The Gifts of Peace that we received from the rest of the guests were divided between myself and Rose, with Rose's least treasured possession being the Moxx of Balhoon's spit in her face. I stared curiously at the strange, golden box given to us by the ambassadors of Binding Light, who had informed us that it was a relic of their first ruler, and I prayed that there wasn't something unpleasant inside like a finger.

Madame Moisturize Me was introduced once everyone had finished exchanging gifts, but I really didn't care for or about the woman. She was cruel, wicked, and just plain annoying. As she rambled on and on about her multiple, dead husbands, I searched the room for Jabe. I wanted to know more about her and I hoped that if I learned even one insignificant fact about her, I might be able to remember why she was so special.

"And where are you going?" the Doctor asked, grabbing onto my elbow as I started to wander off.

I offered the Time Lord an unconvincing smile. "Nowhere?"

The beginning beats of 'Tainted Love' started playing then and I started, finding that an old jukebox near the entrance was the source of the music. I frowned, but couldn't resist bobbing my head in time with the song. When I turned back to the Doctor, I caught her gazing at me with a fond expression that made me curious, confused, and a little bit uncomfortable. Recalling our flirtatious endeavors earlier in the day and the Twelfth Doctor's cryptic comments even earlier, it occurred to me that maybe there was something that the Doctor wasn't telling me.

I wanted to ask her why she was looking at me like that, why I felt so wrong inside, why I felt so compelled to stay on the station and why I was so drawn to Jabe. I wanted to run back inside the TARDIS, lock my door behind me, and go to sleep and never wake up. I wanted to know who the hell Missy was and why she'd kissed me like it was the only thing that had ever mattered in the history of the universe. More than anything, I wanted to wake up and realize that everything, even the urge to know what kissing the Doctor might be like, was really just a dream, even though I knew it wasn't.

The Doctor's brows furrowed, drawing my wandering eyes back to hers. "What're you thinking about?" she wondered.

"Doctor?" The Doctor and I both turned towards the voice to see Jabe standing in front of us. A brief flash emanated from a device in her hands and for a moment, all I could see were spots of white everywhere I looked. "Thank you," she said with a smile.

Jabe raced out of sight a moment later and it felt like a rope was tied around my heart, connecting me to her and drawing me in the farther away she went.

"Wait a minute, where's Rose?"

"Hm?"

The Doctor turned in a circle, frantically trying to locate her newest companion. "She was just here! I can't see her." Grabbing hold of my shoulders, the Doctor directed me to look at her. "Stay here. I'll be right back. Don't move!"

I nodded. "Okay." But the moment the Doctor turned her back on me, I hurried off in the direction I'd last seen Jabe go.

There were niches carved into the walls, lined with the same dark marble that was scattered throughout the parts of the station I had come across, and there were two immediately to the right of Jabe's disappearance point. I peered around dark cloaks and tall, bulbous-headed aliens, but found no sign of Jabe's red and gold dress.

"I see you also have a relic."

Startled, I turned around and found myself face to face with Jabe herself. She smiled and pointed to the box in my right hand. "Oh! That. Uh, yeah."

"What's yours?" she asked. "I got a ring."

"Oh, I-I haven't looked yet," I said. Now that she had found me, I couldn't think of anything to say to her.

Jabe stepped a little closer, gesturing to my figure. "Can I ask where you're from? The Steward didn't say."

"Earth."

If Jabe had eyebrows, I felt sure she would've raised them in response. "Are you human? You don't look like Lady O'Brien."

"Well, yes, but-." I stole a glance through the crowd and spotted Cassandra as her assistants wheeled her around. "She's different."

"That's not much of an answer." When I stammered a nonsense reply, Jabe waved her hand dismissively. "What about your wife, the Doctor? Is she human, too?"

"Oh, no, that's just me and Rose. She's from Galli-"

"There you are!" The Doctor's voice cut through my answer as she stepped around Jabe, reaching for my arm to pull me close. "I told you not to move."

