If you want to help me financially, you can do it on
https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile
Strax scanned over Clara as the children watched on in sorrow. She was alive, but circling and while they had very precious time left, the Doctor and Danni were in the TARDIS. Madame Vastra watched as Captain Latimer lashed out at Strax, his anger caused by worry and grief at what had happened to the governess he'd obviously had feelings for. Even anxious as she was, Vastra entered the TARDIS to try and talk some sense and reason into the two Time Lords. Danni was sat on the set of stairs down to the lower level, hugging herself and shaking as the Doctor stood at the console, scanning a piece of ice from the Ice Woman, the rest in a London Underground tin.
"Isn't the creature still a danger? It could reform." She asked him, trying to pull his attention but he only glanced at her before picking up the next piece of ice.
"No, not in here." He muttered.
"Then you should be with Miss Clara." She retorted and he shook his head.
"She's going to be fine, I know she is," He replied, reading the results from his scan and putting the ice into the tin, "She has to be."
"Doctor, her injuries are severe. That equipment will bring back anyone for a while, but long term..." Vastra tried to explain but he slammed his hands down on the console in frustration, startling her slightly.
"She's going to be okay!" He exclaimed angrily, turning to Vastra, and moving closer to her, "She's going to be fine, because look at her." He motioned with his eyes to his wife, "I gave her hope. Clara had brought her out of herself in a way she hadn't been since before I…" He ran his hand through his hair, "I just wanted her to be happy. I thought having Clara being her companion would show her she was still Danni, stop her being so scared. Now Clara's…" He looked towards the door, "She didn't need to feel that sorrow, I'm killing her all over again. Clara's going to be fine, because I need her to help Danni."
"Doctor?" He spun to see Danni stood there, wringing her hands in front of her anxiously.
"Danni..." He moved over, taking her by the arms as he looked her over, trying to see some part of her that didn't break his hearts.
"I think we should go see Clara." She told him.
"She'll be fine." He promised her, rubbing her arm reassuringly, "There's no point seeing her until then." She smiled weakly.
"There are so many people I've not been able to see goodbye to." She explained, "I don't want Clara to be one of them."
~0~0~0~
Clara's eyes fluttered open, the mere action of opening her eyelids feeling like the hardest thing she's ever had to do. Her whole body felt uncomfortably relaxed, there was no movement there and it felt almost unnatural. She could vaguely remember falling, falling so far and then she was on a table, Danni knelt next to her as she held her hand and smiled with the shakiest smile she'd ever seen.
"You're sad." She whispered, it hurt too much to speak and Danni nodded, still trying to smile.
"I'm worried, sweetie." She whispered in reply, "Are you in any pain? Strax can help, if you need anything at all."
"No, I'm fine." She promised, everything inside of her screaming not to worry the kind woman further, "I don't want you to be sad." Danni laughed hollowly, placing a kiss on the back of the hand she held tightly.
"Tough, you've hooked me, Clara." She said teasingly.
"They all think I'm going to die, don't they?" Clara whispered and Danni nodded once, minutely but unmissable at the same time.
"They do." She admitted, "You did a very silly thing, Clara."
"Most probably." Clara retorted and Danni giggled again even as she started crying, "Don't cry, your 'usband won't like me if you do that."
"My husband can bugger off then, can't he?" Danni replied teasingly.
"Oi." The Doctor exclaimed, faking offense as he knelt down by Danni, "I can hear you, you know?"
"Good." Clara stated weakly, "She's upset, you should be looking after 'er."
"Always." He promised, "But you'll help, won't you?"
"I'll be better at it than you." She corrected, her eyes falling shut because she just couldn't keep them open anymore. Danni pushed up onto her knees, stroking the side of her face.
"Whatever happens, Clara, I don't want you to be scared." She whispered, "I was so scared, and I felt so alone and I'm never going to let you feel like that." She placed a kiss on her forehead, "You're not alone, Clara. I'm always here."
"I know, Danni-Girl." Clara whispered, "The green lady... she said the Doctor were the saver of worlds once."
"He still is." Danni corrected quickly, "He thinks he can stop, but his hearts are too big for that."
"Is he going to save this one?"
"Definitely." She promised, kissing Clara on the forehead again, "But you have to rest. It's Christmas, you can't miss it." With that, Danni stood up, the Doctor following her. She looked up at her husband, a determined look on her face.
