Hearts as One

(Jared's POV)

TARDIS…

The Doctor is giving Clara, Sayaka, Kyoko, and I a lecture.

"So there's this man. He has a time machine. Up and down history he goes, zip zip zip zip zip, getting into scrapes." The Doctor said, going up to the gallery. "Another thing he has is a passion for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven."

"Beethoven? Did you meet him?" Sayaka asked.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." The Doctor said, holding up a vinyl LP of Beethoven's 5th. "And one day he thinks, what's the point of having a time machine if you don't get to meet your heroes? So off he goes to 18th century Germany. But he can't find Beethoven anywhere. No one's heard of him, not even his family have any idea who the time traveller is talking about."

"The hell? What happened to Beethoven?" Kyoko asked. "How did Beethoven go from existing to not existing?"

"Shut up, you two. Let me speak." The Doctor said, swapping the LP for a plaster bust of Ludwig and walks down the stairs. "Beethoven literally doesn't exist. This didn't happen, by the way. I've met Beethoven. Nice chap. Very intense. Loved an arm-wrestle. No, this is called the Bootstrap Paradox. Google it. The time traveller panics."

The bust is put down on a pile of sheet music.

"He can't bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven. Luckily he'd brought all of his Beethoven sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos, and the symphonies and he gets them published. He becomes Beethoven. And history continues with barely a feather ruffled. But my question is this. Who put those notes and phrases together? Who really composed Beethoven's Fifth?" The Doctor asked.

The Doctor has finished plugging in his electric guitar and plays - da da da dah! da da da dah! 

"Okay. This was more fun in person." I said, leaning against the TARDIS console.

Railway station…

This is a completely fake town, with Russian signs and cardboard cut-out people for target practice. There is no evidence of recent MOD usage. The TARDIS has landed on the fake railway platform.

"Um, where's Bennett? We have to get moving." Sayaka said, happily.

"Oh, he's still throwing up. One small step for man, one giant bleaurgh." O'Donnell said, smiling.

"Well, time travel does that to you sometimes." I said, laughing a lot.

"Somehow I doubt that Ruby or Neptune or Chisato lost their breakfast on their first trip."

"Chisato? You mean like LycoReco Chisato?"

"The very one." O'Donnell said. "You haven't met anyone from Lycoris Recoil, have you?"

"Not yet. Unfortunately. Haven't had the time. Maybe I could meet them before seeing the PowerPuff Girls again."

"You should. That's what it said in the history books. I used to be in military intelligence. I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window."

"Was it in anger?" The Doctor asked.

"Is there another way to dangle someone out a window?" O'Donnell asked. "What year are we in?"

The Doctor wets a finger and holds it up, "1980."

"So, pre-Harold Saxon. Pre-the Blip. Pre-Cardcaptor Sakura. Pre-Sailor Moon. Pre-Railgun. And pre-LycoReco." O'Donnell said, giggling. "Jared, history said you loved hanging out at Cafe LycoReco."

"The Blip?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah."

"No, never mind. I expect I'll find out soon enough." The Doctor said. "Jared, do you know what the Blip is?"

"Yeah. It's spoilers." I said, grabbing Sayaka's hand. "And it's a long story."

Bennett comes out of the TARDIS and closes the door, "Sorry about that. Had a prawn sandwich. Might have been off."

"Ah ha. Don't worry. Shall we go?" The Doctor asked.

"Just one sec, I've just got something in my boot." O'Donnell said.

The Doctor is walking away. 

"Let it out, O'Donnell. I was like this on my first trip." I said, squeezing Sayaka's hand.

"Thank you, Jared!" O'Donnell chirped, jumping up and down in excitement. "It's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside. How can it be bigger on the inside, Bennett, Jared?"

"It just is. Better?"

"Yeah." O'Donnell said, sobering up. "Okay, let's roll."

High Street…

We catch up with the Doctor, walking past fake shop fronts, a telephone box and a poster of Stalin.

"Wait. Why are we in Russia?" Sayaka asked.

"Er, we haven't. We're still in Scotland. This is the town before it flooded. The TARDIS has brought us to when the spaceship first touched down. But here and now, it's the height of the Cold War. The military were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil." The Doctor said.

We find the spaceship with its rear ramp down, parked in front of the Orthodox Church.

Spaceship…

The Doctor, O'Donnnell, Bennett, and I go inside. Sayaka and Kyoko are staying outside, standing guard and protecting us. The missing stasis chamber is in place, and a wrapped mummy is lying on the other one.

"Oh, is that the pilot? My God, look at the size of it." O'Donnell said, sadly.

"Nope. It's the body." I said, frowning.

Bennett opens the floor hatch where the two power cells are.

"What do you mean, the body?" O'Donnell asked.

