The metal door slid open to reveal a hunched-over figure leaning on a glass banister, looking over the metropolis of Heaven. They looked around to see their new visitor. Their eyes lit up when they recognized who their visitor was, and it only took an instant. This hunched-over figure was Danny, who was no less than overjoyed to see Clara, who stood apprehensively at the door. Turning slowly, he raised both of his hands in surrender, as if to ensure Clara he was who he said - and looked like - he was. Tears streaming down her face, Clara dashed toward him, grabbing and hugging him tightly, never wanting to let go again. Danny joined in with the embrace, muttering apologies for not being able to remember the name of the restaurant where they had their first date.
"I will leave you two for a minute. It seems like your earlier phone call wasn't enough!" Seb chuckled and smiled, leaving the balcony and closing the door behind him, thereby leaving the two lovebirds alone. Clara pushed herself off Danny, drying her eyes with the back of her palm.
"Are you alright, Clara?" Danny asked, his hands on her shoulders. Clara could hardly hold back her tears as she continued rubbing her eyes, making them red and sore. She shook her head furiously, then embracing Danny again, unable to explain he emotions as she began to sob.
"I'm so sorry!" She cried, wishing the moment would never end. Danny nodded in understanding - she'd just been through a phone call to her lover that she'd assumed was someone else as he was unable to tell her the name of the restaurant where they'd had their first date. Consequently, this meant Clara didn't believe Danny was still alive (in a way) inside the Nethersphere and her discovery that the afterlife actually existed (again, in a way) and that Danny wasn't lying about his existence in the afterlife was too much to bear. She'd essentially lied to herself by denying the truth, although it'd been hard to prove at the time through a mere phone call. Additionally, with Clara here, that meant she'd died. Going through the pain of death... Danny knew it all too well.
The iPad on the glass coffee table next to Danny beeped, and both Danny and Clara looked at it. The screen showed an interface, marked with Gallifreyan and Cyberman symbols, and on the middle of the screen was a thin, red button marked "DELETE". Clara looked up at Danny through her blurry, tear-soaked eyes, who shook his head and returned to the embrace. "I like my emotions." He muttered.
The Doctor advanced toward the Cyberman in Doctor Chang's office, taking care not to disturb Clara's remains.
"Skarosa, did you do this?!" He demanded, pointing at the ashes.
The Cyberman spoke with its traditional robotic voice, confirming the Doctor's suspicions. "Correct."
Groaning in frustration, the Doctor clutched at his hair, pacing the room, careful as always not to step too close to what Clara left behind. Then after a few long seconds and with heavy breaths, he approached the Cyberman, regaining his composure and fixing his tie. He looked at Skarosa, and asked with authority: "What is your plan?"
The Cyberman stopped saluting, and bowed its head as if communicating with the Cyber Network. After a brief pause, it looked up again and returned to its salute. It spoke haltingly. "All humans will be deleted. Their minds will be uploaded into the Nethersphere. Their minds will be downloaded into new bodies we have assigned for this Cyber-purpose. The human race will all become Cybermen."
"And what are your... locked... commands? Your... prohibited commands?" The Doctor asked.
"We cannot Stand Down. We cannot Destroy the Nethersphere. We cannot Destroy Other Cybermen." The Cyberman replied.
Pondering this, the Doctor looked down at the bracelet still stuck to his wrist. Removing it was only half the problem - if he was unable to use the Cybermen to destroy each other or even the Nethersphere himself, that meant he had no way of physically stopping the Cybermen from their advance. With every person they killed, a new mind was uploaded into the Nethersphere. Then when each mind was ready, they were downloaded into a new body. But he couldn't destroy the bodies or the minds... there had to be another way. His eyes floated over to what was left of Clara's corpse. With a grunt, he left the room, leaving the Cyberman still saluting.
Clara sat in silence opposite Danny, the coffee table separating them, each unaware of what to say next. It felt like no matter what they said, it'd be unable to repair their relationship. Did they even have a relationship in the first place? Sure, they'd had a couple of dates but nothing substantial came of them and they'd both ended badly. Having to leave urgently and being thought of as a weirdo wouldn't have rated highly on their outing list. With a slight chuckle, Danny looked up from the iPad he'd been staring at, and Clara followed his gaze. "Should we start over?"
