The Snowmen- Part 2
"Jack, keep an eye on Lia and stay here." I said as Clara left the room, intending on following them.
"Susan." Jack cautioned.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine." I said and went out of the room and closed the door in time to see the end of Clara and The Doctor's kiss.
"You kissed me." The Doctor said, shocked.
"You blushed. And we just. Shut up." Clara said.
The Doctor opens the front door and I stood next to The Doctor while Clara stood a couple feet behind me.
"Release her to us. You have five minutes." Simeon turns away and the Doctor closes the door.
"We need to get her out of here but keep her away from them." The Doctor said.
"How?" Clara asked.
The Doctor takes an umbrella from the stand. "With this. Do I always have to state the obvious?"
"Those creatures outside, what are they?" Latimer asked, having left the room.
"No danger to you, as long as I get that thing out of here. You, in there, now." Latimer leaves and goes back into that room.
The Doctor up the stairs and sonicks the forcefield.
"What are you doing?" Clara asked as Clara and I stood behind The Doctor.
"Between you and me, I can't wait to find out." The forcefield turns off then reforms behind him and Clara. "Right, if you look after everyone here, then I can. Clara!"
"Doctor." Clara says as we ducked under the Governesses arms and ran up the stairs.
"That was stupid." The Doctor said.
"You were stupid, too." Clara pointed out.
"I'm allowed. I'm good at stupid." The Doctor said.
"Yes you are." I agreed.
"Oi!" The Doctor yelled.
"That's the way to do it!" The Governess said.
"Why does she keep saying that?" Clara asked.
"Mirroring. Random mirroring." I said.
The Doctor nodded at me. "We need to get on the roof."
"This way!" Clara said and grabbed The Doctor's hand, pulling him up the stairs. I followed behind, laughing.
"No, I do the hand grabbing. That's my job. That's always me!" The Doctor complained.
The Doctor climbs through the window onto the square roof and I go in after. Clara tries to follow.
"Come on, quickly! What are you doing?" The Doctor asked.
"My bustle is stuck." Clara groaned.
"Your bustle?" The Doctor pulls Clara through the window. She lands on top of him.
"You're going to have to take those clothes off…. I didn't mean." The Doctor studders as I laughed.
"I know. I understand, I do." Clara said as I helped her up.
"Good."
"Now, what's the plan?"
"Who said I've got a plan?" The Doctor asked.
"Course you've got a plan. You took that." Clara pointed out.
"Maybe I'm an idiot."
"You're not. You're clever. Really clever."
"Are you?" Clara asked.
The Doctor throws Clara the umbrella. "If I've got a plan, what is it? You tell me." The Doctor says.
"That's the way to do it!" The Governess repeated. She was closer now.
"Is this a test?" Clara asked.
"Yes."
"What will it do to us?"
"Kill us."
"That's the way to do it!" The Governess turns to snow to get through the window.
"So, come on then. Plan. Do I have one?" The Doctor said. "Don't answer, Susan. This one's her's."
"Oh, I know what your plan is. I knew straight away." Clara said.
"No, you didn't."
"Course I did."
"Show me."
"Why should I?"
The Doctor looked at Clara pointedly. "Because we'll be dead in under thirty seconds. Do I have a plan?"
"If we'd been escaping, we'd be climbing down the building. If we'd been hiding, we'd be on the other side of the roof. But no, we're standing right here."
"So?"
"So!" Clara reaches up with the umbrella and pulls the ladder down. The Governess is reforming on the roof. "After you."
"After you."
Clara raised her eyebrows. "After you, I'm wearing a dress. Eyes front, soldier!"
The Doctor grinned. "My eyes are always front!" He said as The Doctor climbed up the later. I went second.
"Mine aren't." Clara smirked.
"Stop it."
"No." The Governess has completely reformed. I understand you're the previous governess. I regret to inform you the position is taken. Goodnight." Clara taps the ladder, steps onto it and is raised into the air.
We were running up the staircase. "So you can move your cloud? You can control it?" Clara asked.
"No. No one can control clouds, that would be silly. The wind, a little bit."
The staircase shook, as if someone else was on it. "She's following us." I said.
"That's the idea. Keep her away from the snow. So. Barmaid or governess, which is it?" The Doctor asked Clara.
"That thing is after us, and you want a chat?"
"Well, we can't chat after we've been horribly killed, can we?" The Doctor asked.
Clara looked down to see Victorian London far beneath us. "How did we get up so high so quick?"
"Clever staircase. It's taller on the inside." I replied.
"What am I standing on, what's this made of?" Clara asked as we walked on the cloud to the Tardis.
I took out my sonic and sonicked the entrance to the staircase. Clouds covered it "Super dense water vapour. Should keep her trapped for the moment." I said.
"Do you actually live up here on a cloud, in a box?" Clara asked.
"I have done for a long time now." The Doctor said, his tone quieter.
"Blimey, you really know how to sulk, don't you?" Clara responded, smirking.
"I'm not sulking." The Doctor argued.
Clara raised her eyebrows. "You live in a box!"
