My mouth drops open in shock. "What do you mean the Earth is gone? How is that possible?"
Donna looks panicked. "But if the Earth's been moved, they've lost the Sun. What about my Mum? And Granddad? They're dead, aren't they? Are they dead?" She frantically asks the Doctor.
The Doctor rubs his hands through his hair. I can feel his shock, his uncertainty. "I don't know, Donna. I just don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know."
"That's my family. My whole world." She murmurs.
The Doctor shakes his head sharply, running back over to the monitor. He presses some buttons, intently watching the information run past. "There's no readings. Nothing. Not a trace. Not even a whisper." He wipes a hand over his mouth. "Oh, that is fearsome technology."
I walk over to him, grabbing his free hand. He grips back tightly. "So what do we do?" I ask him.
The Doctor looks over at me, his mouth in a tight line. He isn't pleased. "We go to get help."
"From where?" Donna asks him.
The Doctor drops my hand. Running around the console, he starts inputting a new destination. "I'm taking us to the Shadow Proclamation. Hold tight."
Shadow Proclamation, he's mentioned that before I think. When he was dealing with the Atraxi. I grab on to the railing, noticing Donna doing the same beside me.
"So, go on then, what is the Shadow Proclamation anyway?" Donna yells over at the Doctor.
"Posh name for police. Outer space police. Here we go." The Doctor responds, pulling the lever for materialization.
He leads the way out of the Tardis. As soon as we step foot off of the ship we are stopped by several Judoon.
One Judoon steps forward and starts speaking. "Sco bo tro no flo jo ko fo to to."
"No bo ho sho ko ro to so. Bokodozogobofopojo." The Doctor responds, and the Judoon come to attention. "Moho."
Whatever he said must have been the right thing. The Judoon lead us up to a woman with white hair and red eyes.
The Doctor leans over to us. "This is the architect, she runs this place."
The woman stares at us, a cool look on her face. "Time Lords are the stuff of legend. They belong in the myths and whispers of the Higher Species. You cannot possibly exist."
I can feel the Doctor's impatience before he even speaks. "Yeah. More to the point, I've got a missing planet."
"Then you're not as wise as the stories would say. The picture is far bigger than you imagine. The whole universe is in outrage, Doctor. Twenty four worlds have been taken from the sky." She informs us.
His face scrunches up in confusion. "How many? Which ones? Show me." He jogs over to join the architect at her computer screen.
The architect points at something on the screen. "Locations range far and wide, but all disappeared at the exact same moment, leaving no trace."
The Doctor leans in, examining the data. "Callufrax Minorr. Jahoo. Shallacatop. Woman Wept. Clom. Clom's gone? Who'd want Clom?"
"All different sizes. Some populated, some not. But all unconnected." The architect says, ignoring his question.
Donna frowns for a second, before piping up. "What about Pyrovillia?"
The architect looks over at Donna. "Who is the female?" I bristle, about to come to Donna's defense but she beats me to it.
"Donna." She says. "I'm a human being. Maybe not the stuff of legend but every bit as important as Time Lords, thank you." Focusing back on the Doctor, she continues. "Way back, when we were in Pompeii, Lucius said Pyrovillia had gone missing." Oh, she's clever. I knew I was going to like her.
One of the Judoon speaks. "Pyrovillia is cold case. Not relevant."
"How do you mean, cold case?" Donna asks, confused.
The architect shakes her head. "The planet Pyrovillia cannot be part of this. It disappeared over two thousand years ago."
Donna ignores that. "Yes, yes, hang on. But there's the Adipose breeding planet, too. Miss Foster said that was lost, but that must've been a long time ago."
The Doctor's face lights up. "That's it! Donna, brilliant. Planets are being taken out of time as well as space. Let's put this into 3-D." Holograms of the missing planets start to fill the room. "Now, if we add Pyrovillia and Adipose Three. Something missing. Where else, where else, where else? Where else lost, lost, lost, lost. Oh! The Lost Moon of Poosh!"
With the addition of the Lost Moon of Poosh, all of the planets suddenly reorganize themselves.
"What did you do?" The Architect asks, confused.
