To the Stars and Back

by riverofmemories

Tagging along in the TARDIS after being rescued from a situation she was sold into, Jayden O'Connors finds that there's much more to life than expected. When the Doctor's involved, it's full of adventure, other worlds, saving lives, and quite a bit of running. But the clock is ticking, and even a Time Lord from Gallifrey can't help her run forever.

33. Journey's End

Jay didn't see anything, but she certainly felt the explosion of energy behind her. She kept her face pressed firmly into Jack's shoulder. Numb in her shock, Jay realized she was soaking the front of his favorite coat with her tears. She felt bad about that. She felt Jack's arm tighten around her and her heart missed a beat, skittering painfully for a moment. Not now. Not now. She pleaded for the attack to be staved off, not wanting to fall to one now when something much worse was happening.

Jay wondered what she would have heard had she removed the necklace that hung at her throat, a heavy reminder.

It seemed like forever that they stood like that. Jay heard Rose's soft grieving sob, and Donna's gasp. Jack's grief practically radiated off of him as he pressed a comforting kiss to the top of Jay's head. When it ended, Jay expected something. She wasn't sure what, but something. Instead, when she pulled back in time to notice a beautiful golden light fading, she was met by the stilled, shocked look of Jack's face.

Warily, scared to see what face the Doctor might wear, Jay slowly turned her head to peek at him. Her lips parted in shock, too, when the Doctor grinned at them with a proud, smug little look. Her Doctor. Not a new face, but the face she knew and loved. "Now then," he said, and Jay's heart leaped into her throat as she pulled slightly away from Jack. "Where were we?"

"Doctor?" whispered Jay, and he winked, gaze briefly sweeping across her as if making sure she was as safe and unharmed as he'd been told. His attention then went to a container beneath the console, one that Jay had begged and begged for him to remove after its haunting origins. It was an oddly shaped container, holding the hand that Jack had used to track him - the hand that had been brought to the Doctor's attention during the fight to reclaim Earth from the Master. The Doctor's hand. The liquid containing it had begun to boil and even glowed a little, though the glow was quickly fading. The TARDIS hummed when it vanished entirely.

"You see?" said the Doctor, missing the fact that they were all confused and at a loss as to why he was standing there rather than some new, unknown face. "Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done… I didn't need to change - didn't want to. Why would I?" He grinned at Jay as she stumbled forward a step, unable to catch her breath. "Look at me! So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned the rest off into a handy bio-matching receptacle. Namely, my hand - my hand there, my handy spare hand!"

Jay's mouth moved, but no words came out. Finally, she managed to say something. "...what?" she said softly, the first to speak.

"Remember?" the Doctor suddenly said to Rose, a gleam in his eye. "Christmas Day. Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight. That's my hand. What do you think?"

Some of that proud look faded when Rose didn't respond right away, only blinked in shock at him. Her gaze darted across his face. "You're...still you?" she whispered, and his expression softened with a warm look.

"I'm still me," he confirmed, and then yelped when Jay tackled him in a tight hug, laughing joyously. Her arms circled his neck and he grinned as he hugged her back, lifting her a little. "Alright?" he asked when she pulled back. His gaze held a flicker of guilt as he searched her expression. As if he was upset with himself for losing track of her.

Jay only smiled shakily, pressing her hand fondly over his cheek. She didn't know. Maybe. But she still said, "For now, yes. Be more careful, would you?" It drove away the guilt, and that was all she cared about. After a moment she was sure was too long, she decided to step back, making room for Rose when the blonde uttered a soft sound of realization. The Doctor turned his attention on his long-lost companion and a grin spread over his face.

"Rose," he breathed as Rose lurched forward for her turn to hug him. Jay watched with a smile dancing over her lips and then gasped when Donna crushed her in a tight hug, tears gleaming at the corners of her eyes. Jay dragged her attention from Rose and the Doctor when they began to murmur to one another, focusing on her friend instead.

"You scared me," Donna scolded, pulling back and giving Jay a small, warning shake. "Don't do that again."

Jay stuck her tongue out childishly before giving Jack a bright smile as he laughed at them. He looked relieved, too, as if he couldn't believe what was happening. "Donna Noble," she introduced, gesturing to Jack, "meet Captain Jack Harkness. And likewise."

Donna studied Jack for a moment and then said, "You can hug me. If you want."

"Donna," laughed Jay, unable to truly find it in herself to scold her friend.

"No," Donna said seriously as Jack chuckled, throwing Jay a fond look. "Really. You can hug me."

Jack decided to give in to the demand, greeting Donna with a warm, friendly hug. Donna looked rather pleased with herself as she turned to scold the Doctor ferociously for not being careful enough on a planet filled with creatures intent on killing them, and Jay flashed Jack a small, happy look. "Thanks," she said. "For coming to pick me up."

He gave her a winning, flirty smile. "Anything for you, Jaybird."

Jay opened her mouth to playfully respond, only to freeze as the control room went entirely dark. Jay swallowed thickly, touching the TARDIS's console. She could feel more so than hear the purr of greeting the TARDIS uttered. The Doctor withdrew from Rose and Donna to join her at the console, tapping at the screen anxiously. "They've got us," he said grimly. "Power's gone...some kind of chronon loop…"

No one was smiling now. Nervous, Jay wrapped her arm around herself as Jack informed the Doctor, "There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. I'd guess that's where we're heading."

Donna bit her lip as she studied the Doctor's stoney expression. Gone was the relief and the joy. They were all worried, angry, and focused now. "You said these planets were like an engine. What is it for?"

The Doctor flashed her a proud look. "Good question. Rose!" He rounded on his former companion, and Jay saw the flash of joy that returned when he saw she was still there. "You've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"

She blinked at him, any light in her eyes dying. "It's the darkness. One by one, the stars went out. We looked up at the sky, and they were just...dying. Basically," she added, suddenly flushing a little, "we've been building this...this time machine. We call it the Dimension Cannon. So I could...well, so I could…" She cleared her throat as the Doctor began to grin widely, smug. "So I could come back. Shut up. Anyways," Rose continued, serious once more. "It started to work all of a sudden and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, and not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."

Donna turned her face to stare at Rose, unnerved. "In that parallel world...you said something about me."

Rose smiled faintly, though there was curiosity and wariness in her face. "The Dimension Cannon could measure timelines," she told her softly, "and it's...it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."

Donna spluttered, reeling back as if she'd been struck. Fear crept into her voice as she said, voice rising in pitch, "But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp - from Chiswick!"

Jay murmured Donna's name and stepped forward to wrap an arm around her. Donna leaned into her, shivering from fear, and then stiffened when the TARDIS chirped. The Doctor snapped his attention to the screen on the console and grimaced. "All aboard the Crucible."

Jay took a shaken breath and grumbled, "Why do we always end up on enemy ships. Every time. The Valiant. Now the Crucible. You ought to tell your friends to spend money elsewhere, Doctor."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but he didn't answer as a halting, Dalek voice ordered them to step free of the TARDIS - or die. The Doctor flinched, turning to look at the doors. The TARDIS was groaning softly, and even with her necklace on, Jay could hear it. Her heart ached at the TARDIS's fear for her travelers. Running her fingers along the TARDIS console to comfort her, Jay said softly to the Doctor, "We have to go out, don't they?"

He nodded curtly, and Rose's face paled. "You told me nothing could get through those doors."

"You've got extrapolator shielding," added Jack pointedly, looking confused.

"Last time," the Doctor said, addressing Jay mostly but also everyone else, 'we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids and mad. But this…" He ran a hand over his hair, distressed. "This is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISes. They can do anything. Right now, that wooden door...it's just wood."

Donna took a shuddering breath and Jay twisted to check on her again, a hand still lingering on her arm. She furrowed her brow when she found Donna staring off into space, lost to something no one else could see or hear. Concerned, Jay gently shook her shoulder. Donna didn't respond. She was so focused on Donna, she didn't notice the Doctor approaching until he was gently nudging Jay to the side so he could check on their friend. "Donna?" he said gently, and she jolted, startled. "I'm sorry," he told her, and Jay bit her lip anxiously when Donna searched his gaze, confused about what he was talking about. It took Donna a moment to understand. "There's nothing else we can do."

"Surrender, Doctor, and face your Dalek masters," a Dalek ordered on the other side of the TARDIS doors, and Jay shivered. The Dalek sounded different than others she'd come across. She didn't like it. The Doctor slid his hand into hers and gave it a comforting squeeze as he leaned in and murmured in Jay's ear. She listened with rapt attention and when he pulled back to meet her gaze, she nodded.

"Understood," she said quietly. "If it happens, I'll do that." She searched his face with a sincere look, vowing silently to do just as he said: if an attack came, she was to signal the Doctor, who'd do his best to distract the Daleks from noticing.

He smiled ruefully, and then looked over when Rose gave a nervous laugh. "Daleks. Again."

Jack choked out a laugh himself, and Jay recalled that the last time the three had been near each other like this had been on a space station that had been controlled by Daleks. The Doctor had told her all about it one evening when she'd been unable to sleep, recalling with a grieved, sad look how Rose had fought the time vortex itself to save him.

The Doctor dropped Jay's hand so she could wind her arm through Donna's, leaning on her, and returned his forced grin. "It's been good though, hasn't it? All of us, everything we did." His gaze shifted between Donna and Jay, who rested her head briefly on Donna's shoulder. "You two were brilliant."

Donna only smiled sadly and watched as the Doctor told Jack and Rose the same thing, and both smiled back, just as Jay had. The Doctor gave his friends a final look over, throwing Jay a warning look. She nodded, tapping her temple with the hand unoccupied by Donna. She remembered what he'd told her, and she would do her best.

And so, the Doctor turned and walked across the control room. He ran his fingers against the TARDIS doors, and the beautiful blue box moaned as he pushed the doors opened. He stepped out of the TARDIS without a backwards look, Rose and Jack a step behind him. "Come on, Donna," Jay said softly, starting forward.

They made it a few steps before Donna suddenly stopped, her gaze glazing over when Jay looked at her face. "Donna?" she prompted softly, concerned. Something was wrong, she couldn't help but think, recalling the same look on Donna's face not too long ago. Distantly, she could hear the Daleks speaking, crying out their triumph. Jay shivered. She hated their voices almost more than she hated the Master.

Donna's glazed expression lingered as she slowly looked over the console room, searching for something. She found what she was looking for, and Jay followed her line of view to the jar beneath the console that contained the Doctor's odd hand. "Donna," she said a little more insistently, freaked out by the way Donna took a step towards it.

"Jay!" the Doctor called, jolting their attention towards the doors. "Donna! You're no safer in there."

"Coming," Jay called back, tugging Donna forward, and Donna forced herself to turn away from what she'd seen-

The doors slammed shut.

