A/N: "Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind." – Dale Carnegie

Part 5 of 10 of the episode "Living Nightmare."

References to the DW episode from Series 8 "Listen."

Chapter 28: Fear Doesn't Exist Anywhere Except in the Mind

Madame Vastra was in hysterics when she came home minutes later.

Of course, Strax told her everything, but that didn't seem to ease her worries. Of course not, because he'd over-exaggerated everything, making the situation seem like it was way worse than it actually was. Luckily, Dad was able to calm her by explaining to her what really happened—how the Master was actually just a 'fear' projection and that there wasn't a real body to be disposed of, which was what made Vastra so hysterical (which makes sense, as that would've added to Dad's and my 'criminal record,' on account of us already having been accused of killing that poor woman in the alley). Eventually, Dad assured her that we were okay, and she left us alone for the rest of the night.

Honestly, I was surprised that Vastra left us alone anyway. Apparently, she'd left Dad to take charge of the house while she was out hunting for rats, as well as searching for signs of Jenny. Yes, that's right! Rats! I guess she prefers eating fresh animals over cooked ones; I mean, she allegedly ate the real Jack the Ripper, so I guess that makes sense. She claimed she had run low on the rodents and had been out hunting for more, and I believed her. Just before she came home, Dad and I went into the kitchen to get some food, as that 'Master' fiasco had left us famished, and I had the misfortune of searching through one of the freezers and discovering a handful of mangled rats scattered at the bottom. Needless to say, I immediately lost my appetite when I saw them, but Dad insisted that I eat something anyway, so I ultimately found a small package of biscuits and munched on them in the living room while Dad brewed us some hot Earl Grey tea (which Strax had forgotten to get us earlier).

Now, having eaten all but half of one biscuit and drank an almost empty tea mug, I sit on the couch, cuddling against Dad's side with a thick blanket wrapped around my shoulders and fighting myself to stay awake. My eyelids are so heavy that I can barely keep them open, and I want to sleep so badly, despite Dad having warned me of the dangers of having my dreams come to life, but at this point I don't care. I figure I can at least get away with resting my eyes, so I attempt to do just that while resting my head against his shoulder.

"You're not trying to sleep, are you?" Dad suddenly nudges me with his shoulder, and I can't help but flinch in shock, having just been on the cusp of unconsciousness, which Dad must've felt through our link.

"No, of course not," I say quickly to avoid any suspicions; though he wouldn't have said that if he weren't. "Are you?" I shoot back at him.

"No," he says, shaking his head. "I told you, if you sleep, your dream might come to life. I know you don't want to be responsible for someone's death, should that happen." He sighs. "I certainly don't. That almost happened to you, and I'm not about to let that happen again."

"That man…" I ask curiously, "he was your dream come to life?"

He nods. "Yes. Well, no, actually. At the time, I was making a list in my head of all the possible enemies of mine who could be responsible for these 'fears,' and my old friend, the Master, was the second on my list." He then pauses, feeling embarrassed. "I guess I was thinking too much about him that he ended up coming to life. Rather, coming back to life." He sighs again, closing his eyes as regret fills his aching hearts. "Sometimes I wish he could come back. Not as the corrupt, power-hungry person he became but rather as the person he was before that."

"Back when he was still your best friend," I nod understandingly. "Your 'brother.'" I imagine that's what they were to each other before they 'parted ways,' as Dad put it. It sucks that they're not like that anymore; at least, that's what Dad thinks.

"Exactly," he nods sadly. "Perhaps then, he could've been a proper uncle to you. You and the Master would've gotten along well, I think."

I can't help laughing at this. Me, 'getting along' with a megalomaniac such as that guy? What the hell is he thinking?

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," I say, feeling immensely doubtful. "I wouldn't want to be anything like he was upstairs. I mean…he tried to kill me. In fact, he almost did." I get the disturbing feeling that he had planned to do much worse to me before outright killing me, all while Dad watched helplessly, unable to do anything to stop him. Man, if Strax hadn't shown up…

"Yes," Dad says, taking a nervous breath, having sensed my thoughts, "I thought for sure I was going to lose you."

"Well, thank god you didn't," I say with a shrug. I don't say anything else, not wanting to think about it further; not that it matters anymore anyway. Even if that megalomaniac comes back, whether he'd be real or just another fear, I'll take him down first, just like I'll do if ol' Voldy comes back.

