Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC
As the TARDIS materialised back at the Caliburn house in 1974, it materialised in the exact same spot of where it was before the Doctor, Rose, Sydney and Clara travelled through time to watch the ghost haunting in the region throughout Earth's entire 9 billion year lifespan.
Inside the parlour, there was a slide projector set up as the Doctor, Rose, Sydney and Clara entered the room. The Time Lord handed Alec the slides from the photographs he had taken, who took it from him with his right hand. Clara approached the board and looked at the photos on it.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked Clara as she walked over to her and placed her right hand over the nanny's left shoulder.
"I just saw something I wish I hadn't," Clara answered as she looked at her.
"What did you see?" Emma asked her.
"That everything ends," Clara answered.
"No, not everything," Emma argued as she looked over at Alec, "Not love... not always."
"Right. Done!" The Doctor said as he, Rose and Sydney looked at Clara and Emma, "That's it. Gather round. Gather round. Roll up, roll up!" Clara and Emma then walked up to them as the three humans crossed their arms before the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out from his jacket's inside pocket and activated it as he aimed it at the projector, causing it to activate before he placed it back inside his jacket's inside pocket, "The ghast of Caliburn House. Never changing. Trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But what if she's not?" Emma then looked at the Time Lord, "What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was 100,000 years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box? A blue box, probably. What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" As he spoke, the slides showed the Doctor's photos in an almost like stop-motion and revealed the ghost as a young woman before they suddenly stopped at a certain frame, "She's not a ghost. But she's definitely a lost soul." He then walked over to the screen, "Her name's Hila Tacorian. She's a pioneer, a time traveller, or at least she will be, in a few hundred years."
"Time travel's not possible," Alec stated with disbelief in his voice, "The paradoxes…"
"Resolve themselves, by and large," the Doctor interrupted him.
"They're usually corrected by creatures known as Reapers," Rose added with a spark of enthusiasm, "Big, nasty creatures that come out when time goes wrong. They fix paradoxes by, well, eating everything that shouldn't be there. It's messy, but it works."
"Yeah, Mum once accidentally caused them to show up," Sydney stated, "A few centuries before I was even thought of, she saved her step-dad from dying in a car accident, and the Reapers came out to clean up the paradox. From what I heard, it was pretty intense."
"Sydney! Bit too much information there, don't you think?" Rose scolded him, "They didn't need to know all that."
"Hey, it's alright," the Doctor said gently as he turned towards Rose with a look of understanding in his eyes, "We've all had our moments. What matters is that we came through it, stronger and wiser."
"Thanks, love," Rose replied as she looked at her husband and gave him a small smile before she turned towards their son, "I'm sorry, Sid. Didn't mean to snap at you."
"It's okay, Mum," Sydney assured her as he smiled back at her, "I get it."
"Anyways, how long has she been alone?" Emma asked them.
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing," the Doctor told her, "I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed…" He then checked his watch, "well, three minutes ago."
"Crash landed?" Emma repeated with shock in her voice, "Where?"
"She's in a pocket universe," the Doctor answered, "A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long." He then pulled out two balloons with one of them being blue and the other red before he blew into the blue balloon and inflated it and held it together before he shook the red balloon before blowing it as well, causing it to also inflate and held it together and showed them the blue balloon, "Our universe." He then showed them the red balloon, "Hila Tacorian's here, in a pocket universe. You're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home. Back to the land of the living." He then brought the balloons together before they deflated.
"But what's she running from?" Clara asked him.
"Well, that's the best bit," the Doctor said as he snapped his left hand's fingers, "We don't know yet. Shall we see?"
"Sure thing!" Rose answered eagerly.
"I would also love to see it," Sydney said, agreeing with his mother with a grin on his face.
With that said, the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver back out from his jacket's inside pocket with his right hand and activated it as he used it on the projector to change the slide. Emma turned to look at it before her smile vanished. Alec lowered his glasses as he peered over them. Clara, Sydney, Rose and the Doctor all looked stunned. On the slide was a disfigured, humanoid creature and was in a crooked position, standing behind a tree.
"Oh," the Doctor muttered to himself.
"What is that?" Clara asked the three Gallifreyans.
"I have no idea," Rose answered, shaking her head slightly, "I haven't seen any creature like that in any of my five incarnations. Not a one."
"And neither have I," the Doctor muttered quietly, agreeing with her.
"With all the stories you two have told me about your adventures before I was born, I've never heard of anything like this," Sydney added, "It's like something out of a nightmare."
"Still, not to worry," the Doctor assured everyone as he turned around towards them and clapped his hands.
