"Oh, I like the new desktop," Jenny admitted as she looked at the dreamscape.
"I was getting a little bored of the Taj Mahal," Vastra remarked as a tea tray appeared on the table and she poured it on her cup. "The tea should be superb, it's drawn from one of my favourite memories." There is a loud thud and Strax arrives. "Strax! Good of you to join us."
"It better be important! I was in the middle of destroying some very pleasant primitives," Strax stated.
"I apologise for the interruption, but there is urgent news concerning the Doctor."
"Who else is coming?"
Then, beside Strax, Arthur arrives with a thud, wincing his eyes at the strange room he enters. "Ow. That's not pleasant at all, Auntie Wolf," he muttered, before knowing that he's not alone. "Please tell me this is important, Madame Vastra."
"It is, my dear. Be patient. We're waiting for two people to join us." On a cue, Clara drops in, looking startled. "So glad you could make it."
"Where am I?" Clara asks as she takes the tea that Vastra provides.
"Exactly where you were, but sleeping," Jenny answered.
"Time travel has always been possible in dreams. You just need a quick adjustment and voila!" Arthur said and changed the tea into a yoghurt. "I'm guessing my mother will come as well?"
"Oh, no. Not the one with the gigantic head?" Strax complained.
"Don't disrespect my mother, Strax."
River arrives in a puff of smoke, wearing a white gown. "Madame Vastra," she greeted with a smile, then looking at Arthur. "Sunny!"
"Hey, Mama."
After the events at Lake Silencio and the marriage of his older self to Delaney, Arthur had jumped into Amy and Rory's yard, where they were planning to watch a meteor shower. River happened to be there as well and provided information regarding the Doctor's status.
While Amy and Rory rejoiced at the news they heard, River and Arthur spent a long time chatting. For the rest of the night, they just talked and talked. Arthur learnt many things about River, and River learnt many things about himself. For the first time, Arthur got to experience what it's like to spend time with a real mum.
Of course, the disappointment in River was still there. No matter how much he tried to rationalise it, his feelings remained the same. Both River and the Doctor know this, but it doesn't stop them from giving him parental love. At the very least, he tries to appreciate what he receives.
"Professor. Help yourself to some tea," Madame Vastra suggested.
"Why, thank you," River said and created a champagne bottle and flute for herself.
"How did you two do that?" Jenny wondered at both mother and son.
"Disgracefully," the woman replied, looking at Clara.
Noticing that, Vastra makes an introduction. "Ah. Perhaps you two haven't met—"
"Actually, I do know her," River quickly interjected. Her gaze quickly turned into sadness. "Clara Oswald."
"You…know me?"
This time, Arthur looks confused. "Wait, you haven't met her? Or even see her from photos? The Doctor never told you?"
"Honestly, this is the first time I see her," Clara confessed. "Sorry."
"Don't be. Professor River Song," River greeted. "The Doctor might have mentioned me?"
River Song….wait a minute. "You're River Song?! I, uh, I mean… it's just… you're not exactly how I'm picturing Arthur's mum to be."
If Clara were to be honest, she always got the image of River Song as a formal-looking and protective woman from what Delaney had told her about Arthur's mother. The woman she was dealing with now clearly did not have a formal appearance (in fact, the white dress she was wearing looked casual, as if she was ready to go to a party at any time).
The woman smiles. "I tend to have that effect," she responded with a shrug.
"Perhaps we should get down to the business at hand," Vastra suggested, sensing how Clara looks flustered.
"That might be good, dear, yes," Jenny agreed.
Vastra touches the air above the centre of the table and a projection of a man appears. "Clarence DeMarco. Murderer, under sentence of death. He offered us this in exchange for his life." She waves her hand through the projection and it changes into something Arthur recognises.
"Space time coordinates," he and River replied at the same time.
"This, Mister DeMarco claims, is the location of the Doctor's greatest secret."
"Which is?" Clara asked.
"We don't know. It's a secret," Jenny answered.
"The Doctor does not discuss his secrets with anyone, my dear, except to his remaining family members. If you're still entertaining the idea that you are an exception to this rule, ask yourself one question. What is his name?" Vastra dared Clara.
"Well, I know it," River admitted. "So does Sunny."
Arthur responded with an incoherent mumble, looking at his mother without certainty. He's not sure if he truly knows the Doctor's name, since he was a baby when he said it. But if River said that he knows it, then perhaps someday he can say his father's actual name.
