Hey, everyone! Thank you very much for the reviews!

So, quick note: I usually keep the scenes in this story Barry-centric, since he is, after all, the viewpoint character. However, there are exceptions to every rule (the exception to that rule being that there are no exceptions), and I threw in a quick scene with the Sontarans to, hopefully, minimize reader confusion. They understandably assume Barry's super speed is teleportation simply because they've never encountered speedsters (for some odd reason, the Speed Force has never chosen a Sontaran champion).

So, without further ado, read on!

Barry ducked instinctively as the Sontarans fired. Almost by instinct, he slipped into a state of frozen time. In slow motion, he watched half a dozen bolts of energy crawl through the air. As he'd suspected, none of them were going anywhere near Luke. He grabbed the Doctor and dashed forwards in between the aliens, tripping them up and sending them flying. By the time the energy bolts struck the wall, Barry and the Doctor were gone.

"What about the other people at the Institute?" Barry asked the Doctor as the latter steered Bessie away.

"Nah, they'll be okay," the Doctor shook his head. "The Sontarans still need Luke for something, and until then, they'll want to stay on his good side."

"Mmm," Barry nodded. "Makes sense."


"Sir, I regret to inform you that the Doctor has escaped," Commander Skorr reported. General Staal wheeled.

"How?"

"Unknown, sir. He and his human accomplice possessed some sort of teleportation technology."

"No matter. Have Rattigan briefed on the next stage of the plan. He claims to be a hacker of some skill. He will keep the human militaries from launching their missiles."

"And the Doctor, sir?"

"He will choke in the ruins of his precious Earth. Battle will be joined. Glorious warfare. Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, we move to the final phase. Prepare the subjugation of Earth for the glory of Sontar!"


Far, far below, Barry popped the hood of Donna's grandfather's car while the Doctor peered underneath at the ATMOS gadget, brainy specs on. As it turned out, Donna's granddad was none other than Wilfred, the newspaper vendor they'd briefly met when they visited from the Titanic. "The thing is, Doctor," he was saying, "that Donna is my only grandchild. You got to promise me you're going to take care of her." "She takes care of us," the Doctor remarked, not entirely paying attention. "Oh yeah, that's my Donna," he laughed.

"Yeah, she was always bossing us round when she was tiny. The Little General we used to call her." Barry threw her a teasing smirk, and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't start."

"Yes ma'am," he saluted. "He said this planet would suffocate…" the Doctor muttered.

"Huh?"

"Just thinking. What if Staal wasn't just being metaphorical?" Donna's mom, whom Barry vaguely recognized from the wedding reception, walked up just as a bit of sonicking revealed a series of spikes hidden within the ATMOS device, which started giving off a murky whitish-brown gas.

"No, no, no, they've deadlock-sealed all of them!" the Doctor shouted. Barry slammed down the hood of the car, but the gas just kept coming out.

"What's happening!" Donna's mom shouted.

"It's started," the Doctor breathed. He straightened, and Barry and Donna automatically snapped to attention. It wasn't even a conscious thing. The Doctor just tended to have that effect on people.

"Get inside the house," he ordered Donna's family. "Try and close off the doors and windows. Donna, Barry, you coming?"

"Yeah."

"Donna. Don't go," her mom begged. "Look what happens every time that Doctor appears. Stay with us, please."

"You go, my darling," Wilf ordered.

"Dad!"

"Don't listen to her. You go with the Doctor. That's my girl."

"We'll keep her safe," Barry promised, climbing into Bessie's backseat.

"Bye."

"What now?" Barry asked. The Doctor, having popped back into the UNIT base for a quick word with Mace, had brought his current and former companions onboard the TARDIS.

"We get onto the Sontaran ship, and give them a chance," the Doctor said, hands blurring over the controls. "There! Five thousand miles above the Earth. That's it!"

The central column rose and fell.

"And if they don't take the chance?" Barry asked. The Doctor looked at him across the console. A smile was on his lips, one that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Then, Barry Allen, we save the world!"

"I cite Convention Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation," the Doctor announced, stepping outside the TARDIS and flourishing his hands like a stage magician Barry and Henry had once gone to watch along with the Danvers. What was her name? Oh yeah, Zatanna. "Cessation of hostilities for parlay. Do you accept?"

"Very well." The lead Sontaran—Barry was pretty sure it was General Staal—stepped forward. "Doctor!"

