*First things first, thanks for everyone who has read, reviewed, followed and favourited. In appreciation for all you amazing people, here's a sneak peek at my new Whouffle AU story: Damaged, coming to your laptops, tablets and phones on Christmas Day:

For Clara Oswald, this was the first day of the rest of her life. The day she started university and moved forwards instead of looking back. Instead of crying on Angie's shoulder while she and Artie tried to comfort Clara. They had a permanent babysitter now and Clara was an adult, it was time for them both to move on with their lives. It had only been a year and a half since…but Clara didn't think about it as much anymore. And when she did, she was getting much better at controlling the swirling inferno of emotions that overcame her. She could smile now and almost mean it. She could tell people fell for the act she'd put on, the warm smile, the light chuckle, the flirtatious nature. Guys thought they had a shot with her and they probably did, she'd been desperately hunting for ways to make the pain stop. The minute she'd turned 18, she'd hit the booze like never before and had had to actually work to ensure that her grades didn't slip as a result. Clara didn't quite consider it a miracle she'd come out with an A* and three A's, but she knew that if she hadn't managed it, she'd have let her mum down. And that was the only thing in life that she still strived to avoid. As much as she hated to admit it, she had stopped looking to her dad for support and approval.

University was a way to mix everything Clara wanted. Booze, on a scale like she'd never witnessed before, a chance to reinvent herself, pretend like she'd never pretended before. Maybe even pretend to the point where the act she was putting on might actually become her. And she could come out with a decent degree and get a good job, make her mum proud. She'd grow out of needing to numb the pain. Eventually, hopefully before the end of uni, the pain would start numbing itself.

A few more bits and bobs before I leave you to your chapter. First off, I can exclusively reveal that the title for our three part finale is called The Wedding of the Doctor (warning, may or may not actually contain a wedding) with the epilogue being part of Chapter 26. And an interesting tidbit about this chapter. Clara mentions her favourite biscuits are Malted Milks, these are my favourite and also, Clara has very sweet tea, which is another trademark of mine. So, Chapter 15, called The Silent City. This one ends on a sort of cliffhanger, as its a two-part TARDIS trip and features a city that only exists at night, electrostatic energy and Clara getting manipulated. Enjoy, many thanks once more and sorry for the long AN. TPD*

Clara stared out into the sunset. Well sunsets technically, as the planet they were on had three of them. The sky was deep night blue but stained red across it where the suns were sinking behind the mountains to the East. After a month straight of travelling with the Doctor, Clara had no intention of going home. Their new home was waiting for them, but they had become so wrapped up in the universe that going home seemed like a shame. It reminded Clara of old times, before she had domesticated him. She wanted to free him, because as much as the Doctor never complained, he didn't feel quite the same when they were just lying in bed or making breakfast. Something moved in her line of vision and she frowned, turning to the Doctor.

"What was that?" she asked, but even as she said it, she couldn't picture the thing in her head.

"What was what?" the Doctor turned, smiling warmly at her. They were sat on the edge of a cliff and they were looking over the edge of the world, their hands meeting in the middle, their fingers interlocking.

"Nothing," Clara shook her head, feeling peculiar. The Doctor frowned at her but she felt her lips creep upwards in reassurance. She felt like he should be the one doing the reassuring though, as it niggled away at the back of her mind. "What did you say this planet was called again?"

"Alfreza," he replied. "The sunsets are among the best in the universe. For a peculiar reason. When the suns have set, the people come out to play." Clara shot him a look. "The Alfrezans are all nocturnal. Their cities rise up out of the ground when the darkness falls. They have synthetic lighting that isn't dangerous to them, but the light of three suns all hitting them at once has made them very sensitive to various radiation signals in light. And to light itself, if I'm honest. This place would be a veritable hunting ground for the Weeping Angels."

"Rambling."

"Ah yes. In any case, in approximately sixteen minutes, the city will rise over there," he pointed slightly to Clara's right and she followed his finger to a large patch of seemingly innocuous damp earth that would apparently become the greatest city on the planet. "I'll be right back!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet and heading into the TARDIS, kissing her forehead as he did so. Clara sighed happily and pulled herself away from the edge of the cliff. The clearing they were in was fairly small, as they were on the side of a forest-covered mountain. The TARDIS was backed up against the rock and on two sides there were trees. Something, Clara noticed, was moving in the trees. It stepped out in front of her and she supressed the urge to scream. It was very tall and very thin, wearing a black suit. That wasn't the weird bit. The weird bits were its head, which was abnormally large for its body with wrinkled skin wrapped over all of its features, and its hands, which were similarly overly large and wrinkled, with three long webbed fingers and a thumb protruding from each.