"What, you know his name? He told you two?" Clara frowns.
"He has to. There are three moments a Time Lord can share their real name. Birth, wedding, and death. He told his name to Arthur when I gave birth to him. He told his name to Delaney when she married my son. You can guess when he told me his real name."
"He's still never contacted you?" Madame Vastra kindly asked her, trying not to bring up to Arthur that his mother already died.
"He doesn't like endings."
"You know how he became after my grandparents and I got trapped in the past, unable to see them again," Arthur reminded her while also recalling his father's nihilistic emotions back in 1891.
Clara nearly spilled her tea on hearing that last statement. She has some guesses on what happened to Arthur's grandparents that made the Doctor look grim when she asked him about them after the whole submarine incident. But get sent to the past? Not to mention, Arthur also stuck with them as well before returning to him?
That must be a gut-wrenching thing to happen.
"Is that all he said?" Arthur asked, trying to focus back on their discussion. "Coordinates aren't enough. He must have something else."
"And he did," Madame Vastra grimly agreed. "He said one word."
"What word?"
"A word I've heard in connection with the Doctor before. Trenzalore."
Arthur grips his yoghurt very tightly, starting to lose his appetite. "Madame Vastra, can you tell me what he means by that?"
She changes the projection so it shows the man's face, replaying what he said to her. "The Doctor has a secret, you know. He has one he will take to the grave. And it is discovered."
"You misunderstood," River informed, looking tense.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry. I just realise I forgot to lock the doors," Jenny fretted.
"It doesn't matter, Jenny," Vastra shook her head. "What misunderstanding? Tell me."
"No, ma'am, please. I should've locked up before we went into the trance."
"Jenny, it doesn't matter!"
"Someone's broken in. Someone's with us. I can hear them."
"Jenny?" Arthur called, feeling dread now.
"Jenny, are you all right?" Vastra asked, concerned.
"Sorry, ma'am. So sorry. So sorry. So sorry… I think I've been murdered."
"Jenny!"
"What's happened to her?" Clara inquired as Jenny suddenly went stiff and his projection flickering.
"Jenny, can you hear me?" River called.
"Speak to us, boy!" Strax yelled.
"Jenny!" Vastra shouted as her wife disappeared.
"You're under attack. You must wake up now. Just wake up. Do it!" River realises and slaps Vastra, sending her away.
"Sorry, Strax. But you need to get up!" Arthur insists and throws a cup of tea into Strax' forehead, sending him away as well.
Suddenly, several humanoid creatures with pale skin and no face appear, surrounding Clara, River, and Arthur. "Tell the Doctor. Tell Dame Redwood. Tell the soldier girl."
"Tell them what?" Clara demanded as she and River shield Arthur.
The face of Dr. Simeon, the Great Intelligence, appears. "His friends and son are lost forever more, unless he and his family go to Trenzalore."
Arthur glances at his hands as it flickers. His mind seems to be drifting too. "Nonono," he mumbled.
The last thing he hears before everything turns dark is Clara and River calling his name desperately.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
Clara wakes up on the floor of her room, hearing the Doctor's voice from below. She sits up for a moment before managing to stand up and comes down the stairs. "Doctor?"
The Doctor, wearing a blindfold, moves his head at Clara's direction. "Ha, Clara! How are you, don't worry. Everything's under control."
Besides him, Claudia tries her best not to make a laughing noise as she looks amuse.
"What are you doing?" The brunette girl asked.
"Oh, um, Mr. Maitland went next door, so I said I'd look after the kids. They wanted to go to the cinema, but I said no, I said no. Not until you wake up, I was very firm."
"At which point, they suggested Blind Man's Bluff."
"Yes. Where are they?"
She steps down and removes the blindfold. "At the cinema."
Claudia snickers and releases her laugh, holding her stomach while doing it. The Doctor, annoyed, pointing his finger at her. "You little Dalek!" He huffed. "You and your mother know it and let them do it!"
"Come on. They're kids," Delaney said as she steps out of the kitchen, gripping a teapot. "Oh. Hi, Clara. How's your sleep? I hope we're not interrupting you."
Clara grips the edge of her shirt. "There's something I should tell you."
▪︎▪︎▪︎
After she told them what happened, they went silent. Clara had never seen devastation and wariness at their faces in the same moment. Not even during their adventures.
