THE END OF TIME OR A NEW BEGINNING?
I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit from this.
Author's Note: This is a little one-shot of how I would have liked the ending of the Tenth Doctor's last story, The End of Time, to have gone. It's going to be completely different from the TV version so be prepared for anything. The beginning of the story is taken from the crucial scene toward the end of Part 2 where the Time Lords led by Rassilon have returned to Earth, and the Doctor is desperately trying to stop them while holding a gun pointed at Rassilon. I hope that you like it.
"Well, Doctor, make your choice. Which will you shoot? Me or the Master? The final act of your life will be one of murder. How far the mighty have fallen," Rassilon said with a look of triumph on his face.
The Doctor struggled with indecision as he pointed the gun in his hand at first Rassilon and then the Master and then back to Rassilon once again. He knew that if he shot the Master that he would deny them the ability to escape the Time Lock since the drums in the Master's head that Rassilon had planted there when he was a child had been their means of escaping it. The downside to that though was that Rassilon would have just enough time to kill the Doctor before he was sucked back in, and then he would fulfill the prophecy of the psychic on the bus that he would die soon.
The Doctor was filled with anguish as he didn't know what to do next, and he was well aware that he was running out of time to come up with an answer.
Then he looked behind Rassilon with surprise as he saw one of the two women that had been covering their faces with their hands behind him suddenly remove her hands and reveal herself to him. His felt both of his hearts suddenly go into his throat as he realized that the woman was his mother!
Then his guilt and sorrow over what he had done to Gallifrey, to her, was momentarily sent to the back of his mind as he realized that she was trying to tell him something. He didn't understand what it was at first and then he suddenly knew.
She wanted him to destroy the White Point Star itself and send them all back by doing so. He silently thanked her and then he shot the diamond and destroyed it.
Rassilon became filled with rage and threatened to kill the Doctor for what he had done even as he could feel the pull of the Time Lock yanking him back to where he should be once more. The Doctor had already resigned himself to dying at Rassilon's hands at this point because he knew that it was worth it to protect the universe from the Time Lords.
That was when one of the most amazing things that he had ever seen in all of his lives happened.
Rassilon screamed in agony as a blaster shot hit him square in the chest and made him instantly fall to the ground. He had just been knocked completely unconscious by the blast. Everyone else looked in shock to see that the shot had been fired by a woman in a skintight leather catsuit with a huge smile on her face who was holding a staser.
"Sorry, whoever you are, but I'm not about to let you kill the Doctor just as soon as I've finally found him again. I've gone through way too many hours of endless searching for him in order to get back to him again just to lose him now," Lady Christina de Souza said.
"Christina? How? Never mind. Right now I really don't care. I could kiss you!" The Doctor said in disbelief.
"Not now, Doctor. There will be plenty of time for us to kiss later and maybe even more than that if you'd like. Right now I have a debt to repay. Let the two women that you're holding prisoner go. Now!" Christina said as she pointed the staser at the remaining Time Lords behind Rassilon.
"What is going on?" The Doctor said in complete bewilderment.
"What are you asking me for? She's one of your Earth girls, Doctor. Don't you know? Or have you completely lost control of this one? I always knew that it would happen someday. One of your Earth girls has finally lost her mind at last. Then again it could be argued that anyone who willingly decides to go traveling with you in that broken down TARDIS of yours has already lost their mind in the first place," The Master said with a smirk.
The Doctor watched in disbelief as the Time Lords surrounding his mother and the other woman who he still didn't recognize immediately held their hands up and backed away from them. They now willingly fled back into the past as they realized that their plan to free themselves had finally failed at last.
"What are you waiting for, Penelope? Stop standing there and come on!" Christina shouted.
"I can't go, Christina. Susan and I have to go back into the Time Lock. This whole moment has become a fixed point in time now. It cannot be altered," Penelope, the Doctor's mother, said.
"The moment has maybe but that doesn't mean that your being there has to be a fixed point. Come on!" Christina said impatiently as she watched the portal that had been opened from the past coming closer and closer to Penelope and Susan with growing trepidation.
"She's right. Nothing says that the two of you have to be trapped there with the others. Move over here to us before it's too late. Please!" The Doctor pleaded as he stood next to Christina and gestured for the two Time Ladies to join them.
"How do you know that trying to change this won't have catastrophic consequences for the universe?" Penelope said even as she looked at Susan hesitantly because she desperately wanted to save her if no one else.
"How do we know for sure that it will, Great-Grandmother?" Susan said as she spoke now for the first time.
