The Earth had moved. The Earth had moved, and left nothing behind but the moon, and a very helpful trail of bees, of all things. When the Doctor had started his day, he'd imagined a few things. Nice trip to the market, pick up some spare parts, and absolutely no running. Instead, Donna ends up in a parallel world where, apparently, she somehow managed to meet Rose Tyler, die, return the world to what it was meant to be, which then took them to Earth, which moved, and finally led them to track the bees to the Earth's new location.
Where Rose Tyler was still not.
"It's like a ghost town," Donna whispered behind the Doctor as they stepped out of the TARDIS onto a deserted street.
"Sarah Jane said they were taking the people," The Doctor muttered to himself. "But what for?" He rounded on Donna. "Think, Donna, when you met Rose in that parallel world, what did she say?" And maybe there was a bit more desperation in his voice than there should have been, but sue him. The Earth had been stolen by Daleks, Harriet Jones was dead, and Rose Tyler had managed to hint from a pocket universe that she was returning. It had been a rough day.
Donna shook her head, even as pity clouded her features. "Just…the darkness is coming."
The Doctor gripped her shoulders. "Anything else?" He demanded. There had to be more; some crumb, some clue to go off of. 'The darkness is coming' did not help him find her, or help him stop the Daleks!
Donna's eyes drifted over the Doctor's shoulder as she concentrated, trying to remember a world that never existed and a woman she only half remembered. "I'm sorry," she said finally, shaking her head. The whole thing had beome fuzzy immediately after it ended, and her mind had struggled to hold onto even the faintest of details. That she remembered Rose's message at all was a miracle.
The Doctor's face curled into a grimace before he shook it off and released Donna's shoulders. He took to pacing instead. "We know she's coming. She'll get here eventually." 'I hope,' he added to himself with a wince. "For now we have to focus on the Daleks, and find all the people they kidnapped." He dragged a hand through his hair, glaring at the ground. "If I were a Dalek—and oh, that's a scary thought—where I would I take the population of the planet I'd just kidnapped?" He glanced at Donna, as if hoping she would have a suggestion, but the ginger woman just gave him a confused shrug.
"I suppose, if it were big enough, they could—" The Doctor started, before a very familiar pulse of light distracted him.
"Get down!" A voice from the light shouted as it faded, before firing at a Dalek that had been just turning onto the street where the Doctor and Donna where standing like sitting ducks.
"Jack!" The Doctor yelped, ducking belatedly. Luckily, the warning had been just in case the Dalek had managed to fire before Jack did, which it didn't.
"Hey, Doc," Jack returned casually, lowering a gun that looked suspiciously like his modified defabricator from back on the Game Station. His gaze turned to Donna as he approached them, and a familiar gleam lighting in his eye. "Captain Jack Harkness, nice to meet you," he grinned, taking her hand in his once he was close enough.
"Not the time, Jack," the Doctor groaned.
"Says you," Donna returned, eyes on Jack. "Donna, Donna Noble. Pleasure," She grinned in a way that was eerily similar to Jack's.
The Doctor gaped at the two of them for a moment before flapping his hands between them to force them apart. "In case you haven't noticed," he said loudly, and a bit shrilly, "the Earth is currently under attack! You two can, can, make eyes at each other later!"
Jack snorted. Never change, do you, Doc?" He asked. "Let's get in the TARDIS before more pepper pots show up."
"First good plan you've ever had," the Doctor muttered, ushering the two into the TARDIS.
"I've had plenty of good ideas!" Jack retorted. "Just 'cause you were too busy making eyes at Rose to consider them is not my fault!"
The Doctor grumbled as he slammed the door, before rounding on his two (one? And other?) companions. "We need a plan. More than that, we need information." He hurried over to the console, Jack and Donna right behind him, and began running scans. "That many people, that much heat and energy, it shouldn't be hard to hide…" he muttered to himself as his fingers flew over the keys, searching.
Just as he was getting close, the power went out. "Oh, for the love of—" Donna grumbled behind him.
"They've got us," the Doctor breathed, hands flying over the console, trying to return power, or initiate the dematerialization sequence or something. "Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop." The TARDIS jerked to the side, sending them all crashing to the ground.
The console started to beep, but the Doctor could already feel his ship being tugged through space, most likely towards where the Daleks were keeping the Earth's population. He dragged himself off the floor and to the console. "Basic function only," he murmured, looking at the scanner. "I can see outside, but not much more than that," he added for the benefit of Jack and Donna.