"So, what do we do?" Emma asked them as Alec placed his glasses back over his eyes.
"Not we. You," the Doctor corrected her as she walked over towards her, "You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern. The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid." He then turned around from her and walked towards the room's entrance, "We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis III. Plus, some Kendal Mint Cake." He then left the room with Rose, Sydney and Clara following him.
As soon as they left the house, the Doctor, Rose, Sydney and Clara ran down the house's front steps and towards the TARDIS before they stopped in front of it with the Doctor placing his key inside its keyhole and unlocked the ship before they stepped inside the TARDIS.
"Don't do it," Alec pleaded with Emma as he paced around the house's parlour.
"I'm sorry?" Emma said with confusion in her voice as she looked at him.
"Nobody asked her to risk her life," Alec explained as he extended his right hand out towards the room next to the parlour before he lowered his right arm, "This woman, she doesn't deserve... Whoever she is, however brilliant, however brave, she's not you. She's not worth risking a single hair on your head. Not to me!" He then looked away from Emma as tried his best to not look at her.
"Tell me what I'm thinking," Emma urged him.
"I can't," Alec told her as he looked at her, "I don't have your gift."
"You don't need it," Emma stated as she stepped closer towards him, "Just look at me and tell me." Alec then looked up at her, causing her to smile at him before he smiled back at him, "There you are. You read my mind."
Inside the TARDIS, Clara was up on the console level, while the Doctor, Rose and Sydney were working underneath.
"Can't the three of you just, you know…" Clara began to ask the three Gallifreyans.
"What?" The Doctor asked her.
"Yeah, what do you mean?" Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Exactly, what are you suggesting?" Sydney inquired as he looked up at Clara.
"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe," Clara explained as she sat down over the ledge of the console floor with her legs over the side.
"Ah, it's not a parallel universe, it's a pocket universe," the Doctor corrected her as he opened one of the hatches with Rose and Sydney standing next to him, "Plus, it is collapsing."
"Parallel universes and pocket universes are different things," Rose added as the Doctor pulled out a blue coloured crystal from the hatch and placed it inside his jacket's inside pocket, "We've been to both before. Parallel universes are like alternate realities, versions of our own universe where things are similar but different, Pocket universes, on the other hand, are small, temporary distortions of our own universe. They don't last long and are often unstable."
"And the TARDIS could get in there, all right. But entropy would bleed her power sources, you see," the Doctor went on as he walked away from the hatch and towards Clara from the floor underneath the console, "Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam like Rose was saying. Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know."
"Yeah, and with everything collapsing around us, we'd be stuck with no way back," Sydney added, agreeing with his parents, "Not exactly a fun adventure, right?"
A while later, there were bundled wires snaked from the TARDIS that went to the house. The wires went from the door through to the music room. They were hooked to a tripod on top of which had the large Metebelis crystal that the Doctor had slipped into his pocket from the TARDIS.
"What is that?" Clara asked the three Gallifreyans as she reached out to touch the tripod with her left hand.
"A subset of the Eye of Harmony," the Doctor answered as he slapped Clara's hand away with his right hand.
"The Eye of Harmony is a powerful energy source," Rose explained with a smile on her face, "It's a captured star right at the moment before it collapses into a black hole, providing nearly limitless energy. Think of it as a star frozen in that powerful instant. But be careful, it's powerful and can be a bit temperamental if you get too close."
"I don't…" Clara began to say.
"Of course you don't," the Doctor stated, "Be great if you did, we barely do ourselves." He then approached Emma, who was now wearing a long, brown fur coat, "Right, you, sit down." He then grabbed a wire 'crown' from the other side of the tripod contraption they built with his hands as she followed him over to a chair on the other side of it and put it over her head, "All the way from Metebelis III."
Around the perimeter of the room were a variety of clocks resting either on boxes or piles of books on chairs.
"What does it do?" Emma asked him nervously.
"It amplifies your natural abilities like a microphone or a pooper-scooper," the Doctor explained as he pulled out his screwdriver from his jacket's inside pocket with his right hand and used it on the clocks, causing them to start ticking.
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Alec asked the three Gallifreyans.
"It might be a bit hard for you to understand exactly, but think of it as a big amplifier for Emma's abilities," Sydney explained, "It's complicated, but it'll help her connect with the pocket universe."
"Exactly, it's a psycho-chronograph," the Doctor added, agreeing with him as Rose and Clara helped him into a harness over his back as he placed his screwdriver back inside his jacket's inside pocket.
"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit, well, make-do and mend?" Alec asked them.