"What?" whispered Jay, and she dropped Donna's arm and bolted across the room. She slammed into the TARDIS doors. "Doctor!?" she shouted, and Donna merely stood there in stunned shock, looking terrified. "Doctor, what's going on? Did you-"

"I didn't do anything!" he shouted through the doors, and she heard him slam a fist against it. Jay shook the doors, trying to unlock them. The TARDIS clanged behind her in warning; the doors were most certainly not about to open. "What did you do?" Jay heard the Doctor cry, voice muffled. The Dalek must have moved away from the doors, because Jay couldn't hear it anymore.

"Jay?" Donna choked out, eyes wide.

"They won't open!" Jay's words were nearly a sob. First, she was left behind. Not the Doctor's fault, but till. It had been and still was her greatest fear, the fear that River had whispered into her ear in the Library. Then, the Doctor had almost died. Regenerated, or whatever he did. Now-

"Stop it!" the Doctor yelled at the Daleks, and Jay felt the doors jiggle beneath her touch as he tried to rip them open again. Her heart raced in her chest, and her numb fingers fumbled to try locking and unlocking the doors as Donna staggered forward a step. "They're my friends! Open the door and let them out!" There was a pause as the Dalek answered. His voice grew even more frantic. "The door just closed on its own!"

Go, whispered a voice in her ear. Run, run, RUN! Danger! Danger!

Jay ripped away from the doors and bolted for Donna, terrified, but was thrown to the floor when it seemed to drop out from beneath her. A scream flew from her as the TARDIS suddenly went tumbling, as if hurled through some type of deadly storm. Jay heard Donna's scream as she fought to find something to hold on. Jay cried out when flames exploded to life and glass rained down on their heads. "Donna," sobbed Jay, scared for her friend. Her face went white when a scream pierced her ears. It wasn't Donna.

It was the TARDIS, her scream interwoven with the song emanating from Donna and some other sound Jay thought was far too close to the four-beat sound that she'd heard whenever she was near the Master.

Just as suddenly, the TARDIS slammed to a nasty halt. Jay was sent reeling when she nearly cracked her head against the railing. She twisted in time and pain sang through her shoulder instead. Favoring it, she didn't hesitate to crawl on her hands and knees towards the console, where Donna was heaving for air, coughing and choking on smoke.

"Jay," she croaked, and Jay gave a shaky, frightened smile as she forced herself to ignore the splitting headache forming as the TARDIS's scream, the strange rhythmic sound, and Donna's song twisted together into one chaotic, deafening disaster. "Are you…?"

"I'm fine." Jay swallowed thickly, carefully rotating her shoulder. It screamed in protest, but wasn't nearly bad enough to be broken. She touched Donna's head gently, spotting some blood. "Are you...Donna?"

Donna had turned her face away. Jay felt a flicker of fear at the way her eyes glazed over. "Donna," Jay begged as she focused all of her attention onto the container that held the Doctor's lost hand. Jay jolted when she realized the liquid within was bubbling, boiling within again. "Donna!" Jay repeated in a cry when Donna reached out to touch it. She tried to stop her, but a burst of flames in her face had her reeling away with a shriek. She swiped at her singed, stinging skin, and watched helplessly as Donna's fingers brushed against the container.

No sooner had she touched it did a beautiful light appear, swirling and glowing bright gold. It twined itself around Donna's wrist, and Donna began to convulse in a way that had Jay sobbing her name, even as she simply knelt there, not daring to try and get close as the golden light seemed to overwhelm the woman.

Instead, Jay could only watch helplessly as things went from bad to worse.

---

"The Crucible has a heart of Z-Neutrino Energy," the Dalek that had greeted the Doctor, Rose, and Jack upon their exit of the TARDIS told them. The Doctor barely heard it as he stared in horror at where his TARDIS had been - his TARDIS, with his friends inside. "The TARDIS will be deposited into the core."

The Doctor whipped around, a choked sound in his throat. "You can't," he shouted at the Dalek, fury bubbling in his chest. "You've taken the defenses down! The TARDIS will be torn apart!"

Rose whispered, "But they're still in there. Donna - and Jay. They'll be…"

"The last child of Gallifrey is powerless." The Doctor's hands trembled with rage and horror simultaneously as the Dalek slowly swiveled around, activating a holographic map much like the one he and Donna had looked at only a short while ago with the Shadow Architect. It displayed the TARDIS - his TARDIS - stuck on what looked like the molten core of the Crucible. "The females and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe!"

The Doctor could feel the TARDIS's pain. His ship was screaming in agony that pierced right through him. It was only made worse by the fact that two of its favored occupants were stuck inside it, unable to escape what was happening. "Please," the Doctor begged, breath hitching in his chest. "Please, I'm begging you." His voice rose to a shout again. "Put me in their place - you can do anything to me, I don't care! Just get them out of there!"

The Dalek only told him, "You are connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die."

The Doctor's chest rose and fell in rapid bursts, his hearts racing in his chest as he stared in horror at the image before him. This was hell - it had to be some form of it, at the very least. Punishment for everything that he'd ever done wrong. He'd not suffered enough with the fall of Gallifrey - now, he would lose Jay and Donna, too, right alongside his beloved TARDIS.

Soft fingers slid into his, and Rose was there. It did nothing to soothe his grief as he watched. The Dalek began counting down, marking the TARDIS's destruction. When it reached one, the TARDIS vanished, and he could only stare, somewhat stunned. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.

"Doctor?" whispered Rose, and he squeezed her hand so hard she winced.

Donna had been on that ship. Donna Noble, who'd sassed him and kept him in check when he got too air-headed. Who'd cried alongside them and fought to save the Ood from slavery, who'd risked her life for him time and time again, who'd taken care of Jay when he'd been too busy saving everyone else.

Jay. His hearts twisted in agony at the loss of them both, but Jay. The girl who despite knowing nothing about the realities of life when they'd met had done her damn hardest to keep up with him. Who'd hit a man for not caring about the lives of others, who'd sacrificed her own soul so Donna wouldn't have to - so he wouldn't have to again. It had been Jay who'd suffered right alongside him on the Valiant, tormented by sounds only she could hear and the Master's vicious interest in her ability. Who had stayed with him even after that, when Martha had left, who had sought his approval for most of the things she did, beaming when he praised her for something. Who he'd promised to never leave behind without warning, who'd fought tooth and nail for him.

Rose called for him again softly, and his gaze slowly slid to hers. The Doctor wondered what she saw that made her face tighten with sorrow. Nothingness? That's what it felt like, knowing people you loved were gone.

"The TARDIS has been destroyed," the Dalek reported. Likely for Davros's sake, wherever he resided. "Tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?" He couldn't bring himself to answer. All of the above. Rose leaned into him, offering what comfort she could. "if emotions are so important," said the Dalek as if he'd answered a "yes," "surely we have enhanced you?"

The explosive sound of a gun filled the air, and even the Doctor jumped. His gaze shot to Jack, who had aimed at the Dalek with a twisted look of grief and fury on his face. The Dalek spun around to face Jack with one smooth movement and cried, "Exterminate!"

Rose shrieked when the blow struck Jack and he crumpled to the ground. The Doctor pressed his mouth into a hard line. The pain Jack had shown was real, but his actions...the Doctor knew precisely what he was up to. "Jack!" cried Rose as she bolted over to crouch beside him. "Oh, my God…Jack…they killed him..."

Grimly, the Doctor joined her beside their downed friend and gently pulled her away, to her feet. He put an arm around her shoulder as she gave a small sob. "I know," he said quietly, pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry, Rose. There's nothing we can do."

"Escort them to the Vault," declared the Dalek. "They are the playthings of Davros now."

A pair of Daleks slid forward to do just that and the Doctor took a deep breath, forcing himself to clear his mind of the throbs of pain that still echoed in his soul and the grief that layered over it. He'd grieve later, when this was over. Or maybe he'd not grieve at all, if the Daleks got their way. He didn't have a plan just yet. But as he and Rose followed one of the Daleks, the other ensuring they did so from behind, he glanced back over his shoulder at Jack.

Jack winked, promising in the only way he could to find out what he could.

---

Things went from bad to worse to downright confusing. Jay could only stare at Donna as she recovered a few moments later, blinking her dazed look away. "Donna?" whispered Jay. When Donna looked back at her, Jay scrambled over and gripped her arm, sweeping her attention down Donna's form as she sought out any injuries. Nothing. Donna was unharmed outwardly. With a shaking hand, however, Donna pointed at something. Jay followed her gaze until she could see what had caught her attention and when she did, Jay stared, too.

Something was crafting itself from the Doctor's lost hand. Her mouth opened and no sound came out as the golden energy that had danced around it, that had caused Donna's convulsions, had crafted a humanoid figure. As the light faded, Jay realized it hadn't just crafted a humanoid figure.

It had crafted the Doctor.

"Oh, my God," said Jay faintly as he rocked upright, looking a little startled himself.

His face snapped towards them and a familiar, silly little grin appeared on his face. His gaze shifted to Donna when she cleared her throat, deciding to just go with what was happening for the time being. Donna's eyes were carefully averted away from the new Doctor. "You're naked," she managed to splutter.

Jay squeaked at the realization and quickly turned her face away herself, slapping her hands over her eyes like a child as the new Doctor made a face in realization. His nudeness was briefly forgotten as the TARDIS screamed around them, and Jay gasped, doubling over and shifting her hands to cover her ears. She screwed her eyes shut, nearly screaming right alongside the TARDIS as the flames rose higher. "Right!" gasped the new Doctor, throwing himself at the console.

All it took was a few seconds of button-pressing, lever-pulling, and dial-twisting, and the familiar sound of the TARDIS moving could be heard. Within moments, the flames were dying away and when Jay had managed to pry her eyes open...the TARDIS had repaired her own control room, returning it to its former glory. The new Doctor fled to fetch something to wear, and as they waited for him to come back, Donna rounded on her. "Are you okay?" Donna demanded.

"Am I okay?" rasped Jay, touching Donna's bloody head. "Are you okay? You were the one who was...what happened?"

"I don't know," confessed Donna, looking uncertain. She bit her lip, slowly climbing to her feet. She offered a hand to help Jay up and Jay took it. Jay's fingers trembled violently as she looked over her shoulder in the direction the new Doctor had gone. Certain he wasn't back yet, Jay turned back to Donna.

"Do...do you think they're okay?" she breathed. Worry crept through her, choking her. "The Doctor and Jack and Rose? Do you think they're okay? There were Daleks out there."

Donna shook her head to show she wasn't sure.

The TARDIS hummed comfortingly in Jay's ears, her quiet song overpowering that of Donna's - and the new Doctor's, for Jay realized there was a strange, heartbeat-like sound accompanied by a song similar to Donna's flowing from him as he came bustling in, dressed in a blue pin-striped suit the Doctor tended to favor when he wasn't wearing the brown one. Jay felt a little uncomfortable seeing him in it. She could feel it. This was not her Doctor. This Doctor was different. Strange. Unique.

