Series 9: What We Deserve
Warnings: dark themes, violence, torture, m/f, f/f & m/f/f relationships, explicit scenes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did…damn you, Moffat!
Summary: The Doctor, Missy and Clara have bad dreams. A ghost from the Doctor and Missy's past resurfaces.
Clara luxuriated in the contradictory sensations of warmth and coolness, buried under as many layers of duvet as she could manage without asphyxiating herself while a inhumanly cold hand drew random patterns across her naked shoulders. She was safe, she was unbelievably comfortable and the pain in her leg and abdomen was ebbing to a bearable level.
She felt the hand currently using her back as a doodle pad shift, the bed dipping slightly beside her then that alien coolness wrapped itself around her, hair like silk playing across her skin while sharp nails traced the scarlet design on her right shoulder. "Wake-y, wake-y my Clara," Missy cooed in her ear, as Clara groaned.
"You know, I do actually need to sleep at some point," she replied, refusing to leave her warm dozy state. No matter where Missy put her hands, she wasn't waking up. "Bloody Time Lord stamina."
"That's Time lady, sweetheart," Missy chuckled, one sharp fingernail tracing the wing of Clara's phoenix.
"And I see that stamina runs to being a permanent smart arse too," Clara quipped, burying her head further into the pillow. "Still not waking up."
"You're no fun," Missy sighed theatrically, but she continued to lie there with Clara, nails tracing the ink design on her shoulder over and over again. The movement was almost hypnotic, as Clara moaned and stretched sleepily, far too cosy to even contemplate another round of what Missy had in mind. "We'll have to get up sometime."
"We're stuck in the Void for a week," Clara snorted into the flesh of her arm. "And you know how much the Doctor hates you messing with his Tardis."
"It's not my fault his ship is a moving junkyard in constant need of maintenance," Missy sniffed, insulted. Above their heads, the Tardis rumbled and groaned in protest, making Clara smile.
"You shouldn't antagonise her, you know," Clara replied. "She might delete your bedroom, reposition a door so you step right into the swimming pool or have a holographic leopard chase you down a corridor while you're looking for the bathroom."
Missy chuckled. "That sounds like personal experience, my Clara."
"Yep, remind me to tell you about it sometime," Clara nodded. "Now hush, and let me sleep. Go find the Doctor if you're so bored."
She felt Missy shift beside her, then her surprise filtered back through their link. Begrudgingly, Clara raised her head and opened her eyes, glancing over her shoulder.
"No need," Missy breathed. "The Doctor's right here."
The Doctor stood at the threshold of Clara's room, leaning one shoulder on the doorjamb, eying the two women in the bed affectionately. Clara poked her head full out of the cocoon of duvet, and sat up reluctantly.
"If you're hoping for some action, you're going to have to wait awhile," she muttered grumpily. Missy snorted.
"Lightweight," the Time Lady quipped in a singsong voice, her eyes glancing between the human and her fellow Time Lord curiously.
"I must have short-circuited something in your brain if that's the wittiest thing you could come up with," Clara retorted, glancing back at her narrowly. Before the Time Lady could summon a reply, Clara turned back to the Doctor and beckoned lazily. "Well, come in then? Or are you just going to prop the door up all night?"
The Doctor hesitated, then smiled slightly and left his perch, letting the door close and crossing the room slowly. If Clara didn't know better, she'd have said he was shy.
She shifted onto her side, her back to Missy and waited for the Doctor to reach her bedside. "I was only joking about the action thing," she started softly, catching the Doctor's eye. Through their link, Clara could feel Missy's exasperation with the pair of them. "It's a pretty big step for us. It can wait. And I'm still bushed."
Even Missy had to admit, there were still dark circles under Clara's eyes.
The Doctor smiled softly, and reached for his jacket. Clara smiled back, and turned onto her side, facing Missy who just shook her head and pressed a gentle kiss to Clara's mouth. You're both a ridiculous pair of dolts…
Clara had to roll her eyes at that one. Hey, most people aren't exactly ok with the idea of a threesome, let alone just jumping straight into one. He needs us to go slow, we go slow.
Yes ma'am… Missy replied sarcastically, as Clara felt the cool of another Gallifreyan body reach for her as the Doctor slid into bed behind her. She felt his arms wind around her waist, and sighed happily.
"That's better," she murmured blissfully. "Missed you. Make a joke about that, Missy, and you'll regret it."
"Not too tired to be feisty, I see," Missy chuckled.
