"What's the matter Wren? It's only me."

Wren looked at the Doctor, terrified. It wasn't him. The voice coming out of his mouth was all wrong, the accent, the feeling, everything. And then there was his emotions, or rather the lack of them. Wren was standing right there in front of him and she could feel absolutely nothing. Her blood ran suddenly cold.

'Doctor, what have you done?' she thought in horror.

"You're a very unique woman, Lucinda." Wren bristled at the sound of the name she hated so much. "Making a time Lord fall for you. Time Lords aren't exactly romantic beings you know- oh sorry, weren't. More than half of them were loomed into existence, created and then harvested, no need for a mother or father. And now there are none left. The Doctor is under my control and you... Well, you aren't really a Time Lord, are you?"

"Get out," Wren said, visibly upset now. "Get out of him right now, or you will regret it."

Rhydian merely looked at her and laughed that cruel sickening laugh that sounded so awful coming out of the Doctor's throat.

"I don't think I will," he said. "I like this body. It could theoretically last me forever, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm far from bad looking. No, in fact I'm quite the opposite. And you can't even deny it, because I know you think so. Besides, where else would I go? I'd die without a body."

"Then die," Wren said. "Or I'll make you."

"Oh, you will?" Rhydian said, laughing maniacally. "That sounded an awful lot like a threat... to kill no less. This must mean you're a nothing more than a coward, according to your standards."

Wren glared at him. However, the Doctor's body spasmed randomly and Wren felt a twinge of pain. There was only one reason she would be feeling it, the Doctor had to be fighting back. He looked up at her, and Wren was jolted with a desperate sort of fear.

"Wren don't listen to him. Remember the plan!" Sweat was beading on his forehead as he struggled against Rhydian to remain in control for just a few seconds more, then suddenly Rhydian was back again.

"What was that?" Rhydian demanded of her. "What did he mean?"

Wren did not answer. Instead she ignored him entirely and went over to where Tal was at Kerrick's side.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"Answer me!" Rhydian shouted. Again, Wren ignored him to focus on Tal, whose face was streaked with tears. Wren looked back to Kerrick and instantly knew why. The experience had been too much for his body to handle. He was dying.

"Who are you?" he asked Wren weakly. "Have we met?"

Kerrick was breathing very heavily, wheezing almost. Despite the fact that she hadn't like Kerrick, Wren was struck with deep sadness seeing him like this. And now because of the regeneration, he couldn't even recognize her.

"Alasheru?" he asked suddenly, and Wren was filled with an odd, cold feeling. Kerrick seemed to think she was the Goddess, and she didn't have it in her hearts to tell him otherwise.

"What is it Kerrick?' she said instead.

"I'm dying, aren't I? That's why you're here. Is Talaith still there? I can't see her."

"Yes, she is," Wren assured, but Kerrick seemed distressed.

"No," he said. "I can't see her. She's not here. I can't see. I can't..."

Kerrick grabbed onto her desperately and Wren felt tears fill her eyes involuntarily.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Tell everyone I'm sorry. Wren, the Doctor... Tal. I... I..."

It was getting harder and harder for Kerrick to breathe. Suddenly his grip on Wren went limp and it was eerily quiet. Wren's face was solemn and still. The boy was gone.

There was no sound for several minutes excepting that of Tal's sobbing. Wren drew herself up, her eyes focused on Rhydian standing there in the Doctor's body, and she was filled with a quiet sort of rage.

"There!" Rhydian said. "Now will you tell me?"

Anger crackled in Wren's lavender eyes. A much wiser man than Rhydian Maxwell would have given up right then and there.

"Do you know how crushing the knowledge of a Time Lord mind is?" she said rather unexpectedly. "A human brain can't handle it, if put into contact with one for too long their mind will literally burn to crisp."

"Why are you telling me this?" Rhydian asked nervously, but he already knew. Cold dread was beginning to set in.

"The entire time you were in my body, I was shielding you." she said. "Shielding you from the full brunt of what it means to be a Time Lord. The Doctor is doing the same right now. What do you think is going to happened when he stops?"

