Summary: The world is ending. But whose world exactly?

Author's Notes: Thank you so much for the reviews and reading. I noticed that in my previous chapters, the formatting had run off slightly, I'm not quite familiar with FF these days to understand why some of the my breaks had disappeared! But thank you for being patient and putting up with paragraphs running on!

Chapter 13: The End of the World

Rose put her hands up in the air, her mind ticking away, forming a plan that hopefully should work this time, despite all the odds she was stacked up against. Like how hard could it be? All she needed to do was to stop the transdimensional portal from leaking away more of the Lethe into the humans, depend on Harry to finish the machine, and stop a world invasion. Easy peasy.

The leader of the Lethe was next to her, sniffing her, his fingers running down her face. Rose was repulsed but maintained a certain coolness about her. Never let them know how much they bother you.

"You're immunized," he whispered into her ear. "You're not becoming one of us." The Lethe pushed Rose down to the floor. Rose fell hard, but kept her eyes trained on her gun. When the moment was right, she'd jump for it and —

Gunshots rang over her head. The Lethe-zombies were not soldiers, and they were unused to the sounds of battle. The moment they heard the sounds of gunfire, they panicked. Soon there was chaos in the Turbine Room as the Lethe threw themselves at each other in their scramble to get out of the Turbine Room.

"My people!" the leader of the Lethe screamed. "Calm yourselves!" he commanded to no avail.

Rose could see a team of uniformed men and women running into the Turbine Room to immobilize the Lethe. Rose grinned, feeling her spirits lifted for the first time since the whole episode. Pete Tyler had swallowed his pride and called the Brigadier from UNIT. With the leader of the Lethe distracted, Rose dived for her gun on the floor and in one graceful motion, stood up and took aim at the transdimensional portal.

The Lethe leader, amidst the chaos, saw Rose and realized her intentions. With a roar he charged at Rose. Rose had a split second to decide either to defend herself or destroy the portal. The choice was obvious; she never took her eyes off the portal. Rose aimed and shot, short-circuiting the machine and shutting it down. She braced herself for the Lethe to take her life away.

"Oh, no, you don't!" shouted a familiar voice. Rose grinned, recognizing the voice. There was a flurry of black as a figure ran at them, aiming a roundhouse kick to the Lethe's head. The Lethe collapsed to the ground with a sickening crack.

Rose turned around and greeted her saviour. "Doctor Martha Jones! So good of you to come by! I didn't know you're with UNIT"

"Rose Tyler of Torchwood. So good of you to call on UNIT's help," she said, offering her hand. Martha slipped her gun into her holster. "Although next time, it would be much appreciated if Torchwood's Director gave UNIT a little more notice of alien invasions."

Rose grinned, feeling so much better amidst all the chaos and cacophony in the Turbine room. UNIT's soldiers were taking control, battling the Lethe zombies, immobilizing them. There was a way out of this mess just yet.

"Rose!" Rose's earpiece burst into life.

"Mickey!" Rose exclaimed. She grinned at Martha whose team was systematically taking out the Lethe one by one. "UNIT's here. Thank Dad for me. They couldn't have come at a better time."

"Torchwood Control is back under our control," Mickey confirmed exuberantly. But his tone immediately took a dip. "But it's not all good news, babe."

The smile on Rose's face faded almost instantly. "What's wrong?"

"It's Jake and Harry. They're not responding to calls from Torchwood Control."

Rose swallowed, her heartbeat started to race. Harry was their only hope. She had put Harry in mortal danger. How foolish and selfish was she. "I'll check on them immediately," Rose said..

"You know, in half an hour we're all a bit screwed up here," Martha said as she immobilized one of the Lethe. "If what Pete Tyler said is true, we need to get the Lethe out of people or we'll have two-thirds of the planet under the influence of the Lethe permanently."

"Two-thirds already?" Rose breathed out.

Martha nodded. "According to UNIT's calculations."

