Eleven Past Ten

by Chestermckjerk

What if 10 had regenerated into 11 at the beginning of Journeys End? Very AU.

Title: Eleven Past Ten

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

What if 10 had regenerated into 11 at the beginning of Journeys End? AU. I do not own Doctor Who.

"It's already started. I'm regenerating!"

Dying is not a pleasant experience. Especially for a Time Lord. It hurts. A lot. Before and after. At least with a normal death there's the relief after it's all over. But with regenerating it's just the beginning.

What no one mentions is that you have a choice. You don't have to come back. The Master didn't. He'd known other's who had chosen to just end it. Trillions had during the Time War but not him. Not the Doctor.

But it hurt. It hurt so much this time. This time was different. He could feel it. Every death hurt a hundred times worse than the last. It was getting harder.

Time Lords could regenerate a total of twelve times. But very few ever did. Very few could stand it. The process damages the cells. Fission and fusion happening at the same time, tearing his body apart one moment and then blasting it back together the next. Eventually the cells would become so damaged that they would be in a constant state of regeneration. Lucky number thirteen. He was getting close. And so was the pain. He could feel it building, like a tidal wave looming over him. It was about to hit. The change. The moment he stopped being the man he was and became… whatever came next.

And then there was Rose. Rose Tyler. He had loved Rose Tyler. No. That wasn't right. Something was wrong with that thought. He still loved Rose Tyler. She had broken his hearts. The only woman he had ever loved since… well that was a long time ago. He had lost Rose. And she had found him. In the middle of the end of the world. The end of everything. Davros and the Daleks. Don't they ever give up? He had just found her again! And now…

He had to stop this. He couldn't change! Not now. Not after everything he had been through. Not after everything she had been through to find him. There had to be a way. There had to be a way to stop from changing. But if he stopped it he would die. For good. And the world would end. He needed something. Something to stop the change but still allow him to heal himself. But what? Think. Think. Think you stupid twit!

There! There it is. Of course! The hand. His spare hand. He could use the energy to heal himself and then dump the rest of it into his hand! It should work. It had to work. It felt right. He felt like it was meant to happen. The hand was the thing. Why else had he kept it?

No.

No what? Who said that?

Enough. I've had enough. It's too late. Time to change.

No! I don't have to. I don't have to change this time. This time is different.

It's not. It's just like all of the others. Time to change. Enough! Let go.

But… Rose. What about Rose. I…

You can't be with her. Your time is up. You need to let go.

I can't.

You have to. For her. For Donna. For everyone. You have to.

I'm afraid.

I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

"I don't want to go."

Too late.

Rose watched. She watched as the man she loved died. And changed. And came back as a different man. The Doctor screamed as he was enveloped in pure golden light and she cried.

It was happening again. He was leaving her. He was changing. And Rose didn't know if it would ever be the same again. The scream continued but it was different now. It didn't sound like he was dying anymore. It sounded like he was being born. And in a way, he was. The light faded away and the Doctor collapsed to the floor of the TARDIS.

"Ugh." Said the Doctor in a voice that was not his own but now was. "I'm getting too old for this."

The man that wasn't the Doctor but was, picked himself up off the floor and stood on two very shaky legs. He was facing away from Donna, Jack and Rose, so that they couldn't make out his face. He was tall. Maybe taller than he had been before. Maybe not. He was also skinny. Maybe skinner then before. Probably not. He had brown hair like before, but it was longer now and it didn't stick up. At least he was still human looking.

"Now then." Said the Doctor to himself. "Lets see what we've got. Legs! I've still got legs! Two arms. Hands. Fingers, oh good. Two eyes, ears, nose, (I've had worse), chin (blimey!)." The Doctor ran his new hands through his hair. "Hair… I'm a girl! No, no I'm not a girl! And still not ginger! But there's something important. Something I'm forgetting! I'm… I'm…"

"Ahm." Coughed Jack.

