XLVII
Endings and new beginnings

The Island
Outside the woods

The Black Lighthouse erupts into an explosion. The light beams at the top of the lighthouse shatters and bursts out in glass and smoke. The void vanishes like it was never there in the first place. And then there is nothing left but an empty shell of the lifeless Black Lighthouse.

The explosion of the Black Lighthouse is so deafeningly loud, it echoes over the tops of the cliff and across the whole Island. And for a few moments, everyone is in silence, not knowing what and where the explosion came from. However, for everyone in Jack Gruntler's residence, it only takes them a few seconds to understand what has happened.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Martha shouts. Rose sits by the sleeping Max on the sofa and covers her mouth with a hand, stifling a sob. Aaron stares out the window, looking in the general direction of where the woods are. Joseph, nearly loses his balance and grips onto the back of a dining chair for support.

That's when Will's cries of grief can be heard from upstairs. And immediately everyone realises what has happened.

Rose glances over to the Cytracik sitting on the table. It merely fizzes as if the horrific contents of the inside is slowly disintegrating.

The wind around the Island starts to blow heavily as if the remains of the Black Lighthouse is blowing away.

The Doctor stands in the exact same hunched over position, a hand reaching out to April. But all he sees is April's lifeless body lying on the ground. The gun flung from her hand and laying in the grass not too far away. Her eyes are still open and yet there isn't even a hint of a scowl upon her brow.

The Doctor's body shakes vigorously with grief. His mouth still hanging open in utter despair.

There is a rush of people and a hum of voices. Faces the Doctor does not recognise come over to the scene. Some crouch down to April's body, announcing that there has been a suicide and that help is needed immediately. And then the Doctor falls to his knees, not even able to scream.

He pushes the heel of his hands into his eyes, trying to blot out the image of seeing April kill herself right before him. The grass beneath him is slightly wet with early morning dew, but he does not care for the mud that starts to seep through his brown trousers.

The voices around him buzz like bees in a hive. But then a voice he recognises speaks softly in his ear.

"Go to her, Doctor."

Terry gives the Doctor a slight push and he removes his hands from his face. There are around ten people blocking his view from April and this makes him a little angry. Dazed and almost drunk, the Doctor gets back on his feet and makes his way back to April.

"Let me see her, please." He says repetitively, trying to push through the crowd. People however try to push him away, but he keeps repeating the same five words. He is pushed away and yet he eventually reaches April.

The Doctor falls to his knees again and the voices around him continue to buzz. But she is there. April Hollerford lying lifelessly in the grass with a bloody bullet wound in the side of her head. His vision slightly blurs as his head spins. The Doctor reaches for her wrist and feels for her pulse. But of course there is nothing.

April Hollerford is dead.

"I used to sing her Oranges and Lemons when she couldn't sleep at night," Joseph says quietly. "The same with Maxwell." He sits at the dining room table. Declan by his side.

Ireen, who's face is paler than normal, her lips pursed tightly together, walks around the house, giving everyone a cup of hot camomile tea. Aaron, however, went upstairs to comfort his son. The both of them remain upstairs in silence.

"So that's why we always heard the song," Rose wonders aloud and everyone turns their attention to her. "Since April joined us in the Tardis, no matter where we were in the universe, we would always hear that song."

"It was a subtle way to remind the twins that their grandfather is still alive." Jack Gruntler says darkly.

Rose shakes her head. "We never saw it."

Jack walks carefully across the living room. "The Battle of the Cytracik is over," Jack, who is holding onto the Cytracik, throws it onto the table, letting it make a hollow clatter. "It is nothing more than an empty shell. It's now just a piece of junk. As is the Black Lighthouse. April knew what she was doing. She knew that the only way to destroy the Cytracik was to kill the thing it was after. To create a paradox."

"She knew from the start," Sarah-Jane says, her voice breaking with grief. "When she was fourteen, she knew that the world would be better off with her dead."

Jack sighs. "The world is never better off with someone dead. She was a depressed child who saw nothing but her death. Unfortunately killing herself was her only option."

"Don't say that!" Ireen snaps.

There is a beat before Jack turns and walks over to the sofa before turning to look at everyone else. "You all must not blame yourself for this. Don't think that because of the way you may have treated her, or an argument you had, resulted in her suicide, because it didn't. She wanted this for years. She would have done it anyway. And even if she didn't do it, the Cytracik would win and she would be dead by tomorrow," Jack looks from one person to the next. "Each and every one of you gave her the happiness she never had before. So you are not to blame. She killed herself to save everyone. That is all she ever wanted. And she saved the universe."

There is a long silence. Everyone seems to wait for the Doctor and Terry to come back. But it has been two and a half hours since the whole Island heard the Black Lighthouse explode. Two and a half hours since April killed herself. Two and a half hours of Jack Gruntler trying to reassure everyone that it was meant to be.

Suddenly Max stirs on the sofa and his eyes flicker open.

Immediately, Rose jumps to her feet and rushes to him. She kneels down on the wooden floor so that she is level with him. She searches his face, just in case he has felt anything from April's suicide, but he only looks lost and confused.

Max scowls, just like April always did. His eyes scan over Rose before he looks at everyone else in the room. A deathly silence. Everyone's face looking rather pale and grey. Rose's bloodshot eyes and smudged make-up from crying.

However it only takes him to inhale deeply to understand what has happened. For his lungs are clear. He is free from his disease. And because of his loss, all he can feel is emptiness.

