A/N: Hello and welcome back. Sorry about posting this chapter late. This chapter turned into something I had no intention of it being, and um. All I can say is... Yeah, no, I have no words. Because. Yeah. Um.

TW: Mild mentions of gore. She dies, but it's really sudden, but still TW for that.

I still don't own Doctor Who.

Chapter Twenty: Young Anna Monroe Part II

Apparently, Anna was in a cave. Apparently, Anna wasn't the only one. As she looked around, she saw other people chained up against the cave wall in a similar fashion.

There was only one other one that was awake, and she was panicking.

"Where-where am I? What's hap-happening? How'd-How'd I end up here?"

"Woah, woah, hey," she said, and the woman startled as she looked over at her. "It's okay. It's all right. Can you tell me-"

"Where-where are we?" she asked, readjusting in the chains. She had mousy brown hair and glasses that had somehow survived whatever had been done to bring them there.

"A cave," she said, looking around once more. "A cave with," she quickly counted, "six other people. But why eight? Is that important? Oh, hold on!" she said, and she quickly teleported all other six people out, back to where they'd come from, before making it so that they were teleport proof. "Okay, great, now what?" she asked herself, looking around. "I mean," she started, "I guess I could-"

One of the sides of the cave started to slide up, a mechanical whir accompanying it. It was moments after that that a colorless blur came barreling in, roaring.

"Okay, the-"

She got a single glimpse at it. It appeared to be made of some kind of quartz, it's skin definitely not humanoid, though it's shape matched it. It's eyes, though… There was rage in those eyes, and a hunger it would never be able to quench.

She watched as it smashed it's arm into her abdomen. Everything either broke or burst on impact, but either way, she was saved from a painful death when she died nearly instantly.

#####

She'd never tell the Doctor about what state she woke up in, but to say it wasn't pretty was the understatement of the century. She'd also never tell him about the pain she felt when she finally came to.

But, she would never forget either of them.

Lying on the cave floor, looking at the creature who was chewing on something- Oh goodness, was that-

She managed to put it together, through her haze of pain, exactly what it was, and she quickly imagined herself put back together before she imagined herself teleported out to the control room of whatever this place was. There had been a mechanical whirring when the cave wall had slid up, and there was also chains, as well as people that had been teleported to the cave itself. Unless this was a God Complex situation, there was a man behind the curtain (a la Wizard of Oz), and she fully intended to find out who they were and why the hell they'd felt the need to feed her and seven other people to the creature who'd had a hunger that only hands could satisfy.

#####

By the time she'd teleported back to the theater, the situation had been sorted. There was a group called the Parsets that were kidnapping clever females to be fed to the creature, which they'd called a Tilan. How they found said clever females was a bit complicated, but basically, they'd isolated it to an energy signature (which was actually insanely clever) that could be found via a scan, which they set for most of the known universe. Apparently, they thought their studies were worth more than how the females they'd kidnapped could contribute to the respective societies they'd been kidnapped from.

The Tilan, they'd said, was what they'd been studying. They'd found it in an isolated cave on a distant planet far from their home world, and the only sustenance they'd been able to feed it was clever people.

Of course, they'd only told her this because they'd seen her literally come back to life and they were pretty sure that she was some kind of vengeful spirit come to collect, but that was of little consequence. The point was, she'd sent them to the Shadow Proclamation, lab and all, so that they could be locked up for however long something like this was deemed appropriate. The Tilan she sent back to live with it's own kind, no longer a lab rat to be studied or fed innocent people.

She'd meant to teleport back to the theater a second after she'd been teleported out, but she was already starting to run lower on energy. The sum total of what she'd done today included: A sound bubble, bringing Troy the usher back to life as well as teleporting him back from the ship itself, healing from being literally burnt to a crisp, finding out that Agent Smith was actually an alien and then turning off the cameras so she could converse with him discreetly about him being an alien, healed two gunshots wounds (thanks to Agent McEagertofirestein), teleporting three people back to the Tardis, teleported herself and the Doctor back to the theater, came back to life again, teleporting to said control room, teleporting all of them and their lab to the Shadow Proclamation, teleporting the Tilan to it's home world, then teleporting herself back to the theater.