"Our only hope in saving the planet is not responding to Torchwood's calls," Rose commiserated bitterly.

Martha's expression was unreadable. She reached inside her jacket and handed to Rose what looked to her like a sonic screwdriver. Rose could feel her breath catch in her chest.

"Martha…"

"If there's some way this could help you, use it," Martha said fiercely. "Although, I'm fully expecting you to return this," Martha finished with a grin.

"You can count on it," Rose answered just as fiercely before running out of the Tate to Harry and Jake.

***

Harry spun around, clutching the fob watch tightly in his hand. He watched as Jake stood in front of a group of men, each men lacking the whites in their eyes, only a sea of black.

Harry trembled and struggled to keep his composure. "Jake," he managed to say.

"How much have you done, Harry?"

"Enough," Harry lied. He needed more time. Just a little more time.

Jake tilted his head, in an unnatural position. "How much is enough, Harry? Enough to destroy us?" Jake pulled out his gun, ready to shoot the machine that was designated to save mankind.

"Whoa, whoa there!" Harry interrupted. God, he was frightened out of his wits but he really ought to blag his way out of this. "Do you want to kill all of us?"

Lethe-Jake and the other Lethe-humans looked at him dangerously. "Do you even know how much electricity, how much wattage that machine is generating? Shoot it and you're going to kill us all."

Lethe-Jake looked at him skeptically. "Hey, if you don't believe me you can check it out yourself," Harry challenged.

Harry could feel the adrenaline surging through him, the tension unbearable as he waited to see if the Lethe would fall for his ploy. Lethe-Jake hesitated. Not good. He needed to convince Lethe-Jake that he was being honest.

"I'm sure if you were to go through Jake's memories, you would know I'm speaking the truth," Harry said carefully.

Lethe-Jake paused as he rummaged through its host's mind. The Lethe-Jake's momentary lapse pushed Harry to act. He ran to the machine and dived behind it amidst the rain of bullets from the other Lethes.

This was insanity. With death imminent, the only thing he could think of was the watch… the watch and Rose. Harry crouched behind the machine, shivering. The fob watch felt hot in his hands. The drums in his head were pounding. The whispers grew louder with words and languages he had never heard of but understood. Intermingled with the fear was fury. He was angry, no, he was furious and he wanted to kill, to maim, to destroy.

"Open it," the watch sang. "Time, the universe, all in your hands. Open the watch, Time Lord."

Harry instinctively understood. This was what he needed to do and this was the right thing to do.

He thought of Rose, as he flipped the watch open.

There was a flash of gold and tendrils of light, and the man once known as Harry Saxon ceased to exist.

***
Rose drove haphazardly, as fast as she could avoiding the Lethe-ridden humans throwing themselves in front of her car as she drove. She was functioning on instinct, she did not want any doubt to creep in her mind; she was running on adrenaline, her thoughts were on the two men and the mission. She had to focus to getting to Harry and Jake as fast as she could and not imagine any possible scenarios of either men being maimed, hurt or — No, she was not going there.

Was this the end of mankind as she knew it? No, she thought sharply. She had faith in Harry and Jake. She believed that the two of them would be able to save them all. There was something in Harry, something that she saw today that reminded her of the Doctor. He would be able to. He had too.

Rose raced down London, pedal to the metal. It was adrenaline that was fueling Rose, her senses were extra sharp as she swerved over bodies on the road and the zombies on the street.

Come on, Harry, she chanted in her head like a mantra.

Rose was close to the abandoned warehouse that Torchwood had set up their lab in when a miracle happened. The Lethe-humans that were chasing her stopped in their tracks. And with an unearthly wail that echoed across London, they fell to the ground. All around her, all over the streets of London, black gaseous substance pouring out of the nostrils and mouths of each infected human being, out into the air. Like massive clouds being pushed by the wind, the black gaseous substance was being sucked in towards the warehouse.

"Yes!" Rose screamed in delight. Harry did it! They did it! She pushed the car harder and faster than she had ever driven, tearing down the streets of London and pulled up by the street where the warehouse was situated.

