Chapter 10: Falling Together

"You can't let him do this," Nine hissed at his side as the Eleventh Doctor adjusted the calculations on the console.

River looked up from where she was pulling up the final readings on her scanner, but said nothing.

Eleven glanced over at Fitz, who was talking quietly with Jack as Eight gripped his hand desperately.

His hands danced along the console, sending signals to the other TARDISes. "I'm open to any other suggestions," Eleven said harshly. "Well?"

Nine spoke quietly, almost a whisper. "You know what he means to me. To us."

"Did you think I'd forgotten?"

Eleven was angry at him, so angry he could barely stand to be next to him. To torture his own past incarnation with decisions he hadn't made yet, to physically attack him like some sort savage? He was ashamed, and frankly a bit alarmed, because they were rewriting time at the moment and he had no idea what would happen next.

He'd always been so fragile as Eight, so close to the edge of turning mad and wicked. A living contradiction. Often manipulative and distant without Seven's ability to plan ahead for the consequences, only to let himself get lost in regret and emotions, leading by the heart when intellect would have been a better option. And it had been such a difficult life, even before the Last Great Time War. Falling in love so easily, only to have his heart broken, yet being so willing to sacrifice the people he cared about most when he couldn't think of another solution. With a dark streak of fatalism that bordered on suicidal. He'd never been able to keep track of how many lives he'd ended in that one painful, fractured lifetime.

"I hate him," Nine said, glaring at the Eighth Doctor. "I regret everything about him."

"You hate yourself," Eleven said, meeting his blue eyes. "We all hate ourselves sometimes. It's a long, lonely life we lead. But it does get better. For a little while. In between the times we'd rather forget."

"I don't want to imagine how bad things would have been without Fitz. How much worse I could have been."

Eleven sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "We're done here. Better get back to your TARDIS. River, would you bring over the rest of the destabilizers?"

River gave him a reassuring smile and nodded, gathering them onto a corner of the console.

"I've still got mine," Nine said, taking it out of his pocket for a moment and looking at it like something deadly and disgusting before putting it away again.

Rose and Ten approached Nine, from where they'd been talking together on the swing under the platform. Eleven noticed they were holding hands.

"Soooo... We're done here, I take it?" Ten asked.

"According to this one," Nine said, scowling.

Rose gave Ten a long, lingering hug, then went over to Nine and took his hand. "Then let's go home," she said, smiling up at him.

"Jack, we're going!" Nine called out, walking up to the landing where Eight's TARDIS stood. Without saying good bye.

Eleven watched Jack hug both Fitz and Eight at once, and he smiled. Those three would have definitely had a good time together. Although packing the TARDIS with that many rampant libidos seemed a frightening prospect. He was having a hard enough time dealing with Amy Pond.

He walked up to Ten and Eleven and gave them a slightly sarcastic salute. "I take it we'll be seeing each other again soon."

"Oh, definitely, Captain," Ten said, and pulled him into a hug.

"Right, well I hate being left out," Eleven said, and hugged Jack as well.

Then Jack turned to River, who gave him a warm smile. He took her hand, and kissed it. "Take care of him, will you?"

"I always do."

"And I've been meaning to ask, is that my sonic blaster?"

She chuckled and pulled it out, spun it around like in a western movie before sliding it back in her holster in a way Eleven found surprisingly endearing. "Spoilers."

"Oh, I like her," Jack said, giving Eleven a wink, and then he was gone.

Eight and Fitz walked over, both of them looking slightly terrified. Eleven couldn't blame them. They each had so much to lose. He had distant, blurry memories of years, a century, when the idea of finding Fitz again had been the only bright spot in his life. The only thing he had to look forward to. The prospect of losing all of that scared Eleven more than he wanted to admit.

Ten took River's hands in his for a moment, eyes shining. Eleven looked away and tried not to remember what it felt like to lose her, chained and helpless as she sacrificed herself for their future together. The future he was currently enjoying.

"River..." Ten said very softly.

"I'll see you soon, my love," she said with a sad, knowing smile.

Then she kissed him on the cheek, catching the corner of his mouth with her own. Eleven tried not to feel jealous. A smile crept over Ten's face, almost despite himself. River handed him a destabilizer, and he slipped it in his pocket without a word, as though unsure of what to say next.

Instead he turned to Fitz and Eight, as they stood holding hands, gripping them each by the shoulder. "Take care of each other, all right?"

Eight nodded, his expression unreadable.

"Always," Fitz said, and squeezed Eight's hand a little tighter.

