A/N: So Carina's gotten a tad older since the last chapter and I'm afraid both Rose and the Doctor are treading emotionally downhill. Too bad things won't get better in this chapter.

Carina ran inside the woman's bathroom of the public school and shut the door behind her quietly as she could. This was the closest she had ever been to a Sycorax, and as a skinny fourteen-year-old, she was no match for them. They had been invading the earth for six years and there was almost no one left. Carina hadn't even seen any other people in London for two years except for her hodpodge family: her mum, who she currently hadn't seen for three weeks; Jack Harkness the thirds, about two years older than herself and very techie; Christina, same age as Jack and descent of a lord and lady, slightly sassy, but an awesome friend; and Adelia Smith, Mickey Smith's great-grandaughter and Carina's age, and was tagging along with Rose on the other side of the city. The other kids had lost their parents, whether they were only separated, imprisoned by the Sycorax, or dead. No one had much hope any more with the exception of Project Other Side, as Jack insisted they call it.

When she was about nine, Carina had been sifting through her mother's things she had brought with them to the underground for something to read. She had come across John Smith's notes and questioned her mother about them. They were written in half-English and half-Gallifreyan. Carina recognised the Gallifreyan language from her dreams that she had. It seemed the learning of their language was passed down though a common knowledge, and Rose set her to work on interpreting the Gallifreyan part because she only knew a few words. Although she had no idea what it all meant at the time, Carina interpreted the language and Rose pieced the formulas together. It turned out to be a way to cross dimensions. It also turned out that it worked. Together, the children, while Rose was out looking for survivors and food, had sent several things across the dimensions. An apple, a pair of shoes, a stray dog, and, accidentally, Christina's diary. The only problem with getting things back. They didn't try with the apple, they got the shoes back, but they fell apart , the dog must have moved because they couldn't find it, but the diary was successful and it stayed intact. Rose didn't really have a plan of what they would do if they all crossed the Void. Blimey, she wasn't sure if they would stay alive. She was sure she would, having already died by torture in the hands of the Sycorax, but the kids were a different story. Would they live?

It was a question to be answered later because Carina had to get away from these homicidal, skeletal monsters. She and her mum had already been caught once (the scars on her back made sure she never forgot that), and miraculously had gotten away with help from an aged man. And by an aged man, she really meant a telepathic, aged alien who had help them not only escape, but also help Carina with her telepathic abilities.

Carina pressed her ear to the door and listened. Heavy footsteps resounded in the hallway and she quietly slipped off her trainers and put them in her locked backpack.

Jack had made the bag for her to hide their formulas and notes in since they were always on the move. It unlocked with a press to her thumb on a rectangle, black square that seemed to be made of plastic. It registered her body heat and thumb print pattern, so only she could open it. But even if someone forced her too, it wouldn't' open because she could change her body temperature.

Pulling out a small torch, she made her as quietly as possible to the back stall of the bathroom. Carina looked around the enclosed area and noticed a cabinet, probably holding cleaning supplies. Smiling to herself, she stepped onto the commode, then carefully stood on the handicapped bar, and, after holding the penlight with her teeth, she finally pulled herself onto the top of the cabinet. Carina took the light out of her mouth and inspected it, noticing a crack. Darn it, she whispered to the room. Flashing the light, she noticed something that made her extremely happy. Ceiling tile. Old, primitive, and a pain to put up, yes, but it was just the thing to she needed to escape and join back up with Jack and Christina. Sticking the torch between her teeth once again, she pushed up on a piece of ceiling above her head and moved it backwards. She took a firm grip of the metal framing that held the top of the wall and pulled herself up, grunting as her thumb slipped against something sharp. As soon Carina was perched on the framing, she turned around and wrapped leg around a metal bar slanting to the ceiling, and pulled the tile back in place. She shuffled her way down to a place where several pieces of the metal framework connected, sat down, and stuffed the torch into her pocket. She smiled as she looked up and saw a window.

She had escaped them. Now all she had to do was regroup.

Brushing away a frizzy curl that had fallen out of place from her braid, she crawled her way to the window along the metal beams. Looking out the window, she saw a groups of trees. Carina searched them for any sign of her of friends, and then noticed a bit of a black jacket sticking out from behind a tree trunk.

She was saved.

Martha Jones finally felt like a passenger on the TARDIS with the Doctor and Jack. She had her own key, and now the three were off to a 32nd century vacationing planet that was supposed to look like the Maldives Islands. She couldn't wait to feel the warm sand between her toes and a cold drink in her hand after this long day.

They might've changed their mind though, if they hadn't missed the call from her mother, warning her that Doctor and Jack weren't safe. Who was Harold Saxon anyway? And how did he know that Martha was with him?

Rose sat with a sick family on the other side of London. It was sure to be their last night.

Over here, the devastation was horrendous. Clean water was non-existent, decent food hard to come by, and no care for the wounded or sick. The streets stunk of rotting flesh and it turned and twisted her stomach into knots. Her tears fell as she was reminded off some of the places the Doctor took her, where she wanted to stop and help, but to do so would be fruitless or wrinkle Time. This time though, Rose thought, she could've helped. She had been so busy staying away from Torchwood -thank goodness that wretched place had been bombed- that she hadn't done a thing to stop the Sycorax.

Perhaps she could've, but she didn't. In fact, she had lost her daughter's best friend to them today.