The Doctor had still not noticed his three companions standing behind him. Slowly he turned.

"Hello."

He was different. He looked younger. He looked very young. Early to mid-twenties maybe. But the eyes… the eyes were old. So old. Like stars a trillion light-years away. Fading. Dying maybe even. But still there. Still blazing. It was the Doctor alright.

"Who the hell is this!" screeched Donna.

"I'm the Doctor."

"No you bloody well aren't!" Said Donna.

The Doctor looked into Donna Noble's eyes. He looked for a long time, like he was searching for something. Because the Doctor was still the Doctor but he also wasn't. He was still the last of the Time Lords. Still the same man who had loved Rose Tyler and left Captain Jack in the future, broke Martha Jones' heart and became Donna Noble's best friend in the whole universe. He was still all of those things. But he wasn't. He was a different man. And the way he saw them all had changed. Shifted.

"Donna Noble." He began but then stopped. Something on the view screen had caught his attention. Four Daleks surrounding the TARDIS. " I don't have time for this. And trust me when I say I am good with time."

The Doctor quickly turned to the control panel of the TARDIS and pulled a leaver.

"Hold onto something."

The ship lurched hard and the Doctor's three companions hit the grated floor. The Doctor pulled another leaver and the ship took off.

Rose sat up off the floor. It had been a while since she had traveled in the TARDIS. Years. Even then she could still remember what it felt like when the ship was traveling through the time vortex and through regular space. The vortex made for a bumpy ride. There was no denying that. But it was nothing compared to this.

"I told you three to hold on!"

Rose looked up. The man who was the Doctor now was still at the controls of the TARDIS. He hadn't even turned around. He was too busy. Pushing buttons and flipping switches, pulling leavers and spinning dials. The Doctor was a blur of motion.

"I'm going to kill him." Said Donna next to Rose.

"I warned you Donna Noble." Replied the Doctor. "Now pipe down. We've got company and…" The Doctor was suddenly cut off as the ship violently shook. As if it had been struck by something. If Rose hadn't already been on the floor already she would have been now.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Missiles." Replied the Doctor. And then he turned and grinned at them. "Isn't it wonderful! Not five minutes in, knew me, and I'm already got Daleks firing missiles at me. Just what the doctor ordered. A little excitement to get my head clear. Just what I need." The ship shook again and the Doctor returned to the controls.

A Blue Police Box looks strange flying through the air. It looks even stranger when there are three flying saucers chasing after it. A box is not aerodynamic. It should not be able to fly. But the Doctor's did. Not well mind you. But it did fly. However the missiles weren't helping .

"Oh enough of this!" Said the Doctor as the ship was hit once again. Sparks were shooting out of the control panel, a fire had started somewhere below on the lower decks and smoke was pouring up. "If they want to kill me that badly I might as well help them."

Rose and Donna were still on the floor but Jack had managed to pull himself up by the control panel. The Doctor, for whatever reason, and in spite of the shaking floor, seemed to have no problem keeping his balance.

"What do you mean 'help them'?" Roared Jack.

"I mean this." He replied. Suddenly the TARDIS stopped shaking. For a moment all was still, then an alarm started to go off and lights began to flash. On the consul monitor Rose could see three large red circles headed straight for a blue box on the radar.

"Doctor! What are you doing?" Demanded Captain Jack.

"Letting them finish me off." Explained the Doctor.

He said it as if he were talking to a student who had just asked a question his teacher had already given him the answer too. The Doctor turned and sat down in the crash chair, putting his feet up on the consul, his hands behind his head.

"I'm tired Jack. This running around thing isn't good for me. I'm an old man. I needmy rest."

The alarms blared louder as the three red circles on the radar got closer. Jack looked from the Doctor to Rose to Donna and then back to Rose. "He's lost it." Said Jack.

