'Please, Clara, we should go back, we've gone too far.' He tried once more, surprising not only her but himself for pleading. She rounded him, standing so close he could feel her breath as she spoke.

'You're hiding something from me.'

He neared back, hoping she wouldn't follow because being so close to Clara could sometimes make him unsteady and lost for words.

'I'm just as clueless as you are.' He lied, in a tone of voice that gave him away instantly.

'I don't believe that. If it's something dangerous and you know it, we can go help.'

'I don't think we can. Things would worsen.'

'Then tell me what it is. Either way, I'm not leaving without a valid reason we shouldn't go. Give me one and I'll walk back to the TARDIS with you.'

He was at a crossroads. Clara was way too determined sometimes, too reckless, which was something he feared occasionally. It was moments like this she would always have the upper hand. And if he told her the truth there would be no way in hell she would return to the TARDIS with him. He had no other options but to surrender.

He sighed, scratching the back of his head.

'Fine,' she said, 'let's go.'

Following after her in defeat he was struck by an idea, 'what if I told you it was something extremely dangerous that would kill us on sight?'

She laughed mockingly. 'I already know there is no danger.'

'How?'

She turned round, smiling and walking backwards, amusing herself with his confusion.

'Your eyes. I know it's something much bigger than being in danger bothering you. Doctor, that's practically our norm.'

He sighed again, mentally cursing at himself. She was just too good, too much like himself.

They ran down the dunes, Clara whooping with exhilaration, and even he couldn't help a smile flicker over his face.

When they entered the pavilion he looked to Clara, who was already wandering round, smiling at the different species there were and their languages. The Doctor's eyes skimmed over everything, knowing it had been the exact same village as they had visited before. There were creatures polishing and fixing what looked like metal objects, honing in on one particular conversation about only being allowed one half portion, whatever that meant. It was like a tented area, creatures everywhere, even a gigantic beast lapping dirty, grey liquid from a waterhole. Clara's eyebrows raised at it, turning to the Doctor with a wide grin on her face.

'I don't see why you're so worried, Doctor,' she giggled, 'this is spectacular.'

'We haven't seen any humans yet.' He reminded her. 'We don't know if this is all safe.'

Clara stopped next to a workbench where a creature was cleaning rust from what he suspected to be a broken spanner. It came back to him in that moment, and it seemed Clara was contemplating this behaviour as well.

'What are they doing?' She asked him.

'This is a slave trade, Clara,' he told her, features instantly twisting into a frown as he expected they would, 'the currency here are different objects that can be exchanged with food.'

He guessed that was what 'a half portion' meant, then.

'That's horrible!' She said, inspecting her surroundings, creatures everywhere, and they had only just noticed the guards, jabbering commands in a language familiar to everyone. They spotted them, and while the Doctor still wasn't sure of this place, he grabbed Clara's hand and pulled her along, running round the site with the creature hot on their heels. In despair he knew there was no place to hide, no place to run. Expansing sand and an open pavilion with a ton of individuals around them. The guard was so close he could feel the blade of the weapon on his back and whipped round unexpectedly, his sonic glasses already over his eyes. The guard burst into pieces of metal, the Doctor lifting an eyebrow.

'These things are very easy to destroy.' He said, crouching low to expect the fragmented parts.

'Doctor,' Clara said, a hint of warning in her face, and tapping his shoulder impatiently, 'I think they've noticed.'

He whipped round, watching as creatures started to circle around them.

'Again, run.' He said, and this time Clara pulled him by his shoulder and they ran as far as they could to the east of the pavilion, trying to work out in which direction the TARDIS would be. A swarm of creatures followed after them, and the Doctor turned his head to watch them when his body hit something hard in his pathway, and he fell backwards. Sprawled amongst the sand, his eyes flickered to Clara, who was still standing there and he knew that despite everything she was trying not to laugh.

He looked up to see a staff pointed at his chest, and the hard object he'd ran into holding it fiercely. His eyebrows knitted as he realised it was a human, the first one they'd seen so far. He'd be able to talk his way out of it, for sure.

He moved to get up, but her staff poked him back down with a groan. Okay, not so friendly human, then.

Peering beyond the end of the staff he saw the freckled face and brown hair of a girl, eyes squinting down at him. She was young, but that fire behind her eyes made her seem a lot older. He guessed she was a scavenger too. At least Clara wasn't pinned to the ground.

The horde finally caught up, and with a few exchanges of conversation they left, after the girl's tempestuous command to leave them to her. As he understood, it took a lot of persuasion but they retreated after another shout of command from the girl. She was a strong fighter, no doubt about that. He sensed a deep passion and a sort of emotional attachment. To what, he didn't know. All he knew was that he was still on the ground.

'So, you're not going to help me up?' He asked.

She only pushed him back down.

'I didn't save you.' She said in English, her tone as truculent and fierce as her face was but still very innocent.

