Clara and the rest of her group walked into Clara's flat after the disturbing encounter with the strange men. They were still recovering from their shock.
River flung herself on the couch with a sigh, covering her eyes with her arm. "I'm never going to figure that out."
Clara shook her head. "I never will either. Honestly, who can tell how long someone has been married just by a look on their face? It's just not possible!"
"I know!" River sat up slightly, staring at Clara wide-eyed. "It just doesn't make sense!"
"And he knew I wasn't human." The Woman said as she took a carton of milk out of the fridge to pour a cup for Annie. She set the carton on the counter, eyeing the two women seriously. "In all my thousands of years, no one, no human, has ever been able to tell I wasn't human just by looking at me. If they knew, I told them."
"I think the brother knew too!" River said. "I think he was just trying not to come off as a loon like his sibling." She scoffed. "Who carries an umbrella around on a sunny day?"
"Sounds like the Doctor." Clara muttered.
As if on cue, the whirring, mechanical grinding filled the air, and the blue box materialized in the middle of the flat. The Doctor stepped out, gesturing to them to get inside. "Come on, you lot!"
River sat up. "Where are we going?"
"The Moment has come. Come on!" He looked at the Woman and Annie. "You too!"
"What?" The Time Lady walked up to him, lowering her voice, but it harbored a high level of intensity. "We are not taking a little girl into the Time War!"
"Then what do we suggest we do?" The Doctor asked. "We can't leave you here. All of us are a distinct part of the timeline, and we can't risk leaving her here alone. The Zygons could find her. I promise, if we take her, she will be safe."
The Woman remained silent, and for a second he was afraid that she wouldn't agree, but after a long moment, she sighed. "Fine, but if we go, she is not leaving the TARDIS."
He clapped his hands. "Good! Now let's get going!"
"Wait a minute!" Clara said, grabbing the Doctor's sleeve. "I thought the War Doctor used the Moment alone! Why are we going?"
"We were all there Clara." He murmured to her. "I just… forgot for a while."
"How?"
"Regenerative amnesia in my ninth incarnation that took a long time to recover from."
"Okay…"
He made a swooping gesture. "Now, everyone into the TARDIS!"
As they entered the TARDIS, River looked around. "Where are the other Doctors?"
"I sent them back to their own ships. We meet them on Gallifrey."
Clara wandered up to the Master. "Hey you."
He draped an arm about her shoulders wordlessly.
"How did the wedding go?" She asked.
"Fine." He rolled his eyes in disgust. "You'd think a woman would have better standards than the Doctor."
She giggled.
The Doctor flipped the switch, glancing at the Woman, who stared back at him intensely as the TARDIS began to creak. "Here we go again."
You said you wanted a big red button. Now you have one.
The War Doctor stood silently before the Moment in the old, dusty, ramshackle farmhouse. It had taken the form of a box with a pedestal sticking out, with something that looked like a large red diamond set in the top.
One movement. One big bang, and it's all over. No more Time Lords. No more Daleks. Are you sure?
"I was sure when I came in here." The War Doctor rasped, looking down at the glowing red jewel. "There is no other way."
You have seen the man you will become.
"Those men? They are the Doctor."
You are too.
"No, they are the Doctor. I do not deserve that name." His hand wavered over the button, images of children playing and running and laughing in the sun flashing through his mind. He was about to push it when the Moment interrupted him again.
You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning noise? That sound brings hope to all who hear it, even those who are the most lost.
At that point, the same noise filled his ears. He turned, and saw two TARDISes materializing next to each other at the end of the farmhouse. The two Docctors stepped out at exactly the same moment, the eleventh followed by his friends.
"Go back." The War Doctor said simply. "This is for me."
"We shouldn't even be here." Ten said, looking around. "This is time-locked."
"We got through somehow." The Doctor murmured.
