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.

13. Last Christmas

Last Christmas

The Doctor and Professor hurried around the console of the TARDIS, frantically trying to get the controls sorted and land the TARDIS to Clara. It should have been easier than it was, but Clara, it appeared, had recently moved homes and they had to find her first, but they managed it and, before the box had actually finished setting down, they were already heading for the doors, throwing them open to see they'd landed on a snowy rooftop of a little house, Clara standing there before what appeared to be Santa Claus, his sleigh of reindeers, and two small elves. They gave 'Santa' a hard look, making their way right for Clara. The man had mentioned Clara to them before saying something about how it wouldn't do that they weren't in the same place for him to give them their Christmas gifts and that he would go get her. They'd immediately flown away to go find her, not willing to risk anyone going after the girl, especially not someone they weren't even sure was friend just yet.

"Clara," the Professor moved to her side, the Doctor standing slightly before them, blocking Santa's view of them, "We want you to step inside the TARDIS. Don't talk, just do as we ask. Please."

Clara just stared at them.

Judging by the snow around them and Santa standing there, they could guess that the summer hols were long over, about 6 months had passed since they last saw her. Well, 6 months for Clara at least. It felt like a blink to them.

"That was good, with the box," one of the elves remarked, eyeing the TARDIS.

"Not often we get upstaged on a rooftop," the second elf agreed.

"Clara," the Doctor looked back to see she was still just standing there, staring at them, "Yes, we're really here. We're back. Now get inside the TARDIS," the Professor would have smiled at his 'dad voice' that he'd just used, the commanding remark that had Clara automatically going to the TARDIS, stepping inside, and shutting the door behind her, before they looked back at Santa, "We know what this is. We know what's happening, and we know what's at stake."

Santa hummed, "I don't think you do, but I promise, before this Christmas Day is done, you will be glad of my help."

The Doctor shook his head, turning to walk back to the TARDIS with the Professor, calling a mocking, "Happy Easter," over his shoulder, the elves chuckling and mumbling about it.

"Be sure to save some room for a tangerine," Santa called.

The Professor grimaced at that, "Nobody likes the tangerines," SHE hadn't even eaten them when she'd been pregnant and she had eaten EVERYTHING.

The Doctor just opened the door to the TARDIS, letting her in and shutting them as they entered to see Clara looking around in a shocked, happy awe.

"I'm really back here," Clara breathed as they headed to the console and started to set the controls, "This is…this is real, yeah?" she turned to them, "Gran?" she eyed them, "Gramps? Talk to me. I never thought I was going to see you again. What is going on out there? What's happening?" she laughed, however, when the rotor began to move, signaling they were departing, that familiar noise that only the TARDIS could make, "Oh, that noise. Never knew how much I loved it!"

"There's something you have to ask yourself," the Professor called to Clara, "And it's important. Your life may depend on it. Everybody's life…"

"Do you really believe in Santa Claus?" the Doctor finished, dead serious.

The Professor rolled her eyes at that, "Could have phrased that a bit better, husband," she remarked to him, she had been going for serious and, even with how the Doctor had said it, it came across as ridiculous instead.

"Do you know what?" Clara started to smile, nodding around at the box, "Yeah. Right now, here, I think I do."

"Good," the Doctor nodded as the Professor reached out and pulled a lever, sending them off.

~8~

The Time Lords and Clara quickly stepped out of the TARDIS as it set down in the North Pole, hurrying across a small part of the snowy landscape towards a door. It appeared they'd landed at a base of some sort, a cluster of huts and even some vehicles parked around it, a large satellite dish fixed to the top of the building. The Doctor considered for a moment as he and the Professor moved a wheel on the door to open it, that this wasn't quite what he imagined to be the base for Santa's operation, but he had little time to really think on it as they opened the door and stepped through…to find they were in a very human infirmary, a human girl with short blonde hair was on her knees, seeming to air-guitar, while four others were lying on beds set up against the wall, asleep as far as they could tell. It was rather hard to determine as the four people had what looked like a lump of rock encasing their heads, blocking their faces. They could have been dead for all they knew, especially when not a single one so much as twitched when the blonde girl started to scream at the sight of the trio standing before her.

"We've…we've got ghosts!" the girl gasped, her hand flying to an earpiece she was wearing, "Yeah, yeah. It's a skeleton man, a scarlet woman, and a girl in a nightie."

"Scarlet woman?" the Professor gave the girl a look, glancing down at the red jacket she wore, "To start, I'm married, thanks. And second this is ruby, not scarlet."

"Um, Gran?" Clara called, jerking her head to the side, towards the beds.

"No!" the blonde gasped as the Time Lords moved over to examine the bodies, "No, no, you're making me think about them. Don't make me think about them!"

"What are they?" Clara tried to ask the girl, glancing at the four people on the bed as they slowly began to sit up.

"Look. Just don't ask, yeah? And don't look. Don't make me think about them!"

The four people began to pull the sheets that had been lying over them off themselves as they moved, starting to get out of the bed. The Doctor reached out to take the Professor's hand, tugging her back, not sure he wanted her to touch them. The people reminded him eerily of the gas-masked zombies in Albion Hospital, and with them touch could cause a person to turn into them. He pulled out his sonic to scan them instead.

"Deaf," he murmured, seeing the reading, "Blind. How can they see us? How do they even know that we're here?"

"They can only see you, yeah, if you see them," the blonde girl answered, "So just, so just don't look, don't even think about them!"

"Telepathic then," the Professor reasoned, "They can home in on their own image in someone else's brain. Third-party perception."

"Mind piracy," the Doctor was thoughtful, "We're being hacked."

"What does that even mean?" Clara frowned, stepping closer to the Time Lords as the figures now stood beside their beds.

"The visual input from your optic nerve is being streamed to their brains," the Professor answered quickly, "We need to stop broadcasting. Close your eyes," she turned to Clara who immediately shut her eyes.

"They're still coming, aren't they?" she asked after a moment, hearing footsteps.

"It's because you're still thinking about them. So long as you retain them as an active memory, they can still home in. Think about something else."

"How?" Clara frowned, hearing the woman starting to sing a small Christmas tune under her breath, "Why is she singing?"

"She's running interference. She's trying to distract herself."

"304 minus 17," the Doctor offered.

"Sorry, what?" Clara frowned.

"Plus 220. Just do it!"

"507," Clara answered promptly, making the Professor blink at how quickly she'd gotten it.

The Professor moved beside Clara, pulling her blaster out, aiming it at the four figures as they drew nearer, a crack starting to form in the hard covering of the rock, mucus seeming to start to drip out of it.

"Minus 14, times 4."

"1,972!"

"Stop being so good at arithmetic."

"I can't help it!"

"Danny," the Professor shouted, knowing exactly what would distract her, thinking of the Doctor, and hoping it was the same for Clara. She had her eyes closed as well, using her ears to home in her blaster towards the figures, but letting her mind think of the Doctor and the twins and how they were rather poor parents to not have gotten their children anything for the holiday…despite the fact they'd literally come from June to Christmas in one go and couldn't have known they'd land there, "Think of Danny."

"Yes!" the Doctor nodded, his own eyes closed, "What is Danny Pink up to right now? He's probably flirting with your neighbor or texting women of low moral character or…" he was cut off by Clara slapping him hard, which made the Professor whirl around, her eyes opening as had the Doctor's to see him holding his cheek.

"Don't you dare," Clara hissed at him, "Don't you dare say that."

"I was only…"

"Clara," the Professor moved to her side, "What's wrong?" a reaction like THAT was not something she expected from Clara.

"Danny Pink is dead," Clara told them, the figures starting to growl, the mucus crack revealing a mouth beneath though none of them were really looking at it.

"No, he's not," the Doctor frowned, not understanding.

"He's dead," Clara repeated.

The Doctor didn't get a chance to respond as the doors to the infirmary opened and three others were standing there, dressed in the dark, winter uniform the blonde girl sitting on the ground was wearing. Two women were there, one older, the other younger and black, with a middle-aged man among them, all holding rather large guns.

"Go, run, now, now, now!" the young woman in the middle ordered.

The Professor turned and grabbed the girl on the ground's arm, hefting her up and pulling her towards the doors as the Doctor did the same to Clara…only for what appeared to be fat spiders made of mucus to drop down from the ceiling.

"Here they come!" the woman that appeared to be in charge shouted as more and more spiders came down.

"No!" the Doctor cried as one went right for his face, the Professor moving to pull him back…

~8~

When the exterior doors were blown open by a small explosion, a tangerine rolling in like a grenade followed by a small army of little toy robots and rainbow slinkies. They could just make out Santa sitting on a rearing Rudolph as though the reindeer were a horse and Santa some sort of cowboy, before the man dismounted and started to walk into the room with the elves, one holding a balloon toy and the other with an air gun, "Well, now. What seems to be the problem? This is the North Pole. We don't want any trouble here," he rolled his eyes when Rudolph let out a snort, "Hey, Rudolph," he turned and pressed a car key in his hand, making Rudolph's nose flash and a car lock beep to sound, "Easy, son. Oi! Sleepy heads!" he turned to the four figures, "It's Christmas Eve, early to bed," he clapped his hands, shooing the figures back to the beds, the four of them doing as ordered without a fight.

"Who the hell are you?" the captain demanded.

"Oh, take a guess," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Go on, push the boat out. Tooth Fairy, maybe? Easter Bunny?"

