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Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to the BBC.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXDonna was watching the Doctor die right in front of her.
All those wonderful things that they had done together were all that would be left of him, a bittersweet memory. Then, just as quickly as it had begun the brilliant light around him began to diminish; she squinted hoping to see if he was all right.
And in brilliant Doctor-style, he smiled at them, "Well," He began, "That was interesting."
The three of them stared down at him as he stooped low to examine the detached hand in the container at the base of the console.
"What the hell just happen?" Jack asked, bring his arms down from the women's shoulder and placed them at his side.
The Doctor met their surprised faces, lingering on Donna's a fraction longer, knowing that he had a lot of explaining to do and no time to do it in, "Regenerated, well not really, sort of, well partly regenerated. The rest of the energy went into my hand, I didn't want to change so I just used enough of the energy to heal myself." He stood up, "See?"
There had been times that Donna had wanted to slap the living daylights out of the man before her, but now she wanted to wring his skinny neck.
"Your hand?" Rose asked, taking a step forward.
The Doctor nodded, "Yep, the one that the Sycorax chopped off on Christmas day, remember?" He looked down and then back up to her, his grin never fading, "That's it."
Rose only nodded.
"Well, there you go, thanks to Jack, it has been a TARDIS ornament for the last year or so." The Doctor said with a smile.
Donna bit her tongue as she watched the Time Lord embrace his blonde companion, feeling her heart sink yet again as an overjoyed expression spread across the Doctor's face.
Jack nudged her in the arm; "You could hug me if you want."
Donna looked over at him; she would have to watch out for this one.
The captain shrugged as the Doctor gave him a pointed look, as if to tell him that Donna was 'hands off'.
Donna's body tensed as the hair-splitting scream surrounded them, she looked as the Doctor released Rose and his eyes widened, "It seems we are being taken to the Dalek Crucible." He repeated what the screams had said.
"What exactly is it?" He asked aloud at the TARDIS began to quake beneath them, and the power went down, "That is a bitter disappointment." The Doctor commented as he tried a switch and nothing happened.
He looked back up at his friends, "The Dalek Crucible, what is it?"
Jack stepped forward, "It's what the Daleks rode in on." He said with a grin.
The Doctor nodded his face solemn, "Yes. And my guess is that Davros is there as well." He muttered, shivering unconsciously at the name.
"Davros?" The captain echoed, "He's alive?"
The three other people looked at him.
The Doctor nodded, not wanting to know how Jack knew about the Dalek creator.
"Who's Davros?" Rose asked, standing next to the Doctor and looking back and forth between Jack and the Time Lord hoping that one of them would answer her.
The Doctor took a deep breath, "He's the reason Daleks exist in the first place. I watched him die during the Time War, but now he's back. Dalek Caan saw to that, and now he's created even more of his children."
Donna could see the Doctor's eyes become tired, he had seen too many wars and battles for fill a million lifetimes and now he was headed for another one. He had once told her that he was over 900 years old, and she had never thought he'd look it until this moment.
Their eyes met suddenly and he gave her a smile, the silence between them was a rare sight indeed and now that was all they could give, and that was enough.
Rose filled them in on how she had managed to get back to the universe she was born in, telling them that she and her parallel world had already witnessed the 'darkness' and the deaths of the stars in the nighttime sky.
Donna couldn't wrap her head around it, it seemed that with Rose's dimension cannon, all the timelines existing cohered with her. She couldn't figure it out, why would they? What did they have to gain binding to her? It made no sense.
She jumped slightly when the Doctor's arm stole around her shoulders, and she smiled up at him.
"Quite a day, huh?" He asked her, his voice soft and comforting.
She nodded, "Yeah. And remind me to kill you later for not mentioning that regeneration thing."
The Doctor grinned, "Thought you were going to do me in on the spot." He told her seriously.
Donna shook her head, "Was going to, but we kind of need you to save the Earth first."
She could see Jack and Rose watching them as they prattled their banter, and she didn't care, there was the good chance that she wasn't going to come out of this alive, and she if that was true, she wanted to share her last moments with the man standing next to her.
The Doctor bent his head low and nuzzled her ear with the tip of his nose before whispering, "I love you."
Donna licked her lips and closed her eyes, "You mean don't mean that, do you?" Her voice just as audible as his, and she could feel her eyes brim with tears.
He shook his head against her cheek before kissing it, "You should never doubt me, Donna. No matter what happens, just remember that."
"No fear of that." She whispered back, her heart soaring for a moment before terror settled in.
The TARDIS landed with a bump and he pulled away from her, his eyes holding fear and his chest heaving slowly.
"This is it." He said tightly looking down into her blue eyes and taking her hand in his, "This is it."
The Doctor was the first to step out of his ship, he could sense his friend's fears and he could not blame them. Even though he would have been ashamed to admit that his own fear was pulsing through him more than the other three combined.
He knew that Jack would be able to take care of himself if anything should awry, but it was the lives of Donna and Rose that kept him on high alert. He had always prepared himself if anything would have happened to any of his companions, but he had never done so when it came to someone he loved. Really loved.
He had loved Rose, and now he loved Donna. And they were staring at the pinnacle of inevitable death. He had felt it grow in the back of his mind, like he had done so long ago before he had lost Rose, that growing storm on the horizon. It was happening again. It was faint, but undoubtedly there. He was going to lose one of them.
The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets, wondering besides his sonic screwdriver he could use to get himself out of this. His sonic was hardly any help, but apart from a rubber duck, a yo-yo, sunglasses, and a pair of pliers, it was pretty much all he had.
Rose and Jack stood next to him, staring in awe and fear at the Daleks; the sheer mass of them was certainly impressive. With Davros giving his own body to create his 'children' the Doctor wondered how could there have been so much of Davros left.