"This isn't just any spaceship. It's a hearse." The Doctor said.

"The suspended animation chamber's still here, and the power cells for the engine." Bennett said.

"And there are no markings on the wall." O'Donnell said.

"Not yet." I said, looking down at the floor.

Outside the Church…

The undertaker runs to meet us as we walk down the ramp, carrying a briefcase and waving a large white handkerchief.

"Greetings!" Prentis said, excitedly.

"It's him. That's the ghost from the Drum." O'Donnell said.

The alien gets within an inch of the Doctor's nose, as if he is very short-sighted.

"Remarkable. Oh, and humans, too. Albar Prentis, Funeral Director." Prentis said, handing out business cards. 

It says Albar Prentis Universal Funeral Director. May the remorse be with you. 

The Doctor throws his away.

"Aren't you from Tivoli?" Sayaka asked.

"The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, if you occupied us, you'd be home by now." Prentis said.

"Me and a friend met someone of your species before." I said, squeezing Sayaka's hand. "Not really a fan. Since he was scared of the Weeping Angels. Can't blame him."

"No, we do tend to antagonise." Prentis said, laughing.

O'Donnell, Sayaka, and Kyoko hear a noise and look away briefly.

"So, what are you doing here?" Kyoko asked.

"Ah, yes. Of course." Prentis said, running up the ramp. "This is the Fisher King. He and his armies invaded Tivoli and enslaved us for ten glorious years! Until we were liberated by the Arcateenians. But, thank the Gods, soon we'd irritated them so much, they enslaved us, too!"

Prentis laughs.

"My first proper alien, and he's an idiot." Bennett said, annoyed.

"My first proper alien was alien mannequins." I said, sadly. "It's okay."

"And now, in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost." Prentis said.

"You mean the town?" O'Donnell asked.

"Nope. He means the planet." I said, frowning.

Prentis runs back down the ramp to the Doctor, "Although, at the risk of starting a bidding war, you could enslave me. In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items that you can oppress me with."

"Listen, we've come from the future. You're about to send some sort of signal. How do you do it? Is it a special pen?" The Doctor asked.

"What are you talking about?" Prentis asked.

"The technology you use. The thing that wrenches the soul out of the body and makes it repeat your coordinates for eternity. Give it to me now, I'm going to take the batteries out."

"We don't have anything like that." Prentis said, laughing. "Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians."

"So who sends the message?" The Doctor asked, looking over at me. "Jared?"

"Spoilers. You'll find out eventually, Spaceman." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Prentis sniffs at the Doctor. They look up at the mummy on the slab.

"Back to the TARDIS. I need to talk to Clara." The Doctor said.

Mess hall…

In the future, Cass is sitting observing the ghost Doctor floating just outside. Lunn approaches Clara who is sitting apart.

"You've been here before, in situations like this before." Lunn said.

"Yeah, not exactly like, but, yeah, once or twice." Clara said.

"So you've had to deal with people who are scared. What do you say to them? I'm asking what I should say to you."

"That it will be all right. That the Doctor and Jared will save us." 

"And when you say it, do you believe it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." Clara said.

"And now?" Lunn asked, and Cass attracts their attention by slapping her chair back. "Cass thinks the Doctor's saying something different to the others. He's saying Moran Pritchard Apprentice. No, Prentis O'Donnell Clara Jared Doctor Sayaka Kyoko Bennett Cass. It's a list of all our names and when he finishes, he just goes back to the beginning again, over and over. That's it."

"Who's Prentis?" Clara asked, while her mobile phone rings. "It's Jared."

"He's alive with the Doctor and his friends?" Lunn asked.

"For the moment." Clara said, as Lunn signs the good news to Cass. "Doctor? Jared? Doctor, Jared, are you all right?"

"Yeah. We're fine." I said, my voice coming out of Clara's phone. "The spaceship, it's a hearse."

TARDIS / Mess hall…

I am on the phone propped up against a mug on a table, Clara on the scanner with me AirPlaying my phone to it.

"Clara. You look upset. What's wrong?" I asked, sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Another ghost has appeared." Clara said.

"What? Someone died? Who was it?" Sayaka asked.

"Doctor, it's you. Are you okay?" Clara asked.

"Yeah. Well, currently." The Doctor said.

"The hell does that mean?" Kyoko asked.

"It means I die."

"No, not necessarily. We can change the sequence of events so…" Clara said.

"Yeah. Like how Homura was stuck in a time loop and she changed the sequence of events." I said, happily.

"This isn't a potential future. This is the future now. It's already happened. The proof is right there in front of you. I have to die." The Doctor said.

"No. You can change things. Like how Homura kept on changing things for almost 100 time loops." Clara said.

