought I'd left the bath running."
"They blew up your time capsule, created the very cracks in the universe through which the Time Lords are now calling," Tasha explained.
"The destiny trap," the Doctor agreed. "You can't change history if you're part of it."
"They engineered a psychopath to kill you."
"Totally married her. I'd never have made it here alive without River Song."
The Professor looked at his father. "Forgetting a few people?" he asked.
"And … a few others."
"I'm not interested in changing history, Doctor. I want to change the future," Tasha told him. She leaned forward in her seat. "The Daleks send for reinforcements daily. They are massing for war. Three days ago, they attacked the Mainframe itself."
"They attacked here?" the Doctor asked. "How did you stop them?" Clara asked.
"Stop them?" Tasha asked. "It was a slaughter."
"Why didn't you call me?" the Doctor asked. "I could have helped."
"I tried. I died in this room, screaming your name."
The Doctor looked at her, horrified. "No," he whispered.
Tasha looked away from the Doctor. "Oh, I died. It's funny the things that slip your mind." She fell face down on the table. Everyone got up from the table and moved away from it.
"No! No, no, no, Tasha, no, please!" the Doctor begged. The Daleks had gotten to her. Turned her into one of their puppets. "No, Tasha, no! Fight it. Tash, fight it!"
Tasha sat up with a creaking. She sprouted an eyestalk in her forehead. The Daleks then burst into the room, one by one.
"Step away from the Dalek unit, Doctor," the leader said.
"You shouldn't even know who I am," the Doctor told them.
"Information concerning the Doctor was harvested from the cadaver of Tasha Lem."
"Nice secret while it lasted," the Professor muttered.
"Bet she never told you how to break the Trenzalore force-field, though," the Doctor said. "She'd have died first."
"Several times," the Dalek answered.
"Well, you'd better kill me, then go on. But before you do …." The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out from inside his coat pocket and whirred it at the confessional booth teleports. The message became booming through the room in the voice of the Time Lord General.
"Doctor who?" it asked, repeating over and over. "Doctor who? Doctor who?"
"I'm a tough old bird. It'll take ages to die. Way enough time to answer a question. And oh dear, what happens then, boys?"
"You will die in silence, Doctor," the Dalek told him when Clara gasped. The Professor had pulled her out of the way from Tasha Lem, who had been sneaking up behind her. "Or your associate will die," the Dalek finished.
"No, she won't," the Professor told the Dalek. "Should have gone for me first."
"It doesn't matter which one dies. We needed one, but both can die."
"Fine, go on," the Doctor told the Dalek. Kill them."
"What?" the Professor asked as Clara stepped behind him. He conjured up a fireball in his hand as he looked at the Daleks in the room.
"See if I care," the Doctor continued. "But tell me, what are you going to do next?"
"See how the Doctor betrays?" the Dalek asked the Professor and Clara.
"I see," the Professor answered. "Doesn't mean I won't put up a fight." He threw the fireball at the Dalek, but it dissipated against its force field.
"You see, Tasha, that's what I'm talking about," the Doctor began. "That is my family. My son." He pointed at the Professor. "Someone not willing to give up without a fight!" He walked over to where Tasha stood. "I always knew you were a bit spineless, not even bothering to fight. You and your pointless church. Why did I ever rely on you? Never trust a nun to do a Time Lord's work."
Tasha looked over at the Doctor before slapping his face. She then fired energy bolts from her hand, destroying the Daleks in the room. The Doctor smiled and kissed her deeply. "You never could resist a row."
"Kiss me when I ask!" Tasha told him. "Well, you'd better ask nicely."
"In your dreams!"
"Right, get us back to the TARDIS. Can you do that?" the Doctor asked as he walked over to the confessional booths and stepped inside one of them.
"Yep, but quickly, the Dalek inside me is waking."
"We'll meet you there," the Professor said, waving his hand, engulfing him and Clara in a whirl of blue smoke and disappearing.
The Doctor looked at Tasha. "Fight it," he told her.
"I can't," she told him back.
"Listen to me. You have been fighting the psychopath inside you all your life, shut up and win! That is an order, Tasha Lem."
"The force-field will hold for a while, but it will decay, and there are breaches already," Tasha said, pressing some buttons on the side of the booth.
The Doctor poked his head out of the booth. "Then this isn't a siege anymore. It's a war. It's all up to you now. Fight the Daleks, inside and out. You can do it. I know you can."
Tasha looked at the Doctor. "Oh, I see. You got your TARDIS back, haven't you? Time to fly away." As he had always done.
"Tasha, please, please … Thank you."
"None of this was for you, you fatuous egotist. It was for the peace. Fly away, Doctor." Tasha closed the curtain of the teleport and teleported the Doctor into his TARDIS.
Back inside his TARDIS, the Doctor operated the console as he looked at his son and Clara. Finally, the console dinged, and the Doctor looked at the monitor. "It's done," he said with a smile.
"What is?" Clara asked.
"Your turkey. Either that or it's woken up." Clara laughed. "You want some?"
"We can have a family Christmas," the Professor said.
"Oh, alright. Go on, then!" the Doctor told them.
"Got any plates?" Clara asked as she headed down to the lower level of the console room.
"Do you know I've even got Christmas crackers?"
"I'll get those," the Professor said, following Clara to the lower levels. He was sure he had seen some in the cupboards under the console.
Clara stopped and stared at the Doctor in admiration. She approached him cautiously. "One thing," she said. The Professor stopped too and turned. He followed her over to his father. "Give me those big sad eyes, look at us, so I know you're not lying and tell me you will never send us away again," Clara continued.
"Clara, Professor, I will never send you away again," the Doctor told them.
"Good. You've done it a few times to me," the Professor added. First, he had sent him to Sarah Jane. Then to Rumplestiltskin. Then, back to London. "We're family."
Clara smiled happily and took the Professor's hand as they descended to the lower level. For real, this time.
The Doctor brought up pictures of Christmas on the TARDIS monitor, and he looked at them
sadly.
"Turkey smells good," called up Clara.
"Yep, smells great," the Doctor agreed. But he was watching young Barnable on the screen, who was waiting miserably for his return.
"It's going to be perfect," the Professor said.
The Doctor plugged the device he had given Mr Gold earlier into the screwdriver charge socket while the Professor and Clara got the turkey and Christmas crackers. But, when they came back to the console deck, the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.
"Doctor?" Clara called out as they both went to the doors. She carried the turkey outside, followed by the Professor. They found themselves outside the flats, joined by Mr Gold and Belle.
"How long were we gone?" the Professor asked.
"A few seconds," Belle answered as the TARDIS energised and left them. It rematerialised in Snowy night-time Christmas, on the planet Trenzalore.
The Doctor stood outside it, with Barnable, as they looked over at it.
"If you're not leaving, why did you bring it back?" Barnable asked.
"It's a reminder," the Doctor answered before patting Barnable's head. He turned and headed back to the church. "Besides, I might leave tomorrow or the next day. Or the day after that."
FEEDCONNECTING
FEED CONNECTED
FEED STABLE
"And so, to the fields of Trenzalorecameall the Time Lord'senemies. For this was the winter of the Doctor. In time, when all other races had retreated or burned, only the Church of the Mainframe remained in the path of the Daleks. And so those ancient enemies, the Doctor and the Silence, stood back-to-back on the fields of Trenzalore."