Author's Notes: Don't think I'm the only one to have imagined "Journey's End" turning out differently from RTD's script - so that's what fandom is for. I've kept to some of the original scenes, but this is obviously an AU version of JE, so expect employment of creative liberties, along with different characters' POVs. Hope you all enjoy it.

Warnings: Major! character deaths, some violence, possibly a depressing ending.

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They transmat into the Vault yelling and screaming and tumbling, disoriented yet spitting fight and fire, ready as ever to do the stupidest things if it meant saving the world and its universe.

He sees the defiance in every fibre and sinew, recognizes it, and knows nothing good will come of it.

"Stop! Just do as they say!" Don't let there be any more deaths.

"Doctor?" They chorus, angry and confused.

"Please."

They drop to their knees slowly, Mickey last of them, dark eyes raging and his body obeying only the Doctor and nothing else - not the Daleks, not even his own stubborn pride.

Davros laughs, a distorted sound that bites into the core of him, mocking the pain and guilt it uncovered.

"The Doctor," he sneers through harsh exhalations, "and his little humans, loyal and noble to the end. Not that it will save any of you, or anyone else."

The smile stretches, grotesque.

"Supreme Dalek, you may begin Phase 2."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Planetary re-alignment completed. Engaging universal detonation."

The cold fear sinks in deep, pulls at his hearts. The Doctor clenches his fist, wracking his brain as he fumbles in the dark. His brilliant brain had to up and leave him now - thanks a bunch – and he tries to ignore the five humans kneeling on the floor and the weight of their gaze on him. Doesn't want to know if Rose is looking at him either; he wouldn't be able to stand her disappointment.

In the thrum of engines working to full power, almost no one notices the familiar gasping whirrs until it has almost fully re-materialized.

"The TARDIS!" Martha yells.

"How?!" Jack and Rose echo simultaneously.

Davros backs away, just a few yards, seething, and just a little taken surprised. "That's impossible."

Acting skills may have saved that one surprise for him– his mind link to the TARDIS prepared him as much – but still, seeing his old ship in its boxy blue physicality sends sharp relief coursing up the Doctor's spine. His old girl, his constant companion; she was still there, still strong.

And still surprising him as ever, because while her presence had all along been alive in his mind, he is absolutely unprepared for the two partial minds that burst into his consciousness as the door is flung open…

By him. By him, holding a rather large gun.

"What." he breathes.

His self, in his blue suit, comes running straight at Davros, and he briefly wonders if he is actually that thick in real life.

"Don't!" He shouts, just as a blue bolt sizzles from a metal fingertip and stabs into his Other's chest. The man collapses with a cry as the energy wreaks havoc on delicate nerves.

Donna runs out next – he really should've expected that, but he didn't. She reaches the dropped gun, but the bolt reaches her as well, and flings her to the floor.

"Activate the holding cells!"

Two other force fields erect themselves around Donna and his clone, and he fights back a stab of despair as Davros' laugh echoes through the room.

"Detonation in ten!"

"A brave, but futile display. And now that we are through with the distractions, Doctor, direct your focus to the image feed, if you will."

"Nine..."

The scientist pulls up close to the Doctor, just on the edge of the prison's force field. An unseen button activates the holographic screen, planets swimming into view, and they watch as he scrolls through them before pulling out to a screen of bright dots and binary. The Doctor forces back a swell of fear – he didn't have time for hysterics.

"Davros, you have to stop."

"-Six"

"Do you really think I will stop now? After all I've done? After all that's been lost and rebuilt by my own hands, Doctor?"

"Five."

"I think not."

He smacks a hand into the force field. "Listen to me! The bomb will tear the Universe apart; there will be nothing left. A Universe without Reality cannot exist, and if the Universe doesn't exist, neither will you!"

"Four..."

The man regards him coolly.

"That's where you're wrong, Doctor. Reality will still exist."

"Three."

"We will still exist."

"Two."

"Because Reality will become Us."

"One."

They all watch in silence as a bolt of white runs down the line of planets, a shimmering blaze that bursts into black as it hits the edge of the Cascade, a black mouth that ripples and writhes against the colours of the Cascade, pulsating, gnawing, eating through space and time.

It breaks through.

And the Doctor collapses with a silent scream.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The bolt of pain sears through his head and buries itself deep in his mind, pushing deeper still as he cries and fights against the crippling agony of Time unwound. The threads fall apart, come undone, and he feels in his very soul the utter wrongness of it all. Worlds disintegrate and tear, scarring through his Time Sense, bending and stretching Reality as timelines arrest prematurely; timelines meant to live on for centuries more.

When he comes to, he finds himself on the floor of his prison, mind and body shaking with loss and pain. Above the ringing in his ears, he hears the grating metallic screech of Dalek orders and the very human voices laced with anger.

"-t did you do to him?"

"The prisoners will be silent!"

"Doctor!"

He pulls an arm from underneath him and attempts to pick himself off the cold deck. Davros wheels closer and he can almost hear the madman smirk.

"That demonstration was only a fraction of its power, Doctor." The hiss is low and smug. "Now I will take my leave. I am needed for the final calibrations. The Bomb must be operating at maximum if we are to succeed."

"You're mad." His voice cracks, sounds feeble even to him. He curses his weakness and blames it on age and compassion.

"So they tell me, Doctor," the room hollows out the chuckle as the lift ascends, "so they tell me."