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(Jared's POV)
Caliburn House…
It is a dark and stormy night. The paranormal investigators are completing their set up in the entrance hall by the staircase.
"How are we looking?" Emma asked.
"Oh, about ready, I think." Palmer said.
"Any thoughts on the interference?"
"Er, a stray FM broadcast, possibly. I've fitted some ferrite suppressors and some RF chokes, just in case. Are you sure you want to go through with this? I mean, the last time, it was very…"
"But she's so lonely."
"Excellent, then. Excellent." Palmer said, speaking into the microphone. "Caliburn House, night four, November 25th, 1974. 11.04 pm."
"I'm talking to the spirit that inhabits this house. Are you there? Can you hear me? I'm speaking to the lost soul that abides in this place." Emma said, while there is a reaction on the paper graph. "Come to me. Speak to me. Let me show you the way home." Something painful comes through the Major's headphones. "Let me show you the way home!"
Palmer grabs his Nikon camera and starts taking photographs of the white image approaching them. Emma gasps then staggers for a chair.
"Emma?" Palmer asked.
"She's so…" Emma said.
"So what?"
"Dead."
There is a knock on the door. Palmer opens it carefully. No one there.
"Boo! Hi! We're looking for a ghost!" Jared said, happily.
"And you are?" Palmer asked.
"Ghostbusters." Clara said.
"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor said, holding up his psychic paper.
"Doctor what?" Palmer asked.
"If you like. And this is Clara, Jared, Madoka, and Homura." The Doctor said, running over to the tables of equipment. "Ah, but you are very different. You are Major Alec Palmer. Member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Specialised in espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance behind enemy lines. You're a talented watercolourist, professor of psychology and ghost hunter. Total pleasure. Massive."
"Actually, you're wrong. Professor Palmer spent most of the war as a POW." Emma said.
"Actually, that's a like told by a very brave man involved in very secret operations. The type of man who keeps a Victoria Cross in a box in the attic, eh? But you know that, because you're Emma Grayling, the Professor's companion." The Doctor said.
"Assistant."
"It's 1974. You're the assistant and non-objective equipment. Meaning psychic." The Doctor said.
"Getting that. Bless you, though." Clara said.
"Why are we here?" Homura asked, telepathically.
"Clara." I said, telepathically.
"What about her?"
"I don't want Clara to jump into the Doctor's time stream and my time stream on Trenzalore. That's the equivalent of Madoka making her wish."
"I see."
"What are you talking about?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
"Nothing of your concern." Homura said, telepathically.
"Yup." I said, telepathically. "Let's hunt that ghost you two."
Corridor…
The Doctor leads the way with a three pronged candelabra.
"I will not have this stolen out from under me, do you understand." Palmer said.
"Er, no, not really, sorry." The Doctor said.
"I will not have my work stolen, then be fobbed off with a pat on the back and a letter from the Queen. Never again. This is my house, Doctor, and it belongs to me."
"Clara is like me." Madoka said, telepathically.
"She's still innocent and pure." I said, telepathically.
"Sorry. You went to the bank and said, you know that gigantic old haunted house on the moors? The one the dossers are too scared to doss in? The one the birds are too scared to fly over? And then you said, I'd like to buy it, please, with my money." Clara said.
"Yes, I did, actually." Palmer said.
"That's incredibly brave."
Something creaks.
"Listen, Major, we just need to know what's going on here." The Doctor said.
"For the Ministry." Palmer said.
"You know I can't answer that."
"Very well, follow me."
Living room…
Warmly furnished. The Doctor takes photographs of himself. Food and drink is stocked on a collapsible table. Madoka and Homura are eating what is on the table.
"So, what's an empathic psychic?" Clara asked.
"Sometimes I sense feelings, the way a telepath can sense thoughts. Sometimes, though. Not always." Emma said.
"The most compassionate people you'll ever meet, empathics. And the loneliest. I mean, exposing themselves to all those hidden feelings, all that guilt, pain and sorrow and…" The Doctor said.
"Doctor?" I asked.
"Yes?"
