AN: Let me just say, I've had an absolute blast writing for the 9th Doctor, and I'm truly thankful for all the wonderful reviews you guys and/or girls have posted. But alas, all things must end. So, please enjoy Christopher Eccleston's swan song.
The Parting of the Ways
Dalek Command Ship
200,100
"No." The other four stared at him in disbelief while Clara beamed. The Daleks also paused at this, like they were blinking despite their inability to do so.
"Explain yourself!"
"I said no."
"What is the meaning of this negative?!"
"It means no."
"But she will be destroyed!"
"No!" He roared, making the Daleks flinch. "Because this is what I'm going to do: I'm going to rescue her. Me and my friends will save Rose Tyler from the middle of your Dalek fleet, then I'm going to save the Earth and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe out every stinking Dalek out of the sky!"
"But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan!"
"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?!" He taunted. That silenced the Daleks, making Rose grin. "Rose?"
"Yes, Doctor?"
"We're coming to get you." He shut the connection off, the Daleks starting to dart around the room like kids on a sugar rush.
"The Doctor is initiating hostile action!"
"The stratagem must advance! Begin the invasion of Earth!"
"The Doctor will be exterminated!"
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!" The Daleks started to chant in unison, making Rose cover her ears as their screams echoed throughout the chamber. Please hurry, Doctor, Clara, and Jack. Please. One of the Daleks rounded on her, making her back into the nearby wall. "You know the Doctor. You understand him. You will predict his actions." It demanded.
"I don't know!" Rose cried. It advanced on her, making her shudder in fear. "And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Predict! Predict! Predict!"
"TARDIS detected in flight." A Dalek reported.
The Dalek in front of her turned its eyestalk around. "Launch missiles! Exterminate!"
"You can't!" Rose protested. "The TARDIS hasn't got any defences. You're going to kill them!"
"You have predicted correctly." The Dalek quipped in an almost sarcastic manner, making her gulp. After a few moments however, the sound of the TARDIS engines flared through the room, making Rose glance around herself. She blinked in confusion for a few seconds before it settled into relieved admiration as she recognized the TARDIS materialising around her…and the Dalek in front of her.
"Oh great." She mumbled sarcastically.
"Alert! TARDIS materialising…" The Dalek's voice trailed off as the TARDIS materialised completely.
The TARDIS trio raced around the console, working frantically as they piloted the ship out of Satellite Five and towards the Dalek Command. "We've got incoming!" Jack reported. "Brace yourselves!" The ship then shuddered violently by the missiles, the ship staying unscathed, yet they grasped the console as to not stumble to the floor. Jack shot them a cheeky grin, patting the extrapolator. "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional force field. *Sniggers* Try saying that while you're drunk."
"And for our next trick." The Doctor flicked a lever. "Jack, get ready." Jack jumped, grabbing the defabricator off the captain's chair and primed it. They turned to look at the doors as the TARDIS materialised inside the Command ship, around Rose yet unfortunately, a single Dalek as well. Rose turned to look at them before the Dalek could.
"Rose, get down!" Clara warned. Rose blinked as she glanced at her. "Get down, Rose!" She repeated, making Rose duck for cover.
"Exterminate!" The Dalek fired. Clara ducked, causing the blast to hit the exact spot where her head had been, while Jack fired at the Dalek. It screamed in agony before exploding in debris, the top half now obliterated, leaving behind the steaming Dalek organism inside.
Rose got up, feeling relieved in tune with the rest of the group. "You did it."
"Of course, we could." The Doctor said smugly before pulling Rose into a hug. He then parted, moving to examine the Dalek while Clara hugged Rose.
"It feels like I haven't seen you in years." Rose mumbled.
"We did say we'd get you. And by we, I mean him." Clara said.
"I never doubted it." Rose said gratefully as they parted.
"We didn't either." Rose cocked an eyebrow at her. "Okay, we did a tiny bit. You all right?"
"Yeah. You two?"
"Eh. We've been better." Clara shrugged as she joined the Doctor's side.
"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack asked as he put down the ruined defabricator and walked over.
"Aww, come here." Rose motioned to him.
"I was talking to them." They shared a hearty laugh and a hug, while the two by the Dalek rolled their eyes at each other. "Welcome home."
"I thought I'd never see you again." Rose said honestly.
"Oh, you were lucky. That was just a one-time wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk." He said as they parted, moving to examine the Dalek.
The Daleks looked at the TARDIS in agitation, unable to detect any signs of activity from the outside. Then, they started to move towards it eagerly. "Patience, my brethren." A booming voice echoed throughout the room, causing them to stop and remain silent.
"You said they were extinct. How come they're still alive?" Rose asked.
"One minute: They're the greatest threat in the universe. The next: They vanished out of time and space." Jack said.
"They went off to fight a bigger war: The Time War." The Doctor informed. He glanced at Clara, relaxing at her kind look.
"I thought that was just a legend." Jack muttered with wide eyes.
The Doctor shook his head. "I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed but so were the Daleks. Part of me thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."
"But who killed them all?" Jack asked. The Doctor shot him a look, making him nod silently in understanding.
"There's thousands of them now." Rose said, fear clear in her voice. "We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"
The Doctor shot up with a grin, causing them to jump slightly. "No good standing round here chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have the answers. Let's go meet the neighbours." He raced to the door.
"You can't go out there!" Rose cried. Clara put a hand on her shoulder with a smirk. That made Rose pause, her eyes moving to squint after the Doctor as he pushed through the doors.
"Exterminate!" They saw the Daleks fire at the Doctor…yet they didn't hit him. Realising this, they stopped, making him glance back at the group with a smug smirk as they exited the TARDIS slowly.
"Is that it?" He asked the Daleks. "Useless! Null points." He said with a French accent. They winced in unison. "Okay, never mind that one." He muttered before turning back to look at the rest of the group. "It's all right. You can come on out. That force field can hold back anything."
"Almost anything." Jack reminded as they leant back against the TARDIS.
"Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that, thanks." The Doctor said sarcastically.
"Sorry."
The Doctor marched back up to stand in front of the Daleks, now radiating a tone of unrelenting authority. "Do you know what they called me in the ancient legends of the Dalek home world? "The Oncoming Storm"." The Daleks stared at him, silent yet with slight ticks of flinching. "You might've removed all your emotions, but I reckon that deep down in your DNA, there's one little spark left…and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me?" He asked, sending them a cold smile. "So, tell me, how did you survive the Time War?"
