A/N: So I kind of struggled with getting the ending just right and I'm still not 100% pleased with it, but it's still not bad.
Hardly a second later, Rose and I appeared in a large room and we immediately stumbled over one another before falling to the floor. I landed on my side next to Rose while she fell on her back with her gun landing on top of her. I rolled onto my back with a groan and was immediately surrounded by a small group of men and women armed with guns similar to Rose's.
"No, wait!" Rose exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. "Wait, it's okay! She's okay!"
"Who is this?" one of the women asked.
"She's a friend. I know her. Just put your guns down!"
After a moment of silence, the woman nodded and gestured for the others to lower their weapons. Rose extended a hand to me and helped pull me to my feet, then turned to look at the woman again.
"Captain Bambera, this is Diana Scott. I used to travel with her back home. She's with the Doctor." Captain Bambera looked at me through narrowed eyes, obviously trying to see if I posed any threat. Rose sighed and placed a hand on Bambera's forearm, looking seriously into her eyes as she said, "It was an accident, but it's fine. Everything's still on schedule."
"Is it?" Bambera replied sharply, her eyebrows raised.
Rose nodded. "I just need another canon and I'll be on my way. Mum and Mickey can explain everything to her."
Bambera pursed her lips and sighed. "Very well. But you know what will happen if this goes kaput. It'll be on your head, Tyler."
"I know."
"Um," I began softly, "could somebody tell me what's going on?"
Captain Bambera snapped her fingers as she shouted, "Someone get me a fresh canon, now!" Then she gestured to Rose and I with her finger. "You two, follow me. Let's make this quick."
The Captain started walking across the room, pulling her gun off her shoulders and handing it to a soldier as she passed him, while Rose and I quickly followed. "Who is she?" I whispered to Rose.
"Former UNIT director, now head of Torchwood Institute."
"UNIT?" I repeated incredulously.
Rose nodded. "Yeah. Her mother was Brigadier Winifred Bambera and after her mother retired, she became head director of UNIT until it was disbanded. Then she joined Torchwood. Basically, she's my boss and it's best if you don't get on her bad side."
Ahead of Captain Bambera a young man came running into the room through a door, something clutched in his hands. He skidded to a halt in front of Bambera and handed her the device in his hands, then Bambera turned and handed it to Rose.
"Be careful," she said.
The device was another dimension canon and Rose returned the old one to Bambera before slipping the new one around her neck. Rose nodded seriously at Bambera before glancing at me with a hesitant smile. "See ya 'round," she muttered before disappearing with a flash.
Captain Bambera sighed heavily and immediately began ordering the men and women still standing around me. "Reynolds, Gray, with me, the rest of you to your stations. Miss Scott, please follow me."
I didn't want Bambera to find me any more of a nuisance than she already did, so I merely nodded in silence and followed her as she guided me across the room and to an open doorway. The two men she had asked to stay with us walked silently behind me with their guns held closely to their chests. Through the doorway was another room, only a little smaller and with the walls lined with varying weapons and protective gear. Standing on one side of the room and pulling on a black leather jacket was Mickey, his body angled just slightly away from us. Across the room from Mickey was Jackie Tyler, wearing a very conspicuous, pale blue outfit.
"Mrs Tyler, Mr Smith," Bambera called, "I believe you know this woman?"
Mickey and Jackie both turned around to face Captain Bambera and they both gasped in shock the moment they saw me. "Oh my God," Jackie murmured as her hands moved to cup her mouth. Mickey's mouth had dropped open and he grinned at me. "Diana, is that you?"
I smiled and nodded, waving a little awkwardly at the pair. "Um, hi," I said.
Jackie immediately rushed across the room and pulled me into a firm hug. Mickey laughed under his breath and walked over to pull Jackie and I into a hug, his arms wrapped around both of us.
"I hate to break up this reunion, but I have much more important things to take care of and Rose said you two would explain everything to her."
Mickey immediately pulled back and nodded at Bambera, giving her a mock salute. "We'll take care of it, ma'am," he said seriously.
"And make it quick. The two of you have to be gone within the hour."
"That gives us… thirty minutes," Mickey said as he glanced at his wristwatch. "More than enough time, Captain."
Bambera nodded. "Very well." With a nod to Mickey and Jackie, she saluted them both. "Good luck."
Once Bambera had left, Jackie pulled me into another hug with a squeal of delight. "Oh God, it's been ages! Look at you!"
