The Doctor hurried around the console, piloting them to Clara's and were outside on the snowy roof before the TARDIS had completely materialised, standing before Clara, 'Santa Claus', two of his elves and his reindeers who were flying around.
"Clara," the Doctor approached her, "I want you to step inside the TARDIS. I don't want you to talk; I want you to do as I ask. Please."
Clara just stared at them, as she stood in her nightie.
"That was good, with the box." One of Santa's elf's remarked, eying the TARDIS.
"Humph. Not often we get upstaged on a rooftop." The second agreed, "Hmm."
"Yes, we're really here. We're back. Now get inside the TARDIS."
Clara silently obeyed and entered the TARDIS.
"I know what this is." The Doctor looked at Santa, "I know what's happening, and I know what's at stake."
"I don't think you do, Doctor." Santa remarked, "But I promise, before this Christmas Day is done, you will be glad of my help."
"Happy Easter."
"Ooh, brutal!" the second elf said.
"Cool exit line, though." The first elf had to admit.
"Be sure to save some room for a tangerine, Doctor and you Star." Santa told them as they headed back inside the TARDIS.
"Nobody likes the tangerines." Star snapped, "Or walnuts." She closed the door on them.
"I'm really back here." Clara remarked softly, "This is, this is real, yeah?"
The Doctor set up the coordinates at the console.
"Doctor? Star, talk to me. I never thought I was going to see either of you again. What is going on out there? What's happening? Oh, that noise." she smiled at the TARDIS started up, "Never knew how much I loved it."
"There's something you have to ask yourself, and it's important." The Doctor told her, seriously, "Your life may depend on it. Everybody's life. Do you really believe in Santa Claus?"
"Do you know what?" she smiled, "Yeah. Right now, here, I think I do."
~.~
The hurried across the landscape of the North Pole, towards a door at some sort of base with vehicles around the buildings and a satellite on the roof.
The Doctor soniced the door open to find a human infirmary with a young blonde woman on her knees playing air-guitar.
The girl screamed as she spotted them, "We've, we've got ghosts!" she gasped into the ear piece she was wearing, "Yeah, yeah. It's a skeleton man, a girl in a nightie and a goth girl."
"Not goth." Star huffed.
"Eh, Doctor?" Clara looked over at the four figures lying on the beds with some sort of rock on their heads.
"No, no, no, you're making me think about them." The blonde cried. "Don't make me think about them!
"What are they?" Clara asked, only for the figures to slowly sit up.
"Look. Just don't ask, yeah? And don't look. Don't make me think about them."
The Doctor scanned them with the sonic, "Deaf. Blind. How can they see us? How do they even know that we're here?"
"They can only see you, yeah, if you see them." The blonde told them, "So just, so just don't look, don't even think about them."
"Oh, telepathic." Star nodded, "They can home in on their own image in someone else's brain."
"Third-party perception." The Doctor explained, "Mind piracy. We're being hacked."
"What does that even mean?" Clara shook her head as the figures stood up.
"The visual input from your optic nerve is being streamed to their brains. Stop broadcasting. Close your eyes and you too Star." they both did so.
After a moment Clara spoke again, "They're still coming, aren't they?
"It's because you're still thinking about them. So long as you retain them as an active memory, they can still home in. Think about something else."
"How?" she frowned hearing the woman singing, "Why is she singing?"
"She's running interference." The Doctor explained quickly, "She's trying to distract herself. 304 minus 17."
"Sorry, what?"
"Plus 20. Just do it!"
"507."
"Minus 14, times 4."
"1972."
"Stop being so good at arithmetic."
"I can't help it!"
"Danny Pink!" Star called, knowing that would distract her,
"Yes!" the Doctor agreed, "What is Danny Pink up to right now? He's probably flirting with your neighbour or texting women of low moral character…" he was cut off by Clara slapping him hard around the cheek.
"Don't you dare." Clara hissed, her eyes opened as she glared at them both, "Don't you dare say that."
"I was only…"
"Danny Pink is dead." She stated.
"No, he's not."
"He's dead."
Before he could say anything else the infirmary doors opened and three more crew members wearing the same uniform as the blonde ran in holding very large guns. Two were female, one older and one young and black with a middle-aged man with them.
"Go, run, now, now, now!" the younger woman yelled.
The Doctor pulled the woman from the floor heading to the doors only for spiders made of mucus to drop down from the ceiling.
"Here they come!" the young woman, who seemed to be the one in charge, shouted.
"No!" the Doctor cried as they headed for everyones faces.
~.~
A big explosion blew the doors apart and a small tangerine rolled into the room followed by various colourful slinkies and toy robots.
They could see Santa dismounting Rudolph, "Whoa, whoa! Ah! Good boy. "He walked into the room followed by two elves, one with a balloon toy and one with an air gun. "Well, now. What seems to be the problem?" he asked, "This is the North Pole. We don't want any trouble here." Rudolph snorted outside, "Hey, Rudolph." he turned to the reindeer and pressed a button, flashing Rudolph's nose and sounding a car beep, "Easy, son. Oi! Sleepy heads! It's Christmas Eve, early to bed." He clapped his hands and the four Sleepers got back into the beds.
"Who the hell are you?" the woman in charge demanded.
"Oh, take a guess." The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Go on, push the boat out."
"Tooth Fairy?" Star offered suggestions, "Or maybe the Easter Bunny?"
"Shut your mouth, wise guy, or you get yours." The elf with a balloon toy warned.
"It's a balloon animal." The other elf pointed out.
"That's a toy gun."