"I can't. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic. It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond. Oh, well, I've had a good innings." The Doctor said, as he looked over at O'Donnell. "This regeneration, it's a bit of a clerical error anyway."

"It's not a clerical error, Doctor." I said, rolling my eyes.

"It is, Jared." The Doctor said, with me aiming my phone at the Doctor, so the Time Lord can look directly at the camera. "I've got to go sometime."

"And I've got to go too sometime, Clara. The Doctor and I were supposed to die in Trenzalore."

"Not with me! Die with whoever comes after me. Both of you do not leave me." Clara said, annoyed.

"Clara, we need to talk to you just on your own." The Doctor said.

"Sayaka, Kyoko, show Bennett and O'Donnell the cinema." I said, telepathically.

"Okay." Kyoko said, telepathically.

We pick up our respective handsets.

"We're on it." Sayaka said, telepathically.

Sayaka and Kyoko left the console room with O'Donnell and Bennett.

"Clara, you have to listen to us. We all have to face death eventually. If it is ours or someone else's." I said, using my phone's front facing camera. 

"I'm not ready yet. I don't want to think about that, not yet." Clara said.

"I can't change what's already happened. And neither can Jared, even with his foreknowledge. There are rules." The Doctor said.

"So break them. And anyway, Doctor, you and Jared owe me. The two of you have made yourselves essential to me. You both have given me something else to, to be. And you and Jared can't do that and then die. It's not fair."

"Clara…." The Doctor said, letting out a sigh.

"We can't change a thing." I said, lowering my phone.

"No. Doctor, Jared, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you two love me in any way, you'll come back. Doctor, Jared, are you?" Clara asked.

"Clara, we can't save Moran or Pritchard. It's now a fixed point in time."

"No, but like you said, Doctor, if you can, if you can find out why this is happening, without relying on Jared for help, maybe you can stop them killing anybody else, you can save us. And the two of you can stop it happening to you. And Jared, you can stop it happening to Sayaka and Kyoko."

"That is true. I do care about those two Magical Girls deeply. But we can do what we can to change things. Even so, the future has already happened. And this is 'The Angels Take Manhattan' all over again. We just met the Undertaker and he's still alive."

"Jared, can we come back now?" Sayaka asked, telepathically.

"Yeah." I said, telepathically.

(Open POV)

Spaceship…

Prentis is making notes in a book as he walks into the spaceship and discovers that the mummy wrappings are empty. He gasps, sniff, then turns and sees the symbols scratched into the bulkhead. A very large shadow looms in the opening to the spaceship. There is an external view of the spaceship with a loud roar.

(Jared's POV)

TARDIS / Mess Hall…

The private conversation is over and the Doctor goes back to speaker mode. With me aiming my phone at the Doctor.

"So. Ghost me. You've got a better view than me. How do I look? Any signs of trauma, any scars? Any clues as to how I die?" The Doctor asked.

"No, nothing. You're the same as all the other ghosts with the weird black eyes and. No. No, wait. Your coat. It's torn. The right shoulder." Clara said, holding up the phone to broadcast the image.

"I assume I'm just saying the same thing as the others." The Doctor said.

"No. You're saying a list of names. Our names, mainly. Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell, Clara, Jared, Doctor, Sayaka, Kyoko, Bennett, Cass. Sayaka and Kyoko make sense to last longer than Bennett and Cass because they're immortal. Who's Prentis?" Clara asked.

"The mole-faced chap."

Ghost Doctor comes through the window. Clara drops the phone on a table for a moment.

"Clara, what's wrong? What is happening out there?" I asked, leaning against the TARDIS console.

"Doctor, you've moved inside. You're inside here now." Clara said.

"What am I doing?" The Doctor asked.

"Er, nothing. You're, you're just standing there."

"I'm not trying to kill you? Why am I not trying to kill you?"

"No, wait, Doctor, you're moving, going toward the control panel." Clara said.

The ghost calls up the Faraday cage in sector 4. Status: closed changes to open.

"Oh, no. He's opened the Faraday cage. He's let the other ghosts out." Clara said, sadly.

"I need to talk to me now." The Doctor said.

"Didn't you hear me? Doctor, you opened the Faraday cage. The other ghosts are outside. Shouldn't we be hiding?" Clara asked.

"Not yet. Just wait a minute." I said, happily. "The Doctor has to talk to his ghost self first."

Clara puts her phone on its long edge, on a cabinet.

"Okay, Doctor, you're on." Clara said.

"Doctor. Such an honour. I've always been a huge admirer. This is really a delight. Finally someone worth talking to. So firstly, why are you here?" The Doctor asked.

Ghost Doctor turns away.

"Clara? Clara, what's happening?" The Doctor asked.

Clara retrieves her phone, "Er. Er, you, you've just stopped. Oh, no, wait, you've started again."