"Nothing." The Doctor responds. "The planets rearranged themselves into the optimum pattern. Oh, look at that. Twenty seven planets in perfect balance. Come on, that is gorgeous." He smiles over at me, which I return half heartedly.
Donna gets a look on her face, like she would smack him if he wasn't in front of someone important. "Oi, don't get all spaceman. What does it mean?"
He winces, like he knows the danger he is in. "All those worlds fit together like pieces of an engine. It's like a powerhouse. What for?" He mutters to himself.
The architect still looks confused. "Who could design such a thing?"
The Doctor's eyes are far away, thinking. "Someone tried to move the Earth once before. Long time ago. Can't be." He walks over to the Architect and starts speaking with her quietly. Donna wanders off, going to sit down on the stairs.
I walk over to the Doctor. Most of what him and the architect are discussing is way over my head. The architect looks at me a few times in confusion. Probably wondering why I was there.
I rock back and forth on my heels, debating on what to do. Laying a hand on the Doctor's arm to get his attention, I let him know that I'm going to explore a bit. He nods distractedly.
I head off towards the area we first came in from. There is a woman, she is filling some glasses with water. "Hello there." I say to her.
She seems nervous, her eyes dart up to me before looking back to her task. I reach out, holding the glass while she pours. "Thank you, ma'am." She says to me, her voice soft.
"It's my pleasure." I say, smiling ruefully. "Honestly I kind of feel unneeded here. I don't really understand what they are talking about. At least I can help someone out."
He eyes suddenly focus on mine. The color of her eyes are an unsettling red. "You fell through the blackness."
I frown at her. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
She continues to stare at me. "You were never supposed to be here. You didn't exist, and now you do. Everything that was once fixed is now in flux."
Every word she says makes something in me shake. Something in the core of me knows these words to be true. This was never a place I was supposed to be. I mentally reach out for the Doctor, unsettled.
"The world is compensating around you." Repeating herself, she keeps repeating. "You shouldn't exist."
My vision starts to waver, I can't look away from her.
Suddenly, a hand covers my eyes, breaking the contact between me and the woman. She stops repeating. I gasp in a deep breath of air, leaning back into the frame of the Doctor.
"What is going on." He demands. His voice is cold. I shiver, the very fabric of my being is vibrating.
The architect's voice sounds out to my left. "I'm sorry, she has the sight. Sometimes the things she says can be upsetting to people."
I can feel the Doctor tilt his head to the side, his voice is still glacial. "I've met people with the sight. That wasn't just pre-knowledge, your associate here was pulling Mabel in." His hand tightens around my eyes.
I swallow, forcing my breathing to even out. Sending a tendril of mental energy out, I'm met by the Doctor meeting me halfway. He draws me into his side of the connection, surrounding me with comfort. The shaking in my soul comes to a stop, I no longer feel as though I'm going to fall apart at the seams.
"What the fuck was that?" I ask, voice stronger than I thought it would be. The Doctor drops his hand, allowing me to see. The woman who I had been talking to looks terrified. She's shaking where she stands, eyes directed to the floor. Shifting my eyes to the architect, I notice that she looks frightened too. Even Donna looks unsettled. I reach back, my hand touching the Doctor's thigh.
3 seconds pass
The world tilts, something snaps back into place. The architect and the woman who I had been talking to finally take a breath. I hadn't even realized they were holding it. The Doctor's forehead falls to the back of my neck.
The architect shakes her head as if clearing her thoughts. "We are still going to have to seize your transport Doctor."
The Doctor laughs bitterly, breath feathering out against my neck. "Oh, really? What for?"
"The planets were stolen with hostile intent. We are declaring war, Doctor, right across the universe, and you will lead us into battle!" The architect exclaims.
"Right. Yes. Course I will." He raises his head, grabbing my hand and dragging me along with him. "I'll just go and get you the key." He jerks his head at Donna. She follows us into the Tardis. The Doctor locks the door behind him, running over to the console and pulling the dematerialization lever.
The Tardis takes off, the voice of the architect yelling for us to come back is fading as we disappear.
"If we can follow the trail that the bees left, The Tandocca Trail, then we might find where the Earth has gone." The Doctor explains.
