Some days or weeks earlier

The Doctor and Clara infiltrated Sweetville, disguised as a married couple interested in joining the town Mrs. Gillyflower had built up. They passed Mrs. Gillyflower's recruitment test with flying colours although Clara still had one point of contention for the Doctor. Well, two points.

"Why're you talking like that?" Clara whispered to the Doctor as Mrs. Gillyflower took them on a tour of the town and the Doctor kept up a bad Yorkshireman accent. Bad, because although it was somewhat convincing it was extremely odd to Clara's ears.

"We're in Yorkshire, Clara, we should sound native." The Doctor answered. Clara gave up and moved on to the other thing that was bothering her.

"And why're we married?"

"Well, I can't have you wandering off on your own, Clara. We've got to stick together while we're here and the only way we can be sure to do that is if they think we're married." The Doctor whispered back, pretending to be very interested in the tour although he was far more interested in how silent the whole town seemed to be.

"But what're you going to do if Terry appears?" Clara whispered. The Doctor paused briefly.

"Didn't think of that. Well, I'm sure we'll figure something out." He shrugged before paying more attention as Mrs. Gillyflower started to wrap up the tour.

"Sweetville will provide you with everything you need. You won't have to worry about a thing ever again."

Clara tilted her head and, in her own accent, she piped up, "The name, Sweetville. Why not name it after yourself. After all, it's your creation."

"It is named in tribute to my partner." Mrs. Gillyflower answered and the Doctor cocked his head curiously.

"Your late partner?" He queried and Mrs. Gillyflower shook her head.

"No, my... silent partner."

The Doctor didn't miss the way Mrs. Gillyflower momentarily hesitated but the woman continued smoothly, "Mr. Sweet likes to keep himself to himself. Shall we move on?"

The Doctor and Clara exchanged glances but followed Mrs. Gillyflower as she stopped in front of one of the houses. The Doctor peered about.

"Who lives here?" He asked curiously and Mrs. Gillyflower waved her hand.

"Oh, names don't matter here. All you need to know is we only recruit the brightest and the best." She patted Clara as she spoke before she opened the front door.

Clara and the Doctor made to walk inside, but they stopped short at the sight before them. In the centre of the living room, sat at a tea table, were a man and a woman. That in itself might not have been too strange… except, they were under a giant bell jar. A pump to the side apparently fed the jar with air… but it was a wonder why they would need it at all as neither the man nor the woman moved at all. Instead, they remained as still as porcelain dolls, utterly frozen in mid-motion.

Before the Doctor and Clara could recover from their shock or fully process what was going on, they were surrounded by an army of people who looked as lifeless as the figures in the bell jar.

Present

The Doctor shook his head as he finished recounting his story.

"I don't really recall what happened after that, next thing I remember is waking up just before we were all dropped into a vat of red goop, the venom I had found before. The process nearly killed me, but I survived; not the way I was supposed to though. I would have ended up in the canal with the others who didn't survive the process but Mrs. Gillyflower's blind daughter, Ada, noticed I was alive and saved me although she kept me locked up."

The Doctor sighed.

"Until you came along, beside Ada the only other person I saw was Edmund when he stumbled into my cell by accident. Poor Edmund must have come looking for us and then fallen into a vat of the pure venom. Or was pushed. Didn't stand a chance."

His lips were pulled down into an unhappy frown as he recalled the determined man he'd met, who was now dead. At least his death was not in vain, the Doctor thought sadly as he thought about how Edmund's last breath had been seeing the Doctor. If not for the Doctor's image becoming preserved in Edmund's eyes because of that incident, he might never have escaped.

'Thank you, Edmund.' The Doctor thought sorrowfully before he was pulled out of his thoughts as Jenny asked, "What is that stuff, though?"

"Deadly poison." The Doctor replied darkly. "And Mrs Gillyflower's been dipping her pilgrims in a dilute form to protect them. Preserve them. Process didn't work on me. Maybe because I'm not human."

"Preserve them against what?" Jenny asked in confusion as she watched the Doctor pacing about, sonicing doors and checking the readouts before moving to peer out the windows of the factory hallways they were roaming.

"Well, according to her, the coming apocalypse!" The Doctor answered, and he circled his finger by his head to indicate the woman was crazy.

Jenny frowned and she murmured, "When the End of Days is come and judgement rains down upon us all-"

"What?" The Doctor whirled on her. Jenny shook her head.

"Nothing."

She started to say but the Doctor interrupted her as he insisted, "No, no, no. What?"

"Something Mrs. Gillyflower said." Jenny explained. "One of her sermons."

The Doctor paused, his eyes narrowed in thought, but Jenny continued anxiously, "Madame will come looking for me and Terry will likely be coming with her. We'd best get on."