"When is she not?" the Doctor quipped, chuckling as Clara glanced over her shoulder at him narrowly. "That was meant as a compliment…"
Missy sighed and clicked her tongue. "Don't make me handcuff you two together in a locked cupboard," she said warningly.
Clara rolled her eyes. "I'm wondering if that's exactly what I'm going to have to do to you two, if I want to get any sleep around here," she grumbled, burying her head back into her pillow mulishly. She felt the Doctor shift closer, and the feel of his body against hers made her shiver.
"We do need to talk, Clara," he whispered. Clara felt Missy's agreement through their bond and sighed into her pillow. "About the singing. Has it come back yet?"
Clara stayed silent.
"You can't run from this forever, dear," Missy murmured, stroking Clara's hair soothingly. "Better to try and understand it now, than later after it drives you mad."
The Doctor looked to Missy then, seeing a wealth of anguish in her eyes, remnants of her torment with the drums.
Clara knew she spoke from experience, but she really didn't want to ruin her newfound peace just yet. "Why do I get the feeling you're ganging up on me?" she asked rhetorically, before rolling over onto her back and looking to her two Time Lords pleadingly. "It hasn't come back yet, ok? I'll tell you when it does, I promise, but not right now. Please?"
"Sweetheart, that singing in your head isn't just some symptom of insanity," Missy began gently.
"Oh, Missy don't hold back on the tact why don't you?" the Doctor growled, while the Time Lady rolled her eyes at him but continued, ignoring him.
"It's a signal, something is calling you. It'll only get worse the closer we get to the source," Missy finished warningly.
Sadness flashed across Clara's face, as she nodded to herself. "He said something's coming for me…" she whispered, almost too quietly for either Gallifreyan to hear.
"Who told you that?" the Doctor asked gently, brow furrowed. Clara seemed to come out of her introspective daze, shaking herself a little.
"Doesn't matter," she muttered. "Honestly. Can we just drop it, for now?"
The Doctor hesitated, but even he could sense the ghosts haunting Clara. They were there in her eyes, and he decided, for now, to do as she asked. For once.
Clara shivered, foreboding infecting her limbs as she considered everything Missy and the Doctor had said. "Talk to me, please?" she asked. "About anything? Just talk, it's what you two do best, most of the time."
"Excuse me!?" Missy spat, affronted. "You know very well I'm not just bark and no bite!"
"Funny, can't get you to shut up most of the time," the Doctor quipped, with a mischievous grin at Clara. "I swear that's how I used to beat you, back during our UNIT days. While you were busy monologuing, I'd do something incredibly clever and dashing, and defeat your evil plans."
One fine brow rose, as Missy glared at her oldest friend. "There's was never anything particularly clever about it. Just blind luck and an over-reliance on 'reversing the polarity of the neutron flows'," she replied caustically, dropping into a very proper, English accent. The Doctor flushed and Clara laughed.
"What were you like, as boys?" she asked, curious. She knew a lot about the Doctor, through both her travels and her echoes, but there was still so much she didn't know and would never know, unless he told her. Great big gaps that yawned between them, and she wanted to bridge them so desperately after their estrangement. As for Missy, the Time Lady knew so much about Clara, while she knew almost nothing beyond what the Doctor had told her. She wanted to know more. "As kids, I mean?"
The Doctor and Missy shared a glance, sensing Clara's need for distraction from the dark thoughts that were just waiting to drag her down. However, there were things in their joint childhood that he could never tell her, things too dark and painful to recall. He racked his brain for a safer anecdote. A sly smirk appeared on the Doctor's lips, as Missy cocked her head. "What?" she drawled questioningly, despite half-guessing what memory had just popped into his mind.
"I was just remembering the time we snuck out of the Citadel and went drinking with the Shobogans. You got so drunk," he snorted, laughter filling him at the memory.
"You can't talk, lightweight," Missy sniffed. "You drank so much of their homemade ale, you actually sang all eleven acts of Wagner's Ring Cycle. With interpretative dance."
Clara burst into giggles. The Doctor glowered.
"I wouldn't have got past the first scene if someone hadn't spiked the wine with hyper vodka!" he replied accusingly. "You deserved that black eye!"
"You hit her!" Clara asked, shocked.
"I didn't punch her!" the Doctor retorted heatedly. "The great and powerful Master Idiot over there actually tried to take on six, heavily drunk Shobogans. And lost."