"How do we do it?" She asked him, "How do we save Clara?" He looked down at her, not having a proper answer for her. He took another look at Clara, who looked so peaceful he was worried she'd already gone. He placed a kiss on the top of Danni's hair before straightening his tie and yanking the tin filled with ice out of Jenny's hand.
"Stay here." He told Danni, "I won't be a moment." She nodded, this time having no intention of following him as he stormed out of the room, coming back only maybe a minute later, lacing his fingers through hers, pulling her back into the TARDIS.
"Where are we going?" She asked him, "What about Clara?" He handed her the tin as he set exactly where he needed to go, there was no room for mistakes, he had to be more precise than he'd been in a long time.
"To the office." He replied, "We're going to stop Dr Simeon and his talking snow, then we're coming back for Clara and you're going to take your companion on her first trip." The TARDIS shuddered as she set in motion, but there was no flying about, no going absolutely tonto as if even she could sense the seriousness of the situation, "This is my fault," He rambled, talking as if Danni wasn't listening, "I'm going to fix it, then Clara will be fine."
"I don't think it works like that, sweetie." Danni broke to him and he shook his head.
"After everything we have done, everything we have lost the universe owes us this." He snapped, turning to her with pleading eyes, "Don't you think we deserve this?" She nodded slowly.
"We do." She agreed, "But the universe doesn't care." The echo of his words to Strax wounded him, his cynicism coming back at him from the one person who'd always changed his mind. He placed the tin down on the console slowly, running a hand over the top of it before turning to face her, stepping as close as he dared to her.
"Then we'll make it care." He replied, "We'll save the world, we'll save Clara and then we're going to find out what made you regenerate. The universe might not want to help us, but that's the deal."
"That's not how it works." She insisted, "I'm so tired of trying to feel like I make a difference, Theta. The universe doesn't care about us, it never has. You were right, why even bother?"
"Because we have to." He told her gently, "Because if we don't try, if we don't bother then no one else will. This pain you're feeling," He took hold of her hand, bringing it up to his chest, between his hearts, "shows that even if the universe doesn't care, we do. And we have to keep trying, because otherwise other people are going to feel like this, and we have to stop that. Together." She could feel both his hearts beating under his chest, and she spread her fingers out of his grip until her hand was flat against his ribs.
"Is it because we have two hearts?" She asked quietly. He smiled at her thoughtful look as she tried to work out what was going around in her head.
"Most likely, Danni-Girl." He replied. She nodded, swallowing and clenching her fingers together, taking her time to move her hand off his chest.
"Let's do it then." She declared, still sounding unsure, "Let's save the world."
~0~0~0~
Dr Simeon walked into his office to find both Danni and the Doctor already waiting for him, feet up on the desk while Danni stood behind him, hand on his shoulder as she tried to soothe him. They'd been waiting for a while, each second he'd become more and more agitated and now she could feel how tense he was, just how angry he felt at the man they were waiting for.
"You promised us something. Have you brought it?" Simeon demanded, sounding almost desperate as he stormed over to the desk, staring down at the Doctor.
"Big fella here's been very quiet while you've been out - which is only to be expected considering who he really is." The Doctor replied instead, Danni looking down at him in confusion because he'd not actually mentioned anything to her about it. He stood up, picking up the tin and spun it in between his fingers, "Know what this is, big fella?" He held it up, front towards the giant snow globe in the middle of the room, something that Danni had not been expecting.
"I do not understand these markings." A male voice declared, obviously coming from the snow globe, surprising Danni further. He could have mentioned the talking ornament when they'd been waiting.
"A map of the London Underground, 1967 - key strategic weakness in metropolitan living, if you ask me, but then I have never liked a tunnel…" The Doctor replied.
"Enough of this. We are powerful, but on this planet we are limited. We need to learn to take human form. The Governess is our most perfect replication of humanity..." As the snow ranted and raved, the Doctor took out his screwdriver, holding it behind his back and flicking through the settings, causing its voice to fluctuate until it sounded much younger than it had just been
"What's wrong with its voice?" Danni asked.
"Just stripping away the disguise." The Doctor replied, flipping the screwdriver and putting it back in his pocket.
"No, stop! Stop that! Cease, I command you!" The little boy demanded, Simeon backing away from it in horror, falling against his desk.
"Wait, so the Intelligence is just a small child?" Danni asked and the Doctor nodded.
