Many weeks have passed since the Doctor and Rose had visited New York. One thing that has been on the Doctor's mind was what had happened after he ran back to see the Face of Boe. There he had found the Face was no longer dying, nor had he given up on the universe as before. The Doctor had shown him there was much more.
"My friend, what was the message you wanted to give me?" the Doctor had asked.
The Face had responded telepathically. "It can wait till we meet for the third and final time, when all will be revealed." With that, the Face had teleported away.
The Doctor doesn't even realize Rose has walked in. "Doctor, are you ok?"
"I'm fine," he replies. Suddenly turning around, he looks at her and begins to think what the future could hold for them.
"So, Doctor," Rose asks. "What's wrong? Is it something I can help with?"
"No, I'll be fine. Just thinking."
"Great! What's on the agenda for today? Where shall the mysteries of time and space lead us?"
The Doctor shrugs. "Who knows? What say we just spin the wheel and find out?"
"Fine. Let's go!"
The Doctor and Rose leave the room. They turn this way and that along the corridors of the TARDIS, until they finally arrive in the main console room. They run up the steps to the TARDIS console where the Doctor starts to flick switches and press buttons. Rose knows this means he is setting the coordinates for whatever place in space and time they are going to. He reaches over and spins the dial rapidly.
The console moves up and down. Beeping and humming is heard all over.
The dematerialization column stops moving. They have landed. Rose looks at the Doctor and he looks at her. Together they walk towards the door.
Opening it, they step out. The TARDIS had landed inside a large room. "Where are we?" Rose asks.
"Dunno—appears to be a storage room," the Doctor replies. "Let's just get out of here." Both begin walking toward a distant door.
When they come to it, they open it slowly, but the door seems to be blocked by something. Pushing with all his might, the Doctor is able to open it enough for the two to squeeze through into what appears to be a long hallway. It's a mess with carts overturned and papers all over, with no signs that anyone has been here for some time. Rose thinks it looks like the aftermath of one of Mickey's parties, only creepier.
Looking down the hall, the Doctor sees what appears to be a lift. He walks down the hall, then stops at a table with a computer console. When he pushes a few buttons, it beeps. The Doctor suddenly has a weird expression on his face
"Where are we?" Rose asks
"We seem to have landed on the ground floor of an underground military base, but the only thing I can get from this console is just information about this floor and a map. What say we find the main computer?"
The base turns out to have 603 floors, but luckily the floors are all equipped with turbolifts so it only takes a few seconds to travel many levels. Rose tries to see if she can find out more by reading the signs. As she looks around, the Doctor is busy pushing the lift buttons. According to the plans, the main computer is on floor 300, or almost halfway to the top.
They can feel the rush of the lift briefly, but then it settles off. Suddenly the lift halts.
"What happened? Why did we stop?" Rose asks.
"I dunno. We're only on the 190th floor," the Doctor replies.
The doors open, and they find this hallway is also in the same mess. Stepping out, the two begin down the halls. Turning the corner, something catches Rose's eye. It looks like a small person. "Doctor, I think I see someone," she says.
As they proceed down the corridor, the Doctor begins to look around. He stops suddenly, and Rose walks right into him. "Oops, sorry," she apologizes. "Doctor, what is it?"
"Sorry, I thought I saw something in that room," he replies. He thinks for a moment, then decides to check into it. As he walks into the room, the lights flicker on. It appears to be a lab, The Doctor looks up at a giant beam which is in the center of the room. He thinks to himself that it looks familiar, but can't place where he has seen it. "It will come to me later when I'm not expecting it," he tells himself.
He continues across the room with Rose following. He stops at the computer in the room, examining it as he begins to read. "Seems they were conducting experiments here on many things. The last one was on something brought back from a planet called Kalstin. It says the date is 3051," the Doctor says to her.
"Well, what else does it say? Anything about what happened here?"
"Not really. The last entry was just routine stuff—logs." the Doctor replies. Looking further through the files, he suddenly falls back.
"What's the matter, Doctor?" When the Doctor doesn't saying anything but just keeps staring at the screen, Rose walks over and views what has shocked him. On the screen flashing in large letters is the word Torchwood.
"What does it mean?" she asks. "I've heard that name once before and seen it posted."
"Yes, I know Rose, So have I. But this console doesn't tell me much more than that, which is why we still need to get to the central computer."
"Let's go. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better," Rose remarks.
"Shall we go then?"
