The Wizard of Space and Time Chapter 2: DW 1-13 The Parting of the Ways, a doctor who fanfic

'We've got incoming!'

'Thank you, Jack,' muttered The Wizard, 'I can see that.'

'The forcefield isn't working!'

'Of course it's not. Pass it here.'

Jack stepped aside and The Wizard fiddled with the extrapolator, while The Doctor flew the Tardis.

'Missiles are about to hit!'

'Love from Gallifrey, monsters,' muttered The Wizard. Jack glanced uncertainly at her. She had a wicked grin on her face and the missiles hit.

Jack looked around as the Tardis shook. 'The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk.'

'Next time you are, I'll get you to say it,' said The Wizard, stepping next to The Doctor to pull a lever.

'No, no! Not again!' he replied.

'And for our next trick,' said The Doctor as they pulled a lever.

'Did you count for any Daleks around Rose?'

'Nope.'

Chagrin, The Wizard tossed Jack a large gun and sent The Doctor a glare. 'Let's hope there's only one.'

The Tardis materialised, inside Rose and a single Dalek appeared.

'Rose, get down!' yelled The Doctor, as she looked around in shock and froze. 'Get down, Rose!'

The Wizard leapt forward in a flurry of black coat and pulled Rose down.

'Exterminate!' The Dalek fired, The Doctor dodged and Jack returned the fire. The Dalek died simply.

'You did it,' said Rose, grinning at The Wizard and giving her a hug. With a smile the Timelord returned it, and Rose moved on to hug The Doctor. 'Feels like I haven't seem you in years.'

'We told you we'd come and get you.'

'Never doubted it.' Rose said with a grin.

'I did, Wizard didn't. You all right?'

'Yeah. You?'

'Not bad, been better.'

Rose gave The Doctor another hug while The Wizard regarded the open Dalek shell and the organism inside with pure hatred, though it was disguised as disgust. Jack frowned a little, her eyes seemed too hard for her emotion to just be about the smell. 'Hey, don't I get a hug?' he said, choosing to give The Wizard some space and turn to Rose.

'Oh, come here!'

'I was talking to him.' Jack pointed at The Doctor and he and Rose laughed. 'Welcome home.'

'Oh, I thought I'd never see you again.'

'Oh, you were lucky. That was just a one shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk.'

'It was a piece of junk to begin with, Jack,' said The Wizard slightly cheekily, 'what on Earth did you make it out of?'

'A defrabricator.'

'Well that explains how you somehow managed to change your clothes during this madness,' she sighed, before crossing to the console and flicking a few switches. The Dalek, and the irony, metallic smell, disappeared, dissolving into atoms.

Jack nodded at the disappearing angry tank. 'The Daleks.'

'What about them?' asked The Wizard, heavily and yet lightly.

'You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive?' asked Rose.

'One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space.' Jack looked at The Wizard.

'They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War,' said The Doctor.

Jack's eyes widened. 'I thought that was just a legend.'

The Wizard laughed. It was harsh, painful and mocking, making Jack and Rose feel tiny and insignificant when they heard the sound.

'We were there,' said The Doctor. 'The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. Our people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing.'

'There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one.' Rose looked between the two. 'What're we going to do?'

Jack read The Wizard's face, which said clearly her answer was to wipe them out using something he had no doubt was genius. She walked away to lean on the wall at the opposite end of the console room. He joined her.

'You seem worse about the Daleks than The Doctor does.'

The Wizard watched him for a moment. 'Jack, I'll tell you a story.' She took a breath. 'You thought the Time War was a myth. In the time of Gallifrey, the Daleks rose, created by a very afraid and unwise being. They sought to destroy everything in the Universe, to wipe out all creation. This was because in his youth, the creator lived in fear; he lived in a war. To be safe, he protected himself by starting the Last Great Time War, intending to live only with his own loyal, screaming, creations; The Daleks.' The Wizard was perfectly calm. 'The Timelords intervened and stood for the sake of the universe. The war became angry, and the universe shook. Until finally, it became hell. Everything in the universe was screaming.

