"Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me." The Doctor rubbed his hands, "Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"
"Forwards" she replied instantly. She'd just experienced living plastic, she wanted to see something… bigger.
"How far?"
How far? She tried to think of an impressive number. "One hundred years."
"Only one hundred?" Joule quipped from the chair she was on.
"You know, she's right."he looked positively gleeful, "Twenty second century, a bit boring. Want to go further?"
"Fine by me."
He grinned and spun some levers, and the Tardis shook. "Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside it's the year 12005," he announced looking proud of himself, "the new Roman Empire."
The new Roman Emp- "You think you're so impressive."
"I am so impressive!" he looked affronted.
"You wish."
He pointed a finger at her, "Right then, you asked for it. Joule get over here, I know exactly where to go. Hold on!"
They worked together in tandem, twisting knobs, spinning dials, doing stuff to pieces of machinery she'd never seen before while the Tardis shook stronger than ever before.
"You really need to fix the stabilizers on her if you're going to keep a human on board." Joule muttered as she slowly pulled a dial, "They're so fragile."
"I'm not fragile!"
"Yes, you are."
"Stop it." The Doctor warned as he used a bicycle pump(?), "No fighting,"
The shaking stopped and she glanced at the door.
"Where are we?" she was vibrating with nervous energy right now, "What's out there?"
He simply smiled and gestured at the door.
The grin was fully on her face as she stepped outside to a- small lecture hall?
The Doctor and Joule followed behind her and she was about to ask where (or when) they were when she heard the buzzing of the sonic screwdriver and the shutters at the side of the wall lowered… and then she saw the view
"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying," he began as she stared at the slowly rotating Earth in front of her, "like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five-point-five-slash-apple-slash-twenty-six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day-" he glanced at his wristwatch, "Hold on"
She barely managed to tear her sight away to give him a confused look when there was a slight rumbling and the sun flared a bright hot red.
"This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."
"Come on," he nudged her gently, "We should have a better view at the observation platform."
It was the hissing of the door shook her out of her stupor. "Aren't you going to bring Joule?"
"Ah, she's fine." He waved her off, "She loves space ships, already left to explore."
"But," she looked behind her into the room one last time, "I didn't hear the door open."
"She doesn't need doors," he said, "Now come on, chop chop! End of the world!"
Before she could question him on that a soft voiced announced the arrival of guests and the ban on weapons, teleports, and… religion?
"What does it mean by guests?" she asked jogging up behind him.
"It means guests. Why? What do you think it means?"
"No, I meant," she rubbed her forehead, "So, when it says guests, does that mean people?"
"Depends on what you mean by people?"
"I mean people," she was starting to guess that this would be a reoccurring theme with him, "What do you mean?"
"Aliens"
Of course, what was she thinking. She was with an alien right now. "What are they on board this spaceship? What's it all for?"
"It's not really a spaceship, more like an observation deck." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver as they approached a door, "The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn."
"What for?" she voiced her thoughts. What could they possibly get from watching a planet burn?
"Fun."
She followed him into a large hall, setup with a few display cases and an even bigger window showing the sun and the Earth.
"Mind, you," he added, "when I say the great and the good, what I mean is, the rich."
"But, hold on. They did this once on Newsround Extra. The sun expanding, that takes hundreds of years."
"Millions," he agreed, "but the planet's property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there? Gravity satellites holding back the sun."
National Trust, she could guess that was some alien version of UNESCO. Gravity satellites was probably what it said on the tin? Using gravity to hold the back the sun or something?
"The planet looks the same as ever." She commented, a part of her somehow still skeptical despite everything she'd seen, "I thought the continents shifted an things."
"They did, and the Trust shifted them back. That's a classic Earth." He took a breath, "But's the money's run out, nature takes over."
"How long's it got?"
"About half an hour, and then the planet gets roasted." He looked a bit too excited about the last part.
"Is that why we're here? I mean," she tried to clarify, "is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?"
"I'm not saving it." He said almost darkly, startling her, "Time's up."
"But what about the people?"
"It's empty all gone. No one left."
She blinked, the fact that the world was ending hitting her once again. "Just me then."
She probably failed at not staring at the guests/people/aliens too much but...
