CHAPTER EIGHT

THE RETURN

"Doctor, what is going on?!" cried Clara, watching a new net of green lasers beginning to cover the glass dome above. "I – I don't know," the Doctor stuttered, shaking his head, "whoever is behind this is listening to us right now."

"River said something earlier when we were upstairs," began Clara, as the Doctor paced around in small circles, "she said she had been trying to access the computer data core but all she could see was …"

Clara stopped on the spot, staying at the television screens on the wall.

"Saw what, Clara?" the Doctor asked.

"Snow," whispered Clara, slowly pointing at the black-and-white snow on the screen, "what if all the information has gone into the C rack?" She turned back to the Doctor who had begun pacing again. "That's it, Clara!" the Doctor spun on the spot, pointing at his companion, "when I first met you, Clara Oswald, you were extraordinary – smart, clever and had an encyclopaedia of knowledge in your head. But it vanished when I met you the third time in present-day London."

"With the Wi-fi thing, right? I made me smart or something?"

"It awakened that knowledge, Clara, because it was already there," the Doctor continued, "you jumped into my time-stream on Trenzalore and got ripped apart by the Time Winds, scattering copies of yourself across time and space. The Crack In Time, Clara, was embedded into timeline but my TARDIS caused it. If the Crack absorbed all the information from the Library, the same information has been flying through the Time Winds of the Vortex –"

"With me," Clara said softly, watching the Doctor.

"You absorbed the information, all the information in the universe that was stored in the Library!" exclaimed the Doctor.

"But I don't know all of it, Doctor. I'm just me, just Clara Oswald."

"That's exactly right. You absorbed the information that was flying in the Winds around you, but the majority of it wasn't there. Someone else has taken it," the Doctor continued, looking nervously around the lobby again.

"Who?" asked Clara.

"If the Library's database went into the Crack, what if something else came out of it beforehand. I sealed the cracks by rebooting the universe, but what if someone threw something into the Vortex, ripping it open again, like breaking the stitches of a wound."

Clara stared paralysed by a sudden thought, "The Nightmare Child." "He appeared out of thin area," the Doctor replied, "remember what happened on Trenzalore, the crack in Christmas Town?"

"Yes," Clara said, "but nothing came through that. It was just … there."

"Someone ripped open the scar tissue of a Crack on Trenzalore by sending something through to our universe."

"But there was nothing there, Doctor! I don't understand!" cried Clara.

"I didn't say it had to be physical thing, Clara. Anything from outside the universe could puncture it, anything! What was the one thing that made everyone notice Trenzalore, to make them gather above the planet and seal it off?"

Clara gasped, "the message."

"A statement broadcast across all of time and space, originally from a small crack on Trenzalore and transmitted in Gallifreyian. But the Time Winds ripped it so much, only two words made it through."

"Doctor Who?" Clara choked, her eyes wide with terror, "but why broadcast a message through a crack?"

A deep voice echoed across the lobby, "Because Trenzalore was only a trial."

Clara and Doctor spun around and saw only the emptiness of the lobby. "Who's there? Show yourself!" the Doctor shouted.

Two, hooded figures suddenly appeared out of thin air at the far end of the lobby and slowly began walking across the room. Both wore red cloaks that trailed along behind them. However, the most distinctive thing that caught the Doctor's eye was the large golden armour that covered their shoulders and chest. It then rose up behind their heads to form a large semicircle with a 'u'-shaped, cut out at the top.

The Doctor stepped immediately in front of Clara, his height completely blocking her view. "Doctor, what's going on?" Clara whispered. She watched him pull out his sonic screwdriver and reply, "You've been in my time-stream, Clara. You were on Gallifrey when I stole the TARDIS. What do those figures remind you of?"

Clara took a peek in front of the Doctor and looked at the approaching figures. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed in a hush voice, "how?" The Doctor gulped, "The Nightmare Child told me that a dying Time Lord said to him as his last words 'the Time Lords' Plan has worked'," the Doctor whispered. "What Plan?" whispered Clara, taking another peek at the figures.

"Absolutely no idea," the Doctor said, slowly passing a small, cylindrical device with a yellow top to Clara. Clara grabbed it and looked at it. She'd seen it before; when on Trenzalore, he had given it to her to plug into the TARDIS. When she did, the TARDIS flew Clara back home.

"No!" Clara snapped quietly, "you're not sending me home this time!"

"Clara," the Doctor whispered with a slight panic in his voice as the figures continued to walk closer, "for once in my life, I actually not lying when I say I'm not sending you home. Plug this into the TARDIS, hold on to the Console platform railing and be ready to press the orange button near the handbrake to open the doors. Click it when it starts blinking."

"I – I don't believe you!" snapped Clara, blinking away the water in her eyes.

"Don't believe me now Clara, and you mostly likely will get us both killed. Do as I say, please! I'll open the elevator doors with the sonic. Just hurry!" the Doctor ordered, his voice much more direct and commanding.

Clara took a deep breath and darted across the lobby. The two figures didn't take any notice. The elevator doors flew up and Clara raced inside. She turned to see the Doctor watching the figures get closer and closer, and as he glanced towards his companion, his eyes were slightly watery. Clara went to step out when the doors snapped shut.

The two, hooded figures came to a halt, twenty or so metres away from the Doctor.

"So, here we are then."

"It's been a long time," said one of the figures.

"Well, are you going tell me how did you get out?" the Doctor said, standing tall.

"The Time Lords' Plan worked."

The Doctor's scoffed, "And you were the masterminds behind this 'Plan'?"

