Eternal Midnight

by Black Alya Wolf

Known only to mortals as Midna, she seeks just one thing: balance. And if balance isn't what she's going to get, chaos is what will wreak the multiverse until naught is left but the Void and love is ash in the memory of all survivors.10Rose, AU s4 end arc

11. The Valeyard

The Valeyard: Chapter Ten

"You shouldn't be here."

"Perhaps."

The mysterious man seemed content to wait for the Doctor to make conversation. Donna looked back and forth between them, worried. The man was middle-aged and dignified, with short-cropped dark hair. The rest of him was swathed in black robes of an origin Donna could not recognize and his hands were folded neatly behind him. There was something ancient in his eyes that reminded her of the Doctor, who watched the man guardedly.

"You died."

"Did I?" The man seemed somewhat amused.

"You were destroyed by the feedback of the particle dissimilator; you were trapped within the Matrix with the Master."

Donna jerked involuntarily at the name. She hadn't understood a word the Doctor had just said, but she understood that the Master should be kablooey. Was this guy friends with the Master? Odd choice in friends, that. Dead people probably didn't make for a very talkative companionship.

"Was I?"

The Doctor's eyes narrowed; Donna recognized this as the "Storm" part of him.

"How did you get here?"

"I hardly see how it matters."

"How did you get here?" The Doctor repeated harshly.

The man sighed a long-suffering sigh.

"Same way you did. TARDIS."

"Impossible."

"Is it?"

Donna shook her head. These two were impossible. Couldn't they just spit it out and be done with it? She opened her mouth to tell them as much, then thought better of it.

"Doctor," she said quietly, nudging the Time Lord in the side with an elbow. He didn't look at her, but she guessed he was listening. "Who is he?"

There was silence for a moment. The man still appeared amused.

"He's me." The Doctor said grimly.

"What? Like, from the future?"

"Yes."

His short answers were getting to her, now. Normally he rambled off at ninety miles an hour, but this…he was deathly calm, was what he was, and it was entirely unnerving.

"You will lose," the man declared confidently, though Donna had no idea what he was talking about. Lose what? "You will lose everything, and reality will be mine for the taking."

"What reality?" the Doctor snapped. "Unless you've got a paradox machine handy…"

The man laughed sharply, unpleasantly.

"Paradox? No, no, Doctor, you don't understand. This is meant to be. It was always meant to be."

"Says who?"

"Bad Wolf."

The Doctor just glared at himself for a moment. Donna was confused all over again.

"How do you know about that?"

"I know everything about that."

"How?"

The man shrugged. "I think I'd rather not give it away. Spoilers, after all."

Donna flinched a little. Was this really the Doctor? It couldn't be. This bastard was...someone else. The Master himself, maybe.

"But I will tell you that all of this is so I can have Bad Wolf for myself."

"What do you want with Rose?" The Doctor's voice was more dangerous now than she'd ever heard it, and Donna very nearly smiled.

"'Rose'?" The man sounded vaguely surprised, like he didn't recognize the name. Definitely not the Doctor then, future him or no. "Oh, you speak of the host? Hardly. I'm after Bad Wolf itself. Imagine, Doctor. You'll be a god in your future. How does that feel?"

"'A god'?" The Doctor appeared completely baffled. "A god - what do you mean a 'god'? What are you talking about?"

"It's simple. The Reality Bomb will destroy everything, including the host's body, but nothing can destroy Bad Wolf. It will be free for the taking."

"You can't do that!"

The man smiled a venomous, bitter smile. "Watch me."

"You can't!"

But the Master wants Bad Wolf for himself. He's gonna destroy everything to get to it.

The Master wanted Bad Wolf. Donna swallowed, trying to figure things out. The Doctor had said that this was him, from the future, but that was impossible. There had to be some Time Lord-y thing against that. In fact, she was sure of it. She could see it, the timelines colliding, merging, coaslescing into something new, something different, something...mutant. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. Was this the Master, then? Did the Doctor somehow become the Master in the future? Lose his memory? Lose the memories he had of this moment? Or did he just go insane? Become ill? Tried and failed to behead himself?

She didn't know. Nothing fit. That, she found, was rather frustrating.

"Who are you?" she asked the man directly, and for the first time she had his full, focused attention. It was frightening.

"The stuff of nightmares," he hissed. One of her hearts may have jumped a beat, but Donna refused to react, refused to be intimidated. Freakin' git. What right did he have, going about disentegrating everything in existence? So irate was she that she didn't even see the Doctor's arm moving until her hand was safely clenched in his. The other man didn't seem to care, or notice. "I am the Valeyard —"

"The Boneyard, more like," the Doctor muttered under his breath so only Donna could hear. Donna snorted loudly, but was ignored.

" — the prosecutor and the judge. I am —"

"A right arsehole," Donna nodded, finishing for him. The Doctor's grip tightened abruptly, warningly. She turned to him and said, "Told ya to lay off on the chips."

The Doctor shook his head, not amused in the least.

The Valeyard bared his teeth.

"Bad Wolf will howl in the night to the sun's rays of Vigor, howl in the night to the Storm and his rage, howl in the night to the darkest side of the shining Moon, howl in the night to the learned court's soul, howl in the night to save all who need saving, howl in the night to the Howling itself, howl in the night to the Eternal granting it the same — Bad Wolf will live on, eternal, Eternal Midnight."