"Jackie," Mickey began in a low voice, "come on, we haven't got much time."
"I know, but I want to at least say hello," she replied after releasing me from her hug.
Mickey glanced back at me and smiled again. "C'mere, you," he laughed before tugging on my arm to pull me into yet another hug. I was lodged between Mickey's arm and chest as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Been a long time."
I nodded and wrapped my arms around him for a moment, recalling the first and only time I'd ever met Mickey back in Cardiff. "Yeah," I sighed.
"Where's Rose? Is she alright?" Jackie asked.
"Yes," I answered when Mickey and I separated. "She's fine. She just left again."
"How did you get here without a dimension canon?" Mickey wondered.
"Rose… ended up in 1969 somehow, which is where I was. And I was stupid and I grabbed the canon, just to look at it, and then she tried to grab it and we accidentally ended up here. It's my fault."
"Did she get another canon?" Mickey asked worriedly. "She left right away, didn't she?"
"Uh, yeah she did."
Mickey and Jackie both breathed a sigh of relief. "Good," Jackie sighed. "At least she's back on schedule."
"What's this schedule?" I questioned.
"Doesn't matter," Mickey told me. He walked back to his previous spot by the wall and put a hand on one of the guns there. "All you need to know is how to use a canon and how to fire one of these babies. We've got twenty-five minutes and you're smart, so it should be easy." Walking over to the open doorway, Mickey shouted, "We need another fresh canon here!"
"How many canons have you got?" I asked curiously.
Mickey only said, "Enough." He gestured for me to follow him over to the wall, where he grabbed one of the guns and took it off the wall. "Now, you hold it like this with the strap over your shoulder so you can aim and fire easily. And it's much lighter than it looks, so you'll be fine. Even Jackie can lift one."
"Oi, watch it," the blonde retorted, "or you'll get a smack, you will."
"Here, slip it on," Mickey instructed as he handed me the gun.
The gun was much lighter than I anticipated and was easy to lift, even without the strap to add extra support. Once I had the strap across my chest, I adjusted the gun so I could hold it while the side of it was braced against my thigh. Mickey placed my hands in the appropriate places and then showed me how to power the gun up.
"And then you just aim and fire," Mickey finished with a reassuring smile.
Just then another man ran into the room, a new canon in his hands. Jackie grabbed it for me and thanked him before he left. She then handed it to Mickey, who slipped it over my head and let it rest against my chest.
"Now listen very carefully," he said to me, looking me directly in the eyes. "Once you've jumped to the other dimension, it works as a teleport as well. The canon is semi telepathic. You just think of where you need to go and press the central button down twice, but quickly. Like this," he said as he tapped the back of my hand twice in rapid succession. "Got that?"
I nodded. "Press it twice very quickly and think of where I need to go," I repeated.
"Perfect. Now Jackie and I are going in… about twenty minutes, but you should go now."
"Why?"
"Because Rose is supposed to find the Doctor and if the Doctor needs anyone, it's you."
"But what about you two?"
Jackie smiled. "Don't you worry about us, sweetheart. You just find the Doctor and find my Rose. And take care yourself."
"And good luck," Mickey added.
"Thanks." I looked down at the canon hanging from around my neck by a single metal chain, cupping in my left hand while my right held onto the gun. "See you guys soon."
Closing my eyes, I pressed down once one the canon and let it pull me from one dimension to another.
I shimmered into existence back in the Doctor's universe less than a second later and immediately recoiled in shock when I found myself surrounded by chaos and fire. I had materialized in the middle of a sidewalk and cars were flying down the street just a few feet in front of me. People were screaming, fires were ablaze in shops and cars all around me, and the sky overhead was filled with the sight of alien planets all clumped together with no sign of the moon or any stars.
Suddenly, a giant saucer appeared in the sky mere yards overhead and began firing on the city around me. A cacophony of Dalek voices screaming "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" mixed with the sounds of explosions and people screaming in terror. Daleks suddenly whizzed through the air overhead, their familiar battle cry making me shiver in fear as I stumbled out of sight.
"Shit," I breathed as I clutched my gun against my chest.
Grabbing frantically at the dimension canon around my neck, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to think of somewhere safe. I thought of Rose and wherever she might be at the moment and pressed the button twice, hoping it was enough to get me out of harm's way. A mere second later, I opened my eyes and found myself in the middle of someone's living room.
"Rose?" I called out hopefully.
