A/N I don't' own Doctor Who or BBC. I'm not even British.

Book of the Update: Seeing in the Dark by Timothy Ferris

Chapter 1: Journey's End

"…why don't you ask her yourself?"

It took a moment for realization to dawn on his face, followed quickly by disbelief. The Doctor turned, ever so slowly, and froze when he saw her. Rose Tyler. She was really there, in the right universe, standing there grinning at him. He stood in shock for a full ten or fifteen seconds before breaking into a run, a look of sheer joy written plainly across his face.

When they finally reached each other, he didn't even hesitate before pulling her into his arms and swinging them around, holding her as close as he could. He pressed his face into her hair and listened to her say his name over and over into his ear.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" broke into their long awaited reunion, followed by a loud "NO!" and a body slamming into the Doctor, sending both him and Rose crashing to the ground.

Blue light filled his vision as someone crumpled to the ground beside them, something clattering on the concrete by the Doctor's right hand. A sonic blaster. He grabbed the blaster and stood up in one fluid motion, aiming it for the Dalek and watching the shot hit its target.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Rose's voice called him back to the matter at hand. He looked down and saw Rose curled over the limp body of Captain Jack Harkness. He shoved the blaster in his pocket and gently pulled her away from him.

"Rose….it's alright," he tried, "he'll be fine. Rose, just….step back. Stay away from him."

But she would have none of it. She clung to Jack's neck and refused to be pulled away. "We should take him inside the TARDIS, yeah? Can't just…leave him here," she finally said, sniffing and wiping her nose on her sleeve.

He couldn't bear to see her cry so, as wrong as Jack was, he scooped him up and carried him inside the TARDIS past a bewildered Donna, Rose following on his heels.

He put Jack down, a bit less than gently, on the jump seat and walked away from Jack, toward the controls.

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but she screamed and jumped back instead.

"Rosie! Long time no see," Jack said, giving her a dazzling smile.

She stood frozen, hand clasped over her mouth. "But you….you were dead," she said in a faint voice. She turned to look at Donna and the Doctor. "He was dead, yeah? You saw it too!" her voice had gotten stronger now. "You were dead, Jack," she told him and he shrugged.

"It happens."

Rose turned back to the Doctor and he gave her his 'I'll tell you later' look. She nodded, still a bit uncertain about the whole thing.

Donna looked back and forth between the three of them. "Will someone please tell me what the bloody hell is goin on?"

Jack smiled and held out his hand. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service." He winked.

"Donna Noble," she said, holding out a hand, all thoughts of Mars and aliens out of her head.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Jaaack."

"What? I'm just saying hello," he said innocently, backing off with his hands in the air.

"He can say hello all he wants, spaceman!" Donna barked and Rose covered her mouth to keep from laughing; she liked this universe's Donna.

"RIGHT!" the Doctor said loudly, clapping his hands together. "Let's get out of here, shall we?" He walked over to the controls and was halfway through setting the coordinates when suddenly the lights went off in the ship and all of the screens went black.

"They've got us….power's gone! Some sort of chronum loop!" the Doctor was frantically running around the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons, but to no avail.

The TARDIS lurched to the side, sending her passengers crashing to the floor.

After a few unsteady tries, the ship righted herself as she was flung through time and space against her will.

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planet. They're calling it the Crucible," Jack informed them. "Guess that's our destination."

"You said these planets were like an engine, but what for?" Donna asked quietly.

The Doctor's head shot up. "Rose," he said, pointing at her, "you've been in the parallel world; that world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future what was it?"

She ran her teeth over her bottom lip. "'s the darkness."

Donna seemed to remember just then. "The stars were goin out," she added in.

"One by one. You'd look up in the sky and they were just dying," Rose said with a sad, far-off look in her eyes. "Basically, we've been building this…travel machine. This, uh…..dimension cannon so I could…" she stopped and met the Doctor's eyes. "Well, so I could…."

"What?"

"So I could come back," she said finally and he grinned at her, laughing. "Shut up. Anyway, so it started to work, and the dimension started to collapse." His smile was gone now. "And not just in our world, not just in yours, the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is…destroying everything."

"In that parallel world," Donna started and Rose turned to face her, "You said something bout me?"

"The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's….it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."

