The last of the "of the" chapters. There are three more chapters in this story, and then comes the monster of an arc known as the Lazarus Experiment. That one's gone through even more edits than this chapter, which is to say: a lot.

I received a message from mattw2017 asking who plays April. The answer is that I know barely any actors/actresses who have not already appeared in Doctor Who or Harry Potter, so I have no idea.

Also, I had two questions for anybody still reading this, since I'm trying to decide what to do with the next few stories. I'm currently low on ideas for 42-would it upset anyone if I skipped it, at least temporarily? Additionally, I'm considering whether or not to move Human Nature/The Family of Blood to a different time period. Do you think this would detract from the story, and if not, which time periods might you like to see it set in?

Disclaimer: Th3 D0ct0r Wh0 Un1v3rs3 d03s n0t b3l0ng t0 m3.

Chapter 24: Remembrance of the Storm

April pushed, pouring all of her power into time, warping it, rewriting it. It was a tree, and she cut a branch so that it might grow again. Only this time instead of a sickly one, it would be strong. Remember, April.

"The storm will break."

And then nothing happened. Forever.

Explosions lit up the night. The campsite was burning, flames eating away at the only things these people had left in the world. April saw the second Dalek soaring through the air, lights flashing as it let loose ray after ray of destruction. There was a body on the ground, near her, a body of a teenage girl. Her face was bleeding, blood pouring out as flames licked at her legs. April wanted to go to her, to pull her away. If she was still alive, she could still be alive, she could save her! But April was stuck in the tightly packed circle of people clutching their guns as they screamed in terror. April longed to close her eyes, unable to bear the destruction and chaos around her.

And then, Solomon stepped forward, his face set in determination.

"No, Solomon," said the Doctor. "Stay back."

The world broke. A scratched record, skipping, the feeling of time not quite lining up. And then April found herself assaulted by a barrage of memories:

One

… "Run!" The Daleks were destroying the camp and Harriet was dead, dead, dead. Her body lay broken on the ground, side by side with the Doctor's, and April couldn't breathe…

…Tallulah screamed as the Dalek beam hit her. April couldn't bring herself to look…

…The Earth was a wasteland. All the humans were dead or enslaved, except the few rebels. And April was one of them. How had she survived? How had she survived, when so many others had died? One week. That's all it took for the entirety of her planet to be destroyed…

…Martha was dying. April tossed her gun aside, leaning over the young woman. She was bleeding; April didn't have to be a doctor to know that she didn't have much time left. "Go," Martha whispered. "Keep…keep going. Get to the TARDIS, no matter what it takes. Follow the plan."

"We're going to win," April promised. "I swear we're going to win." …

Burning, dying, reborn.

Two

…The Doctor had fallen a long time ago. Minutes, though it felt like years. April was so, so tired. Why, why had she started that conversation with Martha, kept her from getting caught by the pigmen? …

… "Laszlo!" Tallulah yelled. He collapsed in front of her, hit by the Dalek's ray gun. "It should have been me," she whispered as the battle continued on around her. "It should have been me." …

… "I'll buy you time," Arla said. "May not be handy with a gun, but I sure as hell can cause a distraction. Those Daleks won't know what hit them."

Harriet smiled at Arla. "Good luck."

"Well, go on," Arla said. "Do your 'timey wimey' thing. Stop wasting time." …

Burning, dying, reborn.

Three

… "My vision is impaired!" Screamed one of the Daleks. April continued to shoot at it, knowing that this would be the last thing she'd ever see. More were coming, and it was too late. Far too late. She should've known better…

…One of the Daleks shot the Doctor as he was regenerating, and he fell. He seemed to fall forever…

…April covered her head as the room exploded. She was falling through the air, down, down, down…and then someone caught her hand.

"Can you fix this?" Asked Dalek Sec, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Yes," April said, pulling herself up through the shattered window. "Yes, I can." …

Burning, dying, reborn.