"Shut your mouth, wise guy, or you get yours," the elf with the balloon turned to him as though he were holding a gun.

"It's a balloon animal," the other elf remarked.

"That's a toy gun," the first elf nodded at the air gun in his companions hands.

"Yeah, well, at least it's unsuitable for children under four. Parts small enough to swallow, so watch out."

"Or we could compare them to this one," the Professor held up her blaster, "So no threatening my husband, with balloon animals, air guns, or otherwise."

"Now, this is ridiculous," the captain shook her head, "Am I, am I dreaming?"

"Oh, very good," the Doctor pointed at her.

The captain strode forward, right up to 'Santa' and pointed her gun at the man's gut, "I need to know exactly who you are, and what's happening here."

Santa just turned the gun to the side with a gentle hand and a smile, "Hello, Ashley. Lead scientist on a polar expedition. Oh, that microscope really paid off, didn't it? Now, your mum and dad wanted me to get you a toy one, but sometimes, I take a chance."

The captain, Ashley, seemed startled that he knew that, "Who are you? Why are you dressed like that?"

"Why do you think?"

"Come on," the blonde woman from before shook her head, "This is mental. This is totally not happening."

"I got three words, Shona. Don't make me use 'em."

Shona stepped back, "What three words?"

"My. Little. Pony."

Before glaring, "Shut up, you!"

"Yeah? I've got lots more, babe."

"I will mark you, Santa," she thrust up her hands in a clawing motion.

"Ok," Clara cut in, turning to the Time Lords, "Are you going to explain? What is going on?"

"It's an invasion, Miss Oswald!" Santa seemed to cheer, cutting off the Time Lords.

"An invasion of, of what, elves?" she eyed the short men on either side of the big man.

"Whoa!" they cried, "That is racist."

"Elfist!" the other agreed.

"Yeah. Which is a bit hypocritical, from someone of your height."

Santa shook his head at his elves and turned to move out into the snow, to Rudolph, pulling a large, clear specimen container from his saddlebag before returning, holding it out to the aliens for them to see what looked like a crab made of rock, similar in texture and color to what was attached to the faces of the four on the beds, "You seen them before, Doctor?"

"I've heard of them," he nodded.

"Professor?" Santa smiled at her as she reached out to take the container.

"The Kantrofarri," she murmured, "Colloquially known as the Dream Crabs," she nodded, "I've seen them before yeah…"

"Depending on how many of those are already on Earth, the human race may well have seen its last day," Santa sighed, "So, are we going to stand about arguing about whether I'm real or not, or are we going to get busy saving Christmas?"

"Oh, ho, ho!" one of the elves cheered, "Santa goes badass!"

"He's giving me the feels!" the second gushed.

"Shut up," Santa shot them a look, "That's a…that's a verbal warning. Please, stop it."

The Professor turned to the crew of the base, "Is there somewhere we can examine this properly? A lab?"

Ashley hesitated but nodded, turning to lead them away, calling a brief order to her crew to head back to the control room, to interrogate 'Santa' and monitor the infirmary, as she went, leading the trio through the halls and to a small lab. It was...a reasonable size, had some tech and scanners lying about, an examination table. But it was, overall, not quite as advanced as the Time Lords would have wanted. They set the Crab down and looked around, but there was little there that could actually help them monitor or examine the Crab, leaving them to try and peer at it through the container walls.

"Is it dead?" Clara murmured as she watched the Time Lords, Ashley nearby, seeming both curious about the crab and also keeping an eye on the Time Lords.

"It could be," the Professor sighed, "But they can enter a hibernation stage that gives off very similar readings."

"I'm assuming extra-terrestrial?" Ashley guessed.

"Oh, definitely," the Doctor nodded.

"Then how can you have heard of these things? Or even seen them?" she looked between them.

"Guess."

Ashley frowned, "Because you're extra-terrestrial, too?"

"Do you believe that?"

Ashley nodded, "Why's it called a Dream Crab, for a start?"

"That's one way to look at it," the Professor murmured, "So theorize. Why IS it called a Dream Crab?"

"Because it generates a telepathic field."

"And?"

"Alters perception."

"Meaning?"

"I seem to be doing all the work here," she frowned.

"Meaning we can't trust anything that we see or hear," Clara finished.

The Doctor nodded, "Go to the window."

"Why?" Ashley gave them a look.

"Because it gets worse," the Professor sighed.

Ashley hesitated, but moved over to the window, looking out where she could see the TARDIS sitting in the snow, only seeing it as a bright blue police telephone box, "What is that?"

"That's how we got here," the Doctor answered.

"In a box?" she turned back to them.

"Technically, in a telephone kiosk."

"How?"

"Because it's a spaceship in disguise," the Professor deadpanned, "Which makes everything a bit harder to work out dream from reality for you humans."

"You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart?" the Doctor mused.

"What?" Ashley shook her head.

"They're both ridiculous."

"So we don't know what is real and what isn't?" Clara asked.

"Exactly."

"Are we in danger?"

"Are we ever not?" the Professor countered with a small smile.

"We are well way past danger, Clara," the Doctor informed, "If we're right, and we usually are…" he trailed off as both Clara and the Professor gave him a look for that, "Ok, if the Professor's right, which she usually is," he amended with a roll of his eyes, "We're dying."

"Then how do we stay alive?" Ashley stiffened at that.

"I like you," the Doctor eyed the woman, "Straight to the point. Just like my lovely wife," he smiled at the Professor a moment.

The Professor shook her head but smiled, before she turned to Ashley, "I want you to show us how you first encountered those creatures, and what happened to those people in the infirmary."

"How…" Ashley began.

"You all wear mini-cams," the Professor cut in, "I assume that there is footage."

Ashley was silent a moment, eyeing them, "Is it possible I'm about to work with someone who might be a dream?"

"If it helps, it's the same for us," the Professor shrugged.

Ashley sighed, "We have footage on the drives. I'll see what I can pull up."

"Ashley," the Doctor called as the woman turned to go, "What's this polar base for? Why are you all here?"

"It's a long story," Ashley remarked before leaving the room, leaving them in silence a moment.

"What you said about Danny," Clara began, after a minute or two, turning to the Doctor, "Unacceptable."

"I know," the Doctor nodded, looking more at the Dream Crab than Clara, "I had to flood your mind with random emotion."

"Random?" Clara scoffed.

"You never told us he was dead," the Professor defended the Doctor slightly, she didn't agree with exactly what he'd implied about Danny and what the boy might get up to when Clara wasn't there, she had been hoping that Clara would think good thoughts of Danny and it would help distract her, the Doctor had taken it a different route unknowingly, "You said he made it back."

"And you knew I was lying," Clara turned to her.

"I didn't know about WHAT though," she countered, "Why would you lie about that Clara? We wouldn't have left you if we'd known…"

"That's why," Clara rubbed her forehead, "I lied so you'd go home to Gallifrey instead of fussing about me."

"We're even then," the Doctor muttered, "We never found Gallifrey. We lied, so you'd stay with Danny."

Clara blinked at that, nodding her head slowly, taking in what they'd all tried to do for the other and looked down at the Dream Crab, "So we're dying, then?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Oh, complicated."

"How long do we have?"

"No idea," the Professor murmured, leaning over to get a closer look at the Crab. They couldn't risk taking it out of the container, giving it physical contact to latch onto.

"Just…give me something to do," Clara half begged.

"Trust nothing. Accept nothing you see. Whatever happens, interrogate everything."

"In case it's a lie?"

The Doctor nodded, "In case it's a lie."

"Oi," they looked over to see Ashley in the doorway, "Found something," she nodded her head for them to follow and took them back through the base, towards a control room of sorts, monitors and control panels set up everywhere, her crew hanging about, the man from before lounging back and eating a turkey leg while the older woman examined some of the equipment. Shona was there as well…interrogating Santa Claus.

"Reindeer can't fly!" the woman was huffing, "They just can't."

"No," Santa agreed, "No, they can't. It's a scientific impossibility. That is why I feed mine magic carrots."

"You alright?" the Doctor eyed the woman, recognizing the expression on her face as one the Professor often had when she wanted to strangle him.

"Yeah," Shona glanced back at them, "Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to talk sense into er, Beardy-Weirdy."

"You don't seem much like a scientist," the Professor remarked, frowning at the woman as she eyed her.

"That's a bit rude, coming from a magician's assistant," she shot back, making the Professor raise an eyebrow at that.

"Why are you out here?" the Doctor asked, looking at the rest of the crew, "What brought you to the North Pole?"

"Long story, isn't it?" Shona shrugged.

The Professor frowned at that, she could understand Ashley not saying, she sounded more like a scientist, might make it into a big long explanation or get stuck in talking about the science of it, but Shona was simple. If SHONA couldn't answer, and if she gave the same answer…

"You missed the killer question," the Doctor remarked.

"Sorry, what?"

"Beardy-Weirdy."

"Yeah?" Santa huffed at the name.

"How do you get all the presents in the sleigh?"

He grinned, "It's bigger on the inside."

"We gave that tech to Jeff," the Professor argued, "Ages ago. And you said you weren't him…"

Whatever else she was about to say was cut off by Ashley calling them over to the main monitor, "Doctor? Professor?"

"What are we looking at?" the Doctor asked, the monitor reading 'Headcam: Carter.'

