The doors opened into the main room and Danni thought, yet again, that it all seemed unnecessarily large. The table in the middle was large, the stairs up to the platform overlooking everything were large, the room itself was just so… large.

That was because, though, there was only the two of them in there. She posed in the doorway, one arm above her head, the other pulling out the black skirt she was wearing. "I'm sure this looked better on the ginger me, but I still rock it," she declared before she headed in with a large grin on her face.

She caught a glance of herself in the large, glass table. She really did look fantastic in the maid's outfit. It was probably a bit more tailored than an actual maid's outfit, a bit more flattering and tantalising, but then again she hadn't picked it to do any cleaning in.

Above her, her best friend slid down the handrail instead of walking down the stairs. "Don't sell yourself short," he replied, jumping off the end with a flourish. "I think the subservient look really suits you."

She shot him a look. "You don't actually think that," she stated confidently. "You like me to have a little fight in me. It's what makes our friendship so exciting."

"That and your husband would never approve."

That was definitely true. Danni looked around the room again. The Doctor, her Theta, would hate that she was back here. He'd never understood, not really. There had been a time when she hadn't either. But she'd come to terms, she'd learnt, and now she was actually rather glad to be back on the Valiant.

"Yeah, well, he's not here right now, is he?" she pointed out before running to him. "You look much better in a suit."

The Master grinned. "Just like old times?" he asked. He grabbed her hand, giving her a twirl and she laughed in delight.

When he pulled her back she looked at him eagerly. "Where are we now?"

He practically dragged her up the stairs to the windows that looked out over the world below. "Somewhere over Eastern Asia," he explained as she pressed both hands against the window, looking down through the clouds below them. She could see the land mass, but not much else. They were a bit too high up for that, but she still loved to see the world from a new perspective.

"Will we get to land soon?"

"Of course," he purred. "First, though…"

He reached over, flicking a switch or two. She laughed as music began playing and she turned around, leaning against the cool glass.

"And what, exactly, is that for?" she asked him, as if she didn't know already. He held out his hand for hers. "My husband wouldn't approve."

"Well, he's not here right now, is he?" he repeated. She smiled and took it, letting him pull her close. She wasn't sure if she'd heard the song before, but she did rather like it. Nice and upbeat. She liked songs that made her smile, not made her cry.

She had missed the Master so much over recent times. It had come onto her suddenly, and then it became a feeling that she was used to having around. Why wouldn't she miss him? He hadn't treated her any better than Missy, but he had been just as sick as her. Sometimes regenerations just got on better with each other. Her blonde self and the Doctor's Eleventh self were prime examples of that. They never loved each other less, but it was why she had struggled when he'd regenerated. This time, instead of just being… well, he ended up like Missy, instead.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and they swayed together, her hand holding onto his. "Koschei?"

"Yes, Danielle?"

"This isn't real, is it?" she asked. "You got sucked into the Time War and regenerated."

"That's right," he confirmed. "You left me, remember?"

"I didn't mean to," she pointed out. "You told me to go. I tried to hold on."

"I know," the Master replied. "And now look at us? Dancing together. Who would have thought?"

He pulled her a little closer, a little too close and she laughed as she stepped back. "I told you; none of that," she scolded lightly. "Can't we just enjoy being together until I wake up?"

He sighed. "And what you want to do is dance?" he asked. "We could be out there, saving the universe like you and that prattling idiot seem so keen on doing. Why this?"

She shrugged. "There's so many things I want to ask you," she explained. "How you regenerated. What happened to make you like Missy? Why you ever thought kidnapping me was a good idea?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Did you really think I wouldn't escape eventually?"

"Don't ask me. I'm not responsible for whatever future regenerations I have," he retorted. "But we could… I don't know..." He grinned that evil grin of his. "Take over the world? Wouldn't you like that? King and Queen of all humanity. We could finally stop them being so useless. We could help them sore."

She sighed. "Why, even in my head, are you so hellbent on taking things over?"

"Because that's what I was, my Pet," he purred, spinning her out then back into his arms. "Just because you think you saw differently doesn't me you did."