'So to stop it, the day the Daleks attacked Gallifrey its second city, Arcadia, fell. We were there. All the Daleks that had disappeared from the universe had gone to fight my people. The Timelords were put through hell, and even Rassilon himself became corrupt, driven mad by the loss of what we once were. Wise observes and travellers, grand and safe. They didn't deserve to be killed at the hands of the Daleks, they didn't deserve to lose when they had stood for something much larger than themselves. But the Daleks couldn't be won against. And as the universe shook in the final days, there was only one thing that would end it. So they burnt.'

Jack saw The Wizard's eyes had become grey, no longer with their blue shining through the silver sheet. And the look in her eye told him what she hadn't said. She and The Doctor were the ones who burnt it.

'The Timelords were burnt with the Daleks. Because there was no way to save them. Everything burnt.' She took a breath. 'But it was a long time before that happened, and The Doctor and I spent years fighting in the war. I have different methods. I think and I withdraw. I never wanted to see a Dalek again.' Her eyes lifted to look at the steaming Dalek remains. 'And now it falls to The Doctor and I to keep fighting.'

Jack nodded, eyes widened, shuffled, he fidgeted and didn't know what to do. But The Wizard returned to the console and after exchanging sad looks with The Doctor they changed.

The Doctor's solemn mood switched into cheery and he shrugged. 'No good stood round here chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbours.' He and The Wizard went to the doors and Rose panicked.

'You can't go out there!'

They went out. And were greeted by a chorus of yelling Daleks.

'Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!'

They fired, but the Tardis' forcefield protected them. Jack and Rose stood in the doors, watching like small children as The Doctor and The Wizard stood calmly, teasing the Daleks.

'Is that it? Useless! Null points,' he said in a French accent. He turned to the two in the door. 'It's all right, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything.' He leant on the Tardis.

'Almost anything,' said Jack, stepping out.

'Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks.' The Doctor said.

'Sorry.'

The Wizard deliberately hadn't said anything, she was busy counting Daleks and considering their options. She also was busy simply glaring at them from her lean on the Tardis.

The Doctor picked a Dalek at random and glared into its eye stalk, talking deeply. 'Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. And my friend over there is The Looming Thunder. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face us?' He turned to address the others. 'So tell us. How did you survive the Time War?'

'They survived through me.'

A deep Dalek voice echoed through the then suddenly larger space as the lights lit up around them. With Daleks floating higher than skyscrapers, The Doctor span round quickly and walked towards the source. The Wizard, on the other hand, turned her head slowly, eyes like pouring hot water into a glass, Jack and Rose could see the hatred filling as she turned. She lifted her weight off of the Tardis and turned slowly to face the giant Dalek watching her. She stayed next to the Tardis for a moment before striding in four steps to stand next to The Doctor. The other two followed her.

'Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks.'

'You destroyed us, Wizard, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive.'

'We get it,' said The Doctor, interrupting the Emperor's poetry.

'Do not interrupt!' a chorus of Daleks shouted.

'Do not interrupt!'

'I think you're forgetting something. I'm The Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!' he turned to shout at the Daleks, who moved back. Then he faced the Emperor again. 'Okey doke. So, where were we?'

The Wizard hadn't moved, nor said anything. But the Emperor was watching her cautiously.

'We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured.'

The Wizard's face twisted.

'So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead.' The Doctor said sadly.

'That makes them half human!' gasped Rose.

'Those words are blasphemy,' replied the Emperor angrily.

'Do not blaspheme.'

'They're fact,' snapped The Wizard.

The Doctor frowned at the Daleks.

The Emperor regarded her with wariness. 'Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek.'

'Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?' asked The Doctor breathlessly.

The Wizard tilted her head, as if to say "exactly".

'I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!'

'Worship him. Worship him. Worship him.'

'Shut up!' yelled The Wizard. They fell silent.

