A/N: Forgive me for this. My Doctor Who obsession is definitely getting the better of me. I have to get this out of my head before I get even more depressed about it. And I can't find music for this, either! Everything just ends up depressing me further… I'm having to write this in little bits and pieces; it's just so overwhelming. Oh hell, let's just get on with the show; nobody reads these things anyway.

Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC, etc, etc. If I owned it, David would still be there. Period.

The Doctor stood between Rassilon and the Master, his mind whirling. The Vinvocci's ship. Wilfred's pistol. Falling through the sky. The Naismith Estate. The Time Lords. Gallifrey, hanging in the sky above the Earth. The pistol was in his hand, cocked, his finger on the trigger. He hated guns. Wilfred had practically begged him to take it. He didn't want to kill anyone. He didn't know if he could.

And yet, it was the only thing that could save them. The Earth. The human race. The only thing.

Changes of heart. The Master, Rassilon, the Master yet again… Could he do it? Could he really kill him? He'd watched the Master die once before. Hell, he'd died in his arms. And even so, he had to. Every human being depended on him. All six billion of them.

And then, behind. The Gate. The Doctor finally knew what he had to do. He steadied his hand, taking careful aim.

"Get out of the way."

The Master paused for a second, just a second, then threw himself to the ground. No hesitation whatsoever; the trigger pulled, the bullet shot, the Gate destroyed and sparking. The Time Lords and Gallifrey itself started to fade, the link destroyed.

Rassilon stretched out his gloved hand towards the Doctor, hatred in his eyes. The Doctor merely stood there, awaiting his impending demise. He'd been told that he would die this day, and he was ready for it.

"Get out of the way."

The Master's voice came from behind him as the dying Time Lord stood to face Rassilon. Raising his hand, the Master shot a bolt of lightning into Rassilon's chest.

"You did this to me!" he shouted. "All my life! You made me!" The lightning stopped, but he shot his other hand forward, the bolt firing forth from it. "One!" he cried, a look of pure anguish on his face. Again. "Two!" Another, "Three!" And the last. "Four!"

Rassilon never had a chance. He fell to his knees, clutching to his scepter for support. The Time Lords faded completely, and so did Gallifrey. The entirety of the human race came out to watch the planet crash into the Earth's surface, and now they were celebrating. Disaster had been averted. Everyone was safe.

The Master was dead. The Time Lords were gone. And the Doctor closed his eyes, falling into a blissful unconsciousness.

The last of the Time Lords stirred a while later, cutting himself a couple of times on the splintered glass littering the floor. His strength was just about spent, and he could barely push himself up to his hands and knees.

"I'm alive." he mumbled, and he started to laugh. He was indeed alive. He had survived. The prophecy was wrong.

Knock knock knock knock.

"He will knock four times."

The smile fell from his face, his laughter dying in his throat. He was wrong. The prophecy hadn't been fulfilled yet. All of his hope, crushed in a single instant. Knock knock knock knock. He slowly turned around to face Wilfred, still in the isolation chamber. Wilfred knocked again. Four knocks.

"Doctor?" he asked, concern on his face.

The Doctor slowly got to his feet, his expression detached and emotionless. He walked over to the other chamber and grasped the handle to the door.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A voice came out of nowhere. A woman's voice. The Doctor let go of the door, looking wildly around. He saw a small looking figure in a long black cloak half hidden in a doorway. Its hood was up, shadowing its face.

"Who are you?" he demanded of the figure.

"A friend." it replied, reaching up and lifting its hood away from its face. It became she. "Please don't be alarmed; I only want to help." she pleaded with him, what looked like genuine concern in her eyes. The Doctor narrowed his, not wanting to be fooled. "Doctor, please."

"How do you know me?" he asked, suspicious of her intentions. He'd been misled quite a bit already; he didn't want it to happen again.

"I've been waiting for you." The woman smiled at him, and he took this time to take in her appearance.

She had long, brown hair done up in a braid at her neck, white ribbons tied into it. The braid itself went down to her lower back, where it ended in a metal clasp that kept it from falling apart. She had bangs that framed her face, and a gentle smile that seemed to speak more than her words. Her eyes were of the same brown as her hair, with flecks of hazel scattered throughout her irises. From what he could see under the cloak, she was wearing a simple white tank top and pale green cargo pants.