After a minute, I begin feeling sleepy again, and I lay my head back down on Dad's shoulder.

"It's okay, Nova, you can sleep," Dad whispers in my hair.

"What?" I ask, puzzled, making sure I heard him correctly. Did he just say I can sleep? What the heck?

"If you're feeling that tired, you can go to sleep," Dad confirms my suspicions. "If you start having a nightmare, I can pull you out of it if need be. That's another nifty telepathic ability we share. I'll teach it to you another time."

"Are you sure?" I say with uncertainty. "You were very particular about me not sleeping earlier." Why the sudden change of mind? This doesn't make sense.

"That was while you were alone," Dad admits with a shrug. "As long as you're with me, I think it'll be okay. Like I said, I can wake you, using our telepathic link, if things take a bad turn in your dreams. I won't let any of your nightmares come to life. I promise."

"I don't know," I sigh, feeling uncomfortable. "I'm still not comfortable with us being telepathically linked in general. It seems like an invasion of my privacy, to be honest, especially if you're gonna be seeing what I'm dreaming." With this being only my second adventure with him, I still don't know him well enough to simply allow him to look into my mind, even despite him allowing me into his mind before. I've seen some disturbing things in his mind, particularly the memory of Mom's impending death; not that I have any memories that are similar, but even if I did, I wouldn't want Dad to see them. There have been some nightmares I've recently had that I don't want to experience again, and I certainly don't want him seeing them either.

"It'll be okay, I promise you," he assures me. "We won't tell Vastra or Strax or anyone; we'll just keep it between us. No one else has to know. Whatever you might see in your dream, it's not real."

"That's what I thought when I saw the Vokanari brainwash Mom," I point out, "same for when they attacked my father-guardian, but now I'm not so sure. They seemed real enough…even felt real." I then think about how I felt the tingling sensation in my chest after I saw the Vokanari guard attack my father-guardian with the electric stick; same for when I sensed Mom truly want Dad—her husband—dead after she was given the task of finding us, and her determination to see me, her own daughter, kill my father once and for all. The very thought still disturbs me greatly.

"Honestly, you have nothing to worry about, Nova," he assures me again. "I'll be here with you the whole time. Try to get some sleep. In fact, I'll help you."

"You can do that?" I ask, raising a skeptical eyebrow. I then shake my head, suddenly remembering. "No, wait! I remember you saying something about that yesterday; something about you being able to force people to sleep. You threatened to do that to me."

"I didn't threaten to do that to you," he says, shaking his head. "Well, sort of, but not really. Anyway, it's not like I'll be injecting you with a sedative or anything like that. In fact, it'll be nothing like that. It'll be something as simple as projecting the image of perfect sleep into your mind."

"That's it?" I say with a frown. "You're just gonna give me sleepy thoughts and expect them to make me sleepy as well? Like hypnotism?" He plans to hypnotize me into falling asleep? Yeah, that won't be creepy at all.

"Well, I won't be 'hypnotizing' you, per se," he says in an uncertain tone, though I can't help but think he's lying. Rule One: The Doctor lies.

"Except you are," I scoff out loud. "That's what you're planning to do. Don't lie to me." Having 'lying' be his number-one rule is literally the stupidest thing ever. Who in their right mind would have a legit rule like that?

"Honestly, it's nothing to worry about," he sighs in exasperation. "Trust me, Nova, this will really help you. Just let me do this. You'll be perfectly fine, I promise."

"Fine, whatever," I sigh, no longer caring. "I just want to sleep, but I don't want my dream to end up killing someone either."

"It's alright, Nova," he says, wrapping his arm tighter around me, "I'll make sure that doesn't happen. If I see any signs of that happening, I'll pull you out of it. You have nothing to fear."

But, of course, I can't help but be afraid anyway. Sensing this, he says calmly, "In fact, let me tell you something. A story from when I was a boy." I look up at him as he tells his story.