"Pfft," Missy scoffed. "They were hippies. You're exaggerating, the black eye wasn't that bad. And I didn't lose."
"Says the one who was out-cold for three days in the medical wing," the Doctor replied. "You missed our tenth-year thermodynamics final."
As she listened to the two Gallifreyans bicker back and forth about their Academy days, Clara found herself drifting off to sleep. To the Doctor's and Missy's great surprise, they eventually joined her, curled around their Impossible Girl and each other.
In her sleep, Clara frowned and shivered. A look of pain passed over Missy's, and the lines of the Doctor's face deepened with sadness. But all three were still deeply asleep.
Something stirred in the Void.
She sensed the lone voice echoing between dimensions, pulling something across to it. It smelled…like a time capsule. A Tardis.
A very familiar Tardis.
Containing two very familiar Time Lords. And another…so very nearly one. How…appropriate. Her children, her disciples, were coming home and bringing her a new vessel to take.
A second chance, at last…
She latched on to the singing, that lonely signal, and warped it easily to her purposes. Soon, she would draw them in. Soon, she would claim her rightful due from her disciples.
Come home. Mother's waiting…
He was back by that river bank again. The Lethe flowed in its unbending channel beside him, roaring its way to the Sea of Forbearance many miles away.
It was a scene that once haunted his nightmares. Two boys, one dark-haired and slender, the other with dull brown hair and strong arms. One flailing while the other held his head under the water.
He felt the rock in his hands. He heard his friend's screams, the other boy's vicious taunts. He felt the pain of a cut on his temple from the boy's fist.
One word left his mouth. "Torvic!" he screamed.
She couldn't breathe. Terror and pain kept her weak, the other boy's weight on her held her down. The Lethe flowed over and around her, cold and sharp, hurting her.
She couldn't breathe.
They'd only gone to the river to escape his taunts, his abuse. They only wanted to play and run in peace.
But he had followed them.
"Torvic…" Missy moaned, her fists clenched so tightly that tiny droplets of blood leaked from where her nails met her palm.
She could feel the taut, straining tendons under her fingers as she held the dark-haired boy under. The river rushed over him, obscuring his face but the terror was plain to see.
Terror of her.
Insults poured from her mouth, terrible words that cut and bruised far deeper than a knife. They were colder than the river water that was slowly ebbing the life of the boy she held down, choking the breath from his lungs.
Then, a pain like lightning across her head. The impact of cold as she fell headfirst into the river's shallows. And a name…
And all around, that beautiful voice, sad, soft and achingly merciless, drawing her in even as it split her skull with new agony. Agony she'd almost forgotten.
The name reverberated around her, as she screamed.
In the depths of the Tardis, the Cloister Bell tolled.
Osgood woke abruptly at that deep, menacing bell. She all but tumbled from the bed, urgency filling every atom of her body as she scrambled upright.
A voice whispered in her mind, telling her to run, to go and go now. Before it was too late.
Without understanding why, Osgood rushed from her room, praying she wouldn't get lost in the labyrinthine passages of the Tardis.
The Doctor and Missy both jerked away at the same time, their eyes meeting and seeing the other's terror and pain, ancient anguish long-buried rising up once more. Then fresh fear as they realised there was no soft, hot human lying between them.
Clara was gone.
And the Cloister Bell was still tolling.
Osgood managed to find her way, guided by an inner sense that stopped her taking a wrong turn. All around her, that strange bell was still ringing, tolling away and it filled Osgood with dread.
A part of her just wanted to go back to her room, to crawl under her bedcovers and hide. She was filled with fear and the feeling that something awful was about to happen. It snaked along her nerves, slowing her steps until she felt like she was crawling through treacle.
But the urgency was stronger. Something was wrong, and she needed to get to the console room now!
She ran on.
Osgood skidded to a halt in the doorway to the lower level of the console room. Through the gantry, she could see Clara stood by the console. She was naked.
She didn't have time to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. She rushed up the stairs, hearing the pounding footsteps of two others drawing closer, relief coursing through her. The Doctor and Missy would know what was wrong, they'd stop whatever this was…
Then Osgood reached the upper level, and saw Clara clearly, keeping her gaze firmly at eye level. And frowned, feeling an odd sense of disquiet and pure…wrongness wash over her as she looked at her fellow human.
She'd almost have thought she was under simulation, from the way her eyes were so blank and unseeing, her movements sure and practised, but there was something more that Osgood couldn't discern. What was more, Clara was Divergent; a simulation wouldn't affect her.