The two leave the room and proceed down the hall looking for the next lift. After what seems like hours, they finally arrive at it. Again the Doctor suddenly comes to a halt.
Rose stops as well. "What is it?"
"Don't you hear that?" The Doctor steps up to the door and puts his ear to it.
Rose listens quietly, but doesn't hear anything. "What are we listening for?"
The Doctor hushes her. "Shh!"
She tries to hear what the Doctor is listening for, but there's no noise. The only sounds are from the papers in the halls and the creaking of the doors
"Let's take the stairs," the Doctor suggests. He leads the way to the door marked Stairs. Rose begins to ascend behind him,
But why was the Doctor in such a hurry? "Doctor, slow down. What's the rush?" she asks.
"Must hurry or it will get away."
"What will?"
"Something," he says.
Rose rolls her eyes and follows him as he runs up the stairs. They continue for what again seems like hours when suddenly he stops to catch his breath. Rose does as well as she looks up at a sign on the wall. They are at floor 298. So that's why her feet hurt. "Doctor! What in the world are you doing?".
"We will know in a few minutes!" He looks up, reaching for the door and opening it sharply. He rushes out leaving Rose to follow. Out in the hall there is more mess, but this time the hallway is more brightly lit than the others had been previously.
As they go down the hall, Rose suddenly sees something running across the floor. Just as before, it's a short figure. "Did you see that, Doctor?"
"Yes, I saw it. That's why I came to this floor. I heard it moving through the walls. It was climbing the lift wires—"
"What is it!" Rose exclaims.
"I dunno. That's why we need to find it and see."
Slowly walking along the hall, the Doctor can see the little figure is in the next room. With no way out, he enters. "I'm the Doctor. I mean you no harm," he says to the figure, which is trying to hide behind a desk.
"Doctor, what is it? Is it safe?" Rose asks.
The Doctor approaches the desk, turning toward the figure. "I'm a friend. You have nothing to be scared of." He squats down and reaches for the small figure, which stops shaking.
Rose wonders who or what it is. "Is it ok?" she inquires as she also comes forward. She stops as the Doctor stands up. Reaching for the figure's hand, he leads it out from behind the desk. Rose stares at the figure, which is an only four-foot tall, grey-skinned alien with large black eyes, like something out of an X-Files episode. "What is he, Doctor?"
The Doctor responds, "He's a Wascco. One of the 'little green men' as humans from your time called them. This one is scared, but he will be fine. His name is Armas."
"He's kinda cute," Rose says with a smile.
The little creature begins to speak. "Help me," he pleads. "Will you help me get home?"
"How did you get here?" the Doctor asks.
Armas begins to tell them how he was captured when he and his crew crashed there. Although the human population had lived with aliens before, they were not his kind, and they had never really had relations with them. He was taken into custody by a group of military men who tortured aliens and stole their technologies to further mankind. Every alien not helping them was eliminated. "I watched my friends butchered because they wouldn't talk."
"So what happened here?" Rose asks him.
"There was a breakout by the captured aliens and a big battle," Armas replies. "The aliens were too much for the guards and men. So they released the ultimate weapon they'd accumulated: warrior robots."
As the Doctor listens to what Armas describes, he thinks it sounds like an enemy from his past, but he can't be sure.
"The 'Bots were trained to find anything that wasn't human and destroy it,"Armas continues. "They were equipped with a device that sifts out human DNA so they only go after aliens."
Before he could finish his stories, there was an explosion.
"What was that?" Rose asks.
"That's one of them," Armas replies. "I've been running from them for a long while. They won't stop till I'm dead."
"You know, you speak really good English," the Doctor says.
"Oh, my people watch the Earth's TV broadcasts."
They peer out into the hall. At the end, they can see one of the Bots. As it approaches, the Doctor gets a good look, then swoops back into the room.
"Can't be," he says. "It's a Cyberman. But it also looks like a Dalek."
"How?" Rose wonders.
"We need to get to that main console. To do so, we need a diversion," the Doctor tells them.
"I'll buy you some time," Armas says. "You two make it to the stairs."
Before the Doctor can speak, Armas runs into the hall. The Bot shoots and proceeds to chase him. The Doctor and Rose make a break for the door to the stairs, but suddenly the Bot turns, homing in on the Doctor's DNA, and fires. Just as the two make it through the door, the ceiling outside crashes down.
Rose wipes the dust from her eyes as she slowly stands. She wonders if the little alien is ok and where the doctor might be.
