CHAPTER 2

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GUMMING UP THE WORKS

The Half-Face Man finally left Reinette and Clara alone for a while shortly after he told them the gruesome details about what he was about to do to them. Reinette realized that he thought that she was now completely helpless and that there was no way that she could escape or he never would have done such a thing. As she struggled unsuccessfully for several minutes to escape from the complicated knots that he had tied in the ropes binding her, she wasn't so sure that he wasn't right about that either.

"Jeanne, hurry! He could come back at any time," Baroness Clara said in a frightened voice.

Reinette stiffened because this was one of the few times that she had ever heard any real fear in Clara's voice during one of their adventures together. That made her all the more determined to get her out of this in one piece somehow. She was never going to let anything happen to her as a result of going on one of her monster hunts. Not even if she had to die herself in order to keep her safe.

Let the Doctor's assertions of her importance to history be hanged in that situation.

"Think. Think!" Reinette muttered to herself as she wracked her brain (and the Doctor's memories) for a way to save them both while she still had the time.

Then she smiled as she came across the Once Lonely Angel's memories of a man who wouldn't even be born for over a hundred years. He was a master of escape from any and all forms of restraint.

She held her breath now as she prepared herself for the immense pain that was about to shoot through her body. Then she purposely dislocated her shoulder by striking it hard against the wall behind her.

As Reinette screamed out in pain, Clara shouted, "What are you doing?!"

"Using an escape method that the Doctor learned from a man named Harry Houdini, and it's just as painful as I thought that it would be," Reinette said through gritted teeth as she winced from the searing pain that now shot through her shoulder.

"Jeanne, are you alright?" Clara asked as she could see Reinette starting to turn pale and sweat profusely from the intensity of the pain.

"I'll be alright," Reinette lied as she now proceeded to slowly escape the ropes despite the almost irresistible urge to pass out.

As soon as she finished untying herself and then Clara, Reinette took a deep breath and then slammed her dislocated shoulder back into the wall once again. She smiled as she felt it go back into place once more.

"Stop that before you kill yourself!" Clara shouted as Reinette immediately fell forward into her arms after coming even closer to passing out that time.

"I freed us didn't I?" Reinette said in a voice still filled with pain.

"Yeah, but it may have been all for nothing if we can't get out of here. I think he locked the door when he left. It sounded like a lock clicked," Clara said as she gently helped Reinette back to her feet.

Clara tried the door and frowned as she said, "Yes, it's locked. I really hope that you brought your fancy new lockpick with you and that you can actually get it to work this time."

"It's not just a lockpick, Clara. It's called a sonic pen according to its previous owner, and I believe that I've finally learned how to use it correctly now. At least as far as picking locks go anyway. I still haven't figured out how to access all of its other uses just yet unfortunately," Reinette said as she pointed the pen at the lock.

Reinette had taken the sonic pen from an alien woman who had killed several citizens of Paris while promising them that she would help them lose weight with her 'miracle cure'. Reinette shuddered as she still vividly remembered seeing one poor woman literally dissolve into dozens of beings that she could only describe as walking pieces of fat.

The murderous woman behind all of this had only just escaped in time to avoid being captured by Reinette's Musketeers by using some kind of beam to travel up into an alien ship that had come to collect her. She always had wondered where she had gone to next after that. She hoped that wherever she wound up next that they were far more successful at stopping her than she had been.

Reinette smiled as she could hear the lock suddenly click open once again, and she triumphantly opened the door as she smirked at Clara. That would teach her to doubt her intelligence in the future!

Clara smiled as she said, "I knew that mocking you about it would spur you on to mastering it sooner or later. Besides that you're simply too stubborn to let anything stump you for long not even technology from another world."

Reinette smiled as she said, "Yes, I suppose you're right about that. You have to admit that my refusal to ever give up has gotten both of us out of certain death on more than one occasion however so I wouldn't talk so badly about it if I were you, Clara."

