Just so you know, I'm not planning on writing the entire Rose arc in this way. I don't think any of us has the patience for that, nor do I have the mental and emotional stamina to do that at this time. So I'll resort to a few personal favorites to tell this story.

This episode holds a special place in my heart because it was the first one I ever saw and it left such an impression on me that I went looking for others and began my Doctor Who journey. Enjoy!

Turmoil and the End of the World

How had it all come to this? He stood in front of a giant wind-turbine, trying to reach a switch that might save their lives as the automated clock cheerily counted down to their demise. The events of the last half-hour spun through his mind at full speed, certain moments standing out just long enough for him to briefly relive them…

...The TARDIS ground to a halt as he rang the bell for effect.

"Where are we?" She asked, voice trembling with excitement. He only gestured to the door with a flourish. She was going to love this.

She glanced at the door and back. "What's out there?" She asked, her voice jumping with excitement. He only gestured again, inviting her to see for herself. With a coy glance over her shoulder she stepped outside. He gave her a second on her own to take it all in before following. She looked somewhat unimpressed with the white walls and small room but he wasn't done yet. He waved his sonic at the door panel, setting the shade to lower. She grew still as the light flooded the room, revealing the planet below.

He folded his arms as he reached her side. "You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying…" He said to her as they watched the planet. "Like you're gonna get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids…But you never take time to imagine the impossible. Maybe you survive."

She was quiet still. He didn't think she'd ever gone this long without talking. He filled the silence instead.

"This is the year 5.5/apple/26, five billion years in your future." He told her. "And this is the day…" He checked his watch. "Hold on…" She watched him as he waited a few seconds. Right on cue, a huge burst of orange light raced across the sky. Her eyes widened as space turned to fire.

"This is the day the sun expands…." He said, trying to contain his excitement. He turned to her. "Welcome to the end of the world."

Rose looked at him sharply, and then turned back to the planet, watching the sun grow larger and larger preparing to swallow the Earth. He smirked happily. She was speechless….

...…He sat down across from her on the stairs in the private viewing gallery. "What'd you think then?" He asked.

"Great! Yes. Fine." She replied in a somewhat higher voice than normal. "Once you get past the… slightly psychic paper…"

He chuckled. She was a little put off. He'd finally shown her something that impressed her. The realization gave him a deep, giddy sort of feeling…

…."Who are you then Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?"

He tried not to bristle. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know. But he couldn't keep his voice from sharpening with his retort. "I'm just the Doctor."

But that wasn't enough for her. "From what planet?" She asked.

"Well it's not as if you know where it is!" He shot back, trying to laugh it off.

"Where are you from?" She asked, starting to sound angry.

"What does it matter?" He responded, all humor gone from his voice. Why did she care so much? She wouldn't know. She didn't need to know.

"Tell me who you are!" She demanded, sounding hurt. As if she expected him to trust her completely.

He felt his rage swell. "This is who I am, right here, right now, alright?" He exploded, gesturing angrily. "All that counts is here and now and this is me!" He yelled.

Rose yelled right back. "Yeah and I'm here too 'cause you brought me here so just tell me!"

He stormed away from her. That's what he always did, he just tucked his rage and anger away and ran from the question. Who was he? He knew the answer: A coward. The murder of his people. The Oncoming Storm. A Time Lord without a home. He stood there silently, unable to look at her. She wanted him to open up. How could she understand? Was he to burden her with this? How was he supposed to tell this innocent, wonderful human the truth about himself?

I am the last of my kind… I fought in a great war… I was the only survivor… I murdered so many…

….."I scanned you earlier…" Jabe confessed, her voice trembling. He didn't look at her. "The metal machine had trouble identifying your species… it refused to admit your existence… and even when it named you I wouldn't believe it…but it was right…" He had stopped working on the panel. "I know where you're from…" Jabe whispered. "Forgive me for intruding but… it's remarkable you even exist…." The light from his sonic screwdriver trembled on the screen. "I just want to say… how sorry I am…" She placed her wooden hand on his arm in a comforting gesture. His eyes filled with tears but he did not let them fall….

… "Anyone in there?" He called as he started hacking the system with his sonic screwdriver.

"Let me out!"

His breath caught at the voice. "Oh it would be you…" What was Rose doing in there?

"Open the door!" She shouted.

"Hold on give us two ticks…" He continued working for a few a few breathless seconds, broken only by the overhead automated voice and Rose's occasional pounding on the door.

Finally the system gave way. "Sun filter rising…. Sun filter rising…" He grinned. Now to open the door…

The automated voice changed abruptly. "Sun filter descending… sun filter descending…."

He attacked the panel again. "Just what we need…. The computer's getting clever…" It wasn't working. The system wasn't letting him through again.

"Would you stop mucking about!" Rose yelled through the door.

"I'm not mucking about, it's fighting back!" He protested, waving his sonic frantically through the security data. This was going to take too long… He'd have to try something else.

"Open the door!" She called frantically.

"I know!" He shot back, ripping the paneling apart to get at the wires.

She didn't have much longer. It was falling too fast. He stuck his sonic right in the mess of wires and something burst with a pop.

