Relict

by LizzeXX

12/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor and his Bonded, the Professor, have escaped Tenzalore with their lives, new regeneration cycles, and their unborn child surviving their 'Fall.' But with the Promised Land being sought and another woman vying for the Doctor's attention in the Nethersphere, what will become of the Time Lords? What of their child? Or…children? Ninth in the Academic Series.

11. Dark Water

Dark Water

"You really can't tell me their names?" Clara's voice spoke out, echoing through the console room of the TARDIS as the Doctor and Professor moved around, bouncing their children in their arms, trying to get them to stop crying.

They'd fed them, changed them, burped them, dressed them, everything they could think of but the children just kept crying.

They didn't even know what had caused it. The twins had been just fine…till Clara had called. The Doctor wanted to blame Clara for it, something about her voice being too perky for their precious ears, but the Professor was thinking it was something else. Clara had been talking to them for a while before the twins began to cry, asking how they were doing. They'd only just started talking about how the only difficulty they were having was coming up with a set of 'human' names for their children. They couldn't tell other people what the twins' names were, and they couldn't just say 'baby boy' and 'baby girl' they needed to be able to give them some sort of substitute till they could pick a title or name themselves. They'd been going over a list with Clara and then the babies had started to cry.

"No," the Professor sighed, "Only close family knows your true name, so…we just need a stand in till they can pick one."

"I think the names I picked were fine," the Doctor huffed, half swaying in place as he tried to get his daughter to calm.

"Custard and Fish-Fingers are NOT names," Clara reminded him, "They're food!"

"And 'Apple' and 'Pear' are any better?" he scoffed.

"Oi!" the Professor shot him a small glare for knocking her suggestion.

"Look, just…no food names, ok," Clara called, "You'll start to get the joke that they're so cute you could eat them up and it'll get older faster than you two finishing each other's sentences."

"Well then what do you suggest Clara?" the Professor asked.

"I dunno," Clara mumbled, "What are your favorite names in general?"

"Doctor."

"Professor," the Doctor added.

"John."

"Katherine."

"Smith."

"Stewart…

"NOT your own names," Clara cut in, "I meant just…ok, what are your favorite book characters or…or movie characters? Anyone from the telly that you favor?"

"We're not naming our children after celebrities," the Doctor grimaced.

"I meant characters," Clara huffed, "You two must have read loads of books…"

"William?" the Doctor looked at the Professor, "For Shakespeare."

"Charlie," the Professor offered, "For Dickens?"

They considered it a moment, before looking at their children and shaking their heads, it didn't fit them. They wanted something that worked well together, something that was befitting twins and…

"Twins!" the two Time Lords shouted at each other.

"What?" Clara asked.

But the Doctor and Professor just smiled.

"Luke and Leia," the Doctor stated.

The Professor frowned, "Ghanima and Leto," she argued.

"We're not naming them after Frankie's books."

"Well we're not naming them after George's films either."

"But…TWINS," the Doctor reminded her, "They're the most famous fraternal twins ever, and they're aliens, and there're spaceships…"

"So are mine," the Professor defended, "They're fraternal twins too, and they're aliens with spaceships involved too!"

"Mine's more famous."

"Mine came first!"

"People will make fun of her if we name her Ghanima!"

"Well people will confuse our son and Sarah Jane's if we call them both Luke!"

"Wait, wait!" Clara shouted suddenly, trying to be heard over the bickering of her grandparents, "Hold on, just…wait!"

"What?" the Time Lords looked at the console as though they could actually see her through the phone. They had snapped, just a bit, and they shouldn't have, but the children wouldn't stop crying and it felt like with each name they threw out the cries got louder. It was breaking their hearts that they didn't know what to do to help them calm down or soothe them.

"You said Luke and…" Clara began.

"Leia," the Doctor finished.

"And Ghanima and…"

"Leto."

Clara was silent a moment, "You're both really oblivious in these bodies aren't you?"

"Clara…" the Professor sighed.

"Think about it…" Clara actually started to laugh now, "You don't want Ghanima or Luke, so that leaves…"

"Leia and Leto," the Doctor answered.

"And your surnames on earth are?"

"Smith and…" the Professor blinked, "Stewart…oh my god."

"What?" the Doctor looked at her.

She just gaped and looked between the children.

"You're getting it now?" Clara called.

"We'll call you back Clara," the Professor moved to the phoneline, "We need to go see our goddaughter."

"Let me know how it goes," Clara remarked, "I may need to go see two of my co-workers if that's what I think it is."

"Will do," the Professor nodded before ending the call and starting to try and pilot with one hand.

"What?" the Doctor frowned, "What happened? I missed something…"

"The names," the Professor turned to him, "Leia and Leto."

"Yes…" he gave her a look.

"Add each of our surnames, respectively, to them and you get what?"

"Leia Smith and Leto Stewart."

"And who does that remind you of?"

His frown deepened in concentration, "Not getting it."

"When you were the Caretaker and I was the Tutor, there were two others, the PE teacher and the Nurse…"

He blinked at that, it hitting him now, "Leto Stewart and Leia Smith…"

"And, even more, do you know who they remind me of?" the Professor asked, but he shook his head, "That sergeant and matron, in the Great Pyramid, when River almost tore time apart. Don't you think they look like them too?"

The Doctor's eyes widened at that, thinking back to that moment, to the glimpse he'd gotten of the two when River had remarked who they were, they WERE the ones from the school. His eyes flew to hers, "But if they were at the Pyramid and the School and were named that and WE call our children that…"

The Professor nodded, "And that is why I have a few questions for River Song," she moved back to the console.

The Doctor hurried over to her side, helping her as best he could to pilot the box with her to Stormcage.

If there was one person that would know what their children were called in the future and confirm that the three, the twins in their arms, the nurse and PE teacher from Coal Hill, and the sergeant and matron from the Pyramid WERE the same person…it would be River.

Oh their goddaughter had A LOT to answer for…

~8~

The Doctor and Professor sighed as they stepped back into the TARDIS, shaking their heads at their goddaughter. River had been evasive, as was usual, but she'd been thrilled to see the babies, which had, thankfully calmed down after playing with River for a bit. Really though, what HAD they expected to learn from River about their twins? They had managed to get her to confirm that she DID know their twins, as adults, that they liked to use the alias of Leia Smith, in honor of her father, and Leto Stewart, in honor of his mother, whenever they needed them on Earth, and, after much arguing with the Professor, had finally confirmed that it HAD been their children in the pyramid with them. But she refused to divulge anything else about that. And...it might have been a good thing. Did they really want to know everything that she knew of them when they were older? Could their hearts even take hearing some of the adventures they now knew the three had gotten into? The woman was the Queen of Spoilers and not revealing them, how could they truly have thought that she would tell them about their children, all grown up, when they were just but babies in their arms. They looked down at said twins and couldn't help but smile at them. They were both…very different in the styles they'd selected to cradle the children to them. The Professor had donned a sort of sling, a sash, that went around her shoulder and allowed her son to cuddle up close, resting his head on her chest, allowing her hearts beating to lull him. The Doctor had taken a more modern approach, using a sort of papoose, much like the one Craig had used so long ago to affix their daughter to his chest, her chest to his, her head turned as her own ear came to rest on the center of his chest, between his hearts.

The children were…hard to get to sleep, but they'd realized, after the babies had fallen asleep ON them a time or two, that the sound of their heartsbeat calmed them. The Doctor liked to say it was because they'd been inside the Professor and heard her hearts beating all the time, that the noise was familiar to them. Whatever the reason was, it was a very good trick to know that it would knock the twins right out. They both had…quite the set of lungs on them and if anything disturbed them, even the slightest amount, they would start screaming. The Professor had blamed HIM for that one, he was very…particular about his resting and when he was comfortable and whenever he was startled he used to scream like a banshee…which always made her laugh as a child.

Their thoughts and grumbles about River were cut off when they noticed the phone on the console ringing. They glanced at each other a moment at that but hurried over to quickly switch it on, not wanting to wake the children.

"Clara?" the Professor called out, spotting the reading of ID as she flicked a knob to set it to speaker.

"Hey!" Clara greeted, a forced chipper tone in her voice that made the Time Lords frown to hear.

"Sorry, we were…busy," the Doctor offered, not about to tell her they were trying to grill River for information about their children, "What's happening?"

"Oh, nothing," Clara cleared her throat, "You know, same old, same old."

The Professor frowned more at that, it was all too clear in her voice that she was lying, but the Doctor didn't seem to notice, too focused was he on playing with their daughter's little hand with one of his own, his other gently resting on the back of her head. The children were a few weeks old, little tufts of hair starting to grow now, their eyes having faded from the blue of birth to what they felt would likely be the colors for the rest of their first incarnations (so it had better be the rest of their lives!). Their daughter had brown hair and gray eyes, much like the Doctor's first incarnation's hair and her own first's eyes, while their son, in quite the opposite, had her blonde hair and the Doctor's brown eyes.