"But I was looking for her!" I said, gesturing to Jabe with a nod of my head.

Jabe's smile faded slightly and she crossed her arms over her abdomen. "Were you?"

With both women staring seriously at me, I overwhelmingly felt like curling up into a ball so I wouldn't have to answer any more questions. My eyes fell to the floor and I hugged the two gifts I'd been given close to my chest, the leaves of Jabe's gift tickling my chin. The Doctor moved her hand from my bicep to my shoulder, but I pulled out her grasp with a frown.

"Diana?"

"N-Never mind," I mumbled.

Moving to stand beside me, the Doctor placed her hand on the small of my back. "Come on," she said, urging me forward with a little bit of pressure. "I still can't find Rose. I think she's wandered off somewhere."

"Would the owner of the blue box in private gallery fifteen please report to the Steward's office immediately?" declared a voice from above. "Guests are reminded that use of teleportation devices is strictly forbidden under Peace Treaty five point four slash cup slash sixteen. Thank you."

The Doctor groaned. "Oh, lovely! At this rate I'll lose you as well by the end of the day."

The Doctor crossed her arms with a frown, watching the group of tiny blue people from before roll the TARDIS away for safekeeping. "Oi, now, careful with that," she said. "Park it properly. No scratches."

One of the little helpers scurried over to the Doctor and I and handed the Doctor a business card that said 'Have A Nice Day' in stylized, dark, grey lettering. The Doctor glanced at me and grumbled wordlessly under her breath. Tucking the card into a pocket in her coat, the Doctor gestured for me to follow her.

"Now we've got to find your friend." Exiting the TARDIS's new resting place, the Doctor led us to a hallway with a handful of doors on either side. "You take that side, I'll take this one. If we're lucky, we won't have to traverse the entire station before we find her."

Padding across the hall, I readjusted the plant and box so they were balanced in my left hand, leaving my right free for knocking. I rapped my knuckles against the first door, called Rose's name, and heard no reply. The same result was given from every door except the very last one; upon pressing my ear to the door, I could hear Rose's faint reply.

"Doctor, this one!" I called.

In my excitement, the plant that I had placed atop the gilded box slipped off and the Doctor caught it just as it fell. She placed it in my free hand, then whipped out her sonic screwdriver and began working on the door. It slid open a few seconds later and we stepped inside. Rose was sitting on the top step inside what seemed to be the exact viewing room we'd left the TARDIS in, minus, of course, the TARDIS.

"There you are," the Doctor said. "What do you think, then?"

Rose heaved a great sigh. "Great. Fine. I mean, once you get past the slightly psychic paper." The Doctor sat down a few feet away from her, leaning back so she was braced against one elbow and her other arm was draped casually across her stomach. For a second, I wondered if she was posing. Then a second later, I thought that she looked damn good. "They're just so alien," Rose said; I blinked at pretended I hadn't just been checking out a handsome Time Lady. "The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em… and they're alien."

The Doctor chuckled. "Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South."

"Where are you from?" Rose questioned as I moved to sit down beside her, placing the plant and box beside her gifts.

The Doctor's smile faded and she looked from Rose to the window, her expression sadder and softer. "Oh, all over the place."

"They all speak English."

"Hm?"

"The aliens."

"Oh! No, you just hear English. It's a gift of the TARDIS!" The Doctor's smile was back as she explained just how brilliant her ship was. "The telepathic field gets inside your brain and translates."

"It's inside my brain?"

"Well, in a good way," the Time Lady assured her.

I could see that Rose was getting irritated. "Your machine gets inside my head," she snapped. "It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"

The Doctor made a panicked expression, then a thoughtful one. "I didn't think about it like that," she said."

"No, you were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South!" Taking a deep breath, Rose put a hand to her head and thought for a moment. "Who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?" She turned to me, her eyes flashing dangerously. "And what about you?"

"Me? I'm not an alien, I'm human!" I yelped.

