Author's note: Wow, I am so sorry that this has taken me so long to get online, I feel really terrible about it. It was partly because of my internet not working and then partly because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part two distracted me slightly. And when I say slightly, I mean majorly 'cause I started working on this Harry Potter OC that I created when I was like ten years old and it kept esculating... So, I am really sorry about such a long delay.

So this is the second last chapter for this episode and it contains a few clues and references to what could be coming for the time travelling duo. There is a certain scene towards the very end of this episode that is written from the perspective of someone completely different that especially focuses on the future. It's just a glimpse of what is coming, I suppose. I wrote this particular scene whilst listening to Murray Gold's "Vale" that was featured on the second part of The Specials Soundtrack and featured in the End of Time, so that might give you an indication of the tone of the scene.

Anyway, I will stop rambling so you can get on with reading! And am I going to publish this Harry Potter fanfiction that I've been working on? I am not sure yet...


The Doctor looked up from Alice's excited face (she'd been telling him about talking to all of the mantises she had had the pleasure in meeting) when an explosion further down the massive underground room sent a heat wave over them and smoke began to rise upwards.

"Doctor," a distressed voice called a few moments later before they all saw Raanan running towards them, "Doctor!"

"What happened?" the Doctor said quickly, moving forwards to meet the tall mantis.

"It's Mia," Raanan said urgently, grabbing hold of one of the Doctor's arms before pulling him towards the smoke, "she's gone insane!"

"Insane?" repeated Angelo with a confused stare.

"She's just lit some oil that must have been leaking out of the ship on fire with your sonic device," Raanan explained hurriedly to the Doctor, not taking any notice of anyone else.

"Oh my word," Arawn gasped as there was an intake of breath from Alice and Isaac.

"She would never –"Isaac tried to say, but the Doctor spoke over the top of him.

"My sonic can't set oil on fire," he said quickly with a frown, "just like it can't triplicate the flammability of alcohol." He added, referring to the white lie he had come up with to try and trick the Slitheen in Downing Street.

"Doctor," Raanan said, obviously disapproving of the Doctor's tangent, "Bella told me to get everyone who hadn't made it on board yet in the ship –"

"Bella's there?" the Doctor yelped, wide eyed.

Raanan nodded, fear evident in his strange alien eyes. "Mia asked Bella about the Nealonians after Bella stood up for all us mantises, I think that Mia sounds as bad as the UNIT people."

The Doctor ran a hand over his face and through his hair, feeling his stress levels rising. "Make sure everyone is on board and ready to go –"

Another explosion, this time much bigger than the first made the ground tremble and there were screams from all around them. The flames now reached up to the force field ceiling and the Doctor suddenly ran forward into the smoke, unaware that everyone followed him.

He followed the smoke and the flames and he found Bella eventually, lying on her side underneath the metal ship, motionless. He ran over to her and gently rolled her over onto her back and found that she was covered in bruises and her jeans (and his lovely suit jacket) were singed.

"Bella?" he said quietly and she stirred and slowly opened her eyes, coughing.

"Is it bad," she started quietly as she held onto the Doctor's arms as he helped her sit up, looking him straight in the eye, "that I still have said that I love you too?"

The Doctor's face broke into a large, sheepish grin as he looked to her feeling both overwhelmingly happy and relieved that she was okay at the same time. "I guess the cat's out of the bag now!"

Bella blushed and laughed softly before the Doctor suddenly leant forwards and placed his lips on hers, his hands on her face.

Taken completely off guard, yet definitely not complaining, Bella allowed herself to kiss him softly back until someone cleared their throat.

They both broke apart and looked around, the Doctor instantly standing in front of Bella protectively.

Mia stood a little way away from them; the alien gun that she had taken for her own raised and pointed directly at the Doctor's chest.

"I wondered how you managed to set the oil alight," the Doctor said conversationally, thinking that she had shot the oil.

"I tried your sonic-thing but it wouldn't work," Mia said indifferently, "but it doesn't matter now. How is she still alive? She was right beside those machines when I shot them…"

The Doctor glanced down to Bella, who was still sitting on the floor healing, the bruises becoming fainter and fainter by the second. "It is part of who she is," the Doctor said, looking back up to Mia. "Quite literally part of who she is. Did Bella tell you that she was half human before you attempted to blow her up, along with the rest of us?"

