A/N: Here is the beginning of the end of season three. I am very excited to begin season four, but first, I must dig through some darkness that our favorite Master brings. I'm not good with darkness and violence, so forgive me for any shortcomings you notice in these. Also, I've gone back and read over past things, and I realize there are some discrepancies. Let's just agree to chalk it up to a woman with psychotic tendencies and move forward?

The TARDIS materialized in Cardiff. The Doctor was at the console, Martha watching him set controls and such. Rose was walking around with her newest read, The Origins of Time. The two at the console exchanged a look, as Rose had been rather distracted since returning to the ship she called home. Usually it was like she was having a conversation without speaking.

"Cardiff," he announced, mostly to get Rose's attention.

"Tell me again? Why Cardiff?" Martha asked.

The Doctor frowned when his wife didn't even react. "Well, the thing about Cardiff is that it's built on a rift in time and space-just like California and the San Andreas Fault. The rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

The medical student nodded. "So it's a pit stop."

"Exactly."

Rose looked up then, frowning slightly and looking around.

"Wait a minute," Martha said. "They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple years ago. Was that you?"

He grinned and winked at her. "Bit of trouble with the Slitheen. Long time ago. Lifetimes. I was a different man back then."

Rose shuddered violently. "What is that?"

The Doctor looked up. "What's what?"

"Something is so very... wrong. Completely wrong. It's upsetting her."

He nodded, watching her worriedly. "Well, we're all powered up. We'll just go somewhere else."

"Yes, that's best... ohh..."

She swayed and dropped her book, and Martha rushed to her side. The Doctor forgot he was trying to take off in his worry, until he looked down and saw Jack appear on the TARDIS monitor. A flood of panic coursed through him as he realized what was making his beautiful wife upset. He hit the launch button, and the console sparked. The three of them were thrown to the floor.

Martha crawled to her feet. "What's happening?"

He climbed to his feet and studied the readings. "We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. 50 trillion. What? The year 100 trillion. That's impossible!"

His wife still lay in the floor, almost crying. "Get it off! She's running away!"

Their companion looked between them, unsure what to do. "Why's the TARDIS doing this? What happens then?"

"We're going to the end of the universe," the Doctor and Rose answered together.

The TARDIS arrived at its chosen destination with a thud and the Doctor hurried to his love's side.

"She's trembling, Doctor," Rose murmured softly.

"So are you, but we've landed" he reassured her. "You can both rest now."

"So what's out there?" Martha asked.

"I don't know," he admitted.

Rose laughed weakly, sitting up a little more. "Make him say that again. That's rare."

The Doctor help the blonde woman stand. "Not even the Time Lords came this far. We should leave. We should go. We should really, really…go."

The three of them looked at each other and grinned widely before heading for the door. Outside was a bleak, dying landscape. As they stepped out, Martha saw a man on the ground.

"Oh my God!" She cried out, rushing to the fallen man's side and checking him. "Can't get a pulse. Hold on—you've got that medical kit thing."

As she disappeared back into the TARDIS, the man and his wife stood over the person lying on the ground.

"Don't worry Theta," Rose said, a certain weariness in her tone. "I undertand. I wouldn't know how to tell you either... He just feels… wrong."

He looked at her. "I have been trying to figure out how, though. Do you know what happened to him?"

She nodded miserably. "My memories are hazy at best of that moment in time, but that second touch... I seem to know certain things about the time lines of those we take with us when I need to or something like that. I did it, as Bad Wolf. I'm so sorry..."

Martha rushed back then, elbowing them out of the way. "Here we go. Out of the way. It's a bit odd, though. Not very 100 trillion—that coat's more like World War II."

"I think he came with us," the Doctor sighed.

The medical student looked up in shock. "How d'you mean? From Earth?"

He nodded. "Must've been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS all the way through the vortex."

Rose sighed. "Well, that's very him."

"What? Do you know him?" Martha asked, surprised.

"Friend of ours," the Doctor told her. "Used to travel with us. Back in the old days."

"When you had the last face," Rose mused. "When I was still human."

Martha looked very sad for them. "But he's—I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead."

Rose shook her head. "That won't stop him. I'm going to get a sweater."

Just as the TARDIS door closed behind her, Jack gasped as he came back to life, grabbing Martha, who screamed in shock.

"Oh well, so much for me," she laughed a little. "It's all right. Just breathe deep. I've got you now."

The incurable flirt grinned. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?"

"Martha Jones," she answered, confused. Surely he wasn't flirting… seconds after being dead?

The newly alive man smiled charmingly. "Nice to meet you, Martha Jones."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't start!"

"I was just saying hello," Jack defended himself, getting to his feet.

"You flirt often enough, Doctor," Martha teased him gently. "I don't mind someone flirting with me for a change."

"You flirt now, Doctor?" Jack asked coldly, glaring at the Time Lord.

The Doctor stared back, unable to keep from frowning at him, taken aback at his reaction. "When the mood strikes, Captain."

To his surprise, Jack actually snarled at him. "Good to see you're not dwelling on the past then."

He was glad that Jack seemed so protective of Rose, but he didn't understand the hostility. He had obviously made it off the Game Station, was he angry about that? "I'm glad to see you too, Jack, though you seem like a completely different man."

"You can talk!"

"Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me?"

Martha looked between the two men and then toward the TARDIS. Rose could straighten this out, she was certain, but she was taking a long time.

"The police box kinda gives it away. I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me," Jack accused.

"Did I? Busy life. Move on," the Time Lord said, seeming not to care.

Martha looked utterly shocked. She'd never heard him so cold before.

Jack hissed in pain. "It doesn't even matter, but was it just me, or did you leave her somewhere too? Before she... I mean... The Battle of Canary Wharf. I saw the list of the dead. It said Rose Tyler."

So that's why he was so upset about the Doctor flirting! He thought he'd abandoned Rose to her death. "Oh no! Sorry! She's alive!"

"You're kidding?!" The ex time agent was so relieved, he forgot to be angry.

"I certainly hope he isn't kidding, or the last few months have been extremely creepy," Rose's voice sounded from the door of the TARDIS as she came back out in a lavender sweater.

"Rosie!" Jack cried, sweeping her up in a crushing hug and swinging her around in a circle.

She laughed and hugged him tightly. Wrong or not, he was still her Jack.

"Harkness, put down my wife," the Doctor said with a mock growl, glad to see Rose smile. "Didn't I tell you, hands off the blonde?"

He sat her back on her feet, gaping at the Time Lord, then at Rose. She smiled serenely and held up her hand, the diamond sparkling in the dim light.

"I knew it! I didn't know he'd actually work up the nerve, but I knew he needed to keep you!"