Donna rose her eyebrows. "Got that out of your system, then?"

He snorted derisively and looked at the Doctor. "The Legacy, Doctor, do you remember? So long ago…"

"All I hear is gibberish," Donna informed them both, to no affect. The Doctor was staring intently at the Valeyard, with the look on his face that suggested he was on the verge of an amazing discovery she wished he would share.

Then memories crashed in on her, memories of whispers in golden fire and shadows in her mind.

You will carry the Legacy. You will be one of the mothers. Your heart and mine will join, and you will fulfill the prophecy.

Her head pounded. What the hell was going on?

"'And the Red Star will carry this from the Wolf and the Storm, carry it from the dark into the wise light of Midnight's shadow, carry the Day of Birth from its haven Ready for Battle to the rebirthing of the Foundation.'" The Doctor recited thoughtfully. He shook his head, eyes hardening. "It never made sense, and it doesn't now. It's just a myth."

The Valeyard laughed. It was the sort of laugh Donna found herself never willing to hear again. "Nothing is ever just a myth. Everything is born of truth, after all."

"And then becomes so distorted you can't tell one from the other. Stop this, right now. You cannot destroy reality, it's never been done!"

"Oi, what are you two going on about?" demanded Donna furiously, having heard enough of that cryptic crap. "What's with this 'Legacy'? Well? And none of that 'myth is truth' stuff, either. Doctor, what the hell is Space Cadet here on about? Who is he, really? What is he doing here? Did we even land? How did he get on board?"

She stopped for a breath, her arsenal of questions cocked and ready in her throat.

The Valeyard turned to her suddenly, something like fear in his eyes. "A mother," he muttered, cutting off whatever Donna was going to say next.

Golden fire flashed in Donna's memory again. The Valeyard's eyes met hers for a brief second, and she watched as they widened dramatically. There was an awkward pause, then he smiled ruefully. Donna eyed him warily. Something about the Valeyard's stance changed in that moment: his hands fell to his sides, his robes hung more limply around him rather than appearing to carry the man's weight on their own, his shoulders lifted a little, and a little crease appeared in his forehead, his eyes scrunching as if he were straining against some unseen burden. His neck bowed slightly, though he never broke eye contact with Donna. It was a posture of defeat. Donna found the sight just as sickening as it was puzzling.

"All right, Doctor, you win. I can see more clearly now. Yes," he nodded to himself, "I can see quite clearly indeed. This is meant to be. The prophecy fulfills itself. All unto itelf. Always. Meant to be."

"What?" the Doctor looked lost at this unexpected admission of defeat. Victories didn't usually go like this. Usually, there was a reason behind them.

"Even I cannot stop it," continued the Valeyard, ignoring him. "Some paradoxes are meant to happen, but I am not one of them. Balance for balance, chaos in iron rot."

He then nodded curtly to the Doctor, who stood staring at him, bewildered, then bowed courteously to Donna, who glared at him in disbelief.

"Rose, you said her name was?" the Valeyard inquired rhetorically. He nodded again to himself when no one replied, seeming resigned. "Rose," he muttered, as though saying her name would summon her here. "Eternal Rose."

There was a long, uncertain moment of silence. Donna felt like breaking it, but the Valeyard beat her to it yet again.

"I believe you will be needing this," he said, and gave a cylindrical tube-thing to the Doctor. "It was given to me by the Eternals for safekeeping. It should be all you need." He bowed again and turned around, striding toward the TARDIS doors.

"What?" The Doctor didn't even looking at the device in his hand. It was too late; the Valeyard was already out the door into the dark forest there appeared beyond. As soon as the door closed, the TARDIS engines fired up in a jarring motion that knocked both him and Donna off their feet.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Donna shouted over the roar of the time rotor.

The Doctor was gripping the console tightly to keep from falling again, staring after the Valeyard.

"What?" He said again, still confused. Donna rolled her eyes.

The ship stilled at last, and Donna thought at first that they had landed somewhere until the Doctor spoke up.

"We're in the vortex," he said, glaring at the console. "What d'you think you're doing, anyway, mangy old box?" he asked it rudely, and sparks shot from the section nearest him. He jumped back, sniffing disdainfully. Honestly, he treated the thing like a pet, he should expect a bite every now and then.

"Doctor, what was that thing he — you, whatever — gave you?"

He only just seemed to remember that he had it in his hand then, and he whipped on his glasses to examine it fully. It looked like a case of some kind, even Donna could tell that, but when he finally got it to open down the middle, there was virtually nothing within. Instead, the casing was flat on the inside and black with little blinking buttons and controls Donna couldn't understand for the life of her.

"What is that?"

"It's a key," breathed the Doctor, astonished. "An electromagnetic key, to be precise. Opens deadlock seals the sonic screwdriver can't get past. They're…rare, though, incredibly, unbelievably rare — where did he get it?"

"You mean you."

The Doctor glanced at her with a small grimace. "Not me. Well, yeah, me, me from the future, but not…not exactly me, more like a part of me in between regenerations, not me me, otherwise things would be much simpler - or more complicated, never could tell the difference, but —"

"What the hell are you on about?"

