Disclaimer: Don't own'em, just taking them out for some exercise. And because everyone has to do at least one fix-it at some point, right? ;)

Author's Note: The prologue is pretty much exactly -that- scene in Journey's End. But it's necessary, and I'll be on new territory after this, so this is the only episode to get quoted. And if anyone wants to be a beta for this fic, let me know.

Love for all my readers!


Prologue: The end of a beginning


"I thought we'd try the planet Felspoon. Just 'cause. What a good name, Felspoon, apparently it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move - can you imagine?" Donna adjusted a knob as she circled the console, not noticing that the Doctor was uncommonly silent as he leaned against a strut, watching her.

He broke that silence finally, quietly, solemnly asking, "And how do you know that?"

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine." Donna smiled, then turned away from the Doctor as she kept circling, flipping a switch or three and frowning faintly while he couldn't see. She could hear the TARDIS, thanks to her brand new mind, but the dear old girl was hard to understand. Still, she could let her hands do what the ship suggested and they could chat later.

"And how does that feel?" The sober question was quiet in comparison to the enthusiasm lacing Donna's voice and he might have winced, just a bit, as she clapped her hands.

"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain." She barely paused for breath before segueing into another subject altogether, smiling brightly. "You know, you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just try to hotbind the fragment links into superseding the binarybinarybinarybinary," Her voice began to hold traces of panic as she continued repeating that one word - twelve times in all before she managed to cut herself off with a gasp and quickly continued with an unbelievable smile pasted on, and a quick "I'm fine."

The Doctor pushed himself off the strut and watched sorrowfully as Donna paused further along and turned to face him, tense and disturbed and yet carrying on anyway, just like he would. "Nah, never mind Felspoon, y'know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I'll bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin! Shall we do that, shall we go see Charlie Chaplin?" She picked up the TARDIS phone and gestured with it as the rambling babble continually spilled from her, once more out of her control. "Charlie Chester, Charlie Brown, no he's fiction-friction-fiction-fixin-mixin-rixton-brixton." The flow of rhyming words was interrupted with another gasp as she bent over the console from the sudden sharp pain in her head, tentatively touching her hand to her head as she took several pained breaths. "...oh my god..."

The Doctor now stood only a few feet from Donna, his face so still, but his eyes full of pain and sorrow. "Do you know what's happening?"

Donna straightened and barely nodded as she took a shaky breath before answering him, a grimace of disturbed realization distorting her face. "Yeah."

The turmoil in his eyes contradicted his calm facade as he continued. "There's never been a human-Timelord metacrisis before now. And you know why."

"Because there can't be." Donna pushed herself off the console and continued around it as tears welled in her eyes. "I want to stay." Her hands brushed over dials and levers, changing their positions according to the whispers of the TARDIS. It was getting harder to focus, but the old girl pushed through the pain and kept showing her what to do.

"Look at me. Donna, look at me." The Doctor's voice was rough, almost breaking, and it was why she finally looked at him, lower lip quivering.

As was her voice when she spoke again. "I was going to be with you. Forever."

He whispered, as though he could not speak louder around the lump in his throat. "I know."

"The rest of my life, traveling in the TARDIS. The DoctorDonna." He only looked at her and then gently clasped her arms. She looked into his eyes and a choked gasp shook her as she realized what he was going to do.

"I won't! I won't let you take it all from me – I'd rather die!" She pushed him away violently and staggered half 'round the console again, bumping one last knob as she retreated. The central column of the TARDIS pulsed and glowed more brightly than she'd ever seen, the ship made an eerie whistle, and time slowed almost to a halt, freezing the Doctor in place mid-stagger. But not her – she was still free to move.

In that brief moment of stopped time, Donna could feel the TARDIS and her Time Lord mind lay possible futures out before her: to forget – to let the Doctor take her memories and be ignorant again, everyone she knew grieving who she had been while the ghost of her still walked about; to die in excruciating agony but still herself, still the magnificent person she had become; or she could take a dangerous risk. A third choice, that might lead to her death anyway, but one that had the chance of really doing something worthwhile and...correcting something that had gone wrong? Just once, she wished she was a proper Time Lord, it would be so much easier to interpret everything if she only had a big enough brain.

Still, there really was only one choice for Donna, and once it was made she found herself at the portion of the console that contained the main travel controls, her hands racing over buttons, dials, levers and switches while more information was stuffed into her head as the bubble of stopped time fizzled and began to fade as the energy supporting it failed. Her hand was on the last lever – the one used to begin a jaunt through time and space – as the bubble popped and time in the console room returned to it's normal flow.

Before the Doctor could do more than catch his balance, Donna smiled at him through her tears and flipped the lever, beginning to glow greenish-gold. "So long, Doctor. It's been fantastic." One last deep breath, and then she stepped backwards and faded away, green-gold afterimages like ghosts remaining for microseconds before fading as well.

The Doctor stared in stunned disbelief before running to where Donna had last stood, frantically feeling around as though she might still be there, just invisible. "Donna?" There was no answer, no body, just a brief tingle in his fingers before that too was gone.

Terrified and furious, he spun on one heel to glower at his one constant in the universe – a glower that dropped to a simpler scowl as he noted how dim it had become in the console room. "You have a lot of questions to answer, old girl. And somewhere specific to take us very soon."

An inarticulate gurgle of frustration escaped him as the controls reset themselves before he could read the previous co-ordinates – now the co-ordinates were set for Cardiff. He knew his ship had used a lot of energy doing whatever she and Donna had conspired to do, but dammit, Donna was out there somewhere about to burn up and he had to find her! He buried his hands in his hair and tugged hard, pacing back and forth before finally setting his stubborn girl in motion to her preferred destination.

"Fine, I see what has to be, and we'll go to Cardiff. But the nano-second you're done topping up, we ARE going wherever you sent Donna, and no arguing!"