A/N: So, here's a first go at a fanfiction collaboration with MeMyselfAndTARDIS. *Nervously walks up to readers. Drops off chapter. Runs away*
On the last day of Gallifrey, the final hour approaches. Rassillon knows his end is near and no number of regenerations can save him from the destruction of this pitiful red planet. He places both hands on the table before him and gives an evil smile as a plan comes to mind: To destroy the universe and take it with himself. It was the perfect way to die in battle and there's no way he would surrender to everything.
He orders the time Eye of Harmony be destroyed.
As the TARDIS lazily drifts in space, the Doctor looks back at River Song with a quizzical, yet mocking look.
"So, Professor River Song, why are you trying to avoid staying with me in the TARDIS?"
"Like I said," River grinned. "One psychopath per TARDIS, sweetie." The Doctor frowned at his wife whilst trying to concentrate on the TARDIS.
"You're lying. That's not what you're thinking. Don't play games with me. Don't ever think you are capable of playing games with me."
-BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP-
The TARDIS jerked and shook more violently, throwing both passengers to the floor. The Doctor muttered to himself and tried reassuring the TARDIS. He picked himself up in the midst of the tremors and noticed the monitor flashing a series of numbers. His eyes widened with each number that appeared and he gaped at the final words: 26062010 TEMPORAL DISTORTION DETECTED. Shocked, the Time Lord picks himself up and throws himself onto the console, fiddling with controls. "What is happening to my TARDIS?" River looked around in a panic and back at her husaband.
"This can't be happening! It can't be!" She gasped. The Doctor glared at River.
"River, what are you hiding from me?"
"Just land the TARDIS," the professor demanded. Her eyes bore the Doctor's. "I can't tell you now." The Doctor gives a long hard stare at his wife and frowns. He pulled the dematerialisation lever all too suddenly and the ship gave a final jerk. The central column glowed green no more and its activities halted as the TARDIS materialises at the source of the time eruption.
It was unmistakable. It didn't take moments to figure out the source of it all as the Doctor peered into the monitor. It displayed nothing more than the home planet of the Time Lords. Gallifrey.
The Doctor was the first to climb out of the badly shaken TARDIS, despite River's bickering about checking the conditions outside first. She finally staggers out, clutching her blue diary and grooming her already messy hair. He gazed at his red surroundings, not making eye contact with the professor and suddenly turned to the TARDIS.
"Extractor fans on!"
The TARDIS shakes violently and sparks fly out from within the console. With it's heart, the eye of harmony destroyed, it gives out one more wheeze and vibrates violently, with the Police Box exterior starting to disintegrate. It's circuits fail and the TARDIS appears as a faint silver box, then falls apart.
"No!" The Doctor shrieked, darting back to the broken exterior of his oldest and most dearest companion. He looks in horror as his love for 2000 years finally parts him. The shock in his eyes is unmistakable as River tries to calm him down. The last TARDIS throughout Time and Space and it's gone. The Doctor's greatest companion. Some left him, some got left behind. Some, not many, but, some died, and his TARDIS was one of the few. They turn away from the TARDIS and see the Citadel of the Time Lords. It was broken, burning, cracking apart. The loss of his home planet, the loss of his greatest companion, who helped him through every regeneration, the loss of the last TARDIS in the universe.
"Hold it together, Doctor, you can still save all of creation here." The Doctor muttered. "You know time is dying, and you need to save it." He gazes at the destruction around him. Not just Gallifrey, but time itself is dying as cracks in the skin of the universe appear everywhere. His TARDIS is dead, time is collapsing and he is the only man that can stand up against the Time Lords.
He walks solemnly towards the citadel with River closely behind.
"The mountains, the red scenery, the citadel under a dome..." River whispered. "Is this your… Is this Gallifrey?" She breathed.
"I'm home River. I'm back home." The Doctor then stays silent for the rest of the walk, still trying to hold himself together after the loss of his TARDIS. He halted and a thought struck him.
"What's wrong?" His wife asked.
"I feel like I missed something." He contemplated. "Something important… I think I… Oh! I know!" He exclaimed surprisingly excitedly. "Stay right here River!"
"Where are you going?"
The Doctor runs as fast as his Time Lord legs could carry him in the direction of the once blue box. He slows down as he gets closer and looks at his TARDIS. The TARDIS wasn't much bigger than the Blue Police Box. However, it was covered in the scars and burns of millennia of travel. The rusted, battered box that had fallen apart, left inside a single TARDIS key. The Doctor picks it up, silently, and places it in his pocket. He then runs back towards River but not before looking back one last time at that silver, broken box, then runs off. He gets back to where they were standing but the Professor was no where to be found.
Only her diary was left on the scarred grounds of Gallifrey.