The Tardis stops wheezing, indicating that we have arrived.
The Doctor looks surprised. "It's stopped."
"What do you mean? Is that good or bad? Where are we?" Donna looks at him, confused.
The Doctor focuses on the monitor. "The Medusa Cascade. I came here when I was just a kid, ninety years old. It was the center of a rift in time and space." I walk over to the monitor, it's showing a huge multi-colored nebula.
Donna comes over as well. "So, where are the twenty seven planets?"
"Nowhere. The Tandocca Trail stops dead. End of the line." He says to her.
"So what do we do? Doctor, what do we do?" Donna asks him. He looks up at her, but doesn't say anything. "Now don't do this to me. No, don't. Don't do this to me. Not now. Tell me, what are we going do? You never give up. Please."
The Doctor averts his gaze. She looks at me. I hesitate, biting my lip.
"This can't be all." I say out loud. The Doctor looks up at me, the trust in his gaze is humbling. "You tracked the signal to this very spot. There has to be something here." The more I say, the more confident I am that I am right. "What if there is something here, but we just can't see it?" I ask the Doctor.
His eyebrows come down in contemplation. He starts to respond, but a phone starts to ring. "Phone!" He exclaims, face lighting up. The Doctor reaches into hole on the console and pulls a flip phone out of it. "Martha, is that you?" He pauses for a second. "it's a signal."
Donna's face lights up. "Can we follow it?"
The Doctor pulls out a stethoscope, placing the end on the phone. "Oh just you watch me!" He adjusts a couple of switches. "Got it. Locking on."
The Tardis shakes violently, more violent than usual. There are bangs, and even flames shooting out of grating.
"We're travelling through time. One second in the future. The phone call's pulling us through." The Doctor grins, manic. "Three, two, one." There is one last large bang, then the Tardis stops shaking.
On the monitor all 27 of the lost planets pop into existence.
"Twenty seven planets. And there's the Earth. But why couldn't we see them?" Donna asks breathlessly.
"Mabel was right. The planets were here, they were just hidden. The entire Medusa Cascade has been put a second out of sync with the rest of the universe. Perfect hiding place. Tiny little pocket of time. But we found them." The monitor starts fritzing out. Going in and out of focus. "Ooo, ooo, ooo, what's that? Hold on, hold on. Some sort of Subwave Network."
The Doctor reaches over and fiddles with a lever. Four different boxes show up. One showing Donna and the Doctor. One with Martha and an older women, maybe her mother? One showing a boy and an older woman. The last one shows a very familiar man. I would recognize those eyes anywhere.
I take a step backwards, making sure I'm out of frame. That man, he was the one who had pushed me in front of the car. The thing that started all of this.
As soon as the man can see the Doctor, he snaps. "Where the hell have you been?" His voice is sharp. "Doctor it's the Daleks!"
Several of the people on the screen start talking at once. "It's the Daleks. They're taking people to their spaceship."- "It's not just Dalek Caan."
The Doctor beams. "Sarah Jane. Who's that boy? That must be Torchwood. Oh, they're brilliant." He looks over to me. "Look at all of them, they're all so clever."
I smile at him, fond. "Of course they're clever."
"Look that's Martha." Donna points to the screen. "And who's he?"
The Doctor's face falls a bit. "Captain Jack. Don't. Just don't."
She laughs in delight. "It's like an outer space Facebook."
"Everyone except Rose." The Doctor murmurs.
The monitor flickers again, going blank. The Doctor makes a sound of frustration, readjusting a couple settings.
"We've lost them!" Donna cries.
"No, no, no, no, no. There's another signal coming through. There's someone else out there. Hello?" He exclaims, smacking the top of the monitor. "Can you hear me? Rose?"
"Your voice is different, and yet its arrogance is unchanged." A strange, two toned voice says. The Doctor's face goes slack, shock clear in his features. "Welcome to my new empire Doctor." The monitor pops back on, but this time it is just one person. If you can call what is on the screen a person. It has the face of a human, but there is a glowing blue eye in his forehead. "It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race."
Donna looks back and forth between the screen and the Doctor. "Doctor?"