"Yes, Doctor," both figured unveiled their hoods, "it is I, Rassilon, and this," the first figure pointed to the second, "is Omega."

o O o

Clara hurried out of the elevator when it finally reached the twenty-first level. She raced down the corridor and glanced out the window to see if anything was different. Three gigantic spaceships had landed on the surface of BioCity. From the base, rows and rows of Judoon marched out and walked through the city, each carrying huge galactic guns that Clara had never seen before. They're going to be here any minute, thought Clara nervously. Just as she turned back around to walk down the corridor, River Song appeared out of no where – blurry and pixelated.

"C-Clara! I know how they've done i-it," River exclaimed, her voice cutting out every so often, "hurry! They're isn't m-much time! You need to get the Doctor d-down to the Core! But b-be careful. There are Lib-brarians everywhere down h-here!"

River disappeared again, and Clara stood on the spot for second, unsure of what to do. She regathered her thought and hurried down the corridor and back into the room that the TARDIS was parked in. She raced past the tables and hurried into the police box. Rushing down to the Console Platform, she slammed the yellow-topped cylindrical device into the console and it lit up instantly. Clara found the orange button on the other side of the dashboard, alongside the handbrake. Gripping the side of the railing and watching the button intently, she held on the TARDIS took off.

However, it didn't seem to stabilize like it did in the Vortex. Clara managed to pull the computer monitor around to face her and saw the doors of the Reading Room – getting closer and closer. Clara's eyes widened when –

BOOM!

The TARDIS ripped through the wooden doors and then –

CRASH!

The police box smashed through the glass windows of the corridor and suddenly began plummeting down the side of Song Tower. Switching the camera view to underneath the TARDIS, Clara screamed at the top of her lungs as the glass dome of the Atrium got closer and closer and closer. Clara closed her eyes, knowing she was not going to survive the crash.

o O o

"It's been you all along, hasn't it?" the Doctor snarled, gripping his sonic tighter as he glanced over to the elevator doors that were shutting. Clara vanished from view. Rassilon smiled, his wrinkled skin stretching across his face, "Doctor, we have returned to restore balance back in the universe. We mean no harm."

"And why am I suppose to believe you? Last time we met, you were going to rip the Vortex apart."

Rassilon ignored the statement, "You changed your face, I see."

"Thanks to the new regeneration cycle you kindly gave me."

Rassilon tilted his head slightly, "I'm sorry?"

"The Crack on Trenzalore. You gave me a new cycle of regeneration energy."

"As far as I'm aware, Doctor, you killed us all when you shoved into that pocket universe when we could have won against the Daleks. Why would I reward you for the actions you took?" Rassilon retorted, folding his arms.

"But you must have," the Doctor stuttered, "there's no possible explanation."

"You're clever, Doctor. You'll think of something. Now, we believe that you need to answer for the crimes and actions you have committed," Rassilon sneered, "and how fitting it is that the Shadow Proclamation is here to capture you. Less work for us, I think."

"You know that the Nightmare Child is here, right?" the Doctor replied, "if he finds you, all hell will break loose and just for the record, he has a brand new army of Librarians so I'd be a bit worried if I were you."
Rassilon laughed, "How do you think we got here in the first place, Doctor? Trenzalore was the trial of the Plan. It worked; the message was broadcast into his Universe. This," he spread his arms wide and grinning sinisterly, "is the final product. We threw the Nightmare Child through the Vortex, and he broke through the Crack here in the Library. We followed through."

"I'm not buying it. I don't have time for mind games, Rassilon. There is a Judoon army about to invade this building –" the Doctor said.

"Oh, that's okay Doctor," interjected the deep voice of Omega, "we're Time Lords. We've got all day." Raising a large fist, Omega moved to throw a punch at the Doctor.

"You really don't want to do that."

Omega stopped midway and stared at the Doctor, fury pumping through his body, "And why would I stop now?"

"Because, like you said," the Doctor snapped sarcastically, "we're all Time Lords, but it's me who has a TARDIS."

Suddenly, there was a tremendous crash above as the TARDIS fell from the glass dome and into the lobby. Glass fragments showered down and the TARDIS flew directed toward two cloaked Time Lords.

"You can't hide from us, Doctor," snarled Rassilon.

"I'm not hiding, Rassilon, I'm running."

The two Time Lords vanished within thin air as the TARDIS swooped down low, about thirty centimetres from the ground. The Doctor whispered to himself, "C'mon Clara, open the doors."

The Doctor began running towards the police box. It looked like two cars about to ram into each other. As the Doctor ran, he kept repeating the words open over and over in his head.

Twenty metres.

Open.

Twelve metres.

C'mon! Open, open, OPEN!

The TARDIS doors suddenly inwards and the Doctor caught a glimpse of Clara, flailing by the railing and screaming loudly. The Doctor grinned wide and laughed to himself.

Two metres.

The Doctor leapt in the air and passed through the open doors. Flying through the air, he soared over the descending steps and landed on two feet in front of the console. Exhaling loudly, he glanced over at Clara and said, "You'd make a terrible astronaut."

"Shut up!" exclaimed Clara, standing to her feet and adjusting her blouse. "Now we know who's behind this all!" the Doctor cried, frantically pushing buttons.

"Doctor."

"Yes?"

"River told me to tell you something."

The Doctor slowly turned to her, his eyes wide, "What did she say?"

"She said you need to go to computer data code. She's figured it all out. Everything. Why it's all happened," Clara explained.

The Doctor smirked and glanced at Clara, "Fancy a trip to the centre of the planet?"

Clara smiled, "After you."