I should not have been able to do this today, but the first official day of the Luther 500 festival just wiped me out completely. That, and because Dad felt extremely off, we missed the group activities after 16:00. I finished this and the following interlude! And boy, are they heavy.

This really wasn't my favorite episode of Series 8, partly just because of Clara's reaction at the very end of it. I absolutely love Twelve and Clara together - they're up there with Nine and Rose for my favorite pair altogether. So this episode . . . kind of broke my heart a little bit.

Enough about me! Enjoy "Kill the Moon!"

***

"Courtney Woods," Clara walked after the Doctor and Jessie as they headed towards the storage area. "Doctor, she has gone crazy! She's uncontrollable! She took your psychic paper!"

"Did she?" Jessie blinked.

"Yes, and she's been using it as fake ID!"

"She is?" Jessie raised an eyebrow at the Doctor.

"To get into museums?" the Doctor asked Clara.

"No, no, no, to buy White Lightning or alcopops or whatever," Clara shook her head.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," the Doctor frowned. "What . . . what is Courtney Woods?"

"She's one of my year tens," Clara answered. "She was in the TARDIS."

"The girl who threw up," Jessie clarified.

"Oh, her," the Doctor nodded. "Oh, that was ages ago."

"Look, she says that you told her that she wasn't special," Clara told the Doctor.

"Rubbish," he scoffed.

"She says that's what sent her off the rails."

"Pfft!"

"Doctor, did you say that to her?" Jessie folded her arms as they entered the storage area. When he didn't answer, she sighed. "Doctor, if you say that to somebody, that hurts, especially if it's her age. And, well . . . especially if you're you."

"It can affect her whole life," Clara nodded.

"Bah," the Doctor rolled his eyes, entering the TARDIS, then paused. "Oi!" he ran over to where Courtney was with paper towels, the Maximoffs conferring nearby. "Give over!"

"She's just cleaning up, Doctor," Pietro waved a hand.

"What?" the Doctor frowned.

"And I got these from the chemist," Courtney held up her arms, revealing magnetic bracelets.

"Vortex manipulators?"

"Travel sickness," she corrected.

"Good, because I don't like people being sick in my TARDIS. No being sick, and no hanky-panky."

"Doctor!" Clara stared.

"Sorry, that's the rules!"

"Then how many times have you and the Bad Wolf broken that rule, hmm?" Wanda tilted her head.

"Wanda!" Jessie blushed.

"That's different," the Doctor waved a hand. "We're married."

"Wait a moment, you are?" Courtney blinked, eyes wide. "You're married to the librarian? But she's younger than you!"

"Oh, my God," Jessie buried her red face in her hands, Pietro laughing at her obvious discomfort. "We are not having this discussion!"

"Look, Courtney," Clara walked over to her. "You're not going to be needing those because you're not going to be doing any traveling. Doctor, look, will you just . . . just tell her?"

"Tell her what?" the Doctor blinked.

Clara gritted her teeth. "Tell her that she's special!" she hissed.

"Have you gone bananas?" the Doctor frowned.

"Do you really think I'm not special?" Courtney's eyes widened further. "You can't just take me away like that! It's like you kicked a big hole in the side of my life. You really think it? I'm nothing? I'm not special?"

Pietro and Wanda looked with wide eyes at the Doctor, who groaned and ran a hand over his face. "Pfft," he grumbled. "God." He sighed and turned back around. "How'd you like to be the first woman on the moon? Is that special enough for you?"

"Yeah, all right," Courtney grinned.

"OK," the Doctor grinned. "Now we can do something interesting!"

"Hey, Doctor!" Clara shouted as he threw a lever, making all of them stumble slightly.

"The Doctor with a kid onboard?" Wanda whispered to Jessie.

"Oh, God," Jessie joked.

***

The group of six exited the TARDIS into a cargo bay of some sort, all in orange spacesuits. "This isn't the moon," Courtney frowned. "Where are we?"

"On a recycled space shuttle," the Doctor answered. "2049, judging by that prototype version of the Bennett oscillator."

"Air's fine," Jessie added, taking her helmet off. "That's a relief."

The others followed suit, and the Doctor frowned. "Where's the gravity coming from?"

"And what are these?" Wanda examined the racks, cylindrical objects stacked on them.

The Doctor tensed. "About a hundred nuclear bombs."

Wanda sprang back as if they would go off right then, then an alarm blared. "Ah," the Doctor peered out the window. "We're on our way to the moon." He blinked and backed up. "Check that, we're about to crash into it! Hold on! Hold on!"

"Why didn't you just tell her you didn't mean it?" Clara yelled as she and Courtney grabbed onto the cargo nets.

The shuttle hit the moon's surface hard, sending everyone to the ground. As the ship settled, three people entered the bay, glaring at them. "Who the hell do you think you are?" the woman in the lead asked sharply, raising a gun at them.

"Why have you got all these nuclear bombs?" the Doctor countered.

"I'm not going to give you another chance?"

"Oh? Well, you're just going to have to shoot us, then. Shoot the little girl first."

"What?" Courtney gawked at him.

"Yes, she doesn't want to stand there watching us getting shot, does she? She'll be terrified. Girl first, then her teacher, and then us. You'll have to spend a lot of time shooting my wife and I because we will keep on regenerating. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that we won't keep on regenerating forever."

"Doubt it," Jessie frowned.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Pietro frowned, watching the Doctor step back and forth.

The Doctor did a few bunny hops before frowning. "Gravity test. So, it'll be very time consuming and messy, and rather wasteful, because I think we might just possibly be able to help you. You see, my wife and I are super-intelligent alien beings who fly in time and space. Are you going to shoot us?"

"No," the woman frowned.

"Good," the Doctor grinned. "Why have you got all these nuclear bombs? No, no, no, easier questions . . . what's wrong with my yo-yo?"

"Easier question," Pietro watched him play with it. "Why do you even have your yo-yo?"

"Why do you have a yo-yo?" Wanda frowned.