"Are you?" she countered.

"Yes!"

Rose turned back to the Doctor. "You said you were an alien. Where're you from?"

The Doctor smiled weakly. "I'm just the Doctor."

"Yeah, but from what planet?"

"It's not as if you'll know where it is!"

"Where are you from?" Rose said again, louder.

"What does it matter?"

"Just tell me who you are!"

The Doctor sat up, her legs hanging off the edge of the steps. "This is who I am, Rose! Right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me, so just leave it!"

Rose scowled. "Yeah and I'm here too because you brought me here, so just tell me!"

The Doctor made a sound in the back of her throat, almost like a growl, and flew to her feet. She stuffed her hands deep inside her jacket pockets and started down the stairs so she could stand at the base of the window. Even through her jacket, I could tell that her shoulders were tensed; she was angry and hurt, and it's wasn't hard to guess why.

"Earth Death in twenty minutes," announced the same computerized voice from before. "Earth Death in twenty minutes."

Rose glanced at me and mumbled an apology. I smiled and hesitantly patted her hand, assuring her that all was forgiven. Then she stood and, after taking a breath to steady herself, followed the Doctor's path to the window. "Alright," I could hear her say. "As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver. I'm sorry."

Pulling her phone out from her pocket, Rose hummed. "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit."

"Tell you what," said the Doctor, reaching for Rose's phone, "with a little bit of jiggery pokery-"

"Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?"

The Doctor smiled, genuinely this time, as she pulled the back off the phone and pulled the battery out. "Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?"

Rose shook her head and laughed. "No, I failed hullabaloo."

Switching Rose's battery for a differently shaped one that she had pulled from somewhere inside her jacket - it seemed her pockets were endless and full of just about anything you could need - and handing the phone back to its owner, the Doctor grinned. "There you go!"

By the time I had reached the base of the stairs, Rose had already dialed a number and had her phone pressed against her ear. She stood a few paces to the side, looking out the window, and then gasped softly. "Mum?"

I moved to stand beside the Doctor and looked up at her. She was gazing out the window, watching another brilliant flash of sunlight curl outwards and whip towards the Earth. "You okay?" I asked.

"Mm."

"I'm sorry."

The Doctor side-eyed me, her expression half a frown and half incredulous. "What are you sorry for?"

"Well, you're sad about G-… about your home, aren't you?" The Doctor remained silent, carefully avoiding my gaze and turning her attention back to the view beyond the window. "I know I could never understand what it's like, but I am sorry. I wish I could help."

"Don't you think you could?"

It was my turn to frown. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you think you understand as well as I do what it's like to lose your entire planet?" Taking hold of my hand, the Doctor smiled sadly at me as I suddenly realized that although the Earth was hovering just below me, it wasn't my Earth. "I'm sorry, too, love."

Pulling free of the Doctor's grasp, I walked back until I felt the stairs bump against my calves. I sat down and took a shaky breath, my eyes watering as I stared at the Earth and mourned everything I had ever known. I slipped my glasses off and my face dropped into my hands, a few tears already trailing down my cheeks. I had tried so hard not to think about the implications of being caught in another universe, a place where not even my own mother existed, and the Doctor had only reminded me of the truth.

A deep, rumbling sound echoed throughout the station as the room suddenly shook. Instinctually thinking it was an earthquake, I shot to my feet and reached for the Doctor, only to remember that I was floating high above the planet's surface a moment later. The Doctor grabbed my hand anyways.

"That's not supposed to happen." The Doctor tugged on my hand and just like that, we were racing for the exit.

"That wasn't a gravity pocket," the Doctor said as we returned to the main viewing room. The ambassadors were chattering with each other, clearly frightened by the station's shaking. "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe?" The woman just happened to walk and she stopped as the Doctor called her name. "Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

Jabe shook her head. "It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Also, how do you know what a Hertz sounds like?" I asked.