"Please, Mother. Please!" The Doctor pleaded as everything in him wanted this to work so badly so that he could at least save the two of them.
He didn't want to be alone anymore.
Penelope took a deep breath and then grabbed Susan's hand and ran towards her son with a smile on her face. Even as she ran, the portal suddenly moved forward and swallowed up the unconscious Rassilon in a single instant. As it continued to move forward, fear seized the Doctor's hearts as he became terrified that all of his pleading had just been for nothing and that his mother and Susan were about to be sent back into the Time Lock anyway.
Christina grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze in that moment as she smiled reassuringly at him. He could see from the look in her eyes that she was terrified as well but was trying her hardest to keep it off of her face for his sake.
Then the portal suddenly closed leaving Penelope and Susan behind, and the Doctor let out a breath that he hadn't even realized that he had been holding. He began to laugh uncontrollably and then hugged Christina tightly in his relief.
They were safe. His mother and granddaughter were safe, and he wasn't the last one anymore!
"Well, I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. You worked this all out by yourself?" The Master asked Christina in surprise.
"No, I had some help actually. Penelope has been visiting me for the last few days and telling me all about the entire situation. I still don't know how she's been doing that, but I wasn't going to ask too many questions as long as it led me back to the Doctor again. Penelope told me that I needed to be here at this exact time and place in order to save the Doctor, and she even told me where I could find a Time Lord weapon that could hurt them. They had this thing in a place called the Black Archive in UNIT Headquarters if you can believe that. They actually thought that they had it guarded so well. Hah! There's no place that can't be broken into with enough time and preparation, and there's nothing safe anywhere from me if I really want to get to it. This time I wanted to steal that gun more than I ever have anything in my life. I couldn't let anything happen to you could I? You saved my life . . . in so many ways," Christina said as she looked at the Doctor with a face filled with emotion.
"I knew it. I knew that someone with your intellect had to have had some kind of help to carry something like that out," The Master said with a smirk which instantly earned him the evil eye from Christina.
"Christina, thank you. Now you've more than returned the favor. You just saved my life and definitely in more ways than one," The Doctor said gratefully.
Christina smiled seductively as she said, "Surely you can thank me better than that. How about giving me that kiss now?"
Then she unexpectedly pulled him close to her and gave him a passionate kiss as his eyes widened in surprise. The Master gagged even as Penelope and Susan looked away with huge smiles on their faces.
Suddenly everyone's attention was immediately distracted as they all heard knocking coming from nearby. They all turned to see Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble's grandfather, locked into a tube that the Doctor realized in horror was about to be flooded with lethal radiation at any moment now.
"That's what the prophecy meant. It was Wilf. I have to die to save Wilf," The Doctor now realized at last as he began to shake with emotion.
"What? No, you're not doing anything rash right now, Mister. I only just managed to get back to you again after two years of searching. We'll find another way to save him," Christina insisted.
"There isn't any time. He's going to die soon unless I free him and trap myself instead," The Doctor said.
The Master laughed as he said, "Always the noble hero out to save the day and sacrifice yourself for the little people aren't you, Doctor? Or at least that's the role that you pretend to play anyway. There are others here who could sacrifice themselves besides you."
"No! No one else is dying here today. The prophecy said that it was me that died not anyone else," The Doctor said in a reluctant tone.
Then he began to weep as he said, "I don't want to go. I could have done so much more."
The Master looked at him in surprise as he said, "Am I hearing you right? Are you actually going to let one of your precious humans die just to save yourself? I can't wait to see this."
"No, he's not going to do that. No one's dying. We'll find some other way to save him, but we will save him," Christina insisted.
The Doctor shook his head as he said, "There's no time and I'm not about to ask anyone else to do this for me. It's my prophecy. I have to be the one."
He started to move forward even as Wilf protested and told him to stop. That was when yet another incredible thing happened in a series of them that day as the Master suddenly knocked the Doctor out cold.
"What are you doing?" Christina said in shock.
The Master looked at the Doctor with what might almost have been called a brief look of friendship as he said, "Time can be rewritten. So can prophecies."
He started to move into the next tube and free Wilf when Penelope suddenly jerked the staser from Christina's hand and shot him with it. As the Master collapsed unconscious to the floor, Penelope started to move towards the tube now herself.
"Why? Why would you sacrifice yourself for him?" Christina asked in disbelief.