A middle aged woman came running into the room then with Wilf right behind her. "It's you!" Wilf cried happily before rushing forward to give me a hug. "Come on, darling, Rose is waiting for you!"
Wilf led me into an adjoining room where Rose was sitting at a desk with a laptop propped up in front of her. The computer screen showed Harriet Jones and Jack Harkness, as well as Sarah Jane and her son from their home on Bannerman Road. I lifted the gun from off my shoulders and very gently placed it on the floor by the desk, out of the way so no one would trip and set it off by mistake.
"The fourth contact seems to be having some trouble getting through," Harriet said as she began typing away at her computer.
"That's us," Rose breathed. "Harriet, that's us!"
"I'll just boost the signal," Harriet told the others.
I walked over to stand beside Rose, one of my hands resting on the back of her chair, as the bottom right corner of the screen faded from black and white pixels to the image of Martha Jones in full UNIT uniform.
"Hello?" Martha called.
From his plan in the top right corner, Jack started laughing. "Martha Jones!" he said happily.
Rose wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Who's she?" she grumbled. "I want to get through."
"Martha," Jack asked, "where are you?"
Martha smiled. "I guess Project Indigo was more clever than we thought. One second I was in Manhattan, next second… Maybe Indigo tapped into my mind, because I ended up in the one place that I wanted to be," she said as her mother moved to sit next to her.
"You came home," her mother said with a smile. "At the end of the world, you came back to me."
Martha looked from her mother to the camera on her computer. "But then all of a sudden, it's like the laptop turned itself on," she explained.
"It did. That was me." Harriet raised her left hand so the camera could see the badge in her hand. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."
"Yes, I know who you are," Martha chuckled.
Harriet nodded and lowered her hand. "I thought it was about time we all met, given the current crisis. Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith."
Jack nodded at Sarah, who was positioned in the bottom left corner of the screen. "I've been following your work. Nice job with the Slitheen," he commented.
"Yeah, well, I've been staying away from you lot. Too many guns," Sarah countered as she nodded her head in Luke's direction.
"All the same," Jack continued, "might I say looking good, ma'am?"
"Really?" Sarah asked before making a pleased sound in the back of her throat.
Rose and I both smiled. "Same old Jack," she said to herself.
"Not now, Captain," Harriet interjected with a roll of her eyes. "And Martha Jones, former companion to the Doctor."
"Oi, so was I!" Rose exclaimed.
"They don't know you're here, Rose," I said softly. "Harriet hasn't forgotten you."
"-how did you find me?" Martha asked as her mother moved out of frame.
Harriet smiled proudly as she gestured to the computer equipment just visible around her seat. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Subwave Network. A sentient piece of software programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who can help to contact the Doctor."
"But what if the Daleks can hear us?" Martha wondered.
Harriet shook her head. "No, that's the beauty of the Subwave. It's undetectable."
"And you invented it?" Sarah asked, a confused expression on her face.
"I developed it. It was created by the Mister Copper Foundation."
"Yeah, but what we need right now is a weapon," Jack said. "Martha, back there at UNIT, what, what did they give you? What was that key thing?"
Lifting her hand into the camera's view, Martha revealed the object in question. "The Osterhagen key," she murmured seriously, her eyes not quite meeting the camera.
"That key is not to be used, Doctor Jones. Not under any circumstances," Harriet said firmly.
"But what is an Osterhagen key?" Jack asked.
"Forget about the key, and that's an order. All we need is the Doctor."
"Only- well excuse me, Harriet," Sarah Jane interjected, "but-. Well, the thing is, if you're looking for the Doctor, didn't he depose you?"
Harriet nodded. "He did. And I've wondered about that for a long time, whether I was wrong. But I stand by my actions to this day, because I knew- I knew that one day the Earth would be in danger and the Doctor would fail to appear. I told him so myself, and he didn't listen."
"He never does," I mumbled under my breath.
"But I've been trying to find him," Martha said. "The Doctor's got my phone on the TARDIS, but I can't get through."
"Nor me," Rose sighed.
Harriet nodded in understanding. "That's why we need the Subwave," she explained. "To bring us all together. Combine forces. The Doctor's secret army."
"Wait a minute!" Jack exclaimed. "We boost the signal! That's it! We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself, using all the power of the Rift."
"And we've got Mister Smith!" Luke said, stepping forward a little so we could see him better. "He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth. He can get the whole world to call the same number, all at the same time. Billions of phones, calling out all at once."
"Brilliant," Jack praised. "Er, who's the kid?"