Aliens. Honest to god aliens. And they even looked the part too, unlike Mister Leather Jacket next to her. Then the blue alien announcer said something about the exchanging of gifts and one of the first aliens to enter the room, trees they were simply called (and this was one thing she still couldn't get over) approached them, offering a cutting of their grandfather? What kind of culture has people giving others pieces of their grandparents?
The Doctor however remain (almost) unfazed, "Thank you. Yes, gifts." He began patting down his pockets, "Er, I give you-"
"Jelly baby?"
Considering how many others were in the room now, she was so grateful that she didn't scream out loud when Joule just suddenly appeared next to the Doctor.
"Ah, of course," the Doctor beamed, not surprised in the slightest, "A Jelly Baby. One of the finest treats the universe can offer."
"When did you get here?" she hissed to Joule.
"I was always here."
"No, you weren't!"
"Yes, I was."
"Stop it." The Doctor cut in, "and Joule, behave."
"I am behaving!"
"Don't."
And then the other aliens approached each one more bizarre than the last. And then came the literal human trampoline.
She couldn't take this anymore. She ran away.
How did she get here?
She used to work in a shop! A normal overworked, underpaid worker just like the thousand others, the million others in the world then… the Doctor came. Saved her life, disappeared, then reappeared, saved her life again. Then he'd offered her a trip and she'd said yes, thinking that with time-travel she'd be able to come back and carry on with life like normal but…
Time traveling spaceship!? What kind of alien had that kind of technology? That was the question wasn't it? What were they? What kind of name was the Doctor and Joule? What kind of person, human or alien, laughed at the face of danger, almost seeming to be welcoming of it? Who was he? Who was the Doctor?
Then said Doctor came in, smiling without a care in the world.
"What do you think, then?" he asked smiling and she didn't know what to say.
"Great. Yeah, fine." She got out and because that didn't seem like enough, "Once you get past the slightly psychic paper." The joke sounded dull to her, but it seemed to work for him.
She took a deep breath, "They're just so alien." She tried to explain, "The aliens, are so alien. You look at 'em and they're alien."
"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South." He shot at her and her frustration rose even further.
She scowled slightly, "Where are you from?"
"All over the place." He replied dismissively.
She changed her questions, "They all speak English."
"No, you just hear English." He looked up, smiling again, "It's a gift of the Tardis. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates."
She started, "It's inside my brain?"
"Well, in a good way." He shrugged.
"Your machine gets inside my head." She repeated, "It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"
He blinked, "I didn't even think about it like that."
Was this man, no alien an honest to god sociopath?
"No! You were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South!" she exclaimed, "Who are you then Doctor? Who's she? What are you two?"
"I'm just the Doctor."
"From what planet?"
He scoffed, "Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!"
"Where are you from?" she pressed on.
"What does it matter?"
"Tell me who you are!" she shouted.
"This is who I am, right here, right now, all right?", he snapped "All that counts is here and now, and this is me."
"Yeah, and I'm here too because you brought me here," she snapped back, "so just tell me!"
Instead of answering he stormed off towards the windows.
"Earth death in twenty minutes, Earth death in twenty minutes."
He was upset. He was actually, visibly upset. The first clear emotion she'd gotten from him which wasn't that casual lightheartedness. Just because she'd asked who he was. The question of 'What was he?' seemed more fragile than before.
"All right," she murmured pulling out her mobile, "As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver. Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're just out of range. Just a bit."
"We're way out of range." Joule corrected and she jumped in the air, spinning around.
"Will you stop doing that?!" she growled.
Her helmet tilted sideways, "Doing what?"
"The thing you keep doing!"
"Being here?"
"No! The thing you-! Oy my god!" she think she understood the term 'tearing out ones hair in frustration now'.
"Tell you what," the Doctor cut in shaking his head sympathetically. He took her phone form her, "With a little bit of jiggery pokery."
"Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?" she asked trying to calm herself down.
"Is that a legitimate question?"
"Oh, stop talking," he knocked on Joule's helmet before handing her phone back, "Here you go."
She took back her phone, glancing at him as he only nodded. It had a signal? That shouldn't be possible, but even if she did have a signal who was she even supposed to call? She was five billion years in the future it wasn't as if-
"Hello?"
"Mum?" she choked out.
"Oh, what is it? What's wrong? What have I done now?"she began to ramble, "Oh, this red top's falling to bits. You should get your money back. Go on. There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day."
