The Crimson Horror
Factory corridor…
Yorkshire 1893. In a small town perched on the side of a hill, with factories belching smoke down by the river.
"If I have not returned in an hour, you must fetch the police." Edmund said.
"Edmund!" Effie said, kissing her husband.
"Don't fret, Effie, my dear. All will be well, but we must get to the bottom of this dark and queer business no matter what the cost." Edmund said, walking to the end of the corridor, where there is a room with a red glow coming through the round window in the door.
Edmund goes inside. A door opens behind Effie and a group of ladies in black gowns and bonnets step through.
"Mrs Gillyflower!" Effie said, happily.
An elderly lady.
"We have come about your husband, my dear. A tragedy." Gillyflower said.
"My husband?" Effie asked.
"Your late husband."
"There must be some mistake. My husband is quite well."
A scream from behind the door.
"We're so very sorry for your loss." Gillyflower said.
Effie screams.
Morgue…
The attendant uncovers the corpse of Edmund. He is frozen mid-scream and staring, and his skin is bright red.
"Hell fire. That's put me right off me mash. Another one." Amos said.
"Another?" Thursday asked.
The speaker is the spitting image of the late Edmund, but with a moustache.
"He's not the first one I've had in here looking like that. The Crimson Horror, that's what they're calling it." Amos said.
"I have no interest in the deplorable excesses of the Penny Dreadfuls." Thursday said.
"Hey, hey. Payment in advance, flower. Taking a big risk, you see, I am. They'll have my vitals for fiddle-strings if they knew I'd let you come to look at one of their precious stiffs."
"This stiff is my brother. I've come up from London to bring him home."
"Oh aye?"
Conservatory…
At the back of an elegant house - 13 Paternoster Row, London.
"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting. I'm told you are the investigator to see if there are strange goings-on." Thursday said.
The lady of the house is heavily veiled.
"I read of your brother's death. Another victim of the Crimson Horror, I believe." Vastra said.
"So it is claimed. He was a newspaper man. He and a young woman were working undercover. Tell me, madam, do you know what an optogram is?" Thursday asked.
"It is a silly superstition, sir. The belief that the eye can retain an image of the last thing it sees."
Mister Thursday has taken photographs of his dead brother Edmund's staring eyes. He passes one to Jenny the maid, who hands it on to her mistress.
Vastra throws back her veil, "Good grief."
"Oh, god." Thursday said, fainting.
Dark room…
Jenny and Vastra make enlargements of the photographs.
"Well, I'll be blowed. I think, madam, that we'd better make plans to head north." Jenny said.
The enlargement reveals an image of a red-faced, screaming Doctor.
Carriage…
"According to my research, Sweetville's proprietor holds recruitment drives for her little community. She is only interested in the fittest and the most beautiful." Vastra said.
"You may rely on me, ma'am." Strax said.
"I was, in fact, speaking to Jenny."
"Jenny. If this weak and fleshy boy is to represent us, I strongly recommend the issuing of scissor grenades, limbo vapour and triple blast brain splitters."
"What for?"
"Just generally. Remember, we are going to the north."
Chapel…
The poster advertising the meeting proclaims Mrs Winifred Gillyflower on the Present Moral Decay and the Coming Apocalypse.
"Bradford, that Babylon of the moderns with its crystal light and its glitter, all aswarm with the wretched ruins of humanity. Men and women crushed by the devil's juggernaut." Gillyflower said, while she has a good congregation, who agree with her. Jenny is listening carefully. "And moral turpitude can destroy the most delicate of lives. Believe me, I know. I know." A curtain is drawn back. "Me own daughter, blinded in a drunken rage by my late husband. Her once beautiful eyes, pale and white as mistletoe berries." The daughter gets up from a chair and taps her way to a covered board. "And what, my friends, is your story? Will you be found wanting when the End of Days is come, when judgement rains down upon us all? Or will you be preserved against the coming apocalypse? Do not despair. I offer a way out. There is a different path. Sweetville!"
The blind woman pulls the cover from an illustration of an ideal community. Factory with two rows of terraced homes, its own chapel and bandstand and gardens. Think along the lines of the original model village of Bourneville.
"Join us. Join us in this shining city on the hill." Gillyflower said, singing. "Bring me my bow of burning gold. Bring me my arrows of desire."
Later, the congregation are queuing up in front of the pulpit.
"You wish to join us, my dear?" Gillyflower asked.
"If it's all the same with you, ma'am." Jenny said.