"His message has changed. He's saying something different. He's saying…" Cass said, with Lunn translating for her.

"What?" Clara asked.

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"What?" Lunn asked.

"He's saying, the chamber will open tonight." Cass said, with Lunn translating for her.

"Clara, now the ghosts are out, go to the Faraday cage. They won't be able to get you in there. Oh, there's a problem." The Doctor said.

"Problem? What problem? Oh, really? Because everything else is going so smoothly…" Clara said, sarcastically.

"The phone signal won't be able to get through. What you'll have to do, Clara, put the phone outside, and you can watch it through the little round porthole. And when you see it ringing, if it's safe to do so, go out and answer it." 

"Okay, how long are you going to…"

"Clara, listen to me. Don't let that phone out of your sight. I need to be able to reach you, I need to know everything my ghost does. Do you understand? Jared and I will come back for you. I swear."

Clara, Cass and Lunn run out.

TARDIS…

Signal lost.

"Come on. Oh, wait a minute. Not you, O'Donnell." The Doctor said.

"Why not?" O'Donnell asked.

"Someone needs to stay here and mind the shop. What if Clara calls?" 

"The last bloke that said something like that to me got dangled out of a window."

"Maybe the Doctor's right. Maybe it's best if you stay here." Bennett said.

"It really is best if you stay here." I said, clutching the strap of my sling bag. "Don't want you to become one of the ghosts."

"Never going to happen. Seriously, have you two met me?" O'Donnell asked.

O'Donnell walks between the Doctor, Bennett, Sayaka, Kyoko, and I and leaves the TARDIS. 

"Blue raspberry, strawberry shortcake, you know what I'm gonna say." I said, telepathically.

"Yeah. Yeah. We know." Kyoko said, telepathically.

Bennett, the Doctor, and I exchange a look.

"We stay in the TARDIS where it's safe." Sayaka said, telepathically.

"Thank you." I said, telepathically. "Both of you."

Spaceship…

We see the undertaker lying on the bandages and run in.

"Prentis. Prentis!" The Doctor yelled, checking for a pulse.

"Guess that dead body wasn't so dead after all." O'Donnell said.

"And now we've got the writing." Bennett said.

"The Fisher King did it himself. The future is still coming." The Doctor said.

Outside the Church…

There are drag marks in the soil outside.

"He's taken the suspended animation chamber to the church." The Doctor said.

"Which is bad." I said, looking down at the ground.

There is a big roar.

"What was that?" O'Donnell asked.

"Something bad. We have to get back to the TARDIS. Right now." I said, sadly. "Sayaka's magic, Kyoko's magic, and my ghost powers can't face that."

We run, but a louder roar makes us stop and duck into a narrow passageway.

Building…

"Crap. It cut us off." I said, looking back at O'Donnell.

"Let's split up. Go on, Bennett." O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell has to dodge around a corner near a tableau of a living room while the Doctor, Bennett, and I make it into a fake bathroom at the end. I jammed a chair under the door handle.

Something big is stomping and roaring as it approaches. It passes a broken window in the room where the Doctor and Bennett are hiding. The sounds fade. O'Donnell steps out of her hiding place, and a large shadow is cast over her. She turns. Big roar. Bennett pulls the chair from the door.

"No, Bennett! Wait!" The Doctor said, worried.

"Don't!" I said, terrified.

Bennett runs to where O'Donnell is lying on the floor, moaning. He kneels and takes her hand, then takes her in his arms.

"Why did you come? You shouldn't have come. I mean, you never listen to anyone. It drives me mad." Bennett said, letting out a lot of tears.

"To keep an eye on you, idiot. So, don't die." O'Donnell said, scoffing.

"No."

O'Donnell dies. The Doctor walks up slowly.

"Who's next on the list?" Bennett asked, laying O'Donnell down, taking off his glasses and standing to face the Doctor. "Doctor, that list your ghost was saying, that's the order in which people are going to die, isn't it? I mean, I've only just figured that out. But you and Jared knew that all along, didn't you? Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell."

"Yeah. The Doctor and I are trying to prevent something similar to 'The Angels Take Manhattan' from happening again." I said, letting out a sigh. "I'm sorry."

"I am sorry too. We thought perhaps, because her ghost wasn't there in the future, like Prentis's was, we thought maybe, maybe it wouldn't happen. Maybe she stood a chance." The Doctor said.

"Yeah, but neither of you didn't try very hard to stop her, though, did you? And Jared, you encouraged her. Doctor, it was almost like you wanted to test your theory. So who's next?" Bennett asked.

"It's Clara, then me." I said, crossing my arms.

"Yeah. Yeah. Except now the two of you are going to do something about it, aren't you? Yeah, because it's getting closer to you both. You change history to save yourselves but not to save O'Donnell. You two wouldn't save her." Bennett said, looking between the Doctor and I.