"Yeah, well, at least it's unsuitable for children under four. Parts small enough to swallow, so watch out."
"Yeah, well I have a proper, sharp dagger." Star smirked, pulling it out, "and I can do this." She popped the balloon.
"Oi!" the elf frowned, "you can't do that."
"Well, I just did."
"Now, this is ridiculous." The captain scoffed, "Am I, am I dreaming?"
"Oh, very good." The Doctor snapped his fingers at her.
"I need to know exactly who you are, and what's happening here."
"Hello, Ashley." Santa smiled, moving her gun that was pointing at him aside, "Lead scientist on a polar expedition. Oh, that microscope really paid off, didn't it? Now, your mum and dad wanted me to get you a toy one, but sometimes, I take a chance."
"Who are you?" the woman, Ashley, asked, "Why are you dressed like…that?"
"Why do you think?"
"Come on, this is mental." The blonde scoffed, "This is totally not happening."
"I got three words, Shona. Don't make me use 'em." Santa turned to her.
"What three words?"
"My. Little. Pony."
"Shut up, you."
"Yeah? I've got lots more, babe."
"I will mark you, Santa." She held her hands up in a clawing motion.
"Okay, Doctor, are you going to explain?" Clara turned to him, "What is going on?"
"It's an invasion, Miss Oswald." Santa turned to her.
"An invasion of what, elves?"
"Clara," Star began, leaning over the woman's shoulder, placing her hands firmly on her shoulders, "I have ever told you how much I love you."
"Not in this regeneration."
"Well don't expect me too anytime soon." She moved her hands back.
Clara blinked at her. She didn't know Stars new regeneration but she hadn't ben expecting her to say that. she didn't know whether she was joking or not.
"Whoa! That is racist." The first elf cried at Clara's words.
"Elfist!" the second agreed.
"Yeah. Which is a bit hypocritical, from someone of your height."
"Hey!" Star glared, "you don't insult Clara while im around."
"Thank you, Star." She smiled at how the girl was still defending her.
"That's my job."
Her smile faltered slightly. She really should have seen that coming. The girl gave of a vibe that she enjoyed insulting people.
Santa turned to Rudolph and pulled out a large, clear specimen container from the saddle. Holding it out to show a crab-like rock, similar to what was on the four other people faces. "Huh? You seen them before, Doctor? I doubt you have Star."
"What makes you think I don't." she crossed her arms.
"I've heard of them." The Doctor murmured, cutting Star off before she got into a serious argument with 'Santa Claus.'
"The Kantrofarri." Santa nodded.
"Colloquially known as the Dream Crabs."
"Yeah. Depending on how many of those are already on Earth, the human race may well have seen its last day. So, are we going to stand about arguing about whether I'm real or not, or are we going to get busy saving Christmas?"
"Oh, ho, ho! Santa goes badass!" one elf laughed.
"He's giving me the feels." The second nodded his agreement.
"Shut up." Santa turned to them, irritated, "That's a, that's a verbal warning. Please, stop it."
"Is it dead?" Clara asked as they stood in the labatory, the Dream Crab on the table before them. She, the Doctor, Star and Ashley looking at it while the others interrogated 'Santa' and his 'elves'.
"I don't know." The Doctor answered, "Possibly."
"Or dormant." Star stated, thinking about how the half face robot droid had been dormant in Victorian London.
"I'm assuming extra-terrestrial." Ashley guessed.
"Oh, definitely." The Doctor nodded.
"Then how can you have heard of these things?"
"Guess."
"Because you're extra-terrestrial, too."
"Do you believe that?"
Ashley nodded, "Why's it called a Dream Crab, for a start?"
"Theorise."
"Because it generates a telepathic field."
"And?"
"Alters perception."
"Meaning?"
"I seem to be doing all the work here."
"If you don't know just say." Star muttered.
"Meaning we can't trust anything that we see or hear." Clara finished.
"Go to the window." The Doctor ordered Ashley lightly.
"Why?" she frowned.
"Because it gets worse."
Ashley slowly walked over to the window, looking out into the snow, seeing the TARDIS in the distance, "What is that?"
"That's how Clara, Star and I got here."
"In a box?"
"Technically, in a telephone kiosk."
"How?"
"Because it's a spaceship in disguise. You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart?"
"What?"
"They're both ridiculous."
"So we don't know what is real and what isn't?" Clara asked.
"Exactly." The Doctor nodded.
"Are we in danger?"
"We're in danger everyday." Star remarked. "even crossing the road is dangerous or taking a dip in the pool," she glanced up to see the human glaring at her, "don't look at me like that, I've done nothing wrong...yet."
"We are well way past danger, Clara." The Doctor added, "If I'm right, and I usually am, we're dying."
"Then how do we stay alive?" Ashley inquired.
"I like you." the Doctor glanced at the woman.
"I don't."
"Star; quiet. Straight to the point. I want you to show me how you first encountered those creatures, and what happened to those people in the infirmary. I notice you all wear mini-cams, so I assume that there is footage."
"Is it possible I'm about to work with someone who might be a dream?"
"If it helps, so are we."
"We have footage on the drives. I'll see what I can pull up."
"Ashley, what's this polar base for? Why are you all here?"
"It's a long story." She offered before turning and leaving.
"What you said about Danny." Clara spoke after a moment, "Unacceptable."
"It worked, didn't it?" Star countered.
"You never told us he was dead." The Doctor defended, "You said he made it back."
"Well, I lied." She turned to Star, "you knew I lied."