Rose pulled herself up off the floor. She couldn't believe he was giving up. She couldn't believe all of this was happening. Her Doctor was gone, and the one who had replaced him was about to let them all die! He was about to let the entire universe and every universe die because he was tired! This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not after everything…

"Please." Begged Rose. She looked into the Doctor's eyes. They used to be brown. She had loved those brown eyes. They had been so warm and loving but at times they could also be cold and terrifying. Now they were green and Rose didn't see anything there. No warmth, no love, no nothing. They looked dead. That twinkle she thought she had seen earlier, just after the change was gone now. There was only death in those eyes. Death and apathy.

"Save us."

The Doctor looked at Rose, shook his head and smiled. A second later the place where the TARDIS had been was engulfed in flame as three Dalek ships collided in mid air.

Jack Harkness was not his real name, but it might as well have been. There were people, people who cared about him, who only knew him as Jack Harkness. He had learned a long time ago that names were things other people called you and that it was best not to worry about it. And Jack suited him, for now. Many lifetimes ago he had had a different name. Many lifetimes ago he had been a different man. Then he met the Doctor and Rose during World War II and everything had changed. Now things were changing, again, for better or for worse. And nothing would ever be the same again.

Seconds before the TARDIS was about to be destroyed Captain Jack Harkness prepared to do the one thing that he was best at. Die. He grabbed Rose Tyler and threw her to floor of the ship next to where Donna Noble had been and leapt on top of both women, preparing to shield them from the fire that was sure to come. And come it did. There was a light brighter than any Jack had ever seen before and a sound like a great god's roar. Jack braced himself and held onto Rose and Donna. He would survive this. He always did. But he would never forgive himself if anything happened to these two women. The Doctor was obviously gone. This last regeneration had been too much for him. But then…

"Jack behave yourself." Scolded the Doctor.

Jack looked up slowly to see the Doctor, still sitting in his chair with his legs up on the consul and his hands behind his back. The Time Lord had a disapproving look on his young face which quickly turned into a grin. Jack gazed around the inside of the TARDIS. Nothing was on fire, the ship wasn't falling apart or plummeting hundreds of feet to the surface below. In fact, the only thing that had changed since Jack had thrown Rose and himself to the floor was that all but the emergency lights were out.

"What happened?" Asked Donna. Both she and Rose were now looking around the TARDIS in wonder. "What did you…"

"Do?" The Doctor quickly jumped out of his seat and walked around the control panel. "I skipped us."

"Skipped us?" Questioned Rose.

"Yes!" Said the Doctor. He seemed almost giddy. "I skipped us. Like a record. One moment you're dancing along to a nice slow number with your favorite gal when suddenly the needle skips and you're grooving to a whole new beat! I skipped us over the moment of our terribly painful death to after those three flying saucers collided. And now Davros and his pet salt shakers think we're dead! Isn't it marvelous?"

The Doctor's three companions just stared at him.

"Your speechless. Ha!" Exclaimed the Doctor. He was really getting into things now. "Understandable of course but we really need to be getting on with things. I don't have all the time in the world here. Well I do, but you get my point." The Doctor turned and again began to fiddle with the controls of his ship.

"I don't think I can take much more of this." Said Donna as Jack helped her and Rose to their feet. "And why are all of the lights out?"

"We're in silent running mode." Explained the Doctor. "Like a submarine." He added excitedly.

"I just don't understand." Said Donna to Rose and Jack. "What happened? He… he changed? But how is that possible? How can he look one way and then all of a sudden look another way?"

"He regenerated." Explained Rose and she found herself trying to fight back tears. "It's a Time Lord trick for cheating death. His body was hurt and the only way for him to survive was to change, change every cell in his body."

"But is it still him?" Asked Donna. she seemed incredibly sad, as if she was afraid of the answer. "Is he still the Doctor? Is he the same man or…"

Jack didn't know what to say and he could tell that Rose didn't either. Was he the same. Yes and no. He was the Doctor. Same memories, same mind, same need to save the people around him. At least so far. But what about the rest of it? There had been such a profound difference between the first Doctor Jack had traveled with and this last one.