'They're insane,' said The Doctor in shock, 'Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever… … We're going.' He said the last part to the Emperor.

'You may not leave my presence..!' screamed the Emperor, as they left.

The Doctor sent them a winning grin as he closed the Tardis doors.

'Stay where you are.'

'Exterminate!'

'Worship him. Worship him. Worship him.'

'OH, SHUT UP!' yelled The Wizard, pulling the lever.

They materialised on the satellite station in the computer lab. Three people were at the end comuters at the main desk. The Doctor strode out, giving orders. 'Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!'

They turned off their questioning looks and did as he said, while The Wizard resumed leaning on the Tardis, head tilted back to also rest on the wood, thoughts and eyes elsewhere.

'What does this do?' asked one of the men.

'Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?'

'Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes.'

The Doctor looked up in fear. 'And the planet's just sitting there, defenceless. Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone.'

'She wouldn't go,' the man said.

'Didn't want to leave ya,' she said, looking at the Timelords.

The woman between Linda and The Doctor spoke up, she sounded remarkably calm, and The Wizard turned her attention to her. 'There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero.'

'Brilliant,' sighed The Wizard quietly in a whisper-like voice, dropping her head back to the wood. She took a deep breath and put her head upright again, looking down and sending her eyes around as she thought.

'Oh, my God. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way!' exclaimed the man.

'Well they weren't going to wait for an invitation,' said The Wizard blankly, a hint of a sigh. She left the Tardis as The Doctor began pulling bits from the conduits between the Tardis and the front computers, bending over and helping him.

'Dalek plan,' he said, as he threw open the next conduit along, 'big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone?' He regarded the others with a moment of exasperation as they stood there. 'Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?'

Jack shook his head as his brain caught on. 'You've got to be kidding.'

'Give the man a medal,' said The Doctor and The Wizard, still pulling out cables.

'A Delta Wave?!'

'A Delta Wave!' they shouted, The Doctor happily and The Wizard not finding the time to pause and throw her arms out, like he had done.

'What's a Delta Wave?' asked Rose.

'A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed,' Jack explained, mirroring The Wizard's seriousness and contrasting The Doctor's happy enthusiasm.

'And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!' shouted said Timelord.

'Well, get started and do it then!' jumped Lynda.

The Wizard didn't appreciate Rose's look as Lynda spoke before her, neither did she care that Rose was unhappy. Rose should have known enough by then. 'There are Daleks, Rose. You may have no idea, but if you can read the situation now isn't the time for sulking.'

Rose sent her a genuinely apologetic look.

The Doctor hadn't been listening. 'Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? Combine that with The Wizard, should take about… one day! How long till the Fleet arrive?'

'Twenty two minutes.'

'Definitely not a day,' grumbled The Wizard. 'Jack, stop standing there and help.'

Jack dove forward and began also pulling out wires. The Doctor sent the others a grin and didn't stop after that.

'Jack, set up that extrapolator to protect the station.' The Wizard said.

'Got it,' he replied and ran into the Tardis.

A few minutes later he, Rose, Lynda and the other two were crowded around the computer. The wires surrounding the conduits had increased dramatically and the whir of sonic screwdriver filled the background.

'We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading.'

'Do they know about the Delta Wave?'

'They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop The Doctor and The Wizard.' Jack pointed to the screen. 'That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up.'

'Who are they fighting?'

'Us.'

'And what are we fighting with?'

''The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open.'

The Wizard had been listening and deemed it unnecessary to tell Jack he was wrong. Nothing on the station, save for the Tardis could kill a Dalek.

'There's five of us.'

'Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare.' The Doctor said, as The Wizard stripped another one and whirred her sonic.

'Right, now there's four of us.'

'Then let's move it. Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls.'

Lynda stayed behind to talk to The Doctor. 'I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best.'

'Us too,' he replied, pausing in his work.

The Doctor awkwardly shook her hand, initially going for a hug. She walked away and Rose smiled at The Wizard, showing she'd grown up. The Wizard smiled back and clasped her hand for a moment. Then Jack walked up and The Doctor put down the wires again.