"This isn't about saving me. I'm a dead man walking. I'm changing history to save Clara and Jared." The Doctor said.

"And I'm changing history to save Sayaka and Kyoko." I said, smirking. "They both died in another timeline. Another world. Not letting that happen again."

Bennett walks away.

(Open POV)

Faraday cage…

Clara is at the door, staring at the phone stood on a ledge opposite. Suddenly a figure appears before her, and she jumps back.

"O'Donnell's dead." Clara said, sadly.

Clara, Cass and Lunn watch ghost O'Donnell turn away.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, don't you dare. Don't you dare." Clara said, frowning.

The ghost takes the phone and walks down the corridor.

TARDIS…

"Time to do a Back to the Future, Bennett." Jared said, leaning against the TARDIS console.

"Big day for you. Time travel, twice!" The Doctor cheered.

"Whoa, really? When are we going to?" Bennett asked.

"Off the map. Out of the rule book. What if I don't die? What if I refuse? I'm going to go back to the base and I'm going to save Clara and Jared, because that's what I do." The Doctor said.

"And what I do is that I'm going to save Sayaka and Kyoko, because that's what I do." Jared said, happily.

"And we don't see anyone here who's going to stop us."

"Jared, are you sure?" Sayaka asked, telepathically.

The Cloister Bell tolls and the TARDIS materialises.

"I'm sure." Jared said, telepathically. "You and Kyoko stay in the TARDIS. Can't have you both running into yourselves."

Location 512…

512 is in big numbers on the wall above a paper target of a soldier.

"Why are we still here?" The Doctor asked, seeing another TARDIS round the corner, with himself walking out of it. "No. No, no, no, no, no."

"What?" Bennett asked.

"Doctor, we traveled half an hour back in time." Jared said, clutching the strap of his sling bag. "We're locked in our own time streams. Our Old Girl won't let us leave."

"Well, what do we do?" Bennett asked.

"Like I said, we're doing 'Back to the Future'. We keep out of sight from our other selves. Until time catches up to us." 

They walk away.

"Um, where's Bennett? We have to get moving." Later Sayaka said, happily.

"Oh, he's still throwing up." Later O'Donnell said.

They see the undertaker taking sextant sightings.

 "Prentis. He's alive." Bennett said.

"No, he's just not dead yet. And we don't tell him." The Doctor said.

"Yeah, but he's right there. I mean, we can just…" 

"No way!" Jared yelled, pushing Bennett against the wall. "I said we're doing 'Back to the Future', I didn't say anything about changing time."

"However that sentence ends, Bennett, no, we can't. Save him, and you'll want to save O'Donnell. You can't cheat time. Jared and I just tried. You can't just go back and cut off tragedy at the root. Because you find yourself talking to someone you just saw dead on a slab. Because then you really do see ghosts. We don't tell him. Understand? Not a word. We don't have that right." The Doctor said.

Outside the Church…

Instead, the Doctor, Jared, and Bennett hide behind some metal barrels labelled toxic waste and watch the conversation they had in half an hours time.

"Albar Prentis, Funeral Director." Later Prentis said, handing out business cards. 

It says Albar Prentis Universal Funeral Director. May the remorse be with you. The Doctor throws his away.

"Aren't you from Tivoli?" Later Sayaka asked.

"The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, if you occupied us, you'd be home by now." Later Prentis said.

"Me and a friend met someone of your species before." Later Jared said, squeezing Sayaka's hand. "Not really a fan. Since he was scared of the Weeping Angels. Can't blame him."

"No, we do tend to antagonise!" Later Prentis said, laughing.

Later O'Donnell smiles at the Star Wars joke on Prentis's business card. Bennett gets up and the Doctor and Jared wrestles him to the ground. 

"Jared?" Later Sayaka asked, telepathically.

"Is that you?" Later Kyoko asked, telepathically.

O'Donnell, Sayaka, and Kyoko hear the thud but see nothing.

"Yeah. Kinda doing a 'Back to the Future'. Sorry." Jared said, telepathically. "Keeping the future versions of you two safe in the TARDIS."

"So, what are you doing here?" Later Kyoko asked.

"Ah, yes. Of course." Later Prentis said.

Faraday cage…

"The dark. The sword. The forsaken. The temple. When we found out what the ghosts were saying, we weren't surprised because the words, they were already inside us." Clara said.

Lunn is signing all this for Cass, of course.

"But you, you were, weren't you? You didn't know what the words were going to be." Clara said.

"Er, no, I didn't. How did you know?" Lunn asked.

"Who were the people who didn't see the writing in the spaceship?"