"Hush, love." Irritated by her dismissiveness, I worked my hand free of the Doctor's and crossed my arms over my chest. "Where's the engine room?"

"I don't know," Jabe replied, "but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite. I could show you and your wife, and your… partner?"

The Doctor looked at Rose, realizing what Jabe was implying. "Oh, no, she's not our partner."

Jabe continued down a list of romantically and sexually connotated words, finally ending with prostitute, and that made Rose bristle considerably. "Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind?" the blonde snapped. "Tell you what, you two go and pollinate," she said, gesturing to Jabe and the Doctor, "and you, too, if you want, Di. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson."

"Don't start a fight!" the Doctor called after her. Turning to Jabe, the Doctor offered the woman her arm and smiled. "We're all yours."

Jabe slipped her hand around the bend in the Doctor's arm and smiled in return. "I get the pair of you? Lucky me." Much to my surprise, I could tell that she wasn't being sarcastic.

Who would've thought we'd meet a gay tree? I thought to myself, barely noticing that the Doctor had taken hold of my hand again. Would you get a splinter from doing… things?

"Both of you, stop it." Jabe and I looked at the Doctor, confused by her sudden exclamation. "I can hear you! It's like lesbians in surround sound."

"What's a lesbian?" asked Jabe, at the same time that I declared, "I'm pan, thank you very much!"

Jabe peeked around the Doctor, catching my eye. "I thought you said you were human. What's a pan?"

"Here we are. Maintenance duct."

The Doctor inspected the panel that Jabe had motioned towards. "Just like you said. Thanks." She moved her sonic around the edge of the panel and was rewarded with a pop! Removing the panel from the wall and placing it on the floor, the Doctor stepped inside and immediately ducked down, narrowly avoiding smacking her head against a metal pipe. "Come on, you two. Inside!"

Jabe gestured for me to go first, then followed me inside.

"Who's in charge of Platform One?" the Doctor asked as we walked down the corridor. "Is there a captain or what?"

"Are you asking me?"

"I'm asking anyone who has an answer."

I scoffed. "Yeah, that's not me."

"There's just the Steward and the staff," Jabe offered. "All the rest is controlled by the metal mind."

I glanced at her over my shoulder. " 'Metal mind'?" I echoed.

"D'you mean the computer?" Jabe nodded in response to the Doctor's question. "But who controls that?"

"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."

"I didn't think there was anyone from the Corporation on board."

"There isn't. This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class! Nothing can go wrong."

Even from behind, I could hear the Doctor hum as though she disagreed. "Unsinkable?" she said.

"If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate."

"You're telling me! I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable, too. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn't half cold!" The Doctor suddenly stopped and turned to face us, nearly making me run into her. "So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?"

"I'm afraid not," Jabe replied.

The Doctor grinned. "Fantastic."

"I don't understand. In what way is that fantastic?"

I glanced back at Jabe. "She says that all the time."

"Course I do! And you know you like it!"

Just then, the Doctor came across a control panel that looked a bit like a drive-thru intercom, complete with a computer screen and speaker, and beyond it a dead end. Whipping out her sonic, the Doctor started sorting through the available information.

"What are you looking for again?" I asked.

"Engine room. It might be past this door here. Maybe we'll find something in there to explain what's going on." The Doctor stole a glance at Jabe, who had braced herself with a hand against the wall and another on a large pipe that ran just past my head. It hadn't escaped mine or the Doctor's attention, it seemed, that she was standing very close, but I was sure it was just because the corridor was so small. "So tell me, Jabe, what's a tree like you doing in a place like this?"

"Respect for the Earth."

The Doctor laughed disbelievingly. "Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions, including you."

Jabe smiled and lowered her gaze. "Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions."

"Mm, in case your share prices drop? I know you lot! You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land."

"Maybe so, Doctor, but all the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."

The Doctor grunted and I noticed the words 'Access Denied' flash across the screen.

