Danni sat up, the Dream Crab falling off her face and onto the bed next to her. She gulped for air as she watched it writhe, and scream, before finally disintegrating into a pile of dust on the covers. None of it had been real. The north pole, Santa Claus, the Sleepers. The only things that had been real had been the people there. Her best friend and her husband.

She didn't have to look up from the pile of dust to know that she wasn't alone. "How did you manage to link the dreams?" she asked Missy, genuinely curious and latching onto it so her hearts would stop aching.

"It's easy enough," Missy replied from the chair she was currently sat in. It matched the room perfectly; dark wood and brown fabric. "Time travel is always possible in dreams, and you're always thinking about him."

Danni nodded to herself but didn't say anything more about it. She focused on committing everything about him to memory. It had been so long since she'd seen him, so many years, that she realised that if she wasn't careful she was going to forget him completely.

"I didn't think you were ever going to wake up," Missy continued. "You were under that horrid thing for ages. But, I suppose, it got the job done. Did he leave you to die? I bet that was heartbreaking to go through."

Danni shook her head slowly. "He didn't," she replied, her lips pulling into a smile that was so rare it felt strange on her face. "He saved me. He's coming for me. He's always going to try and save me." She looked at Missy with a glint in her eyes. She had been finding it harder and harder to find her strength to keep fighting Missy. But just seeing him almost kill himself to save her just renewed her drive to still be there when he came for her. "My husband loves me," she told Missy confidently. "And he will always find me."

This was obviously not what Missy had wanted to hear. Danni watched her face fall into a set, emotionless look that she knew meant Missy was angry. Incredibly angry. She straightened slightly in fright, but she didn't lower her gaze and she didn't retract her words.

Missy reached out and cupped her cheek, stroking her thumb over her skin in an imitation of a comforting gesture. "Oh, my Pet," she said with pity laced in her tone. "He's not coming for you. He makes you believe these things, but he never follows through. He always breaks his promises and it's not because he tries, it's because he just doesn't care."

Danni tilted her head away from her touch. "He does," she replied firmly. "You won't convince me otherwise. You will never win me over."

"Oh, Danielle," she sighed, moving her hand away from Danni and standing up. "Danni, Danni, Danni. If he was coming for you, he would have by now. It's been too long."

"He has to search all over time and space," Danni pointed out. "12 years is nothing with that. It's just a margin of error."

"Now that is a dilution neither me or the Doctor are responsible for," she replied with a laugh. "I know you spend a lot of your time sleeping, Danielle, but 12 years? Really? Is that all you think that's passed?"

Danni rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop it," she snapped. "Do you really think you can fool me with that again? I know it's only been 12 years and nothing you can do can convince me otherwise."

"You keep believing that, dear," Missy humoured. "Keep believing that he's coming for you. Keep thinking he hasn't abandoned you for decades. One day you will see that he has, and you'll be thankful I showed you what your marriage actually is; a shambles."

She paused before walking out of the room, turning and pointing at the pile of dust on the bed. "Oh, and clean that up," she commanded. "I can't stand a dirty bed."

She left Danni on her own, the familiar sound of the door locking echoing in Danni's head. She stared at the door for the longest time, willing it to open. But it didn't. And the Doctor didn't step through.

"He's coming for me," she whispered to herself. "He is. She's lying."

But as she stood up and headed to the cupboard for the vacuum cleaner, she knew that Missy was starting to win. She quickly cleaned up the mess because Missy was right. It'd feel like having biscuit crumbs in the sheets, and that was a horrid feeling.

She paused as she placed the vacuum back, leaning her forehead against the door frame and squeezing her eyes shut.

"Theta, please," she begged out into the universe. "I'm giving up on you. Please."

~0~0~0~

Everything Missy did was a source of suspicion. Every meal she was fed, every book she was allowed to read, every item handed to her could either be just exactly what it was intended to be, or some way of making Danni's life a living hell.

"We're going out," Missy had said happily that morning. "Wear something pretty, you're going to love it."

Danni doubted it very much. Unless it was a sudden handing of her over to her husband, with a promise to never see Missy ever again, Danni knew that whatever happened was going to have some sort of string attached.