"Shut up. Please. I am an empathetic psychic that can also use telepathy."
"Would you care to have a look?" Palmer asked, while he has a lot of photographs pinned to a board. "Caliburn House is over four hundred years old, but she has been here much longer. The Caliburn Ghast." Classic Edwardian ghost photographs. "She's mentioned in local Saxon poetry and parish folk tales. The Wraith of the Lady, the Maiden in the Dark, the Witch of the Well."
"Is she real? Like actually real?" Madoka asked.
"Oh, she's real. In the seventeenth century, a local clergyman saw her. He wrote that her presence was accompanied by a dreadful knocking, as if the Devil himself demanded entry. During the war, American airmen stationed here left offerings of tinned Spam. The tins were found in 1965, bricked up in the servants' pantry, along with a number of handwritten notes. Appeals to the Ghast. For the love of God, stop screaming." Palmer said.
"This isn't right. She's in the same position. The angle and framing is always different. Why?" Homura asked.
"We don't know. She's an objective phenomenon, but objective recording equipment can't detect her…" Palmer said.
"Without the presence of a powerful psychic." The Doctor said.
"Absolutely. Very well done." Palmer said.
"She knows I'm here. I can feel her calling out to me." Emma said.
"Same. Ever since Manhattan. I keep getting visions whenever I'm in danger. Possibilities of alternative timelines. And I communicate with Magical Girls, mages, and gods using telepathy." I said, looking over at Emma.
"What's she saying?" Clara asked, looking between Emma and me.
"She's saying 'Help me.' We need to help her."
A shadow whizzes past the entrance to the room.
"The Witch of the Well. So where's the well?" The Doctor asked.
"A copy of the oldest plan that we could find. There is no well on the property. None that we could find, anyway." Palmer said.
I grabbed the Doctor's hand and tapped Clara on the head, making her jump.
"Clara? Are you coming?" I asked.
Madoka and Homura ran up to me from behind, to keep up with the Doctor and me.
"Where?" Clara asked.
"We're gonna find the ghost."
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Because you want to. Come on."
"Well, I dispute that assertion."
"Really? Look at Homura." I said, looking at Homura to see no emotion on the Magical Girl's face. "She's with Madoka who's a scaredy-cat. Come on. Let's go!"
"Fine. Dare me." Clara said.
"I dare you. No takesies backsies."
Clara takes the candelabra and leaves.
"The music room is the heart of the house." Emma said.
(Open POV)
Corridor…
"What if we find her? What do we say?" Madoka asked.
"We ask her how she came to be whatever she is." Jared said.
"Why?"
"I don't know. Ignorance is, um, what's the opposite of bliss?"
"Misery." Homura said.
"Yes. Misery. Ignorance is misery. Kind of reminds me of hope and despair. What represents Magical Girls."
Something moves in the shadows behind them. They find the kitchen.
Kitchen…
"Madoka, Homura, are you both okay?" Jared asked.
"Yes." Homura said.
"Yeah. Why?" Madoka asked.
"Do you like ghost hunting? I'm not one for horror themed areas." Jared said, sadly.
"You watched our anime, um, the Promised Neverland. And, um, Neon Genesis Evangelion."
"Those are psychological thrillers. I love those. Even though they make me tear up when something bad happens."
"And you're aware of the alternative timelines I went through." Homura said, looking at Jared. "I'm sorry you had to watch it. Well, know them."
Music room…
The big harp gives it away.
"Ah, the music room. The heart of the house. Do you feel anything?" Jared asked, grabbing Madoka's hand.
"No." Clara said.
"Your pants are so on fire." The Doctor said.
The sonic screwdriver stutters.
"Do you feel like you're being watched?" Clara asked.
"Yup." Jared said.
"Yes." Homura said.
"Same." Madoka said.
"What does being watched feel like? Is it that funny tickly feeling on the back of your neck?" The Doctor asked.
"That's the chap." Clara said.
"Then yes, a bit. Well, quite a big bit."
Wood creaking.
"She's here." Jared said, squeezing Madoka's hand.
By a door, the Doctor can see his breath.