It was any wonder she'd even found the right planet, let alone the right minute.

Still, the Doctor had only taken a couple of steps from the position she assumed he'd been in, so that was a start, at least.

"-doesn't even have the decency to announce themselves before they just up and kidnap my girlfriend, I mean, honestly, who-"

It appeared he was sonicking the air and she held back the laugh. It wasn't hard when he called her his girlfriend.

"Girlfriend?" she asked.

He whirled around. "Anna!" he said, his eyes wide, though she could see from the light pouring into the theater from the outside and the glow of the sonic that there was relief in his eyes. "You're all right! What happened, where'd you-"

She couldn't understand why his face dropped, or why his eyebrows shot up as his eyes raked over her.

"You're covered in… blood."

He looked up at her face, his eyebrows still raised.

"Wha- Oh, damn it," she said, looking down before she let out a breath. She put her hand over her face. "Look, obviously I'm fine, and we need to-"

"So it is yours, then?"

She frowned, looking up at him. "No," she said, sarcastically. "It's the Dalai Lama's, of course it's my blood, who-"

Her eyebrows shot up in realization.

"You… you don't think that I… hurt someone, do-"

"What?" he asked, his face transforming for a moment to say that was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "Nah, come off it, course I don't. I just thought, you know, maybe you'd… someone had been traumatically injured and you'd healed them, and that was their blood you were covered in." He raised his eyebrows once more. "Would asking about what happened be pointless, or…?"

She rolled her eyes before she shook her head, stalking off through the starting to darken theater. "I mean, it wouldn't be pointless per say-"

She heard the thump before she heard the Doctor open his mouth and start to scream.

It was more than just him screaming. It was like someone was-

Tearing him apart? Limb from limb?

"Oh, shit," she cursed, before she turned back around, to find that he was writhing on the floor before he was stiff as a board, his eyes open wide in pain. He was gasping for air, trying so hard just to breathe, no-

She didn't know what else to do. In her panic, she simply put him to sleep.

She hadn't even thought about the fact that he would be able to feel the pain of her dying through whatever link it was that they shared. She may have teleported back thirty seconds after she'd been teleported away, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't feel the pain of what she'd been feeling at the time.

She cursed again, running a gentle hand through his hair, even as her center throbbed uncomfortably. It was usually an indication that she'd used too much of her energy and her body was letting her know that she needed to replenish, but she wasn't focused on that. She was focused on making sure that he stayed asleep through this whole awful experience, so he wouldn't feel the pain that she had felt.

He still twitched restlessly in his sleep, making small whimpering sounds, and she closed her eyes, wishing that this would just hurry the hell up. How long had it taken the Tilan to rip her apart, anyway? How long had it taken to put herself back together? Ten minutes? An hour?

She tried to think of a way to speed this up, to make it so that she didn't even have to put him to sleep, but she'd no idea how. She'd manipulated the connection before, put in a safeguard so that when she died, it didn't, merely pausing until she came back to life. She hadn't even thought about safeguarding it against the pain that she felt when she died, which, in hindsight, was stupid.

Well, no, he was a time lord, which automatically meant more pain resistance for some reason. Besides which, shouldn't the connection automatically block pain of this magnitude? Why shouldn't it?

She bit her lip, her ankles crossed as she continued to gently rub a hand through his hair, throwing him comfort all the while, even as he continued to twitch and occasionally whimper all the while.

#####

It could've been a literal eternity later, though the digital clock on the wall read that it had actually been about half an hour since the first scream had rung out through the air. Just to be on the safe side, she allowed him to come out of it at forty five minutes. She did so slowly, and as she did, she felt the urgency build up through the connection until it finally exploded out of him.

He stood straight up, startling her as she watched him from her position on the floor. He looked around wildly, his eyes seeing something that wasn't making sense to him. Desperation flooded him and he shook his head.

"Anna!" he practically screamed her name.

"Woah, Doctor, I'm here, I'm right here," she said, standing.

He barely even registered that she was there, his eyes wild as he looked down upon her, before he surprised her when he picked her up, bridal style.

"Woah-"

"Tardis, now," he said, through gritted teeth.

