Yep, you lucky folks get this chapter a little early! Tomorrow, I have all kinds of adult-y stuff to do, plus I've been looking forward to this one for ages, so I figured hey, why not?

So, here we go...

Everyone hung on desperately to the console as the TARDIS whirled through the Vortex, spitting sparks. With a final lurch and a small explosion that sent everyone sprawling, the ship landed with a crunch, and they emerged into a dark tunnel littered with debris.

"Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" the Doctor wondered aloud as he headed outside.

"Love this bit," Martha said quietly.

"Thought you wanted to go home," Donna pointed out.

"Yeah, but all the same. It's that feeling you get."

"Like you've swallowed a hamster," she agreed.

"I know," Barry grinned at them. "Every time, right?"

Just then, three men rushed in, pointing guns and yelling for them to raise their hands and drop their weapons.

"Not even 30 seconds," Barry whispered to Donna. "Must be a new record."

"Look at their hands, they're clean," said one of the soldiers.

"All right, process them. Him first," the other ordered, nodding at the Doctor, who was seized and manhandled towards a nearby machine.

"Oi, what's wrong with clean hands?" he protested.

"What's going on?"

"Leave him alone!" Barry ordered, ready to rush to his friend's rescue should the machine show any sign of hurting or endangering him.

"It's taking a tissue sample," the Doctor noted, wincing. "And extrapolating it. Some kind of accelerator?"

It let him go, and he staggered back as his friends rushed over.

"Are you all right?"

But then one of the machines opened with a hiss of smoke, and a young woman stepped out, immediately given a gun by their captain.

"Arm yourself."

"What's going on?" Barry asked.

"Who is this?"

"Well, she's…she's my daughter."

The young woman looked up at him and smiled. "Hello, dad."

As she took her place with the other soldiers, the companions gathered around the Doctor, who explained that she was technically a clone of him, one created via progenation. Before anyone could do anything, they were attacked by piscine aliens apparently called the Hath, one of whom grabbed Martha, and the Doctor's daughter triggered an explosive device to bring down the tunnel.

Barry shot forward, zipping between a couple of pieces of debris, leaving the others on the far side of the collapsed tunnel as he returned to normal speed.

"Not sure I trust those guys," he muttered to Martha as he raised his hands and tried to look non-threatening. "If the Doctor and Donna need a rescue, better that we're not locked up with them."

He smiled grimly.

"And if we're the ones who need a rescue, I can get us out of here…fast."

Martha nodded, but her attention was drawn away by the bubbling of an injured Hath, to whom she promptly gave a little first aid.

"Right!" she said, standing up. "I'm Doctor Martha Jones, this is my friend Barry Allen…who the hell are you?"

It turned out that the aliens were called the Hath, and that their military base was in a former school building. They showed Barry and Martha their map, which out of nowhere buzzed and expanded to reveal new tunnels.

"I think we just started a war," Barry said, but Martha shook her head.

"I think it's already been going on, Barry. But one way or another…we'll end it."

He smiled at her. "Glad we get to work together again."

"Yeah. You too."

About ten minutes later, having been given a couple of bunks, Barry and Martha were sitting on them, chewing on Barry's emergency supply of nutrient bars, when her mobile rang.

"It's the Doctor!"

She quickly put it on speakerphone for both of them.

"Doctor?"

"Martha, you're alive! Where's Barry?"

"I'm here! We're both safe, Doctor. The Hath have been pretty good hosts so far."

"You and Donna okay?" Barry called.

"Yeah, yeah, we're both fine."

"And, and Jenny. She's fine too," Donna's voice cut in.

"Yes, all right. That's the woman from the machine. The soldier. My daughter, except she isn't, she's, she's…" he trailed off. "You said you're in the Hath camp?"

"Yeah. We're okay, but they're headed off for this place that just appeared on their map thingy."

"Oh, that was me," the Doctor said, sounding like he was close to swearing. "If both armies are heading that way, there's going to be a bloodbath."

"What do you want us to do?"

"Just stay where you are. If you're safe there, don't move, do you hear?"

"But, we can help."

And just then Martha's phone went dead.

"Typical," Barry muttered.

"Barry, your phone!" she said, but he shook his head.

"Nah. We're going, too."

Martha looked up at him. "He said to stay behind," she argued, more for form's sake than anything.

"Yeah. He did."

She grinned and shrugged. "What the hell. Why not."