"Cold spot. Spooky. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold." The Doctor said, drawing a chalk circle around the cold area.
"Clever. A Devil's trap." Jared said, smiling.
"Jared? Jared!" Clara said, looking over at Jared.
"What's up?"
"I'm not happy."
"Why not?"
"Hey!" Clara said, running after the Doctor and Jared, and stepping in the circle with Madoka and Homura.
The paper graph registers something.
"Between RWBY and Supernatural, I don't know which world I would have liked." Jared said, frowning.
Steam rises from the edges of the circle.
"RWBY. Sayaka said that Supernatural is a mess, right?" Madoka asked.
Passageway…
"What was that?" Clara asked.
A slamming noise.
"It's the ghost." Jared said, grabbing Clara's hand.
The candles are blown out.
"It's getting colder." Homura said.
The thermometer is dropping towards zero. Ice forms on the inside of the windows.
"She's coming." Jared said, squeezing Clara's hand.
Top of the stairs…
"Okay, what is that?" Clara asked.
"It's a very loud noise. It's a very loud, very angry noise." The Doctor said.
"What's making it?" Clara asked.
"I don't know. Are you making it?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm glad that I didn't bring Cardcaptor Sakura here." Jared said, smiling.
Bang! Bang!
"Isn't she scared of ghosts?" Madoka asked. "And you don't like them either, right?"
"Doctor?" Clara asked.
"Yes?" The Doctor asked.
"I may be a teeny, tiny bit terrified."
"Yes?"
"But I'm still a grown-up."
"Mainly, yes, and?"
"There's no need to actually hold my hand."
"Clara." The Doctor said.
"Yeah?" Clara asked.
"I'm not holding your hand. Only Jared is."
"Ghost hunting. If only I had a vacuum." Jared said.
They look behind them, scream and run down the stairs.
"Do ghost hunters use vacuums?" Homura asked.
Caliburn House…
A concave black thing has appeared, gyrating in mid-air.
"Has this happened before?" The Doctor asked.
"Never." Palmer said.
"Camera. Camera!"
Click, and glass inside the thing cracks.
"It's her." Jared said, frowning. "Do you see it?"
Something materialises in front of Emma and Jared, but no one else notices.
"Yes." Emma said.
Emma and Jared are seeing a shiny figure in the woods.
Clara turns, "Doctor?"
The Doctor takes pictures.
"Help me!" A woman said, in Jared's head.
Emma collapses into Palmer's arms and Jared collapses in Madoka's arms.
"Doctor." Clara said.
The words Help Me are frozen into the wall by the staircase, then they evaporate and the black concave vanishes.
Living room…
Emma takes a sip of whisky while Jared drinks his Earl Grey bubble tea.
"Urgh. I'd rather have a nice cup of tea." Emma said.
"Me too. Whisky is the eleventh most disgusting thing ever invented." Clara said.
Dark room…
"This is a laid back adventure." Homura said, leaning against the wall. "Hunting a ghost. It isn't that different from a Witch."
Developing the night's film.
"You're right. It isn't." Madoka said.
"I had a little peek at your records, back at the Ministry. You've certainly seen a thing or two in your time. Disrupting U-boat operations across the North Sea, sabotaging railway lines across Europe. Operation Gibbon. The one with the carrier pigeons, brilliant. I do love a carrier pigeon." The Doctor said.
"I did my duty, but then so did thousands of others. Millions of others. I was just lucky enough to come back." Palmer said.
"Yes, but how does that man, that war hero, end up here in a lonely old house, looking for ghosts?"
"Because I killed, and I caused to have killed. I sent young men and women to their deaths, but here I am, still alive and it does tend to haunt you. Living, after so much of the other thing."
Living room…
"So, since I'm surrounded by lots of couples. Madoka and Homura, and there being a love triangle between The Doctor, Clara, and me. Have you and Professor Palmer, y'know?" Jared asked.
"No." Emma said.
"Why not? You do know how he feels about you, don't you? You, of all people?" Clara asked.