"But why me?" she asked, sounding a bit frantic, "What have I ever done? I mean, I'm a temp from Cheswick!"

Something on the console beeped and the Doctor was over there in a heartbeat, examining the screen. "Dalek crucible. All aboard," he said in a flat voice.

The TARDIS began to shake again and then stopped abruptly as she landed. "DOC-TOR YOU WILL STEP FORTH OR DIE" boomed a metallic voice outside the ship.

"We'll have to go out," the Doctor said, staring at the door, "cause if we don't, they'll get in."

Rose seemed confused. "You told me nothing could get through those doors."

"You've got extrapolator shielding," Jack said, backing her up.

The Doctor looked at them. "Last time we fought the Daleks they were scavengers. And outnumbered. And mad. This is a fully fledged Dalek empire at the height of its power; experts at fighting TARDISes. They can do anything. Right now," he took a breath, "that wooden door…is just wood."

"What about your dimension jumper?" Jack asked Rose.

"It needs another twenty minutes and anyhow, I'm not leaving."

"What about your teleport?" The Doctor asked Jack.

"Went down in the power loss."

"Well then," the Doctor said, "All of us together. Yeah? Donna?" they all turned to look at her. She was standing there, staring off into space with tears forming in her eyes. The Doctor walked back and grabbed her shoulders. "Donna," he whispered sharply and she jumped, gasping, like she had been shaken awake.

"Yeah." She said, but it sounded like she had no idea what they had been talking about.

"I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."

"Yeah. I know."

"DOC-TOR COME FORTH AND FACE YOUR DA-LEK MAS-TERS"

"Daleks," Rose said with a fake, breathy little laugh.

"Oh God," Jack added, a tight smile on his lips.

"It's been good though, hasn't it? All of us, everything we did?" he looked at Donna, "You were brilliant. And you were brilliant," he added, looking at Jack. "And you were brilliant," he told Rose, blinking his eyes hard to stop the water from welling up in them. "Blimey."

He turned toward the door, took a deep breath, and opened it.

"DA-LEKS REIGN SUP-REME ALL HAIL THE DA-LEKS" echoed in the halls of the Crucible, a thousand robot voices saying the same words.

The Doctor looked up at the masses of Daleks flying above their heads. "Oh…kay," he breathed out, staring.

"LOOK DOC-TOR, BE-HOLD THE MIGHT OF THE TRUE DA-LEK RACE" boomed the robotic voice of the red Dalek, who was obviously the leader.

"DONNA?" The Doctor called over his shoulder. "You're no safer in there," he muttered.

"I'll get her," Rose mumbled and she walked over to the TARDIS and leaned in. "Donna?"

The TARDIS doors slammed shut, hitting Rose on the bum and forcing her inside. The Doctor ran over, banging on the doors. "Doctor!" Rose cried out, followed quickly by an accusatory screech from Donna: "Doctor? What've you done?"

"Wasn't me I didn't do anything!"

"Oi! I'm not stayin behind!"

"What did you do?" the Doctor screeched at the red Dalek.

"THIS IS NOT OF DA-LEK OR-I-GIN"

"Stop it! Now open the door and let them out!"

"THIS IS TIME LORD TRE-CHE-RY," the red Dalek announced, flailing its lasers around.

"Me?" The Doctor cried, "The door just closed on its own!"

"NEVER-THE-LESS THE TAR-DIS IS A WEA-PON AND IT WILL BE DES-TROYED"

A flick of his arm and a trapdoor below the TARDIS swung open, letting the ship fall down to whatever was underneath the floor.

"WHAT ARE YA DOING?" The Doctor screeched, looking down the dark hole, "BRING IT BACK!" he shouted at the red Dalek. "What 'ave you done? Where's it going?"

"THE CRUC-IBLE HAS A HEART OF ZED-NEUT-REGO EN-ER-GY. THE TAR-DIS WILL BE DEP-OSI-TED IN-TO THE CORE"

"You can't…."the Doctor said faintly, "You….you've taken the defenses down!" he found his voice again, "THEY'LL BE TORN APART!"

AN: Was this too short? Too long? Too cliché? I think the whole "not being hit by the Dalek" thin is new – I haven't encountered it before – and if it's not, then I'm terribly sorry. I tried, and I hope that this will be different and better as it goes on.