Even Martha laughed at that. She immediately liked Jack. He obviously cared about these people who were so important to her, and that won him major points. Not to mention he was cute and had flirted with her.

"So, how did you meet them, Jack?" she asked curiously.

"I found a cute blonde hanging from a barrage balloon during the London Blitz with the Union Jack plastered on her chest, tried to con her, and found that she had already been claimed by an alien who didn't like to share," he said, grinning teasingly.

"I was not claimed!" Rose cried.

"Oh yes you were," the Doctor said, pulling her out of Jack's arms and into his. "Were then, are now."

She smiled lovingly at him while he bent to capture her lips with his own.

"They always like this?" Jack asked Martha with a happy grin.

"Worse sometimes," the medical student giggled. "Why did you stop traveling with them?"

Jack spun the tale of Station Five and how the Daleks were ready to murder them all but failed. "So there I was, stranded in the year 200,100, ankle-deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this." He tapped the vortex manipulator on his wrist. "I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. He's not the only one who can time travel."

"Oh, excuse me. That is not time travel," the Doctor sniffed derisively. "It's like I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper."

Martha laughed and winked at Rose. "Boys and their toys."

"These two are always like this," the blonde woman replied, smirking.

The Captain waved a hand. "All right, so I bounced. I thought '21st century, best place to find the Doctor' except that I got it a little wrong. I arrived in 1869 and this thing burnt out so it was useless."

"Told you," the Doctor said smugly.

"Rude," his wife scolded.

Jack pretended to be insulted. "I had to live through the entire 20th century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me."

Martha blinked in shock. "That makes you more that 100 years old."

He winked, flirting again. "And looking good, doncha think? So I went to the time rift, based myself there 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this detecting you and here we are."

The medical student looked away from her new friend. "But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?"

"I was busy," the Doctor said, looking determinedly at the horizon. Beside him, Rose dropped her eyes guiltily.

For the first time, Martha wondered about her place with them. "Is that what happens, though? Seriously? Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?"

"Not if you're blonde," Jack said snippily, unable to stop a little bit of bitterness from seeping into his tone.

"That's enough," Rose snapped, as protective of her Doctor as he was of her. "It was my fault, not his, Jack; and Martha, you ought to know better than to think we would just chuck you out. Both of you stop acting like the man who's saved both your butts is the enemy. I'm sorry we left you, Jack, but at the time the Doctor thought I was dying and he was fighting a regeneration."

"Honestly, you all!" the Doctor laughed. "We're at the end of the universe. All right? We're at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy…blogging! Come on."

He walked to the edge of the nearby canyon that looked like it once held a city of some sort, gesturing for them to look.

"Is that a city?" Martha gasped, finally noticing the scenery.

He grinned. "A city or a hive. Or a nest. Or a conglomeration. Looks like it was grown. But look there. That's like pathways, roads…Must have been some sort of life. Long ago."

"What killed it?" she asked.

"Time," Rose sighed, keenly experiencing the sort of end feeling all around them.

"Everything's dying now," her husband said softly, holding a hand out to her. "All the great civilizations have gone. This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing."

She pressed herself to his side, trying to block it out.

Jack looked around, amazed. "It must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death."

"Well, Martha and I, maybe," the Doctor shrugged. "The TARDIS wouldn't let something like that happen to Rose. And I'm not so sure about you, Jack."

Rose shook her head, not wanting to think about that either.

"What about the people? Does no one survive?" Martha murmured forlornly.

"I suppose we have to hope. Life will find a way," the Time Lord said softly, putting his arms around his wife and drawing comfort from her presence.

"Well, he's not doin' too bad," Jack said, pointing to a man who was running along one of the pathways barely ahead of others who were chasing him.

Frowning, the Doctor stared hard at the chase. "Is it me, or does that look like a hunt? Come on!"

The four of them ran along a roadway toward the man being hunted.

"Oh, I've missed this!" Jack laughed loudly.

They reached the man and Jack grabbed hold of him.

"I've got you," the man assured him.

"We've gotta run! They're coming! They're coming!" the man gasped, desperate with fear.

The Captain passed him to the others, then pulled out his revolver and aimed it at the hunters.

"Jack, don't you dare!" the Doctor gasped. If he provoked an attack, it would draw out the Bad Wolf in Rose again, and he still hadn't been able to check her for further mutations.

With a frustrated sigh, Jack fired into the air and their attackers stopped.

Martha was staring at them, horrified. "What the hell are they?"

The man they'd saved urged them. "There's more of them. We've got to keep going."

The Doctor suggested, "We've got a ship nearby. It's safe. It's not far, it's just over there. Or maybe not." He saw more of the humanoid hunters between their group and the TARDIS.

"We're close to the silo. If we get to the silo, then we're safe," the future man told them confidently.

The Doctor nodded, turning to the other three. "Silo?"

"Silo," Jack agreed.

"Silo for me," Martha voted.

Rose grabbed her husband's hand. "Hey, want to try the Silo?"

They all turned as one and ran, following the man they'd saved. They arrived at a gated area with watchtowers and guards.

"It's the Futurekind! Open the gate!" the man screamed in a panic.

The guard raised his weapon. "Show me your teeth! Show me your teeth! Show me your teeth!"

"Show them your teeth," the man urged, baring his own.

The others gritted their teeth in the same way.

"Human! Let 'em in! Let 'em in!" the guard shouted.

The other guards rushed to open the gate and they rushed inside.

"Close! Close! Close!"

The guard fired his gun at the ground in front of the Futurekind.

"Humans. Humani. Make feast," the obvious leader snarled.

The guard barked, "Go back to where you came from. I said go back! Go back!" He raised the gun again.

"Oh, don't tell him to put down his gun," Jack said to the Doctor.

"He's not my responsibility," the Doctor replied easily.

The ex Time Agent scoffed. "And I am? That makes a change."

"Jack, relax," Rose said softly.

"Kind watch you. Kind hungry," the chief signaled the others and they backed away.

"Thanks for that," the Doctor said to the guards.

"Right. Let's get you inside," the guard at the gate said to the group.

The man they'd saved looked at the guard hopefully. "My name is Padrafet Shafekane. Please tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

"Oh yes, sir. Yes, I can," the guard answered, finally smiling, leading them into a large tunnel carved into a mountain—the silo.

"What's your name?" Rose asked the guard, always wanting to know everyone she came into contact with.

"I'm Lieutenant Atillo, ma'am."

She smiled at him, and Martha shook her head with amusement as the guard relaxed around her. There was just something about her friend that drew people in and made them want to open up to her.

"Well, Lieutenant, I'm Rose, and this is my husband, the Doctor. And our friends, Martha and Jack. Do you have any patrols that could retrieve our police box?