"I wanted to know how long it would take you until you told us." She shrugged, "You made it obvious. Danny wasn't there with you when we went our separate ways."
"That's why I lied," Clara sighed, "So you'd go home to Gallifrey instead of fussing about me."
"We lied, never found Gallifrey."
"We lied, so you'd stay with Danny." The Doctor added.
"See this is what makes us such a perfectly little family. We lie to each other for each other."
Clara nodded at that, "So we're dying, then?"
"Yes." The Doctor nodded.
"Why?"
"Oh, complicated."
"How long do we have?"
"No idea."
"Just give me something to do."
"Trust nothing, trust no one." Star stated, "Accept nothing you see. Whatever happens, interrogate everything."
"In case it's a lie."
"In case it's a lie." The Doctor repeated.
"It doesn't help that I don't know Star's regeneration." She needed time to get to know her, just like she did with the Doctor. She didn't know who Star was, it had only been a short time and she could tell Star was just so different from last time. She had a lot more darker vibe to herself this time. It was certainly different to see Star all in black leather considering she was so used to seeing her in bright colours.
"I'm your worst nightmare." Star winked. "Or…your best dream." she walked off, moving to the control room with the others following to see the man eating a turkey leg, the older woman examinating some equipment and the blonde, Shona, integrating Santa Claus.
"Reindeers can't fly," the woman was arguing, "they just cant."
"No." Santa agreed, "No, they can't. It's a scientific impossibility. That is why I feed mine magic carrots."
"You all right?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah." Shona nodded, "I'm trying to talk sense into er, Beardy-Weirdy."
"You don't seem much like a scientist."
"That's a bit rude, coming from a magician."
"He was hoping for minimalism" Star informed the woman.
"And what were you hoping for? Goth?"
Star flared her nostrils out, "I. AM. NOT. GOTH. One more person…just one more person…and I swear…"
"Swear what?" Clara looked at her, just curious at her reaction, but all she got was a death glare.
"Why are you out here?" the doctor shook his head, "What brought you to the North Pole?"
"Long story, isn't it?" Shona glanced at him.
"You missed the killer question."
"Sorry, what?"
"Beardy-Weirdy."
"Yeah?" Santa turned to him.
"How do you get all the presents in the sleigh?"
"It's bigger on the inside."
"Ooh!" the elves laughed at the Doctor sour face.
"Doctor?" Ashley called.
They headed over to where Ashley stood by the controls. Star casted a disgusted look at the male scientist, as he gnawed on a turkey. "Dude, seriously?"
"Sorry," he apologised seeing her face, "starving."
"What am I looking at?" the Doctor frowned at the monitor saying Headcam: Carter.
"Footage from a week ago." The older woman said, "A side expedition from our main mission."
"And…what is your main mission?" Star wondered, they had never said, always said….
"Long story. Ice cave directly beneath this base. Now, look at what we found." The monitor showed a cluster of Dream Crabs hanging amongst icicles. "Dormant at first."
"Until you looked at them too long." The Doctor nodded, "Till you thought about them."
"Exactly."
"Sleeping. Probably been down there for centuries."
"And it wakes up when you think about it?" Clara asked.
"They can detect their own mental picture in any nearby mind."
"That's Bellows' theory." Ashley agreed.
"It's like it responds to the presence of any data concerning itself."
"Oh. That was always the legend." The Doctor remarked, remember hearing about them, "You think about a Dream Crab, a Dream Crab is coming for you."
"This is where it gets really nasty." The man called.
"Only now?" Clara looked back at him.
On the monitor a Dream Crab descended onto the camera and it went static.
"Then what happened?" Star frowned.
The older woman switched the image to the infirmary, with them putting the people into bed.
"They're a bit like Face huggers, aren't they?" the man asked, still eating his drumstick.
"Face huggers?" the Doctor turned to him, frowning in confusion.
"You know, Alien. The horror movie, Alien."
Both Star and the Doctor stared at him, "There's a horror movie called Alien? Where you make it so the aliens are the bad guys? That's really offensive. No wonder Earth's always invaded."
"First, they just slept." The older woman, Bellows, continued, "Couple of days, just lying there."
"And then they became aggressive." The Doctor followed.
"If we got close enough, yeah." Ashley agreed.
"It would take the Dream Crab a little while to take control. Depends how much of the host brain was."
"Was what?"
"Digested."
"Are they still alive under those things?"
"Depends what you call alive."
"Are they suffering?"
"No. No, no. no, no, no. The Dream Crab induces a dream state. Keeps you happy and relaxed, in a perfectly realised dream world, as you dissolve. Merciful, I suppose."
"Compared to what?" the man frowned.
"Compared to that turkey leg you keep eating." Star grumbled,
"Could you rewind for me?" the Doctor leaned closer to the screen, "I'd like to see them dormant again. Clara, could you fetch me the dead one?"
"Maybe I could fetch you a cup of tea while I'm at it." she countered.
"Ooh. Yes, and a punch in the face, too."
"My very next suggestion."
"Fair enough." He shrugged as she left the room.
"Clara!" Star suddenly gasped.
"What's wrong?" Ashley jumped at the sudden loud noise from the girl who had been quite quiet while they were all talking, besides the need for bitter remarks and insults.
And without another word Star took off with the Doctor close behind her.
~.~
When they reached the lab, Clara was lying on the ground, the Dream crab on her face.
"Clara!" Star called to her, taking her hand, hoping she would be able to hear her in her dream, "Clara, listen to me, you are dying! Clara, I know you can hear me. Very clever people are still listening when they are dreaming. CLARA!"