"Max." Rose says softly as he starts groping at his neck, taking long gulps of air, unable to believe that he can finally breathe properly.

And then he starts to wail.

The Doctor slowly trudges through the fog at the top of the cliff. He does not remember much after he accepted that April is dead. Someone eventually covered her lifeless body over with a large blue table cloth. And he was briefly aware of her body being taken to the empty hospital. But the next thing the Doctor knows is that he is walking away, back towards the Tardis.

He probably should return to Jack Gruntler's residence to inform everyone of the news, but he assumes that they must all know by now. He didn't even pay much attention to the explosion of the Black Lighthouse when that bullet pierced April's skull, knocking out every inch of life in her.

But right now the Doctor is overcome with a sense of numbness. Not only does he ask himself if this is what April felt most of the time, he also asks himself how has it come to this. He saved her life by taking her away from Bruce, and she saved his life killing herself and officially ending the Battle of the Cytracik. The Doctor knows that now the Cytracik is nothing more than a mere empty box, just like the Black Lighthouse is just a shell that will never flash again.

The Battle of the Cytracik is over. A battle that has been occurring for years has finally reached its end. And yet the Doctor no longer cares about it.

Eventually the mist on top of the cliff slowly starts to fade as he gets closer to the other end of the beach, where he is expecting to hear the waves and see the Black Lighthouse.

In a matter of seconds, the Doctor steps out of the mist. The Tardis stands there watching him. The sound of the waves below fills his ears. They are slow and steady. However sitting at the edge of the cliff with his legs dangling over the edge, is Lieutenant Will Sullivan. He is smoking a cigarette.

For a moment the Doctor halts and looks at Will and the way his curly blond hair blows in the breeze. And then the Doctor is angry for he realises that Will must have known that April was going to kill herself.

He takes a step forward, wanting to take it out on Will. It is his fault. He should have told someone. They could have stopped her. How can he claim that he loves April and let her kill herself?

However the Doctor stops mid step, realising that all his thoughts are just part of his grief. Of course it isn't Will's fault. It's no ones fault. And as awful as it is to admit it, what April did was what was meant to happen. All of a sudden the Doctor feels sorry. He feels sorry for Will to have lost someone he loves. He feels sorry for April to have wanted to kill herself when she was fourteen. There is no one to blame for this.

Before the Doctor knows it, bile starts to rise up through his throat. He bends over and immediately starts to retch onto the muddy grass. It is so unlike him.

Will jumps at the sound of retching and turns around only to find the Doctor, his face grey as he doubles over, clutching onto his stomach.

"Jesus Christ," Will mutters before putting out his cigarette and getting onto his feet. "Doctor!" he calls as he runs to him.

The Doctor shivers as he vomits the last of the bile coming out of his throat. Will holds back for a moment, surveying the Doctor. He does not speak until the Doctor rests his hands on his knees, breathing in and out deeply. The Doctor then wipes the remains of his vomit from his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You saw her do it, didn't you?" Will asks, his voice low and weak.

The Doctor looks up at Will, gasping, and nods.

Will sighs before glancing over to the Tardis. He then holds his arm out to the Doctor. "Come."

The Doctor eventually stands up again and follows Will. In silence, they both sit back down in the grass and hang their legs over the edge of the cliff. The wind on the edge seems a little harsher than it does further inland. But they both stare out at the Black Lighthouse. Black smoke is still rising into the air, but it slowly fizzes out.

"Why don't you just run?" Will asks after a while. "Why don't you just jump into the Tardis and move on? The battle is over."

"I was thinking the same thing. But this time moving on isn't quite as easy." the Doctor replies.

Both Will and the Doctor continue to stare out to the Black Lighthouse as they speak. Long pauses of silence between them.

"Jack says that April's body should be cremated," Will says, his voice flat and bland. "If we bury her then some species will try and dig her up in attempt to bring back the Cytracik. It won't work but it'll be an insult to her memory."

The Doctor eventually looks over to Will, seeing him in a different light for the first time. "Are you okay?"

Will lowers his eyes down to his hands in his lap. Without realising, he has been picking at his nails. There are spots of dried blood over his fingers. "I'm fine," Will says before looking at the Doctor. "It was never going to last. Me and her. What with the laws of parallel universes and all that," he studies the Doctor's troublesome face for a second. "How about you?"

The Doctor doesn't respond. Instead he glances back to the Black Lighthouse. Will sighs before looking back down at his bloodied fingers.

"I never deserved her love."

The Doctor frowns and looks at Will again. "Don't you dare say that. Don't think you never deserved her love. There was no one she loved more than you."

Will looks blankly over to the waves and then scowls. "You wouldn't be saying that if she weren't dead."

The Doctor hesitates for a second. "April knew how much I never liked you. How in her world we never connected. You didn't like me and I you. She knew that she was in love with someone who was supposed to be dead. But that didn't stop her. And that didn't stop you from fighting to get back to her," the Doctor shuffles awkwardly. "For April, I'm trying to make amends here," he hesitates again as if he is struggling to get the words out. "I'm sorry, Will. I am so, so sorry."

For a second Will continues to scowl at the waves, but then he turns to look at the Doctor and forces a smile. "I'm sorry too."

In that instant, both the Doctor and Will relax in each other's company.

"So what are we going to do about Rodger Barratt?" Will asks. "Are we to execute him?"

The Doctor's head then shoots up as he remembers something. Who was the one person who hated Rodger Barratt as much as April did, if not more?

Brigadier Aaron Brimikawood.