"Footage from a week ago," the older woman remarked, stepping closer, "A side expedition from our main mission."

"What is your main mission?" the Professor eyed the woman a moment, almost expecting her to say…

"Long story," the woman finished, waving it off and gesturing at the monitor as the footage began to play, an icy sort of cave appearing, "Ice cave directly beneath this base. Now, look at what we found," the image shifted of someone walking through it, finding a cluster of what looked like rock hanging from an icicle, Dream Crabs, "Dormant at first."

"Until you looked at them too long," the Professor nodded, "Till you thought about them."

"Exactly."

"Sleeping," she tilted her head at the image, "Probably been down there for centuries."

"And it wakes up when you think about it?" Clara frowned, following.

"They can detect their own mental picture in any nearby mind," the Professor nodded.

"That's Bellows' theory," Ashley agreed.

The older woman, Bellows, shrugged, "It's like it responds to the presence of any data concerning itself."

"Oh, that was always the legend," the Doctor murmured, "You think about a Dream Crab, a Dream Crab is coming for you."

"This is where it gets really nasty," the man with the turkey leg called, making them look at him.

"Only now?" Clara shifted when the image continued to the crab lunging at the person wearing the headcam.

"Ok, then what?" the Doctor turned back to Bellows who sighed and switched the image to the infirmary, to where they'd managed to get the patients with the Dream Crabs latched onto them to bed.

"They're a bit like Facehuggers, aren't they?" the man mused.

"Face huggers?" the Doctor blinked at him.

"You know, Alien. The horror movie, Alien."

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive."

"No wonder everyone keeps invading you," the Professor mumbled, shaking her head at them.

"First, they just slept," Bellows got them back on track, "Couple of days, just lying there."

"And then they became aggressive?" the Professor guessed, though sounding far more like she knew the answer already.

"If we got close enough, yeah," Ashley nodded.

"It would take the Dream Crab a little while to take control. Depends how much of the host brain was digested."

Ashley looked disturbed, "Digested?" but the Professor nodded, "Are they still alive under those things?"

"Depends on how long they can fight the Crab."

"Depends what you call alive," the Doctor added.

"Are they suffering?" Ashley looked back at the footage, concern in her voice.

"Possibly," the Professor nodded.

"Not really," the Doctor frowned, looking at the Professor a moment, "The Dream Crab induces a dream state. Keeps you happy and relaxed, in a perfectly realized dream world, as you dissolve. Merciful, I suppose."

"Again, possibly," the Professor gave him a look for it, "It's a dream world. Means it's equally open to become a nightmare if you become aware of the Crab," she didn't let the Doctor even open his mouth to comment on that before she was turning back to the footage, "Could you rewind for me? I'd like to see them dormant again. Clara, could you fetch me the dead one?"

"Maybe I could fetch you a cup of tea while I'm at it," Clara muttered.

"Ooh, yes," the Doctor nodded, before catching sight of Clara's unamused look, "And a punch in the face, too."

"My very next suggestion, Gramps," Clara teased a bit as she turned and headed out of the room.

"Fair enough," the Doctor called after her.

"Was it those four from the start?" the Professor asked Ashley, "Or did they manage to infect someone else between when you found them and now?"

"It was just the four," Ashley told her, "When we started to realize what they were doing, we avoided them. We didn't want to risk what might happen if they got us."

"Hmm…" the Professor frowned, thinking on that, "Do you have a live feed of the infirmary right now?"

Ashley nodded and brought one up for them to see, watching as the four figures just laid in the beds. She glanced over at the Professor and Doctor who had deep frowns on, "What's wrong?"

"They're dormant now," the Professor began quietly, "They were dormant before we arrived?" she glanced at Shona who nodded, "But we looked at them, and they activated even when dormant, even when…" her eyes widened, "Hibernating!"

"We're thinking about it!" the Doctor realized what she was saying, that they had just sent Clara to get the hibernating and dormant Dream Crab which meant Clara would be thinking about it and getting it, "Clara!" he turned and bolted out of the room with the Professor, the crew after them, racing into the lab only to stop short at the sight of Clara on the ground, the dormant Dream Crab attached to her face.

"Clara!" the Professor hurried to her side, "Clara! Clara, I know you can hear me in there," she started to speak as the Doctor knelt on Clara's other side, "Clara, you are dreaming. You're dying. The Crab is killing you. Clara, you are dying and you need to fight it. Clara!"

"We did try to wake the others," Ashley offered, "No stimulus worked."

"Ok, we kill it," the Doctor looked at the Professor, "What about your blaster?"

She shook her head, "It's too close to her face and, despite appearances, it's very thin, but very hard. The power needed to stop it would end up hitting Clara as well."

"We find a way to kill it and we get it off of her," he muttered, "How do we kill it? How…"

"There's no way to kill it without killing your friend, too," Ashley agreed, "And as a scientist, may I just say, I don't like the way you're talking."

"Santa," the Doctor turned to the man, "In the infirmary, you told the Sleepers to go to bed, and they obeyed you."

"Sorry, doesn't mean I can get that creature off her," Santa shook his head with a frown.

"No," the Professor agreed, "But you can get back in there unharmed."

"What?" Shona gave her a look as though she'd gone mad, "You're asking Santa for help? He doesn't exist."

"Doesn't matter," the Professor shook her head, looking up at the man, "Can you do it?"

"I can commit several million housebreaks in one night dressed in a red suit with jingle bells, so of course I can get back into the infirmary," Santa rolled his eyes, turning to stride out of the room to get the crab.

"Good," the Professor nodded, "Because you CAN kill a Dream Crab," she told the crew, "You have to wake up. If you break the connection with it, it's lost its source of food and the severing is so severe that it shocks the Crab to death. We have to wake her up and there's only one way I can think that we can do to make Clara realize it's a dream and wake up."

"And what's that?" Ashley frowned.

"I'm going to go into her dream state after her."

"How?" Shona asked.

"Letting a Crab get me." the Professor stated.

"No," the Doctor shook his head, "You're not doing that."

"I have to," she turned to him, "Dream Crabs can create a communal dream, if I'm close enough to her I can join her in her dream."

"But you're not going to," he argued, "If anyone is going to let some parasitic crab on them, it'll be me."

"Yes, because you have so much experience dealing with their dreams and fighting them."

"And you do?"

"Yes!" she huffed.

He opened his mouth to ask her what she was talking about, but the hard, pointed look she gave him was answer enough.

The War. The High Council. The Academic Training Program…

"They didn't…" he breathed.

~/~\~

She was happy, so happy. She and the Doctor were at her home, her own little place, just having some food, spending time together. It had been…so long, too long to get to that moment. The Doctor had graduated the Academy and it had been hard to be apart from him for 2 years till she had graduated herself. But they'd managed, two very VERY long years and now there they were, together again. She had been invited to be an Academic but turned it down, she couldn't survive another month let alone a century or two without the Doctor, she was sure of it. So she politely declined. It had led to quite the blow out between her and the Doctor, where he had all but demanded what she'd been thinking to turn it down and she might have let slip that she had been thinking that if it were a choice between an Academic or being with him she'd pick him. And then he may have kissed her afterwards.

They'd been inseparable since then, practically living in each other's homes, spending more time than ever together and they had already spent every waking second together in the Academy.

"Kata," she looked down as he spoke, his head resting on her lap as he fiddled with her hand, her reading him a book, one of her favorites by an Earth author, Charles Dickens, but he'd interrupted her.

"What is it Theta?" she smiled at him.

"Thank you."

"For what?" she shook her head.

"Marrying me."

She blinked at that, before laughing, "Well, if you ever ask me to…" they had agreed that, if ever they were to marry, as well as Bond as they had, it would be in an Earth based ceremony, with traditions of the like.

"Why would I need to ask?" he seemed confused, but the smirk on his face told her he was well aware that he'd never actually done so yet, "You've already accepted."

"No, I haven't."

"You haven't?"

"You haven't asked, so I couldn't have answered yes or no."

"Oh…" he hummed a moment, "Then why are you wearing this ring?" he held up her left hand, the one he'd been playing with while she'd read, to reveal a small ring on her finger that had NOT been there before.

"What…" she breathed.

He just grinned, "Seems silly to wear an engagement ring if there was no engagement," he sat up, looking down at her hand still held in his, "I suppose I should take it off then…"

"No!" she pulled her hand away, cradling it to her chest, "You take it off and I'll bean you with his book."

He held up his hands in surrender, a wide smile on his face, "Then you'll keep it?"

She reached out with her same hand, touching his cheek, "I'd like to keep you," she told him, "And the ring is pretty nice too."

He laughed and leaned in, about to kiss her when…

A sharp pain slammed into the side of her head, making her scream, her hands flying to her head, before she gasped and coughed, something screeching as it fell off her face and onto the ground. She tried to scramble back, wanted to move away…only to find she was restrained, she was sitting on a chair, her arms and legs bound, her head forced back against it, her eyes trained on the small rock-like crab writing on the ground before it turned to ash.

"Excellent progress," a voice said beside her as one of the Academy scientists stepped into her line of sight, "You're reacting much quicker to the dream scenarios," he tilted his head, "Your mind has advanced quite a bit if it can recognize a dream no matter the scenario or amount of anesthetic administered. Perhaps you are ready to move on to the mental conditioning after all…"

She shuddered at that, looking at the ashes on the ground, the Dream Crab, they were called, they were meant to lull you into a dream and attack your brain. It wasn't the first one that had been attached to her, but, even she could tell, it was the quickest her mind had pushed one off, pushed her awareness back to the conscious world.

