Thea sniffed as she stepped out of the TARDIS, "this isn't London." She turned to the Doctor as he and Clara stepped out after her.
"No." The Doctor pouted.
"Lovely." Clara smiled as she followed them out, shutting the doors behind her.
All three of them were dressed for the late 1800s. Clara wearing a long black dress with red accents, her hair curled under the bonnet she wore. The Doctor had on his typical suit, though with a bowler hat. Thea had selected a cosseted emerald green dress, off shoulder with white lace trim, a golden brooch in the centre of her chest, she had forgone the bustle this time, wearing small white gloves with her hair pulled back in a low braided bun, stray curls framing her face.
"Yorkshire." Thea shrugged, "1893. Very close."
Clara shook her head, "you're making a habit of this." She remarked, "getting us lost."
"But we're not lost." Thea countered, "we know exactly where we are. Not where we want to be."
"Oi!" The Doctor frowned at that. "It's much better than it used to be, I'll have you know. I once spent a hell of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport."
"What for?" Clara asked.
"Search me. Anyway..."
"This way!" Thea took off running...when a scream sounded.
"Brave heart, Clara," the Doctor called as they ran after Thea towards the scream, towards the canal where a crowd of people had gathered.
A body floated in the water, skin strained red, dressed in rags.
"It's another one. Don't you see?" A man cried as he was restrained by police officers, "another victim. Why won't any one of you listen?"
"We'll listen." The Doctor remarked.
~.~
The man, Edmund Thursday, led them to the gates of a large factory, Sweetville, as they peered through the bars to the courtyard.
"Mrs Winifred Gillyflower." Edmund explained, "An astonishing woman. Prize winning chemist and mechanical engineer. So why..."
"Why has she decided to open up a match factory in her old home town?" Thea guessed, smiling innocently as she took the words from his mouth.
Edmund nodded, "And no one who ever goes to live there ever seems to come out."
"Except like the man in the canal." The Doctor nodded.
~.~
The trio stood with Edmund in the morgue later that day, looking down at the body that had been fished from the canal. The coroner confirmed that this wasn't the first he had seen. And that there had been no water in their lungs, so clearly none of the bodies had drowned, what killed that happened before being tossed out in the canal, likely by whatever turned their skin red.
"Same as the rest." Edmund remarked, "All dead from causes unknown and their flesh glowing."
"Like something manky in a coal cellar." The coroner nodded, "They keep turning up in t'canal. The Crimson Horror."
"Oh, good name." The Doctor smiled turning to the girls, "Hey, that's good, isn't it? The Crimson Horror."
"Almost as good as The Pantheon and Discord." Thea smirked.
"Oh, you know I think that name is better." The Doctor grinned at her, recalling the day they had first met.Oh, she had not been impressed by him in the slightest, because of that, neither had the gang, and look at them now. How both of them had grown from each other.
"Yes, but as least we know what the Pantheon of Discord is, unlike The Crimson Horror."
"Hmmm." The Doctor hummed, pulling out a magnifying glass to examine the body more closely, "Do you know the old Romany superstition, Clara? That the eye of a dead person retains an image of the last thing it sees."
He handed her magnifying glass as she looked for herself. She gasped seeing an image of an old woman reflected in the mans eyes.
"Nonsense, of course, unless the chemical composition of the body has been massively corrupted." The Doctor slipped on a rubber glove, rubbing the skin as the red substance came off onto the glove.
~.~
Thea grinned as she helped the Doctor with his little experiment to find out what the red substance was. She loved it when on the very rare occasions they did science together. It happened so rarely, mostly because on Earth, especially during the Victorian period it was frowned upon for a lady to be so well knowledgeable about science, which was utterly stupid!
Science was for anyone and everyone!
Back on Gallifrey she had only ever gotten to do science at the Academy, her parents refused to let her into the lab in their estate and she never got to help either of them.
It had been so unfair.
All she had wanted to do was a bit of quality time with them, but she had been banished from their study room.
"Wow, this is nasty." The Doctor grimaced at the vial, "An organic poison. A sort of venom."