Mia looked, startled, down to Bella. "She is still alien," she said, almost sounding frightened, "she still doesn't belong here."

Bella stood up and moved in front of the Doctor. "I don't know how you do it all the time, Doctor." She said quietly, her voice hollow and her eyes fixed on Mia.

"Do what?" he asked slowly, unsure of where this was going.

"Save them all the time," she said darkly, turning to him. "They don't appreciate it, they never say thanks. No matter what you do, who you lose, what you have to sacrifice in order to save them and this planet, they end up throwing it back in our faces. Maybe we should just let it happen, let the aliens invade, let them deal with it for once, let them feel what it is like to lose almost everything for a change!"

The Doctor slowly took of one of her hands, thinking that he knew what Bella was talking about. He thought of all those he had lost in nine hundred and six years of time and space in this universe and parallel ones, because of the Daleks, the Sontarans, the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors and so many more. He'd lost his entire race, his friends and his family. And Bella had been right. Most of the time, no one thanked him, on most occasions hardly anyone knew that he was even involved, but that was how it was and that was how he liked it.

Mia stared at her, open-mouthed. "And you reckon I'm mad!" she said spitefully, her forefinger dangerously close to the trigger. "You aliens are all the same, always the bad guys!"

"They aren't the bad guys, Mia."

The Doctor and Bella looked to their left and saw Tristian walking towards them covered in cuts and bruises.

"Tristian?" asked Mia as he walked to stand directly in front of the Doctor and Bella.

"Who is the one pointing the gun?" Tristian asked her sadly as both the Doctor and Bella grabbed one of his arms each and tried to pull him backwards, but he wouldn't move and pulling his arms out of their hands. "Who is the one who is trying to get both humans and aliens killed – your own friends and me?"

"Tristian," Mia pleaded, her gun still raised, "they're all the same!"

"No we aren't," said Arawn as he, Jade, Mirte, Raanan, Angelo, Isaac and Alice slowly surrounded Mia. "We are nothing like the aliens that your planet has encountered before and neither is the Doctor or Bella. It is only the minority of this universe that you need to worry about, the rest of us will stay away from Earth until we know you are ready, which I doubt will ever be in my lifetime!"

"Sometimes I think that it is us humans that are the monsters," Angelo said sadly, receiving an understanding smile from Arawn beside him.

Tristian walked forward holding out his hand and everyone held their breath. "Give me the gun, Mia."

Mia hesitated, looking at her boyfriend emotionally. Her hand was shaking violently and eventually she lowered the alien gun and Tristian wasted no time in taking it from her and placed it on the ground behind him, where Raanan rushed forward and picked it up.

As Mia covered her face with her still shaking hands and Tristian wrapped his arms around his now sobbing girlfriend offering quiet words of comfort, Bella let go of the Doctor's hand and began moving in the direction of the burning machines.

"What are you doing?" Angelo gasped.

Bella turned, looking around to him. "I still need to fix the secondary engine," she said, "otherwise no one is going anywhere and we'll all be captured by UNIT."

"Arawn, get everyone on board," the Doctor instructed quickly, but the four tall mantises looked at them both hesitating. "Go!" he cried, "all that is left to do is get the secondary engine going and then you're free!"

Raanan moved forward and hugged the Doctor tightly, catching him off guard before moving to Bella, hugging her and kissing her softly on her cheek. "You both prove that there is good in your respective species, thank you!"

"Just go!" Bella laughed, rolling her eyes as Raanan grinned and moved back from her.

"Doctor, once we start our engines you'll only have ten minutes to get yourselves out before this room and all the tunnels are consumed with heat and flames." Arawn said seriously.

The Doctor nodded solemnly. "I know,"

"What?" Mia said angrily, "It took us over an hour to get down here!"

"Well, we would have had more time if UNIT weren't hot on our tail, wouldn't we?" Bella said sourly, shooting Mia a dark look before moving off and disappearing behind the burning machines, pulling out the sonic screwdriver from her pocket as she went.

