Disclaimer: I won the Doctor in a card game, but now there are these gangsters after me. Oh well.

Ch. 52:

The woman took Donna into the center of the circle of mirrors while the man walked around the outside.

"We don't know how the TARDIS works, but he helped us scrape off the surface technology." The woman said, nodding to the man. "Enough to show you the creature."

"It's a creature?" Donna asked, alarmed.

"Just stand here." The woman told her.

"You might want to get out of the circle." The man called to the woman. "Unless you particularly want this to blow up in our faces."

"Yeah, yeah." The woman replied, walking over to him.

"Can't you stay with me?" Donna asked her.

"Ready?" the Captain called. "And…activate."

The machine began to whirl and the lights around the circle began to snap on, one by one. Donna screwed her eyes shut.

"Open your eyes, Donna." The woman called calmly.

"Is it there?" Donna asked.

"Yeah." The man replied. "Open your eyes. Look at it."

"I can't." Donna said, shaking her head.

"It's a part of you." The woman said. "Donna. Look."

Donna slowly opened her eyes. In the mirrors, she saw the thing on her back. A massive, black beetle. She gasped in horror and began spinning around frantically.

"It's okay." The woman called reassuringly. "It's okay, it's okay-calm down. Donna? Donna? Donna!"

Donna stopped spinning.

"Okay." The woman said.

Donna took deep breaths, looking at the beetle with trepidation. It took up most of her back, it's pincers nuzzling her hair. Upon closer inspection, Donna realized that it wasn't causing her any pain. It was just sitting there like a parasite, clicking away.

"What is it?" Donna asked, just barely staying calm.

"We don't know." The woman said. "Well, he knows, but he won't tell us."

"Why?" Donna demanded.

"Just trying to keep the multi-verse from collapsing." He said brightly.

"Oh. Thanks." Donna said sarcastically.

"No problem." He replied.

"It feeds off time." The woman told her. "By-by changing time. By making someone's life take a different turn, like, er…meetings never made…children never born…a life never loved. But with you, it's…"

She shook her head.

"Big old parallel universe." The man said, still very cheerfully.

"But I never did-anything important." Donna said, frozen with fear.

"Yeah, you did." The woman told her. "One day, that thing made you turn right instead of left."

"When was that?" Donna asked.

"Oh, you wouldn't remember." The woman told her. "It was the most ordinary day in the world, but by turning right, you never met the Doctor and Lily and the whole world just changed around you."

"Can you get rid of it?" Donna asked.

"We can't even touch it." The man told her. "It's in a state of flux."

"What-does that-mean?" Donna demanded.

"Nothing!" the man said happily. "Just thought it sounded nice."

The woman groaned.

"It's like the magic doors all over again." She said.

"Hey that wasn't me!" the man protested.

"Same difference!" she shot back.

"You liars!" Donna said furiously, surprising them. "You told me I was special! But it's not me! It's this thing! I'm just a host!"

"No, there's more than that." The woman said calmly. "The readings are strange. It's…it's like reality's just bending round you."

"Because of this thing!" Donna insisted.

"No, not really." The man told her. "We're getting separate reading from you. And they've always been there, since the day you were born."

"This is not relevant to the mission." The captain to them.

"Oh, shut up." The man told her. "Without us, there is no mission, so shut it."

"I thought it was just the Doctor we needed." The woman told Donna.

"And I thought it was him and Lily." The man added.

"But we were both wrong." The woman said. "We need all three of you. The Doctor, Lily Carter, and Donna Noble. Together. To stop the stars from going out."

"Why?" Donna shouted hysterically. She was shaking with fear and sheer confusion. "What can I do?"

Neither one answered.

Donna half glanced at the beetle again, but she couldn't bring herself to look directly at it again.

"Turn it off." She whimpered. "Please."

"Captain." The woman said quickly.

"Power down." The captain called.

As soon as the lights were down, the woman went to Donna, who was shaking uncontrollably. She touched her arm comfortingly.

"It's…it's still there, though." Donna said shakily. "What can I do…to get rid of it?"

"You're going to travel in time." The woman told her.


The woman took charge, quickly explaining to Donna what she needed to do. Donna was now wearing a thick green jacket covered in wires.

"The TARDIS has tracked down the moment of intervention, Monday the 25th, one minute past ten in the morning." She told her. "Your car was on Little Sutton Street, Ealing Road, but you turn right heading for Griffin's Parade. You need to turn left. That's the most important thing. You've got to go back and turn left. Have you got that, Donna? One minute past ten. Make yourself turn left, heading for the Chiswick Highroad."

"Keep the jacket on at all times." The captain told her. "It's insulation against temporal feedback."

A digital watch is placed on Donna's wrist.

"This will correspond to local time wherever you land." She told her.

She presented her with a glass of water.