"That's my son," Sarah said seriously, her eyes slightly narrowed as she wrapped an arm around Luke's shoulders.
From the side of the screen, Alistair suddenly stepped into view and I gasped in surprise.
"Who's that?" Rose asked.
"I think that's my son," I whispered in response.
Alistair smiled a little awkwardly at the camera. "Excuse me, Alistair Smith. Formerly with UNIT. Ma'am, if we start transmitting, then the Subwave Network is going to become visible to the Daleks," he said to Harriet. "That means the Daleks will trace it back to you and you'll be in danger.
"Yes," Harriet answered with a single nod of her head. "But my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."
From his spot beside Alistair, Jack suddenly stood at attention and saluted Harriet. "Ma'am," he said as Alistair followed his example and saluted as well.
"Thank you, Captain, Alistair. But there are people out there dying on the streets."
"Marvelous woman," Wilf said behind us. "I voted for her."
"You did not," his daughter retorted.
"Now, enough of words," Harriet ordered. "Let's begin."
Jack and Alistair rushed past the camera and out of view. A moment later, jack shouted, "Rift power activated!"
"All terminals coordinated," I heard a woman who could only be Gwen say.
"National grid online!" Alistair shouted.
"Giving you everything we've got," I into said as he suddenly stepped into view.
Meanwhile, Sarah and Luke were working on Mister Smith. "Connecting you to Mister Smith," Sarah told Harriet.
"All telephone networks combined," Luke said as he looked up at the camera.
Martha pressed a series of buttons on her laptop and then said, "Sending you the number now."
The number 07700 900461 appeared on the computer screen, superimposed over the four boxes of video.
"Opening Subwave Network to maximum," Harriet informed us as she began typing away at her computer.
"Mister Smith, make that call," Sarah ordered.
"Calling the Doctor," Mister Smith replied.
Rose suddenly reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "So am I," she muttered.
"And… sending," Jack said as he came back into view beside Ianto. Ianto stepped away from the computer and ran out of frame as Gwen ran into frame. Jack disappeared again while he shouted, "I think we've got a fix!"
"Mister Smith now at two hundred per cent," Sarah said loudly over the sound of sparks emitting from her supercomputer. "Oh, come on, Doctor."
Beside me, Rose was trying to call the Doctor on her cell phone while Wilf and Donna's mother were doing the same on their phones. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket, dialing the number that was still flashing on the screen and hoping that I reached the Doctor at the correct point in his timeline.
"Come on, Doctor," Rose breathed. "Find us."
Gwen, who was still in frame on the camera, began typing at the computer. "Harriet, a saucer's locked on to your location. They've found you," she said.
"I know," Harriet answered. "I'm using the Network to mask your transmission. Keep going."
Through her camera, I could hear a Dalek scream "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" somewhere near Harriet's location. It was only a matter of seconds before she was discovered and killed, and I had no way to stop it.
"Captain, I'm transferring the Subwave Network to Torchwood. You're in charge now. And tell the Doctor from me, he chose his companions well. It's been an honor."
"No," I muttered. "Harriet, no."
As Harriet got up to face the Daleks that were forcing their way into her home, my gaze happened to catch the dimension canon hanging around my neck. I reached down to grab it and was about to press it when Rose's hand clamped around my wrist and yanked my hand away.
"No," she said firmly. "Don't even think about it."
"But she's going to die!"
"You've had that gun for five minutes! If you go, you'll die on the spot! It's too dangerous! I'm sorry."
I looked at the computer as Harriet stared down three Daleks with her back facing the camera. "Oh, you know nothing of any human," she said, "and that will be your downfall."
The Daleks stared at her for a moment or two before shouting their infamous battlecry. The cameras went out a second later and top left corner of the screen dissolved into black and white static. Hardly five seconds later, Harriet's corner of the screen began to change from static to the image of the Doctor, Donna, and a young woman standing in the TARDIS.
"Where the hell have you been?" Jack demanded. "Doctor, it's the Daleks."
"Oh, he's a bit nice," Gwen smiled. "I thought he'd be older."
"He's not that young," Ianto countered.
"And could you please not say that about my dad?" Alistair asked with a grimace.
"It's the Daleks!" Sarah exclaimed from her corner of the screen. "They're taking people to their spaceship."
"It's not just Dalek Caan," Martha added.
"It's Donna!" her mother exclaimed behind Rose and I.
Wilf laughed in relief and clapped his hands together. "That's my girl!"