She finds the Doctor sitting at the top of the flight of stairs, staring down at her. His face and clothes are also all covered in dust,
She slowly goes toward him. He grins seeing that she's safe and reaches out his hand to help her to the top step.
"Are you ok?" he asks, but her ears are ringing and she can barely hear his voice.
"What happened? Why did it attack us?"
"Only thing I can think of is you're human, and if you remember, I'm alien," he says. "But let's move on as we really need to get to the console room."
The Doctor turns away and begins to move up the stairs. Rose follows right behind. They soon pass a sign saying floor 298, then another at 299. Minutes later they reach floor 300.
"Are we finally here?" she asks, moving to stand beside him.
He shakes his head yes and reaches for the door, but unlike the others, it is locked. From his pocket he takes out his sonic screwdriver and buzzes it over the handle. With a click the door opens.
"Be careful what you wish for," the Doctor shoots back to Rose, then he returns his attention to the sonic screwdriver and puts it back in his pocket. "Shall we go?"
They pass through the door into another hall. Rose asks, "So what are we looking for?"
"Two double doors different from the others."
"What, like those over there?" Rose points to the middle of the hall.
"Yes, that's it." the Doctor replies.
As he walks over to the door, he sees the panel is more complex than any of the other security ones. He again pulls out his sonic screwdriver and begins to pick the lock, so to speak.
Only minutes pass, but it seems like forever. "You got it yet?" Rose asks.
"Nope. But soon, I promise. It's very tight."
Rose paces back and forth. Suddenly a loud clicking is heard, and with a whoosh the door slowly opens. They walk into a large room filled with computer monitors, a few desks with overturned chairs, and more paper mess.
"Wow, someone could use a maid." Rose comments. "So now what are we looking for?"
"I dunno. Maybe a monitor unlike the others." Suddenly the Doctor sees it in the middle of the room. Rushing over, he begins to scan over its files. The room begins to lighten up as offline monitors come to life. Machines beep and buzz. "Bingo, that did it. These computers control the entire base and everything on it."
The Doctor begins to access some confidential files using a few of the computer-hacking talents he's picked up through the years. He comes across the specs for the Bots that now chase down aliens. He discovers they are named Cyleks, and that there had been about fifteen made before the base was closed, but only three are operational as the others haven't been finished for service.
Reading on, he sees the first batch of prototypes failed as they wouldn't take orders, and had even caused some accidental deaths. Their creators therefore put in an override function where if the Cyleks ever got out of hand, a computer console connected directly to their brain functions could send an electric charge through them, frying their circuits and causing a complete shutdown. If that didn't stop them, a backup weapon had also been built.
Searching for the whereabouts of the override program, the Doctor locates it on a small terminal in the room near the main computer. Looking around, he sees a medium-sized box on a stand with a glass cover. Under the cover is a button pad and a large button, but one needs a code to activate the switch. However, this problem was simple to solve as it had been written on the console.
Rose walks over and watches the Doctor punching in the codes. Just as he reaches for the button, she asks, "What you doing, Doctor?"
"I have found the shutdown for the Cyleks. When I push this button, it will deactivate them all." He does so, and suddenly the room brightens. A large monitor on the wall comes to life that shows the location of the three Cyleks.
They hear a voice: "Shutdown of Cylek Alpha 1 initiated.—Shutdown complete. Shutdown of Cylek Alpha 2 initiated. —Shutdown complete. Shutdown of alpha 3 initiated…" Suddenly it rings out, "Alert! Shutdown error! Error system not responding!"
Looking on the wall, the doctor sees the third Cylek is located one floor below them and heading in their direction. He tries the button again but gets the same response. Running to the console he was at before, he looks for the nearest weapon storage and locates it up one floor. He grabs Rose's hand and the two run off.
"We've gotta get to that weapons room," says the Doctor. "The Cylek picked up the signal being used to deactivate it and somehow it overrode the shutdown. Now it's heading our way."
They run briskly up the stairs to floor 301. "What are we trying to find?" Rose asks.
The Doctor stops for a moment. "Room 329…"
"You check down this way. I'll look here." As she enters a room, Rose looks around, then sees a large vault-like door marked '329.' "Doctor!" she yells. "It's over here."
As he rushes over, he sees it has only a simple lock. Once more the sonic screwdriver comes out as he uses it to scan the device. He then turns off the sonic screwdriver and puts it away. "That did it."