While pouring tea into cups in the living room, she decides to ask. "Why did Vastra invite young Arthur? I mean… shouldn't she ask his adult version?"
"Bad Wolf probably sent him there to let him know," Delaney hyphotheses, drinking the tea. "She still needs to navigate his timeline in order to prevent some unintentional paradoxes." She sighs. "River asked Vastra for the exact words... What were they?"
"'The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered,'" she recited, soon regretting it as Delaney closed her eyes in defeat, Claudia gasps while shaking her head, and the Doctor cries in utter pain.
"Sorry. And it was Trenzalore? Definitely Trenzalore?" The Doctor sobbed.
"Yeah."
"This can't be," Claudia glowered, making a fist on her hands and quickly walked away from the living room.
"Oh dear," Delaney muttered sadly as the Doctor quickly followed the bluenette. "Sorry, Clara."
"Why would you be?" She asked, not offended by their reactions. "It… must be bad. Whatever will happen in Trenzalore."
"Very bad," Delaney agreed, gesturing to her to follow her back to the Tardis. "Let's meet with others, shall we?"
▪︎▪︎▪︎
When they enter the Tardis, they find both the Doctor and Claudia are sitting underneath the console. Clara slowly walks down the steps, her arms crossed while Delaney pinches her nose, trying to remain calm on what she just heard.
"Well?" She asked.
"Trenzalore. We've heard the name, of course. Dorium mentioned it, a few others," the Doctor started as he stands and used the sonic on some of the overhead wiring. "Always suspected what it was, never wanted to find out myself." He puts away his sonic. "River would know, though."
"She always knew. Future Arthur as well," Delaney noted as the Doctor pulled down a cable.
"Let me," Claudia lets her hand out and the Doctor gives a brief nod before giving the cable to her. "Now, Clara. This is going to be painful. Just relax, okay?" Clara nods. "The coordinates you saw will be in your memory. I'm linking you into the Tardis telepathic circuit." She jabs the cable into her palm and Clara yelps. "Okay, that's it."
"Okay. What is Trenzalore? Is it your big secret?" Clara guesses, rubbing at her palm.
"More than that," Delaney stated. "When you are a time traveller, there is one place you must never go. One place in all of space and time you must never find yourself in."
"Your own graveyard," Claudia finished without emotion. Clara didn't like the way she said it.
"'The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered.' He wasn't talking about my secret, no, no, no, that's not what's been found. He was talking about my...grave. Trenzalore is where I'm buried," the Doctor added and walked up the steps. "And Trenzalore is where…" he quickly shook his head in frustration.
"How can you have a grave?" Clara asked as she, Delaney, and Claudia followed him, and didn't like what he implied on what also might happen.
"Because we all do. Somewhere out there in the future, waiting for us. The trouble with time travel, you can actually end up visiting…"
She winces, recalling the story on River and Arthur's fate and how the Doctor unknowingly found it. "But you're not going to. You just said it's the one place you must never go."
"We have to, Clara," Delaney insisted. "They got Young Arthur, knowing that none of us will let him be trapped in that place. And I can't let that happen to Vastra, Strax, and Jenny as well, after all the support they gave to us."
"You're still gonna come," Claudia remarked, knowing it won't matter for Clara if it's dangerous.
She nods. "How can we save them?"
"Apparently... by breaking into my own tomb!" The Doctor yelled and threw a lever, causing the Tardis to materialise and shaking at the same time.
"What's that?"
"She just figured out where we're going. For God's sake, we're trying to save your grandson!" He yelled as he tried to keep control of the time machine. "She's against it. I'm about to cross my own timeline in the biggest way possible. The Tardis doesn't like it."
Claudia helps the Doctor as they fight the controls, pushing hard against them to move. Clara and Delaney hold tightly to the console. "She's fighting it! Just stay steady!" Claudia warns with sparks flying from around the console as the Tardis continues to resist them. One blast hurtles them against the rails. They look up to find themselves in the dark, the only light coming from the sparks.
"Now what?" Clara asked in a quiet tone.
"I'm going to guess she doesn't want us to arrive on the ground," Delaney muttered as she slowly looked at the console. By shutting down."
"So we're not there."
The Doctor smacks a lever in frustration. "We must be close," he guessed as he went over to the main door and opened it, looking down at the planet. Others quietly look at the planet as well. "Okay. So that's where all of us end up. Always thought maybe I'd retire. Take up watercolours, or bee-keeping, or something. Apparently not."
