Clara woke up from a grey, silver table. She felt for her body parts, all were intact, all were functional. And best of all, there was no pain. Clara sighed in relief. She looked for her gran, but she wasn't there.
The only person she could see was a scientist on the other side of the glass, who was on a computer with her back towards her.
"Excuse me. Have you seen my gran?" Clara called out. There was no response.
"Hello? Am I invisible or something?" Clara frowned. Still no response.
"Hey!" She tapped her shoulder, but her hand went straight through the scientist's body. She jumped.
"Oh my stars." She covered her mouth in shock. She saw a body covered in a white sheet on the bed she was sleeping on. She crouched down to see a toe tag hanging over the toe.
"Clara Oswald. Born 23/11/86. Died 25/04/15 4:23:34 am." She looked at the clock in the room. "4:31 am" It read. She backed away to a corner and brought her knees close to her body. "I've been dead for 8 minutes." She whispered.
"How am I dead?" She breathed shallowly. Her tears fell. "I am dead." She wept. Grieving for her own death. She was so sad yet confused. Why was she grieving for her own death in the first place? Perhaps she was grieving that everyone except her was alive.
"Right, Clara Oswald's body is here." She looked up. The door creaked open and a young man and a familiar old man entered.
"Doctor!" She yelled and tried to hug him. Her body went straight through his and she landed on the ground. She turned around, gazing at him in despair.
"Right. Can you give me a moment?"
"Yeah sure thing. Tell me before you leave, sir." The young man said and exited the room.
"Hello Clara." The Doctor softly cooed. He pulled the sheet down to see her face.
"Hello Doctor." She answered. She knew he couldn't hear her, but it made her feel better.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I had… no idea." He said, choking in tears.
"It's okay Doctor, it wasn't your fault." She said, looking at the ground.
"And I know I should be leaving you to rest, but I apologise for what I'm going to do. There's something I must do." He unlocked the wheels of the table with her body and started wheeling it out.
"Wait, what the hell are you doing?!" She screamed. "Hey! You can't just take my body!" She screamed. "It's mine, Doctor! Leave it there!"
The Doctor wheeled it into the TARDIS, into a freezing room. He opened a coffin-like capsule with a sonic screwdriver. He gently placed her inside, plucked a hair out, took the toe tag and closed the door. The capsule filled up with some sort of oily liquid. Clara shivered. She could feel the cold, sticky liquid submerging her body.
"Now, for my next trick." He placed a strand of Clara's hair inside a machine. In a matter of seconds, another body appeared that looked exactly like her.
"If only this could bring you back to life as well." He said in sorrow. He placed the dummy body on the table, placed a toe tag on the dummy and wheeled it back to where she was.
"Hey, I did not agree to you stealing my body!" Clara yelled from the top of her lungs. "You are insufferable! Even to someone who's dead!" She sighed. He probably had a very good reason why he took her body, but that still didn't excuse him.
Clara lost the Doctor from her sight after the body-switching incident. With boredom, she wandered around the hospital. There were people who were sad, angry, happy, excited. All these emotions she once could share with others. Now she was so alone. So very alone.
She sat on an empty seat in a corridor. Across her, she saw a little girl who was losing the battle with cancer. The sound of a flat line devastated the parents. The little girl, who was now watching her parents and her dead body, exited the room in sadness. She sat next to her.
"Hello." Clara said. The little girl jumped.
"You can see me?" She asked in shock.
"Yeah." She gave her a bitter smile. "I died today as well. So I guess we both share death days. I wonder if dead people celebrate those."
The little girl laughed. "You're terrible. I shouldn't laugh at that, but I can't help it. All my life I was preparing to die, but once you're dead… it feels so… different." She offered a hand. "My name is Vicki. What's yours?"
"Clara. Nice to meet you."
"So… How did you die?" She asked.
"I don't really know. It just happened so fast. The last moments when I was alive, I quickly said good bye to my gran." She answered.
"Oh. I said good bye to my parents every time I was in the hospital. I've had bone cancer since I was four."
"I'm sorry for your death." Clara said, after a pause. She was too young. Vicki gave a small smile.
"I'm sorry for yours too." She eyed on her parents leaving the room. "Well, I better follow my parents home. Hopefully see you later. Pleasure talking to you." She waved, and Clara waved back.
Clara wanted to go home as well. She walked down the stairs, out of the hospital and back home. She laid on the bed and slept (did ghosts sleep?) till the next morning. When she woke up, she looked through all her framed photos. The memories of the past. She couldn't have any of that anymore.
"Clara." She jumped and dropped a picture frame. It was the Doctor.
The Doctor trudged up to the picture frame and placed it on the right place.
"Can you see me?" She asked.