"They survived through me." He turned along with the group, looking now upon the large, black silhouette with wide eyes. Three lights flickered on, revealing to the Doctor's horror, a Dalek three times the size of any other, bolted into the floor on a tripod made of its own armour. Underneath where a tank would be, was instead a small glass capsule holding the real Dalek just like the Prime Minister, yet this one was…mutated. More than any Dalek he's ever seen. Yet instead of writing about in agitation or fear, it stayed perfectly still, like the calm before a storm.
"Clara, Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks." The Doctor said, not turning to look at them as he moved slowly forward, the rest of the group still standing beside the TARDIS.
"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."
He rolled his eyes. "I get it."
"Do not interrupt! Do not interrupt! Do not interrupt!" The Daleks admonished in unison.
He raised his eyebrows in a "Excuse me?" manner. "I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages and you don't have one way of stopping me. So, if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!" He roared, the Daleks flinching in fear. He turned back to the Emperor with a grin. "Okey doke. So, where were we?"
If he had one, the Emperor would've clenched his jaw. "We waited here, in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed, they all came to us. The bodies were filleted, pulped and sifted." The TARDIS group, especially Rose, scrunched their faces in disgust. "The seed of humanity is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."
"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." The Doctor concluded.
"That makes them…half Human." Rose inputted.
"Those words are blasphemy!" The Emperor roared.
"Do not blaspheme! Do not blaspheme! Do not blaspheme!" The Daleks yelled in unison, making them cover their ears in protection.
"Everything Human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek." The Emperor said proudly.
The Doctor turned back to look at him, eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. "Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"
"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the god of all Daleks!" The Emperor declared.
"Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!" The Daleks chanted in unison. When they finished, the Doctor looked at them in newfound horror.
"They're insane." He muttered. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh, the stink of humanity." He sighed. "You hate your own existence. And that makes them deadlier than ever." He motioned the others into the TARDIS as he turned back briefly. "We're going." He said, before entering the TARDIS.
"You may not leave my presence!"
"Stay where you are!" A Dalek demanded. He simply shot them a grin before closing the doors. "Exterminate!" The Daleks yelled in unison as they fired at the doors.
Clara and Jack piloted them away into the Vortex, leaving behind the ruined Dalek at the ship. Clara looked over at the Doctor, who stood silent by the doors, leaning his head against it. She walked up to him and placed a hand upon his shoulder. "Doctor?" She whispered. He turned to look at her, a gaze of shameful sorrow. "Come here." She said, drawing him into a hug. He sighed, stroking her hair with his one free hand.
"I don't deserve you, Clara." He said honestly.
"I'm sorry Doctor, but I'm exactly what you deserve." She sassed, causing him to chuckle. "You've got a plan?" She asked.
"Who said I was staying?"
"I can read you like an open book." She said, adopting a mocking dramatic tone, making him smile.
"Then yes, I have a plan."
"Then I'm sure Jack can help us out."
"And not Rose?"
She sighed. "We can't let her stay. She has to go back, to Jackie and Rickey."
"His name's Mickey." He said, before groaning at his words.
She laughed. "Made you say it."
They parted, moving up to the console. "All right, back to Satellite Five." He said, racing around the console, before rushing back to the doors. "Tweedledee and Tweedledum, hurry up."
They groaned. "Seriously, stop calling us that." Rose said as they exited the TARDIS with him.
Silence then fell for a few moments in the TARDIS, as Clara placed a hand on the console and stroked it affectionately. "You'll know the time to do it, old girl."
*Beeps* (I know. Goodbye Clara)
She smiled sadly, moving out of the TARDIS, and closing the doors behind her.
"Come on, turn everything up." An impatient Doctor said to Davidge and Elizabeth at the main desk, Clara moving to stand beside him with Jack and Rose. "All transmitters at full power, wide open. Do it!"
"But what does this do?" Davidge asked.
"It stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. Did you contact Earth?"
"Well, we tried to warn them but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programs."
"Then the planet's just sitting there, defenceless."
Clara glanced over to see Lynda sitting on a chair, looking at them with wide eyed curiosity. "Lynda, what're you still doing here? You were supposed to evacuate with everyone else."
"She wouldn't go." Davidge inputted.
"I didn't want to leave you. Besides, there weren't enough shuttles."
"You're serious?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes." Elizabeth inputted. "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor 0." She flicked on a connection to one of the security cameras on said floor.
"Listen, listen. My name's Rodrick." His voice floated through on screen. "I won the game! Where's my money?"
"In a moment, sir." A soldier said as he tried to sort through the demands of everyone around him.
That made Rodrick groan, grabbing a microphone. "Is anybody listening?! Where's my money?!"
Davidge turned the screen off, motioning to another where they could see in the distant space the Dalek fleet moving towards them. "The fleet is moving. They're on their way."
The Emperor hummed in agitation, making all the Daleks turn their attention towards him. "Burn the Doctor's sanctuary out of the sky. The embers from his ashes will purify the Earth in a new fire. The planet shall become my temple and we shall rise. This will be our paradise!"
The Doctor began ripping open grates in the desks, pulling out wires upon wires, causing the floor to look like Devil's Snare. Everyone looked at him in blinking confusion. "The Dalek plan, big mistake. What have they left me with? Anyone?" Nobody answered, just shrugging. "Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter, this station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it. Anyone?" He asked again as he worked furiously away.
Jack's eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding."
He grinned. "Give the man a medal!"
"A delta wave?"
"A delta wave!" He practically squealed in childish excitement.
"What's a delta wave?" Rose asked.
"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy." Jack answered. "It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a delta wave and your head gets barbecued."
"And this place can transmit a massive wave, wipe out the Daleks."
"Well, get started then. Do it." Lynda said.
"But there's a problem, isn't there?" Clara deduced.
He nodded. "Afraid so. Wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about…three days?" He glanced at Davidge. "How long till the fleet arrive?"
Davidge double checked. "Twenty-two minutes."
The Doctor accidentally ripped a wire apart, making them all glare at him. He blushed sheepishly. "Clara, could you give me a hand, please?" He whimpered, Clara rolling her eyes and joining him on the floor. He went to pull out another wire, but she slapped his hand. "Ow!" He whined.
"Wires are delicate." Clara said, pulling it out with haste yet caution. "Calm down a bit, okay?" She scolded. She didn't wait for an answer, just pulling out a few more wires before glancing at Jack. "Get the extrapolator." She said, making him rush into the TARDIS.
After a few moments, he came rushing out and plugged it into the main computers. He then motioned the remaining people to join him. "We've now got a force field, so they can't blast us out of the sky. But that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."
"Do they know about the delta wave?" Davidge asked.
"They'll have worked it out at the same time." Jack answered as he pulled up a schematic map of the Satellite. "So, if they want to stop our favourite lovebirds over there, they've got to get to this level, 500."