"So. How do we get down there?" Clara inquired as she closed the doors. "Jump?"
Claudia snorts. "No, that would be stupid. Thing is, the Tardis hasn't turned off the anti-gravs. Which means—" She deactivates the anti-gravs and the Tardis quickly plummets towards the planet below, causing a crash landing and sending all four of them on the floor from the impact.
Delaney slowly opens the door and looks up at a pane of glass that is broken. "Sorry," she whispered, looking out at the scenery before Clara, Claudia, and the Doctor followed her, finding themself standing on a graveyard. The graveyard is packed tight with gravestones of various sizes and shapes. Above, lightning flashes and thunder rumbles.
"You okay?" Clara inquired as she closed the door behind her. "Visiting your own grave. Anyone would be scared."
"It's more than that. I'm a time traveller. I've probably time-travelled more than anyone else," the Doctor pointed out.
"Meaning?"
"His grave is potentially the most dangerous place in the universe," Claudia concluded.
"Gravestones are a bit basic," the brunette girl commented, walking past the graves.
"It's a battlefield graveyard, Clara."
"Why are some of them bigger?"
"Soldiers. Bigger the gravestone, the higher the rank," Claudia shrugs as they all look at a mountain high on a hill, where a giant Tardis stands still. "That's not good."
"No," the Doctor agreed. "When a Tardis is dying, sometimes the dimension dams start breaking down. They used to call it a size leak, all the bigger-on-the-inside starts leaking to the outside. It grows." He chuckles bitterly. "What else would they bury me in?"
"This is just a possible future," Delaney reminded him, which sounds a bit…rough. "For all we know, this isn't the exact future that will entrail."
"Clara," a sudden voice said, surprising her. She finds herself looking at River. "Don't speak, don't say my name. They can't see or hear me, only you and Sunny can."
"Clara?" Claudia asked her from her left side, worried.
"We're mentally linked, it's the conference call. I kept the line open."
"Clara, what's…" her eyes looked widened. "Oh no," she whispered, walking towards an old stone in front of Clara (and River), looking at it with absolute horror.
Quietly, Clara walks behind the bluenette and takes a step back when she reads the name that craves in the stone.
Here lies
Delaney Victoria Redwood
24th May 1862 - 23rd November 2913
"For she has finally found her happiness"
"That's… That's impossible!" Clara yelled as the Doctor and Delaney looked at the mark on the stone with utter shock.
Delaney, hand covering her mouth in shock, slowly takes a moment to calm down as her own head spinning like crazy, as the paradox of witnessing her future starts to affect her. She knows this might happen. The way Emma Grayling had warned her back in Caliburn House makes her think about it a lot. The fact that she had seen the grave that bears her name…just set her fate in stone.
She shouldn't be this shock. She knows that she might never get her chance to be with her husband, but still… "We can think of it later," she decided as her eyes drifted to the grave beside it.
Claudia looks back at her mother with rage. "How?! How can you say that?!" She snapped. "Mum, that's your grave! You're literally standing in your own dead body!"
"I know, but remember. This might be an alternate future," she repeated kindly, trying to hold up the swarling pain on her head that indicates that her fate is pretty much going to be like this. "But we can't waste our time arguing. We need to find others here. And I think I found a clue," she added, pointing at River's supposedly grave.
"That can't be right," Clara remarked.
"No, it can't," the Doctor said.
"She's not dead."
"Oh, she's dead, I'm afraid. She's been dead for a very long time."
"Yeah, should probably have mentioned that," River replied awkwardly, "never the right time. Especially in front of my child."
"But I met her!" Clara argued.
"River can't have a grave here," Delaney insisted.
"We'll tell you later," Claudia promised before hearing hushed whispers and turned around. "Guys?" She called, ready in her battle position as the group of Whisper Men approached. He reaches into his inner jacket pocket and pulls out the sonic and uses it on them.
The Whisper Men continue to approach. One of them points at the Doctor and Delaney. "This man and woman must fall as all must. The fate of all is always dust."
The Doctor slaps the sonic against his hand and tries again. When it still doesn't work, he blows on it and tries a third time.
"If it's not my gravestone, then what is it?" River asked.
"What do you think the gravestone really is?" Clara repeated.
"A false one," Delaney concluded.
"Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!" River proposed.
"Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!" Clara added.