Atillo shook his head. "Your what?"

"It's a box, a big blue box," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry, but we really need it back. It's stuck out there."

"I'm sorry, but my family were heading for the silo. Did they get here? My mother is Kistane Shafekane. My brother is Beltone."

The guard shrugged. "The computers are down but you can check the paperwork. Creet! Passenger needs help."

Creet turned out to be a boy of about ten years old, coming from around a corner with a clipboard in his hand. "Right. What d'you need?"

The guard focused on the Doctor. "A blue box, you said."

The Time Lord nodded eagerly. "Big, tall, wooden. Says 'Police'."

Glancing between the hopeful man and his wife, Atillo nodded. "We're driving out for a last water collection. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," the Doctor sighed.

"See?" Rose said, patting his arm. "I told you it would work out."

"Come on," the boy, Creet, said to Padra.

Martha stopped him. "Sorry, but how old are you?"

The boy shook his head in amusement. "Old enough to work. This way."

The small group followed Creet through corridors lined with people camping.

The boy shouted over the din. "Kistane Shafekane. Kistane Shafekane. Kistane and Beltone Shafekane? Looking for a Kistane and Beltone Shafekane."

"The Shafekanes anyone?" Padra couldn't help but ask people.

"Anyone? Kistane and Beltone Shefkane? Anyone know the Shafekane family? Anyone called Shafekane?" Creet continued.

"It's like a refugee camp," Martha murmured.

"Stinking," Jack agreed, passing a rather large man who stared at them, insulted. "Ooh, sorry. No offense."

"The ripe old smell of humans. You survived. Oh, much better than a million years evolving into clouds of gas. And then another million as downloads, but you always revert to the same basic shape. The fundamental humans," the Doctor babbled.

"I rather like our original shape," Rose said, tongue in teeth grin firmly in place.

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "I rather like your shape, wife of mine."

"You'd better," she giggled.

"I might have liked it better when you weren't practically accosting the woman who's like a sister to me in open hallways," Jack groaned, earning a slap from the blonde.

"Kistane Shafekane," Creet called again.

"End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable! That's the word! Indomitable!" the man from Gallifrey praised the humans.

Rolling his eyes, the boy called, "Is there a Kistane Shafekane?"

"That's me," a woman called, gasping as she saw Padra.

"Mother?"

The woman held her arms out to her son. "Oh my God."

"Beltone?" Padra cried happily, running to embrace his family.

"It's not all bad news," Rose pointed out, nudging Martha. "Even at the end, there's still happiness and love."

"It is good to know that the really important things last," her friend smiled in agreement.

They wandered down the corridor, both Martha and Jack noticing a good-looking man who passed by.

"Captain Jack Harkness," the time traveling man introduced himself, shaking the man's hand. "And who are you?"

Martha leaned to Rose, "Is he…?"

The blonde woman laughed softly. "In love with everyone? Yes."

The Doctor was examining a door, using his sonic screwdriver to try and open it and absently scolded Jack, "Stop it. Give us a hand with this."

Jack reluctantly let go of the man's hand before he and the ladies joined the Doctor at the door.

"It's half deadlocked. See if you can overwrite the code," the Time Lord encouraged.

Jack grinned and set to work on the keypad while the Doctor continued to use his sonic screwdriver.

"Love, you know, they might have wanted to keep people out of there," Rose teased, winking at Martha, who joined right in.

"Right, you ever think about just letting something pass?"

The four of them looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Let's find out where we are," the Doctor chuckled as the door slid open and he almost fell into the silo.

As Rose shouted with fear, Jack grabbed the other man just in time.

"Gotcha!"

"Thanks," the Doctor gasped as his wife latched onto him.

The ex Time Agent winked. "How did you cope without me?"

Martha gave a low whistle, staring at what they'd uncovered. "Now that is what I call a rocket."

"Rose, look," the Doctor urged his love. "They're not refugees, they're passengers."

She turned to see the huge rocket, blinking rapidly. "But… passengers to where?"

"Padra and Atillo both said they were going to Utopia," the medical student reminded them.

"The perfect place. 100 trillion years, it's still the same old dream," the Doctor mused before turning to Jack. "Do you recognize those engines?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though."

"Boiling," his friend agreed, stepping back and letting Jack close the door. "But if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean?"

An older man ran up to the group with a surprising burst of energy, looking around at them. He finally settled his gaze on Jack. "The Doctor?"

"That's me," the other man corrected with a confused look.

With a huge smile, he took the Doctor's hand and led him away. "Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good."

The Doctor looked back to the others with a surprised shrug. "It's good apparently."

The other three stared at each other for a second before Rose laughed. "Quick! After my kidnapped husband!"

They laughed and trotted down the hall after the two men. The group came to a room that was either engine room or laboratory, or a combination of the two, complete with a blue woman with insect-like features to play the part of assistant to the man who'd hurriedly introduced himself as Professor Yana.

"Chan—welcome—tho," she greeted each of them in turn.

"This is the gravitissimal accelerator. It's part of the …" the man who'd grabbed the Doctor was showing him everything in the room at breakneck speed.

"Chan—welcome—tho."

"And over here is the footprint impellor system. If you know anything about endtime gravity…"

"Hello. Who are you?" Martha asked the woman.

"Chan—Chantho—tho."

"But we can't get it to harmonize!" the man exclaimed.

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack grinned winningly.

"Stop it," said the Doctor from across the room.

"Can't I say hello to anyone?"

Rose snickered. "Down boy."

"Chan—I do not protest—tho," Chantho smiled.

"No one does, I think that might be the problem," Martha laughed.

"Maybe later, Blue," Jack smiled with a wink. "So, what have we got here?"

Jack crossed the room, but Rose wandered idly, always curious about new things. Martha followed Jack, wondering about a sound she'd heard coming from his pack.

"Don't get into trouble, Rose," the Doctor teased gently before asking, "And all this feeds into the rocket?"

"Yeah, except without a stable footprint we'll never achieve escape velocity. If only we could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. What do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?"

He hesitated before answering, "Well, um, basically…sort of…not a clue."

"Nothing?" the other man asked, obviously crestfallen.

"I'm not from around these parts. I've never seen a system like it. Sorry," the Doctor apologized.

No, no. I'm sorry. It's my fault. There's been so little help," the man sighed, rubbing his face.

Unable to withstand her curiosity anymore, Martha had opened Jack's bag and pulled a jar out.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, setting the hand on a table as the others came over, drawn by her scream. "You've got a hand. A hand in a jar. A hand in a jar in your bag."

"That's—that's my hand!" the Doctor yelped.

Rose jerked. "The one you lost to the Sycorax! Jack, how did you get that?!"

