A/N: Hey guys! Between work, college, and the school musical, I haven't had much time to write. I did today though, so I finished chapter five up today! I did write some of this on the Google Docs app on my phone though, so I'll fix any funky formatting tomorrow when I get on an actual computer. ANYWAY. Enjoy the rest of "End of the World!"
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Doctor Who...yet.
The Doctor was not, he decided, having a good day. The platform shook again, and he could have sworn it was getting hotter in the room. It could have just been him-Rassilion, he just had to choose a leather jacket on top of a jumper-as well, but at this point, he doubted it. The engines kicked up, and he sighed. One thing he couldn't change, it seemed. But no one has to die.
"Doctor!"
He turned around and blinked in surprise, staring as Rose came walking toward him. "Rose! What are you doing? I thought you were talking to a twig."
She frowned, cheeks turning a light pink in embarrassment. "I got bored. How do you know that, anyway?"
"I'm a Time Lord, I know everything."
She shook her head. "Whatever. What happened with the ship just now? Is it supposed to shake like that?"
He sighed, walking toward the observation gallery. Naturally, Rose followed. She always followed. "No, it's not. Of course, no one will admit to that. Who wants to admit to being on board a defective platform, near a dying planet, in the middle of space?" The Doctor shook his head. "No, they'll say something else. Something like gravity pockets to keep the guests calm."
"But they're not."
"No." He looked up when they entered the gallery, eyes locking in Jabe. Oh, she knew more than she let on. The Doctor sighed. She wouldn't die tonight. The woman in question looked over and spotted the two, walking toward them.
"That wasn't a gravity pocket," she began, and the Doctor shook his head.
"I know gravity pockets, and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe? Listen to the engines."
Jabe frowned. "It sounds like metal. What's that supposed to mean?"
"We need to get to the engine room." The Doctor looked between her and Rose. "Take me to your room. There should be a maintenance duct behind your suit." Oh, he was being so, so careless with this, with the information he knew, but right now it didn't matter. Jabe couldn't come with him to the engine room, not unless he wanted her to burn.
Jabe looked unsurprised, to the Doctor's own surprise. "There is. I can take you and your wife."
"Not my wife." He felt himself blush lightly, feeling Rose's stare between he and Jabe. Great.
"Partner."
"Nope."
"Prostitute?"
"Okay then!" The Doctor quickly took Rose's hand, gripping it tight. "Rose, you can help me. You did before."
The blonde looked between them. "Sure you two don't want to...I dunno, pollinate or something?"
"Nope! No pollinating. Nothing of the sort," he said quickly. "Jabe, if you will?"
Jabe looked between them in amusement. "Then follow me."
-DW-
"You are a human, are you not?"
The trio had been walking together in silence, listening to the platform countdown to the end of Earth's long life. Rose had been fidgety, feeling the stares from Jabe and honestly feeling uncomfortable due to them. It wasn't often a tree stared at a person like that. At least, not from where she was from. When she was from. Whatever.
"How can you tell?"
"Despite how flat Lady Cassandra is, there are similar features between you two. The face. The skin." The tree lady ran a finger along Rose's skin. "So similar, yet so different."
Rose shrugged and rubbed her arm. "Honestly, I'd rather look the way I am than become a bitchy trampoline."
Jabe chuckled and looked up at the Doctor. "The Doctor brought you here from another time."
"Yeah." She nodded. "2005. Right good old time for plants, I'm sure."
"Quite. The Earth is like family to my kind. So many developed and evolved from it, including myself. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below. I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest, actually." She frowned as Rose giggled. "What is it?"
"Nothing, just...transplanted. Since trees are plants. Were plants." She shrugged. "Never mind."
Jabe smiled a bit as the Doctor chuckled at the lame joke. "It's funny. No pun intended then, I suppose." She looked over. "What about you, Doctor?"
"What about me?" He looked over.
"Your ancestry. You've bound to have a few stories to share of your own. Time Lords are long extinct, save for you. It's remarkable you even exist." She walked up to him as he went quiet, placing a hand on his arm. "And...I am so sorry."
The Doctor closed his eyes. "Me too."
Jabe walked ahead, and a hand slipped into his. He opened his eyes again to see Rose looking up at him, a confused but comforting smile on her lips. He smiled back and squeezed her hand, taking her along to the door panel ahead. Everything was alright.
-DW-
"Earth Death in ten minutes. Earth Death in ten minutes."
"The planet's end. Come gather, come gather. Bid farewell to the cradle of civilization. Let us mourn her with a traditional ballad."
Through the corridors, "Toxic" played on as the rich and honored guests mourned the planet below.
-DW-
Lady Cassandra, in the end, was the culprit behind the crimes. Of course, he already knew that, but he had to go through his whole 'this is why I know she did it' thing to get everyone else to believe it. The Repeated Memes were droids. The spiders went to Cassandra. And all she wanted was money. Pathetic.
"I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate." They began to explode, and there were screams as they did so. Cassandra grinned.
"Safety systems failing."
"Force fields failing with the planet about to explode." She shook her head. "At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband! Oh, shame on me...bye bye, darling!"
"Heat levels critical."
"Doctor, what are we going to do?" Rose asked, frowning and looking around. "All these people..."
"We shut the system off manually." He looked at them. "Rose, with me. The rest of you lot...stay here. Just chill."
"I'm coming with you," Jabe said, and he shook his head.
"Jabe, no," he said, but she didn't listen.
"I'm going down with you. Let's go now, before we all burn on this blasted platform."
Knowing there was no time to argue, the Doctor just led the two to the engine room, sighing. "Of course it would be across of that."
He pointed to razor sharp fans spinning rapidly. Quick, he had to think. She couldn't hold the breaker-
The fans stopped, and he looked over to see Rose holding the breaker tightly. "Go, Doctor!" He could have kissed her.
"Jabe, leave. The heat will vent through here. You'll combust."
The tree lady stated before nodding. "I'll stay close, if you need help." She looked at Rose and ran away from the engine, watching from a distance. If they failed, she'd catch fire either way. She could at least stay by if they needed her.
With Jabe away, the Doctor quickly ran across to the other side, looking over at Rose as he shut it off. "Raise shields!"
He relaxed as the computer counted down and the platform didn't explode. "We did it."
Across the way, Rose grinned. "Yeah. We did."
-DW-
It was an honest relief to be back in 2005. People swarmed around them, shouting out and calling and shopping. Give it a few years and everyone will be texting and walking, forgetting about the events that will go on around them as their heads were down and staring at a tiny computer screen. The Doctor shook his head, holding onto Rose's hand tight. Technology, he determined, was wonderful, but it was capable of so much destruction. A little tampering killed a few people on Platform One even though he tried to stop it. A little tampering made it no longer safe, and burned everything as the Earth reached its end. All that history, and no one had seen it go, Rose has said. He quite agreed.
"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't," he said quietly, looking back down at her. "One day it's all gone. Even the sky." The Doctor went quiet. "My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time."
"What happened?" Rose asked quietly.
"There was a war," he said. "And we lost. Now it's just me. I'm the last of the Time Lords, and I travel on my own because there's no one else."
"There's me," she said, and he smiled. His Rose.
"Yeah," he whispered. "I suppose there is."
The Doctor and Rose Tyler, against the world. Just as it should be. "Let's get some chips. Only five million years until shops close." He grinned, and Rose laughed, shouting "Race you there!" as she took off. The Doctor laughed and went after her.
Just as it should be.