A/N: This is so cheesy that if you could build a cheese house in Cheeseland on planet Cheese and paint the walls, floors and ceilings with cheese before kicking back in your cheesy chair and eating a cheese sandwich smeared in cheese sauce you wouldn't even come close to using the amount of cheese in this chapter.

It's also 4000 words long. Argh!

Chapter 20 – Parting of the Ways

"Something's not right."

The words came out of Rose's mouth, but she hadn't put them there. Or had she? Her mind was a whirl – thoughts were coming and going and she couldn't seem to hold onto any of them to make any sense of what she was thinking. She was just staring at the man lying on the floor unmoving, apparently hurt, but she had no idea what to do about it.

"Let him die, Rose," the voice said from behind her. "It's for the best."

"But…" Rose began, blinking a few times and gazing at the man on the floor. His thick brown hair was a mess, he was bruised and cut and blooded, and his eyes were closed. He was utterly helpless. That… That didn't seem right. "But he's… He's my friend."

Yes, that made sense. He was her friend. He was her… her best friend. And he was just lying there…

Dying.

"No!" she suddenly gasped, horror hitting her like a hammer to the face as she made forward to him. "Doctor!"

"Rose," the voice said again, a hand grabbing her arm. She looked back into the hologram's eyes, and immediately found her head lightening again…

"No!" she yelled again, closing her eyes and trying desperately to pull away from him, but his grip was like a vice. "Get off of me!"

"No," the hologram rasped.

She had to get out of this. She opened her eyes just enough to look around for something, anything that could help her – and found Leo's gun abandoned on the floor next to her feet. Instantly she dived for it and scooped it up, and without even thinking about the problems of shooting a hologram she spun around and shot the hologram Doctor straight through his chest.

The hologram corrupted and disappeared in a wash of binary code. Without a beat she dived to her knees beside the Doctor, rolling him onto his back. His head just lolled, but his eyes were open in slits.

"Doctor," she began desperately. "What do I do? Tell me what to do!"

He tried making a noise but his mouth didn't seem to have the energy to move. Rose's heart was running a marathon as she tried desperately to think her way out of this, but she was panicking very, very badly.

"Tell me!" she begged him, almost in tears now. "Please tell me how to save you!"

The golden light was still rising, without relent. It was taking all of his regeneration energy, his life force…

"No, no, no! Hold on! Just hold on!" she yelped, getting to her feet and running to the control panel. The keys were all Gallifreyan symbols. It was impossible.

No. No, it wasn't impossible. Anything was possible. She just had to calm down and think rationally. If there were Gallifreyan letters and Gallifreyan keyboards, then surely just like Earth the keyboard would have some kind of standard layout?

Not that that helped. She didn't know any Gallifreyan words…

Wait a minute. Yes she did.

"Saral'ei!" she exclaimed, leaning forward to examine the keys… and hedged her bets on an alphabet layout. She counted the keys across the rows, praying that the Gallifreyans had something similar. It was an extremely longshot but it was all she had. She started to key in the word. An S, then an A, then an R, then an A, then an L… and suddenly she had no idea where to go.

"I can't spell it!" Rose whined, looking back at the Doctor. He couldn't help her. He couldn't even move. She scrambled over to him anyway, lifting his limp hand and pressing his cold fingers to her temple like she'd seen so many times before.

"I need to spell saral'ei," she told him. "Please help me."

Nothing came back.

"Doctor!"

His eyes were nearly closed now, his body almost completely lifeless. There was nothing for it. She went back to the keyboard and whacked the biggest button she could see. Something blipped onto the screen and flashed… Just as the Doctor gasped in air, as though it was his first in weeks. He started coughing, and Rose went to him immediately.

"Doctor? Doctor!" she said quickly, resting a hand on his chest over his hearts. They were beating regularly, but he was still barely awake.

His eyes opened a little more, still coughing chestily before he looked up at her through slits.

"You did it," he croaked.

She burst out laughing – a laugh of pure delight, relief and a little surprise as she threw her arms around him in a big hug. "You're gonna be okay," she told him firmly. "I'm gonna look after you."

"Thanks," he wheezed out, and she laughed again and held him tighter.

"Rose?" called a voice from the doorway – it was her mum and the aliens. They stared at the sight before them in utter alarm – Rose holding an apparently dead Doctor…

"Doctor!" Vanaj cried, running forward instantly.

"It's okay," Rose said quickly. "He's okay."