"It doesn't matter." Said Jack finally. "He's the Doctor and we need him. He's the only one that can stop whatever the Daleks have planned. He's the only one they're afraid of. If we have any hope of stopping them and saving the planet we need him."

Donna seemed like she was about to argue with him but then decided against it and held her peace. First time for everything. Rose didn't say anything. She was too busy staring at the Doctor. Jack felt so sorry for her. He knew that she loved the Doctor but loving the Doctor was never easy. Jack knew that from personal experience.

"Are you going to be ok?" Asked Jack, placing a hand on the blond woman's shoulder.

"Ask me later." She replied. she was still looking at the Doctor. "Ask me after he wins."

"Sure." Jack smiled and then turned to face the Doctor himself. This wasn't going to be easy. "So Doc. You got a plan?"

"A plan? Oh course I have a plan." Said the Doctor. "I'm going to do something incredibly brilliant if not equally terrifying and somewhat impossible and when I'm done… well I guess we'll just have to wait and see. But in the meantime, I need to figure out what Davros is up to and that means hacking into the Crucible's communications relay. Which just so happens to have the most advanced protection programs I've ever seen and… I'm in. Piece of cake (which actually sounds very tasty right now)"

Jack, Donna and Rose all gathered around as the monitor on the control panel sprang to life with the terrifying image of the man the Doctor called Davros. And he wasn't alone.

For the first twenty-two years of Martha Jones' life nothing ever happened. At least nothing exciting ever happened. And then she met the Doctor, and she would have killed for a normal boring life. It's not that Martha wasn't grateful for all the Doctor had done for her. He had opened her eyes to the wonders of the universe and she would forever be grateful. But there's a price to pay for seeing the universe and Martha had had to learn that the hard way. It's easier to ignore the dangers in the world if one has no idea they exist in the first place. The Doctor had removed Martha's blindfold and now she could see. She could see everything. And it was terrifying.

Martha awoke with a start and opened her eyes to complete darkness. She was afraid. She couldn't remember… there was something that she was supposed to be doing right now but she couldn't remember what. But whatever it was it had Martha worried. Even more worried than waking up to find herself in the dark with no memory of how she had gotten there. Something was wrong. And then it came back to her, like a flood.

Martha remembered being at UNIT headquarters in New York. She remembered how at eight o'clock in the morning the earth had shook and suddenly it was dark out. She remembered the planets in the sky and the fear that began to consume and eventually overwhelm her as she realized who was responsible for moving the earth. Remembered those first few hours as UNIT forces tried valiantly to defend the planet from the Daleks' invasion force. How she had known before the battle had even begun that they stood no chance. Martha remembered trying to call the Doctor and realizing that maybe, just maybe he wasn't going to be able to save them this time. She remembered her commanding officer telling her she was their last chance and handing her that damn key before he died. She remembered teleporting to her home all the way across the ocean because the one thing she wanted more than anything in the whole world was to see her mother. She had been so relieved to see her alive and well but as much as Martha had wanted to stay there with her she knew she couldn't because she had had a job to do. And then came the call. The ray of hope.

Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, had given Martha and the entire world a fighting chance with her sub-wave network. A chance to contact the Doctor. And it had worked! Just when they needed him the most he had come. The Doctor had broken through and now there was more than just a chance that they would make it through this. More than just a sliver of hope. They were going to win! The Doctor was going to save them all! At that moment Martha couldn't have expressed in words how happy she was. How relieved. The feeling hadn't lasted long.

The Daleks traced the sub-wave signal to Harriet's address. She had stood up to them bravely. She was a hero. Jack had teleported to meet the Doctor but something was wrong. He had been gone for too long and the fear started to sink back in. Martha had decided to get into position to use the key, just in case the Doctor failed. The key was a last resort. She wouldn't really have to use it. She couldn't.