The Doctor taps the sonic against his forehead. "Yes, of course, makes sense," he noted as he uses sonic on the fake gravestone. "They'd never have buried my wife out here!"
The ground opens underneath them and they fall.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
Arthur gasps as he sits up quickly, looking at the dark, red sky above him and the grey land surrounding him. His eyes find Vastra helping his wife to stand up before the Whisper Men approach, with Simeon standing between them. "I see you have repaired your pet," he sneered. "No matter, I was only attracting your attention. I presume I have it."
"Dr. Simeon," Vastra greeted coldly. "This is not possible."
"And yet here we are, meeting again, so very far from home."
"But he died... you told me," Jenny recalled.
"He is. This isn't Mr. Simeon anymore," Arthur explained as he adjusted his shaking legs. "This is the Great Intelligence."
"Welcome to the final resting place of the cruel tyrant," the Great Intelligence announced. "Of the slaughterer of the 10 billion and the vessel of the final darkness. Welcome…to the tomb of the Explorer's father."
"He's not a tyrant, stupid. Check your eyes."
"It was a minor skirmish," he said, ignoring Arthur's words as he glanced at the Tardis. "By the Doctor's blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War, but enough to finish him and his daughter-in-law. In the end, it was too much for the old man."
Jenny frowns. "Blood-soaked?"
"The Doctor has been many things, but never blood-soaked," Vastra asserted.
"Tell that to the leader of the Sycorax, or Solomon the trader, or the Cybermen, or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end. The Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard." He glances at Arthur who didn't like any of what he just said. Strax quickly stood protectively beside him. "One wonders what Kovarian was thinking to stop you and your father from reaching this place."
"I'd prefer to find that myself," Arthur commented tartly. "You're quite knowledgeable, for a creature without a body."
"Alas, I did." The Great Intelligence pulls at his face, to reveal that he is an empty shell. His clothes tumble to the ground, then a Whisper Man steps forward and becomes him again. "As you can see." He faces the main doors of the tomb. "The doors require a key. The key is a word. And the word... is the Doctor's."
A husky voice of an old man kept asking. "Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor who?"
Arthur grimaces a bit at the familiar vision before looks on his left and sees the Doctor, Clara, Claudia, and Delaney arrive. The Doctor steps in front of him, facing the Great Intelligence as it turns around. "Here I am, late to my own funeral. Glad to see you could make it, Jenny," he looks at Jenny who nods before glaring back at him. "You had some nerve to kidnap Sunny."
"Open the door, Doctor. Speak, and open your tomb."
"No."
"Because you know what's in there?"
"I will not open those doors."
"The key is a word lost to time. A secret hidden in the deepest shadow and known to you alone. The answer to a question!"
The Doctor strides forward until he is face-to-face with him. "I will not open my tomb," he persisted.
"Doctor, what is your name?"
The Doctor doesn't reply and the Great Intelligence grips his face in his gloved hand. Arthur and Claudia launch themself, prepare to ambush the Great Intelligence before the Whisper Men step in front of these two and snarl, warning them to step back. But luckily, Delaney, who stands closest, manages to step between those two men and pulls away the Great Intelligence's grasp at the Doctor. "Don't you dare hurt him," she leered.
The Great Intelligence walks around them and heads towards the others. "The Doctor's friends and family. Stop their hearts."
The Whisper Men hiss. Clara, Claudia, Arthur, Strax, Vastra, and Jenny whip around to face them.
"Madames, boys, combat formation! They are unarmed!" Strax ordered.
"Not all of us had weapons, Strax," Claudia pointed out.
"Do not divulge our military secrets, madam!"
The Whisper Men advance, each with a hand outstretched.
"Stop this!" The Doctor insisted. "Leave them alone."
"Your name, Doctor. Answer me!"
"You know he can't say it!" Delaney yelled.
"Mum?" Claudia called, trying to keep Clara and others safe. She tries to punch and kick the Whisper Men, only to pass it through. Heck, even Strax's attack with a pipe didn't do anything.
"Doctor who?" The Great Intelligence asked.
Clara yelps, causing the Doctor and Delaney to look around. The Whisper Man in front of Claudia reaches into her chest with its hand as the bluenette girl winces and screams.
"Claudia!" Arthur yelled, trying to release her, before another Whisper Man thrust its hand into his chest, causing the young boy to cry in pain.
"Please, stop it!" The Doctor begged, cannot bear to see his son and granddaughter like that.
"Doctor who?" He repeated.