"I said I had a Doctor detector," he said, a bit embarrassed.

"Chan—is this a tradition amongst your people—tho?" the insectoid woman asked curiously.

Martha shook her head. "Not on my street. What d'you mean that's your hand? You've got both your hands, I can see them."

"Long story. I lost my hand Christmas Day. In a swordfight."

"You shouldn't have been sword fighting," Rose said, sounding as though it was an argument they'd had before.

"What was I gonna do, love? Let them cart you off to space, or take over the Earth? I had recovered by then."

"It could have gone worse."

"Rose," he said, kissing her forehead. "I'm okay."

"What? And you grew another hand?" Martha gaped.

"Um yeah. Yeah I did. Yeah. Hello," he grinned, waving his fingers.

"Might I ask what species are you?" the professor asked.

"Time Lord. Last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling," the Doctor said at the completely blank look he received.

"Chan—It is said that I am the last of my species too—tho."

"Sorry, what was your name?" The Doctor asked, seeming a bit embarrassed that he missed it.

"My assistant and good friend, Chantho. A survivor of the Malmooth. This was their planet, Malcassairo, before we took refuge," the professor introduced her.

"The city outside, that was yours?"

"Chan—the conglomeration died—tho."

The Doctor grinned. "Conglomeration! That's what I said!"

Rose put an arm around Chantho's shoulders and frowned reprimandingly at her husband.

"You're supposed to say sorry," even Jack chided.

He blushed and ducked his head. "Oh, yes. Sorry."

The professor's assistant smiled, obviously not one to hold a grudge. "Chan—most grateful—tho."

"You grew another hand?" Martha asked, still stuck on the hand.

Rose began to laugh as the Doctor waved his fingers in her face again. "Hello again. It's fine. Look. Really, it's me."

"All this time and you're still full of surprises," the black woman laughed nervously.

"Tell me about it," his wife grinned. "I still don't have any idea what he's going to do next."

The Doctor clicked his tongue and winked. "Liar, liar. You know better than I do."

"Chan-you are most unusual—tho," Chantho laughed.

"Well…" he said, trying not to laugh.

"So what about those things outside?" Jack asked curiously. "The Beastie Boys. What are they?"

Professor Yana shrugged a bit helplessly. "We call them the Futurekind. Which is a myth in itself, but, uh, it is feared they are what we will become. Unless we reach Utopia."

Rose frowned a bit. She'd seen and heard of too many 'fairytales' that turned out horribly twisted. "But, Professor, what is Utopia?"

He blinked at her. "Oh, every human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?"

"Bit of a hermit," the Doctor smiled cheekily.

The older man raised an amused eyebrow. "A hermit with friends?"

"Hermits United. We meet up every ten years. Swap stories about caves. It's good fun…for a hermit," the Time Lord teased until Rose elbowed him. "Sorry. I'm a hermit, wife's not. This is her brother and sister. You know, can't go anywhere without the in laws..."

"Doctor!" She scolded him with a laugh.

"So..." he laughed, ducking Jack's hand. "Utopia?"

Yana crooked his finger and led them to a computer that showed a navigational chart with a blinking red dot. "The call came from across the stars over and over again. Come to Utopia. Originated from that point."

"Where is that?" The Doctor asked, studying the last star charts.

"Oh, it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness. Out towards the wildlands and the dark matter reefs. Calling us in. The last of the humans. Scattered across the night," the professor answered a bit dreamily.

"What do you think's out there?" Martha asked, curious about the humans at the end of the universe.

"I don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven?" the professor confessed. "The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind—to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Perhaps not. But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor agreed readily. "And the signal keeps modulating, so it's not automatic. There's a good sign. Someone's out there. And that's…ooh, that's a navigation matrix, isn't it? So you can fly without stars to guide you."

Rose had noticed the professor had seemed to drift off for spell. She moved to his side and placed a hand on his arm. "Professor? Professor?"

The man shook himself. "I—Right, that's enough talk. There's work to do. Now if you could leave. Thank you."

"You all right?" The Doctor asked as the professor walked away, busying himself with the machinery.

"Yes. I'm fine! And busy!"

The Doctor's voice was sad as he pressed gently. "Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it? This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working."

"We'll find a way!" the Professor said desperately.

Rose exchanged a look with Jack and Martha. Jack was resigned, Martha horrified, but Rose remained hopeful. They had to help them. Her Doctor could.

"You're stuck on this planet. And you haven't told them, have you? That lot out there, they still think they're gonna fly," her husband said.

The older man rubbed a hand over his face. "Well, it's better to let them live in hope."

The Doctor looked at Rose, taking a breath and letting her utter confidence in him boost him a bit. "Quite right, too. And I must say, Professor... Um, what was it?"

Jack grabbed the coat that the Doctor shrugged out of, smiling hopefully at Rose.

"Yana," the professor supplied.

"Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So, I wonder, what would happen if I did this?" He babbled as he picked up the circuit and used the sonic screwdriver on it before switching it on giving them power.

Chantho applauded. "Chan—it's working—tho!"

The professor gawked. "But how did you do that?"

He grinned, locking eyes with his wife while still talking to the professor. "Oh, we've been chatting away. I forgot to tell you, I'm brilliant."

"Yes you are, love," she agreed readily, grinning her trademark tongue in teeth grin.

He stepped to her quickly and kissed her, then looked around. "Right, Professor Yana, let's get these people to Utopia."

With a beaming smile, the professor began calling out directions, sending people in several directions at once. He had Jack and Rose reattaching energy uplinks while he sent Martha and Chantho to retrieve additional circuits for the navigational upload.

As they worked, Jack looked over at Rose. "You know, don't you?"

She looked at him, but didn't answer aloud. Instead, she just allowed her eyes to take the appearance of Bad Wolf. It was easier to get to her now, but Rose knew she still couldn't really control the power of the Time Vortex. Still... her eyes suddenly swirling with golden sparks gave Jack a bit of a turn.

"Rosie?!" He yelped.

"Shh," she smiled, blinking once and returning her eyes to hazel. "I know you can't die, Jack."

He sighed in relief. "Good, because I was honestly scared to tell you."

"I didn't think I was particularly scary," she laughed.

"The thought that you might not want to be around me because of it was," the man said seriously.

Rose turned to look at him incredulously, then hugged him hard. "Oh Jack. I will always love you. You're like family. You, me, and the Doctor are going to have to put up with each other for a very long time."

He hugged her back. "I'm glad to hear it, Rosie. You have no idea how bad it hurt... to be abandoned by the first people I'd felt close to since I was a kid... and to wait so long just to see you again... you're the sister I always wanted, and when I saw your name on the list of dead..."