"Waiting for me?" the Doctor repeated. "Why me? Just who are you? Tell me!"

She merely smiled at him, a sad, sad smile that reflected itself in her eyes. She then seemed to snap into place, and an expression he couldn't quite place affixed itself on her features as she aimlessly wandered towards the center of the room. It was quite an odd expression, really. A quirky smile, a raised eyebrow, and still the sadness in her eyes, a deep, ceaseless sadness that seemed to be so much a part of her that she couldn't let it go. He wondered just what had happened to this woman to create eyes like that. Then he realized that his own eyes might not be that different.

He was broken out of his thoughts as he saw that she had started to move towards the second isolation chamber. Wilfred stood in the other, confused and just a little bit scared.

"You can't!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing her arm. She looked back at him, then at his hand. Almost reluctantly, she stopped moving and looked him straight in the eye.

"I know how this is going to turn out, Doctor." she muttered under her breath, but loud enough so that he could still hear her. "I know what you were planning to do. You were going to get in there and kill yourself so that that human in there wouldn't have to die. Is that right?" Her voice was dark, yet slightly concerned.

He gave a small nod, opening his mouth to explain himself, but she cut him off. "I can't believe you!" she cried, shaking his hand off her arm and stepping away from him, towards the second isolation chamber again. "For all your power, your wisdom… you are surprisingly attached to these humans." The Doctor frowned; she spoke like she wasn't human. If she wasn't human, then she must have a good reason for being here on Earth. "But that's the thing, isn't it? That emotional attachment… the fact that you admire these people results in the decision to defend them. And it is no different here." She waved her hand towards Wilfred, then walked over and stood in front of him, inspecting the old man. The Doctor watched carefully, moving closer. He didn't want any harm to come to his friend.

"No special abilities." the woman mumbled to herself. "No particularly strong mental capacity, nothing out of the ordinary about him." She turned around and faced the Doctor. "And yet you would give your life for him? An ordinary human?"

"Yes." he replied, absolutely no hesitation in his voice. The woman looked a bit impressed by this and watched him as he made for the isolation chamber. As he grasped the handle, she grabbed his arm in the same way he had earlier.

"I can't let you do that, Doctor." she said, a smile on her face as she suddenly overpowered him and managed to get his hand off the door. Surprised, he staggered back a bit, still slightly unsteady from his crash landing into the Naismith Estate. "I made a promise." She quickly grabbed the handle, swung open the glass door and stepped inside.

The Doctor stared at her for a split second, then ran over and opened the door. "What promise?" he demanded of her, and she merely smiled in return, saying nothing. "If you stay in there, you're going to die! I'm the only one who can do it!"

She gently placed her hands on his chest, pushing him away from the door with considerable force, despite her being almost half a foot shorter than him. She let the door swing shut, and as the Doctor fought to regain his balance, she looked up at the frightened Wilfred.

"Now don't be afraid." she said soothingly. "When I press this button, you have to get out of there. Quickly. Shut the door behind you… and help the Doctor up, would you?" Her tone was almost amused as she looked to her left. The Doctor had fallen over from her push, and he was having a bit of trouble getting back up. Wilfred gave a small, worried nod and got ready to open the door.

"What's your name?" he asked her, and she smiled that quirky smile.

"Serafina." she replied, then started the countdown. "Three. Two. One. Go!" She slammed her hand down on the button just as the Doctor managed to get to his feet. Wilfred burst out the door, shutting it behind him like she had said. The Doctor ran for the other door, even though he knew that it was too late. Serafina turned towards him, that same quirky smile on her face, and gave him a little wave. Wilfred caught him and held him back as best he could as the brunette girl's face contorted. She clutched at her chest and slowly crumpled to the floor, letting out a piercing, agonized scream before falling silent and motionless. She had fallen curled up, her back against the door.

The Doctor broke out of Wilfred's hold and yanked open the door, dragging Serafina's limp form out of the tiny chamber and laying her down on the floor. His face was stony, and anyone could see that he was clearly upset. He was supposed to be the one who died today. Not this… child. She looked to be barely out of her teen years, maybe even twenty three at the most. Her life had been snuffed out because he hadn't been quick enough to save her. His relief at the fact that he was indeed still alive was smothered completely by the raw pain of watching yet another innocent person die in front of him. It was almost too much to handle.