Four

… "And now," yelled Solomon, "we march!" The villagers held any weapons they could find, ready to storm the Empire State building from the sewers…

…Tallulah lay on the ground, only instead of her once-delicate features she had a pig's snout and tusks protruding from her now-grotesque mouth. "Don't look at me like that," she said as Martha helped her up. "I'm not dead, you know." …

…There was so much screaming. April wished the Doctor was here, wished he could just fix it all with a witty monologue and a wave of his sonic screwdriver. She clutched it close, readying herself to steal the TARDIS from right under the Daleks' olfactory systems…

Burning, dying, reborn.

Five

…Why did everyone die? "Harriet," April whispered. Her leg was injured from fighting off the attack on the camp, but she could keep going for a while longer before she bled out. Harriet, on the other hand, didn't have much time left. "Fix her," April begged the Doctor. "Please, can you heal her, can you make her better?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor said…

…The Doctor was dying, screaming as the Daleks extracted his regeneration energy. "Time's broken," he whispered. April was dangling outside the window, the frigid air biting her fingers as her grip began to slip. "Time's broken…you've broke it before…"

Dalek Sec grasped her hand…

…April knocked four times on the TARDIS door, her face wet with tears. Frank stood beside her, the only survivor of the Dalek attack. They had blown up the Empire State Building in the end—and Martha along with it. The Doctor would have hated them, but it was their only option.

"They're dead," April whispered to the spaceship as the door creaked open. "They're all dead." …

Burning, dying, reborn.

Six

… "I don't want to go," muttered the Doctor, as golden energy surrounded him. But now he didn't have time to recover from regeneration sickness…

… "Run, you clever boy, and remember," Arla whispered to the Doctor. Martha had to pull him away before the building exploded…

…The Daleks were dead, destroyed in a blast of regeneration energy from the Eleventh Doctor. But there had been no Time Lords to give him an extra cycle. He had sacrificed his life to save the universe…

… "I think I can fix this," April told Solomon, as Tallulah knelt over Laszlo's still form…

Burning, dying, reborn.

Seven

… "Take this," Frank told Martha as he coughed up blood. He motioned weakly towards his rifle. "Shoot up one of those monsters with it, will you?" …

…April faced the creature. In her hands, she held a small gun. "Harriet," she sobbed, her voice choked.

The Human-Dalek hissed at her. "Emotion. If you had any intelligence, you would shoot."

Harriet's gone, April told herself. Harriet's gone, and it's a monster wearing her body. It's a Dalek. Shoot it, you idiot!

The gun fell to the floor, unused. April didn't think she could hit it if she tried anyway…

… "Big, shiny red reset button," April whispered to Martha. New York City was burning, Daleks and their troops marching through the streets as they destroyed the world. Limping into the TARDIS, April did her best not to cry out in pain…

Burning, dying, reborn.

Eight

… "Run," Arla said. But before she could finish her words, she was shot from behind by one of the Human-Daleks…

…Dalek Caan pointed the Dalek blaster at April. Except, he wasn't a Dalek anymore. And he wasn't a Human-Dalek either. He was half Time Lord, half Dalek. He was doing a rather good job of destroying the universe, too, and was starting on his plans to unravel the web of time. Martha's body lay on the ground a few feet away, along with her gun. If only April could reach it, she might be able to kill the monster that stood before her.

But she couldn't. April closed her eyes tightly, as the Dalek Lord pulled the trigger. The shot went wide, and April watched in shock as the creature bent over in pain. "Go!" The Doctor pleaded, momentarily regaining control of the Dalek Lord's mind. He tossed a TARDIS key to April, who tried to catch it and failed. April scooped the key off up the floor. "She'll listen to you, now…go…" …

…April ran, because her life depended on it…

Burning, dying, reborn.

Nine

…April watched in horror as the Dalek opened up its casing. If only she hadn't tried to change things, hinted to the Doctor that he should check out the Empire State Building. Why had she been an idiot? Why, why, why? And now she was going to be destroyed, her personality annihilated. She was going to become a monster…

…Martha screamed as the Dalek ray hit her in the back, her skeleton glowing for a moment. And then she fell down onto the dirt. April ran, horrified, as Solomon shot at the coming pigmen. The Doctor couldn't save them; he had been assimilated into Dalek Sec. Sacrificed himself so that April could get away. Idiot, April thought. Now the whole world's going to burn…

…April and Solomon pried the panel off the TARDIS. "What happens now?" Solomon asked…

Burning, dying, reborn.