One of the Hath, it turned out, had stayed behind to look after them. Barry suspected that it was the one she'd healed, but he couldn't be sure. With his help, they looked at the map, and determined that they could get there first if they went up and over the surface.

"Specially if you…you know," Martha murmured to Barry, who nodded. The Hath bubbled at them, showing holographic readings of the surface.

"We can manage," she determined. "Nitrogen and oxygen about eighty twenty, high ozone levels and radiation spikes, but we'll be okay if you move fast."

"My specialty," Barry grinned. "Allons-y."

Martha snorted, but followed. They pushed open a heavy hatch and climbed out onto the surface of a dark, windswept world, lit by the light of three moons.

Despite the urgency of their mission and the fact that it wasn't exactly the resort planet of Ragoon VI, both humans took a moment to just enjoy the view, the fact that they were standing on an alien world, breathing alien air, standing in the light of alien moons.

"Never gets old," Barry sighed.

"Yeah," she agreed.

The Hath below bubbled up at them.

"It's fine," Barry said earnestly. "We'll be fine. Thank you. Go join the others."

He held out his fist and ran a little Speed Force through it, slipping into his suit an eyeblink later.

"Okay, hold on to me."

"You know I'm engaged, right?" Martha said lightly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The Hath bubbled at them some more.

"Sorry, gotta dash," Barry grinned. "Good luck."

Lightning danced across his eyes, and they were gone.

Moments later, they'd arrived at the base of the tower.

"We're kinda filthy," Martha noted, looking down at her jeans and his boots.

"Move back," Barry grinned, and vibrated himself, sending clumps of mud flying in every direction. Martha was reminded of a dog shaking itself, and brushed futilely at her own jacket.

That accomplished, and his cowl lowered, they turned to examine the door.

"I think I can phase us both through," Barry frowned in concentration.

"No need," Martha replied, and hit a control panel to one side, opening a doorway.

"Or we could do that," he shrugged, and followed.

"Looks like a spaceship," Martha said after a while, looking around at the massive architecture, and Barry nodded. After a bit more exploring, they found a computer with the captain's log.

"Phase one construction…looks like the humans and Hath came here together," Barry noted, speed-reading through.

"Barry! Slow down!"

"Sorry. Basically, they used drones to build the city, humans and Hath together, then…"

"Eruption of byzantine fever," Martha read. "Whatever that is. Prognosis negative. The mission commander died, and no one could agree on who should take command. So they went to war."

"That's it!" Barry agreed. "And they used those progenation machines to create soldiers."

"Two armies fighting a never-ending war," Martha nodded. "And they're both coming here."

She sniffed, then made a face. "Do you smell flowers?"

Higher up, they found what looked like a garden room, with a glowing orb-y thing at the center.

"This the R&R room for the crew?" Barry suggested.

"Could be," Martha shrugged. She headed over to a nearby computer terminal and started pressing buttons.

"Says it's some kind of terraforming device. Like in Star Trek?"

"That show is surprisingly accurate," Barry shrugged. "According to the Doctor, anyway. Oh, and I met Q once."

"So that's what they're both fighting over," Martha deduced, after shooting Barry a startled look. "Something to make the planet theirs."

"Gotta be. And that would be why we've got all the plants, too," he agreed. "It's what this thing does. What do we do with it?"

"Let's find the Doctor. He'll know."

Barry sighed. "Yeah."

"You okay, Bar?"

Barry rubbed the back of his neck and paced over to stare out a porthole. "I…yeah. It's just, being with the Doctor…I love it. Every day's an adventure. Fourteenth-century Japan, thirtieth-century Wales, Peladon, Raxacoricofallapatorius, Woman Wept, New Earth, the Ood-Sphere, Thanagar, Mars, Naltoria…"

His friend listened patiently as he gathered his thoughts. "I've seen things no other human has ever seen. I've seen the creation and destruction of the Earth. I've fought giant alien spiders, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, humans, aliens….heck, I've been to other dimensions! Become a superhero! But…"
Martha smiled sadly. "It's getting to be a bit much. Like eating too much chocolate and getting a stomachache."

"She says to the guy with a hyped-up metabolism," Barry snarked, but nodded. "Yeah."

He leaned his head against the window, looking out unseeing at the world outside.

"I promised the Doctor, and myself, I'd never leave him alone. I promised. And I'm gonna keep that promise. But…I've got a life to live, too. A degree to finish. Kara, my dad, Joe, Iris…"

"The dream's been amazing," Martha nodded. "But it's time to wake up."