"Sarah Jane," the Doctor said with a grin, happy to see our old friend. "Who's that boy? And that must be Torchwood. Oh, they're brilliant. Look at you all, you clever people."
"That's Martha," Donna said. She leaned forward and pointed to the camera. "And who's he?"
"Captain Jack- Don't," the Doctor said quickly. "Just don't."
"Please don't," the woman standing next to the Doctor added softly. "I don't need you flirting with my ex."
Jack flashed the camera very confused expression. "Ex?" he repeated. "I think I'd remember being with someone as stunning as yourself."
"That's because I didn't look like this when we were together," the woman replied with a tiny smirk. "I'm Alistair, Jack. I regenerated."
"What?" Jack, Ianto, and I exclaimed in unison.
Ianto stared wide-eyed and opened-mouthed at the camera, his gaze flicking between the Alistair with him at the Torchwood Hub and the female Alistair with the Doctor. "You're a girl now?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes. And I'd prefer it if you called me Naya instead of Alistair."
"Blimey, talk about a surprise," Rose muttered beside me. "You alright, Di?"
I nodded once as I stared at the computer screen in shock. "Yeah. Just… processing," I answered slowly.
"It's like an outer space Facebook," Donna laughed.
The Doctor's smile suddenly dropped as he stared at the camera. "Everyone except Diana and Rose," he sighed. "Where could she be?"
The computer screen suddenly went blank, black and white static replacing the camera input from the others. A voice spoke from the computer then and a chill went up my spine as soon as I heard it.
"Your voice is different, and yet its arrogance is unchanged," Davros sneered. "Welcome to my new Empire, Doctor. It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race." After a moment of silence, Davros appeared on the screen with his body taking up the entire space. "Have you nothing to say?"
"But you were destroyed," I could hear the Doctor say. "In the very first year of the Time War, at the Gates of Elysium. I saw your command ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. I tried to save you."
"But it took one stronger than you. Dalek Caan himself."
A crazed voice called out from the darkness behind Davros. "I flew into the wild and fire," the Dalek voice cackled. "I danced and died a thousand times!"
"Emergency Temporal Shift took him back into the Time War itself," Davros explained.
"But that's impossible," the Doctor shot back. "The entire War is time locked."
"And yet he succeeded. Oh it cost him his mind, but imagine. A single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations?"
The Doctor sighed and I could almost see the distressed expression on his face. "And you made a new race of Daleks," he said in a low, serious voice.
"I gave myself to them, quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body." Davis laughed manically as he opened his tunic to reveal the remains of his body. His skin and muscles were gone and left his rib bones bare to the eye with only a few thin nerves and veins wrapping around the bones. Behind the bones of his ribcage, his organs were practically on display. "New Daleks. True Daleks," he continued as he closed his tunic again. "I have my children, Doctor. What do you have, now?"
"After all this time, everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you," the Doctor said. There was a pause and then, "Bye!"
The computer screen went dark a moment later, with no sound or static remaining. Rose jumped over to the side of the desk where she had placed her gun, strapping the weapon across her chest. She turned to me as she finished and gestured for me to do the same with my gun.
"Quickly," she ordered as she began dialing a number on her phone.
I strapped the gun across my chest, letting it rest against my thigh as I looked down at my phone. The call I had made to the Doctor had ended at some point, though I wasn't sure if I had made it though to the correct point in the Doctor's timeline or not.
"Control, I need another shift," Rose said into her phone. "Lock me and Diana onto the TARDIS, now. Have you got her? Good." Rose ended the call and stuffed her phone back into her jacket pocket. "Right, Diana, come stand by me."
"I don't understand," I said as I moved to stand next to her.
"We're going to find him. I'll explain everything else later." Looking at Donna's mother and Wilf, Rose flashed them a smile. "Wish me luck."
"Oh, good luck."
"Yeah, good luck, both of you," Wilf said with a smile.
A mere second later, blinding white light surrounded Rose and I and we vanished from the Noble home.
"Where are we?" I asked Rose after we reappeared in a new location.
"I'm not sure," she answered. "We're as close to the TARDIS as we can get. The Doctor has to be nearby."
We were standing in the middle of an empty and hastily abandoned street, cars parked in the middle with the doors wide open. There wasn't another human being or Dalek to be seen. Just a few yards ahead of us was an intersection and after Rose had checked for any signs of danger, she gestured for me to follow her. We walked to the middle of the intersection, looking in every direction for any signs of life or of the Doctor.