Davros waits for several seconds. "Have you nothing to say?"
I reach out, placing a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. He leans into the contact. I press towards him mentally, offering encouragement.
He leans forward, intent on the screen. The shock is gone from his face now, only determination. "You were destroyed. In the very first year of the Time War, at the Gates of Elysium. We saw your command ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. We tried to save you."
"But it took one stronger than you." Davros interjects. "Dalek Caan himself."
A voice comes from off screen, it sounds unhinged. "I flew into the wild and fire. I danced and died a thousand times."
Davros leans forward a bit. "Emergency Temporal Shift took him back into the Time War itself."
The Doctor's face crumples, anger and fear warring with each other. "But that's impossible. The entire War is timelocked."
"And yet he succeeded. Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine. A single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed." Spite is prevalent in Davros's voice. "A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations?"
Anger seems to win. "And you made a new race of Daleks." The Doctor states.
Davros reaches down and starts unbuttoning with his shirt. "I gave myself to them, quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body." He pulls the shirt open, showing bare ribs. You can see his organs pulsing away under the small amount of skin he has left. "New Daleks. True Daleks. I have my children, Doctor. What do you have, now?"
The Doctor's jaw clenches. "After all this time, everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you. Bye!" He reaches over, throwing a lever up and the Tardis jerks in flight.
We land and I open the doors hesitantly. The Doctor seems to have landed us in front of a creepy old church. The sight of the planets in the sky is unsettling, strange.
I shiver. The Doctor's hands come down on my arms. He rubs them up and down vigorously, trying to warm me up.
"Like a ghost town." Donna says, looking around. Car doors have been left open, lights are on but no one is here.
The Doctor releases me, turning to Donna. "Sarah Jane said they were taking the people. What for? Think, Donna. When you met Rose in that parallel world, what did she say?"
"Just, the darkness is coming." She responds.
"Anything else?" He asks her, urgent.
Donna shakes her head, before focusing on something behind us. A smile starts to form on her lips. "Why don't you ask her yourself?" We both whirl around. Rose is there, walking towards us.
I grab the Doctor's hand and pull him forward. He grips mine tight in response, urging me into a run. Rose's face lights up, she starts running towards us as well.
There is a noise. A kind of computerized voice. "Exterminate." It says. The Doctor shoves me away and I hit the ground hard. An energy beam comes out of nowhere, grazing his side. His body lights up, showing his skeleton. I lunge for him, managing to catch him just before he hits the ground.
I can hear the sounds of something exploding in the background. Voices are yelling. I tune everything out but the Doctor. He grimaces. Whatever hit him, it was incredibly damaging. I can feel him trying to put up walls to shield me. "Hey now." I say, my voice shaky. "None of that. Pain shared is pain halved." I grab his hand, opening our connection wide. His pain is my pain. His breathing evens out.
I look up, Rose is kneeling next to us. "Look Doctor, it's Rose."
He smiles up at her. "Long time no see." Our hands are linked. The only sign of his pain is how white our knuckles are from grasping each other's hand.
Rose laughs, smiling back at him. "Yeah. Been busy, you know. Don't die. Oh, my God. Don't die."
Captain Jack comes into my line of vision. I hadn't realized he was there. "Get him into the Tardis, quick. Move." Jack barks.
I position my shoulder under the Doctor's arm and gently leverage him to his feet. He leans on me heavily. We slowly make our way over to the Tardis. Rose and Jack keep their attention on our surroundings. Making sure another sneak attack doesn't happen.
The Doctor's hand starts to faintly glow. This is wrong, I've seen this face regenerate before. I was there. This isn't where this is supposed to happen.
We clear the doorway, everyone filtering in after us.
"What, what do we do? There must be some medicine or something." Donna asks, looking around at all of us.
Jack shakes his head. "Just step back. You too Rose, do as I say, and get back. He's dying and you know what happens next."
There are tears in Donna's eyes. "What do you mean? He can't."
"Oh, no. I came all this way." Rose also has tears in her eyes.
Donna suddenly looks over at Jack in suspicion. "Wait, what do you mean, what happens next?"