And staring at her with just as much interest as she was watching him.

He ripped his gaze from her and looked to the walls of the TARDIS, admiring her work as he told the pair of stunned women, "No one knows we're here. Gotta keep quiet. Silent running - like on submarines, when you can't even drop a spanner. I like blue, what do you think?" he suddenly asked, switching topics so quickly, they were reeling.

"You," seethed Donna, voice nothing but a hiss, "are bonkers!"

The new Doctor frowned at her. "Why? What's wrong with blue?"

Donna lost her calm and gestured wildly at him, snarling, "Is that what Time Lords do? Lop a bit off, grow another one? You're like - like worms!"

The new Doctor snapped his head back and forth in a shake. "No, no, no, no, no," he rambled, darting around the console, inspecting it. His gaze never once touched theirs as he spoke. "I'm unique. Never been another like me. All that regeneration energy went into the hand. Look at my hand, I love that hand!" he cried, showing them his hand, and Jay flinched, unnerved by the thought that he'd grown from that hand. "But then you touched it - WHAM!" Jay and Donna jumped when he slammed a hand down on the console to drive his point home, and when Donna yelped, he rushed over and shushed her. "Sh! Instantaneous biological metacrisis. I grew out of...you." He suddenly reeled away from Donna, scrunching his nose. "Could be worse."

Donna sputtered. "Oi!" she snapped, offended. "Watch it, spaceman!"

"Oi!" he retorted. "Watch it, earth girl!"

Donna and the new Doctor stared at each other in shock, and Jay found herself at a complete and utter loss, uncomfortable. This looked like her Doctor, but it most certainly was not, and she found she wished for the other one to be there - the one who didn't talk like Donna. Who didn't bicker the same way Donna did until Jay broke in faintly, her voice hoarse, "Spanners, right?"

"Spanners!" He pressed a finger to his lips. "I must have picked up a bit of Donna's voice." He wrinkled his nose quite suddenly and then slapped a hand over his chest, fingers searching for something. "Is it? Did I? Oh, you are kidding me!"

Jay really did not like how similar he sounded to Donna. It was a little freaky, if she was being honest.

"One heart!" he announced, and they stared at him, shocked. "This body has only got one heart."

"What?" muttered Jay, finally edging over to the new Doctor. She lightly put her hand over his chest, knowing where to search for the familiar heartbeat that had haunted her after everything with the Master had taken place. The new Doctor stilled so she could listen, watching her for confirmation, and when Jay searched for the second half of his pair of hearts, she came up empty-handed. "One heart," she breathed, stepping back. "You're...are you human?"

"Oh, that's disgusting," he told them, shaking his head, and Donna huffed another "Oi!" at him that he parroted right back.

"Enough!" Jay snapped before they could get back into a bickering match. "Look, are you human or not?"

The new Doctor flashed her a brilliant grin that managed to drag a hint of a smile to her face. "Part human," he corrected. "And part Time Lord." He paused, eyes widening briefly, as if surprised by his own confirmation. "Well, isn't that wizard?"

"No," groaned Jay, horrified. She ran her hands down her face, shaking her head as the new Doctor turned and meandered back to the console, staring at it thoughtfully and debating what to do next.

Donna suddenly said softly, nervous, "I kept hearing that noise - that heartbeat. What was it?"

"Oh, that was me," said the new Doctor. "My single heart, 'cause I'm a complicated event in time and space. Must have rippled back, converging on you."

"Why me?"

"'Cause you're special," he answered like it was obvious, and Donna shook her head in disbelief, protesting. "No, but you are," he insisted, only to stop and look at Donna when she merely snorted in disbelief. Jay stared at her with sadness in her gaze; Donna truly believed she wasn't special, even after everything they'd done together. "You really don't believe that, do you? I can see what you're thinking, Donna. All that attitude...all this time...you've really thought you're not worth it. Shouting at the world 'cause no one's listening...well, why should they?"

Donna looked hard at her feet, clearly upset by what he was saying, and Jay said sharply, "That's enough." The new Doctor blinked, dragged out of his thought process and reminded that there were two people, one of which was hurt by his words. Jay wrapped an arm around Donna's shoulders, wincing when it jostled her own, and murmured softly to her. At least the pain was slowly fading.

"Don't listen to him," Jay said firmly, pressing her head to Donna's. "You're smart, and wonderful, and so much more, Donna." She smiled brightly at Donna when she peered at her with a hint of disbelief. "Seriously. You're everything, Donna. Everything you say you're not. You're the most special person I've ever met."

"You, too, sweetheart," Donna said fondly, and Jay grinned at her.

"Look at everything you've done, like Jay said," the new Doctor said with a beaming smile, as if he'd not been the one to hurt Donna's feelings moments ago. Jay frowned at him. She didn't like this Doctor very much, preferring her own Doctor much more. Then again...there were fractions of Donna sprinkled in, which likely explained the attitude and crass wording.

"Actually, it's more than that," he said suddenly, staring at Donna in awe. "We were always heading for this - think about it! You came to the TARDIS, and then you found me again. Your grandad found us. Your car, parked by my TARDIS! Donna, you parked right where the TARDIS was going to land - that's not a coincidence at all! We've been blind. Something's been drawing us together for a long time."

Donna exchanged a quick look with Jay, but Jay only shrugged. She was as clueless as Donna in what was happening. "You're talking like it's...destiny," Donna said slowly. Even as she said it, she wrinkled her nose in distaste. "There's no such thing. Is there?"

"It's still not finished," was his unhelpful answer. "It's like...the pattern's not complete. The strands are still drawing together…" He was still muttering to himself when he turned back to the console, frowning to himself. Jay shook her wrists out nervously as he did so, and he suddenly paused to frown at her. "Alright?" he asked in a way that was so much like her Doctor that Jay stiffened slightly.

"Yeah," she made herself say. "It's loud. And my arms are numb." She paused. "But I'm not complaining," she added hastily, not wanting to do so when they had a couple dozen other things that were more important than her current physical wellbeing. She could worry about an attack when it happened, and she could do her best to ignore the noise echoing around her head-

"Can't help with the numbness," said the new Doctor lightly. He held up his hand and let something dangle from it. "But I can help with the noise."

"My necklace!" Jay gasped, lurching for it. He dropped it into her hand and she quickly put it on, sighing in relief when the stone that hung alongside her key to the TARDIS silenced the songs swirling into a chaotic disaster. She studied the new Doctor, who eyed her hopefully, and she realized that he'd been trying to offer a truce of sorts. Friendship, because he could tell she was unsure about him.

Shaking her head to clear it, Jay took his hand and gave it a grateful squeeze. Maybe this wasn't her Doctor, she thought. But this Doctor would help her get back to the right one, simply because he was just as kind as the original. At least, she hoped he was.

The TARDIS suddenly jerked beneath their feet, and they all froze for a moment. The new Doctor yanked the screen on the console over after shaking off his alarm, narrowing his eyes as Donna and Jay crowded in to peer over his shoulder at what he was looking at. The alarm came right back as he said, "It's the planets."

"What's happening?" asked Donna as an image flickered to life, showing the planets as they shifted into alignment.

"That's...single-string Z-Neutrinos compressed into - no!" Horror replaced alarm as the image shifted to that of a group of terrified humans gathered into a single room, their hands held behind their heads as they anxiously shifted this way and that, trying to figure out what was going on. And then...they simply dissolved into nothing in a way that was eerily peaceful.

"What was it?" whispered Donna. "Doctor? What did it do?"

He didn't answer. Rather, he spun away and bolted from the control room, shouting about grabbing something. Jay watched him go, a bad feeling settling low in her gut. She wanted to try, she realized. She wanted to like him. She really did. He was like...like some strange relative of her Doctor.

But the voice in her head, whispering warnings about what kind of man this one was…

She found herself listening to it.

---

"Doctor?" Rose asked, and he couldn't bring himself to answer, his heart aching as he stared at the holographic screen that had just shown several people disappearing into nothing. He could hear the longing in her voice. She wanted to move closer, though she couldn't due to the holding cells they were trapped in. The Daleks had known better than to not isolate them from one another. The Doctor and Rose Tyler had destroyed Daleks before. Everyone knew the stories. "What happened?"

Davros answered, comfortably seated in an automated seat that looked like the bottom portion of a Dalek, with the round orbs that dotted its metal hides and a mess of wires and buttons that gave him control and helped him survive. "Electrical energy, Miss Tyler. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality Bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."

The Doctor's mouth went dry as realization struck him. "The twenty-seven planets. They became one vast transmitter. Blasting that wavelength…"

"Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading." Davros was gleeful, he was so excited. "People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become...nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation! This is my ultimate victory: the destruction of reality itself!" Davros laughed, the sound crackling through the air, and the Doctor clenched his jaw in frustration. He was helpless as he was now. He couldn't do anything.

Suddenly, the screen flickered and changed. The Doctor jolted, caught off guard when none other than Martha Jones appeared on the screen, her face grim as she spoke. "This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Can you hear me?"

"Put me through," the Doctor ordered, taking a tiny step forward. He was careful not to go too close to the edge of the containment cell.

His hope soured slightly when Dalek Caan, caged in the Vault with Davros nearby, began to giggle like a child. The Doctor grimaced when Dalek Caan squealed, "The Children of Time will gather - and one of them will die!"

"Stop saying that," barked the Doctor, unnerved by the idea. Dalek Caan had said as such here and there since the Daleks had brought Rose and him down to the Vault, and it frightened him. Who was the one who would supposedly die? Rose? Donna? Martha? Jack? Jay? There were so many people who could be the one - so many who weren't listed. "Put me through!"

"Doctor!" Martha cried, looking relieved as his voice carried through the connection, proof that he'd been put through to his friend. "I'm sorry. I had to."

"Oh," purred Davros, smug. "But the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent."

"I've got the Osterhagen Key. Leave this planet and its people alone, or I'll use it." Martha held up a small device, and the Doctor sputtered, confused by the sight of it. He'd never heard of any kind of Osterhagen Key. When he demanded that Martha explain it, she did. "There's a chain of twenty-five nuclear warheads, placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart."

The Doctor's hearts nearly stopped in his chest. "What?!" he whispered. His voice rose to a shout. "Who invented that?! Well," he muttered to himself, "someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?!"

"The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope...that this becomes the final option."

"That's never an option!" he cried.

"Don't argue with me, Doctor," Martha warned sharply, and he felt sick. He'd done this to her. The medical student, who'd been one of few to keep herself in check when the Judoon had planted that hospital on the moon. "Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty-seven planets for something, but what if it becomes twenty-six? What happens then? Would you risk it, Daleks?"