"This was back during my early days, from before I joined the Academy; I must've been about…six years old. One night, I was very scared, so I locked myself in the barn and cried for what felt like hours. I never liked crying in front of people, certainly not my family, so I ran and hid in the barn. At some point in the night, a great whooshing sound erupted in the barn close to my bed, but I did not dare look for fear of what I might see. Doors opened, and a woman whose voice I didn't recognize called to me—rather, to someone named Orson, or Rupert. The woman approached my bed, but still I didn't move, just stayed still, hoping she'd go away. Eventually, my guardians arrived to check on me, and I heard the mysterious woman slip under my bed. My guardians were quietly whispering to each other, talking about how my behavior would not be accepted into the Academy, nor the army, neither of which I had any intention of joining in my later days, at least at the time. They left, and all was quiet until I heard another voice I didn't recognize from whatever had made the whooshing sound, and I got out of bed to see what it was, and that was when something from under the bed had grabbed my ankle, which scared me to my core. At the time, I had totally forgotten about the woman who was hiding under my bed. Before I could scream or run, she calmly told me to lie back down, and I did; though, at this point, I no longer felt afraid of the woman, and I wasn't really sure why, but I continued to cry anyway.

"She then sat next to me on my bed and began stroking my head soothingly, and she told me to listen…" He begins stroking my own head as he begins quoting the mysterious woman. "'Listen,' she said. 'This is just a dream. But very clever people can hear dreams. So please just listen. I know you're afraid but being afraid is all right. Because didn't anybody ever tell you? Fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster, and cleverer, and stronger. And one day, you're gonna come back to this barn, and on that day, you're going to be very afraid indeed. But that's okay. Because if you're very wise and very strong, fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly. Fear can make you kind. It doesn't matter if there's nothing under the bed, or in the dark, so long as you know it's okay to be afraid of it. So, listen. If you listen to nothing else, listen to this: you're always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like…a companion. A constant companion, always there. But that's okay. Because fear can bring us together. Fear can bring you home. Fear makes companions of all of us.'"

Once he finishes, he falls silent, allowing the words to sink into my brain. After an amazing speech like that, all I can think to say is, "Wow… That's…profound."

"I know," Dad smiles. "Those words have stuck with me ever since. I wouldn't be who I am without them."

"Who was that woman?" I ask curiously.

"No idea," he shrugs with a heavy sigh. "I never found out, but she must've been someone close to me—or rather someone who will be close to me. Perhaps a future companion?"

"Maybe," I say uncertainly. Thinking back on the words, they sounded like something I would say, but I decide to keep this thought to myself, feeling doubtful that the woman was myself from the future. "Why tell me this story?" I ask, feeling uncertain as to why he'd tell me such a personal story. Knowing Dad, he doesn't seem like the type of guy that would go around telling personal stories to anyone, certainly not random people he'd bump into on the streets. There's got to be some sort of explanation as to why he'd tell this specific story to me.

"Those words shaped me into who I am now," he says honestly. "If I'd never heard those words, I would never have had the courage to go into the Academy, or anywhere. They gave me the courage I needed. I hope they can do the same for you. I know a lot of scary things have happened in your life, Nova, and you want to fix them, and you're afraid that they'll never be fixed; and I want you to understand that they can be fixed, so long as you have the strength and courage to do it." He then smiles at me and flicks the tip of my nose playfully. "And I know you do."

"I'm mostly afraid that once I do have the courage, and I actually go to save them, it'll be too late," I admit, feeling disturbed. "I'm afraid that once I arrive, I'll find out they're dead, and it will all have been for nothing." At this point, I've been away from them for far too long, and I wouldn't be surprised if, by now, they're already gone. Now more than ever, I regret not going with my mother when she left when she did.

Dad shakes his head before laying it on top of mine. "No, Nova, you mustn't think like that. Don't let your fear control you. You must embrace it; treat it like a superpower, like the woman said. Fear is what gives you strength. You can use that to fight your enemies—use it to fight the Vokanari. They want your fear to tear you down, but you must let it build you up, make you stronger and faster. Fear isn't your enemy; it is your ally—your companion. You must treat it as such. I have for twelve-hundred years, and it has not once failed me."

His words make me fall silent. Thinking back on them, he's totally right. At times of extreme fear, it has, admittedly, made me physically stronger. When I was afraid that the Sontaran was going to kill Hazel, my fear somehow gave me the courage to whack the Sontaran on the back of its neck, which saved both of us. When I was afraid that the Vokanari members were going to kidnap me and take me away, my fear gave me the strength to fight them away with my regen energy, same for when I used it to keep the pirates from killing Dad and I on our previous adventure. Now thinking of our previous adventure, when I was afraid of losing Dad forever after he'd died from his injuries and from having expended the time he could survive on just one heart, my fear gave me the energy I intended to use to fight that multi-eyed Vokanari member, even though I ultimately didn't kill her like I originally planned to.

