A/N: Quick story time: There were three different versions of this chapter. The first being just including the episode at the tail end of the last chapter as the third episode. Then I got a *great* idea, and that was the second version. I came to realize that it was blatantly ripping off another fanfic author (who I subsequently couldn't even begin to give credit to without spoiling their story). This is the version that came *after* that one. Now, this isn't something that just randomly popped out of the blue. This is something that would've eventually had to happen, but I knew it could've happened at any time in the story.

That being said, quarantine has exacerbated my depression to the point that going forward, y'all have to assume that this story might GENUINELY just be angst. I just want to give a fair warning to those who'd like to bow out now. I'd totally understand if you'd like to. That being said, I've come to find that if I promise happiness, it becomes angst and vice versa. I don't have enough of THIS story planned going forward to say otherwise, but I'd thought I'd give a fair warning.

Also, I'm moving my 'review replies' to the end of the chapter (but just for this one).

TW for emotional abuse. Again.

I still don't own Doctor Who.

Chapter Twenty Three: The Fires of Pompeii

The Tardis straight up wouldn't land.

That's how this adventure had started. The Tardis was straight up refusing to land, completely and utterly. No matter how much coaxing and mallet hitting they did (though the mallet hitting was the Doctor as Anna looked on with a disapproving eye), the Tardis refused to cooperate.

It devolved into her finally having to send the pair out of the room to converse with her (though she didn't straight up tell them that she was talking with the machine. She asked for them to the leave the room and the Doctor complied, just like that).

Their conversation had amounted to there being a paradox if they landed but also if they didn't. The Tardis was doing the only thing she thought she could do (even if she couldn't effectively communicate why she was doing it).

She ended up swearing to the Tardis that she'd prevent the paradox from occurring. Anna could feel that the Tardis wasn't reassured, but she still gave in, and they were off.

The bad day got worse when they found out they were in Pompeii instead of Rome (at least from the Doctor's perspective it was a bad day. Anna was having a great day. She'd convinced the Tardis to land and she was about to save twenty thousand people. It was a great day).

It didn't help matters much that the Tardis wasn't where they had parked it, though it was a quick jaunt from point a to point b as they all split up to look for Foss Street.

It was then that her good day went to being a really, really bad one.

#####

"I need you to freeze time."

The words came at the same time as the elbow linked with hers. She felt surprise rolling through her as she was pulled down the street, and she looked over to see the blonde woman doing the pulling.

"Oh, hey!" she said, excitement sitting in her gut, though she could feel the paradox looming closer. That made sense. Two of them in Pompeii at the same time was bound to lead to bad things. Although, considering that they'd met before and there hadn't been a paradox, why now would there be one?

"Anna, freeze time," she ordered, tugging her along with more urgency.

"Okay, okay, yeesh."

She did as she was asked, freezing time. Like the rest of the occupants on the street, she and the Doctor stopped at the same moment, though she and the Doctor were different in that they weren't frozen mid-selling wares and casually catching fruit and generally living their lives.

The Doctor took her face in her hands. "I need you to teleport us to the future," she said. "But before you do that, I need you to make it so that you can forget everything you're about to see."

Surprise filled her before she frowned. "I… can't," she said, and at the impatient look on the Doctor's face, she spoke. "I- my-my memory, it's tamper proof. As in, even I can't erase it."

"Can't or won't?"

The Doctor's hands fell from her face as fidgeted impatiently, looking around. It was like she was waiting for some threat to pop out from around the corner, even though time had already been frozen.

"I mean, won't-"

"Okay, then do it anyway," she said. "This is important."

She'd never seen this Doctor look so serious. Anna's frown deepened and she shook her head.

"No," she said, and the Doctor looked back at her, that impatience now colored with annoyance. "It's a rule for a reason-"

"Then break the rule," she said. "This is important."

"Important enough to risk a paradox so bad that the Tardis refused to land here? Because I'm assuming you had that on yours as well- and I'm sure you remember what it was like trying to get here, so what-"

"Do you really think I'd risk a paradox of that size on a whim? Seriously?"