Rose blinked, impressed as she told the Doctor, "She's good."

No. He stared at his friend. This wasn't good. Martha shouldn't have ever thought this to be an option. No one should have. His hearts ached even as another screen flickered to life. His eyes flared wide as the image displayed none other than Jack Harkness, standing beside two people he'd never thought he'd see again and one Sarah Jane. Mickey Smith - and Jackie Tyler. He touched a hand to his cheek thoughtfully. His cheek still stung a regeneration later from that woman's slap.

Jack's face was grim. "Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls. Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off." He held something aloft his head pointedly, and the Doctor narrowed his eyes. What was Jack threatening?

He glanced at Rose when she muttered, "He's still alive!? And that's...oh, my God, that's my mum!"

"And Mickey," mused the Doctor, somewhat pleased to see Mickey, Jackie, and Sarah Jane despite the situation. "Captain," he called, knowing Davros wouldn't stop him. "What are you doing?"

"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe. I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."

It was a better option than Martha's. But still, the Doctor couldn't say he was that excited to hear that Jack had come up with an option earning death at all. "You can't," the Doctor rasped. "Where did you get a Warp Star?"

Sarah Jane lifted her chin. "From me," she declared and a groan nearly escaped him. Not Sarah Jane, too. "We had no choice - we saw what happened to the prisoners." Davros murmured in recognition, and Sarah Jane's eyes became angry slits. "Davros?" she said, her tone full of fury. "It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith, remember?"

Davros was delighted. "Oh, this is meant to be!" he laughed, and the Doctor dropped his head, staring hard at his feet. He couldn't bring himself to look at them, his past companions, who had shifted who they were so much to acclimate what the Doctor had done to them. "The Circle of Time is closing. You were there," he told Sarah Jane, "on Skaro, at the very beginning of my creation."

"And I've learnt how to fight since then," Sarah Jane said confidently. "You let the Doctor go, or this Warp Star gets opened."

Rose laughed, excited by this development. "Now that's what I call a ransom."

Even Rose, the wonderful Rose Tyler, had changed who she was because of him. It was him who'd done this to them. Rose's glee dissipated when she saw him, standing there with guilt written over his face.

Dalek Caan giggled, the tentacles on its body flying around in its vicious glee. "The Doctor's soul is revealed. See him! See the heart of him!"

"The man who abhors violence," Davros crowed, and the Doctor's shoulders tightened. "Never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people, and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

"They're trying to help," he breathed, not convinced by his own words. Donna. Jay. Their names clattered through his skull. They'd not changed. They'd not gotten the chance to change into what the others were.

"Already, I have seen them sacrifice today," said Davros nonchalantly, as if the Doctor hadn't spoken. "For their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman, who fell opening the Subwave Network."

"Harriet Jones," Rose said softly when he looked at her, seeking just that answer. "She...she gave her life to get you here, Doctor."

Davros laughed again. "How many more?" he challenged. "Just think! How many have died in your name." The Doctor's hands shook. Faces flashed across his memories, of dozens of people who'd died because of him, his interference. No matter how hard he tried, someone always died. His breath caught in his throat. Donna had died because of him. Jay. "The Doctor," purred Davros, clearly feeling that he'd won. "The man who keeps running, never looking back - because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."

"Enough!" declared a Dalek. The Doctor recognized it immediately. It was the Dalek that had greeted them outside the TARDIS. Clearly, it was a commander of sorts. One of few who rather than following orders, gave them. "Engage defense zero-five."

"It's the Crucible or the Earth," threatened Martha, holding up the key again, but a moment later, it simply fell as Martha vanished. The Doctor watched the same thing happen to Jack and those with him. In nearly the same instant, they all appeared in the Vault, right in front of him. Martha looked so startled that Jack hurried to help her, grabbing her arm to help her to feet.

"Doctor," Martha gasped when she saw him, and he warned in return, "Don't move! All of you, stay still." The last thing they needed was someone getting hurt because they moved at the wrong moment.

"Guard them," Davros ordered a Dalek. His attention went to the five people that had been brought aboard the Crucible. "On your knees, all of you. Surrender!"

When they looked to him for instruction, the Doctor winced. "Do as he says," he told them.

So, they did. Grudgingly, all five lowered themselves to their knees. Jack looked as if he was considered attempting to punch a Dalek, and the look reminded the Doctor of Jay. Except, he thought with some amusement, she might have actually tried to do so.

Davros looked down upon them all from his seat of power. "The final prophecy is in place," he told them with pride. "The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek," he addressed a Dalek they couldn't see, "the time has come! Now, detonate the Reality Bomb!"

The Dalek went to work. "Activate planetary alignment field!" it ordered, voice echoing through the Vault, and the Doctor found desperation bubbling in his chest as the Dalek announced that detonation would commence shortly. But when he pleaded for Davros to reconsider, to stop, Davros only laughed, sounding rather insane.

It was quiet, at first. The familiar soft grating of engines was nearly silent when it first started. The Doctor could scarcely believe he was hearing it. It took the others a moment to realize what was happening, but one by one, all of his former companions turned to peer behind them at where the sound was coming from, half-hidden among wires, panels, and Daleks.

Even the Doctor could say he hadn't expected the TARDIS to appear.

---

"This is a bad idea." Jay's voice was sharp as the new Doctor sent the TARDIS directly into the Crucible, dark eyes blazing with determination. She disagreed immensely with what was happening. She had a very bad feeling about the device that the new Doctor held in his hands. A weapon, she was sure. How she was sure was up for debate, but she was confident that it was a weapon of some kind.

He ignored her, of course. "Come on!" When the TARDIS had fully stopped, he tore off for the doors, weapon in hand. Donna was only a few steps behind him. Jay faltered, reluctant to leave not only the safety of the TARDIS - but to follow this strange Doctor into danger. She wasn't sure, she realized, if she could really trust him to keep them safe. Not like her Doctor.

Nevertheless, Donna was going - gone - so Jay sighed and hesitantly followed suit. She faltered in the doorway to the TARDIS, hesitant to leave. The hesitation dissipated, however, when she arrived at the doors just in time to see Donna be thrown through the air by what looked like an arc of lightning. She hit a section of the Vault that rather resembled the TARDIS's control console. "Donna!" Jay whispered, bolting to her friend's side. Forget what they were about to face. Donna was hurt.

Distantly, Jay heard the Doctor shouting Donna's name, demanding to know if she was alright. Gently, Jay touched Donna's pale cheek and then checked for breath. A shaken sound of relief escaped her when she felt Donna's breath on her fingers. Thank God.

"Destroy the weapon," ordered a voice she recognized. She looked over and found the rather frightening-looking Dalek-like creature that had interrupted the four-way call on the TV screen she'd watched with Rose. Davros. That seemed like years ago now. The device the new Doctor had created exploded and Jay winced. There went the new Doctor's effort and time - all wasted. "I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor, they are pathetic!" Davros declared.

"Jaybird?" called Jack, standing among a small group of which Jay recognized two others. Martha! And Sarah Jane was there, too, clustered with two people Jay had never seen before. They all looked worried, scared, and angry, and all were on their knees. Jay hoped the Doctor was alright; she couldn't see him from where she crouched.

Jay made a split-second decision as the Doctor echoed Jack with a call of her name, sounding more like it was a warning than a hopeful "Are you there?" She was confident that Davros and the Daleks hadn't seen her. So, rather than answer, she remained quiet, even ducking closer to Donna's still, prone form. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest, painfully, and she swore softly. Not now.

Rose suddenly asked warily, "How come there's two of you?" Jay couldn't see her from where she hid, but she could certainly hear her confusion. A smile tugged at Jay's mouth.

"Human biological metacrisis," said the Doctor, and even in the bad situation they now found themselves in...well, Jay was simply glad to hear his voice. It was comforting, knowing he was nearby if they were about to lose to a Dalek god. "Never mind that," the Doctor groaned, "now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb!" Anger tinged his voice. Jay suspected it was directed at his double.

Davros sounded rather proud of himself as he cackled, "Stand witness, Time Lord. Your strategies have failed. Your weapons are useless, and - oh, the end of the universe has come."

A Dalek began counting down from twenty and Jay bit her lip, frustrated. What the hell could she do?

Donna groaned softly, and Jay's attention snapped down to her friend's face. "Donna," she whispered, shaking her shoulder. "Donna." Donna opened her eyes and blinked up at her, dazed. Jay's frightened look cleared her hazy mind, however, and Donna suddenly rocked upright. Without a word of explanation to Jay, she launched herself at the odd panel of wires and buttons and slammed a hand on a button.

The blaring of an alarm startled everyone there. The Dalek stopped counting down, and even Davros began looking around in confusion when Jay carefully dragged herself forward to peer around the control panel. Jay couldn't help but smile in relief when she saw the Doctor looking just as confused as the rest of them, standing within a patch of light. Her attention was dragged back to Donna, however, when she drawled, "Closing all Z-Neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop?" She flipped a switch, smirking smugly at the Daleks when they began panicking, confused.

"Donna?" Jay rasped, peeking up at her friend, and Donna winked down at her. Her eyes glowed with confidence that wasn't normally there, and a cheeky grin quirked the corners of her mouth up. She pulled Jay up to stand by her, and Jay spluttered, looking at the panel of controls before her. Jay had no clue what she was doing. Not like Donna, who while slightly better at electronics than Jay, was certainly no Time Lord.

"Jaybird!" cheered Jack, and Jay flashed him a bright grin in return, relieved to see all of those there.

The Doctor was looking at them in surprise, though relief was written across his face in a way that had Jay's expression softening a little. "Donna," he told his friend, "you can't even change a plug!"

Donna's grin widened when Davros, lifted a hand, snarling "You'll suffer for this."

She clicked her tongue. "Jay, switch, two steps down from your left hand." Jay did as she said, hesitant but figuring she had nothing else to do in this situation. Jay jolted when Davros screamed in pain and fury as an arc of electricity, which had matched the voltage that had struck Donna upon exiting the TARDIS, curled back in on Davros and hurt him instead. Donna hummed, "Bio-electric dampening field with a retrogressive arc inversion."

"Exterminate her!" cried Davros. "Exterminate them both!"

Jay ducked down in fear when the Daleks spun on them, several preparing to fire, but an fearless Donna spun a dial, typed something into a keypad, and smirked at the Daleks instead. "Weapons non-functional," declared a Dalek, and Donna laughed.

"What?" she mocked. "Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix?"

Jay stared at her friend in awe. How the hell had she even come up with that? It was the new Doctor who answered Jay's unsaid question. "Time Lord!" he suddenly shouted, and Jay eyed him warily, not all that fond of this strange version of the Doctor who'd built a weapon before trying anything else. "Part Time Lord!"