"I wish you could come back. I need you to come back." He was crying. He obviously couldn't. "Whoever killed you, I am going to find them. I'm going to make sure that they pay." He clenched the fist in anger.
"What do you mean who killed me? No one killed me, I just died… that's all."
"They decided to have your funeral at the school. I couldn't bear myself to go." He wiped his tears. "Talking to a flat. That's a new low for me."
Clara hovered her hands over his face. She wished she could wipe the tears off him. He never showed any emotion to her. It broke her heart seeing the Doctor in such a mess.
Coal Hill High School
Clara sat through the whole ceremony. Everyone was so sad. Clara was so touched that everyone had appreciated her for what she did. She listened to every eulogy, every story, everything they wanted to say about her. She appreciated all the people for what they've done to her funeral. When her coffin was moved to the hearse, she sat next to it, trying to peek inside. It wasn't even her body, but no one here would tell the difference anyway. She wondered what was actually happening to her body. It felt weird to feel the sticky, cold liquid on her, even though she was just a ghost. Every now and then, there was a slight tap on her arms, or legs, but mostly, she was just freezing cold.
Her coffin was lowered to the grave, and everyone had left. From afar, she saw a familiar face holding a… water can?
"I'm going to get you back, no matter it takes." The Doctor said. "I'm not losing anyone else."
"Doctor, just let me go. My death is destroying you. You have to keep soldiering on, for me." She said, her hand on his cheeks.
He sprayed the green liquid all over her dirt covered grave, and did the same for her mother's grave.
"What is that?" Clara questioned. She was getting used to being ignored now. This was her new life. Instead of a participant, she was now a spectator of the world.
"Miss Oswald, on my word, I will bring your daughter back to the world. I'll figure out a way." He talked to Ellie's grave.
He sadly trudged back to his TARDIS with the empty watering can.
Clara stayed in front of the grave, and saw a little bud sprouting from her grave.
oOoOoOoOoOoooOoOoOo
Doctor's POV
"I need you to be precise and detailed. What happened to her, and how did she die?"
"It was a mystery, but every organ in her body started to die. We tried putting her on life support, but that made the reaction even quicker. Every step to intervene, made her condition worse. At the end, her heart gave out and we lost her."
"Were there any traces of illnesses or drugs?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, no." Doctor Lanzou answered. "Except her respiratory system. It was laced with a very thin layer of some kind of radioactive material."
"What?" The Doctor said, confused.
"Well, it might be nothing, but that was the only thing abnormal we've found. It happens to people who had lots of x rays or chemotherapies. It's very common among patients, but the records showed that she hasn't had an x-ray since she was seven, which makes the radiation even more unexplainable.
"Right, thank you, doctor. That's all I needed from you." He looked at his watch. '8 minutes.' He said to himself. He ran to the morgue and showed the scientist his psychic paper.
"Hi, I'm here to see the body of Clara Oswald."
The young man checked his credentials and led her to Clara.
"Right, Clara Oswald's body is here." His heart almost dropped. Seeing the white sheet that covered a form of body… a body of someone who he dearly loved.
As he walked in, he felt goose bumps forming on his skin. He felt a surge of sadness.
"Right. Can you give me a moment?"
"Yeah sure thing. Tell me before you leave, sir." The young man said and exited the room.
"Hello Clara." The Doctor softly cooed. He pulled the sheet down to see her face. Seeing her pale face, and her closed eyes, made him tear up. That was his best friend lying there dead.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I had… no idea." He said, choking in tears. He knew he could just do what he needed to do, but felt a responsibility of telling the body as a form of politeness.
"And I know I should be leaving you to rest, but I apologise for what I'm going to do. There's something I must do." He unlocked the wheels of the table with her body and started wheeling it out. The Doctor wheeled it into the TARDIS, into a freezer room. He opened a coffin-like capsule he had designed with a sonic screwdriver. He gently placed her inside, plucked a hair out, took the toe tag and closed the door. The capsule filled up with some sort of oily liquid.
"Now, for my next trick." He placed a strand of Clara's hair inside a machine. In a matter of seconds, another body appeared that looked exactly like her. A clone version of the body. His tiny hope disappeared when a lifeless body formed inside the machine. Of course, if you clone a dead person, the clone copy would be dead too.
"If only this could bring you back to life as well." He said in sorrow. He placed the dummy body on the table, placed a toe tag on the dummy and wheeled it back to where she was.
He walked back to his TARDIS and set things in motion. He couldn't bare going back to the freezer room to see her dead body preserved in the capsule.
'Destination: UNIT base.' The screen said.
When opened the TARDIS doors, he was greeted with soldiers with guns aimed at him.