All this time, my fear has made me stronger, both mentally and physically, and I believe this was what Dad had planned to teach me all along, particularly on this trip. Deep down, he wants me to defeat the Vokanari as much as I do; he wants to make them pay for all the things they've done to our family, and he wants to help me develop the strength and power to do this very thing.

Both of my parents didn't want me to face the Vokanari so soon because I wasn't yet strong enough. Well, now I know what can make me stronger—what has made me stronger:

Fear.

Feeling sleepy again, I mutter, "I think I'm ready to sleep now."

"Very well," Dad nods as he places a gentle hand over my temple. "I'll project the image of perfect sleep into your mind; that should help you. Just relax."

I close my eyes as I cuddle closer against Dad's side, my mind gradually fading into quietness and blackness.

After what feels like seconds, I slowly wake up in a white room with wires and tubes surrounding me, as well as an oxygen mask attached to my face. Once my vision becomes clearer, I glance around and discover the room to be a hospital room, and the cold surface I am lying on is a large gurney placed beside a strange monitor—a computer? Strange. Computers don't exist in this time period. Why is there one here?

I flinch when I am suddenly met with a disturbing face—the face of a man, though the majority of his face is covered by a surgical mask. However, his eyes are the most disturbing—the eyes of a reptile. I realize that this isn't an ordinary surgeon. Normal people don't have eyes like that, not in this time period or even on this planet. This is a man from another world.

"What…are…you?" I manage to croak, but I am unable to say anything else, feeling the effects of the sedative that the surgeon seemed to have forced me to breathe into my system through the oxygen mask.

"You are awake," the surgeon says with a frown in a raspy voice. "How are you awake? Impossible." He then goes to adjust a machine next to the monitor, which makes me sleepier; however, I fight myself to stay awake, but it becomes a major struggle as my vision becomes blurry again.

"Commander Taak," a second 'surgeon' comes into the room and approaches the first, his voice sounding as equally raspy, "Lieutenant Kron has detected Gallifreyan technology in the city and has traced it to a strange blue box. He believes it to be his time capsule and is awaiting orders."

The first surgeon, Commander Taak, smiles; rather, he appears to smile, as it's difficult to tell with the mask over his face. "Alert the others," he says. "Tell them to rendezvous with Lieutenant Kron and have the time capsule brought here. If it is true the Time Lord is here, and he wishes to have his time capsule back, as well as the girl, he will have to pay us a visit first."

With that, the second surgeon nods and leaves the room as Taak leans over me. I attempt to move away, feeling immensely uncomfortable, but I am unable to move due to numbness in my entire body. I can only watch in horror as the surgeon continues, "The Time Lord will pay for what he did to us. He destroyed our world, and now we will destroy his. Or, to put it in another way, he will destroy his own world and every primitive ape on it. And he will do it with his own fear. The very thing he fears the most—the destruction of Gallifrey and everyone he loves. And it will happen again. On Earth." He then sniggers evilly, and at this point I can barely stay conscious, my vision slowly fading to black.

"No…" I attempt to speak as I involuntarily slip back into unconsciousness. "You…can't…"

At that moment, the scene goes black until a new scene emerges, with a man in a purple suit—the Doctor—comforting a young girl—his daughter, Nova—sleeping restlessly at his side. He gently whispers in her ear and caresses her cheeks, trying to wake her.

"Doctor!" I call to him, waving to him in a fruitless attempt to get his attention, something I've tried and failed to do many times before. "Please hear me! The aliens that abducted me, they're after your TARDIS! They're after you! That's why they kidnapped me; to get to you! Please, you must leave! Leave before they get you too! Doctor! Doctor!"

My vision seems to change a second time, and this time I am wrapped in my father's arms, my hearts pounding at an impossibly high rate and body feeling numb with fear; though this fear weakens me rather than strengthens me.

"It's alright, it's alright, I've got you," Dad whispers in my ear as he continues caressing my quivering body. "You're safe, Nova. I'm right here. Calm down. Take deep breaths. You're alright now."