She'd never felt him more fiercely protective than he did in that moment. It shot through him with each of his individual hearts beats, building until she was afraid it might burst out of him.

It was because of this that she started to simply do as he asked, before she remembered the tech.

"Doctor, I can't," she started. She was sure that she wouldn't be able to teleport them back to the theater to get the tech if she teleported them to the Tardis now.

Imagine her utter shock when, despite this, they were suddenly standing in the Tardis.

"Ta," he said, as an almost afterthought, but he was already running them to the medbay.

But. Um. But. Wh. What?

She didn't understand what had happened, had no clue.

Except she did.

Dread rolled through her when she realized that maybe he'd used his 'in case of emergency' that he'd gotten from her. So, it took no energy to teleport them to the Tardis.

Okay. Okay. No, this was-this was fine. This was fine, she thought, as he ran them to the medbay, because, hey, let's be honest, he was in such a frenzied state, he hadn't even noticed that she'd said that she couldn't, so, so yeah, yeah, this was, this was absolutely fine. This was so fine. There was definitely no need to panic about this. At all. Even a little.

It didn't help her own panic that the Doctor was in such a frenzied state. They practically reached the medbay in five seconds flat, and it wasn't long after that that he was once again taking hold of her shirt, this time the corner by her left hip, and simply ripping it open.

"Doctor-"

She didn't object further when he knelt down next to her, deftly running his hands over the damage that had long since healed. She let out a frustrated breath, but it quickly turned to concern when he pushed his forehead against the bare skin of her hip, wrapping his arms around her, relief rolling through him.

His hearts were pounding so hard that she could actually feel it through his suit against her thigh, and she ran her hand gently through his hair.

"Doctor, I'm okay," she whispered to him. He shook his head, clutching onto her tighter, and it was a moment later that she realized his shoulders were shaking with sobs. "Doctor," she tried again. "Doctor, I'm okay. I'm okay."

She managed to gently remove his arms from around her, though the spots where he'd held onto her would no doubt be sporting bruises soon enough with how tightly he'd grabbed onto her. She didn't even remove his arms, really. He just allowed her to slide her body down, until his arms were clung around her shoulder blades with the same ferocity. He was still shaking, though his sobs had subsided.

"Doctor," she said, quietly.

He finally took his face off of her shoulder, and she'd never know how she realized it was probably because the blood was still caking her clothes (and now that he'd come back to his senses, having his nose buried in it was likely like tasting it, which was gross but also true with how his senses worked). A new determination had his face set and, with shaking hands, he ripped open her shirt at the arm, though there was no sleeve to speak of. He ran a hand over the bare skin there, performing a medical examination of sorts, and she let him because it felt cruel not to. He started to pull at her arm before his eyes widened. A wild panic went through him and he shook his head vehemently, launching himself at her before he held onto her as tightly as he possibly could without hurting her further.

He was once again gasping, but it was for a different reason now. "I'm sorry, Anna, I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry, Anna, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry-"

He got the words out so quickly that she couldn't speak until he'd gotten all of them out.

"Doctor, Doctor, hey, it's not-"

Sobs wracked his body as he pushed his head into her shoulder.

It clicked for her, then.

He hadn't just felt her pain. No, the only way that he could've known that was if he'd seen it firsthand. It was entirely possible that because the connection had only been paused, he'd watched her body being ripped apart, limb from limb, and not been able to do a single thing about it. Worse, he'd had to watch what even she hadn't seen, because she'd died with her eyes open.

"Doctor, look at me, yes, look at me, look-"

She managed to detangle herself from him before she stood, taking her clothes off completely so that he could inspect every part of her to reaffirm that she was whole and there and alive.

He did, going into a strange sort of work mode as he examined every inch of her. He had a purpose about him, now, and that probably helped. This was more familiar to him. He was the Doctor, and he had a job to do.

It could've easily been an hour later that he finally stopped running his hands expertly over the places that the Tilan had ripped her limbs off, not even satisfied when the medbay scans told him that she was clean and healthy at least twelve times. He wasn't satisfied until he'd finally gotten over his fear of barely pulling her arm away from her shoulder to find that it wasn't coming off. He'd started to do the same to other body parts before he finally landed on the forearm that the Tilan had tried to make a meal of. He'd run his hand over the skin there, over and over, barely shaking his head before he brought it to his mouth, placing his lips on her forearm and closing his eyes.