"Well, you're only human," the Doctor shrugged in response to Clara, "So what we can do for you, Clara?"

"I just…" Clara began, taking a breath, "I wanted to see my cousins," she offered, it was too odd for her to think of them as her niece and nephew while still thinking of the Time Lords as her grandparents, so she called them her cousins, "I only got to see them just after they were born, I miss them. How much time have I missed? How long have you been away? Are they like five years old now? Teenagers? Marri…"

"No!" the Doctor shouted, quickly, before wincing and whispering his apologies to their daughter as she squirmed against him for the volume before settling down, "I mean, no, not married, still babies," he looked at his daughter, smiling, "Always babies…"

"Which means you, darling," the Professor moved to her daughter and pressed a kiss to the back of her head, "Had best not date for quite a few centuries."

"Or ever."

The Professor rolled her eyes at that, "She'll have a hard time with you and him," she gestured at their son in his sling, "Watching over her."

"What, you think I'd scare them away?"

"You would throw them out into a blackhole and you know it."

He let out an indignant, mock-offended huff, "And where, exactly, are you and your blaster going to be?"

"Hiding in the bushes and using my stealth to keep guard," she stated blandly, as though she had already thought of that and was fully planning to follow her children around to protect them from suitors if need be.

"Um, hello!" Clara called, "Still here. And as…as much as I enjoy your flirty thing, my cousins? Can I see them? Please?"

"Of course," the Doctor huffed, moving to the console, "Well be there in a mo."

"Thanks," Clara finished, ending the call quickly.

"So what do you think is the matter with her?" the Doctor asked as they began to move around the console to set the coordinates, running a brief scan to make sure Earth wasn't under attack and that Clara had called them under duress, checking the news reports quickly.

"You could tell?" the Professor glanced at him for that, surprised.

He shrugged, "She's a girl. Isn't there always something wrong going on?"

The Professor opened her mouth to argue that, before letting out a breath, "Normally yes," she agreed, "Mostly because of boys causing trouble," she shot the Doctor a look, before shaking her head and getting back to running the scan, flicking through reports as the Doctor began to put in coordinates…when she stiffened.

"What?" the Doctor looked up at her, frowning when he saw her just…staring at the monitor. He quickly made his way over to her, his own breath leaving him as he saw the report she'd just found.

'Coal Hill Teacher Dearly Missed' and there was a picture of Danny Pink, an article to follow saying that he'd been hit by a car, died on impact.

"Oh Clara…" the Professor breathed.

"She's going to turn on us," the Doctor said, his voice grave.

The Professor frowned and looked at him, "What?"

"If I ever lost you," he turned to her, "Do you know what I'd do with access to time travel?" he gestured at the box.

The Professor swallowed but nodded, "The same thing I'd do if someone didn't stop me taking out our enemies first."

They both had very different reactions to threats against them, the Doctor's first thoughts would be to get them away from danger, if she had been killed, she didn't doubt he'd break every single law of Time to try and go back and save her. Even more so now that they had children. SHE would launch herself at whatever killed him and not stop till she had either died or killed the lot of them…and THEN she'd probably try to go back in time to save him as well.

They'd want to, they'd damn the consequences, they wouldn't care…and they could tell Clara would want to do the same. And, looking down at their children…they couldn't fault her. They would do the exact same thing for each other. Ooh in the past, in the past they'd say no, in the past they'd probably say no…but there were always loopholes. With Rose, with her father, the tale the Doctor had told the Professor, the man had been gone for years, Rose had stopped his death, had gone back and saved him.

And right now, that seemed to be what Clara would want them to do, but THAT they couldn't do. If they set down now to pick her up, they'd become a part of events and Danny's fate would be permanent, they wouldn't be able to go back and save him from the car…but there was no other way to get Clara to the TARDIS than to set down and pick her up. Still…they couldn't go back and stop the accident but…perhaps there was another way to save the man.

"You know how far I would go for you Kata," the Doctor continued, "You know I'd damn any consequence, I'd pay any price, I'd go any distance for you. I'd force anyone in the way to shove off, I'd force anyone that could help me to do it."

The Professor nodded slowly at that, seeing what he was asking her, "Would Clara?" she had to voice it, "We both know she said she loved him, but how much? Enough to go as far as we would? Enough to face the consequences of this?" she shook her head, "We have to be sure that she's willing to go that far, that she's THAT sure she wants to do this. Would she try to use us to get him back? Would she want to drive it that far that she'd risk losing us to get him back?"

That was the question and it was difficult, because…Clara would have to be.

For them to agree to this, to getting Danny back…Clara would have to prove just how far she'd go and just how much she'd pick him over them.

She would have to betray their friendship in order to convince them to help her, to convince them she was THAT serious.

~8~

The Professor and the Doctor looked up when they saw Clara enter the TARDIS doors only moments after they'd set the box down.

She smiled at them fiddling about the console, "Start her up!" she called, hopping up the stairs towards them.

"Where are we going?" the Professor asked, glancing at the Doctor behind Clara's back.

"Away," Clara moved over to the armchair that had, what appeared to be, carseats strapped to it, a double seat that the twins were resting on, both in little footie pajamas in pink and blue, making her smile as she gently reached out to touch their heads.

"From?" the Doctor watched Clara closely.

She leaned in more to kiss the children on the head, before shrugging, "Just away," and continuing to another set of stairs, heading down below.

"Well, normally you say work or kids or dishes or dullness," the Doctor remarked, "So what's happened?"

"A volcano!" Clara shouted up to them, heading up the steps to join them moments later.

The Professor blinked at that, "I'm sorry?"

"I've never seen an active volcano, do you know one?"

"What's so great about seeing a volcano?" the Doctor frowned, "It's just a sort of leaky mountain."

"I've never seen lava," she gestured at the console for the Doctor to start the box up, not noticing the Professor watching her as Clara dipped her hand into his coat pocket and pulled something out quickly.

"It's rubbish," the Doctor warned but pulled a lever to send them off.

"Prove it," Clara challenged, skipping up the stairs to the bookshelves on the galley, this time it was the Doctor that watched as she pulled one of the TARDIS keys out from one of the books and slipped it into her pocket as the Professor set the coordinates, "Do you still have those sleep patch things?"

"You can't have one," the Professor warned, moving around the controls to move to the armchair, picking up a small blanket that had fallen to the floor to place over her children.

"I'm having trouble sleeping," Clara defended.

"You still can't have one," the Doctor agreed, turning to the controls.

Clara looked between the Time Lords, noting the Professor's attention on the children before she quickly made her way to the Doctor, moving over to a small set of drawers nearby and pulling out a box, holding it up to him, the sleep patches, "Can I have one?"

"No, you can't have one, Clara," the Professor called, making Clara look over but breathe a sigh of relief when the woman didn't turn round.

"So, volcano," the Doctor continued to fiddle with the controls, "What's so good about lava?"

Clara just took a breath and moved over to the Doctor, reaching up with one of the patches to press it to his neck…

~8~

The Doctor gasped as he jolted awake from a slumber to find himself lying on the ground outside the TARDIS, the box parked on a ledge in the middle of a caldera, lava bubbling around them, being spit into the air with each gurgle, rock popping up around him, a thick smoke surrounding him. He twisted almost painfully and nearly sagged with relief when he saw the Professor lying close beside him and reached for her, "Kata," he called in Gallifreyan, "Kata, wake up!"

The Professor's face scrunched but she slowly woke, "Theta?"

It should have been surprising to him that she woke so easily, even after having children she slept like the dead, hardly waking unless she was already on the cusp of consciousness. It usually left him to tend to the children in the middle of the night, with midnight feedings and nappy changes, but he was MORE than happy to do so. The Professor had had a fair hard time carrying them both and anything he could do to make up for that, to be able to help now when he couldn't before, he would do.

"What…" the Professor looked around, her hand flying to her chest and shoulder, checking for the sling, before she reached out to his chest where the papoose was also missing, "The children!"

They both scrambled to their feet and turned to the TARDIS, reaching for the doors to push them open…but they were locked.

"Looking for these?" a voice called behind them, making them tense and turn to see Clara standing behind them, just barely visible through the smoke and darkness, illuminated only by the colors and heat of the lava.

But that wasn't what mattered, what mattered was that she was holding seven TARDIS keys out flat on her open hand.

"You told me once what it would take to destroy a TARDIS key," Clara began, "That's what's so good about lava. All seven," she held her hand up more for them to see, "From all of your hiding places," she picked one up.