The Key station had scanners and sensors that could pick up a meteor shower on Pluto. So when the monitors started warning Martha that somehow the twenty-seven planets were beginning to produce an impossible amount of energy and that all of that energy was being focused into the very heart of the Dalek base Martha knew that something had to be done. And it seemed as though Martha Jones was the Universes' last hope.

Martha sent a message to the Supreme Dalek himself. Leave Earth and the other twenty-seven planets in peace or Martha would use the key and detonate the nuclear warheads buried deep in the planet. She was bluffing. At least she hoped she had been bluffing. She still believed that somewhere, the Doctor was putting the finishing touches on whatever brilliant plan he had come up with to defeat the Daleks and that at the last minute when she was just about to turn the key he would come out of nowhere to save the day like he always did. She nearly laughed out loud when the key station sensors detected another signal coming from the Dalek Crucible itself. It had to be the Doctor!

But it wasn't. It was the woman from earlier, Sarah Jane Smith, and she was with a group of people, some of who Martha recognized, like Gwen and Ianto from Torchwood and Donna Nobles' mother. There was also a group of people Martha hadn't recognized; a blond haired women, in her fifties in a jump suit, a middle aged man with thinning red hair, a second man who looked to be about Martha's age (he was actually kind of cute) and a young boy who couldn't have been any older then fifteen.

Sarah Jane Smith was saying something to the Supreme Dalek about a warp star wired into the Crucible mainframe and if they didn't return all twenty-seven planets to where they belonged she would detonate it, blowing them all to kingdom come. Martha had to admit the older brunet knew what she was doing. There was hope again. She and Sarah Jane Smith could keep the Daleks busy until the Doctor was ready to do whatever he was going to do. Martha still had hope. And then her hope died.

The man (if you could even call him a man) the Doctor had called Davros told Martha and the others that the Doctor was dead. For good this time. He had been trying to escape in his TARDIS with a group of his companions. He had been trying to run away. The Doctor had been leaving Martha and all of the other people on Earth to die when his ship had been destroyed by three Dalek ships.

Martha couldn't believe it. She wouldn't. The Doctor would never run away. Not when there were people who needed him. The Doctor would never abandon them. He wouldn't. He couldn't! Martha fought back tears. This couldn't be happening. Davros was lying. He was trying to trick them, make them doubt the Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith said as much. It seemed like she knew Davros. But that monster had just laughed and then things went dark.

Inside the TARDIS Donna Noble was staring at a screen. And on that screen was her mother, along with several over people that she had come to care about and the man who was plotting to destroy the universe and every universe. Or so he bragged.

"… the reality bomb will cancel out the electrical charge of every atom in existence." Davros was explaining to his prisoners. "Reality will collapse in on itself and the Daleks will be the sole survivors! This will be our finest moment. The day we eliminate the vermin of the universe. The Daleks will be the greatest race in all of creation. I only wish your precious Doctor could be here to see it."

"Can he really do what he says he can?" Asked Jack. "Doctor?"

The Doctor was sitting on the floor. He had been ever since he had heard the words 'reality' and 'bomb'. He was sitting Indian style, with his legs crossed like a pretzel and he was muttering to himself. Something about 'quantum fields' and 'phase particles' and someone named 'Henry'. He also seemed to be writing out some sort of mathematical equation in the air. Rose was sitting next him, she'd been there since she saw her family being held captive in Davros' lair, her back against the control panel column. Finally the Doctor stopped writing. "I can't." He whispered. "I can't do it." Suddenly he clutched his stomach and started to moan.

"This can't be happening" Said Donna. "The worlds about to end. My mother's been kidnapped by the most dangerous evil genius that ever lived and the one person in all of existence who can possibly save all of us has a tummy ache!"