"Here. Me. Cass wouldn't let me go inside. With the Doctor. Sayaka and Kyoko. Jared wouldn't let them go inside."

"That's why the ghosts didn't hurt you, Sayaka, and Kyoko, when they had the chance. The message isn't inside the three of you."

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense." Lunn said.

"So you can get the phone back."

"What?" Lunn asked, while Cass queries him. "She's saying I should go and get the phone back."

"No." Cass said, as Lunn translated for her.

"Listen, listen. I need. We, we need to be able to contact the Doctor and Jared and you are the only one who can do this." Clara said.

"Okay…" Lunn said, unsure.

Cass grabs Lunn by the lapels and signs at him very fiercely while Clara checks if the coast is clear.

"No, she's right. Neither of you can get it back." Lunn said.

Cass signs again.

"What? What is it? What did she say?" Clara asked.

"It doesn't matter." Lunn said.

"Please."

"She said to ask you whether travelling with the Doctor changed you and Jared, or were the two of you always happy to put other people's lives at risk."

"The Doctor taught me and Jared to do what has to be done. You should get going." Clara said, opening the Faraday cage door.

Outside the Church…

The Doctor, Bennett, and Jared watch their other selves walk away, and Prentis go into the spaceship. They stand, and the Doctor sees that he has torn his coat in their brief struggle.

"Oh. I need more time. It's too soon. I haven't saved them yet. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. I've got no choice now, I have to face the Fisher King. You two, back to the TARDIS." The Doctor said, looking between Jared and Bennett.

"Right. Come on Bennett." Jared said, grabbing Bennett's hand and walking away. "Let's watch something on YouTube."

Outside the Faraday cage…

Lunn sets off down the corridor.

"Look, he'll be fine, I promise." Clara said, happily.

Cass signs at her, short and angry.

"Okay. Didn't need anyone to translate that." Clara said, rejoining Cass in the cage and closes the door.

Outside the Church…

The Doctor stops outside the Church, "Now I'm ready."

Basement…

It's not a real church, but an old warehouse or similar with Orthodox Christian crosses on the roof. He goes down a metal staircase to a storage area with metal support posts. The open suspended animation chamber is here.

"I've come from the future. I've seen the chaos you cause. The bloodshed." The Doctor said.

"Tell me what you have seen." The Fisher King said, nearby.

"Ghosts."

"Ghosts?"

"Souls wrenched from the dead. Repeating directions to here, to this spot, over and over."

"How many ghosts do I create? How many!"

"Four that I know of. Maybe five by now. Probably more since I left." The Doctor said.

"My ghosts will make more ghosts. Enough to bring an armada. Enough to wake me from my sleep." The Fisher King said, nearby.

Underwater base…

Back in the future, the suspended animation chamber in the main hangar suddenly activates. Lunn finds the four ghosts having a conference. They notice him and surround him. Lunn closes his eyes and stands very still as they study him closely. When they stand back, he opens his eyes and walks slowly on.

Basement…

Stomping.

"What will happen when your people arrive?" The Doctor asked.

"We will drain the oceans and put the humans in chains." The Fisher King said, nearby.

"This world is protected, when Jared isn't around, by me."

"Yes. One man, lost in time."

Mess hall…

Lunn finds the phone on a table. But when he grabs it and turns to run out.

"Door emergency security lock." The computer said.

The door slams in his face. The ghosts walk past.

Basement…

"The seed of their destruction is already sown. They will die. The message will be sent. My people will come, and you will do nothing to stop it, Time Lord." The Fisher King said.

He is about three metres tall, with mandibles and spiky plate armour, and holding a large hand weapon. This giant insectoid is not the Wounded King who guarded the Grail in the legends any more than the Bors we met earlier was the gallant survivor of the Quest.

Faraday cage…

Cass goes to open the door. 

Clara stops her, "Hey! No, no, no, no. Cass! Wait, what are you doing? Look, Lunn, he is going to be fine, I promise. We have to stay here. I know that look. I do that look. Okay, fine. But we stick together."

Cass nods, and they leave, Clara closing the door behind them.

Basement…

"Time Lords. Cowardly, vain curators who suddenly remembered they had teeth and became the most warlike race in the galaxy. But you, you!" The Fisher King growled.

The Doctor staggers, bent backwards over the open suspended animation chamber.

"You are curious. You have seen the words, too. I can hear them tick inside you. But you are still locked in your history. Still slavishly protecting Time. Willing to die rather than change a word of the future." The Fisher King said.

Intersection…

"Lunn." Clara said, turning right and doesn't notice that Cass has turned left. "Lunn. Lunn." She turns around. "Oh, Cass. Cass. Cass. Idiot. I'm an idiot. How does Jared manage to keep his friends near him?"

Meanwhile, Cass is being followed by Moran, dragging a heavy fire axe. She cannot hear him, of course. but she is wary.