The journey was short, and they landed with a thump.
"DOCTOR, YOU WILL STEP FORTH OR DIE." The voice that echoed through the screen was deeper than he was used to from a Dalek, but still the same basic mechanic growl.
"We'll have to go out," he said grimly, turning to his companions. "Because if we don't, they'll get in."
"You told me nothing could get through those doors!" Donna argued.
"You have extrapolator shielding!" Jack was quick to add. And he would know; he'd helped install that.
The Doctor focused on Jack. "The last time we fought Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek empire at the height of its power. Expert at fighting TARDISes, they can do anything." He looked between the two of them for a moment. "Right now, that wooden door is just wood."
"What about your teleport thing?" Donna demanded, turning on Jack. The Doctor had to smile; she didn't give up, he'd give her that.
Jack shook his head. "Went out with the power loss."
"Right then. All of us together." The three of them nodded at each other before turning to the door. The Doctor took a deep breath, and plastered on a smile. If nothing else, maybe he could keep the Daleks off quilter enough that he could pull a miracle out of his ass. Short of that, they were all dead.
Rose came running out of the flash of light as usual, and had one second of joy at being back in Red before she was thrown to the ground with the force of the fall. "Oh, what the ever loving—oof," she grunted as she was tossed into part of the console.
'Daleks dragged me onto the ship, dragged my thief and the others out, and are currently dropping me into a z-neutrino core. Do something!' Red yelled at her.
"Shit. Bugger. Right, on it," Rose grunted, grabbing the console and hauling herself up right. "Nice to see you, by the way, how've you been?" Rose asked, trying for conversational and hitting closer to hysterical.
'We'll both be dead in ten seconds, can we do this later?!' the TARDIS snapped.
"Right, right. Sorry." Returning power to a TARDIS that had been placed in a chronos loop by Daleks was no easy thing. Doing that while said TARDIS was currently shaking violently and being destroyed was quite another. Doing all that while Red kept up a mental count down in Rose's head made Rose decide if she survived all this, she was finally going to take Jack up on that drink.
"There!" She screamed, hitting one last lever and dematerializing just as Red hit 'one' in her head. Rose slid to the floor and let out a shaky laugh. She checked the watch that counted down how long she had in this universe and let out a sob when she saw 00:00. The universe had torn itself up so much at this point, that the void's grip on her wasn't strong enough to jerk her back through to the other universe. She was here for good.
Rose closed her eyes for one moment before jumping to her feet. "Right. Saved you, now the Doctor. Tell me what's going on."
Rose sat on the ground of the TARDIS, the monitor tilted down so that she could see. Up until this point she had been attempting to coble a weapon together out of all the odds and ends the Doctor kept scattered about the TARDIS. But now she sat frozen, staring at the screen and the image Red had called up for her. "Twenty-seven planets," she whispered, watching as the planets aligned and lit up with some sort of beam. "That's where they're doing. Single string z-neutrinos compressed. That should be impossible." Red hummed uneasily as they both watched. On the Dalek ship, that beam would be harnessed into a ray which would be able to cancel out the electrical energy that bound the atoms of matter together, atomizing it. Much as she had once atomized the Dalek emperor and his fleet. Being part TARDIS, Rose tended not to believe in fate or destiny. But the irony of this whole situation was too perfect to be anything but designed.
"Well. If nothing else, that gives me an idea, eh, Red?" Rose asked weakly, grinning up at the rotor before scrapping her weapon and starting anew, working furiously. "A Z-neutrino biological inversion catalyzer."
'Davros built those Daleks out of himself. His genetic code runs through the entire race. If you can use that to lock the Crucible's transmission onto Davros himself, it should destroy the Daleks.'
"Exactly." Rose held up the catalyzer. "Here's hoping."
The Doctor stared in horror at the screen. Martha, in full UNIT tactical gear was threatening to use something called the Osterhagen Key, which would blow up the planet. Jack was with Sarah Jane Smith and Rickey Smith (and how the hell had he gotten here? And had Rose come with him? For the first time, the Doctor hoped not, because if she was here, she was about to die) threatening to use a warp star to blow up the Dalek ship, the crucible. And the worst part of all of this? They meant it. He could see it in their, eyes; they weren't bluffing. They would destroy the ship, the world, to keep the Daleks' reality bomb from destroying the universe. The Doctor had never been more horrified in all his nine hundred and four years.
