Chapter Forty-Six: Lost Connection

"I don't believe it! Are we really going back? Back home to Storybrooke?" The excitement was clear in Mary Margaret's voice as she responded to the news of Emma's direct call to Henry.

"Looks that way." Emma remarked while they walked into the control room. "Jack says that they're Manhattan right now with Mr. Gold."

Mary Margaret grimaced in confusion and astonishment. "Manhattan? With Mr. Gold? How did he manage to get out of Storybrooke?"

Emma shrugged. "You got me. I didn't bother asking Jack because I was so focused on the thought of going back. He sounded real uneasy over the phone, too, like something was wrong."

"Well, the sooner we get to Manhattan, the sooner we'll find out what it is." Mary Margaret enthusiastically said.

As the two women stepped onto the console platform, the Doctor suddenly emerged from beneath it, no longer wearing his monk garb. Emma and Mary Margaret saw that he was donned in a burgundy coat that reached mid-thigh with black shoes and pants. He also wore a new bowtie.

"Finally ditched the monk look for your friend, eh?" Emma jested.

The Doctor smiled. "Yes, I did. Because monks are not cool."

"And bowties are, right?" Emma snickered.

"Oy! Don't get personal! I'm in too good a mood right now."

Mary Margaret giggled over the banter between him and her daughter. "Doctor, we're glad that you finally found Clara, but there's something we need you to…"

"You two have got to meet her." The Doctor interrupted, acting profoundly giddy. "She looks exactly the same as she did in Victorian times." He rushed to the door and stepped out in his new attire, much to the chagrin of Emma and Mary Margaret, who were forced to follow him.

The trio went to the front doorstep of Clara's home. The Doctor knocked on the door, shouting her name. "Hello?" Her voice was heard from the intercom, and the Doctor looked to the security camera, smiling.

"Clara! Look! See? Demonked! Sensible clothes!" He spun around, showing himself off. "And I brought my friends with me!" He turned to Emma and Mary Margaret and said, "Say hello to Clara."

They both waved to the camera and put on their best smiles. "Hello, Clara."

The Doctor grinned like a kid showing off his new toys. "See? Uh, can we come in now?"

"I don't understand." Clara's voice seemed strangely baffled to them.

"Could you just open the door?" The Doctor said.

"I don't know…"

"Of course, you can!" The Doctor became impatient, while Emma and Mary Margaret became confused with the young woman's behavior over the intercom.

"I don't know where I am. Where am I?"

Something was definitely wrong, and the concerned looks that Emma, Mary Margaret, and the Doctor gave each other acknowledged their awareness of it. Clara's voice grew more panicked as she repeatedly questioned her own whereabouts. Immediately, the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver from his new coat and used it to unlock the front door, allowing him, Emma, and Mary Margaret to rush right in. They discovered Clara's unconscious body on the floor, yet they still heard her voice screaming out in terror.

"Oh, my god." Mary Margaret muttered as she caught sight of something that Emma and the Doctor hadn't upon entering the home. Hearing her gasp of surprise, they followed her gaze to see a robot that had the body of a young girl in a bright dress but a spoon-like head that projected an image of a scared Clara.

"What the hell…?" Emma uttered.

The Doctor swiftly aimed his sonic screwdriver at the abomination. The device whirred in his hand while the body of the spoon-headed being sparked and fizzed, shifting into its true skeletal and robotic form. Shocked by the menacing mechanical monster, Mary Margaret questioned, "What is it? What's it done to Clara?"

"It's a base station – a walking Wi-Fi base station, hoovering up data…hoovering up people!" Unsettled from this discovery, he then instructed to Emma and Mary Margaret, "Look around. Look for a laptop, computer, phone…anything that requires Wi-Fi technology."

Emma and Mary Margaret quickly did as he said. Mary Margaret searched downstairs in the kitchen and living room. The Doctor and Emma searched upstairs in the bedrooms. Emma finally discovered a medium-sized laptop in a bedroom that looked as if it belonged to a girl. She picked the laptop up from the desk and yelled, "Got it!" Handing it over to the Doctor, they returned downstairs to Clara, and the Doctor went right to work on saving her life.

The Doctor typed on the keyboard of the laptop faster than anyone Emma or Mary Margaret had ever seen. It was not humanly possible to type as fast as he did, yet they knew the Doctor was not completely human. Within a matter of seconds, the Doctor canceled the spoon-headed being's upload of Clara, forcing it to shoot out a beam from its head that connected to Clara's. Once the beam dispersed, Clara was revived, coughing as she fought to breathe again.

"It's okay. It's okay. You're back." The Doctor told her, stroking her head and kissing it. "Yes, you are. Yes, you are."

Relieved that Clara was going to live, Emma glanced at the inert "spoonhead" robot. "Where does someone get the technology to 'upload' people's subconscious?"

"A better question is who's behind such technology." Mary Margaret wondered.

Kizlet could not figure out who could be smart enough to reverse an upload from a server just like he or she had a moment ago. Not even Alexei could prevent it from happening, despite his efforts. She would certainly have to kill him now with such a failure on his record; but his death would have to come at a much later time. There was something happening that required all members of her team, and they must look into it before it happened with any more of the people that had been uploaded.

Upon returning to her office, Kizlet was reminded of her guest – a twenty-something African American woman by the name of Tamara, who had visited the Shard for business purposes. "I'm so sorry," she told Tamara while entering. "Something has come up that requires my attention. We'll have to shelve our chat for another time. Tomorrow, perhaps?"

Tamara had been looking at the screen of her smartphone while waiting for Kizlet to return. Looking to Kizlet, she shook her head. "Sorry. Just got a text from my boyfriend. He needs me in America right away for something urgent."

"I understand." Kizlet said. "My client will be displeased to hear that you left in such a hurry. He was looking forward to speaking to you again."

Tamara smirked. "He knows how to contact me if he needs me."

The young woman got up and headed for the door. Before she departed, however, Kizlet spoke up. "Oh, Tamara? Do be careful of which connection you use on that thing, won't you? We don't want to end up accidentally taking you into our collective." She gestured to the smartphone in Tamara's hand.

Tamara merely smiled from Kizlet's warning and continued her way out of her office. As she left, she dialed some numbers on her phone and placed it against her right ear. When she heard the voice of her contact, she angrily said, "Now you want to tell me what's so important that you had to tear me away from the meeting of my life?" She listened to what her contact had to say. "Why? Why are you planning on staying there longer?" A request was made from her contact and she moaned while moving the phone away from her ear and looking at the screen as a video was being sent to her. Tamara's eyes widened when the video came up. It was a live video of a woman using magic to summon objects out of a purse and have them floating in the air. Although shocked at first from this footage, Tamara was soon satisfied with it, a devilish grin emerging from her face.