"I don't know. People like me, sometimes we get our signals mixed up. We think people are feeling the way we want them to feel, you know, when they are special to us, when really there's nothing there." Emma said.
"Oh, this is there." Clara said.
"How do you know?" Emma asked.
"Because it's obvious. It sticks out like a big chin." Clara said.
Dark room…
"You see, I was alone and unmarried and I didn't mind dying. I mean, not for that cause. It was a very, very fine cause, defeating the enemy." Palmer said.
"What would you say? If you could contact them?" Homura asked.
"Well, I'd very much like to thank them." Palmer said.
"Ah ha. Ping!" The Doctor said, hanging up a photograph to dry.
"Who do you think she is?" Palmer asked.
"Homura?" Madoka asked, telepathically. "Did you see that?"
The screaming face behind the Doctor in the photograph.
"Yes." Homura said, telepathically.
"Not what I thought she'd be." The Doctor said.
"What did you think she's be?" Palmer asked.
"Fun. Can I borrow your camera? Ta." The Doctor said.
Living room…
"Madoka! Homura! Are you both okay?" Jared asked, telepathically.
"Do you know who the ghost is?" Homura asked, telepathically.
"Yes."
"Who is she?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
"Spoilers." Jared said, telepathically.
"Clara! Jared!" The Doctor said, his voice nearby.
Outside the Tardis…
They run out in the pouring rain to where the Tardis has parked herself in what look like old cloisters.
"I've got this weird feeling it's looking at me. It doesn't like me." Clara said.
"The Tardis is like a cat. A bit slow to trust, but you'll get there in the end." The Doctor said.
"Madoka, Homura, come on!" Jared said, happily.
The Doctor, Jared, Madoka, and Homura run inside and the door shuts. Clara has to knock.
Tardis…
Jared opens the door.
"Hey. You need a place to keep this." Clara said, looking down at the umbrella.
"I've got one. Or I had one. I think I had one. Look around. See if you find it. Did I have one? Am I going mad?" The Doctor asked, while Clara shakes the water off the umbrella. "No, not in here. How do you expect her to like you? She's soaking wet. It's a health and safety nightmare."
"Sorry. So, where are we going?" Clara asked.
"We're going nowhere. We're staying right here. On this exact spot." Jared said, smiling.
"If I can work out how to do it." The Doctor said, flicking levers on the TARDIS console.
"So, when are we going?" Clara asked.
"Clara, you're good. You're amazing. Excellent question in fact. My Impossible Girl." Jared said, leaning against the TARDIS console.
"And the answer is?"
"We're going always." The Doctor said.
"We're going always." Clara said.
"Totally."
"That's not actually a sentence."
"Sayaka, Kyoko, Mami, how are you guys?" Jared asked, telepathically.
The Doctor gets his orange environment suit.
"Just hanging out in the arcade." Sayaka said, telepathically. "We're fine. Don't worry about us."
"Thank goodness." Madoka said, telepathically.
"This adventure is far from over." Homura said, telepathically.
"After the ghost hunt, what do you plan on doing?" Kyoko asked, telepathically.
"Beating you at Dance Dance Revolution." Jared said, telepathically.
Caliburn House…
The Tardis dematerialises.
"Did you see where he went? I could hear an engine but I can't see any lights." Palmer said.
The lightning flash illuminates the screaming figure behind them.
(Jared's POV)
Tardis…
We have gone back a good few billion years, to when the Earth was still cooling. The Doctor takes a photograph and comes back inside.
"Back off. Hot suit. Hot, hot, hot." The Doctor said.
"When are we?" Clara asked.
"About six billion years ago. It's a Tuesday, I think."
Next stop, a tropical jungle with giant dragonflies. Eventually, Victorian times as a lady in crinoline and man in top hat walk up the stone steps in front of the house. Finally, the Doctor is in the environment suit again.
"Back in a mo. Are you all right?" The Doctor asked.
"Totally. Peachy keen." Clara said.
"Okay then. Well, don't press any buttons or pull any levers or make any funny faces. Actually, don't move. Stand completely still. Don't breathe. Well, you can breathe, but shallow breaths."