Rhydian swallowed, but he didn't have time to do much else before he screamed out in pain.

"No!" he shrieked. "Stop! Please stop!"

Wren just stared, unmoved, her face stern and stony the way the Doctor's often was when confronted with destruction.

"You brought this upon yourself," she said under her breath.

Rhydian clutched the Doctor's head and threw it about, writhing in pain. Wren could see the heat of the knowledge burning his mind seeping out through the Doctor's eyes. When she found it was too disturbing to continue watching, she merely closed her eyes. Eventually the screaming ceased and Wren dared to open her eyes. The Doctor was standing very still and very quiet, his head hung in what almost seemed like shame. His emotions were a mix of relief intermingled with sadness and revulsion, mainly for himself. He looked up at Wren and could see immediately how disturbing she found what she had just witnessed. The Doctor gave her a mournful look before coming over and embracing her tightly.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry."

"We just exterminated the last of an ancient race of people," Wren said shakily. "We killed him."

The Doctor said nothing, and merely held on tighter.

"Wren," he whispered.

"Don't."

"Wren, Tal needs us."

Wren finally looked up and she could see the Doctor was right. The poor girl was inconsolable. Wren, being no stranger to the incomparable pain of losing your best friend, went over and sat beside her silently. The Doctor had taught her that sometimes, that was all you needed to do. Tal eventually turned and buried her face in Wren's shoulder. After a very long time of sitting there, Wren picked up the small Alazarin and carried her off to bed. Another thing she had learned is that sleep was a powerful healer.

Later that night Wren lay on her back in the Doctor's bed, staring at the ceiling blankly, unable to sleep due to her racing thoughts (which for a Time Lord is saying something). She could feel the rising and falling of the Doctor's warm body next to hers, but the rhythm was too fast and not deep enough for him to be sleeping.

"Are you awake?" Wren asked, still keeping her eyes on the ceiling.

"...Yes," the Doctor admitted.

"Do you... do you think we did the right thing?"

Wren heard a deep sigh and the sound of him turning over on his side. She turned over as well, so now they were face to face.

"I don't know," he confessed.

"We saved an entire planet... millions of people, right?" Wren rationalized, a slight waver in her voice. "And we saved our lives as well."

"Hmmm..." was all the Doctor said. Wren bit her lip.

"You don't like it either."

"No," the Time Lord said plainly. "But these are decisions I have to make all the time. Who else would make them?"

There was a very long pause where the Doctor just looked at her. Suddenly his eyes flickered away and he laughed to himself.

"Now that this lovely trip is over, where do you think we should go next?"

"Wherever we want," Wren said with a smile. "Only preferably somewhere less dangerous."

"If you find me such a place, I'll gladly take you there," the Doctor said, grinning.

"I don't think such a place exists!" Wren laughed. "You'd get yourself into trouble anywhere!"

The light mood was interrupted abruptly by the most awful sound Wren thought she had heard in her life: four distinct knocks on the door. The Doctor bolted upright and froze, his eyes wide.

"No," he said in disbelief, staring at the door as if he were frightened of what could possibly be behind it. Wren swallowed, not daring to move. Again, the sound came this time accompanied by shouts.

"Doctor! Wren!" came Tal's voice. "Please open the door!"

Shocked, Wren jumped up and threw the door open.

"What is it?"

"Didn't you hear that?" the girl shouted. "The arc just went off again! It's going to explode!"

Fear jolted all through Wren's body, and it wasn't just her own. Without a moment's pause she took off, leaving the Doctor and Tal behind. Standing there still in complete shock, the Doctor suddenly realized just what it was that Wren was planning.

"Wren no!" he shouted, taking off after her. The Doctor was running like he never had before, his two hearts beating so loudly he could hear them outside his chest. As he turned corners into hallways and down stairs, every fiber of his being was filled with dread. She couldn't go through with something like this, it was too awful. The Doctor could now see Wren's deep ginger hair at the end of the hallway. She was standing before the arc, which was glowing the same shade of purple as before, only even brighter. The Doctor slowed his pace. She was crying.