I wrap my arms tightly around Dad's waist, in desperate need of something to hold onto—a lifeline to pull me back into reality. That vision was just like all the others. I seemed to have projected my mind into someone else's, though this 'someone else' wasn't someone I knew, but it was someone strangely familiar, nonetheless. Someone who knew Dad well. Someone who's been struggling to contact him for hours since we first arrived, to warn him of the danger I'd just witnessed. These reptilian-eyed beings had been after Dad for centuries, planning their revenge on him for what he'd done. He destroyed their home-world, and now they want to destroy his; rather, they want him to destroy Earth with his own fear—his fear of the destruction of Gallifrey and having that happen on Earth. They found out how to do it by kidnapping the woman—Jenny, whose mind I'd just linked to—and using her as bait to bring him here. Since the beginning, Jenny has been trying to warn us of this danger by astral projecting herself across the city, but she has struggled due to us being unable to see her astral projection. If the reptilian-eyed men discover Dad's location—they've already discovered the TARDIS, according to one of the other surgeons—they'll come for him and force him to dream up Gallifrey's destruction, which would destroy the Earth in the exact same way. Jenny knew this was going to happen if we'd stayed for as long as we have, and now that it's happened, it's only a matter of time until they find us. Looking back, I wish we really have left.

"We can't leave," Dad responds to my internal thoughts. "We can't abandon these people, particularly Jenny. Wherever she is, we'll find her. And the Shada Dämo, we'll stop them." He sighs. "I figured they'd be responsible for this. It seems they've returned, which worries me greatly."

"They said you destroyed their world," I point out with a frown, in total disbelief that Dad had done such a horrible thing. How could he?

"I didn't," he shakes his head. "They did. I tried to stop them. Of course, it was an accident; they didn't mean to destroy their own world."

"What happened?" I ask curiously.

Dad sighs again. "What always happens when experiments go wrong. The Shada Dämo are a group of reptilian aliens that decided that terrorizing lives was far better than saving lives. Back in the day, they were a humble group of physicians who thought it would be interesting to experiment with people's subconscious and make people's dreams come to life using Bio-Nanotechnology. They had the 'patients' dream of a deceased loved one and said loved one would come to life—rather come back to life—and mingle with the family, even if it's just for a short time. However, sometimes people aren't capable of such things—which you know as lucid dreaming—and so they end up dreaming of their worst fears, which end up coming to life and harming the family instead. This often happened, and so they were shut down. This angered the physicians so much that they decided to get revenge on their own people by kidnapping certain individuals who were deathly afraid of things and forced them to sleep and dream of their worst fears to take over the world. At the time I found this out, I discovered that one of the individuals had been in a war, and of course that ended up coming to life, and before I knew what was happening, the poor soul's fear destroyed their beautiful planet. Meanwhile, the Shada Dämo—as the physicians called themselves from that point on—were performing their operations on a ship in orbit. They didn't mean to destroy their planet; only terrorize the people who shut them down. Of course, they needed someone to blame for the destruction of their home-world, so they blamed me, but I obviously did no such thing. I, of course, sent them to prison for a very long time, but it seems they've been let out or have escaped."

"Most likely, they've escaped," I say, "and they've come back to take revenge on you."

"Yes, it seems they have," Dad says nervously, "which would explain why they targeted Jenny. They knew that once Vastra had discovered Jenny's disappearance, she would immediately call me, knowing I'm the only one she knows who would find Jenny."

"But it's a trap," I add. "You go after Jenny, those psychos would capture you and use your worst fear to destroy the Earth, and us along with it. Which, obviously, can't happen, since the Earth is still around in my time, and if that changes…"

"Your life may change, since I sent you to be raised on Earth in the future," Dad finishes my worst fear.

His words briefly make me wonder how my life would actually change. Of course, my childhood would change, and depending on that change, so could my present and future, specifically with Dad. Perhaps I would've spent my childhood on another planet, being raised by another species; perhaps the Vokanari would've found an easier way to get to me, and they would've succeeded in their plot to train me to kill Dad; or perhaps I might just cease to exist altogether. I wonder if all memories of Mom, Dad, and everything they taught me about my origins would disappear as well. In any case, I dread to find out, should we actually end up failing to stop the aliens.

"We have to stop them!" I say, determined not to let any of that happen. I can't bear to lose memory of Mom and Dad, after everything we've been through up to this point.

"Yes," Dad agrees, "but we need to know where they are first."

"They're at some sort of hospital," I point out. I mean, that's exactly what I saw in the vision. That has to be where Jenny is, right?

