(The following scene begins an altered version of the two-part episode 'End of Time'. For the sake of my story line, the Doctor finds Christine (aka, the Archivist) after the Waters of Mars, however, the Planet of the Dead did not occur in this storyline.)
The next morning, the Doctor and the Archivist stepped back onto their separate ships and began the docking procedure to join them together again. Their stop this morning would be to upstate New York, just a few days after they'd left before.
Once the docking process was completed, Archie stepped back onto the Doctor's TARDIS through the new doorway in their control rooms. When she did, first, she saw the Doctor at this console. But it was what was behind him that caught her attention.
"Doctor!" she called out.
He looked up immediately, catching the urgency in her voice. She was staring behind him so he turned that direction as well.
There, standing in the control room of the TARDIS was Ood Sigma.
"What? Ood Sigma, what are you doing here?"
"The Doctor must return to Ood Sphere. We have a message we must deliver."
"Can't you just tell me here? Now?"
"No."
"Can't it wait? You see, we're—"
"It cannot wait. They are coming. We must deliver our message. You must see the dreams."
"Dreams?" The Doctor's brow furrowed as he tried to understand the cryptic message.
"Doctor," Archie whispered as she stepped up beside him, still staring at the Ood. She took his hand and their fingers intertwined almost instinctively.
The Doctor looked between Archie and Ood Sigma. "I promise, Sigma—we'll come to you soon. It's just—this is the Archivist and she—well, we're to be married today, and I'm not letting anyone's bad dreams get in the way of that."
"Your union will be destroyed as will everything in existence."
The Doctor's somewhat flippant expression turned to one of absolute horror. "What does that mean?!" But as he barked out his question, Ood Sigma disappeared.
"Doctor," the Archivist spoke in a hushed, serious tone. "I think our decision has been made for us. New York—and our marriage—will have to wait."
"Then, it's to the Ood Sphere for us," the Doctor said with wide eyes before blowing out a long breath. "Blimey, I wasn't expecting that one."
"I know that you're worried because of what the Ood said the last time you were there. About your song. But perhaps it wasn't a death sentence, Doctor. Perhaps it wasn't what you're expecting."
"Or maybe it was, Arch—maybe it was and I've found you only to regenerate, or worse, die—"
"But I'm here now, Doctor—and perhaps the Ood didn't see that. Maybe things have changed."
"Well, I guess there's only one way to know."
The police box door creaked open, as it often did. The Archivist stepped out right behind the Doctor. Standing before them was Ood Sigma, this time in the flesh instead of an apparition of their mind.
"Ah, there you are. So, where were we? You summoned us, and here we are."
"Thank you for coming, Doctor." The Ood turned to the Archivist. "Your song, Archivist, is new, yet old. The Ood welcome you."
"About that, Sigma—the last time I was here, you said my song would be ending soon. I'm in no hurry for that. Have things changed—now that Archie is here. Have things changed?"
Ood Sigma looked between the two Time Lords before stating, "It is unclear."
"Unclear? What kind of answer is that?" The Doctor asked impatiently.
"Doctor, calm down. The Ood aren't all knowing." She then turned to Sigma. "Please, Sigma—tell us why you've brought us here."
"You will come with me."
As they walked along, the Doctor attempted to continue conversation with Sigma. "So how old are you now, Ood Sigma?" He then stops as he sees the Ood city. "Ah. Magnificent. That is splendid. You've achieved all this in how long?"
Sigma answered. "One hundred years."
The Doctor frowned. "Then we've got a problem. Because all of this is way too fast. Not just the city, I mean your ability to call me. Reaching all the way back to the twenty first century. Something is accelerating your species way beyond normal."
Sigma answered with his own mystery. "And the Mind of the Ood is troubled."
"Why, what's happened?" the Archivist asked.
"Every night we have bad dreams."
He said no more, but led them down a snowy hill towards an ice cave. When they entered they immediately saw a group of Ood sitting in a circle.
The Elder Ood spoke. "Returning, returning, returning, it is slowly returning through the dark and the fire and the blood. Always returning, returning to this world. It is returning, and he is returning, and they are returning, but too late. Too late. Far too late. He has come."
Sigma looked to the two Time Lords, "Sit with the Elder of the Ood and share the dreaming."
They obeyed and sat down in the empty space left between Ood in the circle.
The Ood all spoke at once now. "You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join."
The Doctor and the Archivist both links hands with the Ood and at the same time, saw the laughing face that had been haunting their dreams. Both gasped as they heard the maniacal laugh.
"He comes to us every night. I think all the peoples of the universe dream of him now," the Elder Ood said.
"That man is dead," the Doctor said sternly. The Archivist heard the tinge of fear and regret in his voice.
The Elder spoke again. "There is yet more. Join us. Events are taking shape. So many years ago, and yet changing the now. There is a man—"
They heard the Master's laugh again, but in their minds, saw Wilf sitting at a table in his house, alone, a grimace on his face.
"So scared," the Elder said.
The Archivist spoke before the Doctor could, though their thoughts were one in the same. "Wilfrid, is he all right?"
Then, another thought made the Doctor's blood run cold. "What about Donna, is she safe?"
"The lines of convergence are being drawn across the Earth. Even now, the king is in his Counting house."
They then saw images of a black man and his daughter in their minds.
"I don't know who they are."
"And there is another. The most lonely of all, lost and forgotten."
They then saw a woman in a cage. A woman the Doctor recognized.
"The Master's wife," the Doctor answered.
"We see so much, but understand little. The woman in the cage, who is she?" Ood Sigma asked.
"She was—It wasn't her fault, she was—The Master, he's a Time Lord, like me. I can show you." The Doctor shows the Ood images of the Master from the times during the Year that Never Was. "The Master took the name of Saxon. He married a human, a woman called Lucy. And he corrupted her. She stood at his side while he conquered the Earth. I reversed everything he'd done so it never even happened, but Lucy Saxon remembered. I held him in my arms. I burnt his body. The Master is dead."
"And yet, you did not see," the Elder Ood said.
"What's that?" the Doctor frowned as they showed him the same image of the burning pyre. They heard the Master's laugh again before seeing a signet ring dropping from the fire and a woman pick it up.
"Part of him survived. I—we have to go!
"But something more is happening, Doctor. The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark. The Ood have gained this power to see through time, because time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil, and these events from years ago threaten to destroy this future, and the present, and the past.
"What do you mean?" the Doctor questioned.
"This is what we have seen, Doctor. The darkness heralds only one thing," the Elder Ood said first.
Then all the Ood spoke together, "The end of time itself."
They heard the Master's laugh one last time before the Doctor dropped their hands and jumped up, running out of the cave.
"Events that have happened are happening now," the Elder Ood spoke as the Archivist jumped up to run after the Doctor.
"In the end, the Archivist will restore the future Temple."
She spun around and frowned. "What does that mean?"
"The future Temple will be restored," the Ood called out together.
"I'm—I'm sorry, I have to go—" she said as she turned back to run after the Doctor.
Just as she exited the cave, she almost ran right into the Doctor, who had turned back to get her. "Come on, we have to go, now!" he shouted as he took her hand and pulled her along with him. Luckily, she was fast, almost faster than him, as they returned to the TARDIS and took flight.
"Doctor! Doctor, where are we going?"
"Broadfell Prison. We've got to get to Lucy Saxon before anyone else does."
A few moments later they were running out of the TARDIS—and right into the ruined shell of the prison.
"We're too late," the Doctor whispered.