"Clara, you're dreaming." The Doctor took her other hand, "You're dying. Can you hear me? Clara?"
"We did try to waken the others. No stimulus worked." Ashley informed them.
"We kill it." Star deadpanned, "We find a way to kill it and we get it off of her. How do we kill it? I want it dead." Nothing tried to kill people she liked and got away with it.
"There's no way to kill it without killing your friend, too. And as a scientist, may I just say, I don't like the way you're talking."
"Well, I really don't care!"
"Santa." The Doctor whirled around to the man as he stood with his elves, "In the infirmary, you told the Sleepers to go to bed, and they obeyed you."
"Sorry, doesn't mean I can get that creature off her." He commented.
"No, but you can get back in there unharmed."
"What?" Shona shook her head, "You're asking Santa for help? He doesn't exist."
"That doesn't matter." Star countered, "You might not exist."
"I can commit several million housebreaks in one night dressed in a red suit with jingle bells, so of course I can get back into the infirmary." Santa remarked.
"Good." The Doctor nodded, "Because there is only one way that I can communicate with Clara."
~.~
Star sat on the ground by Clara's side, her hands in hers as the Doctor laid next to Clara, a Dream Crab on his face. It was the only way for him to get her to wake up. He goes into her dream, tell her it's a dream, make her wake herself up.
"Have we just killed him?" Ashley asked, "Have we just made it worse?"
"If he's dead then I get his sonic and the TARDIS," Star shrugged, knowing he wouldn't die. He was too stubborn for that.
"He thinks he can join the dream, and get her out." Santa told them, "Have a little faith."
Moments later they both gasped up, coughing as the crab fell off their faces.
"Clara?" Star lifted the woman face with the tip of her finger, making her look at her, "you're fine. You're safe. And alive."
The Dream Crabs twitched on the fall before turning to dust.
"Thanks for helping me, Star." the Doctor mock glared at her as he got himself to his feet.
She rolled her eyes as she helped Clara to her feet, "Oh stop it. Clara was in need of more help. She's weaker."
"Was that a compliment or an insult?" Clara asked weakly as Ashley picked up the pieces of carapace left from the crabs and put it in the container while Shona brushed the dust up.
"Take it however you want."
"So these creatures," the woman began, "when their feeding goes wrong, they die?"
"The carnivore's hazard." The Doctor nodded, "Food has teeth too. You okay?"
Clara stood before the mirror checking for marks left by the crab, "No."
"Good. There are some things we should never be okay about."
"There doesn't seem to be a wound."
"No. And the pain's still there, isn't it?"
"Is it the ice cream pain?" Shona called, gesturing to her forehead, "Just here? Cos I've got that. "
"It's the cold, I think." Bellows reasoned, "Some sort of reaction."
"But only on one side, just that spot there. Doesn't that strike you as odd?" the Doctor asked them all.
"Well, we've all got it." the man frowned.
"Okay, so why do we all have that pain?" the woman asked.
"Theorise." the Doctor said.
"Don't treat me like a beginner." She glared at him, "I was dreaming, then I woke up. I know that."
"Have you ever woken up from a dream and discovered that you're still dreaming?" Star asked, "Dreams within dreams. It is possible, especially with creatures who use our dreams against us."
"I don't know about anybody else, but I'm pretty certain I'm awake right now." Bellows remarked.
"But it's impossible for us to be awake."
"I don't understand." Shona shook her head.
"I bet you don't." Star muttered under her breath.
"Star…" the Doctor trailed, warningly.
"What…?" she mimicked.
"Behave."
"How?"
"I won't let you watch any more Disney." He threatened.
"Go ahead. Do it." she challenged.
He frowned at her. That usually worked, she'd normally go and pout and whine and he'd take it back. But this her just dared him to go ahead with his threats.
He cleared his throat and turned to the others, "Remember how we all first met, in the infirmary? We never stood a chance. How did we survive that?"
"Well, we, we were rescued." Shona shrugged, not seeing the big deal.
"Yeah, we were rescued. And who was it that rescued us?"
"Big old Saint Nick." Star grumbled walking off back to the control room where Santa stood on his phone.
"No, no, no, no. I need you to do the east coast right now. Well, otherwise you're going to be delivering to the islands in broad daylight. Yeah, listen. Please try and remember that our mugshots are on every Christmas card. Yeah, just get it done, head towards the northern lights. Yes, I remembered to switch them on."
"The Helman-Ziegler test." The Doctor remarked, "The only reliable dream test that I know. Ah." he spotted four books stacked up and handed them to each crew member, "Your base manual. I take it none of you have memorised this."
"Oh. I haven't, I haven't read it." Shona admitted.
"These books should be identical in the real world. But as they don't exist in your memory, in a dream, they can't be. Agreed? Clara. Give me any two digit number."
"57."
"All right, all of you, turn to page 57 and look at the very first word. Right, when I point at you." he pointed at Ashley.
"Isotope."
"Well?" and Bellows.
"Extremely."
The man, "Inside."
And Shona, "Chocolate. Why did I get chocolate? What's that about?"
"This can't be right. We must have got it wrong, that's all."
"Well, we'll do it again. Clara?"
"24."
"24." He nodded, pointing at them again.
"We."
"Are."
"All."
"Shona?" he looked at her as she stayed silent.
She swallowed hard, "Dead."
"Since the attack in the infirmary, nothing has been real?" Ashley gasped.
"The attack is still going on. This is it!" the Doctor cried, realising they were all still dreaming.