I knew what was going to happen next and I prayed to whatever or whoever might be listening that I could stop it. Down the street that stretch out to our left was a group of three people standing by a blue wooden box under a streetlight. The Doctor, whose back had been facing Rose and I previously, suddenly turned around and spotted us. Even though we were an entire block apart, I could feel the Doctor's eyes lock onto mine.
Almost immediately, he started running down the street in my direction. I knew that a Dalek was lurking somewhere nearby and if I wanted to keep the Doctor from being shot, I had to stop him from running to me. Rose had started running as well, heading straight for the Doctor as he he ran towards us.
"No, Rose, wait! Stop!" I called.
Rose faltered only slightly, looking over her shoulder at me in confusion as she slowed her Doctor was running even faster as he headed down the street. Rose had slowed to a walk as she looked between the Doctor and me in uncertainty.
"Doctor, stop!" I screamed desperately. "Stop!"
The Time Lord didn't seem to pay any attention to my warning and just quickened his pace. I braced the gun against my thigh and started running towards him as I shouted for him to stop again. I practically flew past Rose as I continued shouting desperate warnings at the Time Lord.
"Get down!" I screamed.
"Doctor, look out!" Rose shouted behind me.
As I forced myself to slow to a walk, I turned my head to the right to see a Dalek moving out from behind an abandoned car. Its eyestalk flicked between the Doctor and I as it seemed to consider which of us to shoot first. The Doctor tried to stop running and dodge behind another car for cover, but the Dalek screamed "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" and fired at him. The left side of his body was hit by the extermination ray and he immediately fell to the ground where he lay motionless.
"No!"
I shot forward again, running as fast as I could towards the Doctor. The gun was only slowing me down and in a matter of seconds, I had lifted it off my shoulder and thrown it to the ground. Skidding to a stop, I fell to my knees by the Doctor's side just a moment later.
"Doctor," I breathed, "Doctor, look at me."
His eyes fluttered open as I took his head in my hands. "Diana…?" he asked weakly.
"It's me. I'm here. It's okay. It's gonna be okay," I said in a rush.
He let out a deep groan as his eyes squeezed shut against the pain. "I-I can… feel it. It's starting."
"Dad!"
I looked up at the source of the voice and saw Alistair- Naya, running towards us. She collapsed beside the Doctor and immediately put a hand on his chest. The Doctor forced a smile through the pain as he reached up to touch her cheek.
"Naya," he breathed before suddenly crying out.
Jack, Rose, and Donna ran to our sides then, with Rose and Donna immediately moving to try and help the Doctor as best they could.
"Get him into the TARDIS," Jack ordered. "Quickly!"
Naya and I struggled to get the Doctor to his feet, even with him trying to support himself on uneasy legs. Naya and I were forced to drag the Doctor back to the TARDIS after just a few paces when his legs gave out. He seemed to be fighting to stay conscious and completely collapsed as soon as we stumbled inside the TARDIS.
"What- What do we do?" Donna asked as she knelt beside the Doctor,w h was flailing and moaning painfully on the TARDIS floor. "There must be some medicine or something!"
"Just step back," Jack said. "Diana, Rose, Naya, do as I say, and get back! He's dying and you know what happens next."
Donna shook her head in confusion, looking from the Doctor to Jack. "What do you mean? He can't."
"Dad, no," Naya whispered tearfully.
"Naya, get back!" Jack said firmly as he pulled Naya back by her arm. "Rose, Diana, get back!"
"No!" I snapped. I stayed by the Doctor's side and leaned over him, gently holding his face in my hand as I gazed sadly at him. "This is my fault."
"Diana, come on," Rose said with a sob as she tugged at my arm. "He needs room-"
"I know, but I'm not moving!"
"What do you mean, what happens next?" Donna shrieked, tears streaking down her face as Jack wrapped an arm comfortingly around her shoulders.
The Doctor raised his right hand and watched as it began to glow gold with regeneration energy. "It's starting," he choked.
Jack suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Rose, pulling her back before grabbing me as well and dragging me away. "Here we go," he said as he wrapped an arm around my waist to hold me back. "Good luck, Doctor."
"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Donna demanded through her tears.
"When a Time Lord dies," Naya explained, "their body renews itself by changing. It's the only way he'll survive."
"But you can't!" Rose exclaimed.
The Doctor struggled to his feet and fell against the console, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry," he gasped. "It's too late… I'm regenerating."
A/N: Please please please review!