"I wasn't. I admire you highly for it actually, Madame de Bull," Clara admitted with a wicked smile.

Reinette glared at her as she said, "Don't start calling me by one of your cute little nicknames, Clara. I'm not in the mood for them right now. My shoulder is still aching immensely."

"Yes, I'm sure it is, Jeanne, and whose fault is that again?" Clara teased her even as she gave her a brief hug of gratitude.

Reinette immediately cried out in intense pain as Clara said apologetically, "Sorry. I thought I was being gentle."

"Stop testing my affection for you and hurry up if you don't want to get caught again, Baroness," Reinette said in a curt tone as she quickly unlocked the front door of the building.

"Sorry," Clara said again as she realized that she had pushed her too far even as she followed her outside.

Reinette smiled at her and said, "Wipe away that scared look on your face, Clara. You know that you're the one person in the world that I could never stay angry at for long although sometimes you push me to the very limits of my forgiveness."

"I'm always afraid someday that I'll go too far even for you though," Clara admitted.

"It'll never happen," Reinette assured her as she began to take in their surroundings.

She realized now that she had been right earlier. The cottage that they had just been in was in the same rundown area of Paris where the murders had occurred. To her surprise though, Versailles was still visible from it. She could actually see the comings and goings of everyone in and out of the palace where she stood.

"No wonder he knew exactly where to find us. He's been watching us," Reinette realized.

"Of course I have. I've been watching all of you at the royal court from afar for a while now, Marquise. That's why I picked you to be my wife because I found out about the massive amount of influence that you have there. I'll need that power in order to keep my activities from being discovered until I'm ready to leave," The Half-Face Man said as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"I'm afraid that's never going to happen. You're not facing a person on their last legs now. This time I'm ready for you," Reinette said.

The Half-Face Man smiled as he said, "Are you also ready to fight yourself as well?"

"What?" Reinette said in confusion.

"Jeanne, look out!" Clara screamed.

Reinette moved just in time to avoid being punched in the face, but unfortunately she didn't escape being hit in the shoulder in the very next moment.

It was the very same one that had previously been dislocated.

Reinette screamed in agonizing pain even as she finally realized exactly who her newest assailant was: herself! She was being assaulted by an exact duplicate of herself.

"She could be my twin and yet she's obviously one of your kind instead. How did you do this?" Reinette asked as she ducked yet another powerful punch that had almost connected with her other shoulder.

The Half-Face Man smiled as he said, "Did I do a good job in recreating your likeness, Marquise? I believe that I created a perfect double of you so that no one will ever be able to tell that you're any different. I formed her from memory out of flesh and blood and metal so that I would have an indestructible body to place your brain inside. It will be a body that will constantly keep your mind under my complete control with the neural implants that I have placed within its head that will plug directly into your mind."

"You're not doing anything to her while I'm around, Metal Boy," Clara said as she threw a large stone at the Half-Face Man's head which made him cry out in surprise.

He looked at her in anger as she said, "What's the matter? Did you forget all about me during your little rant?"

"No, I haven't forgotten you at all, my dear. I have a little surprise planned for you as well," Half-Face Man said as he began to smile now.

Clara's heart stopped for a brief moment as a perfect duplicate of her now appeared and began racing towards her. She now knew that Half-Face Man had the same fate planned for her as he did Reinette. He was going to place her brain in a mechanical duplicate of herself that he could use to control her.

As Clara dodged her double's deadly attacks, she said, "I still don't understand why you want me for? Is it because of the influence that I have over my cousin, the king? If it is, you're making a huge mistake. He never listens to me. Ever."

"I don't want you for your connection to the king. I want you for your access to someone far more powerful than he could ever be. The TARDIS of a Time Lord. I will use your mind to peer into the mind of Clara Oswald through your mental connection to her. Using you, I will know everything that she knows, and I will be able to see everything that the Doctor is doing," The Half-Face Man said.