"Clara what are you doing!?" the Professor shouted at the girl.

But Clara just seemed to look through them, tears in her eyes, her face unnaturally blank.

"Don't!" the Doctor held up his hands in surrender as Clara turned her hand, the one holding one key, towards the lava, "Be very, very careful with that. Those are very, very…"

His words cut off when Clara threw one of the keys into the lava.

"Do I have your attention?" Clara cut in.

"Clara…" the Professor's voice was very warning.

"Don't bother," Clara shook her head, reaching behind her with her now-free hand to pull out the Professor's blaster from behind her. She'd double checked the woman over, knowing that the Doctor had confiscated the blaster last she saw them, but the woman had had it back by now. She dropped it to the ground behind her feet, precariously close to the lava. One firm kick back and the blaster would be just as lost, "Now," Clara took a breath, "Do I have your attention or not?"

"Yes," the Doctor stated his face morphing into a hard expression.

"Good."

"No," the Professor shook her head, "Not good, Clara."

But Clara just continued as though the Professor hadn't said a word, "Danny Pink."

"Yeah?" the Doctor reached out to take the Professor's hand, tugging her gently closer, able to feel her tensing beside him.

"Is dead."

"And?"

"Seriously?"

"And?" the Doctor stressed.

"And fix it!" Clara shouted, "Change it. Change what happened. Save him. Bring him back!"

The Doctor shook his head even as she lifted another key, "No."

The Professor squeezed his hand in return, both their mind drifting to what happened when Rose had saved her father, what had happened then.

So Clara tossed the key into the lava, "Five left. Every time you say no to me, I will throw another key down there. Do we understand each other?"

"Well, we understand you," the Doctor muttered, stepping even closer to the Professor, "Let's not get carried away."

They certainly understood Clara more than she realized.

"Time can be rewritten," Clara stated.

"With precision," the Professor agreed and disagreed at the same time, "With great care."

"And not today," the Doctor added, "But you know that of course, otherwise you wouldn't be threatening us."

"Did you just say no?" Clara frowned, picking up another key.

"If we change the events that brought you here, Clara," the Professor tried to explain, "You will never come here and ask us to change those events. And it'll happen all over again, a paradox loop. The timeline disintegrates. Your timeline. So yes."

"Yes?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Yes. We did just say no. Throw away the key."

Clara's eyes narrowed, "I have seen you change time, I have seen you break any rule you want."

"We know when we can," the Doctor stated, "And the Professor knows when we can't. Throw the key."

"I know what you're doing," Clara frowned, pointing her hand that was holding the single key at them, "You're trying to take control."

"You'd be surprised how in control we are," the Professor muttered.

"So do it, throw away the key," the Doctor nodded, "Do as you are told!"

"No!" Clara snapped.

"Well, either you do as you're told or stop threatening us because, believe me Clara Oswald, it is NOT easy at all to hold my wife back," the Doctor's eyes narrowed back at her, "That is our third option. You throw the key, you stop this nonsense, or I release my wife."

"That's how you want to play it then?" Clara almost snarled, before turning and throwing her other hand at the lava, throwing ALL the keys in there save the one in her other hand, "One last chance," she held up the key to them, "And I don't care about the rules, I don't give a damn about paradoxes. Save Danny. Bring him back or I swear you will never step inside your TARDIS again. I…" her voice broke, "I swear you will never see your children again."

The Time Lords looked at each other deeply at that, seeming to come to a decision about something, a realization, a confirmation, before they nodded at each other and turned back to Clara, "No," they both said.

"Do as you are told!" Clara shouted.

"No," the Doctor shook his head.

"Say it again so I know you mean it."

"No," the Professor repeated.

Clara started shaking now, "I'm not kidding!"

"Neither are we."

"I will do it!"

The Doctor just sighed, "We don't think you will."

The Time Lords just watched as Clara tossed the last key into the lava…before seeming to realize what she'd just done and gasped, pressing her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide and filled with tears, "Oh, I'd say I'm sorry but I'd do it again…" she admitted, her voice cracking as she fell to her knees, starting to cry, "I'd do it again," she wept for a moment, letting a sob overtake her, before glancing over at the Time Lords that were…just standing there, watching her solemnly, "Well, what are you doing? Why are you just standing there? Do you understand what I have just done?!"

The Professor let out a long breath, "Look in your hand."

"There's nothing in my hand."

"Clara, look in your hand," the Doctor insisted.

"The keys, they're gone. They're down there. They've gone. Your children…oh my god…the babies…" she hunched over more, another round of sobs striking her as she thought of those innocent babies stuck in the TARDIS and…SHE had just separated them from their parents.

Oh god, what had she done?

"Clara, just look in your hand," the Professor repeated.

"There's nothing in my hand!"

"Yes, yes, yes, there is," the Doctor huffed, starting to get fed up with this all, so he strode forward and grabbed Clara's hand, "Look," he held it out before her, her palm flat, revealing the sleep patch Clara had tried to steal lying there in the middle of her palm.

"Did you seriously think that that was going to work on him?" the Professor shook her head, crossing her arms, "On ME? That I wouldn't be able to stop you? I'm not pregnant anymore Clara, I'm faster than before, and I can easily subdue you," and that's exactly what she'd done, grabbed Clara's wrist as she'd reached for the Doctor's neck and pressed the patch to Clara's hand instead.

The Doctor nodded, "And they're not sleep patches. They induce a dream state," he corrected, ripping the patch off Clara's hand.

Clara blinked and looked up, seeing that she was kneeling on the ground of the TARDIS console room, everything just as it had been, the twins asleep on their seats, the Doctor crouched before her though he stood quickly and moved to the Professor's side, the woman holding up her blaster to show her before slipping it back into her jacket as more proof that the entire thing had been a vision of some sort.

"They make you very suggestible," the Professor told her, turning towards the console as the Doctor collected the TARDIS keys from the ground and put them in his pocket.

"We allowed the whole scenario to play out just as you planned," the Doctor agreed, moving to his wife's side, sliding his arm around her waist as he stood beside her.

"We wanted to know how far you would go."

"Well," Clara swallowed, starting to pick herself up from off the ground, "Now you know."

The Doctor nodded slowly, giving her a grim look, "Now we know you would separate us from our children just to get what YOU want."

Clara flinched at that, glancing over at the babies, still sleeping away and cuddled towards each other, and back to the Time Lords, her eyes begging them to understand, "I love him."

"So you've said," the Professor muttered, "Love him so much you'd leave our children stranded to die of starvation alone in the TARDIS just to get him back."

Clara bit down a sob at that, at the very harsh but very real version of it all, she…she had been about to do that, hadn't she? She just…it was too much, her grief, the loss, so sudden and just after she'd told him she loved him, just after SHE had actually said the words to him with real meaning, to lose something so new…she had been willing to do anything to get it back and it killed her to know that included threatening the children of the Time Lords.

Maybe that had been why she'd done it, maybe she'd been hoping the Professor would take her blaster and put her out of her misery…

"So, what now?" Clara whispered, choking a breath on a sob she tried to restrain, "What do we do now? What happens now?" but the Time Lords were silent, glancing at each other and then down at the monitor, "Doctor?" nothing, "Professor?" still nothing, "Gramps? Gran?"

She flinched at how they looked up at her for the last one with such a hard look on their faces.

"Go to hell," the Doctor said, pulling a lever and landing the box with a thump.

Clara nodded, sniffling, "Fair enough," she agreed, understanding entirely that she'd taken it FAR too far, "Absolutely fair enough…" she gave them one last look, knowing this was likely the last time she'd ever see them…and was after she'd done something so horrible to them, and turned to walk towards the doors, her head bowed in shame.

"Clara," the Professor called, making her stop, "We meant literally."

Clara frowned at that.

"You asked us what we're going to do," the Doctor put his hands into his pocket, "I told you. We're going to hell."

"Or wherever it is people go when they die," the Professor offered.

"If there is anywhere."

"Wherever it is, we're going to go there and we're going to find Danny."

"And, if it is in any way possible, we're going to bring him home."

"Almost every culture in the universe has some concept of an afterlife."

"Always meant to have a look around, see if we could find one…"

Clara let out a breath, not even caring to comment on how they had to stop switching off talking like that even as old people, too caught up in what they'd just said, "You're…going to help me?"

"Why wouldn't we help you?" the Doctor eyed her a long moment, not sounding scoffing or even curious but like he was demanding her to answer.

"Because of what I just did," Clara blinked, tears filling her eyes once more, "I just…"

"You betrayed us," the Professor nodded.

"Betrayed our trust," the Doctor continued.

"You betrayed our friendship."

"You betrayed our family."

"You betrayed everything that we've ever stood for."

"And you let us down."