"And the prophecy unfolds," Davros gloated from his throne of a chair off to the side.
"THE DOCTOR'S SOUL IS REVEALED. SEE HIM. SEE THE HEART OF HIM," Dalek Caan said gleefully from his perch on the wall, tentacles waving madly.
"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun," Davros started, and the Doctor could feel his smug eyes set on him, but the Doctor kept his eyes resolutely on his friends' faces. "But this is the truth, Doctor: you take ordinary people, and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers! I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."
"They're trying to help," the Doctor forced out. And they were. They were trying to help in the only way they knew how. Because all thought they'd seen him adamantly refuse to use violence, they had also seen that he was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. And it seemed that that was the lesson that stuck.
"Just think, how many have died in your name?" Davros taunted, ignoring the Doctor's attempt to justify his friends. The Doctor flinched at his words, faces flashing in his mind. "The Doctor," Davros continued, "The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."
The Doctor recoiled, his gaze finally darting to Davros.
"ENOUGH," The Red Dalek intoned. "ENGAGE DEFENCE ZERO FIVE."
"It's the Crucible or Earth," Martha warned on screen as the Daleks in the room with the Doctor began moving about.
"TRANSMAT ENGAGED," one of the Daleks reported, before a flash of light cut off Martha's stunned "No!" and dropped her, Rickey, Sarah Jane, and Jack all into the room with the Doctor and Donna and Davros.
"Don't move, all of you!" The Doctor ordered, putting his hand against the force field that kept him from running to them. "Stay still!"
"Guard them!" Davros ordered, yelling over the Doctor's frantic commands. "On your knees, all of you. Surrender!"
"Do as he says," the Doctor called, his eyes darting between the four of them. Honestly, he wasn't sure at this point which on was most likely to disobey him.
"The final prophecy is in place," Davros continued almost gleefully. "The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"
"ACTIVATE PLANETARY ALIGNMENT FIELD," the Red Dalek ordered. "UNIVERSAL REALITY DETONATION IN TWO HUNDRED RELS."
"You can't, Davros, listen to me!" The Doctor pleaded, pounding on his containment field. "Just stop!"
Davros just laughed. "Nothing can stop the reality bomb! Nothing and no one!"
The Doctor turned horrified eyes to the count down on the screen, only to jerk them away moments later at the most wondrous, impossible sound in the universe. The TARDIS. The TARDIS was materializing just beyond the control panel.
"But that's…" the Doctor started.
"Impossible," Davros growled.
As if to make the whole situation even more unreal, the doors to the TARDIS flew open the second it was fully materialized to reveal one Rose Tyler, holding a very large gun, and looking royally pissed.
"Brilliant," he heard Jack exclaim from across the room. The Doctor could barely breathe, his eyes riveted on Rose.
That is, until she set her sights on Davros, and ran towards him, lifting the gun as she went. "Don't!" The Doctor called in warning. And maybe it helped, a little, because when they fired at her, she managed to move just in time that the blast only knocked her weapon from her hand, sending it smoking to the floor. But Rose wasn't done yet. She pulled what looked like a Torchwood issue blaster from her belt and fired, once, twice, three times. The shots bounced off the Daleks, but one ricocheted off the Dalek's armor and onto the control panel. Dimly, the Doctor heard the sound of something powering down, but he was too busy yelling warnings at Rose to pay much attention. Davros fired, knocking Rose to the floor. "No!" The Doctor yelled, eyes trained on her prone form. He saw her side rise ever so slightly as she breathed, and the Doctor let out a shaky breath.
"Activate holding cell," Davros ordered, and the same wall of light that held him place trapped Rose in hers.
Rose groaned from her place on the floor. So much for her daring rescue plan. She pulled herself painfully into a sitting position, and placed a hand on the invisible wall that held her in place. The Doctor was staring at her from across the room with unrestrained panic in his eyes. She tried to smile at him in reassurance but barely managed a grimace. There had to be something else, some other way out of this. Her eyes scanned the room, looking for something, someone…
Donna. Donna had backed up against a wall, and was standing, wide-eyed, in the shadows. Rose's stray blast had hit the console, and destroyed the mechanism that was controlling Donna's barrier. 'If only it had been all the barriers' Rose thought grimly.
