Previously:

"It's the year 200,000."

"The fourth great and bountiful human empire."

"The mighty Jagrafess of the holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe."

"This isn't just a game. Something else is going on."

"Your lords and masters..."

"Oh my God..."

- X -

100 years later (now):

Piper stood beside Jack, helping him with the extrapolator while the Doctor focused on piloting the Tardis. She was nervous as missiles launched themselves at them. "We've got incoming!" The missiles hit but thankfully nothing happened. "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional force field. Try saying that when you're drunk."

"And for my next trick.." the Doctor pulled down a lever, a frosty look on his face. He moved to stand out in the open. Rose's form slowly faded into existence...along with the Dalek next to her. "Rose, get down! Get down, Rose!"

The Dalek's eyestalk spun around but it was too slow. "Exterminate!" It shot but missed, giving Jack the chance to shoot back, destroying it.

Rose ran to hug them. You did it!" She beamed. "Aw, feels like I haven't seen you in years."

"I told you I'd come and get you."

"Never doubted it."

"I did. You all right?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Not bad, been better."

"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack called playfully.

"Oh, come here!"

"I was talking to him. Welcome home."

Piper was the next to hug Rose. "Oh, I thought I'd never see you again."

"Nah. As if I would just ditch you."

The Doctor moved to examine the dead Dalek. The metal casing had been blown open so they could see the creature inside. The other joined him. "You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive?"

"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space."

"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War."

"I thought that was just a legend." Jack said in awe.

"I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing." Piper reached out a hand to him. He squeezed it gently before releasing it.

"There's thousands of em now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?" Rose asked quietly.

The Doctor put on a cheerful smile that Piper knew was fake. "No good stood round here chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbors." He ran outside, ignoring Rose as she called after him in a panic.

"You can't go out there!"

Immediately, the Daleks began firing at them. "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The Doctor held out his arms and leaned back against the Tardis. "Is that it? Useless! Nul points. It's all right, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything."

"Almost anything."

The Doctor gritted his teeth in irritation. "Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks."

Jack bowed his head sheepishly, realizing what he'd done. "Sorry."

"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Home world? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"

"They survived through me." A grating voice spoke up suddenly. The Doctor walked in the direction of the voice, gaping as some lights were turned on to reveal a big blue, one-eyes mutant in glass...in a machine?

"Piper, Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor! The Dalek race died in your inferno but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it."

"Do not interrupt!"

"Do not interrupt!"

"Do not interrupt!"

Everyone but the Doctor spun around as three Daleks screeched. "I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!" The Daleks shot back in fear. "Okey doke. So, where were we?"

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured." The Emperor continued.

"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead."

Rose scrunched up her nose in disgust. "That makes them...half human."

"Those words are blasphemy!"

"Do not blaspheme."

"Do not blaspheme."

"Do not blaspheme."

The Doctor stared at them in shock.

"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"

"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!"

"Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!"

"They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever. We're going." He turned to the Emperor before walking back to the Tardis. He gave them a taunting smile then closed the doors. They could hear the sound of the gunfire and their cries of 'exterminate'. The Tardis materialized back on the game station. "Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!"

They scrambled to do as they were told. "What does this do?"

"Stops the Daleks from transmitting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"

"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the program's."

"And the Planet's just sitting there, defenseless." Sometimes he wondered if humanity were like sheep. "Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go."

"Didn't want to leave you." No one noticed the look Rose gave to the blonde as she looked her up and down.

"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor 0."

"Oh, my God. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

"Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?" He was frantically pulling out cables and wires.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Give the man a medal."

"A Delta Wave?"

"A Delta Wave!"

"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asked.

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed."

"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!"

"Well, get started and do it then."

"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?"

"Twenty two minutes," Pavale said, looking at the screen.

A little later, everyone but the Doctor was stood around the computers. "We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."

"Do they know about the Delta Wave?"

"They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top 6 levels, 500 to 495. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level 494 and fight their way up."

"Who are they fighting?"

"Us."

"And what are we fighting with?"

"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."

"There's six of us." It was that moment when the Doctor called over to them.

"Rose, Piper, you can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare." Rose and Piper went to sit beside him, each grabbing their own wire.

"Right, now there's four of us."

Jack was getting tired of this woman's negativity. "Then let's move it! Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls."

