Red. The colour of blood, of war, of death. A scarlet spot appeared on Jim's chest, slowly growing in size, before dripping down his greying shirt as he fell to the floor, a look of agonizing pain on his face. Rose ran towards him, her eyes flowing with tears, as she skidded to a halt and held his head in her arms.
"Rose," Jim was speaking very quietly, struggling to speak as he gasped for breath, "I love you, and I want you to know that the Doctor does too."
"Don't start getting all like that, you aren't dying. You're going to be fine," Rose knew deep in her heart this wasn't true. The bullet had pierced his vital organs. And he wouldn't regenerate , all because he was human. But he had said the Doctor loved her too. He's still fighting for it. He still wants to be a Timelord, but he can't.
"I am, Rose, I can feel it. The coldness, the eternal darkness, the end of it all, it's creeping up and I know I won't survive. Skidmore got what he wanted. Stupid git,"
"Don't worry, I'll get him for you,"
"Rose, do one thing for me. Find the Ruby. I heard Skidmore talking about it, and it might bring the Doctor back. You need him more than silly old Jim."
Jim smiled at his fiancée, before falling limp in Rose's arms, his chest falling still and blood spilling onto her lap. Rose could do nothing but scream. Scream for the boy who had just died, for the Universe, which was doomed, for her lost love. She rocked his dead body, letting the tears flow onto his cheeks, over the glassed over green eyes.
The Timelord is dead. The Ruby will be summoned to him, and the original children of Gallifrey will take the immortality and the whole of creation. Long live Sullbrinaari!
"So, Miss Rose Tyler, wasn't it?" Skidmore appeared from a darkened alley running off from the street. "The Doctor is dead, and do you know what that means?"
"How do you know that he's the Doctor?" Rose was scared. She was all alone in the world, her beautiful Doctor was dead, and her parents hadn't even been born yet.
"Don't you know, Bad Wolf? His people were conquerors, not the original peoples of Gallifrey. The Timelords originated on Earth, and the Sullbrinaari, the true Gallifreyians want revenge. And the Doctor's led us right to it. Immortality."
" No, the Timelords were honourable! They were the guardians of the Time Vortex! And what do you mean, immortality?"
"Don't you remember what he told you in the TARDIS? The Ruby of Agrapur?"
It's said, that back in the very beginnings of time, when Earth was the first settled planet of the Time Lords, before we discovered Gallifrey, that the first Time Lord placed a ruby, The Ruby of Agrapur, in the centre of the Time Lord citadel, and that whoever finds it will be forever immortal, and would have endless regenerations. But Rose, if I do it, you must promise me one thing. Only get the ruby if I am mortally wounded. Don't find it if I fall over. Only if I die. Promise me that.
It's all true, Rose thought, He's lied to me. But the Doctor's been killed. Where's the Ruby?
A burning sensation spread across Rose's ring finger. She glanced down at it. It had changed. The large red jewel was swirling. The Time Vortex! This must be it! The gold around it was changing as well. Timelord scripting was forming around the edges and a miniature TARDIS was engraved at the top, it's light seeming to flash in the sunlight.
"Well, you big alien thing, I don't know what you're thinking, but if I was you, I would be scared, because the Doctor's back in town!" And with that, Rose dropped the ring onto the floor, the ruby smashing into a million pieces and the time energy within spilling out. It flowed over the cobbles of the rough London streets, before sneaking over the body and pouring into its mouth. The body shuddered, its damage being undone, and the bullet flying back out onto the pavement.
Lub-dub-lub-dub. The rhythm of four. The heartbeat of a Timelord.
And with that single smashed ring, the Lord of Time arose from the dead, and the Doctor was once more.