The TimeLord Who Changed

7

I look into his eyes to see if he's kidding. "Come again?"

He sighs. "Clara, I know what this is. I've been in this situation. About 9 years ago, in 2012, some dream dust founds its way into my TARDIS. Everyone on my ship fell asleep. The dream dust made us all dream the same things. It created the DreamLord, a person the opposite of me, made of all my negative personality traits and qualities, who created two scenarios for my companions and I to get out of,"

"But each time we woke up, we thought each thing was a dream. The DreamLord promised one was reality, one was a dream. He lied. Each scenario was dream. And in order to escape, we had to die in each situation," he explains.

I keep staring at him. "What about the kids?" I inquire, not wanting to know the answer.

"They...they aren't real. None of this is real. We have to die."

My gears start turning. I begin to think of solutions to get us out of this without dying. Maybe a paradox..."Doctor! I have an idea. What if we cause a paradox?"

"How would do that, Clara? That would take unimaginable power!" he retorts.

"No, it wouldn't! There are two sets of us. One here, and one on a Dalek ship! If we travel to the ship, where the other us is sleeping, that would cause both universes to dissolve, right? Then the real us on the TARDIS would wake up!" I explain, thrilled by the rush.

He strokes his beard. "That might actually work!" He pulls out his screwdriver and presses the trigger. The TARDIS materializes around us. Unfortunately, just as he reaches the console, the birds start chirping. We sleep.

The Doctor and I wake up to the sounds of Daleks screaming. "Damn it! The DreamLady made us sleep before we could make the paradox happen!" I curse.

"OPEN UP RIGHT NOW!" they all demand shrilly.

"Wait! We can just get to the version of us in Liverpool!" the Doctor tells me. He runs to the console and starts up the engine. He pulls nearly every lever and pressed a bunch of console buttons. The whirring starts up, but then fades. A bad clicking sound comes from the console.

"That's not good," I remark observantly.

"The Daleks must have a force field surrounding their spaceship that blocks my TARDIS from going anywhere. Looks like we'll be stuck here for a while," he tells me. He turns to me. "We have no other choice now. We have to die." He starts heading to the door.

"Doctor..." I say as he opens the door. He steps out. "Doctor, no!" I scream. He gets hit by a beam, and crumples to the floor. I run over to him and put my hands on his hearts. "Damn it, Doctor!"

All the Daleks start rolling toward me. I stand up. "Fine! Kill me!"

They all stop. One of them shrieks, "We do not take orders from humans."

"No, I'm serious! Without the Doctor, I have nothing to live for anyways. Kill me!" I demand, tears starting to stream down my face. "Kill me, kill me, kill me!" I march up to a Dalek. With all my strength, I grab its eye stalk and yank it off.

It starts spinning around. "I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE!" it yells.

"Just kill me already!" I repeat. I throw the stalk at another Dalek. "Come on!"

They all just stare at me. The one I threw the eye stalk at rolls up to me and aims its eye at me. It declares, "You would make a good Dalek."

All the tears stop immediately. My sadness is wiped away. Now? I'm angry. I meet its eye. I whisper, "I. Will. Never. Be. A. Dalek. You killed my best friend in the whole world. Anything who kills my best friend deserves to rot in hell. You will kill me now. You will kill me, and I will see the Doctor again." It doesn't reply. "Okay, then. If you don't blast me in 5 seconds, I will make sure you regret killing the Doctor."

It looks at me for another ten seconds. Then, at the same time, all of them yell, "EXTERMINATE!" The world goes black.

I sit up and gasp. "Doctor?! Where--"

All of a sudden, his arms are wrapped around me. "You did amazingly," he assures me.

I slap him. "How could you go out there and die on me? How dare you? Don't ever do that to me again."

He laughs and rubs his cheek where my hand landed. "Classic Clara! Okay, well, all we have to do is die once more!" he exclaims. He puts his hand in mine. We walk outside the TARDIS together. We glance at each and nod. "Together?"

I smile. "Together." We blink, and we're surrounded by Weeping Angels. We blink again. They're all half a foot away from us. Again. We're dead.

For almost the fifth time that day, I sit up and gasp. I get up, and rush to the Doctor's room. I kick open his door. "Doctor? Are you okay?" I ask.

"More than okay. I'm great. Now, go dispose of that dream dust. We don't want it to wreck havoc on anyone else." I giggle, and start sprinting away. "Oh, and don't forget my glasses!" I reach the console room, open the doors, and blow the dust out of my hands. I hop to the console to find the Doctor's glasses. I pick them up, playfully put them on. I give them back to the Doctor, and get under the covers.

I turn to look at him. "We both need some sleep, don't you think?" I inquire jokingly.

He rolls his eyes. "After today? The only sleep I need is a dreamless one."