Thea tilted her head, trying to get a sense of it, "definitely Sweetville."
"Well then, we need a plan."
~.~
They had taken the front door approach this time, getting into Sweetville by claiming to be interested participants. They hadn't told her a complete lie, the Doctor had adopted Thea and Clara was the nanny to help out.
"Doctor Smith." Mrs Gillyflower, the old woman they had seen in the dead mans eye, smiled at them, "and your young Thea Smith, with your nanny," she eyed them appraisingly, "Oh yes, you'll do very nicely."
"Oh, grand." The Doctor smiled, putting on a Northern accent, "Smashing. Eh, much better than the orphanage, eh, kiddo?" He grinned at Thea.
"Oh, very much." She agreed, forgoing her own northern accent and opting for a more cockney one.
"Sweetville will provide you with everything you need." Gillyflower explained as she led them through the streets of the small town, "You won't have to worry about a thing ever again."
"The name, Sweetville." Clara began with her own, remarkable good, northern accent.
"Yes?"
"Why not name it after yourself. After all, it's your creation."
"Gillyflowertown." The Doctor suggested, "Gillyflowerland. You could have roller coasters."
Gillyflower stopped, "It is named in tribute to my partner."
"You're silent partner?" Thea guessed, eying her.
She had a bad feeling about the woman from the start, but the further into town they were the worst it got, the further from escape they went.
"Yes," Gillyflower rested a hand to her chest, "Mr Sweet likes to keep himself to himself. Shall we move on?" She smiled, leading them to a door.
"Who lives here?" The Doctor wondered.
"Oh, names don't matter here. All you need to know is we only recruit the brightest and the best."
The Doctor frowned, seeing Thea stiffen as Gillyflower opened the door. He cautiously peered inside to see a man and a woman stood inside a large glass bell, like they were having tea but frozen, like dolls.
"We're surrounded." Thea murmured, not evening needing to look back to know men and women were advancing on them in all directions.
"The broach is a teleporter right." The Doctor whispered to her, pulling out the sonic from his pocket.
"Oh, hell no!" She exclaimed as he quickly flashed the sonic on her and she disappeared.
"What did she go?" Clara gasped.
"Reinforcements." The Doctor straightened his bowtie.
~.~
Madame Vastra sat in her chair in her conservatory, her black veil over her face with Jenny standing by her side as they spoke to a Mr Thursday who had requested their help with the mysterious circumstances of his brothers death.
"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting." The man began, "I'm told you are the investigator to see if there are strange goings-on."
"I read of your brother's death." Vastra remarked, "Another victim of The Crimson Horror."
"So it is claimed. He was a newspaper man. He and a young woman were working undercover..."
"To investigate Sweetville." Vastra nodded.
The man stared at her, "Yes...how, did you know that?" He hadn't mentioned anything of the place nor had the papers mentioned it.
"I was there." A voice called from the doorway.
The man turned to see Thea standing in the doorway.
"Along with my dad and our friend. We were helping your brother investigate when Mrs Gillyflower got us."
Vastra looked sadly at her. The girl didn't seem to have a good time in this time period did she? She had appeared in the house only a few hours ago. A teleporter built into the broach of her dress, a quick get away if necessary. A gift from herself if she was ever in trouble and they were around. It was only a little homing beacon, if they were ever around Thea could alert them they needed her. She assumed the girl would never bother to use it and was yet to be proven wrong.
The Doctor had been the one to activate it, using the sonic to turn it into a teleporter.
They had been getting ready to head straight up to the North when Mr Thursday's requested to meet with them.
"Tell me, madam," Mr Thursday continued, "do you know what an optogram is?"
"It is a silly superstition, sir." Vastra replied. "Its the belief that the eye can retain an image of the last thing it sees."
"Nonsense, of course," Thea added, "unless the chemical composition of the body has been massively corrupted." She repeated the same words they Doctor had when they realised the red substance covering the victims bodies when some sort of venom.
The man nodded, pulling out a photo he had of his brother, staring wide eyed and handed it to Jenny who's eyes widened in alarm and passed it on to Vastra.