Vanaj sagged in relief, as did the others behind him. "Thank Kichi," he breathed, but the relief was short lived as Jackie came forward to her daughter, her face solemn.

"Sweetheart, the sky's nearly gone," she said, surprisingly with complete calmness.

Rose nodded, pulling back from the Doctor and supporting his head as he continued to breathe rapidly, his eyes blinking to try and get some focus.

"Doctor, we need to save the world again," she told him urgently, pressing a hand to his face. "C'mon. Get up, lazybones."

He smiled a little at that, but that was all he gave. She laid him gently to the floor and got to her feet, gesturing for her mum to take over.

"Look after him, Mum," Rose said urgently, before moving to Vanaj. "How bad is it?"

"I dunno about timeframe, but the rate it was moving…" Vanaj trailed off, not really needing to finish that sentence.

"Okay. We need to start doin' somethin'. Where's Kilo?"

"Outside," Vanaj replied. "He was a bit stunned from the blast I think, he said he'd catch up."

"Go check on him," Rose ordered. "Bring him here; it's probably better if we're all together."

Vanaj nodded, and ran off.

Rose turned to Jux and G'uj. "You two okay?"

They nodded in sync.

"Is the Doctor all right?" G'uj asked, anxious.

"Yeah," Rose affirmed. "But we need to just do whatever he says, yeah?"

They both nodded again and moved forward, only to nearly trip over the still sleeping Leo.

"Is he dead?" Jux asked, deadpan.

"No," Rose replied. "But he's no threat now. We'll sort him out later. Mum?"

She turned to see her mum helping the Doctor sit up, who was looking like Death with a hangover.

"Doctor?" she asked quickly. "All right?"

"Can't… feel… legs," he managed to force out.

Rose checked the braces, and they were still on his legs and locked in place. They'd probably taken one too many hits – but there wasn't time to sort this out now.

"S'alright, I'll drag you," she told him, slipping her arms underneath his armpits and moving him across the floor back to the control panel with G'uj instantly moving to help.

They propped him up in front the panel, where he even needed a little help lifting his hands onto the keys. He began to type, and suddenly laughed.

"You… You brought up the FAQ… by typing in… 'help'," he told Rose, slowly getting back his strength. "That cancelled… the connection."

Rose couldn't help but laugh at that as he typed even more.

"Oh," he suddenly murmured.

"What?" Rose asked.

"Need to… to go to the… CPU," the Doctor muttered, looking as though he was going to pass out whenever he forced his voice box to make a noise. "This one… has no… access."

"Where's the CPU?" Rose asked urgently.

The Doctor grimaced, and forced his head up. They all followed his look to the very top of the giant machine, at least forty feet in the air with a single, very high ladder to get there.

Rose looked at it, and then at his legs, and then at him. "But…"

"S'cuse me," Jux said suddenly, pushing through to take the Doctor and haul him over his shoulders. Without even a pause the broad, strong alien went to the ladder and began to climb seemingly one-handed.

"Careful!" Rose said quickly.

"Sure," was all Jux muttered in reply, moving up the ladder with absolute ease. It was only about twenty seconds until the Doctor and Jux reached the top, and Jux dragged him to the control panel of the CPU, holding him up straight.

"Thanks, Jux," the Doctor muttered.

"Just do what you have to," Jux replied simply, a little out of breath.

"Are you okay?" Rose called up to them.

"Fine!" Jux yelled back, as the Doctor began to run his fingers along the keyboard.

Rose nodded, subconsciously reaching for her mum's hand and holding it tightly. The minutes passed like hours as they could only wait to see what the Doctor could do.

"Rose!" it was Vanaj, and Rose turned to see him dragging the body of Kilo behind him into the room. Putting aside the Doctor for a moment, she let go of her Mum and ran to them.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know, he's not talking to me," Vanaj said anxiously.

"Kilo?" Rose asked the unresponsive alien. He was just lying there, his eyes closed. She rested a hand on his chest to try and find some kind of heart beat. She eventually found something thudding, but it seemed very, very slow.

"Is it supposed to beat like that?" she asked, looking at Vanaj.

Vanaj checked the thudding, and his eyes widened. "No… Kichi," he breathed. "That's so slow."

"Kilo, can you hear me?" Rose asked.

"Can I do anythin'?" Jackie wondered, moving next to them.

"Keep talkin' to him," Rose replied, pulling off her hoody and covering Kilo with it. "Doctor?!" she called up. "Something's really wrong with Kilo!"

"Tell her… I'm nearly… done," the Doctor breathed out.