"Yes, good." The Doctor muttered before he remembered. "Clara! Got to find Clara."

He turned and started running again when Jenny cried after him in protest, "But, Doctor…"

As the Doctor turned back to her, Jenny hesitated and she said tentatively, "Clara's dead. Isn't she?"

The Doctor grimaced.

"It's complicated. But the fact remains that if I don't find Clara before Terry arrives, my wife is not going to be very pleased with me."

And with that, he took off again and Jenny was forced to follow at a run.

Meanwhile

"What is taking so long?" Vastra wondered as the carriage slowed yet again but didn't exactly stop.

Night had fallen by then and with no sign of Jenny, Vastra was growing anxious. They'd set out for Sweetville as soon as the sun began to set but they had yet to arrive despite the fact that they should have done so a good half hour ago.

"Strax has gotten us lost." Terry replied absently as she tucked the hem of her long skirts up and then down, trying to decide if she preferred to have them down or if she preferred hitching them up so they were like trousers and not as annoying around her ankles.

"You're awfully calm considering Strax has gotten us lost while the Doctor is in danger." Vastra noted, eyeing the Time Lady curiously.

Terry smiled before she decided she preferred tucking up her skirts. She tied them up securely with long ribbons as she answered Vastra.

"Like I said before, Madame Vastra - if I wasn't quite sure the Doctor, with some magnificent help from your wife, was quite safe for the moment, you would not have succeeded in keeping me at your house the whole afternoon."

The carriage began to move again as Terry spoke and Vastra tilted her head.

"Even so, there is something about this situation which amuses you." The Silurian deduced. "Pray tell, for I too could use some humour at the moment."

"Oh, I doubt you'd find it amusing, Madame Vastra." Terry answered with a shrug but a grin was playing with her lips. "But judging from our movement, Strax has just encountered a very reliable young boy who will provide him with directions to Sweetville."

"A boy? What's his name?"

"Thomas Thomas."

Terry couldn't stop her grin from widening although Vastra was no less confused than she had been before.

"As I said, he is a very reliable positioning service even if the boy is not quite global."

"I'm sure I don't know what you are talking about." Vastra sighed, leaning back in her seat.

"And do not think that I haven't noticed that your actions belie your calm facade, Miss Storm. You say you are sure of the Doctor's safety and yet, it is very clear to me that you are preparing for battle."

She gestured to where Terry had just finished securing her long Victorian skirts into make-shift trousers, the fan Vastra had given her gleaming from it's place in Terry's right garter. Terry's smile widened.

"Nothing gets past you after all. But," Terry leant back comfortably in her seat as well. "Don't fear, Madame Vastra. Your wife is perfectly capable of taking herself until we are able to provide reinforcements for her."

"Oh, that I don't doubt. It's your husband's propensity for trouble that I worry about." Vastra answered with a chuckle of her own as the carriage continued to roll smoothly now that Strax was back on track to Sweetville.

Meanwhile at Sweetville

The Doctor and Jenny waited outside the metal cubicle once more while inside the machine Clara was, hopefully, being revived after the Doctor finally found the companion in a bell jar in one of the houses and rescued her. The resemblance between Clara and the Clara Jenny witnessed die at Christmas, was astounding. But by that point the Victorian woman had given up trying to get any answers out of the Doctor; he didn't even acknowledge her questions on the subject anymore.

Jenny was inclined to suspect that the Doctor didn't know the answer, but she refrained from saying as much as she asked instead, "Can she be revived, like you were?"

Jenny gestured to the machine that hid Clara.

"I hope so." The Doctor answered glumly as he tried to peer inside and check on the short companion.

They were interrupted by the sound of feet, and the Doctor and Jenny turned to see what could only be described as a squadron of men and women who looked normal except for their dead expressions and eyes.

"Oh, great." The Doctor grumbled irately. "Great. Attack of the supermodels."

A few of the men and women lifted bats menacingly while the men at the very forefront just clasped their hands together in front of their bodies with deceptive calm. Clearly, however, they were the strongest fighters who had no need of weapons.

"Time for a plan." The Doctor muttered, raising his screwdriver threateningly.

But Jenny stepped forward and, removing her bonnet, she stated firmly, "Nah, Doctor. This one's on me."

The Doctor watched with confusion as Jenny purposefully removed her dress to reveal a body-hugging all-leather outfit beneath the Victorian ruffles. The Doctor blinked and he looked from his blinking screwdriver to Jenny as the chambermaid took on Mrs. Gillyflowers' 'Pilgrims'. Within seconds and with only a few moves, Jenny had taken out the three strongest males, stepping down on the chest of one and keeping him pinned to the ground.