Vastra pulled back her veil in shock, "Good grief."
"Oh, god." Mr Thursday stared and fainted at the sight of Vastra reptilian face.
Thea stepped over the unconscious man, snatching the photo able to see the Doctors reflected in the mans eye, exactly like the man they had examined earlier, his skin red, eyes wide in pain.
Oh, Gillyflower was going to pay.
"You're not expecting me to waste time at you develop this for a better look are you." She demanded, knowing Vastra was wanting to do just that.
It wasn't necessary. They knew the Doctor and Clara were in danger. Clearly the Doctor had been taken and dunked in the poison to die. She hoped being a Time Lord it hadn't actually killed him and he was just lying somewhere, discarded like the rest of them to wash up in the canal and Clara, stars only knows what happened to her. Maybe Gillyflower found her pretty enough to be put on show.
Vastra raised her eyebrows at the girl, "I understand you're worried, Thea, and you have all right to be, but that does not give you the right to speak to me like that."
Thea rolled her eyes, really not liking them wasting time like this. It would take them hours to get the carriage back up to Yorkshire, by then the Doctor could very well be dead! If he wasn't then Clara certainly could be and she wasn't going to let another Clara die!
She sighed, "please can we just get the carriage ready and go."
Vastra nodded, "that's better."
Thea sat opposite Vastra and Jenny in the carriage as Strax sat out as a carriage man, driving them up to the North.
"According to my research," Vastra began, "Sweetville's proprietor holds recruitment drives for her little community. She is only interested in the fittest and the most beautiful."
"You may rely on me, ma'am." Strax called from the front of the carriage.
"I was, in fact, speaking to Jenny."
"Jenny." Strax scoffed, "If this weak and fleshy boy is to represent us, I strongly recommend the issuing of scissor grenades, limbo vapour and triple blast brain splitters."
"What for?" Vastra asked.
"Just generally. Remember, we are going to the north."
"I'm going with her." Thea stated, slumping back in her seat, arms crossed.
"Absolutely not." Vastra argued, "you're father sent you here to be under my protection. I am not letting you out of my sight."
"I don't need protecting." She snapped, "I'm not a silly little girl, so can everyone please stop treating me like one! I can protect myself and I'm going to find the Doctor with or without you're help."
"Ma'am," Jenny said softly, "I think we should go together. We can watch each others backs. It not like she wont see a sneak attack."
"Thank you, Jenny." She slumped in her seat, glad there was at least one person who didn't look at her like a child.
"And she would find the Doctor quicker than I could alone."
~.~
Thea pressed herself against the back wall of the factory, waiting for the workers to pass before sneaking a look to ensure the coast was clear.
The plan had changed multiple times on the way up.
But now she was the one sneaking through the factory to find the Doctor, skipping Gillyflowers preaching to other innocent victims as she snuck round the back. Since it was another requirement day, there was less workers about, but she was still warily of the few left wandering the empty factory halls.
She frowned, walking into another room, empty apart from three large gramophones that were emitting a lot of noise. She grimaced at the noise and quickly hurried out the room, not even wanting to look through the large window as men and women was hung from a pole and dunked in a large vat of the poison.
She didn't need to see that, didn't want to see it. That had clearly been what happened to the Doctor after he got her out to safety. Being a Time Lord his body probably reacted different, fought against it.
If she was right (and she usually was) Gillyflowers daughter, Ada, would have found him, realised he was different than the others rejected and moved him somewhere.
She stepped into a lift, heading up and out into another empty corridor. She inhaled deeply, running down the corridor to the spiral staircase at the end, "Dad!" She shouted, not even needing to see the footprints from the dust and straw on the floor to know someone had been sneaking up here every so often.
She ran to the door at the top, hearing groaning from the other side, chains jangling.