"It's complicated." He concluded with a nod.

"I think I noticed that," Donna responded dryly. "But what did he mean with all that legend stuff? And what has Rose got to do with it?"

The Doctor closed the silver cylinder with a snap and a sigh, then gestured for Donna to seat herself comfortably on the jump seat. He leaned on the console in front of her, tucking the cylinder into his jacket and crossing his arms moodily. Looked like his usual look, overall. When he wasn't bouncing around like a kid in a candy store, at least.

"The Legacy, Donna," the Doctor corrected, to her annoyance. She didn't care what it was called! "It's called the Legacy, and it's not exactly a legend, more of a…myth."

"I don't care what it's called! I just want to know what it means!"

"That's just it," said the Doctor quietly, looking up at her through darkened eyes. "No one knows what it means. It makes absolutely no sense at all."

"But — what is it?" Donna repeated impatiently, and the Doctor exhaled loudly.

"It is…everything, supposedly. A prophecy, of sorts, told by the Eternals themselves at the dawn of the universe about the fates of all the universes."

Donna frowned. "And what are Eternals?"

"Eternals are beings with literally no imagination. They need us — Ephemerals, they call us, supposedly because we are 'bound by time' —" Donna snorted loudly, looking pointedly around at the ship, and the Doctor couldn't help but smile; "They need us just to survive, because, honestly, what species can survive without some form of entertainment?"

"Death by boredom." Donna muttered.

"Exactly. Eternals utilise the thoughts and emotions of other races to meet their own needs."

"That's horrible!" She exclaimed, cringing. The Doctor only nodded.

"Yes. But they live in Eternity, not in Time, and that's why they are called Eternal — they never age, never die, never love or hate or anything. That's what makes them so dangerous. They can pose as gods and doom whole worlds or manipulate Ephemerals into doing what they want, all for a bit of fun."

"I prefer tea and saving the world, myself. And they made that prophecy thing or whatever it is?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they did. Supposedly."

"So…it might not be true, right? Whatever it's saying, they could just be making it up, 'all for a bit of fun', as you said."

"They have no imagination," he reminded her. "They can't do anything like that on their own. They could have been helped, of course they could have, but the wording is too precise."

"'Precise'? I've never heard anything more cryptic in my life!"

The Doctor shot her an unamused look. "When you live in Eternity, Donna, try telling people their future without letting them know before it's supposed to actually happen. The Legacy isn't meant to be understood until it comes true."

Donna frowned at him again. "What the hell is the point, then? Why make a bloomin' prophecy at all? Besides, we're in a time machine."

He ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. She tried not to laugh at the electrocuted impersonation he made.

"Donna," he said slowly, and she got the impression he was trying to be extremely patient with her. "Timelines are constantly in flux, you can see that, I know you can, even if I don't know how — you're a Time Lady. And this one involves us. Even if I did travel to the future, we would only see the timeline as it is now, with nothing we do ever ever changing it."

"Then what did the Valeyard guy mean?"

"I don't know."

"What?" Donna pretended to looked shocked.

"Oh, shut up," he muttered.

"Haven't you got any ideas, though? I mean…Rose."

The Doctor frowned at her, puzzled.

"Bad Wolf can mean a lot of things," he told her. "It doesn't have to mean Rose."

"How can that be a coincidence, though?" asked Donna, standing to pace around the console, feeling unexpectedly jittery. "I mean, now, of all times, when the Legacy is mentioned, and Rose comes back, and she said those words to me — Bad Wolf — when I was in that parallel world—"

"Yes, Donna," said the Doctor, watching her but not moving himself. "It can be coincidence. That's all it is."

Donna shook her head vehemently. He didn't get it. Stupid alien boy.

"You weren't there," she said to him. "You weren't in that weird limbo-place before I 'regenerated'. There was a voice there, telling me the strangest things, goin' on about how it was the heart of the vortex, how it used to be the home or something to Bad Wolf but Bad Wolf is a completely different thing now…" she passed by the Doctor again, and he was looking at her with the strangest expression on his face. She ignored him, caught up in what she was saying.

"It said it was my other heart, that my mind was in the 'Core' or somethin' like that; convinced me to do the regeneration-thingy. It said…it said that Bad Wolf foresaw everything. Doctor…what does that mean?"

He stopped her with a hand on her arm as she passed him again. His eyes were darker than ever before, wild and so intense she found herself, for the first time in a long while, rather afraid of him.

"Show me." The Doctor ordered simply.

Donna's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "How do I do that? Not exactly like I had a camera."

He moved slowly so as not to startle her, putting his hands carefully on her temples and pressing gently.

"Imagine a room," he told her softly, closing his eyes. "Every wall has as many doors as can fit it. Behind each door is a memory. Close all of the doors except one, the one you just mentioned."

