Sarah:
Oh, this was going to be fun. We were ghost hunting, and with how pale my skin and my hair being this weird, it meant that I looked like a ghost myself in my black t-shirt dress and long coat. We knocked on the door of the supposedly haunted house.
A woman answered it, and we jumped out at her. "Boo! Hello, we're looking for a ghost." I smiled, and she looked terrified as another man moved closer, looking a little angry.
"And you are?"
Clara grinned, gripping the umbrella that we'd used to get through the rain from the TARDIS to the his. "Ghostbusters."
"I'm the Doctor." He held up his psychic paper, his hand on my hip as he grinned. Oh this was the fun part of this.
The man frowned again, looking at the paper. "Doctor what?"
"If you like." He shrugged. "This is my partner Lady Sarah Lake of Inverness, and this is Clara." He ran over to the tables of equipment, looking at everything. "Ah, but you are very different. You are Major Alec Palmer. Member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Specialised in espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance behind enemy lines. You're a talented watercolourist, professor of psychology and ghost hunter. Total pleasure. Massive."
The woman spoke up then, still looking terrified. "Actually, you're wrong. Professor Palmer spent most of the war as a POW."
"Actually, that's a like told by a very brave man involved in very secret operations. The type of man who keeps a Victoria Cross in a box in the attic, eh? But you know that, because you're Emma Grayling, the Professor's companion." I smiled, walking over to shake her hand as she stared at in me in wonder.
"Assistant." Ooo, er.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, or lack of them at her. "It's 1974. You're the assistant and non-objective equipment. Meaning psychic."
I nodded at him, kissing his cheek. "Getting that. Bless you, though."
"Relax, Emma." Palmer said, comforting his Empath. "He's Military Intelligence, and she's his partner. So, what is all this in aid of?"
"Health and safety." I agreed, shaking hands. "Yeah, the Ministry got wind of what's going on down here. Sent me to check that everything's in order."
He really didn't like the sound of that. "They don't have the right."
The Doctor decided he wanted to be embarrassing then, doing yet another of his stupid accents that he sucked at. "Don't worry, guv'nor, I'll be out of your hair in five minutes. Oh! Oh, look. Oh, lovely. The ACR 99821. Oh, bliss. Nice action on the toggle switches. You know, I do love a toggle switch. Actually, I like the word toggle. Nice noun. Excellent verb. Oi, don't mess with the settings." He did a sweep with the sonic, and frowned at it.
"What's that?"
He gave a small shrug. "Gadget. Health and safety. Classified, I'm afraid. You know, while the back room boffins work out a few kinks."
Clara had been mostly quiet until now, looking at the massive old house. "What's it telling you?"
"It's telling me that you haven't been exposed to any life-threatening transmundane emanations." The Doctor replied, and then turned back to Emma and Palmer. "So, where's the ghost? Show me the ghost. It's ghost time."
The Doctor lead the way with a three pronged candelabra as we went down the corridor, Palmer still peeved we were here on his investigation. "I will not have this stolen out from under me, do you understand."
"Er, no, not really, sorry." I smiled a little holding my boyfriends hand as he lead the way, the candle not all that bright, yet I could still see. Weird, that was a first.
And still going. "I will not have my work stolen, then be fobbed off with a pat on the back and a letter from the Queen. Never again. This is my house, Doctor, Lady Lake, and it belongs to me."
"This is actually your house?" Clara asked, looking at him in surprise. It was a nice house, apart from the haunting ghost type thing.
Palmer nodded. "It is."
She was still having trouble understanding that. "Sorry. You went to the bank and said, you know that gigantic old haunted house on the moors? The one the dossers are too scared to doss in? The one the birds are too scared to fly over? And then you said, I'd like to buy it, please, with my money." I loved the way she spoke, it was brilliant. She enjoyed just speaking her mind.
"Yes, I did, actually."
Clara gave him him a big smile. "That's incredibly brave."