She held up her hands. "You're right," she told the Doctor. "I'm sorry. If you're saying that it's important, then it is, and I get that, but I can't tamper with my own memory, no matter how important it is-"

"Stop saying that you can't! It's not can't, it's won't," she told her, that annoyance now devolving to anger. "I don't understand why! Anna, do you think that I would be here for anything less than life or death?"

"Okay, okay," she said. "What about the future me? Where's she?"

"She's already helping with this. We need you as well."

She raised her eyebrows, searching her. "For… what?" she asked.

The annoyance bled out to be replaced only with anger. "If I could've told you that, don't you think I would've done?" she asked.

"No, okay, no," she said, sternly. "Whatever it is that's got you so upset, that gives you no right to yell at me without even explaining the situation. I get that you're upset, I can see that, but I'm not standing here and having you disrespect me just because I'm not answering questions in a way that you like."

She looked at her incredulously. "In a way that I don't like- Anna, I'm asking you for one thing. Just one. Just break one of your rules for me, just this once, just this one time. You know how important it is to me and you're still refusing to do it. That's what I'm upset about, not the fact that you're not answering questions in a way that I like. It's that you're not taking what I'm asking seriously and you're just flat out refusing without even giving it a second thought."

"You think that I haven't given this a second thought? I'm thinking about the paradox on the horizon-"

"Just shut up about that!" she shouted at her, and she felt herself tensing. She crossed her arms and waited for her to apologize for yelling at her. "I know time, Anna. I know how to read it, I get how big this paradox is, but you've no idea what's at stake here! I need you to do this and I need you to do it now, no questions asked."

She shook her head. "No," she said.

"This is important-"

"And it's important to me that I don't break my rules. That's part of being the right kind of being of power is that I respect my own rules, and I can't start breaking those rules now." She shook her head. "Not even for you."

A fire ripped through her eyes. "I shouldn't be surprised, should I? Considering that there's a lot that you won't give up for me."

She furrowed her brows. "What's that supposed to mean?"

There was a cold fury in her eyes. "Just what it says on the tin," she told her, crossing her arms.

This wasn't the Doctor anymore, she realized, suddenly. This was the Oncoming Storm. She was furious right now, and Anna'd no idea why.

"I'd give up everything for you, Anna. The traveling, the Tardis, my home planet, I'd give up everything for you-"

"I'd never ask you to do that," she cut in.

"You wouldn't have to ask!" she shouted at her. "I'd do it gladly and freely, because I love you more than anything, Anna, but you? You're not even willing to break one single rule for me when I need you the most." She searched her eyes before she spoke precisely. "If I asked you, right now, to give up your abilities for me, would you?"

There was a character on Once Upon a Time called Rumpelstiltskin. The show had labeled him a coward because he hadn't been willing to give up his power to be with the woman that he loved.

Anna had agonized about that for a very long time. If she were unwilling to give up her powers for the woman that she loved, did that make her a coward, too? In those days, she'd been unwilling to give up her abilities because she'd been so afraid of what her mother had done to her, and she'd never wanted to feel that powerless again. But now? It wasn't about her mother anymore. It was about the lives that she could save and the difference that she could make.

"Just because I'm not willing to give up my powers for you doesn't mean that I don't love you any less than you love me," she told her. "For you to imply-"

Realization swept through her and she took a step back, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, holy shit," she said, quietly. "Is that-is that the paradox, the one big enough to stress the Tardis out so badly that she's refusing to land? That I have to give up my abilities and if I don't, the paradox will rip through this universe?"

Anger grew in her eyes, though it was a cold fury. "If I said yes?" she asked. "Would you do it?"

She opened and closed her mouth, feeling real fear bleed through her. To be powerless, completely at the mercy of the universe in a way she'd never been before? She'd been under her mother's thumb, fine, but at least she'd had the knowledge that one day she'd be free of her.

If she didn't do this, though, the universe might genuinely fall apart and collapse, that's how bad the paradox was.