Understanding flooded Jay as Donna confirmed it. "Part human!" she added. "That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half-Doctor, half-Donna!"

"The Doctor Donna!" Jay suddenly gasped, eyes snapping wide. The Ood had never explicitly called Donna by her name when they'd been on the planet of the Ood. The Doctor Donna, they'd called the pair that had defended the Ood right alongside Jay. "Doctor-"

"Just like the Ood said," realized the Doctor. "They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna."

"Holding cells deactivated," Donna declared, going to work. The lights trapping the new Doctor, the original Doctor, and Rose all vanished, and Jay laughed in delight as Donna sealed the Vault before glaring around at those who weren't moving. "Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits! Get to work!" She sounded exasperated and cross, all at once.

The Doctor bolted over to join her right alongside his double, Jay nearly tripped over her own feet to get out of the way so they could work. The Doctor paused just briefly to throw her a questioning look, concerned, and Jay touched his arm before racing past angry, confused Daleks who had begun to advance on them at Davros's command. A startled giggle escaped her when Donna sent them spinning - quite literally, each Dalek slowly spinning around and flailing their strange metal arms. She raced over to the group of bewildered humans, winking at Rose as she joined them, determined to stay together until they knew what to do.

"Jaybird!" Jack laughed as she slammed into him for a delighted hug, her arms thrown around his neck. "You're alive!"

"So are you," she teased, pulling back. She winked at him, and then gasped when passed her off to Martha, who crushed her in a tight hug, so he could race away towards the TARDIS. "Martha, I'm so glad to see you," Jay said as Jack disappeared inside.

Martha grinned back at her as she pulled back, fingers lingering on her shoulders. Her face grew serious as she asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Numb all over," admitted Jay, wiggling some numb fingers in Martha's direction. "I'm gonna hold off until I'm in the TARDIS. I think." Pulling away from Martha, she beamed at Sarah Jane and the two people she didn't know. "Jay O'Connors," she said proudly. "Friend of the Doctor's."

"Mickey!" Jack shouted as he exited the TARDIS, and the man in the pair Jay didn't know jogged off to retrieve the gun that Rose had carried while they'd sought a way back to the Doctor. Mickey Smith, she decided, recalling the name that had occasionally joined Rose's in the Doctor's tales. The moment his hands had the gun, Mickey had stopped Davros from interfering with the pair of Doctors and Donna's work, a smug look on his face.

"Just stay where you are, mister," Mickey said, gun held in a manner that told Jay he'd used it before.

Jack kicked a Dalek out of the way as he made his way over to the Doctors and Donna, ensuring they were safe while they worked, and Jay decided to head back towards the Doctor. She grabbed the unnamed older woman - Jackie Tyler, Jay decided, from her similarities to Rose and the descriptions the Doctor had made of her - by the wrist and tugged her out of the way of a Dalek. "Come on," she told the others as Sarah Jane and Rose exchanged cheerful greetings and began shoving Daleks aside.

The others trailed after her, darting and weaving among Daleks. Jay made it with Jackie first, and Jackie simply looked around in alarm. Jay flashed her a comforting grin, and then tripped over, ducking around Jack. Jack swung his gun out of the way, careful not to hit her with it, and Jay arrived at Donna's and the Doctor's sides ust as they began sending planets off to where they belonged, one right after the other. Clom, Adipose Three, Shallacatop, Pyrovillia, even the Lost Moon of Poosh were sent home to where they belonged. All twenty-seven.

"Is anyone gonna tell us what's going on?" demanded Rose as she and Sarah Jane made it over, Martha covering their backs to make sure no Daleks followed.

Donna gestured to the Doctor beside Jay, the original Doctor, nonchalantly as the other two continued working. "He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. I touched the hand. He," she gestured then to the new Doctor, "grew out of that, but that fed back into me. But it just stayed dormant in my head 'til the synapses got that little extra spark kicking them into life - thank you, Davros!" She beamed in Davros's direction. "Part human, part Time Lord - and I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind!"

"So," gasped Sarah Jane, breathless from dodging Daleks to come over, "there's three of you?"

"Three Doctors?" echoed Rose.

Jack grinned, his eyes darting among the three with glee before returning to the Daleks. "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now."

Jay gasped in understanding. "Fate!" she cried. "Just like you said," she added to the new Doctor, who grinned at her in agreement. "That's unique, right? Nothing's ever existed like Donna with a Time Lord mine, so everything centered on her."

Davros, listening and watching and fuming, looked to his beloved Dalek Caan for help. "You promised me! Why did you not foresee this?" hissed Davros.

The way Dalek Caan giggled had Jay's toes curling in her shoes. The voice in her head whispered to her of the future-seeing Dalek, who'd apparently been on their side for some unknown reason. "He did," Jay said softly. "He did see it."

"Something's been manipulating the timeline for ages," agreed the Doctor, shooting Jay a proud look for figuring it out. "Getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."

Davros glared accusingly at Dalek Caan as it giggled again, tentacles flailing joyously. "This would have always happened. I only helped, Doctor. I saw the Daleks," it told Davros. "What we have done, throughout time and space. I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed 'No more!'"

No more, whispered the voice in Jay's head, loud and deafening, and it made her recoil a little, rubbing her head as if it would soothe the ache forming. Her heart stuttered a few beats. Not now, she told it, even as her breath threatened to catch in her chest.

"Heads up!" Jack shouted suddenly as a Dalek, this one bigger and a little scarier looking, in Jay's opinion, appeared in the Vault.

"Davros!" the Dalek seemed to cry, with far more emotion than Jay thought most Daleks capable of carrying. "You have betrayed us!" It's eyestalk swung around to stare at the Dalek creator, even as its metal gun swiveled in preparation. "The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated!"

Jay gasped as the Dalek, apparently still armed despite what Donna had done to the Daleks within the Vault, fired a blast in their direction. Even the Doctor ducked down just in case, though it merely glanced off the control panel they were working on. Jay peeked back over the control panel when she thought it was safe, but hastily ducked her head back down when Jack fired his gun at the attacking Dalek. It blew up like the one that had shot the Doctor, Jay realized.

"What's the damage, Doctor?" Jay asked as he investigated the control panel, checking it over. Donna went back to work with the new Doctor, and she suspected both had an ear on him when the original Doctor answered.

"We've lost the Magnetron," he answered as if she knew what that was. Jay didn't bother to ask. They didn't have time right now for her to be asking a thousand questions. "And there's only one planet left." He flashed her a look that was half-mockery, half-amused. "Guess which one? But we can use the TARDIS. Jay, c'mon!"

He tore off for the TARDIS, and Jay faltered only briefly to check with Donna, who nodded for her to go, and then rushed after him. She was breathless by the time she reached it, skin crawling with pins and needles before going numb. Pain splintered through her fingertips; Jay shoved it out of her mind, focusing as the Doctor frantically gestured for her to join him at the console, where he was working furiously.

"Jay," he said as he worked. "I need you to set that dial to twelve-point-seven, two steps to your right, three inches up."

Jay did as she was told, and the TARDIS uttered a soft ding to signal when she found it. Delighted, she beamed. The Doctor opened his mouth to give her another instruction, but Jay simply yanked her necklace off, letting the TARDIS's song swell in her head. "Don't worry," she said, flexing her fingers with a grin. "The TARDIS can show me. You worry about your own part."

The Doctor barked out a delighted laugh of surprise, and together, the pair went to work. Jay was beyond pleased by the lights and noises and the song in her head. Each one directed her to where she was needed next.

"Last one," the Doctor told her urgently. "Lever by your-"

Jay gasped, narrowly keeping her balance by grabbing the TARDIS console as the world shook around them. The Doctor staggered, too, and Jay heard a sporadic series of explosions coming from outside the TARDIS, loud enough to signal that they were close. The Doctor and Jay paused to exchange wide-eyed, confused looks. "Grab that lever," the Doctor told her as he ran to the doors to investigate, and the TARDIS directed her to the right one. "When I tell you to, pull it!"

"Right!" Jay gritted her teeth as another explosion rocked the TARDIS.

He vanished through the TARDIS doors, and Jay forced the air from her lungs when it caught in her throat. Not now. Her fingers splayed, spasming with pain. "Not now," she pleaded aloud, shuddering. She forced her hand to grip the lever again, eyes widening when a moment later, the new Doctor burst in. He paused just inside, whipping around to count heads like an elementary teacher.

"Sarah Jane!" he started as she bolted inside, followed by the others. "Rose! Jackie! Jack! Mickey! Martha!" One by one, they each came, and Jay checked over them all as Donna followed Martha in. And then, she looked, expecting the Doctor to follow suit. He didn't.

"What happened?" Jay asked Martha as she walked over to watch the doors with Jay. Martha looked every bit the UNIT member she was, dressed entirely in heavy, protective black material. Her dark hair was pulled neatly out of her face in a bun.

"I don't know," admitted Martha. "All I know is he did something," she pointed at the new Doctor, who still hovered in the entryway, "the Doctor's not happy about it, and Daleks started exploding around us."

Her breath caught in her throat. Again. "Not now," she whispered, her fingers trembling on the lever. Not now, not now, not now-

And then, the Doctor came sprinting into the TARDIS, slamming the doors behind him. "Jay!" he shouted, and she groaned in relief as she yanked the lever down, sending the TARDIS spiraling through the time vortex. She gasped as the TARDIS rocked beneath them, tripping aside when the Doctor nearly crashed into her.

"But what about the Earth?" Sarah Jane asked anxiously, likely thinking of her son. "It's stuck in the wrong part of space!"

"I'm on it!" the Doctor promised, and Jay shifted out of the way so he could get to the monitor, yanking it towards him. "Torchwood Hub! Are you receiving me?" Jay peered over his shoulder, curious when she saw the woman from Jack's part of the four-way connection earlier in the day.

"Loud and clear!" she said. "Is Jack there?"

"Can't get rid of him," the Doctor said, and Jay couldn't figure out if it was a good or bad thing in the Doctor's opinion. "Jack, what's her name?"

"Gwen Cooper." Relief was evident in Jack's face. He was clearly glad to see his friends were alright.

Rose stumbled over as the Doctor gestured her over. "Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?" he asked, and Jay stared at him, bewildered by what that had to do with anything that was happening at the moment. Gwen, looking confused, confirmed it, adding that her family dated back to the 1800s, and Rose and the Doctor exchanged excited grins. Clearly, that was something from when Rose had traveled with him before. Moving on, the Doctor said, "Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me."

"Doing it now, sir," said a man Jay recalled being named Ianto. He'd been there earlier, too.

"Sarah," the Doctor continued with a glance over his shoulder, and Sarah Jane perked up, nervous. "What's your son's name?"

"Luke," she said hastily, "he's called Luke. And the computer's called Mr. Smith."