She didn't know why she started laughing, just that she did. It just seemed so… home.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. You all right, though?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
She thought for a moment, "What day is it?"
"Wednesday, all day." A pause, "You got a hangover? Oh, I tell you what. Put a quid in that Lottery syndicate. I'll pay you back later."
"Yeah, er," she didn't know what to say, "I was just calling 'cos I might be late home.
"Is there something wrong?"
"No. I'm fine." She glanced at the Doctor and smiled, "Top of the world."
She held onto her phone long after mum hung up.
"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill." He quipped.
"That was five billion years ago. So," she grimaced, "she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."
"Bundle of laughs you are." He turned to Joule, "Yes, you can go and no you can't. Now shoo."
She wanted to ask when suddenly the whole room shook. Not as badly as the Tardis but definitely enough to startle her.
"That's not supposed to happen." The Doctor commented, a small smile growing on his face.
.
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Head throbbing.
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Tired.
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Exhausted.
.
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.
What happened?
.
.
Living plastic? No that was yesterday.
.
Mickey? No that was yesterday too.
.
End of the world? Oh, that seemed about right.
"Sun filter descending."
What happened?
The Doctor had left to investigate the uh, not-gravity-pocket turbulence, with tree girl Jabe?
Joule disappeared by doing whatever she did.
She had talked to a trampoline? Oh, the human trampoline Cassandra. They'd fought about something. She didn't think she meant to start throwing insults but the uncomfortable uncertainty of the whole situation and Cassandra, with her attitude and obviously incorrect knowledge of human history, offering her to make her into a trampoline too just, made her start talking. Or maybe it was because she had enough stress pent up by Joule and she needed to take it out on somebody. It could be either one honestly.
Then she'd run away again.
And then- the something of the repeated meme. They'd cornered her and knocked her out. Where was she?
"Sun filter descending."
Wait. What.
She ran to the door. Locked.
"Let me out!" she screamed pounding on the door, "Let me out! "
"Sun filter descending"
She continued shouting and pounding on the door when-
"Anyone in there?" A voice!
"Let me out!" she screamed louder, pounding on the door harder than ever.
"Oh, well, it would be you." Doctor. Oh god, it was the Doctor!
"Open the door!"
"Hold on. Give us two ticks."
The unfiltered sunlight was starting to heat up the room, making her sweat. She could literally smell the room burning.
"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."
It stopped. She breathed a sigh of re-
"Sun filter descending"
The hell!
"Just what we need," she could barely hear his muttering through the door, "The computer's getting clever."
"Stop mucking about!"
"I'm not mucking about." He protested, "It's fighting back."
"Open the door!"
"I know!"
She pounded on the door a few more time until she couldn't avoid the sunbeams any longer and ran down the steps away from the door.
"The locks melted!" She was going to die! Five billion years into the future!
"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."
She ran back to the door as soon as possible, not touching the still smoldering metals.
"The whole thing's jammed. I can't open the doors." She heard him shout, "Stay there! Don't move! I'll send Jay to come get you!"
"Where am I going to go, Ipswich? And how's she going to get me out of here?"
Last time she'd thought of getting help from her she'd been left to die. What was to say this time wouldn't be any different? She wasn't going to get her hopes up, better to just wait for the Doctor to save her, even if she didn't know who exactly he was obviously more reliable than Joule.
She paced by the door, waiting while the Earth destruction countdown kept ticking.
She waited.
And waited a bit more.
And then even more waiting.
Was time always this slow?
And then-
"Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction."
Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
Crack
A beam of white hot sunlight peeked through as a crack appeared in the window, burning a part of the wall a few feet away.
Crack
Another beam
Crack
And another.
"Earth destruction in ten."
She couldn't help but think about the ridiculous amount of times she'd almost died in the last twenty four hours.
"Nine."
Crack
"Eight."
Was this going to be it? Was this going to be really it?
"Seven"
She closed her eyes. She'd wished she could call mum, at least tell her she was sorry and all.
"Quand il me prend dan ses bras"
And Mickey too. Tell him she loved him and all that.
"Lime parle tout bas"
And maybe when she died she'd be able to meet dad.
"Je vois la vie en Rose."
And, that wasn't a count down.