This trip out, for example, actually didn't involve going out at all. It involved being strapped up to a computer. This was definitely something Danni didn't like – it felt too much like dreaming – but it wasn't like she had much of a choice so she gritted her teeth and let Missy do what she wanted.

She wasn't sure what she expected to see when she woke up in the new world, but a large green field definitely wasn't it.

"What is this supposed to be?" she asked Missy, looking down the field towards a tree standing at the other end. Bushes boarded the edge of the field they were standing in, but the greenery stretched out as far as they could both see.

"It's what I've been working on for a while, now," Missy explained. "Welcome to Paradise."

She looked at Danni expectantly, almost like the captive woman was supposed to break out into applause at it. Instead, Danni looked up at the sky and the grey clouds that hung overhead.

"I thought Paradise was supposed to have nice weather," she commented. "It looks like it's about to rain."

Missy deflated slightly. "Yeah, well, that's Wales for you," she replied. "The whole of the UK is wet and rainy."

"Wales?" Danni repeated. "Why is Paradise Wales?"

"It's not. It's just one version of it. You see, you see what you want to see. Some people see beaches, some people see home."

"And you see Wales?" Danni finished and she shook her head.

"You don't recognise it, do you?" Missy asked her.

"Why would I recognise a field in Wales?"

Missy smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she turned her to face the tree at the other end of the field. "You ran to that tree, once," she told her. "Then you made daisy chains, remember?"

Danni's breath caught slightly as her eyes widened. She didn't recognise the field – it was just a field, they were all pretty much the same – but she remembered the trip vividly. She dreamt about it a lot, especially since waking up in the dark bedroom she was calling home for the foreseeable future. It was the moment things between her and the Master became blurry, one of the many reasons she found herself missing her previous incarnation.

"You brought me here on the Valiant," she said softly, amazed. She turned to Missy. "Why does it look like this?"

Missy shrugged. "My little Paradise is programmed to be whatever your brain thinks it should be," she explained. "This is where your mind thinks your personal paradise is."

Danni snorted. "Yeah, right," she retorted. "My Paradise is a blue time travelling box, everyone knows that."

"Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger," Missy replied with her hands up. Danni frowned. There was a chance that this actually was quite a calming place for her. After all, she remembered having quite a good time with the Master in that field in Wales. They'd cloud watched together, and she'd felt the wind on her skin after months of being stuck in that infernal air base. He'd taken her down that just because she'd mentioned to him that she'd missed the ground.

She glanced at Missy. She'd grown enough, and come to terms with enough, to know that before it had all gone wrong she'd enjoyed the attention that Koschei had given her. She'd been in love with the Doctor way before she'd met him, but she'd seen the Master on TV, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she had been flattered. If she'd not asked for the drumming, she might have actually called them friends.

She blinked, still startled by her own thoughts. She really missed the previous Master. That really wasn't good.

"But, that's not why I brought you here," Missy continued, oblivious to where Danni's thoughts had taken her. She was glad of the distraction. That definitely wasn't a road she was comfortable going down.

Missy reached out in front of her, seeming grabbing nothing. But, when she pulled her hand back, a door opened with it into a rather crisp-looking hallway.

"Alright, that was pretty cool," Danni admitted and Missy smiled.

"I'm glad you like it, my Pet," she replied, stepping through to the other side. Danni quickly followed and turned to see the door closed. It looked like a doorway on this side, which surprised her slightly. Then again, though, if you were going to find the door again, you probably needed to know where it was.

"And this is, what, the office building of Paradise?"

Missy just shot her a look that warned her that her cheekiness was starting to get on her nerves. Danni was in a constant state of anger around her capture, but she also knew when to shut her mouth. Luckily, a man exited one of the doors and seemed to perk up at the sight of them. He had short black hair and a cheesy grin that told Danni instantly he had been born to work in an office.

"Ah, Ma'am, I did wonder if we were going to see you today," he greeted her. "There's a few issues we've been having with some of the..."

"I'm not here to see you," Missy told him bluntly. "This is Danielle's first time here. Let's not ruin it with your stupid questions."