"I'm here." She gasped, "just got to get the door open." She pulled out a lock pick Jenny gave her and started to get the door open, "still mad you sent me away, by the way." She called through the door, getting more groaning as she got the door open to see the Doctor sat in the straw floor, his skin cherry red, eyes wide, mouth frozen open, his arms outstretched towards her, dressed in white rags. "Found you," She hurried over, quickly uncuffing him from his chains as he groaned, trying to form words but was unable too. "Told you I can handle myself." She told him, grabbing his clothes under one arm and helping him stand, leading him out into the hall, "Bit embarrassing isn't it? You being the damsel in distress."
They headed down the corridors thankfully not running into any workers, pausing at a window as more people were dipped into the poison.
"Any idea what happened to Clara?" She murmured.
As far as she could sense the woman was fine. Likely Mrs Gillyflower had found her pretty enough to freeze in the house like when they had been surrounded. She really hoped so, she didn't like the idea that Clara was dead and washed up in the canal.
No, Clara was fine, once they got the Doctor fine and walking again theyd go and find her.
The Doctor groaned, painfully lifting his arm and pointing to a set of booths, with a circular vent on the front.
"I know." Thea huffed, helping to led the Doctor to to them, yanking the door open and half shoving the Doctor inside with his clothes, shutting the door behind him.
She stepped back, watching through the vent as the light shone red before turning green like the sonic as it buzzed.
A moment later the Doctor burst out, dressed back in his purple suit, no longer red skinned, fully restored.
"Ah!" He cheered, "missed me?" He grinned moving to hug her when she stepped back, arms crossed. "What?"
"You sent me away." She hissed.
"To get reinforcements." He blinked, not understanding why she wasn't happy with him.
He knew she had that broach on, a gift from Vastra last time for if they were ever back in the Victorian era near their time. A way to summon them for help for situations like this. He had used the sonic to turn it into a teleporter down to Vastras house to alert them and get her out of the danger and come back to rescue them.
Why was she mad about that?
"And you got them didn't you?" He continued, "Don't tell me you came all the way back on your own."
"They had a carriage." She shrugged, admitting the others were in Yorkshire as well. "You still sent me away. Like you didn't trust me to get out on my own."
"Well, I..."
"Like I'm still just a little girl to you, to everyone, someone who still needs protecting!"
"It's not like that at all." He hurried to assure her, "that was me, trusting you, to come back with a plan and save the day."
"The truth?" She eyed him.
"The truth."
She eyed him a moment longer, sensing it was the truth and hugged him, "then yes."
"Yes what?" He asked.
"I did miss you."
Of course she did, she had been very worried.
He grinned at her, "Right, Mrs Gillyflower, got to stop her."
"And find Clara." She reminded him.
"Yes!" He agreed, spinning and pointing at her, "Clara. Got to find Clara!"
"This way!" She took his hand and pulled him off.
It had been rather easy to find Clara, sitting primly encased in the large glass bell in one of the houses as Thea quickly threw a chair, breaking the glass as the Doctor picked up Clara, carrying her back to the booths to 'thaw' the lights within turning green the same as before.
"She will be alright, won't she?" Thea asked, peering through the vents to see Clara.
It wasn't like she had a bad feeling that it would revive Clara, the opposite in fact, but she was still allowed to worry despite the strong feeling it would be alright in the end.
"Bad feeling?" The Doctor frowned.
"Yeah," She nodded, turning down the corridor as a group of Gillyflowers pilgrims approached, "them."
"Oh, great," The Doctor huffed at them, "great. Attack of the supermodels. Time for a plan."
"Alright." Thea shrugged.
The Doctor stared as Thea pulled away her skirt, revealing skin tight pants underneath and advanced on the pilgrims, quickly disposing of the three closest with a flip over her shoulder, an elbow to the face and a kick in the stomach...only for the rest of the pilgrims to pull of weapons.
"Ok, time for new plan." The Doctor reached and pulled her back.
"No, I have it under control." She defended...only for Strax to come barrelling down the hall, firing his gun as the Doctor quickly pulled Thea against the wall. "Even a Sontaran thinks I need protecting."
"Quickly!" Vastra called as she and Jenny followed the Sontaran, swords drawn.
"Has she been like this with you?" The Doctor asked Vastra.
"Yes." Vastra answered, "Now let's go."
