Clara Oswald, the Doctors current human companion, was rather confused when she found herself falling into a seat before Vastra the Silurian, Jenny the human and Strax the Sontaran, recalling the trio from Victorian Yorkshire with the Crimson Horror, when she should have fallen to her bedroom floor. Two more chairs were around the table as she was offered tea by Vastra, with Strax complaining about one of the other people having large hair and the other being quite mean.
"At least I'm not obsessed with grenades!" Clara jumped as in the seat next to her, glaring at the Sontaran, a young girl appeared. She obviously knew the trio considering both Vastra and Jenny just sighed and rolled their eyes at her bitter attitude. She looked quite young, early 20's at the latest in human years (if she was human) with a dark buzzed cut and violet eyes. So probably not human then, given she knew the trio before them it made sense, and the eyes were a big give away, none of the human she had met had natural violet coloured eyes.
"Just with every other type of explosion." Another woman spoke, with large and curly hair but she was older.
"And you're a psychopath with a blaster always by your side."
"Help yourself to tea," Vastra cut in.
"Thank you," the older woman took a cup but as it reached her lips it turned into a champagne flute.
"How did you do that?" Jenny asked, impressed.
She grinned, "Disgracefully."
"You think you're so impressive," the other girl stuck up her nose as she took a sip of her banana milkshake. Well, it was only right, she was legally bananas.
Vastra cleared her throat, making the group look at her, "perhaps you haven't met," judging by the fact that Clara was gaping at the pair, she obviously didn't know them. "This is the Doctors companion...Clara Oswald."
"Clara Oswald," the younger girl repeated quietly, taking a sip of her drink, "I'm the Raven." She licked the milkshake off her upper lip.
"Like the Doctor?" She asked.
The girl narrowed her eyes, "In a way..." she offered.
"Have you gone a darker green?" Strax asked Vastra, as though trying to break the tension caused by Ravens bitterness from Clara innocent question. Honestly, the were expecting Raven answer to be a lot worse.
"Remind me Strax. How's life as a Sontaran butler?" She smirked as the Sontaran glared across at her.
"Professor River Song," the woman nodded to Clara, cutting Strax off before he declared war on the Raven.
"River Song?" Clara repeated, she was sure she had heard the name before. "Sorry," she shook her head and looked back at Raven, or more the Raven as it seemed, "have…have we met before?" She had definitely seen her face somewhere before. She just couldn't remember from where. It was probably just in passing somewhere, but she was certain she had seen her from somewhere before.
She sipped her milkshake, "doubt it."
Clara eyed her, curious to who this girl was and how she knew who she was. River, well, she had heard the Doctor mention the woman before, didn't actually realise she was a woman. River was a unisex name after all, so was Raven. But now knowing she was a woman she surprised herself she didn't realise it sooner, she was friends with the Doctor after all. The Doctor did tend to have a thing with woman, spoke to them more.
"Why are we here, lizard?" Raven demanded, "Did you just bring us here for a chat, if so, I swear..."
The woman glared at her for that remark, but got them on topic, "Yes. Of course." And with a wave of her hand a 3D projection of a man in a cell appeared before them, "Clarence Demarco. Murderer under sentence to death. He offered us these in exchange for his life."
"Space time coordinates." River and Raven spoke at once. And with another wave of her hand Vastra changed the projection to stars and lines and circles.
"How did he get this information?" Raven tensed.
"He claims it is the location of the Doctors greatest secret."
"That's not answering my question."
"He claims the Whisper Men told him."
"The what?" She gasped, before holding up a hand as Vastra opened her mouth, "I know what they are." They were a story back on Gallifrey, like the boogeyman to humans. She could remember when he father used to tell her the poem, trying to spook her, 'do you hear the Whisper Men? The whisper men are near. If you hear the Whisper Men then turn away your ear. Do not hear the whisper men whatever else you do. For once you've heard the Whisper Men they'll stop and look at you.' "They're just a myth!" She insisted.
"Like the Toclafane?" River spoke softly knowing it was a tough subject for her.
Raven sent her a dark look but had to agree. The Toclafane were supposed to just be myths but the Master had created them to get to the Doctor. They could be real in that sense.
"But this is different. They were humans from the future being killed and brought back into the past. This is..."
"What secret is hidden there?" Clara shook her head. "You said it was the Doctors but he has loads."
"His name." Raven stated, "Hardly anyone in this universe knows it."
"This universe?" Clara caught more into that than the fact that there was a few people who knew it.
She ignored the human as River spoke, "I know it."
"You know his name?" Clara turned to her.
"Both Raven and I."