They stood like that for an uncomfortable amount of time, and she barely shifted.

He finally snapped out of it, sniffing before he cleared his throat. Wordlessly, he took his jacket off before he wrapped it around her shoulders, encasing her in it. It swallowed her up, and he led her to a bed before he sat her down on it.

He knelt down in front of it next, grabbing her hands in his, though the shaking hadn't completely subsided.

"I need you to do something for me, and I know that you won't want to, but I'm asking you, Anna, please. For me. I need you to do this."

She searched his eyes. "Do what?" she asked, quietly, after a moment.

He opened his mouth to speak before frustration rolled through his eyes and he looked down and away.

"And I know that you won't want to, that it'll be against every instinct that you have, but I need you to do this for me. Anna, for me. Please."

She frowned. "Doctor, what-"

"I need you to make it so that you can't be randomly teleported away anymore."

He'd spit out the words like he couldn't get them out fast enough, but there was frustration, his teeth gritted as he looked down at the floor.

"Please," he tried.

She raised her eyebrows, barely licking her lips. It had to have been horrible for him to see what he'd seen, yes. She wasn't discounting his pain in any way. But for him to ask her to do this?

"Doctor, I'm-I'm so sorry-"

His eyes squeezed shut before he shook his head. "Anna, no, just-just consider it, for a moment, right, because you've-you've got your time sense- feelings, you've got your feelings and surely, if-if it's life threatening-"

"Doctor-"

"Anna, just-just, please, just for me, please, do this, for me, I have-I have never asked anything of you, not ever, but I am asking you to do this. Please," he said, finally looking up at her. "Please. For me. Do this, for me. Please. Because I can't-" he shook his head, his eyes haunted. "I can't see you go through that again. I can't, I just, I can't." he shook his head, pressing his chest against her knees so that she could feel his words vibrating through her legs. "Please," he said, searching her eyes. "For me. Please."

She hesitated in speaking before she diverted, gently taking his face into her hands. He leaned into the touch like a dying man to water, squeezing his eyes shut as he reached up, clasping her hand in his.

"Please," he tried again.

How could this feel cruel, she wondered? How could it feel so cruel to do this to him, to tell him that she couldn't?

But it did. It felt so cruel and so wrong to not give him the one thing he'd asked of her (and actually wanted, not just asked for out of anger).

But, she had to deny him this. No matter how much she didn't want to.

She was a being of power, and she didn't have the luxury of granting personal favors of this magnitude. Not even for time lords she loved.

"Doctor, I would," she told him. "I would, a million times over-"

"Then do," he said, looking up at her. "Just do it. You can. You can do anything, so why- just do this, you can do this, and don't tell me that you can't," he stood up and his words were coming at a rapid fire pace. "You ended the Time War Anna and you're telling me that you can't make it so that you can't be teleported out against your will? Hm?" he raised his eyebrows, searching her.

She raised her own eyebrows.

"Yes," she told him, quietly.

He bit out a laugh, but it was humorless.

"No, no, no," he told her, looking over at her. He'd run his hands through his hair, but he turned back to look at her, fire in his eyes. "No, you- you're telling me that you won't. That's what you're telling me, that you won't do it, and why?" he asked. "Why?"

"Because if I hadn't've been able to be teleported out against my will, a lot more people would be dead because I wouldn't have known. Those people needed me-"

"I need you, Anna!" he shouted at her, and she sat back on the bed, raising her eyebrows.

He was wild. Everything about him was loud. He was desperate. There was no part of her that didn't believe that he did need her.

"I just- I just-" he shook his head, running a hand through his hair as he turned away, a hand on his hip. He shook his head, but he wasn't looking at her. "I don't know how it happened," he said, his voice strangely hoarse. "I just know that losing you would- it would tear me apart until there is nothing left." He shook his head, looking at her. "And I'm sorry for that. Because I know what it's like to have the responsibility of the universe on your shoulders. And I'm not asking you to give that up," he told her, starting towards her. "I'm just asking you to find a way for this to never happen again. Just make it so that people can't teleport you against your will. Anna. Please." He got on his knees in front of her, once again grabbing her hands in his as he looked up at her with desperation in his eyes. "Please. For me. I'll never ask for anything again from you, please, just do this one thing. For me. Please."