The man didn't seem too fazed by Missy's attitude towards him, which Danni knew instantly that it meant he'd spent quite a bit of time with her. She'd become just as desensitised to her insults over the years. However, he was staring at her with a surprised look on his face.

"This is Danielle?" he asked before holding his hand out to her. "Seb. It's fantastic to finally meet you."

Danni took a look at Missy, who rolled her eyes but nodded. Danni reached out and shook his hand. He was rather an eager hand shaker. It was a bit off-putting. "Uh, great to meet you too, I guess..."

"Would you like me to give her a tour?" he asked Missy. "We've just had some new arrivals, she could see how we process them."

"No, thank you," Missy snapped. "She's my pet, I'll look after her. Get back to work." With a bow of his head he rushed down the hall and into another room.

"New arrivals?" Danni queried. "What is this place?"

"It's my new project," Missy told her. "Just something I have been doing in my spare time. I like to have more in my life than looking after you. A hobby, of sorts."

Danni rolled her eyes, but didn't comment on how she'd not actually asked to be taken care of. "Of sorts?"

"Well, I can't say I'm doing it just because it's fun. Paradise is more..." she took a hiss of breath through her teeth. "It's more of a long drawn plan. I came to realise that your husband would only keep looking for you if he was bored, and… well… neither of us want him to be bored, do we?"

"Uh huh," Danni replied shortly.

"So I thought 'it's his birthday soon, I'll build him an army'."

Danni's brows furrowed. "And so you decided to build a virtual paradise?"

"No, silly," Missy laughed and Danni's skin crawled slightly at the flirtatious tones. "I created an afterlife! A place for all of those pathetic humans with their teeny tiny lifespans will come here when they die! Their minds are uploaded into the hard drive and they get to live in their own personal paradises."

Danni hated the fact that she was rather impressed. "The whole of the deceased human consciousness on one hard drive?" she asked. "That can't be possible."

"It's a matrix data-slice. Do keep up, dear."

"So you've created a… well, a heaven, basically?" Danni asked, pausing at a door without really thinking. Missy let her open it without complaint but all on that was on the other side was an office.

"That's right," Missy praised.

"And you built an office building in the middle?"

"Well, it's data storage, it needs organising, doesn't it?" she pointed out and Danni nodded slowly, closing the door. "Are you impressed, my Pet?"

She didn't really want to admit it, but her lips pulled into a small smile. "Yes, I am," she said. "I always said you had such a great mind. And look, you've put it to such a good use. All these people are going to be able to see their loved ones again. I'm… I'm actually rather proud of you."

Maybe there was still hope. Maybe what Missy needed was a good influence in her life to direct that genius in a better direction. If she could just see that she didn't have to take over the universe then maybe she would stop doing such horrific things. And maybe she'd take Danni home to her husband.

"Just you wait," Missy told her gleefully. "I haven't told you the best part."

Danni faltered slightly. "The best part?" she asked slowly, a new, uneasy feeling falling over her.

"Storing minds is easy," Missy replied. "Even you could work it out if I gave you the tools and a rudimentary text book. No, the hard part was what to do with them afterwards."

"Afterwards?" Danni repeated. "You mean when the slice is full?"

"No, I mean what to do with the minds once they were uploaded. I realised that your husband was going to be bored without someone to boss about. So, I decided to give him an army. And, well, we all know what the best army is." Danni confused look exasperated her slightly and she sighed. "Cybermen, dear, Cybermen. I'm going to upgrade the bodies and download the minds back in. All for his command. He can race across the universe and be the good guy he wants to be, but with an army to help stop all the bad guys."

Danni just stared, wide eyed and horrified. "You can't be serious?" she exclaimed. "Cybermen?!"

Missy smiled with a little shrug. "What can I say? I think outside the box."

"That's- That's horrific!" Danni cried. "You're supposed to be smart! Why would you do this?!"

"Because it's fun!" Missy said like Danni was an idiot. "Can you imagine them? Standing to attention, at his beck and call? He'll love it."