Basement…

"You will be a strong beacon. How many ghosts can I make of you?" The Fisher King asked.

"You know, you've got a lot in common with the Tivoleans. You'll both do anything to survive. They'll surrender to anyone. You will hijack other people's souls and turn them into electromagnetic projections. That will to endure. That refusal to ever cease. It's extraordinary. And it makes a fella think. Because you know what? If all I have to do to survive is tweak the future a bit, what's stopping me? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The ripple effect. Maybe it will mean that the universe will be ruled by cats or something, in the future. But the way I see it, even a ghastly future is better than no future at all. You robbed those people of their deaths, made them nothing more than a message in a bottle. You violated something more important than Time. You bent the rules of life and death. So I am putting things straight. Here, now, this is where your story ends." The Doctor said.

The Fisher King growls.

Corridor…

Back in the main hangar, the suspended animation chamber is counting down to opening. Moran is catching up with Cass. A sixth sense makes her squat and place her hand flat on the floor. She feels the vibrations of the scraping axe, stands, turns and runs through Moran as he swings the axe. He vanishes and the axe falls. Cass runs into Clara.

"Oh, there you are." Clara said, relieved.

Cass grabs Clara's hand and they run.

Basement…

"There is nothing you can do." The Fisher King said.

The Fisher King aims his big energy weapon at the Doctor.

"I've already done it. The words have gone. I got rid of them. The future I saw, none of that will happen now. The message will never contaminate my friends. No one will die. No one is coming to save you. That's the thing about knowing you're going to die. You've got nothing left to lose." The Doctor said, smugly.

The Fisher King pushes the Doctor aside and stomps away.

Mess hall…

Cass and Clara enter.

"No, no, you've got to get out of here. The ghosts locked me in. It's a trap." Lunn said, sadly.

The five ghosts all walk through the walls.

"Come on. Faraday cage now!" Clara cried.

Spaceship…

The Fisher King leaves the Church and stomps into the spaceship. The symbols are still on the bulkhead.

"The Time Lord lied." The Fisher King said.

One of the power cells is missing. It is over by the dam at the back of the town, beeping away its count-down. The Fisher King leaves the spaceship and sees the explosion. He watches cracks form in the dam.

TARDIS…

Bennett, Jared, Sayaka and Kyoko are here watching YouTube videos in the console room.

"This is security protocol seven one two. The echelon circuit has been activated. Please stow any hand luggage and prepare for departure." Holo-Doctor said.

The TARDIS dematerialises.

Main hangar…

Clara, Lunn and Cass run in to avoid the ghosts.

"Back, get back." Clara said.

They bump up against the suspended animation chamber, which starts clunking as the four human ghosts enter.

Abandoned town…

Back in 1980, the dam starts to crumble. The Fisher King continues to just stand there until he realises what is going on and roars. He opens his arms wide and the rush of water carries him off at speed.

Main hanger…

In the now, the suspended animation chamber opens and the Doctor sits up, wearing his sonic sunglasses. 

The Doctor takes his sonic sunglasses off, "Don't kiss me. Morning breath."

"Doctor? Where's Bennett, Jared, Sayaka, and Kyoko?" Clara asked.

The Doctor leaps out of the chamber, "Follow me."

(Jared's POV)

Bridge…

The Doctor puts his shades earpiece into a handy socket on a console. The Fisher King's roar is heard.

"What's that noise?" Clara asked.

"It's the call of the Fisher King. The call of their master." The Doctor said.

The four human ghosts turn around at the sound and walk through a wall.

"Where are they going?" Clara asked.

They watch on CCTV as all the ghosts walk into the Faraday cage, where the Doctor ghost is creating the Fisher King roar. The Doctor remotely closes the door and the Doctor ghost flickers out of existence.

"Hey." I said, walking out the TARDIS with Bennett, Sayaka, and Kyoko. "We were bored watching VTubers for a while."

"Oh. Hello." The Doctor said, placing the sonic sunglasses on my face. "You're up first."

"Okay." I said, wearing the sonic sunglasses on my face. "I kept Sayaka and Kyoko out of trouble."

"That's good." The Doctor said, removing the sunglasses on my face and placing it on Clara's face.

"Jared, you never really told us about the Doctor's ghost." Sayaka said, telepathically.

"Yeah. The hell was that about?" Kyoko asked, telepathically.

"It's actually pretty funny." I said, telepathically.

"Doctor, so what was it? Your ghost." Clara said, wearing the sunglasses.

"A hologram. Like the one we made of you to lure the ghosts into the Faraday cage. With a soupçon of artificial intelligence, and a few pre-recorded phrases thrown in." The Doctor said.

Clara is about to take the glasses off, but the Doctor slaps her hands.