"I'm sorry about that, Jack. Really I am. But I just didn't see any reason to take it off, seeing as I had no intention of going back to Earth."

He nodded. "I can understand that, but you will come back and visit me, won't you? I meant it when I said you were my sister. You're the only one - well, there's the Doctor - you're the only one who will understand what it's like to watch life from the sidelines."

"Oh, don't do that. Life is for living," she admonished him. "Yes, it hurts and people... sometimes whole worlds... leave, but you're still alive and so you ought to live."

Jack blinked at her. "Rosie, how did a 22 year old shop girl get so wise?"

She laughed and punched his arm, getting back to work. "One - I'm 23 now. Two - I haven't worked in a shop since the Doctor blew my last one up. And three -" The blonde woman sighed with a far away look in her eyes. "You can't really look into the Time Vortex even once without it changing you. And I've done it twice now."

"You did what?" he asked in a loud voice that interrupted the Doctor.

"Oi!" the eccentric Time Lord called playfully. "Be nice to my wife or I'll chuck you out to those pointy teeth devils."

Jack shot a cheeky grin to the Doctor where he and the professor were working on either side of a large clear circuit board in the centre of the lab.

Returning the grin, the Doctor sniffed the cord in his hands. "Is this..?"

"Don't lick it!" Rose called out teasingly.

The professor laughed at the three of them, then answered, "Yes, gluten extract. Binds the neutralino map together."

"But that's food. You've built this system out of food and string and staples," the Doctor praised. "Professor Yana, you're a genius!"

"Says the man who made it work," the white haired man blushed humbly.

"Ooh…it's easy coming in at the end but…you're stellar. This is…this is magnificent. I don't often say that 'cause…well, 'cause of me."

"Don't you believe it," Jack called over. "He says it all the time to Rose..."

The blonde punched her almost brother.

"Well, even my title is an affectation. There hasn't been such a thing as a university for over a thousand years. I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another," Yana smiled sadly.

The Doctor sighed sympathetically. "If you had been born in a different time, you'd be revered." He shook his head emphatically as the professor chuckled. "I mean it. Throughout the galaxies."

The man sighed. "Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse. Some admiration would have been nice. Just a little. Just once."

Rose approached, having finished the task that she and Jack had been given. She smiled at the older man and patted his arm. "Well you've got it now."

He smiled at her. It seemed that not even an aged genius was impervious to the smile of Rose Tyler that found the good in everyone.

"But that footprint engine thing," the Doctor pointed out thoughtfully. "You can't activate it from onboard. It's gotta be from here."

Jack looked up, surprised. "You're staying behind."

"With Chantho. She won't leave without me. Simply refuses," Yana said softly, with a sort of wonder.

The Doctor certainly understood that feeling. He still felt it whenever he looked into his wife's hazel eyes. "You would give your life so they could fly."

The aged man laughed a bit. "Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia. Time I had some sleep."

Rose jerked her head up, as though someone had come in the room just as the voice of Lieutenant Atillo came over the intercom. "Professor, tell the Doctor we've found his blue box."

"Ah!"

Jack moved over to the monitor and smiled. "Rosie, Doctor, looks like home found you again."

Within moments, the TARDIS was brought into the lab, where Rose patted the wooden box lovingly.

The Doctor put a hand on Yana's shoulder. "Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found you a way out." The Doctor grinned and ducked into the TARDIS, bringing out a long power line into the lab. "Extra power. Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting? Jack, you're in charge of the retro-feeds."

Just then, Martha and Chantho returned with the circuits. Martha beamed as she saw the TARDIS.

"Oh, am I glad to see that thing."

Chantho noticed the professor had taken a seat, and went to his side immediately. "Chan—Professor, are you all right—tho?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Just get on with it," he said, offering his assistant a smile.

"Martha, you and Blue connect those circuits into the spar—same as we did that last lot. But quicker," Jack said.

Martha gave him a mock salute. "Yes, sir."

"You don't have to keep working. We can handle it," the Doctor said kindly.

The white haired man shook his head wearily. "It's just a headache. Just—Just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head."

Rose sat beside the older man, a gentle hand on his arm. "What sort of noise?"

"It's the sound of drums. More and more as though it's getting closer."

"When did it start?" the Doctor asked him with concern.

"Oh, I've had it all my life. Every waking hour. Still, no rest for the wicked." Yana patted the blonde woman's hand and stood, getting back to work.

The man and his wife exchanged looks of concern over whether the professor would be able to even see his dream of the rocket taking flight.

Across the room, Martha and Chantho worked on the circuits together, chatting softly.

"Chan – your family works very well together – tho."

Glancing at her two best friends, and even Jack, whom she felt a connection to as a traveler in the TARDIS, the medical student smiled. "Yes, they do. It's hard to describe our bond, I guess. How long have you been with the professor?"

"Chan—17 years—tho," she said, keying one of the plugs that didn't quite match.

"Blimey. A long time."

"Chan—I adore him—tho."

Martha noticed the blue of her cheeks grow a bit darker. "Oh right, and he—"

The other woman glanced back at the professor. "Chan-I don't think he even notices—tho."

With a glance toward her friends, she saw the protective concern, intense love, and utter devotion in the Doctor's eyes as he looked at his wife, who was tightening some kind of coupling for the professor and considered how easily she could have fallen for him if Rose hadn't been there. She couldn't imagine him feeling the same about anyone but his pretty blonde wife, though. "I completely understand, Chantho."

"Chan—but I am happy to serve—tho," she hurriedly assured Martha.

"Do you mind if I ask? Do you have to start every sentence with 'chan'?"

"Chan—yes—tho."

Martha couldn't help but smile a little. "And end every sentence with…"

Her new friend nodded. "Chan—tho—tho."

"What would you happen if you didn't?" The black woman asked curiously, turning a knob.

Chantho shook her head primly. "Chan—that would be rude—tho."

"What, like swearing?" Martha grinned.

"Chan—indeed—tho."

"Go on, just once," she urged, finding it amusing.

Chantho looked around the lab nervously, never having had a girlfriend to joke and chatter with like this, yet finding it to be a lot of fun. "Chan—I can't—tho."

Martha leaned closer, nudging her. "Oh, do it for me."

"No," Chantho said and they both dissolved into giggles.

"Talking about me, ladies?" Jack called teasingly, and they giggled even harder.

A crackling voice came over the video communications. Lieutenant Atillo asked, "Professor, are you getting me?"

Yana rushed to the screen. "I'm here! We're ready! Now all you need to do is connect the couplings. Then we can launch." He swore as the connection cut again. "God sakes! This equipment! Needs rebooting all the time!"

"Anything I can do?" Martha offered. "We've finished that lot."