"Not without Clara." Thea snapped.
She was getting quite frustrated now, not only with everyone still thinking she needed protecting but also because they were talking about her like she wasn't even there!
"What now, madam?" Strax inquired now that the pilgrim had fled, "We could lay mimetic cluster mines."
"Strax..." Vastra sighed.
"Or dig trenches and fill them with acid."
"Strax! You're overexcited. Have you been eating Miss Jenny's sherbet fancies again?"
"No." Strax blinked.
"Go outside and wait for me until I call for you."
"But madam, I..."
"Go!"
Strax pouted, as the Doctor patted him on the back, "I'm going to go play with my grenades." He sulked as he left.
"Okay, I think she's about done." The Doctor opened the booth to reveal Clara standing there.
"Well, I'll be blowed." Jenny breathed seeing the woman, looking exactly like Clara Oswin Oswald who had died at Christmas.
Thea had mentioned they had come with their new companion Clara but they had just assumed she was another ordinary human with the common name. How possible was it for them to be the same person?
"I know who you think she is," the Doctor murmured, "but she isn't. She can't be."
"I was right, then," Vastra remarked, "you and Clara have unfinished business."
The Doctor lunged forwards as Clara nearly fell out of the booth, "Hello stranger."
Clara blinked slowly, coming round, "Doctor."
"Hello." Thea smiled at her.
"Hi." She smiled back, noticing the two extras standing behind her, "What's going on?"
"I brought reinforcements."
"Oh, haven't you heard, love?" The Doctor laughed, bringing back his accent, "There's trouble at mill," dropping it as he nodded to Vastra, "She's a lizard."
"So what else did you find out?" Thea asked Vastra as they headed down the hall towards the lift.
While she had been looking for the Doctor they had been gathering more information about the poison. She had managed to give them a bit of a start, telling them it felt old which she hoped had actually meant something.
"My people once ruled this world, as well you know," Vastra began, "but we did not rule it alone. Just as humanity fights a daily battle against nature, so did we. And our greatest plague, the most virulent enemy, was the repulsive red leech."
"Ooh, the Repulsive Red Leech." the Doxtor grinned before shaking his head, "Nah. On balance I think I prefer the Crimson Horror."
"Not as good as The Phantom of Discord though." Thea remarked.
"Still a great name for a band." he agreed, turning to Vastra, "but what was it, exactly?"
"A tiny parasite." Vastra explained, "It infected our drinking water. And once in our systems, it secreted a fatal poison."
"If it's been hanging around, lurking in the shadows, maybe it's evolved."
"Or had help." Thea countered, "I think Mrs G is helping it."
"Doctor, I've been thinking." Clara began, "The chimney..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." The Doctor waved her off, "Way past that now. Yucky red parasite from the time of the dinosaurs pitches up in Victorian Yorkshire. Didn't see that one coming."
"Literally." Thea commented, "didn't see it at all. Then again didn't see us ending up in Yorkshire." She shrugged.
"Yeah, but the chimney..." Clara tried again.
"But what's the connection to Mrs Gillyflower?" The Doctor shook his head, "Judgement will rain down on us all. An empty mill."
"Clara does have a point about the chimney." Thea reasoned.
"What?" The Doctor blinked at her before turning to Clara.
"A chimney that doesn't blow smoke." She finally got the words out.
The Doctor smiled, tapping her nose, "Clever clogs."
"Missed me?" She winked.
"Yes." Thea answered, moving to hug the woman as the lift arrived.
~.~
The group of five huddled behind crates and barrels on the main factory floor, watching the pilgrims walking around.
"She's going to poison the air." The Doctor realised. That was why the chimneys were closed off, not to let air out, but to stop it getting in.
"How?" Jenny asked.
They watched as one of them men pulled a lever revealing a very large rocket.
"With that, I should think." Clara remarked.
They watched as two more men pulled a cloth off to reveal the poison, bright red, clearly not diluted.
"And there's the poison." Thea murmured.
"All right, gang, I've got a plan." The Doctor stood up suddenly, only to knock over a metal pipe sending to clattering to the floor.