"Of course," Dad says in an obvious tone, "they're doctors. Where else would they be working? The question is, which hospital? There are twenty-one known hospitals in London alone."

"So, we search all of them!" I shrug. We'd have to in order to find the right one.

"I'm afraid it won't be that simple, Nova," he shakes his head, making me frown. "Like I said, the Shada Dämo made their base on a ship in orbit around their planet. And besides, they won't be performing their sick operations alongside human physicians, certainly not with the risk of being discovered. No, their base would have to be in a secluded place; a place where no one would ever think to look for them."

"Like in an underground bunker," I suggest, "or an abandoned warehouse, or in the middle of nowhere in a desert or forest."

"Precisely," Dad nods. "Or perhaps in orbit around the planet—again."

"Vastra shared a theory earlier that since all the 'fears' started here and then later spread to the rest of the world, the base should be somewhere in the city," I say, suddenly remembering, "perhaps in the middle of the city. At least that's where the so-called 'force field' is being generated. Perhaps the thing that activates the force field is somewhere in their base as well; they are the ones controlling it. That would make sense, right?"

"Nova, you're a star!" Dad says, impressed, patting me on the back. "And even brighter than Alpha Ceti Beta 6."

"Thanks…I think," I say with a frown, unsure of what he's talking about.

"Come on," he says as he gets up from the couch, pulling me up with him, "let's tell Vastra what we've learned…rather, what you've seen. It appears that you have the ability to project your own mind into another person's mind at will. It's quite impressive, really. Not many Time Lords were able to do such a thing. Only those with high-level telepathy skills could do such a thing."

"And you can't do that?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

He shakes his head. "No. I can project my thoughts into another person's mind within close range, but I can't project my mind across all of Space-Time like you can; at least, that seems to be the case. You said you saw what was happening through your mother's eyes?"

"Yeah," I nod. "The moment they brainwashed her, I sensed it. I saw it. Everything she thought after it was done… Her determination to make Kovarian proud for once, by accomplishing her mission of finding us and delivering us to her. And then…" I then pause, not wanting to continue, feeling disturbed at the very thought of my mother thinking of Dad in that way.

"And then what?" he urges me to continue anyway, and I reluctantly do so.

"And then kill you once and for all, like she should've done in Berlin. I mean, she did kill you, but…she wished she hadn't given up her regenerations for you and that you'd stayed dead. I didn't want to believe that was what she was thinking, but she was." How could she think of her own husband like that? She loves him!

Loved him…

Dad shakes his head again. "No, she wasn't thinking that at all. Those aren't her thoughts. The Vokanari put those thoughts into her mind. They want her to think those thoughts, but they are not her true thoughts. Your mother loves us very much, and she'd do anything to protect us. She's still in there; we just have to bring her out."

"How?" I ask, feeling doubtful that it's even possible, considering how deep she is under their control.

"I don't know yet," he admits with a shrug. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, we need to help Vastra and stop the Shada Dämo for good. Come on, let's find her and tell her what we've learned."

We rush to find Vastra, and we eventually find her in a magnificent greenhouse at the back of the house. Annoyingly enough, Strax stops us from entering, but Dad says it's an emergency. Strax allows him through, but he stops me from following, saying that "enemy boys" shouldn't be allowed anywhere near his mistress, but I push past him anyway, having no time for his bullshit. Once I catch up to Dad, we immediately explain everything.

"You are certain of this, Doctor?" Vastra asks somewhat doubtfully after we finish.

"Positive," Dad says confidently. "Nova saw everything with her own eyes." He then pauses with a frown. "Well, not exactly with her own eyes, but…rather through Jenny's." He says that last bit slowly and uncertainly, like he doesn't know whether Vastra would believe him. Honestly, I don't think she would, either, as projecting one mind into someone else's at will sounds downright ludicrous.

"You've seen everything through Jenny's eyes?" she frowns at me, confirming my assumptions. "Please explain."

"Nova?" Dad says, glancing to me, encouraging me to explain.

"What? Why should I be the one to explain?" I say, frowning back at him.

"It was your vision," he says with a shrug.

I sigh, rolling my eyes. "I told you; I don't know if it was even real or not." Honestly, I'm still not even sure what I saw. Maybe what I saw wasn't actually real. Maybe it was a dream, after all.

"It was real," Dad says what I hoped he wouldn't say. "I sensed it through our link. Go ahead, tell her."