Jabe leaned forward slightly, her breath tickling the back of my neck. "And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two." I wasn't sure if she was trying to sound alluring on purpose or not. "Perhaps a woman like you only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left." Her tone changed then, softening. "I scanned you both earlier. The metal machine could identify your wife as human, but it had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right, wasn't it? Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry I am."

As Jabe had continued to speak, the Doctor's expression had shifted from curious to pained. She had stopped scanning the control panel and simply stood, hunched over and staring straight ahead, but seeing nothing. It broke my heart. I reached out and tentatively placed my hand on her forearm.

"Doctor?" I whispered.

She met my gaze and a tear fell from her eye, just one, but it was enough to make my own eyes water. She rested her hand over mine, smiled, and looked past me at Jabe. "Thank you."

A quick wave of the sonic over the door was enough to unlock it and the Doctor pushed it open, then offered her hand to myself and Jabe as we scrambled out. The size of the room was so overwhelming that for a long minute, all I could do was stand in silence and gape at the incredible amount of space around me. We had come out of a panel in the metal wall and were standing on a platform with a walkway that extended over a large chasm to the opposite wall. Three large fans easily bigger than a two-story house rotated above the walkway, the rotations just slow enough that you could walk across and not get sliced by the blades on your way. To our right, near the corner of the platform, were two metal boxes about my height and several feet across.

"Is it me or is it a bit nippy?" the Doctor asked. I let my eyes roam her face, surprised to find that there was no visible hint of tears or sadness. I reached out for her, wanting to ensure that she was okay, but I withdrew at the last minute. The Doctor didn't seem to notice because she continued rambling. "Fair do's, though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of nice and old-fashioned. Bet they call it retro," she chuckled.

Stooping to inspect one of the metal boxes with her screwdriver, the Doctor grinned when she found a panel in the side. She yanked it back and out popped a metal, four-legged spider! It looked up at us with one red eye, a beam of red light shining out, and then bolted for the wall. Its triangular feet tapped loudly against the wall as it scurried away.

The Doctor stepped back a pace. "What the hell's that?"

"Is it part of the retro?" Jabe wondered.

"I don't think so." Pointing her sonic at the spider as it continued up the wall, the Doctor moved closer to the wall. She made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat and rose onto her toes, only to fall back on flat feet when Jabe nabbed the spider with a vine that shot out of her arm. The spider fell right into the Doctor's waiting hands. "Thanks! Nice liana."

I raised an eyebrow. "Liana?"

Jabe smiled shyly and I thought I could see her blushing. "We're not supposed to show them in public."

The Doctor winked. "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody." Turning the spider over in her hand, she hummed thoughtfully. "Now then, who's been bringing their pets on board?"

"What is it?" I asked.

"Not sure, but I do know what it's for: sabotage. Come on, you two. We've got to get to the bottom of this."

We returned to chaos. Smoke had filled up the hallway outside the maintenance duct and the tiny blue people who had wheeled the TARDIS away earlier were all joined together outside a room, squabbling nonsensically. The Doctor pushed her way through the group to the control panel beside the door. "Hold on. Hold on, you lot! Let me look!" She did something with her sonic and the computer announced to us that the sun filter was rising.

I looked at Jabe, confused. "What's a sun filter?"

"It's a special filter that covers the windows to keep the sun from destroying everything."

"But how does it destroy things? It's just sunlight."

"I don't know, but I suppose it's a side effect of being so close to the sun."

I frowned. "What, like a sunburn but worse?" I paused when, upon taking a breath, I noticed a terrible odor in the air. "Oh, God, what's that smell?"

"It's the Steward," said the Doctor, still sonic-ing the control panel. "Wait a minute. There's another sun filter programmed to descend. I'll be back!"

The Doctor took off round the corner, leaving myself, Jabe, and the little helpers standing in the still smokey hallway. "What did she mean about the Steward?" I asked Jabe. "I don't understand."

