I don't like Martha at all until Series 4, but it's only because of her stupid crush on the Doctor who was in so much pain after what happened to Rose. But if she didn't have that why couldn't she be awesome? :D

Anyone else miss Rose as much as I do? ...Oh yeah in the story too XP


Chapter 28 – Coming to Dust

As the Doctor and Jack ran around a corner they ran smack-dab into Martha.

"What are you doing here?" Jack cried, looking behind them.

"I heard the explosion. I wanted to help. Did you kill him?" she added. They heard a growl and saw Lazarus chasing them.

"Does that answer your question?" Jack said as the three of them continued to run.


"Doctor? Doctor?" No matter how hard Rose tried, all she could see was darkness, and feel unbearable cold. She shivered and pulled her legs closer to herself. First her hearing, now her sight, and now everything else was fading. "Doctor?" She called again to the only one who could save her now. She went to shout a fourth time but was dismayed to find her speech no longer worked. With a strangled cry she buried her head in her lap and sobbed.


"We're back in the main reception hall." Jack gasped and panted heavily, resting his hands on his knees. "I did not get enough of this in Paris." He added.

"What do we do now?" Martha cried.

"We nothing." The Doctor replied, turning to face her. "You have no idea what's happening, and you're in danger. You need to get out of here."

"Too late." Jack replied as he spotted Lazarus coming around the corner. In a last-second move, the Doctor ran to the machine and opened the door. Martha jumped inside but Jack stayed put.

"He'll drain your blood, you might die permanently!" The Doctor shouted at him. Jack shook his head.

"I won't let him sting me. But I'll give you a few minutes." The Doctor nodded and locked the door after he climbed in. He suddenly felt very awkward as his body was pushed up against Martha's, a woman he barely knew.

"So, you do this sort of thing every day?" She asked. The Doctor nodded. "Are we hiding?" She whispered.

"No," he replied. "He knows we're here. But this is his masterpiece. He won't destroy it, not even to get at us."

"But your friend, he's out there!" She gasped in horror as a loud crash rang out and Jack cried loudly in pain.

"He'll be okay. Trust me."

"But we're trapped!" Her voice was a bit muffled, being pushed up against him. She shut her eyes in an attempt to not look at the rippling muscles under his suit jacket.

"I've been stuck in tighter spaces before."

"Do you have a plan?" She cried, as if she expected him to have one.

"The plan was to get inside here."

"Then what?"

"Well… then I'd come up with another plan."

"In your own time, then," she said in a snippy tone that reminded him of Rose.

"Hey, it's not like I've ever let you down before right?" He replied, forgetting he wasn't actually with Rose.

"I just met you!" She cried. "I shouldn't even be here! What was I thinking?" The Doctor shook his head in frustration. He was trying to think, but Martha was distracting him. Well, when all else fails, use the sonic.

"Excuse me, but this is going to be a bit uncomfortable." He reached into his pocket and tried not to imagine that it was Rose and not Martha whose body was pressed up against his. Not Rose's chest that loomed in front of his face. Not her cherry perfume scent that...

"Hey!" Martha shouted, bringing him back to the real world. "What are you doing?

"Improvising. It's what Rose and I do." He muttered the last bit under his breath. He cursed to himself for the position Martha had gotten them in as he wiggled down towards the bottom of the machine. The Doctor popped open a panel beneath their feet. Well, at least Jack hadn't come in as well. He would be having a field day.

"I still don't understand where that thing came from." She said, trying not to concentrate on the Doctor's hands brushing up against her legs. Blimey she didn't even know his first name! Spock indeed! "Is it an alien? You know, with all those alien sightings in the past few years, it's getting more and more believable."

"No, it's human in origin," the Doctor replied fiddling with something in the panel.

"Human?" Martha replied. "How can it be human?"

"I shouldn't even be telling you." He bit back. "You have no idea what's going on or anything about what I do."

"I have a right!" She cried. "You and your friend are the ones who got me into this mess!"

"You got yourself stuck in here. I didn't invite you." Martha scowled and turned her head. The Doctor continued to work on the panel.

"Look, I'm sorry." He said. "I'm trying to find something that could save my friend's life, and it's a bit stressful having to fix this mess as well." Martha's face softened. "What it looks like is that dormant genes in Lazarus' DNA activated, and they're becoming dominant."

"So it's a throw back?" The Doctor nodded.

"Locked away in his genes, forgotten about until Lazarus unlocked it by mistake."

"It's like Pandora's Box," Martha said. The Doctor made a grunt of agreement. Suddenly the machine began to whirr and a blue light lit up around them.

"Did you do that Doctor Spock?"

"No." The Doctor cried back. "And just call me Doctor."

"What's happening?" Martha's voice grew in distress.

"He's switched the machine on."

"That's not good, is it?"