"Hello," Clara said, trying not to assume the worst but wary of the fact that the Doctor would make a reappearance any moment. "I'm Clara. What's your name?"

"You will take the Doctor to the city," it informed her. "The Doctor will go to the city."

"Why?" she snapped, stepping back from the creature. "What are you? What do you want with the Doctor? Are you an Alfrezan? Doctor?!" she called, turning to face the TARDIS.

"What?" he cried as he came stumbling out. "What is it Clara?"

"Nothing," Clara noted, her memory suddenly failing her completely. "I can't remember why I called you sorry."

The Doctor went back into the TARDIS, grumbling about something that she guessed was either against girls or humans. Probably both knowing his track record. Clara settled herself cheerfully back on the edge of the cliff, peering out and checking her watch to make sure that she didn't miss the start. Glancing at the suns, she saw that one had completely set and the other two were right on the verge. She grinned to herself, excited. With about a minute to spare, her fiancé came crashing out of his box, two flasks of tea and a pot of biscuits in his hands. Clara was hoping for something other than a Jammy Dodger as he offered her the tin and she was pleasantly surprised to see Malted Milks, her favourite. He was paying attention after all. She took one, nibbling into it and opting against dunking it in her tea, which was the perfect temperature and exactly how she liked it, three sugars and milk. The Doctor always pulled a face at how sweet it was, which was ironic given his taste in biscuits but it was all light-hearted banter.

"Look," he pointed. "It's starting."

Clara watched as the ground started to shake and crumble. Large clumps of dirt shot upwards, rattling and haring around like it was nobody's business, as steel rose from the earth. Some of the houses stopped a story or two above the ground, but most rose higher, some so high Clara was sure they were as high as the ledge they were on, although the Doctor assured her that that wasn't the case. Clara watched in awe as the entire city rose out of the dirt, to gleam in the light of artificial light towers which popped up in various locations across the city, around twenty in all. Clara turned to the Doctor and gestured towards the TARDIS.

"Can we go and see it up close?" she asked quietly, unsure why she wanted to go so badly.

"If you want," the Doctor shrugged. "It's just another bog standard alien city, nothing you won't have seen before. And the Alfrezans look like just humans except they've got really long limbs and barely any torso. Oi!" he grumbled as Clara's eyebrow raised and she smirked knowingly. "But if you insist, m'lady."

"I do insist!" Clara replied, unsure where her conviction was coming from but nevertheless determined to follow it through. "Please," she gave him a set of puppy dog eyes and he responded by rolling his and throwing open the TARDIS doors, inviting her in. Clara stepped into the TARDIS and he did his thing, flipping levers and switches until they were moving, taking off, into the vortex. They came to land inside the city and the Doctor stepped out triumphantly, raising his hands as if to demonstrate that he was right, the city was rubbish and could they in fact leave now. But the place was deserted. There was nobody around. Not a single person. The Doctor was already frowning when Clara stepped out of the TARDIS, shutting the door behind her and stepping forward to join him, their arms linking subconsciously. "It's a bit quiet."

"Too quiet." The Doctor sounded perturbed and Clara didn't like it one bit. She frowned at him and squeezed his arm reassuringly. He smiled briefly at her, before pulling out his sonic and scanning the air, freezing on the spot as he did so. "Clara," he turned to her. "Why are we here? What make you decide to come here?"

"I don't know," she replied frantically. "I can't remember, I just wanted to come. Does it matter? Where are all the people?" She suspected she knew the answer to that last one.

"Dead," he replied, sending a chill down her spine. "Brilliant thing about a city that's underground during the day, absolutely perfect for hiding dead bodies. And yes Clara, it does matter, of course it matters. Because the air has very low electrical energy counts in some areas and there are clear signs of electrostatic shock, energy discharges. And Clara Oswald, I've met creatures that are memory proof, have post-hypnotic suggestion and can turn any electrostatic energy in the air into a weapon, following?"

"Not in the slightest."