The disappointment in their voices on the last one nearly did her in more than all the cases of betrayal she'd given them in only minutes, "Then why are you helping me?" she whispered, not trusting her voice to be louder.

"Do you think we care about you so little that betraying us would make a difference?" the Professor shook her head, "You COULD have just asked us, Clara. But…you are our family, there will be times we let each other down, but we shouldn't EVER give up on each other."

"And…" the Doctor sighed, looking at the Professor, reaching out to touch her cheek, smiling softly to himself, "We understand. Do you think we wouldn't go just as far, or even farther, to get each other back?"

"We can't break the law like that for you, Clara," the Professor looked back at her, "But we can find a loophole around it."

Clara opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words, but all she could do was offer a watery smile, tears spilling from her eyes.

"Stop it with the eyes!" the Doctor huffed, rolling his eyes, "Don't do that with the eyes. It's never going to be as good as…" he stopped a moment, and groaned, putting a hand over his eyes.

"What?" the Professor frowned at that.

He just looked at her, "Promise me you won't teach our daughter your sad eyes," he nearly begged her, "She already does me in just looking at me as it is, if you teach her the sad eyes…" he didn't even want to THINK about how much more he'd be wrapped around his little girl's finger in that instance.

"Sorry, husband," the Professor chuckled lightly, "I think it's a natural and inherited talent."

"Wonderful," he muttered, before shaking his head, "Well, come on, we've got work to do," he glanced over at Clara, the woman still just standing there as though she couldn't believe they were actually going to do this for her, "This is it, Clara," he called to her, One of those moments."

Clara shook her head out of her shock and slowly approached the console, "What moments?"

"The darkest day," he began.

"The blackest hour…" the Professor tried.

"Don't," Clara shook her head, holding up a hand, "Don't do that switchy thing you do. It gets really annoying, really quickly."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at that, "Chin up," he continued instead, "Shoulders back. Let's see what we're made of."

The Professor nodded, moving around the console to hit certain switches, "Switching off the safeguards," she reported, "Turning off the nav-com…"

The Doctor took Clara by the shoulders and led her over to a grate on the console panel, through which was a pink, lumpy substance he'd stuck her fingers in when they'd been trying to work out his nightmare of someone grabbing his leg under the bed, "Remember, we did this before. We plugged you into the TARDIS telepathic interface."

"We ended up all over Danny's timestream," Clara mumbled.

"Because you and he are linked," the Doctor agreed, "Strongly linked."

"His timeline ended still intertwined with yours," the Professor explained, "So if he's anywhere at all, that link will hold."

"Give me your hands," the Doctor began to guide her hands to the grate, but she tugged back.

"I…" Clara began.

"We're in a hurry."

"I don't deserve family like you," Clara whispered to them, "I'm a horrible granddaughter."

"Then be an excellent cousin," the Professor countered, moving over to the armchair where the twins were starting to wake once more.

The Doctor watched as the Professor tended to their children a moment, before he turned and placed Clara's hands into the lump, squishing them in firmly, "Think about Danny," he instructed, nodding at her to close her eyes and focus, "Think about the man you lost. Let it hurt. Let it burn. But don't bleat. Don't ask, why him? Why me? Forget all that. Ask one question. Just one. Ask…where is Danny Pink now? Where is he now?" he glanced up at the rotor as it began to move and then over to the Professor to see she had already gotten their son into his sling. He nodded at her and moved to switch with her, to get their little squirming daughter up as she checked their progress.

"The TARDIS definitely thinks he's somewhere," the Professor called as he worked on getting the girl into her papoose. She reached out and pulled a lever, setting the TARDIS down once it had come to the end of its lock.

"Where are we?" Clara opened her eyes and looked at them, pulling her hands out of the lump, not willing to risk sending them off somewhere her mind drifted to next.

"Nav-com's offline," the Professor reminded her, shaking her head.

"We'll have to do this old school," the Doctor agreed, stepping down, their daughter already starting to lull back to sleep.

"Oh I hate old school," the Professor grumbled, but quickly checked her blaster quickly, securing it in her other side of her jacket so as not to disrupt the sling if she needed it.

The Doctor reached out and caught her hand as she pulled back, 'Are we sure about bringing the children?' he asked her, already the fretting father.

'We don't know that the TARDIS will be safe in an 'underworld,'' she reminded him, 'We could be locked out like Clara would have done, or they might take the TARDIS, I'd rather keep them close where I can protect them.'

He had to nod at that, they didn't know what being in a realm like this would do to the TARDIS, if the box would be as safe as normal, and…they didn't like being separated from their children. Even knowing that it had been a dream of sorts with Clara, the fact that she would have done it, kept them apart, they didn't want to risk anything like that again, not so soon. And he knew…if anyone dared threaten or even think about harming their children…well…people were scared of the Professor? Just wait till it was the Oncoming Storm protecting his family.

"But this is where Danny is?" Clara asked, pulling them from their thoughts.

"Almost certainly not," the Doctor told her.

"It's where there's a connection with Danny," the Professor explained, "According to the TARDIS, this is where it's most likely that your timeline will re-intersect with his."

"And that won't do," the Doctor huffed.

Clara frowned, utterly lost, "What won't?"

He gestured at her, "You won't. Look at you!" he huffed, "We need skeptical, clever, critical. We don't need mopey. It put years on your face. And what if people see us together? It looks like you've been melted."

Clara gave him an unamused look, not entirely sure if he was trying to make her laugh or genuinely insulting her, "Are you forgetting why we're here?"

"We're here to get your boyfriend back from the dead," the Professor remarked.

"So buck up and give us some attitude!" the Doctor agreed.

"We don't know what's out there Clara," the Professor reminded her, "If someone is there that can get you to Danny, they can't see a desperate woman that will do anything, they'll use that to their advantage. They need to see you being strong or they'll play you like a harp."

"Oh," Clara swallowed hard, nodding her head even as she quickly wiped at her eyes, "Why didn't you just say that," she muttered at the Doctor.

"I thought I was being perfectly clear," the Doctor shrugged.

Clara blinked at him and turned to the Professor, "Don't let him teach your son how to talk to girls," she warned the woman.

The Professor patted Clara on the arm as they headed for the door, "I wasn't planning to."

"I CAN hear you, you know," the Doctor muttered.

"Good," the Professor called, slowly pulling the doors open and peering out cautiously, sticking her head out a little more to look around, before she nodded to the Doctor that it was safe to step out, allowing him out first and grabbing Clara's arm before she could pass, stilling her, "Clara...we DO understand why you did that," she began, "But do that again, for real, even so much as THINK of separating me from my children again..."

"I know," Clara winced, "I know, I'm sorry."

"I WILL kill you Clara," the Professor warned her, "Family or not, nothing will harm my children or put them in danger. If you do anything that jeopardizes them...I won't hesitate to stop you, and I don't think the Doctor would stop ME either."

She didn't bother adding that, once they managed to meet up with Jenny again and get Aeon back the little kitten would no doubt attack her before she could even move against them.

She was quite terrifying in her own right.

Clara swallowed hard, "Understood," she whispered, not quite used to being on the receiving end of her grandmother's wrath and threats, but understanding entirely why she was.

The Professor gave her a nod before she stepped out, Clara following her.

The TARDIS appeared to have landed in an empty hallway, in between two very large columns stationed at the bottom of a set of stairs that led up to an urn on a plinth with an eternal flame burning on it. The corridor was very dark, prompting the Doctor and Professor to pull out their sonic and blaster to use as a torch, shining them around to try and work out where they were. The Doctor stepped further out, over to a small obelisk of granite that appeared to have some sort of logo etched into it, a large circle with a smaller one just in what might have been the corner of it, a slogan of '3W: Rest in Peace, We Promise' carved below it.

"Doctor," the Professor murmured, pulling his attention over slightly down the hall where there wall seemed to be lined with glass tanks filled with water.

"Fish tanks?" Clara asked hopefully.

"In a mausoleum?" the Professor gave her a look at that, before glancing up the stairs towards the plinth and starting up them, her arm coming around to her sling as she felt her son shifting against her, rubbing his back absently as she went. There wasn't anything much different at the top, the plinth had the same motto and logo as the obelisk below.

"What does that mean?" Clara frowned at the message.

The Doctor gave her a grim look, "It means those are definitely not fish tanks."

"Come on," the Professor turned to the right, "I hear water running…" she led them off down the hall, cautiously peering around the corner of the hall before nodding that it appeared safe and stepping around it.

The trio quietly walked down the hall, noting it appeared to be a gallery of some sort, the walls lined with the same tanks as before, a dark liquid giving the objects inside an eerie blue hue, not that the objects weren't already eerie as it seemed the tanks each had a skeleton within, sitting on a chair and staring out ahead.