"I did see differently," she corrected. "You didn't hit me. You did save the universe. You saved me from Rassilon."

"You always were one for trying to find the good in people," the Master said heavily, like it was an annoyance. "And yet you always look for it in the wrong people."

"You could have been brilliant if you'd let yourself be," Danni said softly. "You could just never listen to anyone but yourself."

"Danielle," he said and she grinned.

"You know I'm right," she retorted cheekily.

"Danielle," he repeated. She frowned. "Danni?"

She sighed heavily and held his hand tighter. "I'm waking up," she declared. "I'll see you next time."

"Danielle?"

~0~0~0~

Osgood sat up in the sand, panting heavily and still wearing her parachute. Her first thought was to feel around, looking for her glasses that she had obviously lost when she had landed judging by the way the world around her looked like a dull, brown and grey mass.

She found them, but they were broken and she chucked them away. She didn't even have her spare pair on her. She hadn't had a chance to grab them when she had been first taken by the Zygons. It was just another annoyance that she could have done without.

The missiles had come at the plane in quick succession. Luckily the first one had missed, which had given them a chance to get out of the plane before the second hit and blew it up. She just hoped that everyone else got out alright, but she also knew that her line of work meant that there were always casualties.

"Danielle," the Doctor's voice said frantically from her side. "Danni? Danni?"

She turned and saw him stripping off his own parachute – with a Union Jack on, no less – to move to where he wife was sprawled out. None of them were particularly graceful in their landing, and Danni was currently lying across a bunch of rather large rocks, her own parachute behind her. The Doctor quickly moved over to her side and Osgood was quick to follow.

"Is she breathing?" she asked the Doctor, who quickly looked his wife over.

"I think she's just had a nasty bump," he replied shortly. "Come on, Danielle, this isn't a time for a nap." He gave her a little shake. "Come on."

Her eyelids flickered. "No," she groaned quietly and he sighed in relief. They'd had to jump out so quickly that he wasn't sure what might have happened on the way down. The fact that her parachute had been released was a good sign, but a million thoughts had rushed through his mind at the sight of her on the ground. But she was awake, so he knew nothing could be wrong.

He still pulled out his sonic sunglasses, just to be sure. She was frowning as she stared up at him as he scanned her. "Bad dream, Danni-Girl?" he asked. He'd come to learn that, whenever she woke up with that tiny denial on her lips, it was because she was dreaming of Missy. It was the one place he couldn't protect her.

Danni pressed her lips together as the memory of the dream was as clear as the sight of her husband above her. Dancing with the Master, laughing with the Master. "No," she replied softly, knowing what he was really asking. "I wasn't dreaming about her."

She pushed herself up and both Osgood and the Doctor helped her. She didn't feel unsteady, but she could barely feel anything at all. Now that she was waking up she remembered everything. The plane explosion, the phone call. Clara.

Her hands clenched in the rocks and sand around her. They'd killed her. They'd killed Clara. She wasn't ready for that, yet, but she didn't have time to be upset. She just had to help stop the impending war. Then she would make them pay.

Osgood looked at the Doctor, seeing the concern he was feeling at Danni's blank look. "Danni?" she asked slowly but got no response. "We-We should go."

The Doctor nodded. He wrapped an arm around Danni and helped her up, but the moment he did she shoved him off her, feeling suffocated. He didn't take it personally, but it still rather hurt that she didn't want him to hold her.

"Any questions?" he asked Osgood.

"Why do you have a Union Jack parachute?" she asked in reply.

"Er, camouflage," he offered and she frowned. He waved around them. "We're in Britain," he offered before noticing the broken glasses in her hands. "Oh, your specs are broken. I'll fix them." He took them off her and quickly passed her his sonic sunglasses. "You can wear mine, they're sonic."

Osgood smiled, amused as she slipped them on. "Isn't that a bit pointless? Like a visual hearing aid?"

"What's wrong with pointless?" the Doctor countered. "I once invented an invisible watch. Spot the design flaw."

"You're talking nonsense to distract me from being really scared. It's one of your known character traits," Osgood said knowingly, with a little nod because it was working. She couldn't help but analyse everything but he was doing it to help and it really was helping.