He turned his head away and looked at his friends, one was missing.
"Donna! There's no point of staying in there, please come out." He asked of her, and his answer was the door slamming shut.
"Donna?" He said her name questioningly, hoping that she wasn't about to do something stupid. He should have never given her those flying lessons.
He tried for the door and he could her doing the same on the inside.
"Doctor, I would like to come out now." She said, the wooden door muffling her, but he could tell that behind the calm tone she was about to break down any moment.
He was snapping his fingers, but nothing was getting the door to budge open. He knew that something bad was going to happen, and he hated it whenever he was right.
The Doctor turned from the TARDIS and glared up at the red Dalek, which was by far bigger than any Dalek, he had ever seen.
"Let her out." He commanded from the metal-incased alien, "Now."
"THE TAR-DIS IS A WEA-PON!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes, "I don't care! Let her out!"
Rose and Jack were banging on the doors, the captain shoving his shoulder into the center where the two doors met.
Donna's panic was setting everyone off, and the Doctor was no exception.
"Open the doors!"
"THE TAR-DIS IS A WEA-PON." The creature repeated, "AND IT WILL BE DES-TROYED!"
The sound of unlocking metal filled the room and the Doctor watched in disbelief his ship, and Donna, disappear from sight. He ran towards the gaping hole just in time to watch everything he had and treasured fall away from his field of vision.
Donna had always been a fan of rides; she would love it when something would make her heart pound wildly in her chest. But, this however was not what she would call a fun time. She grasped at the metal railings as she felt the ship's gravity shift incredibly and she had to fight to remain upright.
She cried out his name, the only name that was in her head, the only one that could get her out of this. She wanted to go home, to be with her mother and grandfather. She wondered then and there how she could have been so daft in believing that this was the kind of life for her. She was just a temp, a good one, but not someone that should be in a situation like this.
The TARDIS stopped suddenly, throwing her off and the smell of smoke burned her nostrils. Flames of red rose up out of the metal grates, surrounding her, she was going to be burned alive. And for a spilt second, she thought about Pompeii, how she had desperately wanted to save the people of that city from this same fate. The universe was such a bitch.
She crawled towards the yellow, torn jump seat; it seemed the only spot that wasn't being under any onslaught of scorching fire.
The Doctor was watching all of this on the screen that the red Dalek had produced; he had to be witness to the executions of his dear friend and his beloved Donna. The breath that passed through his lungs burned him, and the tears of agony filled his eyes, and all the while the thought that 'this could not be happening' screamed inside his head.
Rose had secured his hand with her own, watching the horrible display on the screen and the torture on the Doctor's face. He loved Donna, and now he was watching her die, murdered by the Daleks.
The Time Lord had pleaded with the Dalek who had done this, begged him to stop this and let him die instead. But his words had gone unnoticed and he could tell that there wasn't much longer until they, the TARDIS and Donna, would be gone.
He hoped that it would be quick, if Donna was still alive; he wished that death would take her swiftly.
Donna was crying, she couldn't help it. She had done nothing to deserve this; she had tried to be a good person without compromising her life strictly. If she had just followed the Doctor, instead lingering on listening to that heartbeat.
Donna froze, she could hear it again, stronger now, louder. She looked up at the center column, wondering if she was hearing the TARDIS die, but it wasn't coming from the console, but instead closer to her.
Her red and burning eyes looked down, it was the hand. That disgusting hand that the Doctor had said was his. She didn't even want to know anymore that what she was told about it.
Without wanting to, and nothing to stop her, she stretched out her own hand and touched the glass container. It had begun to glow, just as the Doctor had done and it was encasing her as well, she could feel a swell inside her body that she felt like she was going to burst.
But, the jar did instead.
Donna watched as the hand twitched with life and the light spread.
Her heart almost stopped as a spitting image of the Doctor sat up from the yellow glow.
"Doctor?" She asked.
He shook his head, "Not quite…and yes."
She swallowed harshly, "Do you know how to fly this thing?"
The double stared at her then nodded slowly, his awareness of what was happening around him went unnoticed.
"Then fly us out of here!" She screamed.
The Doctor's body shook as he watched the TARDIS dissolve before him, taking with her his love.
He felt sick as he continued to stare up at the screen, wanting more than anything for this to be all but a bad dream, that he would wake and find Donna next to him.
But he would never have Donna next to him again.
He gripped Rose's hand tighter, wishing that it was Donna's hand instead, but not complaining that he still had someone to look out for. He would not fail again, he would not lose again.
"I'm so sorry." The blonde woman standing next to him whispered.
Nodded he replied, "Yeah." All life seemed to have burned up inside of him.
Jack watched as his friend began to silently break, he had remembered the sadness when the Time Lord had told him about the loss of Rose and now he had to be present at the Doctor's loss of Donna.
Reaching for his side arm, he wheeled around on the red Dalek, "You son of a bitch!" He screamed as he opened fire.
The Doctor and Rose both turned, their eyes wide as the saw the bullets ricochet off the metal casing. Doing no damage whatsoever to the alien.
A burst of light shot out of the Dalek's weapon and hitting Jack in the chest, he scream in pain and fell to the floor. Dead.
Rose crouched over the captain, her tears still in her eyes from Donna's death.
The Doctor's only means of comfort was to wrap his arms about her and pulled her to her feet, "He's gone." His voice low and distant, "I'm sorry."
"He can't be." She said sadly, her yellow hair falling into her eyes as the Doctor began to usher her away.
"TAKE THE DOC-TOR AND HIS COM-PAN-ION TO THE VAULT!" The red Dalek screamed.
The Doctor held onto Rose as he looked back, catching Jack's composed wink before being lead towards the lower levels.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSI'm not even going to ask for reviews…I'm too upset.