Author Note: Happy New Year! I bet you're going to have a really great year!

Beta read by ElvishPenguin12

The spiky grass prickled their faces. Above them, birds of various size and colors glided through the bright, blue sky. Animals hooted and squawked amongst the thick, towering trees. They could smell the scent of moist dirt and the strong fragrance of flowers. Although it seemed like they were on Earth, a jungle in South America, the colors appeared more vibrant. The green looked too green, the pink looked too pink, and the red looked too red. If observing the planet more closely, it would be found to be more of an eyesore than a beauty.

Something sharp prodded the Doctor's side.

He groaned and opened his eyes. "Rose?" His head was throbbing. He was lying on his back in a grassy clearing looking up at the sky above. He held up his arms in front of him. They were covered by the sleeves of his brown pinstriped suit.

He sighed in relief as he heard a similar groan next to him. "Doctor? Did we make it? Are we back?" Rose wore a pink hoodie with faded jeans and trainers. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was splayed out on the grass and looked like a golden crown around her head. She looked the same as she was before they jumped in the wormhole.

Same beautiful Rose, the Doctor thought.

Before he had the chance to look around, he felt it. In his chest thumped the rhythm of two heartbeats. The cadence sent his spirits soaring.

"Oh yes!" He cried.

Another prod pricked his side. He stood up and turned around to face a stern-looking Desi with a sharp wooden spear pointed at him. He wore a ragged loincloth around his waist. The cloth used resembled the skin of a leopard, if a leopard had bright red fur. His dirt-powdered face was decorated with tattoos and piercings. A long antenna stuck out of his black, grimy hair.

"Ah, that's right…" He went over to Rose who was sitting up and rubbing her head. He took her arm and helped her up on her feet. "Rose, get up. We have company." He turned to the native. "Hello, Kevin."

Pointy-haired man and yellow woman, the man spoke through the Doctor's mind. You are under arrest for trespassing on sacred ground. You will be taken to our dungeons to await execution.

"Nice to hear a voice from the famous Desi we all know and love. Well, at least I can," the Doctor said as he gave a quick glance at Rose. However, the "yellow woman" and I both need to get somewhere. Places to go, things to see. I don't think we'll be able to book execution on our schedule. Maybe next time.

You WILL come with me. Kevin furrowed his greasy brow and continued to prod his spear in the air in front of them.

"I think it's time to go." The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand. They both turned their backs on Kevin and willed their wobbly legs to run.

They were at the edge of the clearing, where the grass field met the forest of tropical trees. Rose could see the familiar blue outline of their bigger-on-the-inside box. The ship stood waiting for them in the grass, meters within their reach.

A screeching wave made the Doctor momentarily halt as the sound pierced his mind. It did nothing to soothe the throbbing that squeezed his skull.

"Doctor, what's wrong? Are you alright?" Rose still had one hand in his and used the other to grip his arm and support him.

He nodded. "Kevin alerted the rest of his tribe. It was one hell of a loud telepathic signal." He rubbed his temples.

Behind them they heard trees rustling. The fluttering and caws of birds echoed in the air as they flew away from where they were perched. They scattered in the sky, feathers fell in their frenzy.

"That's not a good sign…" Rose said as she turned around and watched the birds fly away.

"No, it's not." The Doctor scrutinized the forest.

The first thing they saw was spears. Dozens of them. Then came the dark, disheveled hair, tan bodies, antennas, and savage appearances. There were about thirty Desi. Their bare, filthy feet crushed the leaves on the ground. Kevin walked over to his tribe, speaking to them through telepathy.

Bugger. The Doctor held Rose's hand tighter and urged his feet to move forward. "I think it's time to go." They started picking up their pace. "Let's go, Rose Tyler. Allons-y."

They ran across the field, towards the blue box. The hoard of natives chased after them. Sweat beaded across the Doctor's brow. He was thankful for his respiratory bypass or else he would have been as out of breath as Rose.

"Almost there, almost there, almost there," The Doctor repeated with encouragement in his tone.

Something slashed the air beside his ear. A spear pierced the ground in front of them, followed by several more.

"Bloody hell, they must love their gods to despise us this much," Rose panted. They ran faster.

They reached the ship. The Doctor took his key from his pocket, unlocked the door, and flung it open. He pushed Rose inside and shut the door behind them. He didn't take a moment to bask in his ship's green glow or its amicable hum that greeted them. Although he missed her, his mind was more focused on leaving the devil planet and never looking back. He dashed to the console and flipped a few levers. The room swayed as the TARDIS entered the vortex.