"Non-psychic technology won't work where I'm going," the Doctor explained as he buckled the harness, "Listen, all I need to do is dive into another dimension, find the traveller, help her escape the monster, get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle."
"Doctor?" Emma said as she looked at the Time Lord, "Will it hurt?"
"No," the Doctor answered as he bent over her before he straightened back up, "Well, yes, probably. A bit. Well, quite a lot. I don't know. It might be agony. To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out."
The clocks continued ticking before Emma looked over at Alec, who nodded his head before Emma looked back at the Doctor and took a few deep breaths.
"I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place," Emma said as she closed her eyes, "I'm speaking to Hila Tacorian."
The Doctor slowly picked up the end of the rope on the winch with his left hand. Some of the clocks began to move counter-clockwise, while others sped forwards before Emma breathed deeply before she reopened her eyes and looked straight ahead. Suddenly, there was an electronic whizzing sound, causing her to gasp. At the other side of the room, the spinning disc had reappeared. The glass then shattered before a bright light appeared as high wind began blowing.
"See? The Witch of the Well!" The Doctor said as he turned around towards Rose, Sydney, Alec and Clara, "It's a wormhole!" He then hooked the rope to the harness, "A reality well! A door to the echo universe!" He then looked at Emma, "Ready?"
"Ready!" Emma answered.
Despite the high winds, Rose walked up to the Doctor. She looked into his eyes and gave him a reassuring smile before leaning in to give him a good luck kiss.
"Be careful, love," the Time Lady whispered to her husband.
"I always am, Arkytior," the Doctor replied as he smiled back at her and gave her right hand a squeeze with his left hand.
"Come back to us, Theta," Rose muttered into his left ear as she pulled him into a tight hug for a few moments before letting go of him.
"I will," the Doctor promised as they pulled back from the hug, their eyes looking one last time before he turned back to the task at hand as he turned back around and looked at the wormhole before he cracked his neck and shrugged his shoulders, "Geronimo." He then ran towards and jumped into the wormhole with a grunt.
"Even after all these centuries, I do miss his 'allons-y' at times," Rose admitted to herself with a fond smile on her face as she, Sydney, Clara, Alec and Emma could only watch as the Doctor entered the wormhole.
The Doctor screamed as he clung to the rope as he travelled and fell through the wormhole towards the pocket universe.
Back in N-Space and the music room within the house, the winch spun as the rope was suddenly pulled towards the wormhole.
"Doctor!" Rose called out to her husband before Alec held her back.
"Mum, he'll be okay," Sydney assured her as he placed his right hand over her right shoulder, "Dad's been through worse and always comes back."
As soon as he landed in the pocket universe, the Doctor saw that he landed in a wooded forest as he unbuckled the harness and took it off, letting it drop to the ground. He then ran off to look for Hila. He skidded to a stop at the literal edge of the universe. It looked like a giant floating island in a sea of stars surrounded by light with wind howling around it. The Time Lord then ran back into the woods.
"Hila! Hila!" The Doctor called out to Hila as he entered the woods' mist, "Hila Tacorian!"
The Time Lord suddenly came to a sudden stop, aware that something else was there with him. There was a whooshing sound as the Doctor took a couple of small steps as he heard a scampering sound. He walked forward slowly, looking about as he tried to find the source of the sound.
"One, two," the Doctor muttered before he closed his eyes, "three!" He then turned around quickly.
"Help me!" He then heard a woman yell in the distance, causing him to reopen his eyes, "Help!"
The Doctor then rotated around before he ran and almost ran into Hila as she ran out of the fog.
"Hila Tacorian, I presume," the Doctor surmised as he grabbed her right hand with his left hand as he began to run.
"Who are you?" Hila asked him as she refused to move.
"Collapsing universe. You and me, dead," the Doctor explained as he ran back towards her, "Two minutes. No time, complete sentences. Abandon planet." He then began to run off again.
"Wait!" Hila protested as she heard a sound and turned towards where it came from, "There's something in the mist."
"Then run!" The Doctor suggested as he turned back around towards her, "Run!"
With that said, the two of them then ran off and began to head back towards the wormhole.
Back inside the music room within N-Space, Emma watched the wormhole.
Back in the wooded forest within the pocket universe, the Doctor and Hila continued to run as they headed towards the wormhole.
Back inside the music room within N-Space, Emma continued to watch the wormhole.
"Doctor! Doctor!" Emma called out to the Time Lord from the music room in N-Space as he and Hila continued to run through the wooded forest towards the wormhole with her voice echoing, "Come home! Doctor, come home!"