"We heard-"
"Be quiet!" Jack scolded, making them flinch childishly. "As I was saying, I can concentrate the extrapolator on the top six levels, 500 to 495. So, they'll have to penetrate the station below that at Level 494 and fight their way up."
"Who are they fighting?" Davidge asked.
"Us."
"And what're we fighting with?"
"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."
"There's five of us." Elizabeth reminded.
"Rose, you can help us." The Doctor called, making her move to join them. "We need all these wires stripped and bared."
Elizabeth groaned. "Now there's four of us."
"So, let's move it." Jack said impatiently. "Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls." Davidge and Elizabeth hurried over to the lift while Lynda walked to the Doctor and Clara.
"I just want to say, um…thanks, I suppose. And…I'll do my best."
"Us too." Clara said, giving her a quick hug. Lynda moved to the Doctor, but she stopped, looking at Clara. Clara just cocked an eyebrow at her, making her mutter a "Bugger it" and pulled the Doctor into a quick hug.
"Good luck out there." The Doctor said.
"You too." Lynda then moved to follow Davidge and Elizabeth into the lift.
Jack then came over to them, Rose moving to re-join the three. "It's been fun. But I guess this is goodbye." Jack said sadly.
"Don't talk like that. The Doctor and Clara will do it. You just watch them-"
"Rose." Jack interrupted, taking her face in his hands. "You are worth fighting for." He then kissed her on the lips, making her blush. Jack then turned to Clara. "I always felt a bit jealous of him, you know, getting a gorgeous woman as his girlfriend."
"Jack." Clara scolded with a giggle. The Doctor rolled his eyes as Jack took her face in his hands.
"But you were definitely a good friend." He said before kissing her on the lips. He turned to the Doctor, who had loosely clenched his jaw. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward. But if it makes you feel any better, I was more jealous of her."
"How were you jealous of her-" Jack kissed him too, but more passionately than the others, making Clara and Rose share a giggle at the Doctor's bewildered face.
Jack clicked his fingers, giving them all his thousand-watt, wolfish smile. "See you in hell." He then rushed over to the elevator and closed the doors behind him.
The Doctor turned to look at Clara and Rose before realization sank in. "Right, 51st Century. They like everybody." Clara nodded at him.
"He'll be all right, though." Rose said. Yet she found herself worrying for Jack as neither the Doctor nor Clara answered to that. "He'll be all right, won't he?" She tried again, but they still didn't answer.
Standing on a large container in the middle of Floor 0, Jack ran a hand over his face as the indistinct clamouring of the people in front of him caused his head to throb. The volunteers standing behind him, including Lynda, Davidge, Elizabeth and the security officers also groaned. So, he aimed his rifle at the ceiling and fired three consecutive shots, causing everyone to fall abruptly into silence, the clattering shells echoing through the room. "One last time! Any more volunteers?!" He demanded impatiently. They all glanced at each other in uncertain fear. "There's an army about to invade this station. I need every citizen to mount a defence!"
"Don't listen to him!" Rodrick called, moving to the front of the group. "There aren't any Daleks! They disappeared thousands of years ago!"
The clipboard woman from "The Weakest Link" stepped forward. "Abigail, sir. I'll volunteer as well." She said.
"Thank you." Jack said honestly, motioning for Abigail to join the group behind him. "As for the rest of you, the Daleks will enter the station at Floor 494, and as far as I can tell, they'll head up, not down. But that's not a promise. So, here's a few words of advice: Keep quiet. And if you hear fighting up above, if you hear us dying, THEN tell me that the Daleks aren't real." He growled, making them all gulp. "Don't make a sound." He jumped off the container and moved to the elevator. "Let's go." He ordered to his group, who followed him into the elevator, leaving the silent room behind.
The Doctor, Clara and Rose sat in comfortable silence, tinkering away at the many wires strewn across the floor. "Suppose…" Rose trailed off, shaking her head to herself.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Nothing."
"You said "Suppose". Suppose what?"
"I was just thinking but it might be useless." Rose sighed, drawing most of their attention, the tinkering becoming absent thought. "You've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"
The Doctor shook his head. "As soon as the TARDIS lands in that second, we become part of events, stuck in the timeline."
Rose nodded. "Yeah, I thought it'd be something like that."
"There's another thing the TARDIS could do: It could take us away." He offered. "We could leave, let history take its course. We could go to Marbella in 1989."
"Yeah, but you'd never do that. And Clara wouldn't let you either." She said with a smirk.
"No, but you could ask." Clara said in the same seriousness as the Doctor, which made Rose sigh. "It never even occurred to you, did it?"
"Well, I'm just too good." Rose quipped.
An alarm sounded on the main computers. "The delta wave's started building. How long's it got, Clara?" He asked.
She jumped up and moved to the computer to check. Turns out the Doctor was right. They could complete the delta wave within minutes, but it would take days to refine it properly. That made her place her face in her hands. The Doctor had a look of worry, motioning Rose to check her.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked, jumping up to Clara's side. "It must be bad. How bad is it?"
Then, without warning, Clara shot up again, making Rose jump in shock. "Wait a moment!" She burst out into laughter, which made Rose snigger despite her confusion. "Rose, you're a genius! If we're careful about, and I mean properly careful, we can do it! We can cross our own timeline! Come on!" She led a bewildered and laughing Rose into the TARDIS. "First: Hold that down and keep position. We can't put the co-ordinates in here, we need to do it from the main computer. Bit of a safety measure but hey, safety can be a good thing."
"Not with you two." Rose quipped. "Why can't you get the Doctor to do it from there?" Clara shot her a look of raised eyebrows, making Rose nod. "Right. So, what am I doing?"
"Cancelling the buffers. If we're clever about this, and I mean come on, look at me. I'm more than just this." Clara quipped, motioning to her own face. Rose shook her head with a grin. "Anyway, if we're clever about this, we could save the world or rip it apart."
"I'd go for the first one." Rose said.
"Me too. Now, just stay right there. I'll be right back." Clara rushed out; the doors left open by a smidge. She sighed, turning back to the TARDIS, seeing Rose's back as she stood against the console. The Doctor came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder as he handed her the sonic. She took it gratefully before aiming it at the TARDIS. "Goodbye, Rose." She pressed the button, causing the doors to close and the TARDIS to dematerialise.
Rose looked at the moving time rotor, her eyes widening in shock as the doors closed behind her. "Clara?! Doctor?! What're you doing?!" She raced towards the doors, trying to open them to no avail. "Doctor! Clara, let me out! Let me out!"
A zap came from behind her, causing her to turning around. She saw standing by the console, a hologram of the Doctor looking at her. "This is Emergency Program One. Rose, now listen because this is important. If you see this message, then it can only mean one thing: We must be in danger and I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."