Something creaked, making me freeze for a moment and the Doctor held my wait tight, turning me towards Palmer. "Listen, Major, we just need to know what's going on here."
"For the Ministry." He added slyly, looking at how we were stood. I didn't care, he was my gorgeous man.
"You know er can't answer that."
The man nodded a little bit. "Very well, follow me."
He lead the way into the living room that was warmly furnished, and the Doctor bent down to my level and took a selfie of the pair of us. My cutie. And then Clara turned to Emma. "So, what's an empathic psychic? I thought a psychic was like Lady Sarah, who could see, write or draw the future."
"Sometimes I sense feelings, the way a telepath can sense thoughts, or like you said, a psychic can sense the future. Sometimes, though. Not always."
The Doctor smiled a little sadly. "The most compassionate people you'll ever meet, empathics. And the loneliest along with the psychics. I mean, exposing themselves to all those hidden feelings, all that guilt, pain and sorrow and then knowing the future, seeing people you care about dying before you even meet them, stops you wanting a relationship with anyone-"
Oh, my God... All of that, I could go through all of that? All I did was draw things, this couldn't be right, I couldn't go through that! Clara saw how panicky I was and interrupted. "Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Shush. You're scaring her."
The Doctor realised his mistake and held me close, muttering apologies in my ear as Palmer came back over with the board of photo's. "Would you care to have a look? Caliburn House is over four hundred years old, but she has been here much longer. The Caliburn Ghast." Classic Edwardian ghost and ghouls. "She's mentioned in local Saxon poetry and parish folk tales. The Wraith of the Lady, the Maiden in the Dark, the Witch of the Well."
Clara stared at the images in the photos. "Is she real? As in, actually real?"
"Oh, she's real. In the seventeenth century, a local clergyman saw her. He wrote that her presence was accompanied by a dreadful knocking, as if the Devil himself demanded entry." Palmer explained, pointing to each picture. "During the war, American airmen stationed here left offerings of tinned Spam. The tins were found in 1965, bricked up in the servants' pantry, along with a number of handwritten notes. Appeals to the Ghast. For the love of God, stop screaming."
This was amazing, she was only in this house. "She never changes. The angle's different, the framing, but she's always in exactly the same position. Why is that?"
"We don't know." Palmer admitted. "She's an objective phenomenon, but objective recording equipment can't detect her-"
"Without the presence of a powerful psychic." The Doctor finished, nodding a little.
"Absolutely. Very well done."
"She knows I'm here." Emma said suddenly, and I realised I could feel something as well, something strong, and lost, oh so lost. "I can feel her calling out to me."
"What's she saying?"
"Help me." I muttered, shaking my head a little as a shadow whizzed past the entrance of the room, but no one else saw it. I was obviously hallucinating, so I shook my head, getting back on topic. "The Witch of the Well. So where's the well?"
Palmer took out a copy of the property plan, nearly crumbling in his hands. " A copy of the oldest plan that we could find. There is no well on the property. None that we could find, anyway."
We then snuck up behind Clara and bopped her on the head, making her jump like at mad. "You coming?"
"Where?" She whispered back, trying to make sure we weren't over heard.
Well, I would have thought that was obvious. "To find the ghost."
And now she was looking at us like we were idiots. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Because you want to." I smiled, though I was faking it. I was seriously scared about this now, my ability. "Come on."
She narrowed her eyes a little. "Well, I dispute that assertion." Ohh, look at those words.
The Doctor was getting very frustrated and just wanted her to come with. "Eh? I'm giving you a face. Can you see me? Look at my face."
And then she finally listened. "Fine. Dare me."
How old were we, 8? "I dare you." I sighed, just wanting to get this done. I didn't like this, not anymore.
"No takesies backsies." The Doctor added. Oh, my 5 year old...
Clara:
How the hell did the Doctor not see that saying all the things about the psychics, while most likely referencing his dead wife and how scared she used to be, in front of his current girlfriend who adored him, was going to freak her out? Because she was freaked.
"Say we actually find her. What do we say?" I asked, linking arms with Lady Sarah to try and help her.