Danni remembered that watch. He'd shown it to her, once. Or, rather, he'd handed it to her once. The watch that turned you invisible was definitely a step up from it.

But she didn't care. She didn't care about the banter, or the plane, or his stupid inventions where he really should have known better. All she cared about was Clara. Poor fantastic, brave, wonderful Clara who had been killed because of a stupid experiment they were playing on the Earth. She felt devastated, and broken, but most of all just angry.

She turned and stormed off away from them both, pulling her gun out and letting it hang at her side, ready for any fight coming her way.

The Doctor pointed at Osgood. "Don't look at my home videos," he warned before darting after her.

Osgood couldn't help herself. Being told not to do something was the exact way to get her to do it. She pressed the top of the sunglasses and was greeted with a rather… intimate video she didn't need to see. "Woah," she exclaimed, pressing the button to get rid of it.

"I said 'don't'," the Doctor muttered to himself before falling into step with Danni. "Danni, slow down."

She shook her head. "You may not give a shit anymore, Theta, but they killed Clara," she ranted angrily. "There's been enough bloodshed. I'm not going to let her death be in vain. This ends now."

"I-I know," he stuttered out, reaching for her arm. "You just need to stop for a moment."

She did, turning her anger at him. "She's my best friend!" she raged. "You and Clara were the only things I thought about that kept me fighting to escape. I'm-I'm not ready for this, she isn't ready for this. I'm going to tear them apart for taking her!"

"I know!" he reassured her. "But we're trying to stop a war, not start one!"

"Oh, this isn't war," she replied. "This is vengeance."

"Is-Is everything okay?"

Osgood had joined them, just between the two. Danni was furious, the Doctor was pleading with her and Osgood knew that neither of those things were a good combination. With them being her two favourite people to study and, well, fan over she didn't want to see them locking horns.

"Yes," Danni replied shortly.

"No," the Doctor replied softly. Danni shook her head.

"I noticed something," Osgood offered. "We're not dead."

"Well done," the Doctor replied. "Glad UNIT is putting that brain of yours to full use."

"What I mean is, why didn't the Zygon blow us up with her big bazooka?"

"She did blow us up with her big bazooka," the Doctor replied as they started walking again. "This is us being blown up with a big bazooka."

Danni shook her head. "No, that was the plane being blown up with her big bazooka," she replied. "We jumped and she didn't seem to care."

"She seems to know what she's doing," Osgood continued. "The first thing I'd do if I wanted to invade the world would be to kill you."

"Thanks," the Doctor replied sarcastically.

"I wouldn't even let you get talking, like you always do. Bullet between the eyes, first thing. Both of you."

"We get the point, sweetie," Danni interrupted.

"Twelve times, if necessary."

"Ah, yes. Why limit yourself?" the Doctor drawled. "You've really thought this through, haven't you?"

"I'm a big fan," she explained with a sheepish smile. "But she gave you a chance to get out. She hesitated. If she had Clara's memory print, she'd know better than to give you even a second." The Doctor glanced at Danni, who was looking straight forward, lips pursed together. The mention of Clara had sent her back into her mind and, if even the last minute was to go by, that wasn't a good thing.

He couldn't help but think about Danni's kill count. How many of that had been self defence, and how many had been out of vengeance? Would she ever tell him? Did he even want to know?

"Why do they want to destroy the ceasefire?" Osgood asked, moving the subject away from Clara as they reached the main road.

"Don't think of them as rational. They're different," the Doctor replied. "They don't care about human beings, they don't care about their own people. They think the rest of Zygonkind are traitors."

Danni paused as her phone tingled, alerting her to a new text. It was from Clara. Or, rather, the Zygon that wasn't going to have a good time once Danni got her hands on it.

I'm awake.

Her brows furrowed as she stared at it. What did that even mean? Why the hell was the Zygon contacting her when they thought all three of them were dead? Even she had to admit it was a pretty strange taunt to send.

The Doctor and Osgood looked at the phone. "Is that from Clara?" Osgood asked. "Well, not Clara. They Zygon who…"

The Zygon who killed her. That was how that sentence was supposed to end. But Danni shook her head. "No," she replied. "It's from Clara."