"No!" Rose protested, moving forward.
"And that's okay." He shrugged with a smirk. "Hope it's a good death. Clara may not be with you, purely because I have as much of a chance sending her back with you as I do to survive. So that's a no go. We promised to look after you and that's what we're doing. The TARDIS is taking you home."
"I won't let you." Rose defied.
He groaned. "And I bet you're fussing and moaning about. Typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can't ever return for us. Emergency Program one means we're facing an enemy that should never get their hands on her. So, this is what you should do: Let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open her doors, no one will even notice her. Let the old girl become some strange little thing standing on a street corner. Over the years, the world will move on and bury her. And if you want to remember me and Clara, then you can do one thing. That's all, just one thing: Have a good life. Do that for us, Rose. Have a fantastic life." He shot her one last, warm grin before he faded out again, leaving her alone in the TARDIS.
She shook her head as the situation crashed down on her, worrying dread seeping into her heart. "You can't do this to me. You can't!" She pleaded, turning back to the console, and flicking any switches and levers she could reach. "Take me back! Take me back, please!"
*Beeps* (I'm sorry, Rose)
On that, the TARDIS materialised and became silent. She rushed outside to find herself in London, 2006. A perfectly ordinary, cloudy day in London. She choked as tears prickled her eyes, rushing back inside again.
"Come on, fly! How do you fly?! Please, help me!" Again, only silence followed, the TARDIS conscience now absent. She walked back out and closed the doors, leaning against them as she struggled to hold back her oncoming sobs. And then…she heard a pair of footsteps.
"I knew it! That bleeding pair of children! They just dropped you off in the wrong place. Got the timing wrong last time, now they don't understand where "Powell" is meant to be." Jackie quipped. Her voice, one that Rose adored more than anyone just made her lose it. "What is it?" Jackie asked.
"They're going to die, Mum." Rose choked. Jackie brought her into a hug as Rose sobbed into her shoulder. "They're going to die, Mum, and I can't help them." Jackie, despite her confusion, rubbed Rose's back to comfort her.
As the Doctor and Clara worked away in silence, the speakers on the computer flickered to life, Jack's voice floating through the room. "Rose, I've called up the internal laser codes. There should be a different number on every screen. Can you read them out to me?"
The Doctor pressed a key, bringing up a live image of Jack's face at the Controller's pedestal. "She's not here."
Jack groaned. "Of all the times to take a leak. When she gets back, tell her to read me the codes."
"She's not coming back." Clara inputted.
Jack investigated the room from his end, seeing no sign of the TARDIS. "You two took her home, didn't you?" He asked, his voice devoid of any accusation. They didn't answer, and they didn't need to, so he nodded absentmindedly. "The delta wave. The range covers the entire Earth, but is it ever going to be ready?"
"Tell him the truth, Doctor." The Emperor's voice floated through as his own image patched in beside Jack, who just like the TARDIS duo, shuddered in fear. "There is every possibility the delta wave will be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The delta wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between Human and Dalek. All things will die, by your hand. And by the Human standing at your side."
"I'm sorry, but I chose to be here." Clara snapped.
"And yet the blood you will have on your hands will overrun your own parents." The Emperor taunted. "Now, you will destroy Daleks and Humans together, your own life taken in the process. If I am god, the creator of all things, then what are you and the Doctor? The devil and his consort?"
The Doctor placed a hand on Clara's shoulder to stop her from snapping again. "There are colonies out there." He inputted. "The Human race will survive in some form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole universe is in danger if I let you live. Do you see, Jack?" He asked. "That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing: Die as a Human or live as a Dalek."
"But you don't have to make that decision alone." Clara reminded. He shot her a grateful smile before glancing back at Jack.
"What would you do?" He asked.
"The both of you sent Rose home. She's safe now. So, keep working."
"But they will exterminate you!" The Emperor protested incredulously.
"Never doubted them, never will." Jack winked, the three sharing a grin before he switched his connection off.
Clara jumped up and moved towards the pedestal. "Now tell me, Mr. Emperor Palpatine, because there's one thing we never worked out: The words "Bad Wolf", spread across all of time and space, drawing our friend in. How did you manage that? What did Rose have to do with it?"
"I did nothing."
Clara rolled her eyes. "Come on. There's no point in secrets now, your worship."
"There are no secrets, Clara Oswald, for they were never part of my design." Clara and the Doctor's eyebrows furrowed. "This is the truth of god." Clara blinked, sharing a confused look with the Doctor as they glanced up briefly at the "Bad Wolf Corporation" logo at the top of the room.
"And it's gone up market, this place. They're doing tubs of coleslaw now. It's not nice. Tastes a bit clinical." Jackie rambled as she, Rose and Mickey sat in a takeaway restaurant.
"Have you tried that new pizza place on Minto Road?" Mickey asked.
"What's it selling?"
"Pizza."
"Oh, that's nice. Do they deliver?"
"Yeah."
Jackie sighed as Rose just stared distantly. "Oh Rose, have something to eat."
"Two hundred thousand years in the future, my friends are dying and there's nothing I can do for them."
"Well, like you said, two hundred thousand years, it's way off."
"But it's not. It's now. That fight is happening right now, and they're fighting for us, for the whole planet and I'm just sitting here, eating chips!"
"Listen to me, god knows I've hated that man, Clara less so. But right now, I love them both and do you know why? Because they did the right thing and they kept you out of it. They sent you back to me."
But Rose carried on. "But what do I do every day, Mum? What do I do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips, and go to bed. Is that it?"
"It's what the rest of us do." Mickey shrugged.
"Well, I can't!"
"Why, cause you're better than us?"
"No, I didn't mean that!" Rose said, exasperated. She took a breath to steady herself before staring outside briefly. "But it was…it was a better life. And I don't mean all the traveling and seeing aliens and spaceships, that don't matter. Those two showed me a better way of living your life." She glanced at Mickey. "You know, they showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen; you make a stand. You say no." Rose choked. "You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away and I just can't!" She pushes her chair back and runs outside, Jackie running her hand over her face with a sigh.
"I'll go after her." Mickey said, Jackie nodding without a word.
"Right, Lynda, you are my eyes and ears." Jack said as she stood with him in the observation deck. "When the Daleks get in, you can follow them on that screen and report it to me." He pointed to the monitor.
"Understood."
"They'll detect you but the door's made of hydra combination, should keep them out."
""Should"?" Lynda questioned.
"It was the best I could do." He shrugged before clicking his wrist pad. "How long till the fleet arrives?" He asked into the receiver.
"They've accelerated." Davidge said. On cue, the Station begins to rumble like a violent earthquake as the Dalek ships soared overhead outside the screen.