Once he was sure they were gone from the planet, he relaxed his tense shoulders. He looked over to see Rose sitting on the console room seats, trying to catch her breath. He took a few sluggish steps forward before slumping on the seat next to Rose.

"Welcome home," he grinned at her. She flashed him a similar smile.

"Welcome home."

After taking a few moments to just sit down and listen to the convivial humming of the TARDIS, the Doctor jumped up on his feet and headed towards the console. He pressed a random array of buttons and pulled some levers.

"So what's our next destination? Past? Future? Somewhere in between?" He turned to her expectantly.

She gave him an incredulous look. "Seriously? After all that, you're still up for a trip?"

"Rooose, c'mon. I need to break her in. She hasn't moved in…" he checked the monitor and raised his eyebrows, "a few hours. We've only been gone for a few hours."

"That's…good, right?" Rose stood up from her seat and went over to stand next to him. She leaned her hip on the console. "That way we'll have more time to stop," she swallowed, "Doomsday."

"Doomsday," the Doctor murmured, his fist clenched and his lips folded into a thin line. His hand was unmoving on a lever and he stood silent, looking at her. She could only wonder what he was thinking about. She loved this man, she truly did. But, there were times when he still remained a mystery for her. She'd only spent two years with him while the nine hundred years were like a puzzle she tried to piece together.

Without warning, the Doctor's eyes widened and turned away from hers. The color drained from his face and Rose didn't have to be close to him to know that his two hearts were beating erratically in his chest. "No that-it can't," he whispered. "It can't be."

"Doctor?" She looked at him through a worried expression. She gained a headache trying to read his inner thoughts.

The Doctor closed his eyes. It helped him concentrate on the task at hand, or rather, it helped him see well. Because his quick glance at the timelines couldn't possibly be right. It just couldn't. He used his innate abilities and looked through the events woven into the universe. Held together by the fabrics of reality they entwined together like a, well, like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. He saw the timelines in flux as they bended and curved like an ocean's wave. The fixed points were in between. They always stayed straight, unmoving, and never changing. They were the timelines that were forbidden for any Time Lord to disrupt, therefore left untouched.

That was where Doomsday lay. A stiff line that could neither be altered nor erased. One touch would leave reality to unravel and the universe in shreds. The sight seemed to glare at the Doctor, challenging him to defy it, challenging him to expunge it altogether. It only did the opposite.

It broke him.

All his hopes and dreams for the future dissipated right before the sight of the timeline. The universe, both universes, had taunted him. They made him believe that he had a chance to set things right when really he had no chance at all. This was destined to happen. It was always meant to happen. He guessed…he and Rose were never meant to be.

"Doctor?" Rose called out to him, bringing him out of his thoughts. He opened his eyes and faced her. The human girl that stole his hearts, but he could never be able to keep.

He forced his mouth to curve into a weak smile. "Rose Tyler."

"What's wrong?" Her eyes analyzed his facial expression and could find only one emotion written on his face. Sorrow.

His dark, chocolate brown eyes stared at her as if memorizing every single detail of her face. Rose was taken aback as she saw his eyes begin to water. She had never seen the Doctor cry, no matter the situation.

All at once, she felt the Doctor's hands gripping her arms and his eyes were panicked and desperate. "Rose, promise me." He swallowed hard before continuing. "And I mean, promise me…whatever happens, don't forget that I love you. Because I do, no matter how stupid I was before not to admit it, I love you. Please, please remember that. When you're on that beach and looking at the both of us…always know that I will always love you."

She looked at the Doctor in alarm, her brow furrowed together and her mouth gaped at his frantic words. "Doctor," she said more urgently. Her hands came up to stroke his cheeks. "Tell me what's wrong. Why are you acting like this?"

He slowly withdrew his hands from her arms and took a step back. He tore his eyes away from hers and stared at the metal grating of the floor.

"Remember what I told you," to Rose, his voice sounded hoarse and broken, "about fixed points in time?"

Rose remembered. It was when they went back to see her father, and where she so brilliantly caused Reapers to appear because she tried to save him. They came back to the TARDIS with her eyes red from tears and her mind distraught from the events of that day. However, she had one question that had been bothering her since she watched her father die in her arms. Why was her father's death so important? The Doctor answered her by saying it was the death of an ordinary man…one of the largest fixed points in time.