"We've been dreaming since then?" the man gasped.
"Oh, for Easter's sake!" Santa rolled his eyes, "Of course you've been dreaming. Haven't you been paying attention?"
"Rudolph. Did you see the nose?" one elf said.
"The North Pole?" the other added, "Come on, with stripes?"
"This."
"Is."
"A dream!" Santa and his elves said as one.
"How much more obvious do you want me to make it?" Santa rolled his eyes,, "Because I can text the Easter Bunny, you know."
"Seriously?" Star gaped at him, "You're trying to help?"
"As you stand here, chatting, chatting, your lives are ending. Unless you wake up, unless you free yourselves from these dreadful creatures, they're going to destroy you."
"You're a dream who's trying to save us?" Shona frowned at him.
"Shona, sweetheart, I'm Santa Claus. I think you just defined me."
"This makes perfect sense." The Doctor remarked, "The Dream Crab tries to make the dream as real as possible to trap you inside it. It creates dreams within dreams so you can never be sure if you are really awake. But your brain knows something is wrong. Your subconscious fights back. This is your mind trying to tell you this isn't real."
"So it gives you me." Santa grinned, "Sweet Papa Chrimbo."
"It gives you comedy elves, flying reindeer." One elf added.
"Exactly."
"A time-travelling scientist dressed as a magician and his goth daughter."
"Classic!" an elf chuckled.
"Not goth." Star gritted her teeth.
"Who's a bit obsessed with a dagger." Santa continued.
"It's very special to me."
"Living in a phone box." The other elf nodded.
"It's a spaceship in disguise." The Doctor corrected.
"You see how none of this makes any sense?" Santa asked them.
"Shut up, Santa." The Doctor glared.
"I have watched over you all your lives. I've taken care of you from Christmas to Christmas."
"But you're not real." Bellows argued.
"And yet that never stopped me. All of you, come near. Come here, come on. Join hands."
"Look. No." the Doctor stepped back from the group, "Look, we don't need all this touchy-feely stuff."
"Shut up, Doctor. Join hands. Come on, concentrate."
Bellows hesitated, "Why?"
"You are deep inside this dream, all right, and it is a shared mental state, so it is drawing power from the multi-consciousness gestalt which has now formed telepathically and…"
"No. No, No, no, no." the Doctor cut him off, "Line in the sand. Santa Claus does not do the scientific explanation."
"All right. As the Doctor might say," Santa mimicked a Scottish accent, "Oh, it's all a bit dreamy-weamy."
"I don't say that."
"Why don't you just go and make a naughty list?" Star stepped closer to Santa, silently threatening him.
"I have, mate, and you're on it. Both of you." he looked between the Time Lords.
"Top?"
"You are the list."
She smirked, "Good."
"Look, you're supposed to be warm and friendly and cheerful." The Doctor spoke to Santa.
"Oh, yeah. Well, look at your great bedside manner." He countered.
"Don't be so hostile."
"Doctor, behave." Clara called with a sigh.
"Notice how she tells you off." Star smirked at the Doctor, "not me."
"And you, Star." she added.
Honestly, she couldn't tell Star off because she didn't know the girls regeneration very well. Had only seen her for barely an hour tops before they went their separate ways. But she already knew she was very different from the sweet ginger girl she used to be. She couldn't call her gingerbread anymore.
"This is very sweet." Ashley commented, "But right now I have an alien life form wrapped around my face, and apparently it's digesting my brain. When you speak, how do I know it's not the Dream Crab?"
"Ooo, good question." Santa snapped his fingers at her, "Spoken like a scientist."
"Can I put it another way? Why would the part of our brain that is trying to keep all of us alive choose you for a face?" Clara wondered.
"Is anyone else asking that?"
"Yeah, yeah. Yeah." Shona nodded, "All of us. All of us. Why you?"
"Why me? It's the North Pole, it's Christmas Day. You're dying. Who you gonna call? Just one last time, huh? One last Christmas, as if your lives depended on it. Please! Ho, ho, ho. Believe in Santa."
The humans shrugged and formed a circle.
The Doctor tried to step away from the group, "I'm not very good with this holdy-hand thing…"
"But if you don't hold hands, then we won't wake up and the Dream Crabs will kill us." Star pouted, taking Clara hand, holding her other for him to take, "and I'll die and it'll be all your fault."
"Fine," he grumbled, taking her hand and begrudgingly take Shona's in the other. "This is very Christmassy, isn't it?"
"Okay, so what do we..." Ashley looked over at Santa to see him and the elves gone.
"Where did he go?" Bellows looked around the room.
"We're waking up." the Doctor told them, "That part of the dream is over. We're on our own now."
"Well, then. What do we do?" the man asked.
"Make the pain worse." Star stated, "Feel that pain."
"So when we wake up," Ashley began, "what do we expect?"
"Only a few moments will have passed at the most." The Doctor explained, "The attack is still in progress."
"I'm scared." Shona whispered.
"Congratulations" Star remarked, sarcastically, "That means you're not as much of an idiot as I originally thought."
"It's not like the last time." Clara guessed.
"Last time wasn't real." The Doctor looked at her.
"Good luck." Ashley looked around the circle, "Stay calm. And God bless us, every one."
They shut their eyes, focusing on the pain…
~.~
Star gasped as she sat upright, the Dream Crabs falling from her, and the others faces as they all gasped awake. Star pulled Clara up as the four people the Crabs had latched onto before held their heads and sides, withering in pain.
"Run!" the Doctor shouted.