She let out a shaky breath, feeling herself growing more nauseous by the second. "All the people I couldn't save, all the people I'd planned on saving…"

But maybe she'd never meant to. Maybe the people had to die, in order for the universe to keep turning.

"What if I just- what if I just head back, to my universe?" she asked. "Would that-would that produce the same results?"

Astonishment and genuine hurt raced through her eyes. "You… you would genuinely leave me behind and never look back so that you wouldn't have to lose your powers?"

Surprise swept through her. "I didn't think about it like that," she said.

"What?" she asked, shouting once more. "You didn't think about the fact that leaving this universe forever would mean that you would also be leaving me behind forever, too?"

"No, I didn't, actually!" she shouted right back. "I was thinking about all the people that I'm supposed to save-"

"You married me, Anna! You made promises, vows, and you just…" she shook her head. "You're so willing to leave that all behind for a bit of power."

"This is so unfair to me," she told her. "You're not even giving me a chance to think about it, to work through how it might even be possible to keep my powers and still stay in this universe-"

"You shouldn't have to think about it, Anna, it shouldn't even be a choice! You should want to be with me, your wife, for the rest of your life, and you just so easily threw me away like trash because you were afraid of a life that you didn't plan out to a t."

Realization hit her and she shook her head. "You're asking me to make some ultimate declaration of love, to throw all of it away for you, but I don't get that luxury. I'm a being of power, and that comes with more responsibility than just fixing your problems, saving lives in your universe. I have a duty to the multiverse, and I don't just get to decide to throw it all away because my love is more important, because it isn't. It's not more important than the good that I could be doing for the multiverse."

The hurt that rested in the Doctor was so visceral that it made Anna flinch, tears watering her eyes. The Doctor raised her eyebrows listlessly.

"You want a second to think about it, how you could still save all of those people and still be powerless at the end of it? Save them all, in the blink of an eye." She felt a thrill of surprise run through her. "You could do that, right now, save every person you were ever meant to with the click of your fingers-"

Desperation welled up in her. "Then what would be the point?" she shouted. "What would the point of being alive be if I couldn't be out there, saving people?"

Fresh surprise ran through the Doctor… before a cascade of hurt once again followed, stacking on top of the old hurt.

"Do you realize what you just said?" she asked. "You just said there would be no point in even being alive if that happened. Apparently, our love and the life we have together isn't a reason to live." She ran her hands through her hair, shaking her head. "Is this who you've always been and I just never noticed it? This being who's so power hungry that she's not even willing to live if she doesn't have that power that she so desperately craves?"

She felt a fierceness running through her.

"That's not what I said," she replied. "I said there wouldn't be a point in being alive if I wasn't saving people, not that I needed power to live." She shook her head. "I mean, is that what you really think of me? That I'm just this desperate power hungry being who has to control the universe in order to feel okay? Because, if that's true, then you're right, you've never noticed who I am before, and let me tell you, as the person who married you about a month ago, that's making me worry a lot about our future."

The Doctor just felt so desolate in that moment. "You know what's making me worry about our future? The fact that you corrected me about the power hungry bit, but not the bit about a life with me, your wife, not being enough reason for you to live." She searched her eyes. "The fact that you didn't even give a second thought to throwing me away, but you were coming up with alternatives left and right when it came to saving your powers." She raised her eyebrows. "Would you have genuinely done it, if I told you that you would've been allowed to keep your powers if you fled this universe and left me behind?"

"If I didn't have enough power to save everyone that I'm meant to, in the blink of an eye? Honestly, really, truly? Yes," she told her. "But that has nothing to do with how much I love you, or the fact that you have the audacity to think that that somehow makes me power hungry, because it doesn't. It means that I understand that my own happiness is not worth more than the good that I could be doing for the rest of the universe."