Pulling the door open, they enter. A quick investigation of the weapons confirms that these were the weapons described in the files. As he picks one up and turns to leave, the Doctor notices something at the end of the room in a large case. He proceeds to investigate, but after approaching it, he suddenly stops and stares at it as if he can't believe his eyes. He drops the gun and walks over to the item. It's a large round disk with sort of halo-shaped wires running from it. He reaches for the case and removes the cover, then stands and stares at the item inside.
"It can't be," he says out loud.
Rose turns and looks him. "'What is it, Doctor?"
"Something long forgotten that shouldn't even exist."
"What?"
The Doctor continues, "It's from Gallifrey, the heart of my people's world. The Matrix of Gallifrey—all the knowledge of the Timelords. But I don't know how it can be here, as all traces of Gallifrey were destroyed. Nothing survived."
"But if that's the case, where did this come from?"
"I need to get back to the TARDIS and hook it into the system. It will tell us the last thing recorded to it."
With weapon in hand and the Matrix tucked away, Rose and the Doctor make their way back towards the location of the Cylek. Before they can leave, it too has to be stopped, and they also need to find Armas again and get him to safety
"Where do you think the Cylek is, Doctor?" Rose wonders.
"Well, if we can't find it, it will find us. Me to be exact?"
Rose worries about the small alien. "Do you think the little guy is ok?" But the Doctor has other things on his mind. He wants to get to the TARDIS and find out what information the Matrix contains. However, he knows the first thing to do before they can leave is to stop the Cylek.
As they move along through the base, the Doctor and Rose take every step with caution, halting to look around corners as the Doctor peers into the darkness, trying to figure out where the Cylek is.
He walks off a few meters to explore. There he can see a large hole in the wall where something made its way through; the blast that took out a steel concrete wall must been great. The Doctor can only imagine the power of the Cyberman and Dalek technologies combined.
Rose is right behind the Doctor, so she is surprised when he stops suddenly, then seems to disappear. She takes a few steps toward the corner calling, "Doctor!"
"I'm over here. Quietly walk this way."
As Rose slowly walks towards the Doctor in the dark, she nearly trips over a metal can, making a crashing sound. Up ahead in the hall, the Cylek is stirring. It picks up on the sound and proceeds to their location. Apparently the Cylek's DNA sensor is either limited or no longer completely functional, but now that it is close by, it can again sense the Doctor. He and Rose turn to run, but the Cylek blocks their way.
The Cylek just stands there scanning the Doctor's location and gathering information, but his system apparently has no data about the Doctor other than what it has obtained itself. While the Cylek is still searching, the Doctor looks at Rose and uses his famous saying: "Run! Run for your life!"
Holding hands, the two begin running. They make it to a large room where the Doctor looks around for a place to hide Rose, as he knows if Rose was safe, he wouldn't have to worry about her. Then he notices a mail drop. Perfect—he rushes her over and opens the shoot. "Get in here," he says.
As she does so, Rose suddenly realizes the Doctor isn't coming, but it's too late as she slides down the shaft to the room below.
"Rose!" the Doctor calls down. "Are you ok?"
"Yes, I'm fine," she replies.
Shutting the lid, the Doctor loads up the weapon and moves out towards the Cylek to lead it away. Down the hall through a couple of doors is a very large storage bay. If he can get the Cylek there, the Doctor would have an advantage.
Making noise, the Doctor gets the Cylek's attention. Within minutes he is being followed. Shortly thereafter he arrives at the storage room, runs through the large swinging doors, and ducks behind a crate. The Cylek enters and scans the room. When it detects the Doctor, it fires a laser towards the crate. The Doctor jumps just as it hits, then picks himself up shaking. The Cylek is getting closer. The Doctor is trying to load his weapon, but something's not right—it's jammed. With the Cylek right upon him, he tries to fix it, but no luck. Another blast from the Cylek, and again the Doctor gets out of the way.
Meanwhile Rose is wandering below in the mail room looking for a way back to the floor where the Doctor is when suddenly she hears a noise. Grabbing a pipe that's lying on a crate, she walks slowly to the side of a mail cart. Suddenly Armas jumps out to run
"Stop!" Rose yells.
Armas stops and begins to walk back in her direction.
She walks over to meet the little fellow. "Are you ok?"
"Yes," Armas replies. "But where's your friend the Doctor?"
That's a good question, Rose thinks to herself.
In fact the Doctor is still battling the Cylek, who he feels isn't going to give up. The Cylek fires another shot at him. This one hits a pipe and causes a small explosion, throwing the Doctor across the room. His weapon hits the ground with a thud and catches onto a pipe, jerking the trigger, which comes unstuck and fires. The blast ricochets off something and hits the Cylek. The powerful force slams the Cylek to the ground, leaving it badly damaged with its energy fading fast.