"Argh!" Clara cried as one of the Sleepers grabbed her arm. She stared at the pink tube inside the Crab.
Star stabbed the arm of the Sleeper, breaking its contact on Clara allowing her to run.
The crew members pushed the Sleepers back with their guns, as ones hand stuck through so Bellows hit it with the butt of her gun, allowing them to shut the door.
"Everyone all right?" the Doctor asked the humans, who nodded, "Good. Bye." He took Stars hand and they walked off.
"Sorry," Clara apologised to the humans, "I'll just go and…" she hurried after them.
"No need for chatting, you'll only get attached. This isn't Facebook."
"I need to check something," Star murmured, absentmindedly rubbing her temple. The pain was still there.
"Er, what about the Dream Crabs?" Clara asked.
"Oh, they're fine." The Doctor waved her off.
"And the people that they're eating?"
"Beyond help."
"Doctor, the others are still in danger."
"Only if they're stupid. There are polar bears on this ice cap. Am I supposed to do something about that, too?"
"We know Dream Crabs are still on Earth."
"There are lots of dangerous things on this funny little planet of yours, Clara, most of which you eat. Im the Doctor not your mam." He pulled out the key and opened the TARDIS doors.
"Dad?" Star stopped, "if this is no longer the dream, then why do I still feel the ice cream pain."
He turned to her.
"Yeah," Clara agreed, "and why was Santa on my roof?"
"Because we're still dreaming, it's obvious isn't it? When you think about it."
"What?" they both looked at her.
"4 team member. 4 patients. 4 manuals." Star told them; looking at them as it they were stupid.
"Oh!" the Doctor finally realised what she meant and began to run back into the base, "Do you know what I hate about the obvious?"
"What?" Clara called as she and Star followed him.
"Missing it."
~.~
They ran back into the control room, on the monitors it showed that the Sleepers were back in their beds in the infirmary.
"As you were. No saluting. Are you the same people as before?"
"No, they're the evil twins." Star rolled her eyes.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, ok." He nodded, knowing she was being sarcastic and judging by Clara face she knew it too.
"Well, that's not a very nice attitude, is it?" Shona gaped at them.
"4 manuals, yes?"
"Yes, why?" Ashley nodded, frowning at them. They had said they were leaving or had at least looked like they were leaving and then had come back and randomly asked about their manuals.
"One each."
"One each, yes." The man agreed, "What's the problem?"
"Well, the problem is, you can't see the problem. For instance, you, gobby one." He tossed a manual at Shona.
"I have a name, actually." She glared at him.
"Doesn't matter. I don't need it. When we first met you in the infirmary, what were you doing?"
"Mmm. It's a long story."
"Uptight boss one." He threw Ashley a manual, "What is the primary mission of this polar base?"
"It's a long story." She replied.
"Older one." He threw a manual at the older woman, "What brings you to the North Pole at your age?"
"It's a long…story."
"Okay…" Clara began slowly, "why are they all giving the same answer, because that is a tiny bit freaky."
"You think that's freaky." Star remarked, "Why did we come here?"
"It's a long story."
"I really hate dreams."
"Ha, ha, ha." The Doctor laughed, "They're disjointed. They're silly. They're full of gaps. But you don't notice, because the dream protects itself. Stops you asking the right questions. For example, why do you have four manuals, one each, when you have a crew of eight? Or did you forget about your friends in the infirmary here?"
"But we woke up." the man argued.
"Dreams within dreams," Star muttered, "We warned you."
"This isn't a dream. I know it isn't." Bellows defended.
"No one knows they're not dreaming, stupid." She snapped at the woman, "No one. EVER. Not for one single moment of our lives."
"Star, don't snap." The Doctor chastised, "Clara? Page number. Make it a good one."
"12."
Everyone opened their manuals to page 12 and read the first word.
"Very."
"Very."
"Very."
Shona swallowed, "Dead."
"Who's gonna admit that the pains still there?" Star glared at them, daring them to speak.
"Actually, I think it's getting worse."
"Yes, there is an alien organism in your brain, eating it." the Doctor scoffed, "Of course it's getting worse."
"Doctor?" Clara called as she watched the monitor, seeing the Sleepers sitting up in their beds, "What are they doing?"
"Factually, getting up. Significantly, sensing the endgame."
"How?"
"I don't understand." Ashley shook her head.
"Well, look at them." He nodded to the screens, "Go on. Look at them. Look at them properly. Look who they are. They're you. The Sleepers are you."
"How can they be us?" Shona breathed, seeing the name tags on the Sleepers.
"Because we're dreaming, all of us. This base isn't real. None of us are actually standing in the room. I'm probably asleep in the TARDIS and Star you would have probably fallen asleep watching Disney or something. Clara, you must be in bed. God knows where the rest of you are, probably scattered all over the world. But wherever you are, the Dream Crabs have got us, and we're all being networked into the same nightmare."
"What are they doing?" Bellows frowned as the Sleepers walked towards the cameras.
"It's your subconscious again. The Sleepers represent the part of your mind that's already surrendered to the attack. These are dream images of what's coming to kill you.
"That's me?" the man gasped, "That's actually me?"
"No, it's a metaphorical construct representing a psychic attack within a shared dreamscape." Star grumbled, sarcastically, "Please try to keep up."
"But it's me." He leaned closer to the camera.
"Please, get as close as you can."
"Don't get to close." The Doctor warned.
"Why?" he asked as the Sleeper version of him held up his hand to the camera.
"Because this is a nightmare."
The Sleeper pulled its hand throw the screen and grabbed the man, pulling him through the screen.