"Well, I was hoping it was going to take him a little bit longer to work out." His fingers moved faster and the machine began to vibrate.

"I don't want to hurry you, but-"

"Nearly done!"

"But what are you doing?" Martha asked.

"Trying to set the capsule to reflect energy rather than receive it."

"Will that kill him?"

"When he transforms, he's three times his size - cellular triplication - so he's spreading himself thin."

"We're going to end up like him?" Martha cried.

"Not if I have anything to say about it, last thing I want is to revert back into my sixth life!" He pulled out a plug, ignoring Martha's strange look. Just one more! Suddenly the energy field around them shifted. A blast resonated from outside the machine, then it grew quiet. Slowly he stood up and opened the door. Martha looked out cautiously behind him.

"I thought we were going through the blender, then." Martha gasped.

"Nah, you were never in much danger." He turned and grinned at her.

"I don't believe you." She said, laughing in relief. "That was too close." She hated to admit it but it gave her a sort of an exciting adrenaline rush. The two of them turned and saw Lazarus lying naked on the floor.

"He seems so… human again. It's kind of pitiful…" The Doctor shook his head, turning away. His heart still held a little bitterness over the Time War and Rose's incoming demise. He could not make himself feel any sort of compassion for the man who had murdered other people tonight.

He spotted Jack's form crumpled against the far wall. He walked calmly over to him. Martha saw him as well and drew in a sharp breath, rushing to his side.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, he's dead." She said after examining him. He had a huge gash on his forehead and blood ran down the side of his face. It was a brutal injury.

"Just wait." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. After a minute, Martha's eyes grew in surprise as the wound faded and the blood dissipated. After a few more seconds Jack gasped into wakefulness, causing her to scream in shock.

"Well, hey beautiful." He grinned, but it disappeared when he saw the Doctor glaring behind her. He changed the subject. "Lazarus hit me, I spun around and cracked my head against the wall." He pointed behind him. The Doctor winced.

"How did you do that?" Martha yelled. "You just came back to life!"

"It's a lot to explain." The Doctor said. Martha turned around and gave him that look that brooked no argument. She was tired of being lied to!

"I can't die." Jack said, as if that would answer everything. Thankfully the police and paramedics arrived so the Doctor and Jack made their exit before having to answer any more questions.


"No, something's still not right." The Doctor said, clutching the energy converter they needed as they stepped outside the building. The converter was a little gold tube with clear glass protecting the inside. How the cat nuns would use it for Rose was a mystery to him. It's a good thing he remembered to sonic it off from the rest of the machine before they dismantled it and hauled it away for a more thorough examination.

"It doesn't matter now. We got what we needed." Jack replied, stretching his sore neck out.

Suddenly there was a loud crash down the road where the paramedic truck was at. The Doctor took off and Jack looked after him wearily. He sighed in resignation and chased after him. "Should have stayed with the foxes." He muttered.

When they reached the ambulance, the two of them groaned at the sight of the dried-up medics.

"Should have seen that one coming." The Doctor whispered. "Nothing's ever that easy."

"Well the Isochloric Acid wasn't that hard." Jack replied.

"Yeah, because you were erased from time for most of it." Jack stuck his tongue out in disgust. Using his sonic, he located where Lazarus was. As they were about to head off they heard footsteps behind them. It was Martha.

"No." The Doctor said adamantly. "You almost died today. You have no idea of the danger you're putting yourself in."

"You keep saying that Doctor Spock, or whatever your name is." She yelled. She opened her mouth to speak again but then stopped, a strange look on her face. "I...I can't explain it. Why I keep chasing after you that is. I just feel like I should. Like it's the right thing to do." Jack looked at the Doctor expectantly.

"Alright but this is it." He said finally. "To the church!"


The Doctor entered first into the cathedral. He had a scowl on his face. Too many people had died today and he wasn't going to let Lazarus kill any more, even if he had to kill him himself.

This would end tonight.

He shivered. Last time he was in a creepy old church he got eaten by a reaper. Well, on the plus side, he now knew that was the night Rose fell in love with him. He shivered again but not from the cathedral. Jack and Martha were strangely quiet, as if sensing his mood swings.

They found Lazarus sitting behind the altar in his human form wrapped in the blanket he got from the ambulance. He looked up at them as the Doctor put the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. Slowly the Doctor began to walk up to him.

"I came here before," Lazarus told them quietly. "A lifetime ago. I thought I was going to die then. In fact, I was sure of it. I sat there, just a child… the sounds of planes and bombs outside."

"The London Blitz." The Doctor said, standing in front of him. Jack closed his eyes. That time period was only too familiar to him.

"You've read about it."

"I was there." Flashbacks of the bombs, of losing Rose, finding her and meeting Jack and Nancy, he and Rose dancing through the night...