'It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye.'

The Wizard drew in a deep breath, but didn't stop working. There wasn't enough time for them all to pause.

Rose shook her head, voice normal. 'Don't talk like that. They're going to do it. You just watch them.'

'Rose, you are worth fighting for.' Jack, being Jack, kissed her. Then his smile changed and he moved on to speak to The Doctor. 'Wish I'd never met you, Doctor.'

The Doctor smiled.

'I was much better off as a coward.'

The Wizard stood up. 'I need to re-route a power supply. Jack, I'll see you down there.'

He nodded before turning back to The Doctor.

The Wizard's heels clicked as she ran out and down a level. After she'd finished her task Jack appeared as she took a step back to the control room. She stopped the second she saw him.

He rested his hands on his hips. 'Thanks for all the extra trips,' he said, 'it's been great. I'm sorry about that time on Mars.'

She chuckled, remembering the chaos and Jack in the middle of it, breaking stools over Judoon. 'Well I'm never taking you to a bar again.'

'Don't think you'll have to,' he said, still pleasantly, though there was sadness in his voice. He turned his head, looking around as he formed his words before swinging it back just as quickly, meeting her eyes dead on. 'You've done a lot for me, Wizard. I'm very grateful.'

A solemn smile wrote its way along her face. 'You're one of the best, Jack.'

He smiled and looked down modestly, before regarding her coat and meeting her eyes again. 'I never thought I'd meet a Timelord. And I never expected for one of them to be my greatest friend.'

Silence fell for a moment as they smiled at each other. Jack was scared, but determined to fight. He didn't want to leave The Doctor, The Wizard and Rose, but if he died, it wasn't like he'd know the difference. He just didn't want to.

The Wizard, having said goodbye to a great many good friends found herself obviously with the feeling she got every time a companion left in any way, shape or form.

Each opened their arms out and fell into a hug.

'Thanks again for all those extra trips we took together,' he said, from her shoulder.

'Thank you for keeping The Doctor behaving.'

He laughed and put his face down to touch her shoulder before sighing as they let go.

'Goodbye, Wizard.'

'Goodbye, Jack.'

They passed each other sadly, yet determinedly, and The Wizard went back upstairs.

'Suppose...' Rose said, looking up from the wires.

'What?' asked the Timelords, glancing up.

'Nothing.'

'You said suppose,' said The Doctor, working.

'No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?'

'As soon as the Tardis lands in that second, I become part of events, stuck in the timeline.'

'Yeah, thought it'd be something like that.'

'There's another thing the Tardis could do,' continued The Doctor, not bothering to look up. The Wizard held no interest in the conversation. 'It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989.'

'Yeah, but you'd never do that.'

'No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it?'

'Well, I'm just too good,' Rose chuckled.

The Wizard glanced up to send her a smile, sonicing a wire. Then a whoosh in the nearby electronics made them look to their left, and Rose to her right.

'The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?'

They ran over to a console and The Doctor checked the maths. The Wizard and he bowed their heads.

'Is that bad? Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?' Rose asked, panic reaching her voice at the sight of the two.

The Doctor jumped and span round, looking at her. He stood up and The Wizard hid a sad smile. 'Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the Tardis to cross my old timeline. Yes!'

They ran in, the Timelords grinning from ear to ear for Rose.

'Hold that down and keep position.'

'That too,' said The Wizard, putting Rose's other finger on a button.

'What's it do?'

'Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart…'

'Save it, Doctor, she's pressing the other button,' The Wizard said. To make it convincing, she had to.

'I'd go for the first one,' agreed Rose.

'Us too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!'

They ran out again and when they heard the doors shut, the stopped.

'You can go too,' they said to each other at the same time. They grinned again and put an arm over the other's shoulders, raising their sonics sadly and pointing at the Tardis.

A sound they expected never to hear again whooshed through their ears and they heard Rose yelling to them. 'Wizard, Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving!' They heard her banging on the door. 'Doctor, Wizard let me out! Let me out! What've you done?!'