Donna shrugged, closing her eyes as well and doing as she was told. It was easier than she thought it would be, taking only a few seconds to organize everything perfectly, complete with decorations on the doors and a dark green carpet that reminded her eerily of the life she'd lived in the Library. Then, slowly, she eased one of the doors open and mentally stepped back from her own mind, watching in awe as a presence—it wasn't something that could really be described, having no physical form even to her imagination—slipped like slime through the ceiling of the room; an odd feeling, to be sure. It brushed past her briefly, and she got a sudden, startling image of the Doctor and Rose dancing to an old Def Leppard tune — the same memory she'd witnessed on the video tape with Martha. She jerked back from the presence immediately, refusing to breach the Doctor's walls of privacy. She felt an unusual mix of gratitude and affection directed at her from him, though how she knew this and how it was even possible without confusing his emotions with her own was beyond her.

The ebony door she had enclosed the selected memory behind closed as soon as the Doctor's presence passed through it. She waited, oddly content in the sanctity of her own mind, until he reappeared and slipped out the same way he'd come, his feelings either numb and blank or blocked from her.

Physically, his hands left her face and she was jarred almost painfully back into reality with a feeling of dejected loss. She'd liked it in her head. But it didn't matter now; the Doctor was standing before her, a peculiar expression on his face, his hair lawless to gravity, his eyes burning with the intensity of a sun.

Donna was not aware of taking a step back until the Doctor seemed to snap out of it.

"'Part of its heart escaped and went looking for her'," said the Doctor, quoting Donna herself, apparently back to normal. She rose an eyebrow at him. "Your second heart…Donna, your second heart — it's the Heart of the TARDIS in physical form. You are, literally, a manifestation of…" he gestured, wildly around him, "her, the TARDIS, the—"

"I'm a time machine?" Donna deduced incredulously. She inspected her hands curiously, then looked back at him. "Don't look like one, oddly enough."

"No, no, no, not the TARDIS, more like a…a…" he frowned like he'd come to a conclusion he really didn't want to believe. "A human/TARDIS biological metacrisis…" he murmured.

Strangely, Donna understood what that was.

"That's impossible." She told him flatly, shaking her head.

He narrowed his eyes. "Yes, it is," he agreed, taking up Donna's abandoned pacing. "By all rights, you should be dead."

"Thanks," Donna muttered sarcastically, but he didn't seem to notice. She looked around the control room, now seeing something far beyond what she'd orignally thought it was. This…was weird. "But isn't a metacrisis like…" she paused, fishing for the right words; "…a change? Like the Chameleon Arch can change a Time Lord into a human?"

He stared at her from across the room where he'd stopped, and she didn't blame him. How did she know any of that, anyway?

"But it can't be reversed," he said, and she wasn't sure if it was meant to be a warning, but it definitely sounded like one.

"Doesn't matter."

"It might."

Donna shook her head adamantly, positive of this if she was ever going to be positive about anything ever again.

"I'm not really a TARDIS, right, but that's because Rose changed it when she looked into it, remember? There's a bit of human in there. Not much, but enough. The TARDIS used the imprints of everyone else to…I dunno, magnify that human bit somehow. And since you're the biggest imprint she's got…" Donna shrugged, a smug grin playing about her lips. "I guess I'm part-Time Lord, part-TARDIS, part-human. Somewhere in here," she rapped lightly on her skull with a knuckle, "I've got your mind."

"But that will kill you Donna, don't you see? Humans aren't meant to —"

"Weren't you listening, though?" Donna interrupted him with a little smile. "I regenerated, remember? The TARDIS was being ripped apart by that Z-Neutrino energy thing — see? I'm already getting bits from you — so it wasn't the fall that killed me, but the Heart of the TARDIS opening up and joining with me. I died because I couldn't handle it — you were right about that. But then I regenerated, I changed into something that could handle it, into —"

"A Time Lady," the Doctor breathed. "Ingenious."

Donna smirked. "I know."

"Bad Wolf," he murmured thoughtfully, resuming his pacing. "Rose. She was there, in the Core. She didn't speak, but I could sense her. Likely remnants of her time on Satellite Five. She saw the whole of space and time, only for a few seconds, but that could have been time enough for anything to change. Then the Legacy — he said you were one of the mothers…"

"Mother of what, though? Far as I know, I'm not pregnant. Unless there's something about the TARDIS you're not telling me?" she smirked playfully. As predicted, he gave her an exasperated glare, the mood in the control room lightening just a little.

"A mother of the future," he explained carefully. "A carrier. The carrier, if the Legacy is anything to go by, but it's more than that. That voice, your other heart, it said, 'she foresaw everything'. Bad Wolf," he muttered the name to himself again, as if saying it would reveal its secrets.

"Doctor," started Donna carefully, "the Valeyard said something, when he was reciting that Legacy thing — something about Bad Wolf being eternal, and howling at an Eternal that would 'grant it the same'; could that mean…?"

"Donna," the Doctor said suddenly, appearing right beside her. "What is 'vigor'?"

"I…I dunno, enthusiasm?" Donna tried, confused by this unexpected query, vaguely recollecting the word from the Valeyard.

"And another word for enthusiasm…?"

"Um…happy-slappy?"

"No, Donna, think. Survival is existing, but we…ooh, Donna, we are alive!"

"Life?" Donna guessed. "Vigor is 'life'?"

The Doctor made a noise of affirmation, nodding his head so hard she worried it might fall off and looking at her like she was supposed to know exactly where this was all heading.

"And a sun's rays, at least on Earth, are golden, yes? Golden, Donna —"

"Like the Core was?"

