Jace :
4 years. Time hadn't been kind to me, not even with my voice back, because I was cut off from the TARDIS. Dad had stopped the Time Withdrawal from killing me after my 30 years with Reinette, but I still felt it.
But now, now I was back.
I'd told Rose to stay behind, because this wasn't her fight. Her and Jackie had been arguing about even letting me go, but I needed to.
So I telephoned in, hefting my gun as I looked at the night sky, though the colours, the soft, beautiful pastel colours told me that it was only 8 in the morning. Oh god... I'd missed this place, so, so much... My home and I was finally back.
"Right, now we're in trouble." I muttered, brushing my hair out of the way with the added bonus of my undercut before powering up my gun. "It's only just beginning."
Because instead of the distant stars I spent years learning the names of, I could see planets, with a much closer proximity.
So I started walking, through the town that was once my home, the streets my playground as I hid and ran everyday until the Doctor found me. And of course, with the panic of being somewhere new, the skies and heavens somewhere different to the norm.
"The end of the world, darling." A man drunkenly smiled at me, and the colours of his voice made me shiver. Whiskey... "End of the stinking world."
I didn't even look at him, looking for the familiar TARDIS blue waves of his voice amongst the chaos and carnage. "Have one on me, mate. " Then another alarm was added, completely distracting me from my job, so I went over to see two lads nicking tvs and laptops. "Right, you two. You can put that stuff down or run for your lives." They both looked at me, not taking me seriously. "Fine. Have it your way." I sent a charge of sonic into them, and they sparked violently with small black flames and they pegged it. "Thank you, now I can track my dad."
So I sat at a screen showing the red blobs approaching Earth. And then they hit, so I had to keep moving, finding a familiar older man and woman, one with a paint gun. Where they then shot at a Dalek. Rookie mistake, they have laser vision. But I saved them, knowing exactly who they were, so shot a beam of high frequency to boil the Kaled inside and make the head explode. My gun didn't actually work, though Rose's, Mickeys and Jackies did. My twin had moved to France, running Torchwood there.
"You're Donna Noble's family, right?" I asked them, desperate to know if they were. "I'm Callie Smith, and I need you."
They took me back to theirs, and Wilf showed me his phone, how many times he'd called his granddaughter. "Yeah, I've tried calling her, but I can't get through. But she's still with the Doctor, your dad, I know that much, and the last time she phoned, it was from a planet called Midnight, made of diamonds." Ah, he promised to take me there...
"What the hell are you two on about?"
"Look, she's out there, sweetheart. Your daughter." He told his own daughter, who was really skeptical of all this. "She's travelling the stars with that Doctor. She always has been."
Sylvia scoffed, shaking her head. "Don't be ridiculous."
"Oh, come on, open your eyes. Look at the sky. Look at, look at the Daleks. You can't start denying things now."
Please, please, I came all this way... All this was to see him, to help him save the universe... "You're my last hope. If we can't find Donna, can't find my dad. Where is he? Dad..."
We sat there for a while, and heard the Daleks transmitting through everything under the sun, until someone hacked the signal. "Can anyone hear me? The Subwave Network is open. You should be able to hear my voice Is there anyone there?"
A static ridden image came onto the laptop screen, and I moved right over to it, recognising that voice from 50 years previous, before Reinette, before I got stuck. "I know that voice."
"Can anyone hear me?" She called again. "This message is of the utmost importance. We haven't much time. Can anyone hear me?" There was a pause then, another image breaking through. "Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you. Now stand to attention, sir." Yes! Uncle Jack, yes, yes!
His image came into view, but they couldn't see me."What? Who is that?"
Harriet held up her ID, as usual. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister." Because dad and I deposed you.
"Yeah, I know who you are."
"Harriet, it's me. It's me, Jacey, well, it's Callie now." They really couldn't hear me. "Oh, she can't hear me. Have you got a webcam?"
Wilf shook his head, pointing to his daughter. "No, she wouldn't let me. She said they're naughty." Oh, that was brilliant.
"I can't speak to her then, can I?" Which sucked.
But she was still calling out to people, so maybe she had a way to get through to me. "Sarah Jane Smith, 13 Bannerman Road.Are you there?"
They she came through, and it was amazing to see her again. And there was a boy with her, about 14 years old. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. That, that's me".
"Good. Now let's see if we can talk to each other." The screen split up a little. "The fourth contact seems to be having some trouble getting through."
Yes, yes! Come on, get through to me, please, please! "That's me. Harriet, that's me."
"I'll just boost the signal."
But someone I didn't know came though, and my hearts fell again, knowing they wouldn't be able to see me. "Hello?"
"Ha, ha! Martha Jones." Uncle Jack laughed, looking ecstatic to see her.