"Yup, that's me. Hullo." He waved as Donna, Martha, and Barry followed him out of the TARDIS, leaving the door most of the way closed behind them.

"So tell me, General Staal," the Doctor said, sticking his hands in his pockets and peering around. "Since when did you lot become cowards?"

"How dare you! Doctor, you impugn my honor!"

"Yeah, I'm really glad you didn't say belittle, because then I'd have a field day. But poison gas? That's the weapon of a coward and you know it. Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky. And yet you're sitting up above watching it die. Where's the fight in that? Where's the honour? Or…are you lot planning something else, because this isn't normal Sontaran warfare. What are you lot up to?"

"Hah!" laughed Staal. "You shall see soon enough, Doctor, as your precious Earth chokes."

"Oh, I don't think so," he said quietly. "One chance, Staal. You can go. Just leave. Sontaran High Command need never know what happened here. "A warrior doesn't talk, he acts! At arms." Every Sontaran present hoisted their weapons to their shoulders. Barry smirked.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, one quick word, one last quick final word?" the Doctor asked, waving his hands around wildly.

"Very well."

"Bye!" With that, the Doctor spun on his heel, coat flapping, and pushed his two friends inside. Dozens of laser beams bounced off the TARDIS' force field, until the ship dematerialized once more.

"Right then!" the Doctor announced, bursting out of the TARDIS and into UNIT mobile headquarters in a blur of motion. "Not much good on our end. Any luck analyzing that gas?"

"Mostly, sir, but not entirely," a woman in UNIT garb told them. She held out a computer tablet, and the Doctor popped on his brainy specs.

"Carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides…" Barry mused. "Makes sense, it's coming from cars. What's this? Some kind of artificial heavy element?"

"Yes, sir. Captain Marion Price."

"Oh, don't salute," the Doctor said dismissively without even looking as he bent over the tablet, peering at the results. "Must be something the Sontarans invented. Right. You have a sample here?"

"Yes, sir."

She handed over a test tube, which the Doctor accepted with a nod. "I'll scan this in the TARDIS. Be right back."


"Clone feed!" the Doctor announced. Barry, startled, almost fell off the Shard, but twisted, caught his footing, and raced to the top, where he pressed a hand to his earpiece.

"Sorry, what?"

"Clone feed!" the Doctor told him. "Caesofine concentrate. It's one part of Bosteen, two parts Probic five."

"Clone feed…" Barry's eyes widened. As he spoke, he widened his stance, bending his knees slightly, settling his weight. He held out his arms and rapidly spun them, cycloning the gas away from the rooftops and up towards the atmosphere, allowing a little fresh air to circulate. It was only a temporary fix, but better than nothing. He pulled the UNIT-issue gas mask he'd been wearing off his face. "They're gonna try and breed more Sontarans?"

"Yes! That's why they're not invading. They're converting the atmosphere, changing the planet into a clone world. Earth becomes a great big hatchery. Give them a planet this big, they'll create billions of new soldiers. The gas isn't poison, it's food. Need you back here, now."

"Be right back," Barry promised. He sped back to UNIT HQ, arriving in time to hear the Doctor say that he could really do with the Brigadier.

"No offense," he added to General Mace.

"None taken; Sir Alistair is a fine leader, but unfortunately he and Commander Jones are in Geneva."

"What now, Doctor?"

"Back to the Rattigan Academy," the Doctor told him. "Time to end this."

Barry pulled his mask back on and grinned. "Are you my mummy?"

Mace rolled his eyes.


"Here we are!" the Doctor announced as he sprang out of the TARDIS. "The Rattigan Academy, owned by…" Luke himself was standing a few feet away, pointing a gun at them. His hands were shaking, eyes wide and staring. "Don't tell anyone what I did," he begged. "It wasn't my fault, the Sontarans lied to me, they…"

"If I see one more gun…" the Doctor muttered, crossing the distance, grabbing the gun by the barrel and tossing it away before Luke could react. Barry snorted, keeping an eye on the pistol as it tumbled to make sure it didn't go off.

"What happened? They stab you in the back?"

"They, they lied to me. Used me to hack NATO, stop the missiles, then when I came aboard, they said they were just planning to kill all of us."

"Well, isn't that a shocker," Donna drawled.