"He was once Theta's one and only friend and helped him through some very hard times in his life, Christina. Besides that, I believe that we have a good chance to actually rehabilitate him now that the drums are gone from his mind. I'm not really doing it for him though. I'm the one who brought Wilf into this just as I did you because my son needed help. I won't let him die because of my actions. Saving him is the least that I can do," Penelope said.
"No, don't! I'm just an old man. My time's already almost up now, and the Doctor needs you. He's been alone for so long now. Don't leave him now that he's finally gotten you back again. He needs his family. Just let me die," Wilf pleaded.
"Donna needs her family too, Wilfred Mott. I think that she deserves all of the time with you that she can get. She's already lost far too much already as it is," Penelope said as she got into the tube.
"No, don't!" Wilf screamed.
Penelope smiled as she said, "It would be my honor."
The tube holding Wilf now opened and Penelope was trapped inside of hers as the lethal radiation came flooding into it. She screamed in intense pain now as everyone else looked on helplessly.
The Doctor woke up at that exact moment and screamed, "Why didn't anyone stop her?"
"Don't worry, Grandfather. Surely she'll regenerate. She had more lives left," Susan said reassuringly.
The tube suddenly opened now and Penelope came stumbling out of it as she said, "That's right because unlike some people I didn't foolishly squander all of my lives."
"Mother, now is not the time," The Doctor said as he looked at her with worry knowing full well that a regeneration could always go wrong especially with an older Time Lord like his mother.
"I can sense it from here, Theta. You've lost all of your regenerations but one, and you were just about to give that one away too. Not on my watch. You're not going anywhere anytime soon if I can help it. Besides that Wilfred was my responsibility not yours," Penelope said as she suddenly began to glow all over her body.
"Is that regeneration?" Christina asked the Doctor.
"How do you know that?" The Doctor asked in surprise.
Christina smiled as she said, "Well, besides Susan mentioning it just now I also did a lot of research on you while I was trying to find you. I know all about regeneration and your other faces from UNIT. The staser wasn't the only thing that I stole from the Black Archive you know? They have a huge file there on you too or at least they used to anyway."
The Doctor smiled as he said, "I definitely made a mistake not taking you."
"Oh, are you just now realizing that? You're a little slow aren't you?" Christina teased him.
"I've been saying that for centuries. Did she . . . ?" The Master asked as he saw Penelope glowing and instantly realized what must have just happened.
"Yes, she did. She saved you because she knew that it would kill you instantly since you're already dying as it is," Susan said in an angry tone.
"Maybe I wanted to die," The Master admitted.
"She thinks that she can reform you. I don't believe it myself. You're far too treacherous ever to be trusted again," Susan said as her eyes flashed with anger.
The Doctor looked at her in surprise as he wondered what could be provoking this reaction from her. The Susan that he had known would have never acted in such a way. She was always much more forgiving. Then again that had been a long time ago, and he used to have more mercy himself . . . once.
"You try to kill someone one time, and they never let you forget it," The Master said with a small smile.
The Doctor looked at her in shock as the Master said, "How do you think that I wound up that withered husk that you met after the President's assassination, Doctor? She did that to me after I tried to kill her. She's much stronger than I thought that she would ever be being your granddaughter."
The Doctor glared at him as anger filled his hearts and said, "You'll never get a second chance at all. You can believe me on that."
The Master just laughed as he said, "I was willing to sacrifice myself for you just a minute ago, Doctor, and this is the way that I'm repaid for it? For shame!"
"Shut up, Koschei!" Penelope ordered in a stern voice that instantly caused even the Master to be quiet.
"I won't have all of this fighting going on. Not now. I'm about . . . Yes, this is it. I may not make it through this one. It feels like it's going to be a very rough one. In case I don't . . ." Penelope said.
"Don't talk that way, Mother," The Doctor said.
Penelope smiled as she said, "I just said 'in case', Theta. I'd like to go out with one final good memory if this is the end though. Wilfred?"
Wilf looked at her in surprise as he said, "If there's anything that I can do for you, then I'll do it with no questions asked."
Penelope smiled as she said, "Good because I've wanted to do this since the first time that I met you."
"Do what?" Wilf asked.
Then Penelope grabbed Wilf and kissed him as the Doctor looked on in disbelief.
Christina laughed as she said, "I think that I may have been a bad influence on your mum, Doctor. Sorry about that."
"Now I see where you get it from, Doctor. She's a human lover just like you," The Master said in disgust.
"You're one to talk, Mr. Saxon," Christina taunted him.
"Lucy was exceptional. She wasn't like most of your kind," The Master said with just a trace of regret on his face.