"Danielle…" the Doctor started.

"I know Clara," Danni interrupted. "This is Clara."

"She tried to blow us up with a big bazooka," he reminded her.

"Yes, tried," Danni pointed out. She turned to Osgood. "You know Clara. You worked with Clara. Do you think that she wouldn't, for one moment, try and fight back control from someone who had taken it from her?"

"She did, on more than one occasion, take over safety talks because they weren't being given in the right way," Osgood said.

"That does sound like Miss Oswald," the Doctor agreed a little harshly. Danni didn't care.

"This isn't just some Zygon on the rampage." She held up the phone, showing him the message. "This isn't Clara just telling us she's awake inside her pod. This is Clara telling us she's alive."

He saw the hope in her eyes, the way she held the phone tightly as if it was a lifeline. He saw the murderous rage fade away and, while he didn't get on with Clara anymore he still had never wished her dead. But knowing that this might be the hope that she needed to bring her down from her intent to kill the Zygon who had wronged her, he did something he wasn't exactly proud of; he nodded, letting her have the hope that he still wasn't sure was there.

"The Zygon probably doesn't even know it sent this, or why it misfired that bazooka," Osgood reasoned.

"We've got to hurry," Danni declared. "We don't know how long she's got and we need to find her!"

~0~0~0~

"She's not answering," Osgood said, pulling Danni's phone away from her ear.

"Keep trying," Danni replied as they looked around. She hadn't been able to call Clara herself. She hadn't wanted the Zygon to answer and tell her Clara was really dead this time. She knew she had to stay more controlled, and that meant that someone had to be in the intimidate between the two.

"We need transport," the Doctor said. "We need to get back to the TARDIS, somehow." He spotted the police car just up the road and his eyes lit up. "Ah, that's more like it. A bit of good luck for once."

The trio rushed up to the window and the policemen inside opened it, looking at them with rather blank looks. "Doctor John Disco," the Doctor introduced himself. "And my wife, Mrs Jane Disco." He held out his psychic paper, showing them the identities he'd just made up. "That was her plane. Well, our plane. We had a big plane for purposes of, er, poncing about."

"Really?" Danni muttered. She leant forward, looking at the two policemen who didn't seem too bothered by the raving man and his friends. "Hey, you know what, it doesn't matter," she said. "He's been on the rum. It happens. We'll get him home."

She grabbed his arm and dragged him away, Osgood on their heels. "They're everywhere," she hissed. "What do we do?"

Osgood pulled the phone away from her ear. "She's answered," she explained, holding the phone out to the Doctor.

Danni, who had been very happy with the plan for her not to talk to the Zygon Clara up until that point, snatched the phone before they could stop her. With one press of the screen she switched it into video mode. Clara's face appeared on the screen, hair pulled back.

"You're dead," Zygon-Clara declared.

"Yeah, we do that," Danni dismissed. "Is Clara alive?"

"She was ever so fond of you, as well," the Zygon continued.

"Is Clara alive?" Danni repeated as the Doctor motioned to a van in front of them to use as their getaway. "And bear in mind, any answer you give will be directly related to the answer to anything you ask and your continued existence."

"Danielle," the Doctor warned as Osgood unlocked the van with the Doctor's glasses. Danni ignored him.

Zygon-Clara paused for a moment, weighing up the options given. "For now," she offered. "Not much longer."

Danni felt her whole body relax in relief. "Why are you trying to end the ceasefire?" she asked. "What's your plan of attack?"

"I don't have a plan."

Danni scoffed. "Don't have a plan? You're currently wearing a time traveller and UNIT operative's face. You blew up a plane. Come on, don't be an idiot all your life."

"I don't have a plan," she repeated. The Doctor climbed into the driver's seat of the van, Danni in the back and Osgood in the passenger seat. The Doctor turned around in his seat, grabbing the phone from Danni, who was happy to give it to him at that point. She knew Clara was alive, that was all that mattered to her. Saving the world, now, was a team effort.