"Why?" Clara had to ask, it was just…so odd.

"I don't know," both the Doctor and Professor murmured, their hands automatically moving to their children who were, thankfully, still sleeping away…which did make sense as they'd spent a good many hours screaming and crying before they'd gone to see River, it was almost as though they truly hated the names that their parents were tossing out for what to tell the humans to call them and were trying to let them know their thoughts on the subject.

"Ok," Clara let out a breath, "I'm assuming they didn't actually drown in there."

"No," the Professor shook her head, slowly stepping nearer to one of the tanks and peering inside, eyeing the positions, far too uniform, "They were placed, after death. These are tombs. Water tombs," her eyes flickered around the chamber, "Some sort of fluid," she murmured, "I won't be able to tell what without touching it. Husband?"

The Doctor flicked the sonic on and scanned the tank, only to frown at the reading, "Unknown," he sighed.

"That's never good," she stepped back.

Clara gasped, nearly jumping away from the next tank over when she spotted a name plaque underneath, "Oh, God. Am I going to find Danny now?" she spun to them, "Is that why the TARDIS brought us here? I don't want to see him like that…"

"Good point," the Doctor nodded, not quite answering Clara's question, "Tombs with windows. Who wants to watch their loved ones rot? Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to keep watch on the dead?"

"The only reason to monitor something is because of its value or usefulness," the Professor remarked, "If it were sentimentality, there would be more people here, so it must be usefulness," she glanced at the Doctor, "A storage unit? Leverage? Like Kazran's ice room?"

"Could be," he sighed, the tanks could be like iceboxes, holding the 'surplus population' like it had with the young boy they'd helped once.

The Doctor reached out and took the Professor's hand, the woman having put her blaster away for safety and advantage of surprise should they find the one holding the bodies hostage, if that WAS why the bodies were set up like that, and led her further down the hall. He paused, spotting a book, like a ledger, sitting on a lectern, and headed over to it. If this was a sort of resting place, the families that visited would have signed in and perhaps they could use the TARDIS to look them up, see if there was a connection between the bodies or even the death. He reached out to touch one of the blank pages, spreading his fingers out and activating a digital/holographic cube to rise from the pages. He turned his hand to cup the cube and turned, tossing it into the middle of the hall. The cube began to open, turning into a holographic screen that displayed the double circular logo and what appeared to be the company's name, 3W, before Bach's Air on a G String began to play, information scrolling down before them as voice read it aloud.

"3W," a woman's voice began, "Death is not an end. But we can we help with that. Ever since 3W encountered the truth about the death experience, we have been working hard to find a better life for the deceased. At 3W, afterlife means aftercare."

"Ok," Clara frowned at that, "Bit strange?"

"Very," the Professor agreed.

"Why have the scrolling and a voice?" the Doctor, however, wondered.

"They don't," the Professor murmured, "Is it difficult?" she suddenly called out.

"Is what difficult?" Clara shook her head, barely following.

"Reading all those words back to front," the Professor continued, her gaze locked on something in the shadows behind the holographic information that had now gone back to the logo, "If you wanted us to think it was automatic, you should have had your voice project from a speaker from the same point of origin as the screen, come out."

The Doctor straightened, stepping closer to the Professor as a woman that looked…like a rather sinister version of Mary Poppins, complete with the old-fashioned gown and flat hat, stepped out of the shadows, through the hologram and came to a stop before them.

"Hello," the woman began, smiling, "I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?"

"Well, there is, er, no immediate hurry," the Doctor began, squeezing the Professor's hand more, knowing she wanted to reach out and touch the woman, see who she might be, but if she was asking to assist with death, there was a very real chance that she might have some sort of poison in her skin, some sort of anesthetic, like the Handbots in Apalapuchia had and he wasn't going to risk it, "We're just, er…we're just…"

"Browsing," Clara offered.

"Yeah, yeah, browsing."

The woman tilted her head to the side, somehow managing to keep her hat on her head, "Please, take all the time you need. At 3W, you always have the rest of your life."

"Oh, good. That's good to know Clara, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Clara looked between the Time Lords, seeing them frowning at the woman, almost seeming confused, "Great?"

"Exactly what is 3W?" the Professor asked, for some reason…her mind kept going to either the internet or Webley's World of Wonders but it couldn't be any of that.

"Apologies," the woman blinked, "Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package."

"Well, you know, it's just an unexpected…" the Doctor began…

When suddenly the woman lunged at him, grabbing his face and starting to kiss him.

The Professor would blame her second's worth of hesitation at ripping the woman away from the Doctor by the back of her dress on her body still being a bit slow from having carried twins and her son being attached to her front. But it literally was only a second before the woman had been yanked way with enough force to send her stumbling back…and to blink and see the Professor's blaster aimed at her face.

"Wife, don't," the Doctor spoke, but didn't make a move to actually try and stop her or get her to lower the blaster, if it had to be said, he moved more behind her as though she were a shield between him and the crazed woman.

"Welcome to the 3W Institute," the woman smiled, as though not even fazed that there was a gun aimed between her eyes, "You also have not received the official welcome package."

"Don't you dare," the Professor began to power up the blaster, signaling for the woman not to take a step towards her, "Only person who kisses me is my husband."

"Husband?" the woman blinked, tilting her head at the Doctor and back at the Professor, "We have package deals for couples."

"We have NO intentions of dying anytime soon," the Professor stated, her grip tightening on the blaster even as she stepped back towards the Doctor, her other hand resting on her son's back in his sling.

The woman stared at her, seeming to hesitate, seeming to be fighting with herself before she looked down at the children. Her eyes widened the minutest amount, her mouth actually falling open before being pressed together, lips pursing.

The Professor frowned at that, at the forced blankly cheerful expression the woman was adopting. If she had to guess, the woman was NOT pleased at all to see the children and she didn't know why, "Who are you?"

"I am Missy," the woman gave a small curtsy.

"Missy?" Clara shuffled closer, moving to stand by the Time Lords.

"Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface," she stated, "I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you."

"You're very er…realistic…" the Doctor began, before holding his hands up quickly as the Professor turned to him, the blaster moving with her, "Daughter!" he shouted quietly, moving his own hand to their daughter's back, "Can't shoot me while I'm holding her!"

"Clara?" the Professor asked.

"Oh no," Clara shook her head, holding up her own hands, "Not helping you kill, Gramps."

"Yes," the Doctor pointed at Clara, "Don't kill me, kill the robot that kissed me."

The Professor glanced over at Missy to see her just standing there, smiling away, an uneasy feeling settling in her gut at how the woman was eyeing them. She lowered her blaster but didn't dare put it away.

"I am fully programmed with social interaction norms appropriate to a range of visitors," Missy began, "Please indicate if you'd like me to adjust my intimacy setting."

"You set them down to the bare minimum," the Professor ordered the woman who gave a short nod, "No one touches my Bonded," she warned, just barely keeping her eyes from narrowing at the flash of irritation that seemed to waver across Missy's face before disappearing.

"Listen, we need to speak to whoever's in charge here," the Doctor stepped next to the Professor.

"I am in charge," Missy gestured at herself.

"Well, who's in charge of you?"

"I'm in charge of me."

"Well, who repairs you? Who…who maintains you?"

"I am programmed for self-repair. I am maintained by my heart," she stepped forward, her hand on the center of her chest, her gaze locked on the Doctor, reaching for his hand…

When the Professor's blaster was back in her face, "Hands off my Bonded," she repeated her warning to Missy.

Missy held up her hands and took a step back.

"Who maintains your heart?" the Professor asked, this time not lowering her blaster.

"My heart is maintained by the Doctor," Missy stated.

"Doctor who?" the Doctor frowned at that, making the Professor roll her eyes.

"Really?" she dropped her blaster arm and looked at the Doctor, "The first joke our children hear, and it has to be that one?"

"It came up first," the Doctor shrugged, "It's not like either of us could ask 'How many Professors does it take to screw in a light bulb?'"

"One," the Professor answered, "Me. I know how to sc…"

"Wrong," he snapped his finger and pointed at her with a small smile, "Zero."

She gave him a look for that, "Not following."

He had a victorious grin at that, at getting one over her, before the grin softened as he looked at her, "Zero, because the other acceptable answer is 'One Doctor,' because I would do anything for you, even something as small as change a light bulb. Anything you ask, I'd do."

"Fatherhood's made you go soft."

"I'm only soft around you. You're…"

"Doctor Chang!" Missy suddenly shouted, startling them out of their moment it seemed a second before Clara herself was about to do the same. The woman didn't even wait for a response from any of them before she turned and walked off.

"Who's there?" a voice called from around a corner before a man stepped past it, tall and slim in a gray suit, his hair slicked back with thin glasses on his nose, "Hello?" he seemed startled to see them.