"Oh yes, dear. You'll do very nicely."
Jenny signs the big book.
Carriage…
"If our stratagem succeeds, Jenny will infiltrate deep into the black heart of this curious place." Vastra said.
"And how will she locate the Doctor?" Strax asked.
"To find him, she needs only ignore all keep-out signs, go through every locked door, and run towards any form of danger that presents itself."
"Business as usual, then."
"Business as usual."
Jared's mind palace…
Jared didn't have a lot of time to think of a good plan, but he had to make do with what he had. In one of the magic books he had in the TARDIS library, there was something called Flash Air. It's displacement magecraft, apparently. He wanted his mind and soul to be active still and waiting while his physical body is decommissioned due to the Crimson Horror.
So right now, his body is a doll for Mrs Gillyflower, for her own bidding until the Doctor can restore it to the state it was in so he can transfer his soul and consciousness back into it. Mostly because he hates being stuck inside the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
It's been a long few months and he had to do a last resort which was using the Ainsworth use of magic. This is what he gets for trying to save himself and didn't have time to save Clara from suffering the fate that Mrs Gillyflower is putting her through.
Outside a house…
Mister Thursday knocks on the door. It is opened.
"I have travelled from London expressly to see Madame Vastra. If you'd be so kind as to announce me, my good man." Thursday said, handing over his card.
"Whom shall I say is calling?" Strax asked.
Mister Thursday sees who he is talking to, and faints.
Drawing room…
Mister Thursday is lying on a couch, being fanned by Strax.
"It asked for permission to enter and then it fell over. What are we to make of it?" Strax asked.
"I imagine Mister Thursday wants to know what progress we are making. The question is, how did the Doctor's image come to be preserved on a dead man's eye? It's a scientific impossibility. I wonder how Jenny is getting on." Vastra said.
"If she hasn't make contact by nightfall, I suggest a massive frontal assault on the factory, madam. Casualties can be kept to perhaps as little as eighty percent." Strax said.
"I think there may be subtler ways of proceeding, Strax."
"Suit yourself."
Factory…
Prospective employees both male and female are queuing up. A red-headed woman is talking to Jenny.
"I'm dead nervous, aren't you? They have to be sure, you see. Only the best for Sweetville. I hope me teeth don't let me down. I'm Abigail." Abigail said.
"Pleased to meet you." Jenny said, happily.
"You're not local, are you."
"Nah. Up from London."
"Different here, I bet."
"Yeah. Like a bleeding horse market. Do you know anyone who's come to live here? In Sweetville, I mean."
"I had a pal who come here three month back. She wrote to tell me how perfect it all were. Funny, though. I've not heard a peep from her since." Abigail said.
"Next, please!" A pilgrim said, his voice nearby.
"Hang on, we're moving." Abigail said, while Jenny steps aside to a door and gets her roll of lockpicking tools out. "What're you doing?"
"Do me a favour. Cause a distraction." Jenny said.
"What?"
"Swoon. Have a funny turn. Fit of the vapours."
"Are you crackers?"
"Go on. There's a guinea in it for you."
"Done." Abigail said, gasping for breath loudly then faints.
A crowd gathers around her and Jenny gets through the locked door. It takes her to the factory floor, where the deafening thumps of machinery are being broadcast through three large gramophone horns. There is nothing else here. Jenny sees two men carry a large bottle of red liquid through the room and get into a lift.
Morgue…
"Them new manufacturers can do horrible things to a person. Horrible. I've pickled things in here that'd fair turn your hair snowy as top of Buckden Pike." Amos said.
"You know what I'm looking for." Vastra said.
"Oh, aye. All them bits found in t'canal. The Crimson Horror." Amos said, handing over a large bottle half full of red liquid.
Vastra throws back her veil with her back to Amos, "It hardly seems possible."
"Eh?" Amos asked.
"I think, I think I've seen these symptoms before." Vastra said.
"Oh aye?"
"A long time ago."
"Oh aye? How long?"
Vastra turns around, "About sixty five million years."
Tohsaka residence / Jared's mind palace…
"Time travel has always been possible in dreams. Thanks for showing up, Rin." Jared said, looking at Rin and sipping a cup of tea.
"Jared. Where are you? When are you?" Rin asked.
"Victorian Yorkshire. A town called Sweetville."
"Sweetville? Why can't I sense you?"
"That's because it's complicated. I used one of the books you left me."
"The one about displacement magic? Why would you do that? Unless it is a last resort. Oh, this is one of them."