The Doctor stands and makes his way over to the Cylek, which now seems completely lifeless. Squatting down, he removes its face plate. Beneath it is the half-human face of a man. "What kind of place created these beings using humans? What kind of people were they?" he asks himself.
Unfortunately the Doctor realizes he may be about to find out, as apparently the Cyleks were built with chips. When they go offline, they sent out a sort of beacon that shows they need repair. The others that had been deactivated first didn't send out one because they had been shut down, not damaged. "Well, anyway," the Doctor mutters as he jumps up and heads off to find Rose.
She is also off looking for the doctor with Armas. A group of well-armed men are searching for them as well.
"Doctor!" she calls as she looks around each room.
Almost immediately she sees a figure walking down the dark hallway entering into the light. It's the Doctor.
"Doctor, you're all right!" she yells at him..
"Sure, I'm all right. I'm the Doctor, aren't I?" he replies. "But what do you say we get out of here?"
"Sounds great to me." Off they head back towards the TARDIS with the soldiers right above them.
Walking by a room, the Doctor looks into the window. On one of the monitors he sees something entering the room. The surveillance cameras show the soldiers heading their way—and they're not far behind. "Rose, we've got to hurry—we've got company."
Looking at the monitor, she also sees the men. They take off running until they reach a nearby lift. As the two along with Armas enter it, they push the button for the bottom floor. The lift swooshes and within seconds they are there. The doors open and they start running down the hall to the TARDIS. All three barely make it when a large group exits from another lift just as the TARDIS' doors close. The Doctor dashes to the console and throws a lever. The TARDIS dematerializes just as the soldiers arrive.
"Black Delta Leader 1 to base, do you copy?" one of the soldiers barks into his walkie-talkie.
"This is base leader. Did you catch the Doctor?" asks a raspy voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie.
"No sir, they escaped. Repeat, the Doctor has escaped."
Back on the Tardis, the Doctor is fiddling with a few things on the console when he turns and walks over to Armas. "So my little friend, bet you wanna go home."
"Yes," Armas replies.
"Just walk out that door and you shall have your freedom," the Doctor tells him.
Armas walks over to the TARDIS' door and pushes it open. Outside is a world he has not seen in a long time. "I'm home," he says to himself as he turns and thanks the Doctor. "Whatever I can do for you, anytime, just feel free to ask."
"You owe me nothing," the Doctor responds. "But now we must be on our way."
"Good-bye, Doctor." Armas waves as the Doctor shuts the door and the TARDIS swooshes away
Now in the depths of space, Rose is off cleaning up in her room while the Doctor sits in a chair, his mind far off. Suddenly he glances over to the table where the bag lies containing the Matrix of Gallifrey. He goes over and removes the item. At a nearby console, he takes a plug and hooks it into the console. Looking at the Matrix, he knows it holds the history of the Timelords. But does it have information as to whether any survived? Raising the halo up and placing it on his head, he reaches forwards and pushes a button. The Matrix emits a loud sound and a few sparks, causing the Doctor to go still as if in a trance. Suddenly his eyes grow big. "It's not possible," Rose hears him say as she walks in. "There's more to see than any can ever know." He falls over and Rose runs to him.
"Doctor, Doctor, are you ok?" The Doctor lies in her arms with his eyes still wide open. "Speak to me, Doctor. Where are you?"
Opening his eyes, the Doctor stands. He looks around and discovers he's in a field of sorts. His mind spins. What happened? How did he get here? And—where was here?
He begins to think back. The last thing he remembers is having the Matrix of Gallifrey. Suddenly he stops, looks again at his surroundings, and realizes he's been here before when he was inside the Matrix. The last time he fought for his life, but not this time, or so he thinks.
"So how do I get out of here?'
He begins to walk along a path towards a small forest looking around for anything that looks like a way out. Suddenly he feels a chill in the air. "Brrr. If I knew it was gonna be cold, I would have brought my overcoat."
So where was here? he wondered again. He is coming out of the forest when suddenly he hears something behind him. He turns but sees nothing, but when turning back around, he falls and begins sliding down a hill, stopping only when he grabs a small tree.
Pulling himself up, he sits off to the side. A bit of pain shoots through his side. Bouncing down the hill, he must have rolled into a large rock. As he closes his eyes and leans back, he tries to think about where the exit must be.