"Who's she?" I asked, rubbing the shorn side of my head, an impulse that I'd kept 2 years in. Helped keep my curls out of the way, and stopped people getting Little Jackie and I mixed up when she was there. "I want to get through. He's my dad!"
"Martha, where are you?."
Martha smiled broadly, and I could see why dad picked her up. She was gorgeous. "I guess Project Indigo was more clever than we thought. One second I was in Manhattan, next second. Maybe Indigo tapped into my mind, because I ended up in the one place that I wanted to be."
Then another woman, her mum by the same voice pattern, came up behind her with a mug of tea. "You came home. At the end of the world, you came back to me."
"But then all of a sudden, it's like the laptop turned itself on."
"It did.That was me." Harriet told them, taking out her iD again. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."
Martha looked at her a little warily. "Yes, I know who you are." There wasn't anyone who didn't know Harrie by this point.
"I thought it was about time we all met,given the current crisis. Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith."
Uncle Jack nodded a little. "I've been following your work. Nice job with the Slitheen."
"Yeah, well, I've been staying away from you lot. Too many guns." She nodded towards her boy, who was just looking at them like I was. Like we were memorising. Hmm...
"All the same, might I say looking good, ma'am?"
This surprised her, strange as she was actually gorgeous. "Really? Ooo."
But Harrie didn't think there was time for flirting. "Not now, Captain. And Martha Jones. "Former companion to the Doctor."
"Oi. So was I. And I'm his kid!" Though I was 50, and not really a kid.
Martha was still a little confused. "But how did you find me?"
"This, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Subwave Network.A sentient piece of software programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who can help to contact the Doctor."
"What if the Daleks can hear us?" Good question, because I was not in the mood to boil more of them.
But she just grinned. "No, that's the beauty of the Subwave. It's undetectable."
Sarah Jane looked a little skeptical, seeing as she started off as a politician. "And you invented it?"
"I developed it." She admitted. "It was created by the Mister Copper Foundation." Never heard of it.
"Yeah, but what we need right now is a weapon." Uncle Jack pointed out, then his eyes fixed on the window with the pretty woman who replaced Rose and I. "Martha, back there at UNIT, what, what did they give you? What was that key thing?"
Martha held up a small microchip style thing. "The Osterhagen key."
"That key is not to be used, Doctor Jones." Harriet snapped. "Not under any circumstances." Jack wanted to know more, not that Harriet let him. "Forget about the key, and that's an order.All we need is the Doctor."
And the oldest companion on the screen spoke up. "Only, excuse me, Harriet, but. Well, the thing is, if you're looking for the Doctor, didn't he and Jace depose you?"
"They did. And I've wondered about that for a long time, whether I was wrong. But I stand by my actions to this day, because I knew, I knew that one day, the Earth would be in danger, and the Doctor would fail to appear, maybe because he lost Jace, butI told him so myself, and he didn't listen." Hey, I'd be here if not for this stupid lack of webcam.
"But I've been trying to find him. The Doctor's got my phone on the TARDIS, but I can't get through."
Come on, I knew the home phone in the TARDIS, not some poxy mobile. "Nor me, and I was here first."
"That's why we need the Subwave. To bring us all together." Harriet agreed. "Combine forces. The Doctor's secret army."
And then they started drawing up plans, Jack getting them started. "Wait a minute. We boost the signal. That's it. We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself, using all the power of the Rift."
"And we've got Mister Smith." Sarah Janes son realised. "He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth.He can get the whole world to call the same number, all at the same time.Billions of phones, calling out all at once."
Uncle Jack grinned. "Brilliant. Who's the kid?"
"That's my son."
"Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry. Hello. Ianto Jones." One of Jacks Torchwood people. Good Torchwood, being run by him, similar to our one. "Er, if we start transmitting, then this Subwave Network is going to become visible. I mean, to the Daleks."
Harriet nodded. "Yes, and they'll trace it back to me. But my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."
Jack saluted her. "Ma'am."
She smiled a little, but kept her cool. "Thank you, Captain.But there are people out there dying on the streets."
"Marvellous woman." Wilf said behind me. "I voted for her."
His daughter shoved him lightly. "You did not."
"Now, enough of words. Let's begin."
They all got to work, Torchwood, using the Rift, plus the National Grid, and Sarah Jane and Luke linked it to the phone networks, just as Martha sent the phone number.
"Opening Subwave Network to maximum."
"Mister Smith, make that call."
Her supercomputer replied in a calm voice. "Calling the Doctor."
Then I got to my feet, taking out my suped up phone, relying on my own gift to power the signals. "So am I." I dialed, boosting it with everything I had. "Find me, dad. Please find me..."
But then the screen burst back into life after Harriets part left, and dad came into view, and I smiled sadly, knowing he was here, but he couldn't see me. "Where the hell have you been?" Jack demanded. "Doctor, it's the Daleks."
"It's the Daleks." Sarah Jane again. "They're taking people to their spaceship."