Outside the secret room…
Jenny has taken the lift up to the corridor with the red lit door. There is a rhythmic thumping noise coming from above, so she climbs a spiral staircase to another floor and finds another locked door. The one with the hatch at the bottom. She raises the hatch and a red hand grabs her. She struggles free and the hatch slides shut again.
"All right, mate. You just stay calm now." Jenny said, hearing a thump and rattle of chains. "I could open this door. Would you like that?" She get a thump. "Thought you might. But you and me has got to come to an arrangement. Savvy?" Another thump. "Now, you stand well back, do you hear me? I don't mean no harm to you, but you try anything funny and I'll leave you here to rot. Is that understood?" She gets a thump, thump. "Right."
Secret room…
"Doctor!" Jenny said, while the Doctor has red skin, a gaping mouth, and is very stiff. He is in chains and his clothes are lying nearby in the straw. "What happened to you? Can't you speak?" The Doctor's skin is tough as leather. "Right. Right, we're getting out of here."
Factory corridor…
Jenny helps the Doctor stagger stiff-legged along the corridor.
"Come on." Jenny said, as the lift comes up. "Come on!"
It is Ada. She hears their footsteps but heads for the stairs while Jenny guides the Doctor into the red glow room.
Red glow room...
Through a window they watch people on a frame being manoeuvred over a large vat of bubbling red liquid, then lowered in.
"Oh my gawd." Jenny said.
The Doctor struggles to point at a row of metal doors behind them.
Tohsaka residence / Jared's mind palace…
"Jared, what did you displace yourself into?" Rin asked.
"The Doctor's sonic screwdriver. It's the only thing I thought of at the time." Jared said, shrugging his shoulders. "Y'know, it's weird. This experience. Help is on it's way."
Red glow room…
"What is it? You want to go in there?" Jenny asked.
The Doctor gets inside the small space. Jenny gives him his clothes, and with groans of pain he powers up the sonic screwdriver which contains Jared's soul within the Time Lord's tool temporarily. She shuts the door and hides as two men walk past the entrance. A green glow comes from the porthole in the metal door. Then it bursts open and a normal looking and fully dressed Doctor bounces out.
"Ah! Missed me?" The Doctor asked.
"Doctor!" Jenny said, excitedly.
"Jenny. Jenny, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. Just when you think your favourite lock-picking Victorian chambermaid will never turn up. Jenny." The Doctor said, taking Jenny in his arms, bends her backwards and kisses her long and hard on the lips. She slaps his face. You have no idea how good that feels. Right. Mrs Gillyflower. We've got to stop her. And then there's Clara and Jared. Poor Clara and Jared. Where's Clara and Jared?"
"Clara? Doctor, wait." Jenny said.
"Can't. Clara. Jared. Got to find. Especially Jared's body. That fanboy stored his soul into my sonic screwdriver." The Doctor said.
"What happened to you? How long have you been like that?"
"Days, weeks, don't know. Long story. I'll keep it short."
The Doctor's story…
The Tardis materialises in a cobbled alley, in sepia with tickly music in the background all the way through.
"Okay, so. Not London 1893. Yorkshire 1893. Near enough." The Doctor said.
"You're making a habit of this, getting us lost." Clara said.
"It's him getting us lost that made me go with Lady Palutena at times." Jared said, crossing his arms.
"Oi! I can fly better than her! Experience wise." The Doctor said, looking at Jared. "Sorry. It's much better than it used to be. Ooo, I once spent a hell of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport."
"Tegan Jovanka?" Jared asked. "She isn't a gobby Australian. You kidnapped her at the beginning! Before she even got to the airport."
"The Doctor kidnapped her before she got there? What for?" Clara asked.
"Search me. Anyway…" The Doctor said.
A woman screams.
"Brave hearts, Clara, Jared." The Doctor said.
By the canal.
"It's another one. Don't you see? Another victim. Why won't any one of you listen?" Edmund asked.
"We'll listen." The Doctor said.
"We want to know the full story. Everything." Jared said, smiling.
They walk and talk on the way to the Sweetville main gates.
"Mrs Winifred Gillyflower. An astonishing woman. Prize winning chemist and mechanical engineer. So why…" Edmund said.
"...why has she decided to open up a match factory in her old home town?" Jared asked.
"And no one who ever goes to live there ever seems to come out."
They go to the morgue.
"Same as the rest. All dead from causes unknown and their flesh glowing." Edmund said.