Suddenly he hears a voice: "Doctor, can I help you?"
Opening his eyes, he sees an old friend from his past, a former companion. "Leela, is that you?"
"Yes," she says.
"But how can you be here? Only Timelords are permitted here."
"That is true, but my husband was a Timelord. By marrying one, I became one."
"Still, how can you be here? You're long gone," the Doctor persists.
"Well, you see, I'm not really here. Your mind has created me to help you through the journey of finding the doorway out."
Getting up, he walks over to her and reaches out. "It is good to see you again…Savage," he says.
She smiles. "Good to see you again too, Doctor. If you will follow me this way, the exit is near."
Soon they are walking along another path. Suddenly Leela stops. "You see that mountain ridge there, Doctor? The exit is there."
"But I can't leave yet," he says. "I need to find out what happened. If there were any survivors, and if so, how it can be that I not know about it."
"You shall learn these in due time, but that's all I can say." Shortly afterwards they arrive at the bottom of the mountain where another path begins. The Doctor walks along behind Leela as the two continue for a long time.
"Where do we go from here?" he finally asks.
"This way," she says, pointing to another long path. This whole trip is nothing but long paths. But after walking a few more minutes, Leela stops suddenly.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor asks.
"I don't know how, but we've got company," she replies.
Suddenly rocks begin to fall from the hillsides. Leela and the Doctor begin to run as trees also fall around them. "What's happening?" the Doctor tries again.
"I don't know," Leela tells him as they arrive at the mountain top. "Doctor, you must hurry. The doorway out of here is over there at the edge."
"Thanks, Leela. I wish you could come with me."
"But remember, I'm just your mind using me."
The Doctor briefly glances at the edge. When he turns to say good-bye, Leela is gone. He makes his way towards the edge, but before he reaches it, a dark shadowy figure steps in front of him.
"Who are you?" the Doctor asks.
"Don't you know me?" the figure responds. Suddenly more of him appears. The Doctor sees it's himself, but how and why? "What are you? You're not me."
"No, I'm not you. I'm a virus that's part of the Matrix as a backup if anyone ever tries to invade here. It's a backup installed after you last fought with the Master when he entered here."
"But why fight me? I'm no threat," the Doctor says.
"True, but I can't control my systems."
"So why do you look like me?"
"The virus is made to fight intruders with their ultimate match—themselves. I'm sorry, Doctor, but I must do as I must," the virus tells him. Suddenly he jumps the Doctor. As they scuffle and roll over and over on the ground, the Doctor knows he must end this fight quickly, as he can feel time is of the essence. He sees his chance of getting free. He has the virus chase him, then just as they make it to the side of the mountain, he drops down. As the virus approaches, he trips him. As the virus falls forward over the edge, the Doctor hears:
"Well done, Doctor. I never wanted to fight you, but it was in my program."
The voice then fades. The Doctor gets to his feet and walks over to the highest edge. As he peers over, he sees a large whirling thing, purple with a blend of blue. "So how do I get down there?" he wonders. Then he hears Leela's voice. Turning around, he sees an image of her.
"Doctor, the way is safe. Just leap and you will land at home," she tells him.
"But Leela, I still can't go yet. I've not found the answers I wanted."
"Doctor, the answers are always in you. At the right time, you will learn them. The words of an old friend will reveal all. Listen to those words." Before he can ask who will say them, she disappears again
He turns back around, Leela's words still on his mind. He lets himself fall forward. He's falling, falling…but suddenly he's back on the TARDIS. Rose is still there watching over his body. He rises up from the floor.
Rose turns to see the Doctor. "You're all right?" she asks as he finishes getting to his feet
"Yes, my dear—I just took a brief nap," he says as he removes the Matrix from his head.
"So what happened?"
"Well, it was sorta like a dream, but with almost a nightmare. Which is all over now." He lays the Matrix on the table nearby and begins to walk away.
"So Doctor, you're sure you are all right?" she asks skeptically.
"Yes."
He passes by the doors leading to his room and comes to a wall. When he raises his hand over a spot on it, a hidden door opens. He enters and lights begin to turn on as he walks by the pictures along the wall. Each one is a former companion, from his granddaughter to Ace, each with a memory of them, but one in particular he stops near. It's of Leela. He stands and stares. On a pedestal in front of him lies a hunting knife. Staring at the picture, he begins to see her as if she were there. Cracking a smile, he utters the words once again: "Good-bye, Leela. Take care, Savage." A tear rolls down his eye.