But I am still speechless. How can I explain something I'm still not convinced was real? Not to mention that I'm still struggling to understand what I saw—rather, what Jenny saw. What she's been experiencing for the last week since her initial disappearance.

Luckily, Dad takes it upon himself to explain for me. "Nova has this sort of 'mind-projection' ability. It's not a very common Time Lord ability; only extremely high-level telepaths could do something like this. Apparently, she can project her mind into others' minds, seeing what they're seeing and thinking what they're thinking. She believes that she may have projected her mind into Jenny's mind and saw everything that she was experiencing, wherever she is."

"Jenny is alive?" Vastra says in a hopeful tone.

"Yes," I say, finally finding my voice. "She's stuck in some sort of hospital. Creepy surgeons with reptilian eyes were running the place, and one was monitoring Jenny at the time she woke up—probably because of me, when our minds connected; though I don't know if she was aware of me being in her head. Anyway, another surgeon came in and said something about the TARDIS being discovered, and they were going to have it brought to their base, which, I'm guessing, is the hospital. They said that Dad was going to have to come to them in order to get the TARDIS and Jenny back, but that's the thing—this whole thing is a trap that they'd set up. They blamed Dad for the destruction of their home-world centuries ago, and they plan to get back at him by forcing him to dream up his worst fear and use it to destroy Earth."

"We can't let that happen," Dad adds.

"Yeah, especially with the risk of my life being changed," I continue. "If they succeed in their plan, Earth will be destroyed in this time. But since I was raised on Earth in the future, that life will be rewritten, because Earth would no longer exist, obviously." I glance worriedly to Dad. "I may even lose my memories of you, and Mom, and everything you guys taught me about my origins. I don't want to forget any of that."

"You won't forget," he says in an assuring tone. "We'll save everyone. We'll save you. And I think I know how we're going to do it."

"How?" Vastra asks curiously.

"I suggest a full-frontal assault with automated laser monkeys, scalpel mines and acid; and maybe even a few grenades for emergencies!" Strax speaks up out of nowhere.

We all look at him, completely stunned.

"What?!" I say incredulously, frowning at him. Who the hell would come up with something like that?

"You plan to penetrate into the enemy's base of operations and destroy the device that conducts the force field that surrounds the whole planet," the Sontaran points out, and I can't help but think, Okay, so he really has been paying attention. "A few grenades would work perfectly for the job, I daresay. I volunteer to take charge of this duty for the Glory of Sontar and of Nova!"

Whoa, what? For the Glory of Sontar and of me? What the actual hell?!

"What?" I say, shocked. "You'd do it for me?" Is he for real?

"Of course!" he says in an obvious tone. "I hear you in my head always! You tell me I should take up this job for the Glory of my people and for you, and that I should obliterate anyone who disagrees!"

'Obliterate anyone who disagrees?' WHAT?!

I glance awkwardly between Vastra and Dad, shaking my head. "Um…no. I think you're mistaken. I would never ask anyone to kill for me, certainly not you. Besides which, I would never project my mind into yours. That would be disgusting!" I then turn to Dad. "We're not actually gonna listen to this idiot, are we?"

Please say no, please say no, Please say no…

"Of course not," Dad says, and I take a big sigh of relief.

Strax steps forward in disapproval. "Sir, may I suggest that you consider my plan of action? If we don't blow that infernal contraption and its operatives to smithereens, this planet and everyone on it will meet a brutal end!" He then pauses with a smile. "Then again, I've always planned to die a warrior's death in battle alongside my comrades…particularly Nova." Here, he smirks at me, like I should be impressed, but I'm nowhere near impressed. If anything, I'm severely creeped out.

"Ew!" I exclaim in disgust. "Are you kidding me? You are sick in the head! What makes you think I would ever fall for an ungrateful, conceited son of a—?"

"Nova! Strax! That's enough!" Dad interrupts us, sighing in exasperation. "I swear, you two are like a bunch of kids!"

"Well, tell him to stop acting like one, and maybe I will too!" I snap back. "Him first!"

"Nova, there's no point!" Dad says, and at this point he sounds legitimately stressed. "In fact, at this point, we're wasting time! Precious time that we cannot waste! Jenny's life—as well as your own—is at stake, and I'm not about to lose any of you! Especially you, Nova!" He then sighs, glancing shamefully at the floor. "Very few friends I've lost have actually come back, but most have not. I'm not going to lose you again. I can't." He then wraps his arms around me in a hug and buries his face in my shoulder, clearly trying to hide his distress.

