A/N: So, I've been working up to this end scene the whole story. It turned out... mostly like I had in my mind. Let me know what you think!

Chapter Four

If they had the time to alert the others in the house, they didn't take it. Both Doctors ran as hard and as fast as they could, uncaring of noise or disruption the wee hours of the morning. Lights flashed on all over the house in their wake as the front door slammed behind them.

Amy pulled her robe closer around her shoulders as she stood and stared at the emptiness that the two had left behind them. Rory was just managing to sit up, still exhausted, and shot her a questioning look.

"Come on," Rose said, suddenly at her side.

"Where'd they go?"

"The both of them take off without as much as a warning. Where do you think they went?" She paused, expression softening. "Amy, I need to know. I need to hear it. Is your John Smith the Doctor?"

The ginger woman pressed her lips together tightly and frowned. "I don't even really know who you are."

"My name is Rose Tyler. I was nobody until 2005 when I got caught up with an alien that could turn plastic to moving, living creatures. The shop I worked in blew up, and I would have died then too, but there was a man there that took my hand and told me to run." Rose grit her teeth, trying to gain control over her raging emotions. "We ran and ran until something we could break through caught up and I was stuck over here."

"You traveled with him?"

"He had a different face, but yeah. I did."

"Different face?" Rory asked from behind, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Is that the regeneration that River talks about?"

"Got to be," Amy acknowledged. She looked back at Rose, eyeing her carefully. She couldn't decide if she wanted to trust her or not. The passion that the elder woman spoke with was hard to overlook, almost as if it couldn't be feigned, but the Doctor had never spoken to her of a Rose Tyler. Even so, he'd never spoken of any former companions by name. They were just simply people he'd traveled with, gone here and there with, kept company of, and then the person seemed to switch. Sometimes they were male, sometimes female, human, alien, he even mentioned a robot dog in an off-handed conversation once, but never did he call them by name. It was as if when he called them by name he would be forced to remember them, and perhaps even forced to recount just what had happened to them. She'd seen how he'd looked at this woman, and she remembered how flustered he'd become when trying to explain why he refused to become romantically entangled with a human. They aged, he did not. He just changed.

"Okay."

"Okay what?" Rose demanded.

"Okay, let's go save the Doctor."

The Human Doctor's jeep was set up with multiple computer screens inside, showing signs of his own tinkering and Torchwood technology combined. The readings showed heightened vortex energy just beyond where they were and they could see the light expanding, as if the fabric of the universe was opening up to allow someone through. It exploded, rather suddenly, and the light landed closer than they had anticipated, sending the jeep spinning and the two Doctors tumbling out of it and rolling through the dirt.

The Time Lord hit hard, finally rolling to a stop and finding himself staring up at the sky. He let out a small groan as he struggled to roll over and sit up, but stopped when dusty boots came into view. He heard his human counterpart give out a sharp cry and saw him struggling with one of the creatures out of the corner of his eye. Slowly, very deliberately, he looked up at the ones standing around him.

Rose and her human Doctor had described these visitors to be very human in appearance, but that was obviously a disguise as the creature that peered down at the Doctor now was all scars and wrinkles in skin, no hair, and piercing yellow eyes with red trim. When it spoke, its voice gave a low, echoing sort of growl and sounded as if it might have been masculine. It leaned down, carefully, and took a long sniff, causing the Doctor to shift back and find that he was surrounded. "Your identity has been confirmed," the sniffing alien announced. "The Doctor is confirmed."

"Check again!" another one hissed. "You mistook that one last time!"

The first growled, causing the second to cower back. "He smells of new travel and of a fresher regeneration. Of a full regeneration some time ago."

"Really have lost count," the Doctor said, finally getting to the point that he could stand and found himself standing nose to almost-nose with the alien. "You know, hopping back and forth and to and fro, but yes. Yes, I am the Doctor. And who might you be, if you pull me all the way from another dimension just to speak with me."

"We have not pulled you from another dimension to speak with you."

"Doctor, get out of here!" the Human Doctor yelled, thrashing about against his restrainer.

"Well," the Doctor drawled, not looking at his other self as he spoke, but instead staring straight into those yellow-red eyes, "just what am I here for? You seem to have mistaken him for me, which he is, sort of, but that doesn't seem to suit your purpose, am I right? So, you must need a Time Lord, not just the Doctor."

"Correct." The alien motioned and the circle expanded, leaving only itself, the two Doctors, and the one holding the human version in the middle. The Human Doctor was forced down onto his knees; eyes alight with anger and struggling.

"So what is he now, a hostage? Bit strange, wouldn't you say, using someone's own self against them for a hostage? Oh, that'll turn you around a bit, won't it?"

"We have not pulled you from another dimension to speak with you."

"Yeah, think you said that."

"We have pulled you from another dimension to destroy you."

"They're the Vreshians, Doctor," the lone human managed as the alien behind him took a tighter grip. "Torchwood took one of them, without the disguise, about a month ago."

The Doctor's eyes widened and he stared at their captors. "That's not possible. The Vreshians don't look much different than humans. Bit prettier, maybe, but not… What happened?"

"We have pulled you from another dimension to destroy you."