They turned back to the computers.

'This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. The Wizard and I are dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape.'

'No!'

'And that's okay. Hope it's a good death. But we promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The Tardis is taking you home.'

'You're going home, Rose. We're keeping you safe.'

'I won't let you.'

'And we bet you're fussing and moaning now.'

'Mm, whining and panicking.'

'Mm, yeah, typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The Tardis can never return for us.'

'Go home and eat chips. Go and eat your beans on toast.'

'Emergency Programme One means we're facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do. Let the Tardis die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it. No one'll even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world'll move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember us, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing. Have a good life. Do that for us, Rose. Have a fantastic life.'

'Goodbye, Rose.'

'You can't do this to me. You can't. Take me back! Take me back! No! Come on, fly. How do you fly? Come on, help me!'

'Rose, I've called up the internal laser codes.'

They looked up at the sound of Jack's voice.

'There should be a different number on every screen. Can you read them out to me?'

'She's not here,' replied The Doctor.

'Of all the times to take a leak. When she gets back, tell her to read me the codes.'

'She's not coming back.'

'I'll read them, Jack.' The Wizard crossed to the screens.

'What do you mean? Where'd she go?'

'We sent her home,' said The Wizard.

'The Delta Wave. Is it ever going to be ready?'

Before either could reply; 'Tell him the truth, Wizard.' The Dalek Emperor was speaking on the screen. 'There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek, Doctor.'

Jack had frozen.

'All things will die. By your hand.'

'Wouldn't be the first time,' said The Wizard, cold creeping in to her voice. The Emperor continued to speak, but watched her carefully.

Jack spoke. 'Wizard, Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth.'

'You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor, Wizard?'

'Don't you talk to me about destroying two races at once,' said The Wizard, furious storms raging beneath her eyes, coming closer. Looming Thunder.

'There are colonies out there. The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger. If we let you live.'

The Wizard sighed.

'Do you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?'

'You sent her home. She's safe. Keep working.'

'You're not safe,' The Wizard pointed out conversationally, ignoring the Emperor.

'I chose not to be.'

She nodded.

'But they will exterminate you!'

'Never doubted them,' Jack replied bluntly at the booming Dalek voice. 'Never will.'

The Wizard smiled, and they paused, watching each other through the screens. The last moment before chaos spread, and the two friends spared a moment to look closely to make sure the other was alright. Jack wasn't sure about what he saw.

'Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?' The Doctor asked.

'Um,' said The Wizard, doubting him.

'I did nothing.'

'Didn't think so.'

'Oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship,' replied The Doctor.

'They are not part of my design. This is the Truth of God.'

'Doctor, they're Daleks. Since when have they cared about stalking us with poetry?'

'They've accelerated,' called Jack.

A Gallifreyan swear left The Wizard in a near war-cry.

They ignored as Jack focused on working with the others.

'You were right. They're forcing the airlock on four nine four,' said Lynda.

The satellite shook and Daleks started entering the station. Fire filled The Wizard's blood and she drew her sword, keeping it in a reversed hold and kept working.

'Okay, activate internal lasers. Slice them up.'

'You shouldn't be fighting,' The Wizard said to him.

He didn't reply, but he didn't need to. He would if they asked him to, and if they didn't.

'Defences have gone offline. The Dalek's have overridden the lot.'

'You lied to me! The bullets don't work!' came a scream through the comms. The Wizard and The Doctor ignored them, but never forgot.

'Advance guard have made it to four nine five.'

'Thank you, Lynda,' said The Wizard.

'Jack,' called The Doctor, 'How're we doing?'

'Four nine five should be good. I like four nine five.'

'Identify yourself!'

'You are the weakest link. Goodbye!'

'Yes!'

The Wizard had to laugh as three Daleks were vaporised.

'You are the weakest link.'

They heard the explosion.

'Proceed to next level.'