The Doctor shrugged in reply. "We ask her how she came to be whatever she is."
Even Sarah was confused at that. "Why?"
"Because I don't know, and ignorance is, what's the opposite of bliss?"
Happiest place in the UK, that's how I always replied to that. "Carlisle."
He seemed to like that. "Yes. Yes, Carlisle. Ignorance is Carlisle." We found the kitchen, but we were really looking for the Music Room like Emma had told us. So we kept looking, using the candelabra to light the way until a giant harp gave it away. This place was incredible. "Ah, the music room. The heart of the house. Do you feel anything?"
"No." Sarah and I said together, but the way she was shaking, she felt quite a bit more than I did. She needed to get out of here.
The Doctor looked at us both carefully before kissing Sarah's forehead. Both of your pants are so on fire." Then the sonic stuttered a little, making him hit it against the palm of his hand.
I really wasn't liking this place all of a sudden. "Do you feel like you're being watched?"
We watched him carefully, thinking about it. "What does being watched feel like? Is it that funny tickly feeling on the back of your neck?"
I nodded a little. "That's the chap."
"Then yes, a bit. Well, quite a big bit."
Wood creaked behind us and we all turned to see nothing. "I think she's here." I whispered, and Sarah nodded a tiny bit.
By the door, the Doctor could see his breath, but it couldn't be that cold. Sarah wasn't turning blue, unless you counted her hair, but somehow that was natural. "Cold spot. Spooky. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold."
The Doctor then drew a chalk circle around the cold area, before going to head off again. "Doctor? Doctor!" Sarah asked quickly, going over to him and hiding her face in his chest.
"What? What's wrong dear?"
"I'm not happy." I didn't think any of us were to be honest.
"No."
They then headed off, and I had to scramble to catch up with them. "Hey!" And then there was a loud slam, blowing all the candles out. "What was that? Okay, what is that?"
"It's a very loud noise." Lady Sarah replied carefully, looking at the dead lights. "It's a very loud, very angry noise."
"What's making it?"
The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Are you making it?"
Two loud bangs. "Doctor, Lady Sarah?"
"Yes?"
"I may be a teeny, tiny bit terrified." Understatement.
"Yes?"
"But I'm still a grown-up."
The Doctor nodded a little. "Mainly, yes, and?"
"There's no need to actually hold my hand."
Both of them frowned a little. "Clara."
"Yeah?"
"I'm not holding your hand. And Sarah's holding mine..."
We all looked behind us, screamed, and ran down the stairs, heading back to where Emma and Palmer were. And there was also a a concave, black thing, spinning and gyrating in the middle of the air. Well, that was interesting.
"Has this happened before?" Sarah asked, transfixed by it, as well as shaking more, the same as Emma. This was weird.
Palmer shook his head. "Never."
"Camera. Camera!" The Doctor grabbed it and took a few, and the glass inside it it.
"Help me!" A woman's voice cried, and both Emma and Sarah collapsed together, each into the mens arms.
"Doctor." I looked at the words on the wall, exactly what the woman said before they evaporated and the black concave vanished.
This was getting beyond weird as the Doctor and Palmer each carried the unconscious girls to the living room where, for some strange reason, we were each handed a glass of whiskey as they woke up. They then decided to go away and do something with the photo's as we sipped at the glasses. "Urgh. I'd rather have a nice cup of tea." Emma grimaced, while Sarah, Sarah was somehow drinking this stuff. Weird ass woman.
"Me too. Whisky is the eleventh most disgusting thing ever invented. Sarah, why are you drinking it?" She shrugged and kept doing it, looking shattered and shivering. Our little ice cube. "So, you and Professor Palmer, have you ever, you know?"
"No."
Sarah frowned a little. "Why not? You do know how he feels about you, don't you? You, of all people? I draw the future, but I can't tell if the Doctor will ever love me like his dead wife." Oh, I really wished I could tell for her, but he really did reference to her, and he had a thing for psychics.