He jumped up. "Yes, if you could. Just press the reboot key every time the picture goes out."

She sat at the console with a small laugh. "Certainly, sir. Just don't ask me to do shorthand."

"Are you still there?" Atillo asked over the feed.

Yana nodded eagerly. "Ah, present and correct. Send your man inside. We'll keep the levels down from here."

"He's inside," Atillo reported. "And good luck to him."

"Captain, keep the levels below the red," the professor directed, turning a knob.

Rose tipped her head, looking over Martha's shoulder into the monitor. "Professor, where is that room?"

"It's underneath the rocket," he answered, typing something into another monitor. "If we fix the couplings, the footprint can work. But the entire chamber is flooded with stet radiation."

The Doctor stroked his chin. "Stet? Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't want to. But it's safe enough. We can hold the radiation back from here," he assured them.

The Doctor joined Martha and his wife, watching on the monitor as a man worked on the couplings. Lieutenant Atillo watched through the window in the door. The all jumped as an alarm began to sound.

"It's rising…0.2. Keep it level!" Yana cried out to Jack.

"Yes, sir!" the captain answered, working furiously to get the levels back down.

More alarms sounded and the Doctor moved to Jack's side to help.

"Chan—we're losing power—tho!" Chantho exclaimed, trying to find the reasoning behind the sudden failure.

"Radiation's rising!" the Doctor shouted.

Jack cried, "We've lost control!"

Yana shook his head. "The chamber's going to flood."

"Jack! Override the vents!" the Doctor orderd.

Rose and Martha cringed as the heard Atillo shouting, "Get out! Get out of there! Jate!"

Jack took hold of two live cables. "We can jump start the override!"

As he moved to hold them together, the Doctor noticed a reading and turned, holding out a hand. "Don't! It's going to flare!"

Jack screamed as the power coursed through him, the others watching, helpless, as he then fell to the floor.

Over the comm. came the shout of, "Jate, get out of there! Get out! …No!"

Martha rushed to Jack, checking vitals and other signs. "I've got him."

"Chan—don't touch the cables—tho." Chantho warned, pushing them aside.

The Doctor watched Jack for a moment, his mind racing over the problem of the couplings.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Yana said sorrowfully.

"The chamber's flooded with radiation, yes?" the Time Lord asked.

Martha started mouth-to-mouth on Jack and Rose moved over to her side.

The professor nodded, weary at the idea of losing two lives and having accomplished nothing. "Without the couplings, the engines will never start. It was all for nothing."

"Oh, I don't know."

Rose takes her friend by the arm. "Martha, leave him," she said softly, pulling her up gently.

The other woman looked anguished. "You've gotta let me try."

"Come on. Come on. Just trust me, love. Just give it a bit of time," the blonde soothed, hugging her.

"It strikes me, Professor, you've got a room a man can't enter without dying. Is that correct?" the Doctor clarified.

"Yes," he confirmed, looking confused.

"Well…" the man said, pulling off his glasses just as Jack gasped and sat up. "I've got just the man."

Jack looked around, running his tongue over his teeth. "Was someone kissing me?"

Martha laughed with relief, but Rose shook her head in amusement.

"On your feet, my friend," the Doctor said, tucking his glasses away and offering a hand to the living man.

The two raced through the silo to the control room, while those still in the lab rushed to do their part.

As they arrived, the Doctor looked at Atillo. "Lieutenant, get onboard the rocket! I promise you're gonna fly."

"The chamber's flooded!" the man tried to warn them.

"Trust me. We've found a way of tripping the system. Run!" As the guard left for the rocket, he turned to find Jack removing his shirt. "Wh-What are you taking your clothes off for?"

"I'm going in," Jack answered, as though it should be obvious.

Well by the looks of it, I'd say that stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh," the Doctor pointed out.

"I look good though," Jack grinned, stopping at door. "How long have you known?"

"Ever since I ran away from you. Good luck."

Jack entered the room and went straight to the couplings, while the Doctor watched from the window. He knew Jack would survive it, but he sincerely hoped it didn't cause the man any serious pain.

"We lost picture when that thing flared up. Doctor, are you there?" Martha asked over the comm.

"Receiving, yeah. He's inside."

"And still alive?"

"Oh, yes."

He couldn't help but chuckle softly as he heard his wife say, "I told you he would be fine, Martha."

"But he should evaporate," Yana said in wonder. "What sort of a man is he?"

Rose patted his arm. "An accidental sort, sir."

The medical student shrugged. "I've only just met him. The Doctor sort of travels through time and space and picks people up. God, I make us sound like stray dogs. Maybe we are."

"You are not!" his wife laughed.

"He travels in time?" the professor asked, turning to look at the police box.

"Don't ask me to explain it. That's a TARDIS. The sports car of time travel, he says," Rose laughed a bit. "But he's always liked to take people with him, no matter how he claims that he doesn't do domestic."

"When did you first realize?" the Doctor was asking Jack, and Rose leaned closer to listen. After all… it was sort of her fault.

"Earth 1892. Got in a fight in Ellis Island. A man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up. Thought it was kinda strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War I, World War II, poison, strangulation, a stray javelin…" Jack trailed off, hearing the Doctor wince audibly. "In the end, I got the message, I'm the man who can never die. And all that time you and Rose knew."

"Wait, Rose really didn't until we landed here," he defended her. "But I did. That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just…just looking at you Jack, 'cause you're wrong."

"Thanks," the man in the chamber replied dryly.

The Doctor scowled. "You are, I can't help it. I'm a Time Lord. It's instinct. It's in my guts. You're a fixed point in time a space. You're a fact. That's never meant to happen. Even the TARDIS reacted against you—tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you. Rose was in the floor in tears, begging me to get rid of whatever was upsetting her."

"So what you're saying is that you're, uh, prejudiced?" Jack teased, finishing the third coupling.

"I never thought of it like that," the man outside the door mused.

"Yeah," he said shortly. "Last thing I remember back when I was mortal…I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life. What happened?"

"Rose," the Doctor sighed as the woman herself winced and looked away under the eyes of the other people in the lab.

"I thought you sent her back home," Jack said, glancing up.

The Doctor's expression was fond, but the worry he always felt for the blonde came through in his eyes and tone. "She came back. Opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"No one's ever meant to have that power. If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god, a vengeful god. But she was human. Everything she does is still so wonderfully human. She brought you back to life but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever. That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."

"Do you think she could change me back?"

"No," the Doctor answered quickly, sharply.

Jack looked up, hurt clearly written in his eyes. "Doc…"

"I'm sorry, Jack, I'm so sorry," he sighed. "But for her to even try, she'd have to take all that power back into her again. You know, she doesn't even register as human anymore. I tried to get the power out of her, and it caused me to regenerate. But enough remained to change her biological makeup."

