Hello! I realize very well that 'stepping in in front of a quantum shade', when the shade was quantum locked to Clara, might seem like a ridiculous way to save her. Why didn't he do it in the first place? Maybe he was too shocked to think of it during Face the Raven, and only realized the possibility of surprising the shade later on, when he had lost his detailed memories of her and could think more rationally. Either way, 'how' doesn't need to be the crucial part of this story, mostly 'why' he'd save her, is. I hope you can forgive my simplified fanfiction way to get there~ ;_; 3

oOo

3. Win

"Witch! Burn the witch!"

It wasn't the middle of a forest. It was the outskirts of a village, and the villagers were not happy.

"What witch? Me?" Clara said as she turned around to face them with a puzzled look, hands in the air.

One of them, a wide but not very tall man, was pointing a pitchfork at her. Behind him, several more villagers, men as well as women, were cowering. They looked angry, but she could also tell they were very afraid of her.

The TARDIS stood behind her, flickering its light at them. They must have seen it phase into existence and freaked out about it. Was she on Earth? Perhaps in medieval times. From what she had heard, and partly seen first hand through some travels with the Doctor, humanity in these areas now was extremely wary of anything inexplicable that hadn't been officially sanctioned by a priest.

"You will be burned!" the wide man shouted.

"Okay, can we talk about that?" Clara said apologetically. "I have someplace to be, very soon."

She took the rough hands grabbing hold of her as a no, and was dragged through the village against her will. She didn't struggle overly much though. For one, she really wasn't strong enough to wrestle any of these men to the ground, and for two, she knew that it would be better to seem weak and wait for a good opportunity to be clever. Her and the Doctor always got through rough situations by being clever, not strong.

There was a pole in the middle of the settlement, the earth scorched around it. Apparently, they made common business out of burning young innocent women here. Clara felt disgusted at the thought.

As they closed in on the deathgrounds, more villagers flocked to the scene, even kids. They looked not quite as terrified as the adults, she noticed. Mostly curious. Typical children. She winked at one of them, with a sly smile. The boy blinked, surprised that the witch had taken notice of him, and stepped back to hide behind his mother.

She saw somebody fetching a rope. Alright, this was definitely the time to start being clever.

"So that's it? You think burning me will get rid of me?" she asked loudly, giving the men a disappointed look.

They merely glanced at each other, but proceeded to press her back against the pole.

"Lowly humans. You keep burning us, and you still haven't figured out that the only way to kill a witch forever, is to win against her." She rolled her eyes as if she couldn't believe their stupidity.

When the man with the rope stopped just in front of her, a curious look on his features, she actually couldn't believe his stupidity. "How do you mean, win?"

"Burn her!" a woman in the crowd called out.

"Well, go ahead and burn me first, it's been kind of chilly anyways. Please!"

The wide man from before stepped up to her and grabbed her by the throat. The others holding her stepped back and let go. She cringed under his hard grip, but did her best to keep meeting his stare confidently.

"What do you mean, win?" he said angrily.

"I'm a witch," she croaked. "I can handle flame - and can handle being thrown into a lake," she added, remembering that that might be something they liked to do as well and noticing the edge of the water of a lake not far from where they were standing now. "Obviously. You've been burning a lot of witches here, haven't you? But we just keep coming. It's because you're not properly getting rid of us!"

He dropped her, and she slumped against the pole, coughing, but straighening up as quickly as she could, even crossing her arms.

Some people from the crowd kept shouting for the men to burn her, but the wide one crossed his arms too. "Why would you tell us that? You are just trying to fool us!"

"I don't need to fool you!" Clara laughed. "You are so pathetically stupid, that I know I can tell you the truth and you still won't believe it. It is hilarious, and I am enjoying every second of this."

"Win, how?" the man holding the rope asked again, almost looking like fear overweighed his skepticism, which emboldened her.

"Win any way. In a game of riddles, for example," she claimed, hoping that she would actually be clever enough to beat a bunch of medieval peasants at that.