The Doctor's hand starts to glow again. He stands up properly, no longer using my shoulder as a crutch. "It's starting."
I grab his hand, placing a kiss on his palm. "See you on the other side Doctor." Stepping away, I let his hand slip from my grip.
Jacks hand comes down on my shoulder and I jerk away from him. Shaking his head, Jack refocuses on the Doctor. "Here we go. Good luck, Doctor."
"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Donna frantically asks.
"When he's dying, his er, his body, it repairs itself. It changes. But you can't!" Rose pleads with him.
I shoot her a look. I mean yeah his body will change, but that doesn't mean anything in the long run.
"I'm sorry, it's too late." The Doctor tells her. "I'm regenerating!" He throws his arms out from his sides and the regeneration energy starts pouring from him. It's so bright that I can see Donna, Rose, and Jack looking away from beside me.
I don't. I can't look away. With what looks to be an effort, the Doctor moves his body. Bringing his arms together, he directs the regeneration energy into a glass container that appears to have a hand in it. The energy he is expelling stops, and the Doctor stumbles back a few steps. The same Doctor, the one with the great hair, stands before us.
"Now then. Where were we?" We all just gape at him. That's not how it happened before!
The Doctor runs over to the container that he poured his regeneration energy into. "There now." He blows on the jar and the golden glow it is emanating disappears. "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I?" The Doctor preens, straightening his tie. "Look at me. So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand." Looking at Rose, he beams at her. "Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"
Rose steps forward. "You're still you?" She asks him.
"I'm still me." He confirms. Rose lunges forward, catching him in a hug. He returns it, just as happy to see her.
Donna turns to Jack. "You can hug me, if you want." She tells him. He laughs. "No, really. You can hug me."
I roll my eyes at her. Careful Donna, there is such a thing as too keen.
The Doctor pulls back from Rose and catches my hand, twirling me around and then pulling me into his chest. "Hello Doctor." I say, beaming up at him.
"So what do you think?" He waggles his eyebrows. "Still the same as ever?"
I laugh at him. "Oh Doctor, you're never the same. But yes, you are amazing, you big old sap."
His eyes soften. "A sap huh? Well then, I suppose I am." The Doctor leans in, kissing me.
There is a strange zing to the kiss, one that isn't normally there. I pull back. As I breath out, gold particles flow from my mouth. "Woah." I gasp. The Doctor laughs at me.
To the side, Donna is finally getting her hug from Jack. Rose is looking at us with fondness.
I nod over to Jack. Lowering my voice till it's almost inaudible. "So what's his story then. Is he trustworthy?"
The Doctor looks surprised, then understanding. He responds to me, his voice almost inaudible too. "It's okay. I know he feels wrong. Something happened, our fault. Made him a fixed point. That's why it's uncomfortable to be around him."
I frown at the Doctor. "That's not what I meant. I don't care that he feels wrong. It's just that, well, I've met him before. Before I even met you. He's the reason this all started."
The Doctor's mouth drops open in shock. Before he can respond, Jack clears his throat. "Are you two done canoodling over there?" I shoot Jack a look. He grimaces. "I'm guessing this is the first time you've met me?" He asks me.
"No." I tell him. He looks surprised, then hurt. "The first time I saw you was the time you pushed me out into the street and I got hit by a car." The Doctor tenses at my side. His emotions shift, swirling dangerously.
Jack swallows. "Ah." He says. "That would explain all the strange looks then."
"You did what?!" The Doctor explodes, stalking towards Jack.
"Doctor!" I exclaim, trying to get him to stop.
Jack's hands come up. "I don't know what's she's talking about! It must be something that hasn't happened yet. Doctor!"
I dart in between them, placing a hand on the Doctor's chest. He comes to a halt. The look on his face is predatory. "You need to calm down." I tell him.
The Doctor's jaw clenches. His eyes are burning. "I've seen the scar left by the car." His hand comes out and traces the lines through my shirt.
"And that's my problem Doctor. I asked you if he was trustworthy because I wanted your opinion. Not because I wanted you to go all caveman on him." He opens his mouth to argue, but I wave a hand at him. "No. I don't need you to fight my battles for me."