There were tears lining the bottom of the Doctor's eyes. "Get to the end of the universe, and all that's left is ash and dust." She felt surprise flying through her that the Doctor was quoting her. "Saving people, affecting lives for the better, it matters, but it's not the only thing that matters. Who you love and how you love them matters too, and if you're genuinely trying to tell me that you'd rather spend your life saving people but doing it alone rather than even consider the idea that trading that in for the love of your life might be worth it, then I really underestimated you, Anna. I underestimated who you are and what you could've been, and I'm sorry for that, for both of us, that I've wasted all of this time on us when you could've been doing something that you deemed more worthy with your life. I'm so sorry for that. Don't worry, though. I won't continue to make that mistake."

She felt a cold spread through her and she raised her eyebrows. She opened her mouth to speak but it was suddenly too dry. She swallowed, but she still wasn't able to speak, even as she watched the Doctor input coordinates on the vortex manipulator she hadn't noticed she was wearing.

"Goodbye, Anna. Have a good life."

With that, she slammed her hand down on the vortex manipulator and had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

She stared after her. For a long time, she stared after her, staring at the spot where she'd vanished, before she blinked, finally waking up.

She walked through the frozen crowds, though it felt like she was the only person alive in the universe. Was this who the Doctor was, she wondered? This person who would continue to hurt her in ways that she'd never thought she'd be hurt again?

It was one thing to say that people weren't perfect. Even in good marriages, people hurt their spouses. But this? The Doctor kept using what they knew would hurt her the deepest, without even giving her a chance to defend herself.

She'd been so willing to be treated like a doormat the first time that it had happened, to just bow down and take it. She'd so easily forgiven him, on the basis that he was the man who forgives but also was the man who sometimes needed to be forgiven.

But this? To say that she was a power hungry monster who couldn't see life outside of that? That wasn't fair, and it wasn't right, and if after all these years she really thought that that's who she was…

She'd stood there and taken all the bad things her mother had ever said about her. She wouldn't do the same here. Not now, and not ever again.

The paradox continued to grow the closer she walked to him, but she didn't care. She made it to the Doctor and she unfroze time.

"Oh, Anna! Did you- what're you doing?"

He was probably talking about the fact that she was pulling her ring off of her finger. She held it out to him and he took it, just because he appeared to be so bewildered.

"I'm done," she said.

"With… what?" he asked, confusion clear on his face.

"With you. Goodbye, Doctor. Have a fantastic life."

She turned from him and teleported out, not giving him a chance to say anything in return.

When she landed, the paradox came to a head, starting to pass. She was paradox proof, so she'd continue to exist just fine in the universe, but the rest of the universe wouldn't fair so well. This paradox was huge.

Before she even had a chance to smooth it out, to take away the energy or to fix it so that the universe could remain whole, the universe blinked out of existence.

#####

That's how it felt, anyway.

It was pain and a flash of white in her vision and she was suddenly back, standing in Pompeii, the bustling crowds walking around her. She tried to make sense of what she was seeing, confusion rolling through her. If the universe had ended, then what was she-

Oh, no, obviously. Considering that she could exist in a universe that didn't exist, she had the ability to travel back to the moment that started the end of the universe. That felt time consuming, though, especially since she could build a mechanism that would automatically set her back to the reason the universe had ended. So, she had.

But that couldn't be what this was, though. It appeared she was back in the body she'd been in when she had done this originally. Proof of that was sitting on her left hand, glistening in the Pompeii sun.

Thinking back to it, it didn't actually feel like the universe had ended, either. It was like… she didn't know how to explain it. There was pain, and that flash of white. Maybe it had just been her being overrun by time energy.

So why deposit her back to this moment?

"Anna."

Standing in front of her once more was the Doctor, all blonde and rainbow shirt and looking guilty as hell.

"Your future self and I had to utilize the power of- Anna, please, wait, just let me explain-"

There was pain in her voice and in the connection they shared, and it was so visceral that it started to uncork her own hurt at what had been said, dragging her out of that numb shock.

"Explain what?" she asked, her face crumpled as she brought a shaking hand to her mouth, time frozen around them once more. "You've made it very, very clear-" she felt frustration running through her at the fact that she were crying and she wiped at her tears angrily with her shaking hand before she let out a harsh breath.

