Time Child: Undone

by DanniFielding

Sequel to Time Child: Metamorphosis. The Doctor didn't die. The Time Lords gave him another set of regeneration and Danni didn't lose her husband. However his first words to her aren't the best start - could he really have fallen out of love with her whilst regenerating? And what about Missy, who she left behind on Gallifrey? 12/OC

59. Dark Water

Danni's head felt sluggish. She couldn't quite place the reason why, but it took a moment to realise that her eyes were closed. And the floor was warm. And the air was warm. In fact, everything just felt rather… warm.

Her eyes shot open as she gasped, suddenly very aware that she shouldn't have been on the floor at all. Wherever she was, there was smoke, and little bits of rocks flying through the area. If she hadn't known any better, Danni could have sworn she was at a volcano.

She quickly looked to her left where she could see the TARDIS, just in time for her husband to wake up with his own gasp of surprise. As they both did, in any situation, his eyes searched the area until they landed on her.

"Danielle!" he called and she nodded. There was something missing. There was someone missing.

Clara had asked for a volcano, hadn't she? She'd left so many missed calls but not a single message. Danni had assumed that they were late. She'd not berated them, though. She'd just come onto the TARDIS and asked to see a volcano. She'd been very energetic, walking all around the console room while the two Time Lords has tried not to seem too concerned as the subject suddenly changed to sleep patches.

Danni had introduced her to them when she'd been living with them. The Doctor had left them for her for when her nightmares got particularly bad. Luckily she never had to use them, but Clara had been fascinated with them then. She said she was having trouble sleeping. Something really was wrong.

Then they'd woken up outside.

Clara slowly emerged from the smoke, expressionless, her hand out in front of her. Something was seriously wrong and Danni sat up straighter, concerned. "Clara?" she asked slowly just in case it wasn't Clara.

"They're on your necks," she told them, her voice monotone. Both of them reached up. Danni could feel the plastic-like film underneath her fingertips.

"You drugged us?" Danni asked, surprised. She slowly got to her feet as her husband did the same. Why hadn't she said anything in the TARDIS? Whatever was wrong with Clara, it was big, and Danni felt awful about not addressing it sooner.

She didn't acknowledge Danni's words. Instead she kept her gaze fixed solely on the Doctor. He was the one who could help her. Danni couldn't fly the TARDIS. The Doctor could.

"You told me once what it would take to destroy a TARDIS key," she said. "That's what's so good about lava."

Danni shook her head, her hearts racing as she reached around her neck, looking for the chain where her TARDIS key had always hung. It was missing. Clara had taken it from her.

"All eight," Clara declared. "From all of your hiding places." She raised picked one up, holding it out so they could see it. So they knew she meant business. Because she did. She was just so angry. They were happy together, parading around in their TARDIS when they should have been with her the moment she had first rang. They should have stopped it from happening. They should have been there to save him.

The Doctor and Danni shared a look. "Clara, what are you doing?" Danni asked her gently. "Why don't you just tell us..."

Before she could finish her sentence Clara had thrown the key over her shoulder and into the lava behind her. Both Time Lords felt it like a blow to the chest as part of their lives, their home, was destroyed in front of their eyes.

"Do I have your attention?" Clara asked.

"Yes, sweetie," Danni whispered.

"Good."

The Doctor shook his head. "No. Not good, Clara."

There was a long pause, where both the Doctor and Danni were too afraid to move from where they stood, even if it meant they could be closer together. Whatever was wrong with Clara, whatever was making her so angry with both of them, was very delicate and both of them were painfully aware of what would happen if all eight keys went into the lava. Danni didn't want to lose her home. She couldn't work out what would make Clara so determined on being in control.

"Danny Pink," she said purposefully and the Doctor nodded.

"Yeah?" he asked leadingly.

"Is dead," Clara finished and Danni gasped in horror. Suddenly Clara's energy, her anger, the lack of any emotion on her face as she held the keys to their home, their everything, in her hand made so much more sense. She wasn't showing them she was in control. She was trying to prove it to herself.

"Oh, oh, sweetie," she breathed, taking a step towards her, to comfort her. Instead Clara grabbed another key in warning, holding it up and Danni froze on the spot. "I'm so sorry, Clara," she told her best friend sincerely.

These were not the words that Clara wanted to hear. Platitudes meant nothing. She knew what they meant; that nothing was going to change. That she wasn't getting any help.

"And?" the Doctor asked, sounding less than impressed with the news and Clara's gaze snapped back to him.

"Seriously?" she countered.

He motioned with his hand, spinning it to get her to carry on. "And?" he said, with a different emphasis.

"And fix it," she replied simply. "Change it. Change what happened. Save him. Bring him back."

The Doctor took a look at his wife. She looked so torn, because she knew the consequences of if they agreed to Clara's demand. He wanted to. He could see the pain she was in, and he could remember the feeling of his wife being dead to him. It clawed at his chest and he would have never wished that on anyone. But there was nothing they could do. The damage, especially since Clara brought the TARDIS's safety into the equation, was just too irreversible.

He shook his head. "No."

Clara chucked the key over her shoulder without a second thought. She didn't flinch as it landed in the lava, disappearing without a trace. Behind them, the TARDIS let out a ring of her cloister bells. She was in pain.

"Clara, please," Danni begged her. "I know you're hurting. But this isn't the way to fix it."

She held up her hand, showing them both the keys. "Six left," she explained. "Every time you say no to me, I will throw another key down there. Do we understand each other?"

"Well, we understand you," the Doctor compromised. "Let's not get carried away."

"Time can be rewritten," Clara pointed out firmly. They weren't listening. They weren't doing as they were told and she wasn't going to stand for it. All that she had done for them, every time she had put herself in danger, put her life at risk and they weren't going to help her?

Well, she could make them.

"With precision," the Doctor told her firmly. "With great care. And not today. But you know that of course, otherwise you wouldn't be threatening us."

She picked up another key, holding it aloft in challenge. "Did you just say no?"

"If we go back and save Danny, then he will live and you won't come here to ask us to," Danni explained as gently as she could. "Then he will die, and then we will save him, and he will live but only until the timeline collapses around us and everyone dies. If we could save him, sweetie, we would. But the universe won't sustain a paradox that big."

"Is that a no?" Clara challenged again and Danni nodded slowly.

"Yes," she agreed softly. "And I'm so sorry, Clara. I wish that..."

Clara chucked the key into lava and Danni shot forward, closing the little gap between her and her friend a little bit more. "Clara, please," she begged. "Please don't do this. We can't save him. I wish we could, please don't take our home from us. It's hurting her. Please."

The Doctor hated seeing his wife so upset, especially when it could have easily been avoided by him just telling her the truth. None of this was real. They both were under the influence of a dream patch, not the sleep patch that Clara had wanted to find, but he'd turned it on her. He was letting it play out exactly how Clara had planned to see what was wrong. He wanted to help, and that meant that Danielle's reactions had to be authentic. She wasn't the greatest of liars, after all.

"So that's a yes," the Doctor finished for her.

"Yes?" Clara repeated, wanting him to clarify that he was finally agreeing to her terms. Still, she picked up another key just to show him what lying to her would do.

"Yes, that is a no," he replied before motioning to the lava. "Throw away the key."

Danni moved forward, whimpering in fright, but she couldn't see what he was doing. He kept so much from her, and it just made Clara all the more mad.

"I have seen you change time, I have seen you break any rule you want. I have seen you threaten people's timelines because of your wife," she snapped.

"That is because I am selfish, and cruel, and you're none of those things Clara," he explained. "Throw away the key."

She shook her head. He couldn't see what a hypocrite he was, could he? The universe could disintegrate because of his wife, but not because of Danny? Who was equally as important, who deserved more than he got.

"I know what you're doing. You're trying to take control," she rambled out. Her hand was shaking slightly.

The Doctor shook his head. "I am in control," he corrected. More than she knew. "Throw away the key. Do as you are told."

"No!" she shouted.

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, either you do as you're told or stop threatening me," he explained. "There really isn't a third option here."

"Theta, please," Danni begged from between them, moving even closer to their friend. He was being so cruel, even as he tried to help her. "Stop it. She's hurting, can't you see that?!"