"Okay, not that way," the Doctor muttered as he and Hila reached one of the literal exits of the pocket universe, "Which means, uh... Probably…" He then turned back and began running in the opposite direction with Hila following him.
"What's wrong?" Hila asked the Time Lord.
"You know that exit I mentioned?" The Doctor inquired.
"Yeah," Hila answered.
"I seem to have misplaced it," the Doctor answered.
They then came to a stop as they heard scampering sounds nearby. The two of them then backed up against each other and turned with frightened looks on their faces. They then turned around and looked at each other as the Doctor put his hands up to calm Hila before he looked around.
"Doctor!" They heard Emma call the Time Lord's name.
"This way," the Doctor ordered her before they continued to head back towards the wormhole as he followed the sound of Emma's voice.
"Doctor!" Emma called out to the Time Lord as she reached her right hand out towards the wormhole as Alec was still holding Rose in his hand, while Sydney still had his right hand over his mother's right shoulder as Clara now had her right hand over the Time Lady's left shoulder, "Come home!"
Back in the wooded forest in the pocket universe, the crooked creature began to appear in the mist ahead of the Doctor and Hila.
"Doctor, we're here!" The Doctor and Hila heard Emma yell from the wormhole before they suddenly stopped near the pocket universe's version of Caliburn House.
"Whoa!" The Doctor muttered as he held his right hand up as they both looked at the Caliburn House.
"What's that?" Hila asked him.
"An echo house, in an echo universe," the Doctor answered, "Clever psychic, that is just top-notch."
With that said, the Doctor and Hila began running towards the house.
"Doctor!" Emma called out to the Time Lord from the music room in N-Space again as she now had her left hand reaching out towards the wormhole.
Back in the pocket universe, the Doctor and Hila continued to run towards the pocket universe's version of the Caliburn House as the crooked creature was following them.
"Doctor!" Emma yelled from the music room in N-space as she continued to look at the wormhole as Alec was still holding Rose with Sydney and Clara having their hands over her shoulders as they also looked at the wormhole.
Back in the pocket universe, the Doctor and Hila entered the house and slammed the doors shut behind them. The Doctor then locked them with his right hand. They heard growling and snarling coming from the other side of the door before the Time Lord put his left ear against the door.
"It's looking for a way in," the Doctor explained when the beast suddenly rammed the door on the other side, causing the Time Lord to jump back before he and Hila began to run for their side of the music room.
"I'm not strong enough!" Emma admitted as she continued to stare at the wormhole from N-Space's side of the music room.
"Just a few more seconds!" Clara urged her.
"You've got this, Emma!" Rose said, agreeing with Clara, "Just hold on a little longer!"
"Yeah, you can do it!" Sydney stated, agreeing with them as he continued to stare at the wormhole, "We're almost there!"
As they finished speaking, Emma began screaming.
As the Doctor and Hila ran into the Statuary hall in the pocket universe's version of the Caliburn House, they ran through the hall's exit with the Time Lord closing the door behind them before he pulled his sonic screwdriver back out from his jacket's inside pocket with his right hand.
"Grab the rope," the Doctor ordered Hila as he used his screwdriver on the door's lock, "Give it three tugs quick as you like."
"What about you?" Hila asked him as she put the harness on.
"I'll be next," the Doctor answered as he untied his bow tie and removed it before Hila began tugging the rope as she was directed.
Back in the music room within N-Space, Alec, Sydney, Rose and Clara saw the rope on the winch move. Alec then began to crank the rope with both of his hands. Rose, Sydney and Clara all kept their eyes on the wormhole, watching for the Doctor to come back through.
Back in the pocket universe, Hila was suddenly pulled through the wormhole.
As Alec continued to work the winch with Rose, Clara, Sydney and Emma watching, Hila fell into the room with a cry as she landed on the floor.
Back in the pocket universe, the Doctor used his tie on the door to keep it closed as the crooked creature began making its way towards the door. The Doctor then turned around to head for the wormhole when he suddenly heard a familiar thudding sound as the crooked creature banged against the door.
"Huh?" The Doctor muttered to himself as he realised what the thudding sound was, "Oh, that's what that noise was. Well, lovely." He then continued towards the portal.
Back in N-Space, Emma suddenly gasped before she fell from the chair to her knees as Alec ran over to her.
As the Doctor began to approach the portal in the pocket universe, it began to dim.
"No!" Rose, Sydney and Clara all yelled at the same time as the portal began to disappear from N-Space as they ran towards it as Alec cradled Emma.