The Doctor nodded to confirm he'd heard. "Calling Luke and Mr. Smith! This is the Doctor." There was no answer for a moment, so the Doctor prompted, "Come on, Luke, shake your leg!" He gritted his teeth when the TARDIS jolted beneath them. "Jay! Button on your left!"

A light lit, and Jay slapped her hand over the button. The TARDIS stabilized. It still shook and shifted around them, but not nearly as bad. Jay's eyes shone with triumph as she shot him a grin, and he returned it before laughing when a voice called, "Is Mum there?"

Sarah Jane clapped a hand over her mouth, cheering in delighted relief, and the Doctor reassured, "She's fine and dandy, Luke. Now. Mr. Smith, I want you to harness the rift's power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?"

"I regret," said an automated voice, "I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals."

The Doctor winced, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, blimey, that's gonna take a while."

"No!" cried Sarah Jane, rushing over. She didn't hesitate to nudge the Doctor aside. "Let me!" She grinned at the screen, eyes lighting with joy when she saw her son's face there. "K-Nine! Out you come!"

"K-Nine?" echoed Jay under her breath, noticing a light that had appeared beneath an odd looking piece of the console. She zig-zagged the lever until the TARDIS sang a warning, and her eyes lit with pride when it stabilized further. She caught a glimpse of a metal-looking dog before the Doctor pulled away, ordering Sarah Jane to hold a lever down as she kept an eye on the screen.

"Mickey," the Doctor murmured as he wove among his companions. "Hold that button. You know why this TARDIS is always rattling about the place? Rose," he paused to touch her shoulder, directing her to a section of the controls, "that, there. She's designed to have six pilots, and I had to do it single-handed. Martha, keep that level," he ordered, pointing to a lever near Martha's hand, and she did as he said. "But not anymore! Jack, there you go, steady that right there. Now, we can fly this thing- No, no, no," he suddenly said, stopping Jackie Tyler, and Jay hid a smile. "Not you. Don't touch anything, just...stand back."

Jackie looked a little annoyed, so Jay grinned and gestured her over. "Here," she said, giving her something to do. She took Jackie's hand and pressed it over a panel that sank in ever so slightly. Jackie offered her a smile; the Doctor frowned slightly as Jay withdrew, shaking her wrists frantically as pins and needles suddenly slammed through them. Jackie's timing was good, she thought as she staggered over to the captain's seat, deciding to simply rest. She flashed the Doctor a faint, reassuring grin. She'd be fine. For now.

So, he went back to work. Donna, and the new Doctor circled the TARDIS console as Martha, Mickey, Jack, Rose, the Doctor, and Jackie all worked together. Jay watched them all with a smile, her eyes drifting among those in the TARDIS. She'd never seen such a thing. There were so many people, some new and some old friends, and it was like… well, Jay suspected this was what it felt like to be a family. A true family, with lots of extended family who came and pestered you for no reason but you knew you were going to enjoy their company anyways.

Jay found herself lighting up with true joy, delighted with the outcome of what had happened.

---

Sarah Jane was the first to leave. After a short celebration in which they put Earth back in its home and landed the TARDIS in a park. The Doctor took a final look around his TARDIS, appreciating the sight of everyone he had known and loved with this face of his, and then escorted Sarah Jane from the TARDIS. He noted the fact that during all of the celebrating, Jay hadn't moved. She'd stayed on the seat, a hint of a smile dancing over her lips. He was simply glad to see her at all after thinking she and Donna were dead.

"You know," Sarah Jane commented, dragging his attention back to her. He found himself smiling warmly at her. He was happy to see her again. It was always a pleasant surprise to see Sarah Jane, who he'd not seen in a very long time. "You act like such a lonely man, but look at you. You've got the biggest family on Earth."

The Doctor only wrapped her up in a tight hug. "It was good seeing you," he told her honestly, and she hummed in agreement.

When they parted, Sarah Jane retreated, walking backwards. "I gotta go!" she said, and he chuckled. "He's only fourteen. It's a long story." She gave a final wave, and then turned and darted off, eager to get home and find her son. The Doctor watched after her for a moment.

He'd miss Sarah Jane.

Jack and Martha were next, apparently. Not too long later, they had ducked out of the TARDIS. Jay came with them this time, her blue eyes shining with sad affection as she leaned back against the TARDIS, determined to say farewell to her friends. The Doctor walked back to meet them with his attention already zeroed in on his target.

Before Jack could realize what he was doing, the Doctor had Jack's wrist in hand, his sonic screwdriver gently buzzing as he shut the vortex manipulator off. "I told you," the Doctor chided as he protested. "No teleport. And Martha," he added a little sharply, giving her a stern look. "Get rid of that Osterhagen thing. Save the world one more time."

"Consider it done." Martha gave him a smile and a nod. She'd see that it was done.

Jack laughed as he tucked Jay in for a tight hug, lifting her when she returned it just as happily. "Stay in touch, Jaybird," he said fondly, and when he put her down, Jay pulled back to smile warmly at him.

"I'll try," she promised. She grabbed his hand and pressed something into it. "We were on Shan Shen, this planet full of markets before we got sucked into the Daleks' attempt at world destruction. I got you a gift. You, too, Martha!" She whirled on her heel and offered something to her, too. They both took their gifts with pleased, happy looks, and the Doctor nosily peered over Jay's shoulder to investigate.

Jack had been given a decent-sized bottle of some pills, marked to help with something regarding illness. The Doctor couldn't tell from his current angle. Regardless, when Jack slid a sly look to the Doctor, he got the feeling that he wouldn't have approved. Still, he pocketed the bottle and gave Jay another hug in gratitude. When the Doctor looked at Martha, he found her holding a small little knick-knack. It resembled some kind of animal. A beautiful creation, laced with what looked like gems that sparkled in the daylight. The Doctor thought of his own "gift," still in the pocket of his coat near the TARDIS doors. Maybe he could craft a gift out of it for Jay.

"You keep an eye on him," said Martha fiercely, dragging Jay to her for a hug, too. Jay pressed her face into Martha's shoulder, enjoying the embrace. Martha pulled back slightly to give Jay a stern look. "Don't let him leave you behind again, you hear me? You stick to him like glue, Jay."

"He didn't leave me behind," Jay told her with confidence. "The Daleks just got me stuck." She stepped back entirely then to stand beside the Doctor, and she winced when the pair saluted playfully at the Doctor. A grin flickered over her lips when the Doctor actually saluted back, looking startled. They turned and left after that, chatting with one another.

"Alright?" asked the Doctor, nudging Jay gently with his shoulder.

"For now," Jay answered. Even as she spoke, a tremor ran down her spine. "It'll be bad when it hits though."

He didn't need to ask to know why. How Jay had shoved back the attack for as long as she had was beyond even his knowledge. He was so focused on Jay that he nearly missed Mickey ducking out behind him. "Oi!" cried the Doctor, wincing. That was a little too Donna-like for him. "Where are you going?"

"Well," said Mickey. "I'm not stupid. I can work out what happens next." The Doctor's amusement vanished, and Jay looked up at him in confusion. "And hey, I had a good time in that parallel world, but...my gran passed away. Nice and peaceful. She spent her last years living in a mansion. There's nothing there for me now - certainly not Rose." He shrugged, and there was no hint of anger in his face. Mickey didn't begrudge Rose for it, nor anyone else. He was simply determined to build a new life.

"What will you do?" Jay asked curiously.

"Anything!" Mickey grinned then. "Brand new life - just you watch." He began backing away quickly, clearly intending to chase after Jack and Martha. The Doctor was glad; the pair would help him get a life started here, where he'd been labeled dead long ago, before even Rose had been taken from him.

"Nice meeting you!" shouted Jay after him, waving, and Mickey waved back before turning and jogging after Martha and Jack, calling out to catch their attention. When he caught up, he slung his arms around their shoulders. Jay dropped her hand, watching thoughtfully. The Doctor watched, too. "Where are we heading next?" Jay asked softly.

He didn't answer, his hearts already aching. Rose had come back to him, after all this time. But...there was another him now, one who needed her more. A human him, and a life back in a parallel world with her family. And besides that...he'd missed Rose Tyler, but the one that had come back to him had been hardened after her time in a parallel world, after what had happened in Cardiff. She hadn't batted an eye when his double had killed dozens. She'd carried a gun. It didn't mean he didn't care any less for Rose, who'd brought him out of a dark view on life after the Time War, who'd loved him fiercely. She had simply grown into a different person, just as everyone did. She'd grown up.

As if she could read his mind, Jay slid her fingers into his. She squeezed them tightly and said, "Rose is everything you told me she'd be. And more. And so are the others. I like them." When he didn't respond, she tried again. "I'm not leaving."

His gaze snapped to hers in surprise. Jay smiled warmly at him. "I'm not leaving," she repeated. "That's why you're so sad, right? I'm not going anywhere. I mean, we almost died. Again. But I'm not going to leave like everyone else is. You're stuck with me."

The Doctor had considered it. Leaving Jay with Martha and Jack. They'd take care of her, ensure she could thrive in this world. Jay would have done well in this time. He should leave her there, with a warning since he'd promised her. She and Donna could have died, had his metacrisis not been created. Should have died. On top of that, there was all the running and fear and death. Whatever that poison in her blood was doing to her was likely being sped up by everything they did.

But he couldn't. He couldn't bring himself to lose Jay, too, when everyone else was leaving him or being left in other worlds. He couldn't bring himself to deal with Donna's situation on his own. Maybe he was selfish, but the thought of finding himself alone after that…

"Doctor?" Jay murmured, tugging on his hand.

"Thank you," he said just as quietly.

She only leaned into him for a moment, offering him what comfort she could. "You're not telling me something." Her comment made him wince, which only served to confirm it. "Is it...is it Donna?" He glanced at her, surprised. Jay fumbled with the stone that hung from her neck, her face pale. "I took it off to listen while you were saying goodbye to Sarah Jane. I was curious. Her song...it's so different than it was." Her voice trembled now. "Is she going to be okay?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. He could sense her fear for Donna. "No human is meant to have the mind of a Time Lord," he told her, sincerely. He recalled Rose, when she'd become Bad Wolf so long ago. "It's burning her from the inside out." Jay stared at him in horror. "I'm going to fix it," he told her gently. A promise. "But Donna...you'll remember Donna, but she'll forget us. I'm sorry."

It wasn't just guilt about Donna's situation that splintered through him at the admission, but guilt for the pain on Jay's face then. The acceptance. No one should have been so used to such things happening that they could accept one friend telling them that they were going to be forgotten by the other. Even so, Jay's grip on his hand tightened.

"I'm not going anywhere," she repeated softly.

The Doctor almost felt guiltier for taking comfort from those words.