He nodded, eyes growing wider and wider in the excitement of his discovery by the second. He'd lost her.

"Exactly. Like the Core. The eye of the void, so to speak; the middle of it, the peace that keeps all the universes in balances. The final act of the Last Great Time War was life, Donna, did you know that? Rose took the time vortex into herself, turned the Daleks into dust, and then brought Captain Jack back to life, rendering him immortal."

"When it began," Donna realized. "When Bad Wolf was born. Wait, Captain Jack is immortal? How old is he?"

"There's a time and a place," he admonished her, and she glared at him. It was an innocent question! "And then the next part…well, that's simple enough. I regenerated for her, based on her, made almost entirely just for her in this life."

"That's something to be proud of," Donna groused sardonically, rolling her eyes.

He opted to ignore that.

"The Moon is…Martha, has to be."

"What? Where'd you get that from?"

"The third line, Donna, keep up. The ball of light in the Core that spoke to you with Martha's voice, what color was it?"

Donna's mind raced to catch up with his. It failed.

"Well, sort of…silvery, I guess…like moonlight!"

The Doctor nodded again. "Yep. Which means that wherever Rose is, she's with Martha. And just now…the learned court…must be the Valeyard."

"Why is that?"

"The Valeyard means, literally, the learned court prosecutor. That must be why he backed off…Bad Wolf must have done something. He never backs off, I should know."

"And the Howling?" Blurted Donna as she remembered. "What's that?"

"That's what the Eternals call the Void, the nothingness that separates every universe and keeps them from bleeding together. But that part hasn't happened yet; can't have, we only just got through the 'learned court's soul' bit."

"So…something's gonna happen with another universe, then?"

The Doctor made a noncommital noise in the back of his throat. "Possibly."

"And…and the rest?" She ventured hesitantly, her peculiarly sharp memory poking insistent needles at her to garner attention.

He stared down at Donna grimly.

"There's an Eternal organizing all of this, possibly against the wishes of the others. At the very least, they're urging things along. Must've done something to make sure Bad Wolf survived…made it eternal itself…"

"What, is Bad Wolf an Eternal?"

"No…unless…but no, that's…self-sacrificing," he muttered to himself. "That's
very self-sacrificing, they wouldn't have done that, but…yes, yes! HA! I can see it! Whoever it is needs my help, they've locked themselves here, in Time, away from their home… Someone has been manipulating her entire life. And now, that…that includes me."

"Her who?"

"Rose. The Eternals have Rose. They've been manipulating her from the beginning." His voice was hollow, despairing.

Donna couldn't even comprehend that. She couldn't imagine living a lie.

"But…what could they want with her?"

"Entertainment," the Doctor spat venomously, making Donna flinch. "That's all they ever want, just new Ephemerals to toy with."

"Isn't there some way of getting rid of them or something?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"Not unless you've got a Skasis Paradigm or a Guardian or a Mitgefühl in your pocket, no. But I will tell you one thing."

His eyes burned into hers again.

"No Eternal or Dalek or Master is standing in my way this time. Nothing can stop me until I have her back."

Never stand in the way of love, Donna supposed was the main lesson she would learn that day.

o0o

"Nothing can stop the detonation! NOTHING, and NO ONE!"

Rose had never seen someone so evil so deliriously happy and faithfully prayed that once they were through with this she never would again.

A familiar grind-and-roar noise filled the room and all of Rose's hopes at once became reality. It was here, it was impossible, and it was a blue box.

The TARDIS had arrived.

Don't half take his time, does he? thought Rose, slumping with relief into Midna, who grinned as an invisible breeze ruffled her hair.

Everyone turned to the TARDIS expectantly as it faded into view. It wasn't, however, the Doctor who emerged.

"Donna!" Rose shouted, surprised.

Donna grinned at her for an instant, but was then forced to drop to the floor as Davros shot a ray of energy at her. She rolled away, standing up behind the control console several feet away from them.

"Any day now would be nice!" Donna bellowed as her clothes sizzled from another ray that had just skimmed her back. She pranced around the console, never moving far from it.

"Almost there!" shouted a muffled, familiar voice from behind the doors of the TARDIS. Rose almost collapsed with relief. "Got it!"

"Brilliant!" Jack muttered.

"Finally," said Jenny happily.

Rose's mum looked partially relieved and somewhat pissed off. Mickey grinned and Sarah joined him. Martha laughed, giddy. They weren't out of trouble yet, but they may as well have been. The Doctor could do that to people.

The Doctor burst from the time machine and quickly joined Donna, who was turning dials and flicking switches like she actually knew what she was doing.

"You can't even change a plug," the Doctor muttered, bemused yet unsurprised, as he pulled out a cylindrical silver device from his pocket.

"D'you wanna bet, Time-boy?" Donna retorted, tapping her temple meaningfully.

The Supreme Dalek was counting down over the intercom and the guards in the room were shouting together in rage, so that a discordant symphony of screeching voices filled the room. The Daleks took aim and tried to fire, but something was stopping them: no ray of light left any of them. From Donna's smirk, Rose could gather that she must've had a little something to do with that. Midna grinned maniacally. Rose was just confused.