"Just this once, everybody lives!"

"You're too young," Lazarus scoffed, bringing him out of his reverie.

"So are you." He replied. Lazarus laughed but then gasped in pain.

"In the morning the fires had died, and I was still alive," Lazarus continued his story. "I swore I'd never face death like that again."

"Oh stop it!" The Doctor cried. Lazarus looked up at him in shock. "Stop this madness! Your pursuit of an immortal life is going to destroy you and everyone else!"

"I changed the course of history." He replied.

"Facing death is part of being human. You can't change it, no matter how hard you want it to!" His voice was laced with bitterness. Despite his words, he knew he couldn't accept Rose's death until he himself died as well.

"No, Doctor Spock." Lazarus smiled wickedly. "Avoiding death. That's being human. It's our strongest impulse, to cling to life with every fiber of being. I'm doing what everyone before me has tried to do. I've simply been more… successful." He groaned again as his body began to change. He looked up and saw the Doctor standing there with the sonic pointed in his face.

"I'm not going to let you kill any more people tonight. It ends now."

"Are you going to kill me?" Lazarus spat. "Isn't that a little hypocritical?" He cried out in pain as his bones seemed to crack.

"A longer life isn't always a better one!" The Doctor shouted, his words echoing around the cathedral. The grip on his sonic faltered and he lowered it. "Everything and everyone eventually leaves or dies. The pain of always ending up alone, it will engulf you entirely. As soon as you find a stroke of happiness it will be gone in a minute!" Martha frowned. Obviously he was speaking from his own experience.

"You're very bitter Spock. You must be older than you look to have lost so much."

"I'm not going to lose her." He raised the sonic up again. "And nothing's going to stand in my way."

"Doctor, don't!" Jack yelled and rushed forward, not wanting to watch him kill Lazarus in cold blood, but someone held him back. He turned and gasped. It was the gorgeous woman in the gold dress from the party. The Bad Wolf, and this time her eyes were completely and brilliantly gold.

Her high heels seemed to make no noise as she ascended the stairs towards Lazarus and the Doctor. She came up and placed her hand on the Doctor's arm, lowering it. Lazarus gazed at her, a look of shock on his face. She had a glow about her, her very skin as bright as the sun.

"Enough of the bloodshed Richard Lazarus, son of Theodore Lazarus." Her ethereal voice washed over him. "This vain pursuit of life will only lead to loss of it." She placed a hand on his forehead and he inhaled deeply as she drew his life energy out, returning him to his proper state of age. He fell over backwards, dead.

"Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies." She quoted herself. She stood up and faced the Doctor.

"Had I let him live, you could have all died."

"Thank you." The Doctor whispered, glad that the burden of taking a life wasn't put upon him. The Bad Wolf seemed to sway, as if losing her balance. The glow in her face dimmed a bit. The Doctor looked at her with concern.

"Doctor, my life energy is failing, and fast." She explained. "Like stardust and rose petals." She gave him a weak smile. "I cannot help you anymore in your search for Rose's cure." The Doctor nodded. "But I'll be able to help you one last time. You'll know when that time comes." With that she faded into nothingness.


"You guys can't just leave!" Martha shouted as the Doctor and Jack walked out of the cathedral. "I mean, who was that? She looked like an angel. What's going on, who are you?" The Doctor suddenly turned around.

"Look Martha, thank you so much for all your help today. Any other time I'd tell you who I, who we are. Maybe even take you on a thank-you trip to the moon. But right now, I'm on a mission to help a friend who is in serious life-threatening danger. A woman I owe my life to and...the woman I love." He inhaled deeply. "I can't turn my back on her now. I can't explain anything more than that. You have to forget about me, about us." Martha stood still, too confused for words as the Doctor turned away. Jack threw a sympathetic look at her and followed.

"The moon, really?" Jack asked once they were out of earshot.

"That was Spock enough, right?" He replied, holding back a smile.

Martha watched as they entered into a police box standing across the street and gasped as it faded from view. It echoed with a strange yet beautiful noise that tugged on her heart and made her feel like she was missing the greatest thing of her life.


I couldn't help the Sixth life comment, I saw it on a meme a few years back and it's always been head!canon for me xD I originally wanted to have the Doctor forget about the converter and have to chase it down wherever they hauled it away, but I figured the Doctor's been through enough by now ;)

The part with Rose is supposed to be inside her head. Her body's still at the hospital, but internally she's quickly shutting down. And of course Nine would take a different direction in killing Lazarus than Ten would. What did you think he would do?

Coming up next: One last mission to go! But it's a gamechanger, and as the end is soon in sight, the Doctor comes to a startling conclusion...

Excuse my Gallifreyan but HOLY CRAP that snuck up on me! Only a few chapters left! *sob* you guys have made this all the more enjoyable for me! :D