"Don't tell him, Dad!" Arthur insisted, still crying in pain. "Don't tell him!"
"Just leave them!" Delaney yelled, wanting to help them, but unable with the Doctor holding her from getting closer as he didn't want Delaney to suffer as well.
"Doctor!" Clara shouted, scarier than ever.
"Doctor who?"
"Please!" The Doctor pleaded, ready to tell his name—
When the door behind him and Delaney slowly open. They both turn and look at the lit area within. The Great Intelligence raises its hand and the Whisper Men release the others.
"The Tardis can still hear me," River said, looking at the door beside her with relief. "Lucky thing, since his ego is too big to even save his own son."
"Why did you open the door, sir?" Strax demanded.
"He didn't say his name," Arthur answered, looking at his mother with confusion. He notices how nobody seems to pay any attention to his mother, except Clara, who looks at River with shock. Why can nobody see her?
The Doctor swallows before turning around to check on the others and help them stand. "Is everyone all right? Is everyone Okay? Clara? Claudia? Sunny?"
"I'm… I'm good," he assured his father as he hugged him, still confused that even he doesn't acknowledge River. River simply put her finger on her lips with a sad smile.
"Oh, man. That was not nice. Like, at all," Claudia panted, holding her chest as she took a slow breath and Clara kindly rubbing her back for comfort.
"I know. I'm sorry," he apologised and released Arthur, holding his hand closer as he stares at the man who's responsible for this. "Now then, Dr. Simeon. Or Mr. G. Intelligence, whatever I call you... Do you know what's in there?"
"For me, peace at last. For you and your family, pain everlasting. Won't you invite us in?"
Arthur growls at the man before the Doctor striding over to the door. They stop and push the doors fully open with a groan. Arthur gasps when he looks inside the console room.
Inside the console room, there's vines growing through it. As both father and son climb the stairs, they can hear the cloister bell. The others follow behind. In the centre, where the console would be is a tower of blue light, different strands rotating around each other. There's also a yellow, pink, and green light encircling it.
"What's that?" Clara asked, not getting it.
"What were you expecting? A body?" The Doctor huffed. "Bodies are boring, I've had loads of 'em. That's not what my tomb is for." He leads his friends up to the main level. Opposite them stand the Great Intelligence and the Whisper Men.
"But what is the light?" Vastra pondered.
Jenny looks at it with amazement. "It's beautiful."
"Should I destroy it?" Strax asked before Claudia kicked him.
"Doctor, explain. What is that?" Clara inquired.
"Those are the tracks of his life," Arthur replied. "The thing is, time travel can create damage, whether big or small. Like, uh…"
"A tear in the fabric of reality," Delaney finished.
The Doctor nods. "That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through time and space, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore. As well as Sunny, Delaney, and Claudia." He uses his sonic on the blue light, letting his past selves' line echoing the room. "My own personal time tunnel, all the days, even the ones that... I, er, even the ones that I haven't lived yet."
"Doctor! Arthur!" Clara shouted, ran over and kneels beside them as they both lay on the floor, looking pale and sick. Delaney and Claudia followed her, kneeling beside them before they also felt sick and had to sit down.
"No. No. Which is why I shouldn't be here. The paradox is... it's very bad. It can…affect my family too," he whispered, gripping his son's arm, afraid to let it go.
Clara looks at both mother and daughter, gasping as Delaney's body starts shaking and Claudia having a hard time breathing.
"DON'T!" Arthur yelled as the Great Intelligence started to move towards the light.
"The Doctor's life is an open wound. And an open wound can be entered," he realised, looking at the lights.
"No, it would destroy you," the Doctor insisted.
"Not at all. It will kill me. It will destroy you. I can rewrite your every living moment. I can turn every one of your victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath. And I can inflict it to your family as well."
"It would burn you up!" Arthur yelped.
"Once you go through, you can't come back," Delaney warned. "You'll be scattered along his timeline for the rest of your life!"
"It matters not," he remarked as he stepped backward into the light. "You four thwarted me at every turn. Now, you will give me peace, as I take my revenge on every second of your life! Goodbye…"
The Great Intelligence enters the light and screams in pain. The Whisper Men disappear alongside him. On the floor, all four of them gasp and cry in pain.
"What's wrong with them?" Clara cried. "What's happening?!"