"DETONATION IN TWENY RELS," a Red Dalek announced.
Rose focused her attention on Donna. So many of Rose's abilities had been lost in her transfer into a human body. She had managed to keep her psychic abilities, but even she wasn't sure to what extent. As a TARDIS, Rose had been able to get into any mind, baring anyone with particularly strong mental shields. As a human, she had only attempted contact with the Doctor, another psychic being. But maybe, just maybe, she could contact Donna, and guide her through plan B.
Davros was delivering some evil speech or another while Rose focused on Donna. She could clearly feel the woman's consciousness, but accessing it was proving difficult. As the countdown lowered, Rose grew more and more desperate until she finally found her way into Donna's mind. Quickly, frantically, she poured information into the other woman's head, and watched as the red head winced, but then silently made her way to the console.
'Please, Donna, please!'
'I've got this, blondie.'
"Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there," Donna announced, cutting across the Red Dalek's countdown to slam on the indicated button. Rose let out a semi hysterical giggle. It was working!
"SYSTEM IN SHUTDOWN," a Dalek announced."
"DETONATION NEGATIVE," another continued.
"EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!" the Red Dalek demanded.
"Donna, you can't even change a plug," the Doctor wrinkled his brow in confusion.
"Do you want to bet, Time Boy?" Donna grinned.
"You'll suffer for this," Davros growled, rolling closer to Donna threateningly. Donna only grinned, and flipped a lever, sending an electric current up Davros' arm, and causing him to cry out in pain.
Rose frowned. She hadn't told Donna how to do that.
"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion," Donna sang with mock remorse.
"Exterminate her!" Davros roared, and the Daleks took up the chant, taking aim and Donna.
Before Rose could even dive back into Donna's head and offer instruction, the woman dove to work, flipping levers and pressing buttons like a mad woman until the Dalek's laser arms dropped to point uselessly at the floor. "WEAPONS OFFLINE."
"Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix!" Donna cried gleefully, still working.
"How did you work that out?" The Doctor said, more in amazement than anything else.
"Oh, no," Rose whispered.
"Holding cells deactivated, vault sealed," Donna continued. She glanced up from her work to look at the incredulous humans (and Time Lord and part TARDIS) in the room. "Well, don't just stand there, get to work!"
"Stop them!" Davros yelled. "Get them away from the controls!"
"And spin!" Donna sang, throwing a lever and causing the Daleks to begin spinning around the room uncontrollably.
Rose leapt to her feet as Donna kept working and rushed to the TARDIS, wrenching the doors open and hurrying inside.
"Come on then! We've got twenty-seven planets to tow home," Donna crowed. "Activate magnetron!"
"Jack!" Rose called, emerging from the TARDIS and tossing a rather large gun to Jack, and keeping one for herself.
"Just stay where you are, buddy," Jack ordered with a grin, focusing his gun on the yelling Davros.
Rose kicked a spinning Dalek out of the way and hurried over to help Sarah Jane shove another aside. "Good to see you again," Sarah Jane grunted as they forced it away.
"Oh, you, too," Rose grinned.
"Ready? And, reverse!" Donna announced from back at the control panel. Together, she and the Doctor managed to reverse the system that brought all twenty-seven planets to the Medusa Cascade in the first place.
"Off you go, Clom!" The Doctor crowed. "Back home, Adipose 3!"
"Shallacatop, Pyrovillia and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Sorted. Ha!" Donna ticked off as each planet disappeared.
"Is anyone going to explain what's happening?" Rickey demanded as Rose shoved her gun into his arms as she made her way over to the Doctor and Donna.
"Blondie here told me how to defeat Davros. Got a bit extra in the exchange; now, I'm smart as her," Donna explained smugly.
The Doctor threw a sharp look at Rose, who refused to meet his eye. So much for the joyful reunion.
"But you promised me, Dalek Caan!" Davros cried. "Why did you not foresee this?"
"Oh, I think he did," the Doctor announced, turning his back on Rose. She shivered. "Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."
"THIS WOULD ALWAYS HAVE HELPED. I ONLY HELPED, DOCTOR," Caan answered in his high pitched, maddened voice.
"You betrayed the Daleks," Davros hissed.
"I SAW THE DALEKS. WHAT WE HAVE DONE, THROUGHOUT TIME AND SPACE. I SAW THE TRUTH OF US, CREATOR, AND I DECREED NO MORE!"