Jack stared at the couplings. "I went back to her estate, in the 90s, just once or twice. Watched her growing up. Never said hello, timelines and all that. Hope she doesn't get upset by that."

"Do you wanna die?"

He didn't answer right away as he struggled with the coupling. "Oh, this one's a little stuck."

"Jack?"

"I thought I did. I dunno. But this lot, you see them out here surviving and that's fantastic," he said a bit softly, moving onto last coupling.

"You may be out there somewhere," the Doctor teased.

"I could go meet myself…"

"Well, the only man you're ever gonna be happy with."

"This new regeneration, it's kinda cheeky," Jack chuckled.

"Hmm."

"I never understand half the things he says. Rose, you couldn't have made Jack immortal, what really happened?" Martha asked.

Rose hugged herself. "I… I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, opened myself to the power in order to save the Doctor from the Daleks. And I lost control of the power when I tried to bring back Jack, and brought him back permanently."

The black woman stared in awe. "You… you really?"

"It ended, Martha. I can't do it now, nor would I try."

"But you looked into the vortex a while back, throwing the Reaper egg in…"

"Martha," she said sharper than she intended. "It's over. I no longer have the power to do things like that. Believe me, if I could fix Jack, I would, but I can't. I don't have any idea what's happened to me, but I don't have super powers or magical abilities. I just don't die when I look at the Time Vortex, is all."

Silence descended over the lab, broken only when Chantho spoke, "Chan—Professor, what is it—tho?"

"Time Vortex, time travel. They say there was time travel back in the old days. I never believed. But what would I know? I'm just a stupid old man. Never could keep time. Always late, always lost. Even this thing never worked," he said, pulling out a fobwatch from his waistcoat pocket. Time and time and time again. Always running out on me."

"Can I have a look at that?" Martha asked, holding a hand out.

"Oh, it's only an old relic," Yana dismissed her with a chuckle. "Like me."

"Where did you get it?" Rose wondered, moving closer to him.

He shrugged. "Hm? I was found with it."

Martha nearly groaned, remembering how the Doctor had been a bit disoriented after his change. "What do you mean?"

The white haired man smiled a bit, getting dramatic with his story. "An orphan in the storm. I was a naked child found on the coast of the Silver Devastation. Abandoned with only this."

"Have you opened it?" Rose asked him, a bit breathless.

He was perturbed that the two women were missing the point of his tale. "Why would I do that, girls? It's broken."

The black woman shook her head. "How do you know it's broken if you never opened it?"

"It's stuck. It's old. It's not meant to be. I don't know," he seemed to be actively trying not to think about it, which set off alarms in the minds of both the Doctor's companion and wife.

Rose took the watch and turned it over. It bore the same engravings as the one that nearly cost her her husband. She stepped back and breathed nervously, exchanging a surprised look with Martha.

"Does it matter?" They heard the professor ask.

"No," Martha said quickly. "It's…nothing. It's…Listen, everything's fine up here. I'm gonna see if the Doctor needs me, Rose, you coming?"

The blonde woman shook her head. "One of us ought to stay to help in case something goes wrong. You three just hurry back."

Her friend nodded and nearly ran for the door.

In the radiated chamber, Jack released the last coupling. "Yes!"

"Now get out of there! Come on!" the Doctor ordered, calling the lieutenant while the other man exited the chamber. "Lieutenant, everyone on board?"

"Ready and waiting," came Atillo's answer.

"Stand by! Two minutes to ignition," the Doctor said as he and Jack took their positions at the controls.

"Ready to launch. Outer doors sealed. Countdown commences T minus 99…98…"

Martha ran in, wide eyed.

"Ah, nearly there," the Doctor nodded, turning a few dials. "The footprint is a gravity pulse. It stamps down, the rocket shoots up. Bit primitive. It's gonna take the both of us to keep it stable."

Martha moved in front of him as he worked. "Doctor, it's the professor. He's got this watch. He's got a fobwatch. It's the same as yours. Same writing on it. Same… everything."

"Don't be ridiculous," he dismissed. It was an impossible idea.

She shook her head. "We asked him. He said he's had it all his life."

Jack shrugged. "So he's got the same watch."

"Yeah, but it's not a watch," the medical student explained. "It's this chameleon thing."

The Doctor corrected her, a bit flustered at the very thought. "No, no, no. It's this… This thing, this device, it rewrites biology, changes a Time Lord into a human."

"And it's the same watch," she emphasized.

"It can't be," he insisted.

An alarm blared and the Doctor tried to fix it, twirling knobs and hitting buttons.

"That means he could be a Time Lord. You might not be the last one," Jack said, clearly excited for his friend.

"Jack, keep it level!"

The two men moved quickly.

"But that's brilliant, isn't it?" Martha asked.

"Yes, it is. Course it is. Depends which one. Brilliant, fantastic, yeah. But they died, the Time Lords. All of them, they died," he rushed, really not wanting to think about it right then.

"Not if he was human," his immortal friend pointed out.

"What did he say, Martha?" the Doctor asked, his mind suddenly awash with the possibilities of who the professor might be if he was a Time Lord. With a quick glance around, he noted Rose wasn't with them and panicked slightly, yelling, "What did he say?"

She gasped. "He looked at the watch like he could hardly see it. Like that perception filter thing."

The Doctor's voice was nearing a desperate quality which neither of his friends understood. "What about now? Can he see it now?"

Rose watched the professor as he sat holding his watch, a vacant look on his face. Something felt very wrong and she wished the Doctor was there with her.

"Chan—Yana, won't you please take some rest—tho?" his young assistant asked, concerned for the man she doted on.

They all heard Atillo's countdown continue. "13, 12, 11, 10…"

"If he escaped the Time War then it's the perfect place to hide. The end of the universe," Jack pointed out thoughtfully.

"Think of what the Face of Boe said. His dying words. He said…" Martha began.

"I know," was the soft, curt answer from the Doctor as he launched the rocket. He knew, instantly, that upstairs, Yana had just opened the fobwatch, and his heart clenched in fear for Rose.

"Chan—Professor Yana—tho?"

The Doctor's wife, took Chantho's arm and stepped back from the professor as he turned to face them, clearly no longer the genial man he was before.

The Doctor felt the sudden, intense stab of fear and barked into the comm. to the rocket, "Lieutenant, have you achieved velocity? Have you done it? Lieutenant! Have you done it?"

"Affirmative. We'll see you in Utopia."

"Good luck," he said shortly, hanging up phone and sprinting from the control room.

Martha and Jack exchanged shocked looks before running after him.

Yana threw a lever that closed and locked the main door before the three got there.