"This is it, ladies and gentlemen. We are at war." He said, rushing out of the door, leaving Lynda alone to watch. The Dalek ships hovered into orbit above the Earth, entering a standstill. Then, like overflowing water spilling from holes in the earth, they began pouring out of the ship and flying towards the Station.
"I know that they were good friends to you, Rose, but you can't spend the rest of your life thinking about them." Mickey tried to console as they sat on a park bench.
"But how do I forget them?" Rose asked, her voice calmer than before.
"You've got to start living your own life. A proper life, like the kind he's never had, and she left behind."
"Clara doesn't have anything left here for her." Rose defended.
"But she chose to make her own, with him. You need to make your own, with Jackie."
Rose sighed, trying to contemplate what to do…until she opened her eyes and looked at the ground. Right across the entire abandoned courtyard, was a giant yellow graffiti saying, "Bad Wolf". That made her heart hitch, as she recognised the same words spread across the brick wall ahead of them, overlapping each other in a variety of white, blue, and black. "Over there. It's over there as well!" She shot up out of her seat beside Mickey and rushed to the brick wall.
Mickey groaned as he got up to follow. "That's been there for years. It's just words."
"I thought it was a warning. But it's the opposite. It's a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me and them. "Bad Wolf" here, "Bad Wolf" there." She rambled.
"But if it's a message, what's it saying?" Mickey asked as she started to rush away towards the TARDIS.
"It's telling me I can get back!" She called. "The least I can do is help them escape!"
Mickey picked up the pace and followed her through the streets to a corner, where the TARDIS stood in silence. "Rose, wait." He panted. "What're you trying to do?"
"All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip. Just reverse."
"Yeah, but we still can't do it. The Doctor and Clara knew how to fly it, hell even Captain Cheesecake could do it, but can you?"
Rose slouched her shoulders. "No."
"So, how're we going to send her back? You said yourself, the TARDIS hasn't spoken since you landed."
"Yes, but the Doctor always said the TARDIS was telepathic. Last time I saw you was with Margaret and this middle panel opened." She patted said panel. "Then there was this light, the Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS. If we can open it, I can talk to her, get through her silent treatment. I can tell her what to do."
"Rose." He started.
"Hmm?"
"If you go back, you're going to die."
"That's a rise I've got to take."
"And leave Jackie alone?"
Rose paused. "If I can save them, then I sure can save myself. I won't leave her alone, never again. But I need to save my friends."
He took a few moments to consider her rational, before looking her dead in the eyes. "Are you sure about this?" He asked. She nodded, making him sigh. "I'm so going to regret this." He quipped lightly. "Let's get this thing open."
The large group of volunteers gathered behind an improvised barricade, cocking their rifles, and checking their ammunition as Jack paced behind them. "Stand your ground everyone. Follow my commands and good luck." He pressed a button on his wrist pad. "Lynda, how're we going?"
"You were right. The Daleks are forcing the airlock on 494." On that note, the station shuddered violently, the echoing sound of metallic creaking burning in their ears for a few moments before it subsided.
Jack pulled up a live schematic of the top floors of the Station, seeing five live signals in wait as the Dalek's approached. "First line of defence." He muttered.
Abigail and her four accomplices cocked their rifles in fearful anticipation as the humming sounds of the Daleks approached. "Abigail, activate internal lasers. Slice them up." Jack said from her communicator.
Abigail pressed her hand on a sensor, causing thin yet bright, neon red lines to appear in the doorway for a few seconds before disappearing. They knelt in wait as the Daleks rounded the corner. The first hovered through the doorway, then screamed in agony as multitudes of fire burst from its casing, the intense heat melting the armour into rubble. The next stared at them with an almost passionate intensity, then an alarm sounded. They glanced at each other in worry which turned into full blown horror as the Dalek moved through the doorway and over the melted Dalek, completely unharmed. "Fire!" She commanded, and her accomplices fired upon the Daleks. The sudden, loud burst of gunfire and shell casings clattering onto the ground filled their ears, yet through squinted eyes, they could see the bullets disintegrating in an invisible barrier before touching the Daleks. "You lied to me! The bullets don't work!" Abigail yelled into her communicator. Yet before she could resume fire…
"Exterminate!" The Daleks all fired five blasts upon them, killing everyone where they stood.
Mickey started up his car, which they chained and hooked up to the centre panel of the TARDIS console. Then, he throttled into full speed, yet the chain resisted and held the car still. "Faster!" Rose demanded over the noise.
"Come on!" Mickey yelled as his car began to sputter and smoke, and then…it stopped. The car with a heave of exhaustion gave up, the chain clattering to the ground. Rose ran her hands over her face before kicking the console in irritation.
"Why won't you help us?!" She demanded, still receiving no answer.
"Lynda, how're we doing?" The Doctor asked over the intercom.
Lynda switched cameras to Floor 495, seeing Daleks entering said floor. "The advance guard have made it to 495."
"495 should be good. I like 495." Jack said.
"Where would it be sending them?" Lynda asked, smirking at what he was referencing.
"The centre of the sun." On the camera, three Daleks entered the large room and turned their eyestalks to the centre.
"Identify yourself!"
"You are the weakest link. Goodbye." The Anne Droid fired at the three Daleks, transmatting them away from the Station.
"Yes!" Jack yelled triumphantly.
Another Dalek came into the doorway and aimed at the Anne Droid. "Exterminate!"
"You are the weakest link-" The blast shot hit directly at the Anne Droid's head, obliterating it along with half of the chest, causing the arms to fall out, cracking against the ground. "Goodbye." The Anne Droid said in a garbled voice as it died.
"Proceed to next level." The Daleks sped through the room.
"Now they're flying up the ventilation shafts." Lynda however paused as she saw a group splinter off and starting to descend. "No, wait a minute. Oh my god, why are they doing that? Some of them are going down. Why are they going down?" She muttered in growing fear. Then her eyes widened in horrifying realization. She flicked the camera to one in Floor 0, seeing the group of people huddled together in terrified silence. And then, without warning, the doors opened.
"Exterminate!" The people clamoured up, screaming in terror as the Daleks entered. "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! "One Dalek started to move menacingly towards Rodrick, who backed towards the wall.
"You can't! You don't exist!" He cried. "It's not fair! I won the game! I should be rich! I'm a winner! You can't do this to me!"
"Exterminate!" The Dalek fired.
"Aaah!" He collapsed to the floor, the others around him screaming louder than before at this, until the Dalek's started shooting them all one by one. Lynda at once switched to a random floor, sobbing quietly into her hands as she did.
"Lynda, what's going on?" Jack asked.
"Floor 0. They killed them all." She choked. Jack only answered with a defeated sigh.