"I don't know. People like me, sometimes we get our signals mixed up. We think people are feeling the way we want them to feel, you know, when they are special to us, when really there's nothing there."
I glanced at Sarah, who gave me a small smile. "Oh, this is there."
Emma frowned a little. "How do you know?"
Oh, this was brilliant. "Because it's obvious. It sticks out like a big chin." Sarah kept smiling dreaming. "And big green eyes that just stare right through you and warm strong arms that just hold you tight." She blinked a little, and then shook her head. "I, I need to go... I, I let my meds in the uh, car..."
Ok, that was interesting, but never true. She kept them with the Doctor, she looked how she did when she needed to draw something. I left it though, and looked back at Emma who'd stared after her. "Emma?"
"They're lost in the stars together. So lost in different ways. The man, so far from home and from the truth, and the girl. So lost from herself and time. Don't trust them. There's a sliver of ice in his heart, and the fury of the night in hers."
What? No, the Doctor was warm as anything and Sarah, she was as mellow as you could get. Fury of night? What on Earth? "Clara! Sarah!" I followed the Doctor out to the TARDIS, where Sarah luckily had already gone, and I just looked at it, because I really didn't like the way she was looking like me.
"I've got this weird feeling it's looking at me. It doesn't like me." I told him quietly, hoping that the TARDIS didn't hear me.
He shrugged a little. "The TARDIS is like a cat. A bit slow to trust, but you'll get there in the end. Took me 500 years to get her to stop looking me out with every new companion. Unless Sera picked them, anyway." Oh, he needed to let her go...
The Doctor then ran inside, the door closing after him, meaning when I got to it, I had to know just to be able to get in. She really didn't like me. "Hey. You need a place to keep this." I told him, gesturing to the brolly.
"I've got one." No you didn't. "Or I had one. I think I had one. Look around. See if you find it. Did I have one? Am I going mad?" By the sound of it, yes. I shook a little of the water off and the Doctor stared at me. "No, not in here. How do you expect her to like you? She's soaking wet. It's a health and safety nightmare."
Oh... that was a good point. "Sorry." I whispered to the box. "So, where are we going"
"Nowhere. We're staying right here. Right here, on this exact spot, if I can work out how to do it." Well done for not mentioning how Seraphina could have done it.
But it did make sense. "So, when are we going?"
"Oh, that is good. That is top-notch." He grinned, then frowned a little. "Where's Sarah?"
I shrugged a little. "She looked shattered, and cold. And the answer is?"
"We're going always."
"We're going always." I repeated. OK...
He nodded. "Totally."
"That's not actually a sentence." I tried to tell him, but I really didn't think it would work.
The Doctor disappeared for a moment, then came back with Sarah, and an orange environment suit. Sarah, was looking shattered. "Well, it's got a verb in it. What do you think?"
I really didn't like it. "Colour's a bit boisterous."
"I think it brings out my eyes."
Sarah patted his shoulder a little, covered in what looked like charcoal. Sketching then. "Makes my eyes hurt, my Lovely Dove."
First stop was about 6 billion years ago, a Tuesday according to the Doctor, and then t a tropical jungle, that I'd seen a sketch of a few days before of Sarah's, along with the giant dragonfly, then to a Victorian time, and then lastly. Lastly he went to the end of the very planet itself.
Sarah and I were watching the scanner then, and the ground was devastated, just a roof and chimney left. Sarah was the first to look away, closing her eyes as a tear slipped down. I swear there was a flash of colour in there though, just a little shimmer of something, but when they opened again, they were still their usual Snowdrop.
And then the Doctor came back in, seeing that we were both upset. "Oh. What's wrong? Did the TARDIS say something to you? Are you being mean?" He patted the console before wrapping his arms around his girlfriend. "Hey, hey, it's alright, I've got you, my Snowdrop."