Jabe's face fell and she looked at the ground. "I think the Steward's dead. With the sun filter down, he would have vaporized in a matter of seconds. We'll have to tell the other guests."

The computer announced a reminder regarding the Earth's destruction as Jabe and I reentered the main viewing room. She called for everyone to be quiet and calm before breaking the news. "I'm afraid the Steward is dead."

The Moxx of Balhoon gasped. "Who killed him?"

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe," said Lady Cassandra. "He invited us. Talk to the Face! Talk to the Face!"

I felt a gust of wind blow past me; I turned and saw the Doctor at my side, her face hard and serious. She was still holding the metal spider and held it up so everyone could it. "Easy way of finding out. Someone brought their little pet on board." Dropping the thing onto the floor, the Doctor put an arm around my shoulders and rested her other hand on her hip. "Let's send him back to master."

Everyone watched with baited breath as the little spider scuttled around the room, first in Cassandra's direction, and then across the room where the Adherents of the Repeated Meme stood. But something told me that wasn't quite right. I looked back at Cassandra and tilted my head to the side, thinking.

The Doctor hummed thoughtfully. "That's all very well and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it?" She approached the Adherent at the very front of the group and it raised an arm in response, enormous metal claws curving out from the under the cover of its long, black sleeve. Catching the Adherent's arm, the Doctor suddenly yanked her own arms back and ripped the metal arm from its body, leaving a mass of fries and tubes sticking out of the end. "A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are - an idea."

Grabbing one of the wire encircled tubes in the arm, the Doctor pulled on it and the remaining Adherents dropped to the floor, lifeless. "They're remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker." Dropping the arm and turning her attention to the little spider standing nearby, the Doctor nudged it with her foot. "Go on, Jimbo. Go home."

The spider looked up at the Doctor and seemed to think for a moment, then looked straight ahead and scurried towards Cassandra. It stopped at the base of her frame and beeped.

Cassandra grimaced. "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed."

The Doctor smirked. "You might be surprised."

"At arms!" Cassandra ordered and her attendants took up a defensive position, their moisturizer sprayers aimed at the Doctor and I.

The Doctor laughed, but didn't hesitate to step in front of me, her hand lightly gripping my waist and effectively keeping me pressed against her back. I peeked around her shoulder. "What are you going to do, moisturize me?" the Time Lady asked, her tone light but her fingers firm on my hip.

Cassandra laughed humorlessly. "With acid. But you're too late anyway, Doctor. My spiders have control of the mainframe. You all carried them as gifts, tax-free, past every code wall. I'm not just as pretty face."

"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? How stupid's that?"

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims," Cassandra explained, narrowing her eyes at the Doctor for her woman's rudeness. "The compensation would have been enormous!"

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money. You humans never change."

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Doctor. Me! Not that freaky little blonde of yours and certainly not that little girl cowering behind you."

"Arrest her!" shouted the Moxx of Balhoon.

"Oh, shut it, pixie," Cassandra snapped. "I've still got my final option." She went on to explain her master plan: she had invested shares in all the companies that rivaled the ones present on the station, which meant that those shares would triple in value once everyone was killed. "I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but… I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders! Activate!" A series of distant explosions rocked the station. "Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. You'll be burnt to a crisp!"

"Safety systems failing," said the computer. "Heat levels rising."

Cassandra laughed. "Bye-bye, darlings!" she called as she and her attendants were beamed out.

The Moxx of Balhoon was shaking in his seat. "Reset the computer! That'll bring the forcefields online again!"

Jabe shook her head. "Only the Steward would know how."

"No," said the Doctor, "we can do it by hand. If we go to the engine room, there should be a system restore switch." Releasing her grip on my waist, the Doctor started for the doors. "Jabe, come on."

An image of Jabe engulfed in flames flashed before my mind's eye. "No!" Ignoring the Doctor and Jabe's confused expressions, I focused instead solely on Jabe and grabbed one of her hands. "You have to stay here."

"Why?"