Clara tilted her head to look at Danni. His darling Danielle. The woman who he would die for a million times over. The one he proclaimed to love so much, and yet she knew he'd hurt her. She knew that he was the reason that she was even standing there in the first place. He may not have told her, but she had dreams at night, dreams of him trying to scare of. Of him causing her to regenerate.

She took in a breath through her nose. There was only one person the Doctor would do anything for. "Do you know what, Doctor?" she asked. "When it comes to taking control, you really are out of your depth."

Keeping the key in one hand, she turned and chucked the rest into the lava. He was so predictable, his gaze shooting the keys that caused the TARDIS to cry out in pain again.

The one thing she wasn't, though, was predictable. In that split second of shifted attention, her hand shot out and closed the small gap between her and Danni. The blonde, who had also been distracted, gasped in surprised as she was yanked forward and to the edge of the lava pit.

She struggled as the Doctor's gaze moved back to Clara, his eyes wide in absolute surprise. He hadn't expected her to bring Danielle into it, and although he knew it was all fake, his hearts raced at the sight of her at the edge of the lava.

"Clara!" Danni cried, hearts racing and breaths coming out in little pants. Adrenaline rushed through her and she tried to push back against the woman's surprising strength. Instead, Clara pushed her backwards and one of her feet slipped off the ledge. Danni quickly grabbed onto her arm with both hands, trying to get her footing. "Clara, what are you doing?" she whimpered, terrified. She could feel the heat burning the back of her legs, she could feel just how precarious her position was. All it would take was one little push and she'd fall into the pit below.

She glanced down into the pulsating pool, then immediately regretted it and looked back up at Clara. Her eyes were wide, her hand was shaking, and she could see the tears pooling. She was so desperate to bring Danny Pink back, wasn't she?

"You save my Danny, or I swear to God you will never have yours," she promised the Doctor, keeping his eyes solely on him. Something inside was screaming at her for what she was doing, but her own determination and heartbreak were drowning it out.

The Doctor, on the other hand, was fighting with his own set of emotions. The fury that anyone, especially their closest friend, was threatening his wife was stronger than it should have been considering he knew they were all in a dream state and nothing could actually happen to them. The betrayal from the action was almost overwhelming, and there would definitely have to be some talking when this was over, some things that he would need to ensure before he could forgive Clara – but he would. He knew he would, because he knew Danni would. But ultimately, he knew that Clara had lost because he knew with both of his hearts that she would never harm a hair on his Danielle's head. She just loved the blonde way too much for that.

His shoulders sagged. "Clara," he said softly. "You won't let her go. I know you won't, and so do you."

In reply, Clara turned to look at Danni, who's big brown eyes were shining behind her slightly steamed up glasses. "Are you scared, Danni?" she asked calmly.

Danni quickly nodded. "Yes, I'm scared," she replied. "Please, Clara, I'm sorry!"

The Doctor blinked, a coldness running through him as the echo of a scene he'd replayed so many times in his head played out before him. Of Danni struggling to stay in the TARDIS. Of the moment he killed her.

He had been wrong. Clara hadn't just picked up his love for his wife when she'd jumped into his timeline. The rest of his thoughts and emotions hadn't slowly faded away into a tendency of being reckless. That was his anger in her eyes, his threats on her lips. She might actually push her over.

"Doctor," Clara started. "One last chance. I know you don't care about the rules, or the paradoxes when it comes to her. Save Danny Pink, or you will never have Danielle again."

He shook his head, stepping forward, hands out. "Alright, Clara, I know you're upset," he started as calmly as he could. "I know you think you are in control, but this isn't control. Just let her get out of the way, and we can talk, okay?"

Clara knew what he was doing. He was just trying to placate her. He thought that he was calming her down, but all she saw was him saying 'no' yet again. He'd say anything to save his wife, but apparently her love, her happiness, her Danny, wasn't worth saving.

He took another step closer and her arm shot out, tumbling Danni off the edge.

One

Danni's screams echoed in the air as Clara met his gaze. His was full of panic, hers was calm and firm.

Two

The screaming stopped.

Three

She slowly turned around as the Doctor ran to the edge, screaming out for his wife.

Four

Her hands moved to cup her mouth, her knees gave way. She fell to the ground with a heavy, painful thud.

Five.

"No!" she screamed, all her breath leaving her as she saw nothing but lava down below. Her pain at the loss of Danny Pink was completely shattered by the absolute horror of her own actions. The Doctor had been right. She hadn't been in control. She had been absolutely and completely out of her depth, and now Danni was dead. Burnt alive. Gone. She'd killed her. She'd killed her best friend.

"No!" she screamed again, tears rushing down her face, her hands shaking. This wasn't her. She can't have done this. She wasn't a killer. She wasn't…

She reached out, as if somehow Danni could grab her hand and she pull her to safety. At that moment she would have given anything at all just to bring her back. Her whole life was crumbling around her, and she was the one who'd given it that final push.

Instead of Danni, though, the Doctor grabbed her hand and forced her to turn around. Her breath caught at the look on his face, the one that made the anger at her death in the Bank of Karabraxos pale in comparison. His eyes burnt, his teeth were bared and she shook in pure fear at what he was going to do. She truly believed that he was going to chuck her in after Danni, and while part of her wanted her to fight for survival, instead she hoped he would. It was more than she deserved.

Instead, he ripped something from the palm of her hand. Just before the world faded away, she realised the patch had been there all along.

~0~0~0~

Danni was screaming where the world went black, and she was still screaming when the world came back into focus and she was stood in the console room. It cut off in her throat, choking her slightly as confusion hit her. She… wasn't she dead? This wasn't death. Was it?

She tilted her head to the side and saw Clara stood next to her. Immediately she jumped away, terrified that something else was going to happen to her. The hurt, the betrayal made her chest tight and she could feel the tears in her eyes. Clara had shoved her out into the lava. She'd tried to kill her.

She groped at her neck where, in some sort of delayed reaction, she realised that Clara had been pressing against her. She pulled off the film patch and stared at her hand. These were those dream state patches she and the Doctor had used for… well, for things she wasn't really supposed to discuss with Clara.

Looking back up at her husband and her friend she saw that he was holding her hand, pressing the patch into her palm. He had known. Cheeky bastard. He could have bloody warned her!

If it was all a dream, though, then Clara didn't actually try and kill her. But she'd wanted to. But had she really? Dream states meant that you were highly suggestible, easily manipulated and your inhibitions went down the drain.

Clara suddenly blinked, coming back to consciousness at the same time as the Doctor. Her relaxed expression disappeared into pure anguish, whereas the Doctor's pulled into a snarl. He quickly, forcefully, angrily, shoved Clara to the floor.

"Clara!" Danni exclaimed, surprised at his reaction considering he knew what had been going on, unlike the two women. She quickly knelt by her, taking her face in her hands. "Clara, look at me!" she commanded as Clara sobbed.

"D-Danni?" she whimpered, shaking and in a full blown panic. Danni nodded.

"It wasn't real," she promised. "It's okay, you're-"

The Doctor reached forward, grabbing Clara by the top of her arm and yanked her back off the floor before the brunette could even register what was happening.

"Get away from my wife," he snarled, shoving her away and towards the door. "And get out of my TARDIS!"

"Doctor!" Danni admonished. "She's upset!"

He turned, looking absolutely bewildered at her. "She tried to kill you!" he reminded.

"I know," Danni retorted. "And she's upset. We don't chuck our friends off the TARDIS..."

"She is not our friend," he swore, jabbing a finger towards Clara.

"When they are upset," Danni finished over him. She started walking over towards Clara, who was staring, and still shaking and crying. The Doctor, though, put his arm out and stopped her moving any further.

"You're not going near her," he told her.

"She's still Clara," Danni snapped back. "I know you're not happy right now."

"Not happy?!" he exclaimed. "She's supposed to be our friend! She was supposed to help protect you. Her doing… doing that," he spat, unable to even vocalise what he'd just witnessed. "Makes her a danger."

"It makes her just like us," Danni countered. "How many people have we threatened, or hurt, or killed for each other? You can't act like we have the moral high ground here."