Danni shook her head. "No, no, he won't. He'll hate it, you can't possibly think otherwise! Plus…" She looked around, her mind racing as the urge to run flared again. Cybermen were, by far, the worst of the worst in the universe. She knew the Doctor was terrified of the Daleks, but Cybermen scared her so much more. The idea of all your emotions being deleted and everything that made you who you were just removed sent shivers down her spine.

"Plus!" she cried, eyes lighting up as a flaw in Missy's plan came to mind. "Cybermen can't use dead parts! It won't work."

"Like you said; I'm clever," Missy replied. "I've fixed that little problem." She frowned at her captive. "Aren't you happy, my Pet? I did it for you, after all."

Danni felt sick. Her stomach churned at the thought of all the humans that were going to be punished because of a genius's obsession with her. All those people, who were given the illusion of a wonderful afterlife, were just being held prisoner until such a time Missy needed to get the Doctor away from her.

"That's what that 3W place was for," Danni breathed, looking at Missy with horrid realisation. "Clara's Danny, everything, was just to get me away from the Doctor."

Missy stroked a hand through her soft brown hair, smiling fondly. "Well, you were just such a tricky so and so," she scolded lightly. "I'm glad this works, though. Thank you for the insight." She tightened her grip on Danni's hair, pulling her closer to place a kiss on her hair. "Let me show you the gardens. I think you'll enjoy them."

Danni followed numbly, so lost in her own devastation that she didn't protest at all to the kiss. This was all her fault. How could one bad decision so many centuries ago lead to such horror?

~0~0~0~

It was amazing what people missed going about their daily lives. Something absolutely horrific could be going on just around the corner and yet no one would even notice any sort of disturbance. Danni's many, many years of experience had taught her that humans were particularly bad for this and, as such, she wasn't surprised in the slightest as she and Missy materialised on a busy street with people walking up and down in, barely paying attention to the strangely dressed woman and her young-looking associate who appeared from nowhere.

"Where are we?" she asked Missy after she settled from the sudden change in scenery, having a look around to see if she could escape, even if she knew no attempt would work. Missy had placed the slaved vortex manipulator on her wrist and she couldn't use it to go anywhere. Apparently escaping once had somehow given Missy the impression she needed to taken any function it may have had away. All it did now was follow hers whenever she programmed it to.

It pissed Danni off to no end.

"London," Missy explained. "Early 2013. You can tell by the rather plain and unflattering clothing trends."

That was something Missy had also started to do. Treat her like an actual companion by giving her history lessons wherever they landed. It didn't matter that most of the trips were to flaunt Danni in some way to the Doctor, she pretended every trip was just a spur of the moment type affair.

Danni hated that as well. She wasn't a bloody companion, she was a bloody captive.

Still, she looked around with a faint hint of interest because she found that it kept Missy off her back. "I thought you didn't like Earth," she commented offhandedly.

"I don't," Missy replied bluntly. "Full of dirty little creatures that are way too obsessed with procreating with each other, or who is procreating with who. And the horrid talent contests." She looked positively queasy at the thought, and Danni had to agree. She used to like them. What had she been thinking?

"Then why are we here?" she asked and Missy grinned at her, taking her hand tightly before placing it in the crook of her elbow. She liked linking arms, like they were walking in a park on a date.

"Because I have a little job for you," Missy told her like it was some kind of treat. "You see that little corner shop just over there? Like something out of an old television show with wives doing the laundry and being talked down to?" Danni nodded. "Well, last night, I went in and planted a whole load of explosives."

"What?" Danni exclaimed, falling to a stop and staring at her, appalled. "Why the hell would you care about some tiny little shop?"

"Oh, I don't," she replied. "I care about what's inside. Or, rather, what is about to be inside. Watch."

They came to a stop and stared as a woman with a buggy and a screaming toddler left. She struggled to hold the door open, but she managed to get out with only a little difficulty. Then nothing happened for a few long moments. Danni was about to ask what was supposed to be happening when she saw her.

Clara Oswald.

Missy liked the flaunt Danni. She liked to run all over the Doctor's timeline and show her off, making sure that he just missed her, or didn't even notice her at all. Part of it was so the Doctor would know just how close he came to finding his wife and failing, part of it was to just show Danni that he didn't care enough to see her. Most of the time it didn't work, but it was hard not to take the knocks as they came.