Ten

…It was April's fault, even if Arla didn't believe her. She should have known better than to interfere in Clara's battle against the Great Intelligence…

…"I'm sorry," Arla said as they stared at the Doctor's still form. Harriet sat next to them, but Solomon was dead. And Laszlo was dying, Tallulah pleading with him not to leave her. Like he had a choice. "Did you know him well?"

"No," April said. "But yes. You did too, you know. Sort of."…

… "And we're in the RTD era," April announced, smiling…

Burning, dying, reborn.

Eleven

… "I made a mistake," April said. Harriet was dead, and the Doctor was dead, and for all her trouble Solomon was dead too. The Daleks had killed them all. "I made a terrible mistake. I shouldn't have saved him." They had tried to fix what she had done, had tried to save the world anyway. Harriet had volunteered to get caught in the lightning strike. April had tried to stop her, but Harriet had insisted that it was better this way. Harriet was shot by one of the Daleks on her way up to the top of the building. It had been too late…

… "You didn't know what would happen," Tallulah said.

"I should have." …

… "We can't just give up," Tallulah told her as the Human-Daleks marched through the streets of New York City.

"We've lost," April whispered. "And it's all my fault."

"Tell me about something you love." …

… "And then she looked into the heart of the—I think I have a way!" …

Burning, dying, reborn.

Twelve

… "These men, they're scared," April told Solomon, her eyes wide as she coaxed him back, away from the Dalek. "They need you to help them; if you died, it'd be chaos. We're going to live, and you've got to hold them together." …

… "Solomon," April said quietly. "I think the Human-Dalek one was supposed to feel remorse for his death. It took a death for him to realize how evil the Daleks were, except this time it was the Doctor's instead of Solomon's. And it's my fault." …

… "One more time. One final time; that is all we have. And then it is sealed. Time takes time to heal. This will be impossible for very, very long. Perhaps even forever." …

… "The storm will break." …

Burning, dying, reborn.

Thirteen

April fell to the ground, her arms absorbing the shock as she hit the hard dirt. Everything was burning around her. She could remember burning. But she wasn't burning now. She was cold, far too cold, and it was dark. The light was gone, the beautiful terrible light that saved her even as it destroyed her. Why did it seem so dark? And so cold?

Crying. Water was pouring out of her eyes, the salty taste filling her mouth. April was remembering. It wasn't all vivid memories that one might normally have, but it was there, and snatches of it seared her eyes. Harriet had died. Martha had died. The Doctor had died. And so, so many other people. So, so many times.

This was their final chance. And Solomon would die.

April staggered to her feet, her face covered in tears. "Are you alright?" Harriet whispered. "April, are you alright?"

"Fine," April mumbled, although she most definitely wasn't fine. Why did she have to remember? The images were mostly fuzzy, faded, but they filled her mind. A thousand, noisy thoughts clambering to be heard. There had been so much screaming in her memories, and it was all April's fault.

"Right," Solomon was saying. He placed his rifle on the dirt, and April didn't even try to stop him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She focused on the dancing flames of the campfire, unable to look at Solomon. No, she told herself. I should watch him talk. I don't have to see him die, but I should watch his speech.

"See," Solomon said to the Dalek, "I've just discovered this past day, God's universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was." April turned towards him. She wished that Harriet would reach out her hand, like in movies or books or TV. But Harriet was busy watching out for the pigmen; she didn't notice that something was wrong. In the darkness of the night, no one could see April's tears.

Daleks, April thought. Daleks are real here. All those monsters, they're real. There are so many monsters out there that want to destroy us. That would kill me in a second or torture me for what I know about the future. Everything's so real.

"And that scares me," Solomon told the Dalek. "Oh yeah, terrifies me to the bone." It twitched its eyestalk in confusion. April watched, wiping at her face with her dirty sleeve. What would she do now? How could she keep doing this? They wouldn't be able to mess around with the timelines for a long while. Possibly forever. This was episode five—and the fourth adventure. How was April going to keep doing this? Because surely, she would make a mistake again, change something else. People would die, and it would be her fault.