The War Doctor turned back to the Moment. "Leave now and go live out your lives. Be the Doctor I never could be. Make it worthwhile." He rested his hand on the glowing jewel.
"This is buried in my memories." Ten said softly. "You pretended we didn't exist. A secret from myself. You say you weren't the Doctor, but you were the Doctor more than anybody else."
"You were the Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right!" The Doctor told him, coming to his side.
Memories flashed through his mind of the Time War. No More.
"But this time…" He and Ten rested their hands on top of his, covering the button. "…You won't do it alone."
There was a moment of deathly silence, until it was broken by the whisper of the War Doctor. "Thank you."
Ten looked at his other faces, past and future. "What we do today, we do it not out of fear, or anger, or hatred. It is done because there is no other way."
"We do it in the name of the ones we couldn't save." The Doctor finished.
Silence fell once more as the Doctors stood there, steeling their nerves as they prepared to wipe out two entire races. The Time Lords and the Daleks.
The Doctor glanced over, and saw Clara, the Master's arms wrapped around her as she clutched tightly at his shirt. Her eyes were sad, and she shook her head slightly.
"What is it?" He asked, taking his hand off the button slightly.
"Nothing." She said quietly, a single tear slipping from her eye.
"It's something. What is it?"
"Just… You talked about how you wiped them all out. You talked about how you did. I just… never pictured you doing it. That's all."
"There's got to be another way." The Woman said shakily from where she stood, hugging River, staring at them tearfully. "There's got to be a way to save them, Doctor! I was truly horrible. I…" She paused to take a shaky breath. "I lived through it! Over and over, they die. It never ends!"
The Doctor looked at the Master, who regarded him stoically and had an unreadable look in his eyes as he hugged Clara.
"Doctor, please." River looked to be on the verge of tears. "I haven't been through it, but for what it's worth! Save them!"
I will show them.
The group looked around as the shack began to fade away into darkness, the throes of war coming into view.
"What's happening?" Clara asked, clutching the Master tighter as the smoky terrain came into view, watching as a man ran past.
"Nothing." The War Doctor said. "It's a projection."
"The Fall of Arcadia." The Woman whispered.
Clara looked around in horror at the people running in fear, watching as a girl was separated from her mother. The lady called desperately, but to no avail. Flames and smoke rose around them, crowds of people running by them as if they weren't there, their fearful cries echoing through the projection.
She gazed at him fearfully, more tears slipping down her face. "These are the people you're going to burn?"
The Doctor looked at the charred, cracked ground, as if too ashamed to say it as explosion ripped through the city. More people ran past in terror.
"There is nothing we can do." Ten said, staring at the destruction.
The Woman let out a strangled cry as she recognized some of her friends, who now ran past in fear, not seeing her.
"There's always a better solution, Doctor." The Master muttered, staring at the death surrounding him. "For as long as I've known you, ally or enemy, you always found a better solution than… this." He spat out the last word.
"What am I supposed to do Clara?" The Doctor asked, seemingly ignoring the Master's words as he turned to look at her. "It's either kill my own people or let the universe burn!"
She regarded him fearfully. His face, which now had an expression of despair, looked scary in the orange light of the flames surrounding them.
"Look at you." She said, her eyes flickering over them. "The three of you. The Warrior. The Hero. And you."
He stepped away from his incarnations, drawing near to her. "And what am I?"
She pulled away from the Master, regarding him sadly. "Have you really forgotten?"
"Maybe."
"We have enough warriors." She said, looking around at the torn landscape and the soldiers that ran over it. "And anyone can be a hero."
"Then what can I do?" He asked.
She sighed, smiling ever so slightly. "Do what you've always done. Be a Doctor. You told me that the name you chose was a promise. What was the promise?"
"Never cruel or cowardly…" Ten said sadly.
"Never give up. Never give in." The War Doctor rasped.
They looked around as the battle faded away, and the farmhouse returned. The Woman fell to the floor, overcome with the emotions of seeing the battle again. River knelt down and hugged her, slightly overwhelmed herself.