"Dad…" I sigh, rubbing his back soothingly. "I keep telling you, you won't lose me. And even if you do, should we fail, you'll find me. I know you will, even if I end up losing all memories of you. You'll always come back for me."

After another few seconds, he eventually pulls away and smiles at me. "Yes. And I will never ever stop."

"Good," I smile back. "I will never ever stop waiting for you. I'll spend the rest of my life waiting if I have to."

"You're just like your grandparents," Dad chuckles softly, brushing my hair away from my face.

"As pleasant as this moment is," Vastra speaks up awkwardly, "may I remind you that many lives will continue to suffer, should we linger here any longer."

At this, Dad straightens up, straightening his bow tie as well. "Right! Yes! Good point, Madame Vastra. There's no more time to waste. We should strategize our next move as soon as possible."

"And prevent my life from being rewritten out of existence," I point out. "I'm just saying." Obviously, this is the most important thing to me. I plan on living a full twelve lives, thank you very much!

Strategizing in general must be Strax's absolute favorite thing in the universe. "I'll go fetch my grenades!" he says enthusiastically as he turns to leave.

Whoa, whoa! Chill out, psycho-potato-freak!

"Dude!" I exclaim disapprovingly. "You've got some serious issues!"

"Strax, shut up about the grenades!" Dad gripes at him. "No one is blowing up anything unless I say so! In fact, no one is blowing up anything, period! End of story!"

"Will you at least consider laser monkeys and scalpel mines?" the Sontaran tries again, but neither of us want to hear it.

"NO!" we all say in unison. At this point, everyone just wants him to leave. He's clearly proven to be the dumbest person in the room (maybe even the whole universe), unlike the rest of us, who actually think before we act.

I take it upon myself to speak for everyone. "Just leave us alone, Stinx. We'll call you if we need anything; though, we probably never will."

"'Stinx?'" the Sontaran asks, legitimately puzzled. "Who is this 'Stinx?'"

Exactly my point.

I decide to have some fun with his cluelessness. It's not like he can do anything to me, especially with Dad around. "That's your name, isn't it?" I snigger. "'Stinx.' 'Cause you stink."

Yup, I just went there.

Surprisingly, he seemed to understand that, because he growls back at me, "How dare you insult me, you…pink weasel!"

I chortle at this. "Pfft! Yeah, like that's a worse name than 'Stinx.' Which it isn't."

Strax—or rather, Stinx—is about to say, or do, something in response (I'm honestly not sure what), but Dad steps forward, saying, "Nova, Stinx—I mean, Strax! That's enough!" Here, I fail to hold back a snort, realizing that he'd said the wrong name. Ha, ha! He said it too! "Strax, why don't you go patrol the house and make sure no one tries to get in, should the Shada Dämo be out there looking for me. Nova, you stay with me. We might need some insight on your 'visions.' Perhaps they'll help us find Jenny."

I give a childish wave toward Stinx as he walks away in defeat. Yeah, that's right, loser, I snigger in my head, let the adults handle this. Technically, in this country, I am a legal adult, since the legal age is eighteen, unlike in the US with the legal age being twenty-one. I imagine Stinx to frequently act like a child—arguing with Vastra when something doesn't go his way or playing with something that ends up setting the house on fire, etcetera. Not that I've seen any evidence of scorch marks anywhere, but I wouldn't be surprised if Stinx has set at least one thing in this house on fire since Vastra and Jenny took him in to live with them. In any case, I'm glad he's gone, at least for now. How they manage to put up with that royal pain in the ass, I'll never know.

With that, we begin strategizing…without Stinx, much to his disappointment.

Not like anybody cares.

A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!

I'll be honest, "Listen" is not the greatest episode in my opinion, mainly because it was very confusing, but I did like the part at the end with Clara's 'fear' speech to the Doctor as a kid. I rewatch that scene sometimes, and it's definitely one of my absolute favorite DW speeches. In fact, my top three favorite speeches are (in this exact order) the Akhatan speech, the Pandorica speech, and Clara's 'fear' speech referenced in this chapter.

Please let me know in the comments what your favorite DW speech or speeches is/are and why, as well as what you thought of this chapter.