In the pocket universe, the portal also disappeared from the Doctor's side of the portal. The Doctor then turned around slowly, knowing the creature was on the other side of the door. He took one step and found himself alone in the woods. The house suddenly disappeared before he heard the whooshing of the creature and looked around nervously. He then knelt down and carefully picked up his bow tie with his left hand without taking his eyes off the trees.
"Oh, dear!" The Doctor muttered to himself as he realised that now he was the one who was trapped in the pocket universe.
Outside the Caliburn House, the TARDIS stood, solitary, outside as the ship's cloister bell tolled.
Back in the music room, Rose, Sydney and Clara all whipped their heads around towards where the TARDIS was parked outside with both Gallifreyans hearing the TARDIS' cloister bell in their heads.
"Oh, dear," the Doctor muttered as he slowly stood back up.
Back outside the Caliburn House in N-Space, the cloister bell continued to toll.
Back in the pocket universe, the Doctor heard the whooshing sound and looked around for where the sound was coming from.
"Where are you?" The Doctor asked the crooked creature before he heard and saw the creature, "Oh!" He then began running away from the creature.
Back outside the Caliburn House in N-Space, the TARDIS' cloister bell continued to toll.
"Wake up!" Clara ordered Emma as she looked back at her and Alec as she rushed over to her, "WAKE UP!" She then knelt beside Emma with Rose and Sydney following her, "Open the thing."
"Come on, Emma!" Rose urged Emma, "We need you!"
"Yeah, you can do this!" Sydney said, agreeing with them, "Just a bit more!"
"I'm sorry," Emma apologised as she sobbed into Alec's chest.
"Don't be sorry. Don't be," Alec urged her as he stroked Emma's hair with his right hand, "What you did…"
"Wasn't enough," Clara finished for him, "She needs to do it again."
"She's right," Rose said, agreeing with Clara as she looked at Alec, "Emma can do this."
"Exactly," Sydney added as he looked at him as well, "We just need her to try once more."
"She can't," Alec told them, "Look at her."
"She has to!" Clara yelled at him as she stared at him, who turned around and looked at the tired Emma as no one did anything, "We can't leave him."
"Looks like the only other way is to use the TARDIS, even if it's risky," Rose realised, "We're talking all or nothing here. We can't just give up on him."
"Yeah, it's risky, but we can't just leave Dad," Sydney stated as he, Rose and Sydney ran from the room, "We have to try."
"I know you feel that you can't do this, Emma, but look at that woman over there," Alec told Emma as he held her head between both of his hands before he looked over at Hila, "You saved her. She's only here because of your strength and so am I."
As Rose, Sydney and Clara left the house, they ran towards the TARDIS before they stopped in front of it as Clara grabbed onto its handles and began pulling on them to open.
"Oh, come on!" Clara pleaded with the TARDIS, "Let us in, you grumpy old cow!"
"Old girl, I know you're protective, but we really need you right now," Rose told the TARDIS softly as she stepped forward and gently placed her hands on the TARDIS' doors, "Please, let us in."
"Yeah, we need to help Dad," Sydney added, agreeing with his mother, "Please, open up."
Suddenly, there was an electronic buzzing before the three of them turned around to see a copy of Clara standing there.
"Whoa," Clara muttered with shock on her face, while Rose and Sydney had looks of surprise on their faces.
"Emma, I was as lost as her but being with you... You give me a reason to be, Emma," Alec told Emma from the house's music room as he still was holding her head between both of his hands, "You brought me back from the dead."
Alec then helped Emma stand back up with Hila standing back up as well. Emma then put the crown back on as the three of them joined their hands together. Emma then closed her eyes again as she tapped into her empathic abilities again.
"What's this now?" Clara asked the replica of her before it flickered to reveal that it was a projection.
"The TARDIS Voice Visual Interface," the TARDIS' interface answered, "I'm programmed to select the image of a person you esteem, Clara. Of several billion such images in my databanks, this one best meets the criterion."
"She hasn't done this since that time me and the Doctor were poisoned in 1930s Berlin with no possibility of regenerating," Rose muttered to herself as she widened her eyes slightly, "That adventure over 300 years ago was slightly terrifying."
"Yeah, that was quite a story," Sydney told her with an intrigued look on his face, "Guess the old girl's pulling out all the stops for us now."
"Ugh! You are a cow, I knew it!" Clara realised with disgust on her face, "Whatever, you have to help the Doctor."
"She's right," Rose said, agreeing with her, "We need to save him."
"Yeah, come on, cold girl," Sydney stated, agreeing with them, "Let's get Dad back."
"The Doctor is in the pocket universe," the TARDIS' interface reminded them.