Thea quickly pulled him down again, "slower this time, dad."
~.~
The Doctor, Thea and Clara walked down the halls when Thea stopped, backtracking to a door, hearing crying on the other side and knowing it was Ada, seeing her in the corner of the room, weeping on a crate.
Ada gasped, looking over hearing the door open, "who is that? Who is there?"
The Doctor knelt down besides Ada, taking her hands and holding them to his face, allowing her to recognise him.
"You." Ada breathed, "it's you. My monster. You've come back. But you're..."
"Warm." He smiled, lowering Adas hand but still hold it, "And alive, thanks to you, Ada."
Thea knelt besides him, "You saved my dad from your mother's human rubbish tip." She smiled, "thank you, for that."
"Now then, what's wrong?"
"She does not want me!" Ada sniffled, "I am not to be chosen. Perhaps it was my own sin, the blackness in my heart that my father saw in me."
"Ada, there is no darkness in your heart," Thea told her, squeezing her hand, "Ada, you are a brilliant and kind, lovely you woman..." She reached up to stroke her face, frowning as she lightly touched the scars around her eyes.
She swallowed, now she was closer to the woman's scars she could see just how not ordinary they were.
The Doctor frowned at Thea, seeing a change in her expression as she lowered her hand from Adas face. 'what is it?' He asked in her mind.
She shook her head, unable to speak about it in front of Ada herself. Who could do such a thing to their own child?
"What is it?" Clara asked, unconsciously repeating the Doctors question.
"Who is that?" Ada gasped, looking up in the direction of Claras voice.
"I'm, I'm a friend." Clara offered, "A friend of theirs."
"Then you are fortunate indeed. It isn't good to be alone."
"You're not alone, Ada," Thea told her, "you've got us."
"Now, Ada, I need you to tell us something." The Doctor told her, "Who is Mr Sweet? Ada?"
But Ada looked away, "Oh, dear..."
"Please, tell us."
"I cannot. Even now, I cannot. I cannot betray Mama."
"Very well," Thea sighed, "come with us," she stood and helped Ada up, "you're being lied too and you deserve the truth."
~.~
The Doctor strolled into Gillyflowers room, Thea and Clara following, leaving Ada just outside the door, knowing that as much as it would hurt to hear, Ada deserved to know the truth of what her mother had done.
Mrs Gillyflower was standing before a control panel seemingly built into the wall. She turned to them at the abrupt entrance, "Oh, you do seem to keep turning up like a bad penny, young man."
"Force of habit." The Doctor shrugged.
"Can I offer you something? Tea? Seed cake? Oh, a glass of Amontillado?"
"No, thanks. We've had a skinful already, as you might say."
"Ha, ha. Very funny."
"I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter Thea and our friend Clara, you're nuts and we're going to stop you."
"I'm afraid Mr Sweet and I cannot allow that." Mrs Gillyflower told them.
"You don't get a choice." Thea glared.
"Would it be impolite to ask why you and Mr Sweet are petrifying your workforce with diluted prehistoric leech venom?" The Doctor continued.
"And when do we get to meet him, this silent partner of yours?" Clara added, "Why's he so shy."
"Mr Sweet is always with us." Gillyflower patted her chest.
"You seem to have a very close relationship with him." Thea eyed her, noticing her move and grimacing slightly.
"Oh yes, Miss Smith." Gillyflower smirked, "Exceedingly close. Symbiotic, you might say."
She unfastened the top of her dress to show the large red leech attached to her chest. the leech turned as the change of light, revealing its round, sharp teeth, before reattaching itself to Gillyflower as the woman fed it with pinches of sugar.
"Doctor, what is it?" Clara grimaced.
"A survivor." Gillyflower answered, proud, "He has grown fat on the filth humanity has pumped into the rivers. That's where I found him."
"Very enterprising." The Doctor remarked dryly.
"His needs are simple, and in return he gives me his nectar."
"His poison," Thea corrected, "its not a bee."
"It is the nectar of gods!"