She very rarely took her to Clara, though. In fact, over the years, Danni couldn't think of one time that she'd been to Clara when she was obviously on her own.

Every single sighting was exactly the same, though. Whenever she saw someone she loved it felt like all the air was whacked out of her. The happiness, the relief, was overwhelming to such a degree she was always freeze on the spot. Clara looked so happy. Her hair was longer than she remembered it, though.

"Miss Oswald, I believe," Missy drawled. Danni took a step forward then remembered the band on her arm. Missy wouldn't let her get far, even if she had plenty of witnesses. "Oh, don't bother going after her, she doesn't know who you are. You see, this is the Clara Oswald before you and your silly ex-husband decided to drop in on her life."

Danni's drew her feet back together again. "Why bring me here, then?" she asked. "I could just run right in and tell Clara to remember this moment. The Doctor would be here in a shot."

"You could," Missy agreed. "But you won't. In fact, if you even begin to tell her anything, I'll blow the shop up with her and everyone else in it. One big 'boom'-" she put extra emphasis on the noise- "and no more best friend."

"So, what? We're just going to stand here and watch her come out with her bread and milk?"

"Oh no, dear, that would be dull wouldn't it?" Missy chuckled. "No, I want you to give her this."

She handed Danni a card, with a number she immediately recognised on it. Her hearts skipped a beat. "This is for the TARDIS," she breathed. Her eyes shot up from it and to Missy. "Why are you giving me this?"

"Because you're going to give it to her," she said. "You're going to go in, listen to her prattle along about her problems and her other silly little human habits, then offer her the number. Then you're going to leave."

"And not say anything?" Danni retorted incredulously. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am," Missy replied as she started walking forward towards the door again. "I can hear everything, and the moment you say anything naughty, I'll blow you all up."

"No you won't. You wouldn't blow me up."

"Never say never, dear." Missy placed a hand over hers. "You know, as my pet, I can really just do whatever I like to you. And, well, the Doctor finding little pieces of you all over the walls would be quite the treat, now I think about it..."

"Fine, fine," Danni grumbled, cutting her off before she could rant and rave about her demise. "Go in, give Clara the number, and leave, right?"

"That's it, my Pet," Missy praised. "And I'll be right here waiting for you. Don't dawdle."

She practically shoved Danni forward and Danni slowly headed towards the door to the shop, apprehensively looking around to see what else Missy may have put into place. The moment she stepped into the store she looked upwards and saw the few security cameras pointing straight at the doorway. She took a few more steps forward and watched the cameras follow her.

Oh, great. She actually was being watched. Excellent.

She made her way to the front of the shop where the till was and starting hanging around, pretending to be looking rather intently through all the sweets. Clara was somewhere in the shop, getting whatever groceries she was looking for, and every part of her was screaming to go find her best friend and introduce herself early. Missy might have been bluffing, after all. Would she really blow them all up after going through the effort of taking her from the Doctor and then keeping her captive for so long?

She probably would. Missy was rather unpredictable like that and Danni really didn't want to punish Clara for her own mistake. She glanced over at her friend, smiling slightly at just how young she was. The girl who would save both Time Lords from being erased from time, only to chuck Danni into a volcano. Well, Danni couldn't exactly fault her for that. She'd do a lot worse if something truly terrible happened to the Doctor.

"You alright, Clara love?" the woman behind the counter greeted as Clara put her milk and frozen chips down in front of her.

"Not too bad, Gretchen," Clara replied. Always so friendly. "How's Fred and Haley?"

"Oh, as rotten as always," Gretchen replied. "Last night Fred taped Haley to one of our dining room chairs with duct tape. Took forty-five minutes to get her free. I told their mother that if it happened again, she can take them to Magaluf with her."

"Yikes," Clara said. "What to Maggie say to that?"

"I can't repeat it, I'm at work," Gretchen told her and they both laughed. "How are Artie and Angie?"