"That is a plan." The Doctor agreed, torn between surprise and admiration.

Jenny grinned but the rest of the pilgrims were advancing now, swinging their bats. And Jenny, for all she was strong, was weaponless. The Doctor took one look at the new situation and he called, "Okay, time for a new plan. Run!"

The Doctor grabbed Jenny's hand, pulling her away as he made to run away to the exit on the opposite side of the room. She let out a startled yelp, clearly not prepared for his new plan, but they were interrupted yet again as a familiar, stocky figure appeared right in the Doctor's path.

"Sontar!" Strax shouted as he lifted his huge gun, his Sontaran armour shining even in the dim light, and he fired.

The Doctor and Jenny threw themselves out of the way while the pilgrims fled as Strax charged after them while firing and laughing like a madman. Vastra was right behind the Sontaran, her sword drawn. And behind the Silurian-

"Angel!" The Doctor yelled joyfully as he ran up to meet Terry. He attempted to swing her around to kiss her but she dodged him with a quick sidestep.

"I'm afraid lips that touched another shan't touch mine, Doctor." Terry said rather primly, adjusting her bonnet, and the Doctor gaped like a fish.

"I… er, take it you know this adventure?" The Doctor asked. Terry just pinned him with a look that could freeze flames. He swallowed.

"You know, love, that is a very magnificent bonnet, really brings out your eyes, have you always had that…?"

"Had what, eyes?" Terry retorted and the Doctor wilted visibly. Only to be surprised when Terry kissed him quickly, smiling slightly as he stared at her with wide green eyes.

"You know, Sweetie, if you don't want to be punished, you shouldn't make me jealous."

"I make you jealous?"

The Doctor brightened instantly but Vastra interrupted them.

"As touching as this reunion is, let's go!"

"Ah, no, can't do."

The Doctor shot that idea down while Jenny explained simultaneously, "No, ma'am. We're not escaping. We've got to help the Doctor with Clara."

Vastra stopped in her tracks and stared at her wife like Jenny was crazy before she looked at the Doctor like he was crazy. The Doctor grimaced while Terry was already at the machine and trying to look inside for Clara.

"Long story." The Doctor told the Silurian who growled but let it slide for the moment.

"I can't see her." Terry informed the Doctor and he pulled away from the Silurian to also take a peek inside the machine while Strax returned to their group.

"What now, Madame?" Strax asked, sounding extremely hyperactive and oddly giddy. "We could lay mimetic cluster mines."

"Strax." Vastra began but he went on talking over her.

"Or dig trenches and fill them with acid."

"Strax!"

Vastra's sharp tone silenced the Sontaran at last and Vastra examined the short male with a critical eye.

"You're overexcited. Have you been eating Miss Jenny's sherbet fancies again?"

Strax hesitated before answering very unconvincingly, "No."

"Go outside and wait for me until I call for you." Vastra ordered and Strax eventually went off sulkily.

The Doctor meanwhile pulled back from the machine and he announced for the others, "Okay, I think she's about done."

The Doctor wrenched open the machine door and Terry beamed to see Clara, looking back to normal although she still had her eyes closed and was swaying unsteadily. Taking the Doctor's sonic, Terry scanned the companion quickly to check on her while the Doctor glanced back at Vastra.

"I know who you think she is, but she isn't. She can't be." He informed the Silurian in a quiet voice, glancing at Terry surreptitiously as he did.

"I was right, then. You and Clara have unfinished business." Vastra observed in an equally soft murmur before she narrowed her blue eyes. "I kept Terry safe as you asked, but you will explain to me what your strange phone call was all about before you leave this time, Doctor."

Clara toppled forward and Terry caught her, gently holding her up as Clara's eyes started to flutter. The Doctor hurriedly whispered to Vastra, "There was something; something that happened right before we came here but it's not happened for Terry yet. I can't tell you until then."

Vastra pursed her lips unhappily but the Doctor left her to rejoin Terry and Clara just as Terry was greeting the dazed companion.

"Hello, Clara."

"Angel." Clara sighed, blinking at Terry as her vision slowly came back into focus. "You're here."

"Of course I am." Terry smiled and Clara slowly grinned back.

"Love what you've done to your dress." The companion commented cheekily.

It was then that she noticed the Doctor, and she opened her mouth to say something, probably cheeky, to him but she stopped as she noticed the others. Specifically, Vastra.

"Oh." Clara blinked, as if checking her eyes weren't playing tricks. "What's going on?"

"Oh, she's a lizard." The Doctor answered with a shrug before pulling Terry along. "Come on!"

Terry pulled Clara with her as the Doctor led them quickly away once more.