'They're flying up the ventilation shafts. No, wait a minute. Oh, my God. Why're they doing that? They're going down!' worried Lynda.

'They're killing the people down there,' said The Wizard without tone. 'Lynda!' she called over the noise of the Dalek's slaughter. 'Focus. Be careful.'

'Floor Zero. They killed them all.'

'Lynda! What's happening on Earth?'

'The Fleet's descending. They're bombing whole continents. Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance. Australasia's just gone.'

The Wizard's eyes blinked shut for a moment, and Jack forced himself to only use a moment to glance at her and The Doctor.

'This is perfection. I have created Heaven on Earth.'

They ignored the Emperor and waited for Jack to talk.

They heard the gunfire and looked over.

'I've got a problem.'

'Human female detected.'

'They've found me.'

'Lynda!' yelled The Wizard.

'You'll be all right, Lynda. That side of the station's reinforced against meteors,' said The Doctor.

The Doctor glanced again at the screen and saw The Wizard's face, telling him he'd forgotten something.

'Hope so! You know what they say about Earth workmanship.'

They heard the smash of glass and a single scream.

'Last man standing! For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!'

'Jack!' yelled The Wizard.

'Finish that thing and kill mankind,' said The Emperor.

'SHUT UP!' yelled The Wizard.

'Wizard, Doctor, you've got twenty seconds maximum!'

They didn't dare look up and worked like wildfire.

Jack's bullets changed to a pistol. Without hesitation The Wizard threw the cables to the ground, knowing The Doctor could finish it and ran, jumping down onto the lift on the floor below.

The pistol bullets stopped as she pulled the hatch open.

'Exterminate.'

'I kind of figured that.'

The last thing Jack heard was his best friend's yell. He would later remember that more than the pain from the Dalek. He was blown back into the lift. The Wizard closed her eyes and knew she had to go back.

'It's ready!' called The Doctor when she came back into view. Then the Daleks entered.

'You really want to think about this, because if she or I activate the signal, every living creature dies.'

'And despite what you'd like to think; you're living,' said The Wizard.

'I am immortal.'

'Doubt it,' said The Wizard.

'Mm, bad theory, do you want to put that to the test?'

'I want to see you become like me. Hail The Doctor, the Great Exterminator.'

'I'll do it!'

'You never will,' said The Wizard.

'Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?'

He tried to, but he couldn't.

'Coward. Any day.' He slumped and deflated.

'Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness.'

'Don't be so sure.' The Wizard took position on the lever from The Doctor. 'You just killed a very good friend of mine. You are responsible for my planet's death. I know there's a reason you fear me, Dalek. Because I carry Gallifrey with me.'

As she spoke the last sentence, the whooshing sound of the Tardis filled their ears. The Wizard paused.
'Alert! Tardis materialising! You will not escape!'

The doors of the bright blue box burst open and while The Doctor shielded his eyes from the light, The Wizard stood tall, hands still on the lever. She squinted in to the light and saw Rose, her eyes glowing with gold and the same gold coloured energy tendrils cascaded from the Tardis and her.

'What've you done?' exclaimed The Doctor, falling to the floor.

'I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me.'

Their eyes widened.

'You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that!'

The Wizard took her hands from the lever.

'This is the Abomination!'

The Wizard smiled. 'No. It's Gallifrey and our companion.'

'Exterminate!' yelled the surrounding Daleks.

Raising a hand, Rose stopped the blue bolts with ease. She then spoke, slowly. 'I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself.' She looked up at the words "Bad Wolf" on the top of the back wall. 'I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.'

They understood, though The Doctor fell into a state of terror.

'Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn!'

'I want you safe. My Wizard and Doctor. Protected from the false god.'

'You cannot hurt me. I am immortal.'

'Who told you that?' smiled The Wizard, turning to look at the screen and stand in front of Rose, not blocking her, but still protecting her.

Rose spoke. 'You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them.'

The closest Dalek to them disintergrated. 'Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends.'

'Thank you,' said The Wizard quietly to Rose, who smiled at her.