"Very well, thanks," Clara replied. "Artie's really into chess at the moment. Wish I knew how to play it for him."

"I'm sure they just appreciate you being there," Gretchen replied kindly and Clara nodded.

"I like to think so. Although," she pulled out a note from her purse as she realised Gretchen had finished ringing up her stuff, "will they help me sort out my computer?"

"Of course not," Gretchen answered for her.

"And I'm bloody useless with them as well," Clara continued. "I've lost the internet."

"Oh, don't look at me, love," Gretchen told her. "I'm still learning these new bloody tills."

Danni sighed. This was it. Her moment to step forward and introduce herself to Clara like she'd never seen her before in her life. This just felt like another level of cruel on Missy's behalf.

"Sorry," she apologised, stepping forward towards the two women. "I don't mean to be eavesdropping, but did you say you had computer trouble?"

Clara turned to look at her, with that look on her face that said she really didn't particularly want to talk to the new person. But then she seemed to perk up slightly, her eyes looking Danni up and down.

"I've lost the internet. I'm not sure where it went," she explained.

"I had the same trouble," Danni lied effortlessly. Clara had always been so friendly to her, she wasn't surprised that even when she had no idea who she was, Clara was still so welcoming. "Tried ringing BT to help fix the problem? They're a bloody nightmare. I was on the phone for an hour for them to tell me nothing was wrong."

Clara nodded eagerly in agreement. "They did the same with me! Told me I'd have to pay for a technician to come out. It's their internet, I shouldn't have to pay for them to find it."

"Well, here, use this," she handed Clara the card. "My friend gave it to me, and let me tell you; this is the best helpline in the universe."

"Really?" Clara looked at the little card. "Who is it? PC World?"

"Definitely not," Danni replied with a wrinkling of her nose. "I think it's just some local guy. It's not a free phone number or anything, but it's worth it. They fixed my computer in like, 5 minutes."

"Well, thanks." Clara smiled at her. "I'm Clara, by the way."

Danni's eyes quickly drifted up to the security camera behind the counter. It was pointing straight at them and she had no doubt that Missy was listening it. In fact, if she didn't hurry, she was probably going to be punished for taking too long. It wouldn't have been the first time.

"I'm Ella," she replied, pulling a name from Jack's past. "Call them."

She turned and started heading out, listening to Clara promise that she would. Danni knew she'd keep that promise, and somewhere in the past Eleven and her second body would be waiting to meet their newest best friend.

Each step was agony. She had to keep her hands clenched together as she slowly walked out of the shop and towards the woman who was keeping her captive. Running wasn't an option, not without the ability to remove the electric shackle that was bound around her wrist. The vortex manipulator would be easier to get rid of, but it wasn't like she could use it to shoot herself some place else. The moment Missy realised she was about to try and escape she was going to be a mess of screams and pain on the floor. Then she'd be taken back to the bedroom and punished even more.

But she wanted to turn around and scream at Clara to tell the Doctor where she was. To beg for her help to get away from the monster that was never going to let her go. Missy flaunted her all over the Doctor's timeline, but she never let her interact with anyone. Talking to Clara had been such a relief, but such a burden. She just wanted her friend back.

She would die for Clara. But she wouldn't have Clara die for her. It wasn't a step she was willing to take.

Missy was smiling at her like a parent who'd just watched their child successfully use the potty, even though it was the easiest task they could ever think of someone doing. It was a mixture between 'well done' and 'that took you long enough'.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Missy asked. "She didn't even know who you were."

"No, she didn't," Danni murmured back, glancing at the shop again before Missy took them both back to their home.

Clara, inside the shop, turned to Gretchen. "Do you know who she was?" she asked as she picked up her bag of stuff.

"Sorry, love," Gretchen replied apologetically. "Never seen her before in my life."

Clara thanked her anyway and quickly headed out, hoping to catch her up again. Unfortunately there was no sign of her and Clara let out a sigh of defeat before setting off on her way. She could never hold onto the pretty ones.

~0~0~0~

It was dark.

Not the overwhelming darkness that came from being trapped underground, or having a blindfold placed on you – which Danni had quite a lot of experience in – but the darkness that implied it was still night but the daylight was starting to break through. Danni could see a light bluish light coming through two circle-shaped holes directly in front of her face.