The trio stood up when Lynda walked over to them shyly. "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best."

"Me too." They awkwardly shook hands then she left.

"It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye." Rose didn't like it.

"Don't talk like that. The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him." Jack gave the blonde a sad look. Piper looked down. While they loved the blonde in their own ways, she wasn't very realistic when it came to situation like this. Piper understood that this was probably the last time they'd ever see each other and it broke her heart to know this.

"Rose, you are worth fighting for." He kissed her on the lips then turned to the Doctor. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." He kissed him too then moved on to Piper. "You're worth fighting for too." She smiled softly at him and didn't really mind when he kissed her as well.

"You too."

"See you in Hell," he said then ran off.

"He's going to be all right, isn't he?"

Neither could answer her.

Rose, Piper and the Doctor sat quietly while they worked. "Suppose..." Rose started but stopped mid sentence.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You said suppose."

"No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"

"Can't. It'll cause a paradox. Kinda like the one you created before," Piper told her.

"Ah. Okay, maybe not."

"There's another thing the Tardis could do. It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

"Yeah, but you'd never do that."

"No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to either of you, did it?"

"Well, we're just too good."

A noise alerted them to the Delta wave. He ran to the computer to check the readings. "The Delta wave's started building. How long does it need?" His head dipped low and the girls could practically feel the helplessness and hopelessness radiating off of him.

"Is that bad? Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"

"Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the Tardis to cross my old timeline. Yes!" He ran inside the Tardis. "Hold that down and keep position."

"What's it do?"

"Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart."

"I'd go for the first one."

"Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!" They waited patiently for him to do whatever it was he was going to do. Suddenly, the Tardis began wheezing and groaning. Rose took her hand off of the console and ran to the door. It was locked.

"Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving. Doctor, let me out!"

Doctor! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Let us out!"

"Let me out! Doctor, what've you done?"

They were still banging on the door when they heard a voice behind them. They turned to see a hologram of the Doctor. "This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, Piper, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."

"No!"

"And that's okay. Hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The Tardis is taking you both home."

"I won't let ya." Rose moved back to the console, intending to try and stop it but stopped at his next words.

"And I bet you're fussing and moaning now. Typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The Tardis can never return for me. Emergency Program One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do. Let the Tardis die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it. No one'll even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing." They flinched back as the hologram turned to face them. "Have a good life. Do that for me. Have a fantastic life." The hologram flickered out.

"You can't do this to me. You can't. Take me back! Take me back! No!" The engine stopped and Rose rushed out to see she was home. Not ready to give in, she pressed buttons and levers but nothing worked. "Come on, fly. How do you fly? Come on, help me!"

Piper rushed to assist her tearfully but the Tardis refused to budge. With no way to fly it or get back, they were forced to admit defeat. They stepped outside and closed the door just as Mickey ran around the corner. "I knew it! I was all the way down Clifton Parade, and I heard the engines. I thought, there's only one thing that makes a noise like that. What is it?"

Rose just shook her head, unable to answer. She turned and hugged him. Mickey looked to Piper for answers to Rose's startling behavior but paused, seeing the tears in the brunettes eyes.

"Rose, I've called up the internal laser codes. There should be a different number on every screen. Can you read them out to me?"

"She's not here." The Doctor told him shortly.

"Of all the times to take a leak. Piper, can you read me the codes on the screen, please?"

"She's not here either. They're not coming back."

"What do you mean? Where'd they go?"

"Just get on with your work."

"You took them home, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

Jack nodded in understanding. He himself would rather have them safe than take a chance. "The Delta Wave. Is it ever going to be ready?"

"Tell him the truth, Doctor. There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek. All things will die By your hand."

"Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth."

"You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?" The Emperor was clearly taunting him.

"There are colonies out there. The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger If I let you live. Do you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"

"You sent them home. They're safe. Keep working."

"But he will exterminate you!"

"Never doubted him. Never will."

"Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words 'Bad Wolf' spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?" Because it was true. Out of everything, that was the thing he didn't understand.

"I did nothing," he denied.

The Doctor wasn't put off though. "Oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship."

"They are not part of my design." He insisted. "This is the Truth of God."

The Doctor looked up at the 'Bad Wolf' sign. If it wasn't the Emperor using the words to draw him in...then who or what was?