"He's nearly done!" Jux called down, still panting for breath.

The Doctor picked up on this, looking at him with concern. "You okay?"

"Never mind me," Jux said seriously through gasps for air. "Fix this fir…"

He suddenly collapsed sideways, gasping for air. The Doctor jumped in alarm, moving over to the alien on his elbows to check him over.

"Jux," he gasped. "Jux, c'mon…"

"Forget me…" Jux breathed. "Get on with it…"

The Doctor could only do what he was told to, so he groaned and dragged himself back to the control panel, now working twice as fast. He flashed through screen after screen of diagnostics until he reached the final screen. It needed a password.

"Fun, isn't it," a voice said from behind him, and he managed to turn himself over to see Rose standing there, beaming from ear to ear. Except it wasn't Rose, of course. It was a hologram.

"Tell me the… password," the Doctor breathed out, eyebrows lowering.

"You're not havin' fun?" the hologram Rose asked, tilting her head in concern.

"No, actually, I'm not," the Doctor spat back. "Tell me the password so I… so I can fix this."

"Nah," hologram Rose replied simply, laughing.

"This isn't funny!" the Doctor rasped out. "This is sick! Who are you and why have you done this?!"

"Oh, come on, Time Lord," the hologram said, sounding quite disappointed. "Can't even have a guess?"

She raised her hand, holding up her palm to show him a symbol burnt into it. He recognised it instantly, and his hearts dropped.

"No," he gasped, trying to back away but he couldn't go any further.

"Fun, isn't it?" the hologram said again, but this time as it spoke it flashed through several people, Rose, Jackie, Jack, Sarah, the Master, his mother, his brother, Vanaj, G'uj, Jux… until it finally stopped on himself in his Tenth form. He stood there looking like a zombie, bits of him decaying and dropping off even as he watched…

"Faction Paradox," the Doctor whispered. "Why? Why have you done this to Earth?"

"For you, Time Lord. All for you. This is brilliant, because it's the biggest paradox in the Sol region ever to occur, and it's so brilliantly executed," his mirror imaged-self told him, utterly gleeful. "You can't let them live, because the paradox would eventually swell and the Sol 3 would just eat itself… But you can't kill them, because it amounts to genocide. But by not killing them, the time stream is impure, and it is your duty as a Time Lord to kill them. But you won't; betraying your honourable society of pompous men in dresses and you'll be in the Oubliette of Eternity in seconds. You, Time Lord, are completely defeated. You might as well just let the machine kill you. All the other Time Lords before killed themselves in extremely imaginative ways…" the hologram pointed to the workings of the machine, where for the first time the Doctor noticed about five skeletons entangled within, having jumped to impale themselves on the machinery. They still wore their Gallifreyan robes.

A chill ran up his spine, but it only heightened his determination. "Oh, but you're pre-programmed, aren't you? You don't know," the Doctor said, his hand reaching out behind him to try and find Jux's gun.

"Know what?" the hologram asked, still smiling.

"The Gallifreyans are dead. Wiped out."

The hologram stumbled a little at that. "W-what?"

"I killed them," the Doctor spat, Jux handing him the gun behind his back. "I killed them all. The Time Lords are extinct – I'm the last one."

"Does not compute," the hologram suddenly said, his eyes wide.

"Grandfather Paradox and all his little paradox friends are dead," the Doctor continued, almost gleefully. "Fun, isn't it?!"

"Does… not… compute…" the hologram buzzed out.

"I am the last Time Lord, and eon serva'wi-ei-n!" the Doctor screamed out, raising the gun and shooting the hologram. The power source died and it cut out in mid-scream. The Doctor abandoned the gun and dived for the control panel, and hitting in the password, 'Grandfather'. The computer beeped approval, and the room began to shake as the process began.

"Doctor?!" Rose called up in alarm.

"Run!" the Doctor yelled down. "It's gonna blow up! Get out!"

"Not without you!"

"You've got to!"

"No!" Rose screamed back, angry.

"Rose, run," G'uj said suddenly said, moving to the ladder.

"No, G'uj!" Vanaj yelled suddenly, still kneeling next to Kilo's near lifeless body. "I'll…"

"Rose," Jackie suddenly said, turning to her daughter. "See Vanaj and Kilo out."

"What?" Rose croaked, utterly knocked for six.

"I'm gonna help G'uj get 'im, sweetheart. He can't do it on his own."

"No, Mum!" Rose shrieked out in complete alarm.

"Sorry, love," Jackie said, ever calm. "But I've seen enough, now. I love you."

