Disclaimer: Before we begin, let me mention that I do not own Doctor Who. If I did, 11 wouldn't be regenerating this Christmas. However, I do own Mia Willams and the alien people called the Ronsurax. Not that they'll be mentioned much anyway. Now, it's time to begin this story of *cough*epic*cough* proportions. Allons-y!
"Doctor!" Mia Williams unleashed a gut-wrenching scream. With strenuous effort, she attempted to wrestle away from her alien captors, but their serrated claws lacerated her wrist. Gasps of distress ensued, for viscous blood oozed from the gash; it dribbled incessantly to the dusty ground beneath her feet. In agony, and with no means of liberating herself, Mia was futilely resigned to regard the grotesque leader of the Ronsurax as he aimed his pistol at the Doctor. Wheezing breaths punctured her silent beseeches.
Don't hurt him, Mia implored. Please, don't hurt him!
Should the trigger be thrust by those chartreuse claws, the Doctor would be slain. This particular pistol had been conceived millennia ago, when the Time Lords all flitted about the universe. Because the Ronsurax were bent upon domination, the weapon had been contrived in such a manner which made it plausible to preclude regeneration. This inevitably meant no more travels with the Doctor.
"I told you, I'm here to help," the Doctor elucidated, stepping closer to the chief of the Ronsurax people.
The chief's claw flexed the trigger threateningly. "No," the fetid, scaly creature growled. "It is none other than I that shall help the Ronsurax. You shall both perish for threatening my authority."
"No!" The Doctor shouted abruptly; his voice softened as he continued, "Let her go. Do what you will with me, but let her go!"
Mia exhaled shakily as the chief eyed both her and the Doctor. He even began to lower the pistol. Please, let us go! Out of the mercy in your heart, let us go! We didn't mean to harm you! Honest!
But abruptly, the chief's opaque eyes morphed into a sanguine scarlet blaze. He cocked the pistol at the Doctor and jerked the trigger, all the while grinning homicidally. At once, a ray of harsh, radiant white light emanated from the pistol, enveloping the Doctor.
"No!" Mia shrieked, her voice rasping with terror.
The Doctor staggered backward from the force of the collision, but maintained his balance. Albeit surviving the initial impact, the Doctor was now undergoing the throes. His body lurched wildly from the physical agony; his teeth were gritted in misery and savagery, as if the entirety of his prolonged life was flashing before his eyes.
Mia could barely observe her Doctor relinquishing his life, collapsing in the dust of a foreign planet, because her hazel eyes were permeated with tears.
"Leave, and never come back, or you shall die as your friend has." The chief of the Ronsurax nodded toward the Doctor, who was now sprawled in the dirt, convulsing slightly.
Mia nodded through her tears. She vaguely registered the Ronsurax guard releasing his grip on her wrists. The callous aliens teleported away from the remote location, and Mia stumbled over to the perishing Doctor's side. She sank to her knees, adjacent to his drained body, hazily trying to locate the words to soothe the Doctor during his concluding moments.
"Doctor?" She murmured, her voice catching in her throat.
His fading green-gray eyes flickered open. "Mia Williams." A meager smile crept across his face, and Mia smiled back. It wouldn't have been forced so much, if not for now. The Doctor's smile was usually so infectious, his very personality too.
Mia choked back a sob by biting her lip. "Yeah?"
The Doctor's eyes were growing dim; Mia clasped her hand in his and all of the splendid memories that they shared surged through her mind. She remembered standing beside him in the doorframe of the TARDIS while they observed the creation of the Polemus Nebula; she remembered fleeing from Ice Warriors; she remembered being cornered in a dark alleyway by Daleks until the Doctor saved her life; she remembered saving his life; she remembered the Doctor taking her to Gallifrey, and the hysteria that had come over both of them when she had been trapped on the time-locked planet. She remembered all of it, and now… this. Where their paths parted.
"Who… are… you?" The Doctor breathed heavily; it was the one question never answered during his lifetime.
"I don't know," Mia whispered in reply, but the Doctor never heard. His eyes fluttered shut and his head slumped backward.
The one thing that had beguiled the Doctor was Mia. She knew far more about the Time Lord than any other human – even down to his name – and even the girl herself could not comprehend she had come about such a wealth of knowledge. To her, it had simply 'always been there'. No matter how intently or distantly anyone peered into Mia's cryptic past, she and the Doctor had simply never crossed paths before. No one resided in the vicinity that was affiliated with the Doctor, Torchwood wasn't enmeshed, and Mia certainly was not kin to the Doctor or any of his former companions. She merely was.
The Doctor's hand was chilly now; Mia untangled their laced hands because she couldn't bear the reminder that her Doctor was now deceased: a gelid, defunct shell of his former self. Quietly, she speculated her next move, warily eyeing the Doctor's motionless body every so often. Even with the vast rift of death severing them, she couldn't think of him as such. Not now, anyway.
I was the cause of this, she told herself guiltily. I could have done something.
Mia fixed his messy of dark brown hair and straightened his bowtie. He scarcely seemed quite as deceased now... merely as if he were sleeping...
Scrambling to her feet, Mia cast a final, longing look at the Doctor.
Don't you remember time can be re-written?
Mia involuntarily stiffened as the Doctor's words resounded in her ears. Was it probable for him to send her a message from beyond the grave? Casting the slightly perturbing thought aside, Mia leapt into action, darting to the console.
Mia knew how to fly the TARDIS, but wasn't sure how the machine would react to her thief's death. The TARDIS could be quite cantankerous. But she had to chance it.
I'm going to fly the TARDIS to earlier today. When I get there, I can step in front of the trigger and die in the place of the Doctor. Yes, it means my life, but I would gladly give it up for him a million times over. He's the most wonderful man ever. Besides, a universe without the Doctor is a perilous one indeed.
With a flourishing gesture of the hand, she completed her operation of the controls. The TARDIS produced a metallic hum; this bizarre drone steadily intensified. Abruptly, the TARDIS pitched, flinging Mia to the ground. Barely winded, she regained her footing and clung to the console. Machinery sparked hazardously; Mia released her grip on the console and allowed herself to be hurtled - at an alarming rate - towards the railing which encompassed the central dais.
What have I done? Mia wondered as the chaos continued to seethe about her.
Another jar accompanied the arrival of flames within the console room; Mia could not recall a time that the TARDIS had been this tumultuous - except for the regeneration of the Doctor's ten incarnation into his eleventh. Sputtering, Mia reached for the lever which should placate the TARDIS. However, she was exceptionally short and not very flexible; therefore, in order to reach the lever, she had to quit clenching the railing and almost instantaneously seize the lever. Inhaling, Mia unfolded her hand, from about the rails but was too sluggish to grab the lever.
She instead slipped away from the console and struck her cranium against the TARDIS doors. Amidst the fray, Mia discovered herself meeting darkness...
A/N: My first Doctor Who fic, what do you think? Please R/R!