"Yes, you've said that. But you were a peaceful race. You never participated in any of the wars, never made enemies of anyone. You're one of the few races that managed to stay out of the Last Great Time War! What… why would you risk ripping a hole in this universe and our own just to bring me here? What have I done?"

"It is not what you have done, Doctor, but what you will do."

"And what's that?"

A quiet murmuring echoed through the circle of Vreshians and their leader took a step closer. "My brothers," he announced, sweeping on scarred, shriveled arm out to those around them. "I bring you the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords. Destroyer of World and devil amongst us. The Pandorica could not hold him, his ship would not be destroyed, but here we will have our revenge."

"What revenge?" the Doctor demanded. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The Vreshian leader continued on, pacing as he spoke and opening the circle of his fellow Vreshians. The Human Doctor was shuffled over next to his Time Lord self and the two watched carefully, unspoken plans between them.

"We have ripped many holes between the worlds, and we will use that to destroy the place that the Doctor loves most. We will destroy the Earth and watch his tears before his death. He will mourn his companions both past and present as their death cries sound in his ears."

"The jeep's rigged with a special devices to read tears in the fabric of the universe," the Human Doctor murmured under his breath.

Green eyes lit at the words. "If we could get over there, we could use it to open one halfway-"

"-and send them through to the Void."

"Would the systems be able to close it back up?"

"Yes."

The Vreshian leader turned to the Doctor. "Do you wish to say anything before the end?"

"You're asking if I want a chance to talk?" the Doctor asked as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, feeling the screwdriver there. He'd gotten a good look at the jeep, fully rigged with anything that a bored Time Lord would have put into it. If he could switch his sonic screwdriver around and then plug it into the jeep, he'd be able to put their plan in with just the touch of a button. "Well, I would like to say this: I've known the Vreshian for years. I've known a lot of cultures for years, and I know they change, but the core of the culture really doesn't change all that much." He began pacing, shoes sinking slightly into the soft ground. The Vreshians around him began hissing and rearing up in defense.

"And yet here they are," the other Doctor said with a shrug, his own dark eyes meeting his counterpart's for a brief moment. "Threatening a level five, fully established world. As if they had never heard of the Shadow Proclamation." He paused, eyes scanning the nervous group of aliens. "Or what happens to those that threaten the humans that the Doctor loves."

"Ooooh," the Time Lord laughed, "don't bore them with those old stories. Nothing to worry this with you know… Just that the Earth – both Earths, either side and both – are protected. You obviously know me, so you must know… Really, shouldn't they know?"

"They must."

"Right. You really must know that I will stop at nothing to protect those that I love."

"That is enough, Doctor. You are finished."

"No. You don't get to interrupt me. Not after you pulled one of the dumbest stunts next to threatening my friends."

"And what is that?"

The two Doctors looked at each other and nodded as they said, "You let us talk."

The Time Lord lunged for the jeep, sonic screwdriver in hand. It linked as if it had always been made to do so and a bright green light erupted from the vehicle. The Vreshians gave a loud howl of fear as the portals opened up against them, not to the other side, but to the Void their people had always so carefully avoided. One by one they began to fall in, screams and howls filling the night. Their leader crawled his way forward, reaching a shriveled hand towards the Time Lord.

"This isn't over," he vowed. "You don't know what you are to do!"

"You're right," the Doctor answered. "Only what you have done, and what I've done today to stop you."

"I won't let you destroy my home," the Vreshian leader cried out, hand clutching a sonic blaster.

The world seemed to slow with cries of pain and fear falling into the backdrop, the Human Doctor calling out to his Time Lord self, and a ray of green, sonic light hitting the latter directly in the chest. The Doctor slumped back against the jeep as the holes closed, pulling his attacker in with it.

Above all, as silence fell, Rose and Amy could be heard. They were still far away, but their voices carried over the distance as the Doctor lay half propped against the jeep. His breaths were coming in short gasps and he could feel every cell of his body begin the protest of the regeneration process. He didn't want to go. He never wanted to go. Every time, he feared, that he might grow further and further away from those that he cared about and change into something that he could not live with.

"Can you hear me?"

The Doctor blinked his eyes open, not realizing they had been shut, and slowly came to focus on his human self. "Might want to stand back," he managed through gritted teeth. "No getting out of this one."

"There is," the other said with a determined look. He watched as golden light began to pulse through the Time Lord's veins, beginning the process in full. "Take my hand."

"Are you insane? There's no telling what sort of effect that'll have. You were created out of-"

"I know how I was created," the other snapped, "but Rose has to have her Doctor. "

"She has you."

"I'm dying."

The two looked at each other for a long moment until a shudder of pain from the dying Time Lord shook the stare. "You… what? What?"

"I've been sick for some time. I won't last much longer as it is, and Rose needs her Doctor. Not just any old, daft face. I can't leave her alone, but I don't have any choice. I'm mortal, remember? Only human. But you... You're her Doctor. You could be again."

"I can't…"

"You can. You're just scared."

"We don't even know it would work."

"When has that ever stopped us before?" He looked up. "They're coming and you don't have much time." Moments ticked by as he held out his hand, waiting, and the golden light shown stronger from the dying alien. "Stubborn," he growled at last, grabbing onto the other's shoulder and they were both engulfed in the regeneration light.

A/N: Please, feed my addiction and review =)