52 Tales of 2016: Ways Clara Oswald... (5)

A Not so old friend

Clara considered what Rump had said. She went to talk to Rigsy.

“You're serious?” he asked. “You actually expect me to give you my death sentence?”

Clara shushed him. She didn't want the Doctor to know. “Go on. I've always wanted a tatoo. You know, something small, discreet,” she joked.

“Clara, cut it out!”

“Weren't you listening? I'm under the mayor's personal protection. And it's absolute apparently. Look, she controls the Raven, so I will never have to face it. This is clever,” Clara said.

“But this is putting you in danger,” Rigsy objected.

“No, this is us talking the opposition in their own trap,” Clara returned. “This is Doctor 101. We're buying time. We get all of the aliens on our side in the next half an hour, and then we reveal I've got the chronolock, not you, and boom! We buy ourselves time to find the real killer.”

“The Doctor would never let you do this,” Rigsy objections.

“Doctor 102. Never tell anyone your actual plan. He'll have a tantrum when he finds out. And then, when we confront Ashildr, she'll want the chronolock off just to shut him up,” Clara paused. “What happens if you don't go home tonight to Jen and Lucy, eh? If you never go home? You really want your little girl growing up without a father just because he wouldn't take a risk? You trusted us to save you, so trust us. Come on.”

“Okay. All right. Right, how do we do this, then?”

“Well, I was kind of hoping that would be it. I say I want it, you say, you can have it. You know, done deal. Hey, turn around, let me see.”

Rigsy turned around. Then they heard someone call out, “Wait!” very close by.

Clara turned and saw a young looking man nearby. “What?”

“The Quantum Shade doesn't work that way!” the man said. He had an American accent.

“And you know this how?” Clara asked. “Who are you?”

“An old friend of the Doctor's,” he answered. “I have had experiences with these things before,”

“How do I know that you are who you say you are.”

“You just have to trust me,” the mysterious man said.

Clara was going to object, but something told her that he was telling the truth about being an old friend of the Doctor's. “You say that the Quantum Shade doesn't work that way. What do you mean?” she asked.

“If it's taken off Mr. Riggins here, the Shade's contract with Lady Me would be broken. She would not be able to take it off.”

“So you're saying that if I took it, that I would then die?” Clara asked.

“That's exactly what I am saying.”

“I'm willing to take the risk! The Doctor can come up with a way to stop it.”

“I'm sorry Clara, but the Doctor doesn't always save the people close to him.”

“You know my name, but I don't know yours.”

“You can call me Jack.”

“Jack. How do I know what you are saying is true?”

“We're wasting time here,” Rigsy said. “And how did you know my name?”

“The same way I know Clara's,” Jack answered Rigsy. He then answered Clara's question. “You will just have to trust me.”

“Then what would we do?”

“I will take it,” Jack answered.

“Wouldn't you die instead?” Clara asked.

“That is what I am willing to face,” Jack said darkly.

There was something that told Clara that Jack had something up his sleeve, that would allow him to survive, where she wouldn't. She wasn't able to define it... “Go ahead then,” she said.

“Wait!” Rigsy said.

“It's either you or me,” Jack said to Rigsy. “Trust me.”

“Are you sure?” Rigsy asked.

“What did I just tell Clara?”

“That you're willing to face death?” Rigsy asked.

“Yes,” Jack said.

And, as with Clara, there was something that told Rigsy that Jack thought he would somehow survive. “Right, do it then.” He turned around.

Soon, the tattoo was on Jack's neck instead of Rigsy's. The Raven cawed.

…

“I'll find her, I'll find the key,” Anahson said.

“No, Anahson, stay here,” the Doctor said. “There's a reason that the Mayor's gone AWOL. She means for us to release your mother, but she doesn't want us to use her key. She wants to use mine.”

He held up his TARDIS key.

“The TARDIS, that's what this is about,” Clara said.

The Doctor, then started to unlock the stasis chamber.

“Doctor, wait!” Clara called out.

“This girl needs her mother,” the Doctor said. He then cried out. He pulled his arm out with his other arm and found thata bracelet had been firmly clamped upon his forearm.

Rigsy and Anahson caught Anah as she fell.

“Mum, Mum, are you okay?”

“She'll be perfectly fine in a few moment, I assure you.” Ashildr had arrived.

“There are easier ways to steal a key, you know,” the Doctor said.