"How do you know about Clara and the Doctor?" Clara asked in surprise as she continued to run for her life from her murderous metal duplicate.

"I was told about both of them and you and your friend by a man of your very own time oddly enough. He seemed to know all about them including what they would do to me when they run across me in my own future. He's the one who warned me that the Doctor was supposed to lead me to my death in the late 1800s. That will never happen now though. I'll make sure of it and you'll help me by telling me of his every movement. Maybe I'll eventually even gain enough control over you where I'll be able to make you lead him straight into a trap that he'll never even see coming," The Half-Face Man said with an evil laugh.

"You haven't gotten either of us yet and now that I know what you have planned I'll make sure that you never will," Reinette said as she overheard him.

"You have no choice, Marquise. Sooner or later, you will tire and begin to wear down. That's when your duplicate will finally capture you because it will never grow tired. It will just keep going until it finally has you," The Half-Face Man said with a smug smile.

Reinette knew that this was true because she could already feel herself beginning to tire. The throbbing pain in her shoulder wasn't helping either. It seemed to actually be sapping her strength the longer that it hurt her.

She had to think quickly or both she and Clara would be doomed to a life of eternal servitude.

Then she smiled to herself as she pulled the remnants of one of Clara's soufflés out of her pocket. Surely if it could kill one of the Doctor's monsters, then perhaps it could also help destroy one of these new half human metal men as well.

The trick was in getting her double to ingest it without getting captured first.

She decided to take a calculated risk as she suddenly stopped running and said, "I surrender."

Reinette's double was now frozen in her tracks and stood there hesitating as Reinette said, "Well, go on. Take me. I'm ready."

The mechanical woman moved at lightning speed in the blink of an eye and was suddenly standing right in front of Reinette as she started to wrap one of her powerful arms around her. That was when Reinette moved quickly before she could pin her arms to her sides and pushed part of the soufflé into her mouth.

Reinette's duplicate suddenly stopped moving and then seemed to completely freeze up within a matter of moments while she watched her. It had worked! The soufflé had completely clogged up the gears and cogs inside of the double's metal body and forced them to stop moving before she could kill her.

"What was that?" The Half-Face Man said as he stared at her in disbelief.

"It was my greatest weapon apparently," Reinette said with a smile.

"Whatever it is, I could use some of it over here, Jeanne. Now!" Clara shouted as she continued to run from her double's relentless pursuit.

"You already have some. It's in your pocket. You never finished eating it," Reinette said.

"My soufflé? You stopped the metal woman with my soufflé?! Ordinarily I'd be extremely insulted by that, but right now I just don't care," Clara said as she did the same thing that Reinette had done and surrendered to her double.

Even as Clara clogged her double's internal gears up with what was left of her soufflé (which had tasted so badly that even she hadn't been able to finish it), Reinette started to race after the Half-Face Man who had started to flee the scene in case either woman had any soufflé left over for him. The tables were turned now as Reinette started to pursue the robotic killer instead of the other way around.

The funny thing was that she had absolutely no idea what she would do if she caught him. Unfortunately she had already run out of the soufflé.

She wasn't thinking about that at the moment however. For once she was acting on pure emotion and allowing it to override her usual calm logical approach that she used when it came to dealing with the monsters that invaded her home. She just wanted to stop him right then and there so that he could never come back and bother her again.

She was tired of being the clockwork men's victim.

As it turned out, Reinette didn't need to have a plan. The Half-Face Man was suddenly face to face with several of her Musketeers including Captain Lefevre who were all pointing either guns or swords at him.

"Surrender now or die," Lefevre threatened.

The Half-Face Man briefly hesitated and then he raced right towards them. He moved so quickly that he knocked all of the Musketeers over with a single massive shove forward, and then he raced away before any of the men could fire a single shot. He was completely out of sight before they could even get to their feet to go after him.

As the Musketeers chased after him, Reinette had a feeling that they would never catch up to him now. He was gone. She hoped that he never returned.