Clara gasped, adjusting her hair and wiping her eyes and nose. "Y-yeah, that'd be great... yeah." She nodded furiously as she spoke, then looked over toward the glass railing. Danny smiled, and relaxed in his chair, turning off the iPad. When he looked over again at Clara, her expression wasn't what he expected to see. Slowly, her sadness turned to confusion and she stood up, a hand on the railing. Looking over the railing, the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view - or was it an panorama? - of green lights was beginning to turn dark. One by one, small, green lights that suggested the habitation of skyscrapers all around them began to flicker out and die.
"What's going on?" Clara asked, bemused. Danny could do no more than shake his head and shrug, and it was at that moment that the metal door to the balcony slid open again. Both Clara and Danny turned to face the new occupant, and it was none other than Missy, with her umbrella posed around her shoulder as if she were Mary Poppins.
"What are you doing here?!" Clara asked, aghast. The last time she'd seen Missy was kissing the Doctor rather passionately, and the revelation that she was actually the Master thanks to a Cyberman's words still stuck with her. The confusion was too great to solve at the present moment, particularly with The Master right in front of her. But she was here... Therefore, did she die? Or... did something else happen to allow her to come here?
"Oh!" Missy pretended to gasp, pursing her lips. She twirled her umbrella, putting its tip to the floor to lean on the handle. "Now, now, are you asking me why I'm in my own databank? That's a bit of a funny question, don't you think?" She cocked her head to the side, then her eyes followed to look at Danny who was even more confused than Clara. "Are we not preferring to be emotionless then?" She asked. Danny shook his head, standing up from the chair, but Missy advanced toward him and pushed him back down, resting her umbrella against the chair. Clara opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced as Missy raised a finger in her direction.
"With pain... and suffering..." Missy began, cooing, her arm on Danny's shoulder. "This will be the rest of your life if you keep your emotions. See those lights?" She signaled with her hand over to the rest of the Nethersphere where the lights were beginning to fade - a phenomenon that Clara had noticed earlier - and back to Danny. "Whenever a light goes out, they've been downloaded. Their consciousness is no longer in the Nethersphere. And that is when they become a Cyberman, emotions or no emotions, depending on whether they've..." She then motioned over to the switched-off iPad. "...deleted... their emotions. Born to kill. With emotions. You wouldn't like that, would you?" She giggled sadistically, picking up her umbrella once more. "You have... five minutes to change your mind." And with a smile, she sauntered through the metal door which opened and closed again on her presence. Danny looked over to Clara, horrified. She shared his emotion. Then Danny looked over at the iPad. Clara dashed over to it, picking it up and stepping away from him.
"Don't you dare." She stated.
"I wasn't going to-" Danny groaned, standing up. "Why would I listen to her? That sadistic witch of a woman! She's behind all of this, isn't she?!"
"Yes. And it's someone The Doctor knows very well, too." She gulped. "But knowing what the Doctor would say... we have to get out of here."
"The Doctor again, Clara? I thought you told me you were done with him?" Danny said, his face clenching in agony. "Don't you remember I told you to tell me your answer in a couple of weeks before I... died? Was that what you wanted to tell me? What was your answer? That you would stay with The Doctor?"
"No!" Clara said, stepping away from Danny and clenching the iPad harder this time. "I wanted to tell you that you were the only person I'd every say 'I love you' to, ever again! I want to stay with you, to start a family or something! You're the only one for me, I couldn't care less about The Doctor anymore! I'd never lie to you!"
"Clara... you already have lied to me." Danny spoke with resignation, clenching his fists. "You don't know how you're making me feel. Your words are empty right now... How do I know you're not lying to me again?" His eyes welled up with tears, and Clara's too. They both stood facing each other, uncertain of what to do even now. No matter how many times they restarted their relationship, their past would always be with them. And The Doctor needed them both. With the Cybermen wreaking havoc across the city, time was running out.