"He told you?"
"He had too." She shrugged.
"And you know it?" Clara frowned at Raven who nodded distractedly as she stared at the coordinates.
"Vastra," Raven snapped her gaze to the lizard woman, "these coordinates are they, or are they not for Trenzalore?"
Vastra nodded sadly, "they are."
"What did he say?" River inquired, "His exact words, what were they?"
Vastra waved her hand and the projection changed to Demarcos face, speaking the words himself "'The Doctor has a secret he will take to his grave. It is discovered.'"
Raven nodded. The Doctor couldn't go there. The amount of rules broken for a Time Lord to go to their own grave, the amount of laws! He COULD NOT go there!
Her mind was distracted that she didn't hear Jenny mumbling that someone had broken in until the woman began to fade.
"You're under attack!" River gasped, jumping up as Vastra cried out for her lover, "You must wake up now, just wake up!" She leaned over and slapped Vastra across the face waking her up as Raven poured the champagne over Strax, smashing the glass over his head.
"Raven," River looked at her as she ran a hand along her cheek, feeling something touching her.
"Yeah, I know." She nodded and before their eyes she disappeared, leaving River and Clara alone with the Whisper Men in the dream state.
~*~
Raven gasped awake to find herself lying on a dirt floor. High above them a window showed the dark stormy sky outside, along the top the letters 'police', she knew exactly what it was, the TARDIS, the Doctors TARDIS, after he had died, the exterior dimensions leak out to make it larger on the outside as well as the inside.
She wasn't alone, she didn't know how she felt about that, Vastra was holding Jenny, the woman still and lifeless as Strax sent an electro pulse at her. Jenny coughed awake. All of them had been brought to wherever they were via the Whisper Men.
"Just a standard electro-cardio restart." Strax explained, "She'll be fine."
"Are you alright, my love?" Vastra asked Jenny, "Can you hear me?"
"The heart is a relatively simple thing."
"I have not found it to be so."
"I see who have repaired your pet." A man with a long, stern looking face approached the group with Whisper Men behind him, snarling at them, "no matter. I was only attracting your attention. I presume I have it."
"Doctor Simeon," Vastra glared, "this is not possible."
"And yet here we are, meeting again, so very far from home."
"Didn't he die?" Jenny frowned, recalling from Christmas when the Doctor had been mourning the Ponds.
"Simeon died," Vastra nodded, "but the creature inside him lived on. I take it we are now talking to the Great Intelligence?"
"The Great Intelligence." Raven repeated quietly. She was sure she had heard that name before.
"Welcome to the final resting place of the cruel tyrant." Simeon announced, "of the slaughter of the 10 billion, and the vessel of the final darkness. Welcome to the tomb of the Doctor."
As if on cue, lightning flashed around him.
"Do you have your own mood lightning?" Raven smirked, "because frankly your face is bad enough as it is."
Simeon narrowed his eyes at her but didn't react to her comment, "it was a minor skirmish, by the Doctors blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War but enough to finish jinx on the end, it was too much for the old man."
Raven scoffed, "the Doctor? Blood-soaked? Seriously, you think that man is blood-soaked, you've got to be kidding me."
He turned to look at her, "tell that to the leader of the Sycorax, or Solomon the trader, or the Cybermen, or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end. The Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard."
"Ever heard of the Time Lord called the Master?" Raven wondered, "He is blood-soaked. Gallifreys infamous child. Heard of him?"
"How did you come by this information?" Vastra inquired.
"I am information." Simeon stated.
"You were a mind without a body last time we met." Jenny spoke up.
"And you were supposed to stay that way." Vastra added.
"Alas I did." Simeon pulled at his face before crumbling to the ground and a Whisper Man stepped forwards, transforming into Simeon again. "As you can see."
The Great Intelligence stood before the doors of the TARDIS, eying them intently as the group stood behind him, "the doors require a key. The key is a word. And the word...is the Doctors."
"Here I am," a voice spoke and they all turned to see the Doctor walking over, looking very serious despite his suspenders and bowtie, Clara by his side, "late to my own funeral. Glad to see you could make it, Jenny." He glanced back at her as she nodded, "Raven." He gave a short nod at her.
Clara had told him everything about the conference call, told him River had been there (after she had been to the library) but also that the girl had been there, a friend of Rivers apparently, and also that she knew him. He knew a lot of people, didn't forget anyone them, so who was this girl? And just how did she know about him. Clara had said that she knew his name, which was impossible. But…time travel. From his future perhaps? He knew he probably looked weird staring so interntly at her, but he knew he knew her from somewhere? He just couldn't remember where.