"Come on, you don't invade planets without having kind of plan. That's why they're called planets, to remind you to plan it? Hey, hey! That's good!" He turned to Osgood. "Pun-tastic. Doctor Pun-tastic!" He didn't wait to see her grimace in response, instead he turned back to the phone. "Oh, come on, that was a good one, Zygella!"

"Don't call me Zygella. My name's Bonnie," she corrected proudly. She then winked at them. The Doctor frowned, confused.

"And you're winking at me," he declared.

"I am not winking at you," she dismissed. "Where is the Osgood box?"

"You do know what winking means?" he asked. "You do also know that the only person I like winking me is in the van and not, well, wherever you are?"

"I am not winking at you. Where is the box?" Bonnie demanded.

"Doctor, they're coming," Danni warned him.

"Okay. Non-verbal communication," he declared before addressing Clara inside Bonnie's head. "I assume that you never bothered to learn Morse code," he said, a little too mockingly for Danni's taste. "We'll have to try something else. Twenty questions. Where's your pod? Is it in a tunnel? Is it in London?"

Bonnie's eye continued to wink and, finally, she seemed to notice it. She covered the eye with her hand then, seemingly realising she had two eyes, she covered them both. It didn't matter though. Clara had given him enough information and he grinned. "About time you did something useful," he said. "Stay where you are, Oswald. We're coming to get you. And for God's sake, don't let her into your memories. Don't tell her where the Osgood box is, and above all, don't tell her what it is."

He hung up the phone then chucked the phone back to Danni. He set up with a bit of a wheelspin, driving away from the policemen who had been advancing.

"Obviously, the Zygon could hear that," Osgood pointed out.

"Obviously."

"So she's going to poke around inside Clara's mind, looking for answers," she continued.

"The mind of Clara Oswald. It's a dark and twisted place. She may never find her way out."

"Can you stop talking about my best friend like that?" Danni snapped. "You may have given up on her, but I haven't. Play nice!"

"But she tried to…."

"She tried to kill me, yes, I know," Danni snapped. "That's not the worst thing that's ever happened, you know? She didn't actually kill me. People try and kill me all the time. If I stayed angry at each of them I'd have no time to do anything else."

"She broke our trust, my trust," the Doctor protested.

"And she's the first one you went to when I was taken," Danni retorted. She saw his alarmed look on his face. "Yeah, didn't think I'd find that out, did you?"

"Did she tell you that?" he asked.

"No, actually, Missy did," she replied. "Right after meeting Santa."

The Doctor glanced at his wife in the rear-view mirror. "Santa?" he asked. "You mean at the North Pole? With the Dream Crabs?"

"When else?"

"That actually happened?" he asked. "That was actually you?"

Danni looked at the back of her husband's chair, a little baffled. "Yeah, of course it did," she replied. "I thought Clara would have told you."

"She did. I just- How?"

Danni shrugged. "Missy," she offered. "She wanted me to see you leave me to die of your own accord so I'd give up waiting for you. It backfired and it just gave me the resolve to escape."

The Doctor couldn't help it. He grinned. He had held onto that strange encounter with the hope that it was her that had really appeared, but never with the actual belief it was. But it had been. That had been his wife. Across all of time and space they'd reached out and they'd found each other.

"God, you're amazing," he told her and she shifted slightly, blushing but she didn't say a word.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you smile before," Osgood told the Doctor. "I'd have much rather seen that than how I saw you before."

"I told you not to look," the Doctor said.

"Look at what?" Danni asked, confused.

"The video…" Osgood started.

"It was nothing. Nothing at all," the Doctor interrupted before she could say anything that might have incriminated him.

Danni frowned. "Video?" she repeated before quickly working out that, with Osgood wearing his sunglasses, she would have had access to everything. "You told me you weren't storing that on them!"

"I wasn't, I'm not," he quickly reassured her. "I just didn't have time to take it off before we left the TARDIS."

"You promised me that it would never leave the TARDIS! I wouldn't have let you record anything…"

"Let me record anything? It was your idea! How was I supposed to know she'd go snooping?"

"Please stop talking," Osgood begged. "I really don't need to hear this."

