Chapter Thirty: Battle of the Doctors
Emma and Snow continued to wait along with Latimer, his children, his maid, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax in the study for the Doctor and Clara to return. They had been away for nearly thirteen minutes, worrying Emma to the point where she felt like disobeying the Doctor's orders herself and going out to help them. She had just as much faith in the Time Lord as her mother did, but every minute they waited for him to return was like a moment of infinity. Just as she was about to make her move and step out of the study, a loud, sickening thud sounded from outside.
"What the hell was that?" She asked.
Everyone looked to the windows and saw a still body lying on the snow in the midst of the snowmen. Chunks of ice surrounded the body. Snow's concerned eyes merged into shock as she recognized the body. "It's Clara!"
Latimer looked out himself and saw the governess/barmaid lying lifelessly outside. "Oh, dear god! Where did she fall from?"
Emma heard a beeping noise from a handheld device that Vastra had in hand and figured that it was connected with Clara's current health status. The beeping slowed down and Emma could see the words "No Life Signs Detected" on the small screen of her device. "Oh, no," she muttered upon realizing what it meant.
"We have to get her inside." Latimer suggested.
"Those snowmen will kill you." Snow warned.
"She's hurt." Latimer contradicted.
"She's dead."
Vastra's diagnosis was enough to stop Latimer just as he reached the door, looking back at her in total devastation. Soon strange noises sounded throughout the area, bringing the captain out of his devastation and into mystification (and a tad bit of frustration). "What is that? What is happening?"
Emma and Snow saw the TARDIS materialize around Clara and knew instantly what had transpired. "The Doc's bringing Clara inside."
As soon as the TARDIS materialized around Clara and concealed her from the surrounding snowmen, it then reemerged inside Latimer's study. Carefully, the Doctor brought Clara's still body out of the blue box and set her upon a desk. Strax immediately went to work on returning her back to health, using alien technology that consisted of a handheld device similar to what Emma saw Vastra holding and a red glowing orb that hovered over Clara, basking half of the study in its glow. While Strax tried to nurse Clara back to health, the Doctor retreated into the TARDIS but left the doors open for anyone to come as they pleased.
Everyone watched as Strax nursed Clara, including Latimer, who was puzzled from the way Clara appeared to be breathing steadily. "That…green woman said she was dead. How could she be alive now?"
"This technology has capacities and abilities far beyond your puny human mind could understand." The Sontaran harshly responded.
"Strax." Emma uttered, encouraging the Sontaran commander to briefly look her way as she addressed him. "Bedside manner, buddy."
Taking a deep breath, Strax looked back to Latimer and calmly (yet awkwardly) said, "Try not to worry." He then returned to work on the barely living Clara.
Snow looked away from Strax and Clara and focused on the TARDIS just in time to see Vastra walk into it. She followed her inside, finding the Doctor by the console and using his sonic screwdriver to scan the chunks of ice that was once the Ice Governess. When he saw Snow and Vastra enter, he looked very guilty, undoubtedly because of what happened to Clara.
"Isn't the creature still a danger?" Vastra asked, noting the chunks of ice that he continued scanning. "It could still reform."
"No, not in here." The Doctor clarified.
"Then you should be with Miss Clara." Vastra suggested.
"She's going to be fine. I know she is. She has to be." The Doctor softly said.
Snow saw the guilt on his face more than Vastra could. "You blame yourself for what happened to her." The Doctor glanced over at her, confirming Snow's assumption to be true. "What happened was…"
"Not my fault – I get that, Snow." The Doctor interrupted her. "But she was in my care. For that, I hold myself responsible for what happened to her."
"What's the point of being with yourself?" A confused Vastra asked.
The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know." He then gave a response that only puzzled the Silurian female even more: "Because she's going to live?"
A short moment later, the Doctor emerged from the TARDIS with Vastra and Snow. All eyes had focused on him and the metal container he held before handing it over to Emma. While the Doctor went to Clara, Emma looked down at the container in her hands and saw that it was a lunchbox with a map of the London Underground from 1967. "What's in this?" she asked Snow as she stood by her.
"According to the Doctor, you don't want to know." Snow answered, only peeking Emma's interest but causing her to feel cautious on handling it at the same time.
Crouched down beside Clara, the Doctor gently took his hands into hers and smiled as she slowly opened her eyes to see him. They both had a brief exchange that included the Doctor giving Clara a key to the TARDIS. As soon as the exchange was over, the Doctor looked intently into empty space and straightened his bowtie. He turned to Emma, allowing her to see that familiar look of seriousness in his face – a look that she had only seen once in the time she met him as the Doctor. It was a look that told her how much business he meant.
Taking the London Underground lunchbox out of her hands, the Doctor headed out of the study. Curiously, Emma followed him as he went to the front door and opened it, revealing Simeon and the army of snowmen surrounding him – more sprouting from the ground each second. He held the lunchbox high in the air and told Simeon and his army, "I have in my hand a piece of the ice lady. Everything you need to know on how to make ice people. Is that what you want?" Simeon stepped forward and held his hand out to take the box from the Doctor, who pulled it further from his reach. "See you at the office!" He then retreated back into the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
"Whatever you're gonna do right now, I'm doing it with you, whether you like it or not." Emma told him as he approached her.