Rose, Jackie, Mickey and Piper and Penny sat in a café. Jackie and Mickey were eating and talking while Rose and Piper sat despondent. All they could think about was the battle and the Doctor. Neither wanted to bring it up but they knew they were wondering if he was dead yet or not.

"And it's gone up market, this place. They're doing little tubs of coleslaw, now. It's not very nice. It tastes a bit sort of clinical."

"Have you tried that new pizza place down Minto Road?" Mickey asked, hoping to engage them into conversation.

"What's it selling?" Jackie asked stupidly.

"Pizza."

"That's nice. Do they deliver?"

"Yeah."

Oh, Rose, have something to eat."

"You too, Piper." Penny pushed her container towards her. Piper shrugged uncaring but picked up a chip and popped it into her mouth. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until that moment.

"Two hundred thousand years in the future, he's dying, and there's nothing I can do."

"Well, like you said two hundred thousand years. It's way off."

"But it's not. It's now. That fight is happening right now, and he's fighting for us, for the whole Planet, and I'm just sitting here eating chips."

"Now you listen to me, God knows I have hated that man, but right now, I love him and do you know why? Because he did the right thing. He sent you back to me."

"But what do I do every day, mum? What do I do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips and go to bed? Is that it?"

"It's what the rest of us do."

"But I can't!"

"Why, because you're better than us?" His tone held offence and hurt.

"No, I didn't mean that. But it was. It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't!" She ran out of the café.

Piper made to follow but double over, crying out. She was instantly surrounded by the others, apart from Mickey who'd gone after Rose. "What's wrong? Piper...?" She panted and clutched at her head. She could hear voices in her head.

"It's not time yet...just a few more years until the breaking of the seals can start...the Apocalypse will bring paradise in Heaven..."

The voices were loud enough to drown out their voices. What was going on? Was she going crazy? What did their words mean?

Rose sat on a park bench with Mickey standing next to her. He was trying to get her to let go and forget the Doctor. He still loved Rose and hoped she would see sense about the way she was going. He hoped she would run back to him without old big ears in the way. "You can't spend the rest of your life thinking about the Doctor."

"But how do I forget him?"

"You've got to start living your own life. You know, a proper life, like the kind he's never had. The sort of life that you could have with me."

Rose was no longer listening. She'd spotted big letters written in chalk on the ground. Bad Wolf. The brick wall was covered in spray paint with the exact same words. "Over here. It's over here as well!"

Mickey was more than a bit put out. He was trying to talk to her but she was choosing to focus on some stupid words instead. "That's been there for years. It's just a phrase. It's just words."

"I thought it was a warning. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me and the Doctor. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there."

"But if it's a message, what's it saying?"

Ran ran off shouting, "It's telling me I can get back. The least I can do is help him escape."

Honestly, Mickey didn't like the sound of it. Not even a little bit.

Piper's head hurt. The voices in her head had stopped but she still had a headache. Jackie and Penny wanted to know what had happened but she refused to tell them. The last thing she needed was for them to question her sanity. Jackie left to find her daughter while Piper and Penny stayed behind to catch up.

After a failed attempts at opening the heart of the console, Rose lay sprawled on the chair.

"It was never going to work, sweetheart. And the Doctor knew that. He just wanted you to be safe."

"I can't give up."

"Lock the door. Walk away," Jackie begged.

Rose couldn't help but feel a little resentful towards her. She knew Jackie didn't mean it and loved her but Rose couldn't help but see her mother as someone who held her back. Jackie at one point, basically told Rose to be happy with what she was in while earning a lowish wage, practically begging her not to go to travel the stars and see what's out there - something no one else had experienced and now telling her to give up rather than try again. "Dad wouldn't give up."

"Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was, he'd say the same."

That was a lie and Rose knew it. She decided to voice this even if it meant hurting her in the process. "No, he wouldn't. He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor's life, try anything."

"Well, we're never going to know."

"Well, I know because I met him. I met Dad."

Jackie froze. "Don't be ridiculous."

Rose straightened herself a little. "The Doctor took us back in time and I met Dad."

"Don't say that."

"Remember when Dad died? There was someone with him. A girl, a blonde girl. She held his hand. You saw her from a distance, Mum. You saw her! Think about it. That was me. You saw me." Rose's eyes welled up with unshed tears.