'Well, that's a relief, I thought I was going to have to say thank you.' He remarked. Clara threw him a look and turned to the girl.

'Listen, we've only just gotten here, my friend didn't mean to be rude. Just lower the staff and let us explain.' She said, somewhat soothingly. Her fingers grasped the staff and the girl looked deploringly into her eyes. Yet when Clara gently eased the point of the staff away from him she didn't protest. The Doctor scrambled to his feet, and in the instance he moved she backed away from them, directing her staff at the pair.

'You destroyed one of them.' She said darkly.

'Yes,' Clara admitted, 'but we mean no harm, truly. It was self defence.'

'Look, could you point that thing away from me?' The Doctor asked in his abrupt Scottish accent.

'Doctor!'

The girl looked quizzically to the both of them, as if trying to make sense of their own foreign language.

'Why are you here?' She demanded to know.

'Random choice. We'll somewhere cooler next time, Clara, it's too hot, even my new waistcoat is sweating.'

'All we know is that you're the only human we've seen so far and we want to find out about this place. Why is everyone enslaved?'

'No, we don't, we need to get back to the TARDIS,' The Doctor said, trying to take Clara's arm along with him but she adamantly stood her ground.

'TARDIS?' The girl inquired.

'My ship,' he explained, 'totally and radically driving in space.'

Clara hit his arm. 'Doctor.' She muttered.

'Ship?'

The girl's face suspiciously lit up at the mention of it, a look that the Doctor didn't like at all.

'We'll be going now, so...' He spun on his heel, walking away, 'I told you we should never have come here, Clara.'

'I'm staying.' She said.

The Doctor's head spun back round to her, unimpressed with her choice.

'We made a mistake of coming here, this girl has a staff and we've been chased by a bunch of creatures who clean metal for a living! We've done enough today.'

'No, I want to know what's going on. We could help these people!'

'They're beyond help, Clara.'

'What's gotten into you?' She accused, walking close to him, 'you're the Doctor. You save people.'

'Not all the time. These creatures have been born and bred into this. You can't expect them to want to leave. Now come on, back to the TARDIS.'

The girl looked on in interest, and Clara looked back at her after giving the Doctor a defiant look. He knew what she was about to do before she did it.

'We can see you don't belong here. You're the only human, aren't you?'

She nodded. Clara's face filled with sympathy.

'Come back with us. We can get you out of here, out of this enslavement.'

'To your ship?'

'Yes.'

The Doctor cocked an eyebrow once again, still rather resentful about the idea. She deliberated, a spark of intrigue in her eyes and Clara smiled. She followed her, The Doctor walking ahead with a sigh. Another passenger, to which he had conceived a dislike. Not so because she had jabbed him to the floor but just because her curiosity perturbed him. He guessed she hadn't seen a ship before. At least he was able to show her exactly how a ship should be made. He tuned in to their conversation as they trudged up the heavy sand.

'What's your name?' Clara asked.

'Rey.'

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, oddly dumbfounded. A memory came back to him, one the most painful of all. He remembered her crying out while being dragged away, a young, childish face begging to return to her father. He remembered his shouts too, his outstretched arms restraining themselves from taking her back into his arms. She was only a child, one that had been separated forever.

'Rey...' Clara said.

He turned around like a lightning bolt, both of them stopping in surprise at his sudden gesture.

'What did you say?' He asked, eyebrows drawn together and a finger pointing at her.

'I didn't say anything.'

'No, no, no, you did 4.78 seconds ago!'

Her face scrunched up in confusion, very similarly to something Clara's face would do.

'I just said 'rey.' My name's Rey.'

He stared in shock, observing the dark hair and the shape of her eyes that definitely belonged to Clara, although they were hazel, a perfect combination of a possible brown and blue, or even green. A narrow face and ferocious eyebrows twinning his own. Not to mention her fighting and weaponry skills. She even had a funny nose like Clara.

'Doctor? Are you alright?' She asked.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.' He said dismissively, turning back round. He thought he'd recognise her as soon as he saw her, but it had taken him too long, even with the hint that she was the only human there. Stupid, stupid Doctor. He hadn't even been entirely sure she'd be there. He knew Clara was feeling an attachment already just from being given her name, a sense of familiarity. He wouldn't tell her. He couldn't.

'How did you end up here?' She asked.

'I was separated from my parents. They promised they'd return one day but I've been waiting a long time. I've been on Jakku ever since.'

Clara gave a pitying glance to the Doctor. If only she knew. If only she knew she was one of those parents.

He spun back round again to look at her, still astounded he hadn't recognised her, hadn't seen her. Such a fool. Although he had been a little preoccupied with the staff in his face. He chuckled lightly to himself. Oh, she was his daughter alright. Commanding, interrogative and very fearless. He could already make out those things just from her personality.