"Don't worry about us," the Doctor dismissed, "Mirte showed me a layout of the secret passageways, we'll be out in no time."

Arawn nodded eventually. "Thank you so much, Doctor."

The Doctor grinned at him. "You are so welcome!"

"Thank her for us too, won't you?" Arawn said quietly.

"It will mean the world to her," the Doctor smiled, turning to face the humans, as the four mantises moved away towards the ramp that led into the ship. "Now, when I yell run, I want you all to run as fast as you can to that doorway over there." He said, pointing.

"You really know a shortcut then?" Isaac asked nervously.

"Of course I do, I'm the Doctor!" he said before someone yelled out his name.

"Doctor," called Mirte as he, Jade and Raanan stood in the spaceship's doorway as the ramp started to fold itself into the ship. "Come and visit us, yeah?"

The Doctor smiled. "Bella and I will be part of your welcoming committee."

The three mantises faces lit up as they grinned down at him before the door slid shut and a few moments later the Doctor ran in the same direction that Bella had, dodging flames and hot embers. Ahead of him he saw Bella hang from the underside of the ship before dropping down and raising the sonic above her head to close the hatch.

"It's done," she said as he approached her, "they can finally go home."

The Doctor smiled at her. "They wanted me to thank you."

Bella gave him a breathtaking smile. "Really?"

"Yep!" he said, popping the 'p'.

The engine above them chugged into life and the Doctor extended his arm to offer her his hand. "Time to run?" he asked.

"Time to run." She agreed, taking his hand and together they both began to run back towards the rest of their tour group.

"RUNNNN!" the Doctor yelled as they caught site of the others, who didn't hesitate to start running back towards the exit as the mighty alien ship began shuddering as the engines power moved through the massive ship.

When the Doctor and Bella had moved through the doorway, the Doctor slid to a stop, took the sonic screwdriver out of Bella's outstretched hand and soniced the stone door shut. He turned to the now waiting group, replaced his sonic in his overcoat and pulled out his torch. With a wide grin he said "Allons-y!" and took the lead, everyone following the Doctor at a sprint, knowing that they now had less than ten minutes to find their way out of the dark tunnels that had taken them an hour to get down, and that was without running into armed UNIT soldiers.

They ran until they came to a dead end and the Doctor brandished his sonic screwdriver at the wall and it slowly slid open.

"Come on, come on!" he said quietly and impatiently until it had finally opened enough for him and the others to squeeze through and they emerged in the room that had the out-of-place mistletoe growing from the roof.

"Alright!" exclaimed Isaac when everyone realised how close they were to the church.

Bella glanced down at her watch. "Keep going," she said and the Doctor instantly moved off out of the room, all of them sprinting the last leg of the tunnel until they reached the old Norman doorway.

The Doctor looked out of the gap and saw two men in familiar black uniforms that stood either side of the door, guns at the ready in their hands. Feeling angry at this, he raised his sonic and pointed it directly at a rectangular glass cabinet near the main doors to the church and eventually it smashed. As the foot soldiers ran towards it, the Doctor glanced down apologetically to Angelo, who (grimacing) shrugged and nodded, understanding what he had done and why he'd done it.

"Is there another exit?" the Doctor asked quickly.

"Up the other end of the cathedral," Angelo answered at once.

"Lead the way," The Doctor said, helping Angelo climb out of the tunnel into the now dark cathedral.

Quickly and quietly, knowing that the UNIT guards could notice them at any moment, the Doctor helped Alice, Mia, Tristian and Isaac out before lifting Bella out, who grabbed the Doctor's arm to help him out of the tunnel.

Silently they all followed Angelo as fast as they could without making a sound, up the Nave, past the Crossing and the choir area to a small room at the very back of the cathedral and out a small wooden door that led them out into the dark, cold night of Christmas Eve.

There was what sounded like an explosion from within the cathedral and everyone exchanged a glance before running around the side of the cathedral where a set of stairs that led up to the main street. They ran up them and ran along the deserted street until they stopped on the bridge over the Thames and watched as the river began to bubble for a few moments until a familiar large spaceship broke through the surface of the water and flew upwards, the roar of the engines shattering glass windows from the building closest to them (though thankfully not the stain glass windows from the cathedral) and making the ground shudder beneath their feet.