"You can enter the pocket universe," Clara told the TARDIS' interface.
"Clara, remember what the Doctor said about entering a pocket universe with the TARDIS," Rose reminded her, "If we do that, she could get trapped there and decay into the quantum foam. It's incredibly risky."
"Rose is right, the entropy would drain the energy from my heart," the TARDIS' interface said, agreeing with the Time Lady, "In four seconds, I'd be stranded. In ten, I'd be dead."
"We get it, it's dangerous," Sydney muttered with a serious expression on his face, "But we have to try everything we can to save Dad."
"You're talking but all I hear is, 'Meh-meh-meh-meh-meh,'" Clara told the TARDIS' interface, "Come on, let's go!" The projection then disappeared before she turned towards the TARDIS with Rose and Sydney doing the same before she pounded on the TARDIS' door with her right hand, "Hey, hey, hey!"
Back inside the house's music room, Alec, Emma and Hila were now standing in the in the centre of the room as they held each other's hands as the crystal in the crown was glowing.
"Doctor," Emma muttered to herself when the disc suddenly reappeared in the room and began spinning around, "Can you hear me?" The disc then began making a resonating sound, "Doctor!"
"Oh, come on!" Clara pleaded with the TARDIS as she pulled on its door handles with both of her hands.
"Please, old girl, let us in," Rose said, agreeing with the nanny, "We need to save him."
"Yeah, come on, Mum's right. Let us in," Sydney added, agreeing with them.
Suddenly, the TARDIS opened its door on its own, causing Clara, Rose and Sydney to smile before the nanny hurried inside the ship with Rose and Sydney following closely behind her.
"Doctor, can you hear me?" Emma called out to the Time Lord from the house's music room as the portal suddenly reopened.
Back in the wooded forest within the pocket universe, the Doctor ran forward before he stopped for a second with a grunt and got his bearings before he continued on.
As the TARDIS spun through the time vortex, which now resembled a swirling tunnel of a reddish-orange and purple flame-like energy, Clara held onto the ship's railings for dear life with screams, while Rose grunted as she was operating the TARDIS with Sydney helping her, though his inexperience showed as he struggled a bit with the controls and made small sounds as the ship tumbled a bit.
"Doctor!" Emma called out to the Time Lord from the house's music room again as she, Alec and Hila looked at the portal.
"Doctor, we're here," the Doctor heard Emma call his name as he continued to run through the wooded forest in the pocket universe, "Come home."
"Uh, Emma!" The Doctor called out to Emma when he suddenly saw a blue flash of light in the distance and stopped as he saw it and spun around nervously as he heard whooshing and snarling sounds from the crooked creature, "What do you want? To frighten me, I suppose, eh? Because that's what you do. You hide." He then heard eerie laughter all around him, "You're the bogeyman under the bed… Seeking whom you may devour." He then got scared as he turned around again, "Ahhh! Ah!" He then heard the eerie laughter from the crooked creature again, "You want me to be afraid. Then well done." He then heard a rattling sound from a nearby tree and as the creature came out from behind it, "I am the Doctor... and I am afraid."
Clara screamed as the TARDIS continued to spin through the vortex with Rose continuing to pilot the ship with Sydney helping her a bit with his inexperience showing before Clara clung to the other side of the console from them as she continued to scream with Rose grunting.
"Doctor!" Emma called out to the Time Lord from the house's music room again as she, Alec and Hila continued to look at the portal, "Hurry!"
Back in the pocket universe, the Doctor looked around warily as the creature was now standing behind the Time Lord, but as soon as he turned around to look at it, it disappeared. The creature then eerily laughed at him.
"So why am I still here, huh?" The Doctor asked the crooked creature before he held both of his arms out, "Why not just... eat me?" Huh? Come on. Because you still need me. Yeah, you need me to piggyback you across. Ah. To which I say... Come on then, big boy, chase me."
With that said, the Doctor ran from where he was standing before the creature began to chase after him. The Time Lord then made for the edge, but the beast tackled him, knocking him to the ground before he could reach the end. This caused the Doctor to gasp as he fell on his back before he got his first view of the beast.
He saw that aside from its neck being crooked, it looked like it's face was somewhat distorted, almost like it was decomposing and that its skin was made of melted wax and stood over his legs. And at that moment, the TARDIS arrived in the sky as Clara continued to scream, while Rose grunted as she piloted it with some help from Sydney. The Doctor laughed as the TARDIS passed over them, knocking the creature backwards and allowing the Time Lord to get back up.
Inside the TARDIS, Clara continued to cling to the other side of the console from Rose and Sydney as she continued to scream as Rose grunted.