"I did warn you," Barry said, somewhat more gently.

"They were holding back," the Doctor called from the lab as he cobbled together a gizmo. "Because caesofine gas is volatile, that's why they had to use you to stop the nuclear attack. Ground to air engagement could spark off the whole thing."

"What, like set fire to the atmosphere?" Martha asked, drawing closer.

"Yeah. They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army."

"And you've got an atmospheric convertor," Barry breathed.

"Molto bene! Gold star, Barry Allen!" They rushed the gadget outside, the Doctor setting it down on the grass and fiddling with the settings. "If I can get this on the right setting…"

"Doctor, hold on," Martha pointed out. "You said the atmosphere would ignite."

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" An energy pulse zoomed up into the grungy clouds and exploded. The Doctor crossed his fingers as the fireball spread in the upper atmosphere. "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please…"

Barry could think of about half a dozen different ways the plan could go wrong. Somehow, though, miraculously, none of them happened. Fire swept across the skies, leaving them clean and blue once more.

"He's a genius," Luke breathed.

"Just brilliant," Martha grinned.

"And bonkers," Barry put in.

"Now we're in trouble," the Doctor added. He grabbed the convertor and ran it back inside, everyone following. Once there, he pressed a few buttons on the side, then looked Barry in the eye.

"Barry, I wouldn't do this if there were another way. I'm sorry, I swear, I'm so sorry. I just…if we don't act, right now, the Sontarans are gonna blast this planet into space dust, then pulverize the dust."

He swallowed. "What do you need me to do?"

"I've recalibrated this for Sontaran air," the Doctor told him.

"You should be fast enough to escape. But…"

Barry swallowed. "It's okay."

"If there were any other way…"

"No. No, it's fine." He forced a smile. "I've faced death so many times. What's one more, right?"

The Doctor swallowed. "I'm so sorry."

"I know. Hey. It's been good."

"It's been the best."

They shared a long hug, then Barry stepped back.

"Martha, thanks. For everything. Donna…keep being amazing. And Luke…do something good with your life, okay? Here, on this planet." "No," Donna whispered.

"You can't."

"I've gotta." Barry knelt down and grabbed the convertor, hoisting it into his arms, then stepped into the teleport pod. "Max said to me, once…when your chances of survival are one in a thousand, forget the thousand. And concentrate on the one." He nodded and hit the button.

Far above, he faded into existence on the Sontaran ship. "Honestly. You guys should really have known better than to mess with the Doctor," Barry said, lightning flickering across his eyes. "Sorry. But we gave you a choice. And you didn't take it." He hit the button, and, in the milliseconds before the convertor fired up, smashed the teleport button as well. A wave of heat licked his face, and then nothingness.

With a gasp, Barry felt himself reassemble, and he slumped to the floor. Martha and the Doctor hurried to wrap their arms around him. Donna smacked his arm, then joined in the hug.

"Knew you'd be okay," the Doctor murmured, pulling Barry against him. "Fastest Man Alive."

The title felt strangely right.


"How were they?" Barry asked as Donna left her family to reenter the TARDIS. "Oh, same old stuff. They're fine," she responded, and he pretended not to notice the tear she was wiping from one eye, before turning to Martha. "So, you going to come with us? We're not exactly short of space."

She smiled, not without some regret, looking around. "Oh, I have missed all this, but, you know. I'm good here, back at home. And I'm better for having been away. Besides," she waggled her ring finger, "Someone needs me. Never mind the universe, I've got a great big world of my own now." Just then, the doors slammed shut on their own, and the engines roared into life. Barry grabbed at the console, nearly falling.

"What? What?"

"Doctor, don't you dare!" Martha yelled.

"No, no, no. I didn't touch anything. We're in flight. It's not me!"

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. It's out of control!" He stabbed at several controls, with seemingly no effect. The TARDIS bucked and reared like a startled horse, the engines groaning. "Doctor, just listen to me," Martha shouted.

"You take me home. Take me home right now!"

Man, two cliffhangers in a row! Still, this is less of one if you're familiar with the next episode.

Fun fact: I've sprinkled the number 52 throughout the story as a kind of Easter egg/mythology gag to DC Comics and the New 52. And this book, as it just so happens, is going to have 52 chapters. I swear I didn't intend that, it just turned out that way. I can't believe we're almost done!

And on that note, I'll see you next week!