"Doctor, it goes up and down," Clara frowned.

"Exactly," the Doctor pointed at her.

"Ah," Clara's eyes lit up.

"Ah ha," the Doctor nodded. "We should be bouncing about this cabin like little fluffy clouds, but we're not. What is the matter with the moon?"

"Nobody knows," the woman answered.

"Do you know what's wrong with the moon?" Clara asked the Doctor.

"It's put on weight," he answered.

"How can the moon put on weight?" the woman frowned.

"Oh, lots of ways. Gravity bombs, axis alignment systems, planet shellers."

"So it's alien."

"Must be causing chaos on Earth," Jessie frowned. "Have there been really high tides? Enough to drown whole cities?"

"Yeah."

"So what are you doing about it?"

Wanda sighed as the woman picked up one of the cases on the rack. "Really?"

"That's what you do with aliens, isn't it?" the woman asked. "Blow them up?"

The Doctor and Jessie exchanged glances. Well, it wasn't like people hadn't tried . . .

***

"Wow," Courtney whispered as she stepped out onto the moon's surface, followed by everyone else, their helmets on. "Wow! One small thing for a thing. One enormous thing for a thingy thing."

Jessie giggled. "Good one."

"So much for history," the woman in charge, Lundvik, sighed, leading them away from the shuttle and towards a nearby crater, a settlement of some sort inside. "There was a mining survey, Mexicans. Something happened up here. Nobody knows what. That's when the trouble began back on Earth. High tide everywhere at once. The greatest natural disaster in history."

Pietro tensed when he saw the open airlock. "Why are there cobwebs on the moon?"

"Henry, go back and prime the bombs," Lundvik ordered as the Doctor peered closer at them.

"Er, is there any instructions?" one of her crew asked.

"There's a switch on each of them. The light goes red."

"They won't go off?"

"No, not till I fiddle with this thing," she held up the red case she had.

"OK," Henry nodded, turning around.

"Shall we?" Lundvik gestured to the module.

"Is that the best you could get?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Second-hand space shuttle, third-hand astronauts," Lundvik shrugged.

"More cobwebs," Wanda frowned.

"How many people here?" the Doctor asked.

"Four," Lundvik answered as they walked on. "Minera Luna San Pedro. It was privately financed. They were doing a mineral survey up here."

"Did they send any messages?" Jessie asked. "Mayday, SOS, anything?"

"Pretty much all the satellites had been whacked out of orbit," the last of the crew, Duke, answered. "They managed to send back some screams."

"Oh," Jessie said quietly. "That's . . . nice."

"So then you came up here to rescue them with your bombs?" the Doctor frowned.

"Not quite," Duke winced.

"They disappeared ten years ago," Lundvik explained.

"Nobody came?" the Doctor's eyebrows shot up.

"There was no shuttle."

"You had one!"

"It was in a museum. They'd cut the back off it so kids could ride in it. We'd stopped going into space. Nobody cared, not until – "

Courtney screamed behind them, and Clara whirled around. "Courtney!" she ran over to see her stumbling away from a spacesuit in a cocoon of cobwebs. "Oh, my God, Doctor, tell me there wasn't anyone inside that thing!"

The Doctor scanned with his screwdriver, then winced. "I could, but it wouldn't make it true."

"I'll get some power back on," Duke headed off.

"Come on," Clara gestured to Courtney. "Now, Courtney, come here. Don't look. You all right?"

"I'm OK," Courtney nodded as the Doctor used the sonic to cut the corpse down.

"Hey, look, look at me, look," Clara turned Courtney to her. "It's all right if you're not."

"I'm fine," Courtney nodded, then frowned. "The Bad Wolf doesn't look it, though."

"What?" the Doctor spun around, to see Jessie looking slightly green. "Jess?"

"No, no, keep going," Jessie waved him on. "I'll just . . . " She pointed backwards a bit. "Back here."

"OK," the Doctor frowned as Pietro and Clara exchanged looks. It wasn't like the Bad Wolf to just hang back.

"Anyway," Courtney turned back to the Doctor. "What did it?"

"Maybe something trying to find out how you're put together," he shrugged. "Or maybe how you tasted."

"Do we have guns?"

"Not unless you brought some," Lundvik shook her head.

Jessie and Clara exchanged looks that time, giving each other minute nods, then the Doctor blinked. "Chicken, apparently," he remarked, then looked up when the power came on. "Save the air," he recommended, taking his helmet off. The others did as well, and Jessie definitely looked green this time. "Are you sure you're all right, love?" the Doctor whispered to Jessie quietly.

"Yeah," Jessie nodded, tearing her eyes away from the corpse. "Something's just not sitting right with me."

"I'm all for going back to the TARDIS if that makes you feel better."

"No, we need to fix this," Jessie looked around. "Then we get back, not before."

"All right," he frowned, kissing her forehead. "But if something happens to you, I'm running."

"I'll try not to let that happen," she managed a smile.

The Doctor gave her a quick kiss before heading over to the console, turning on the computer. After a few moments of searching the banks, he frowned. "They didn't find anything."

"Eh?" Lundvik blinked.

"The Mexicans, they didn't find any minerals on the moon at all. Nada." He frowned, looking at the table next to the console, then looked closer. "Oh."

"Oh?" Clara frowned.

"I didn't like that," Wanda warned.

"No, you shouldn't," the Doctor shook his head, gesturing to the pictures of the moon on the table. "Lines of tectonic stress."

"That's the Mare Fecunditatis," Lundvik recognized one. "It's been there since the Apollo days. It's always been there."

"No, no, no, these are much, much bigger," the Doctor shook his head. "Sea of Tranquility, Sea of Nectar, Sea of Ingenuity, Sea of Crises."

"Meaning?" Pietro frowned.

The Doctor looked up when the power flickered. "Meaning, Pietro, that the moon, this little planetoid that's been tagging along beside you for a hundred million years, which gives you light at night and seas to sail on, is in the process of falling to bits!"