"Simeon as a child, to be exact." He told her, "The snow has no voice without him."
"Don't listen to him, he's ruining everything!" The Intelligence cried as the Doctor walked towards Simeon, the man cowering as he regressed back to his childhood self, the voice haunting him.
"How long has the Intelligence been talking to you?" The Doctor demanded.
"I was a little boy. He was my snowman... He spoke to me." Simeon explained, his voice pattern matching that of an infant.
"But the snow doesn't talk, does it - it's just a mirror." The Doctor snapped like he was telling him off, "It just reflects back everything we think and feel and fear. You poured your darkest dreams into a snowman - and look," The Doctor jabbed behind him, pointing at the globe, "Look what it became!"
"The snow latched onto a child?" Danni asked slowly, stepping from behind the desk. Her mind immediately went to where she didn't want it to go, to the Time Lord she'd left behind in the Time War.
"It's a parasite feeding on the loneliness of a child and the sickness of an old man." The Doctor replied, "Carnivorous snow meets Victorian values... and something terrible is born."
"We can go on! And do everything we planned." The Intelligence cried, trying to convince Simeon to stay on track.
"Oh, yes, and what a plan! A world full of living ice people. Oh, dear me, how very Victorian of you." The Doctor taunted, his hands clenching at his side. He usually felt sympathy for the people on the receiving end of an alien parasite, Simeon had only been a child after all and the Intelligence had used his loneliness as a tool to get him to do their bidding. But he was just so angry, and he had to take it out on someone.
"What's wrong with Victorian values?" Simeon retorted, snatching the tin out of the Doctor's hands. Danni gasped in shock but the Doctor held his hand up, the action causing Simeon to pause as he ripped the lid off the tin.
"Are you sure?" The Doctor pressed and Simeon's gaze hardened.
"I have always been sure!" He replied, reaching in and pulling out, not a piece of the Ice Woman, but the memory worm. It flopped in his hand before biting down, causing the man to gargle and twitch in pain. Danni dashed forward with a horrified gasp, ready to help get that terrible thing off Simeon but the Doctor's hand shot out, stilling her.
"What have you done?" She exclaimed, "We need him to stop the Intelligence!"
"No we won't." He promised her, "Without his memory they won't have a host. No parasite without a host. Without him it will have no voice, without the governess, it will have no form." She looked down at the man, who had fallen to the ground.
"Will it kill him?" She asked quietly.
"It shouldn't." The Doctor replied and her face hardened.
"More's the pity." She muttered, surprising him.
"What... What's happening, what's happening, what did you do?" The Intelligence demanded from behind them, its voice fluctuating between the older man and the young boy voice as it sparked.
"You've got nothing left to mirror anymore." The Doctor told it proudly, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and walking her in front of the globe, "Goodbye."
"What did you... Did you... Did you..." The Intelligence stuttered as the globe seemed to shut down. The Doctor smirked, about to tell his wife that he knew it was going to be fine when the machine sparked up again, the snow flurrying around once more, "Did you really think it would be so easy?"
"That's not possible." The Doctor exclaimed, pushing Danni behind him, "How is that possible?"
"Doctor, what's happening?" Danni asked, "What about Clara?" He looked down at his wife, who was staring back hopefully, like she knew he could figure it out. The mention of Clara did trigger something in his brain, the memory of the snow outside so he dragged her over to look out the window. What had only been a small fluttering of snow had turned into a full-blown blizzard, "Oh my god…"
"But you were just Dr Simeon. You're not real, he dreamed you, how can you still exist?" The Doctor demanded, heading back over to the globe.
"Now the dream outlives the dreamer and can never die." The Intelligence replied arrogantly, "Once I was the puppet. Now I pull the strings!" The voice echoed behind them, a flash of electricity from the machine shooting into the body of Dr Simeon and raising him, frozen, from the ground.
I have tried so long to take on human form." Both Simeon and the Intelligence proclaimed, "By erasing Simeon, you made space for me. I fill him now." The body walked over, taking hold of Danni's arm and chucking her away. She yelled as she skidded across the floor, slamming into it and feeling her left elbow jar painfully. Simeon moved onto the Doctor, putting a hand on his throat and pushing him down to the ground where he pinned him.