"Open the door, Doctor," the intelligence ordered, "speak and open your tomb."
"No."
"Because you know what's in there?"
"I will not open those doors."
"The key is a word lost to time. A secret hidden in the deepest shadow and known to you aloneness the answer to a question."
"I will not open my tomb," the Doctor repeated firmly.
"Doctor what is your name," Simeon smirked at the whisper men as the man didn't answer, "The Doctors friends, stop their hearts."
"Madam, boys, combat formation," Strax instructed as the Whisper Men hissed and advanced on them, "they are unarmed."
"So are we!" Jenny argued.
"Do not divulge our military secrets."
"Doctor," Raven looked at him, with wide helpless eyes, "as much as I know you have all the right not to trust me. I'd really love it if you stopped this."
The Doctor looked back at her, frowning. It didn't matter who she was right now, she was still just a kid, "stop this!" He cried to Simeon as the Whisper Men each grabbed their hearts, in Ravens case her left, "Leave them alone!"
"You're name, Doctor," Simeon glared, "answer me."
Raven narrowed her eyes as she made to punch the Whisper Man before her, only to go straight through him, "holy Omega."
"Doctor who?"
"Leave them alone!" The Doctor begged, "Please, just leave them alone!"
Raven looked over to the side, behind Simeon where River Song stood, unable to be seen by anyone else. She winked in her directions
"Please!" The Doctor pleaded and the tomb doors opened. The Whisper Men pulled back.
"Why did you open the door, sir?" Strax inquired, "I had them on the run."
"I didn't do it," he shook his head, "I didn't say my name."
"Well someone did," Raven shrugged, "don't complain." Simeon got the tomb open, which was what he wanted and the Doctor still didn't say his name, which was what he wanted. Everyone was a winner. Even though his tomb was never meant to be open. So, maybe he didnt get what he wanted, not completely.
The Doctor frowned at her, trying to figure out who she was. He had to have known her, how else would she be here?
"Is everyone alright?" He asked them, "Clara, you ok?"
"That was not nice." She breathed, rubbing her heart to sooth it.
"I know. I'm sorry," he hugged her before turning and glaring at Simeon, "now then, Doctor Simeon, or Mister G Intelligence, whatever I call you, do you know what's in there?"
"For me, peace at last," Simeon remarked, "for you, pain everlasting. Won't you invite us in?"
The Doctor tensed his jaw as he pushed the doors wider, entering his tomb, allowing them all to follow. It was just like how the console looked currently just older and abandoned with vines growing around, very dark and broken. The Doctor led them up the stairs to a higher level as Raven buried her hands in her pockets, uncomfortable with being in the TARDIS after what she had done to it before.
They followed the sound of the cloister bell and where the console should have been was a bright light with strands rotating around.
Raven stared at the light, at least if the TARDIS was here when the Doctor died she knew she didn't do it any harm, like she had done so many years ago.
"What is that?" Clara frowned, transfixed on the console.
"What were you expecting, a body?" The Doctor sighed, rubbing his face, "bodies are boring. I've had load of them. Nah, that's not what my tomb is for."
"But what is the light?" Vastra wondered
"It's beautiful," Jenny agreed.
"Should I destroy it?" Strax inquired only to full flat on his face as Raven hit his probic vent in the back of his neck.
She shrugged as everyone stared at her, "come on, you were all thinking it."
"Ok," Clara blinked slowly, watching the fallen Sontaran, after her last meeting with him she didn't expect it to be quite so easily for him to get beaten. That girl was good, whoever she was. She shook her head, seeing the Doctor still looking at the light, "explain. What's the light?"
"The tracks of my tears." The Doctor murmured.
Simeon just looked unimpressed, "less poetry, Doctor just tell them."
"Time travel is dangerous. It's like a tear in the fabric of reality. This is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through time and space, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore." He sighed, flashing the sonic at the lying and echoing around them were the different regenerations of the Doctor.
"Have you ever thought what it's like to be wondered in the 4th dimension?" The 1st Doctor asked.
"Cybermen..." The 6th, "they're still in the nursery compared to us..."
"There are corners of the universe that have bred the most dangerous things..." The 2nd.
"Do I have the right?" Then the 4th.
"You were fantastic!" 9th, "absolutely fantastic!"
"I'm the Doctor," the 10th, "I'm from Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborus..."
"So you see..." the 5th Doctor.
"Hello Stonehenge!" And the current Doctor before the 3rd Doctor was last;
"It was the daisies the daisy is ever seen."