~0~0~0~

Bonnie hadn't done a great job hiding her location. Along with the text Clara had sent them, posting a video online filmed at the same spot gave them a point to start from. It was one of London's smaller, less loved estates.

The Doctor, it seemed, was better driving a car than he was the TARDIS. That may have come down to the fact that a car was designed to be driven by just one person, but Danni was certain that he did like the jolting around even in this regeneration. He still skidded as he parked the car, though, and was out of the front in a hurry.

She was surprised when he opened the back door before she had a chance to. At her confused look his held his hand out to her. "Ever the gentleman," she said and he bowed his head slightly.

"There's always time for a bit of class," he replied, helping her out. She looked around at the unkept greenery and the tower blocks that made up the area.

"Western Earth never seem to be able to create nice estates," she commented as they headed past a pedestrian bridge with the Zygon logo sprayed onto it. "I went to this lovely estate once, on Hugustus. Well-kept gardens, care and pride went into every small shack. They could teach a lot to humans about that."

"You've been to Hugustus?" the Doctor asked, surprised.

"I lived there for two months once," she explained. "It was really nice until word started to spread that I was there. I had to leave pretty sharpish. That and the local wordsmith wanted to marry me. Said I'd be a fantastic mother to his seventeen children. Wanted me to have number eighteen." She looked up at him. "Have you ever been?"

He shook his head. "Always wanted to," he replied quickly. "Who wanted to marry you?"

Danni turned to Osgood. "Where was the video shot?"

"And he wanted you to do what?" the Doctor continued.

"Just over there," Osgood replied, pointing to a building that bore the sign 'Fleet Estate Centre'. The Doctor grabbed his wife's arm.

"You can't- You can't just dump that information and not follow up!" he protested.

"Zygon invasion, sweetie," she reminded but he stared at her until she sighed. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

"Did you?" he asked.

"Did I what?"

"Marry him?"

She looked at him for a moment like he had two heads. Then she sighed heavily. "My lord, you really are Doctor Idiot, aren't you?" she stated before turning around. "Come on, we have to stop everything getting worse."

He had known it was a stupid question and took her response not as a slight on him but as confirmation that he was, indeed, being an idiot. He followed her and Osgood into the centre. Immediately he felt the air sizzle and he paused.

"There's electricity in the air," he commented.

"It stinks," Osgood replied, her nose wrinkled up as Danni continued inwards. "It smells like barbecues."

"That'll be why," Danni said. She looked down at the sparking, sizzling piles of hairy lumps which were, most likely, remains of the humans that the Zygons would have encountered.

"Oh."

Danni shot her a soft smile, encouraging her to continue forward through the dark building. They walked past a few closed shops, illuminated only by the flashlights they carried.

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked out of the blue. Osgood and Danni shared a look as it took, just a moment, for them to realise that he was talking to Osgood.

"Osgood."

"No, no, no. Your first name?" he asked. She glanced at him before busying herself with looking everyone else.

"What's your first name?" she countered. Which, the Doctor had to admit, was a fair question to ask. Not one he could answer, but a fair question none the less.

"Basil." Danni snorted and he pouted slightly. Even if she hadn't, there was no way Osgood would have believed him.

"Petronella," she offered. The Doctor tried not to look like it was a horrid name, but she knew it was. It was why she never went by it. She still wasn't sure why her parents had cursed her with it.

"Let's just, er, stick with what we had," the Doctor replied and she agreed.

"You know, when Jack used to talk about his daughter and he couldn't say it was me, he used to call her 'Ella'," Danni commented offhandedly just to see Osgood perk up. "Just, you know, in case you ever felt like a different nickname. There's nothing wrong with Osgood, but sometimes people like a change. You could have that, if you like."

Osgood smiled, grateful and the Doctor realised that they were probably getting closer to where they needed to be. "I need to ask you, because it's important, because it might matter," he told Osgood.

"No," Danni replied shortly. "You're not asking it again."

"It might matter, later on," he replied and she shook her head.

"We're trying to stop a war between humans and Zygons. We're trying to help them come to terms to a world where it doesn't matter. How does asking that question help achieve that?"