"More than snow, more than Simeon - even this old body is strong in my control." Crushing the Doctor underneath the frozen corpse, its hand moved from his throat to his face, freezing him as the Doctor groaned in pain, "Do you feel it? Winter is coming! Winter is coming!" Danni scrambled up, arm against her body protectively as the Doctor screamed in pain, the Intelligence using Simeon to freeze him as well. She rushed behind the desk, not really thinking about it and she grabbed the wooden chair. She dragged it over, screaming in pain as she used both hands to swing it at Simeon, chucking him off the Doctor.
"Get your hands off my husband!" She shouted before dropping the chair and cradling her elbow, "Oh Lord that hurts!" The Doctor scrambled up, his body rapidly increasing in temperature as he stood next to his wife, looking down at Simeon who was groaning in pain.
"Nice arm." He told her and she shrugged as Simeon curled up.
"I'd like to take all the credit, but I doubt that was me." She retorted.
"What's happening?" The Intelligence exclaimed and the Doctor bent down to examine the man, knowing Danni was right and a chair shouldn't have done so much damage to him.
"Doctor…" Danni breathed, amazed and he looked over his shoulder to see her staring at the globe, "The snow, it's turning into… Into rain." She turned to the Doctor, "How can it be turning into rain?" On the floor, Simeon groaned and slumped, dying once again but the Doctor didn't care.
"The snow mirrors, that's all it does." The Doctor reasoned, "It's mirroring something else now. Something so strong, it's drowning everything else." His eyes widened as he realised why, the fact that there was a critical mass of snow at the house meant that its psychic link must have shifted. He scrambled off the floor, running back to the window and threw it open. He stuck his hand out, letting the water drip on his hand before tasting it. Salty.
"What's wrong?" Danni asked him and he turned around.
"It's not rain." He muttered, "We have to go." He dashed forward, making sure she was following him before heading into the TARDIS.
"Theta, where are we going?" She asked, shutting the door behind her, "What about the Intelligence, we can't just leave it there!" He turned to her, looking into her wide brown eyes, her hands worrying themselves in front of her. She was trying, she really was and he was going to have to break her hearts.
"The only force on Earth that could drown the snow is a whole family crying on Christmas Eve." He told her as gently as possible and he saw her flinch back at the words, alarmed and tearing up, "It's Clara."
~0~0~0~
Danni knelt by Clara's side, forcing herself to smile even though she felt like she was breaking inside. You only had to look at the poor barmaid to know that she had very little time left, that she was hanging on just because of them. The Doctor stood behind her, hands on her shoulders, offering her the comfort she'd tried to give to him back in Simeon's office.
"Hello, sweetie." Danni greeted as gently as possible and Clara tried to smile, "We're back from saving the world, did you miss us?"
"Did you do it?" Clara whispered and Danni shook her head, stroking her hair gently.
"No, sweetie," She replied, looking around at all the devastated people stood around her, "You did. You saved us all, because we love you so very much. How are you feeling?"
"Tired." Clara told her, "But I'm not scared." Danni felt herself whimper, even if she didn't hear it. Clara was the one who was dying, but she was trying to comfort her.
"I'm so sorry, sweetie." Danni sobbed, "I would have never…"
"Shhh, Danni-Girl." Clara whispered, her eyes closing, "Don't cry, it's Christmas."
"Not without you." Danni promised, placing a kiss on her forehead, "I'm so sorry." Clara's head lolled to one side, the last of her strength leaving her.
"Run." Clara whispered weakly, the Doctor's grip tightening on Danni's shoulders as the words echoed through him, "Run, you clever boy. Take your Danni-Girl and remember."
~0~0~0~
In the Dalek Asylum, in a room locked away on her own, Oswin was waiting, completely Dalek and yet still completely human inside. The Doctor had been disgusted when he'd found her chained up, completely transformed into the one thing he hated above all else. The feisty, clever, extremely flirty girl who he'd had to remind on a number of occasions that he was taken, had been the one thing he'd hated and he'd never noticed.
Of course, he also hadn't meant to reawaken the Dalek part of her brain she'd blocked off and now he was being backed into the cold door, arms up in surrender as she cried 'Exterminate'.
"Oswin! Oswin!" He'd begged, trailing off when he realised she was sobbing, rather than shooting.
"Why do they hate you so much? They hate you so much. Why?" She asked, making him wonder if he'd ever heard a Dalek sound so desperate.
"I fought them. Many, many times." He reluctantly admitted.
"We have grown stronger in fear of you." She replied and his teeth clenched, the self-hatred made him unable to even look a Dalek in the eye, so he glanced at the floor.