"This is to combat dehydration."

"Really?" the man said sarcastically. "Who would've thought?"

Donna was led to the edge of the circle.

"This is where we leave you." The woman told her.

"I don't want to see that thing on my back." Donna said quickly.

"You won't." the woman told her. "The mirrors are just incidental. They bounce chronon energy back into the center which we control and decide the destination."

"It's a time machine." Donna said, awed.

"A crude one." The man said, dismissively.

The woman glared at him before smiling at Donna.

"It's a time machine." She agreed.

"If you could?" the captain said.

The woman smiled at Donna encouragingly and gave her arm one last squeeze. Then Donna stepped once more into the circle.

"Powering up." The captain called.

The machinery burst to life once more and the lights snapped on.

"How do you know it's going to work?" Donna asked.

"Hmm?" the woman said. "Oh…yeah…we-we don't. We're just…we're just guessing."

"But we're brilliant at that." The man added. "Really, it's one of the things we do best."

"Oh, great!" Donna said, laughing apprehensively.

"Just remember, when you get to the junction, change the car's direction by one minute past ten." The woman warned.

"How do I do that?" Donna asked.

"It's up to you." She replied.

"Well, I just have to…run up to myself and…have a good argument." Donna said.

"I'd like to see that!" the woman said, laughing.

"I wouldn't." the man said. "Gives me the chills just thinking about it."

"Activate loadstone." The captain called.

A switch was flipped and the lights began to blink.

"Good luck." The woman called.

"I'm ready!" Donna called back.

"One minute past ten." She reminded her.

"Because I understand, now." Donna said. "You said I was going to die, but you mean this whole world is going to blink out of existence."

The man and woman's faces were both somber.

"But that's not dying." Donna continued. "Because a better world take its place. The Doctor's world. And I'm still alive!"

She smiled but they didn't answer.

"That's right, isn't it?" She said. "I don't die? If I change things, I don't die? That's…that's right, isn't it?" she asked.

She smiled, but the woman just glanced at the man, both still very somber.

"I'm sorry." The woman said, looking back at her.

"But I can't die!" Donna protested. "I've got a future! With the Doctor and Lily! You told me!"

"Activate!" the captain yelled.

The lights reached full intensity and strong wind blew against Donna. Spark flew from everywhere.

And they she was gone.


Donna reappeared on all fours in the street. She was still wearing the thick green coat covered in wires. All around her was a normal day. She stood up, hardly able to believe it.

She threw her arms in the air, laughing. Then she took in her surroundings properly.

"Hold on..." she said. "But this is…I'm not…This is Sutton Court! I'm half a mile away!"

She turned her face to the sky.

"I'm half a mile away!" she yelled.

She looked down at the wristwatch.

9:57

"Four minutes?" she said, horrified. "Oh, my God…"

She took off running.


Donna and Sylvia approached the car.

"Jival Chowdry?" Sylvia was saying.

They got into the car.

"He runs that little photocopy business in Merchant's Street." She continued. "And he needs a secretary."

"I've-got-a job." Donna told her.


Donna ran down the street as fast as she could. She couldn't catch her breath, but she didn't dare stop.


Donna clicked her seatbelt into place.

"H.C. Clements is in the city." She told her mother. "It's nice. It's posh. So, stop it."

She turned the key in the ignition.


Donna paused by a lamp post for a second to check her watch before carrying on running.


A large blue van drove by them as they waited at the crossroad.

"It won't take long." Sylvia said. "Just turn right."


Donna was sprinting down the road, gasping for air.


"I'm going left." Donna said, fed up. "If you don't like it, get out an walk."


Donna was still running.


"You think I'm so useless." Donna said, raising her voice.

"I know why you want a job with H.C. Clements, lady." Sylvia said, mockingly. "Because you think you'll meet a man…"


Donna stopped, gasping, and checked her watch again.

9:59

"I'm not going to get there." She whispered.

You're going to die.

She saw the blue truck driving up the road.


"…city executives don't need temps, except for practice." Sylvia finished.

The turn signal blinked left.

"Yeah." Donna said. "S'pose you're right."

She turned it to right.


Donna gazed at the approaching truck.

"Please." She whispered.

She stepped out in front of it.

The driver slammed on his breaks, but it was too late. In the background, a woman screamed.


Donna and Sylvia heard the screaming in their car.

"Can you hear that?" Sylvia asked.


The driver jumped out of the truck and waved for traffic to stop.

"Hold on!" he yelled. "Back up!"

"Oi!" a taxi driver called. "Get a move on!"


Donna and Sylvia watched as traffic began to build up to the right of them.

"The traffic's stopping." Donna pointed out.

"Something must have happened!" Sylvia said.


Donna was lying on the ground. She opened her eyes slowly and the man and woman came into focus. The woman kneeled next to her.