The Doctor sighed as if talking to a child then turned to her, bending down slightly so that they were on a level. "They're called the Silence. When you're not looking at them, you forget they exist, so you can never remember seeing them. But if someone tells you to do something while you're looking at them, then chances are you'll do it. So if a Silent told you to bring me to the city while you were looking at it…"

"Then I'd bring you to the city but not know why I was doing it…" Clara finished. "You said they turn can manipulate any electrical energy in the air and use it to kill people?" he nodded. "How? Why?"

"Not sure how, some sort of natural control over certain base elements, it's not important. As for the why…" he stopped briefly and bit his lip. "Last time I saw them, they were trying to kill me. And not in a, everyone who meets me tries to kill me kind of way because I can see that's what you're thinking, you've got that face on." Clara frowned at him. "No, the Silence are some sort of religious order that want me dead and those creatures lead them. Their end goal, is well my end. They want nothing more than to kill me. And apparently they've been trying for a long time. How they knew we were here, or indeed what they're doing here I have no idea. Get back in the TARDIS Clara," he instructed. "We need to get out of here."

Clara was surprised by this response but didn't argue, backing up towards the TARDIS but finding a solid wall of energy in her way. She hammered at it but it was no use. The Doctor cursed and soniced it, muttering irritated noises under his breath. Clara turned to him, fearful and he pulled her into a hug that was broken by the crackle of electricity behind them. Clara yelped and span, pulling out her own sonic to match the Doctor's. She didn't miss the look of pride on his face. She put her sonic away as he finished scanning the air.

"Yep," he muttered darkly. "They're converting power from the lights into some kind of force field. We can't leave. At least not in the TARDIS and I'm not leaving her here. Where are they? What are they waiting for?"

"Doctor," Clara almost whimpered. "They haven't been waiting. They've been here the entire time. We just keep forgetting that we're looking at them."

"Ah that would explain it. Clara, stay behind me," he growled and they stood almost back to back, trying to keep all of the Silents in their eye line. "I count twelve," he whispered to her. "I reckon, if we double up our sonics, we should be able to create an energy feedback from the discharge they use and shock one of them enough to stun it. And then, the other eleven will kill us while we celebrate. Sorry, not helpful."

"Not really no. How about the usual backup plan?"

"You mean run? I was thinking that myself actually. RUN!"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her after him, as the Silents hissed and crackled, sending energy flying after the running couple. Clara screamed and the Doctor threw her out in front of him, spinning and sonicing. It had no effect.

"Keep running," he yelled. "Give me the sonic."

She threw him her sonic on instinct and kept running, but constantly glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was still two steps behind her. The Doctor brought the two sonics together and there was a deafening bang. Clara felt her hair stand up on end and she was thrown to the ground by a force of energy. As she gasped for air, the Doctor threw her sonic at her. She caught it inches from her face and glared at him. His floppy hair was spiked up everywhere and his clothes were singed. She giggled at the sight of him despite their situation and he narrowed his eyes.

"What?" he asked. "I know, I may have underestimated the energy feedback a touch, but I think I stunned them all, at least temporarily. See, I can do good sometimes, given the right equipment. And would you stop laughing at my hair?" he snapped. "I'm not laughing at yours Cruella."

Clara stopped laughing and ran a hand through her own hair, to find it was equally spiky and groaned. This was going to be a nightmare to sort out. Running with the Doctor was always a nightmare for her personal skin and hair care, she used half her bath oils and shampoos in one go cleaning up from a trip to planet of the snot, or volcanic ash or god knows where. He straightened his bow tie and went take her hand again. A small electric shock zapped them both and Clara swore. The Doctor grinned.

"I feel like that whenever we touch anyway," he said quietly and Clara blushed. "But seriously, we shouldn't touch each other for a while, we're both conduits for electrostatic electricity. When your hair goes down, it'll indicate you're no longer holding dangerous levels of static. Did I say dangerous?" he added quickly, as Clara's eyes widened. "I meant totally not dangerous. The opposite of dangerous in fact. Oh look, an artificial light, let's see if we can do anything useful with it."

He slipped past her and Clara cursed him under her breath, careful not to touch anything metal as she chased after him. She caught up with him as he hit his sonic against a metal wall in frustration and shocked himself. She couldn't help but smile at his adorable yelp. She glanced around. No Silents in sight.

"They'll be stunned for a good twenty minutes," the Doctor informed her. She hadn't even realised he'd been watching her. "You think the energy feedback was bad for us, they were about to discharge. Imagine all that electrical energy built up in your system, even if you are used to it. Luckily, we have an edge. A piece of knowledge that they don't."