"It's not just Dalek Caan."
Sylvia came up to me, pointing to her daughter. "It's Donna!"
Wilf laughed too, looking so relieved. "That's my girl."
"Sarah Jane. Who's that boy? That must be Torchwood. Oh, they're brilliant.Look at you all, you clever people.That's Martha."
Donna pointed to Uncle Jack's screen. "And who's he?"
"Captain Jack. Don't. Just don't."
"Dad, it's me." I whispered. "I came back."
Donna was still smiling at all the people here. "It's like an outer space Facebook."
Dad nodded, looking sad himself. "Everyone except my Jacey."
That was when I'd had enough, using my phone to triangulate the co ordinates of where the TARDIS would land when everything went blank. I needed to find him, I needed to get back to my dad. "Control, I need another shift. Lock me onto the TARDIS, now, I've sent the triangulation. Mickey, Rose, don't even think about it." I hung up, and looked back at Sylvia and Wilf. "Right, I'm going to find him. Wish me luck."
"Oh, good luck."
"Yeah, good luck, sweetheart."
Then I left in a flash, before appearing in a dark, abandoned street, cars left in varying positions. I kept walking down, stopping as I saw the man himself, facing the other way until Donna told him to turn around. And then I was running, dropping my false gun as I did, running into his arms as he ran to me.
But then I was in agony as something hit me from behind, and it felt like my entire body was burning, both dad and I hitting the ground hard. "Exterminate."
I saw Jack shoot it, appearing from no where as both him and Donna reached us. Dad wasn't as bad as me, and he was trying to hold himself above me, checking me over. "I've got you. It got you. Look, it's me, Jace. Jace, agh, oh, Jacey..."
"Daddy... Callie... It's Callie, or CJ..." I wheezed, feeling a fierce heat start to beat up inside me. "Dad, it hurts..."
"Don't die. Oh, my God. Don't die. Oh my god, don't die." He begged me, dropping again in pain as Jack started to drag him into the TARDIS, Donna pulling me.
"What, what do we do?. There must be some medicine or something."
Jack shook his head. "Just step back. Donna, do as I say, and get back."
I blacked out after that, but when I woke up, dad was cradling me, and the whole TARDIS was in darkness. "D, D, dad?" Wait... That. That wasn't... That wasn't my voice... "Wh, what? Dad, dad, please... please tell me..."
"It's OK. God, Jacey..." He kissed my temple, holding me so tight I could barely breathe. "You regenerated, I'm sorry, but you're here... Oh, you're here..."
Home, I was home, I was in the TARDIS, still with the same feeling of warmth and compassion. "I feel like I'm supposed to ask if I'm ginger." I giggled a little, looking at dad, seeing his face the same. Wasn't he dying too? Not that I wanted him to. "How do I look?"
"Like Dawn from Buffy." Jack told me, handing me a mirror. I had no clue who she was, but hey. I had long dark brown curls, brighter, clearer blue eyes, and skin like snow. Oh, and I was about 17. Great. "You look amazing."
I did, I loved the hair, and my voice, it was different, but my singing, when I then tried it, much to dad, Donna's, and Uncle Jacks delight, was like Hayley Williams from Paramore. But then we had to get back to business, and I would have to deal with the fact that I was someone new now, just like dad. "There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."
Donna frowned a little, looking at dad. "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"
"Jacey, CJ, whatever your name is now, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"
"It's the darkness. The colours of the universe just fading to nothing. Not moving, just turning slowly to nothing as we just watched."
"The stars were going out."
Nodding, I kept going, hugging my arms around myself. "One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could. Well, so I could-"
Dad smiled at me. "What?"
Oh, like you didn't know. "So I could come back, dad." His grin got even bigger as he hugged me again. "Shut up. 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. well, deader. Something is destroying everything."
"In that parallel world, you said something about me."
Oh, everything was around you. "The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you. Even the colours of the TARDIS, the universe, they all seem to sing like the stars whenever I see you."
She frowned, looking so worried. "But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick."
But the scanner beeped before anything further could be said. "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard."
"Doctor, you will step forth or die."
"We'll have to go out." He said softly, looking at all of us. "Because if we don't, they'll get in."
Wait, what? Not possible. "You told me nothing could get through those doors.You've got extrapolator shielding."
He shook his head, moving aside my darker, less frizzy curls to look at me properly. "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 TARDIS's they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood."
"What about your dimension jump?" Uncle Jack asked, turning to me. Man, I missed him, and what I did to him... God, he was wrong, but he was still Jack. Two Jackies, Jaclyn, Jake and Jack. JJ club.
"It needs another twenty minutes, as well as co ordinates. And anyway, I'm not leaving.What about your teleport?"
He sighed sadly. "Went down with the power loss."
"Right then. All of us together. Yeah. Donna?" She was staring at nothing, so we snapped her out of it. "Donna?" The woman finally focussed on us. "I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."
