A/N: Thank you for all the responses I got on the last chapter, they were very encouraging. And a big thank you to ElvenSailorGirl and mychemicalromance1817 for pointing me in the right direction in my search! Here is the last part of The End of the World, for your enjoyment.


Previously: "Where are you from anyways? What planet? You didn't say before," John pushed. "Why can't you just tell me who you are?"

"That's not supposed to happen."

You're just skin, Cassandra. Ego and skin. Nice talking." John stormed towards the door. Cassandra stared after him thoughtfully, as did the cloaked aliens who had handed out the metal spiders. John didn't notice any of this, nor did he see the Face of Boe watching him leave with a concerned look.

"I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say…how sorry I am," Jabe said with sympathy in her voice.

The Wolf stepped through the doorway into the chilly air of the engine room.


Raise Shields

John was walking quickly towards the exit, just wanting to get away from Cassandra. He hadn't meant to get angry, but she just rubbed him the wrong way, besides the whole skin stretched across a frame look. Like she was putting on a show for everyone else to distract them.

He was being silly. It had to be that he just didn't like her. Cassandra was rude and narrow-minded, the kind of person John couldn't stand back home, believing that she alone was in the right, somehow above everyone else. And John couldn't be in the same room as her anymore.

John Smythe.

John halted his mad dash to the door. He looked over his shoulder for who had called him, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to him. The only ones who even knew his name were the Steward and the Wolf, and she hadn't returned with Jabe yet, and the Steward was nowhere to be seen. John shrugged and turned to leave again. He must have imagined it.

Doctor John Smythe. Do not leave just yet.

John stopped once more, a frown forming. There was still no one even looking at him. The aliens were all chatting in small groups, not appearing to be the slightest bit interested in John's confusion.

The Wolf will have need of you, John. There is danger if you leave.

John stayed where he was, for the moment, trying to assess where the voice he had heard had come from. He had watched all the aliens while the last sentences were spoken to him. None of them had looked at him or said anything in his general direction. The voice was literally coming from nowhere.

Just wait.

John's eyes widened. No way. No one had spoken to him. The only one who would really have anything to say to him was the Wolf, and she wasn't here. There was no physical evidence that anyone had said anything to him. But the Wolf had said…telepathic. Her TARDIS was telepathic. Could get inside his head and change things.

Was it beyond the realm of possibility that someone in this room, male by the sound of the voice, was telepathic, like the TARDIS, and had warned him to stay in the room until the Wolf returned? Someone who knew that danger was coming?

With all John had seen in the past couple of days, not much could be impossible anymore. He decided that there couldn't be any harm in waiting around for the Wolf to come back, as long as he avoided the urge to bounce on Cassandra like the trampoline that she was.


The Wolf entered the engine room, and was greeted to a view of several enormous fans cooling the engines, with a catwalk running through them.

"Is it me, or is it just a bit nippy in here?" the Wolf asked. "Well done, though. That is a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of, nice and old fashioned." The Wolf grinned. "I bet they call it retro."

The Wolf scanned a panel next to the door, and pulled it off. "Ah, here we are."

Jabe gave a cry of surprise when a metal spider scuttled out of the panel and climbed the wall.

"What the hell is that?" the Wolf asked.

"Is that part of the retro?" Jabe asked. The spider continued its escape.

The Wolf pulled out her sonic screwdriver. "I don't think so. Just hang on a second." The Wolf aimed, but before she could do anything, Jabe lassoed it with what looked like a vine shooting from her arm, and brought the spider back down to the floor.

The Wolf grinned. "Nice liana."

"Thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public," Jabe replied.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody." The Wolf deactivated the spider and knelt to examine it. "Now, who's been bringing their pets on board?"

"What does it do?"

"Sabotage," the Wolf said grimly. "The temperature in here is about to sky rocket. We need to get back to the gallery." The Wolf scooped up the spider and handed it over to Jabe, and together they ran out of the engine room as the computer droned that Earth death would occur in ten minutes.