"It's not a tummy ache." Moaned the Doctor. He was laying on his side now with his head in Rose's lap and he was clearly in a great deal of pain. "It's just… this is all happening too soon! I'm not ready. I'm not done yet."

"Doctor you have to pull yourself together." Said Jack. "We need you. There has to be something you can do. I already lost Tosh and Owen. I will not lose Gwen and Ianto! Think of them Doctor. Think of those people down there who care about you. They risked their lives to buy you more time. Sarah Jane and her son, and Martha, and Rose's mum and dad and Mickey and Donna's mum. They're all down there because of you. YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!"

Jack was livid. Donna hadn't known him very long but he seemed like the type of man it took a lot to anger but once he got started there was no stopping him. Kind of like the Doctor. At least her Doctor anyway. Right now Donna though Jack looked like he was ready to pummel the Time Lord lying on the floor.

And then it happened. Faster than Donna could blink the Doctor went from laying in Rose's lap writhing in pain to standing over Jack who was now cowering before the Time Lord.

"Don't you dare." Warned the Doctor. "Don't you dare tell me what I have to do. I'm nine hundred and four years old. You think you know me? You think just because you traveled with me for a few months you can tell me what to do? I DECIDE WHAT I DO. NO ONE ELSE! I have seen things that would destroy you people. All of you. I have seen the end of civilizations that lasted for millions of years and I didn't raise a finger to stop it. And you know why? Because sometimes you people get it into your heads that you're important. That you matter. That the world and the universe can't possibly go on without you. But it does. You think I owe those people down there something because they traveled with me for a while? What those people just did… for what those people just did I will never forgive them. I already have enough blood on my hands, I don't need you people adding to it. There's been enough death already!"

Donna was shocked. For the second time in as many hours she said nothing. She couldn't say anything. She had never thought… it had never even occurred to her that Davros was right. 'This is the Doctor's legacy'he had said 'he takes ordinary everyday people and he fashions them into weapons'. Donna wondered what the Doctor must have felt when he heard those words. Was it true? Sarah Jane had been prepared to blow up herself and her only son to stop the Daleks and Maratha had threatened to destroy the entire planet! Six billion lives sacrificed to save the whole of creation. Would it have been worth it? Donna couldn't even stand to think about it. Was this it then? Was the Doctor really giving up?

"You can't do this." Whispered Donna. "You can't really be thinking of letting that monster destroy the whole universe."

"Maybe I am." Replied the Doctor. He wasn't yelling now. In fact his voice was so quite that Donna had to strain her ears to hear him. "Maybe I'm tired of all the death and destruction. The pain and the hate. And the indifference. You people don't care about each other, you only care about yourselves. You don't appreciate what you have."

No one said anything. So this was it then. This was how the universe ended. The Daleks and Davros were going to activate the reality bomb and then they'd be the only things left.

"Please." Begged Rose. During Jack and the Doctor's yelling match the young blond hadn't said a word. She hadn't even blinked when the Doctor leapt out of her lap; she just kept looking forward. But now… well now was her last chance. "Please, please, please save them. Save us. You're the only one who can."

The Doctor looked down at Rose. He had the saddest expression on his face that Donna had ever seen.

"You don't know what you're asking Rose. You don't know what I'll have to do to stop him. It's going to be the worst thing I've ever done and you know… you know what I've done. I committed genocide against my own people just for a chance to destroy the Daleks. But this'll be worse. It'll be a million times worse. You think this 'reality bomb' is bad. You have no idea what'll come next. There will be days, terrible days, were you'll wish I had just let it all end here."

It was a warning. The Doctor was warning them. He had been cruel earlier to be kind. He hadn't really given up. He didn't really want the universe to end. But he knew what was coming. He had probably always known. Ever since he realized where the Daleks were hiding. The Medusa Cascade. It had been nagging at the back of his mind. Before his regeneration and after. He had told Donna earlier. 'I came here a long time ago,'he had said, 'to close a rift in time and space.'