"My own personal time tunnel," the Doctor mumbled, "all the days, even the ones that..." He blinked, suddenly feeling dizzy, "I, er, even the ones that I haven't lived yet." He suddenly collapsed to the floor, or would have done had Raven not caught him, and lowered him gently to the ground.
She gave a small smile as he stared intently at her. He was so sure he'd seen those violet eyes before. But where? He really was getting old…
"Doctor!" Clara gasped joining Raven at his side.
"I shouldn't be here," he breathed, "The paradox...it's too much."
"Why did you ever come here?" Raven shook her head at him, "you knew the consequences but came anyway? Why?"
"I had...to help you lot..."
"Oi!" She yelled at Simeon or whatever the hell he was, as he approached the light, "stop right there!"
"The Doctors life is an open wound," he remarked, "and an open wound can be entered."
"No!" the Doctor cried, "it would destroy you."
"Not at all," he smirked, "it will kill me, it will destroy you. I can rewrite your every living moment. I can turn every one of your victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath. Change any moment of yours..."
"It would burn you up, once you go through, you can't come back, you'll be scattered along my timeline, like confetti."
"It matters not, Doctor. You thwart me at every turn. Now, you will give me peace as I take revenge on every second of your life. Goodbye Doctor!" And with that, he stepped in the light with a scream. The Whisper Men disappearing as the light consumed him.
"What's wrong with him?" Clara yelled, holding the Doctor as he cried in pain, "what's happening?"
"His entire time line is being rewritten," Raven stated, staring at the light, watching as Simeon changed the Doctors past.
"Simeon is attack his entire timeline," Vastras eyes widened, "he's dying all at once. The Dalek Asylum. Androzani."
"What did you say?" Clara turned to her, "did you say the Dalek Asylum?"
"Now he's dying in London, with us. A universe without the Doctor. There will be consequences, Jenny. With me." They turned and left the room, leaving Strax still on the ground.
"The Dalek Asylum," Clara mused, "you said it was me that saved you. How? Victorian London. How, how could I have been in Victorian London?"
"I doubt it matters," Raven shook her head.
"I think it does," she argued softly, running her hands through the Doctors hair, "I have to go in there," she turned to the light.
"Please, no…" the Doctor pleaded softly.
"But this is what I've already done, you've already seen me do it. I'm the impossible girl and this is why. If I step in there…what happens?"
"Human scum." Strax awoke, glaring at them as he got to his feet, ready to attack. His past had been changed with the Doctor unable to help him. Raven merely rolled her eyes and knocked him out again.
"But the echoes could save the Doctor, right?" Clara continued. "But they'll be real enough to save him. Like my mum said, the soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe. It's the only way to save him, isn't it?"
"The stars are going out." Vastra gasped as she returned, "And Jenny is dead." She glanced at the fallen Sontaran, she knew he should have awoken by now, "Strax, is he…there must be something we can do?"
"I can't believe I'm agreeing with a human." Raven grimaced just at the thought, "it might just work."
Clara beamed at that. During the conference call she had gathered that Raven wasn't fond of many people, especially her and Jenny. It had only been River she seem partially on good terms with, "Well, how about that. I am soufflé girl after all."
"No," the Doctor tried to reach for her but she was already out of arm's length, "please…"
"If this works, get out of here as fast as you can. And spare me a thought now and then. In fact you know what? Run. Run, you clever boy. And remember me." She smiled down at the Doctor before stepping into the light, the light expanding around them all…
~*~
"It is you, isn't it?" the Doctors moved to Ravens side as the timelines turned back to normal, all alive and well again, thanks to Clara's sacrifice.
She merely nodded, hands deep in her pockets, not wanting to talk about it.
"Saska?" he spoke in Gallifreyan. She was there, during the-year-that-never-was. She had escaped the war with her father, the Master, while the man turned human she didn't, just pretended to be human, feeling like the last of their kind, alone at the end of everything. Once the year had been reversed after seeing Lucy kill the Master she had taken off, no one had seen or heard of her since. She was quite well known in early 21st century Earth after the whole issue with her father. She'd been on all the news the year running up to him becoming Prime Minister, everyone would recognise her if she stuck around.
Now he recognised her he was surprised he hadn't straight away. She hadn't regenerated, she was probably using a perception filter or something. Here she was, dressed in black jeans, a black top with black ankle boots with a long and thick leopard printed fur coat with a hood over her head. She had chopped her hair off, last time it had been long. But she always hated long hair, despite that it always grew so quickly, was constantly chopping it off.
"Hey, Doc," she offered, before pointing to his time tunnel, "your human girl…"
"Yes," he nodded, seeing she didn't want to talk right now. He would get answers from her though. He hadn't been able to speak to her during the year he had been locked up on the Valiant, "we need to get Clara back."