“I don't want your TARDIS,” Ashildr said. “That's not what this is about. Rigsy, come here. I'll remove your chronolock.”

“What is this, Ashildr? You can't possibly think this is going to keep me here.”

“It's not a restraint. It's a teleport bracelet.”

“What?” Clara asked.

“I'll give you time to say goodbye, don't worry. No one will be hurt,” Ashildr explained.

“Where are you sending me?” the Doctor asked.

“I made a deal to protect the Street. They take you. I take the key so you can't be traced. I do as they tell me and Street is safe.”

“They?” the Doctor asked. “Who are they?”

“One more thing. Your confession dial. They have other means of procuring it, but I understand it's likely on your person. Please, no resistance. You've already lost.”

The Doctor handed the confession dial to Ashildr.

“What is it?” Ashildr asked.

“In your terms, my last will and testament,” the Doctor answered.

“How does it work?” Ashildr asked.

“I've no idea,” the Doctor said.

“Well, thank you anyway,” Ashildr said. She put the confession dial on a mantlepiece. “Rigsy, your neck.”

“I don't have it!” Rigsy said, he turned around, showing that he didn't have it.

“Who has it?” the Doctor asked. “Clara?”

“She doesn't have it!” Jack's voice intruded upon the procedings.

Ashildr turned in the direction of his voice. “You!” she said with more than a hint of hostility.

“Relax, Lady Me. I'm not here on Torchwood business,” Captain Jack Harkness said. He turned around, showing that he was the one with the chronolock.

“Jack? What are you doing?” the Doctor asked.

“Better me than Clara,” the Jack said.

“You're about to run out of time,” Ashildr said dangerously.

“What do you mean?” the Doctor asked, Jack.

“Clara was going to take the Chronolock off Rigsy,” Jack answered.

“Why am I not surprised,” the Doctor said. “We're going to have a serious talk.”

“You haven't time, Doctor,” Ashildr said.

“Why not?” the Doctor asked.

“Time is almost up, and after the contract is fulfilled, they will take you.”

“Who are they?” the Doctor asked.

“They promised not to interefere with the Street, if they could take you.”

“And once I come back, this street will be over.”

“No it won't. Clara isn't dying.”

“No, she isn't. But for Jack's intervention, she could have.”

“Stop! Doctor!” Jack said.

“No, This place shouldn't be here. It wasn't here before I landed in a Viking village and saved a young storyteller. Overall history is the same, but some details are different. Once upon a time, there was no Torchwood, now there is. And you remember what happened with the Master, 'The Year that never was'. This Street would have put a major kink in the Master's plan to be sure.”

“Now you're just ranting,” Clara said.

The Raven cawed.

“It's time,” Ashildr said, waving off what the Doctor just said.

“I'm ready,” Jack said to the Raven.

The Raven launched itself from the perch. It approached Jack, then penetrated him. He cried out in pain, such terrible pain, and then collapsed...

“There, he's dead,” Ashildr said simply.

The Doctor gave her a shot of annoyance, just before he was teleported away.

Ashildr turned to Clara and Rigsy. “You have to leave now!” She said.

“I don't want to stay any longer anyway,” Clara said.

There was a breath behind her. Jack stood up! “How?” Ashildr asked, in shock.

“I'm a fact of the universe, Lady Me. It would take more than a Quantum Shade to put me out of commission.” He walked up to Clara and Rigsy. “Are you ready to leave the Street?”

“What just happened?” Rigsy asked.

“It was Rose, wasn't it?” Clara asked.

“Time to leave!” Ashildr interupted.

“Good thing I have this,” Jack said to Clara, pointing to his vortex manipulator.

“I've used one,” Clara said, as Jack activated it.

They found themselves outside the Street, next to the TARDIS. “Seriously, what's happening?” Rigsy asked. “How did you come back from the dead?”

“It's complicated,” Jack answered.

“And how did we leave the Street?”

“Vortex Manipulator. Like a space hopper, compared to the Sports Car,” Jack said, pointing to the TARDIS.

“So it's a time machine,” Rigsy stated.

“Yes,” Jack said. “What will you do now?” he asked Clara.

“I will take the TARDIS, and look for the Doctor.”

“You can fly the TARDIS?” Jack asked.

“Not well, but I can,” Clara said.

“I see. I would like to learn more, Clara, but I have to get back to Cardiff,” Jack said. He activated the vortex manipulator again and vanished.

“I'm going to look for the Doctor now,” Clara said to Rigsy.