"Like something manky in a coal cellar. They keep turning up in t'canal. The Crimson Horror." Amos said.
"That's a good name. I love it. The Crimson Horror. Crimson, the color red. Like Calli's song called Red. I love it." Jared said, smiling.
"The Crimson Horror. I wonder what it is. Do you know the old Romany superstition, Clara, Jared? That the eye of a dead person retains an image of the last thing it sees. Nonsense, of course, unless the chemical composition of the body has been massively corrupted." The Doctor said.
Clara uses the Doctor's magnifying glass to look at the face of Mrs Gillyflower in the dead woman's eye. The Doctor touches her skin and the red comes off onto his white glove.
"Time for some alchemy." Jared said, frowning. "We need to figure out how this started."
The Doctor uses someone's chemistry lab, "Wow, this is nasty. An organic poison. A sort of venom. And you think it's connected to Sweetville?"
"I do." Edmund said.
"Well then, we need a plan." The Doctor said.
They visit Mrs Gillyflower at home.
"Doctor and Mrs Smith. And Mr McFly. Oh yes, you'll do very nicely." Gillyflower said.
The Doctor does his best Michael Palin as a Yorkshireman accent, "Oh, grand. Smashing. Eh, the missis and I couldn't be more chuffed, could we, love?"
"Chuffed? Really? Who even says that? Idiot." Jared said, sadly.
Mrs Gillyflower leads them down the row of terraced homes, "Sweetville will provide you with everything you need. You won't have to worry about a thing ever again."
"The name, Sweetville." Clara said.
"Yes?" Gillyflower asked.
"Why not name it after yourself. After all, it's your creation."
"Gillyflowertown. Gillyflowerland. You can build an amusement park! And have roller coasters! Nothing beats a good old fair full of fun and entertainment for the masses!" Jared said, excitedly.
"It is named in tribute to my partner." Gillyflower said.
"Your late partner?" The Doctor asked.
"No, my silent partner. Mister Sweet likes to keep himself to himself. Shall we move on?"
"Who lives here?"
"Oh, names don't matter here. All you need to know is we only recruit the brightest and the best." Gillyflower said, opening a front door to reveal a single living room.
The man and woman are seated at a tea table, under a giant bell jar. A pump is providing air into in. Then her army of men and women come for the Doctor, Clara, and Jared.
"Doctor, I'm gonna do something extremely reckless. Don't even argue with me." Jared said, looking at the Doctor.
Jared said a spell under his breath to transfer his soul into the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, the three time travelers get knocked out, and they are dunked in the red liquid, except the Doctor wakes up just as he is going under. Later, Clara is with the other women.
"Like pretty maids all in a row. The process improves with every attempt. Mister Sweet is such a clever old thing. Oh, into the canal with the rejects, Ada." Gillyflower said.
"Yes." Ada said, and one of the rejects takes her hand. "Ma."
Ada shackles the Doctor in the secret room, "Sometimes the preservation process goes wrong. Only Mister Sweet knows why, and only Mama is allowed to talk to Mister Sweet. But if you're very good, you can stay here. You'll be my secret. My special monster. Shush."
And there he stays until Edmund, another living reject of the process, bursts in. Which is why his image was in Edmund's eye.
Factory…
"Poor Edmund must have come looking for us and then fallen into a vat of the pure venom. Or was pushed. Didn't stand a chance." The Doctor said.
"What is that stuff, though?" Jenny asked.
"Deadly poison. And Mrs Gillyflower's been dipping her pilgrims in a dilute form to protect them. Preserve them. Process didn't work on me. Maybe because I'm not human. I ended up on the reject pile." The Doctor said.
"Preserve them against what?"
"Well, according to her, the coming apocalypse." The Doctor said, making the universal cu-koo gesture.
"When the End of Days is come and judgement rains down upon us all." Jenny said.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"No, no, no. What?"
"Something Mrs Gillyflower said. One of her sermons. Madame will come looking for me. We'd best get on."
"Yes, Clara and Jared. Got to find Clara and Jared."
"But, Doctor. Clara's dead. Isn't she?" Jenny asked.
"It's complicated." The Doctor said.
Corporation Way…
Strax is driving the carriage when the horse decided to stop, "Horse, you have failed in your mission. We are lost, with no sign of Sweetville. Do you have any final words before your summary execution? The usual story. Fourth one this week, and I'm not even hungry."
Strax hefts his honking great gun.
"Sweetville, sir?" The street urchin asked.