She almost wished it hadn't, wished it had done its job properly and finished her off, the mental conditioning…she'd heard whispers of the first test subjects, the ones that had survived, it was absolute hell…

~/~\~

"I don't think there'll ever be a day that you're not shocked and utterly disgusted with the things they did to us," the Professor murmured, "They had to be sure that we would be able to see through tricks the enemy might use, hallucinations, simulations, other things."

The mental conditioning had made the torment of the Dream Crab seem like a walk in the park. The first test subjects, if the rumors were true...it was disturbing. The High Council had taken some of the weaker Academics, the ones they doubted would actually finish the program, and used them to test the technology. From what she'd heard, the subjects had been left in the worst conditions, some practically vegetables, some so scarred they were partially deranged, their minds had just been shattered and torn apart, the extra information shoved into it overloading them to the point their bodies couldn't handle it. She had almost been glad that she had been among the last to take the conditioning, that the systems had grown more advanced by the time her turn came around. Almost. She was quite sure, in the middle of training, more than half the Academics would have volunteered if only for the chance that it might kill them and put them out of their misery. If she hadn't had the hope of the Doctor and seeing him again, living and fighting for him, to keep the Council from using her death to manipulate him, she was sure she would have wished the same.

"Wife…" the Doctor reached out and took her hand, "Are you sure?"

He hated it, he hated forcing her to experience and relive things from her training, from the war, and this was doing just that. This would be putting her through that hell once more and he wanted anything else in the world than for her to do this. But she would, he knew she would, to save Clara, to save their granddaughter from the fate she was all too aware the Crabs could lead to. He had to remind himself she would know what to do, she had done this before, she would and could do it again, she'd know how to help Clara get out of the dream she was in…she just had to get in there.

The Professor reached out and touched his cheek, smiling softly, "I'm stronger than I look," she murmured, glancing up as Santa came back in with the Crab, "I did give birth to TWO of your children," she added jokingly, before her eyes widened.

She opened her mouth, a thought striking her about their children, about their safety…when Santa opened the container he'd put a Dream Crab in and it launched right at her…

~8~

The Professor was standing before a door to Clara's home, snow lightly falling behind her into the night, having just knocked on the door and waiting for Clara to open it, and trying not to be slightly hurt by the only minutely let down look on Clara's face when she saw who was standing there, "Hello."

"Hi," Clara blinked, seeming confused why the Professor was there, "Gran?"

The Professor gave her a sad smile, "It's not real, Clara. You know it's not real. It's a dream, and it's killing you."

"Merry Christmas," she muttered, letting the Professor into her house, following Clara into the sitting room of it, "You remember Danny, of course."

The Professor wasn't surprised at all to see a dream-Danny there, she knew, of all people, he would be the one Clara would want to see the most in her dreams…though she was a bit thrown by him wearing a Santa suit, "A fair representation," the Professor remarked, eyeing him, "You've made him a fraction taller, though. Merry Christmas, soldier," she gave him a small salute.

"Compliments of the season, ma'am," Danny murmured back, returning the salute a bit more harshly than hers had been.

"Better with the dialogue," she continued, "Nice work. It's all in the detail. You remember him well."

"Just stop it," Clara breathed, shaking her head, moving to stand by a nice little fire that was going in the fireplace of the cozy and formerly-happy room.

The Professor just turned to her, walking over to Clara, taking her hands, "He's not real, Clara. None of this is real. What's real is there is an alien organism wrapped around your face, keeping you warm and happy while it eats you."

"Mince pie, anyone?" Danny called, but the Professor ignored him.

"You're dying."

"If this is a dream, how can you be here?" Clara tried to argue, "How can we both be having the same dream?"

"There was only one way to get to you."

"And what was that?"

"I'm dying, too," she shrugged.

"Gramps can't be happy about that," Clara frowned.

"Oh I'm sure I'll be scolded sufficiently when this is over," the Professor agreed, "Though he DOES still have quite a few death-defying feats over me, we'll just call this one closer to being even."

"You shouldn't have done it," Clara told her, "Just wake up. Just leave me here, please."

"I'm not going to let you kill yourself Clara," she told the girl, "Not over a boy."

"What, like you wouldn't for the Doctor?"

"Did he when he thought he killed me on Gallifrey?" the Professor countered, hearing just a bit too much 'Romeo and Juliet' in Clara at the moment, she'd never really been a fan of that tale, they were 14 and got too invested too quickly and then killed themselves instead of trying to work a way around it, it was a horrid example of what true and real love was and should be like, "No, he lived on, because that was what he knew I would have wanted him to do. Do you really think Danny would want you to die? He gave his life so YOU would LIVE, Clara," she reminded her, squeezing her hands.

"This feels real though," Clara whispered, her voice thick with emotion, "Why can't it be real, that we both get to live?"

"You have a pain right here," the Professor tapped her temple, "Like an ice cream pain, but gentle. That's the skin and bone being parted through a numb area with something pushing right into the soft tissue of your brain, dissolving it. You should be screaming with agony, but there's anesthetic. Everything around you right now, even Danny, especially Danny, that's the anesthetic."

"Why are you doing this?" Danny frowned, stepping over to them, "Why are you saying all of that?"

The Professor sighed and turned to look at him, "Because it's true," she told him, glancing back at Clara, "How long do you think you've been here?"

"All day," she answered.

"Five minutes," the Professor corrected, "Barely. Dream time goes faster. Because this isn't real. Danny isn't real. Danny Pink died saving you. And we're sorry that you lost him again, we thought there was a way back for him, but we were wrong, I was wrong. None of us can change that. He's dead," she sighed, "I didn't want to do this Clara…"

"Do what?" Clara blinked, trying not to cry.

"You've done quite the job remembering him," she nodded to Danny, "And if you have remembered him as well as I think you have…" she looked at Danny, "Then he's about to help convince you to wake up, to save your life again."

Danny's expression hardened, as though he didn't want to admit she was right, but sighed, because this, Clara, was too important to him, "How long has she got?"

"Minutes till it's irreversible," the Professor told him, "If she had a Time Lord mind, she'd last longer, much longer."

"Well then, get out the way," Danny stepped up and the Professor moved aside as requested, allowing Danny to stand before Clara, "I'm a dream and you know I am, right?" he asked and Clara nodded, "Right, one thing. But it's important. It's a very important thing. That is totally how you guessed all of my presents."

Clara gave him a sad smile, "I miss you."

"Five minutes."

"What?" Clara frowned.

"You can miss me for five minutes a day. And you'd better do it properly. You'd better be sad. I expect my five. But all the rest of the time, Clara, all the rest of the time, every single second, you just get the hell on with it. Clear?"

"Don't you soldier me, I get enough of that from Gran."

Danny looked over at the Professor, giving her a nod at that, before he looked at Clara, "Do as you're told," he pressed a kiss to her forehead and called out, "How does she wake up?"

"She needs to will it," the Professor told her, "She needs to accept it isn't real, and reject this reality. Like when you're having a nightmare and you want to wake up. She has to force it."

Danny nodded at that, "Do it," he told Clara, "For me."

"When I wake up, you won't be there," Clara started to cry, shaking her head, half-begging him not to make her do it.

"But they will," he swallowed, lightly jerking his head towards the Professor, "Your…your family. Your gran and gramps and your cousins, they'll be there, and they need you," he eyed Clara a moment, "Do you know why people get together at Christmas? Because every time they do, it might be the last time. Every Christmas is last Christmas, and this is ours. This was a bonus. This is extra. But now it's time to wake up."

The Professor looked away as Danny leaned in to kiss Clara one final time, affording her granddaughter as much privacy as she could…

~8~

The Doctor jerked back, barely avoiding the Professor sitting straight up as the Dream Crab leapt off her and fell onto the ground with a shrill cry, writing and twisting before them as Clara and her own Crab did the same, "Are you…"

The Professor waved him off, "Fine, fine, Clara…"

He nodded, seeing her pulling her blaster out and shuffled to Clara's side, "Clara? Clara, look at me, Clara! Clara! Breathe, breathe. Breathe. Breathe."

The Professor aimed carefully, waiting to ensure the Crabs were starting to turn to dust, as happened when they were dying, and fired her blaster at them, just to be sure they were truly gone, "There," she took a breath, looking over at Clara who was clutching the Doctor, still panting from her experience, "Not that hard," she checked her blaster and put it in her pocket, "It'll be alright Clara," she reached out to touch the girl's shoulder, "Waking can be quite jarring, but it'll fade in a few moments."

"Quite jarring?" Clara nearly shouted the words, "That…that isn't…I don't even know what the word is!" it was horrible, an absolutely horrible experience, it was worse than an ice cream pain that was for damn sure.

"You get used to it," the Professor shrugged.

"You've experienced that before then?" Ashley frowned, moving to gather some of the left over specimen into a jar while Shona quickly grabbed a dust pan to collect the rest of the Crabs in.

"More than I'd like to admit," the Professor sighed, "Helps to fight against them more easily though."

"So these creatures, when their feeding goes wrong, they die?" Bellows eyed the dust piles.

"The carnivore's hazard. Food has teeth too."

"Clara?" the Doctor glanced at her as she sat away from him, starting to feel her temple, "You ok?"