"That's no more a box than you are a governess."
"Oh, spoken like a man. You know, you're the same as all the rest. Sweet little Clara, works at the Rose And Crown, ideas above her station."
The Taris lights are off. Big Reveal? I asked The Doctor playfully and telepathically. The Doctor didn't reply.
"Well, for your information, I'm not sweet on the inside, and I'm certainly not-" Clara stops as The Doctor turns on the Tardis light by snapping his fingers. He's been redecorating. A classic six sided free-standing console with time rotor. He turns around to see Clara gaping in shock.
"Little." Clara finishes in shock.
"It's called the Tardis. It can travel anywhere in time and space. And it's mine." The Doctor said.
"But it's. Look at it, it's-"
"Go on, say it. Most people do." The Doctor said, smugly. Clara does the traditional circuit of the outside.
"Are you so sure she will say it?" I asked.
Clara returns. "It's smaller on the outside."
The Doctor frowns. "Okay, that is a first."
"Is it magic? Is it a machine?" Clara asked.
"It's a ship." I said.
"A ship?"
"Best ship in the universe."
Clara looks around. "Is there a kitchen?"
"Another first." I said.
"I don't know why I asked that. It's just, I like making soufflés." Clara said. I tensed.
The Doctor froze. "Soufflés?"
"Why are you showing me all this?" Clara asked, still looking around the ship, but hasn't moved from the spot she stopped at.
"You followed me, remember? I didn't invite you."
"You're nearly a foot taller than I am. You could've reached the ladder without this. You took it for me. Why?" She throws the umbrella to him.
"I never know why. I only know who." The Doctor holds up a key, then puts it in Clara's hand.
"Doctor." I said, sharply. The Doctor didn't acknowledge me.
Clara stared at the key. "What's this?"
"Me. Giving in."
Clara wipes tears from her eyes. "I don't know why I'm crying."
"I do. Remember this. This right now, remember all of it. Because this is the day. This is the day. This is the day everything begins." But as he starts to crank up the console, the Governess grabs Clara from behind and drags her outside. Clara drops the key. I closed my eyes and gripped the counsel until my knuckles turned white.
"Clara! Clara!" The Doctor runs after her while I stayed in the Tardis. He's going to hate me again. I thought. After a few painful seconds, I heard, "NO!"
I open my eyes just in time to see The Doctor run back inside, never giving me a second thought and started up the Tardis. A few seconds later, Clara appeared on the floor.
The Doctor was scanning the ice fragments that were around clara While I paced around the Tardis. Jack and Lia were in the study, watching over Clara.
"Isn't the creature still a danger? It could reform." Vastra said as she walked into the Tardis, giving me a brief nod. The Doctor didn't look up.
"No, not in here." The Doctor replied shortly.
"Then you should be with Miss Clara."
"She's going to be fine. I know she is. She has to be."
"Doctor, her injuries are severe. That equipment will bring back anyone for a while, but long term."
"It was my fault. I am responsible for what happened to Clara. She was in my care."
Vastra sighed. "What is the point of blaming yourself?"
"None. Because she's going to live." The Doctor said.
The Doctor hands a London Underground souvenir lunchbox to Jenny. It rattles. Then he goes over to Clara. "Hey. Hello." The Doctor said gently to Clara as she opened her eyes.
"They all think I'm going to die, don't they?" Clara said softly.
"And I know you're going to live." The Doctor told her.
"How?"
"I never know how. I just know who." The Doctor said. He gives her the key again and kisses her hand.
"Mrs. Harkness." Clara breathed. "She said you were the saver of worlds once. Are you going to save this one?"
"If I do, will you come away with me?"
"Yes."
"Well then. Merry Christmas." He straightens his bow tie, takes back the lunch box and walks out of the room. Then he comes back into the room and The Doctor, Vastra, Jack and I piled into the Tardis.
As Lia was about to enter, I put my hand up. "No, Lia. Stay here."
"But-"
"Protect them." I said, then entered the Tardis and closed the door behind me.
"So then, Doctor, saving the world again? Might I ask why? Are you making a bargain with the universe? You'll save the world to let her live?" Vastra asked.
"Yes. And don't you think, after all this time and everything I've ever done, that I am owed this one?" The Doctor asked Vastra.
"I don't think the universe makes bargains."
"It was my fault." The Doctor said.
"Well then. Better save the world."
The Doctor, Vastra, Jack and I are waiting in the institute when Simeon enters the room. I had left my coat in the Tardis, I didn't want to restrict my movements.
"You promised us something. Have you brought it?" Simeon asked.
"Big fella here's been very quiet while you've been out. Which is only to be expected, considering who he really is. Do you know what this is, big fella?" The Doctor holds up the lunch box.
"I do not understand these markings." Simeon said.
"A map of the London Underground, 1967. Key strategic weakness in metropolitan living, if you ask me, but then I have never liked a tunnel." I said.
"Enough of this. We are powerful, but on this planet we are limited. We need to learn to take human form." A voice from the big globe with snow in it said. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver, and the Snowman's voice rises in pitch. "The Governess is our most perfect replication of humanity."