The Doctor gave his other selves a quizzical look, the corners of his lips beginning to turn up slightly.
Ten stared at him. "You're not actually suggesting that we change our own timeline!"
"No, I'm suggesting something far worse."
"And what is that?" The War Doctor asked.
"I've had four hundred years to think about it. I've changed my mind."
Clara began to smile, grabbing the Master's arm.
The Doctor took out his screwdriver and pointed it at the Moment, causing the pedestal to recede back into the box.
"What are you doing?" The Master cried.
"There's still a billion trillion Daleks up there!" The War Doctor stared at his future self as if he had gone mad.
"There is, but…" The Doctor looked at Ten, beginning to smile.
"There's something those billion, trillion Daleks don't know!" Ten said, pointing at his future self eagerly, beginning to grin as well.
"What?" Clara asked, stepping forward excitedly. "What don't they know?"
The Doctor looked at her. "This time, there's three of us."
"Oh!" The War Doctor cried. "Oh!" He grabbed his head, spinning around excitedly. "Oh, yes! That is brilliant!"
"Oh, yes!" Ten jumped around excitedly like a kid on Christmas. "I'm getting that too! That is brilliant!" He ran up to his TARDIS and slapped it good naturedly in his excitement.
"Here we go…" The Master muttered.
"I've had years to think about it." The Doctor said.
"She didn't just show me any old future! She showed me the future I needed to see!" The War Doctor exclaimed.
River and the Woman rose to their feet, staring at the Time Lords in confusion and wonder.
Now you're getting it.
He flung his arms wide. "Oh, Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!"
Yeah, that's going to happen.
Ten looked at him in confusion. "Sorry. Did you say 'Bad Wolf'?"
"So what are we doing?" Clara asked, interrupting them.
"The whole planet is surrounded by Dalek fleets." The War Doctor said. They are firing on Gallifrey nonstop."
"Sky trenches hold them, but what if the whole planet disappeared?" Ten asked.
"How would that help?"
"The planet goes away, and the Daleks destroy themselves in their own crossfire." Ten explained, gesturing with his hands.
"Gallifrey would be gone. The Daleks would be destroyed, and to the rest of the universe it would look like they had annihilated each other!"
"But where would Gallifrey be?" Clara asked.
"Frozen." Ten grinned at her. "Frozen in time and hidden away."
"Exactly." The Doctor said.
The War Doctor leaned forward. "Like a painting."
"Where are we going?" River asked as they tore into the TARDIS.
Annie looked up from where she was making use of some crayons and some paper, and slid off the bench to greet them. "You're back!"
The Doctor spun up to the console. "Well, my past selves are off to initiate the freeze, but my memories say that it's not our time yet. We join in the action some time later. So, for now, I'm taking you home so you can finally get on with your wedding plans without interruption." He flipped the switch, wearing the biggest smile that they had seen in a long time. "But one thing is for certain. Gallifrey stands!"
The Woman and River both embraced the Doctor happily. Tears were streaming down his mother's face, but this time, it was tears of happiness.
"Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you for saving them…"
"It only took me four hundred years." He chuckled.
The day at the Panopticon had forever been burned into her memory. It seemed too cruel, when, for one moment, they were free from the nightmare of the Time War, just to be thrown back into it without a chance. Only until the Doctor had come was when she was finally free, but her friends and family had still suffered in the war. Now, they did so no more.
The Master even smiled ever so slightly, pecking Clara's forehead as she threw her arms around his neck happily.
Annie tugged on the Doctor's pant leg. "Why are you so happy?"
He knelt down to her level, still smiling. "Let's just say that I finally fixed a very big mistake that I once made."
She hugged him. "Yay!"
The Doctor picked her up, looking at Clara and the Master. "Now, you two have a wedding to plan."
Now, the real wedding drama can begin. :P