Clara was woken up by a blinding light leaking through her closed eyelids. She reluctantly opened her eyes and noticed that her surrounding had changed. The room in which she was in what seemed like only seconds ago was gone, and now she was lying lifelessly on an uncomfortable examination table in some sort of medical base.
She felt relatively good, except for the burning pain in her chest and stomach, and she lifted herself up on to her elbows and looked down at her abdomen with the intent to find the source of unpleasant sensation. She almost passed out again when her eyes noticed a huge burnt hole in the middle of her shirt. Fortunately, her fragile skin, covered with the layer of now not existing fabric, remained untouched.
Clara looked around the room and spotted two other people in the room. A masked creature similar to the one she saw earlier guarded the only way out, while a white haired woman was sitting on a plastic chair by her bed, smiling at her shyly.
"Hello, Clara." The elf looking lady greeted her when she noticed she was awake. "You're in the med bay. One of the Judoon shot you accidentally. I'm really sorry about that, but they thought you were an intruder."
Clara didn't say anything but clenched her teeth, swallowing nervously. The pain in her stomach was getting harder and harder to bear every minute. Extraction might have strengthened her body in general, but the "mute" mode it set by blocking every internal sensation made her nervous system extremely sensitive to pain.
"You've been electrocuted. The voltage was low and shouldn't do you any harm. But the pain is inevitable, I'm afraid." The woman was reassuring her.
Certain that things weren't as serious as they seemed at first, Clara tried to get up from the bed. Her body however was completely numb and didn't want to listen to her commands at all. After a moment of fruitless struggling, she laid herself back on the examination table and groaned in resignation.
"Good, you're awake," The doctor said, approaching her bed. She got herself up to sitting position. He stopped next to her bed and looked down at her. There was a tiny smile on his lips, but his blue eyes were telling a completely different story, glancing at her with a concern etched on them.
He took her hand in his and almost froze when her limp fingers didn't even try to squeeze his palm.
"What kind of tasers are you using here?" He turned around and directed to the elfish woman.
"This is not normal." The Doctor accused as his hand was still holding Clara's which hung pimply in his.
"I'm really sorry." The woman apologized to them calmly. "I'll leave you two alone." She said as she got up from the chair and approached the doors. The masked creature silently left the room after her and left the two intruders to their own devices.
"Please, don't ever do that again." The Doctor told her once they were finally on their own. "I suffered a tiny heart attack when I saw you lying on the floor unconscious."
"Not my fault, I'm afraid." Clara smiled at him. She folded her hands around his arm and used it to lift herself up from the bed.
He instinctively put his other hand on her waist and helped to stand up. "I have something I would like to show you before we go. Can you walk with my assistance or you rather wait? We have some time if you want to lay for a little bit longer." The Doctor asked her. The tip of his tongue was dampening his lips as he was speaking.
"No, I'll be fine." She told him while her hand gripped tightly at his coat and jumper for support. "I have the diary by the way."
"Great to hear that," The Doctor whispered, when they were slowly moving across the room, closer to the doors. Once they reached the corridor, which unsurprisingly didn't look like those on the Excalibur at all, Clara loosened her grip around his frame and rested her hand on the wall. She tried to walk few steps on her own and before long realised that the numbness she felt earlier was gradually subsiding.
They entered a room which contained only a huge glass cage standing in the middle of the room. Inside the box a human-like creature the size of an adult was sitting. The creature resembled a human, although its skin had a shiny silvery tone, similar to a scales of fish or snakes.
"It's a Diplosian. Well more than that actually -" The Doctor stated as they were very close to the prison where the creature was sealed. "There's a Lua inside. The cage is made of Bodreutrium, so it's trapped."
"Yes," The creature said as it licked its upper lip. "The Ancient Spirits of Lua can live in any organism they want as long as they're mindless. Dead, alive. It doesn't make any difference to us. But when it comes to a thinking creature, the host must leave the body first."
"I thought that metal is only stored on Gallifrey." Clara pointed out to the Doctor, her eyes wide in surprise and fixed on the creature behind the thick glass.
"Yeah, I was surprised at first too. They have more of that, so we'll borrow them for his friends. Tell her what you told me!" The Time Lord demanded from the creature.
"Lady wants to hear a story?" The creature spoke with a mischievous smile on its face. "I have a message for her."
"What message?" Clara asked the Doctor. She stared at his face, inspecting it for any clues. Honestly speaking, she had no idea what he wanted her to listen to.