"No," she murmured.

"There's no bite mark," the Professor told her, "Not a visible one anyway," she started to frown at that, "There should be…" she reached up to touch her temple, sighing, "Anyone got an ice cream pain?" she asked, holding up her hand when she realized the pain she'd felt in Clara's dream was still there.

Slowly, everyone's hand started to lift as well.

Oh brilliant, she had to mutter to herself at that as she rubbed her head. She should have felt it before, but it was like…unless she was aware of pain she didn't even realize she'd felt it. During her pregnancy, she'd been expecting it so she felt the pain then. She hadn't been expecting the labor, had been expecting her water to break first and then contractions to start, so she hadn't felt it then. And just now, she should have been feeling the ice cream pain for a while, but she hadn't realized it, hadn't considered the possibility. It wasn't till she was in Clara's dream, knowingly expecting the pain as a sign of what the dream was that she realized she felt it…and now she felt it again.

"It's the cold, I think," Bellows defended, "Some sort of reaction."

"But only on one side, just that spot there," the Professor pointed to her temple, "And you've all got it."

"Ok, so why do we all have that pain?" Clara frowned.

"Theorize."

Clara rolled her eyes at that, "Don't treat me like a beginner. I was dreaming, then I woke up. I know that."

"Do you?" the Doctor asked, glancing at the Professor for confirmation, receiving a nod in response that his own theory was correct, "And have you ever woken up from a dream and discovered that you're still dreaming?"

"Dreams within dreams," the Professor nodded, "Dream states nested inside each other."

"All perfectly possible, especially when we are dealing with creatures who have weaponized our dreams against us."

"I don't know about anybody else, but I'm pretty certain I'm awake right now," Bellows tried to smile.

"Which is odd, when you think about it."

"Odd?" Ashley frowned.

"Impossible, in fact," the Professor agreed, "How can any of us be awake?"

"I don't understand," Shona huffed.

"Remember how we all first met, in the infirmary?" the Doctor tired to remind them.

"All those creatures coming down from the ceiling, attacking us," the Professor agreed.

"We never stood a chance."

"How did we survive that?"

"Well, we…we were rescued," Shona defended.

The Professor scoffed at that, "Yes, and who was it that rescued us?"

They all looked around to see Santa and his elves were nowhere to be seen.

"Come on," the Doctor stood, holding out a hand to help the Professor and Clara up, "Time to ask the fat man some questions," he determined, turning to lead them out of the lab, heading back to the control room to try and use the security cameras to find the man, only to see he was talking on a mobile phone in the control room himself, holding up a finger at them and pointing at his mobile before he turned to finish his call.

"The Helman-Ziegler test," the Professor murmured, wanting to test it more while they waited for Santa, "One of the most reliable dream tests that I know," she turned to the Doctor, "We need a book of some sort, multiple copies…"

He nodded and they started to sift through the packages and reports around them, "Ah," the Doctor held up four yellow bound packets, "Your base manual. I take it none of you have memorized this?" he handed them to the four crew members.

"I haven't, I haven't read it," Shona laughed.

"These books should be identical in the real world," the Professor explained, "But as they don't exist in your memory, in a dream, they can't be. Agreed?" she eyed them and they nodded hesitantly.

"Clara," the Doctor pointed at her, "Give me any two digit number."

"57," Clara called out.

"Alright," the Doctor gestured at them, "All of you, turn to page 57 and look at the very first word. Right, when I point at you," and so he turned and pointed at Ashley.

"Isotope," she answered.

So the Doctor moved to Bellows, "Well?"

Bellows hesitated, swallowing hard, "Extremely."

"Inside," the male crewmember breathed when it got to him.

"Chocolate," Shona stated on her turn, before frowning, "Why did I get chocolate? What's that about?"

"This can't be right. We must have got it wrong, that's all."

"Alright," the Professor shrugged, "Another go then. Clara?"

"24," Clara supplied for a page number, looking at the crew as they flipped to it, starting to read the first word in the same order the Doctor had pointed at them before.

"We."

"Are."

"All."

But Shona was silent.

"Shona?" the Professor looked at her.

"Dead," she read.

The room fell silent at that.

"Since the attack in the infirmary…" Ashley began, shaking her head, trying to make sense of this, "Nothing has been real?"

"The attack is still going on," the Professor countered, "THIS is the attack."

"We've been dreaming since then?" the male crewmember frowned.

"Oh, for Easter's sake!" Santa huffed, closing his phone and heading over, unable to keep speaking as they were getting rather rudely loud and disrupting his phone call, "Of course you've been dreaming. Haven't you been paying attention?"

"Rudolph," one of the elves offered, "Did you see the nose?"

"The North Pole?" the second scoffed, "Come on, with stripes?"

"This."

"Is."

"A dream!" the two elves and Santa shouted at them.

"Oi!" the Professor pointed at them, "Watch your tone, Misters."

"Look," Santa sighed, "As you stand here, chatting, chatting, your lives are ending. Unless you wake up, unless you free yourselves from these dreadful creatures, they're…they're going to destroy you."

"You're a dream who's trying to save us?" Shona shook her head at him, not sure how that worked out.

"Shona, sweetheart, I'm Santa Claus. I think you just defined me."

"It does make sense," the Professor remarked.

"Ok, how, in any universe, does that make sense?" Clara gave her a look.

"The Dream Crab tries to make the dream as real as possible to trap you inside it. It creates dreams within dreams so you can never be sure if you are really awake. But your brain knows something is wrong. Your subconscious fights back. This is your mind trying to tell you this isn't real. And he," she gestured at Santa, "Is OUR mind trying to tell us that this isn't real," she looked at the Doctor for that one, "Because it would have to be something very big for US to not think it plausible."

It was true, after everything she and the Doctor had experienced in their lives, it would have to give them something like this. Because Jeff was not like this version of Santa, this one was for the humans, to make it even more unbelievable to Time Lords.

"Yes, now all of you, come near," Santa gestured them close, "Come here, come on. Join hands."

"No," the Doctor shook his head, stepping closer to the Professor, "Look, we don't need all this touchy-feely stuff…"

"Shut up, Doctor. Join hands. Come on, concentrate."

"Why?" Bellows hesitated.

"You are deep inside this dream, alright, and it is a shared mental state, as the Professor told you it could do, so it is drawing power from the multi-consciousness gestalt which has now formed telepathically and…"

"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor cut in, "Line in the sand. Santa Claus does not do the scientific explanation."

Santa rolled his eyes as the Professor laughed at that, "Alright. As the Doctor might say," he adopted a Scottish accent, "Oh, it's all a bit dreamy-weamy."

"Wrong incarnation," the Professor remarked.

The Doctor just shot him a glare, "Why don't you just go and…and make a naughty list?"

"I have, mate, and you're on it," Santa told him, "You and your wife."

"Oi!" the Doctor frowned now, "Why's my wife on it!?"

"Well, besides the numerous lives she took, planets she destroyed, laws she broke," he began to tick off on his fingers, making the Doctor's glare grow more and more, "I don't even want to bring up what goes on in your TARDIS. I see you when you're sleeping and awake, mate, you two sleep less than humans but you still got a bedroom and…"

"Stop, please!" Clara cried, putting her hands on her ears, "I do NOT need to hear Santa Claus talking about how my grandparents conceived my cousins!"

The Professor couldn't help it, she burst out laughing at that, actually needing the Doctor to reach out and grab her arm to keep her from falling to the ground it was just such a ridiculous situation. Santa Claus was a bit of a peeping tom, the Doctor was all flustered that they were both 'naughty,' and Clara…oh her poor little granddaughter had likely just been scarred for life. It made her glad that Jenny wasn't there to scar her daughter as well, though it did make her sober to think on, they did need to contact Jenny very soon and tell her about her siblings, see how she and Aeon were, and they DID need to resolve this and get back to the TARDIS and their twins. Dream time worked differently, this whole thing could have been mere minutes since the TARDIS touched down, their children only just being put to bed for the night, but she would rather be fully conscious and with them again.

"See," the Professor cleared her throat, a bit of a chuckle in it, "It's definitely something WE would find unrealistic."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at that, but there was a hint of a smile on his face.

"Ok, this is all very…disturbing," Ashley began, not quite sure what to make of all of it, "And even more so, I have an alien life form wrapped around my face, and apparently it's digesting my brain. When you speak, how do I know it's not the Dream Crab?" she looked at Santa.

"Good question," he nodded, "Spoken like a scientist."

"Can I put it another way?" Clara offered, "Why would the part of our brain that is trying to keep all of us alive choose you for a face?"

"Is anyone else asking that?" Santa glanced around.

Shona blinked, "Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All of us. All of us. Why you?"

"Why me?" he hummed, "It's the North Pole, it's Christmas Day. You're dying. Who you gonna call? Just one last time, huh? One last Christmas, as if your lives depended on it. Please! Ho, ho, ho. Believe in Santa."

The humans looked at each other and shrugged, moving to form a circle, taking each others' hands even as the Doctor tried to back away, "I'm not very good with this holdy-hand thing…"

"Is that so?" the Professor held out her hand to him, taking Ashley's other hand.

"I will hold my wife's hand, but that's it," he nodded, stepping over to take hers.

"Thanks, gramps, I feel loved now," Clara mock-grumbled.