"Wren-" he began frantically, but was halted when he walked headlong into the force field Wren had erected with her mind. The Doctor felt out the boundaries of the shield, trying to find a weakness of some sort, but to no avail.

"It won't work," Wren said, unable to look up at him. "I made sure there was no way you could make it through."

"Don't do this Wren." Tears were beginning to well in the Time Lord's eyes as well.

"I worked it all out," she said tearfully. "If something isn't done soon the entire planet will be laid to waste by the energy this arc generates. All the energy will be consumed if someone passes through it though. And if I use my own energy from inside it, it will be sealed forever."

"No," the Doctor said desperately. "No, there has to be another way. There has to be another way!"

"There is no other way," she said, finally daring to look up at him. She immediately wished she hadn't. The look in his eyes would haunt her forever.

"You have no idea where it leads!" he shouted, his voice catching and then breaking. "You could be sent anywhere, you could die! And what about me then? Alone again?"

Wren just looked at him ruefully and his face twisted into fury as he turned around and violently kicked the wall, enraged.

"What have I done?" he shouted at the ceiling angrily. "What have I ever done to deserve this?"

The Doctor dissolved into tears of despair, burying his face in his hands and watching him,Wren felt sick to her stomach. She approached the force field and reached her hand through it in order to place it on the Time Lord's shoulder.

"Some on has to keep the balance," she said quietly. "To watch over the Universe. It needs to be you Doctor. You need to survive. Who will stand up for them if you don't? Who will look after them all? I knew I had survived Antares Beta for a reason, and that reason has become clear to me now. I needed to save you, so you can do this job."

"I don't want it anymore," the Doctor said. He looked up, and Wren felt the weight of his sadness almost crushing her. "I'm tired Wren, I'm so tired."

Wren swallowed and another tear slid silently down her cheek. Her lavender eyes locked with the Doctor's and she whispered the one thing she knew meant more than any thing she could say.

She said the Doctor's name.

The Doctor stared at her, unable to move. There was a suddenly loud crashing sound behind them, and Wren turned abruptly, reminded of the task before her. She began to back away slowly.

"I swear I'll find you, I promise," she said.

"Wren..."

"I promise!"

"...Wren!"

"I love you Doctor."

"WREN!"

She was gone.

The Doctor opened his eyes suddenly, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. Shivering and wiping the beads of moisture away with the back of his hand, he tried to focus on the image of the redhead in his mind. He was dreaming about Wren more and more often lately, and it made him wonder.

Where could she be now? The arc had left not a single clue as to its destination, and he not the slightest idea where Wren might have ended up. He didn't even know if he could recognize her if he saw her.

'Or if she would even recognize me,' he thought mournfully, looking at his still awkward new hands somewhat sadly.

"Are you okay there then?" came the lilting voice of a young Scottish woman.

The Doctor looked up at the redheaded Miss Amelia Pond and smiled. She reminded him so much of Wren, from how she looked to her strong and fiery personality. He tried not to dwell on it too much, and exhaled deeply trying to drive the disturbing dream from his mind.

"Yes, I just dozed off for a moment, that's all."

"Dozed off?" Amy said in mock uproar. "The savior of all human kind, dozing off? Oh, if only they knew!"

"You stop that now, it's a very exhausting job mind you!" the Doctor replied, smiling a bit. Deep inside he was really lamenting over the truth of that very fact. It was the most tiring job in the Universe in fact. The keeper of the balance...

Meanwhile, far away on a very distant planet a young woman with the most startling lavender eyes was staring at the night sky, remembering a promise she had made a very, very long time ago.


I did it. I finished. I decided there was no way I could stretch this out any longer. I like it at the length it is. Sure, only 8 chapters, but each one is pretty darn long. Over 20,000 words in total... holy crap, this is the longest thing I've ever written.

Hmmm... maybe I could get it published as DW novel! XD

Wouldn't that be a laugh. I would predict lots of editing in my future. -

Thank you very much to TheGirlWhoWaited, my only reviewer! EVERYONE ELSE SHAME ON YOU. XD

(I'm kidding! I love you! Please, please, please review!)