Clara watches the Doctor on the scanner.
"Jared, how are you used to this?" Clara asked, looking between me and Homura. "And Homura. Why don't you seem not to care?"
The ground is devastated, with just a bit of roof and chimney lying on the ground. The air shimmers in the heat.
"We just don't." Homura said, looking at the TARDIS scanner. "After you've lived as long as we have."
The Doctor takes his photograph. That old Nikon certainly can put up with a lot of different conditions. He returns.
"That's not it…" I said, letting out a sigh.
"Oh. What's wrong? Did the Tardis say something to you? Are you being mean?" The Doctor asked.
"No, it's not that. Have we just watched the entire life cycle of Earth, birth to death?" Clara asked.
"Yup." I said, leaning against the TARDIS console.
"And you're okay with that?"
"Yup."
"How can you be?"
"I just am. I see all of time and space. And I hunted monsters for years with Team RWBY." I said, grabbing Homura's hand.
"That's not what I mean."
"Clara, can you give me a cheat sheet? Some context. Please."
"I mean, one minute you're in 1974 looking for ghosts, but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever's standing there. To you, I haven't been born yet, and to you I've been dead one hundred billion years. Is my body out there somewhere, in the ground?" Clara asked, looking at me.
"Yes, it is. And I've seen it happened twice in my lifetime." I said, squeezing Homura's hand.
I thought back to Victorian Clara's grave and this Clara dying to the Raven on Trap Street. I'm also remembering the Clara mural Rigsy did on the Doctor's TARDIS.
"But here we are, talking. So I am a ghost. To you, I'm a ghost. We're all ghosts to you. And to the Doctor. We must be nothing." Clara said.
"No, you're not that. Not you or the Puella Magi Holy Quintet." I said, looking at Clara.
"Then what are we? What can we possibly be?"
"You are the only mystery worth solving for the Doctor. And for me, I love you, dearly. My Impossible Girl."
Living room…
The Tardis returns to their starting point as we are given a glimpse of something climbing in through a window. The Doctor hands over his roll of film for developing.
"Jared, did she have to watch all that?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
"No." I said, telepathically.
"Why?"
"It's the same reason we hunt Witches, Madoka." Homura said, telepathically.
"And why I hunted Grimm." I said, telepathically.
"Right, done. That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up." The Doctor said.
We have made slides from the negatives.
The Doctor activates the projector with the sonic screwdriver, "The Ghast of Caliburn House. Never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was a hundred thousand years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box. A blue box, probably. What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?"
And up comes a shot of a dark woman in a white coverall, running.
"She's not a ghost. But she's definitely a lost soul. Her name is Hila Tacorian. She's a pioneer, a time traveller, or at least she will be in a few hundred years." The Doctor said.
"Time travel's not possible. The paradoxes…" Palmer said.
"They resolve themselves. Usually." I said, sipping on my Earl Grey bubble tea.
"How long has she been alone?" Homura asked.
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed three minutes ago." The Doctor said.
"Where did she crash land?" Madoka asked.
"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long." The Doctor said, blowing up a blue balloon, then a red one. "Our universe. Hila Tacorian's here, in a pocket universe. You're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home, back to the land of the living."
"But what's she running from?" Clara asked.
"Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. Shall we see?" The Doctor asked, looking at the next slide. "Oh."
There is a thing behind a tree.
"What is that?" Clara asked.
"Don't know. No need to worry." I said, enjoying my bubble tea.
"So, what do we do?" Emma asked.
"Not we, you. You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern. The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis Three. Plus some Kendal Mint Cake." The Doctor said.
The rain has stopped when the Doctor, Clara, Madoka, Homura, and I run back to the Tardis.
Outside the TARDIS…
"It stopped raining." Madoka said, telepathically.
"I just realized that I have a universal Discord call with Magical Girls, mages, gods, and god-like beings." I said, telepathically.
"Really? That's amazing."
"How do you deal with all of those voices in your head?" Homura asked, telepathically.
"Isn't that overwhelming?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
"Other thoughts in my head combining with my own? Yes." I said, telepathically.