"No, it's not that. Have we just watched the entire life cycle of Earth, birth to death?" She asked, resting her head on his shoulder. "Because my head hurts and I'm just not OK with that, how can you be that? I mean, one minute you're in 1974 looking for ghosts, but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever's standing there. To you, I haven't been born yet, or, or I have no control over my ability like your Seraphina, and to you I've been dead one hundred billion years. Is my body out there somewhere, in the ground? Or will you leave me scattered through the universe like her?"
"Sarah... Never you. I've lost so much, I am not losing you because you make me feel," he pressed a light kiss to her forehead. "You make me feel home, and I was always so lost, even with her. With you, I am home."
I shook my head, stepping forward myself. "But here we are, talking. So I am a ghost. To you, I'm a ghost. We're all ghosts to you. We must be nothing. Sera you had for 1000 years, and she will whither and die regardless, as will I."
"No. No. You're not that. Neither of you are that to me"
"Then what are we? What can we possibly be?"
He looked between us and kept holding Sarah close, her blue hair actually looking pretty amazing with the orange of the suit. "You are the only mysteries worth solving."
Sarah:
The Doctor went off with Palmer to develop the film, and he tried to keep me with him, but I just needed some space for a moment, and then Emma came over to Clara and I, seeing something was wrong. "What's wrong?"
"We just saw something we wish we hadn't." We whispered together, and I felt so close to Clara now, because we'd both seen no one else in the human race, our own people, would ever be able to see.
Emma frowned a little. "What did you see?"
"That everything ends."
She gave us a small brave smile. "No, not everything. Not love. Not always. And he loves you. With everything he has he loves you, Lady Sarah."
And then the Docror came back out with the pictures. "Right, done. That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up." He activated the projector with the sonic and went over and pressed myself into his side, finding how I fitted perfectly into him as he kissed my head, smiling. "The Ghast of Caliburn House. Never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was a hundred thousand 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?" The pictures came to a dark woman running through some woods. "She's not a ghost. But she's definitely a lost soul. Her name is 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. The paradoxes-" Palmer tried, but I got there first, my brain somehow telling me what to say then.
"Resolve themselves, by and large." The Doctor gave me a look for a moment. "Shut up, you know I don't understand it."
He left it, and Emma spoke up. "How long has she been alone?"
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing." He admitted, playing with the end of my hair. "I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed three minutes ago."
She frowned. "Crash landed? Where?"
"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long." He blew up a blue balloon and then a red one. "Our universe. 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."
"But what's she running from?" Clara asked.
He shrugged. "Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. Shall we see?" He moved to the next slide. "Oh."
There was a thing behind a tree, looking rather grotesque. "What is that?"
"I don't know. Still, not to worry."
"So, what do we do?" Emma asked, looking determined to help. Unfortunately, I knew this, because I drew it.
"Not we, us. We save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern, and I'm the magnifying glass. The rest of them are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. My psychic ability can boost you through the tiniest void between us. We need some sturdy rope and two blue crystals from Metebelis Three. Plus some Kendal Mint Cake."
We headed back to the TARDIS, and the Doctor grabbed me when Clara went in."Don't. She can do this herself, Snowdrop, please. She doesn't need you for it, she's strong enough."
"Doctor..."
"Sarah. You have no control, just like you said. This would either help you or kill you."
Oh, please... Please, Doctor... "Tell me what I'm going to do."
"I can't. There are only a few chosen with your gift. I thought it would end with her, and, and I didn't know you had it until a lot longer after you left."
"If you love me, Doctor, you know what I'm going to do just my looking at me." He looked right at me, and smiled, stroking my cheek and kissing me softly. "There you are, you just saw the future."
We then went into the TARDIS, both very soggy from the rain but we didn't care so much, we were just digging through the boxes together. "Can't you just, you know?" Clara asked, watching us both.
"What?"
"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe?"
The Doctor held up a finger to correct her. "Ah, it's not a parallel universe. It's a pocket universe. Plus, it is collapsing. I mean, the TARDIS could get in there all right, but entropy would bleed her power sources, you see? Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam. Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know." Well, I guess I was up.