Unfortunately, everything else suggested she was very much trapped where she had woken. She was sitting up in a very enclosed space. She raised her arms only factionally and was met with metal all the way around. Whatever she was trapped in, it was shaped to her body. She was in a metal body suit.

Her hearts starting racing and her breathing began to pick up as the sudden realisation that she was trapped settled on her like a heavy, hot blanket. She couldn't get out, she didn't even know where she was! All she knew was that she was slowly going to suffocate in there.

She started struggling, but she could barely moved. She quickly started crying. "Help!" she sobbed. "Somebody! Help me!"

"Oh, Danielle, do calm down," Missy's voice came from speakers by each of her ears. Danni jolted and turned to look, even though she knew that nothing of use was there.

"Missy, Missy please, let me out," she begged. "I-I'm sorry if-if I upset you, or something, but please let me out. I- I can't breathe."

"Danielle, calm down," she snapped and Danni did her best to bring her gasping breaths under control. "Look straight ahead."

Danni did just that, peering through the small holes in front of her. She could barely focus and had to lean forward as much as she could but outside the case she was trapped in was a window of some sort. And on the other side of the window stood Missy, her favourite little gadget it hand. She held it up to her mouth like she was speaking into a microphone.

"What- What's going on?" Danni whimpered. "Missy, please, this isn't funny."

"Oh, I don't know, it seems like a delight to me," Missy replied. "I just need you to stay there for a little while, and I know how you are with all of that moving, so I placed you in a suit to keep you safe."

"A suit?" Danni asked nervously. She watched through the glass as Missy moved her device, pressing something on it. She disappeared and Danni gasped at the image of a Cyberman strapped to her chair that appeared on the screen. "Missy! Missy! What the hell is going on? Let me out!"

"Don't worry, it's not live," Missy said as if it would reassure her. "It can't be. You're the one inside it."

Danni started shaking her head. Well, as best as she could within the helmet that didn't move. "No, no, Missy let me out. Let me out!" she screamed, her panic flaring again. "I don't want to be a Cyberman! Please!"

"I said calm down," Missy snapped. "No one can see you from this side, all they have is the view of an empty chair in a case of water. I'm the only one who knows you're there so you're just wasting energy screaming."

Danni couldn't help it. Her whole body shook as the case seemed to get hotter and closer to her skin. "Missy, please," she begged again. "Just let me out. I'm sure I can- I can make up whatever I did wrong."

"No," Missy replied shortly. "Stop it. Begging is not pretty on you, is it?"

The cold sweat was building on Danni's skin. Her chest was tightening as the small space got smaller and smaller. "Koschei, please," she pleaded pathetically. "Let me out. Please. I don't want to be a Cyberman. Please."

"I'll be back soon," Missy promised her and Danni let out a sob. "Just keep watching. You'll see soon enough."

Danni struggled vainly as she watched Missy look into the glass to fix her hair before walking on. "Missy! Missy!" she screamed after her but it was obvious that Missy wasn't going to turn back.

Danni took a few shaky breaths to try and calm herself. The errant thought of the lack of oxygen made her immediately regret that, though. There were holes in front of her so air could get in easily, but that didn't ease the blind panic her mind went into at the thought of suffocating. The Doctor would never know what happened to her. She wasn't ever going to get home. She was going to die there.

Something inside her snapped and she realised that she needed to escape, and quickly as well. She tried to move her arms again, but the metal suit was much too heavy and Danni couldn't get any movement at all from it. So she tried to pull her hands towards her chest. She struggled, scrapping her arm along the tight seams but she got one arm free and into the torso of the suit. She didn't even try to get the other one out, her fingers just searched for any sort of seam or opening she could find in an attempt to open it up.

Nothing moved. All she felt was her fingertips ripping open, little jagged edges cutting her skin and making her bleed. The suit continued to close in on her and all she wanted to do was rip the metal apart and get out, but she couldn't. She fought her other arm free, but again it did nothing except hurt her and prove how trapped she was inside.