She tried to step forward but he kept a tight grip on her arm. "You are not going near her," he told her.

She took a deep breath. She was being flooded by a whole mix of emotions, they all were. What had happened had been terrifying, and he would have been right had it hadn't been a dream. But she couldn't just believe that Clara would do that under normal circumstances. Clara, like the Doctor, would never harm her on purpose.

"Let go of my arm, Theta," she said lowly, in warning. He stared her down, trying to intimidate her into complying, but he should have known better. Her stare was as defiant as always and he reluctantly let her go.

Why couldn't she see what was happening? Clara had broken both their trusts. She had done the unthinkable, and what hurt so much more was the fact the Doctor hadn't seen it coming. When she had chosen the recently deceased Danny Pink over everything else, including his wife, he had been surprised. But it hadn't changed much, not really. Danny Pink was never with them, he wasn't ever going to travel with them, so Danni was always still going to be her number one priority. He didn't bring his friends along to solely look after his wife, but it gave him peace of mind to know that should she need it, they would save her.

All the Doctor had seen in the dream sequence was her determination, and her grief, and her anger. All he had seen was his previous body, Eleven, staring back at him through big, brown eyes. Eleven, whose impulsive actions had been mimicked in front of his eyes by his best friend. The betrayal was deep and frightening. And even though he could see the guilt and regret he had also felt reflected on her face, he would never forgive her. He never forgave himself, after all.

He watched his wife approach her with the kind smile on her face he had seen so many times before, and he instantly saw that she had. The way she had forgiven him. Clara didn't deserve that kindness.

"Hey sweetie," she started gently. "I know you're confused, I'm going to explain, okay?" Clara just stared back, unable to catch her breath. "Those patches induce a dream state. Nothing actually happened. We never left the TARDIS. You never chucked the keys away and you never… well, none of it happened okay?"

"It didn't happen?" Clara whimpered. She couldn't grasp what was right in front of her face. Danni was alive, she was safe. Clara had tried to kill her, and she would have succeeded if it had been real. She was a monster. Her knees gave way slightly and Danni helped her gain her balance.

"No, it didn't," she promised. "I'm not going to say I'm not hurt, but you haven't done anything. Look," she motioned to the floor. "See? It's the keys."

Clara followed her gesture and saw the TARDIS keys scattered on the ground. She wasn't being lied to. It had all been a dream. But she had still done it. They all remembered it. She looked up into the forgiving face of her best friend and started sobbing once again.

"I'm sorry," she cried. "I'm so sorry. I just wanted Danny back, and… and I don't want to hurt you again!"

"I know," Danni shushed gently, bringing her in for a hug that she didn't deserve. "Grief makes us all do terrible things. And dreams give us that permission. You wouldn't have done it had you been awake."

Clara wanted to tell her how wrong she was. She had felt her own anger and the way the control had been slipping. She really wasn't sure that, under different circumstances, that she wouldn't have done the same thing again. Even now, with her horror and her self-hatred at the surface, all she wanted was to bring back Danny Pink. If he hadn't have died then none of this would have happened.

Danny had been wrong. The Doctor and Danni didn't bring out the worst in her. She did that all herself.

"I-I-"

"He shouldn't have died," Danni interrupted her before she could say her piece. She chose to see the best in the people she loved, even if they constantly argued against her. "Would you like to tell me what happened? You don't have to. It can wait."

Clara's mind immediately shot back to the moment it had happened. How happy she had been. How unsuspecting. "We were on the phone," she whispered. "We were talking about your wedding. I was-I was saying that if we were going to get married, we should-" her breath caught again. "We should get you to take us somewhere." She raised her eyes and met Danni's pity-filled, sympathetic, shining eyes and it hurt all the more because it meant that it all really was happening. "Then he went quiet and I teased him, saying I'd scared him. Then there was this woman on the phone. He'd been his by a car. He didn't even make it until the ambulance came..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry sweetie," Danni sobbed, hugging her tightly. "If there was anything I could do, sweetie, I would."

"I know," Clara replied softly. And she did. She'd gone to such extreme lengths. She'd had a plan firmly in her head and she should never have followed through with it. If anything could have been done, then Danni would have done it for her.

"This is ridiculous!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly. He'd stood back and watched as his wife had comforted Clara. She'd done the unthinkable and forgiven her and he couldn't understand it. He knew how highly Danni held the people that she loved, but this went beyond anything he had thought her kind hearts capable of.

"Theta," Danni started and he shook his head.

"No, you can't defend her," he snapped. "You can't pretend what she tried to do didn't happen. She tried to kill you!"

His blood boiled again and he tore his wife from Clara's arms, putting his hand on Clara's shoulder as he walked her forcefully backwards towards the front door.

"I have done a lot worse for a lot less, Miss Oswald," he snarled. "I hope you appreciate that all I am doing is chucking you out."

"I know, Doctor, please. You know I won't hurt her, not again," Clara begged but when she caught his gaze she knew nothing she could say would change what was about to happen. There was barely anything in his gaze she could recognise. His eyes were almost dark, and there was nothing but anger in them. No hurt. No betrayal. She truly wasn't his friend anymore.

Just before her back his the door, the whole room shuddered. His grip didn't relax but he turned to look at his wife, who was stood by the console, her arm stretched out to her side as she stared back at him. There was a lever by her side that was flipped the opposite way to what it should have been.

"I don't know what I did," she told him, chin raised as she dared him to argue with her. "But I know the TARDIS knows me well enough to put herself into flight."

"Danielle..." he started lowly, in warning.

"No. Don't 'Danielle' me," she replied just as firmly. "She is our friend..."

"She is not our friend," he reiterated.

"She is my friend," Danni corrected. "I won't have you treat her that way for something that happened in a dream. Do you understand me?"

He let go of Clara, who was too stunned by Danni's absolute forgiveness of her to react in time and stumbled on the spot. He took a couple of steps forward, pointing behind him.

"Her intentions were clear before she put the patches on us," he pointed out. "She took all of the keys, she asked for the volcano. She was always going to threaten us."

"Because she's in pain," Danni countered. "Because she lost the person she loves. We both can appreciate that, can't we?"

"We never threaten the people we care about. We never put the people we love in harms way because we're grieving!" Which was a lie. A big, fat, bold lie because Clara had done to her exactly what he had done when the Ponds had died.

"No, we just blow people up," she retorted. "I sent a man to his death over London because he dared to hurt you. If we really love them, then we cannot hold their actions above our own!"

"She didn't just hurt you! She didn't just," he waved his hands out to his sides, "try and make you feel scared. She purposefully pushed you into the lava."

"In a dream!" Danni exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter!" he shouted back.

"Yes, it does!" she shouted back. "Let me tell you something about dreams, Mr Time Lord," she stormed forward. "I dream about a man with blonde hair and brown eyes. He's not there a lot but he is always there and he is always trying to take something from me I never want to give."

The Doctor knew who she was talking about. Even Clara, who had only heard second hand information, knew who she was talking about. She never thought she would ever hear Danni talk about him, or what happened to her.

"He has nothing to do with anything," the Doctor snarled. All the mention of the Master did was make him angrier. He was just another person who had tried to hurt her. Another way he had failed to protect her.

"Yes, he does," she replied. "Because most of the time I run from him, but some times I don't. Sometimes I go looking for him. Hell, sometimes I even fucking enjoy it."

The Doctor straightened slightly at the confession. She wasn't surprised. She had never told him about the more twisted of her dreams, but she knew she needed her largest ammo if he was going to understand where she was coming from.

"I'm sorry?" he asked quietly and she shook her head.

"If I ever saw him again in real life, he would never touch me again," she swore through gritted teeth. "I would turn and I would run and you know that I wouldn't allow him to, let alone go looking for him. But dreams distort things. They make you do and want things that, in the morning, make you-" she swallowed, "make me feel disgusting, and dirty, and violated. But in the dream, in that moment of twisted reality, I do want it. Clara's mind would have known that she was dreaming."

The Doctor scoffed harshly. "She only did it because she knew I was safe," Danni finished.

"No," the Doctor replied firmly. It wasn't as if he couldn't understand his Danielle's reasoning. But he knew better. He knew Clara, because he knew himself, and even if she had been completely conscious and aware, the showdown would have gone exactly the same. He couldn't trust her anymore. He would never forgive her.