---

Jay could see what the Doctor had meant, now that it had been said aloud. She watched Donna closely as the Doctor meandered around the TARDIS console, steering the ship to her next stop. Rose watched him with a curious expression, clearly sensing was off. Jackie was happily chatting away with Donna, the new Doctor - the metacrisis, the Doctor had called him - chiming in here and there.

But even as she watched, Jay could see the way Donna hid pain. She winced, gave a soft gasp disguised by a laugh, touched her head. Her head had to have been killing her. Jay just wanted to wrap her arms around Donna and save her from what was coming.

Jay breathed in salty air when she followed everyone else out of the TARDIS once she'd landed. She stayed close to the Doctor, sensing that this farewell was going to be a rather rough one for him - and for Rose, who was staring around at the beach they'd landed on with a puzzled, horrified look. She knew exactly where they were, and she wasn't smiling, unlike her mother and the new Doctor. Apparently, from the sounds of their conversation, Jackie had named her new son Tony. Jay wished she could meet him. She'd never really gotten to hold a newborn before.

"Hold on," Rose said suddenly, cutting all of the conversation off. The new Doctor lost his smile. "This is...this is the parallel universe, right?"

Jay wrapped her arms around herself at Rose's suspicious tone, hearing the fear that was beginning to rise. "You're back home," the Doctor said simply, and that was enough.

"No," Rose breathed, staggering back towards the TARDIS a step. Something about the Doctor's look stopped her in her tracks. "But...I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not - I'm not going back now!" Her voice rose to a cry.

Jay fought the urge to lean against the Doctor, to offer him the comfort she'd given him when they'd left Donna's Earth. He was gentle when he spoke, but the sadness in his gaze… It tore at her, just as badly as she was sure it tore at Rose. "But you've got to. We saved the universe, but at a cost, Rose." His gaze shifted to the new Doctor and hardened. "And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

Anger flared over the face of the new Doctor, and Jay recalled the way he'd ignored her protests as he'd forged a weapon that had turned out useless. He'd been the one to send the Daleks into devastation, not anyone else. He'd been the one planning that destruction from the moment he'd been created, bypassing any mercy that he could have shown. "You made me," the new Doctor snapped.

"Exactly," the Doctor said firmly, face grim. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his pinstriped suit. "You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge." The Doctor turned back to Rose, softening again. "Rose, that's me, back when we first met. You made me better. Now you can do the same for him."

"But he's not you," she rasped, and Jay's heart ached at the look on Rose's face. She was terrified, and hurt, and torn about what she should do - what she should say to keep the Doctor from leaving her again.

The Doctor didn't answer, so Jay did. She took a step forward. She didn't like the metacrisis, the new Doctor, very much, but that was because while he was her Doctor...he wasn't. Maybe he remembered everything they'd done, thought like her Doctor, even spoke like him. But just as the Doctor had said, this man had been born with revenge in mind. He'd thought she and Donna were dead, he'd told them. So had this one. The Doctor had thought them dead, had watched his TARDIS vanish, had watched the Daleks kill humans while he stood there helpless. He'd raged against that violence, only adding onto his hatred toward a race that had been a part of what destroyed his own.

Rose had tempered that rage as she'd traveled with him. She'd taught him mercy, how to step back and reconsider.

This Doctor, this new Doctor, hadn't been taught that. All he knew was battle, the immediacy he needed to perform actions with, and that rage and desire for revenge. He had been created with that revenge in mind and had acted upon it at the first chance given.

"I don't know you very well," Jay told Rose, her smile hesitant. Rose stared at her with some hatred, born from jealousy. Jay couldn't blame her for that; it was clear the Doctor would take Jay and Donna with him. "But the Doctor has told me a lot about you. He told me about everything you two did while you were with him. And you know what? That man he was before he met you, this man…" She gestured to the new Doctor. "Rose, you tore yourself apart for the Doctor - more than once." She gave a small laugh. " I did, too."

Images of Pompeii flashed through her head. She remembered the screams and desperation of people fleeing death. They'd saved one family, but so many more had died. And she'd done it to them - so the Doctor wouldn't have to.

Jay lifted her chin. "We went to Pompeii. We were the reason it erupted. I was the reason it erupted. Because the Doctor you traveled with hesitated. He hesitated to kill twenty thousand people, even for the good of all, and I took that chance to do it myself, to save him that pain. He took a moment to try and consider if there were other options, even when he knew there weren't any. This man," she nodded at the new Doctor, "wouldn't have. He would have done it himself without hesitating. He needs to be taught how to do that again. Why he should hesitate, even when it concerns something like the Daleks, when there are no other options. And he needs to learn it from you. He needs you."

This time, it was the Doctor who slid his hand into hers, squeezing it comfortingly. Jay clung to that hand with her own, so tightly her knuckles were nearly white. She was sure there would be a conversation later. Donna touched her arm with a sympathetic whisper of "Jay…" Jay took a deep breath and added, "There's more, Rose. The Doctor's giving you a gift that he can't give to anyone else."

Donna made a small motion to the new Doctor, arching a brow pointedly, and he cleared his throat. Rose, tears rolling down her cheeks, looked to him miserably, and he offered softly, "I look like him. I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart." Rose sucked in a sharp breath. "I'm part human. Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life." He faltered then, and in that moment, Jay saw bits of the Doctor she knew this man could become with Rose's help. "I could spend it with you, Rose Tyler. If you want."

Jay's heart ached when Rose stumbled forward, reaching out to daintily feel the single bu-bump of a human heart. Hesitantly, Rose asked, "You'll grow old...like me?"

"Together," the new Doctor promised softly.

Jay wouldn't get that chance that Rose was so reluctant to accept she realized as Rose smiled a little at the thought. She'd never grow old with someone, just like the Doctor. While the Doctor was simply an entirely different species, a Time Lord who grew old but didn't die when the time came, Jay was dying now. At least, she was sure she was. What else could that poison be doing? They'd discussed mutation, but anything that sent pain licking up her spine like the flickers now couldn't do anything but kill someone.

No. There was a chance, with that vial they'd found.

The TARDIS suddenly uttered a very strange sound Jay had never heard before, and she wasn't the only one who looked back at it. "We've got to go," the Doctor told them, and even Jackie looked saddened. "This reality is sealing itself off."

Rose snapped around, eyes wide. "But it's still not right!" she cried, stopping them from leaving. "The Doctor is still you!"

"And I'm him," answered the Doctor with a small gesture to the new Doctor, sounding slightly bitter about the fact.

"Alright," Rose said defensively, her eyes flaring with one last act of defiance towards the plan fate had laid out for her. "Answer me this then, both of you. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it," she added in a snappish tone when neither responded right away.

The Doctor said nothing and Jay could practically feel the pain radiating from him as the new Doctor saw his chance to convince Rose of his status as an equal to the Doctor, even if he wasn't exactly the same. He told her, "I said, 'Rose Tyler.'"

Rose lifted her gaze to his, hesitant. "What was the end of that sentence?"

He leaned in and whispered to her, murmuring something in her ear. After a moment in which she pulled back and searched his gaze, Rose snagged the front of his suit and dragged him in for a fierce kiss.

Jay was startled by the feeling that slammed through her. She wasn't entirely sure of what to think of it as she watched them for a moment, pulled away only when the Doctor towed her towards the TARDIS. Jay frowned, finding she didn't like the nasty, twisting negative feeling that turned her stomach to stone and made her ill and irritable. She averted her gaze, shaking off her confusion, and gently pulled free of the Doctor's grip to duck into the TARDIS behind him.

Donna grabbed her wrist as she pulled the door shut behind them, and Jay wondered what Rose thought when the Doctor sent the TARDIS spinning through the Time Vortex, leaving his former companion behind for the final time. "You alright, sweetheart?" Donna asked gently.

"No," Jay said back, rubbing her chest, where it ached. A different ache from when she suffered the effects of her poison. A knowing smile tugged at Donna's mouth, but it faded as the Doctor slowed his rushed movements to get the TARDIS back to its proper dimension. As he stopped, his face was so full of sorrow that Jay wished they could go back to Shan Shen, back to a time where he'd not had to say farewell to anyone, least of all Rose Tyler and Donna Noble.

For it was Donna he'd turned his face towards. Donna, as she began meandering around the console, rambling and messing with this control and that control. "I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just 'cause. What a good name! Felspoon! Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move, can you imagine?"

Jay watched her silently as she lingered near the railing closer to the doors, sensing that she had no place in this conversation. She wanted nothing more than to wrap Donna in a hug and protect her from what was coming, but knew she couldn't. as the Doctor asked evenly, "And how'd you know that, Donna?"

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine!" she declared, and Jay could hear the Doctor's voice in her own head, saying things in a similar manner.

"Brilliant!" cried Donna, spitting out words faster than Jay thought possible. "Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain! You know, you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment-links and superseding the binary, binary, binary-" The word was spit out nearly a dozen more times, faster and faster. She tripped over her own words, and Jay was reminded of a computer glitching, a video stuck looping in the same second, ripping back and forth in a near painful manner. Donna had to suck in a shuddering, deep breath to stop it.. "I'm fine!"

"Donna," whispered Jay as she heard pain and terror within those two words.

Donna ignored her. "Never mind Felspoon. Know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin!" She pulled a lever. She flipped a switch, pulled a new lever. "I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin, Jay? Shall we?" Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester, Charlie Brown - no, he's fiction, friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston-"

Fear crept through Jay as Donna choked on a gasp, doubling over and cradling her head in her hands. She found herself trembling, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. This was what the Doctor had meant she realized. Donna's brain had taken in too much and was like a computer being fried. For a moment, Jay considered running to hide like a child in her room. She didn't dare leave her friends alone though. The Doctor gently touched her shoulder as he rounded the console, asking quietly, "Do you know what's happening?"

Donna said bitterly, eyes flashing with frustration, "Yeah."

"There's never been a human-Time Lord metacrisis before now." He squeezed her shoulder. "And now you know why."

"Because there can't be." Donna yanked away, her eyes flaring with desperation. "I want to stay," she choked out in a sob, and Jay wrapped her arms around herself, finding her hands were trembled. The Doctor coaxed her to look at him, and Donna croaked, eyes filled with unshed tears, "I was gonna be with you forever."

"I know," the Doctor murmured softly.

"Rest of my life. Traveling, in the TARDIS. The Doctor Donna - and Jay," she added with a fleeting look at Jay, who had begun to cry silently, tears streaming down her face. The Doctor merely looked at Donna with sorrow, and panic flared over her expression as she recoiled. It was clear Donna had realized his intentions. "I can't go back!" she cried. "Don't make me go back. Doctor, please. Please. Please don't make me go back!" She rounded on Jay. "Jay, don't...don't let him make me go back. Please, Jay, please!"