"It was never going to work, sweetheart." Jackie tried to console a sullen Rose, who sat on the captain's chair. "And both the Doctor and Clara knew that. They just wanted you to be safe."
"I can't give up."
"Lock the door and walk away."
"Dad wouldn't give up."
Jackie sighed. "Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was, he'd say the same."
"No, he wouldn't. He'd tell me to try anything." Jackie blinked at her. "If I could save the Doctor and Clara, try anything."
"Well, we're never going to know."
"I know. Because I met him."
Jackie shook her head fervently. "Don't be ridiculous."
"They took me back in time, and I met Dad."
"Don't say that."
"Remember when Dad died? There was someone with him." Her voice broke as Jackie stared at her in conflict. "A girl, a blonde girl. She held his hand." Jackie didn't answer to that. "You saw her from a distance, Mum! You saw her! Think about it! That was me. You saw me."
"Stop it."
"That's how good they are."
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Jackie snapped, rushing out of the TARDIS with her face in her hands, while Rose sobbed in solitude.
"What's happening on Earth, Lynda?" The Doctor asked as he and Clara worked furiously.
"The fleet's descending." Right by the live image of the Emperor came up a schematic of the Earth. Each continent began flashing red from the Dalek invasion. "They're bombing whole continents. Europa…Pacifica…the New American Alliance. Australasia's just…gone."
"This is perfection, Doctor." The Emperor's voice rang through, his words making their jaws clench. "I have created heaven on your precious Earth. The ashes of humanity shall become my foundation for creating new, pure Daleks."
"What poetic purity." The Doctor snapped.
"There's got to be something else we can do." Mickey said to Rose as they leaned on his car outside the TARDIS.
"Mum was right." Rose says in a defeated tone. "Maybe we should just lock the door and walk away."
"I'm not having that." He denied. "I'm not having you just give up now, no way. We just need something stronger than my car." A loud truck sound from around the corner drew their attention. "Something bigger. Something like that." The truck, a large yellow recovery vehicle came around the corner and straight towards them, Jackie in the driver seat.
"Wait, what?" Rose muttered in shock; her jaw dropped. The truck came to a stop and Jackie hopped out to move towards them.
"Right, you've only got this until 6:00, so get on with it." She said.
"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?" Rose asked with a smile.
"Rodrigo, he owes me a favour." Rose shot her a look. "Oh, never mind why. But you were right about your Dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas and it's exactly what he would've done." She tossed the keys in her hand to Mickey. "Now, get on with it before I change my mind." She said playfully.
"Right away." Mickey smirked as he hopped into the truck.
Jack readied his rifle, heading back through the room and past the makeshift barricade to his position. "Floor 499, we're the last defence. The bullets should work if you concentrate them on the Dalek's eyestalk. I've got the force field at maximum, so Dalek firepower should be at its weakest."
Davidge craned his head slightly to look at Elizabeth. "I'm only here because of you." She furrowed her eyebrows at him. "I joined the program because you were on it."
"Am I supposed to say, "When this is all over and we're still alive, we can go for a drink?""
"That'd be nice." He shrugged.
"Yeah well tough." She said. He turned to look at her and she shot him a sly wink, making him smirk. They waited and waited, until they heard the faint humming of the Daleks through the doors. After a few tense and silent moments, the doors slid open and the Daleks rolled through into the room.
"Open fire!" Jack ordered. The entire group fired upon the Daleks as they moved to form a large group in front of the barricades, all the while unharmed by the bullets.
Davidge moved to cover behind the barricade, trying to catch his breath. "It's not working!" He called to Jack.
"You have to concentrate your fire! Eye-stalk two-o-clock!" Jack yelled above the noise.
Elizabeth and Davidge angled their rifles, trying desperately to control their fire. Each bullet kept narrowly missing the eyestalks before they took a deep breath and fired. One Dalek's eyestalk sparked and flickered, the blue light disappearing, causing it to look around blindly in agitation.
"My vision is impaired! I cannot see!" It exclaimed.
"We did it!" Elizabeth called.
"Exterminate!" A Dalek aimed its blaster and shot Elizabeth, who screamed in agony as her body collapsed to the ground.
"No!" Davidge yelled, standing on his toes to hold the gun above the barricade and fired wildly. "No!"
"Davidge, stop!" Jack yelled.
"Exterminate!" The Dalek fired again, hitting Davidge in the head, his body falling and hitting the floor with a sickening crunch.
"Goddammit! Aaah!" Jack yelled as he returned fire upon the Daleks again.
Lynda's alarm blared, causing her to tense in fear. "I've got a problem." She turned around and glanced at the door.
"Human female detected."
"What's going on, Lynda?" Clara asked.
"They've found me."
"You'll be all right. That side of the Station is reinforced against meteors." The Doctor reassured.
Lynda smiled, trying to be brave. "Hope so. You know what they say about Earth workmanship." She quipped lightly. Silence followed, filled only by the Dalek humming as it approached the door. Then she heard a small spark, and the bright orange light of a flame became illuminated through the door. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as the smell of burnt metal filled the room before Dalek shadows flittered up slowly through the light. No. Oh god, please no. She turned around slowly, seeing Daleks coming into view outside the window, staring straight at her. One flicked its blaster to aim at the window, her eyes widening in horror as it did. The lights on its dome flickered a few times, then it fired, shattering the glass, and sucking all the oxygen in the room out into space. Lynda screamed in horror until she couldn't breathe, quickly suffocating to the vacuum of space.
The Doctor and Clara shot each other a heartbroken look as Lynda's screams echoed through the room. They continued working, the silence drenched in unspoken guilt. Jack's link had become filled with gunfire and his hurried footsteps. "Last man standing! For god's sake you two, finish that thing and kill them!"
"Please, we need a just a few more minutes!" Clara pleaded.
"Do as he say, Clara Oswald. Finish that thing and kill your own species. Kill all of mankind."
"Shut up and stay out of this!" Clara snapped.
"You have nothing to demand of me, Human filth. Now do as you are told."
"I said shut up!"
"Ignore him, Clara!" The Doctor demanded, clenching his jaw at the Emperor's words.
"Keep going!" Rose yelled over the roaring truck as it pulled on the chain connected to the TARDIS.
"Put your foot down!" Jackie yelled. "Give it all you've got, Mickey!"
"Come on!" Mickey yelled to the struggling truck. "Come on!"
The chain pulled, wrenching the panel out of its latches and upwards, opening the console. The chain flew out of the TARDIS and back out onto the street, Mickey narrowly putting the brakes on before the truck crashed into the opposite sidewalk. Rose investigated the opened console, seeing the bright light return. Through her squinting eyes, she saw it appearing from the console and burrowing into her own. Her mind overflowed with a flurry of new thoughts, of everything that's ever happened to everything that could occur, but most importantly, how to pilot the TARDIS. With a wave of her hand, the TARDIS doors closed, and it started to dematerialise.