"Mrs Gillyflower," the Doctor cut in, "you have no idea what you are dealing with. In the wrong hands, that venom could wipe out all life on this planet."
"Do you know what these are?" Mrs Gillyflower laughed, holding up her hands, "Ha, ha! The wrong hands."
"You're a complete nutter." Thea crossed her arms.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you manners, young lady?"
"My mother didn't teach me anything." She countered, "but the maids and servants certainly did. I am perfectly well manners when it matters. And you ma'am are completely barmy!"
Mrs Gillyflower huffed, moving to the large control panel, pulling a lever, lighting up the chimney of the factory outside.
"Planning a little fireworks party, are we?" The Doctor asked.
"You have forced me to advance the Great Work somewhat, Doctor, but my colossal scheme remains as it was. My rocket will explode high in the atmosphere, raining down Mr Sweet's beneficence onto all humanity."
"And wiping us all out." Clara cried, "you can't!" She moved to start for the woman but Thea grabbed her hand and tugged her back.
"My new Adam and Eves will sleep for but a few months before stepping out into a golden dawn," Mrs Gillyflower grinned, "Is it not beautiful, Doctor?"
"No," Thea answered instead, "but now tell us about Ada."
"What?"
"Your daughter." The Doctor cut in, "You do remember your daughter? Tell us about your daughter."
"How can you speak of such trivia when my hour is at hand? The child is of no consequence."
"Is that why you experimented on her?" The Doctor demanded.
"Experimented?" Clara gaped.
"The signs are all there." Thea sighed, "The pattern of scarring." She looked at Gillyflower, "you used her as a guinea pig."
"God..."
"Sometimes sacrifices must be made." Gillyflower shrugged.
"Children are not sacrifices." The Doctor glared.
"It was necessary. I had to find out how much of the venom would produce an anti-toxin to immunise myself. Don't you see? It was necessary!"
"Do you agree with that, Ada?" Thea called over her shoulder.
"Mama?" Ada stood in the doorway, staring in her mothers direction, "Is it...is it true?"
"Ada..." Gillyflower began, but didn't deny it.
"It is." Ada breathed, "it's true. True."
"Ada, listen to me."
"You hag!" Ada spat, stumbling towards her mother with her cane slamming against the floor, "you perfidious hag! You virago! You harpy! All these years I have helped you, served you, looked after you. Do they count for nothing, nothing at all?" She raised her cane and struck her mother repeatedly with it.
"No, stop! Stop!" Gillyflower raised her arms to protect herself until Ada stumbled back, panting.
Clara looked over as the control panel beeped, quickly grabbing a chair, holding it above her head.
"Hang on!" The Doctor shouted, "I've got a sonic screwdriver."
"Yeah?" She smirked, "I've got a chair!" She ran at the controls, smashing the chair into it as it sparked.
"Chairs are useful." Thea nodded, "brilliant!"
"That worked." The Doctor smiled, "I'm afraid your rocket isn't going anywhere, Mrs G."
Gillyflower turned to Ada sobbing in the corner, "Please, come to me, Ada. Oh, my child." She reached out as Ada cautiously approached her, wanting her mothers comfort, as her mother hugged her, "you have always been so very useful..." and pulled a revolver on her.
"No, Mrs Gillyflower!" The Doctor shouted.
"Please, Mama." Ada wept, "No more. No more."
Mrs Gillyflower grinned sinisterly and back against the door, the gun to Adas temple, "And now, if you'll please forgive us, we must be going. It is long past Ada's bedtime." She turned and shoved Ada through the door.
Clara ran after them as Gillyflower slammed and locked the door, "Clara," Thea pulled the woman back, "if we follow her directly she would shoot Ada."
"She wouldn't!" Clara gasped.
"She would." The Doctor nodded, solemn...before picking up a chair, "Chairs are useful." He grinned, throwing the chair at the window.
~.~
The trio ran through the factory's courtyard, dashing through the factory floor towards the rocket and up the stairs where they could hear Ada crying above them, finding Mrs Gillyflower before a small power box on the wall.