"We had to create that specific paradox to save someone, Anna, there was no part of me that wanted to do that, I literally suggested dying and demanded that we go through with that plan instead of this, I swear, I'm- I can't even- there is no justification for this, for how I hurt you, but I didn't- I swear, on my life and everything that I hold dear, that I didn't mean anything that I said about you."

She was shaking and she shook her head. There wasn't really anger anymore. In it's place was the emotion like she'd been egregiously physically injured and didn't have the wherewithal or the want to focus or understand.

She said as much.

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"Okay, I'm sorry, just-" she ran her hands through her hair before she put her hands on her hips. "There was- something terrible happened, in the future. It was the angels, and the only way that we could stop them was to create-"

She frowned. "The angels?" she asked.

"No, we-we had to create that specific paradox, in order to poison the angels, like-like Amy and Rory, like how they- they-" her eyes widened but she shook her head. "But that-that doesn't matter, the point is, we had to create that specific paradox so that we could poison the angels. Once that was done, time reverted back to the way that it had been before we started the paradox in the first place."

She frowned. "So… So you came back and you said all those awful things to me because you wanted me to leave you, because you needed to create a paradox?"

"Yes."

She shook her head. "I don't believe you," she said, quietly, and real fear bled into the Doctor's eyes and through the Doctor herself. "You said so yourself, I could save everyone I'm ever meant to save in the blink of an eye, so why didn't I just create the energy to replicate the paradox to destroy the angels? And that's another thing, I don't kill things, so I don't believe you, even a little bit, you're a friggin' liar, who the hell are you to come at me and tell me- what, is this who you really are, is this how you get your rocks off, by telling emotionally abused people all the things that they've grown up hearing and then setting it back and acting like, 'Oh, no, I just needed it for… for…'" she blinked, looking down at the ground, confused. "But that doesn't make sense," she contemplated, quietly. She traced patterns on the ground with her eyes before she looked up at the Doctor. "I'm really confused right now."

"I know," the Doctor said. "I know, and I'm so sorry for that. We went through a thousand ways that we could do this, and I literally suggested using my all of my regeneration energy because it would be powerful enough to replicate the energy from the paradox, but you insisted on doing it like this, forcing me to hurt you like this, and I'm- I'm so sorry for that."

"But I don't believe you," she said. There was less fear in the Doctor's eyes. "I don't understand, why would I have told you to hurt me like this?"

"Because you said it was the only way that it would definitely work, that we could save-" her eyes barely widened. "-that we could do what needed to be done."

She furrowed her brows uncertainly.

"I don't understand," she repeated, quietly. There was patience in The Doctor's eyes now, but there was also an agony she was trying desperately to conceal. "So… you don't think that I'm a power hungry monster who would rather choose death over you?"

"I don't, I don't, I swear," she told her, placing her hands on either of Anna's shoulders.

"Please don't," she said, quietly, and the Doctor released her, but continued to speak, albeit a little bit more hesitantly.

"It was unfair of me to ask you to do that. You've just fully healed from what your mother's done to you, and when- when you've been in that environment for that long- you're still learning what it means to love. You're still learning how to get lost in someone the way that people do when you love somebody, because you've never learned how to, because you don't have the foundation for it. Not yet, anyway. And that's not to say that you don't know how to love, that's just to say that you're still learning how to love someone as deeply as I love you, if that- I don't even know if that makes sense, honestly," she said, and Anna raised her eyebrows, realizing that the Doctor's hands were shaking. "I'm honestly so terrified that I've just lost you and I don't even know that if what we just did was worth it, and I'm half-tempted to head back to the future you and tell her to sod this because I hated this, Anna. I've done a lot of things in my life but hurting you like this is one of the worst, and I'm so sorry for this, Anna, I swear, I am, I didn't mean any of what I said, and I love you, I do, and I would never, ever do what I said I would, I promise, I wouldn't, I swear."

She held up her hand so that the Doctor would stop talking, because she was so drained of energy that it was an effort to speak. The Doctor came to a halt in speaking, anxiety riddling her face.