Star pulled Clara back as she reached out to help the man, "we don't want them to get you too."
"Look out, they're coming through." The Doctor shouted as Bellows and Ashley reached out to the screens, "Out! Outside, now! Run, run, run, run! Run! Clara, run. Run, all of you run. Run!"
Star grabbed the Doctor as the Sleepers appeared into the room and he tried to stop them with a fire extinguisher. They followed the others outside; he used the sonic to lock the door.
"We'll freeze to death out here!" Bellows cried.
"Well if you want to go back inside and get killed." Star gestured back inside, "you're more than welcome."
"But it, it's just a dream." Shona shook her head.
"This dream just killed your friend." The Doctor said, "Start taking it seriously."
"Must be even worse in real life to kill an old friend," Star muttered, looking pointedly at the Doctor.
"What's that suppose to mean." He turned to her.
"Im just saying, it must be hard to know you killed your childhood friend."
"She killed you first!" he argued.
"How would you know?" she countered, "You weren't there."
"Stop it."
"Where's Albert?" Shona swallowed, "Where's the professor?"
"He probably just woke up somewhere in the real world, dead." The Doctor remarked, grimly, "If we don't wake up now, we'll do the same."
"But how?" Clara shook her head.
"I don't know."
"The TARDIS!" the Doctor shouted as the Sleepers thumped on the base's door, "Come on! Come on!"
"Doctor, it's not the real TARDIS." Clara pointed out.
"Well, let's hope that Star and I dreamed it really well, then."
"It's us." Clara breathed as she, the Doctor and Star stepped out of the TARDIS with Dream Crabs on their face.
"Of course it's us. We're dreaming too."
"Oh, my God." Shona gasped as more Sleepers appeared, it wasn't just them, there was dozens of them surrounding them.
"How is that possible?" Bellows gaped, "How can there be so many?"
"The logic of a nightmare." Star muttered,
"So tell us how to wake up!" Shona yelled, scared, "Because you're always talking like you're so clever, going on and on. So tell us what to do!"
"We have to leave this place." The Doctor deadpanned.
"Leave it?"
"How?"
"Use your imagination."
"Excuse me?"
"Dream yourselves home."
"But how?"
"Come on, it's Christmas, the North Pole." He rolled his eyes at the woman, "Who you gonna call?"
They looked up hearing a jingle from above and saw Santa in his sleigh with his reindeers, he flew down towards them. "Whoa! Whoa. Ah. Get in the sleigh." He ordered them, they all hurried in, Clara and the humans behind Santa while the Doctor and Star squeezed besides him, "Fortunately, I know all your home addresses." He grinned and they took off into the sky.
"So what happens now?" Clara called over the sound of the wind. "This is us just waking up, right?"
"Could be." The Doctor agreed, "Well, I hope so."
"We could be dying." Star stated.
"What?" she blinked.
"Just focus on this." The Doctor turned to her, "Do you believe in Santa Claus?"
"I've always believed in Santa Claus." Clara smiled, "But he looks a little different to me. Him and his daughter." She put her arms around them both, leaning her chin on the Doctors shoulder. "Look!" she pointed down at the Thames and the flew over the city.
"Hey. You want to take the reins, Doctor?" Santa looked at him.
"You're a dream construct, currently representing either my recovering or expiring mind." The Doctor deadpanned.
"Yes, but do you want a go?"
"Yeah. All right." He grinned, taking the reins, flying them close to St Paul's, and dangerously close to the rooftops, "Sorry, sorry, sorry."
"Easy! This way." Santa instructed.
"No, no, no! Oh, ho ho! Ah!"
"Up a bit. Lift up. There we go."
"Look at me." He beamed, as they passed the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben as it chimed midnight, "Look. Look at me! Look at me! I'm riding a sleigh. I'm riding a sleigh. Yippee ai-yay!" he stood up in his excitement, before catching himself and sat back down, "Oh. Maybe you could…" he gave the reins back to Santa.
"Well at least you can fly a sleigh just as well as the TARDIS," Star remarked.
"Oi!" he huffed, turning to her, "is that a smile?" he asked, seeing a shadow of a smile on her lips, "that is! You're smiling."
"I do smile." She defended, "…when I want to."
"I work in a shop." Shona said suddenly
"I'm sorry?" Ashley blinked at her.
"I thought I was a scientist. That's rubbish."
"Finally, something that makes sense." Bellows joked.
"You're horrible, you."
"Perfume." Ashley said.
This time Shona blinked at her, "What?"
"I'm an account manager for perfume. Does this mean we're waking up?"
"Possibly." The Doctor nodded, "With any luck, we'll all wake up in our proper times and places."
"Proper times?" Clara asked.
"Well, we could all be from different time zones. Time travel is always possible, in dreams."
"We might not know each other?" Shona frowned, "Not any of us?"
"No, possibly not." Ashley murmured.
"Well, you know what we should do? We should swap numbers. We should have a reunion."
"Bellows!" Ashley gasped, seeing the woman just vanish from where she was sat.
"She's woken up." Star called back.
"Oh."
"Er, now I'm pretty sure I can remember my number so," Shona frowned in thought, "if you memorise it, then you text me, we can go for a curry and…"
"The chances of you remembering any of this are very slim." The Doctor explained.
"Well, don't say that. We'll remember, won't we, Ashley? Ashley?" she looked at where the woman was sat only to see she had also woken up. "Am I next? Is it me now?"
"Shona, you're going home." Clara smiled at her, "You're surviving."