"Alright, and Clara's, but that's where I draw the line," he took Clara's as well, "Well, this is very Christmasy, isn't it?"

"Ok," Ashley asked Santa, "So what do we…" only to trail off when she saw he and his elves were gone, again.

"Where did he go?" Bellows frowned.

"It's a sign you're waking up," the Professor told them, "That part of the dream is over. We're on our own now."

"Well, then, what do we do?" the male crewmember asked.

"That pain in your head. Make it worse. Head towards it."

"So when we wake up, what do we expect?" Ashley looked at the aliens.

"Only a few moments will have passed at the most," the Professor warned, "The attack is still in progress."

"I'm scared," Shona murmured.

"Congratulations," the Doctor deadpanned, "That means you're not an idiot."

"It's not like the last time," Clara glanced at the Professor.

"Last time wasn't real," she reminded Clara.

"Good luck," Ashley looked around at the small circle, "Stay calm. And God bless us, every one."

They all took a breath and closed their eyes, focusing on the ice cream pain, focusing on what was real…

~8~

The Professor sat up with a gasp, her blaster already out and in her hand within moments, turning and blasting the Dream Crab as it fell from her face, doing the same to the ones that had latched onto the Doctor and Clara and the crew of the base. The Doctor helped Clara to her feet, reaching out to pull his wife up as well, ushering them all back towards the doors of the corridor. The Dream Crabs were, however, still latched onto the four other figures they had been on before, though the severed connection seemed to echo through them, causing them to clutch their heads and sides, writing.

"Go!" the Professor shoved the humans on, having more of a tolerance for waking up as they had, the humans coughing and gasping as they stumbled, "Go, go!"

"Run!" the Doctor agreed, when one of the still infected grabbed Clara's arm, "Clara!"

The Professor turned and fired her blaster, grazing the person's arm, causing them to let go of Clara and stumble back, the natural reaction of the body to the injury giving Clara enough time to be pulled further back, the three of them running for the doors with the crew, trying to shut the doors behind them but one of the others managed to stick their arm through it. Bellows hit it with the butt of her gun, making it pull back enough to shut the door.

"Everyone alright?" the Doctor asked as he quickly soniced the door locked. The humans nodded, "Good. Bye," he reached out and took the Professor's hand, leading her down the corridor towards the nearest door to the outside.

"Doctor!" Clara called as she hurried after them, "Professor!"

"No need for chatting," the Doctor told her as they went, "You'll only get attached. This isn't Facebook."

"There's something I need to check in the TARDIS," the Professor told her, rubbing at her temple…

The ice cream pain was still there, they were STILL in their rubbish dream. But things could be used, manipulated. If she could get to the TARDIS, trick her brain into thinking the box was actually running scans, maybe she could trick her mind into giving her the answer about the source of the Crabs so that they could end this officially.

"Er, what about the Dream Crabs?" Clara asked as they made it outside into the falling snow, heading for the TARDIS.

"Oh, they're fine," the Doctor waved it off.

"And the people that they're eating?"

"Beyond help."

"Doctor, the others are still in danger!"

"Only if they're stupid," he dug through his pockets for the keys, "There are polar bears on this ice cap. Am I supposed to do something about that, too?"

"We know Dream Crabs are still on Earth…"

"There are lots of dangerous things on this funny little planet of yours, Clara, most of which you eat. I'm the Doctor, not your mam."

"She IS right though," the Professor remarked, "We're not done here."

"We are," he turned to her, "We can get in the TARDIS right now, drop Clara off at home, and go Christmas shopping before the wee ones are awake and…"

"And that's just it," the Professor pointed out, "Christmas shopping."

"Yes. Christmas Shopping."

"For Christmas."

"Yes."

"A holiday that features Santa."

"Ok."

She sighed, he still wasn't getting it, "A Santa that isn't real, that we met on Clara's roof before this even started."

He blinked at her for that, when something hit him, "Four."

Now it was the Professor's turn to blink, "Four?"

"Four patients! Four manuals."

The Professor's eyes widened, "Oh my god," she turned and quickly ran back towards the door to the base, silently cursing herself for not having seen that, noticed that…and wondering how in the world the Doctor had!

"Do you know what I hate about the obvious?" the Doctor called to Clara as the girl ran after them, completely lost about whatever revelation the two had had.

"What?" Clara asked.

"Missing it," the Doctor told her.

"I hate it more," the Professor remarked as they ran down the halls towards the control room, "Because I never do. And it's REALLY irritating when it does happen."

"As you were!" the Doctor shouted as they skid into the room to see the crew monitoring the footage of the infirmary, the figures lying on the beds again, "No saluting. Are you the same people as before?"

"Yes."

"Oh, sorry, I deleted you."

"Well, that's not a very nice attitude, is it?" Shona huffed.

"Four manuals, yes?" the Doctor turned and quickly picked them up again, noticing how they were in the same spot they'd been in before the dream had 'ended.'

"Yes, why?" Ashley shook her head.

"One each?" the Professor gave them a look.

"One each, yes," the male crewmember nodded, "What's the problem?"

"Well, the problem is, you can't see the problem," the Doctor turned and held up the manuals, "For instance, you, gobby one," he tossed one to Shona.

"I have a name, actually," the girl grumbled.

"Doesn't matter. I don't need it. I…"

"When we first met you in the infirmary, what were you doing?" the Professor cut in, turning to Shona as well, she had realized something was wrong, she had NOTICED it before, but then when they found out it was just a dream, she'd thought it was just that, that odd little niggle. But if they said…

"It's a long story."

That.

If they said that, just what they'd been saying to everything related to why they were there, it was another test if it was a dream…and it was.

"Uptight boss one," the Doctor turned to Ashley, "What is the primary mission of this polar base?"

"It's a long story," Ashley repeated what Shona had.

"Smart one," he moved to Bellows as well, "What brings you to the North Pole at your age?"

"It's a…"

"Long story?" the Professor answered at the same time as Bellows, making them realize they'd all been saying it.

"Ok," Clara frowned, "Why are they all giving the same answer, because that is a tiny bit freaky."

"If you think that's freaky, try this," the Doctor turned to Clara, "We were in the TARDIS. Why did we come here?"

"It's a long story," Clara said automatically, before her eyes widened, scared, "Why did I…"

"Dreams," the Professor began.

"They're funny," the Doctor nodded.

"They're disjointed."

"They're silly."

"They're full of gaps and yet you don't notice, because the dream protects itself."

"Stops you asking the right questions."

"For example," the Professor turned to them, "Why do you have four manuals, one each, when you have a crew of eight?"

"Or did you forget about your friends in the infirmary here?" the Doctor eyed theme expectantly as well.

But the crew just stared at them, "Do you…" Ashley began.

"Yes, we do this a lot," they answered at the same time, they WOULD do it a lot after over 1000 years together, "Answer the question."

"But we woke up…" the male crewmember frowned.

"Dreams within dreams," the Professor shook her head, "We warned you."

"This," the Doctor nodded, pointing at the ground, at where they were right at that moment.

"This isn't a dream," Bellows shook her head, "I know it isn't."

"No one knows they're not dreaming. Not one of us. Not ever. Not for one single moment of our lives."

"Sometimes we hope we are," the Professor added, "Sometimes we WANT this to be the dream, to be the nightmare, so that when we wake up it's not real. But it's hard to tell."

"Clara?" the Doctor looked at her, "Page number. Make it a good one."

Clara smiled, looking at the Time Lords, "12."

The Crew opened their manuals and, in the same order as before, read the first word.

"Very."

"Very."

"Very!" Bellows smiled, thinking that this wasn't a dream, not if they all had the same word and…

"Dead," Shona finished, crushing their hopes.

"And who's going to be the first to admit it?" the Professor looked at the crew.

"Admit what?" Ashley shook her head.

"That the pain is still there."

"Actually, I think it's getting worse," Shona winced slightly, reaching up to touch her temple.

"Yes, there is an alien organism in your brain, eating it," the Doctor deadpanned, "Of course it's getting worse."

"Um, question," Clara began, something over their shoulders having caught her attention, the monitor showing the infirmary, "What are they doing?" she pointed, making them look over to see that the figures on the beds had sat up once more.

"Factually, getting up," the Doctor answered, "Significantly, sensing the endgame."

"How?"

"I don't understand," Ashley tossed down her manual, they were still alive, so long as they were alive they could fight, there was no endgame.

"Think about it, 4 manuals, but 8 crew, meant to be one for each of you," the Professor repeated, "Use your eyes, notice everything. Look at them," she gestured at the monitor, "Do you see who they are? They're you. Those things, are YOU."

The crew stepped closer to the monitors, eyeing the figures, now able to see similar body types, posture, hands and even the way they wore their uniforms…one even saying 'Rona Bellows' on the nametag, making her gasp.

"How can they be us?" Shona breathed, seeing her own nametag of 'Shona McCullough' staring back at her.

"Because we're dreaming, all of us. This base isn't real. None of us are actually standing in the room."

"We're probably asleep in the TARDIS," the Doctor mused, "The children asleep, the two of us on the armchair, drifting off…"

The Professor froze at that, "When Santa popped in," she looked at the Doctor, "I am begging you to lie to me and tell me there is NO chance at all that there are Dream Crabs loose on the TARDIS, the TARDIS where our children are sleeping!"