John was getting nervous, waiting for the Wolf to return with Jabe. The cloaked aliens had begun watching him when he took a position near the door, as if waiting for him to do something. Cassandra also cast annoyed looks his way every few minutes. He must have really gotten under her skin.

John grinned at his own bad pun, but the computer calling for Earth death in ten minutes sobered him.

Where the hell was the Wolf?


As the Wolf and Jabe were making their way back to the observation gallery, they passed several small attendants gathered anxiously at a door that was pouring smoke and light from its cracks. The child-like aliens were making distressed sounds as they tried to enter the room.

"Hold on." The Wolf worked her way through the small group to the doorway. "Stand back a moment," she said kindly. She sonic-ed the door, and the computer voice stated "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."

"Is the Steward in there?" Jabe asked in shock. "That's his office!"

The Wolf made a disgusted face. "You can smell him." She turned to the small workers. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

The Wolf was angry. Someone had sabotaged this station, and a person was dead because of them. She hated not being able to save people. The Wolf felt guilty that she hadn't been in time to save the Steward, even though a small voice in her head told there was no way she could've known what was happening in time to rescue him.

Suddenly, a horrific thought occurred to her. "John!" she cried. "I left him alone. What if he's wandered off again?" The Wolf took off running for the observation gallery, Jabe following close behind.


John was still waiting by the door, contemplating the strange voice in his head, when the Wolf burst into the room, quickly followed by Jabe. He watched in bemusement as she scanned the room hastily.

"Wolf?" he asked from behind her.

The Wolf whirled around. "John! Good you're here," she said with relief. "I was afraid you'd wandered away."

John raised his eyebrows. "Where am I gonna go? Ipswich?"

The Wolf grinned, but then grew serious. "Someone's sabotaged this whole station – with these metal spiders." She held it out for John to inspect. "And the Steward's dead."

John's mouth dropped open in surprise. "What are you going to do?"

"Find out who did this." The Wolf's eyes were hard. John almost felt sorry for the culprit. He wouldn't want to be on the Wolf's bad side. Ever.

Jabe walked to the center of the room. The Wolf and John followed, allowing Jabe to take the lead. "If I could have everyone's attention please," Jabe called loudly. "There is a situation which calls for immediate action."

Slowly, the chattering of the guests died down as they turned to Jabe. Jabe put out her hand, and the Wolf gave over the metal spider. Jabe scanned it with the same device she had used on the Wolf earlier.

"Someone has committed sabotage against this station. The metal machine confirms. The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One," she said gravely.

"How is that possible?" Cassandra exclaimed, sounding slightly panicked. "Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturize me, moisturize me," she commanded her helpers. They complied, spraying her down gently.

"Summon the Steward," said the alien sitting on a platform that John had overheard speaking earlier about different scenarios and storms and other things he hadn't understood.

"I am afraid the Steward is dead," Jabe replied. There was uproar in the room as guests started shouting over one another, trying to be heard.

"Who killed him?" came above the rest of the din.

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face," Cassandra shrieked. John glared at her as the Face of Boe shook his head calmly. Finally, the Wolf decided to step in.

"There's an easy way to find out. Someone brought their little pet on board. I can send him back to master," she said. The Wolf took the spider back from Jabe, set it on the ground, and activated it using her sonic screwdriver. Everyone watched it intently, waiting to find out who the murderer was.

The spider scuttled along on the floor until it was standing in front of Cassandra. She stared down at it, and the spider quickly moved away and stopped in front of the black cloaked aliens who had given the metal spheres as gifts earlier.

Everyone in the room gasped, then were silent, before Cassandra broke in, crying, "The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. J'accuse!" John stared at her suspiciously, getting the feeling there was more happening than met the eye.

The Wolf seemed to have the same idea, as she scoffed and said, "That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it…" She went over to the Adherents. The leader attempted to hit her, but she grabbed its arm and tugged it off with a quick jerk. Wires could be seen coming out of the stump of the arm the Wolf had broken off. "A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are, an idea," the Wolf finished. Then, with one last pull of a wire coming out of the Adherent with the broken arm, the rest of the Adherents collapsed.