Danni sighed. "I am going to help her through this," she promised. "With or without you by my side."

There was silence as the Doctor and Danni stared each other down, and Clara couldn't help but think that even if she hadn't actually killed Danni, that she'd torn a hole in their relationship. She never wanted to pit them against each other. She never wanted them to have to choose between their marriage and her.

"D-Danni-" she started meekly, stepping forward.

"Fine," the Doctor snapped, surprising them both. Once again he grabbed her arm, but this time he dragged Clara over to the console.

"What are you doing?" Danni asked him.

"Helping," he retorted, depositing Clara in front of the psychic interface. "You wanted to help her, then we will. But after that she leaves."

Those were his terms. He didn't want to help Clara. In fact, what he wanted to do to Clara right now was incredibly violent and something even in his rage he wasn't very proud of. He couldn't even look at her. But, if he had to choose between his wife leaving and helping her, then he was going to help her. He'd prove to Danielle there was nothing they could do so he could get her as far away from Clara as was possible.

Danni quickly nodded. She could work on the rest later. The fact that he wasn't chucking her out and flying them away was enough to show that there was still hope for Clara. They could both still forgive her.

"That's fine," she promised. "Thank you."

Clara still wasn't sure what was happening. She just stood where she was, still shaking, still crying as she looked between the two. The Doctor's anger was justified. Danni's forgiveness wasn't.

"How-How can you forgive me?" she asked Danni, who shrugged.

"I haven't," she admitted and Clara whimpered. "But I will. I know I will. You are angry, Clara, and hurt and while your actions weren't great, they were the very worst of you. I've seen the very worst of a lot of people. Your worst doesn't even come close."

Clara shot her a small smile. She was so utterly grateful that Danni had such a big heart. Her reaction would not have been as kind.

She turned to the console, looking down at the squidgy material that made up the interface. "What do I do?" she asked quietly.

"Stick your hands in it," the Doctor snapped back like it was obvious. He continued to turn off all the safeguards to make this work. "Think about Danny Pink. Think about all the hurt you're feeling. About the man you lost."

Danni smiled softly, walking to his side and dipping her head down so she could catch his gaze. "Thank you," she reiterated again quietly.

His eyes met hers and he could see how grateful she was, he could feel it. He didn't let her feel him back, though. She couldn't know just how much, at that moment, he hated the woman who had once been his friend. Especially considering that within Danielle's grateful, hopeful, beautiful shining eyes, he could see the fact that Clara had genuinely hurt her to.

"Don't bleat," he continued, his voice short and sharp. "Don't ask, why him? Why me? Forget all that. Ask one question. Just one. Ask, where is Danny Pink now? Where is he now?"

Clara closed her eyes, forcing herself to think on Danny Pink. On her grief, on her pain, then she squashed it away and moved onto her entitlement. She deserved to know what happened. She deserved her happy ending. She deserved to find Danny Pink, and she would. She would find him again.

Her eyes shot open as the time rotor started, the familiar sound of the engines piercing through the silence that had fallen between the three. The ride was bumpy and while Clara could barely keep herself upright, even in his anger the Doctor couldn't let his wife fall. In fact, because of what had happened, he found himself holder her tighter. He had known that it was all fake, but for one terrifying moment he had thought he had lost her completely.

"She really doesn't like where we're going!" Danni exclaimed, grabbing onto the console with both hands.

"That's not what she doesn't like," the Doctor retorted. He shot a look at Clara, who knew that it was her. The TARDIS had never really liked her and now that she'd tried to hurt Danni she supposed it was just going to get a lot worse.

The TARDIS landed hard, and they all rocked to a standstill. No one moved, though.

"Where are we?" Clara asked.

"No idea," the Doctor retorted. "I have to turn the Nav-com and a bunch of safeguards to be able to go on this ridiculous adventure."

"And that's where we're going to find Danny?" Danni asked.

"No. According to the TARDIS, this is where it's most likely that her timeline will re-intersect with his," he explained. "He won't be out there. He's dead."

Danni tried not to roll her eyes at him. She knew that him even trying to help was probably more than she should be expecting at this point. To point out his rude behaviour would just get them a one way ticket back to Clara's flat.

"Alright," she declared, striding purposefully towards the door. "Let's do this."

She didn't want Clara to step out first just in case they were greeted by something horrific. She was trying to alleviate Clara's pain, after all, not add to it. She paused at the door, though, to take her own deep breath. She still couldn't believe that Danny Pink was dead. He was so young. It wasn't right.

Life was never right. She pushed the door open and stepped outside into the dark that was waiting.

Clara started to follow, but the Doctor grabbed her arm before she could. He pulled her close. "Whatever happens now, this is it," he told her. "We will drop you off at your apartment, and your ordinary life, and you won't ring Danielle, or look for her. If she calls for you, you're not going to answer. Our association ends today."

She blinked in surprise, her heart aching all the more even though she understood completely. She definitely didn't trust herself around Danni now. She watched the Doctor pick up two torches from one of the many storage spaces underneath the console and it almost hit her in the face as he chucked it to her.

Danni smiled up at him as he stepped out with light. She wasn't sure where they were, but the room felt big and airy. There was marble everywhere that shone in the light coming from what appeared to be massive fish tanks that were on the mezzanine floor above.

"It's rather pretty," she whispered. "But look." She nodded upwards at the fish tanks. "Something's being stored up there."

"Fish?" Clara asked and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"In a mausoleum?" he countered harshly. "Do think before you speak."

Danni sighed as he shone his torch around, checking all the dark corners. She remembered what it was like to be on the brunt end of his hurtful words. This was no different to when Ten had been horrible to her right after he regenerated. He'd get over himself. He always did.

"Theta," she scolded lightly. "Be nice."

His torch landed on a small stone spike with the words 'Rest in Peace, we promise' in gold written on it with what was presumably a logo above. "Well, that's not ominous," she murmured.

They shared a look that said he very much agreed with her sentiments, then they all turned to look the opposite way. The TARDIS had parked herself at the foot of some stairs, where another statue was stood at the top. It also had the wonderfully ominous wording on it, and an urn on the top.

"What does that mean?" Clara asked the pair, shining her light across the wording.

"It means those are definitely not fish tanks," the Doctor retorted. The staircase split off into two and the Doctor took the right one two steps at a time. Danni gave Clara's arm a reassuring squeeze before motioning her up after him. She then turned and looked out over the vast open space underneath them. Why did it feel like they were walking into their own deaths rather than finding Danny Pink from his?

"Danielle," the Doctor hissed and she jolted, following them both up the stairs. He was waiting for her, a look of impatience on his face. "What did I tell you about wandering off?"

"I was only looking," she replied with a bit of a moan.

"No wandering off," he reiterated. "Not after what could have happened in the forest..."

"I know, I know," Danni grumbled, walking past with the distinct feeling of being told off by a grown up. Ever since London had been taken over by the trees he'd been rather insistent that she stay by his side. She wasn't sure why, after all she had survived that no problem. Sometimes he would insist she was capable on her own, other times it was like he didn't trust her at all.

Although, with what Clara had just done, she can't say she blamed him. Had Clara pulled the same stunt with him she wouldn't want him out of her sight either. She also wouldn't be as cruel about it, but she had to take her wins when she got them.

On the next floor was an entire row of the water tanks reaching to another crossing of hallways. Clara shone her torch into one, highlighting the skeleton that they could all see sat in the water on a chair, almost like it was a throne.

"That's horrific," Danni whispered at the sight. "I mean... why, though?"

The Doctor also couldn't quite believe his eyes. He'd seen the dead treated in many ways over the years. Most cultures had some form of ritual around the deceased. However, in Clara's time and on Earth, this was definitely not one of them.

"I don't know," he replied lowly, which was the answer she was expecting. He started walking forward, looking in the rest of the water tanks to see if they all contained the same thing.

"Okay, I'm assuming they didn't actually drown in there?" Clara asked, looking into the next one. The Doctor had pressed himself up against the glass, trying to see something that maybe would give them a clue to what was going on.