The Doctor blinked at that, as though just realizing what it meant that Santa had appeared IN the TARDIS, had made it into it, the same Santa that was popping up in the rest of the dreams. It had to mean that they'd been taken in the TARDIS…

And their twins were in the TARDIS.

He swallowed hard, "Absolutely no chance," he told her, reaching out to take her hand, "The TARDIS would lock down the console room, would keep them from getting anywhere but there. The children are fine, they're safe. WE just have to wake up and we'll be able to stop the Crabs."

"If…if you're in the TARDIS, where am I?" Clara asked, worried for her cousins, but also concerned she might have been abducted or something.

"Probably in bed at your home," the Professor took a deep breath, moving a hand through her hair, the dreams were meant to be harder to wake up the nearer you actually got to truly waking. The layers upon layer of dream was easier to crack the more deeply you were in it, the Dream Crab didn't fight as hard to hold on when there were still other levels to go through.

"God knows where the rest of you are," the Doctor added, "Probably scattered all over the world. But wherever you are, the Dream Crabs have got us."

"We're all being networked into the same nightmare," the Professor murmured.

"What are they doing?" Bellows frowned, seeing the figures starting to head towards the cameras as though they knew they were being watched.

"It's your subconscious again. Those things represent the part of your mind that's already surrendered to the attack. These are dream images of what's coming to kill you."

"That's me?" the male crewmember leaned in more to observe the one that might be him, "That's actually me?"

"No," the Professor huffed, starting to get impatient, starting to get frustrated with this, time was of the essence, they needed to focus and hurry to wake up and they kept asking questions, "It's a metaphorical construct representing a psychic attack within a shared dreamscape. Do please keep up!"

The Doctor reached out and took her hand, understanding she was very agitated and wanted to get back to their children, he did too, but to do that they'd have to be calm. Oh, who knew that day would come where HE would be the one telling someone else to take a breath and calm down.

"But it's me!" he slowly reached out to touch the screen.

"Don't get too close!" the Doctor warned, but he was too late, the figure had put its hand to the monitor as well…and grabbed the man through it, pulling him into the monitor with a scream.

"Don't touch him!" the Professor leapt forward and pulled Clara back as she lunged to try and help the man, "It's a nightmare Clara, they can get through…"

"Oi!" the Doctor snapped at Bellows and Ashley as they too started to reach for the monitors as the other-thems did the same, "Get back! They're coming through. Out!" he turned and ushered them out of the control room, "Outside, now! Run, run, run, run! Run! Clara, run. Run, all of you, run. Run!"

The Professor grabbed the Doctor's arm as she passed him, pulling him on as the figures used the monitors to transport themselves into the room, knowing there was nothing they could do to stop them save try to get far enough away to come up with a plan to wake up. The two of them ran down the corridor, following the others as they got out into the snow outside, slamming the doors behind them and locking them with the sonic.

"We'll freeze to death out here!" Bellows cried as the snow began to fall heavier.

"But it…it's just a dream," Ashley shook her head.

"This dream just killed your friend," the Doctor told her grimly, "Start taking it seriously."

"Where's Albert?" Shona looked around for the male crewmember, "Where's the professor?"

"He probably just woke up somewhere in the real world, dead," the Professor replied, blunt, "If we don't wake up now, we'll do the same."

"But how?" Clara shook her head.

"I don't know," the Professor muttered, she knew how SHE could wake up, but there was no way to ensure that the others could do the same.

The Doctor nearly jumped as bangs sounded behind them at the door, fist marks appearing from the figures trying to get out, "The TARDIS!" he shouted, pointing at it and starting to run towards it, 'Come on! Come on!"

"Doctor, it's not the real TARDIS," Clara argued.

"Well, let's hope that the Professor and I dreamed it really well, then…" he stopped short, moving back a few steps when the doors opened and figures of himself, Clara, and the Professor stepped out with Dream Crabs attached to their faces.

"It's us," Clara breathed.

"We're dreaming too," the Professor reminded her grimly.

The Doctor took her hand, squeezing it tightly, feeling his own fear rise that the Dream Crabs might have gotten their children. All they could hope was the fact that the twins weren't there meant they weren't part of the dream, that they were safe.

"Oh, my God!" Shona gasped, spinning around to see the others had gotten out of the base, but it wasn't just their dream selves, there should only be 4 of them…instead there were dozens!

"How is that possible?" Bellows spun around, "How can there be so many?!"

"The logic of a nightmare," the Professor frowned.

"So tell us how to wake up!" Shona snapped at them, "Because you're always talking like you two are so clever, going on and on. So tell us what to do!"

"We have to leave this place."

"Leave it?"

"How?" Bellows scoffed, they were quite surrounded.

The Doctor, however, started to smile, "Use your imagination."

"Excuse me?"

"Dream yourselves home!"

"Doesn't work like that," the Professor shook her head, "WE might," she agreed with a glance to him, "But human minds aren't that powerful."

"Then how do we do it!?" Bellows cried.

"Come on," the Doctor rolled his eyes at the woman, "It's Christmas, the North Pole. Who you gonna call?"

The group looked up suddenly, hearing jingling bells above them to see a sleigh with a handful of reindeer flying out of the sky and land before them, "Whoa!" Santa grinned at them, before gesturing them closer, "Get in the sleigh!" he ordered and they ran for it, the Doctor and Professor squeezing in beside Santa, Clara behind them with the others, "Fortunately, I know all your home addresses," the man chuckled, "Yah!" he urged Rudolph and two other of the reindeer up into the sky, away from the base, away from the Dream Crabs.

"So what happens now?" Clara called above the sound of the wind rushing about them, "This is us just waking up, right?"

"Could be," the Professor agreed, "It makes for a good transition to the waking world, should help relieve the pain you might feel upon waking if it's a slower thing than to jolt about."

"Well, I hope it's us waking up," the Doctor squeezed her hand.

"What else could it be?" Clara frowned, though it seemed like she might already know the answer.

"Just focus on this. Do you believe in Santa Claus?"

Clara smiled at them, "I've always believed in Santa Claus. But he looks a little different to me, him and his wife," she leaned forward, her chin resting on their shoulders as she threw her arms around the two of them, "Look!" she cheered a moment later, pointing down at the Thames.

"Hey," Santa looked over at the Doctor, "You want to take the reins, Doctor?"

"You're a dream construct, currently representing either my recovering or expiring mind," the Doctor stated.

"Yes, but do you want a go?" Santa held up the reins.

The Doctor grinned, "Yeah. Alright!" and took the reins from them as they passed Saint Paul's…and got dangerously close to the rooftops of the nearby houses, "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" he quickly pulled them up with some instruction from Santa, "Look at me," he laughed, "Look. Look at me!" he grinned widely as they passed Parliament, Big Ben ringing out midnight, before they went higher and higher, into the clouds, "Look at me! I'm riding a sleigh. I'm riding a sleigh. Yippee kai-yay!" he almost stood up in the sleigh in his excitement till the Professor pulled him down, "Oh," he gave a sheepish grin, and handed the reins back to Santa, "Maybe you could…"

"Well, at least you didn't kill us piloting a sleigh, husband," the Professor teased.

He rolled his eyes, "As though you could do better," he fired back, "I doubt a sleigh pulled by magical reindeer was one of the 2,700 forms of transport you were trained in."

She just shrugged at that, "I DO know how to operate a sleigh," she remarked, "And there were quite a few flying beasts that needed to be reined in…I could make do."

The Doctor just shook his head but smiled, reaching out to put his arm around her as Santa flew them on.

"I work in a shop," Shona suddenly said, making them all look back at her.

"I'm sorry?" Ashley blinked.

"I thought I was a scientist. That's rubbish."

"Finally, something that makes sense," Bellows joked.

"You're horrible, you."

"Perfume…" Ashley murmured.

"What?"

"I'm an account manager for perfume," she realized, looking to the Time Lords for confirmation, "Does this mean we're waking up?"

The Professor nodded, "With luck, we'll all wake up in our proper times and places."

"Proper times?" Clara gave her a look.

"We could all be from different time zones," the Doctor explained, "Time travel is always possible, in dreams."

"We might not know each other?" Shona frowned at that, "Not any of us?"

"No, possibly not," Ashley realized.

"Well, you know what we should do? We should swap numbers. We should have a reunion!"

"Bellows!" Ashley suddenly gasped, staring in horror at where Bellows had been sitting only to see the woman was gone.

"It's alright," the Professor reassured, "It means she's truly woken up," she explained, "Otherwise she would have just turned into one of those things from the base."

"Oh, good," Ashley breathed a sigh of relief.

"Er, now I'm pretty sure I can remember my number," Shona scrunched her face in concentration, "So, if you memorize it, then you text me, we can go for a curry and…"

"The chances of you remembering any of this are very slim," the Professor shook her head lightly.

"Well, don't say that. We'll remember, won't we, Ashley?" but Ashley was silent, "Ashley?" she turned and sighed, seeing that Ashley too had vanished, "Am I next? Is it me now?" she looked back at them.

"Shona, you're going home," Clara reached out to her, "You're surviving."

"Do you want to hang out sometime? We can just hang out."

"Sure," Clara smiled.

"Santa, can I stay a bit longer?" Shona turned to the man…only to disappear before their very eyes, just…gone.

"It's a pity we have to wake up, really," Clara sighed, turning in her seat to face the Time Lords again, "It's not really something we do every day, is it?"

"No, no," Santa laughed, "Strictly once a year."