"Do you want to hang out sometime? We can just hang out."
"Sure." She nodded, knowing how unlikely that would be.
"Santa, can I stay a bit longer?" she turned to the man only to disappear herself.
"It's a pity we have to wake up, really." Clara sighed, "It's not really something we do every day, is it?"
"No, no. Strictly once a year." Santa chuckled.
"We stay, we die, Clara." The Doctor stated.
"You're always such a downer, Doctor." Clara smiled.
Star rolled her eyes at them, feeling the Doctor wake up, "don't sleep in!" Star warned Clara before she herself disappeared.
~.~
"Star?" the Doctor shook her lightly as she awoke on the ledge of a volcano.
"Its still there." She grumbled, rubbing her temple.
"It is?" he frowned, before nodding; he could feel it too, "come on. Clara!"
They ran into the TARDIS and frantically piloted to Clara house, needing to get to her. She would think that they were now actually awake, they needed to warn her.
They materialised in her garden and ran up to the woman's bedroom where the woman was still in bed with a Dream Crab on her face.
"Clara, I warned you not to sleep in." Star grumbled.
"Okay, I tracked the psychic signal here." The Doctor pulled out the sonic, "I'm pretty sure that I know how to do this now. One of the advantages of actually being awake. So, you just hold still. I've just got to zap the neural centres." He flashed the sonic on the Crab.
Star pulled the Crab of Clara's face and put it into the specimen jar they brought with them.
"The Dream Crabs must have got to me first then found you in my memory." The Doctor mused, as Clara sat up and turned on her lamp, "The others were collateral damage. Well, good to see you properly at last. How long has it been? Clara."
"Oh, you know." Clara offered a tired smile, her hair grey and face wrinkled, "About 62 years. Doctor, I have missed you very much, my stupid uncle and very silly cousin." She laughed and pulled them into a hug,
"Missed you, too." Star murmured, seeing her for the old woman she now was, the Doctor seeing her as she always was.
~.~
"These are Christmas hats," the Doctor remarked, handing Clara a hat as she sat at her table in her living room, "I've seen people use them. You put them on and absolutely anything seems funny."
"Oh, probably won't work on you." Clara joked.
"Probably not. You want to try?"
"Go on, then." She smiled and he put the yellow paper crown on her head, "Can you really see no difference in me?"
"Clara Oswald, you will never look any different to me." He told her honestly.
"And you Star?"
She shrugged, "being Time Lords it doesn't matter if people are young or old."
"So, how was it then?" the Doctor asked.
"How was what?" she frowned.
"The 62 years that we missed."
"Oh, how was my life, you mean?"
"Is there a Mr Clara?"
"No. But there were plenty of proposals."
"Im glad they all turned you down." Star smirked.
"I turned them down." Clara lifted her chin up at that, "I travelled."
"Completed your book?" Star wondered.
"Yes. I taught in every country in Europe. I learned to fly a plane."
"Regrets?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, hundreds. I just wish there were time for a few more."
"Yeah, they're always the best part. Christmas cracker. We should do one. No one ever matched up to Danny, eh?"
"No one else lived up to him." she sighed. "Or to you two."
"We should do this every Christmas." The Doctor remarked softly, handing her a cracker.
"Because every Christmas is last Christmas." Clara smiled pulling the cracker struggling with her aged bones.
Star couldn't help but see how similar it was to Trenzalore. How the Doctor had been the one to struggle with the cracker and now it was Clara.
"Here." Star held onto Clara end of the cracker and helped her pull it.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor muttered, "I was stupid. We should have come back earlier. I wish that we had."
"Do you, Doctor?" Santa called, "How much do you wish that?"
"Just wake us up!" Star snapped, in no mood for any more of his games.
~.~
Once again, they awoke on the volcanoes ledge.
"Gone." Star stated, no longer feeling the ice cream pain.
"Gone." The Doctor agreed.
"Clara!" they ran back inside the TARDIS and quickly back to Clara, running straight back into her bedroom. The Doctor quickly sonicing the crab of her face.
She gasped upright, "Am I young?" she looked at the Time Lords.
"Short, Brunette with a wide wrinkle-free face." Star listed, "I'd say so."
She let out a breath in relief, "Oh, that's good."
"The TARDIS is outside." Star stated.
"So?"
"So, please don't leave me with him. Alone." she nodded to the Doctor who crossed his arms, huffing.
"All of time and all of space is sitting out there." The Doctor added, "A big blue box. Please, don't even argue."
Clara took a moment to 'consider', grinning, "Merry Christmas, Doctor." She pecked his cheek, "and you Star." she did the same with Star.
"Merry Christmas, Oswald." Star mimicked her.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" she hoped out of bed, slipping on her shoes. "Come on!" she ran down the stairs, leaving the Time Lords to follow. "Well, look at you, all happy. That's rare." She remarked as they walked outside to the TARDIS.
"Don't get used to it." Star looked at her.
"Do you know what's rarer?" the Doctor countered, unlocking the TARDIS, "Second chances. I never get a second chance, so what happened this time? Don't even know who to thank…" he shook his head, it didn't really matter, "what would you like for Christmas, Star?"
It was what they did, they got each other presents on the first Christmases in new regenerations or if they thought they'd like something and didn't want to wait for hopefully a few centuries.
She was silent for a while and he didn't know if she was ignoring him or thinking about what she wanted, it seemed like the latter as she finally looked up at him.
"Nothing. I have all I want."
And that's Shooting Stars finished. I haven't decided on a name for the next series so that'll be a surprise.
Til next time! :)