"But how?" Jenny asked.
"Is she still alive?" Vastra added, "It killed Dr Simeon."
"Clara's got one advantage over the Great Intelligence." The Doctor told them.
"Which is?"
"Me. Now…if I don't come back…and I might not…" he blinked as Raven pointed at his neck, "what?" he frowned, his hand touching his bowtie as his eyes widened, undoing it and grinning, wrapping one end around his hand a few times for security before jumping into his timeline with Raven holding the other end.
"What are you doing?"
"River!" Raven snapped, having been able to hear the woman the whole time and had been ignoring her, "for gods sake, shut up! I hate this human side of yours!"
"This isn't safe. And you, you actually agreed to this, to save a human."
"Guess you've worn of on me, old bird."
River smirked at her nickname, "guess so." Before she turned solemn, "why didn't you show you could still hear me?"
"It didn't matter. You were an associate at Luna. You're decent, River. For a human plus Time Lord. But we could never be friends."
"Because you were raised to think of humans as nothing more that apes. Just you wait."
"You'll never get a proper goodbye from him."
"I know." She let out a breath, "Just tell him I said goodbye."
"I will."
"Goodbye, Raven."
"Goodbye Melody." Raven nodded to her as River slowly faded from the room.
It was then she felt the Doctor tugging on the rope and knew he had found Clara. She tugged on the rope, heaving to pull the pair out of the time tunnel. Vastra, Jenny and Strax hurrying to help. The trio taking Clara from the Doctor, Strax checking her life sign's as Raven helped the Doctor to his feet.
~*~
Raven leaned against the railings in the console room, watching the Doctor slowly move around the console getting them into the vortex. The first thing he'd done was take Clara into the medbay, she was fine. Mostly. Tied and weak. But alive. He'd then taken Vastra, Jenny and Strax back to their time period. The Silurian sending a final concerned glance at leaving the two alone and so here they were the last Time Lord and the last Time Lady in the universe.
She was purposely keeping a safe distance from the console, she knew the box held a grudge and likely hated her for helping to turn her into a paradox machine. But how could she had gone against her father all those years ago?
"Why didn't you tell me," the Doctor sighed, finally break the silence, "you disappeared Saska. I thought you died..."
"My father died," she stated bitterly, "killed by the woman he married."
"The woman he manipulated and corrupted for an entire year while enslaving and killing the human race."
"He was still my father."
He sighed, turning to lean his back against the console to face her fully, "what happened to you?"
She shrugged, avoiding his piercing green eyes, "I stole the vortex manipulator from the Time agent. Ended up at Luna University during the 22nd century. That's where I met River...I couldn't stay in 21st century Earth. Everyone saw my face, everyone would recognise me for what my father did." She swallowed. It wasn't right that at the time she hadn't stopped him. So close since the war she had been bitter, angry, took it out on the humans. They'd done nothing wrong, but she hadn't sided with them. Hadn't gone against him. Not once.
"Do you know about...?"
"About Christmas 2009?" He nodded cautiously, "yeah. I know what happened."
She knew about the secret order that had taken her fathers ring from his burning body, using it and the DNA from Lucy to bring him back. How Lucy had once again killed him. How Gallifrey had returned above the planet. How he had ended up sacrificing himself for the Doctor. Sending them back into the Time War. She closed her eyes. His entire life had been manipulated just for that moment, everything he was and had become was because of Rassilon.
What a prick.
"I'm sorry..." the Doctor breathed.
She inhaled sharply, "so am I."
"So...do you...want to go back to Luna?"
"I have nowhere else."
"I mean..." he looked at her, eying her reaction. How she hung back, kept her distance, avoided eye contact. He had to wonder when the last time she got a hug was. "You're welcome to stay?" He offered.
"I don't think your box would like that after what I did to her."
"She'll get over. She knows you didn't mean it." He rubbed his hand over the console, "don't you?"
He was returned with a low hum, almost regretful.
"I mean it's your choice but..." he smirked at her, "if you decide to leave I will have to drop by on occasion to see how you're doing. I have a duty of care now."
"Oh..." she moaned. She should have seen that coming. "Fine." She grit her teeth, "I'll give it a week and I'll see if I can work an agreement with your box. I'm not promising anything though."
He grinned, "good enough for me."
A/N: This has been in the back of my mind for so long, everytime the Master returned it spark inspiration to continue and now eith the recent episode i finally decided to upload.
Please tell me what you think.
Also i picture Raven to look similar to Brianna Hildebrand.