"Which is?" Clara asked, hoping to keep her voice down as she leaned in closer to the Doctor, catching her arm on a building in the process and hissing in pain at the resulting electric shock.

"That the nights on this planet only last for a couple of hours," the Doctor smiled. "And we may have jumped forwards a bit in time; I left the temporal engine running. We have…" he glanced at his watch. "Forty-two minutes until sunrise, at which point, the lights will switch off and we'll be able to get back into the TARDIS. Bad news," he added quickly. "Is that that is also when the city starts to sink into the ground, so we could end up trapped underground all day if we get into a building and if we don't, we'll either lose the TARDIS or possibly get trapped under the earth and suffocate. So we need to be outside the TARDIS in forty-one minutes. Pronto. ASAP. LOL. Not the last one?" he asked as Clara shot him a despairing look. "Don't worry Clara, forty-one minutes, with the Silents down for almost half of that, we can manage. The sonics might be able to pull that stunning trick again, but I don't want to risk it," he mused. "We've already got dangerously high static levels in our bodies and I don't want to kill you."

"There you go again with that word dangerous. I always feel so much better after we've talked. Doctor," Clara urged with an extra level to her voice. "Do you have a plan?"

"Of sorts," he told her, which didn't fill her with confidence. "I'm going to completely deactivate this light, absorb the energy into the sonic and try to beat the Silents at their own game. The smaller the pool of energy that they have to play with, the less they can use to fuel the force field around the TARDIS."

"Doctor?" Clara asked suddenly and he shot her an odd look, as if she was about to suggest something brilliant. She certainly felt that that was where she was going. "Is there anything connecting the lights? Underground I mean? Won't they all be centrally operated? And if that's the case, why are we taking them out one by one?"

He kissed her. He grabbed her and he snogged her, their mouths crashing together and their tongues dancing as a powerful electric shock blasted them. Despite the pain, Clara blushed furiously, enjoying the kiss too much to stop but he quickly broke it before jumping up and down.

"Clara Oswald, you are a genius!" he yelled. "We have the entire power grid at our disposal. If we can connect all the lights, then we can form them into a ring, like a power generator, a giant circle of energy. And then, we can back fire it all on them. All twenty lights, the TARDIS force field and the Silents own energy, all zapped back on them. Brilliant. All we need is a connection to channel them through. Something plugged into both ends of the system…" He grinned. "Like two identical screwdrivers. One of us finds our way to the underground, the other one stays above ground to draw the Silents out and then plug their sonic into the light system and watch the fireworks. Charred Silents for breakfast! Right, I'll have to be the bait, so that means you need to go underground and find the generator. Thirty four minutes. Ah we've got time. Sort of."

"Doctor," Clara urged him and he turned to her, all concerned. He did that sometimes, she noticed. They would be in the middle of something earth-shattering, literally, and he'd turn to her, realising she was upset or scared or uneasy and he'd do everything to appease her while everything else burned around him. The world could be burning and he'd be more concerned with making sure Clara was alright. She loved him for that. "What do I do here? How do I get down there? What do I do when I'm down there?" She didn't say what she was thinking. What would she do if day came and a building came down on top of her? Presumably die.

"Clara," he whispered, all reassuring and Doctory. So him. "I need you to do this. I believe in you. There are access tunnels available through the basements of buildings. Smash windows; take apart doors. Nothing here should be inaccessible with that sonic. Telepathy, point and think. The more you use it, the more control you'll have. When you get down there, listen very carefully now Clara, you turn every light up to maximum, flood as much power through the system as you can. If you're not sure what to do, look for switches, it should be so easy a child can do it. Then sonic the system when I give the signal. Hard, full power. I want that system overloaded; I'll channel everything up to me and deal with the Silents. You'll know the signal because it should come as a telepathic message on this." He handed her his psychic paper. She nodded, running over the instructions in her head. He kissed her on the forehead and hugged her, resulting in a painful jolt between them that neither of them were really bothered by. "Thirty two minutes Clara, be back up by then," he warned her. "If not, signal me and I should be able to get you in the TARDIS. I'll work up here and draw the Silents in. One more thing," he called as she went to walk off. He bit his lip. "Clara," he said quietly. "There may be Silents down there. Be careful."

"You be careful," she replied cheekily. "There's guaranteed to be Silents up here. See you later Chin-Boy."