"Chan—but you've locked them in—tho."

Rose gasped. "Why did you do that?"

The Doctor got out his sonic screwdriver while Jack tried the keypad.

"Get it open! Get it open!" the Doctor yelled frantically.

"Not to worry, my dears. As one door closes, another must open," Yana smiled coldly, throwing another switch.

The reading showed power cutting out at the main gate, allowing the Futurekind to get in.

His assistant cried out, "Chan—you must stop—tho!"

Yana ignored her as he worked various controls around the lab.

"Chan—but you've lowered the defences! The Futurekind will get in—tho!"

Jack got the door open and they ran through. Rose watched their progress on the monitors, hoping the Doctor was nearly to her.

"Chan—Professor, I'm so sorry but I must stop you. You're destroying all our work—tho," Chantho said, tears in her voice.

Both Rose and the professor looked up to see Chantho holding a gun on him.

"Oh…now I can say I was provoked," Yana smirked, reaching down and lifting one of the live cables. He stepped toward her purposefully.

Racing down the halls, the Doctor, Jack and Martha ran into the Futurekind, forcing them to backtrack.

"Did you never think, in all those years standing beside me, to ask about that watch? Never? Did you never think, not ever, that you could set me free?" Yana hissed at his cowering assistant.

" Chan—I'm sorry—tho. Chan—I'm so sorry…" she whimpered.

"And you with your 'chan' and your 'tho' driving me insane."

"Leave her alone, professor," Rose tried to distract him.

"Wait your turn, Rose," he directed her, still advancing on Chantho.

"Chan—Professor, please—"

"That is not my name!" he shouted. "The Professor…was an invention. So perfect a disguise that I forgot who I am."

"Chan—who are you—tho?"

"I am the Master," he grinned, thrusting the cable forward as both women screamed.

Chantho jerked and slumped to the ground, and the Master turned to Rose, who hurriedly backed away.

"Now, my dear, let's you and I talk."

"If you hurt me, the Doctor will kill you," she said, hoping to stall until her love could get there.

He merely laughed. "I won't do anything permanent just yet, Rose. I want to know just how connected you are to his TARDIS still. A dead woman is no use to me. Better yet, a dead woman isn't as fun in torturing him."

He stalked toward her, and Rose ducked around the equipment.

"I am not in the mood for games, girl," he growled, following her intently. As she attempted to dodge him again, he jerked out a small cable and swung it at her, startling the woman with the small shock from the end just long enough to get near. His hand, surprisingly strong, grabbed her arm and jerked her to face him.

"Let me go," she struggled.

A quick backhand to her face caused her to still. "Shut up," he told her plainly. A trip to the cabinet produced a pair of cuffs the guards had stored in his lab, and he dragged Rose into the TARDIS and attached her to one of the rails.

The Master went back into his lab, retrieving the canister containing the Doctor's hand as the other three arrived at the locked lab door. Jack worked on the keypad, while Doctor looked through the window.

Professor!" he shouted, pounding on window. "Professor, let me in! Let me in! Jack, get the door open!"

The Master walked to the computer displaying the navigational chart for Utopia.

"Professor! Professor, where are you?! Rose?! Professor! Professor, are you there?! Please, I need to explain! Whatever you do, don't open that watch!"

Rolling his eyes, the Master removed the navigational circuit board, sneering condescendingly. "Utopia."

Outside the door he heard Martha shout, "They're coming!"

"Professor!" The Doctor shouted desperately.

The Master chuckled, pulling the cables from the TARDIS. Rose struggled against the cuffs. "Master, what the hell are you doing?"

"Not now, my dear," the man laughed.

"Open the door, please! I'm begging you, Professor! Please! Listen to me! Open the door, please!"

The Master turned, intending to tease the Doctor, and Chantho fired. He blinked in surprise and groaned, staggering back against the TARDIS. Jack hit the keypad with the butt of his revolver and the door opened. The Doctor rushed inside and stopped, facing the Master.

"Where's Rose?"

"Doctor!" They heard her scream from the TARDIS.

He moved forward, intending to get his wife, but the other Time Lord merely smirked and backed into the TARDIS, locking it behind himself. The Doctor tried his key but the Master flicked a switch so a key wouldn't work. He then headed up to the console.

Rose fought against the cuffs. "Doctor!"

He swore and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. Inside, the Master pressed a button on the console to prevent that from working as well.

"Deadlocked," he laughed.

"Let me in! Let me in!" The Doctor shouted, pounding on the door. "Rose!"

"She's dead," Martha said, checking Chantho.

"I've broken the lock! Give me a hand!" Jack shouted, trying to bar the outside door.

"I'm begging you! Everything's changed! It's only the two of us! We're the only ones left!"

Martha ran to help Jack with the door.

"Just let me in!" The Doctor shouted. "At least let Rose out!"

Inside the TARDIS, the other Time Lord snorted. "Killed by an insect! A girl! How inappropriate. Still, if the Doctor can be young and strong, then so can I. The Master…reborn."

"Doctor!" Rose screamed. "Doctor, he's regenerating!"

The Master stood in front of the console, head and arms flung back, and the regeneration began. Bright golden lights poured out from his neck and arms. He screamed.

The Futurekind arrived at the door and the two humans tried to hold them back as the door wasn't fully closed.

"Doctor! You'd better think of something!" Jack called.

Inside the TARDIS, a younger Master—looking to be in his early 30s—woke next to the Doctor's hand. He stood slowly, amazed. Rose stared, horrified.

"Doctor—ooh, new voice. Hello," the Master grinned, testing his new voice before resuming his taunt, "hello, hello. Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me? I don't think! How about instead, I take your ship and your wife and leave you here?"

"Hold on! I know that voice!" Martha cried as one of the Futurekind reached an arm through the door.

"I'm asking you really properly! Just stop! Just think!" the Doctor begged. "At least leave Rose!"

"Use my name," the newly regenerated man commanded.

"Master," the Doctor said in a voice of great pain. "I'm sorry."

"Tough!" the Master shouted, starting the TARDIS.

"Rose!" The Doctor shouted, holding out his sonic screwdriver.

Jack groaned, all his weight against the door. "I can't hold out much longer, Doctor!"

The console sparked as Rose screamed for the Doctor.

"Oh, no you don't!" The Master cackled as he got the control column moving again. "End of the universe. Have fun. Bye bye!"

"Doctor, stop him!" Martha cried as she and Jack fought the Futurekind back.

The TARDIS disappeared, and the Doctor fell to his knees with a sob.

A/N: I need reviews! Sorry this one took so long, but I wasn't all that well. I'm better now. Anyway… leave a review. Lots of surprises planned for the new chapter! Leave a note and let me know if I was a terrible disappointment!