Donna nodded, looking scared, but also like she wasn't going down without a fight. "No, I know."
The Daleks outside the door were getting impatient now, and for some reason I felt like I had to make fun of the situation. "Daleks. Dustbins on wheels, all we need are some stairs." If only. But they all smiled weakly. I was a joker now, that was weird. Normally I was pretty serious.
"Oh, God."
"It's been good, though, hasn't it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did." He looked at Donna. "You were brilliant." Now to Uncle Jack. "And you were brilliant." And lastly to me. "And you were brilliant. And you always will be, my Callie. Blimey."
He lead me out of the TARDIS by the hand, thne Jack, but Donna was lagging behind. The Daleks were everywhere, screaming hatred at us, deep, dark green that made me want to be sick. "Behold, Doctor, Jace. Behold the might of the true Dalek race."
"Donna! You're no safer in there." But then the doors slammed shut, trapping her inside. "What?"
"Doctor? Callie? What have you done?"
Dad rolled his eyes, but tried to get back inside. "It wasn't me. I didn't do anything."
"Oi! Oi, I'm not staying behind!"
I glared at the Daleks, my voice raising, and making the walls shake slightly. "What did you do?! Answer me, you know what I can do!"
But they were still denying it. "This is not of Dalek origin."
"Doctor! Callie!"
"Stop it! She's my friend." Dad cried, running back. "Now open the door and let her out."
The Daleks were having none of it. "This is Time Lord treachery."
Uh, Excuse me? "Us?" I demanded, my anger building. "The door just closed on its own. Now let her out!"
"Nevertheless, the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed."
And then a trapdoor opened underneath the blue box, and it dropped through. "What are you doing? Bring it back!What have you done? Where's it going?"
"The Crucible has a heart of Z-neutrino energy." This was not happening... "The TARDIS will be deposited into the core."
No! "You can't. You've taken the defences down. It'll be torn apart!" Dad and I cried, and my terror over the fact I was someone new left as I realised my home was about to be taken from me once more.
"But Donna's still in there!"
Uncle Jack moved forward too, taking my hand. "Let her go!"
Daleks, heartless bitches, kinda like Donald Trump. Except even they weren't that judgemental. "The female and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe. The last children of Gallifrey is powerless."
An image appeared in the middle of the screen, and we saw it in the core. I could feel my inside burning again, that link dad and I had with her meaning we could feel her screaming in pain. "Please. I'm begging you. I'll do anything! Put me in her place." Dad was shouting, and I pulled on the cord, trying to do something to help, to control her psychically from here. "You can do anything to me, I don't care, just get her out of there!"
"You are both connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die.Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven, six" Something happened, ever so slightly, but it must have been too late because then it was gone. "Five, four, three, two, one." She was gone... "The TARDIS has been destroyed. Now tell me, Doctor, Seer. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"
We both nodded, knowing it was just us now. "Yeah."
The Daleks were still taunting us. "Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?"
"Yeah? Feel this!" Jack pulled out a small revolver, and shot at the Dalek, but they just zapped him easily. Immortality, gotta love it.
The lead Dalek was talking, not that we really cared. "Escort them to the vault. They are the playthings of Davros now." I winked at Jack, and he winked back. I had nothing if not a normal family.
The walk was short, and we were in almost darkness as we were pushed inside, though I was kept 1 meter away from dad. "Activate the holding cells." Spotlights shone down on us. "Excellent. Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained."
"Still scared of me, then?" Dad asked, reaching out to put a hand on the forcefield, as I did, pressing a high frequency to shatter it, but it shocked me. "Even more scared of my daughter by the look of that. High frequency electricity field. She sings or uses her hands, she gets zapped. Non lethal though."
The man, well, weird ass creature, moved forwards in a wheelchair. "It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long."
Not that dad wanted to listen to him, he was too busy working out why supreme said Vault. "No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?"
"We have an arrangement."
Dad grinned even more, getting a little full of himself. "No, no, no, no, no. No, I've got the word. You're the Dalek's pet!"
"So very full of fire, is he not." Davros smiled, moving towards me. "And to think you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find him again. Your father, who let you die only minutes into finding him once more."
"Leave her alone. She can bring this place down, and she won't hesitate, even with the electricity." He was right there. 4 years, my pain tolerance was high, even higher after that regeneration.
Davros turned to dad, his smile getting bigger. "She is mine to do as I please."
Please, I was my own woman. "Then why am I still alive? Because I've died once today, I think I've reached my quota." Oh, I was definitely like my dad right now, and it was hilarious. Why was everything suddenly funny in some small way?
"You must be here. It was foretold. The Girl of Colours to watch as the colours faded. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan."
We looked over as a light came up, seeing a disgusting creature writhing inside. "So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames."
