Continuity Note: Takes place after Fear Her and before Army of Ghosts
This Never Happened
The Doctor drew a deep breath and willed himself to take the final step towards the device. If he did this, if it worked, then none of this would ever have happened. It'd be wiped clean from existence, and no one would ever know the difference. Well, he might. But she wouldn't and he'd rather not remember at all than look into her eyes and see none of what they'd shared together reflected back at him. If he made it out alive, he'd lock the memories away, let them join the worst of the Time War in the dark corners of his mind where he stuffed everything that hurt too much to know.
There wasn't any way around it though. It had to be done. His feelings weren't more important than the safety of the entire universe.
He stepped forward and triggered the device.
The TARDIS shook as the Doctor stumbled madly around the centre console, trying to regain control of their flight. Rose clung tightly to a railing to keep from being thrown across the room as he worked.
"Just a bit of turbulence! Nothing to worry about," he attempted to reassure her just as several alarms sounded around them. "Oh, that's not supposed to happen!"
He managed to grasp hold of the lever he'd been reaching for and wrenched it downward. The TARDIS gave one last shudder and settled with a disconcertingly final sounding noise. They held still for a second, sharing a concerned look as they waited to be sure the machine had finished landing. Just as Rose was about to break the silence and ask him what happened, the Doctor snapped back into action and hurried over to the view screen.
"That's odd," he muttered, pulling out his glasses.
"What is?" Rose came up behind him to peer at the screen.
"I have no idea where we are. The TARDIS isn't even showing proper coordinates for this place. If that number is correct," he tapped at a nine digit figure fluctuating on the monitor, "then we ought to be in deep space. But we're not. There's a planet with an atmosphere and near-Earth gravity outside right now. And that number," he indicated another, "that number doesn't even make sense in real space!"
He straightened and took a step back to look from the confusing readout to the TARDIS doors. "She's picking up a rather peculiar energy signature not far from here, maybe that's throwing off the sensors?" This last statement came out as more of a question.
The Doctor retrieved his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and tilted his head towards the door. "Fancy a stroll on an uncharted planet to investigate?" he asked.
"I'll get my coat." Rose replied with a grin.
The surface outside was remarkably blue. The ground beneath their feet appeared to be primarily rock, cracked with millions of fine fissures and small impact craters, as though the planet had been heavily blasted with tiny meteorites. Bluish-grey dirt or sand lay around in patchy drifts and whipped about them in the vigorous wind. The temperature was cool and the air felt very dry.
Rose began coughing as a gust blew some sand directly in her face. The Doctor stepped back inside the TARDIS for a moment and returned bearing a pink bandana and goggles for her to wear. He pulled a second pair down over his own eyes and wrapped what seemed to be an excessively long striped scarf over his nose and mouth. When they finished protecting themselves from the dust, Rose took the Doctor's offered hand and they ventured out into the alien landscape, following the mysterious energy signature.
With all the dust in the air, it was difficult to distinguish between the ground and the sky or even really see all that far ahead on the horizon. With concern, Rose noted that they had lost sight of the TARDIS behind them and had to remind herself that the Doctor was unlikely to lose track of his ship entirely because of a simple dust storm. The high winds made conversation extremely difficult; Rose hoped that whatever they were looking for was both nearby and sheltered from the elements.
Before too long, they came upon a row of great dark pillars spaced evenly a short distance apart and continuing on into the distance to the left and right as far as they could see like enormous fence posts. The Doctor stopped short to examine them with an increasingly alarmed expression on his face. He switched the settings on his sonic and scanned the nearest pillar again. Something suddenly felt very, very wrong here.
The energy signature was most definitely originating from the pillars, but how exactly, he couldn't figure out. Beyond the energy emissions, they were opaque to his scans, giving no indication of their inner workings at all. Far, far more worrisome though was the effect this place was having on his time senses. He felt close to suffocation and vaguely nauseous as the timelines around him seemed to twist and writhe. The closer he got to the pillars, the worse it got. They needed to leave. Now.
He turned to find Rose approaching one of the pillars and yelled to her to stop. She turned and hurried over to him when she saw his panicked expression.
"What's wrong?" she asked, shouting to make herself heard over the wind.
The Doctor didn't get a chance to answer her though. He was interrupted by a powerful low frequency hum that built up around them, resonating from the pillars and shaking the ground beneath their feet. His Time Lord senses screamed at him in alarm and he clutched at his head in pain as he struggled to remain standing. The last thing he recalled before he blacked out was seeing Rose fall to the ground with her hands over her ears.