"You would just fool us!" the wide man said.

"Or a game of hide and seek! If you find me, you win, and I'll disappear forever, my witchcraft broken in pure shame!"

"Win in any way at all?" the man with the rope asked, once more.

"Yes, sure, any way," Clara said, waving dismissively at him. "Tell you what, why don't I count, and you all will go and hide? If I don't find you all within two minutes, you win!"

That should be enough time to sneak back to the TARDIS.

The rope man turned to the wide man. "We should win against her easily in a sword duel."

The crowd started laughing at that, and the wide man displayed an equally wide grin. "We will. What's wrong, witch?" he added, seeing her crestfallen expression. "Did we manage to fool you?"

Not sure what to say or do, Clara found any escape routes cut off by the crowd or the water, and watched as a very tall and strong looking young man stepped into the scorched area with her. He was wielding a sword, which sure looked rusty, but probably was lethal enough to break her witchcraft forever still. He tossed a similar sword over to her. It clanked as it landed at her feet.

The villagers were cheering and screaming the name of the young man, who smiled. He looked very stupid, Clara thought as she slowly picked up her weapon, but you probably didn't need much smarts if you had that much muscle.

… Or did you? A colorful memory of the Doctor drifted into her mind, of him defeating Robin Hood using only a spoon. And a spoonful of smarts. Her grip on the sword tightened, and she swallowed hard. She could do that too.

The fighter waved the sword at her, first teasingly a few times, to the crowd's delight. She kept stepping backwards to avoid it, and didn't mover her own metal stick much. Then he lunged at her more forcefully, and she had to take a leap to the side. He didn't protect himself very well – likely he wouldn't be considered a great swordfighter anywhere else, even if he was the best one in this village. When he missed, he took a step back and flashed her a big, threatening smile.

Resisting the urge to smile back, she tried to look as small and frightened as possible as she continued to back away. As the crowd chanted his name, mixed with 'kill the witch', her appointed executor gathered power again, and lunged. At what she desperately hoped would be the right moment, she turned on the spot. For a split second, their backs were against each other, before she bumped him with her rear, making him completely lose balance and fall face down into the water.

The villagers went very quiet, seemingly struck with surprise as well as fear of how on Earth she had managed to do that, before a couple of kids broke into laughter. Clara winked at the boy again, who couldn't help smiling back this time.

"I'll spare his life, since it's simply too boring to end it. Too much effort!" Clara called out to the wide man, who looked practically furious now.

What she didn't see, was her opponent rising up from the water again, raising his sword with even more fury. The final lunge came-

A loud clanging noise made Clara jump around. In between her and the fighter, stopping his sword with one of their own, was a hooded figure. In one swift movement, the hooded person maneuvered the sword out of the fighter's hand, before they kicked him in the stomach. Back into the water, the large young man went with a splash.

"Who-" Clara started, but a hand grabbed hers and pulled her along before she could say anything more. The crowd parted for them with gasps, and cheers from the children.

They ran, without looking back, and Clara tried to make sense of what was going on. The hand holding hers was strong, and the fingers long. They reached the edge of the village, and didn't stop until they reached the TARDIS.

"Hold on!" Clara said and halted, but the hooded figure pushed the door open and disappeared inside.

Her savior knew about the TARDIS and could enter it. Hope bubbled up inside of her, as the most logical explanation dawned on her. Her face shining up, she darted into the time machine as well, only to see that it was still doing quite of badly. The fire was put out, but bits and pieces had fallen from the balconies and ceiling, and a control panel looked distinctly exploded still. At the central console, with the back against her, stood the hooded figure.

"Doctor!" Clara called out.

He didn't immediately answer, but brought his hand up to his face. She still couldn't see it.

"Doctor, turn around. You came to save me, so you know who I am. And you are the Doctor. No matter what you look like, no matter how old you get, and no matter how many bodies you go through."