"I WILL DESEND INTO THE VAULT" The Red Dalek on screen announced.
"Heads up!" Ricky barked.
The Red Dalek materialized in the room, and turned to Davros. "DAVROS, YOU HAVE BETRAYED US."
"It was Dalek Caan!" Davros protested.
"THE VAULT WILL BE PURGED. YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED." It focused its laser on the control panel and blasted it, sending Donna scurrying away.
"Like I was saying, feel this!" Ricky yelled before firing his gun and destroying the Red Dalek.
The Doctor looked at what was left of the control panel. "Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left." His face screwed up. "Oh guess which one?" He shook his head in annoyance. "But we can use the TARDIS!" He turned and ran onto the ship to set the two up.
Rose turned to follow him before Dalek Caan called out to her. "THE PROPHECY MUST COMPLETE."
"Don't listen to him," Davros shouted uselessly from behind her. Rose kept her eyes on Caan.
"I HAVE SEEN THE END OF EVERYTHING DALEK, AND YOU MUST MAKE IT HAPPEN, BAD WOLF."
Rose flinched at the use of her once true name. The name she donned every time she added blood to her already soaked hands.
"He's right," Rose whispered, pushing her hand into her hair. Donna turned to stare at her sharply. "Because with or without the Reality Bomb, this Dalek Empire is big enough to destroy the cosmos." Rose turned her gaze to Donna, begging for understanding. "They've got to be stopped.
"Just, just wait for the Doctor," Donna ordered weakly, the bravado that had come with her intelligence boost disappearing for the first time.
Rose shook her head. "Not this time." She turned to what was left of the control panel and pushed the buttons that remained and sparked together wires where there was nothing else. "Maximizing Dalekanium power feeds, blasting them back!"
All the remaining Daleks in the room—and the Medusa Cascade, for that matter—began exploding. The Doctor raced out of the TARDIS at the sound, and locked eyes with Rose. "What have you done?"
He was too far away for to hear, he must have been. But his voice still rang across her mind, full of the condemnation she'd always feared from him.
"Do you know what you've done?" The Doctor yelled, but Rose refused to back down. "Now get in the TARDIS, all of you! Run!"
Rose ran past him, and Red greeted her with a sad hum. She didn't agree with her Wolf's actions, but she understood. Rose patted the wall with a small smile, the ushered everyone in as they ran through the doors.
Together, they all helped to pilot the TARDIS, dragging the Earth back to its rightful place in the universe. Then, one by one, they dropped everyone back off home, until the only place left was the parallel universe to drop off Ricky.
Rose stood in the doorway as Ricky stepped off into the sand of the beach. He stared at the waves for a moment, then turned to Rose. "Not coming back, are you?"
Rose shook her head, and looked out at the water. "You know that was never the plan."
Ricky nodded. He hesitated for a moment, then threw his arms around Rose in a quick, but tight hug. Rose squeezed him back, surprised, but pleased. "Live well, Ricky. You're a brave man."
Ricky backed away and nodded, before turning to walk away without another word.
Rose backed into the TARDIS, shutting the door softly behind her. Donna was chattering to the Doctor inside about where they should go to next, and how he was going to have to watch his back now that she was as smart as he was.
The Doctor leveled a look at Rose, and Rose nodded sadly, before taking Donna by the arm and pulling her attention onto Rose. "What?" Donna snapped, annoyed with having been interrupted.
"Oh Donna," Rose breathed, too quiet to be heard. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But I've made a terrible mistake."
Donna pulled her arm from Rose's grasp and glanced at the Doctor, then back at Rose. "What, you two want to be alone for a while? I understand that. That's fine. I should probably explain things to Mum and Granddad, anyway. Just pick me up where you're done, ah, reacquainting."
But Rose was already shaking her head. "It's not that, Donna. When I gave you the information on how to stop the Reality Bomb, I gave you too much. I was in a hurry, and panicked, but now you have to pay and I'm sorry." She blinked away the tears, refusing to cry, not while she was effectively ending Donna's life.
"What….what do you mean?" Donna asked warily, wincing and putting her hand to her head.
"You've got a headache, don't you?" Rose asked gently. "You've had one from the moment I interred your mind." Donna's eyes widened, and Rose could practically see the cogs moving in there, putting the pieces together. Rose glanced at the Doctor, but quickly looked away. His eyes were hard.
