Twin cries of "Doctor!" faded away as twin transmat beams unceremoniously deposited two girls in a featureless cell.

The blonde scrambled to her feet first. "You all right, mate?"

"I think so, yeah," the brunette replied, straightening her dress.

"I'm Rose."

"Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah. So, if you know who I am, but I don't know who you are, that'd make you from his future, right?"

"That is way more complicated of a question then you might think, but yeah, let's just say I'm from his future. I'm Clara."

"Any idea where we are?" Rose asked, looking around the room.

"Not a clue. But I think I know why."

"Me too. We're bait, for the Doctor."

"Whoever did this knows him very well. Too well. Your Doctor will be so mad he won't be thinking straight."

"I can't imagine yours takin' this much better. They are the same man, after all." Rose looked at Clara with a curious expression, then laughed.

"What?"

"Sorry…just…laughing at myself, really. That time I met Sarah Jane Smith, I acted like such a jealous idiot…not sure why I'm takin' this so calmly."

"Maybe because there's two of them out there looking for us. And you've nothing to be jealous of, anyway. To your Doctor, you are the absolute center of creation. I'm just someone he caught a glimpse of, from the corner of his eye, once or twice."

"And to your Doctor, I'm just a memory."

Clara reached over and caught the other girl's hand. "Rose, you are so much more than that! You saved him, after the Time War. He wouldn't be the man I know today without you."

"That is quite correct, Miss Oswald," an imperious voice stated.

"Who's that? Where's it comin' from?" Rose hissed.

"Don't know," Clara whispered back.

"The Doctor would not be the man he is today with you - both of you. A pretty pair of fools - the Bad Wolf and the Impossible Girl, both blinded by your human concept of 'love.' A Time Lord has no need of such things. You, who absorbed the Time Vortex, costing the Doctor one of his regenerations, and you, who entered the Doctor's personal time stream, you will cost him another. Perhaps if I eliminate your corrupting influences, then the Doctor will conduct himself as befits a Time Lord."

"And perhaps, if more of us had been influenced by that glorious human concept of love, the Time War need never have happened."

"Wait…I know that voice," Clara whispered.

"And if you're going to be such a damn pompous ass," that gruff voice continued, "you might try addressing the young lady correctly. She was born on Gallifrey, at least once that I know of. Isn't that right, my lady Clara?"

"Yes, that's right," she affirmed. 'Long story,' she mouthed to Rose.

"Insolence!"

"I've been hearing that since my days at the Academy. I didn't care then, and I care less now. I have lost so much…I won't lose these two."

"What are they to you?" that other voice sneered.

"If you have to ask, you'll never understand."

Sensing that something was about to happen, Rose edged closer to Clara and grabbed her hand.

"Now then, girls…" An open doorway suddenly appeared in the once blank wall. "RUN!"

That was the very first word the Doctor had ever spoken to her, and Rose reacted instinctively, pelting out the doorway and dragging Clara along with her. The corridor was rocked with blasts of energy as the two voices continued to bellow at each other. The two unseen titans seemed more intent on warring with one another than pursuing Clara and Rose, so they seized that advantage and kept running.

"Any ideas where we're headed?" Clara gasped.

"Away from them!" Rose said emphatically.

"Agreed!"

They sped down a flight of stairs and burst through a doorway, into a corridor which seemed markedly more quiet. They paused to catch their breath, both trying desperately to still their ragged gasps for air.

"Wait…did you hear that?" Clara asked.

"Clara!"

"Rose!"

"In here!" Rose called. "We're in here!"

The sound of two sonic screwdrivers demolishing one lock was rather overpowering in the confines of the hallway, but neither Rose nor Clara was at all inclined to complain.

Clara felt herself swept up into a breathtakingly tight embrace. "I'm here," she whispered against her Doctor's neck. "I'm here. I'm all right."

"I thought I'd lost you," he mumbled against her hair. "Both of you," he added, glancing over at Rose and her Doctor, locked in an equally fierce embrace.

"What happened?" Rose's Doctor asked.

There was a confused babble about transmat beams and cells without doors and voices from the ceiling that neither Doctor entirely understood.

"I think we need to find a safer place to discuss this," Clara's Doctor said.

"Agreed," his counterpart replied. "Rose," he asked gently, "how did you get free of the cell?"

"I don't know, exactly", she replied, her voice muffled against his suit jacket.

"I do," Clara replied firmly.

Her Doctor pressed a kiss to her forehead. "How, Clara?"

"It was you. It was that other you, the one you refuse to acknowledge. He saved us." The Doctor's face turned stony, and he tried to look away, but Clara reached up and caught his face in her hands, gently forcing him to meet her eyes. "He's you, and no matter what he's done, there's still good in him."