The TARDIS then swung back around towards the Doctor before the Time Lord stood back up and ran towards the TARDIS and grabbed hold of one of its sides as it passed by him.
Back inside the house's music room in N-Space, Emma screamed in agony and fell to her knees as the TARDIS suddenly materialised across from her, Alec and Hila as the Doctor leaned against the ship, panting as Emma wheezed and sobbed before she exhaled and whistled. The Doctor then came around from the side just as Rose opened the door and exited the ship, followed by Sydney and Clara. He and Rose exchanged a weak high-five. He then hurried over towards Emma to see her. The Time Lord then put both of his hands over Emma's head and saw that she was all right.
"It's okay," the Doctor assured them as he stood back up before he laughed and looked outside the window and saw that the sunlight was streaming in as he smiled, "Ah."
A while later in the front hall of the house, Clara was walking towards the front door with Sydney as the Doctor and Rose followed them from behind with the Time Lord having his bow tie back on. Emma suddenly came up behind both older Gallifreyans. The Doctor then leaned against the door and crossed his arms as Rose stood next to him and placed her right hand in her trouser's pockets, and looked outside as they watched them approach Alec and Hila, who were standing on the lawn outside.
"The two of you wanted a word?" Emma asked them.
"Why, if that's…" The Doctor began to inquire as he and Rose turned towards her.
"That's fine," Emma assured them as the Doctor lowered his arms as he and Rose turned around and looked at her, "You two didn't come here for the ghost, did you?"
"No," the Doctor answered.
"Nah, we didn't," Rose added, agreeing with him, "We came for something much bigger, something truly important."
"You both came here for me," Emma realised.
"Yes," the Doctor confirmed.
"Why?" Emma asked them.
"We needed to ask you something," the Doctor explained.
"It's about something only you could help us with," Rose added, "We wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Then ask," Emma urged them.
"Clara…" The Doctor began to say.
"Yes?" Emma asked them.
"What exactly is she?" Rose asked her as she and the Doctor walked over to her as she removed her right hand from her trouser's pocket.
"She's a girl," Emma answered with confusion in her voice.
"Yes, but what kind of girl, specifically?" The Doctor asked her.
"She's a perfectly ordinary girl," Emma answered, "Very pretty."
"Mmm," the Doctor muttered as he crossed his arms again.
"Very clever," Emma added as the Doctor and Rose turned away from her.
"Hmm," the Doctor muttered again.
"More scared than she lets on," Emma told them.
"And that's it, is it?" The Doctor asked her as he and Rose stopped in the doorway.
"Yeah, is that all she is?" Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Why?" Emma asked them, "Is that not enough?"
"No. There has to be more to her than just that," Rose muttered to herself, "Considering everything we've seen, it can't just be that simple."
Alec stood outside the TARDIS, which was parked outside the house again with his left hand on the door as the Doctor and Rose approached him with Hila and Emma. Emma then hugged Hila before both Gallifreyans hugged them both. Clara and Sydney then pushed them away from the column they had been leaning against.
"Where will you go?" Emma asked Hila as they stopped hugging each other.
"They can't take me home," Hila answered, "History says I went missing."
"But they can change history," Emma protested.
"No! No, no, we can't, actually," the Doctor told her, "There are fixed points in time, you see…"
"Hi," Clara said as she cleared her throat as she and Sydney walked over to them.
"What?" The Doctor asked her before she pulled him away.
"What do you want, Sid?" Rose asked her son as she looked at him.
"It's probably best not to explain the laws of time to Emma right now," Sydney explained, "Trust me."
"Okay, I guess you're right," Rose muttered as she realised that he was right before they walked away from them and towards the Doctor and Clara.
"I knew you were there," Hila told Emma as she looked at her, "I could feel you."
"I know," Emma replied with a smile as the Doctor tried to take a step forward, but Clara held him back as they along with Rose and Sydney smiled at them.
"Have we…" Hila began to ask as she looked at her more closely.
"We can't have," Emma said with disbelief in her voice as she sensed some resemblance between them, "You haven't even been born yet."
"No, you can't have met," the Doctor confirmed as he finally pulled away from Clara's grasp and walked back over to them as Alec began walking away from the TARDIS and over to them, "But she can be your great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter." Alec then joined them, Yours too, of course. But you guessed that already, hadn't you?" He then saw that both Emma and ALec had a look of surprise on their faces, "Oh! Apparently not."
"The paradoxes…" Alec began to say.