Danni shook her head. "We're in a mausoleum," she reminded her gently. "These are tombs. People put their loved one in there so they could… what, exactly? Make sure they were properly dead?"

"People put their loved ones in there?" Clara retorted. "With chairs?"

Danni shrugged as the Doctor moved onto the next tomb. "Money dies comfy," she retorted. "Look at the pyramids. This is nothing compared to that."

Clara had to agree and the pair stayed close as they followed the Doctor. Clara shone her torch at one of the plaques underneath one of the chairs. 'Xylo Jones'. This was actually someone. He had a name. He was a real person.

"Oh god," she breathed, suddenly horrified at the thought of what she might come across. She turned to Danni. "Am I going to find Danny now? Is that why the TARDIS brought us here? I don't want to see him like that."

Danni quickly shook her head, pulling her in for a hug that really annoyed the Doctor. "Of course not," she reassured her. "We'll make sure you don't."

The Doctor grabbed hold of his wife, pulling her away roughly. "Good point," he said, much to their surprise. "Tombs with windows. Who wants to watch their loved ones rot?" He spat it out with no consideration of Clara, whose loved one could have been in one of the tombs. "Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to keep watch on the dead?"

He didn't drag Danielle along, he didn't want to force her to go anywhere, but he stalked off and down the hallway. As much as he hated to admit it, this really was a rather large and intriguing setup. Something felt incredibly wrong about the entire thing. And he really wanted to work out what.

Danielle and Clara continued to check into each tomb, but his attention was pulled to a lectern that sat across from the tombs. He walked over and saw a single leather book on the top, that he opened onto two seemingly blank pages. He recognised the technology instantly, though, and swiped his fingers across a barely visible square outline to bring up the projection cube. With a flick of his wrist it flew into the open space in the hallway and changed into the logo they had seen on the floor below with the characters '3W' in the middle.

The flash of light caught Danni and Clara's eyes and they both joined the Doctor as a soft, female voice started speaking.

"3W. Death is not an end." The projection changed along with her words, scrolling along with the speech. "But we can we help with that. Ever since 3W encountered the truth about the death experience, 'we have been working hard to find a better life for the deceased. At 3W, afterlife means aftercare."

The projection turned back into the logo once again. "Okay. Bit strange?" Clara asked.

"Very," the Doctor replied lowly, his brows furrowed. "Why have the scrolling and a voice?"

"For people who can't read?" Danni offered.

"Is it difficult?" he asked in reply. Danni frowned, looking up at her husband who looked like he was finally working something out.

"Is what difficult?" she asked.

"Reading all those words back to front," he clarified and it became clear he was talking someone who they couldn't see. The silhouette of a person became clear behind the projection. "Come on. We've come a long way."

There was a moment as the person seemed to decide whether to step out of the shadows, then a woman burst through the projection. She was wearing a rather old-fashioned outfit, a very flowery hat perched on top of her head and an enamel broach clasped at her collar. She was wide eyed, looking between the three before she seemed to settle on Danni, who was stood in the middle.

She stared, a disconcerting smirk on her face, as she forced Danni to look straight into her eyes. "Hello," she said in an almost breathy voice. "I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?"

Danni started slightly. "Umm… Well, I wasn't looking to die just yet," she stuttered out with the comment hitting a bit too close to home. "We're just… um, we're..."

"Browsing!" Clara finished for her and Danni could of kissed her for pulling the strange woman's attention from her. However, she didn't, because that's not what happened. The woman just continued to stare and Danni really wasn't comfortable with how her attention was firmly placed on her. It made her feel nervous, unsafe.

"Please, take all the time you need," the woman replied in the same soft tone. "At 3W, you always have the rest of your life."

"Oh good," the Doctor said. "That's good to know, Danielle, isn't it?"

Danni nodded. "Very good," she agreed. "Absolutely terrific."

"Exactly what is 3W?" the Doctor asked, again hoping to pull her attention off his wife. This time it worked. The woman turned to him, her expression not changing although she didn't seem pleased at the question.

"Apologies," she said to him. "Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package."

"Well, you know, it's just an unexpected..." the Doctor started.

The woman lunged at Danni, putting both hands on her shoulders and backing her up into the wall next to a tomb. Her lips quickly descended onto hers as the woman kissed her firmly, keeping her trapped between the cool marble and her warm body. Danni let out a little gasp in surprise, which she took full advantage of, kissing the stunned Time Lord deeply.

It took a moment for what was happening in front of him to compute, then the Doctor was pulling out his screwdriver, ready to use it to threaten the woman who was assaulting his wife.

However, that was when she decided to stop kissing Danielle, backing away and back to the other side of the hallway.

"Welcome to the 3W Institute," she declared happily, unaware of the rather intimate line she had crossed.

The Doctor walked over to Danni, who was still against the wall, eyes wide. "Are you okay?" he asked, cupping her face to make her look at him.

"Is..." she started, looking up at him. "Did that really just happen?" she asked him.

The woman turned to Clara. "You also have not received the official welcome package," she declared. Before she could take a step closer, Clara dipped out of the way.

"Oh, I'm good, thanks. We're good. No worries." Satisfied, the woman rocked back onto her heels as if waiting for more instruction.

The Doctor kept himself in front of Danni, acting as a barrier between her and the strange woman. No one kissed his wife and was kept in his good books. "Who are you?" he asked lowly, almost threateningly.

"I am Missy," the woman replied.

"Missy?" Clara asked.

Missy turned her head to look at Clara. "Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface," she explained. "I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you," she turned to look at the Doctor, "to help me," she turned her head again to look at Danni, "to help you."

Danni couldn't help but shift under the intense gaze. She wasn't sure what it was – it went beyond the unexpected tongue in her mouth – but she really didn't trust the droid at all. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I think you just helped yourself quite perfectly," she grumbled.

"I am fully programmed with social interaction norms appropriate to a range of visitors," Missy told them. "Please indicate if you'd like me to adjust my intimacy setting."

"Oh god, yes," Danni quickly replied.

"I need to speak to whoever is in charge," the Doctor told the droid before it decided to do anything else to his wife. Why couldn't people just keep their hands off her?

"I am in charge," Missy replied, her hands clasped in front of her.

"Well, who's in charge of you?"

She straightened, almost insulted by the question. "I'm in charge of me."

This was getting him nowhere. Why could no one ever answer a question straight?

"Well, who repairs you? Who, who maintains you?"

"I am programmed for self-repair," Missy explained. "I am maintained by my heart." She moved forward and, afraid of another passionate attack, Danni dove backwards. However, this time she didn't go for Danni, but instead grabbed the Doctor's hand and placed it on her chest where her heart would be.

He felt the thumping of four, like both he and Danielle had beating in their chests. That can't have been a coincidence, could it? Someone had built her to emulate that beat of four. Whatever heart was beating in her chest, that beat had been put there for a reason.

"Is everything in order?" Missy asked him.

"Who maintains your heart?" he replied lowly.

"My heart is maintained by the Doctor," Missy said, blinking innocently as all three of them stared at her in surprise.

Danni stepped tentatively closer. "Doctor?" she repeated, suspicious of anyone who seemingly brought up her husband who they clearly didn't know. "Doctor Who?"

Missy turned to look at her with that creepy stare, her grin still on her face. Then it relaxed as she turned to look down the hallway.

"Dr Chang!" she shouted, her voice lower, and much less refined than it had been. It wasn't the voice programmed for speaking with the public. It felt very much like the change between someone's normal voice and their 'telephone' voice.

"Who's there?" a voice called from down the hallway as Missy walked away from the Doctor and to the other side, giving them space.

Clara and Danni just stared at the unassuming man in a suit that appeared, while the Doctor kept staring at his hand. Something was very wrong. He just couldn't work it out. Her heart, it can't have been just one heart, could it?

"Hello?" Dr Chang greeted them, startling the two women out of their stupor.

"Hello," Clara replied as Danni nodded her head.

"Hi."

"Hello," the Doctor also greeted, but his voice was slower, as if it was an automatic response. Danni reached over and shook him slightly.

"Doctor, your hand," she reminded and he jumped slightly, lowering it and coming out of his thoughts. The man who had appeared didn't appear to be able to answer all of his questions, after all he didn't seem to have much presence so couldn't possibly be behind whatever was going on in the strange place. However, he could probably help work out who was behind it.