"Do you know it?" Strax asked.
"Turn around when possible. Then, at the end of the road, turn right."
"What?"
"Bear left for a quarter of a mile and you will have reached your destination."
Strax invites the boy to join him, "Thank you. What is your name?"
"Thomas, sir. Thomas Thomas." The street urchin said.
"I think you will do well, Thomas Thomas." Strax said.
Sweetville…
"Are we talking about the same person? About that Clara? Doctor!" Jenny said.
The Doctor runs over to a house and looks inside, "I couldn't see much from where I was, but I think they survived the process. Clara and Jared must be here somewhere."
"But Clara died. The Ice Lady? Doctor." Jenny said.
"Well, it's er, it's complicated."
Terraced house...
The Doctor bursts in to find Clara and Jared in a bell jar. He breaks it with a chair.
Tohsaka residence / Jared's mind palace...
"He found my body." Jared said, smiling.
"That's good." Rin said, walking over to Jared.
"Whatcha think?"
"Of this place? Perfect recreation."
"Your home has this old time feeling that I absolutely love. Reminds me of beach houses I know."
"You're a fan of old time homes."
"It's this feeling I get. The amount of history a home has. The effort it took to preserve everything."
"What about your body? Aren't you gonna go back to it?"
"Not in the state it's currently in, Rin."
"Do you mean the Crimson Horror?" Rin asked.
"Yes. The Doctor was such an idiot to bring me and Clara to Victorian Yorkshire."
"He does have bad flying skills. We could do so much better than him."
"Fourteen years for fish custard. That's what Amy had to go through. Anyway, thanks for the talk Rin. I'll see you soon."
Jared ended the little conference call with Rin Tohsaka.
Red glow room…
They have put Clara and Jared into metal cubicles. The Doctor placed his sonic screwdriver into the grasp of Jared's hand. The fanboy transferred his soul from the sonic screwdriver back into his body.
"Can they be revived, like you were?" Jenny asked.
"I hope so." The Doctor said.
Pilgrims enter.
"Doctor." Jenny said.
"Oh, great. Great. Attack of the supermodels. Time for a plan." The Doctor said.
"Nah, Doctor. This one's on me." Jenny said, removing her bonnet and dress to reveal a tight all leather outfit.
Jenny deals with the three male pilgrims in three moves.
"That is a plan." The Doctor said, as more pilgrims advance, with rounders bats. "Okay, time for a new plan. Run!"
"Sontar ha!" Strax said, his voice nearby.
Enter Strax, in his Sontaran armour, firing his honking big gun. The pilgrims flee. Vastra is close behind with a sword.
"Let's go." Vastra said.
"No, ma'am. We're not escaping. We've got to help the Doctor with Clara and Jared." Jenny said, looking at the Doctor.
"Long story." The Doctor said, sadly.
"What now, madam? We could lay mimetic cluster mines." Strax said, happily.
"Strax." Vastra said.
"Or dig trenches and fill them with acid."
"Strax! You're overexcited. Have you been eating Miss Jenny's sherbet fancies again?"
"No."
"Go outside and wait for me until I call for you."
"But madam, I…"
"Go!" Vastra said, angrily.
"I'm going to go play with my grenades." Strax said, leaving the room.
"Okay, I think they're about done." The Doctor said, opening the cubicles. "I know who you think she is, but she isn't. She can't be."
"I was right, then. You and Jared have unfinished business with Clara." Vastra said.
"That we do. Hello, Madame Vastra. Jenny." Jared said, smiling.
Clara falls into the Doctor's arms and Jared falls into Jenny's arms.
"There, there. Hello, stranger." The Doctor said, looking at Clara.
"Doctor." Clara said.
"Ah ha."
"Hi. What's going on?"
"Oh, haven't you heard, love? There's trouble at mill. She's a lizard."
(Jared's POV)
Factory corridor…
"My people once ruled this world, as well you know, but we did not rule it alone. Just as humanity fights a daily battle against nature, so did we. And our greatest plague, the most virulent enemy, was the repulsive red leech." Vastra said.
"Ooo, the Repulsive Red Leech. Nah. On balance I think I prefer the Crimson Horror. What was it, exactly?" The Doctor asked.
"A tiny parasite. It infected our drinking water. And once in our systems, it secreted a fatal poison." Vastra said.
"If it's been hanging around, lurking in the shadows, maybe it's evolved. Or maybe it's had help."