"Just let her go, Mrs Gillyflower." The Doctor called, seeing the woman still had her gun on her daughter, "Let Ada go."
"Secondary firing mechanism, Doctor." Mrs Gillyflower smirked, "Mr Sweet and I are too smart for you, after all."
"Just let your daughter go, Mrs Gillyflower."
Mrs Gillyflower rolled her eyes, as though annoyed at their concern for her daughter, but shoved Ada away, the girl tripping and falling down the stairs to the landing in the corner.
"Shoot if you wish, Mama." Ada wept, "It is of no matter, for you killed me a long time ago."
The Doctor started towards Ada, but Gillyflower fired down at him, sending him retreating at least until she turned her attention to the box and he helped Ada to them.
"I'll labour night and day to be a pilgrim." She began to sing, pulling down a lever as the rocket started up and took off to the sky, "Now, Mr Sweet, now the whole world will taste your lethal kiss!"
"I don't think so, Mrs G." Thea countered with a smirk as she snapped her fingers.
On the landing above them, Vastra and Jenny appeared, holding the flask of poison.
"Very well, then." Mrs Gillyflower sneered, "If I can't take the world with me, you will have to do. Die, you freaks. Die! Die!" She aimed up at Vastra and Jenny.
But Strax appeared from the top of the chimney with his own weapon raised, "put down your weapon, human female." He ordered.
Mrs Gillyflower retaliated, firing up at Strax who fired in return, knocking her off balance as he shot at her feet, sending her tumbling over the side of the stairs and to the ground below.
"Ouch." The Doctor winced at the thud.
The group ran down the stairs to see 'Mr Sweet' detached itself from Mrs Gillyflower and crawl away.
"No...no!" Mrs Gillyflower gasped, "Mr Sweet, where are you going? You can't leave me now, Mr Sweet..."
"What's it doing?" Clara asked quietly.
"It knows she's dying." The Doctor replied, "she's no longer of any use to it."
"Mr Sweet." The woman reached for the parasite...when she heard the Adas cane tapping on the ground, "Ada? Ada. Are you there?"
Ada moved to her mothers side, "I'm here, Mama."
"Forgive me, my child. Forgive me."
"Never."
Mrs Gillyflower smirked, "That's...my...girl..." She breathed her last as her head lulled to the side as the rocket exploded in the sky above them.
"What will you do with that thing?" Jenny asked, nodding to the parasite still making its way across the floor as she, Vastra and Strax joined them.
"Take it back to the Jurassic era, maybe." The Doctor shrugged, "Out of harm's way."
They looked over when they heard a thumping noise to see Ada had stumbled into Mr Sweet and was bashing it with her cane, taking her revenge on the thing that had destroyed her life.
"That's works too." Thea remarked.
~.~
The Doctor, Thea and Clara headed back to the TARDIS as Vastra, Jenny and Ada gathered to say goodbye.
"Right, London." The Doctor was saying, "We were heading for London, weren't we?"
"Was there any particular reason?" Clara wondered.
"No." The Doctor answered quickly, "No. Just thought you might like it."
"Yeah. Maybe had enough of Victorian values for a bit."
"Yeah, can't deal with the corsets" Thea grimaced.
"Now, Ada," the Doctor walked over to her, "I'd love to stay and help clear up the mess, but..."
"I know, dear monster." Ada smiled, "You have things to do."
"And what about you?"
"Oh, there are many things a bright young lady can do to occupy her time. It's time I stepped out of the darkness and into the light."
"Good luck, Ada." The Doctor smiled at her, "You know, I think you will be just..." he kissed her cheek, "Splendid. Well, thanks a million, you three, as ever. Have some Pontefract cakes on me. I love Pontefract cakes. See you around, eh, I shouldn't wonder."
"Sooner rather than later probably." Thea added with a small shrug.
"But Doctor..." Jenny called as they turned to head in the TARDIS, "That girl, Clara. You haven't explained."
"No, we haven't." The Doctor agreed.
"Can't wait to find out!" Thea grinned, waving goodbye to the group as they followed Clara into the TARDIS to get her back to the Maitland's.