I turn to Jack. "Sorry about all this. I can see that you honestly have no idea what I'm talking about." I smile ruefully. "And now that I've told you about it, you are going to have to do it."
Jack's eyes flick over my shoulder, before refocusing on me. He uses his still raised hands to harshly wipe at his face. "So you're telling me that I push you in front of a car, and that's the first time you ever see me?"
"Yep." I say, popping the p. The Doctor is still hovering over my shoulder, radiating disapproval. Probably giving Jack the stink eye, if the way Jack keeps glancing past me is any indication.
Before I can give him any more details, all the lights go out. The Doctor rushes over to the console, and tries toggling a few levers. "They've got us. Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop."
The Tardis jerks, tilting.
"There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination." Jack informs us.
Donna looks at the Doctor. "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"
The Doctor shakes his head. "Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"
Rose frowns. "It's the darkness."
Donna's eyes go unfocussed. "The stars were going out."
"One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying." Rose explains. "Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could. Well, so I could"
She hesitates, flushing. "What?" I ask her.
"So I could come back." Rose says. "Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."
Donna frowns at her. "In that parallel world, you said something about me."
Rose nods. "The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."
"But why me?" Donna asks. "I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick."
"Because your brilliant Donna." I tell her.
The scanner on the console beeps. The Doctor looks at the information. "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard."
An ominous voice reverberates from outside the door. "Doctor, you will step forth or die."
"We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in." The Doctor informs us.
"You told me nothing could get through those doors." Rose says, confused.
Jack nods. "You've got extrapolator shielding."
The Doctor shakes his head. "Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting Tardises, they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood."
Looking desperate, Jack turns to Rose. "What about your dimension jump?"
She shakes her head. "It needs another twenty minutes. And anyways, I'm not leaving."
The Doctor frowns. Nodding towards a device on Jacks wrist, he asks. "What about your teleport?"
Jack shakes his head too. "Went down with the power loss."
The Doctor takes a deep breath. "Right then. All of us together. Yeah."
I look over at the redhead who had been uncharacteristically quiet. "Donna?"
She jolts, looking like I had just woken her from a dream. "Yeah?"
The Doctor sends her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."
Donna nods. "No, I know."
"Daleks." Rose laughs.
"Oh, God." Jack says, with a smile of his own.
The Doctor starts walking towards the doors, then whirls around to face us. "It's been good, though, hasn't it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did." He looks over at Donna. "You were brilliant." He shifts his attention to Jack. "And you were brilliant." Then he turns to face Rose. "And you were brilliant." Looking up at me, he finishes. "And you Mabel, you were more than brilliant. You were amazing. Blimey." I feel how much these words cost him.
I smile at him, even though it's breaking my heart to do so. "Don't forget yourself Doctor. You were amazing too." He smiles at me, just a twitch of the lips really. Then he straightens his shoulders and walks out the door, into the heart of the crucible.
Donna lags behind. I gesture at the door, where everyone is filing out. "You ready?"
"Yeah." She says quietly, following me towards the door. The sounds of the Daleks are nearly deafening as they chant.
"Mabel? Donna?" The Doctor calls to us. "You're no safer in there."
The Tardis doors suddenly shut, separating me and Donna from the rest of them.
"Doctor!" I exclaim. The door won't open no matter how hard I pull.
Donna starts smacking the door. "Doctor? What have you done?"
The Doctor's voice faintly comes from the other side of the doors. "It wasn't me. I didn't do anything."
"Oi! Oi, I'm not staying behind!" She yells at out him.
"Doctor! Let us out!" I order.
There are muffled voices, like people are talking back and forth. Then the floor drops out from under us. That's what it feels like at least. The Doctor's desperation and fear hit me like a tank to the gut.
Roundels on the wall start exploding in, fires start coming up from the grating. I roll myself onto my front.
Donna is on the grating near the console. She reaches out and touches the glass container that houses the Doctor's spare hand. As soon as she touches it, regeneration energy starts to flow into her. "Donna!" I scream, pushing myself up and trying to stop her.
The container breaks, and the hand lies on the floor. It's twitching. I reach Donna, pulling her back from it.