I want to go home. I just want to be home, to get angry that my mom won't let me stay up past midnight, to tell my friends how annoying my brothers are, to argue with Harriet about nothing more important than whether she should stop pining over a boy. I can't do this anymore. I just can't.

April was scared.

"But surely," Solomon said, "it's got to give me hope. Hope that maybe together we can make a better tomorrow."

April knew she should feel hopeful, defiant, brave. The speech should rouse her from her state of shock and make her want to help defeat the Daleks. But it didn't, and she didn't. All she wanted to do was sleep. And the speech wasn't wonderful, here, where the only brightness was flames eating away at the world. It was beautiful, yes, but it wasn't wonderful. It was sad. And soon it would be over.

"I'm sorry," April whispered again.

She had wanted to make things better, and she had only made things worse.

"So, I beg you now," Solomon announced, "if you have any compassion in your hearts, then you'll meet with us and stop this fight." The Dalek's eyestalk twitched again, as April struggled to see out of her foggy glasses. She took them off, wiping them on the only clean part of her shirt she could find, thankful for something to do.

After this, I'm quitting, April thought. That's it, I'm quitting, I'm going to stay with UNIT. Oh, she wished that she was holding Harriet's hand, or even Martha's. That someone else was there. But no one noticed her, cold and alone. People were dying around her, and that was far more important. It is, though. I just wish this was a bit like a story.

The hero doesn't quit in stories, said the brave part of her. It had retreated, now, far back into the recesses of her mind, but it was still there.

April—or whatever part of her, this was—was right. Heroes didn't quit in stories.

April wasn't sure she was a hero.

"Well?" Solomon asked. April turned her head away, unwilling to watch his death. "What do you say?"

"EXTERMINATE!" Solomon's screams filled the night.

"Solomon!" Frank shouted. "No!"

Harriet gasped in horror. "I didn't…I don't remember…he…it's so loud," she whispered, turning towards April. "April? April? You're…crying."

"I'm fine," April hissed. Could she tell anyone about the aborted timelines? She had said that they had scarred time too much for them to do it again; would talking about what happened hurt it even more? Startled, she realized that the Doctor was staring at her, his face grim. He shook his head. What? April wondered. What does that mean? Does he know what happened?

But the Doctor didn't say anything to her. Instead, he turned away, and stepped forwards. "Daleks," the Doctor said. "All right, so it's my turn! Then kill me! Kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people!"

"No," Martha said quietly, staring at him in shock.

"I will be the destroyer of our greatest enemy."

"Then do it!" Yelled the Doctor. "Do it! Just do it! Do it!"

"EXTERMINATE!" The Dalek screamed, charging up its weapon. Did I make a mistake? Butterfly effect? Is it going to— "I do not understand," the Dalek said. April sighed in relief. "It is the Doctor."

"What?" Martha asked.

"It's communicating with head Dalek," Harriet said.

"We can't—" April interrupted her.

"Since when've you been the one saying that we can't talk about…" Harriet saw Martha's quizzical expression. "…the stuff that the Doctor told us."

"Since now," April said. Since it ended in bloodshed. Twelve times. Which I can vaguely remember. April swore she could see the Doctor's eyes flit towards her, Harriet, and Martha.

"The urge to kill is too strong."

"What's it doing?" Frank asked.

"Communicating," Martha said, passing along what Harriet had told her.

"I obey."

"What's going on?" Asked the Doctor.

"You will follow," the Dalek said.

"No!" Martha shouted. "You can't go."

"Martha," Harriet reassured her. "He's the Doctor. He knows what he's doing."

"The Daleks just changed their minds," the Doctor said. "Daleks never change their minds."

"But what about us?" Martha asked.

"One condition!" The Doctor yelled. "If I come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here! Do you hear me?"

"Humans will be spared," agreed the Dalek. "Doctor, follow."

"Then I'm coming with you," Martha said confidently, stepping towards him.

"Martha," instructed the Doctor. "Stay here. Do what you do best. People are hurt. You can help them." He took her hand, covertly passing her the psychic paper. "April," he said quietly. "Time is very delicate; think before you speak. Oh, and Martha, can I just say, thank you very much." The Doctor winked. And in a few moments, he was gone, following the Dalek towards its lair.