Something in the module went bang, shaking the entire place, then Jessie doubled over when a high-pitched noise rang out. "What the hell was that?" Courtney frowned.

"Duke, is that you?" Lundvik said into her comm.

"I don't sound anything like that," he replied.

"Can you try and get the lights back on?"

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Torch," the Doctor looked around. "Give me your torch. Whatever it is, it's in here." Lundvik handed it over, and the Doctor switched it on, aiming it down the next corridor.

"Oh," Jessie swallowed, seeing a huge spider with red knees heading right for them. "Found it!"

"back, back, back!" the Doctor shouted, making the others run. "We need a door! A door, a door!"

"Here! Here!" Clara called, then groaned. "The door's locked!"

"Bad Wolf, can you – ?" Wanda began.

Jessie was already running her hands over the door, trying to find a weak spot. Finally, she found a way through, immediately bursting through. "Come on!" she reached back through.

"What the hell?" Lundvik's eyes widened.

"Go!" the Doctor pushed her at Jessie's hand, and she pulled the astronaut through. "Silver, Scarlet, you next! And then – "

"Duke!" Lundvik suddenly screamed.

The three left in the room turned around to see Duke running from the corridor, only for the spider to jump on him. "Oh, my God!" Clara shielded Courtney's eyes quickly, Jessie clapping a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

"Duke!" Lundvik wailed.

"Doctor, do something!" Pietro yelled.

The Doctor brought up his hand, summoning a fireball, when Courtney peeked around Clara's hand, spritzing something in the direction of the spider. It collapsed at once, liquefying as well, and when the door finally unlocked, the others came back in. "What was that?" Jessie's eyes widened.

Courtney smiled weakly and held up the bottle she had with her. "Kills ninety-nine percent of all known germs."

"You killed it with germ spray?" Wanda asked, impressed.

"Good stuff, Courtney," the Doctor complimented. "Just . . . don't try that at home, OK?"

"You all right?" Clara asked Courtney in concern.

"I just killed an alien spider with germ spray," Courtney swallowed. "This is nuts!"

"Germs?" the Doctor asked as he scanned the remains, eyes wide. "Oh, God, this is incredible! Look at the size of it! It's the size of a badger!"

"Doctor," Clara warned.

"It's a prokaryotic unicellular life form, with non-chromosomal DNA," he explained. "Which, as you and me know – well, not you and me – well, you certainly not – "

"What he's saying is that this is a germ," Jessie rolled her eyes.

"Really?" Pietro eyed the remains. "A spider is a germ?"

"I'm scared, Miss," Courtney whispered to Clara.

"OK," Clara nodded, putting an arm around her.

"He'd just had a granddaughter," Lundvik said numbly, Wanda looking up from where she was checking on Duke's body. "Elina. She was his first. He was my teacher. He taught me how to fly. We were both given the sack on the same day."

"I'm sorry," Wanda told her sincerely.

"Which way to the Mare Fecunditatis?" the Doctor asked.

"Please, can I go home now?" Courtney asked quietly, making them all turn to her. "I'm really . . . I'm really sorry, but I'd like to go home."

***

"Henry, come in," Lundvik tried to contact the last member of the team as they headed back to the TARDIS. "If you don't mind, Henry, come in."

"Doctor, this is dangerous now," Clara warned.

"It was dangerous before," the Doctor shook his head. "Everything's dangerous if you want it to be. Eating chips is dangerous. Crossing the road. It's no way to live your life. Tell her. You're supposed to be teaching her."

"Look, I have a duty of care, OK? You know what that is?"

"'Course I know what a duty of care is. I have a duty of care to my blood bonded." Said blood bonded took a very sudden interest in her boots, Wanda snickering at her red face. "Anyway, she's fine. What are you, thirty-five?"

"Fifteen," Courtney scowled at him.

Jessie sighed, patting Courtney's shoulder. "I'm sorry about this. Honestly, we tried to make this as not dangerous as possible."

"It's all right, Miss," Courtney gave her a small smile as the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS. "What's a blood bonded?"

"Oh, er," Jessie bit her lip. "Well, it's . . . "

"Their version of till death do us part," Pietro supplied. "Quite literally, too."

"So you're really married to him?" Courtney's eyebrows shot up. "But he's so much older than you!"

Jessie sighed, closing her eyes as Pietro and Wanda laughed. "I knew that was going to come up from someone."

"Now," the Doctor opened the TARDIS, letting Courtney inside. "Don't touch anything."

"You got any games?" Courtney asked.

"Oh, don't be so stupid!" the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Can I get reception up here?" Courtney asked as they headed out again.

"Get in," the Doctor gestured her further into the TARDIS before closing the door.

"Why are you shutting her in?" Clara frowned. "We don't need to stay, do we?"

"Eh?" the Doctor blinked.

"It's obvious, isn't it? The moon doesn't break up."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been in the future, and the moon is still there . . . I think," she turned to the Maximoffs. "You know the moon is still there, right?"

"From what I remember," Pietro shrugged.

"Maybe it isn't the moon," the Doctor suggested. "Maybe it's a hologram or a bit painting or a special effect. Maybe it's a completely different moon."

"But you would know!" Clara frowned.

"Tell us how we would," Jessie gestured for her to talk, leaning against the wall.

Clara frowned, but shared her thoughts. "If the moon fell to bits in 2049, somebody would've mentioned it. It would have come up in conversation, so it doesn't break up, so the world doesn't end. So, let's just get in the TARDIS and go."

"Clara, there are some moments in time that we simply can't see," the Doctor told her. "Little eye-blinks. They don't look the same as other things. They're not clear. They're fuzzy, they're grey. Little moments in which big things are decided, and this is one of them. Just now, I can't tell what happens to the moon, because whatever happens to the moon hasn't been decided yet. And it's going to be decided here and now . . . which very much sounds as though it's up to us."