The hand starts leaking the energy, then the glow expands to a whole body. Suddenly, it jerks into a sitting position. Gold residue falls off of it, showing the body underneath. It's the Doctor! But not the Doctor.
"It's you!" Donna gasps.
"Oh yes!" The Doctor exclaims.
"You're naked!" I shout, covering Donna's eyes.
"Oh yes." He confirms. The Tardis jerks to the left, and he jumps to his feet rushing to the console and pressing a button.
The Tardis makes the sound of dematerialization. I sag against the coral strut behind me in relief. We are safe. I try to reach out to the Doctor mentally, but I hit a solid wall instead.
"There, she should start repairing herself now that we are out of the Crucibles core." The Doctor explains. He's still naked, which means I'm still covering Donna's eyes. Which she's starting to get increasingly upset about.
"Doctor!" I shout at him. He looks over at me attentively. "Are we still in danger? I mean right at this moment."
He shakes his head, full of manic energy. "Nope!"
"Then go put some clothes on!" Donna yells. "I'm tired of Mabel covering my eyes."
The Doctor's face twitches, like he's forgotten about the fact that he is naked again. "Oh. That's a good idea."
I shoo him down the hallway, waiting until he is out of sight before taking my hand from Donna's eyes. I kneel down, grabbing her hands. "Are you okay Donna?" I ask her.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" She asks me, confused. There doesn't seem to be any repercussions to the regeneration energy flowing into her that I can see.
"Nothing." I tell her, smiling. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"Of course I'm okay, silly." Donna rolls her eyes at me. "Now go after that skinny alien of yours. He just grew himself out of a hand, who knows what kind of consequences that can have."
I tilt my head in contemplation, before springing to my feet. "Oh my god Donna, why would you say that? Now I'm thinking about it." I take off for the hallway. The old girl takes pity on me, I only have to turn two corridors before I find the door that signifies our room.
"Doctor?" I call, as I run through the door.
A faint confirmation reaches me from the closet. I dart through the door, but the Doctor doesn't seem to be in any pain or anything. He's just debating ties. "What do you think Mabel? Black or grey?"
I lean over, putting my hands on my knees as I gasp for breath. "With that outfit, neither." I tell him. He's changed into a pair of blue slacks and a maroon shirt.
"What's the matter?" He asks me, frowning at the position I'm in.
"Donna was filling my head with all sorts of horror scenarios. I just wanted to make sure you were alright." I explain, finally catching enough breath to stand up properly.
The Doctor rolls his eyes. "Y'know Donna watches those cheesy alien horror shows, don't let her wild theories get to you."
Pursing my lips, I narrow my eyes at him. "Considering you just grew out of a hand, I think you can forgive me for being concerned."
He sends me an apologetic look. "Okay, Okay. You got me there. I'm fine, I promise." Shrugging his blue jacket on, he grabs my arm and leads me towards the console room again.
The Tardis seems to have repaired herself, just like the Doctor had said earlier. He goes over, wiping at one of the roundels. "All repaired. Lovely." He brings up a finger to his lips. "Shush. No one knows we're here. Got to keep quiet. Silent running, like on submarines when you can't even drop a spanner. Don't drop a spanner!" Gesturing down at his suit, he looks at Donna. "I like blue. What do you think?"
"You are bonkers!" She yells at him.
The Doctor frowns, confused. "Why? What's wrong with blue?"
For a genius, the Doctor can be awfully thick sometimes.
Donna flails her hands. "Is that what Time Lords do? Lop a bit off, grow another one? You're like worms."
The Doctor shakes his head. "No, no, no, no, no. I'm unique. Never been another like me. Because all that regeneration energy went into the hand." He brings it up and wiggles his fingers. "Look at my hand. I love that hand. But then you touched it. Wham!" He yells at her, she yelps in surprise. "Shush. Instantaneous biological metacrisis. I grew out of you. Still, could be worse."
"Oi, watch it, spaceman." Donna scolds him.
Immediately, the Doctor responds. "Oi, watch it, Earth girl. Ooo. I sound like you. I sound all, all sort of rough." He pulls back in surprise.
Donna doesn't like that. "Oi!"