"I'm sorry."
Tardis…
I'm leaning against the TARDIS console with Madoka and Homura eating a strawberry shortcake that Mami made using the TARDIS kitchen.
"Can't you just, you know?" Clara asked.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Fly the Tardis into the parallel universe?"
"It's not a parallel universe. It's a collapsing pocket universe." I said, looking at Clara.
"I mean, the Tardis could get in there all right, but entropy would bleed her power sources, you see? Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam. Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know." The Doctor said.
Music room…
A thick silver cable and other wires run from the Tardis into the house. A large crystal is held in a cradle at head height. Clocks have been placed around the room. Emma and Palmer are wearing coats. Madoka and Homura are together and watching what is going on from afar.
"What is that?" Clara asked.
"A subset of the Eye of Harmony." The Doctor said.
"I don't…"
"It's a timey wimey thing. That's all I can say. I barely understand Time Lord things as is." I said, happily.
"Right. You, sit down. All the way from Metebelis Three." The Doctor said, putting a headset with a blue gem in it onto Emma.
"What does it do?" Emma asked.
"It amplifies your natural abilities. Like Jaune used to do, like Jaune used to do…" I said, sadly.
"It's like a microphone!" Madoka said, happily.
"Or a pooper scooper." Homura said.
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Palmer asked.
"A psychochronograph." The Doctor said.
"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit well, make do and mend?"
The Doctor and I put on parachute harnesses.
"Non-psychic technology won't work where we're going. Listen, all we need to do is dive into another dimension, find the time traveller, help her escape the monster. get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, Jared, will it hurt?" Emma asked.
"Yes, it will. A lot. It'll be like when Magical Girls go into despair and turn into Witches. It'll be agony maybe." I said, sadly.
"To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out." The Doctor said.
Emma looks at Palmer, who nods.
"I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tarcorian." Emma said.
The clocks start to go backwards. The Doctor and I hitches our harnesses to a thick rope as the black disc appears and a strong wind blows through.
"See? The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe. Ready?" The Doctor asked.
"Ready!" Emma said.
"Geronimo." The Doctor said.
"Allons-y!" I said, smirking.
The Doctor and I leap into the wormhole. The rope unwinds from the winch.
"Doctor! Jared!" Clara said, worried.
Pocket universe…
So small the bit of ground is only a few metres deep, and is in black and white. The Doctor and I remove our harnesses and run.
"Hila? Hila! Hila Tacorian!" I said, grabbing the Doctor's hand.
There is the sound of something else in the wood.
"One, two, three." The Doctor said.
The Doctor and I spin around.
"Where is she?" I asked, squeezing the Doctor's hand.
"Help me! Help!" Hila said, while she runs into view.
"Hila Tacorian, I presume." The Doctor said.
"Who are you?" Hila asked.
"I'm Jared. And this is the Doctor. We're here to save you." I said, happily.
"Collapsing universe. The three of us, dead, two minutes. No time complete sentences. Abandon planet." The Doctor said.
"Wait. There's something in the mist." Hila said.
"So, let's run!" I said looking at Hila. "We have a way out of here!"
"Doctor! Jared! Doctor! Jared! Come home! Doctor, Jared, come home!" Emma said, her voice nearby.
"Not that way, which means, er, probably." The Doctor said.
"What's wrong?" Hila asked.
"You know that exit Jared mentioned?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes?"
"We seem to have misplaced it." The Doctor said.
"Doctor! Jared!" Emma said, her voice nearby.
"This way." I said, looking between the Doctor and Hila.
Music room…
"Doctor! Jared! Come home!" Emma said.
Pocket universe…
"Doctor, Jared, we're here." Emma said, her voice nearby.
"Whoa." I said, in awe. "The equivalent of a Reality Marble."
"What's that?" Hila asked.
"An echo house, in an echo universe. Clever psychic. She peeked into my mind today and used my knowledge of Reality Marbles."
"That is just top-notch." The Doctor said, smirking. "You hanging around mages, Jared, it might have saved our lives."