"Doctor, Jared, I've been thinking. The chimney…" Clara said.
"The chimney." I said, looking out of the window to look at the chimney. "Man, you're awesome. You know that, right?"
"I do. Can't believe the Doctor is ignoring me."
"But what's the connection to Mrs Gillyflower? Judgement will rain down on us all. An empty mill." The Doctor said.
"A chimney that doesn't blow smoke." Clara said, happily.
"Like I said, Clara. You're awesome. And you're my Impossible Girl." I said, grabbing Clara's hand.
"Missed me?"
"Yup. A lot. I hated being stuck in my mind palace. Bright side, I had a lot of stuff to occupy myself with."
Boiler room…
"She's going to poison the air." I said, squeezing Clara's hand.
"How?" Jenny asked.
A pilgrim pulls a lever. We are looking at the base of a rocket.
"With that, I should think." Clara said.
"Okay. Poison in the rocket. Okay, guys, I have a plan." I said, looking between the Doctor, Clara, Vastra, and Jenny. "I've always had one. Got the time I needed to do it my way."
We stand up and something metal clatters. We duck down as the pilgrims turn towards the sound.
"Quiet, you guys. Okay." I said, smirking.
Mrs Gillyflower pulls out the stops on a small pipe organ then presses a lever. The contraption turns to present a control board to her.
Secret room…
Ada is still crying in the corner when the Doctor, Clara, and I enter.
"Who is that? Who is there?" Ada asked, as the Doctor takes her hand and runs it over his face. "You. It's you. My monster. You've come back. But you're…"
"Warm. And alive, thanks to you, Ada. You saved me from your mother's human rubbish tip. Now then, what's wrong?" The Doctor asked.
"She does not want me, monster. I am not to be chosen. Perhaps it was my own sin, the blackness in my heart that my father saw in me."
"Ada, no. That's nonsense. Stupid, backward nonsense, and you know it. You know it."
"What is it?" Clara asked.
"Who is that?" Ada asked.
"I'm Jared. This is Clara. We're friends. Friends of your monster." I said, walking up to Ada.
"Then you are fortunate indeed. It isn't good to be alone." Ada said.
"Now, Ada, I need you to tell me something. Who is Mister Sweet? Ada?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh, dear monster…"
"Ada, tell us. Please. Millions of people will die if you don't." I said, looking down at Ada.
"I cannot. Even now, I cannot. I cannot betray Mama."
"Okay. Come with us. There's something you should know. I'm sorry. So sorry. But you won't like what you'll see."
Drawing room…
This is where the control mechanism is.
"Clara, I want this adventure to be over already." I said, looking over at Clara.
"Victorian values. Whose idea was this again?" Clara asked.
"I wanted Victorian London. Had to see the Paternoster Gang."
"So, visiting old friends then."
"Basically."
"But the TARDIS brought us to Victorian Yorkshire. I need a break after all this."
"I'm afraid Mister Sweet and I cannot allow that." Gillyflower said.
"Ah, yes. Would it be impolite to ask why you and Mister Sweet are petrifying your workforce with diluted prehistoric leech venom?" The Doctor asked.
"So when do we get to meet him, this silent partner of yours? Why's he so shy?" Clara asked.
"Mister Sweet is always with us." Gillyflower said.
"You and your friend seem to have a very close relationship." I said, looking at Gillyflower.
"Oh yes, Mr McFly. Exceedingly close. Symbiotic, you might say." Gillyflower said, opening the top of her dress to reveal a large red leech attached to her skin.
"Great! Venom and Riot! Two centuries early! Just what we needed. You idiot!"
Meanwhile, the pilgrims continue to load bottles of venom into the rocket.
"Doctor, what is it?" Clara asked, looking at the Doctor.
"A survivor. He has grown fat on the filth humanity has pumped into the rivers. That's where I found him." Gillyflower said.
"Super resourceful. Like magic or songs." I said, grabbing Clara's hand.
"His needs are simple, and in return he gives me his nectar."
"Mrs Gillyflower, you have no idea what you are dealing with. In the wrong hands, that venom could wipe out all life on this planet." The Doctor said.
Mrs Gillyflower holds out her hands, "Do you know what these are? Ha, ha! The wrong hands."
Mrs Gillyflower goes to the control panel and pulls a lever. Red lights come on all the way up the factory chimney. Young Thomas Thomas points them out to Strax.
"Ooo, fireworks. I like fireworks? Is it the Fourth of July?" I asked.