John grinned. "You have a thing for the arms of dummies don't you? Or is it just when I'm around?"

The Wolf looked back over to him, winked, and grinned her tongue-touched grin at him, before turning back to the mess she'd made and nudging the spider. "Remote controlled droids. Nice cover for the real culprit here. Go on Jimmy boy, go home." She nudged it again, and the spider once again made its way over to Cassandra, stopping for good.

"I bet you were the school strut that never got the man," Cassandra said snidely at the Wolf. The Wolf remained unfazed, merely staring at Cassandra in contempt. "At arms!" Cassandra ordered. Her two attendants raised their spray guns.

The Wolf held up her hands. John walked up behind her, ready to pull her out of the way if necessary. "What are you going to do, moisturize me?" The Wolf said with a grin.

"With acid," Cassandra replied smugly. John tensed behind the Wolf. "Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just as pretty face."

John gave her a funny look and finally spoke up, causing the Wolf to jump; she hadn't known he was behind her. "Sabotaging the station while you're still inside it? How stupid is that?" John asked.

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous."

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money," the Wolf said with disgust.

Cassandra glared. "Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Wolf. Me! Not that cocky little doctor of yours."

"Arrest her!" the talkative sitting alien yelled.

"Oh, shut it, pixie. I've still got my final option," Cassandra said.

The Computer decided to jump in. "Earth death in three minutes."

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead," Cassandra said gleefully. "My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go?" Her eyes narrowed. "Burn, baby, burn."

"Then you'll burn with us," Jabe told her defiantly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Cassandra replied, not sounding sorry at all. "I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate!" Cassandra commanded. The entire station shook violently as a series of explosions through the Platform could be felt.

Cassandra giggled. "Force fields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me," she giggled again.

"Safety systems failing," the Computer said.

"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings," Cassandra called as she and her attendants beamed off of the Platform.

Everyone in the observation gallery was frozen, until the silence was disrupted once again by the computer. "Heat levels rising."

"Reset the computer," that talkative alien suggested.

"Only the Steward would know how," Jabe replied.

John started to lose hope. The whole station was going to blow up and it seemed like there was nothing they could do to stop it. He had been wondering if the Wolf could have just saved them all using the TARDIS, but John doubted they could get every guest onto her ship before the sun reached them through the weakened shields. However, the Wolf's voice brought hope rushing back into him.

"We can do it by hand," she said. "There has got to be a system restore switch. Johnny, Jabe, come on!" The Wolf started to run out of the room, heading back for the maintenance duct, John just behind her, Jabe not much further back. The Wolf turned back to the crowd. "You lot, just chill!"

"Heat levels rising."


"Earth death in two minutes. Earth death in two minutes," sounded as the three ran down the maintenance duct towards the engine room. "Heat levels critical."

The Wolf, John, and Jabe ran into the engine room. John stared at the huge metal blades spinning in the air above them in awe. "Heat levels critical."

"Oh great. Look where the switch is," the Wolf said in annoyance, pointing down the catwalk. John could see the large switch disappearing and reappearing with the turn of the blades. The fans increased in speed, desperately trying to cool down the engines. The Wolf pulled down on a lever next to her. The fans slowed, but as soon as she let it go, they went back to their fast pace.

"External temperature five thousand degrees," the Computer informed them.

Jabe moved to hold down the lever, but John jumped to beat her to it. "You can't! This place is going to get filled with all the excess heat Jabe, and you're made of wood! You have to get out of here," John told her. Jabe looked indecisive.

"He's right Jabe," the Wolf said. "You'll burn if you stay. Go back to the observation gallery. They need someone to be in charge and calm up there."

Jabe nodded. "Don't waste time, Time Lady." She left, leaving the Wolf frozen, staring after her, and John giving the Wolf a confused look.

"Heat levels rising, heat levels rising."


"Heat levels hazardous." The observation gallery looked like a war zone when Jabe returned. People were running around, trying to escape the cracks in the viewing windows that were allowing deadly light rays to enter the room.