"Sorry, Doctor. I told them to stand down, but they were ever so excited." Kate said and gave him a big hug. "You say you don't like hugs, but you don't get a vote on that." She broke away from the hug. "So… what brings you here?" Kate's smiles were quickly changed to a frown.
"You have to help me." He said softly.
"Soldiers, dismissed." Kate quickly said. The Doctor was grateful for that. Kate was so good at reading people, just like her dad always was.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" She approached him slowly. The Doctor was breaking down in tears. This was never the case for this regeneration cycle. If he was breaking down, it meant something was very wrong.
"Clara." He choked the words out.
"Oh my lord." She covered her mouth. "What happened?"
He took her to the freezing room and showed her the body of Clara inside the capsule. She looked like she was asleep. He wished she was asleep. He wheeled the coffin-like capsule out to the UNIT base.
"Inside this capsule, her cells die in a slower rate, almost locking her in that state permanently. She was declared dead for about 10 minutes before I placed her inside, so whatever is wrong with her, the evidence will still be present. I couldn't… bear to do it… myself. I see her, and all I see is my wrongdoings. No autopsy will be needed as it will provide you with the accurate representation of her insides using a hologram shell." He paused. "You have to find what killed her." He whispered in sadness. "Please." He begged.
"Doctor, we will do whatever we can to help you. I'll get my best men and women on this. You have my word." She promised.
"Thank you." He left the base and dematerialised the TARDIS.
There was a message left on the answering machine. "Doctor, it's me, Clara's gran. Just letting you know that Clara's funeral is going to be held today at Coal Hill high school. If you don't want to come, that's absolutely fine." They were moving so fast. How could they just let go?
He parked the TARDIS outside Clara's flat. He breathed out before opening the doors to her flat. It was clean and organised, just as he saw it the last time.
"Clara." He talked to the flat, just as if he was talking to her. A photo frame fell on the ground. It was a picture of her with him. 'Must have been the wind.' He thought.
The Doctor trudged up to the picture frame and placed it on the right place. He continued.
"I wish you could come back. I need you to come back." He didn't realise he was crying. But realised that he was after touching his wet cheeks. "Whoever killed you, I am going to find them. I'm going to make sure that they pay." He clenched the fist in anger. He denied believing that she died from a natural death. No. It definitely wasn't a natural death. He was sure of it.
"They decided to have your funeral at the school. I couldn't bear myself to go." He wiped his tears. "Talking to a flat. That's a new low for me."
He felt a message arriving in his psychic paper.
"Doctor, I need to speak to you. –Kate"
As soon as he arrived, Kate handed him a sheet of paper with data.
"Did she get attacked while she was travelling with you?" Kate asked.
He read the results. "But that's impossible!" He said.
"The hospitals wouldn't have been able to pick it up. But I believe this is poison. Poison of alien origins." Kate sighed.
"It's a substance called Polovox. This substance doesn't come into contact with the human race until the 87th century. This can't be here." He frowned.
"I'm looking at you, Doctor. There's a high chance that you might have taken her to a place somewhere with… Polovox poison or whatever it was."
"No. See this?" He circled a part of a graph. "This is only emitted when there is primary contact with the substance. I can assure you she didn't touch a pure Polovox crystal by accident. This makes sense now. They said she had a complete organ failure in three days. A healthy, young human, dead in three days even with complete medical support. I need you to trace Clara's steps that day and see if there's any sign of the substance."
"What does it mean if we find this substance out in the open?" Kate asked with fear.
"It means you are being invaded by one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. If you find even a trace of that particle, you have to shut the whole street down." He sighed. He sat down in total despair. It was becoming evident that Clara had been murdered, in the cruellest way possible. He knew what Polovox poison did to any organic lifeforms. She would have been in so much pain. It hurt him so much to realise the truth.
"Doctor. If you need anything else, you know where to find me." Kate said, trying to soothe his grief.
"I don't know what I'll do without you." He said, wearily.
When he had arrived in Coal Hill high school, the hearse had already driven off. He knew the destination of the hearse though. He moved to the cemetery, where the coffin was slowly being brought uphill to a freshly dug grave. When the grave had been filled and everyone gone, He brought a watering can filled with green liquid. He stood in front of her grave.
"Clara Oswald, beloved daughter and teacher."
Next to it, there was another grave.
"Ellie Oswald, beloved wife and mother."
"I'm going to get you back, no matter it takes." He said. "I'm not losing anyone else."
He sprayed the green liquid all over her dirt covered grave, and did the same for her mother's as well.
"Miss Oswald, on my word, I will bring your daughter back to the world. I'll figure out a way." He talked to Ellie's grave.
He sadly trudged back to his TARDIS with the empty watering can. By the next day, the bare dirt ground will become a flowerbed, and her bare grave won't be bare anymore.