"Li me dit des mots d'amour
Des mots de tous les jours"
She wasn't at the station anymore. No wait, she was.
Instead of burnt blackened walls, there were solid steel ones. Instead of bare stair seats they were filled with tightly packed boxes, instead of a robotic voice announcing her impending death there was a song playing instead.
It was the same but different room.
How?
Wait if this was the same but different room then… the door was still intact and more importantly not broken. She pressed the open button and-
"Well, that was slow."
The space helmet stared back at her from outside.
"How did you get there?"
"I was always here."
"No I was-" she turned to look back inside the room but she'd already left and there was no sign that the storage room she'd been in had existed at all. "I was just… I was inside there. And then I was in this room. This other room I mean, not the burnt out one."
"Yeah." She nodded.
"And then I left and I'm here?"
"Yeah." A nod again.
"Did you do this?"
A shrug this time, "Not really."
"How?"
"By walking out of the door?" Joule pulled out the Doctor's sonic screwdriver from the control panel, "Why? Did you come out of the door another way?"
"How did you change the room?"
"I didn't."
"Then how was I in that room?"
"Because you were in it."
"No, the other room! Not the burning one!"
"Like I said, because you were in it."
"How did I get out of that room?" she gritted out each syllable sharply.
"I don't know. You're the one who got out of it." She hefted her backpack, "If you're done asking pointless questions can we go now? He told me to take you back to the hall."
She stared at Joule's back as she walked away.
It was too empty.
That was the first thought that had entered her mind when she saw the hall.
There were still people there, for sure, but she could tell that this was it. Aliens, no people, had died and this was all that was left. She saw the Doctor talking to the trees and his face told her enough for her to guess as to what had happened.
"You all right?" she asked hesitantly.
His face darkened. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them." He began pacing, "Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby." He grabbed the supposed fire breathing ostrich egg, revealing a small device, "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed."
Cassandra appeared in a light blue glow halfway through a sentence.
"Oh." She said simply.
"The last human." He growled.
"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join," she stammered, "er the Human Club."
"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them."
She immediately gave up any pretense at being innocent. "It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries." She crowed, "Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter-"
"And creak?" he interrupted.
"And what?" Cassandra repeated blinking.
"Creak. You're creaking."
And creaking she was. It was horrifying to watch. A batch of skin with eyes, nose and mouth stretching and creaking and shrinking in on itself as the eyes turned red and the skin wrinkling, starting to look more like leather than skin.
"Help her." She heard herself say because even if she'd tried to kill her this seemed to be too cruel of a fate.
"Everything has its time and everything dies." He said coldly.
"Do something." She turned to Joule this time, "Save her."
"I don't have permission."
"Well, I give you permission then!" She was so done with her attitude right now.
"You don't have the authority."
She turned back to Cassandra, helpless unable to tear her eyes away from the horrible spectacle.
"I can't die," Cassandra croaked, "I'm too you-"
Splat
.
She stared at the remains of the supposed last human.
There was nothing but rubble now. Bits of rock and dust floating in the orbit of the sun.
"The end of the Earth." She murmured, "It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just…"
The Doctor took her hand, "Come with me."
They were back in the middle of London. A baby was crying, a man was laughing, everyday people going about their everyday lives.
"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky" He began suddenly, "My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust, before its time."
She realized she was getting her wish of learning who the Doctor was but she wasn't sure if she wanted to know now. "What happened?" she asked anyway.
"There was a war and we lost."
"A war with who? What about your people?" he looked torn at that question but before she could ask another one he answered.
"I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords." He had a faraway look in his eyes his voice radiating pain and sorrow, "I'm left traveling on my own 'cos there's no one else."
She glanced back at the Tardis where Joule was waiting. "What about Joule? Is she a Time Lord too?"
A bitter smile came upon his lips, "She's complicated."
"Why? What is she then?"
He turned and joined her to look back at the Tardis, "You saw what she could do. You saw and didn't understand. Maybe, one day I'll understand too and then I'll tell you.
You've seen how dangerous it is." He continued "Do you want to go home?"
Did she? She still barely knew him even if he finally told her what he was. And the danger, the constant threat on her life. Could she keep doing that? "I don't know. I want-", she began not knowing how she was going to end that sentence then she sniffed, "Oh, can you smell chips?"