She turned, and ran to the ladder to start ascending. Rose could only watch in horror as it swayed, breaking at the base – but still her mum continued upwards with a stroke of complete bravery…

"Rose," Vanaj urged.

"I'm not leavin'!" Rose screamed.

"They'll be fine!" Vanaj yelled back, though even he wasn't sure about that. But there was nothing he could do about what was happening and he needed to look after Rose – for the Doctor, and Jackie. "Let's get out!"

"No," Rose choked, but Vanaj was already on the move, dragging Kilo through the door. Leo was still on the floor, completely helpless.

"Rose!" Vanaj called again, and her legs began to move without her really telling them to. She ran to Leo, dragging him out of the danger zone and into the corridor.

"Doctor! Jux!" G'uj gasped as he made it to the top, where he found the Time Lord and Jux sitting up against the wall, Jux not looking well at all.

"No, G'uj!" the Doctor yelped. "Run!"

"No man left behind," G'uj told him firmly, taking his arm and dragging him across the platform just as Jackie's head popped up, clearly out of breath from the climbing.

"Jackie!" the Doctor panicked. "No, leave! Make sure Rose is safe!"

"Stop bloody playin' the hero," Jackie said, a little annoyed as she took the Doctor's arm from G'uj and tried to pull him down onto the ladder.

"Jackie, please," he begged, refusing to shift. "You're going to get yourself killed…"

"For god's sake, Doctor," Jackie huffed. "I ain't doin' this for me, now shut up and get on the bloody ladder else I'm really gonna tear you a new one."

She put an arm around his chest and dragged him down onto the ladder, where his hands gripped and his legs dangled uselessly. But she kept a firm hold on him, and began to move the both of them down. The base of the column creaked even more, and with an abrupt jolt the whole thing moved sideways – Jackie only just managed to keep a hold of the Doctor. She was quite plainly struggling.

"Please, please just let me go," the Doctor begged her again.

"No!"

"Why are you doing this?!"

"I thought you were s'posed to be clever!" Jackie scoffed, and the platform lurched again. "D'you really wanna have this conversation now?"

"What conversation?" the Doctor asked seriously as they reached a quarter of the way down.

"Okay," she began insincerely. "I've thought about it for a while, and I'm okay with you havin' sex with Rose, but I'm gonna need you to explain to me 'ow alien babies work cos I dunno if my Rose is gonna 'ave to give birth out of 'er 'ead or somethin'…"

The Doctor seemed to turn white and blush deeply at the same time, like an embarrassed snowman. "Jackie, I don't…"

"Oh, stop bein' so wet," Jackie reprimanded. The column jolted again, shifting a little more. "It's obvious."

"I would never…"

"Stop!" Jackie shrieked suddenly, and the Doctor stopped dead as his hearts began a double-speed Charleston. He was about to ask what had happened, but found Jackie suddenly had her hand around the neck of his jumper, absolutely fuming.

"Jackie?" he asked seriously, quite confused.

"Don't think I 'aven't picked up on it! You love 'er, she loves you, you are gonna get married, you are gonna give me grandchildren, and you are gonna bloody enjoy it!" she screamed directly in his face.

He stared at her for a while, big puppy eyes, wide and confused. "… Okay?" he finally squeaked, more as a question than an affirmation.

"Good!" she yelled in his face, and they continued downwards. The column shifted again, and sirens began to blare, and a Gallifreyan voice began…

"Ei'braak u sasa'ces-second'ia... Sui-sima'ces-second'ia… Sui-sin'ces-second'ia…"

"What is that?!" Jackie yelled.

"Self-destruct!" the Doctor shouted, still a little blanched. "We've got fifty-eight seconds until this place blows up! G'uj! Jux! Move!"

"Sui-sara'ces-second'ia…"

"Fifty-seven!" the Doctor amended.

Jackie shrieked, and began to move faster. She only let go of the Doctor for two seconds to reposition herself, but this caused the Doctor to slip and nearly fall the rest of the way. She caught him just in time by the wrist, but instantly her grip was slipping.

"Grab the ladder with your other hand, idiot!" Jackie screamed down at him, far too full of adrenaline and fear to care about how insulting she was.

"No! Let go!" the Doctor implored.

"No!" she cried, but her own grip was sliding. "Get a rung!"

"It's only twenty feet, I'll survive!" the Doctor yelled back. "Please let go! Trust me!"