"Fine."
His single-word confirmation surprised her. "Really?"
"Yes, really. Two saviors can save this world here…tonight…together. I'm sorry if I allowed you to doubt me, Emma. I promise I'll never turn my back on you or anyone else ever again. When all of this is over – and it will be over soon – I promise that I'll try to get you and Snow back to Storybrooke…back to your son."
Emma gratefully smiled over the Doctor's change of heart (or hearts, in his case). "Thanks, Doc. But I thought you said that you tried everything to get back?"
"There's still one hope left."
"What's that?"
"You."
He walked away on that note, baffling Emma, who momentarily stood where she was and tried to figure it out for herself. No matter how much she tried, it continued to confuse her on what he had meant.
The Doctor and Emma, along with Vastra, arrived at the office of Doctor Simeon within the Great Intelligence headquarters. They patiently waited for his arrival, giving Emma a chance to see the large, ominous, and bizarre snow globe that he had within his office, sparking with electricity as snow swirled around within it. "So this is what he's been using to control the snow?" she questioned to the Doctor as they waited.
"I believe it's the other way around." The Doctor remarked.
Before she could have asked what he had finally concluded about the connection between Simeon and the snow, Simeon himself entered the office. "You promised us something. Have you brought it?"
Sitting at Simeon's desk with his feet propped on both it and the lunchbox containing the item Simeon referred to, the Doctor maintained a calm demeanor in the face of the other doctor. "The 'big fellow' has been awfully quiet while you've been out, which is to be expected considering who he really is." The Doctor stood up from the desk, glaring deep into the eyes of Simeon as he took the lunchbox into his hands and held it up high. He approached the snow globe and asked, "You know what this is, big fella?"
I do not understand these markings.
Emma leaped in surprise of the deep, chilling voice that had echoed all around them, looking around to see where it had come from. Once she realized from how the Doctor directly addressed the snow globe that the voice came from it, she figured that she had just about seen everything in the life of the Time Lord; yet she knew that she would be incorrect in that assumption.
"A map of the London Underground 1967." The Doctor said in response to the globe's questioning of the lunchbox. "A key strategic weakness to metropolic living, if you ask me. But then I have never liked a tunnel."
Enough of this! We are powerful. But on this planet we are limited. We need to learn to take human fo—
The mysterious voice of the globe was suddenly distorted, becoming very low and then becoming very high until settling on what sounded like the voice of a child. "What's happening to its voice?" Vastra questioned the happening as it occurred.
"Just stripping away the disguise." The Doctor stated, revealing the sonic screwdriver in his hand.
STOP! Stop that! Cease! I command you!
"Sounds like a kid." Emma noticed.
"It is a kid." The Doctor kept his focus squarely on Simeon by that point. "It's Simeon as a child. The snow has no voice without him."
Don't listen to him. He's ruining everything.
"How long has the Intelligence been talking to you?" The Doctor questioned Simeon, whose cold demeanor began to shift to a more timid one upon hearing the voice of his younger self.
"I was a little boy…he was my snowman…he s-spoke to me."
"So it doesn't talk? It's just a mirror." The Doctor surmised. "It just reflects back everything we think and feel and fear. You pulled your darkest dreams into a snowman and look what it became." The Doctor pointed to the massive snow globe behind him, only intimidating Simeon more.
"I don't understand." Vastra said.
"Yeah, me neither." Emma acknowledged. "Is this guy some sort of master puppeteer or something?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No. More like a parasite – feeding on the loneliness of a child and the sickness of an old man. Carnivorous snow meets Victorian values…and something terrible is born."
We can go on. And we can do everything we planned.
"Ah, yes. And what a plan: a world full of living ice people." The Doctor scoffed. "How very Victorian of you."
Growing from timid to furious, Simeon snatched the lunchbox from the Doctor's hands. "What's wrong with Victorian values?"
Vastra and Emma quickly rushed towards Simeon, both ready to attack. However, the Doctor calmly raised one hand in protest. "Ah-ah! Are you sure?"
Simeon glared at the Doctor. "I have always been sure." He ripped the lid off the lunchbox and reached inside. It was at that moment when Emma heard a sickening crunch and saw Simeon's face turn paler than ever. His hand emerged from the lunchbox with a large alien worm clamped down on it.
Amidst everything that Emma had witnessed upon arriving in Victorian England, the bizarre worm managed to still generate a mixture of horror and surprise over her. "What the hell…?"
"To answer your question, Emma, that is a memory worm." The Doctor indicated. "One touch from the worm and you lose an hour of your memory. But just a single bite from the worm will cause you to lose decades worth of memories, much like our dear friend Walter Simeon is experiencing right now." Simeon collapsed to the room and looked to have entered a comatose state. He looked practically dead to Emma, yet she was certain the Doctor would not have allowed that. "No parasite without the host. Without Simeon, it has no voice. Without the governess, it has no form."