"You have forced me to advance the Great Work somewhat, Doctor, Mr McFly, but my colossal scheme remains as it was. My rocket will explode high in the atmosphere, raining down Mister Sweet's beneficence onto all humanity." Gillyflower said.
"You'll wipe us all out. You can't do that!"
"My new Adam and Eves will sleep for but a few months before stepping out into a golden dawn. Is it not beautiful, Doctor, Mr McFly?"
"So, how about you tell us about Ada? Mrs Gillyflower." I said, squeezing Clara's hand.
"What?" Gillyflower asked.
"Your daughter. You do remember your daughter? Tell us about your daughter." The Doctor said.
"How can you speak of such trivia when my hour is at hand? The child is of no consequence."
"Is that why you experimented on her? Turning her into a doll? Making her do as you say." I said, sadly.
"Experimented?" Clara asked.
"The signs are all there. The pattern of scarring. You used her as a guinea pig. Like how a friend of mine was used as a guinea pig. My friend's hair color and eye color no longer looks like her older sister's."
"God." Clara said.
"Sometimes sacrifices must be made." Gillyflower said.
"Sacrifices?" The Doctor asked.
"It was necessary. I had to find out how much of the venom would produce an anti-toxin to immunise myself. Don't you see? It was necessary!"
"Mama? Is it, is it true?" Ada asked.
"Ada."
"It is. It's true. True."
"Ada, listen to me." Gillyflower said.
"You hag! You perfidious hag! You virago! You harpy! All these years I have helped you, served you, looked after you. Do they count for nothing, nothing at all?" Ada asked, as she started slashing at her mother with her white stick.
"Oh. I could never do something like that." I said, sadly.
"No, stop. Stop." Gillyflower said.
Clara runs forward.
"Hang on, I've got a sonic screwdriver." The Doctor said.
"Yeah? I've got a chair!" Clara said, smashing the chair into the control panel, with a satisfying shower of sparks.
"No!" Gillyflower said, worried.
"Yeah. That worked. I'm afraid your rocket isn't going anywhere, Mrs G." The Doctor said.
"Please, come to me, Ada. Oh, my child. You have always been so very useful." Gillyflower said, pointing a small revolver to Ada's head.
"No, Mrs Gillyflower. Don't shoot!" I said, looking at Gillyflower.
"Please, Mama. No more. No more." Ada said, sadly.
"And now, if you'll please forgive us, we must be going. It is long past Ada's bedtime." Gillyflower said, forcing Ada out of the room and locking the door behind her.
"No, Clara. If we follow her straight away. She'll just shoot Ada period." I said, squeezing Clara's hand.
"She wouldn't." Clara said.
"She would. Reminds me of someone the Tohsaka sisters and Shirou Emiya told me about. Zouken Matou." I said, pulling the chair out of the panel and using it to break the window. "Chairs are useful. Whether it's to sit down in. Or to break windows."
"Does Ada remind you of Sakura?" Clara asked.
"Yes. That's why I empathize with them."
"Are you gonna visit the Tohsakas' after this?"
"Yes. Want to come too?"
"Only after Angie and Artie."
By the rocket…
Mrs Gillyflower drags Ada up the staircase encircling the rocket. The Doctor and Clara run through Sweetville and get to the bottom of the stairs.
"Stop!" Gillyflower said, angrily.
"Just let her go, Mrs Gillyflower. Let Ada go." I said, looking at Gillyflower.
"Secondary firing mechanism, Doctor, Mr McFly. Mister Sweet and I are too smart for the both of you, after all."
"Just let your daughter go, Mrs Gillyflower. She didn't want to be caught in this mess!"
Ada gets free and stumbles down to the corner between the Doctor, Mrs Gillyflower, and I.
"Ada!" Gillyflower said.
"Shoot if you wish, Mama. It is of no matter, for you killed me a long time ago." Ada said.
Mrs Gillyflower shoots at the Doctor and me, making the Time Lord and I retreat.
"I'll labour night and day to be a pilgrim." Gillyflower said, singing.
"Ada!" I said, getting to Ada as Mrs Gillyflower pulls the lever and the rocket's engines ignite. "You're safe."
"Thank you." Ada said.
I shield Ada with my body as it takes off, with so little flame as to not even singe any of them as it passes mere inches away.
"Don't mention it." I said, smiling.
"Now, Mister Sweet, now the whole world will taste your lethal kiss!" Gillyflower said.