For a moment they just gazed at each other; reading each other's eyes. She really, really did trust him in so many ways. She had to. So she did what she was told, and released her fingers. His wrist slipped out and he began to plummet downwards.

"Susu-sa'ces-second'ia…"

He hit the floor, slightly dazed but unhurt by the fall. Rose ran over and Jackie sped up descending the ladder – she was on the ground in ten seconds, shortly followed by G'uj and Jux with the latter leaning on the young alien for support.

"Sa-sara'ces-second'ia…"

"Thirty-seven seconds!" the Doctor translated.

Without a pause, Rose began dragging the Doctor out into the corridor where Vanaj was waiting with Kilo. One nod and they were all off, Jackie grabbing Leo on the way. They didn't stop, just running down the corridor that somehow seemed suddenly eternal to reach the entrance and dive through the door to the world outside.

"Su'ces-second'ia…" the voice continued in its countdown, and it seemed to be coming from the sky. A blood red sky which seemed to literally be falling; the rain actually little bits of the sky falling to the ground... And there was a crack, right in front of them, some kind of split in the actual universe itself.

"The world's going to reset," the Doctor gasped through the crash of the falling rain. "I've told the shifter to transmat everyone it's taken back to the ordinary world. You're going to end up on the real Scafell Pike. Rose, Jackie, take the aliens back to the flat."

"You're talkin' like you're not comin' with us," Rose realised.

He looked at her, sad. "When the countdown ends, I've programmed it to transmat humans and aliens back to the ordinary world, and the life forms it doesn't recognise into a new second. That's all the hominids, the dinosaurs, the Giants... They'll be able to live in a new second with no interference. And me being a Time Lord... I'm not going to be transmatted at all; it expects me to have my TARDIS with me. I'll have five hours before this second of time is wiped clean, including all of the people left in it, which should just be me, really. With the self-destruct, the shifter will be useless it won't be able to take anyone else from now on."

"Ces-sui'ces-second'ia..."

"But... no!" Rose realised. "You can't, you can't walk..."

"I'm sorry," he muttered.

"I'm not leavin' you here!" she yelled.

"You don't have a choice," the Doctor insisted. "Please, Rose, you need to look after the others."

She was in tears, now. It didn't even feel embarrassing despite everyone watching her. "But you'll be wiped..."

"If I can get to the rift I stand a chance," the Doctor told her. "There's a slight chance it won't take Jack either, so if I can find him..."

He trailed off.

"Ces-second'ia..."

"Ten seconds," he muttered. The trees were already starting to disappear, the lake seemingly just evaporating into nothing...

Rose couldn't do anything, she knew that. But that wouldn't stop her crying. Sniffing, she reached into her already wet-through jacket pocket and pulled out her phone, giving it to him.

"Take it," she blubbed out, hardly able to pronounce words. "Use it."

He nodded, pocketing it. "Thank you."

Then she resigned to herself, wrapping her arms around him in a tight, loving embrace. She rested her head on his chest, her ear against his hearts. They were drumming like mad. He held her in return in a squidgy hug - the both of them utterly soaked through by the rain. Neither really cared.

"Sui-second'ia..."

"Five," the Doctor murmured.

She nodded, still listening to his hearts. The others just watched in silence around them.

"I want my phone back," she told him jokingly through a pained smile. "You'd better be alive to give it back to me when you're done with it else I'm gonna be mad."

He laughed at that, but didn't reply.

Rose drew away, gazing at him for a moment. She pushed back his soaking fringe that was plastered to his head, and kissed his forehead. It was all impulse.

"Sa-second'ia..."

"See ya," she told him through a watery smile.

"Su-second'ia…"

"See ya," he echoed, and just gazed into her eyes for a moment, unspoken words fluttering around in the air around them; never to be spoken. They just couldn't manage it.

"Ce-second…"

But there was one thing he could do. He leant forward, and returned the kiss to her forehead. She smiled at him, taking his hand and squeezing it.

… Braak."

The Doctor closed his eyes as she was finally swallowed up in a bright blue light, along with the others. The shifter disappeared, and he was left alone in a world quickly decimating to nothing.

He didn't expect to see them again, but he would die trying.

Translation:

Eon serva'wi-ei-n! – You will obey me!

Ei'braak u sasa'ces-second'ia – Self-destruct in 60 seconds

Sa-second'ia… Su-second'ia… Ce-second… braak. – 3… 2… 1… destruct.

A/N:

Review reply. Good luck, world :o

(I also have utterly no idea how to even start the next chapter. Honestly. Seriously. I welcome anyone to help me, lol!)