The TARDIS returns and we all quickly run back inside. The Doctor hands over his roll of film for developing.
"What's wrong?" Emma asks, looking at Clara.
"I just saw something I wish I hadn't."
"What did you see?"
"That everything ends."
"No, not everything. Not love. Not always."
"Right, done. That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up" the Doctor says. They have made slides from the negatives. I activate the projector with my sonic screwdriver.
"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?" I say.
"And what if somebody has a magic box. A blue box, probably. What if somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" the Doctor asks, a shot of a dark woman in a white coverall, running, pops up.
"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" I say.
"Time travel's not possible. The paradoxes..." Palmer gets cut off by the Doctor.
"Resolve themselves, by and large."
"How long has she been alone?" Emma asks.
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed three minutes ago" I say.
"Crash landed? Where?"
"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long" the Doctor blows up a blue balloon, 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 asks.
"Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. Shall we see?" I ask, the next slide pops up "oh" there is a thing behind a tree.
"What is that?" Clara asks.
"We don't know. Still, not to worry" the Doctor says.
"So, what do we do?" Emma asks.
"Not we, you. You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern. The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis Three. Plus, some Kendal Mint Cake" the Doctor says, the rain has stopped when the Doctor, Clara and I run back to the TARDIS.
"Can't you just, you know?" Clara says.
"What?" I ask.
"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe?"
"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" I say.
*Music room*
A thick silver cable and other wires run from the TARDIS into the house. A large crystal is held in a cradle at head height. Clocks have been placed around the room. Emma and Palmer are wearing coats.
"What is that?" Clara asks.
"A subset of the Eye of Harmony" I say.
"I don't..."
"Of course, you don't. Be weird if you did. I barely do myself."
"Right. You, sit down. All the way from Metebelis Three" the Doctor says as he puts a headset with a blue gem in it onto Emma.
"What does it do?" Emma asks.
"It amplifies your natural abilities like a microphone or a pooper scooper," the Doctor says.
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Palmer asks.
"A psychochronograph," the Doctor says.
"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit well, make do and mend?" the Doctor puts on a parachute harness, I help 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, Seer, will it hurt?" Emma asks.
"No. Well, yes. Probably. A bit. Well, quite a lot. I don't know. It might be agony. To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out" the Doctor says, Emma looks at Palmer, who nods.
"I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tacorian" the clocks start to go backwards. The Doctor hitches his harness to a thick rope as the black disc appears and a strong wind blows through.
"See? The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe. Ready?"
"Good luck" I say.
"Ready!" Emma shouts.
"Geronimo" the Doctor leaps into the wormhole. The rope unwinds from the winch.
"Doctor!" Clara shouts, I grab her holding her back.
*Time Skip*
"I'm not strong enough!" Emma shouts.
"Just a few more seconds," Clara says, Emma screams and Palmer winds in the rope, Hila is on the end of the rope, Emma collapses "No!" the wormhole disappears "wake up! Wake up! Open the thing."
"I'm sorry," Emma says.
"Don't be sorry. Don't be. What you did..." Palmer is cut off by Clara.
"Wasn't enough. She needs to do it again."
"She can't. Look at her."
"She has to! We can't leave him" Clara runs off, I stand looking down at Hila.
"Are you ok?" I ask, Hila nods.
"know that you feel you can't do this, Emma, but look at that woman over there. You saved her. She's only here because of your strength, and so am I" Palmer says, I run after Clara.
"Oh, come on! Let me in, you grumpy old cow!" Clara shouts trying to open the doors to the TARDIS, she turns to see herself "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."
"Oh. Oh, you are a cow. I knew it. Whatever. You have to help the Doctor" Clara says, I run up and raise an eyebrow.
"The Doctor is in the pocket universe."
"You can enter the pocket universe."
"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" the hologram vanishes "hey, hey, hey!" I walk up to Clara "oh, come on, the door opens, we both go inside. A short moment later the TARDIS plummets down a vortex, with Clara and I hanging on for dear life "Ah! Whoa!" soon enough the Tardis comes whirling through the air of the pocket universe with Clara still screaming, I hang onto the console, the Doctor runs and grabs the bottom of the TARDIS. In the music room, Emma screams and the TARDIS materialises with the Doctor still outside. The morning sun shines in.
*Time skip*
"You wanted a word?" Emma says, walking up to the Doctor and I.
"Well, if that's..." Emma cuts the Doctor off.
"That's fine. You two didn't come here for the ghost, did you?"
"No" I say.
"You came here for me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"We needed to ask you something," the Doctor says.
"Then ask."
"Clara" I say.
"Yes?"
"What is she?"
"She's a girl."
"Yes, but what kind of girl, specifically?"
"She's a perfectly ordinary girl. Very pretty, very clever, more scared than she lets on."
"And that's it, is it?" the Doctor asks.
"Why? Is that not enough?"
*Time skip*
Emma hugs Hila goodbye.
"Where will you go?" Emma asks.
"They can't take me home. History says I went missing" Hila says.
"But they can change history."
"No, no, no, we can't, actually. There are fixed points in time, you see" the Doctor says.
"Hi," Clara says.
"What?" the Doctor asks, Clara takes the Doctor and I away.
"I knew you were there. I could feel you" Hila says.
"I know" Emma replies.
"Have we?"
"We can't have. You haven't even been born yet."
"No, you can't have met but she can be your great, great, great, great, great granddaughter. Yours too, of course. But you guessed that already, didn't you? Oh. Apparently not" the Doctor says.
"The paradoxes..." Palmer is once again cut off by the Doctor.
"Resolve themselves, by and large. That's why the psychic link was so powerful. Blood calling to blood, out of time. Not everything ends. Not love. Not always."
"Seer, Doctor, what about, what about us? Emma and me?" Palmer asks.
"What about you?" I ask.
"Well, what's supposed to happen? I mean, what do we do now?"
"Hold hands. That's what you're meant to do. Keep doing that and don't let go. That's the secret" the Doctor says nudging me. "oh, I'm so slow! I am slow. I'm notorious for it. That's always been my problem. But, but I get there in the end. Oh yes."
"Doctor?" Clara asks.
"How do sharks make babies?" the Doctor asks.
"Carefully?"
"No, no, no. Happily!"
"Sharks don't actually smile. They're just, well, they've got lots and lots of teeth. They're quite eaty."
"Exactly. But birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Every lonely monster needs a companion" there is movement at an upper window of the house.
"There's two of them?"
"It's the oldest story in the universe, this one or any other. Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events. War, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the hex, or he's thrown into it. Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions. This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" I say, the Doctor slings his arms over mine and Clara's shoulders.
"Sorry" he runs back to Hila, Emma and Palmer "excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt the rest of your life. So. Tiny favour to ask."
*Pocket Universe*
"I'm sorry! I understand now! I can take you to her! I can take you to a safe place far away from here! You can be together! Well, come on, then. She's waiting!" the Doctor shouts, the creature is next to him "well, hello again, you old Romeo, you. Now, here she comes" the TARDIS arrives, with Clara and I on board "get ready to jump."