"We're going to die!" One guest cried.

"Everyone back here!" Jabe called. "Get away from the windows!" People started to make their way back to her and were taking cover behind some pillars. However, several of the small attendants were panicked. Jabe ran over to try and herd them over to the rest of the crowd.

She never saw the ray of light lance into the room right on top of her.


John held down the breaker as the Wolf ran up to the first fan. It had slowed down quite a bit with John holding the lever, and she could make it past easily.

Then the breaker started to conduct the heat that the fans would have normally held back. John winced as he felt burns start to form on his hands. He gave a small grunt in pain.

The Wolf looked back at him in concern. The fans were starting to speed back up due to the rise in heat, despite John holding the lever. The Wolf dashed through the second fan, leaving only one to go.

"Heat levels rising, heat levels rising."

The pain was nearly unbearable. John was fairly certain he could smell his hands burning. The fans were just as fast now as they were before John had grabbed hold of the breaker, making it seemingly impossible for the Wolf to make it through the last fan in order to manually reset the system. John yelled in pain as the heat reached unexpected new levels and coursed through his palms.

The Wolf looked back, worried about John. She could see him hunched over the breaker, obviously in pain, but still holding it down. Still, with the fans increasing speed as the room got hotter, she had no way through, even with John sacrificing himself the way he was.

The Computer spoke one more time. "Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five –"

The Wolf closed her eyes. She hadn't done this in a long time. She couldn't even remember the last time she had done this as she slowed down time in a way only she could….

…and she stepped through the last fan easily.


John stared at the Wolf as things seemed to go strange around her. All of a sudden, it was like she had moved faster than he could see, from one side of the fan to the other in the blink of an eye. She hadn't run, she hadn't jumped, and the fans hadn't slowed down. He didn't see how she could've done it. But she was suddenly at the switch and pulling it down.


Once the Wolf had stepped through, she opened her eyes, unsurprised to find herself safe on the other side. She dashed over to the switch and slammed it down, yelling "Raise shields!"

John could immediately feel the difference as the station was enveloped in a protective force field just as the Earth exploded in fire. He let go of the lever, leaving what felt like at least four layers of his skin behind. The Wolf ran back over to him through the fans that had conveniently halted, and inspected his palms. John winced as he saw them. They looked bad.

The Wolf hissed in sympathy. "I'll get these taken care of as soon as we get back to the TARDIS John, I promise. But we need to take care of something first."

"Cassandra?" John asked, putting his hands out of his mind for now.

"Cassandra," the Wolf confirmed, face set.


When he and the Wolf returned to the gallery, several piles of smoking ashes told John that they had been too late to save everyone. He searched the room frantically, stomach sinking when he couldn't find Jabe.

The Wolf was also scanning the room. Her face hardened when she, too, could not locate Jabe. She walked over to the two other trees who had attended with Jabe, and who now appeared distraught. "I'm sorry," she said softly. They nodded.

The Wolf made her way back to John, fiercely scrubbing at something on her face before he could see what it was, although he had his suspicions.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied harshly. "In fact, I'm full of ideas, just bristling with them. Number one is, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Number two, this feed would have to be hidden nearby." The Wolf stalked over to the ostrich egg, which had somehow miraculously escaped unscathed, and promptly smashed it, revealing a small transmitter inside of it. "Idea number three, someone as clever as me could reverse said teleportation device." She pressed a button.

"Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces…..Oh." Cassandra was beamed back into the gallery.

"The last human," the Wolf said in disgust.

"So you passed my little test. Bravo," Cassandra said nervously. "This makes you eligible to join the, er, Human Club."

"People died Cassandra. You murdered them," John accused.

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep lawyers dizzy for centuries," Cassandra said snidely. "Take me to court, then, Madam Wolf, and watch me smile and cry and flutter –"

"And creak?" the Wolf asked.

"And what?"

"Creak. You're creaking," the Wolf said again.

"What?" Cassandra asked.

Sure enough, John could hear Cassandra start to creak and could see cracks forming in her skin.