I knew that voice, those colours, but didn't know what it was. "What is that thing?"
"You've met before." Dad told me softly, his eyes not leaving it. "The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War, unprotected."
"Caan did more than that. He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. Both of you."
It started speaking again, insane and mad. "This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor and his beloved daughter will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die."
That made dad start shouting, getting so, so angry that I flinched at the tones, rarely seeing him like that. "Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna? Why did the TARDIS door close? Tell me!"
Davros smiled again. "Oh, that's it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is. Why so shy? Show your child. Show her your true self, the rage she may inherit. Dalek Caan has promised me that too."
"I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed."
And now we were both confused again. "What does that mean?"
"We will discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins."
OK, now this was just getting annoying. "Testing of what?"
He looked at us like we were idiots. "The Reality bomb." Oh, perfect. "Behold. The apotheosis of my genius." Manky guy turned on a screen, showing some type of holding area, and we watched as the people started to be ripped apart.
And dad knew how it was being done. "That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string. No, Davros. Davros, you can't! You can't! No!"
"Dad, what happened?"
"Electrical energy, Calliope. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter. Very much similar to your own ability, to use sound to break down the atoms holding things together."
No, oh God, no... "The stars are going out."
"The twenty seven planets." Dad agreed, and looked at me as I ran my hands through my newly dark hair, feeling it silkily go right through my fingers, falling in loose curls. So much better than my old hair, constantly tangled, but I did miss the undercut. "They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength."
Davros nodded. "Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"
And then something started playing, and I saw the same woman from before, Martha. "This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat. Can you hear me?"
Dad looked at Davros. "Put me through."
"It begins As Dalek Caan foretold."
"The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die." The creature giggled, and I glared at him.
"Stop saying that. Put us through!"
And then Martha was able to talk to us, seeing dad. "Doctor! I'm sorry, I had to."
Davros smiled at her, wrinkled and old. "Oh, but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent."
"I've got the Osterhagen Key." Would be good if we knew what that was. "Leave this planet and its people alone or I'll use it."
And now dad was definitely confused as I worked on finding the right frequency to get through this forcefield. "Osterhagen what? What's an Osterhagen Key?"
"There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart." Oh good, perfect, just what we needed.
Dad stared at her. "What? Who invented that? Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?"
She was definitely into what she was doing. "The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option."
"That's never an option."
"Don't argue with me, Doctor!" Martha snapped. "Because it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty seven planets for something. But what if it becomes twenty six?What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"
Actually, overall, that wasn't a half bad plan. "She's good."
Martha frowned as she look at me for the first time. "Who's that?
Oh, yeah, no one would recognise me. "My name's Calliope. Calliope Jace Smith.
"Oh, my God. He found you. His little girl."
And then there was a second screen next to hers, and I saw Sarah Jane, Mickey, Rose, and Jackie. My old sister. "Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls.Are you receiving me?Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off."
They had two Sonic Girls here, and this was awesome. "Oh, my god. That, that's my twin sister, well, sister now."
"And Mickey. And Rose." Dad agreed, looking at the blonde who had been adamant about coming with me. So I left before she realised. "Captain, what are you doing?"
Uncle Jack smiled a little. "I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe.I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."
Oh, brilliant. High explosives, and a black hole in the making, what could go well? "You can't! Where did you get a Warp Star?"
"From me." Sarah Jane stepped forwards, and Davros stared at her. "We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners."
"Impossible. That face. "After all these years."
And now Sarah Jane looked back at him, amazing and cool in her dauntless. "Davros. It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?"
"Oh, this is meant to be. The circle of Time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation."
She nodded a little. "And I've learnt how to fight since then. You let the Doctor and Jace go, or this Warp Star, it gets opened."
Jack held it up, Jackie placing her hand under it. "We'll do it.Don't imagine we wouldn't. This girl really wants to save her sister."
This was finally working. "Now that's what I call a ransom." Not that dad agreed, staring at all of his old companions. Just like Davros said. "Dad?"
"And the prophecy unfolds."
"The Doctor's soul is revealed. See him. See the heart of him."
"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun.But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons.Behold your Children of Time, even the daughter you love. "Transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."
He shook his head. "They're trying to help."
Davros kept smiling at him, while I got socked for the third time. I hated electricity. "Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."
"Who was that?"
"Harriet Jones." I told him softly, shivering as I stopped being electrocuted. "She gave her life to get you here."
But he wouldn't leave it alone, kept pushing at dad. "How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name?" I wanted to reach out and help dad, but I couldn't, so I had to watch him in pain. "The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself, in front of your daughter."
"It's the Crucible or the Earth." But then Martha, Jack, Rose, Mickey, Jackie and Sarah Jane all got teleported to us.
"Don't move, all of you. Stay still." I shouted at them, wincing as I got shocked again, my forcefield lighting up.
