Sorry about the terrible formatting before - I'm so embarrassed XD.
Note to myself - check each chapters before uploading AND don't upload chapters at 3'o clock in the morning.
So much running.
Clara and Tia had been running and hiding for almost four hours straight. This shouldn't get Clara but it was. She was beginning to lag behind, puffing.
"Stop here!" Tia whispered. She touched an inconspicuous button wedged under a painting and a secret door opened. "Through here, quick!"
When the door closed, Clara saw a tiny spaceship parked in the middle.
"How did you know about this place?" Clara asked after catching her breath.
"I saw it when I was little. I think the Doctor said that he went to the past and asked the builders to build this hidden compartment so that when this day came, we had a safe place to stay."
"What?" Clara shook her head, confused.
"Timey wimey is the best description I think." Tia said, chuckling.
"Yeah." She chuckled back.
When the door to the shuttle opened, Clara had no choice but to laugh.
"It's bigger on the inside. Of course." Clara muttered. The room inside resembled the TARDIS, only with fewer buttons and more of a welcoming interior.
"I think your room was over there, and mine is on the other side." Tia said. "Have a rest for now; we'll plan the next part when we are both fully rested."
"What, can't we leave this ship first? I mean, what if they find the secret room?"
"They won't. They will if we leave now. The ship's radar will be able to detect us."
"Okay." Clara sighed. "I guess rest it is then. Good night." She paused momentarily. "Or morning or afternoon, whichever it is."
As Clara sat down on her bed, she noticed a chalkboard in her room. 'CLARA!' was written on it in the Doctor's writing. Clara sighed. This regeneration was always with the chalkboard.
She approached it and rubbed off the message only to find another one in its place: 'DREAMING!'
The chalkboard eraser dropped on the floor with a thud. Clara denied what the message was telling her. "No."
She hesitantly picked the eraser up again and rubbed the message off.
'Wake up'
'You'
'Are'
'Dying.'
Clara turned around frantically, feeling insecure. "This is real. I know it is!"
A knock interrupted her. "Clara? Are you okay?" Tia's voice sounded from outside the door.
The moment she turned around, the blackboard was gone. "Yeah, fine. Sorry."
She breathed out and closed her eyes, sifting through her memories. "Okay, this is a dream. If this is a dream, how do I get out of it?" She opened her eyes. "The ice cream pain." She searched for the ice cream pain, but there was none.
"Doctor, what do I do?!" Clara pleaded. In her pockets, she felt a pocket watch. The pocket watch that she had stolen from the Doctor. Two hours… it said. It was continuously counting down.
"Two hours till what?!" She hissed, frustrated. She spotted a letter wedged between the blackboard and the wall.
'Dear Clara...'
oOoOoOoOoOoOoO
As soon as Tia hit the bed, she fell asleep.
"Hello, Tia." In her dream, she was little again looking at her older self. Seeing the older Tia was strange. The older Tia found a small switch under a painting, opened the door and led her into a spaceship.
"You guys want to have a moment to yourselves? Go ahead." Clara smiled. "I'll be… in my room." The speed her smile faded made the young Tia realise that something was bothering her.
The older Tia led her into her room. She made her sit down facing the blackboard.
"Now, you have to make sure that you memorise this equation." The older Tia said as she scribbled down crazy equations. Except that they weren't crazy. They made sense… to an extent.
"Why?"
"Mummy and daddy. Do you remember them?" The older-self asked her.
"Yes. Of course."
"Tell me everything you can remember about them. Their appearance, what you used to do with them and things like that." Her face was so serious, so scary. She didn't want to be like her. She seemed so troubled, like Clara, and like the Doctor.
"I don't know." She replied hesitantly, shrugging. She'd just seen her mother die on the lawn. Why couldn't she remember what they looked like?
"Exactly." The older Tia frowned. "Because they're not real." She brought out a needle and pricked her finger. Blood started dripping onto the ground.
"Stop! Why did you do that?! Where's a band aid?! You have to stop it from bleeding." She yelled. "It's going to be…"
The drops of blood turned green and it stayed a dark green.
"You'll find that yours is exactly the same, too." The older Tia explained as she wiped the blood off of her finger. "We… I am the only one who can create the poison because I am the poison. Our parents, they 'created' us. Created us to develop the perfect poison. They are not parents, they are farmers and we are the cattle. Like people said, we knew far too much to be a toddler." She sighed. "You always wondered why the Doctor looked so sad. You probably thought Clara looked sad too, right?"
"How…?" Of course she knew. She was, after all, herself. That was confusing.
"They look sad because of us. One day, we create this poison for other people to use. And bad people will use it to kill everyone they hate. Clara" She choked on her tears. "Clara and the Doctor… they die from the poison too."
"Clara's alive though! We just saw her go to her room!"
Older Tia glanced at the clock. "By now she will be gasping for air. Her heart will be beating too slowly to support her body and she'll slowly go into a state of unconsciousness."
"What?!" She exclaimed in shock. "We have to help her!"
The door to the spaceship opened with a deafening explosion. "Clara!" Young Tia ran to Clara's bedroom.
"No, Tia!" The older self chased her to Clara's room, where as she had said, Clara was on the floor, dying.
The young Tia shook Clara, trying to wake her up. "Clara! I'm sorry I killed you. I'm sorry, please wake up!" She was begging.
The older Tia placed a vortex manipulator around young Tia's tiny wrist and she was gone in a flash.
Tia was ripped away from sleep. She reached under the bed to find a small box containing the vortex manipulator. There was writing on the blackboard in red chalk.
"Time's running out." It said in spine chilling handwriting. The red chalk made it look like it was written in blood.
Tia breathed heavily and rubbed it off.
"Do it"
"Right"
"Now!"
She closed her eyes and the blackboard disappeared.
"Tiana Gatford. Wakey wakey. Time for you to kill Clara and the Doctor." The low, murderous voice whispered in her ear.
She woke up on the bed, screaming.
"Shh, it's okay." Clara hugged her. "You're safe."
Tia cried into her shoulders.
"Shh, it's just a nightmare." Clara's soothing voice calmed her down.
"I'm sorry Clara. I'm sorry." Tia sobbed. She reached under the bed and felt the box. "But I need you to do me a favour."
"What is it?"
"I need you to go back and bring my younger self here."