A fixed point was an event in time that could not be altered or else, placed in the Doctor's words…would cause a nasty, bad thing to happen. In this case, the Reapers were the nasty, bad thing. Changing the timeline so her father would live created a colossal effect in the space time continuum. One man would be walking around the streets of London when he should not have been in the first place. One man would be first in line paying for his groceries when it really should have been the guy behind him. People would have never met, babies would have never been born, and the entire universe would be in shambles as a result of the strings unraveling around it. That was why there were Reapers. They were antibodies of the universe trying to prevent a disease from infecting and becoming fatal.

She nodded. She remembered all too well her lesson with fixed points in time.

"I looked through the timelines, it's a little trick Time Lords have built into the software of our minds. And I saw Doomsday. And Doomsday…well Doomsday…" He breathed out a tired sigh. His eyes that were usually full of life were watery and resigned. It was almost as if he'd given up. Yet, that couldn't be, Rose thought. The Doctor never gave up, whatever the cause. That's when realization struck her like a tidal wave.

"No, it can't be," Rose choked, repeating the Doctor's previous words. "It's a fixed point, isn't it? Doomsday is a fixed point."

The Doctor's head hung low and his hands tucked into his pockets. Silence answered her question.

"We-we can do something, yeah? There has to be something." She desperately searched the Doctor's expression for an answer, but his face was pointed to the ground. Instead, she looked at the Doctor's wild, thick brown hair. His tall figure slumped down in defeat. "There just has to be," she whispered.

A period of silence hung in the air. Rose shivered at the distance that was spaced between them. She longed to rush into his arms and tell him that everything was going to be alright. However, even she needed time to soak in the fact. They both needed time to understand the horrible truth that stung like a physical blow. The Doctor was the first to break the silence.

"I have to erase our memories."

She looked up at him, her eyes were wide. "What?"

"We have to make this timeline continue and we can't to do that with foreknowledge of the future."

Tears swelled in her eyes. She shook her head. "No, there has to be some way to stop this. Please, Doctor, we can't give up now." She stepped closer to him. "We can't."

The Doctor wiped a hand over his face and breathed out. He stepped towards Rose. "You know, I really thought we had a chance to make it all better. I thought we could spend more years together, travelling. I would have shown you so much more. There are millions of galaxies out there, but we only have a few months left now." He took another step. "Hopefully, that Metacrisis of mine can take you there. And hopefully," he took another step towards Rose so now that there was only a foot of space between them, "you'll be happy. Because that's all I ever wanted for you…to be happy." A tear streamed down his face. His ageless appearance seemed older; there were more creases in the corners of his eyes.

"I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you." She sniffed. Tears ran down her face. "I don't want you to be alone. Please, you-we don't have to do this."

"You know that we do." With another step, he closed the space between them. They could feel each other's breaths on their faces. "I'm sorry, Rose, I'm so so sorry."

"Please, Doctor. Please," she begged, she held both of his hands. "I don't want to leave you. I don't want you to be alone."

Another tear from the Doctor's eye fell onto the metal grating. He kissed her forehead. "I won't be, remember? I've got other companions later on. Martha, Donna, Clara."

Except they won't be you, he thought.

He let go of her hands and gradually lifted his. They couldn't waste any more time. Rose saw what he was doing and took a step back.

"Please," she sobbed. "I don't want to go. Don't take me back. I don't want to go back to what we were before. Please."

Rose's pleas ripped at his hearts. It reminded him of the scene he had watched with Donna. She had begged him not to make her forget. She didn't want to go back to her old life. She didn't want to forget their amazing adventures. But Rose was different, wasn't she? She would continue travelling with him until Doomsday. She would still have adventures with Torchwood in the other universe and probably with the Metacrisis….just not with him.

"I love you, just remember that, eh? I love you." He stepped towards her. His fingers wavered on her temples.

"I-I love you too." Her voice cracked. "I just…wish we had more time."

"I know," he said softly, "I know."

His hands were millimeters away from her head. He hesitated while Rose held her breath. There is no way to stop this, he prompted himself. You can't do anything.

And, just before his fingers touched the skin of her temples, they felt another consciousness push into theirs. Rose gasped and the Doctor, without delay, put up shields in his mind. Then, images started playing out in their mind. They rolled together like a film.

Rose and the Doctor gaped at each other. They felt the harsh, cold air of winter. They could see a blur of colorful lights hung about the housing complex. They could feel his emotions and thoughts run through them like they were experiencing it all themselves. He was in pain and he was alone. So very alone.

The scene playing out revealed the Doctor's future.