Davros smiled, but was wary all the same. "Guard them! On your knees, all of you. Surrender!"
Please, please, don't hurt Jackie or Rose... "Do as he says."
"Rose, I told you not to. Jackie, when did you even get here?"
"You were just leaving! You never said goodbye, Callie!"
Because it all happened too fast! I didn't know how to say goodbye to her. "The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses." Davros was grinning. "Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"
And then it all started, and dad started to get panicked. "You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!"
"Ah, ha, ha, ha!" Wow, now that was some pretty strange laughing. "Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one!"
Until the TARDIS started to materialise, and I stared at the point it was coming through. "But that's-"
"Impossible."
She finished landing, and another dad appeared in the doorway. "Brilliant." Uncle Jack breathed as he ran across the floor.
"Don't!" Dad cried, but Davros zapped him, and he dropped the gizmo in pain, and dropped a holding cell around him.
Though there was still Donna, who came running out and grabbed it for herself. "Doctor! I've got it. But I don't know what to do!"
Davros zapped her before we could do anything, and she went flying back, the gizmo dropping to the floor. "Donna! Donna!" Dd cried, trying to see her as Davros had the weapon destroyed. "Are you all right, Donna?"
"I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic."
Not exactly the point I wanted to know. "How comes there are two of you, dad?"
He didn't look at me, staring at where Donna had been thrown. "Human biological metacrisis. Never mind that. Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb."
"Stand witness, Time Lords. Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and. Oh. The end of the universe has come."
"Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."
And then an alarm sounded, mauve and bleeping. "Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there." Donna hit a button on the panel she'd been thrown against.
Dad was staring in her in bewilderment. "Donna, you can't even change a plug."
She just grinned back at him. "Do you want to bet, Time Boy?"
"You'll suffer for this." Davros said, but when he tried to zap her again, the electricity hit him instead when she hit another lever. "Argh!"
"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion." Of course, they wanted her exterminated after that, but she worked on a few more controls, and they couldn't do anything. "Phwor. Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix." OK, why had her voice gone from yellow and red, to red and blue, closer to dads?
"How did you work that out? You're-2
My second dad, who was a sort of clone of the first one, grinned at us. "Time Lord. Part Time Lord."
Donna nodded again. "Part human. Oh, yes. That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna."
"The Doctor Donna." Dad breathed. "Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna."
"Holding cells deactivated and the frequency barrier dropped. And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work. Calliope, we could do with some interference." Easy, I quickly ran over, playing one of my playlists from a USB. Well, I couldn't sing and hack, I wasn't a Dwarf.
"Stop them! Get them away from the controls."
Oh, come on! "And spin." I laughed, making them all spin around on the spot. "And the other way." Now anticlockwise.
Dad 2 stared at me. "What did you do?"
"Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator." Donna nodded, knowing right away.
"But that's brilliant!"
Dad frowned a little, putting his arm around my shoulder. "Why did we never think of that?"
"Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. Callie and I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for me and her. Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship. Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute."
The was finally working, and we all started hacking, my playlist of Katherine Jenkins style work keeping us going quickly. "Come on then, Smiths. We've got twenty seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron."
"Stop this at once!"
Jack ran back out the TARDIS, and threw a gun to Mickey, holding one of his own, aiming it at Davros. "Just stay where you are, mister."
"Ready? And reverse." Donna asked us, and then we started pulling out pairs of rods, the planets starting to go home.
"Off you go, Clom."
"Back home, Adipose Three."
"Shallacatop" I giggled, tucking my hair behind my ear. Everything was funny, what was going on with this regeneration?!
"Pyrovillia and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Sorted. Ha!"
Then my sister came over, looking just how I used to. I was hot, but I liked this. "Is anyone going to tell us what's going on?"
So Donna leaned forward, and we both smiled. "He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. I touched the hand, and he grew out of that but that fed back into me. But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind and his knowledge of Calliope Jace Smith. So her amazing gift."
"So there's three of you?" Sarah Jane asked carefully.
"Three Doctors and two Callies."
Uncle Jack raised an eyebrow. "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." Lovely.
But it all made sense, why everything fell back onto her. "You're so unique the timelines were converging on you. Human being with a Time Lord brain. Not even CJ, mostly Time Lord with that little bit of human."
Davros turned to the weird ass creature of Ca'an. "But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?"
He was too busy giggling to himself. "Oh, I think he did." I said softly. "Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."
" This would always have happened. I only helped, Callie, Doctor."
Davros stared at his creation. "You betrayed the Daleks."
"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!"
Then big leader Supreme started to come down, and I readied myself with Jack and Micks. "Heads up!"
"Davros, you have betrayed us."
"It was Dalek Caan." And who created him?
"The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated."
"Like my Uncle Jack was saying. Feel this!" Then I fried him, the frequency starting a few more fires in the corner of the room, but not before he'd shot the control panel. "Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one." Earth, of course. "But we can use the TARDIS."