"sun filter rising… sun filter rising…" He let out a gasp of breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He ran for the door and yanked on it. It didn't respond. He didn't have time to force it open now… she was no more in danger there than she was anywhere else on Platform One right now.

"The whole thing's jammed… I can't open the door. Stay there! Don't move!" …

…...How could he get by? Without holding the lever down, the blades were spinning too fast…

They began to slow again. He spun around. Jabe looked up at him from where she leaned heavily on the switch, holding it down.

He shook his head. "No, you can't. The heat's going to vent through this place…"

"I know." She was all the tree-woman said, her voice laced with a fearful excitement.

"Jabe, you're made of wood!" He protested.

Jabe only smiled. "Then stop wasting time….. Time Lord."…

There was a scream behind him, he whirled back and caught sight of a pillar of flame. He had been too slow… Jabe was gone.

His left heart constricted but there was no time now to mourn. He turned back to the turbine. Without the manual override, it was speeding up again, futilely trying to cool the station down. The entire chamber shook with the force of its blades. He took a deep breath and dodged forward, only to be driven back by his fear. It was still picking up speed. There was no way he could get by…

No. He had to… all those people, himself. And Rose… Rose was here too, trapped somewhere she did not belong. Alone… Terrified.

He dodged forward again but again pulled back, both hearts racing in fear the way they had so often in battle. A wave of loathing swept through him. He couldn't do it. But he had too. His eyes traced the turbine's path, looking for a pattern, a gap, anything. There was nothing.

The automated voice rang out above his head: Planet explodes in… ten… nine… eight…

He closed his eyes. So this was it. A leap of faith. The world slowed, everything was quiet, even the countdown seemed slower.

But he wasn't thinking about that. He was thinking about her. Rose Tyler. He tried to look ahead, to see anything. Something about himself, about her. Were they meant to die here? He ignored all the discomfort as he pushed the ability of his sight to its furthest distance, looking desperately along his own time-stream. Had he condemned her to an early death? Why was she all he could see when he tried to see himself? Rose. The one who shared his future but was never with him… the impossible companion. The golden-haired human. A distant love…. A wall. An unknown future that stretched into the golden mists of the unknown. So little time. So many choices. But her. Always her.

He had to believe in her.

He opened his eyes and found the switch staring back at him. He had crossed the turbine.

Sometime later, when the crisis had been (for the most part averted) he stood face to face with the Last Human, letting her die in the most painful way.

There was a soft voice by his side. "Help her…" Rose pleaded.

His voice was like iron as he responded. "Everything has its time and everything dies." But her voice had struck him to his very core. He could stop. She wanted him to stop. Why didn't he stop?

Cassandra burst apart, her skin flying all over the room. But he felt no satisfaction. Rose's gentle plea had killed all his battle-fervor. Disgusted with himself, he didn't look at Rose as he left the room. But as soon as he was out of her sight his hearts constricted painfully. How could she bear to be with him now? After what he had just done? After what he had put her through today? She was going to leave… He sank against the wall, shaking uncontrollably. What kind of monster had the Time War made him into?

When he had calmed down, he returned to the viewing room to find Rose alone, gazing up at the floating chunks of rock that had been her home planet. Her voice broke as she mourned the loss. He watched the rocks drift by, thinking of another planet that had burned not so long ago for him.

But the Earth wasn't gone. Not in the same way. He held out his hand. "Come with me." He said gently. He expected her to shy away. To be repulsed by him. But she took his hand without hesitation, her palm sliding perfectly into his. He led her back to the TARDIS and gave her the opportunity he'd never had: the chance to walk on her home planet again after she had seen it destroyed.

He told her who he was. There was no way the knowledge could make things worse than they already were. She had seen the kind of monster he was. But she didn't leave. She clung tighter. He gave her another choice. He would always give her the choice, he realized. Why would she want to stay with him: the murderer, the vengeful Time Lord so torn apart by war and loss he could watch himself kill someone without feeling anything?

But she looked at him with eyes so clear, so free of judgment. Like she saw something that she couldn't let go of, not even for a second. She took his hand and stayed by his side. And for the first time in a long time, he didn't feel so alone.

Platform one was empty. Everyone had left and the station was shutting itself down for maintenance. Outside the window, the molten chunks of the Earth drifted by, scattered through space to form new planets, burn in new stars, form new comets and constellations.

In the long viewing room where the Doctor and his companion has been standing only a few minutes before, the lights were beginning to dim and flicker out as repair protocol 1 took over.

A figure strode out from the shadows and stood by the window in the light of the burning sun. It was motionless, positioned by the window but it wasn't watching the sun. It was looking around the room, searching. Waiting. They stood completely motionless for several minutes as the lights in the room continued to fade out.

No one else was on the station so no one could've seen what happened next. The figure vanished into thin air without a trace. Without a whisper.

Outside the window, the expanding sun burned.

So many questions in the Doctor's mind. I always felt like this episode was great at showing the early turmoil Nine faced when dealing with his past and his relationship with Rose. I hope I captured his inner self a little better than last time. I always find it hard to write really good actors because I can't always tell exactly what's going through their minds and it bothers me.

Next chapter will be up in a week or so and we will be back on Gallifrey with the Architect and his new charge. If I can finish my term papers that is….