"Hello," Clara greeted as the Time Lords just nodded.

"So…" the man began slowly, "Hey. Condolences."

"Condolences?"

"It's a mausoleum," he gestured around, "It's our hello. Is there a particular dead person you want to talk to?"

"Yes!" Clara's eyes widened, before she remembered the Professor's words and cleared her throat, trying to seem less anxious and desperate, "Yes, there is."

Chang nodded, opening his arm to gesture to the side, "This way then," he turned to lead them off, Clara moving right after him.

The Doctor looked over at the Professor to see she was staring in the direction Missy had disappeared, "You ok?" he asked, "Wife?" he added when she didn't respond, taking her hand.

The Professor looked at him, "I don't like her."

He chuckled at that, "I could tell," he put a mocking hand over their daughter's ear, "You pulled a b-l-a-s-t-e-r on someone, and around the children!"

She rolled her eyes at that, "They're dead asleep," she looked down at their son, checking on him, "We should try and pester them with names and a trip to River more often if it quiets them down this much."

The Doctor shook his head, squeezing her hand before they started to head after Clara, keeping careful eye on the girl, so focused on her were they that they didn't notice the heads of the skeletons turning to watch them go…

~8~

The 'doctor's office' they'd been led to was…rather…odd, nothing like a doctor's office at all, but, then again, the Doctor's office was a wooden police telephone box that was bigger on the inside than the out. The room they'd entered was rather spacious, though it had one of the water tanks in the middle, quite a big one, with a skeleton in it as well though a freestanding tank compared to the others that seemed to make up a wall of tanks along the hall. There were tables and desks set up, everything in a shade of metal, white and gray, with various bits of tech beeping around them.

"Come in, come in," Chang gestured them in, "Going to need to take a reading off you…"

"A reading?" Clara glanced at him, but the Time Lords were both wandering around the tank, examining it from all angles now that they could.

"Won't hurt," Chang reassured her, flicking a switch to turn on more lights around the room.

"What won't?"

"How does the body keep its integrity?" the Professor called, moving around the side of the tank to look at Chang, "Why isn't it just a bunch of bones floating about?"

"Each body is encased in a support exoskeleton," Chang remarked.

"An invisible exoskeleton?" Clara blinked at that.

Chang grinned, seeming very pleased with the question and being able to answer it, "It's only invisible in the water. There's a specially engineered refraction index in the fluid so we can see the tank resident unimpeded by the support mechanisms."

"So each skeleton is inside something," the Professor assessed, starting to run through ever sort of exoskeleton system she could think of.

"Are you serious?" Clara looked at the water, "X-ray water?"

"It's so cool," Chang smiled, "Look at this…" he turned and picked up a clear bucket that was next to the tank, moving it onto a desk, the trio gathering around him, "We call it dark water," he told them, holding up his arm, showing them his shirt sleeve, even his wrist watch, before turning to plunge his arm into the bucket…the sleeve and watch seeming to vanish, leaving only the flesh of his arm visible, "Only organic matter can be seen through it," he pulled his arm out, completely dry, the sleeve and watch still there, undamaged, "I keep saying they should use this stuff in swimming pools."

"Why?" the Doctor frowned.

"Think about it," Chang grinned lecherously.

"I am thinking about it," the Doctor stated, still seeming confused, "Why?"

The Professor rolled her eyes at him, "Imagine ME in a swimming pool like that."

The Doctor blinked, his eyes widening, "That's…"

"Bad," the Professor told him, "And wrong. And NO, we are NOT taking a sample of the water back to the TARDIS and replacing the pool water with it."

The Doctor sighed at that, mumbling under his breath, "Spoil sport."

'If you want to see that, Theta,' her voice called in his mind, 'You don't need Dark Water to do it, just ask.'

His head snapped to her so quickly Clara gave him an odd look before seeming to realize what had just happened and rolled her eyes, "Look, Dark Water or not, it doesn't matter," she looked at Chang, "3W, what kind of name is that? What does it mean?"

"Well, you know, don't you?" Chang shook his head, "You're here on business or they wouldn't have let you in. Sorry," he blinked, as though realizing something, "Should have checked. Who are you?"

"I thought that you would never ask," the Doctor grinned, pulling the psychic paper out of his pocket and handing it to the man, "Sort out your security and health protocols, they're a disgrace."

"Another government inspection?" the man eyed the paper, "So soon? Why is there all this swearing?"

"Oh," the Doctor plucked the paper back, "I've got a lot of internalized anger."

"And the…babies?" the man eyed the children seemingly strapped to the front of the two of them.

"How else can we give it a pass of safety?" the Professor countered quickly, "If a baby can be brought around, then it's completely harmless and safe, isn't it?"

"I suppose…"

"What does 3W stand for?" the Doctor cut right back to it, not letting the man consider the Professor's words more.

"Well, the three words," Chang stated.

"What three words?" Clara frowned.

Chang gave a little laugh at that, incredulous, "Seriously? You don't know?"

"I'd stop mocking us about not knowing," the Doctor warned, "My wife doesn't like not knowing and, being in charge of safety, she's always armed and has more internalized anger than I do. So if you care to answer our question?"

Chang looked at the Professor quickly for the Doctor's remark, only to see her giving him a very pointed look that yes, he had been telling the truth, and cleared his throat, "It's just…people who don't know, when they hear about this, they can freak out."

"We're not going to freak out," the Professor promised.

"If you've had a recent loss," his gaze flickered to Clara, "This might be…this will be disturbing…"

"She'll be fine," the Doctor waved off the concern.

"Speak for me again, I'll detach something from you," Clara huffed at the Doctor, before turning to Chang, "I'll be fine," she repeated.

Chang looked between the three of them before sighing, "You know how people are scared of dying? Like, everybody."

The Professor nodded at that, "It's the most fundamental fear in the universe."

"They'd be a lot more scared if they knew what it was really like," Change told them, turning to press a button on the desk to activate a holographic screen, nothing but static and white snow played out of it, "White noise off the telly. We've all heard it. A few years ago, Dr. Skarosa, our founder, did something unexpected. He played that noise through a translation matrix of his own devising. This is a recording of what he heard…" he pressed another button and the static started to fade into what sounded like hundreds, if not thousands of voices speaking.

"Ok," Clara shrugged, not seeing the point, "People, voices."

"So what?" the Doctor agreed.

"It's a mausoleum…" the Professor repeated the words from earlier, "They weren't…LIVE people, were they?"

Chang shook his head, "Over time, Dr. Skarosa became convinced these were the voices of the recently departed. He believed it was a telepathic communication from the dead."

"Why?" the Doctor snorted, "Was he an idiot?"

"The Library," the Professor reminded him, "Neural relays. Ghosting," she gave him a look, "Same principle."

Chang pointed at her for that, nodding, "He was able to isolate some of the voices, hear what they were saying," he took a breath, turning off the voices for a moment, wanting them to hear what he was saying and hear it very clearly, "What I'm about to play you will change your life and not for the better," he warned, "These are the three words which caused Dr. Skarosa to set up institutes, like this one, all over the world, to protect the dead. If you'd rather not hear these words, there's still time…"

"Can you just hurry up, please," the Doctor cut in with a huff, "Or I'll hit you with my shoe."

"Oi!" the Professor elbowed him lightly, "I believe that's MY trademark, husband."

"Always wanted to try it, wife," he countered.

"Just play it," Clara turned to Chang, almost begging him to play it, knowing if he didn't the Doctor and Professor would start their old people flirty thing again.

Chang looked at them, gauging their seriousness, before sighing, reaching out to press a button on the desk, hesitating only a moment…and then pushing it.

"Don't cremate me!" a voice started to scream out, making Clara jump, "Don't cremate me!"

Chang flinched at the sound, "There is one simple, horrible possibility that has never occurred to anyone throughout human history."

"Don't cremate me. Don't cremate me!"

Clara gasped, shaking her head, "Don't say it…"

"The dead remain conscious," Chang sighed, he quickly turned off the recording, only able to stomach so much of the message, of the screaming and begging, "The dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them…"

"Fakery," the Doctor scoffed, "All of it. It's a con, it's a racket!"

"I promise you this is not a con," Chang grew serious, almost offended.

Clara looked around, hearing something odd, "What's that beeping?"

"Never mind about beeping," the Doctor waved it off, "Who cares about beeping? The dead are dead," he argued with Chang, "They're not talking to you out of your television sets. They're just gone and all these poor souls down there in these tanks, I'm sorry, but they're just dead and they're not coming back."

"Clara?"

Clara gasped as a voice rang out through the room, Danny Pink's, calling for her.

"Clara? Clara, are you there?!"