Barry opened his mouth, closed it, grinned ruefully. "Yeah. Exactly."

It wasn't long before a door below hissed open. Barry disappeared, then came back up moments later.

"Hey, it's them!"

There were hugs all around, and Barry and Martha introduced themselves to Jenny. As they climbed up once more at normal speed, the two friends shared what they'd learned with the others.

"Those numbers…" Donna said thoughtfully as they passed the computer, looking up at a series of numbers carved on the lintel. "They were all over the place down in the tunnels."

"What are they?" Jenny asked.

"Oh, oh!" Donna yelled. "I got this! Ha, Spaceman! It's been staring us right in the face, and I got it first!""What is it?"

"It's the date," Donna breathed. "Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you've got year, month, day. It's the other way round, like it is in America."

"I'm an American, I should've figured that out!" Barry exclaimed. "Man, I'm an idiot."

"Well, you are an American," Donna smirked, and he elbowed her in the side.

"It's the New Byzantine calendar!" the Doctor explained, not really explaining anything at all.

"The codes are completion dates for each section," Donna added. "They finish it, they stamp the date on. So the numbers aren't counting down, they're going out from here, day by day, as the city got built."

"Yes. Oh, good work, Donna."

"Yeah. But you're still not getting it. The first number I saw back there, was sixty twelve oh seven seventeen. Well, look at the date today."

"Oh seven twenty four. No," the Doctor breathed.

"What does it mean?" Jenny piped up.

"Seven days," the Doctor told her.

"It means this whole thing-the construction, the war, everything-it's been a week!" Barry put in, rubbing his head. "Just a week! But…oh."

"The progenation machines," Donna realized. "You can have twenty generations in a day, each one passing on the legend. Like Chinese Whispers!"

"Yes! Exactly like that!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Donna, you're a genius! And…can anyone else smell flowers?"

"Oh, yeah," Martha said. "This way."


Barely had Barry and Martha shown the terraforming device (which, apparently, the humans had mythologized as "the Source") to the Doctor, Donna, and Jenny before soldiers from both sides rushed in, all pointing their guns at everyone in sight.

"Stop!" the Doctor yelled, throwing out his arms. "Hold your fire!"

"What is this, some kind of a trap?" the human general growled, but the Doctor spoke to both sides, explaining what the Source really was-a device not to destroy armies, but to create life. He lifted it high.

"I'm the Doctor, and I declare this war is over!"

He smashed it on the ground, and everyone-Human, Hath, and Time Lord-watched in awe as gases and energy escaped, mixing with each other and the atmosphere to create new life.

"The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process," the Doctor explained to his beaming daughter. "It means a new world."

First one Hath put down its gun, then another. Then one of the humans followed suit, and as they watched, all of the soldiers laid down their weapons.

Almost all, that was. Barry heard the click of a gun, and spun around to see the general pointing his pistol at the Doctor.

"No!" Jenny yelled.

Barry threw himself into motion as the noise of the shot echoed around the chamber. Charging forward, he grabbed the bullet, brushed it aside, turned to the human leader, and hit him with a lightning-enhanced fist to the face that sent the man sprawling.

"Hold him!" ordered the young soldier who'd pointed a gun at them earlier, and two of the humans forced their former leader to his knees, snatching the gun from his hand. Barry turned back to his friends, seeing that the Doctor's daughter had leapt in front of her father. Had he not acted, she would have taken the shot right in her chest.

"Thank you," the Doctor breathed, and there was a look in his dark eyes that spoke more than even Shakespeare could've put into words.

"Yeah," Barry nodded back. What more needed to be said, after all?

"So, what happens now?" Donna asked after a moment. The Doctor turned to her, then spun to address them all.

"Now you get started! Humans and Hath, brave new world! Go on, you lot!"

Slowly, hesitantly, the young human and the lead Hath moved towards each other and shook hands. All at once, a great breath of tension seemed to leave both sides.

"And there was much rejoicing," Barry muttered, grinning, as he watched members of both armies move towards each other and clasp arms. It would take a while, he knew, for them to fully trust each other, and it wouldn't be perfect, but…they'd get there. Sooner or later.

"Time to go," the Doctor agreed quietly, and the five of them slipped down the spaceship's stairs and walked across the surface of the planet back towards where they'd left the TARDIS. The Doctor led the way, coat swirling in his wake as he looked around with a grin, Jenny skipping next to her father. Occasionally, one of them would turn and say something to the other, matching expressions of delight on their faces.