"So," Dr Chang clapped his hand together, his voice awfully cheerful for his next words. "Hey. Condolences."

"Condolences?" Clara asked.

"It's a mausoleum," he offered as an explanation. "It's our hello." He looked between Clara and the Doctor. "Is there a particular dead person you want to talk to?"

Clara's eyes widened, her heart skipping a beat. Maybe Danny really was here. Maybe this was actually something the Doctor and Danni were giving her. "Yes. Yes, there is."

Dr Chang nodded his head, waving the way. "This way then."

The Doctor watched the man walk off, his mind going so fast he couldn't quite keep a hold of any thoughts. Talk to dead people? He knew that many people had tried to talk to the dead, and they had failed. It wasn't possible. It always tended to be something more, something sinister. He'd seen ghosts that were Cybermen, vampires that were fish, and even a witch in a well who was just a woman stuck in a pocket universe. Nothing ever turned out to be the dead.

"Danielle," he called over his shoulder as he stalked after the man.

Clara quickly followed, pulling her jacket tighter around her, her only thoughts on Danny Pink.

~0~0~0~

The Doctor kept his eye on Clara as he looked around the office they'd been led to. He knew his Danielle well, and she would be paying attention to every little detail around them. She trusted him to keep track of the information that was given to them as and when it came. He could do that.

The room was huge and made of the same marble the rest of the building seemed to be made out of. Very ornate, and incredibly unnecessary. The man's desk was even by the double doors they entered through, so the large area seemed to be purely for the single tomb that was sat proudly in the middle.

"I'm going to need to take a reading off you," Dr Chang told Clara, who was his main focus considering she was the one who had lost their loved one.

"A reading?" Clara asked, also drawn to the tank.

"Won't hurt," Dr Chang promised her before flicking a switch on one of the columns in the room. A small scanner appeared from a sculpture that was sat on the desk, but she didn't notice it as she stared at the tomb. She really hoped Danny wasn't in one of those things. She would hate for him to be on display. She couldn't see it happening, especially by choice, but what if he was?

"What won't?" she asked offhandedly.

"How does the body keep its integrity?" the Doctor asked Dr Chang before he could reply to Clara's question. "Why isn't it just a bunch of bones floating about?"

"Each body is encased in a support exoskeleton," Dr Chang explained, his hands in his pockets as he walked over. This was what he really liked to talk about. His work. He was a good seller.

"An invisible exoskeleton?" Clara asked, joining the pair at the tomb.

"It's only invisible in the water," he said. "There's a specially engineered refraction index in the fluid so we can see the tank resident unimpeded by the support mechanisms."

"So each skeleton is inside something?" the Doctor asked, turning back to tank to give it a tap on the glass. Nothing moved. He wasn't sure why he thought anything would.

Dr Chang demonstrated the 'dark water' that filled each and every tank by putting his arm into a large glass beaker of it. His watch and his sleeve disappeared, which showed that it did work the way it should have.

And the man did have a point. Danielle in a pool made of the stuff would have been a delight. As long as he was the only one who was there, obviously.

He took a glance at Clara and was pleased to see that his wife was nowhere near her. The rage burnt in his veins again and he had to force it down just in case he blew their entire rouse and chucked her out of the room. It still made him so angry that they were helping her. She didn't deserve their help. She didn't deserve Danni's kindness, not after her actions. She'd betrayed them both, and it hurt on so many levels.

"3W, what kind of name is that?" Clara asked Dr Chang when she noticed the glare the Doctor was sending her way. She didn't have time to worry about it, though. She needed to find out why she and Danny Pink were linked in this peculiar place. At least Danni's presence was keeping him quiet. "What does it mean?"

"Well, you know, don't you?" Dr Chang replied as he dried his arm off. "You're here on business or they wouldn't have let you in." No one replied. Clara, in fact, stared back with wide eyes at being caught out. Had she been in the right state of mind she probably would have covered for herself and them better. However, her head was all over the place and so she froze.

Dr Chang seemed to realise something was very wrong and looked between them. He seemed to have realised that maybe they shouldn't have been in there. "Sorry. Should have checked. Who are you?"

Luckily, the Doctor was much more prepared for this question than Clara was. Once again proving that perhaps her presence wasn't as needed as he once thought. "I thought that you would never ask," he snapped at the man, pulling out his psychic paper. He handed it to him as he walked around the dark water. "They're a disgrace."

Dr Chang frowned at the paper. "Another government inspection? So soon? Why is there all this swearing?"

The Doctor snatched it back. "Oh, my friend tried to kill my wife," he explained. "It's aimed at her." He headed over to a very executive-looking seating area where he immediately spotted a leather folder with the logo on. He opened it. "What does 3W stand for?"

"Well, the three words," Chang replied as if they should know better. The Doctor placed the folder back down on the table. It was all just sales nonsense, nothing that actually explained what was going on.

"What three words?" Clara asked for them.

"Seriously?" Chang replied, his brows furrowing. "You don't know?"

"Never mind what we know and what we don't know," the Doctor snapped. "Just answer our question."

"Because people who don't know, when they hear about this, they can freak out," Chang explained.

"We're not going to 'freak out'," the Doctor retorted but Chang wasn't paying attention to him. His sight was on Clara, and he looked slightly concerned.

"If-If you've had a recent loss, this might be," he paused as he seemed to think better of his words, "this will be disturbing."

"She'll be fine," the Doctor told him. "And even if she's not, it doesn't matter, she's proven she can handle herself." Clara looked down and he felt both happy and guilty that he'd made her feel ashamed. "What are the three words?"

Dr Chang didn't look convinced, but he knew that he had to follow through with the inspection. "You know how people are scared of dying? Like, everybody," he started, moving over to his desk and the switch he'd used to scan Clara with. It turned the see-through monitor that was sat on his desk around to face them.

"Of course. It's the most fundamental fear in the universe," the Doctor replied, annoyed that he was taking so long to explain something he was sure was going to be both simple and ludicrous.

"They'd be a lot more scared if they knew what it was really like," he replied, sitting down behind his desk. Clara took one seat and the Doctor took another on the other side to stop Danielle sitting next to her. The screen seemed to break out in static.

"White noise off the telly," Chang explained, although that was perfectly obvious to both of them. "We've all heard it. A few years ago, Doctor Skarosa, our founder, did something unexpected. He played that noise through a translation matrix of his own devising. This is a recording of what he heard." He reached to his side, pressing a button on the stand of the monitor. The sound changed, and in between the white static noise was the sound of people talking.

"Okay, people, voices," Clara stated. She couldn't understand any of them, but maybe they meant something.

"So what?" the Doctor asked. If she wasn't trying to be considerate for Clara's sake, Danielle would have pointed out that 'a translation matrix of his own devising' was no better than just making it up on the spot. Unfortunately, she was too polite to say it out loud.

"Over time, Doctor Skarosa became convinced these were the voices of the recently departed. He believed it was a telepathic communication from the dead," Chang explained solemnly.

"Why?" the Doctor asked him. "Was he an idiot?"

Clara didn't even bother to shoot him a look. She knew better than to believe it herself, but if she could just speak to Danny, just for a moment?

"He was able to isolate some of the voices, hear what they were saying," Chang continued, obviously used to being confronted by sceptics.

"So, an idiot then?" the Doctor asked again, although he already knew the answer.

"What I'm about to play you will change your life and not for the better," Chang told them both. "These are the three words which caused Doctor Skarosa to set up institutes, like this one, all over the world, to protect the dead. If you'd rather not hear these words, there's still time..."

The Doctor was becoming more and more frustrated, and he was sure it was nothing to do with Clara or the babble that was coming out of the man's mouth. Although, as he couldn't place it, that was where his frustration was funnelled to. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can you just hurry up, please, or I'll hit you with my shoe."

Chang took a moment to ready himself. Even now he hated the sound of the three words because what they represented was something he couldn't bare thinking about. A future for himself, and everyone else, that seemed absolutely awful.

He reached to the monitor and turned the translation matrix on.

"Don't cremate me. Don't cremate me!"

