The Doctor Of War ³

Hell Bent

A pickup truck drives along a lonely dirt road and pulls up at a snacks and gas stop at Jackson - no matter where you go, there you are. The Doctor gets out of the passenger's side while I get out of the back, we are wearing our sunglasses and the Doctor has his guitar slung over his shoulder and I have a pack slung over my shoulder, we enter the diner where the sole employee has her back turned, she is wearing a royal blue mini-dress uniform.

"Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball" the woman turns around at the sound of the Doctor and I entering.

"Hi. What can I get you?" the Doctor and I sit down at the counter.

"We don't have any money. But I play" the Doctor says.

"Ok. Don't you need to plug that thing in?"

"Yeah" I reply taking off my sunglasses and placing them by the transistor radio, then I activate them, the Doctor following by also taking his sunglasses off.

"You're English," the Doctor says.

"You're not."

"How did you get out here?"

"Magic. Or maybe I went to an airport and caught a plane."

"Ah."

"You two?"

"Magic" I reply as the Doctor strums the guitar and the sound comes through the transistor radio, then crackles into the diner's sound system "I believe you. You been travelling?"

"Yeah, from time to time" the Doctor plays a slightly melancholy tune on his guitar.

"Is it a sad song?"

"Nothing's sad till it's over. Then everything is."

"What's it called?"

"We think that it's called... Clara."

"Tell me about her."

---

On Gallifrey, the Doctor and I walk away from the city and towards an old barn. The wind whistles across the barren landscape. In the city, the Lord President is in full regalia and holding his staff, as bells toll deep within the Citadel.

"Lord President?"

"Are all the bells ringing? The whole cloister?" the General uses his wrist communicator.

"What's going on down there?"

"On my way down to the Matrix now, sir."

"Keep the perimeter. It's ok to be afraid down there, soldier."

"Sliders are everywhere, sir. Loads of the things."

"Language, please. I'm with the President."

"Sorry, sir. The Cloister Wraiths are active."

"Do not approach them. Don't even enter the cloister. Just tell me are all the bells ringing?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then we are facing great danger," the Lord President says.

"The Cloister Wraiths seem to think so."

"So, where are they? Where has the Doctor and the Seer gone?" Ohila, the leader of the Sisterhood of Karn enters with two bodyguards.

"Back to the beginning, I should think."

"The Sisterhood of Karn has no business in this chamber, or on this planet."

"I heard the Doctor and the Seer had come home. One so loves fireworks."