"None of you are going anywhere," Lundvik turned to them. "I've lost my crew. We were the last astronauts. This is the last shuttle, these are the last nuclear bombs. We're the last chance for Earth, and you're staying to help me."

The five turned to each other, then Jessie shrugged. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes, remember?"

Clara cracked a grin at that, and they nodded, following Lundvik out onto the moon.

***

"What is killing the moon?" the Doctor asked as they looked at the Mexicans' equipment.

"How can the moon die, though?" Wanda asked.

"Everything does, sooner or later," the Doctor shrugged.

"Can we save it?" Lundvik asked.

"I think that depends on what's killing it," Jessie tilted her head.

"There are the other three," Lundvik pointed to a crack in the crust of the moon, three spacesuits covered in cobwebs there.

"Is it those germ things, then?" Clara asked as they walked over. "Are they like cockroaches? Is it . . . is it an infestation?"

"Could that be it?" Pietro asked.

"Well, I've only seen one of them," the Doctor frowned. "It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on one point three billion tons."

"One point three billion tons?" Jessie repeated, turning to him, her back to the suits. "Really?"

"Bad Wolf!" Wanda screeched when one of the spiders pounced, tackling the woman to the ground.

Clara lunged forward with the disinfectant spray, but Lundvik shook her head. "It's a vacuum, it won't work!"

Together, the Doctor and Wanda used the Aether and magic to ensnare the germ and throw it off Jessie, watching it scuttle back off. "Jessie!" the Doctor ran to her side, helping her up from the ground.

"Well," Jessie coughed, her eyes wide, shaking slightly as the Doctor helped her to her feet. "That makes two of them."

"Sunlight!" Clara suddenly said.

"What about it?" Pietro frowned.

"If they're germs, my nan says it's the best disinfectant there is."

"Shine your light down there," the Doctor pointed back where the germ had gone.

Lundvik aimed her flashlight down into the lair, and she blanched when she saw the many germs inside. "Where have they come from?"

"Maybe they've been there all the time," the Doctor frowned. "It's warmish. They're multiplying, feeding, evolving."

"Doctor, if the moon breaks up, it'll kill us all in about forty-five minutes," Lundvik warned.

"I agree," the Doctor nodded, taking out his yo-yo. "Unless something else is going on."

He sent his yo-yo into another fissure, and Pietro blinked when it came up wet. "There shouldn't be water on the moon."

"It's not water," the Doctor shook his head, scanning the liquid. "It's amniotic fluid. The stuff that life comes from." He frowned, looking down. "I've got to go down there."

"Doctor!" Lundvik stared at him.

"Back to your shuttle, get your bombs ready," the Doctor ordered. "You lot, get to the TARDIS. Get safe, get Courtney safe. I will be back."

"What?" Clara blinked when he took the germ spray from her. "No, Doctor – Doctor!"

Jessie rolled her eyes when the Doctor jumped down into the fissure. "That's my husband. Definitely him."

"Will he?" Lundvik asked as Clara groaned and paced about angrily. "Will he be back?"

"He will be for her," Pietro pointed at Jessie. "Blood bonded comes first."

"Are you sure you're OK?" Wanda frowned at Jessie, seeing she still looked red in the cheeks, even though the rest of her face was extremely pale.

"Hmm?" she looked up into Wanda's concerned eyes. "Fine, yeah," she cleared her throat, nodding. "Completely fine."

"Is that your version of 'I'm always all right?'"

Before Jessie could answer, Courtney's voice came over the comm. "Miss? Come in."

"Courtney?" Clara turned.

"I'm bored. When are you coming back?"

"We're on our way," Clara answered, starting to lead them on. "What are you doing?"

"Putting some pictures on Tumblr."

"What the?" Jessie's head shot up. "No, Courtney, don't put any photos on Tumblr!"

"My granny used to put things on Tumblr," Lundvik remarked.

The moon quaked slightly, making them stagger, then Pietro pointed. "I think I found him!"

The five of them moved down towards the spacesuit, and Wanda sighed when she saw Henry's helmet was open, now a complete skeleton. "Oh, no."

"Was that where we landed?" Clara frowned, pointing across at the shuttle . . . and the ravine now in their way. "It looks so different."

Jessie's eyes fell down the ravine, and to the cracks suddenly forming. "I think that would be why!" she pointed.

The shuttle toppled into the ravine, and Clara screamed. "Courtney!"

"Doctor!" Pietro yelled, looking behind them.

"We're going to have to take cover," Lundvik turned. "We're running out of oxygen!"

"Kasterborous!" Jessie called.

The Doctor popped up behind them. "Today's the day, humankind!" he announced, leading them back to the module.

"Where's the TARDIS?" Clara demanded.

"She's in the shuttle, isn't she?" the Doctor asked. "She'll turn up."

"Last time you said that, she turned up on the wrong side of the planet!"

The Doctor frowned at her. "I thought the two of you had worked everything out!"

"Doctor, where's Courtney?" Wanda folded her arms.

"Courtney is safe," the Doctor answered. "Well, do you have her phone number?"

"No, no, no, of course I don't have her phone number," Clara shook her head.

"Well, what about the school? Does the secretary have her number?"

"I can't," Clara blushed. "The secretary hates me. She thinks I gave her a packet of TENA Lady for Secret Santa."

"Really?" Wanda burst out laughing.

"It wasn't me!" Clara protested. "I swear, it wasn't! Look, Courtney's posting stuff on Tumblr. Doesn't that know where you are?"

"I don't know," Lundvik shook her head. "I'm not a historian."

"Phone," the Doctor beckoned. 'I know what the problem is." Clara handed it over, and the Doctor wrinkled his nose as he flipped through Tumblr. "Oh, she can't post that! She can't put pictures of us online!"

"The Captain's going to have our hides," Pietro sighed, Wanda nodding in agreement.

The Doctor sonicked Clara's phone, then threw up a monitor on the wall. Courtney peered out at them. "Yeah?" she asked.