The car tyres screeched as she hit the brakes. Rose pulled up the hand brake and jumped out of the car, the sonic screwdriver in her hand, gun in her holster, ready for anything. Despite the euphoria, at the back of her mind, she was cautious. Years in Torchwood had taught her to be careful, nothing is at it seems and things could go wrong within a second.

But Rose was feeling a little more confident than usual, with the weight of the sonic screwdriver in hand. She missed holding this, the sonic screwdriver in her hand, she missed the feel of the cool alien metal and most of all, she missed what it could do. She had been with the Doctor long enough to know some of its settings and was pleased to find that this universe's sonic screwdriver was not very different from the one back in her universe.

Rose entered the warehouse and went through a myriad of mazes before finding her way into the lab. The air was warm and humid from the heat generated by the machine pulling out the Lethe inhabiting the humans of the planet. The last thing Rose wanted to do was to accidentally switch the machine off.

"Harry? Jake?" Rose called out gingerly. Rose put the sonic screwdriver in her pocket and pulled out her gun. The scanners said there was no one, but Rose would rather be safe than sorry.

"Harry! Jake!" Rose called out again, louder this time and less forceful. As Rose walked towards the machine, she saw the men sprawled on the ground. They were no longer breathing. One of them, Rose recognized with horror, was Jake.

"Jake!" Rose rushed over, kneeling beside him. His face was bloodied and his breathing was shallow. Rose looked at his body; there was a gunshot wound on his chest. There was blood everywhere.

"Rose to Control!" Rose's voice quivered as she spoke.

"Control here."

"We need an ambulance here at the Torchwood labs. Agent Jake Simmonds is down, I repeat, Agent Jake Simmonds is down."

Rose grasped his hand. "Hold on, Jake. Torchwood is coming for you." Jake coughed and he opened his eyes, being aware for the first time of Rose's presence. He tried to speak but his voice was hoarse and weak.

"Don't say anything, Jake. We can talk when you're better," Rose said.

"Harry…" was the last word Jake said before falling back into unconsciousness. Rose's held onto his hand just a little tighter, squeezing it as she waited whilst her eyes remained ever-watchful for Harry Saxon.

***

Only a few moments ago, the warehouse was quiet with only Rose holding Jake's hand as he struggled to hold onto his life. The warehouse now was abuzz with life and movement as Torchwood's medical personnel rushed to save Jake's life. The other teams, including Torchwood's scientists were already there examining the machine Harry worked on, trying to figure out what he did to save the world.

The sweeper team had come around, clearing bodies and people who were recently de-possessed by the Lethe, while furiously attempting to revive anyone who was found alive. Rose had joined them in their search, her eyes trained for Harry Saxon, who seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Eventually, they stopped looking for Harry and concentrated on the survivors at the scene.

Rose stood at a distance, watching Torchwood's professional team do their work impassively. Her mind was so far away that she didn't realize who it was when Mickey hugged her from behind. Rose jumped, startled from the sudden embrace. But the shock was momentary; she recognized the embrace as Mickey's and turned to hug him tight. She looked up and saw a scruffy and worn out Pete Tyler next to them. Mickey let her go and she embraced her father who held her just as tightly, dropping a kiss on her hair.

"Good job, Rose," Pete said, his voice was tight from emotion.

"Thanks for calling UNIT, Dad," she replied.

She let her dad go and held onto Mickey once more, leaning her head on his shoulder. Mickey put an arm around her waist and did not say a word. They were too close to the end of the world, too close to losing everything. The body count was high today, so much higher than what Rose was used to.

"Have you seen Harry Saxon?" Pete Tyler finally asked, voicing the question no one dared to ask.

Rose shook her head. "I…I couldn't find him. I don't know where he is."

It was another sobering moment for the Torchwood team. The man who saved the planet was nowhere to be found, another casualty to their war in defending the earth.