"He's being rewritten!" Vastra realised in horror. "Simeon is attacking their entire timeline. They all died all at once. The Torchwood Estate. The Pandorica. Messaline. Death Zone. The Dalek Asylum. Androzani."
"What did you say? Did you say…the Dalek Asylum?" Clara asked, as if she recalls something.
"Now they're dying in London, with us."
"It is done," the Great Intelligence declared before the light turned red.
"Oh, dear Goddess," Vastra muttered.
"What's wrong?" Jenny asked.
"A universe without the Doctor. There will be consequences. Jenny, with me."
"The Dalek Asylum. You said it was me that saved you. How? Victorian London. How, how could I have been in Victorian London?" Clara demanded, needing to know what it meant.
"No. Please, stop. My life, my whole life is burning," the Doctor pleaded.
Arthur cries as several visions hit him, with the Great Intelligence changing the Doctor's timeline, causing his timeline to change as well with Delaney and Claudia.
He and River died from the Tardis explosion immediately…
A newborn Delaney died from coldness in the middle of the night…
Claudia got shot by an old man on a street in the year 1891, London…
The Doctor got killed by the Great Intelligence by freezing him to death…
"I have to go in there," Clara concluded.
"No, Clara, no!" Claudia pleaded.
"But this is what I've already done. You've already seen me do it. I'm the Impossible Girl, and this is why."
"Whatever you're thinking of doing... don't," River warned, her holographic seems to glitch as she kneels beside Arthur, whose breath is getting shallow. Clara realised that River will also be affected by the changing, even in death.
"If I step in there... What happens?"
"The time winds will tear you into a million pieces. A million versions of you, living and dying all over time and space. Like... echoes."
"But the echoes could save the Doctor, right? Save…save Claudia?"
"But they won't be you. The real you will die. They'll just be copies."
"But they'll be real enough to save them," Clara realised. "Like my mum said, 'the souffle isn't the souffle. The souffle is the recipe.' It's the only way to save everyone, isn't it?"
River sadly nods as Vastra appears. "The stars are going out. And Jenny and Strax are dead. There must be something we can do."
The brunette girl stands up. "Well, how about that? I'm Souffle Girl after all."
"Don't do this," Delaney begged as she already walked towards the light.
"If this works, get out of here as fast as you can. And spare me a thought now and then."
The Doctor weakly turns head. "No, Clara...!"
"In fact, you know what?" She looks at them bravely. "Run. Run you clever boy. Cherish your family. And remember me."
"No! Clara!" Claudia yelled, trying to grasp Clara, but unable to do it as she jumped in.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
I don't know where I am. I just know I'm running.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
Clarissa Osgood, in her scullery maid outfit, runs as fast as she can as several members of the Brethren chase her behind while carrying a baby girl to the Torchwood Estate for protection.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
It's like I'm breaking into a million pieces and there's only one thing I remember. I have to save the Doctor.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"This way!" She shows them a safe passage to the remaining people in Gamma Forest, including young Lorna, as the Doctor tries to stall for some time.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
I'm born, I live, I die.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Stop right there!" Chiara shouted, ordering her fellow soldiers to aim their weapon at the Great Intelligence who's ready to sabotage the Tardis' emergency protocol so River and Arthur will die from the explosion of the Tardis immediately.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
I'm running to save them.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Oi! Where are you going? I thought we were just getting acquainted."
Claudia chuckles and turns around. "If only that could happen," she simply stated.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
I blew into this world on a leaf. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm the Impossible Girl. And my story is done.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"It's back to normal," Arthur noticed, watching the glow on the light already back to normal.
"It was an unprovoked and violent attack," Strax began, "but that's no excuse—"
"We're all restored. That's all that matters now," Vastra noted.
"Not all," Claudia shook her head. "Clara's still in there."
"You can't go in there, Claudia, it's dangerous!" River warned.
"But how?" Arthur frowns.
"Is she still alive?" Vastra asked. "It killed Doctor Simeon."
"Clara's got one advantage over the Great Intelligence," the Doctor told her.
"Which is?"
"My granddaughter."
"Dad, maybe this isn't a good idea," Arthur suggested, starting to agree with what River had said.
"Trust me, I can handle it," Claudia pleaded.
"You can't! Just listen!" River yelled.
"I agree with River. This is a bad, bad idea," Arthur murmured.
"Exactly! Use the Tardis, use something. Save her, yes, but for God's sake be sensible!" River shouted, going to hit the Doctor, and he caught her arm in his hand, finally looking at her.