The Doctor:
We ran a thick cable from the TARDIS to the house, and then I put a headset on Emma and my Sarah, hoping like hell that this wouldn't be too much for her, pausing every few moment to kiss her, or hold her as we went. "All the way from Metebelis Three."
"What does it do?" She asked me, which, yeah, was interesting because she was the one who worked out this set up. It was 12 year old Sera again, not understanding anything.
I touched her lips gently, such a dark red in her perfectly milky skin. God, she was so beautiful... "It amplifies your natural abilities like a microphone, or a pooper scooper. You amplify the amplification, Snowdrop."
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Palmer asked me after I pulled away.
"A psychochronograph."
He still didn't look impressed. "Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit well, make do and mend?"
I put on a parachute harness, then looked back at him. "Non-psychic technology won't work where I'm going. Listen, all I need to do is dive into another dimension, find the time traveller, help her escape the monster. get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle."
"Doctor, will it hurt?" Emma asked, which was something I was worried about. I didn't want to see Sarah in pain.
"No." I didn't want to lie either. "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."
Emma looked at Palmer, who nodded. "I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tarcorian." The clocks went backwards then, and I watched Sarah's eyes close, just a blink but when they opened again they were gold. Oh, my Lady, my sweet Lady Snowdrop.
I couldn't just watch though, I needed to get Hila out. so I hitched my harness to a thick rope as the black disc appeared and a strong wind blew through. "See? The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe. Ready?"
Sarah and Emma nodded. "Ready!" Sarah sounded like she wasn't there. She was just a dream, lost in time.
"Geronimo." I jumped through the wormhole, feeling the rope unwinding behind me. I landed hard and everything was in black and white. I took off the harness and started running. "Hila? Hila! Hila Tacorian!" I could hear something else behind me, and I stopped. "One, two, three." Then I turned.
"Help me! Help!" A woman ran over and I smiled a little at her.
"Hila Tacorian, I presume."
She frowned at me, confused. "Who are you?"
"Collapsing universe. You and me, dead, two minutes. No time complete sentences. Abandon planet." I told her, getting ready to run again.
"Wait." She grabbed my arm, stopping me. "There's something in the mist."
I would have though that was an obvious thing to fix. "Then run. Run!" We started running, trying to find it . But I was very, very lost. "Not that way, which means, er, probably."
Hila frowned at me a little. "What's wrong?"
"You know that exit I mentioned?" She nodded. "I seem to have misplaced it." Because I was that forgetful. "This way."
"Doctor, we're here." I heard Sarah then, her voice soft and in the wind. How was she so good yet with no control?
"What's that?"
"An echo house," I replied. "In an echo universe. My clever psychic. That is just top-notch."
"Doctor! Doctor!" She was getting louder now and sounding pained, which was what I wasn't wanting.
We ran in and I locked the main doors, and something scratching at them at the same time. "It's looking for a way in." I lead the way to the Echo Music room, grabbing the harness and handing it to Hila. "Grab the rope. Give it three tugs, quick as you like."
"What about you?"
"I'll be next." Then the rope was wound in, and I secured the door, whatever was out there hammering on it. "Oh, that's what that noise was. Lovely."
But then the wormhole disappeared, leaving me here alone. "Oh dear. Oh dear. Where are you?"
Clara:
The TARDIS, really, really hated me. "Oh, come on! Let me in, you grumpy old cow!" I turned, sighing a little, and then jumped, seeing myself. "Whoa. What's this now?"
"The TARDIS Voice Visual Interface. I'm programmed to select the image of a person you esteem. Of several billion such images in my databanks, this one best meets the criterion."
You were kidding me. "Oh. Oh, you are a cow. I knew it. Whatever. You have to help the Doctor. Sarah, Sarah's bleeding, from her nose and eyes and ears, I can't do it without you."
"The Doctor is in the pocket universe. Lady Sarah has burned herself out and it will take her approximately 11 minutes to awaken." Good to know, he'll be dead in 11 minutes.
"You can enter the pocket universe." I told myself, which was very weird.