"Tell him this:" she said. "Two words."

She leaned down and whispered in Donna's ear.

Donna's eyes closed and her head fell to the side.


Donna looked at the traffic with distaste.

"Well, that decides it." She said. "I'm not sitting in a traffic jam. I'm going left."

She switched the signal and turned left.


Donna screamed

The beetle flailed on her back

The world unraveled

UNIT

Rocco

The Web-Star

The Doctor and Lily, wreathed in fire and water

The sonic screwdriver flying back into the Doctor's hand

The word 'LEEDS' stamped across the paper

The mushroom cloud

The Titanic falling from the sky

The rain above the hospital

The beetle falling off her back onto its back on the floor

The fortune teller cowering in the corner


The woman stared at Donna, her eyes full of fear.

Donna stood and looked at the beetle twitching on the ground, clicking away feebly before it died.

"What the hell is that?" Donna demande.d

"You were so strong." The woman said, terrified. "What are you? What will you be?"

She scrambled to the exit whimpering.

The beetle gave one last click, and then it was still.

The Doctor walked in, his arm still around Lily.

"Everything alright?" he asked mildly.

Donna stared at them as if she hadn't seen them in years.

"Oh, God…!" she said, throwing her arms around them.

"Ow." Lily said. "Careful of the walking dead."

"Not funny." The Doctor told her.

"It was a little funny." Lily replied.

"Not in the slightest." He told her sternly.

"I think his sense of humor is the real thing dying." Lily told Donna. "So what was the hug for?"

"I don't know!" she said, hugging them again.

Lily and the Doctor shared a bemused look, but hugged her back.


The Doctor sat examining the beetle. And by examining it, he was poking it with a stick. Lily reached over and swatted his hand.

"I can't remember." Donna told them. "It's slipping away. You know like when you try and think of a dream and it just sort of…goes."

"It just got luck, this thing." The Doctor said, pointing at the beetle. "It's one of the Trickster's Brigade. Changes a life in tiny little ways. Most times, the universe just compensates around it, but with you…" He looked at her proudly. "Great big parallel world!"

"The man said something similar." Donna said. "Besides I thought after Lily came through, the parallel worlds finished sealing themselves off."

"They did." Lily said. "But you had one created around you. Seems to happen to you a lot."

"How do you mean?" Donna asked.

"Well, the Library and then this…" Lily said.

"Just…goes with the job, I suppose." Donna said.

The Doctor was looking at her now, his brow furrowed.

"Sometimes I think there's way too much coincidence around you, Donna." He said. "We met you once. We met your grandfather. Then we met you again. In the whole wide universe, we met you for a second time. Plus, add to that the fact that the other you travelled with Lily and the other Doctor…It's like something's binding us together."

"Don't be daft." Donna told him. "I'm nothing special."

"Yes, you are!" Lily protested. "You're brilliant!"

They thought you were brilliant.

"And she said that." Donna murmured.

"Who did?" the Doctor asked.

"This man and woman." She replied, straining to remember. "I can't remember."

"Well, they never existed now." He told her.

"Now, but she said…the stars…she said the stars are going out." Donna told them.

"Yeah, but that world's gone." Lily told her.

"No, but they said it was all worlds." Donna insisted. "Every world. They said the darkness is coming, even here."

"Who were they?" the Doctor asked, his attention caught now.

"I don't know." Donna told him.

"What did they look like?" Lily pushed.

"He was…tall. Big ears and a black leather jacket." She told them.

Lily's hand flew to her mouth as he jaw dropped.

"And the woman?" the Doctor asked. "The woman, what did she look like?"

"She was…blonde." Donna remembered.

"What was her name?" the Doctor pushed.

"I don't know!" Donna told him.

"Donna, we need to know their names!" Lily told her.

"But she told me…" Donna said. "To warn you. She said…two words."

"What two words?" the Doctor demanded. "What were they? What did she say?"

Donna hesitated.

"Bad Wolf."

The Doctor's eyes widened and Lily's filled with fear.

"Well, what does it mean?" Donna asked.

The Doctor leapt to feet, Lily right behind him, and ran out the door. Donna followed quickly.

Outside, everywhere they looked, were the words 'Bad Wolf'. Over and over again. They ran to the TARDIS and ever word and phrase was replaced with 'Bad Wolf'.

The Doctor wrenched open the doors and they ran inside.

Lily stifled a scream.

The room was bathed in red light.

Donna slammed the doors after them.

"Doctor, what is it?" Donna demanded. "Lily? Will someone tell me what's Bad Wolf?"

The Doctor was breathing heavily.

"It's the end of the Universe." He told her simply.

A/N: Turn Left is done! Oh wow. I'm not going to lie, I feel kind of like a rock star. Anyway, let me know what you thought and keep sending ideas for future titles.

Abbey