Hello everybody!

I hope you are all alright!

I'm so sorry for taking a week between every chapter, I'm back to university so I have quite a lot of work to do, plus I have to move out and in again! But don't worry, I'll manage to fit in the deadline!

I hope you're all enjoying series 9, I have to say I find it so amazing, even if I just look at the writing, it's absolutely genius!

Turtle: kudos! :D

Thank you Freya Astrid Nova for the proofreading and the support! Go check out her story on my profile it's called "The Starving Ones" and show her love :)

So here comes Chapter 45, still in the rewriting of Journey to the Center of the Tardis. I hope you will like it as there are more changes in this one :) Keep telling me what you think of the story, keeps me motivated and helps me to better my writings :)

Enjoy!

Melody -x.

Chapter 45

Pain.

That was the first thing that came to her mind.

Clara slowly tried to open her eyes, her vision blurred and a terrible pain flashed before them, making her wince as it crossed her head violently.

She looked around and distinguished the shape of the walls, guessing she was probably in one of the corridors close to the console room.

Hardness was the second word that crossed her mind. It felt as if she was crushed between two walls, the heavy pressure on her body not allowing much air into her lungs. The smoke around her did not help her breathing and she choked a bit before coughing. As her vision was becoming more clear, she looked at the hand she had put before her mouth and frowned.

Blood.

There was blood on her palm.

She wiped her lips with the back of the same hand and looked: she coughed blood.

Great.

Looking down at her collapsed body, she realised that the crushing feeling was actually justified by the big piece of metal she was under.

Clara pushed it away, finally appreciating to breath though it was generating a pain in her chest. She sat up and grabbed the back of her head as she was doing so, the flashing pain coming back. She must have hit the ground pretty hard.

A tingling called her attention on her other hand. Looking at it, it seemed that the grenade kind of thing she held earlier left a burn that looked like letters on her skin.

She got up, carefully, and once she was up on her feet, she looked back at the burn before clenching her fist and closing her eyes for a second, as though she was concentrating very hard.

Then she looked around, trying to see where she was.

Peri-console corridor, she could get back to the console easily but… she looked toward the other side and decided to go deeper in the time machine. If the Doctor was in the console room, he would have already found her.

Facing a door with a flashing red light on its top, she chose not to open it and turned left when suddenly she heard a noise behind her.

She could not see anything but decided to run, ignoring the pain in her chest, and entered a stoned room filled with plenty of various objects. She took the little Tardis Amy had done and spinned it with a soft smile before putting back on its shelf, her smile fading but her eyes opening wide as she saw the cot.

She slightly touched the wooden cot engraved with Gallifreyan writings, her hand trembling.

But as she touched it, she startled as a golden light suddenly appeared before her eyes in a swirling volute of particles that soon faded after she removed her hand from the Gallifreyan etchings.

Again she heard a noise behind her, somewhere in a dark corners of the room. Fearing whatever the noise could be, she got out of the room running to the opposite direction. Clara passed past the swimming pool and the observatory and headed to the library.

She looked around, it seemed empty for the moment. Her attention got caught by a golden glimmer in the corner of her left eye. On a pedestal, under a beam of light, was a book. She had never seen it here before.

She walked up to it. The cover, leathered, had a piece of metal on it, engraved with Gallifreyan writings and the title, in English: 'The Time War'

She tilted her head a little and frowned, opening the book and skimming through the pages.

Written in English. Why would it be written in English…?

Suddenly a word called her attention, on the corner of a page. A name.

"So that's who…"

But once again, she heard a noise behind her and this time, she got to see what it was: a human shape looking like it was made of lava. As it was walking toward her, trying to reach her, Clara avoided it and ran off, escaping the library.

The Doctor, Tricky, Bram and Gregor left the console room and started to walk down corridors.

As Gregor was staying a few steps back, he took out his personal scanning device:

"Report. What's on board this thing?"

"Dynomorphic generators." started the female voice of the computer while scanning. "Conceptual geometer, beam synthesiser, orthogonal engine filters."

He caught up with the other as the Doctor was kneeling, looking at a stain on the ground. He touched it and looked at it closely.

Blood.

Definitely Clara's, and this was not good at all.

"Guys! Guys, look, I think we should split up." he said. "It's our best chance to find the girl, you know it is."

"Don't touch a thing, the Tardis will get huffy if you mess." said the Doctor, warning them with the warning finger.

As he kept on walking, Gregor turned to Tricky and said:

"Keep in radio contact, all right?" And then turned to Bram. "Get back to the console, strip it apart."

"Okay."

And he went on his own, following the beeping of his scanner.

"Everything." it suddenly spoke up.

"What? Report."

"Everything, behind that door."

"Everything?"

"Sensor detects everything you could possibly want." said the computer.

Tempted by this, Gregor opened the door, revealing a dark room with a tree made of metal in its center. Tubes, cables and glowing glass globes with Gallifreyan writings on it were hanging from it.

"I don't understand, give me a price tag." he said, walking amidst the hanging globes.

"Incalculable."

"What?"

"More valuable than the total sum of any currency. Living metal. Bespoke engineering. Whatever machine you require, this system will build it."

Looking at the globes, he thought for a short second before putting the device back in his pocket and taking the focused laser cutter from his backpack, he started to try to cut in the metal to get a piece of this incredible machine.

But suddenly he stopped as a cold hand had grabbed his throat by behind, an ice-cold and very low voice talking in his hear:

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Not daring to move as he felt the other hand being placed on his head, ready to break his neck, he asked with a trembling voice:

"Who are you?"

Suddenly the ice-cold turned into burning, making him whimper.

"Your worst nightmare if you don't put this focused laser cutter down."

Let me know what you think of it :)