"Four…three…two…one…"

The screen showing the powering planets abruptly disappeared and Donna yelped triumphantly. An alarm started sounding off in the distance. Martha, Jack, Mickey, Sarah-Jane, Jenny, and Jackie were staring up at the Daleks around them in awe, for they still had not killed anyone. They got to their feet quickly.

"Closing all Z-Neutrino relay loops, using an internalized, synchronized backfeed reversal loop," Donna explained rapidly.

"Now that's my mind!" The Doctor complimented, opening a slot in the console with one hand and cracking the cylinder he held in half with the other. It was an odd compliment, certainly, and not one you'd usually hear if, say, you passed a test. Thus was the life of a time-traveler.

"System in shut-down!"

"Detonation negative!"

"Explain! Explain! Explain! EXPLAIN!"

Well, the Daleks were pissed off.

"You will suffer for this!" Davros yelled and pointed his hand at Donna to shoot another ray of lightning at her. But Donna was in control; Davros shook violently as the blue energy reversed back on him, surrounding his outretched arm. He jerked back in defeat.

"Ooh…bioelectric dampening field—"

"Show off," the Doctor cut her off, his fingers a blur as they worked the buttons inside the device. Donna pouted, affronted. Then he took out his sonic screwdriver and used that, cursing under his breath in a language the TARDIS failed to translate. Donna smacked him on the shoulder indignantly.

Still shaking, Davros ordered, "Exterminate her!"

"Weapons non-functional!"

Donna explained that part to them in rapid-fire techno-speak that Rose really couldn't make heads or tails of. All she knew was that she had some truly brilliant friends.

"But how did you work that out?" she asked when Donna finished, wondering just how Donna had become a mini-Doctor.

The Doctor met her eyes across the room and they both grinned.

"Time Lord," the Doctor stated, as if that explained everything. "Part-Time Lord,"

"Part-Human," Donna finished. "Oh, yes. Human/TARDIS three-way biological metacrisis — I'm part-time ship! Ha! Half Doctor, Half Donna, with a bit of TARDIS for extra flavor!"

"The Doctor-Donna," agreed the Doctor, still grinning at Rose but turning to glance at Donna. "Just like the Ood said. Remember, Donna? They saw it coming! The Doctor-Donna."

The Ood? That was a story they'd have to tell her later, Rose thought.

"Holding cells deactivated!" Donna announced, getting back to work at the controls. The light above Rose and Midna shut off and Rose had to desperately repress the urge to rush over to the Doctor hold him tight to her and never let go. She did, however, keep enough of her head to continue clutching tightly to Midna's hand.

"Stop them!" Davros hollered, like he could do anything to control a situation that was torn completely from his hands. "Get them away from the controls!"

The Daleks started forward, though what they intended to do, Rose didn't have a clue.

"Aaand…spin," grinned Donna, like she was playing a video game as the Doctor worked around her.

The Daleks indeed began to spin, first their bottom halves, then their middles went in opposite direction, then the dome began turning just out of sync with the rest of their bodies.

"Help me! Help me!" One of them dared to shout as it completely lost control of its motor functions. Jack, with his arm around Martha's shoulders, laughed, and it wasn't long before everyone else was joining in. Savin' the world and a show. Couldn't find a better way to spend the afternoon, really.

The Doctor looked at Donna in awe, his jaw slack.

"But that…that's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you are just a Time Lord, you Dumbo! Lucky I've got a bit of human, that gut instinct that comes hand-in-hand with planet Earth. I can dream up ideas you wouldn't think of in a million years! Oh, the universe has been waitin' for me! Now, let's send that trip signal all over the ship — did I ever tell ya? Best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute," she wiggled her fingers.

"Ha!" the Doctor agreed in triumph as she set work.

"What is happening? Explain!"

Jack was rushing back behind the controls to the TARDIS, presumably to get his gun back.

"Come on, Doctor, we've got twenty-seven planets to send home. Activate magnatron!"

"Stop this at once!" Davros wheeled his way closer to them.

Jack emerged from the TARDIS with his and Rose's gun in hand. "Mickey!" he shouted, tossing Rose's at him. Mickey caught it deftly and pointed it at Davros before he could go any further.

"Just stay where you are, mister," said Mickey threateningly. Rose could easily see he was enjoying himself.

One of the Daleks spun directly in front of Jack as he tried to take a step forward. He rolled his eyes and pushed it to the side, shouting, "Out of the way!" He cocked the particle gun.

Taking after his example, Rose ran with Midna and Sarah-Jane behind another Dalek, pushing it past her mum into the wall.

"Good to see you again!" Sarah said to Rose as the Dalek careened into a wall.

"Great, you too!" Rose agreed with a broad grin.

Not far away, Martha and Jenny shoved the last Dalek away, smiling. Wasn't everyday you got to push a Dalek into a wall, after all.

"Ready?" said Donna to the Doctor at the controls. "And reverse!"

"Off you go, Klom," said the Doctor, pulling back a lever. "Back home, Adipose III!"

Rose glanced at Midna. She was pale and in pain but clearly trying not to show it, her face a mask of joy and relief.

"You all right?" she asked her quietly.

Midna shot her an odd, unreadable look. "Why shouldn't I be?" she challenged her question with another.