"And yet you still destroyed her anyway despite that," Christina shot back.
The Master glared at her even as Penelope pulled away from her kiss with Wilf and shouted, "That's enough!"
"She always had that effect on both of us ever since we were children. Whenever she laid down the law, we always caved right away. Even the Master wouldn't cross my mother on a bad day," The Doctor told Christina proudly.
"I can believe it even after only knowing her for a little while," Christina said with a huge grin.
Penelope smiled at Christina, who she was already fond of, as she turned back to Wilf and said, "Sorry, Wilf. I should have told you what I was going to do first."
Wilf smiled as he said, "No, it's alright. I have to admit that I was thinking the same thing."
They both laughed now. Their laughter soon ended though as Penelope started to scream.
"Get away from me. I can't hold it back anymore," Penelope warned him.
Wilf immediately moved back as Penelope said, "Good bye, everyone."
Then energy poured out of her head and hands as the regeneration finally began at last. The entire area was torn apart from the discharge as the others ran for cover.
Then it was over just as suddenly as it had begun, and a much younger looking woman who appeared to be somewhere in her mid-twenties with long dark hair and green eyes smiled at them as she said, "And hello again."
She smiled at Wilf with an evil grin as she said, "Why don't we pick up where we left off, hmm?"
She moved to kiss him again as he said, "You look so much younger now though. People would call me a cradle robber."
"Who cares? I'm the older one anyone. You humans are way too hung up on appearances, Wilfred. Now let's do that again," Penelope said with a grin as she moved closer to Wilf.
"I may just lose my lunch," The Master said in disgust.
"Mother, maybe Wilf doesn't want you to kiss him again," The Doctor said.
Penelope's expression changed then as she said, "You're right. I'm sorry, Wilf. I seem to have become more like Christina in this incarnation. I think that she really was a bad influence on me."
"That's alright, sweetheart," Wilf said.
"Sweetheart, eh?" Penelope said with a grin
Then he looked uncomfortable as he said, "I didn't mean it like that."
Penelope laughed as she said, "I'm just winding you up, Wilf. Don't worry about it. If you ever change your mind though, just let me know."
Then she sighed as she said, "Well, it's official. This incarnation is going to be a horrible flirt."
The Doctor gave Christina an angry look as she said, "What? I can't help being who I am. I am trying to change though. I haven't stolen anything since I met you. I stopped stealing because of you."
The Doctor gave her a look as he said, "You just told me that you broke into the Black Archive."
"Yes, yes, but that doesn't count. I just did that to help you. It was the only time that I ever stole in my life for a reason other than just for the pure pleasure of it. I couldn't let anything happen to you could I?" Christina said as she wrapped her arms around him.
"Christina, I don't want to hurt you but I don't feel that way about you. I like you but only as a friend," The Doctor said as he looked at her with an uncomfortable look on his face.
Christina smiled as she said, "I know. You can't blame me for trying though can you? Don't think that I'm going to give up either. You need to know that before I come along on the TARDIS. And yes, I know all about that too now."
Then she looked at him with a worried almost terrified look as she said, "I am going aren't I?"
The Doctor smiled as he said, "After what you just did for me how could I refuse you?"
Christina laughed with joy and hugged him tightly as he asked, "So you really robbed the Black Archive, eh? That is . . . That is just impressive. I'm officially condemning it of course, but I have to admit that it's amazing."
"Am I wearing you down already, Doctor?" Christina said with a grin as the Doctor turned red with embarrassment.
The Master began to throw up as he said, "Don't pay any attention to me. Someone I ate must have disagreed with me. It couldn't be the insufferable company and the sickening displays that I'm being forced to be a witness to of course."
"Pipe down, you, before I gave you something to throw up about," Penelope threatened.
"I can't believe this. Why can't I get over my fear of her? That was centuries ago," The Master said with a disgusted expression on his face.
"I have to admit that I'm still afraid of her too," The Doctor said to Christina who laughed.
"Yep, still got it," Penelope said looking pleased with herself.
"Are you sure that we can control him? He's just so dangerous that I don't feel comfortable even being on the same planet as him much less traveling in the same TARDIS together," Susan said.
"After what I saw of you, my dear, I could say exactly the same thing. She's quite dangerous, Doctor, but then again she did learn from the best, didn't she?" The Master said laughing.
That was when Susan knocked him out cold with one punch as she said, "Can we go now while he's still unconscious? The less time that I have to spend listening to that horrible laughter of his, the better off I'll be, Grandfather."