"You can't put pictures of us online," the Doctor gestured between himself, Jessie, and the Maximoffs.

"Are you OK?" Clara cut in.

"Er, I'm fine," Courtney nodded. "What's up?"

"The Doctor knows what the problem is," Wanda answered.

"Yes, yes, it's a rather big problem," the Doctor nodded.

"OK," Clara folded her arms. "Do you want to share it with the class?"

"Well, I had a little hypothesis," the Doctor paced. "The seismic activity, the surface breaking up, the variable mass, the increase in gravity, the fluid. I scanned what's down there." He sonicked a console, and a 3D image of the moon appeared. "The moon isn't breaking apart. Well, actually, it is breaking apart, and rather quickly. We've got about an hour and a half. But that isn't the problem. It's not infested."

"What are they, then, those things?" Courtney asked.

"Bacteria," the Doctor answered. "Tiny, tiny bacteria living on something very, very big. Something that weighs about one point three billion tons. Something that's living. Something growing."

"Growing?" Wanda repeated.

"Oh, my God," Jessie blanched when the Doctor readjusted the projection to show what looked like a baby dragon inside the moon. "The moon's an egg?"

"What the hell?" Pietro did a double take.

"The moon is hatching," the Doctor confirmed.

"Has it, er," Clara frowned. This . . . she'd seen some interesting things, but she was pretty sure this took the cake. "Has it always been an egg?"

"Yes, for a hundred million years or so," the Doctor nodded. "Just, just growing. Just getting ready to be born."

"OK," Clara blew out a breath. "So the moon has never been the moon?"

"No, no, no, no, it's never been dead," the Doctor shook his head. "It's just taking a long time to come alive."

"Is it a chicken?" Courtney asked.

"No!" the Doctor stared at her, surprised she would ask that.

"'Cos for a chicken to have laid an egg that big – "

"Courtney, don't spoil the moment!"

"Doctor, what is it?" Wanda interrupted.

"I think that it's unique," the Doctor answered. "I think that's the only one of its kind in the universe. I think that that is utterly beautiful."

"It is," Jessie smiled softly, looking at the baby –

"How do we kill it?" Lundvik asked.

"What?!" Jessie spun around, blanching.

"Why'd you want to kill it?" Clara asked, horrified.

"It's a little baby!" Courtney protested.

"Doctor, how do we kill it?" Lundvik insisted.

"You're talking about killing a baby!" Pietro protested. "You're talking about killing the moon!"

"Well," the Doctor said slowly, turning off the hologram. "You have about a hundred of the best manmade nuclear weapons, if they still work. If that's what you want to do."

"You're telling her how to do it?" Wanda gawked at him.

"Will that do it?" Lundvik asked.

"A hundred nuclear bombs set off right where we are, right on top of a living, vulnerable creature?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "It'll never feel the sun on its back."

"And then what? Will the moon still break up? You said . . . you said we had an hour and a half?"

"Well, there'll be nothing to make it break up. There will be nothing trying to force its way out. The gravity of the little dead baby will pull all the pieces back together again. Of course, it won't be very pretty. You'd have an enormous corpse floating in the sky. You might have some very difficult conversations to have with your kids."

"I don't have any kids."

"Stop!" Clara held up her hands. "Right, listen. This is a . . . this is a life! I mean, this must be the biggest life in the universe!"

"It's not even been born!" Courtney put in.

"It is killing people," Lundvik pointed out. "It is destroying the Earth."

"Are you honestly going to blame a baby for kicking?" Jessie asked in disgust, the Doctor looking over at her worriedly . . . because she sounded like her voice was shaking much more than it had been earlier.

"Let me tell you something," Lundvik scowled. "You want to know what I took back from being in space? Look at the edge of the Earth! The atmosphere, that is paper thin. That is the only thing that saves us all from death. Everything else, the stars, the blackness, that's all dead. Sadly, that is the only life any of us will ever know."

"There's life here," Courtney countered. "There's life just next door!"

"Look, when you've grown up a bit, you'll realize that everything doesn't have to be nice," Lundvik told her. "Some things are just bad. Anyway, you ran away. It's none of your business."

"Don't talk to her like that!" Jessie shrieked at her.

"Bad Wolf, are you certain you're all right?" Pietro frowned at her.

"Fine! I'm just fine!"

Pietro didn't look like he believed her. Neither did Wanda, for that matter. And the Doctor certainly didn't, either. "Doctor, I want to come back," Courtney announced.

"Courtney, you'll be safer where you are," Clara shook her head as Lundvik started punching a code in on the case.

"Doctor, I'm sorry," Courtney turned to him. "I want to come back, OK? I want to help."

"Ah," the Doctor rubbed a hand over his face. "There's some DVDs on the blue bookshelf. Just stick one into the TARDIS console. That'll bring you to us."

"Right," she nodded.

"And make sure you hang on to the console, otherwise the TARDIS will leave you behind."

"So, what do we do?" Clara asked, turning to the Doctor, who didn't seem that focused on her. "Huh? Doctor, what do we do?"

The Doctor just walked up to Jessie, seeing she was still staring at the space the hologram had stood . . . and she was shaking way too much for his liking. Add that to her far too pale face, her flushed cheeks, the clouded look in her eyes . . . "Nothing," he answered.

"What?" three companions asked at the same time.

"We don't do anything," he gestured between himself and Jessie, putting an arm around her. "I'm sorry, Silver, Scarlet, Zero. We can't help you."

"Of course you can help!" Clara stared at him.

"The Earth isn't our home," the Doctor shook his head. "The moon's not our moon. Sorry."

"Come on," Clara tried to smile, sure he was joking. "Hey."

"It used to be hers!" Pietro gestured to Jessie.

"It used to be, over a millennium ago," the Doctor shook his head. "It isn't now. Listen, there are moments in every civilization's history in which the whole path of that civilization is decided. The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now. Now you've got the tools to kill it. You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity. You don't need Time Lords. Kill it or let it live. We can't make this decision for you."