"Danny!" Clara's hands flew to her mouth, covering them, before she looked around, "I can hear you!" she shouted out, "Is that you? Oh, please, say it's you…"

"Just lost the signal," Chang called, having moved to his desk's holographic screen, trying to check the connection, "But I can track it back, I'm pretty sure…"

"I don't…" Clara shook her head, looking at the Time Lords who seemed very startled, "I don't understand. What is happening?"

"Clara…" the Professor began to shake her head.

"We've been scanning you telepathically since you came in," Chang answered, "You said you wanted to speak to someone who'd passed, and we've found you a match in the Nethersphere."

"The what?" the Professor turned to him.

"Forget the what," the Doctor glared at Chang, "This isn't possible. The dead don't come back."

"It was him," Clara argued, "It was his voice!"

"If they scanned you telepathically, they could've lifted a voice print," the Professor offered as a consideration, "It could still be a fake. One of our enemies lifted and entire memory from a companion once and created a trap for us. It CAN be done Clara."

"Getting him back, very nearly!" Chang called, before cheering as a bit of static filled the room.

"Clara, can you hear me?" and Danny's voice rose out of it.

"Yes, Danny, I can hear you," Clara turned to the desk, to the holographic screen, unable to see him but she could hear him, "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. Clara! Oh, God. Clara"

Clara looked up at the Time Lords, her eyes begging them, "What do I do?"

"Who are you talking to?"

"Hang on just a moment," Clara told Danny, turning to the Time Lords fully, both of them looking very unsure and even a bit angry, but not at her, more at Chang. She knew that expression, they truly felt that this was a trick, an elaborate ruse, and that they were using Danny's memory against her, against them all.

"Question him," the Professor sighed, "Ask him questions only he'd know the answer to. And find out, be very sure, that it IS him."

"You," the Doctor pointed at Chang, "With us," he jerked his thumb at a set of open doors.

"Where are you going?" Clara frowned, looking between the Time Lords.

"We've got to check out those tanks," the Doctor told her.

"There's something that we're missing," the Professor agreed, "And we can't risk that."

"But…the both of you?"

She didn't think she could handle speaking to Danny alone without one of them there to keep her sane and calm.

But all she needed was to see them glancing at each other, not just at each other, but at the precious bundles sleeping in front of them to understand why neither could stay. The Time Lords, especially after what she'd done before, would not be separated from their children. If one left with one child, the other would follow with the other. They wouldn't dare leave the children with her, alone. It was more than them not trusting her, because she wouldn't blame them if they didn't, she really wouldn't, but that they didn't trust anyone but each other with their children. She'd seen new-parents like that, it took months before they could feel comfortable leaving their child with someone else, even family. They couldn't leave or be separated from their babies, so they were both going.

"Of course," she nodded, speaking quietly, "The both of you."

"Clara?" Danny called.

Clara flinched at the sound of his voice.

"Skeptical and critical, remember?" the Doctor told her, reaching out to take her hand in a rare display of grandpaternal concern, "Be strong, even if it breaks your heart," he gave her a meaningful look before turning to the Professor and nodding, the two of them heading for the doors.

"Connection's stabilized," Chang told Clara, "It should be ok," before turning to hurry after the Time Lords, not about to let them wander the facility alone and poke at things.

"Who would harvest dead bodies?" the Doctor murmured, in thought.

"The Shansheeth," the Professor began to list, "The Daleks, the Gelth, the…"

"A lot," the Doctor cut in lightly, "But WHICH one here?" he sighed, "I feel like I'm missing something obvious," he added, looking at the Professor as the doors closed, the logo set up on them like windows, two large circles with a smaller circle near what would be the corner, almost looking like eyes…or so the Time Lords would have thought had they been looking and not turned their back on them to walk into the Gallery once more.

The trio didn't get far, however, when the Professor stopped dead in the middle of the hall, staring at the tanks. The skeletons, all of them, they had been sitting moments ago…they were now standing, moving.

"Oh, my God!" even Chang seemed shocked by that, "The tanks The tanks are activating! They're not supposed to do that!"

"And all your dead people are standing," the Doctor frowned, moving closer to the Professor, "Don't you think you skipped the headline?"

"Now, now, children," Missy's voice called as she sauntered out of the shadows to stand before them, "Naughty, naughty."

"Dr. Chang, your welcome droid has developed a fault," the Doctor stated, frowning at the woman, on edge, feeling the Professor tensing beside him.

Chang frowned at that, utterly confused by the statement, "That's not a droid. That's my boss."

"You know," Missy sighed, "I might have been guilty of a just teensy little fibette. Dr. Chang, I really liked working with you. I've enjoyed every day of it."

"I'm sorry?" Chang took a step back, sensing something more in her words.

The Time Lords looked at each other for that, trying to slowly move to the side and back as well. The Professor was silently cursing herself for not having noticed that the woman wasn't a droid. She'd examined the woman visibly before, every time she looked, the woman hadn't been breathing which was usually one of the strongest indicators of a droid, they didn't breathe. She realized now Missy could have easily been holding her breath. Her mind was sharper than it had been during her pregnancy, but it was still lagging behind at times, more distracted by each little shift of her son or sigh of her daughter, but getting better…still…not quite as up to par as it should be.

"You know, I've even got a little photograph of you looking so sweet," Missy continued, just smiling away, "I'm always going to keep it. Always!"

"Are you going to kill me?" Chang swallowed hard.

"Now, come on," Missy scoffed, putting her hands on her hips, "Let's not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation, and I'm the one who's going to have to live with that."

"Please don't kill me!"

"Say something nice," the woman smirked.

"Please, please. I don't, I don't want to die. You're…" he stumbled back, his eyes wide, "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"Say something nice," she repeated.

"Please!"

"Dr. Chang, I've got all day," she told him, sounding very much like a chastising mother, "And I'm not going to kill you until you say something nice."

Chang took a deep breath, trying to straighten his spine, stay strong and proud as he faced a woman he knew was very likely truly going to kill him, "It has been an absolute pleasure working with you, and I truly believe that you'll never be able to find it in your heart to murder m…"

Before he could even finish, Missy pulled out a small device from her pocket and fired it at the man, disintegrating him without a second thought.

The Professor had her blaster out and aimed at Missy before the woman even turned to face them.

Missy just smirked as she saw that though, "I'll be with you two in a moment," her gaze flickered down, "And your precious wee ones," she taunted, laughing with delight at how their expressions darkened at her threat, seeming very happy that they were reacting so, "Just feeling a bit emotional at the moment."

'Kata…' the Doctor's voice called in the Professor's mind, pulling her gaze away from where it was locked on Missy to him, only to see him looking straight ahead, at the skeletons, his eyes wide and filling with fear.

She turned, just barely keeping her gasp in when she saw what he had. The water in the tanks was draining and quickly, revealing the exoskeletons that Chang had mentioned. Only they weren't exoskeletons at all, not really…they were Cyber-suits, all the skeletons were inside Cybermen!

"Cybers," the Professor breathed, "They're Cybermen, all of them."

"We've got to stop them getting out," the Doctor looked around for an exit, trusting the Professor to keep a lookout just for the moment. They needed away out, a way to the TARDIS, they had to get their children away from this and then they could start to worry about the humans and stopping the likely invasion from happening.

"Now who's missing the headline?" Missy taunted, "The Nethersphere," she held up a device and clicked it, creating a holographic image of a globe, smiling at it in thought, "You know, it's ever so funny, the people that live inside that think they've gone to heaven, when it's really…"

"A matrix data-slice," the Professor frowned at it, almost lowering her blaster arm in shock of seeing it, because it was, "A Gallifreyan hard drive," she looked at Missy, raising her blaster more, "Time Lord technology."

"You would notice," Missy muttered, pouting as though the Professor had stolen her thunder, before smiling again, "Imagine you could upload dying minds to that. Edit them. Rearrange them. Get rid of all those boring emotions. Ready to be redownloaded. Meanwhile, you upgrade the bodies. Upload the mind, upgrade the body. Cybermen from cyberspace. Now, why has no one ever thought of that before?"

"How did you get hold of Time Lord technology?" the Doctor demanded of the woman, "Who are you?!"

Missy frowned at that, actually seeming sad that he was asking that, "You know who I am. I told you," she looked between them, "I'm sure she had to have heard it with her super hearing," she rolled her eyes, gesturing at the Professor.

"Two hearts," she murmured, she'd heard it very faintly when Missy had been close, but she'd thought it was just her son, that she was hearing his hearts beating, she could, she COULD hear his hearts, it was the only thing helping to keep her calm at the moment, her children were alive, in their arms and they were protected.

"And both of them yours Doctor," Missy looked at the Doctor with a light grin.

The Doctor just stepped closer to the Professor, "And both of mine are hers," he told the woman flat out, nodding to the Professor, resting a hand on her back in reassurance.