Donna and Martha came next, chatting casually but clearly equally overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the world that was starting to renew itself. It reminded Barry, lagging behind, of the scene in the Chronicles of Narnia where the kids watched Aslan create the world…and as twin suns rose, casting golden light across the surface of Messaline, no longer dark and gloomy but literally bursting with life, he thought it was a very good comparison indeed. Looking at the Doctor and Jenny, the former catching the latter after she almost tripped over a newly-grown tree root, the speedster sighed to himself.

Yeah. It was time.


Not much later, and a few thousand years earlier, the TARDIS materialized once again on Martha's street. After she had once more said her goodbyes, the Doctor turned to his friends.

"Righteo! Onwards and upwards. Jenny, why don't I take you to Peladon? You're gonna love Peladon, Barry and I went there a while back, met some Ice Warriors and this great guy, Alpha Centauri, well, not actually a guy, fought off a Sycorax invasion, and, and…"

He caught sight of Barry's face. "Oh."

"Doctor, listen…I love traveling with you. I do. Really. I'd go with you forever if I could. But, I have my life to get back to. College, my friends, my family…it's been really amazing. Like the best vacation ever. But I need to go home. I need to live my life."

"Yeah. Course you do," the Doctor agreed quietly.

"Thanks to you, I got to grow up with my dad. I want to spend time with him."

"Course."

"And you're not alone now," he smiled, nodding to Jenny. The Doctor turned to his daughter, standing next to Donna in the TARDIS and respectfully giving them space, and smiled at her.

"Guess so."

The two friends shared a long look, then the Doctor sniffed and hurried to the console.

"Right! Let's get you back to where you were, eh?"

The TARDIS rumbled into life, and Barry turned to Donna, giving her a hug.

"You two take care of him, okay?"

"Will do. Bye, Barry," Donna said, and if she was sniffing she would have said it was only because of a cold.

"Bye, Donna. Take care of yourself, too, okay?"

"Yeah. Don't know what he'd do without us."

"That's for sure," Barry agreed, and hugged Jenny goodbye. "You have an amazing life, Jenny. I'll see you around, one of these days."

"Yeah. It was nice meeting you, Barry."

"It was great," he agreed, and looked around at the TARDIS, remembering the times he'd had, the places he'd been, the monsters he'd fought, the friends he'd lost and won…

All too soon, the ship set down with a familiar thump.

"Bye," Barry whispered to the TARDIS, running a hand along the console. She burbled at him, and he smiled affectionately. He walked down the ramp, remembering every time he'd come through, every time he'd slammed the doors shut against an attacker or run through them or stepped out onto an alien world, or into the past, or the future…or, in this case, the Cambridge student residences, in October 2005.

The Doctor followed him out, and sniffed. "I'll miss you, Barry."

"You mean you'll miss having to run under your own power," he grinned, and they traded a hug with lots of back-slapping.

"Thank you, Barry," the Doctor said, pulling back but keeping a grip on his forearms. "For everything."

"Likewise."

They shared a nod and a smile. Two lonely, broken men—one young, one ancient—who had helped one another to heal, gaining more than either could have ever dreamt possible in the process.

"You ever need anything…" the young one started. The Doctor nodded, smiling, and ruffled his friend's hair.

"I know. You'll be there in a flash. Until the next time, Barry Allen. Be magnificent for me, won't you?"

"I will," Barry promised. "You know…it was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And I'll see you again, yeah?"

"Yeah. Promise."

They traded smiles, and the Doctor gave him a firm nod before stepping back into the TARDIS. There was a deep hum, and then the wheezing, groaning noise started up, the sound of miraculous engines ready to bear his friends away to new adventures.

The most wonderful sound in the universe.

The TARDIS shot straight upwards like a rocket, and vanished into the cloudy Cambridge sky. Smiling, Barry Allen turned around and went home.

And there we have it. I hope this doesn't feel like it came out of nowhere. I've been trying to subtly imply that it's been on its way for a little while.

Next week, there will be one more chapter to round off Book One of this story. Those of you familiar with Season Two of Doctor Who might be able to guess which one it is. Book Two (and possibly Book Three, depending on how long the story ends up being) will cover Barry's adventures as the Flash. So don't worry; our friend still has many more adventures to come.

Until next week!