"Resolve themselves, by and large. That's why the psychic link was so powerful. Blood calling to blood. Out of time," the Doctor explained, "Not everything ends, eh?" He then slapped Alec on the right arm with his right hand as he walked towards the TARDIS, "Not love, not always."
"It's amazing how connections like these can transcend time and space," Rose muttered as she looked back at Emma and Hila, "Family ties, even ones we don't know about, have a power all their own."
"Yeah, Mum's right," Sydney said, agreeing with his mother, "It's incredible how family connections can span across time itself."
"Doctor, what about, what about, um…" Alec called out to the Time Lord as he turned around and followed him, "What about us? Emma and me?"
"What about you?" The Doctor asked him.
"Well… what's supposed to happen?" Alec explained, "I mean, what do we do now?"
"Hold hands," the Doctor answered as Emma came up to stand beside Alec, "That's what you're meant to do. Keep doing that. And don't let go. That's the secret."
The Doctor then clapped his hands and headed for the TARDIS. And as he did so, he remembered when he, Rose, Sydney and Clara were looking for the ghost in the music room. He then recalled everything about the crooked creature and even when he encountered it in the pocket universe.
"Oh, I'm so slow!" The Doctor said as he slapped his forehead with his right hand before he turned around towards everyone, "I am slow. I am notorious for it. That's always been my problem." Rose, Clara and Sydney then walked over to him with everyone else doing the same, "But, but I get there in the end. Oh, yes."
"Doctor?" Rose and Clara muttered as they looked at him with confusion on his faces.
"What's wrong, Dad?" Sydney said, agreeing with them.
"How do sharks make babies?" The Doctor asked them.
"Carefully," Clara answered.
"Is that supposed to be a rhetorical question?" Rose asked him as she raised her eyebrows with confusion in her voice.
"No, no, no, no," the Doctor answered, "It's not a rhetorical question, Rose." He then looked back at Clara, "They do it happily."
"Sharks don't actually smile," Clara stated, "They're just... Well, they've got lots and lots of teeth, they're quite eaty."
"Yeah, Clara's right, love," Rose said, agreeing with the nanny."
"Indeed," Sydney added, agreeing with them, "They've got plenty of teeth, and they're definitely more about the eating."
"Exactly. But birds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it," the Doctor stated, agreeing with them as he ran off to where he could see the house with Rose, Sydney and Clara following him, "Every lonely monster needs a companion."
"There's two of them," Clara realised as the four of them stopped under one of the house's stone archways and saw a crooked creature similar to the one in the pocket universe in the window.
"Yeah, there's two of them," Rose said, agreeing with Clara as she widened her eyes.
"Now it all makes sense," Sydney muttered to himself with a small smile on his face.
"It's the oldest story in the universe," the Doctor added, "This one, or any other. Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events, war, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the hex or he's thrown into it." He then put his right arm around Rose's shoulders, "Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions. This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story."
"It reminds me of us, Doctor," Rose told him as she looked at him, "How we got separated sometime after our 50th anniversary on Gallifrey, the night I first regenerated and somehow got chameleon-arched. Then we unknowingly found each other again on Earth in 2005 when you were in your ninth incarnation while I was still chameleon-arched."
"Yes, Rose. We found each other again, against all odds," the Doctor said, agreeing with her as he removed his arm from around her shoulders, "Sorry." He then ran back over to the others, "Excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt the rest of your life." He then looked at Emma, "So... Tiny favour to ask."
A while later back in the pocket universe, the Doctor landed in the wooded forest with the harness back on before he took it back off and ran through the woods, trying to find the crooked creature.
"I'm sorry. I understand now," the Doctor told the crooked creature before he heard the creature growling in the distance and behind a tree, "I can take you to her. I can take you to a safe place far away from here. You can be together." He then looked around the area for the creature, "Huh? "Well, come on then, she's waiting."
The Time Lord then heard the crooked creature's snarling and turned around with a smile on his face as he came face-to-face with him again.
"Well, hello again, you old Romeo, you," the Doctor greeted the creature before he heard the TARDIS, "Now... Here she comes."
As the TARDIS spun through the time vortex again with Rose piloting it and Sydney helping her, demonstrating a bit more confidence and skill than before, Clara screamed as she clung to the other side of the console again. Rose grunted softly as she adjusted the controls, her eyes focused on the navigation screen. Sydney, now more experienced, made small sounds of concentration and effort as he flipped switches and turned dials with his right hand.
Back in the pocket universe, the TARDIS suddenly reappeared and came spinning through the sky as Clara continued to scream.
"Get ready to jump," the Doctor urged the crooked creature before he dove towards the TARDIS.
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