She stayed very still, and very emotionless. Unless smugness was an emotion. "The entropy would drain the energy from my heart. In four seconds, I'd be stranded. In ten, I'd be dead."
"You're talking, but all I hear is muh muh muh. Come on, let's go." My holo-TARDIS-form vanished. "Hey, hey, hey! Oh, come on." And then the doors opened.
The TARDIS closed the doors with a bang after me and we plummeted down a vortex as I clung on for dear life. There was a thud as I think the we must have picked him up, and then everything went still. I ran out and hugged him but then I realised.
"Sarah! She's bleeding, um, I don't know what's wrong, the TARDIS said she burnt herself out?"
"Show me." They'd all left her lying on the sofa, Emma sponging the blood off her face carefully until the Doctor came over, taking over. "Oh, my Snowdrop. So pure. Too pure for this gift, this curse curse. It can turn the whitest of snow into the darkest of reds with the pain of Time. I just want to protect you, because I couldn't save her."
Emma gave him a small smile. "She'll be fine. She's strong, and she can handle it. I swear Doctor, she is so, so strong. Not once did she scream, she never made a sound." Emma had been screaming, and when she'd gone, Sarah lasted another minute. Until she nearly bled out.
I guess being pure was what the Doctor liked, but what had been said about her earlier. That the Doctor had a sliver of ice in his heart and that Sarah was the fury of the night... How was she like that? Both of them were kind and selfless, the way they helped the universe. I couldn't see either of them like that.
But I barely knew them...
The Doctor:
Once Sarah was awake, and Clara was helping her clean up properly, Emma approached me. "You wanted a word?"
"Well, if that's-"
She didn't let me finish. "That's fine. You didn't come here for the ghost, did you?" I shook my head, hoping that she'd have been good enough to work it out. "You came here for me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
The only mysteries. "I needed to ask you something. Two something's."
"Then ask." If only it were that simple.
"Clara."
"Yes?"
Here goes. "What is she?"
Emma looked at me like I was an idiot. "She's a girl."
"Yes, but what kind of girl, specifically?"
"She's a perfectly ordinary girl." The Empath told me, looking very confused. "Very pretty, very clever, more scared than she lets on."
That wasn't right, there had to be more, Oswin, Clara in the bar, the Governess. "And that's it, is it?"
"Why? Is that not enough?"
It was going to have to be for a while. "Yes. Sarah, my Lady Sarah. What could you tell me about her?"
Emma looked down a little. "I was afraid that would be your next question. Before I tell you what I felt, are you sure you want to know? Not everyone wants to know everything about the one they love."
This didn't sound good. "Tell me. I loved someone so, so lost that they almost left themselves behind in an attempt to get free, being Ryoko instead of Seraphina. I will love Sarah eternally."
"On your own head be it." She sighed. "Sarah isn't the pure Snowdrop. She is, or was, something very much different, who wore a mask to hide her true face, for so long even she forgot what she looked like. She is the light to guide you through the darkness, but she burns so hot you need to walk behind to be able to stand the heat. Her fingers are stained in blood, so much blood.
"Her porcelain skin, as pure as snow is really lined and scarred, but she can hide behind youth in a way no one should be able to. Sarah's heart is flawed and burning, and she damages those around her."
I took a deep breath when I knew that Emma had finished, and looked over to her, coming out of the TARDIS with Clara, wearing a fresh shirt in a dark blue to match both her hair and the TARDIS. "Thank you. Emma. I'll listen to what you've said. I won't wear my heart on my sleeve. Um. I don't know quite what to say about that, if I'm honest."
When I rubbed my eyes, feeling tears prick in the corners, she sighed herself, rubbing my arm a little "Doctor, but her best, most pure quality, is that she loves you. There isn't a part of her that doesn't. She exists to love you in a way because at no point did it ever stop, even when she was unconscious. No matter what, she would never hurt you or Clara." But then she hesitated.
"What?"
"At least not purposely."
Oh, my Lady Snowdrop...