"Rose!" Jackie yelled, trying to open the doors to no avail. Mickey grabbed her arm to pull her away, the rushing sound of the engine filling their senses as it disappeared, taking Rose with it.
"Doctor, Clara, you've got twenty seconds maximum!" Jack yelled as he backed through the corridors, firing the last of his rounds upon the Daleks to no avail. He clenched his jaw as he rounded one final corner, right outside the door to where the Doctor and Clara worked. No other way out now. The rifle stopped firing, clicking as it finally was empty of rounds. Jack inwardly cursed and tossed the gun aside, taking out a pistol and firing the ten bullets inside before it too clicked, and he tossed it away. The Daleks stopped moving, the first aiming its blaster at him.
"It's ready!" The Doctor exclaimed. That made Jack sigh in relief.
"Exterminate!"
"I kind of figured that." Jack quipped, holding out his hands to embrace it. The Dalek fired, the blast knocking him into the wall, his body collapsing to the ground with a slouch, yet he ignored the pain. He just embraced death. The Daleks moved through the doors and into the room, the Doctor and Clara looking at them defiantly as all exits became surrounded and blocked off by the Daleks.
"You'll really want to think about this, cause if I activate this signal, every living creature will die." The Doctor warned, his hand hovering over the lever.
"I am immortal."
"Do you want to put that to the test?"
"I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, the great exterminator!"
"I'll do it!" The Doctor placed his hands on the lever.
"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you: Coward or killer?"
"This isn't about cowardice or want to kill." Clara snapped, placing one of her hands over his. "This is about giving humanity a way out of your "Blessed paradise"."
"Humanity shall ascend to become my angels!" He protested. "They will find a higher purpose than living their insignificant, ignorant lives!"
"By torturing them?! By tearing their own lives apart?!"
"To be embraced by paradise requires a price to be paid."
"And what would you think of us when we kill everything?" The Doctor inputted. "Are we included as one of your angels?"
If the Emperor could, he would've glowered. "You are the heathen. You must be exterminated!"
"Maybe it's time then." The Doctor said simply. The Emperor said nothing, the Daleks moving into position and aiming their blasters at them, while their grip on the lever tighten. The two shot each other a quick, grateful smile before they sighed.
"Alert! Alert!" A Dalek screamed in agitation as wind rushed through the room. "TARDIS materialising!"
That made them spun around in shock, the TARDIS appearing before them, yet the windows had a golden hue shining from within. "You will not escape!" The doors swung open and a mass of golden mist billowed out into the room and surround the TARDIS, causing the Doctor and Clara to stumble to the floor. Stepping out from the mist was Rose, whose eyes gleamed like the light of the sun. She glanced down at the two and as she did, the light dimmed to reveal her tear drenched face, which were still fresh and flowing like a river.
"What've you done?!" The Doctor demanded.
"I looked into the TARDIS." Rose said, her voice was both modulated by the power coursing through her and broken by the burning pain it caused in her mind. "And the TARDIS looked into me."
"Rose, you looked into the Time Vortex! No one's meant to see that!" The Doctor admonished; his voice full of worry.
"This is the abomination!" The Emperor exclaimed.
"Exterminate!" A Dalek fired, yet Rose held up her hand and stopped the blast with her palm. Then with a flick of her wrist, the blast reverted safely into the blaster.
The Doctor and Clara looked at her with wide eyes. "I am the Bad Wolf." Rose said softly. "I created myself." She glanced up at the logo, high above in the room. "I take the words." She flicked her wrist again, causing the words to disappear in a golden light. "I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."
"Rose, you've got to stop this! You have to stop this now!" The Doctor demanded, but Rose said nothing. "You've got the entire Vortex running through your head! You're going to burn!"
Rose said nothing, glowering her golden eyes at the Emperor. "Rose, please! Let this go!" Clara pleaded.
Rose glanced down at them again. "I want you two to be safe. My friends…my best friends, protected from the false god."
"You cannot hurt me! I am immortal!"
"You are tiny!" Rose snapped despite her broken voice. "I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence and I divide them." Her eyes gleamed brightly again, and she clicked her fingers. On this, one of the Daleks disintegrated in a golden haze, leaving behind only dust. "Everything must come to dust…all things. In the end…everything dies." She clicked her fingers again, causing the rest of the Daleks to disintegrate. "The Time War ends." She held up her fingers again.
"I will not die!" Rose just stared blankly. "I cannot-" *Snaps* "Die!" She reached out her power and disintegrated the whole Dalek fleet at once, freeing the Earth and the Station from their iron grasp. Rose relaxed, knowing her job was complete.
"Rose, you've done it. Now you can stop." Clara said gently. Rose said nothing. "Just let go."
"How can I let go of this?" Jack. Come back. "I bring life." She clicked her fingers again, hearing the distant but sharp intake of breath and Jack shot back to life again.
"But this is wrong!" The Doctor exclaimed. "You can't control life and death!"
"But I can." Rose let the golden hue go as she glanced back at them. "The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"
"The power's going to kill you and it's my fault!"
"No, it's not!" Clara exclaimed.
"The fault is mine, Clara! You have no blame for what's happening to Rose!"
"I'm not letting you take it by yourself!" She pleaded.
Rose looked between the two of them. She reached back through their timeline, seeing their every moment together before they met her, and she got an idea. Clara won't always be with him if she's Human. He'll outlive her. She glanced at Clara, her golden hue returning to her eyes. Clara blinked as Rose raised her hand and clicked at Clara, shooting a small golden mist straight into her chest. Clara gasped in shock as the mist floated through her body before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed into the Doctor's arms.
The Doctor checked her pulse, finding it but it was faint. "What've you done to her?!" The Doctor exclaimed.
Rose smiled softly. "Every lowly monster needs a companion, Doctor." The Doctor stared at her in shock. "She just needs more time."
He glanced down at Clara, closed her eyelids, and placed her gently down beside him. "How did you know that?" He asked.
"I can see everything." She said simply. "All that is, all that was, all that ever could be." Her voice choked, the modulation disappearing entirely.
The Doctor stood up to glance at her, sighing as he slouched his shoulders. "That's what I see, all the time. Doesn't it drive you mad?" He quipped lightly.
"My head." She cried.
"Come here." He held out his hands.
"It's killing me!"
"I think you need a Doctor."
She reached her arms out and he took her hands. "What do I do?" She pleaded.