Bella, Alice, Isaac and Tristian all cheered loudly as the Doctor, Angelo and even Mia grinned as a thunderous fog horn bellowed twice in farewell from the Emerald Mantis. They all cheered and waved (the Doctor watched, laughing heartily) as the ship slowly disappeared into the clouds above London. Grinning happily, Bella slid her hand into the Doctor's and he looked down to her.

"Everybody lives," he said quietly with a small smile.

"Everybody lives," Bella agreed happily, resting her head on his arm as they both looked back up to the oddly glowing sky.

- O -

From the corner of Duke St Hill Street, a smartly dressed alien stood. His dark navy suit and his gloved hands blended into the dark building behind him, but his face stood out like nothing else on the Earth could.

Ood Sigma watched the group of celebrating people, which of course included the Doctor and his most recent companion, Bella Lumic. He knew that now was not the time to be seen by the time travelling pair, not just yet. They both had so much to do, so many places to go, so many people to save and so much still to experience before he could give his warning to the Doctor. Ood Sigma did not wish to be burdened with this terrible news and he wished he didn't have to tell them, but he must. The Doctor would make a terrible mistake, but Bella would be there to help him through it until the end. There was nothing Ood Sigma could do to prevent what would eventually happen; the pain, the heartbreak and the loss, for he knew that the time was coming and that four knocks would change everything…

Slowly, taking one last sad look at the Time Lord and his Nealonian companion, he turned, disappearing into the night…

- O -

Mia stood with her three friends and the reverend at the top of the stairs beside Southwark Cathedral, watching as the Doctor and Bella walked down the steps, hand in hand.

Mia bit her lip and moved forward. "Bella?" she called.

Bella stopped and turned, the Doctor stopping a few steps down, so they looked like they were the same height.

"I'm sorry," Mia said, "About what I said down there. It's just hard to think that aliens don't want to come here and overthrow us, you know? I mean, you said yourself, how many times we've been invaded, and there are so many films and TV programmes that have bad aliens as the threat… I guess what I am trying to say is that, I believe that some aliens can be good and that the UNIT way of doing things may not always be the best way. I am sorry for what I did."

Bella's face was unreadable for a few moments before she smiled. "I am sorry too," she said and everyone (including the Doctor) frowned. "I keep forgetting what it is like to be human, that not everyone believes the way I do. I really hope that one day soon, we'll have a good alien encounter for the whole world to see, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Just remember that there are more good aliens than bad ones and you'll be alright."

Mia nodded as the Doctor wore a proud grin.

"Have a good Christmas," Bella smiled and she waved before turning around to take the Doctor's hand again.

As they walked down the stairs, the group heard the Doctor say "You know, I think Raanan fancied you," making them all laugh before they both walked into a blue police box. Exchanging a glance with the others, Mia watched in amazement as a loud kind of wheeze emanated from the box, a blue light on top flashing before it all disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Gaping slightly, Mia hoped that what Bella had said was true, because she felt ready to believe anything now that she had been given a second chance to make things right. Well, almost anything; she didn't believe the spaceship Titanic that was just absurd, no one would make a replica of a ship that sunk that bad.

Down below them in the courtyard, soldiers in black uniforms rushed out of the cathedral, their guns trained onto the spot where the TARDIS had been only moments ago, one of the men in particular looked extremely angry.

"You let them escape?" they heard the man yelling furiously, advancing on two younger looking men. "I thought I told you to stand guard of the TARDIS to prevent them from escaping again!"

"You did, Major Ingram, sir," said one of the young men, "but then you called us back inside when that cabinet blew up, sir."

The major gave a roar of frustration and Angelo turned to the rest of the group.

"You youngsters go," he whispered and they nodded, "I will sort this out, there is no point getting you involved with these people. Make sure, when this all comes down, to come and visit, won't you?"

As the four teenagers turned and began running down the street, Angelo began to descend the stairs into the courtyard, wondering how on Earth he was going to explain what happened tonight to anyone.