Ten finally met Eleven's gaze, and held out his hand, their handshake much warmer than Eleven had expected. "So you're the man who's going to go gallivanting off after I'm gone?" Ten said with a wry grin.

"Quite a promising replacement, if I say so myself," Eleven said, matching his smile.

Ten chuckled, and left.

And then it was just the four of them. Eleven looked at Fitz and Eight sadly. "Don't be so hard on yourself," the Eleventh Doctor said in a very soft voice.

"So it's true," the Eighth Doctor whispered. "All of it. The terrible things I'm going to do. This fate I can't escape."

"Yeah," Eleven said, because this was one time he couldn't bring himself to lie.

The Eighth Doctor held the metal crown up, staring at it grimly. Fitz watched him, absolutely terrified, desperately hoping the Doctor would take it all back. Tell him this was too dangerous. Try to talk him out of it.

But he didn't. Instead, he placed the circlet on Fitz's head, wires trailing. Fitz sat in the Doctor's usual high-backed armchair, which had been pulled up close to the console. It felt incongruously normal, considering he was just about to have his mind blown away by four god-like entities with the ability to travel through time and space. All at the same time.

"Fitz..." the Doctor whispered, looking into his eyes, as though there was so much he wanted to say, but couldn't trust himself to say it.

Fitz knew the feeling. "Good luck, Doctor."

The Doctor kissed him once, very lightly on the lips. A chaste gesture that almost felt like goodbye. Fitz tried very hard not to freak out.

Then the Doctor went back to the console and pulled a switch.

Reality splintered all around him. Fitz shattered into pieces. Everywhere and nowhere, the TARDIS, every TARDIS, coursing through him as one. Touching the past, and the future, everything all at once. Being created on Gallifrey, bonded to the Time Lords, an omniscient entity born a slave. Liberty, and affection, broken free from her restraints to travel anywhere she wished, with the Doctor, always the Doctor. So many people drifting in and out of her. Putting Fitz back together again, pouring a bit of her soul into him, creating a cascade of possible Fitz's that rippled across time. Nearly dying, and being reborn across a century. Completely alone, with Gallifrey lost. Then undoing all of it, only to have history repeat itself. A devastating war that made the first one seem civilized, tumbling saucers raining fire from the burnt orange sky, destruction and chaos, a vicious, brutal, timeless war that ended with a billion voices silenced all at once, leaving her, leaving both of them, truly alone once again. Taking Rose and making her infinite, then bringing the curse of eternal life. And feeling such revulsion every time Jack touched her afterwards. An endless explosion that shattered everything, tearing apart the cosmos, unraveling every star, only to bring it all back again.

And now this. Now she was falling together, merging and melding and losing herself, and it terrified her, drove her insane. So Fitz comforted her, like he had his poor mad mum for as long as he could remember, like he held the Doctor when it all became too much for him. Embracing the agony and the chaos, letting it pour into his mind. He took the cosmic soul of the TARDIS into himself, and he made her feel better, although the pain that coursed through him was like nothing he could ever have imagined.

She felt so grateful for his presence.

He held Rose's hand as the Ninth Doctor spun around the console, sparks dancing from the controls.

"Jack, I need you!" the Doctor shouted, scowling.

He turned to Rose, who looked up at him, eyes full of fear. Jack kissed her, a quick, light gesture, meant to reassure both of them. But they were out of time, the walls of the console room seeming to melt into the distance, and he ran to join the Doctor.

"Keep the transduction levels stable, like I showed you!"

"Yes, sir," Jack said, grabbing the twin knobs and turning them until the chaotic jumble of lines coming from the oscillator display began to resemble something close to a steady line.

Suddenly a beam of light began to appear in the center column, glowing and growing until both Jack and the Doctor were forced to step back from the sudden pulsating radiance.

Jack looked around, and time seemed suddenly frozen. He saw the Tenth Doctor, backing away with his hands up, as though trying to block the blazing radiance, saw Eleven and River holding hands, saw Eight wearing a fatalistic expression, palms outstretched in something like acceptance, as behind him Fitz was caught in mid-convulsion, tumbling to the floor, his pretty face twisted with agony.

Then the beam of light transformed into a figure, both male and female, ethereal and eternal, all powerful and suddenly free. The whiteness spread, encompassing them all.

Eep! I know, right? I was on the edge of my seat writing this. I've got a concluding chapter/epilogue to post tomorrow, and then this story will finally be out of my head and into yours, heh. But it's only the start. So much more of the Fitzverse to come. Hope you've enjoyed this little journey. Please tell me what you think—reviews make me very happy!