"Yeah, well, we can't make it!" Clara gestured between herself and the Maximoffs.

"Well, there's four of you here," he shrugged.

"Well, yeah, a school teacher, two enhanced, and an astronaut!"

"Who's better qualified?"

"I don't know, the President of America!"

"Oh, take something off his plate," the Doctor waved a hand, frowning as he took a closer look at Jessie. Oh, something was wrong with her, he knew that . . . but what the hell was it? Her breath was starting to come in shorter pants now, too . . . oh, that was anything but good. "He makes far too many decisions anyway."

"She," Lundvik corrected.

"She, sorry," the Doctor rolled his eyes. "She hasn't even been into space. She hasn't been to another planet. How would she even know what to do?"

"Doctor, we are asking for your help!" Pietro glared. Wanda, so far, had yet to say anything else . . . she was mainly looking between the Time Lords.

"Listen, we went to dinner in Berlin in 1937, right?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "We didn't nip out after pudding and kill Hitler. I've never killed Hitler. And you wouldn't expect me to kill Hitler. The future is no more malleable than the past."

"OK, don't you do this to make some kind of point," Clara narrowed her eyes.

"Go," Wanda said abruptly.

Five people turned to her. "What?" the Doctor's eyebrows raised.

"Wanda, you're not serious!" Clara's eyes widened.

The TARDIS materialized nearby, Courtney coming out, and Wanda pointed. "Go," she reiterated.

"Hang on a minute, we can get in there, can't we?" Lundvik asked. "You can sort it out with that thing."

"No, he can't," Wanda shook his head. "And he won't."

"Wanda!" Pietro protested.

"Wanda," the Doctor began.

"I know," Wanda said simply, tilting her head towards the TARDIS. "Leave."

Relief flooded the Doctor, and he whispered "Thank you" before leading Jessie inside.

"Doctor?" Clara called angrily. "Doctor!"

"Bad Wolf!" Pietro shouted.

"Oh, what a prat," Lundvik growled as the TARDIS dematerialized.

"And you let him go?" Clara glared at Wanda.

"We would hardly be able to stop him," Wanda shook her head. "You honestly didn't see it, did you, why he was leaving?"

***

"Jessie!" the Doctor quickly ran over to her when she slid into the captain's chair, whimpering and curling up into a ball. "Jessie, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I don't," she choked, eyes flickering all over the TARDIS, her chest heaving as she tried to take in as much air as she could. "Kasterborous, I don't know!"

"Jezebel, look at me," the Doctor placed his hands on her cheeks, getting her eyes to look right into his. "Jezebel, look at me! Stay with me!"

Jessie only let out a strangled sob as she bent her head, her hands holding onto the Doctor's wrists, the TARDIS buzzing and whirring around them, the Doctor's eyes widening when he felt her forehead, feeling her burning up.

***

The moon shook once more, making everyone stumble. "I'm going to detonate the bombs, agreed?" Lundvik looked around. "Agreed?"

"Look out!" Pietro shouted as one of the windows broke, air rushing out. "Breach!"

Wanda flung her hands out, summoning a piece of metal over the hole, sealing it. "If we let it live, what would happen if the moon wasn't there?" Clara asked.

"Listen, we haven't got time for this," Lundvik began.

"We're discussing it!" Clara shouted. "What would happen if the moon wasn't there?"

"I have a physics book in my bag," Courtney offered. "There's this thing on gravity."

"Super," Lundvik rolled her eyes. "Is there a word search?"

"There would be no tides," Pietro thought.

"But we'd survive that, right?" Wanda frowned.

"They've knocked out the satellites," Clara recalled. "There's no Internet, no mobiles."

"Eh," Pietro shrugged. "I could live with that."

"It's not going to just stop being there," Lundvik argued. "Because inside the moon is a gigantic creature forcing its way out. And when it does, which is going to be pretty damn soon, there are going to be huge chunks of the moon heading right for us, like whatever killed the dinosaurs, only ten thousand times bigger."

"But the moon isn't made of rock and stone, is it?" Wanda raised an eyebrow. "It's made of eggshell."

"Oh, God," Lundvik groaned. "OK, OK, fine. If, by some miracle, the shell isn't too thick, or if it disperses, or if it goes into orbit, whatever, there's still going to be a massive thing there, isn't there, that just popped out. And what the hell do you imagine that is?"

"Loads of things lay eggs," Courtney shrugged.

"It's not a chicken," the astronaut glared at her.

"I'm not saying it's a chicken. I'm not completely stupid."

"It's an exoparasite."

"A what?"

"Like a flea, or a head louse."

"I'm going to have to be a lot more certain than that if I'm going to kill a baby," Clara shook her head.

"Oh, you want to talk about babies?" Lundvik raised an eyebrow. "You've probably got babies down there now. You want to have babies?"

Clara blushed, and Pietro took a sudden interest in the room around them. "You're talking to the only couple in the room," Wanda smirked.

"So she's not dating Mr. Pink?" Courtney asked in confusion.

"Shush!" Clara hissed, now as red as Wanda's magic.

"OK," Lundvik raised an eyebrow. "You imagine you've got children down there on Earth now, right? Grandchildren, maybe. You want that thing to get out? Kill them all? You want today to be the day life on Earth stopped because you couldn't make an unfair decision? Look, I don't want to do this. All my life I've dreamed about coming here, but this is how it has to end."

"Oi!" Courtney shouted when Lundvik set the trigger.

"I've given us an hour," Lundvik announced. "There's a cut-out here. If anyone has any bright ideas, or if they come back, that stops it. But once it's pressed, it stays pressed."

"And if they don't come back?" Wanda asked.

"I didn't expect to survive anyway," Lundvik shrugged.

"They're going to come back, though, right?" Courtney looked at Clara. "Aren't they, Miss?"

"Hey, why don't you call me Clara?" she frowned.

