AN: I'm baaack
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They landed and the 3 of them head out onto a deserted street. "Like a ghost town." Donna commented
"Sarah Jane said they were taking the people." The Doctor replied. "But what for? Think Donna. When you met Rose in that parallel world. What did she say?"
"Just... The darkness is coming." Donna replied solemn and quiet.
"Anything else?" He asked. Lee narrowed his eyes. He understood things they needed information but he would not stand for Donna being upset.
Donna looked over his shoulder. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"
The Doctor looked at her stricken for a moment shocked she would say something truly cruel to him. But then he followed her eyes and actually looked. They all saw the pretty blonde standing at the end of the street. Her young face breaking into a wide Cheshire grin. Lee and Donna couldn't help but smile and lean into one another. They watched as the two raced to each other. Lee leaned over and kissed Donna on the temple. The red head smiled up at him "Like one of those sappy romance novels." She whispered.
Lee's chuckle in response was covered by an electronic sounding voice. "Exterminate." It said with a kind of finality that shot cold dread deep into Lee's heart. The thing shot the Doctor.
As he fell Donna sprang from Lee's arms like a greyhound at the races. Just as the sexy man from earlier appeared and shot the over sized pepper pot.
Donna raced to Rose and the Doctor's side as Rose begged him not to die. Lee was heart broken He's really come to care for the quirky old man and didn't want to lose him either. Not to mention what it would mean to Donna if he was to pass.
The other man... Jack. Came over and ordered them to get him into the TARDIS. Donna and Rose half carried the man. Lee held the door open for them and grabbed the Doctors trench coat and spreading it out for him to lay on.
"What are we going to do?" Donna said frantically. "There must be some medicine or something?" She all but begged the other two.
Lee didn't know what to make of Jack he seemed oddly clam, just setting down weapons and taking off his coat like a man dying was an everyday thing. If they didn't get some answers he was going to take a page out of Donna's book and slap him one.
"Just step back." Jack said. "Rose get back. He's dying, and you know what happens next."
"What do you mean?" Donna asked tears beginning to leak from her eyes. Lee put his arm around her and glared at the other man silently demanding answers as well. "What do you mean? What happens next?" She asked with more bite in her voice approaching Jack to no doubt give him one if he didn't give her a satisfactory answer.
"It's starting." The Doctor said weakly drawing their attention to him. Lee thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head as he watched the mans hand begin to glow. "I'm Regenerating." He added as if that explained anything as his body began to glow so bright that they had to look away.
Lee was a bit uncomfortable having Donna tucked between him and the gorgeous Jack but he'd worry about that after whatever the Doctor was doing stopped. They all just stared at him the hand in in jar now glowing in place of the Doctor.
"See there used the regeneration energy to heal myself but I didn't need to change why would I?" He rambled in typical Doctor fashion. Neither Donna or Lee knew if they wanted to hit him or kiss him. He continued to ramble about how he transferred the glowing energy into his hand.
"You're still you?" Rose asked disbelievingly.
"I'm still me." He replied with a soft smile. Rose all but fell into his arms.
Donna smiled at them wondering why he didn't just kiss her. It was beyond obvious how he felt and from meeting Rose in the other world she believed the other women felt the same. Since the drama was over for the moment she turned to Jack. "You could give us a hug." She said with a saucy smile. Lee sighed. He might be from the 50th century but he had little interest in sharing Donna with this pretty boy.
Before she could harass the man farther all the lights went out. "They've got us. We've lost power." The Doctor said toying with several buttons and levers. "Look like some kind of temporal loop."
"There's a massive dalek ship at the center of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination." Jack told them.
"You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?" Donna asked
"Rose. You've been to a parallel world, one that's running ahead of us. You've seen the future. What was it?" He asked her hoping for a solution.
Rose looked down. "It's the darkness."
"The stars were going out..." Donna added her voice dull like the times she spoke of the alternate reality she had been trapped in. Lee held her close doing all he could to shelter her from the bad memories.
"Basically we've been building this..um... travel machine... this … ah... dimension cannon, so I can... So I can come back." Rose explained.
Lee gave Donna a look getting a grin back. Oh yeah she has it bad for their space man. They saw that even Jack had a cat with the canary look on his face.
The Doctor gave a wide grin not even noticing their audience. "Shut up." Rose told him with a wide smile as well. She then had to sober all of them up. "Then it started to work. And the dimension started to collapse. Not just there, and not just in this world but the whole of reality. Even the void was dead. Something was destroying everything."
"In that other reality. You mentioned me." Donna said trying to understand
"The dimension cannon can measure time lines, and it's weird but they all seem to converge on you."
"Why me?" She asked looking at the others. "What have I ever done. I'm a TEMP from Chiswick."
No one had time to reply as they had arrived at the Crucible.
The daleks demanded that the Doctor come out and he explained how these daleks were experts at fighting TARDIS's. Jack and Rose tried began to argue with about other solutions but Lee was focused on Donna who seemed to be about to have a panic attack. Lee was hesitant to do anything. Whatever was happening with her seemed important. But the others had all decided to surrender.
The Doctor came over and touched Donna's shoulders snapping her out of whatever state she had been in. He began giving them a speech. It sounded a lot like they were all marching to their death. Lee took Donna's hand and held on tight. HE didn't want to lose her now. Not after nearly losing her once.
One after the other they marched out the door to see the daleks. Lee had only heard vague tales of these beings. He was amazed at them flying and just how many their were. It wasn't until the Doctor spoke that he realized Donna hadn't followed him out.
Lee turned to look at her curiously just as the door closed. "D... D... Donna." HE called.
"Oy! Let me out. I won't be left behind!" She cried.
"What did you do!?" The Doctor demanded.
"Pl...please." Lee begged the TARDIS quietly, he was sure this was her doing. "K... keep her s..s..safe." Donna could kill him later so long as she survived.
"This is not of Dalek origin." The big red pepper pot replied to the Doctor.
Lee listened to the dalek and Doctor arguing. HE screamed out and tried to grab the TARDIS in vain as it fell. He could only stare down the hole after Donna. HE had trusted that ship with the thing most precious to him and now it was gone.
He didn't react until Jack was killed by the dalek. And even then he went with them docility. He and the Doctor understood each other. HE could see it in the mans eyes. They had both lost something beyond precious to them.