The Doctor looked at her and gave her a sad smile. "Time Lords sent them here to identify the Hybrid. They're technically immortal what makes them a perfect spies. Although, they changed their mind and decided not to follow the orders." He almost whispered.
"They sent us here for millennia of starvation. What else were we supposed to do?" The creature hissed through its clenched teeth.
It stood up and moved to the glass which was separating it from its guests. "We spent millions of years asking death to finally come, but it never did." The creature directed to Clara. Its thin hand was spreading on the glass like the limbs of a spider.
"But the Universe had mercy on us. We found a perfect vessel to survive. One that will never wear out." It continued.
"You mean me?" Clara asked with her lips wide opened. She hadn't even once thought that the reason behind the murders Luas committed could be so trivial.
The creature stuck out its dichotomous tongue and seemed to taste the air with it. "I would not confuse you with anything. I could smell your energy for miles. So fulfilling and endless. It's a sin not to share."
"Haven't you considered coming and asking me to surrender before you started to kill the innocent?" Clara whispered out calmly. "I wanted to go to Gallifrey straight away. I would never have realised that's what you wanted if you weren't caught. "
"We had no idea you own your immortality to Time Lords." The creature explained to her. "And we needed you to see what we can do, otherwise you would take us for granted. We had to make sure you knew we were not bluffing."
"You started slaughtering in three different places." Clara snorted.
"Anima Persis was always doomed to die. Ask your friend, he'll confirm I'm telling the truth. Hadrian would suffer from an epidemic that would cost life of everybody of the planet in a few months. Crew of the Excalibur was about to die in the collision with a meteor if the ship wasn't stopped yesterday. All these places were destined to die anyways-"The creature continued importantly. "But the next one isn't. It's up to you if Earth survives of not."
Clara was about to ask another question when she heard the doors to the room open. The elf-looking woman went inside the room and advised them to leave the prisoner for now.
There were many things Clara wanted to ask the creature about. Most of all she wanted to understand why they brought all of this damage and tragedy down on her, but she never got a chance to do so. The only thing she could do was to turn around as she was leaving the room and once again look for a brief moment at the monster which broke her life.
"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked Clara when they found themselves in the Tardis again. Despite the fact that he seemed to be busy with the controls, her sad mood didn't remain unnoticed by him.
"I'm fine." She whispered with her voice lacking confidence, while she was sitting on the concrete stairs. Her head was bowed and her face almost completely hidden in her hands. The Doctor left the console unit and approached her. He took a seat next to her and breathed in heavily to announce his presence.
"You won't fool me, Clara Oswald." He chuckled playfully as his frame nudged hers. "You're doing that strange thing with your eyes. The only times I've seen you do that was when you were sad or scared. There's nothing to be scared of, so it must be the first one. What saddens you then?"
"Do you happen to know how to deal with the guilt?" She asked him sadly. "Because I have no idea how to."
"Well, I thought I destroyed my own planet once, so I think I can imagine." He giggled.
Clara turned around and gave him an icy stare. "This is not funny." She said.
The Doctor looked down at her and gave her a tiny smile. "Sorry, I know." He continued more seriously. "What happened is a great tragedy, I won't say it's not. But it wasn't your fault. No one ordered these creatures to kill. If you start to blame yourself for it, it will only mean you let them defeat you. Because all they want now is to make you feel like that."
"But it's so many lives they burnt." Clara mumbled and leant her head on his arm, looking for comfort from him. She knew quite well that physical contact wasn't anything her friend appreciated or liked, but he was also the only person around she could hold on to. Frankly speaking, he was the only person she wanted to play that role in her life now.
The Doctor didn't reject her this time. He turned his head gently and rested his chin on her hair. "There'll be time for mourning after this is over, but now we have a planet so save." He was whispering into the space between them. "It's the only place in this part of the Galaxy that serves hot chocolate, so we better try hard."
"At least Time Lords weren't involved." Clara was trying to look for the bright site of the situation.
"On the bright side, at least Time Lords weren't involved," Clara said.
"They were partly. They sent them here to identify the Hybrid knowing what they could possibly do this. But you're right, it's good they don't try to capture you." He spoke.
The Time Lord rose up to a standing position and stopped in front of her, smiling at her shyly.
"Shall we go now?" He asked her as he reached his long hand in her direction.
She smiled back at him and firmly grabbed his hand. "Let's go, there's work to do."