She was at a complete loss for words. She'd never seen him like this. He was the Doctor. He didn't need anything or anybody. He could survive anything, and had. Yet, he was saying that he wouldn't survive it if he lost her.

Emotions were running high right now. Later, he'd come to his senses and realize that he didn't need her as much as he thought he did, that losing her wouldn't leave him this broken thing that he thought it would. In another version of events, he'd lost his whole planet, his whole race, he'd been the one to pull the trigger (or he thought that he had) and he survived. Losing one person wouldn't tear him apart so completely that he'd never be whole again.

Even so, how could she deny him this? Looking into his eyes, seeing the way that the thought of losing her made him so terrified, how could she possibly say no to the time lord in front of her?

She had to. She was a being of power, but she was more than that. She had promised herself she'd always be the right kind of being of power, the kind who remembered that every single being that had ever existed deserved a chance at a life. If she did this, she would be risking people's lives, and that wasn't something she could allow herself to do. Even if it broke her heart and hurt the time lord in front of her in the process.

So, she leaned down, shaking her head. "You won't lose me," she told him, quietly, and he searched her eyes, tears unshed in his. "I swear to you, no matter what happens, I will always find my way back to you."

The spark of realization was nothing compared to the hurt that ricocheted through his chest. She thought it might've hurt him less if she'd physically injured him to the point of regeneration.

His mouth opened before he searched her. "You're saying no," he said, and the words were so quiet she almost didn't hear him. But, the hurt on his face was loud and clear, so much louder than his words had ever been.

But, she shook her head, now easily able to extract her hands from his so that she could grasp his face in her hands.

"I'm telling you that you won't ever lose me," she told him. "That even if-" she shook her head. "I promise you, you will never have to go through the pain of losing me. I will never force you to know what it's like to live your life without me, for as long as you'll have me.

"I love you, to the ends of the universe- to the ends of the multi-verse and back. I promise you, I swear, I will always, always find my way back to you. I promise." She nodded, gently swiping at the tears that finally fell down his cheeks. "I promise."

He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his face into her knees. There was an ache and a longing that she'd never felt before coming from him, one that he couldn't let himself feel.

This was the price of immortality. It was watching loved ones age and wither and die, and having the only thing that was left of them be the ache they left behind.

It stole her breath and weakened her knees and the only thing she wanted to do was say take her answer back and tell him that she would do this for him, because he did so much and never asked for anything in return.

But, it was something she couldn't give him. This was about more than the time lord, and a part of him knew that, no matter how small and shouted down it might've been.

He finally picked his head up again, resting his chin on her knee as he stared at her left hip. He came to a decision, though what it was, she didn't know. Not until he stood up, leaning down over her. She looked up into his eyes, searching them.

He kissed her.

For a long moment, he kissed her, lovingly and passionately and with longing. It wasn't just kissing, though. He was conveying everything he couldn't say into his actions.

I understand, it said. I know you can't do this for me, and I still love you.

He pushed her back onto the bed, putting a leg on either side of her and grabbing her face in his hands as he continued to kiss her.

I will love you, long after you no longer want me, long after civilizations have turned to dust and ash and everything else has faded away.

I love you, Anna Monroe, and I will love you forever.

There were a thousand things she wanted to say to him, a thousand things that she'd never be able to.

But, there was one thing she'd never tell him, and it was the feeling she'd got when she'd told him that he would never know the pain of losing her.

It was a feeling that said those words were wrong.

No matter how desperately she tried to get lost in him, she couldn't completely escape the realization that one day, he would lose her, and there would be nothing she could do to stop it.

The only thing she could was hope that when it did happen, she could keep her promise of getting back to him.

Well that and hold onto the hope that he wouldn't willingly lose himself in the sea of his grief before she could.

A/N: Wow... Wow. Wow just wow. This. I had no intention for this to be this angsty. Ah. My bad.

As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review.