"I don't think so, Mrs Gillyflower. Don't break, I will never give up. Don't break, even if my feathers decay. My unerasable power is the guidance of time." I said, snapping my fingers.
Jenny and Vastra appear, in pilgrim clothes, holding a bottle of venom.
"Very well, then. If I can't take the world with me, you will have to do. Die, you freaks. Die! Die!" Gillyflower said, angrily.
Strax points his honking big gun down the chimney, "Put down your weapon, human female."
Mrs Gillyflower shoots at Strax. He returns fire, sending her tumbling over the railing to the floor two stories below.
"Ouch. That's not one way I would die." I said, letting out a sigh.
The leech detaches itself from her, and drags itself across the floor by its suckered forelimbs.
"No. No. Mister Sweet, where are you going? You can't leave me now, Mister Sweet." Gillyflower said.
"What's it doing?" Clara asked.
"It knows she's dying. It no longer has a use for her." I said, grabbing Clara's hand.
"Mister Sweet. Ada?" Gillyflower asked, while Ada taps her way down the stairs. "Ada. Are you there?"
"I'm here, Mama." Ada said.
"Forgive me, my child. Forgive me."
"Never."
"That's my girl."
Mrs Winifred Gillyflower dies. The rocket explodes in the sky.
"What will you do with that thing?" Jenny asked.
"Take it back to the Jurassic era, maybe. Out of harm's way." The Doctor said.
Ada taps her way across the floor until her stick finds something squishy. She smashes the leech to smithereens.
"Or you don't have to." I said, happily. "Because that thing ruined Ada's life."
Alleyway…
"Right. Right, London. We were heading for London, weren't we?" The Doctor asked.
"Was there any particular reason? Besides visiting the Paternoster Gang according to Jared." Clara said.
"No. No. Just thought you might like it."
"Yeah. Maybe had enough of Victorian values for a bit." Clara said.
"Same. But it's less technological. I kind of like it at times." I said, leaning against the wall. "Anyway, Clara, you're the boss."
"Am I?"
"No. No. Neither of you are. Get in." The Doctor said.
Clara enters the Tardis. The Doctor walks back to Ada and the Paternoster Gang.
"Jared, you're back." Rin said, telepathically.
"In my proper body." I said, telepathically. "Thank you. For everything lately."
"I haven't helped much."
"You have. Your jewels. And leaving that spell book in the TARDIS."
"It felt like the right thing to do."
The Doctor kisses Ada cheek.
"Splendid. Well, thanks a million, you three, as ever. Have some Pontefract cakes on me. I love Pontefract cakes. See you around, eh, I shouldn't wonder." The Doctor said.
"We really appreciate it, you guys!" I said, looking at the Paternoster Gang.
"But Doctor, Jared. That girl, Clara. You two haven't explained." Jenny said.
"Nope, we haven't."
The Doctor and I went to the Tardis.
"Ah, look at the muck in here. Right!" The Doctor said.
"Time to go home, Spaceman." I said, happily.
The Doctor and I go into the Tardis.
Strax takes the bottle of venom from Vastra, "Another one for the vault."
"Ah, there you are. I called to see whether there had been any progress." Thursday said.
The Tardis dematerialises. He faints.
(Open POV)
Maitland home…
Clara enters, "The boss. Yep, that's me."
Outside, the Tardis dematerialises.
"I am the boss." Clara said, spotting the laptop that the children have left open.
On the screen are photographs of Clara, the Doctor, and Jared from their recent adventures. 1983 Firebird - the Russian Submarine, the haunted house.
"It's you, isn't it. It's from the seventies, but it's definitely you." Angie said.
"Of course it's not." Clara said.
"And that's you too, from 1983. I found it at school." Artie said.
"No, that's just someone who looks like me."
"And those are people that look like your boyfriend and your best friend." Angie said.
"Is your boyfriend an alien?" Artie asked.
"Why would he be an alien?"
"The chin."
"And the time travel?" Angie asked, clicking on a third image, of Victorian Governess Clara.
"That's not right." Clara said, frowning.
"You were in Victorian London." Angie said.
"No, I was in Victorian Yorkshire."
"How come you didn't tell us?"
"Time travel, that's so cool." Artie said, happily.
"Can we have a go?" Angie asked.
"Can you have a what?" Clara asked.
"We want a shot at the time machine." Artie said, smiling.
"No, no, no, no. Listen…" Clara said, looking between Angie and Artie.
"Okay. Or, we'll have to tell Dad that our nanny's a time traveller." Angie said.