Clara straightened, the words washing over her like a cold shower. She looked sharply at the man behind the desk, who had his hands clasped in front of him, an apologetically guilty look on his face.

"There is one simple, horrible possibility that has never occurred to anyone throughout human history," he declared and Clara shook her head.

"Don't say it," she told him because it wasn't something that could possibly be correct.

"The dead remain conscious. The dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them."

She felt her grief skyrocket as her mind shot back yet again to Danny. Who had died tragically, and was now, possibly, trapped inside his body screaming to get out. Or, even worse, screaming at them not to burn it. Because it would hurt him. Cremating him, which was something Clara was sure his family were planning even if she hadn't been paying too much attention because of the pain she was in. She felt the panic rise in her chest. She needed to find Danny. She needed to save him from whatever was happening to him. He deserved so much better.

The Doctor was also feeling a sharp rise in panic, but he still couldn't place where it was coming from. It definitely wasn't the ridiculous notion that the dead were talking to people out of their television sets, though. However, he knew it wasn't helping. He shot out of his chair, pointing at the screen.

"Turn that off," he exclaimed angrily and Chang did as he was told.

It was just another thing to add to his ball of emotions. He was angry at Clara, at the universe, and at himself for being there in the first place. He was worried about Danielle, who would definitely take this to her hearts. It made a mockery of all of the people that they had lost.

"Fakery," he snarled. "All of it. It's a con, it's a racket!" He stormed off from the computer, which instead of playing the voice on a loop, now started beeping at regular intervals.

Chang got off his chair along with Clara, who started to follow him as he walked away. "I promise you this is not a con."

Clara turned, her attention drawn to the noise that now filled the room. "What's that beeping?" she asked and the Doctor shot her a look.

"Never mind about beeping. Who cares about beeping?" he said. "The dead are dead. They're not talking to you out of your television sets. They're just gone. And all these poor souls down there in these tanks, I'm sorry, but they're just dead and they're not coming back. And yes," he pointed at Clara. "That means your boyfriend as well. I'm sorry, but nothing is going to bring him back."

Chang moved over to his desk while Clara turned to the Doctor, her patience snapping. "I know you're not happy with me," she snapped. "I'm not particularly thrills, but you need to stop this."

"Stop what, exactly?" the Doctor retorted. "You tried to kill my wife!"

"It was a dream," she pointed out. "I didn't do anything you've not done before!"

The Doctor took a sharp breath in, nostrils flaring but Clara didn't back down. She felt guilty enough. She didn't need him making her feel worse. She'd agreed to her leaving, and she didn't feel like she was safe to be around. She had hoped that he might become more forgiving the more he was confronted with something he could sink his teeth into.

"Clara? Clara? Clara, are you there?"

The sound of Danny Pink's voice pulled them both out of the impending fight that had been brewing between them. Clara ran over to the computer and Dr Chang, who was fiddling with the metal device on his desk.

"Danny! I can hear you. Is that you?" she called to him, looking at the screen. There was no image. "Oh, please, say it's you."

"That's her, that's Clara!" Danny exclaimed on the other side. His voice crackled, and he seemed far away, like they were talking on a terrible phone line. She couldn't believe how relieved she was to hear his voice again.

The screen flickered, then the words 'Not Connected' appeared. Clara backed away slightly, as if being close had broken whatever the computer had been doing. That had been him, hadn't it?

"Just lost the signal," Dr Chang said with a little grunt of annoyance. He continued to fiddle with the device again. "But I can track it back, I'm pretty sure."

Clara turned to him. "I don't, I don't understand. What is happening?" she demanded.

"We've been scanning you telepathically since you came in," Chang explained. "You said you wanted to speak to someone who'd passed, and we've found you a match in the Nethersphere."

The Doctor shook his head. Something sinister was going on here. "This isn't possible. The dead don't come back."

Clara turned to look at him. "It was him. It was his voice," she insisted.

"If they scanned you telepathically, they could've lifted a voice print. It could still be a fake," he pointed out. Danielle should have been saying this to her. She was being very quiet. But, then again, she had also lost a friend. Well, he wasn't sure if she really counted him as a friend. She tended to count everyone as a friend unless she thought they had wronged him or herself. Except Clara, who was still being counted as a friend…

"Clara, can you hear me?"

She turned back to the screen, which again showed his voice. She leant on the table in front of the monitor as Chang continued his fix to make the line more stable.

"Yes, Danny, I can hear you. Can you hear me?" she asked him back.

"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you." He sighed. "Clara! Oh, God. Clara."

Clara immediately turned to the Doctor. She could feel herself panicking yet again. She wanted to, more than anything, believe that it was Danny on the other side. But if the Doctor was doubting it then she knew she had to listen, no matter how angry he was at her.

"What do I do?" she asked him as calmly as she could.

"Who are you talking to?"

"Hang on just a moment," she called back.

"Question him. Ask him questions only he'd know the answer to. Be sure," he instructed. He pointed at Dr Chang. "You, with me."

Chang followed him over to the doors. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"I've got to check out those tanks," he replied. "There's something that I'm missing. Danielle, make sure she stays on track. You know how her emotions can get to her."

The Doctor disappeared through the doors, too busy thinking about what he wasn't seeing to notice. Clara was too busy frantically trying to find a way to prove it was Danny Pink to notice. But Danielle didn't reply.

~0~0~0~

The Doctor needed to check the TARDIS. He still wasn't sure why, but that was where his mind was leading him. Perhaps he could get a proper deep scan of the so-called 'dark water'. Or maybe he could track where the broadcast of 'Danny Pink' was coming from.

Any thought he had, though, was wiped away as the doors opened into the correct hallway and every single tank was bubbling, the skeletons stood to attention instead of being sat down.

"Oh, my God," Dr Chang breathed, horrified. "The tanks The tanks are activating! They're not supposed to do that."

The Doctor shook his head as he rushed down the hallway to see if every tank was behaving the same way. "And all your dead people are standing. Don't you think you skipped the headline?"

"Now, now, children." Missy, the welcome droid who had assaulted his wife, appeared from another hallway. "Naughty, naughty." She raised a square device that fit in her hand up, pointing it at the Doctor then and Dr Chang, who seemed rather bewildered.

"Dr Chang, your welcome droid has developed a fault," the Doctor pointed out as he walked over to the pair.

"That's not a droid. That's my boss," he replied and the Doctor's brows furrowed as he turned back to the woman.

She looked a little sheepish at being caught out. "You know, I might have been guilty of a just teensy little fibette," she told him before grinning.

He shook his head slightly. That made no sense. Unless it made perfect sense, because if he was doing something rather evil then he would hide himself until he was sure his plan was going to work. Still, he raised his hand, finger in the air. "You-You kissed my wife!"

She nodded slowly, like she was really listening to what he had to say. "Yes, I did," she agreed. She obviously took pleasure from it. His eyes widened slightly as she turned to the other man, arm raised. Did she know who they were? Did she know who Danielle was?

"Dr Chang," Missy addressed before lowering the device. "I really liked working with you. I've enjoyed every day of it."

"I'm sorry?" Chang asked, confused.

"You know, I've even got a little photograph of you looking so sweet," she continued like he hadn't spoken. "I'm always going to keep it." She looked at the Doctor so he knew she was being sincere. "Always!"

"Are you going to kill me?" Dr Chang asked lowly, frightened.

"Now." Missy placed both hands on her hips like she was a mother scolding a child. "Come on. Let's not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation," her voice turned pained, "and I'm the one who's going to have to live with that."

As the Doctor watched Missy taunt the office worker, he realised just how much he had missed and still just how much he really didn't understand. It had been such a bad idea to leave Danielle with Clara. But then again, had it? Perhaps it was the best place for her considering the woman obviously took glee in kissing her.

He wasn't surprised, though, when she raised her device and vaporised Dr Chang on the spot, although he was deeply horrified because she pretended like it actually upset her. There were only a few people he'd ever met in his entire life that acted like that, and all of them were to be feared. He slowly backed away from her, determined to get away and back to his wife.

She pointed at him, catching the movement. "Now, I'll be with you in a moment," she warned him as she raised her hand to her forehead. "Just feeling a bit emotional at the moment."