Rose shook her head. "I dunno…you're jus'…quiet."

"I'm usually quiet," Midna smiled a smile of no mirth. "Today's just an interesting day."

"Define 'interesting'." Rose muttered, looking around them at the organized chaos.

Midna smirked but said nothing.

"What are you gonna do now?" she asked curiously. "Where are you from? Do you have a family?"

Midna's eyes shone strangely brighter. "No," she replied calmly. "No family. No home. Not anymore."

Rose caught her bottom lip between her teeth.

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks."

"What happened?"

Midna shrugged, deliberately nonchalant. "You already know. Destroyed the universes and all that. Not exactly like my family could survive that. Sort of."

"What d'you mean? How did you destroy the universes if we're still here?"

"After I destroyed them, I rebuilt them. I had to, because the Void still existed and it was an unnatural paradox to have it exist but no universes with it. But first I had to get rid of myself, because I tipped the balance."

Rose wouldn't even pretend to understand any of that.

"But then…your family…they could still be alive, couldn't they? Just in a different universe?"

Midna looked at her with that unreadable look again. "That's what I'm worried about."

Rose found herself wishing she was the one with all that empathic ability. It would help to understand the enigma in the shape of the girl in front of her.

Midna tugged her hand gently and Rose allowed herself to be led over to the Doctor and Donna. She was dimly aware of the others following them.

"Is anyone gonna tell us what's goin' on?" Rose asked when they got there.

"Right," said Donna as the Doctor continued his work with the cylinder. "I died, but the TARDIS didn't like that, see, 'cause I'm the best replacement after you left. With a bit of jiggery-pokery to my biological makeup, I was able to handle regenerating with two hearts, stabilized by the imprints of every past companion to ever own a TARDIS key."

"What?"

"Part-human, part-Time Lord, part-TARDIS. And I've got the best part of the Doctor. I've got his mind."

Rose's mind sorted the most important bits and threw the gibberish she couldn't understand in a dusty corner for later.

"So there's two of you? Two Doctors?"

"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now," Jack muttered candidly. Rose poked him gently in the ribs for that.

"I still don't get it, though. Why part-TARDIS? How does that work?"

"Long story," the Doctor elaborated. "I'll tell you later. Do you know if there are any other prisoners on board?"

"I dunno," Rose replied honestly. "Except for…well, they had to test the Reality Bomb…but other than them…"

"Right. Jack, do a scan."

"On it," Jack replied, looking to his wrist device. He set his gun on the console and pressed a few buttons, frowning at a holographic screen with a bunch of colored dots scattered across it. "Um…Doctor?"

"What is it?"

Jack showed him the screen. The Doctor's face paled. Slowly, he turned around to face Rose and Midna.

"Midna," he said hoarsely, then cleared his throat and tried again. "Midna, what species are you, exactly?"

Rose looked down at her. She bit her lip thoughtfully in a way that irresistably reminded Rose of herself.

"I'm…" she hesitated, glancing at Rose. Then, as if drawing strength from that glance, she stood up straighter, look the Doctor in the eye and taking a deep breath. "I'm a Time Lady."

"That's not possible," the Doctor denied, shaking his head. Rose felt more than a little put-off. Midna had lied to her!

"There's a lot of things going on right now that aren't possible, Doctor."

"But…but that's just…not possible!"

And suddenly, everything clicked. Midna's weird looks, her mysterious past that she wouldn't tell anyone about, the lies, her eyes…

Rose gently nudged Midna into facing her.

"Midna," she said gently, "your family…who are they? Anyone we know?"

Midna smiled sadly at her. Rose could tell from the look in her eyes that she wasn't far off the mark.

"Not yet," Midna assured her. "Not my parents, at least; you won't meet them until…well, later. Much later."

"What is she talking about?" The Doctor interjected.

Rose ignored him, eyes narrowed, trying to piece together every bit of cryptic information Midna had ever given her. She looked into her eyes again and saw something swimming just underneath surface, a barely leashed power that was, no matter what Midna said, undiminished by time — was, in fact, powered by it.

The Wolf in her began to howl.

"How did you take the singing from me?" Rose asked tightly.

"I didn't." Midna smiled. "You gave it to me."

"But how?"

"You didn't need it anymore. I didn't either, but that doesn't matter. I was just the most receptive to it."

"But why?"

"I am—"

Whatever Midna was, it was going to have to wait, because Davros was rather impatient. He turned around, Mickey following him with the big-ass gun, to face Dalek Caan, who, Rose had admit, she had forgotten about.

"But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?"

Midna rolled her eyes, looking a bit miffed at being interrupted, but didn't make any effort to resume whatever it was she was going to say.

Dalek Caan giggled insanely. Midna shot it a disconcerted look. Rose wondered what Midna was feeling.

"Oh, I think he did," said the Doctor. "Someone's been manipulating the timelines for ages. Getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."

"This would always have happened," said Dalek Caan, sounding less mad than he had in a while. "I merely helped, Doctor."

"You…betrayed the Daleks?" Davros hissed.

"I saw the Daleks," Caan corrected. "What we have done, throughout time and space. I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed no more."