She walked towards him, slowly and apprehensively.

"I know you. I know your soul. You don't really change, not completely. And you came back for me, you just saved me twice in a row. I owe you!"

His hand dropped and a heavy sigh could be heard.

"I could never repay what you have done for me, Clara Oswald."

Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of the voice, and her eyes widened as he finally turned around and lowered the hood.

"I wish I would get to keep trying."

It was him. It was still her Doctor. The big, silver curls framed his face, the sincere bright eyes pierced her longingly. The eyebrows, for the first time, had no menacy at all about them. He just looked tired and sad.

She ran the last few steps and threw herself around his neck. Even before she felt his arms embrace her hard in return, she squeezed him as tightly as she possibly could, and felt tears start trickling down her cheeks, wetting his hoodie.

"Doctor… You didn't change!" she said and retreated just enough to be able to see his face, their noses a mere inch apart.

He gave her the warmest of smiles. "I can't leave you."

"Good! 'Cause you're not allowed to." Still clinging to his neck, and being very aware of him not letting her go either, she leaned her head. "But what happened to the quantum shade? I thought my death was locked in?"

"Oh, had it been anybody else, the shade would likely have ignored them and continued straight into you," he said, in an amused tone.

"But not the Time Lord," she said, beaming at him.

"No, luckily I was a bit too dense. Too much other kinds of quantum energy to pass through. I think that killed it, just before I started regenerating!"

Her smile fell at that, but he pulled her closer just so he could check her neck. "Yes, the numbers are gone. You are free!"

"Did you start to regenerate, but stopped half way?" Clara inquired, pushing him back so she could meet his eyes again, caught up on the detail he had mentioned. "Was the energy enough to kill the shade, and then heal you? Like how River healed you with her own energy that time, or when you made a metacrisis because-"

"Clara."

His one word stopped her, and she could tell that he was trying to calm her down, his eyes looking older than ever before. She didn't want to be calmed down.

"No, you tell me what you mean, now."

"I'm regenerating."

"But you're still you!"

His arms fell from her, and she felt as if the coldness of the world could reach her now.

"You're keeping your face."

"Clara."

"Stop Clara-ing me!" she said, taking a step back.

He blinked, slowly, before his hands came up to cup both her cheeks as he spoke very slowly. "But you know me. You know my soul. I don't really change. Not completely."

She bit her lip and fought back new tears. She had said those things when she thought he had already changed, but now that she had seen him again, seen her silver doctor alive and well once more, she had a hard time accepting that he would go after all.

"I can't leave you," he repeated from earlier. "Without saying goodbye."

"But you don't like goodbyes," she sniffed into the palm of one of his hands.

"It's the least I can do for you," he said. "Please… Please be here for me when I... Change."

The desperate undertone of his request made her tears break through her defenses. Her own hands found their way to his chest, trying to find something to hold onto, to grasp and not let go of. They settled over his hearts.

"Don't worry, daft old man," she sobbed. "I'm not going anywhere."

She leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek, just beside his mouth. She meant for it to be a light peck, but she found that she couldn't pull back. He was holding her face close, and shifted his head so he could kiss her cheek too. The softest, slowest peck in history. Her heart broke.

They moved so their foreheads touched, and she saw his eyes facing hers one last time, before they closed and squinted. His skin glimmered, and he let go of her head at last.

Refusing to let him leave or enter this world alone, Clara hurriedly reached around his waist and held on tightly. She felt his body tense and twitch, and then relax. A second or two passed, when she didn't even dare to breathe… But then, gentle arms carefully wrapped themselves around her body, and a chin came to rest on her head. She heard him draw a breath, and then sigh. Contentedly?

He was alright. He had changed, but he was alright, and he was here in the TARDIS with her. They were both alive and well, finally. She didn't care what he looked like. She never would again.

"Doctor?" she said quietly.

"Clara," came the soft reply.

His one word made her happier than she had been in a long, long time.