Another race wiped out by Rose Tyler Smith, the abomination of the Daleks. Thinking of the past, tears fell. How could have she been so heartless as to stay in hiding with her daughter. She might have done something, anything, but she didn't. Her heart physically hurt as the baby in her arms whined itself into exhaustion, and then was still.

"You even look like him.

You'll keep on changing, and in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman, this strange woman...

...but she's not Rose Tyler. Not any more.

She's not even human."

Tears fell as she laughed cruelly to herself. She was becoming like the Doctor, the man she had idolized in her young life. The man she almost hated now. Rose Smith was becoming him. Old, always moving, always trying to save someone, and failing.

Carina stared at the taller boy in disbelief as he whispered his plan to her and Christina, her tall, dark haired friend.

"Your kidding me", she said.

"Carina, I'm deathly serious", Jack said with a dramatic pause, "you have to be the one to cross. Isn't your dad there, the Doctor? You're always talking about how your mum told you stories of how he saved people. Shouldn't he be able to help us?"

"Those are just stories. He doesn't even know about me, Jack! I can't just find him in an entire universe, even if he could help us!"

"At least you'll be closer there, and safer."

"Safer? What about you guys? My mum? Adelia?"

Christina looked at Jack and then back to Carina, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Your mum- She called in on the comm today." Carina knew by the tone of her voice what had happened. She steeled herself for the next statement. "Adelia's gone."

Carina took a shuddering breath and blinked away the tears. "Why does everyone I know have to disappear?"

Christina de Souza shook her head and held her younger friend close. "I'm still here, and your mum."

"So am I", Jack said, joining in on their group hug, "we've just got to work together. You have to go, Carina. You're the only one who knows him, and your mum can't go, she's the only adult we have."

She nodded into his shoulder.

The next morning, they had made their way to what used to be the front of the Torchwood Institute.

"This is the spot you'll have to be in if you want to come back", Jack warned her while handing her a small, silver, metal device with a red button.

"And you'll to take that backpack with you", added Christina, "We can't have the Sycorax getting to the other side."

"Did you ask my mum about this?", she asked the two warily.

"Um, no", Jack said unsure, but then continued on firmly, "But this needs to be done. She gave me the order to send us there if things got bad, but honestly, this dimension retriever can only move one person and you're the smallest."

"Hey, now."

"I'm not making fun of you, Shortie."

Carina mocked glared at him while Christina rolled her eyes. "Get over already, and don't tease her, Jack." She pulled Carina into a hug. "Find him for us, okay?"

"I'll try. It's me against an entire universe, you know." She turned to hug Jack.

"Bye, Jack. Take care of mum and Christina for me, yeah?"

"Have you seen them fight? They don't need caring for."

"Just keep building these retrievers then."

He smiled and let go, but kept a palm on her cheek. "Bye then, doll. I hope to see you soon."

Carina smiled at him and the other girl as he dropped his hand, trying to keep emotions at bay. Emotions always made things harder than they should be. "Same here. Here goes nothing."

And Jack, the third, Harkness pushed his side of the hand-held machine and sent her into a new dimension.

He had landed on a planet that was carved out from the water, wind, and sand. He had found it a few centuries ago, right after his banishment, and now he wanted to share it with her too. Of course, he wanted to impressed too. Isn't that what guys did to their girls?

Their.

It was there again. Possession of something that would die -yes, she will die, Doctor, he told himself- or walk away, be torn away. Violently, he reminded himself. It was nice to dream of this place with her though. He often dreamt it on a particularity stressful day. Pterosaurs flew overhead and she didn't mind, but rather her face shone with the excitement and wonder of seeing somethign so new and alive. The question burned in his mind. He knew she was brutallly honest, his Rose.

His again. No, Doctor, she's gone now. Someone else's. Not that anyone could have her in the first place. Someone probably belonged to her, and it most likely wasn't him.

"How long are you going to stay with me?"

A simple question laced with so many others. Is it worth it? Do you really care? Is it enough? Will it be enough? Am I enough? Do you love me? Can I love you?

"Forever."

Oh, how he hated this part with a passion. The glow on her face, the soft smile, the blush when she whips her face around after seeing his grin. When they walk back into the TARDIS, hand and hand. He hates it because it wasn't true and both of them lied to themselves. It would never be true.

Never say never.

Never say forever.

It was a beautiful lie, though. One that had given him hope that he hadn't felt in centuries, or ever. The fact that a another being cared for himself without thought of the monster he thought himself to be.

He hopes she knows her importance to him, that he only strove for her happiness, that he adored her. But maybe, maybe it wasn't enough. He could've asked her to stay, but in the end he realises something. Love is letting go. Even if the strings are attached to your heart and they brake and bleed, let go. It's the only true way to love a person.

But how he misses her. That's how you know you love someone, he guesses, when you can't go anywhere, do anything, without wishing the other person was right there, next to you, seeing it too.

The Doctor realises for the first time how much he loves Rose Tyler, and it brings a sob to his hearts. It is his quick beginning, it is his slow ending.

What happens when all the lights go out?
There's no way back
We're stranded now
What happens when everything goes dark?
It's got no life
Left in its heart
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry
Seems I'm not that clever after all

A/N: Well, well, well. Seems they have found a way to the other universe, but how does that work? Spoilers, darling. It'll be explained in a later chapter. Oh, by the way, I FINISHED THE HUNGER GAMES YESTERDAY. It's a perfectly fabulous book. May the odds be ever in your favour! *three finger salute*