No, something far stronger had Clara in its grip. She'd been wrong, that wasn't the blank, robotic gaze of someone under simulation. There was an evil intent in her eyes, a hunger that made Osgood shudder with loathing and revulsion.
Just then, Clara moved towards a particular control on the console, and Osgood snapped out of her trance to lunge for her. She tried to wrestle the other woman away from the console, but Clara was far stronger than her. She easily shoved her aside.
Dazed, Osgood watched as Clara flicked a few more switches on the console, the tolling of the bell turned into one long peal, a warning that reverberated deep in Osgood's soul. Still silent, Clara turned away from the console, sparing Osgood not so much as a glance as she stepped towards the doors.
Just then, a voice cried Clara's named. "Clara!"
Clara opened the doors, as Osgood got her first glimpse of the nothingness outside, the Void that Clara had explained to her. The space between dimensions.
She forced herself upright, and moved.
Her arms encircled Clara's waist just as the Doctor and Missy reached the upper level, the Doctor rushed to shut the doors as Missy helped Osgood drag the thrashing Clara back from the doors.
She could hear voices shouting her name, screaming almost, a pair of hard arms around her waist.
She could also hear the scream of a name, dark and anguished, desperate and full of rage. Water like ice, pain like lightning.
The name…
Abruptly, Clara went limp and stopped fighting as Osgood slumped against the console, panting. Missy took her weight, her hair ruffled where it draped her shoulders. She was only haphazardly dressed in her jacket, skirt and blouse, her feet bare. The Doctor was no better, his shirt untucked and trousers only just hanging by his hips. Osgood averted her eyes, blushing.
She didn't know much about Gallifreyans, but she guessed they didn't much care about embarrassing others.
"What happened?" she asked, still panting. Missy shrugged off her coat, draping it around Clara carefully, obscuring her nakedness. The Cloister Bell was still tolling, as the Doctor frantically checked the console.
"She's changed the co-ordinates," he breathed. "I don't-"
"Doctor?" Osgood breathed. The Time Lord suddenly turned to her, and embraced her tightly. "Doctor!?" she squeaked in shock.
"Thank you. For stopping her," he breathed, before releasing her just as abruptly and rushing to Clara and Missy's side.
"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Osgood demanded. "What was that bell? What's wrong with Clara? Where are we going?"
"Something psychically attacked Clara," the Doctor explained. "It attacked all three of us."
Missy looked up from where she'd been caressing Clara's temple, the human nestled against her chest. "It was the singing. I felt it through our bond," she told him. "And the dream…"
"It can't be coincidence we had the exact same dream," the Doctor nodded, before turning to Osgood. "Osgood, did you dream anything?"
Osgood thought back, but came up blank. If she dreamed, she hadn't remembered it. "No, last thing I remember is going to sleep then being woken up by that bell."
"The Tardis. She was warning us," the Doctor replied, as he turned to look back down at his somnolent companion. "What could do this? What could survive in the void between dimensions?"
"Something incredibly powerful. Probably ancient beyond record," Missy stated firmly, still idly stroking Clara's hair. "Something that knows us, if that dream is any indication."
"What dream? What happened?" Osgood asked, curious now as the urgency and the fear faded.
Neither the Doctor nor Missy answered, but from the haunted look in their eyes, Osgood surmised it wasn't a good dream.
Just then, Clara stirred, a moan of pain passing her lips. "Clara?" Missy breathed, bending over her, before glancing back to the Doctor. He shifted closer, taking Clara's hand.
"Clara?" he called her name softly, checking her pulse. Racing, but strong.
Then both Gallifreyans froze, the blood draining from their faces.
"Torvic…" Clara sighed, in a pain-filled breath. She spoke that name one last time, flinching away as if from a blow, and then in an alien, sophisticated tone, so unlike Clara's Lancashire accent, which chilled Osgood, she spoke again. "Come to me. Mother's waiting…"
To be continued…
A/N: If any of you are Big Finish fans, you might have some clue as to what and who has attacked our trio. If you don't, then check out the BF audio drama 'Master'. It's a brilliant audio play, and you won't regret it.
Apologies for the lack of 'My Clara' update. This took longer than expected, but that's next on my list! Also, if anyone's wondering why the chapter count has gone from 32 to 38...I realised I missed some pretty big things for Clara's development arc so added in an extra few chapters. Trust me, you're going to love them!