Music room…
"Doctor! Jared! Doctor! Jared!" Emma said.
Echo house…
I locked the main doors, and something scratches at them.
"It's looking for a way in." I said, sadly.
Music room…
"I'm not strong enough!" Emma said, worried.
"Just a few more seconds." Clara said.
Emma screams.
Echo music room…
"Grab the rope. Give it three tugs, quick as you like." The Doctor said.
Hila puts on one of the harnesses, "What about the both of you?"
"I'll be next." The Doctor said.
"And I'll be last." I said, smiling.
Palmer winds in the rope.
The Doctor secures the door and the thing hammers on it, "Oh, that's what that noise was. Lovely."
(Open POV)
Music room…
Emma collapses.
"No!" Clara said.
The wormhole disappears.
Pocket universe…
The Doctor and Jared are back in the woods with the thing.
"Shit…" Jared said, looking over at the Doctor.
The Tardis Cloister bell tolls.
"Oh dear. Where are you?" The Doctor asked.
Music room…
"Wake up! Wake up! Open the thing." Clara said, running up to Emma.
"I'm sorry." Emma said.
"Clara is like you, Madoka." Homura said, telepathically. "Jared isn't wrong at all."
"Wasn't enough. She needs to do it again." Clara said, looking at Palmer.
"She can't. Look at her." Palmer said.
"She has to! We can't leave them."
"I know that you feel you can't do this, Emma, but look at that woman over there. You saved her. She's only here because of your strength, and so am I."
Outside the Tardis…
"Oh, come on! Let me in, you grumpy old cow!" Clara said, turning to see herself. "Whoa."
Music room…
"Are we gonna leave this to Clara?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
Emma puts the headset back on and she joins hands with Palmer and Hila.
"We have to." Homura said, telepathically.
Outside the Tardis…
"What's this now?" Clara asked.
"The Tardis Voice Visual Interface. I'm programmed to select the image of a person you esteem. Of several billion such images in my databanks, this one best meets the criterion." Holo-Clara said.
"Oh. Oh, you are a cow. I knew it. Whatever. You have to help the Doctor and Jared."
"The Doctor and Jared are in the pocket universe."
"You can enter the pocket universe."
"The entropy would drain the energy from my heart. In four seconds, I'd be stranded. In ten, I'd be dead."
"You're talking, but all I hear is muh muh muh. Come on, let's go." Clara said, while the hologram vanishes. "Hey, hey, hey!"
Music room…
"Doctor." Emma said, and the wormhole reappears. "Jared. Can you hear me? Doctor! Jared!"
Outside the Tardis…
"Oh, come on." Clara said, annoyed.
The door opens.
Music room…
"Doctor, Jared, can you hear me?" Emma asked.
Tardis…
While the Doctor and Jared run through the woods, the Tardis plummets down a vortex, with Clara hanging on for dear life.
"Ah! Whoa!" Clara said, terrified.
Music room…
"Doctor! Jared!" Emma said, worried.
Pocket universe....
"Yes!" Jared said, squeezing the Doctor's hand.
The echo house appears.
"Doctor, Jared, we're here. Come home." Emma said, her voice nearby.
"Emma?" Jared asked.
Snarl.
"What do you want? To frighten us, I suppose, eh? Because that's what you do. You hide. You're the bogeyman under the bed, seeking whom you may devour." The Doctor said.
Laughter.
"You want us to be afraid. I thought the Pied Piper was enough to scare me. But well done. I'm Jared Shay, and this is the Doctor. And we're afraid." Jared said, frowning.
Music room…
"Doctor, Jared, hurry!" Emma said.
(Jared's POV)
Pocket universe…
"So why are we still here, huh? Why not just eat us? Ha? Come on. Because you still need us." The Doctor said.
"I don't like this, Spaceman, not one bit." I said, looking at the bizarre quadruped peers round the trunk of a tree.
"Yeah, you need us to piggyback you across. To which I say, come on then, big boy, chase us." The Doctor said.