He would never return to Paris again but it wouldn't be the last that anyone ever saw of him. One day he would reappear in the middle of London in the late 1800s, and he would be waiting for the Doctor and Clara there.

He was still determined that he was not going to die there as the Italian ambassador at the Spanish court had warned him that he would when he had briefly stayed in Spain. This time history would change, and it would be the Doctor who died instead.

Then he would use the power of his wife to finally take him to the Promised Land at last.

Captain Lefevre stayed behind with Reinette and Clara while the other Musketeers searched for the Half-Face Man. He could see that they were both near exhaustion, and he led them back into the cottage that had once imprisoned them so that they could sit down and relax for a moment.

"I'm sorry that I didn't get here sooner, Marquise. I didn't realize that you were even missing until you failed to show up for our scheduled monster patrol today. When we went to your room to check up on you, we quickly realized that your bed hadn't even been slept in. That's when we started to look for you in this area. I had a feeling, knowing you and the Baroness as I do, that both of you would be here along with our mysterious killer. The two of you are always right in the middle of any trouble that happens to be in the area at that moment," Lefevre said.

Then he realized exactly who he was saying this to and immediately apologized as he said, "I'm sorry. I apologize most humbly for my blatant disrespect."

Reinette and Clara both laughed at him as Reinette said, "What is it that you're apologizing for, Captain? Telling us the truth about ourselves? I believe that we can handle it."

Lefevre looked at them in surprise and then smiled as he said, "You're not going to report me to the king then?"

"Of course not, Captain. We like you. We're not going to have you killed just for hurting our feelings a little bit. Honest," Clara said with a warm smile.

"Thank you," Lefevre said gratefully.

Then he offered both of them some of his rations as he said, "You both look like you haven't eaten in hours. Have some of this."

As they gratefully ate what he gave them, they became more than his immediate superiors or members of the royal family to him. That was the day that they also became his friends.

At that moment in the Spanish court, Duke Federico Moretti, the same Italian ambassador who had warned Half-Face Man about the Doctor, frowned at the news that he was now receiving. He had just heard that the Half-Face Man was still in the London of the late 1800s and about to cross the Doctor's path in the exact same way after all instead of those events being completely changed as he had hoped that they would be.

He was hearing about this from a man who was his exact duplicate who lived in that future time and place and was communicating that fact to him across the ages telepathically. Both men were part of an old enemy of the Doctor's named Scaroth who had been splintered and scattered across time on Earth just as Clara had been throughout time and space.

Unlike Clara's echoes who could only talk to her, they could all communicate with each other as well. They were now using this ability to work together in the hopes of changing history so that the Half-Face Man would kill the Doctor instead of the other way around as a way of gaining their revenge on him.

It seemed that that attempt to change things had failed however, and they were both still on a collision course with each other anyway. Only time itself would show whether the Half-Face Man's foreknowledge of his own fate would save him from death this time around or not.

For the moment at least though time was still in flux, and nothing had been set in stone just yet. The Doctor still had a chance to save himself. It was a chance that he would have never had without Reinette and Baroness Clara, who was even now warning Clara Oswald about what had just happened through her connection to her.

Both sides were now evenly forewarned so that the upcoming battle between them could still go either way without either possessing an advantage over the other. The ultimate victory could still go to either man.

That's a story for another time though.

Next: Reinette and Clara come across a mysterious and secretive woman with fiery red hair and strange looking clothing who has seemingly appeared right out of thin air. It's up to Reinette and Clara to discover the truth about this strange girl. Is she as lost and disoriented as she seems to be or is she yet another one of the many monsters who routinely invade France these days in disguise? Exactly who is this woman who calls herself Amy Pond?

As for the fate of the Half-Face Man, don't worry. I'll definitely have more to say about that later on. This is only the start of that story. You can think of it as a prequel to the upcoming Clara Who version of Deep Breath that I'm planning.