He cracked a smile, "Yeah. Yeah."
"I want chips." She decided.
"Me too."
"Right then," she gave him a sideways smile, "before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay."
He patted his pockets, "No money, Joule has everything."
"No, I don't." And she did not jump as Joule did her thing again.
"You, really need to stop... never mind." She sighed.
"Want some chips Jay?" the Doctor asked.
"You mean those long fried potato sticks?" her helmet tilted upwards, contemplating, "I never had them before."
"You never had chips before?" she shook her head, "That's it. Chips now, all of us. Honestly, all of time and space and you never gave her chips? Shame on you."
"I was busy!" he defended.
"Well then tightwad," she smiled, "You've got five billion years to make up for it yeah?"
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"Is it true?" he asked, "Did you capture it?"
"Found at the edge of the Phoenix Nebula, halfway hiding between within the barriers of the void and this universe." The general told him as they walked the corridors leading to the vault. "It was only by pure luck that we found it."
"I don't believe in luck."
"A trap." He agreed, "Which was why we consulted the Matrix and every source we had our hands on."
"And?" It couldn't be this easy. They'd sacrificed entire universes trying to destroy it, scores of Tardises had burnt out trying to trap it and he'd died a hundred times over trying to slow it down only for all of them to fail. And now they just found it?
"Nothing." The reply was grim. "No sign that this is some kind of plan of the Daleks. They'd be losing more by sending it to us, even if it was a trap. Doctor," they paused outside a pristine white wall, an anti-state chamber, "Going by the assumption it is a trap, we've been studying it, trying to get the most out it while we can and well… you'll see."
"Is it safe? Because I'm hardly going to go inside if I'm going to be ripped apart before my first step."
"It doesn't know how to exist within multiple state of realities yet. We've neutralized its existence to a single non-hostile moment and locked it from within." he tried to assure him, "Why it doesn't know how to and for how much longer, we haven't the faintest idea."
He scowled as the chamber opened, feeling his timelines lock and his sense dulled to an almost nonexistent point, "How reassuring."
He hated anti-state chambers. It did what it said on the tin. Forcing its inhabitants to a state which they didn't exist. Non temporal beings would never be able to enter since entering meant that they'd never existed and even for temporal beings it wasn't exactly pleasant knowing that you didn't exist except for the fact that you did. But for certain times, like this, when safety was an absolute needed precaution, it was inevitable.
Even so, looking at the void barrier, it seemed that no one was comfortable being with the vicinity of the thing.
The single Gallifreyan scientist ran up to them as they were notice, "General, sir," she nodded ignoring him completely.
"Torrein," the General greeted, "Any developments on the subject?"
She shook her head, "None at all sir."
"Have you figured out what it is?" he asked, "I'm the Doctor by the way."
"I know who you are." She turned to the General, "Sir, I strongly suggest against bringing the Doctor into the project. None of the renegades are trustworthy enough-"
"I have the upmost trust in the Doctor to keep this secret, if there is any other Time Lord who will be able to keep this secret it will be him." he cut her off, "And besides, you will need his experience with temporal manipulation if we are to find a way to stop that thing."
"Am I to be degraded to a babysitter?" annoyed at his blatant dismissal.
"An incredibly important babysitter," the General grimaced, "Look at the data Doctor, and see for yourself why this is so important and why this must be kept a secret at any cost."
He grabbed the data pad Torrein reluctantly handed over and scanned its contents wondering what could be possibly so special about it that-
No. That was impossible. That shouldn't be… It can't be…
"Do you see Doctor?"
"Who made it?" he demanded, "It can't be the Daleks, they'd never make something like this. What is Rassilon? Was it one of the Renegades? The Sisterhood? Who made it!"
"I'm glad you understand the severity of the situation Doctor," the General said unfazed by the shouting, "And I can honestly say, that we have no idea.
"If Rassilon found out-" his voice was shaking.
"On the assumption that he himself did not order its creation," the General continued for him "he would use it end the Time War. Burn everything until Time Lords ruled supreme and then more. I wish to avoid that scenario if possible. Which is why there are only eight Time Lords who know that it is currently not within the Dalek's grasp and within ours. The three of us, another two scientists and the three who found it at the Nebula. No one else must know. No one."