"I know. I tried to stop."
There was a pause, "Then run." The Dalek told him quietly and his head shot up.
"What did you say?" He asked, confused.
"I've taken down the force-field. The Daleks above have begun their attack." She declared, "Run!" The door behind the Doctor opened and he realised that everything was suddenly happening around him.
"Oswin? Are you..." He asked.
"I am Oswin Oswald." She interrupted, "I fought the Daleks. And I AM... human. Remember me."
"Thank you!" He told her from the bottom of his hearts.
"Run!" She screamed and he took off in the hallway, her voice still echoing over the communication system, "Run, you clever boy. Take your Danni-Girl and remember."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor re-entered the TARDIS, amazed that he'd finally confirmed it, Clara was Oswin, and Oswin was Clara. Somehow, some way they were the same girl, in his life, at two different points and he had to find out why.
His enthusiasm died at the sight of his Danni-Girl sat on the stairs, huddled in on herself. She hadn't wanted to go to the funeral, but he knew that she needed some way of paying her respects so he'd gone in her place. He took his hat off and slowly walked towards her, sitting next to her.
"Was it nice?" She asked him quietly and he nodded.
"It was sad, but it was nice." He promised, "I put the flowers on her grave, but you'll never guess who Clara was."
"She was the girl from the Dalek Asylum." Danni replied with almost no emotion and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"You knew?" He asked her and she nodded.
"I remembered." She corrected gently, "I'd forgotten how pretty she was, though. And so kind. She was supposed to be your next companion after the Ponds."
"Supposed to?" He asked before thinking and she turned to look at him, her eyes shining with her heartbreak.
"She was, but then she died." She replied, her voice cracking, "Because I killed her. I killed her, and now you're going to be alone without me and I can't…" He pulled her in for a hug, shushing her as she clung to him.
"This was not your fault." He promised, "And if you think you're going anywhere without me…" He pulled back, smiling as warmly as he could at her, wiping her tears away, "You and me, Danni-Girl, remember?" She stared, the phrase that normally made her giggle barely pulled anything out of her at all.
Then she leant forward, cupping his face and kissing him hard in the same movement. He froze in surprise for a moment, before he responded to her, threading his fingers through her hair as he kissed her properly for the first time since she'd regenerated.
"I've not wanted to kiss you because the last person I kissed before I regenerated was Koschei." She told him, foreheads pressed together, eyes closed, "I didn't want you to feel him there. Clara fixed that too."
"I'm glad." He replied lamely and they sat there in each other's arms. He wanted to confront the issue of Koschei, angry at the other Time Lord for twisting her head once again, making her blame herself when he knew the Master's every movement had been deliberate. They were designed to make her obey him, turn her into his own little 'pet' and he had so much work to undo all the damage.
But not yet, that could wait, "Shall we go and find out why she was Oswin?" She pulled back, looking confused, "There must be a reason, somewhere, out there. You and me, Danni-Girl, let's solve this thing together." She shook her head slowly.
"I'm never leaving the TARDIS again." She told him firmly, going against every single one of her actions in the past year.
"What?" He asked, bewildered.
"I've met Clara before." She told him, "In your future. She was supposed to travel with you, she was the new me and I've taken that away from you. Being alive when I shouldn't has stolen Clara from you, that's on me."
"There is no 'new you'." He defended, "There's just you. No one could ever replace you and no one is going to."
"They won't now!" She exclaimed, shaking, "I'm dangerous." She explained, pointing at the door, "I can't go out there ever again." He still looked bewildered, which frustrated her and she shot up, "You find these wonderful people, and I destroy them. It's what I do, I'm dangerous!"
"This wasn't your fault." He insisted, standing up to calm her down, berating himself for leaving her on her own for so long while he'd gone to the funeral.
"Yes it was!" She shrieked, "I was right, I'm just like River, but instead of killing you outright, I just destroy everything you love! I can't be around anyone, I have to be contained."
"Danni, I know you're upset, I understand, I do." He promised, "I've felt like that a hundred times over, but this wasn't your fault. Clara gave her life to save you willingly."
"Then no one else ever will." She swore, "No one else is dying because of my stupidity." She turned, walking up the stairs.
"Danni, wait!" She turned back around, shaking her head.
"Never again, Spaceman." She promised before disappearing into the hallway, leaving him standing there alone.