"I will descend into the vault!" Bellowed the Supreme Dalek. Jack shut off the device on his wrist and grabbed his gun immediately.

"Heads up!"

"Davros, you have betrayed us!"

"It was Dalek Caan," Davros protested feebly.

"The vault will be purged! You will all be exterminated!" The Supreme Dalek, who had lowered himself from the ceiling, fired a ray at the control console. Sparks flew. The Doctor fell back from it, shielding himself, having been the closest.

Jack belatedly aimed his gun at the Dalek and fired amid its protests. The red casing burst into the flame, the top half utterly decimated.

The Doctor pulled himself to his feet, brushing away the smoke with his hands.

"We've lost the magnatron! And there's only one planet left! Oh…" he laughed a laugh of rueful irony that said he should have expected it; "Guess which one. But we can use the TARDIS! Donna!"

"On it!" Donna called, already on her way to the blue box. The Doctor grimaced and fiddled with the cylinder in his hand.

"What's that?" Rose asked him.

"A key," he replied. "It can override deadlock seals. Or, in this case, make one and override one!"

"What?"

"I'm going to need your help with this one, Rose. I need to put a time lock on the Dalek ships and seal them inside the Cascade without locking us in, too."

"How am I s'posed to help with that?"

He just looked at her, and somehow she understood. She turned to Midna. "Midna, I'm sorry, but I need to let you go, all right? Go inside the TARDIS, you should be safe there."

Midna looked panicked just from the thought of it, but she nodded anyway. Rose frowned to herself. That was too easy. Why had she agreed so quickly?

The Doctor flicked a few switches overhead. "Maintaining atmospheric shell!" he shouted, loud enough so that Donna could hear him from inside the TARDIS.

"The prophecy must complete," said Dalek Caan.

"Don't listen to him!" Davros ordered, though what good he thought it would do, Rose didn't know.

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor!"

"He's right," the Doctor murmured, pausing. His hand hovered over the slot he'd opened earlier, seconds from dropping the open cylinder inside. "'Cause with or without the Reality Bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped. We can lock them up here, but they could escape."

"Could they, though, Doctor?" Rose asked, gingerly releasing Midna's hand and stepping closer to the Doctor. Midna stiffened, but didn't leave or panic or collapse like Rose half expected her to. "Aren't I strong enough to keep that from happenin'?"

"Rose, you know what the Daleks are like. They always manage to survive. Always." His free hand lingered over the controls Rose suspected would somehow destroy the entire fleet. His eyes were haunted and hard, determined and pained. He didn't know what to do. He was battling with himself ferociously, she knew, and it was tearing him apart. "This is my chance to get rid of them completely."

"But you won't," said Rose confidently, stepping even closer, until her body flush against his side. "You won't do that. You can't."

"I've changed since you last saw me, Rose," the Doctor snapped, avoiding her gaze.

She refused to take the bait.

"But you're still the Doctor," she said firmly, clasping his hand loosely in both of hers.

"And what is that, Rose? Who is the Doctor?"

He met her eyes with his, and they burned together.

"There is another fate set in store for the Doctor. Caan has said that at the end of it all his soul will be bared to the world, and all will know his true face, his true name. Quite possibly, it is a fate far worse than death that Dalek Caan has seen for your precious Doctor."

"…but this is the truth, Wolf. The Doctor takes ordinary people and he fashions them into weapons, as he has undoubtedly done with you. What has he done to you, valiant child?"

"Behold, the children of time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks. He made this. What of you, Wolf?"

"The Doctor is at fault for simply existing. How many more? Just think…how many more have died in his name? The Doctor…the man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not out of shame. When I see him, this will be my final victory. I have shown you, his dearest companion – his 'tamer' – of his true self. You protect him from all you can. Dare you protect him from himself?"

"Yes."

Yes. Oh, yes. Hell yes. She would not let him do this. Not again. No.

She was standing so close to him. So close…she leaned closer, her breath tickling his ear, their bodies as one. She told him once, she could do it again.

She had to tell him, had to answer him, had to let him know who the Doctor really was.

"The Doctor…is the man I love."

He froze as she pulled away slowly, looking into his face, his eyes.

Without ever looking away from her, he ordered the others quietly, "Get inside the TARDIS. Everyone. Now."

Rose heard them scramble to do as he said, but somehow knew that Midna was lingering behind. It was as if she could feel her presence.

"Midna," she said gently, refusing to break her stare with the Doctor, "go. We'll follow. I promise."

"All right…" Midna paused, coming closer to put a hand on her shoulder briefly. Her body relaxed by a fraction, and then she let go. "Gran."

Rose's head snapped around to face her in disbelief. Had she just…?

Midna grinned cheekily and winked, then spun on her heel and darted into the TARDIS after the others. She poked her head back out a second later.

"By the way, I can't hold him back for long," she nodded at Davros, who, Rose suddenly noticed, was frozen in one place with an expression of horror etched into his wrinkles. Midna disappeared again.

Rose turned back around to face the Doctor, feeling rather heady at the look he gave her.

He dropped the key into its slot.

As soon as both hands were free, he wrapped his arms tightly around her, trembling, and she held him, comforting, willingly giving him everything she had so he would have the strength to do the same.

When their lips met at last, she howled.