"You'll die," I blurted.

"What? How do you know that? You're not a Time Lord."

"I just know," I said, squeezing her hand. "Please. Stay here."

Jabe nodded seriously, resting her other hand atop mine. "Alright."

The Doctor's hand on my shoulder turned me around and my eyes followed the line of her arm to her shoulder, then up her neck to her face. She wore an expression I'd never seen, nor could I interpret it, but she took my free hand in hers and twined our fingers together.

"Jabe," she said, never tearing her eyes from mine, "keep everyone calm."

As the Doctor and I ran into the hallway, racing for the engine room, I found it incredibly difficult to run with my hand caught in hers. How did her companions manage to run for their lives if they could barely keep up with her? I worked my hand free, explaining to the Time Lady that I couldn't run beside her and match her pace at the same time.

Upon reaching the maintenance duct, the Doctor gestured for me to go first. "How would Jabe have died?" she asked as I stepped past her into the duct.

I doubled over to avoid hitting my head and answered, "She would've caught on fire."

"How?" I stopped to consider the question, only for the Doctor to run into me. Her arm looped around my waist and pulled me back against her body to keep me from falling over. "Don't stop, just answer the question."

"I can't remember! But she was helping you."

"So you saved her from death by fire, but what about you? If you're going to help me, then won't you catch on fire, too? For the love of-! Stop stopping!" the Doctor chided when I halted again.

"I'm sorry! I'm thinking!"

"Don't think, run!"

The computer continued to announce, "Heat levels rising," every few seconds, the temperature growing noticeably warmer so that by the time we burst into the engine room, my forehead was coated with sweat and the air was muggy.

"Heat levels critical," the computer announced.

The fans, which had been rotating at a leisurely pace when we left, were now spinning so rapidly that the resulting breeze tore at my hair and clothes.

"What do we do?" I shouted over the stars whistling of the fans.

"System restoration!" the Doctor called in reply. She pointed across the room to the far wall. "There's a switch there!"

"But how-?" I paused, suddenly recalling the steps necessary for the Doctor reach the switch. I turned to my right towards the metal box, expecting to find a lever but instead finding nothing but the exposed panel of wiring that the Doctor had tampered with. "There's supposed to be a lever!"

The Doctor patted her hands along the box, trying to find something to rip off and finally found another panel, which she quickly discarded over her shoulder. She grabbed the lever and pulled it down so it was perpendicular to the box, then turned and started towards the fans. The lever had caused them to slow down, but before the Doctor could advance very far the lever popped back up on its own. I pulled down on the lever with all my strength, feeling it lock into place but still strain against my grip.

The Doctor was by my side, trying to pull me away from the lever. "You can't! The heat's going to vent through this place! It'll burn you!"

"How else are you going to get across?"

It was easy to get lost in the Time Lady's eyes as she gazed down at me, fear, worry, and realization sparking inside them. "Aren't you scared?"

I nodded. "Terrified."

Pulling her jacket off as fast as possible, the Doctor made me release the lever so she could wrap my hands up. "This is the best I can do." Taking my chin in her hand, the Doctor tilted my head back so I would look into her eyes again. "If you get hurt, just let go. Promise me!"

"I promise."

The computer was barely audible above the sound of the fans. "Heat levels hazardous. Heat levels hazardous."

The Doctor turned back to the fans and advanced again. I pulled the lever down and leaned forward so the weight of my upper body could help keep it in place. Sweat dripped down my temples and neck, a few droplets landing on the Doctor's jacket and then vaporizing a second later.

"Shields malfunction. Heat levels critical."

The Doctor made it past the first and second fans in a matter of seconds, but by the time she reached the third one, the heat had started to seep through her jacket and burn my hands. I tried to hold on for as long as I could, grinding my teeth against the pain, but it was too much to withstand just a few heartbeats later. I cried out as I released the lever, the jacket sliding to the floor to reveal my palms covered in light sores where the heat had started to burn my skin. Sweat mixed with tears as I inspected my trembling hands.