It catches the Doctor and I and knocks us down. Then the Tardis comes whirling through the air with Clara still screaming. The Doctor and I run and grabs the sill. In the music room, Emma screams and the Tardis materialises with the Doctor and I still outside. The morning sun shines in.
Caliburn House…
I'm standing inside the room with the Doctor.
"You wanted a word?" Emma asked.
"Yes, if it's…" I said, leaning against the wall.
"That's fine. The both of you didn't come here for the ghost, did you?"
"Nope. We didn't. Hila Tacorian was collateral damage."
"You came here for me."
"Yes." The Doctor said. "We did."
"Why?" Emma asked.
"We needed to ask you something."
"Then ask."
"It's about Clara." I said, letting out a sigh.
"Yes?" Emma asked.
"What's Clara? In this universe?"
"She's a girl."
"Yes, but what kind of girl, specifically?" The Doctor asked.
"She's a perfectly ordinary girl. Like what Madoka Kaname used to be. Before a version of the pink haired girl became the Law of Cycles. Clara is very pretty, very clever, more scared than she lets on." Emma said.
"Is that it? Nothing else? Has things changed with me being here?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"Why? Is that not enough?"
Outside the Tardis…
Emma hugs Hila goodbye.
"So, the adventure is over then." Homura said, telepathically.
"Yup. It is." I said, telepathically.
"The story behind this is sad." Madoka said, telepathically.
"No, no, no, I can't, actually. There are fixed points in time, you see…" The Doctor said.
"Hi." Clara said.
"What?"
Clara takes the Doctor away.
"It is." I said, telepathically. "It is so sad."
"What can we do to change it?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
"Can we do anything?" Homura asked, telepathically.
"I don't know." I said, telepathically.
"Come on. You can think of something, right?" Madoka asked, telepathically.
"The paradoxes...." Palmer said.
"Resolve themselves, by and large. That's why the psychic link was so powerful. Blood calling to blood, out of time. Not everything ends. Not love. Not always." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, Jared, what about, what about us? Emma and me?" Palmer asked.
"What about you?" I asked, looking at Palmer.
"Well, what's supposed to happen? I mean, what do we do now?"
"Just hold hands. Like some friends of mine. Like a shocking idiot and her sunshine. That's what you're supposed to do with Emma. Keep doing that and don't let go."
"Jared…" Madoka said, telepathically.
"Are you missing something?" Homura asked, telepathically.
"You thought of something, didn't you?"
"My god! I'm so slow! I'm notorious for it! Even when I was fighting bad guys with Team RWBY and JNR! I get there in the end. Yeah!" I said, happily.
"Jared?" Clara asked.
"How do Magical Girls break the laws of the universe?"
"Carefully?"
"No, no, no. Happily!"
"Magical Girls don't break the laws of the universe. They have to stick to the rules made by outside forces. They have to rely on their faith and hope to make wishes come true."
"Yup. Hibiki Tachibana and Miku Kohinata did it, Sayaka Miki did it for Kyoko Sakura, Sakura Kinomoto did it for Syaoran Li. Every lonely monster needs a companion." I said, while there is movement at an upper window of the house.
"There's two of them?" Clara asked.
"Yup. It's the oldest story in the universe. Or any other universe. Let's do some context here. Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi fall in love, they get separated by events. There's a war against Walpugisnacht, politics due to the Magical Girl system, accidents in time because of karmic destiny. Madoka is thrown out of the universe, or Homura is thrown into it. Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions. This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" I said, and then I realized I had put my arm around Clara's shoulders. "Sorry."
The Doctor runs back to Hila, Emma and Palmer.
"Excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt the rest of your life. So. Tiny favour to ask." The Doctor said.
Pocket universe....
"We're sorry! We understand now! We can take you to her! We can take you to a safe place far away from here! You can be together! Well, come on, then. She's waiting!" The Doctor said.
The creature is next to the Doctor and I.
"Hello, old Homura, you. Now here comes your Madoka Kaname." I said, looking over at the creature.
It is the Tardis, with Clara and the Puella Magi Holy Quintet on board.
"Get ready to jump." I said, smirking. "It's gonna be a quick ride."