Wh…What's happening? What…What did you do?
The Doctor looked to the globe once more, grinning. "You've got nothing left to mirror anymore." And with a great deal of sarcasm, he added, "Goodbye."
The globe's voice continued to distort and the snow within it began to settle down to its bottom. The sparks of electricity above their heads ceased. Emma felt relieved of their success yet she also suspected something. The victory seemed to have come all too easily. And, soon enough, her suspicions proved correct as the snow within the globe suddenly swirled more violently than before and the electricity sparked once again above their heads. And the voice from the globe spoke in its deep, dark tone again, addressing the Doctor with much confidence: Did you really think it would be so easy?
A baffled Doctor stared upon the globe. "That's not possible. How is that possible?"
Emma and Vastra braced themselves, both anticipating an attack from the mysterious entity. They soon heard a large gust of wind blow past the window and looked to see a blizzard brewing outside. Vastra called the Doctor's attention to it and the three were shocked to see living snowflakes falling to all of Victorian England, including the home of Captain Latimer.
They returned their focus to the globe. The Doctor became increasingly puzzled by this sudden unknown reserve power from the now-sentient entity. "But you were Doctor Simeon. You're not real. He dreamed you. How can you still exist?"
Now the dream outlives the dreamer and never dies. Your human companion was right – Simeon was the puppeteer and I was the puppet. But now I am the puppet!
"I AM THE ONE PULLING THE STRINGS!"
They turned as soon as they heard the amalgamated voice of both Simeon and the Intelligence speaking from the frost-covered body of Simeon. In addition to being nearly frozen, Simeon's body also sparked with the same electricity above their heads.
"I've tried so long to take on human form! By erasing Simeon, you've made space for me! I feel him now!"
Vastra lunged for the possessed Simeon with her sword; unfortunately, she was swiftly knocked away from him. Emma charged shortly after, but she was swatted away as well, flying across the air and smacking against the wall. With no other obstacles standing in his way, the possessed Simeon went for the Doctor himself, pinning him to the floor and touching his face with his ice-cold hand. Frost began to develop over the face of the Doctor and overtake half of it, putting him in enough excruciating pain to make him scream.
Before the possessed Simeon's touch could envelope more of the Doctor, Emma reemerged behind Simeon, leaping on his back and placing a headlock on him. "You know what sucks about being human? You'll always need to breathe!" She squeezed her arm around his neck real tight, forcing Simeon to release himself from the Doctor. While the Doctor recovered from nearly being frozen alive, Emma wrestled with Simeon, who did not seem to be very affected by the hold she had on him. He then reached back with both hands at Emma's face, attempting to freeze her over just as he had with the Doctor. But as the possessed man and Emma herself soon discovered, his touch had no effect on her as she continued to choke the life out of him.
"Impossible!" The possessed Simeon exclaimed in surprise. "You are immune!"
"Oh, yeah? Maybe it's 'cause I had all my anti-freeze shots." Emma wittingly said, despite the fact that she was just as surprised how ineffective his ice-cold touch was to her.
She then felt Simeon's body convulse and figured her hold had finally taken effect. However, from the way she was thrown off of him, she realized that it wasn't her that did the deed. Simeon continued to convulse and eventually collapsed to the floor. "What's happening?"
"The globe…it's turned to rain." Vastra pointed out.
Emma and the Doctor looked to the globe as well and, sure enough, the snow inside of it had liquefied. Their attention went back to Simeon as he continued to convulse and then die right in front of them.
"What the hell is going on?" Emma asked. "How is the snow now rain?"
"The snow mirrors – that's what it does. It's mirroring something else…something so strong it's drowning everything else." The rainstorm outside encouraged the Doctor to rush to the window and open it. Vastra and Emma joined him, seeing the massive rainstorm befall Victorian England. "There was a critical mass of snow at the house. If something happened there…" He took a handful of the rain and tasted it.
Emma had done the same and quickly spat out what she had tasted. "It's salt! It's raining saltwater?"
"It's not rain. It's tears."
Emma remained perplexed. "How can it be raining tears? The weather doesn't just cry, does it?"
"Not the weather, Emma. A whole family. The only force strong enough to drown out the snow is an entire family crying on Christmas Eve."
His deduction led Emma to make a revelation of her own – one that unsettled her. "Oh, god. Clara!"
As soon as they realized Clara's condition had taken a turn for the worse, they immediately returned to the Latimer house in time for the Doctor to say his last words to her. He let her know that they (he and Clara) had saved the world. Shortly after, the life in Clara began to drift away. Before she ultimately died, she uttered a few words that appeared to have a great effect on the Doctor…
"Run. Run, you clever boy. And remember."
A grandfather clock chimed the tolls of midnight, signifying the transition from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. To Emma and Snow, it was a rather depressing way to ring in the holiday with the death of a woman who managed to bring some spirit back into the Doctor. For that purpose, they too shed tears for Clara's unfortunate death.