"I prefer Miss . . . Miss," Courtney shrugged. "We just need to make up our minds, that's all. Well, you know them."

"No," Wanda sighed, folding her arms. "I think he really is leaving it to us."

"Him?" Pietro frowned. "They both left us!"

"You clearly didn't see how completely out of it the Bad Wolf was," Wanda hissed.

Pietro did a double take, thinking back, when the console crackled. "Can anybody hear me?" a voice called out, and Lundvik ran over. "Come in, please. Can anybody – "

"Lundvik," she leaned in.

"This is ground control," a man appeared on the monitor.

"Yeah, yeah, I can tell by your haircut. How are things down there?"

"Pretty bad. Yeah, pretty bad. Listen, we're patched in to one of the TV satellites. We haven't got long. How are things up there?"

"Can we broadcast on this?" Clara cut in.

"Who are you?" the man blinked at her.

"School trip," Clara gestured, and Courtney waved. "Can we broadcast on this?"

"Well, yes," the man nodded.

Clara closed her eyes, turning to the Maximoffs. "Here's what I've got in mind."

***

"Hello, Earth," Clara said as she sat in front of the monitor, broadcasting to Earth, the Maximoffs behind her. "We have a terrible decision to make. It's an uncertain decision, and we don't have a lot of time. We can kill this creature, or we can let it live. We don't know what it's going to do, we don't know what's going to happen when it hatches. If it will hurt us, help us, or just leave us alone. We have to decide together. This is the last time we'll be able to speak to you, but you can send us a message. If you think we should kill the creature, turn your lights off. If you think we should take the chance, let it live, leave your lights on. We'll be able to see. Good night, Earth." She shut the message off and turned to Courtney as Pietro walked over and put an arm around her. "Was that OK?" she asked shakily.

"Yeah," Courtney nodded as Pietro pressed a kiss to Clara's hair.

The lights flickered again, and Wanda walked over to the door. "Judgment day," she said grimly.

"Come on," Clara took Courtney's hand. "Let's see."

Lundvik brought the case with her as they walked down the corridor. When they reached a porthole, Clara took a pair of binoculars from her suit, looking out towards Earth. "Well?" Pietro asked.

Clara waited with a sinking stomach, and Wanda breathed in sharply. "The lights are going out," the enhanced answered.

Several minutes went by, and Clara hung her head as when the timer passed five minutes, all lights they could see were out. "Night night," Courtney whispered.

"Oh, Doctor, Bad Wolf, where have you gone?" Clara breathed.

"We can't risk it all just to be nice," Lundvik shook her head.

"OK," Clara swallowed, looking at the Maximoffs.

"Miss?" Courtney asked.

"Nine seconds," Lundvik checked the timer.

"You can't!" Courtney cried, not seeing the three Avengers tense.

"Sorry," Lundvik shook her head. "See you on the other side. Two – "

All three sprang at the same time, their hands hitting the cut-out switch at the same moment. The detonation aborted, and Lundvik cried, "Hey!"

All heads turned when the TARDIS materialized, and the Doctor ran out. "One, two, three, four, five, into the TARDIS!" he ordered sharply.

"What's happening?" Lundvik asked as the station shook.

"Let's go and have a look, shall we?"

Wanda ran inside, only to stop when she saw Jessie was manning one of the levers, looking ridiculously pale, still slightly flushed, but at least she looked more aware. "Are you OK?" she asked, walking over.

"Better," she nodded slightly.

"Good," Wanda gave her a hug.

Pietro swallowed as he walked up. "I didn't know – "

"I know," Jessie smiled, giving him a hug, Pietro wincing when it wasn't as strong as it usually was. "I understand."

"Bloody idiots," Lundvik was ranting. "Bloody irresponsible idiots!"

"Doctor?" Pietro winked, making Jessie giggle. "Captain Lundvik said a bad word."

The Doctor spun on his heel and walked right up to her. "Language," he admonished. "There are children present."

"You should have left me there, left me to die," she declared. "I wanted to die up there with the universe in front of me, not being crushed to death on Earth."

"Nobody's going to die," Jessie shook her head.

"Really?" Wanda asked hopefully.

"Could you please let us see what's happening?" Lundvik asked.

Jessie nodded and pulled the lever . . . not seeing Clara fuming behind them.

***

The seven ran out onto a beach, looking up in the sky. There was a full moon present, the baby spreading its wings. "What's it doing?" Courtney asked.

"It's feeling the sun on itself," the Doctor smiled. "It's getting warm. The chick flies away, and the eggshell disintegrates. Harmless."

"Did you know?" Clara whispered.

"You made your decision," the Doctor said. "Humanity made its choice."

"No, we ignored humanity," Lundvik shook her head.

"Well, there you go."

"So what happens now, then? Tell me what happens now."

The Doctor closed his eyes. "In the mid twenty-first century, humankind starts creeping off into the stars, spread its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe. And it endures till the end of time." His eyes opened as he looked back at them. "And it does all that because one day, in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that made it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness, and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed." He grinned. "Not bad for a girl from Coal Hill School, her teacher, and two enhanced."

"Oh, my gosh!" Courtney pointed. "It laid a new egg! It's beautiful! Doctor, Bad Wolf, it's beautiful!"

"Yes, it is," Jessie smiled, leaning her head on the Doctor's chest as she looked up at the new egg in the sky.

"That's what we call a new moon," the Doctor smiled, kissing the top of his wife's head.

"You can be the first woman on that," Courtney grinned at Lundvik.

"I think that somebody deserves a thank you," the Doctor hinted.

"Maybe more than just somebody," Jessie added.

"Yeah, probably," Lundvik sighed, turning to the companions. "Thank you. Thank you for stopping me. Thank you for giving me the moon back."

"OK, Captain," the Doctor straightened. "Well, you've got a whole new space program to get together. NASA is, er . . . it's that way," he pointed. "About two and a half thousand miles." Jessie rolled her eyes fondly as Pietro snorted. "You still got your vortex manipulators?" the Doctor asked Courtney. "I'll give you a run home."