"I gave you more information than a human mind can hold. It's bursting at the seams. And if I don't stop it…you'll die, Donna."
"So just take back the information," Donna said desperately. But Rose could see in her face that she already knew that that wasn't how things worked.
"Despite what human analogies would have you believe, the human brain isn't a computer. I can't just erase certain files. I have to take all possible links away, or else it all comes flooding back. That means," Rose cleared her throat, and blinked. "That means I have to take all of your memories of the Doctor away Donna. All of them."
"No," Donna mouthed, no sound actually emerging. She whirled to face the Doctor. "You can't let her," she begged. Rose silently moved closer. "You can't let her!"
"I'm so sorry, Donna," the Doctor said quietly, his eyes over bright. "But I won't watch you die."
Rose gently lay her fingers on Donna's temples. Donna didn't turn to face her, but kept her eyes on the Doctor. "I was gonna stay with you forever," she whispered, before Rose began locking away every memory of the Doctor, of herself, and of all that Donna had achieved since she'd met him. Tears flowed freely down her face for just a moment, but when she pulled her fingers from Donna's temples, she forced them to stop. As the Doctor caught Donna's limp form, Rose took the brief moment of his distraction to wipe the evidence from her face before she silently steered the ship to Donna's home.
"I'll take her in. Explain to her family," The Doctor said quietly, then left the ship without another word.
Explaining Donna's memory loss to her mother and grandfather had been one of the hardest things the Doctor had ever had to do. Talking to a Donna who didn't know him was even harder.
The Doctor dragged his feet and he slowly made his back to his ship. He didn't even have time to mourn; now he had to talk to Rose. They had to deal with what she had done to his best friend, as well as the genocide she'd committed for the second time, now. She didn't even have the excuse of blinding power, this time. No, this time, it had been all Rose. Completely conscious, Rose.
The Doctor sighed and wiped his hand across his face before leaning his head against the TARDIS doors. She was back. He'd finally gotten his Rose back. But at what cost? They'd move past it eventually, he was sure of it. Despite everything that had happened today, he still…well, he would tell her, wouldn't he? He would finish that sentence, in person, just as she asked. Just…as soon as they talked about rushed decisions and why genocide was a bad thing.
He chuckled humorlessly as he finally pulled the doors open and stepped inside. The sight that greeted him…was not what he expected. He'd expected Rose on the jump seat, waiting for him. But instead, the console room was empty. There was a single sheet of paper on the console, and the Doctor felt a prevailing sense of dread as he stared at it.
Slowly, as if afraid it would blow up in his hands, he lifted it and began to read.
My Dear Doctor,
I cannot begin to say how sorry I am. For not only taking Donna away from you, but for running from you now.
I didn't know Donna very well, only the few times we met in the pocket dimension. I loved her spunk from the first meeting, and I had looked forward to traveling with her, with you. And now that can never happen. Today I ended the future of the brightest, most stubborn and amazing woman I have ever met. That is a sin I can never atone for. But I can try.
I took my dimension cannon and modified it while you were taking Donna inside. It now functions as a Vortex Manipulator. I need to be by myself for a while. To help people and try and remember the person you taught me to be. Maybe by doing this, I can forgive myself. Maybe you can forgive me, too.
We're not done yet, you and me. I will find you again, I promise. And then you can yell at me to your hearts' content.
Until that day,
Rose
I think this is the part where I apologize profusely for the insanely long delay and offer several lame excuses. So, um, just pretend that happened, okay? Cause I got nothing.
Thanks to everyone who messaged me and encouraged me to post the next chapter; you all were so kind about it. And that includes you, unnamed Guest who said they missed me.
I spent a long time agonizing over this chapter; I still needed Donna to be the one to save the day, to fulfill the most important woman in the universe role, and it took me forever to figure out how to go about that, because I also needed to avoid the metacrisis. Putting Rose on the TARDIS rather than him and Donna was how I avoided that, but I still had a hard time figuring out Donna's role. What do you think of what I came up with? And the reunion? I know a lot of you where hoping for a happy reunion with lots of hugs and finished sentences, but we're not there yet. Actually, I know when that happens, and I don't think you're even going to like it then!
How's that for foreshadowing?
Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed. A special thank you to everyone who has survived these ridiculously long gaps between chapters. I'm hoping things will happen faster now, but I've been hopping that for a while.
Until next time!