"Ah! I'm drying out. Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," the Wolf pointed out.

"Have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, Wolf, Doctor boy, I'm sorry. I'll do anything!"

John stepped up next to the Wolf, his disgust outweighed by sympathy. "Can you help her?" he asked.

The Wolf's eyes were hard as she watched Cassandra. "Everything has its time and everything dies," she replied.

"I'm…too…young!" Cassandra got out just before her skin burst, splattering pieces around the room.

The Wolf turned to John. "Come on," she said quietly. "Let's go take care of those hands." She took his wrist to lead him to where the TARDIS was parked, but John stopped to look out at the bits of Earth floating past the Platform.

"No one saw it go," he said sadly. "We were too busy saving ourselves."

"I know," the Wolf said apologetically. "Come with me." Again she pulled gently, and this time, John followed.


When they reached the TARDIS, the Wolf led John down a hall to a room he hadn't seen yet. It appeared to be some kind of advanced medical bay, but the pain in his hands had escalated enough to distract John from looking around like he normally would have.

The Wolf sat him down on a bed, and grabbed a machine that she told to John to insert his hands into. "It's a dermal regenerator. It will give you a head start in the healing process." John sighed in relief when the pain decreased by a dramatic amount. Next, she put some kind of ointment on his palms before wrapping them in bandages. "Just leave those on for a couple of hours, and then we'll check them, okay?"

John nodded. The Wolf made to leave the room, but John didn't want her to go just yet.

"My hands. Are they going to be okay? You know, will I still be able to use them for my work and stuff?" he asked.

The Wolf turned and smiled. "They'll be as good as new in a few hours, I promise."

John nodded, relieved. "Good, that's good." He looked down at them.

"And John?" He looked back up to see the Wolf staring at him, as if coming to a decision. "Thank you, for today. You were fantastic back there. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there to help me. And I'm sorry that I snapped at you in that gallery. It's just that, you think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it doesn't. One day it will all be gone. Even the sky," she trailed off.

John got up from the gurney and went over to take her hand. The Wolf didn't even notice. She was staring at the wall of the medical bay in a sort of daze.

"My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth, before its time."

"What happened?" John asked quietly.

"There was a war. And everyone lost. No one could ever win. It could only end."

John's suspicions were confirmed. All the hints that had been building over the last few days, hints from the Wolf, from the Nestene Consciousness, they all led back to a war that she had fought in. One that sounded as though she was lucky to have survived.

"A war with who?" John asked. "What happened to your people?"

Pain flashed across the Wolf's eyes, almost making him regret asking, but then she spoke again. "I'm a Time Lady, or Lord. The last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I was the only survivor." The look in her eyes was haunting. "I was left travelling on my own 'cause there was no one else left."

John squeezed her hand, causing her to look up at him. "There's me," he said firmly.

The Wolf gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace. "You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"

John thought about it. "I don't know," John said. "Oh, wait. Yes I do." The Wolf nodded her head knowingly. Here it came, the part where he begged to be taken back to his safe, well, relatively safe, life back on Earth, and wanted nothing to do with her ever again. This is how it always ended eventually.

What John said next could not have surprised her more.

"I want you to show me how all this stuff in here works."

The Wolf looked at him, confused. "What?"

John shrugged. "Well, if the last several days are anything to go by, I can count on you and me getting hurt quite often." John let go of the Wolf so that he could wave his hands to gesture at the medical bay. "I think it'd be a good idea to know how to use all these machines so that I can help you if you're ever too injured to do it yourself. Plus," John grinned, "I'm a doctor. I'm curious."

It had been the right thing to say. The Wolf grinned up at him with that tongue-touched smile John was starting to think she only showed to him. She grabbed his hand again, and leaned her head against his shoulder briefly before lifting it. "I think that is an excellent idea, Doctor John Smythe."

He could help her. She was running. From her past, from her memories, from herself, he didn't know exactly what. But he could help. Show her it was alright to live and alright to care. John squeezed the Wolf's hand, at that moment, never wanting to let her go.