"So, you're telling me that you didn't mean any of what you said," she said, quietly, and the Doctor nodded.

"Yes, and I'm-"

"No, sh," she said, holding up her finger. The Doctor bit her lip, but waited. Anna opened and closed her mouth before she nodded. "You didn't mean any of what you said, and despite the fact of how important this obviously was to me and my future self, you still want to take it back, even though whatever it was obviously worked, because you're so regretful of how badly you hurt me."

"Yes," she said, quietly, opening her mouth before her mouth became tight lipped. She nodded, despite the fact that she was desperate to continue speaking.

She furrowed her brow, searching her eyes. "But you weren't wrong."

The Doctor eyes widened. Panic fled through her. "No, Anna, I-"

"When the time came, I did just throw you away, so easily. Like trash. Like you didn't mean anything to me. I just… walked away from you, and our future, and everything that we ever could've been. Even if that weren't the case, I wouldn't pick you over my powers, I would pick my powers over you. I would rather be dead than to not have my powers, because I don't see a point in a life where I don't get to live out the days where I help people, because what is the point? I don't deserve you." She looked down at the ground, her brow still furrowed. "I am Rumpelstiltskin," she whispered, quietly, because she was a coward who couldn't stand the thought of not living that life.

She made a decision, then. She smoothed out her face and she looked up at the Doctor.

"I'll do it."

She didn't know what true terror was until she felt it strike the Doctor.

"Do what?" she asked, though it was like the words could barely leave her lips. Her own face was smooth, but her hands were shaking as she subtly brought one up to the vortex manipulator.

"Give up my abilities," she told her.

The Doctor choked. "Sorry, what?"

She nodded. "You're right, I can-I can save all of those people in the blink of an eye, and then- and then I can be with you." She nodded, smiling as she cupped the Doctor's face in her hands. "Because you're right, you're right, I thought that I needed my powers to live, but I don't, the only thing that I need is you."

"Woah, woah, woah, okay, Anna, Anna, I need you to hear the words that I'm saying, right now."

"I did," she said, nodding, taking a step back as she stuffed her hands into her jacket pocket. "I did, I heard you. You're right. I would be a coward if I chose my powers over you-"

"That's not what I said."

She raised her eyebrows, holding her hands out to either side of her. "Then what did you say?" she asked, letting her hands drop.

"A lie," she told her, quietly, and Anna frowned.

"No, but I did choose my powers over you-"

"Because you've just healed yourself emotionally. You haven't had time to consider what a life outside of your emotional abuse looks like-"

"I shouldn't need time-"

"So somebody who's been tortured shouldn't get a chance to recover and should be forced to automatically be ingrained back into society?"

She frowned. "I don't understand."

"She tortured you, Anna-"

"She was never physical with me," she quickly corrected.

"But she still tortured you with words. She did the equivalent of breaking your bones, over and over again, so that she could keep you in line, except she did it with words. She made it so easy for you to believe that even fighting back was actually abusing the abuser."

She frowned. "Okay, I know this, so why-"

"Because you healed your emotions but you still need to learn to live outside of what she did to you. That means giving yourself time to envision a life outside of that torture, and what that could even look like in the long term. You've only ever seen the life that she designed for you. So, yeah, you've had time to think about what your life looks like in the long term, but traveling with me makes it difficult to see things in that light. You haven't had a chance to picture what your life could look like ten years down the road without her, let alone the rest of time. It wasn't fair of me to ask you to give up your powers when you're still learning how to live outside of what you've always known."

"I know, I know," she said, waving her off. She felt like she was finally coming back to herself and she let out a breath before she pointed at her. "I'm still incredibly angry with you right now."

"You have every right to be. I just… want to say, though, that I was wrong."

She frowned, looking over at her. "What?"