The Doctor continued to back away, ready to run when something caught his eye. The water in all of the tanks seemed to be draining away, revealing the exoskeleton underneath. Silver, with a handle on top…

His eyes widened as the situation became exponentially worse. "Cybermen!" he cried as the full head appeared. He turned, running down the hallway to check each and every tank. And, in each and every one, a Cyberman stood proudly, waiting to be let out.

He rushed back over to Missy, who was the only person at that moment who could help him. "They're Cybermen, all of them," he exclaimed. "We've got to stop them getting out."

"Now who's missing the headline?" she replied before pointing to her right, up at the ceiling. "The Nethersphere," she told him and he rushed over to look up at the ceiling. "You know it's ever so funny, the people that live inside that think they've gone to heaven."

He couldn't believe his eyes. The large, black globe spun lazily on the ceiling, red lights dotted all over between the cooling grates. His whole body went cold. "That's a matrix data-slice. A Gallifreyan hard drive. Time Lord technology." He turned to look at her with an accusing glare, but she continued to look up at the ceiling.

"Imagine you could upload dying minds to that. Edit them. Rearrange them. Get rid of all those boring emotions. Ready to be re-downloaded. Meanwhile, you upgrade the bodies." She turned, smiling at him. "Upload the mind, upgrade the body. Cybermen from cyberspace. Now, why has no-one ever thought of that before?"

"How did you get hold of Time Lord technology?" he asked. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am," she replied. "I told you. You felt it." She gasped, holding her hand to her chest. "Surely you did."

He realised that what he'd dismissed as droid technology had been the exact same thing he'd thought it was emulating. "Two hearts," he breathed as she rounded on him. He backed away and they walked in a circle. "You're a Time Lord."

"Time Lady, please, I'm old-fashioned."

"Which Time Lady?" he demanded as he continued to back away towards the exit.

"Oh, I think you know," Missy replied. "The one that got left behind, Doctor," she continued. "Didn't you ever think I'd find my way back?"

It couldn't be…

He turned, rushing for the elevator, hammering on the button to bring it down. "Danni!" he shouted. "Danni. I've got to get to Danni!"

"Danni, Danni, Danni," Missy mocked. "You know I should shoot you in a jealous rage. But, I guess, it doesn't actually matter now, does it? It's not your problem anymore." She motioned to the elevator. "I've turned the lift off, though."

His hearts were racing, his hands shaking as he reached into his pocket. "I presume you have stairs."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm not a Dalek," she murmured. He quickly unlocked the door to the stairs, rushing out but he didn't find the stairs. Instead, he found the inside of a Cathedral. He ran through until he broke out the other side and into a space that he recognised instantly.

He froze, stunned yet again by everything he had missed. He couldn't check the Nav-Com because he'd turned it off, but if he'd just taken the time to turn it back on instead of being so angry then this wouldn't have been a surprise to him. St Peter's Cathedral, London.

Missy followed at a much more leisurely pace. "Oh, dear, Doctor. Didn't you realise where you were?" she asked.

Danielle was with Clara. And, after the stunt she'd just pulled, Clara would do anything to keep her alive. She'd protect her long enough to get them back to the TARDIS. Clara had proved just how determined she was. As much as he loathed to do it, he'd have to entrust his wife in her hands.

He ran out of the Cathedral and down the many stairs towards all the innocent people who were stood around, just going about their daily lives. If he could get them all out of the way then at least they would be safe.

"Get away from here! All of you, run!" he shouted as he heard the marching footsteps of the Cybermen behind him. "Go! Go! Get away from here! Run away! Run, run! Get away from here all of you, now!" People were turning to look at him and the Cybermen, but no one was moving! Didn't they understand what was going on?!

"I'm sorry, everyone," Missy called, somehow having found a seat at the bottom of the stairs without him noticing. "Another ranting Scotsman in the street. I had no idea there was a match on."

"Get away, go!" he tried again, but people were just ignoring him. Instead, the Cybermen exited St Paul's Cathedral and made their way down the steps, towards the people who just stood and stared up at the metallic men in surprise and horror.

The Doctor froze in front of Missy, the droid who wasn't a droid, and couldn't quite believe just how stupid he had been. The signs were everywhere. Each little bit of information he had been given, from the 'dark water' to the storing of the bodies, had screamed Cybermen and he just hadn't seen it. It was so stupid, in fact, that he was surprised that Danielle hadn't pointed it out to him.

And the vast number of them. All of the bodies across the Earth, all preserved and waiting to attack. How was he supposed to stop an invasion that was already starting?!

"Stop making a fuss," she told him. "It's too late. All the graves of planet Earth are about to give birth." She took hold of his arms, turning him slowly so he could see the advancing soldiers. "You know the key strategic weakness of the human race? The dead outnumber the living."

Even in her calm tone he could hear her happiness, and his lips turned into a snarl. "Who are you?"

"Oh, you know who I am," she replied softly. "I'm Missy."

"Who's Missy?"

She let out an exasperated noise. "Please, try to keep up. Short for Mistress," she explained like he was a small child. She slowly spun him around, a smile on her lips. "Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, now could I?"

His eyes widened, his hearts stopped. The person in front of him, the 'Time Lady' as she had called herself, was the one person he had hoped he'd never have to face again. The one person he knew could cause so much harm to not just himself, but to his wife, just by standing there.

Although, a part of his brain reasoned, who else would team up with Cybermen to take over the Earth's dead, it was going to be the Master. Mistress. Missy.

He shook his head, unable to think, unable to process anything but the flashes of shared memories from his wife. Of a man hovering over her, of her sobbing on a bed. Terrible, dark memories that shaped the person she became. His hands clenched by his side, a hatred he'd never felt before burnt through him.

And Missy sighed. She sighed like she couldn't quite believe how stupid he was being. "Now, now, do calm down," she told him. "You're going to give yourself quite a turn, dear."

"Calm down?" he bit back lowly. "Do you have any idea what I'm going to do to you? You hurt my wife…"

Missy's hand went into the air. "Nothing."

"I'm sorry?" he replied, baffled by her response.

"You're going to do nothing to me," she clarified. "All these years, everything we have been through together, and you still always miss the bigger picture."

"The bigger…" he stuttered before waving behind them at the Cybermen. "This is the bigger picture! You've taken the dead and… and militarised them!"

"Honestly, how do you get anything done?" Missy replied. "Of course this isn't the bigger picture. This is never the bigger picture. There's something in this universe that is bigger than all the Cybermen that have ever been. Bigger than any Dalek, bigger than any big bad monster you think you can defeat."

His anger had caused his patience to well and truly snap with her. "What?" he snapped. "Go on, tell me. What's bigger than everything?"

And Missy smirked, the corner of her mouth tilting one way while her head tilted the other. "Where is she?"

"Where is who?"

Missy chuckled slightly. "Your wife. Danielle. Where is she?"

He frowned, brows furrowing. "She's with Clara," he replied instantly, but Missy's smirk didn't fade.

"Is she?"

And the terror, the anger, everything that boiled up the moment Missy had revealed herself to be the one person he truly hated all vanished at those two little words. Such a tiny question that held such horror.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out that stupid mobile phone that Danielle had insisted that he carried and he dialled her. It rang, and it rang, but no one answered. Each second dragged on for an eternity, and when he heard the first hint of her voice mail message, he hung up and called the woman who used to be his friend.

~0~0~0~

Clara Oswald, who was currently staring down her own Cyberman in a clear glass box, reached into her pocket and answered the phone without taking her eyes off what was probably going to be her death.

"Clara, is Danielle with you?" the Doctor barked at her.

"Doctor, it's-it's Cybermen. There's Cyberman right here," she hissed down the phone.

"Clara, is Danni with you?!" he demanded and his tone made her pause. He wasn't angry, he was scared, and she shook her head slowly.

"No, she's with you," Clara replied. "Isn't she?"

"Where is she?" she heard the Doctor demand, his voice further away as if he'd let his hand drop from his ear. "Where is my wife?"

"Oh, don't worry about her," the voice of the Missy bot replied. "I told you; she's not your problem anymore. She's mine."

~0~0~0~

Sooo... did you see it?