"Donna," Jay began, her voice trembling. She found herself tripping forward a few steps, and Donna met her halfway. Jay buried her face in her friend's shoulder as it shook with the force of her sobs. Jay had never seen Donna Noble cry like this - never, not when they were confronted with the truth of the Ood, not with Pompeii, not even in the Library. Her arms tightened around her when she saw the Doctor press his mouth into a grim line, straightening. She could tell he was going to do it, while Donna was distracted. Less painful for all of them, but just as heartbreaking.

So, Jay pressed her cheek to Donna's and closed her eyes. "Donna," she murmured again, "live a good life."

Donna only sobbed harder, and Jay forced herself to hug Donna tighter - even as she suddenly went limp, unconscious. She didn't need to open her eyes to know that the Doctor had done what needed to be done. She didn't want to know what he'd needed to do. She suspected it was something only a Time Lord could do though.

She only sank to the floor with the soundly sleeping Donna Noble, mourning her friend even as she lived.

---

The Doctor watched Jay out of the corner of his eye as Jay numbly ran a finger along the rim of the cup of tea she'd been handed by Wilf. She was staring off into empty space, lost in thought rather than drinking her now cold tea. He forced himself to return his attention to Sylvia and Wilf as they settled in from ensuring Donna was cared for. The four were seated at a small table in the kitchen, light pouring in a way that was far too bright for the heavy mood.

"What happened?" Wilf demanded, worried. The Doctor saw the way he looked between them, just as worried for Jay and the Doctor as he was for his granddaughter. The Doctor appreciated his concern, though he felt he didn't deserve it.

So, the Doctor opened his mouth to explain, but Jay surprised him. Calmly, she said, "When Rose and I left…" She told the story - parts of which the Doctor had not yet been told about, mostly those with Rose before they'd all found one another again - of what had happened aboard the Crucible and thereafter. She paused when she realized she didn't understand some parts, looking to him for help. He always provided them, explaining the details.

"I had to wipe her mind completely," the Doctor said quietly when their story had come to the present. "Every trace of me, or Jay, or the TARDIS. Anything we did together, anywhere we went...it all had to go."

Wilf looked heartbroken by it. "All those wonderful things she did."

"I know," said the Doctor kindly. He was as upset about it as Wilf was. "But that version of Donna is dead." He rocked forward, eyes narrowing a little. "If she remembers," he said sharply, warning them of the dangers, "just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention us, or any of it, for the rest of her life."

"But...but the whole world's talking about it," stammered Sylvia, unnerved by the idea of protecting her daughter when the world talked about it all. "We traveled across space!"

Jay had gone back to tracing the rim of her cup of tea with a blank look. Her eyes were swollen from crying, the Doctor realized distantly. "It'll be a story," he said simply. "One of those...Donna Noble stories, where she missed it all."

"But she was better with you!" cried Wilf.

"Don't say that-"

"No," snapped Wilf at his daughter, cutting her off. "She was! Happier, and braver, and - better!"

"Wilf," Jay said softly, silencing them all as if she wielded a massive whip that had cracked through the air. "There are worlds out there...planets, galaxies, stars….everything that survived thanks to Donna. There are people alive because of her, singing songs about Donna Noble, and her travels, and her achievements, and her sacrifice a thousand million light years away. She will never be forgotten. For one moment, one beautiful moment, Donna was the most important woman in this universe. "

"She still is," said Sylvia quietly. "She's my daughter."

Jay snapped her gaze to Sylvia's, her eyes burning with challenge. "Then maybe, Sylvia, you should tell her that once in a while." Sylvia recoiled as if Jay had struck her, and the Doctor bumped her gently with his elbow, warning her. It appeared that even while Jay was mourning the loss of her friend, she was still prepared to defend her as fiercely as she would anyone else against the cruelty of words.

"I was asleep!" cried a voice they both knew well. The Doctor looked over in time for Donna to come flying out of the room she'd been safely placed in to rest. The Doctor was somewhat surprised, and then amused by his own shock. Of course Donna Noble would be awake sooner than expected. When had she ever done what he'd expected her to do? "On my bed, in my clothes - like a flippin' kid!" she nearly shouted, her eyes locked on a phone in her hand. "What'd you let me do that for?" She paused, realizing there were two strangers in her family's kitchen. "Don't mind me," she told them. "Donna." She didn't bother to greet them, instead holding her phone up. "My phone's gone mad, thirty-two texts! Veena's gone barmy. She's saying planets in the sky! What have I missed now?" She suddenly paused, as if realizing there were two strangers in her home. "Nice to meet you."

Jay stared at her for a moment and then suddenly shoved herself to her feet, the table and chair rattling. The Doctor murmured her name quietly enough that Donna wouldn't hear, but she didn't answer him, instead turning and bolting from the home without a word. Donna shrugged, unbothered, even as the door slammed shut, and went to dig around in the fridge.

"I think you should go," Sylvia told him coldly, and the Doctor found she was giving him a freezing glare. It wasn't a suggestion.

The Doctor agreed with her. He needed to leave before something was triggered in Donna's memory - and check on Jay. Even so, he found himself glancing at Donna for a moment. It was likely he'd never see her again after this. So, he rose to his feet and said hesitantly, "Donna, I was just going."

Donna barely looked at him, waving. "Yeah," she said, distracted. "See you."

That almost hurt more than erasing her memories had, that nonchalance. As if they'd not saved worlds together. And to Donna, they hadn't. His throat felt tight as he forced himself to turn away. Wilf escorted him from the house, even going so far as to step outside and close the door behind them so they could talk properly. The Doctor nearly tripped over Jay, who'd been sitting on the step in front of it. She heaved herself upright when they came out though, expression one of guilt and self-loathing.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have done that."

"You feel how you want to feel," Wilf told her sternly. "You, too, Doctor, you feel how you're gonna feel, and you know that I'll watch out for you, sir."

"You can't tell her," the Doctor reminded sharply, and Wilf shook his head.

"No, no," he said, reassuring them that he understood. He'd not tell Donna of anything regarding the Doctor. "But every night, Doctor, when it gets dark, and the stars come out...I'll look up! On her behalf, I'll look up at the sky, and think of you two."

They stared at him with matching looks of surprise. Jay's face melted into a smile after a few moments, and she immediately hugged Wilf. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear, and Wilf beamed at her as the Doctor echoed her gratitude. The Doctor turned away and, after ensuring Jay was ready, he forced himself to walk briskly to the TARDIS, ensuring that he didn't look back. He'd have to tell Jay about the necklace he'd seen swinging from Donna's neck later - small enough to not cause Donna problems should she question where it came from, but full of meaning and from a life she had no idea she'd lived.

It was never a good idea to look back.

Jay took his hand as they walked, and he glanced over his shoulder at her to find that she was just as upset as she'd been before, but managing to smile a fraction over her own shoulder at Wilf as she waved in farewell.

Well, he thought fondly, tightening his grip on Jay's hand. Maybe not never.

---

The Doctor had been standing at the TARDIS console, staring at nothing in particular for long enough to worry Jay. She, herself, had recovered a little from the stabbing, vicious misery that had flooded her when Donna had come out, clearly not knowing who they were. Now, that violent grief had become a dull ache. It was ever present, not going away. She doubted it would ever go away.

Jay had opened her mouth to speak to him several times, but had given up just as often. What did you say to someone who, only a short time ago, had been surrounded by a wild array of family and friends and now found themselves with only one? He'd never see some of them again. At least Rose had a chance at happiness with the new Doctor; Donna had to forget them entirely.

Finally, Jay decided that she had to do something to fill the uncomfortable silence that had once been filled by laughter and Donna's chattering and laughter. So, she rose to her feet, determined. She disappeared into the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor by himself with some reluctance, and when she returned, she proudly carried two mugs of something that steamed. She'd abandoned her shoes, and padded barefoot through the TARDIS's control room.

"Here," she said quietly, stopping beside him. She offered the Doctor a mug. Slowly, he looked at her and then the mug, seeming surprised that she was there. Jay's face softened. She wasn't going anywhere. She offered the mug to remind him of that. Carefully, he took it, and she went to sit on the captain's seat, just behind where he stood. He leaned back on the console.

"Hot cocoa?" he questioned as he sipped at the drink she'd made.

She flashed him a small grin. "Yeah. Donna taught me. Did I get it right this time?" It had taken Donna multiple times to drill how to make the delicious hot drink into Jay's head. Time and time again, she'd showed Jay what to do, but every time Jay had tried, something had gone wrong. Pride filled her when the Doctor nodded. This was the first time she'd done it on her own, as well as the first time she'd gotten it right.

They could have lapsed into silence again. Jay decided that she wouldn't let that silence invade the TARDIS now. She could have reminded him of the vial that she knew was still hidden in his coat pocket, draped where she'd left it near the TARDIS doors. She considered doing so, knowing he'd like the distraction from his grief - the ability to maybe help someone seeing as he'd been forced to give up all of his other friends. She thought about encouraging him to take her to some fantastical planet or beautiful period of history.

Instead, she wiggled her bare toes and suggested, "I've never seen a movie."

He blinked slowly at her, confusion evident. "What…?"

Jay's blue eyes lit with laughter, though the heavy sadness lingered. "I've never seen a movie," she repeated. "Donna always told me about them. Martha, too. Seeing as you're the only one who knows how they work that's still around and the TARDIS has a room specifically dedicated to them, would you mind watching one with me?"

It was a distraction, but not one that she felt would be a forced attempt at moving on entirely from the loss of Donna, Rose, and everyone else who'd left them behind. Rather, they could rest and recover. Pick themselves up and reorient their thoughts and dust themselves off after everything that had happened. Besides that…

She knew without a doubt that an attack could come at any moment. She needed to ensure they were safe when it happened. Jay got the sense that when it hit, it'd be worse than normal - punishment for not going with it. And after that would come the Doctor's rush to analyze the sample they'd acquired. Potentially an adventure off into space and time, maybe seeking her father, who'd come up with the sample, or someone else.

"Doctor?" Jay prompted gently when he continued to stare at her in silent thought.

Warmth flooded her from her head to her toes when a sliver of a smile appeared and he commented, "Do you want a movie from Earth? Or should we watch something from another planet? There's this one, where they take Earth's stories and recreate them in ways you'd not expect, seeing as the species that occupies it has no legs…"

Most certainly a movie now, Jay thought as she listened, fascinated by the information he was spitting out.

The rest could come later.

---

My apologies for anything mistake-wise. I'm super tired and running through/posting later in the night this time! And oof, writing Rose's sections were particularly hard for some reason.

The end of Donna's journey and sadness all around (as well as some very minor fluff and what not). ;) We'll see more development and understandings regarding Jay's jealousy and such coming soon. And perhaps something extra~ We will be skipping the Christmas episode that was meant to come after this one though. Not a fan of it.

Thanks to reviewers (LoveBuckyAndHawkeye, savethemadscientist, and RandomArKade!) as well as those who favorited and followed!