A.N. English is not my first language, so please, forgive my mistakes and typos. Hope you like it.


Chapter 1

He was dying and knew that once more death would find him totally alone. There was no one to hold his hand or shed tears over his departure, no one would be there when he woke up either.

He tried to remember the last time he regenerated in front of someone. None of his recent memory emerged from the depths of his memories. In those days when remembering old stories have become common, just one ancient memory came to his mind. He remembered Sarah Jane's lovely face ad the way she had wept over the body of an old gray-haired man, not so much different from him.

Sarah Jane wept the death of one of his faces and she was there to welcome a new doctor with a happy, loving smile. He missed her, her energy, her disposition, and especially her compassionate heart.

The past of centuries ago seemed to him less distant since he spent talking about it with Missy. For years they have analyzed aspects of long past events, confessing secrets and pains to each other, such as long sessions of mutual therapy. The Doctor had the impression the he finally had his friend back, or at least he had been fool enough to believe it.

In the end Missy was just another twisted and insane version, a translucent shadow, of his best friend. All she did was only to deceive and manipulate him at her own pleasure until nothing was left of him but two broken hearts.

Despite of the pain, as he walked through the fields full of death and destruction, making new explosions appear with each new step, the Doctor still believed that he had touched Missy in some way with his words and attitudes.

He wanted, more than anything else, that she should be at his side on that walk, that she would be his witness, that she would nestle him on her arms until he died. More than that, he wanted them to explode together in a supernova to start another life, another journey, together.

He felt that his legs could not stand much longer and after the first blow reached him he sagged on his knees. The pain was excruciating and he would soon die. Not too long now. All that accumulated energy would make him explode, destroy whatever was left around him and finish that mission. He closed his eyes, containing a pain inside himself, just a bit more and all cyberman would be within range.

The Doctor knew that wherever he was the Cyberman would all be around. He was the last Lord Time aboard the ship and his mission was about to be concluded. Explosions still happened, one after the other around him, but he didn't knew if they came from his sonic screwdriver or if those were Bill's work..

"Doctor..."

The distant call surprised him. He didn't had strength to do anything else. It was probably a remnant of his guilt. He had promised Bill that he would protect her and there was nothing he could do even to try fulfill it. Bill did not deserve her fate, he needed to fix it but it was too late for that face.

Wake up, get up and find Bill, then turn her into a human being again. He said to himself in a mental note, almost like a mantra.

With a practice of hundreds of years, his fingers seemed to have a life of their own, even at that moment, to regulate the sonic screwdriver to the final outcome.

"I said I was on your side."

The voice sounded in his ears, sounded even louder in his mind, and without knowing how, the Doctor opened his eyes. In the midst of smoke and fire, pupils of an electric blue stared at him. He knew those eyes, that look. He then saw Missy features as she fell to her knees in front of him, her face pale, a faint smile on her lips and the sonic umbrella hanging loose in her hand. Like him, she was dying.

You stayed.

Her smile widened and the two of them wrapped in a tender hug. They held their tools together and held on to each other as they stared in each other's eyes, resting their foreheads together.

"As long as you want I'll stand forever with you, Theta."

The doctor wanted to know how and why, but he didn't have the strength to do so. He simply gave himself for the comforting sensation of being with her again. He smiled at her and leaned forward until their lips met ever so tenderly.

They pressed the buttons together and an explosion transformed the air on fire for a few moments. Then, as it started, it was over.