***

Jessie was reclining back in the captain's chair, her eyes closed, when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She looked up, smiling softly at the Doctor, his eyes showing immense concern. "Doctor," she whispered. "I'm fine."

"You weren't," he shook his head. "Jezebel, you have never had a reaction to a situation like that before. You've never had a panic attack like that, you've never been overstressed. What caused that?"

Jessie closed her eyes, thinking. "They were talking about killing a baby," she whispered. "An alien baby. One that hadn't even been born yet. I can't . . . Kasterborous, I can't imagine that."

"It was awful," the Doctor agreed. "Completely horrible."

"I never want to think about that happening again," Jessie turned her head to the side, the Doctor's hand moving to the back of her head, resting their foreheads together. "Kasterborous, I can't take another adventure where we have to think about making that kind of a choice again."

"Never again, Jezebel," the Doctor vowed passionately. "Never again."

Jessie smiled at him, reaching up to kiss him. They lingered like that, just taking comfort that the other was there.

Then they heard footsteps coming up towards the console, and the Doctor kissed her again before turning as the four others walked up. "Not that it's any of my business, but I think you did the right thing," he told them.

Pietro and Wanda just nodded. Clara, however, said bitterly, "Yeah, you're right. It's none of your business." Jessie sat up at that, the Doctor blinking, and Clara turned to Courtney. "Come on, Courtney, off you go. Double Geography."

"Can we do it again?" Courtney asked curiously.

"Go!" Clara made a shooing motion. "Go, go. Chop chop!" Courtney headed out, and curious, the Doctor reached out and lifted a lever to set the TARDIS going. Immediately, Clara slammed it back down. "Tell me what you knew," she ordered.

"Nothing," the Doctor shook his head. "I told you, I've got grey areas."

"Yeah, I noticed," Clara folded her arms, narrowing her eyes. "Tell me what you knew, Doctor, or else I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate."

"Clara!" Jessie protested.

"I knew that eggs are not bombs," the Doctor said slowly. "I know they don't usually destroy their nests. Essentially, what I knew was that you would always make the best choice. I had faith that you would always make the right choice."

"Honestly, do you have music playing in your head when you say rubbish like that?" Clara spat.

"It wasn't our decision to make! I told you!"

"Well, why did you do it? Was it for Courtney? Was that it?"

"Well, she really is something special now, isn't she?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "First woman on the moon, saved the Earth from itself, and, rather bizarrely, she becomes the President of the United States. She met this bloke called Blinovitch – "

"Do you know what?" Clara threw her arms in the air. "Shut up! I am so sick of listening to you!"

"Clara, calm down!" Jessie swung out of her chair, stumbling slightly, Wanda reaching out to help her straighten.

"Well, I didn't do it for Courtney!" the Doctor shook his head. "I didn't know what was going to happen. Do you think I'm lying?"

"I don't know!" Clara cried hysterically. "I don't know! If you didn't do it for her, I mean . . . do you know what? It was – it was cheap. It was pathetic. No, no, no, it was patronizing! That was you patting us on the back, saying 'you're big enough to go to the shops by yourself now. Go on, toddle along!'"

"Clara, I seriously doubt that," Pietro shook his head, looking over at the Bad Wolf. He hadn't seen it before, he, too, had been angry the Doctor and the Bad Wolf were apparently leaving them. But now . . . now he saw it. Something was wrong with his Pilot, the woman who saved his life. How could he have ever doubted she would have just left them like that? And she certainly wouldn't have let the Doctor leave them there, either. So for both of them to have just disappeared – no, for the Doctor to just take her, for her not to even utter a word when they left . . . what the hell was going on with her?

"Shut up!" Clara barked, and stunned, Pietro shut his mouth with a click, the two other women looking over, startled at that as well. "Well, Doctor? Well?!"

"That was us allowing you to make a choice about your own future!" the Doctor held up his hands. "That was us respecting you!"

"Oh, my God, really?" Clara stared at him in disbelief. "Was it? Yeah, well, respected is not how I feel!"

"Right," the Doctor slowly turned. "OK, er . . . "

"Doctor," Jessie began quietly.

"I nearly didn't press that button," Clara shook her head. "Maybe Pietro and Wanda would have done it instead, but I nearly got it wrong. That was you, my friend, making me scared. Making me feel like a bloody idiot!"

"Language," the Doctor said, almost automatically.

"Oh, don't you ever tell me to mind my language!" Clara screeched at him. "Don't you ever tell me to take the stabilizers off my bike! And don't you dare lump me in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable!"

"Clara!" Wanda's eyes widened. Where . . . where on Earth was all of this coming from?

"Clara, I swear, that's not it at all!" Jessie shook her head.

But she just kept on going. "You two, you walk our Earth, you breathe our air," she pointed between them. "You make us your friend, and that is your moon, too, and you can damn well help us when we need it!"

The Doctor opened his mouth to respond –

"Go," Jessie waved at Clara.

That made everyone turn to her. "Excuse me?" Clara stared at her.

"If you really think that little of us, then you get off this ship and never come back," Jessie walked up to her, folding her arms. "Or, maybe you'll be smart, like I know you are, and let me explain exactly why we left. If not, I don't expect to hear from you again, I don't expect to ever see you around the Avengers again, and I certainly don't expect a phone call to the TARDIS. Because if that's how you're going to act, after everything we have been through, after everything we have done for you . . . then you have no right to ever have contact with us again." Clara stood there gaping like a fish out of water, the three others staying silent . . . knowing that when Jessie got started, it was best to let her go. "So," Jessie held out a hand to the doors. "Are we going to talk? Or are you going to disappear forever? It's your choice."

***

I completely missed Capalry. I honestly don't know how I've gone on this long without them. Maybe because it's this episode in particular . . .

Well, it's the Bad Wolf and Clara next time. And lucky for you all, I'm about to update that. ;) Interlude coming up shortly!