The Doctor looked at her in surprise as he realized now that the Master had been right. She was more like him than he cared to admit. It seemed that he had been a bit of a bad influence himself.
The Doctor brought the TARDIS back in sync with the timeline as he snapped the doors of it open with his fingers and said, "Well, come along then. We have places to go and people to see. Allons-y!"
Christina smiled as she said, "Oui, allons-y mon doux Docteur."
The Doctor flushed with embarrassment as she said, "I speak French too you know?"
All of them entered the TARDIS and it soon dematerialized as they went on their way. While they traveled through the Vortex, Susan quickly tied him up with some sturdy rope that she found in one of the storage areas. She wasn't taking any chances.
"So where are we headed to?" Christina asked.
"I thought that I'd let you pick since it's your first trip," The Doctor said.
"Well, I . . ." Christina started to say.
They never knew what she would have said next as the TARDIS suddenly started to shake out of control and throw them violently across the Console Room. They woke up later to find that the whole TARDIS was on fire and in ruins all around them.
"What was that?" Christina asked in disbelief.
"We, uh, experienced some slight temporal disturbance in the Vortex. The TARDIS had to land us in a hurry to keep from breaking up. That does happen from time to time," The Doctor said.
"A slight bit of temporal disturbance? Your gift for understatement of the highest order never ceases to amaze me, Doctor. Your driving is of course as terrifying as ever. And you wonder why you failed your driving test?" The Master said with a snort of derision.
"Well, thanks oh so much for warning me about all of that then, Spaceman," Christina said with a frown that quickly turned to a small smile.
The Doctor tried not to wince at that reminder of Donna as he said, "I'm afraid that we're all going to have to leave and let the TARDIS repair herself for a while. I'm sorry, Wilf. It's going to be a little bit longer until I can return you home."
"That's alright, Doctor. I'm just fine," Wilf said as he stared at Penelope with a small smile on his face.
"It looks like Great-Grandmother may have found herself a new love," Susan whispered to the Doctor who looked at her in shock.
"Wilf? No! Really? I mean I don't have anything against him of course. Wilf is great. You know that's not so bad. Why not Wilf?" The Doctor whispered back happily.
"I'm getting sick again from all the sickening sweetness around here. Does anyone care?" The Master said with a sick look on his face.
"No, they don't. Can we just leave him here?" Susan said.
"I'll second that," Christina said earning herself a death glare from the Master.
"No, he'll be killed if he stays in here. The TARDIS is going to be changing everything," The Doctor said.
"And your point is?" Susan said.
The Doctor really hoped that she was just joking as he said, "No, let's bring him too. Let's go."
They all quickly left the TARDIS with Wilf and Penelope never taking their eyes off of each other the entire time. As soon as they went outside they noticed that they were in someone's yard and that the TARDIS had crashed into a shed when it had landed.
"Hello? Are you alright?" A small voice asked.
A little girl with red hair came running up to them as she said in a Scottish accent, "Are you all okay? I saw you fall from the sky."
"We're all just fine. Is this your yard? Sorry about the shed," The Doctor said with a sheepish look on his face.
"It's okay. I never liked it anyway. So did you come about the crack in my wall?" The girl asked.
"Crack? What crack?" The Doctor asked already blazing with curiosity.
"There's a crack in my wall and I keep hearing a voice crying out from it," The little girl said.
"What does it say this voice?" The Doctor asked.
"It keeps saying 'Doctor, can you hear me? It's Rose.' It's a woman and she says that over and over again for a few minutes at least once a day. She sounds sweet so I'm not too afraid of her, but I am afraid of the other voices that I hear sometimes. They're scary."
The Doctor looked at her in shock as he said, "Did you say Rose? What is your name anyway?"
"It's Amelia. Amelia Pond. Yes, she said Rose. Do you know her?" Amelia asked.
"Yes, I do. I'm the Doctor that she's been calling for. Lead me to this crack right away," The Doctor said anxiously.
As Amelia took his hand and did as he asked, Christina frowned. She knew who Rose was too. She began to wonder if she would ever get a chance with him now.
Would he ever love her as much as she had come to love him?
THE END?
That's where I'm going to end it. It's the end of one era and the set-up of an all-new one where anything could happen. For now it's just a one-shot of a universe that could have been but unfortunately wasn't. I may continue the story or I may just leave it there. I just had to get it out of my head because it was just dying to be told. If enough of you like it though, then I'd love to keep putting out more chapters. Let me know what you think.