Dad and I ran in there, working out a way to get everyone home, but when explosions started, we ran back out, staring at the newer Doctor as he stood at the console. "What have you done?"
He looked like he was happy with what he'd done. "Fulfilling the prophecy."
No, no, this was horrible. "Do you know what you've done?" I shouted at him, seeing my sister, Jackie, looking at him in horror. "Now get in the TARDIS! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!In! In! In! In!"
"Davros?" Dad called, looking at him as the Crucible started to fall apart. "Come with us. I promise I can save you."
"Never forget, Doctor, you did this. I name you. Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!" A wall of flames rose up then, and he gurgled his last scream.
"One will still die." Caan whimpered, then went silent himself, as the fire reached him.
I pulled dad back in, starting the TARDIS off as the ship around us exploded. "And off we go."
"But what about the Earth?" Sarah Jane asked, stood there with Jack, Donna, Rose, Mickey, Martha, Jackie and the New Doctor, who was stood protectively over her. "It's stuck in the wrong part of space."
Oh, I'd thought of that. "I'm on it. Torchwood Hub, this is Callie, or Jace if Uncle Jacks mentioned me. Are you receiving me?"
"Loud and clear." A strong Welsh voice said, and the picture came through. "Is Jack there?"
"Can't get rid of him. Uncle Jack, what's her name?"
"Gwen Cooper."
"Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones, you worked for Torchwood 1, I saw you.Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up thatRift Manipulator. Send all the power to me."
Ianto nodded, starting to type. "Doing it now, Ma'am." Ma'am? I looked 17!
Donna frowned at me. "What's that for?"
"It's a tow rope. Now then. Sarah Jane, what was your son's name? The one with a similar memory pattern to me."
"Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith."
"Calling Luke and Mister Smith." I called again, getting it up next to Gwen and Ianto. "This is Callie. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg."
He got right to his feet, and I saw that he was a force grown clone, only much better. Infinite memory, so lucky him. "Is Mum there?"
"Oh, she's fine and dandy." And so, so happy her little boy was alive. "Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?"
A computer voice came back through. "I regret I will need remote access to Tardis base code numerals."
Dad made a face. "Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while. That went out with the manual." Great.
"No, no, no. Let me." We let Sarah Jane forward. "K9, out you come!"
And then the dog beamed in next to Luke. "Affirmative, Mistress."
"Oh! Oh ho! Oh, good dog!" We both laughed. "K9, give Mister Smith the base code."
"Master. TARDIS base code now being transferred." He told us. "The process is simple."
And then dad turned to look at the companions we had around us. "Now then, you lot. Sarah, hold that down. Little Jackie, you hold that. Because you know why this TARDIS always is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed. Martha, keep that level. But not any more. Jack, there you go. Steady that. Now we can fly this thing." He looked at Mickey, the big brother I loved to pieces. "No, Mickey. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back. Like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the Tardis by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home. Right then. Off we go."
So we started moving, and dad kept his arm around me as we went, and I was so, so happy that we were alive, that I was here, and I didn't have to go anywhere. I could stay with him forever again. The father and daughter combo that saved the universe.
Once the Earth was in the right place, we dropped everyone off, starting with Sarah Jane. "You know, you act like such a lonely man. But look at you. You've got the biggest family on Earth, starting with this amazing girl. Callie, your little girl." She hugged me, and then dad. "Oh! Got to go. He's only "fourteen. It's a long story. And thank you!
Next was Jack, and I grabbed his wrist, singing softly to lock it. "I'm fairly sure dad would have told you, no teleport."
"And, Martha, get rid of that Osterhagen thing, eh?" Dad asked her as she came to stand with him. "Save the world one more time."
"Consider it done." They both saluted at dad, and he begrudgingly did it back as they both walked away hand in hand.
And then Mickey came out. "Oi, where are you going?"
"Well, I'm not stupid. I can work out what happens next." He told me. "And hey, I had a good time in that parallel world, but my gran passed away. Nice and peaceful. She spent her last years living in a mansion, still thinking I had someone for me. There's nothing there for me now, certainly not Rose, and not you."
That made me hug him tight. "What will you do?"
"Anything. Brand new life. Just you watch. See you, boss, see you, Callie. Hey, you two!" He ran after Martha and Jack, and we went back into the TARDIS where Jackie was seeming to actually trust the new Doctor, and Rose was talking in depth to them.
"Just time for one last trip. Fargerik Dårlig Ulv Stranden." I stared at dad, my hearts thudding. "Better known as-"
We materialised onto the beach, and I walked back onto the neon coloured area that I'd felt myself die on 4 years prior. "Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?" Rose asked him, looking back at dad and I.
"You're back home."
"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened." Donna explained. "It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now."
"No, but I spent all that time trying to find you, me and CJ. I'm not going back now."