She fell against the back, gulping for air and trying to stop her hands from shaking from the pain. Some of the cuts were pretty deep, but she knew they'd heal eventually. She just wanted to get free. The air hung limp around her, clinging to her skin tightly like it would never let her go. The suit itself wasn't too bad, after all Cybermen weren't exactly small. It was the air around her that was crushing it. She needed breeze, she needed movement. She needed to be out of there.

She wasn't sure how long she was struggling for, but she had to take a break. She was covered in a sheen of cold sweat that she couldn't wipe away and she stared out of the eyes of the suit in the hopes of seeing something that could help her.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

Her mouth fell slightly as the Doctor stormed past her vision, a look of thunder on his face. Her husband. Her Theta. He was right there.

"Theta!" she screamed as loud as she could, her voice breaking harshly. "Theta, I'm here! I'm..."

She trailed off as she watched Clara appear and look directly at her without seeing her. She looked broken, devastated, as she didn't notice the fact that Danni was right in front of her in a Cyberman suit.

"Clara! I'm here! Look at me!" she shrieked but there was no reaction.

Then, Danni approached her best friend. A younger, blonde-haired, kind looking Danni with glasses and a sympathetic smile for a grieving Clara and whatever air Danni had in her lungs was forced out. Clara wasn't hurt because they couldn't find her, she was hurt because Danny Pink was dead. The Doctor wasn't furiously looking for her, he was furious because he perceived Clara of trying to hurt his wife.

This was 3W.

She was about to watch herself get taken.

"Theta!" she screamed again, before realising it wasn't helping. She tried to open her mind and call to him, but when she did she felt nothing. There was no one there. The Doctor couldn't hear her.

She winced as the speakers in the helmet screeched to life. "3W. Death is not an end," Missy's voice floated in, sounding soft and kind. "But we can we help with that."

And Danni had to sit there and watch Missy push her old body against a glass case and kiss her. She had to watch her husband and best friend walk away without a look back. She had to watch as her old body watched them walk away with a sad look on her face. And she had to watch as Missy approached her from behind, stab something into her neck and the old Danni crumpled into her arms.

Missy looked into the case, smirked, and carried blonde Danni away.

Danni stopped struggling. She stopped fighting, she stopped caring. She had always assumed that the Doctor had fought to keep her. That Missy managed to get a hold of her despite his best efforts, but he didn't even seem to notice that she had gone. Maybe he didn't even care that she was gone. Maybe he really wasn't looking for her. How could he just not notice?

She sat there in silence until, suddenly, the helmet was suddenly removed and she started, startled and frightened and devastated. Missy was stood next to her and she stroked her hair as Danni whimpered.

"You see, Danni," Missy started softly in a voice that was supposed to comfort her. "He didn't even notice you were gone. You were always supposed to be mine."

Danni just looked down, closing her eyes and she didn't say a word. Missy opened the suit and helped her out, tutting at the blood that covered her hands and revelling in her defeat. She'd finally crushed the spirit that kept her fighting for freedom. She was finally her pet.

But through Danni's silence one word echoed throughout her head.

Never.

~0~0~0~

Sorry I'm late again. You should all be used to it by now :P

I'm going to be posting an Outtake tomorrow. It comes with a trigger warning, but keep an eye out for it so you can judge for yourself if you want to read it :)

Reviews :)

Midnight Alley - Thanks sweetie! Hopefully soon.

Authora97 - I know! He needs to do something, doesn't he?

serenitysaiyan - Something to come back on, definitely. She might have been there for centuries, she might not of. We may never know :P Thanks sweetie! xxx

sandshoes-and-grandad - Sorry for making you cry, sweetie! I hope this chapter wasn't too bad XD

KateMackenzie - Thanks sweetie! Hope you liked this one too :)

Serena - Thanks sweetie! Right now, Danni is unsure of how long she's been with Missy so I can't really say XD

LoveandAngst - Thanks sweetie! I did want it to be unclear of whether she was real or not until right at the end, so I'm glad it worked :)

bored411 - Hopefully he won't give up. Danni needs him to save her! Hope you liked this chapter :)