"Stop it."

"That's how good the Doctor is!"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Jackie shouted and ran out, leaving Rose crying.

"There's got to be something else we can do."

Rose was staring at the Tardis. "Mum was right. Maybe we should just lock the door and walk away."

"I'm not having that. I'm not having you just, just give up now. No way. We just need something stronger than my car. Something bigger. Something like that..."

A big yellow truck parked beside them with Jackie driving it. She tossed the keys to Mickey. "Right, you've only got this until six o'clock, so get on with it."

"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?"

"Rodrigo. He owes me a favor. Never mind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and it's exactly what he would've done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind."

Rose was happy about her mum's turnaround and helped the hook a big metal hook to the console. "Keep going!" Rose shouted to Mickey.

"Put your foot down!" Jackie shouted, gesturing with her foot.

"Faster!"

"Give it some more, Mickey!"

"Yeah!"

"Keep going!"

"Come on, come on! Give it some more!"

Mickey stepped on the accelerator. The console burst open and the hook fell to the floor. Rose paid no attention to it and stared directly into the golden light. The light shout out into her eyes. The doors closed behind her, much to Mickey and Jackie's unhappiness and dematerialized. "Rose!"

The Doctor was surrounded by Daleks by the time the Tardis arrived. "Alert! Tardis materialising!"

The Doctor whirled around in shock.

"You will not escape!"

The doors opened and he was forced to cover his eyes due to a blinding light. He could just about see Rose standing in the doorway. He was horrified. "What've you done?!"

"I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me." Her voice was slightly different than usual.

"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that."

"This is the abomination!"

"Exterminate!"

The beam shot out but Rose's hand shot up and stopped it, sending it backwards. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."

"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn." How could he let this happen? This was all his fault.

"I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the false God." Her words touched him.

"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal." The Emperor told her arrogantly.

"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She held up a hand and a nearby Dalek started to disintegrate in golden dust. Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends." The Daleks crumbled into nothing.

"I will not die. I cannot die!" If it were possible, Rose's golden eyes grew brighter with power. The spaceship with the Emperor was overwhelmed with gold light which enveloped and destroyed the ship, leaving no traces but small handfuls of dust that the Daleks were ever there.

"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."

"How can I let go of this? I bring life." Jack woke up with a loud gasp.

The Doctor immediately felt this and recoiled. He felt how wrong it was. "But this is wrong! You can't control life and death!"

"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"

"The power's going to kill you and it's my fault." Shame and self loathing hit him like a train.

"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."

"That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

"My head..."

"Come here," he beckoned her. There was only one way to save her. He just prayed they'd forgive him later and hoped nothing too much would change.

"It's killing me." Tears slipped down her face.

"I think you need a Doctor." He bent down and kissed her. The energy transferred from her to him and she fainted. He caught her and put her gently on the ground the released the energy back into the open Tardis. The doors closed afterwards and he smiled sadly. By the time Jack got to where the Tardis was, it was already leaving, leaving him stranded.

Rose woke up on the console floor. Strangely enough, she couldn't remember what happened. "What happened?"

The Doctor didn't sound too surprised. "Don't you remember?"

"It's like there was this singing-"

"That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." He joked. Light glowing caught his eyes and his smile faded. It was starting.

"I was at home. No, I wasn't, I was in the Tardis, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else."

"Rose Tyler. I was going take you both to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny." He laughed.

Rose ran a hand through her long blonde hair. "Then, why can't we go?"

"Maybe you will, and maybe I will. But not like this."

"You're not making sense."

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process." Rose's grin faded at his words. "You never know what you're going to end up with." He grunted and staggered back a few steps.

Rose lunged towards him. "Doctor!"

"Stay away!"

"D-Doctor, tell me what's going on." She was getting scared now.

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying."

"Can't you do something?!"

"Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go-"

"Don't say that."

"Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And so was Piper. And do you know what? So was I. Can you tell her I said sorry?" She didn't have a chance to respond. He threw his head back, golden energy bursting out of his body. Rose held onto the coral struts, her face protected by her arm as she waited. When the light disappeared, there was a new man in the Doctor's place. He was wearing the Doctor's clothes and jacket.
"Hello. Okay - ooh, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona." Then he smiled.