'I will not die. I cannot die!'

The Wizard watched peacefully as the Emperor also disintergrated.

'Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go,' said The Doctor.

'You've done enough,' said The Wizard, moving toward her.

Rose stretched out a hand to take The Wizard's. 'How can I let go of this? I bring life.' She clasped The Wizard's hand as she said this, and The Wizard screamed, feeling the energy from Rose. But she refused to let go of Rose, refused to shy away. Rose took her other hand as well and The Wizard gritted her teeth.

'WIZARD!' yelled The Doctor.

'She can't control it!' said The Wizard.

'What did she do?!' he jumped up.

'I'll find out eventually, Rose! Let this go!'

'This is wrong! You can't control life and death!'

'But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?'

'The power's going to kill you and it's my fault. I couldn't do it.'

'I was there for you, Doctor. I would have done it,' said The Wizard.

'I know. I know, but it's my fault!'

'I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be.'

'That's what we see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?'

'My head. It's killing me!'

The Wizard pulled Rose in for a hug, before letting The Doctor take her from her.

He blamed himself, he was the one who couldn't do it. So he was the one to take the energy of the vortex from Rose.

'I think you need a Doctor.'

The Wizard, meanwhile, noticed her fingers were glowing. Since she let go of Rose, something weird had been fizzing through her cells. It was dying down, but that was all she could tell. Rose had done something, she just wasn't sure what.

Rose had fainted and The Doctor, having just absorbed the time vortex, stumbled as he managed to pick her up. The Wizard walked over and took Rose from him. The Doctor breathed the energy back into the Tardis, then they smiled and went inside.

'Wait, Jack!' he said.

'He's dead,' replied The Wizard, flicking a lever on the console with her foot, not putting Rose down.

'Didn't you sense it? She brought him back to life.'

The Wizard smiled down at Rose, before returning to seriousness. 'Anything different?'

'His life force is strange.'

'Does mine seem the same?'

'Yes, why?'

'That may have been why I didn't sense Jack. She did something to me as well.'

The Doctor looked concerned. 'We'll know at some point.'

'That's comforting.' She set Rose down carefully on the Tardis floor and sat beside her, putting the blonde head of hair onto her lap as a pillow.

'You going to get Jack?' asked The Doctor, ready to pull the lever.

'I will. I'll go back, but we have to get her home.'

The Doctor nodded.

'What happened?'

'Don't you remember?'

'Strange that you don't,' said The Wizard.

'It's like there was this singing.'

'That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away.'

'It was horrible,' teased The Wizard. 'Tone deaf, too.'

'I was at home. No, I wasn't, I was in the Tardis, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else.' Rose shook her head and looked up at The Doctor. He frowned down at his hand.

The Wizard helped Rose sit up and with her head off of her lap she stood up and walked to The Doctor.

'Ah. Time, then?'

He nodded, before turning to Rose. The Wizard leant back on the coral pillars.

'Rose Tyler. I was going take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny.'

'Then, why can't we go?'

'Maybe you will, and maybe I will. Wizard might even come. But not like this.'

'You're not making sense.'

'I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with.' He doubled over suddenly in pain.

'Doctor!' yelled Rose and ran toward him.

The Wizard caught her round the middle and held Rose back as The Doctor met Rose's eyes.

'Stay away!'

'Doctor, tell me what's going on.' Rose turned her head to glance at The Wizard, also asking for an explanation.

'I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying.'

'Can't you do something?'

'Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go..'

'Don't say that!'

'Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Wizard, you're always fantastic. And do you know what? So was I.'

'Definitely,' said The Wizard, grinning. 'Good luck, Doctor.'

Being held in a hug-like hold by The Wizard somewhat soothed Rose, and she turned her head down to avoid the golden bright light.

The Wizard noticed the calmness of that particular regeneration.

Then a South London accent filled the Tardis.

'Hello. Okay. S-Ooo, new teeth… … … That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona.'

The Wizard blinked at the new Doctor.