"Close your eyes and breathe in." She did so. "Empty and still your mind." She did, her body slouching slightly as it calmed despite the throbbing pain. "Now, breathe out." She sighed, the mist leaving her body to surround the Doctor, who breathed in as it did.
The mist entered his own body and flooded his mind, the pain she felt was his but now increased tenfold. Instantly, his hearts gave, his nerves screamed, and his body ached in agony, yet he kept his jaw clenched. Rose collapsed into his arms, as he laid her down gently beside Clara before standing up and glancing towards the TARDIS. Since the only people around him were unconscious, he let the mist go from his body, which floated in the room for a few moments before fleeing back into the TARDIS console, the light fading as it did before the room returned to normal again. Yet the Doctor gasped, one of his hearts had failed and was now dead. Here we go again. He smirked inwardly at that thought, before picking up Clara and placing her inside the TARDIS, returning to pick up Rose as well and placing her inside beside Clara, before piloting them away. He could see Jack on the TARDIS monitor rushing back into the room with a desperate look on his face, which quickly turned into betrayal. I'm sorry Jack, but you're a fixed point now. I can't be around you. I'm so sorry. He glanced back at the door and sighed in defeat. She won't see you, old man. She won't ever see you. She'll leave you and you'll be alone again.
Clara blinked as she felt the drowsiness of sleep in her mind, yet this was more intense than anything else, including the Dream Crabs. She could hear the muffled voice of the Doctor and the humming of the TARDIS, but no engines. We must be in a standstill somewhere. She sat up slowly, holding back a groan as she glanced around in confusion. Everything feels…off. There's something wrong with me. I should have something, but I don't. What is it? Could it be- The TARDIS doors closed, jolting her out of her own thoughts as she heard the Doctor walk over and kneel beside her, placing a hand on her arm.
"You all right?" He asked, trying to hold back the throbbing pain so she wouldn't notice.
"I think so." She nodded, but he could detect her confusion. "What happened to Rose?"
"I took the Time Vortex out of her. She'll be fine." He smiled, and she sighed in relief.
"Where are we?" She asked, referring to the silent engines.
"Just hovering above 10th Century Earth. Had to make a quick phone call." He said, moving up to the controls and piloting them back into the TARDIS.
"Phone call to who?" She asked.
"Oh, just someone I needed a quick word with. Don't worry, everything will be fine."
Rose groaned as she rose from sleep. "Clara? Doctor?"
"Right here." Clara moved to sit beside her, drawing her up slowly into a sitting position.
"What happened?" She asked.
The Doctor and Clara blinked. "Don't you remember?" Clara asked.
"It's like…there was this singing." Rose muttered.
The Doctor sniggered. "That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
Clara snorted while Rose smirked. "But I was at home…no, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS and…there was this light." She rubbed her forehead in irritation. "I can't remember anything else."
"Hey, don't worry. I'm sure it'll come back in time." Clara reassured. Neither of them noticed the Doctor inwardly wincing, clenching his out of view fist to ward off the pain for a bit longer.
He glanced at them, while they turned to him with their normal, "What's the next adventure?" face. He smiled sadly. "Clara Oswald and Rose Tyler." He chuckled, while they glanced at each other in confusion. "I was going to take you two to so many places. Barcelona." He caught himself, rolling his eyes. "Not the city, Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place! It's got dogs with no noses!" He laughed childishly while they giggled. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke and it's still funny!"
"Then why can't we go?" Clara asked.
"Maybe you will and maybe I will, but not like this." He said cryptically.
The two of them stood up, their confusion furrowed across their faces. "You're not making sense." Clara said with a hint of playful irritation.
"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads…or no head!" He laughed again. "Imagine me with no head and don't say that's an improvement!" They laughed at that. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process." He said, the pain coming back as his other heart began to fail. No! Not now! She needs more time! "You never know what you're going to end up with." The pain burst in his chest, propelling him backwards as he groaned, clenching his fists to his remaining heart, sweat beginning to seep from his forehead.
"Doctor!" Clara exclaimed.
"Stay away!" He pleaded. They did so but looked at him with worry. Clara's eyes however were wide with terror.
"Doctor tell me what's going on." She pleaded.
"I told you, Clara, I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, but no one's meant to do that." He said, his voice broken. "Every cell in my body is dying. One of my hearts died as soon as I took it, now the other's about to go."
"Can't you do something?" Rose pleaded.
"Yeah, I'm doing it now." He felt his heart break at Clara's horrified realization that spread across her face. She won't see me. She won't ever see me again. No, you daft old man. She needs time. Just give her a chance. "Time Lords have this little trick. It's…sort of a way of cheating death. Except…it means I'm going to change. And I'm never going to see you two again." Rose's look of worry mixed with bewilderment, while Clara's mixed with…pleading. "Not like this. Not with this daft old face." He quipped lightly, but it did little to improve the mood. "And before I go-"
"Don't say that!" Clara pleaded.
"Clara." He interrupted. "Before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic." She gave him a ghost of a smile. "Absolutely fantastic. You too, Rose. You were fantastic." Rose smiled, while Clara's wide eyes prickled with inevitable tears. "And do you know what?" They blinked, while he grinned. "So was I." Rose smirked while Clara gave him a smile. That set his heart into peace. You see? She just needs time. He let the golden light of regeneration flow into his hands as it rejuvenated his body, restoring his failing hearts.
"No! No!" Clara pleaded; her voice broken as she steps forward.
The Doctor holds out a hand to stop her. "Clara."
"Please don't change."
He smiled sadly. "It's all right, Clara. Everything will be all right." Then, he sighed and let the energy burst out of his body, forcing his arms out while Clara and Rose stumbled away, clutching onto each other's hands. His eyes closed for the regeneration as he felt his body change, but not majorly. It got thinner, yet it also grew ever so slightly taller. His ears lessened in size and his eye colour changed from blue to brown. The regeneration faded away, causing him to gasp for breath before glancing around the room, his vision returning as he blinked. He saw Clara and Rose staring at him in disbelief, Rose more so. The Doctor then swallowed and opened his mouth. "Hello." He blinked again. Not northern anymore. English, but not distinctly so. "Okay-oh." He ran his tongue around his mouth and furrowed his eyebrows. "New teeth. That's weird. So, where was I?" Dammit. I hate this regeneration amnesia. Why couldn't they invent something to counter that? Bloody hell. Ummm, oh right, I remember. "Oh, that's right…Barcelona." He beamed at them, his smile bright and childlike. Remember Doctor…regeneration. Dear god, I'm not looking forward to the next few days.
AN: David! Finally, we have Ten. But still, it was brilliant having Nine around while it lasted. But we follow up one amazing Doctor with another. Can't wait to start the Tennant era XD. As always, thanks for reading and leave a review if you wish. :)