"What's happening to its voice?" Jack asked.
"Just stripping away the disguise." The Doctor answered.
"No, stop! Stop that. Cease, I command you!" The child's voice said.
"It sounds like a child." Vastra gasped.
"Of course it sounds like a child. It is a child." The Doctor said, "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 asked.
"I was a little boy. He was my snowman. He spoke to me." Simeon said in a child's voice.
I raised an eyebrow. "But the snow doesn't talk, does it. It's just a mirror."
The Doctor nodded. "It just reflects back everything we think and feel and fear. You poured your darkest dreams into a snowman and look, look what it became."
"I don't understand." Vastra said.
"It's 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." The Doctor said.
"We can go on and do everything we planned." The Snowman said.
"Oh yes, and what a plan. A world full of living ice people. Oh dear me, how very Victorian of you." The Doctor glared at him.
"What's wrong with Victorian values?" Simeon grabs the lunch box and opens it.
"Ah, ah, ah. Are you sure?" The Doctor asked.
Simeon straightened up. "I have always been sure." The memory worm in the box bites him.
"Good. I'm glad you think so, since your entire adult life is about to be erased. No parasite without a host. Without you, it will have no voice. Without the governess, it will have no form." The Doctor said.
"What, what, what's happening? What's happening? What did you do?" The Snowman yelled.
"You've got nothing left to mirror any more. Goodbye." The Doctor turned around to leave.
"What did you, did you." The snow suddenly fills the globe and its voice deepens again. "Did you really think it would be so easy?"
The Doctor spun around. "That's not possible. How is that possible?"
"Doctor?" Jack asked.
"But you were just Doctor Simeon. You're not real. He dreamed you. How can you still exist?" Jack asked.
"Now the dream outlives the dreamer and can never die. Once I was the puppet." The Snowman said. Simeon is now an icy ghoul. "Now I pull the strings! I tried so long to take on human form. By erasing Simeon, you made space for me. I fill him now."
Simeon takes out a gun from his pocket and fired a few shots in our direction. Vastra blocks a couple with her sword. As Simeon knocks Vastra aside and grabs the Doctor, I felt a pain in my gut. I looked down and saw that Vastra had missed one bullet.
"More than snow, more than Simeon. Even this old body is strong in my control!" The Snowman road.
"Argh!" The Doctor yelled in pain. I had a good idea how he was feeling as I struggled to keep myself upright.
As Jack made a move toward The Doctor, I breathed, "Jack?"
Jack turned around and he paled as he saw the blood seeping through my blue shirt and he ran back to me as I collapsed on the floor, feeling pain pulse through my stomach. I found I had trouble breathing.
"Do you feel it? Winter is coming!" Simeon's touch starts to freeze the Doctor's skin.
"Argh!"
"Winter is coming!" The Snowman yelled.
The snow globe is suddenly filled with melt water. Simeon leaps off the Doctor. "What's happening?" The Snowman yelled.
Vastra, getting up, says, "Doctor, the globe. It's turning to rain. All of it, the snow, look." Simeon dies. "He's dead. What happened?"
"The snow mirrors, that's all it does. It's mirroring something else now. Something so strong, it's drowning everything else." The Doctor opens a window and holds out his hand. "There was a critical mass of snow at the house. If something happened there-" Vastra and The Doctor both taste the rain.
The sounds in the room dimmed and I could barely hear anyone besides Jack. My vision and sound faded in and out. It was just a bullet. I couldn't regenerate from a tiny bullet.
"...salty. ...'in." Vastra's far-away voice said.
"...not raining. ...force on Earth... ...drown... ...crying... ...Eve." The Doctor said in the same far-away voice.
"Doctor! If you could stop talking for a minute, Susan's been shot. Vastra didn't block every one." Jack yelled right next to my ear.
I winced at the intensity of his voice. Not so loud. I complained through our bond.
Susan, I wasn't yelling. Came Jack's reply.
The Doctor froze then turned around to see me on the floor with Jack besides me, his hand over my wound, trying to slow the bleeding.
"Susan!" The Doctor cried, running over. Vastra stayed by the window. Jack took his hand off to let The Doctor inspect the wound. The Doctor then looked at Jack and shook his head. As he did, I could feel a regeneration coming on.
"No! No no no no no!" Jack cried as the yellow glow started.
"Jack, help me up." I whispered.
Jack and The Doctor both got me to a standing point. I looked at Jack. "I'm so sorry." I said. Everything hurt as I tried to delay the regeneration a bit longer. "I love you."
"Susan." The Doctor said and I turned toward him. "I'm… I'm sorry I got angry at you for their deaths. It wasn't your fault. You weren't even there. It was wrong of me."
I smiled sadly. "Thank you... Doctor." And I cried out as the force of regeneration energy was stronger and brighter than before shot out of my hands. My vision darkened as I slowly came out of my regeneration and collapsed, unconscious.
Thank you to my Favorite: finalhour300
Thank you to my Follower: finalhour300