"Doctor?" Wilfred asked softly from his position at Serafina's side. The Doctor looked down at him and was a bit confused when he saw the old man's almost happy face. "She's still alive."

The Doctor blinked. Alive? That was five hundred thousand Rads! No human could survive that! Though, just because she looked human didn't mean that she was human. What was she? To take five hundred thousand Rads and be merely knocked unconscious... quite a feat.

She stirred a little and opened her eyes. "Ow, that hurt…" she mumbled as she tried to sit up, the Doctor and Wilfred helping her.

"'That hurt'?" The Doctor repeated, incredulous. "You should be dead. How did you survive that?" She peeked out at him from between her fingers, a bit of a smile on her face.

"For the man who calls himself a doctor of everything," she laughed to herself, "you sure ask a lot of questions." She started to inspect herself, as if making sure that everything was there. "I'll explain later... Just not now. I don't have enough time." The Doctor raised an eyebrow at that, but was cut off when she reached into her pocket and produced an open fob watch. The words died in his throat as she snapped it closed, revealing Gallifreyan symbols engraved on the cover.

"You are not alone." Could the Face of Boe have known about this? He knew about the Master, definitely, but could he have known about this woman, too? It wasn't all that impossible, assuming the watch was actually hers.

"How did you get this?" he asked her as she got to her feet.

"It's mine, if that's what you're wondering." She rolled her eyes a little as she spoke. "It's mine, and I opened it earlier. Here, actually. Not really surprising that you didn't notice; you don't look like you're feeling all that great." She looked sideways at him. He really didn't feel up to snuff, as freefalling from a spaceship and crashing through a glass ceiling into concrete wasn't just a walk in the park.

Serafina started to walk off, but the Doctor held her back again. She looked at him, then stopped. "What, Doctor?" she asked, sounding kind of confused. He shifted her cloak back over her shoulders, inspecting her. She looked human, but he knew. He knew now, as he knew with the Master.

She was a Time Lord. Well, technically, a Time Lady. They were the last of the Time Lords, and he wasn't alone. The Master had died, Rassilon had been killed, and the other Time Lords were stuck in the Time War, where they belonged. He'd thought he was the only one in existence, and he was wrong. Breaking himself out of his thoughts, he looked down at her to see that she was inspecting him as well.

"I can see you've figured it out." she said, a happier smile now on her face. He didn't match it as she thought he would, and she frowned a little. "Is something wrong?"

"You're regenerating." he remarked, watching the golden glow of regeneration cling to her skin. "You sacrificed yourself. Why?" He looked her in the eye, and she stared back at him, unwavering.

"I told you. I made a promise." She shifted her cloak over her shoulders again, hiding the glow as it started to get brighter and brighter. Turning away from him, she put her hood up. "I promised that I wouldn't let you die. And I've done it." She started to walk off yet again, but the Doctor tightened his grip.

"Don't leave." he pleaded. She looked back at him and sighed, turning around to face him. "Come with me."

She stared at him. Going with him would mean traveling around the universe with him. Fighting the alien species that kept popping up wherever he went. Her friends would do anything to be able to choose. She knew she wanted to, oh how she wanted to see the stars, to get off this dismal planet and fly about the universe with the Doctor, but she couldn't bring herself to say yes. "You saved my life. You saved Wilfred, too…" the Doctor continued. "It's the least I could do." Serafina raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Does that mean you don't want to?" he asked her, and she immediately shook her head vigorously.

"No! I mean… I want to, but..." she mumbled, and he smiled. She gave a bit of a blush and turned away from him. "Don't misunderstand! It's just an easier way of keeping track of you, you hear me?" She sounded flustered, and she started to storm off in a random direction.

The Doctor's smile easily showed his amusement at the situation. "Serafina?" he called after her.

"What, Doctor?" she called back, sounding a bit frustrated.

"The TARDIS is that way."

And yeah, that would be the first chapter. Don't really have much to say here, since it's the first chapter and all, though I just had to end it there. Working on the next chapter as I write this!

Tell me what you think! Thanks! Oh, and flames will be used to barbecue spiders!

~Bloodskye