"Doctor?" Delaney called, not understanding why he suddenly grabbed something in the air. "Are you okay?"
"How are you even doing that? I'm not really here," River pointed out.
"You are always here to me, like Sunny is always here. And I always listen, and I can always see you," he told her.
"Doctor?" Claudia calls, but Arthur shushes her.
"Then why didn't you speak to me? Why didn't you tell Sunny?"
"Because I thought it would hurt too much. And what kind of father am I to tell his own son about his mother's death, after everything he had endured?"
"I believe both of us could have coped."
"No, I thought it would hurt me. And I was right," he clarified and slowly kissed River. "Since nobody else in this room beside our son can see you, God knows how that looked."
"I'll explain later," Arthur whispered to the others who looked confused before taking a small approach to his parents. They both hold his hands, although River seems to try her best to do it. He doesn't know for certain why nobody beside him, the Doctor, and Clara can see her and why she's not…solid. But he decides not to know. After the whole mess in Lake Silencio, it would be better for the young Time Tot to keep in the dark.
"There is a time to live and a time to sleep," the Doctor continued. "You are an echo, River. Like Clara. Like all of us, in the end. My fault, I know, but you should've faded by now."
"It's hard to leave when you and our son haven't said goodbye."
"Then tell me, because I don't know. How do I say it?"
River smiles sadly. "There's only one way I'd accept. If you ever loved me, say it like you're going to come back."
"Well, then," he takes a step backward, looking down before looking at his wife, one last time. "See you around, Professor River Song."
"Till the next time, Doctor. Sunny."
"See ya soon, Mama," Arthur said solemnly.
"Oh, there's two things left," River realised.
"Isn't there always?" The Doctor remarked.
"First. I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead, then how can I still be here?"
Arthur tilts his head. Huh. "And the second?"
"When the time is right, use the energy on one focus only. That way, you won't lose yourself."
"Very cryptic. Care to explain?"
"Spoilers," she smiles secretly before giving them one last sincere expression. "Goodbye…sweeties."
With that Melody Pond, daughter of the Tardis, mother of Arthur Jonas, vanishes forever.
The Doctor closes his eyes, takes a moment to calm down, knowing that this is truly the last time River will see them. He knows this isn't the last time he or Arthur will see River, as he hasn't gone to Darillium and Arthur had many adventures he hasn't done with River. Still, those Rivers are from the past, the one who hasn't gone to the Library.
"Dad?" Arthur leans his head on his side. "It'll be okay."
"I know, Sunny," he nods, knowing his son tried to console him, even if he didn't have to. He's looking at his granddaughter. "Ready?"
"Always," she said and jumped into the timestream, ready to get Clara back.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
Claudia arrives on mist-shrouded ground, falling to her knees. She sits up quickly and looks around. "Clara!" She shouted. "Clara!"
"Claudia?" Clara reacted from a distance. "Where are you? I can't see you!"
"I'm here! Just listen to my voice!"
"I… I…"
"Trust me, Clara. Please," the bluenette begged, walking as fast as she could to reach Clara, passing to several past Doctors. "I can't lose you as well."
"I don't know who I am."
"You're Clara Oswald, our impossible girl. That's all you are. So please. Let me save you!"
From the fog, she can see a silhouette of a girl. "Claudia?" Clara called.
"Here!" She waves her hand and Clara slowly reaches to her with a heavy relief. She smiles happily, ready to get Clara away from this place…when she sees another person in front of her.
Sensing her sudden change, Clara turned around. "Who's that?" She asked.
"I…I don't know," she admitted, having no idea who this mysterious old man is. But considering that this is the Doctor's timestream... "I think…that might be the Doctor."
"But I never saw that one. I saw all of him. 11 faces, all of them."
"Maybe that's not always the case. Maybe…" before she can say more, Clara faints and falls against her. "Clara?" She asked worriedly, sensing her heartbeat. Maybe exhaustion?
"What I did, I did without choice," he said grimly to her.
"I know," Claudia noted, knowing what he meant by that.
"In the name of peace and sanity."
"But…did you do it in the name of the Doctor?"
He turns around, showing an older man, looking to be somewhere in his 70s with a trim grey beard. He had blue eyes, the same eyes just like First Arthur. And his sad expression is similar to what Arthur often did subconsciously.
She simply nods curtly at a younger version of her grandfather before taking Clara back.