"Oi!" The Doctor echoes again.
"Oi!" Donna looks incensed.
"Spanners. Shush. I must have picked up a bit of your voice, that's all. Is it? Did I?" He looks horrified. "No. Oh, you are kidding me. No way. One heart. I've only got one heart. This body has got only one heart."
Donna reaches forward, touching his chest. "What, like you're human?"
The Doctor's face contorts. "Oh, that's disgusting."
"Hey!" I yell, at the same time another 'Oi!' leaves Donna.
The Doctor looks ready to retort, but them a look of realization crosses his face. "No, wait. I'm part Time Lord, part human. Well, isn't that wizard?"
Donna shakes her head. "I kept hearing that noise, that heartbeat."
The Doctor nods. "Oh, that was me. My single heart. Because I'm a complicated event in time and space. Must have rippled back, converging on you."
"But why me?" She asks.
"Because you're special." He tells her, focusing on the console controls.
"Oh, I keep telling you, I'm not." She says. Her voice is sad. Oh Donna.
The Doctor looks up at her. "No, but you are. Oh." A sad look crosses his face. "You really don't believe that, do you? I can see, Donna, what you're thinking. All that attitude, all that lip, because all this time you think you're not worth it."
Donna shakes her head. "Stop it."
"Shouting at the world because no one's listening. Well, why should they?" He continues.
"Doctor! Stop." I say to him, voice sharp.
He smiles at Donna, gesturing to her. "But look at what you did." His head tilts in contemplation. "No, it's more than that. It's like we were always heading for this. You came to the Tardis. And you found me again. Your granddad. Your car. Donna, your car. You parked your car right where the Tardis was going land. That's not coincidence at all! We've been blind. Something's been drawing us together for such a long time."
"But you're talking like destiny. There's no such thing. Is there?" She asks, looking between the both of us.
"It's still not finished. It's like the pattern's not complete. The strands are still drawing together. But heading for what?" He focuses on me. "You can feel it too can't you?"
I frown. "I don't know. There's something, but I can't tell what."
He grimaces. The Tardis shakes again, tossing us around the console. The Doctor looks at the monitor. "It's the planets. The twenty seven planets." He leans his head on his hand, watching the energy gather. "Single string Z-neutrinos compressed." Horror fills his face. "No way."
"What was it?" Donna asks the Doctor. He doesn't respond. "Doctor, what did it do?"
The Tardis makes a beep. A slot opens up, something the looks like a remote control popping up. The Doctor looks up at the ceiling, a deeply thankful look on his face. "Thank you." He reaches over and grabs the remote.
"Mabel, I need you to step away from Donna now." He tells me.
"Okay." I respond, confused, as I take a few steps away from Donna. "What's all this about?"
He rubs his face with one hand, looking conflicted. "I don't like to use this, in fact I've kept it hidden for a long while. The first time I used it, you threw a fit so huge I thought you were going to slap me into my next regeneration." He presses a button on it while pointing it at me.
Nothing happens. "What was that?"
"The twenty seven planets are an engine, I said that earlier. Well it turns out that it's purpose is to destabilize the electrical field around atoms. Rose said the stars were dying. This is what she saw. The death of the universe." He sighs. "I can't have you here right now."
"Well I'm not leaving." I insist.
He smiles at me. "Yes, you are."
I scoff at him. "What are-" But I can feel it. The fire is starting. My hands start glowing. I look up at him in horror. "That remote."
"I don't know if we'll survive this. I hope we do." His face goes soft, fond. "I hope you give me hell if you see me in the future."
Tears fill my eyes. He's sending me away. "Why?" I ask him. The flames are high now. Engulfing most of my body.
"Because I love you. And I will save your life in any way I can. Even if it means doing this." He responds.
And my world goes white.
Fanfiction's review function is all jankey, I don't like it. Unless I'm just doing it wrong.
To Rosealyn – Thank you very much for all of your kind words! Your answers about blue eyed men will be answered this very chapter. When I read that review I kind of laughed to myself because I had just finished writing that encounter. I hope you enjoy this chapter too!
As always, I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who. The only character that is my own is Mabel.