From where she was sitting on the floor of the TARDIS Rose looked up at the Doctor. She looked into his now green eyes that reminded her of dying stars. He meant what he had said. He truly believed it would be better if they just ended it now. She could see it there; the Doctor was afraid. But Rose didn't care. She wanted her old Doctor back and she wanted her family to be safe. She wanted the Doctor to do what he did best. She wanted him to protect her. Which is why Rose said what she did and she refused to feel guilty about the expression on the Doctor's face after she said it.

"I don't care what you have to do. I don't care what happens. Just do it. Save us."

And so he did. But after that day the Doctor never looked at Rose Tyler the same way again.

"Alright then." Said the Doctor rubbing his hands together expectantly. "Do exactly as I say, don't ask stupid questions and you may just make it out of this alive. Jack, do you still have your wrist teleporter?"

"Yes." Said Jack slowly. "What do you need it for?"

"I told you no stupid questions." Answered the Doctor as he garbed Jacks wrist and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "Don't worry, I'm not going to disable it this time. I'm going to amplify it."

"Why?" Asked Donna as the Doctor began to work on the teleporter.

"Again with the stupid questions." Said the Doctor. "Look, this plan of mine has two parts. The me part and the you part. The me part is very, very complicated and I don't have time to explain it to you. The you part is simple. Jack is going to take his now super-wrist teleporter, along with you and Rose, down to the Crucible. You three are going to wait until the Daleks are distracted, that's part of the me plan, and then you're going to save all of our friends. Next you're going to send all twenty-seven planets back where they belong, ask Sarah Jane's son Luke, he'll know how to send them back, just get him to a main computer terminal. And finally, last but not least, you're going to follow right behind them -Jack's teleporter should have no problem with the distance back to Earth- and you are going to do all of this without getting killed and without interfering in what I'm doing. Got that? Any questions? Terrific!"

The Doctor finished putting the final touches on the teleporter and they were all set. Donna helped Rose to her feet and Jack walked over to them so that they could each hold one of his arms. Jack and Rose were both holding their particle canons.

"Ready?" Asked the Doctor.

"We're going to see you after this is all over. Right?" Asked Rose.

The Doctor smiled. He looked exhausted and beat down. His suit was in tatters. Somewhere along the way he had taken off his jacket and now it was lost. The bottom of his shirt was un-tucked, his sleeves were rolled up and his tie had been loosened. He resembled a man who was on his last leg and his eyes seemed almost hallow. Dead.

"Everything is going to be fine." Said the Doctor.

"You're lying." Said Rose.

"It'll be easier if you just pretend I'm not."

And then they were gone.

"Here we go." Breathed the Doctor.

"Prepare to detonate the reality bomb!" Cried Davros. The moment he had been waiting a lifetime for had finally come. His greatest creation would mean the end of reality itself and the dawn of a new age, built and ruled over by the Daleks.

"Remember your place creator." Said the Supreme Dalek on the viewing screen. "We may have been born from your cells but we are your masters now. Never forget that you are an inferior being, and live or die at my will. We will commence with our plan as soon as it is optimal."

"Of course." Replied Davros, bowing as much as he could in his chair. "You know best Supreme One."

"Now that has to be embarrassing," came a voice over the viewer. The picture of the Supreme Dalek began to distort and fade. It's his place stood a young man, in his mid to late twenties, wearing a tattered shirt and tie. And where he was standing… in the background was… the TARDIS! "If my children talked like that to me I'd give them a good spanking. Kids these days have no respect for their elders. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Doctor?" Cried Sarah Jane. She had been sitting on the floor in her holding cell, the light from the force field casting an eerie glow over her as she quickly stood up. "You're alive!"

The Doctor remained silent, he was waiting for Davros to respond to his taunts.

"I see you've changed your face again Doctor. Are you getting slower in your old age or are my creations getting faster?" Mocked Davros.