I looked up, trying to find the Doctor through the blur of the spinning fans, barely able to make out her silhouette. She was still standing in front of the last fan. A sob bubbled up in my throat as I gathered the Doctor's jacket again, trying to wrap it around my hands and whimpering when pain shot up my arms. I rushed to the lever and tried to wrap even just one finger around the handle, wanting to finish my task and help the Doctor as best I could, but the pain was beyond anything I had ever felt before and I couldn't pull it down more than an inch.

Then I felt something. There was a change in not just the air, but the entirety of my surroundings. It wasn't a temperature change or a lessening of the wind, but something different and new. As I turned my head to look for the Doctor, I realized that what had changed was time itself. The rotation of the fans had slowed, my heartbeat had slowed, even the distant sound of the computer announcing the death of the planet had slowed enough that the words were almost incomprehensible. The Doctor stepped forward between one blade and the next, and it stole my breath away.

Just like that, the moment was gone and time returned to normal. The Doctor seemed frozen on the other side of the fan, then dashed across the platform to the wall and yanked the lever down.

"Shields raised," said the computer. "Exoglass repair initiated."

I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry, so I settled for both and my legs gave out. My knees smacked hard against the floor when I landed, pain radiating through my bones and echoing throughout my entire body. The heat was already starting to lessen and soon enough, a cool, gentle breeze drifted through the engine room.

"Let me see," said the Doctor, kneeling in front of me with her hands hovering over mine. I hiccuped and uncurled my fingers to reveal my palms, red and lightly blistered. "Oh, your hands."

"It hurts," I sobbed.

"I know." The Doctor closed her eyes as a golden-orange glow began to manifest around her hands. "I'll fix you up, love. It's okay."

I watched the glow expand so that it enveloped my hands. "T-That's-"

"Shh."

The regeneration energy dissipated and the Doctor pulled me into her arms, resting her chin on my head as I cried into her chest. Her fingers delved into my hair, holding the back of my head steady. I wrapped my arms around her torso, clinging to her body as if my life depended on it, drawing us as close together as possible because I desperately needed to feel close to someone.

The muscles in my stomach seized up and I jolted in the Doctor's arms, feeling the rest of my muscles cramp and my joints lock in place. I grunted painfully and the Doctor pulled back, looking over my face and body to find the problem. She moved one hand to rest against my cheek.

"You're fading," she said with tears in her eyes.

"It hurts," I whispered.

"I know. I know, I'm sorry."

Pain blossomed along my spine as if I'd been sliced in half. "Make it stop!"

"I'm sorry."

"Doctor!"

I tried to grab onto her shirt, tried to find purchase on anything in sight to counter the pain, but I couldn't hold onto anything. I fell through the Doctor's arms as if I were a cloud, untouchable and forever floating away, and her face dissolved into nothingness. Everything was suddenly nothing and I was stuck in it, weightless in the nothingness of time and space.

On a regular street in London stood two women, one tall and dark, and the other small and pink. Rose Tyler reached out and took the Doctor's hand.

"You think it'll last forever," said the Doctor, her eyes bloodshot, "people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky." She looked Rose in the eye. "My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before its time.

"I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm the only one left."

"What about Diana?"

The Doctor smiled to hide her tears. "She's all I've got, but sometimes… sometimes I don't even have her. She just fades away and I have nothing left. Just an empty box."

Rose smiled. "There's me."

"You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"

"I don't know." Rose looked down at their joined hands. "I want… I think I want to stay. With you. Will Diana come back?"

"Oh, she'll turn up eventually. The trouble is finding her."

Rose laughed and squeezed the Doctor's hand. "Then we'll find her together. But first, I want chips."

Author's Note: I had a surprising amount of fun working on this chapter! I'd really appreciate any reviews you guys feel like leaving, even if it's just to correct something. Up next, we're traveling into the realm of Classic Who!