"Ah!" The Doctor said, removing the sonic sunglasses from Clara's face. "All beamed from the sonic glasses."

Clara gets up and Cass takes her place. 

The Doctor puts the glasses on Cass' face, "As soon as you brought me and the chamber on board, it connected with the base's wi-fi and Bob's your uncle, you've got a ghost Doctor."

"So, why the hell did they only come out at night?" Kyoko asked.

"Because they're electromagnetic projections that were out of phase with the base's day mode. Right." The Doctor said, taking his shades off Cass. "That's it. I've erased the memory of the writing. Though you might find you've lost a couple of other memories too. You know, like people you went to school with, or previous addresses or how to drink liquids. That's you three done. Where's Bennett?"

Outside the Faraday cage…

The ghosts are walking about inside, occasionally looking at Bennett.

"What will happen to them?" Bennett asked.

"UNIT will cut out the Faraday cage with them inside and take it away. Then the space-hearse will be destroyed, so the writing doesn't infect anyone else." The Doctor said.

"What do I do now?" Bennett asked.

"I don't understand."

"I do. You keep going. You have to. Take it from me, there is a whole world out there. A galaxy, a life. What would O'Donnell have wanted?" Clara asked.

"O'Donnell would have wanted to see the world with you, Bennett." I said, happily. "I can't deny that. She was in love with you, I can tell."

"Thank you, Jared." Bennett said, smiling. "I needed to hear that confirmation from you."

"Bennett, I need to erase that message from your mind, but it's fine, I'll do it later." The Doctor said, walking a little way back down the corridor.

"Lunn. Will you translate something to Cass for me?" Bennett asked, walking up to Lunn.

"Of course." Lunn said.

"Tell her that you're in love with her and that you always have been."

"What?"

"Tell her there is no point wasting time because things happen and then it's too late. Tell her I wish someone had given me that advice."

"Playing matchmaker again?" Sayaka asked, telepathically.

Cass queries Lunn and he passes on the message. 

"Yup." I said, telepathically.

Cass looks quizzically at Bennett.

"Oh, God, no. I was just passing on what he said. Please, don't feel…" Lunn said, sadly.

Cass grabs Lunn and kisses him.

"That is an ending I'm satisfied with." Kyoko said, telepathically. "Next time, don't bring us on an adventure where we'd become ghosts."

TARDIS…

"So, what will UNIT do with the ghosts?" Sayaka asked.

"Drag the cage into space, away from the Earth's magnetic field. With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away." The Doctor said.

"Here's what I don't understand. You and Jared did change the future. Doctor, you stopped the Fisher King from returning. And Jared, you stayed in the TARDIS with Sayaka and Kyoko." Clara said.

"The TARDIS is the safest ship in the universe." I said, leaning against the TARDIS. "Why wouldn't I stay in there to avoid death?"

"You wanted to watch dooby and Mint Fantome." Sayaka said, sipping on a vanilla milkshake.

"And you also wanted to watch dokibird." Kyoko said, a Pocky sticking out of her mouth.

"That's because they're entertaining. Perfect distraction." I said, happily.

"The Fisher King had been dead for a hundred and fifty years before we even got here. But once Jared and I went back, we became part of events. But here's the thing. The messages my ghost gave, they weren't for you, Clara, they were for me. That list. Clara, Jared, everyone after you was random, but the two of you being the next names, that's what made me confront the Fisher King." The Doctor said.

"And you saying the chamber will open?" Sayaka asked.

"That's the Doctor telling himself to go inside the chamber and when to set it for." I said, smiling.

"That is kinda smart."

"Except that's not why I said them." The Doctor said.

"The hell do you mean?" Kyoko asked.

"I programmed my ghost to say them because that's what my ghost had said. And the only reason I created my ghost hologram in the first place was because I saw it here. I was reverse engineering the narrative." The Doctor said.

"And I was extra reverse engineering the narrative because you, Sayaka Miki and Kyoko Sakura were calling me while I was dealing with an Ace Attorney case." I said, looking between Sayaka and Kyoko. "Now you two have to call me. The TARDIS will reroute the call to my past self."

"Okay, that's still pretty smart." Clara said.

"The three of you do not understand. When did Jared and I first have those ideas, Clara, Sayaka, and Kyoko?" The Doctor asked, looking between Clara, Sayaka, and Kyoko.

"Well, it must have been…" Clara said, while the penny drops. "Wow."

"No way." Sayaka said, at a loss for words.

"The hell did you do that?" Kyoko asked.

"Exactly. Who composed Beethoven's Fifth?" The Doctor asked.

The Doctor looks at us, shrugs and smiles. I started laughing hysterically, knowing Sayaka and Kyoko had to call past me while he was dealing with a complicated case.