He didn't have time to answer her, he had to admit, rather apt question. A door to a nearby shop opened and the accompanying squelching noise suggested that there was a Zygon heading inside. They quickly followed after them, seeing them in full form before they dashed into the store.

"We can help you!" the Doctor called after them. A moment later a large, rather sweaty and ill-looking man appeared from behind one of the shelving units.

"It wasn't me. They attacked me. They saw me. I had to," he explained and he squelched but didn't change. Instead he let out a painful groan.

"Woah, woah, it's okay," Danni replied. "What happened to you?"

"A commander came. She turned me back!" he said, horrified before groaning again as his face contorted.

"We can help. We can help you," Osgood reassured him before turning to the Time Lords. "Doctor, we can help him, can't we?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor admitted. He hadn't seen anything like it before. Whatever the officer had done to them – and he assumed it was the fake Clara – was rather nasty and he had no idea how they'd achieved it.

The man chucked his hand out and a burst of electricity flew out and hit the Doctor. He staggered and Danni caught him as she glared at the Zygon. "Oi!" she called after the Zygon as the Doctor quickly blinked the attack away. "Are you alright?"

"We can't let them get away," the Doctor replied and they followed them into the store room. They were hiding amongst the stock, looking panic and pained and it was awful to see.

"I can't help you just now, but…" the Doctor tried but they just shot some more electricity at the Doctor. This time Danni was ready, pushing him just enough out of the way that it only his arm was hit.

"Why? I was happy like this. I was happy here," the Zygon declared. "I can't change, I can't hide."

"Let us help you," Osgood begged but he hissed, stepping away.

"No! You're Truth or Consequences," he declared. She shook her head. Human or Zygon, or both, it didn't matter. Seeing him in so much pain hurt and she wished, more than anything, that her sister was there to back her up. But she wasn't. Osgood was alone and she had to find the strength to help where she could.

"We're not. We're really not," she promised.

He groaned again, fighting his transformation. "I'm not part of your fight," he lamented. "I never wanted to fight anyone, I just wanted to live here. Why can't I just live?" He raised his hand up, pointing his palm towards his own face. "I can't go back now. You've taken my life!"

Realising what he was going to do, the Doctor shot forward. "No, no, no! Stop!"

The Zygon met his gaze. "They will kill me," he said softly before shooting an electric bolt at himself. He disintegrated, leaving behind nothing but a pile of sparking hair.

"There it is, Osgood," the Doctor said lowly. "There's their plan." He raised his gaze, looking at his wife. She was staring at the remains of the Zygon with no expression, nothing to suggest that she was happy, or sad. The Doctor had come to realise that it just meant she was processing her own emotions, hiding them from the surface because she couldn't afford to let them free. Because she was terribly sad.

He grabbed her hand on the way past, but he didn't have to pull her behind him. It seemed that she was just as eager to get out as he was. They all kept quiet as they made their way back into the centre.

"They're trying to scare everyone to death," Danni said quietly. "They want to make everyone as afraid as him, don't they?"

"Unmask everyone, provoke fear, paranoia, provoke a war," the Doctor agreed. It terrified Danni, because it was a tactic that Missy had used on her before. One that had, for a short time, worked completely. It was tried and tested and proven to work. And it was hard to beat.

"Doctor!" The trio came to a stop as Kate Stewart appeared, alive and well, with two UNIT grunts on either side of her.

"Kate," the Doctor greeted, pulling his wife to a stop by his side. Even Osgood was looking at her boss wearily. "Are you all right?"

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" she dismissed.

"It's just we'd heard otherwise," the Doctor replied.

She shook her head. "I'm fine," she said as if it was supposed to reassure her. In fact, it just made him feel more uneasy. "Doctor, we know where the Zygon command centre is. We know where Clara's pod is. We can take you there."

"Well, how very convenient, because that's just exactly what we're looking for," he purred in reply. Kate's brows furrowed for a moment, like she wasn't quite sure what he was insinuating, before giving a nod of her head to tell them to follow her.

With a shared, concerned, look they did just that.

~0~0~0~

Thank you all for your kind words. I promise I'll get back to replying to reviews next week.

Thanks for reading xxx