"We stay, we die, Clara," the Doctor told her seriously.

"You're always such a downer, Doctor," Clara rolled her eyes.

He opened his mouth to counter when he felt his hand go empty, the Professor disappearing and, just a single moment later…

~8~

The Doctor and Professor gasped as they shot up from where they'd been lying on the edge of a volcano caldera, the Dream Crabs screeching and falling off their faces. The Professor was quickly to fire at them, only to wince and rub her temple, "Still there?" she looked at the Doctor.

He grew grim and serious, nodding as he took her hand, "Clara!"

They ran into the TARDIS, to the console, glancing at the doors to see that they were sealed, only allowing entrance to the console room, another indication beyond just the still-there ice cream pain, that this was still a dream. But they weren't with Clara, and it meant that she might wake up and think it real life and not fight the Dream Crab.

They had to get to her!

They frantically moved around the controls, pulling levers and pressing buttons till the TARDIS landed with a thump, the two of them running out of the box, a specimen jar appearing in the Doctor's arms as they ran into the house before them, racing up the stairs till they reached Clara's dark bedroom, the girl herself lying on bed with the Dream Crab still on her face.

"Oh, Clara," the Professor breathed.

"Ok," the Doctor pulled his sonic out, "I tracked the psychic signal here. I'm pretty sure that I know how to do this now. One of the advantages of actually being awake…" he glanced at Clara, "So, you just hold still. I've just got to zap the neural centers…" he moved closer, flicking the sonic around the Crab as the Professor stood ready to grab it, quickly lifting it off her at his nod as he grabbed the specimen jar for her to put it in.

"The Dream Crabs must have got to us first," the Professor mused as Clara slowly began to sit up, coughing and turning for her bedside lamp, "Then found you in our memories. The others were collateral damage."

"Well," the Doctor smiled at Clara, "Good to see you properly at last. How long has it been?"

"Oh, you know," Clara turned her lamp on and moved to face them, her face wrinkled and aged, her hair completely gray, voice tired and soft, "About sixty two years."

"Oh Clara," the Professor breathed, though the Doctor didn't seem to notice any change at all in Clara.

"I have missed you two very much," Clara just smiled at them, "My daft old grandparents," she pushed herself up and hugged them, "Though I suppose I look more like your grandparent than you do mine."

"I don't understand?" the Doctor pulled away from the hug, "You look the same as always."

"Do I?" Clara smiled fondly at that.

"We've missed you, Clara," the Professor hugged her once more, glancing at the Doctor over her shoulder as he nodded.

"Can you really see no difference in me?" Clara looked between them as she pulled away from that hug.

"Clara Oswald, you will never look any different to me," the Doctor stated as the Professor took his sonic and moved over to a small desk in her room, placing the specimen container down and starting to flick it on different settings. If they could get the Crab to release Clara in the dream, maybe they could find some sort of way to create a feedback of sorts, disrupt the connection, allow them to wake up once more. It was truly cruel the way their subconscious was forcing them to see Clara like this, where this very well might be her LAST Christmas and to know they'd missed so much of it.

"So, how was it then?" the Doctor continued, distracting Clara.

"How was what?" she blinked.

"The 60 years that we missed."

"62," the Professor corrected.

"Oh, how was my life, you mean?" Clara chuckled at that.

"Is there a Mr. Clara?"

"No," Clara sighed, "But there were plenty of proposals."

"They all turned you down though?"

"I turned them down," Clara lifted her chin at that, "I traveled. I taught in every country in Europe. I learned to fly a plane."

"Regrets?"

"Oh, hundreds. I just wish there were time for a few more."

"Yeah," the Doctor swallowed, looking over at the Professor, to see Clara like that, it had to mean that the Dream Crab that had actually gotten her was draining her life and doing so quickly, she was nearing her end literally if they didn't hurry and stop the Crab, "No one ever matched up to Danny, eh?"

"Didn't trust them to," Clara sighed, "I knew you liked him in the end," she glanced between them, "There wasn't another man I thought would live up to him, to the both of you, or to me, since."

"We should have come sooner," the Professor mumbled, nearly getting it, the Crab twitching under the sonic, "Come every Christmas."

"Because every Christmas is last Christmas," Clara smiled at that.

"We should have come back earlier," the Doctor told her, stepping back from her, "We could have prevented this if you were with us."

"You can't prevent aging, Doctor," she laughed, "Not even you two combined."

"No," the Professor shook her head, "Not prevent that…prevent this," she pointed the sonic at the Crab and it let out a horrible screech…

~8~

Once more, the Time Lords woke in the volcano caldera, in much the same manner as before, the Professor being quickly to blast the Crabs that fell off the two of them before they looked at each other.

"It's gone?" the Professor asked the Doctor, her own ice cream pain finally having vanished.

He nodded, taking her hand and helping her up, hurrying them into the TARDIS wish a shout of, "Clara!"

And, much like before, they raced around the console, the hallways and doors of the room now returned, the Doctor trying to put in coordinates for Clara while the Professor brought up their children on the monitor, seeing them sleeping peacefully in their cots, not a care in the world nor an idea of the roller coaster their parents had just been on in the last few minutes. They raced out of the TARDIS the moment it was down, hurrying up to Clara's room of her house, seeing a younger her lying on her bed, with the Crab on her face and quickly got to work getting it off her, the Doctor tossing it away as the Professor blasted it apart, Clara waking with a gasping cough.

"Doctor!" Clara smiled, "Professor," before her hands flew to her face, "Am I young?"

The Professor laughed, "6 months older than when we last saw the real you," she told her, "But young, relatively speaking."

"Oh thank god," Clara breathed, sagging in relief.

"I wasn't lying, Clara," the Doctor began.

"Bout what?" Clara glanced at him.

"We should have come earlier," he told her.

"We shouldn't have left in the first place," the Professor agreed.

"The TARDIS is outside…"

"So…" Clara started to smile, hope filling her eyes.

"So, all of time and all of space is sitting out there," he shrugged, "A big blue box. Please, don't even argue."

Clara paused to 'consider' it a moment, before beaming at them, hopping up on her bed to pull them both into a tight hug, kissing their cheeks, "Merry Christmas," she looked between them, feeling…happy…for the first time in the last 6 months.

"Merry Christmas, Clara," they smiled at her as well.

"Well what are we waiting for!?" Clara cried, jumping off the bed and grabbing a pair of boots, hurrying out the room the moment they were on her feet, leaving the Time Lords to laugh and follow her as she pulled on a jacket.

They made their way out of her home, walking across her lawn and towards the TARDIS, pausing to unlock the door as Clara observed them and their smiles, "Well, look at you, all happy. That's rare."

"Do you know what's rarer?" the Doctor asked and Clara shook her head.

"Second chances," the Professor answered, "And this is one. For all of us."

"We don't get them often," the Doctor mused, "So what happened this time? Don't even know who to thank."

"I don't either," the Professor smiled, pushing the door open to let Clara in, "But whoever they are that decides who gets second chances, I thank them, very much," she looked at him softly, knowing they were both thinking about the second chances they HAD gotten in their lives. Saving Gallifrey, finding each other, having children, being able to make amends…

"Merry Christmas, husband," she leaned in to give him a gentle kiss.

"Merry Christmas, wife," he responded, placing a kiss to her forehead before they turned to head into the box, the TARDIS disappearing moments later.

The Doctor, the Professor, and their family, in the TARDIS, just as it should be.

It was a second chance, and they were not going to waste it.

To be continued…in…Redemption!

A/N: I'm so sorry this is late :( I put a note on my tumblr in case we lost power during some snow we were supposed to get. I woke up to like, 8 inches of snow instead of 2 feet...and the power out. I don't even know how it happened, like it wasn't even that bad a storm, but the power just came on a few minutes ago, and I was like 'to the computer!' lol :)

As for this chapter...I can't believe it's over! :'( But, that means we get Evy tomorrow and the return of the Lunar Cycle AND that we're one step closer to new Time Ladies as well ;) I hope you like the title for the next story. I figure, with this episode ending with the talk of second chances, that the next series might be a good way for the Doctor and Professor and Clara to redeem themselves with each other, to give each other a second chance ;) I was tempted, SO tempted to put Jenny and Aeon in this chapter, but going through it, I sort of wanted to hold Jenny off for a start of something than an end ;) I also debated doing the Christmas Cracker with Clara but that moment broke my heart so much I just couldn't do it, but we got another nice moment for them :) I wanted to put the twins in here too, but since it picked up right from the end of DiH (for the Time Lords at least), the twins had just been put to sleep and I couldn't see the Doctor or Professor waking them, and with the dream world/crabs, I couldn't get myself to write those things attaching themselves to a baby :(

I just want to say thank you all, to everyone that read/reviewed/favorited/followed/anything the story :) I love you all so much and it really means a lot to me to know that you've enjoyed Proffy and her story so far :')

We should see the next installment the day after Series 9 finishes airing, but, before then, we'll also be seeing the resumption of the AU Academic Series, Rewritten, starting this Saturday ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Thank you! I'll go back and fix it ;) We must do the Brig justice after all ;)

Lol, that's cool :) I could actually see Missy more threatening to kill the Doctor for Evy than offer that, he was very upset that his sister was left with a partial-Link for so long while the Doctor was off gallivanting lol :) But I can say there will be some moments and references that will throw Evy off coming from her brother-turned-sister ;)