"Well they were bound to hit me one of these days. Everybody gets lucky once in a while. And I have to admit it didn't hurt quite as much as I thought it would."

"Defiant, as ever I see." Said Davros narrowing his eyes at the image of the Doctor. "You're too late you know. There's nothing you can do to stop us Doctor. You've failed, just as you failed to save your own people. Whatever made you think you'd do better the second time around?"

"I'm here to offer you one last chance Davros." Replied the Doctor, as his playful smile turned deadly serious. "Release my friends, return these planets to where ever it is that they belong and I'll let you go. You and your new Dalek Empire can travel the stars and look for a new place to call home."

"Hahahaha!" Laughed Davros. "You always did have a sense of humor Doctor, I'll say that much for you. You have no hope of defeating us. No brilliant plan. You're alone in that giant ship of yours. Why even as we speak I'm sure the Supreme Dalek is targeting the TARDIS with Phase Missiles. They'll rip your ship apart and your friends will get to watch as you die again but this time no amount of regenerating will be able to bring you back. The end of the Time Lords will have finally come, as it was always meant to, at the hands of a Dalek."

The Doctor didn't even blink. "Do Daleks have hands? There really more like tentacles aren't they?"

Forty flights above on the bridge, where the Supreme Dalek had been listening to the Doctor and Davros' entire conversation, a lowly little Dalek grunt who had been frantically trying to track the source of the Doctor's transmission got a satisfying 'beep' from his computer read out.

"Supreme One!" Cried the Dalek grunt. "I have located the TARDIS!"

"Excellent!" Bellowed the Supreme Dalek. "Plot in the coordinates to the phase missiles and prepare to fire! Exterminate!"

On bored the TARDIS a single alarm began to go off. The Doctor briefly looked away from the monitor with Davros on it to the radar screen that showed six phase missiles headed straight for him. Ok then. This is it. No turning back.

"Time to die Doctor." Said Davros on the monitor.

"Really?" Mocked the Doctor. "End of the universe, final showdown, good vs. evil for all the marbles and the best you can come up with is 'Time to die Doctor.'? What are we back in the seventies? Just for that you deserve what's about to happen. Unbelievable!"

"And what is about to happen, Doctor?" Asked Davros angrily.

"You'll see." Said the Doctor in a sing-song voice.

Just then the phase missiles detonated but not against the side of the TARDIS. No, instead of blowing the Doctor and his ship to smithereens, the missiles exploded in the nothingness of space; in the heart of the Medusa Cascade.

The shock wave from the explosion reopened a rift in time and space that the Doctor had closed ten lifetimes ago. On the other side of the rift, where the Doctor had trapped it so long ago, a creature, the last of its kind, awoke from a billion year sleep. It saw the hole in its prison. It the saw the light coming from the stars on the other side of the rift. The first light it had seen in so long.

It sensed the life, outside of its prison. It sensed the Dalek Crucible, and Earth and the other twenty-six planets. It sensed Davros with his twisted mind so full of hate and anger, so alike his creations. It sensed a rift not unlike the one that it had been imprisoned in, on one of the planets and it knew that some poor beast had been trapped there too, like him but was now dead. The creature also sensed a man that could not die, who had been touched by a woman with powers that she had not been able to control or understand and although it had been some time for her since she had lost that power there was still a part of it that clung to her like an animal who had caught a scent. The creature on the other side of the rift could not tell however if that animal was protecting the woman or stocking her.

Finally the creature in its prison sensed the Doctor. The being responsible for its imprisonment. The creature could tell that the Time Lord had changed since there last encounter. He was older, wiser and so full of rage. The creature fed off of the Doctor's rage and it was good. And then it got to the best part. As the creature's power grew, returning to it after a billion years it weighed and measured the entire universe and realized something important. The Doctor was alone! The creature laughed for the first time since its imprisonment. The Doctor was completely alone. This would be so much fun!

The Last Eternal vs. The Last Time Lord.