She held up her hands in a placating manner. "Despite everything that I just said, you were willing to give up all of that, to let yourself be so lost in me that there was nothing else. You trusted me enough to know that life with me would've been enough for you, and more than that, you trusted me enough to never do what your mother had done to you, and make you feel a victim, or trapped, or like the world was being burned down around you and like I was the one lighting the flame. I was wrong, Anna. You're more than I could've ever thought, and I don't deserve you. I promise you, though, that I will never do this to you again. You have my complete and utter word. Considering what's happened, I understand if you don't trust my word alone, so take it from someone who's very, very far into your future that knows that I will never do this to you again."

She searched her face for a moment before she shook her head, wiping a hand down her own face. "No, I'm not angry with you," she let out a moment later. "You were doing what you had to, and if the future me said that this is the only way to do what needed to be done, then I trust her."

The Doctor had minimally relaxed, despite the fact that she hadn't commented on what the Doctor had said. The truth was, she didn't know if what she'd said was out of fear or not, and that was the worst part. She'd been healed emotionally, that was true, but that didn't mean that old scars couldn't be torn open anew. If that were true, she could be manipulated to do whatever it was that someone else wanted, if the damage was bad enough.

She vowed to herself never to let that happen again, setting a safeguard in place so that she would know the difference between doing something because she wanted to and doing something because she was afraid of someone's anger (and then firmly ignoring the safeguard itself when it activated a moment later, telling her that her decision hadn't been out of fear. She wasn't sure how much she trusted that. Right now, anyway).

She looked off in the distance, tears lining the bottom of her eyes as she shook her head, looking down at her shoes as she scuffed at the pavement with her toe.

"I can't believe that I have to do Pompeii right now," she said, quietly, the emotions a torrent inside of her.

"We can head out somewhere-"

She shook her head sniffling. "No, I've a feeling that I have to do this right now." Realization crested her like a wave against the shore. "Time's too sensitive to skip it. Right. Okay."

"Anna, I'm-"

She shook her head, biting her thumbnail. "It's not your fault," she said, quietly.

They were silent for a moment before she looked back at the Doctor.

"Did it work?" she asked.

"Did what work?"

She threw her a look that said, Seriously? But answered her all the same. "The thing that started this whole stupid thing in the first place," she told her.

"I'm still not following."

"The paradox," she said.

"Oh! Oh, right, right, um, yeah. Yeah, future you said-said that it worked, so. Listen, Anna-"

"Great," she said, and she nodded. "I'll see you in the future, then."

"Anna, wait-"

She stalked off, unfreezing time. She didn't pause, she didn't turn back, and most of all, she didn't stop.

#####

It didn't matter that his planet hadn't burned, this still affected the Doctor in a big way. It definitely affected Donna the same way. It was for this reason that Caecilius and his family were still saved, standing on that hilltop and declaring the events volcanic. The family would end up Rome, and nobody would know that the bones that would be uncovered at Pompeii were just replicas of the real people who had been transported to the alternate dimension that Anna had created for just such an occasion.

She saved all of them. All nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety six people, because none of them needed to be buried under Pompeii in order for their bones to be discovered. They all got to live out the rest of their lives, happy and healthy and with the people they loved.

"Thank you," Donna said to the Doctor, back on the somber Tardis. Neither of them knew that she'd saved the rest of everyone, because Caecilius and his family had to be saved in the way that they were, or they wouldn't have been stationed in Rome.

"Yeah. You were right. Sometimes we need someone."

Apparently, she was still angry, and the implication that she'd needed someone was the popping of the champagne bottle, letting all of whatever was inside spill out.

She didn't even think about it. She just let herself teleport out.

A/N: This was not what I had planned, and as such, it might be a bit of time before I get the next update out (then again, it might be tomorrow. Who knows, at this point).

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

Review replies:

bwburke94: It *was* fun zany timey wimeyness. Now look where we are. Timey wimey, but not fun. AT ALL.

The Timeless Child: Thank you so much for your kind review! Your words mean the world to me.

Belle France: So happy unbirthday. Hope you enjoy this unbirthday gift (though on the very very slim statistically improbable chance that it actually is your birthday, happy birthday. Hope you enjoy the angst fest that hath turned into Anna's life).

Thank you to Saiyanprincess1511 and Son of Whitebeard for your reviews.