Missy seemed almost offended by his words, and the Professor could feel it, the Doctor had not the slightest idea why the woman was so cross that he was so near to HER.

This woman…the only woman that would react like that, that had a right to react like that, might…MIGHT…be Mayra. But she was the Doctor's ex-wife, they had separated, divorced on Gallifrey, and Mayra wouldn't care at all what the Doctor did afterwards, so there really was absolutely no one they could think of that would react like that to their closeness. The Professor had seen it before, the woman's expression when the Doctor called her wife, when she called him her Bonded, when they mentioned the children or said something sweet…the woman looked angry and resentful.

But WHY?

"You're a Time Lord?" the Doctor could only gape at Missy, they hadn't sensed anything from her. But, then again, there had been ways to block that particular sensation in the past, the Krillitanes had managed it, the Master had, other Time Lords had as well…

"Time Lady, please," Missy rolled her eyes, linking her hands primly before her, "I'm old-fashioned."

"Which Time Lady?" the Professor demanded, her blaster clutched tighter, the only one she could think of, that could be mad enough to make something like this, was the Rani…

But the next words Missy said made it hard for them to think it might be her, "The one you abandoned, Doctor," Missy nearly spat, "The one you left for dead. Didn't you ever think I'd find my way back?"

That word, dead, the reminder of death and why they were here, was all that they needed to spark the Time Lords into action once more, "Clara!" the Professor gasped.

"Clara!" the Doctor agreed, turning and pulling out his sonic, "We've got to get Clara…" he agreed, turning to the door behind them to unlock it, knowing that they just had to get away from Missy and they'd be able to work out a way to get around the facility and back to Clara.

"Oh, Clara, Clara, Clara!" Missy rolled her eyes, "You know I should shoot you in a jealous rage…"

"Don't you dare," the Professor glared, moving to step in the woman's eye line of the Doctor, her blaster powering up.

"Should we duel?" Missy wondered, tilting her head at the Professor, "Have a draw at dawn? Now, wouldn't that be sexy," she smirked, only to tilt to the side to observe the Doctor struggling with the door, "I've turned the lift off, though."

The Doctor glowered at that, realizing the doors were for the lift and turned around, "I presume you have stairs," he shifted to the side, to the nearest door, knowing that the stairs were often close to the lifts.

"Well, I'm not a Dalek," Missy reasoned.

"Doctor," the Professor reached behind her, hearing a click, and he took her hand, tugging her back with him, letting her keep Missy in sight until she was through the door, the Doctor slamming it shut before they turned to hurry down the stairs.

The Doctor shoved a door on the next level open, expecting to find another hall that they could use to backtrack…and was sufficiently stunned to see they were standing on the steps outside the doors of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the middle of the day, on EARTH.

"What?" the Professor breathed, looking around, equally as startled to see it was a normal day. There were people milling about, buses running, church bells tolling in the distance, a clear blue sky with only faint wisps of white clouds, nothing out of the ordinary…

Save Missy who followed them out, "Oh, dear," she mused, making the Time Lords turn to face her, the Doctor holding the Professor's blaster arm in his hand, "Didn't you realize where you were?" she clicked her tongue in a tsk, "I expected better from you, Professor."

The Doctor sent a glare at Missy, only for his eyes to widen as he saw the Cybermen starting to follow her out of the dark doorway behind her. He turned and ushered the Professor down the stairs, him right behind her, guarding her back as they hurried, reaching the ground and shouting at the humans.

"Get away from here!" the Professor cried, "All of you, run!"

"Go!" the Doctor ordered, glancing back at the Cybers that were marching out of the Cathedral and down the stairs, heading for the humans like an endless line of metal soldiers, "Go! Get away from here! Run away! Run, run!"

"Get away from here all of you, now!"

"I'm sorry, everyone," Missy laughed as she nearly skipped over to them, the humans just giving the Doctor and Professor an odd look, as though they'd gone mad, "Another ranting Scotsman in the street. I had no idea there was a match on."

"Get away!" the Doctor nearly snarled at Missy.

"Go!" the Professor pleaded with the humans.

"Stop shouting, love," Missy taunted, "Stop making a fuss," before she grew serious, slowly walking towards the Time Lords, circling them with a feral grin, "It's too late. All the graves of planet Earth are about to give birth. You know the key strategic weakness of the human race? The dead outnumber the living."

"Who are you?" the Professor demanded with a glare, she just…she needed to know. If it was Rani, she knew how to handle her, if it was Romana somehow gone mental she could deal with that, if it was…even though it was beyond even her belief…Mayra she could do something about it. But she needed to know how to go about it, she needed to know which Time Lady it was.

"Oh, you know who I am," Missy rolled her eyes, growing more playful again, "I'm Missy!"

"Who's Missy?" the Doctor stepped closer to his wife, seeking her hand though his attention was on Missy.

Missy, however, seemed to see the motion and frowned, giving them an exasperated look, "Please, try to keep up," she taunted, "Missy. Short for Mistress," she laughed, seeing a spark of realization dawning in the Professor's eyes even when the Doctor still looked confused, that DID appear to be their normal expressions, always had been, "Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself 'the Master,' now could I?" she finished, laughing wildly as the Doctor took a horrified step back.

She couldn't help but spin in a circle as she grinned, watching the Doctor and Professor look around, the Cybermen marching closer, the humans ignoring their shouts to leave, their companion trapped inside the Mausoleum, and their greatest threat now back and ready to rain chaos down upon the earth.

Oh, this was going to be so much fun!

To be continued…

A/N: Sorry for the minor delay in this chapter :( I put up a note about it on my tumblr thought so I hope I didn't worry you all too much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) I sort of wanted to open with a reason for why the Time Lords weren't around in time to save Danny, they were off visiting River to talk about their children and then, just a bit after speaking to Clara, for her, Danny happened :(

I can say I have a lot for the next chapter that'll clear up Missy/the Master's reactions and actions here...and quite a bit of a laugh from the Professor. She DID make a promise once about what she'd do if she ever saw the Master again ;)

Also, three quick things :)

1. I've posted a new Star Wars story, Tipping the Balance, for anyone interested ;) Anakin/OC
2. Today will be my Merlin OC, Marayna's, make up tumblr takeover day for another...14ish hours from posting this chapter :)
3. Today will also be the start of the sneak peeks for TL6 on my tumblr ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Thanks! I went back and fixed it ;)

Aeon will be appearing again yup, along with Jenny to deliver him ;)

I agree, Clara definitely went about trying to keep her life working separately the wrong way :( I feel like the Doctor and Professor would have told her about Amy and Rory and how it doesn't really work to do that, the trips here and there, it's never that predictable enough to know what's going to happen or work out a schedule :( For Danny, I think what the Professor was trying to get at was that she felt he thought that NO ONE would be protecting Clara, that it would always be the Doctor picks the Professor and she picks him, the point of the Professor bringing up the children they killed was to tell him that she would always want to protect them and Clara first, that she'd give her life for Clara and will always do everything she can to make sure she's safe and protected. Now that she was about to have the babies, it was even more important that Danny understand she would be able to keep Clara safe more physically than before :) He would still worry, of course, but she was trying to express that he could worry just a bit less because it would NEVER be a situation where Clara was left behind as though no one cared if she lived or died, because she would force the situation where Clara was kept safe and she would fight to make sure that Clara never was harmed, SHE would care about Clara and never leave her to die, sort of thing :) Danny got the impression Clara wouldn't even be a thought to the Time Lords and would never be picked first to be protected, the Professor was trying to express that she would protect Clara the way he would other children, above and before herself. It would be easier for him to function knowing someone WAS looking out for Clara instead of fearing every second that Clara was going to be left to die...if that makes sense :) I tried to hint and lead up to the birth to make it more like an ongoing thing, the entire episode she was in labor and her water broke just before the actual birth, I'll be sure, if I do anything similar in the future, to try and make it more clear so it feels less rushed next time :)

It'll depend on which side J hears first and believes about the blow up, will he be more angry with his parents, or will he think his Link overreacted, because he saw it also from his baby POV too? We'll have to wait and see }:)

Jenny will pop up to deliver Aeon and meet her siblings yup ;) I can't say when J will regenerate, I do have it planned that, when Clara leaves the show for good, depending how it's spun in the show, she may just regenerate then, so that she can continue in the story whereas she couldn't in the show, and around that time J would regenerate so they don't have to go through it alone :) So J wouldn't regenerate at random, he'd wait till Clara was regenerating first ;) Oh Evy's reaction to Missy and the revelation made me laugh to write :)

I'm not sure how Missy escaped and made it to Earth either :( I'm probably going to keep it vague in the stories till they confirm it or clear it up in the show :)