It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
Prologue
Time moved around him, he could feel the pull of the time vortex. He had known grief in his life before, more grief than it should be possible for one person to bear, the timbre of this was different. The print she had left on him was deeper, she had made the universe fun again for the right reasons, travelling with a friend and sharing the experience. He'd not had that in so long. No emotional baggage, just, a mate.
Donna
The rain pattered down against the window and she shook her head. They'd had floods down in the south again and she was wondering if the rain would ever end. The news reports had shown pictures of the planets in the sky, a doomsday of aliens and terror and she had missed it. Again.
She huffed the red hair from her face in irritation and boredom, no job, no money, no future. Surely there was something better than this? Something she could do with her life beyond staying every day with her mother and grandfather.
'Alright darling?' Donna turned and looked at her mother again, ready to throw out a flippant comment and stopped when she caught the look in her eyes.
'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.' She said. After the planets in the sky her mother had told her that things were going to be different and that she was going to help her follow her dreams. Donna didn't really believe she had any dreams, or if she did they were the old clichés that everyone else believed they deserved. It was unnerving in a way. How close had they really come to death, she'd heard about the pepper pots coming to Earth and killing people, had even seen the ruins of a destroyed building. She was half glad she'd not been awake for that. 'I'm going down the allotment.' She said after a moment.
'Take your coat.' Her mother said seriously and Donna shook her head.
'Yes Mum.' A tone of being greatly put upon. The allotment was like a bog these days, but still, every night, without fail, he came up here to look through his telescope, searching for aliens.
'Found anything?' She asked, taking the flask of tea and pouring herself a cup, sitting under the eaves of the shed so that the rain wouldn't hit her.
'Not today love.' He said with a smile. 'Unless you count mars, but that wasn't lost.' He said with a chuckle.
'Not according to the latest news.' She warmed her hands on the mug and took a sip. 'Why didn't you wake me?' She asked and watched him hesitate.
'Well, if the world was going to be destroyed did you really want to be woken up for that?' He asked.
'Err, yeah. It being the end of the world and everything.' She shook her head. 'I can't believe I missed it.' There was something faintly tugging at the back of her head and she tried to place the feelings. The tickle across her hand made her look down and she jumped at the massive spider crawling across her hand, flinging it away. It landed in a puddle not a few feet from her and she watched it as it contorted and drowned. She closed her eyes, a flash of red behind her eyelids as the headache began to pound again. She reached up, placing her palm to the temple of her forehead, why was this happening so often, in the three weeks since the end of the world failed to happen she spent one of those in bed with a migraine that just wouldn't stop. Listening to the pair of them whispering in the corridor, could they know something she didn't?
She looked over at the street, the lamp lights glittered as raindrops obscured their vision, this was otherworldly and she smiled at the thought. Closing her eyes she leant back against the wood of the shed with a smile.
'Hey, who turned out the lights?' Donna heard her grandfather and opened her eyes.
'A power cut.' She said, taking into account that one of the streets had been plunged into darkness.
Hey, who turned out the lights?
The pain was immediately white hot.
A drowning spider.
The tea dropped from her hand.
A dalek.
She grabbed her head and screamed.
Hey, who turned out the lights?
Suddenly the light had been turned on and it was burning.
'Donna!'
The brilliance of it all came back to her, it glowed with knowledge of the worlds she had never been to and those she had. She sobbed as she howled, the joy and wonder of it all as the knowledge flooded back into her. It hurt, but it was a good hurt, the kind where you would never want it to stop. It was too much so she let it go, let herself go with it as her mind expanded to fit it all in.
'Donna? Your head?' Her granddad was speaking to her and she cried, the happiness overwhelmed her as it burnt her from the inside out.
'It's full of stars.' She said, her heart singing with the knowledge and fire.
Deep in her abdomen something clenched and her eyes fluttered open, looking at her granddad and she smiled. 'It's okay.' She whispered. 'It's all going to be better now.' She promised. 'But you have to move away.'
'I'm not leaving you.' He swore, the tears that rolled over his cheeks.
'It will be okay, but you have to move, you cannot burn too. It's started.' She cried out as she arched her back, the strange pain moving in her body. The light started burning from within and she gasped. 'Get back.' She commanded through gritted teeth and he slowly did. She curled up into a ball at the agony that ripped through her centre. Then her body felt like it was exploding. Golden light welling up from her skin, energy pouring off of her in waves as her body changed. The speed of her heart separated into two distinct beats as the energy began to wear away, she lay still, taking a deep breath, feeling the changes.
'Donna?' She opened her eyes.
'Oh yes.' She said sitting up and then turning dark eyes to her granddad. 'Very yes.'
'But… your face.' He said to her.
She licked her lips and then nodded as she tried to think of it. 'Two way biological metacrysis.' She said as her mind whirled with all the thoughts she had ever known and most she had never known. 'When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.' She took a deep breath and smiled, letting out a bark of laughter. Then she thought and looked at him. 'He told you, when I touched his hand he made another body from mine, but he infused me with his knowledge at the same time. It was too much for my fragile human mind to take, but that was not the only thing he gave me. He was half human, I was half time lord. But he gave me the good half don't you see? The knowledge and this.' She looked at her hand, long fingers, well she would get used to that.
'What's he done to you?' He asked, the tone of his voice that told her how close the breaking point he was.
'It's what I did to myself. Regeneration. I'm a time lord.' She paused and then a distasteful expression came over her face. 'I'm an alien!'