Dad shook his head. "But you've got to. Because we saved the universe, but at a cost. And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."
The new Doctor stared at him. "You made me."
"Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge." He kept explaining, looking first at me, then at Rose. "Remind you of someone? That's me, when we first met. And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."
This wasn't happening. "But he's not you. And I'm not who he needs. He needs Jackie and Rose." I looked at the pair of them. "Jacks, you and him, you right away trusted him, didn't you. Just like I trusted dad when I first met him."
"Callie, you have a dad, I don't. I have no one, except for Jake, and he's got a family now." She told me, her eyes dull. "I had you, but you were far too busy trying to get back to your dad."
Oh, Jackie... "You deserve a dad. You never had one, and now? Now with Rose and him, you could have a proper family. You're still just human, more human than me. You have one heart, and so do they. Stop hating the world, sis. Try loving it." Now I looked at Rose. "Rosie, God, you were my best friend..."
"CJ, I'm not leaving you. What about mum, and dad? They looked after you."
"Because they had to. Tell them I'm so, so grateful for that, but now, you have a family here, Tony, Jackie and Pete. Now, you can have him, your own Doctor, and keep Jackie as me."
The New Doctor, the man that slaughtered Davros and the Dalek's, made her look at him, before whispering in her ear. Then when he pulled away, she kissed him, hard and passionately, before hugging both Jackie and him, as Donna, dad and I went back into the TARDIS, leaving my old life behind.
Yet somehow, even though dad still had me, he wasn't happy, looking sadly at Donna as she got us moving. "I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?"
"And how do you know that?" He asked her softly.
She just smiled at him. "Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine."
Wait... no... No, she had too much... "And how does that feel?"
Donna beamed at us as I hugged my knees to my chest on the jump seat, suddenly not finding anything funny. "Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary." She gasped. "I'm fine." No you weren't. "Nah, never mind Felspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton." And this time it hurt, bright shards of orange as she doubled over. "Oh, my God."
"Do you know what's happening?" Dad asked her. The woman I'd only briefly known, yet cared for like I cared for Rose nodded. "There's never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why."
"Because there can't be, Jace, Callie, she's a special case because she was born like it." She straightened up, moving back to the console. "I want to stay."
Dad walked closer. "Look at me. Donna, look at me."
it took a moment, but she did. "I was going to be with you forever. Help look after Callie."
"I know. She would have loved you because you were amazing."
She was already crying, and I started to as well, silent sobs that flashed purple around me. "The rest of my life, travelling in the TARDIS. The Doctor Donna. No. Oh my god. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back. Callie, help me, please."
I couldn't, I couldn't look at her, because it hurt, just as much as it was hurting dad to have to do this to his best friend. "Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times." Donna was still trying to stop him. "The best. Goodbye."
And them she was gone, and we had to try and get her from the TARDIS to her house, and I ran to the door, hammering on it until Wilf came to answer it. "Help us."
"Donna?" He asked, looking as dad cradled her not far from the door. "Donna?"
He helped us to get her to her bed, then went downstairs, a thunderstorm coming in hard, making me flinch and wimper at the noise. I hated them, they were so, so scary... "She took my mind into her own head. But that's a Time Lord consciousness. All that knowledge, it was killing her."
"But she'll get better now?" Wilf asked, as dad kept his arm around me.
"He had to wipe her mind completely. Every trace of him, me, or the TARDIS, anything they did together, anywhere they went, had to go. Even from before I changed, she can't know me with this face, or the last one."
Her grandfather put his hand to his mouth, close to tears. "All those wonderful things she did."
Dad nodded sadly, his eyes full of tears. "I know. But that version of Donna is dead. Because if she remembers, just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention me, my daughter or any of it for the rest of her life."
"But the whole world's talking about it." Sylvia reminded us. "We travelled across space."
"It'll just be a story, just like everything else. One of those Donna Noble stories, where she missed it all again."
Wilf shook his head. "But she was better with you." His daughter was horrified. "No, she was."
Could they not just agree on something for once?! "I just want you to know there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away, radiating the space with every colour ever created. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe."
Sylvia sniffed, lifting her head is. "She still is. She's my daughter."
"Then maybe you should tell her that once in a while, because children listen to their parent's. Jace, Callie, she succeeded because I believed in her."
"I was asleep on my bed in my clothes, like a flipping kid!" A familiar voice suddenly said, appearing next to us. "What do you let me do that for? Don't mind me. Donna."
Dad stood us both up, holding out his hand as she checked her phone. "John Smith. This is my daughter Callie."
"Mister Smith and Calliope were just leaving."
"My phone's gone mad. Thirty two texts. Veena's gone barmy. She's saying planets in the sky. What have I missed now? Nice to meet you." And the she left, just as Sylvia reiterated that we should leave.
We tried to say goodbye to Donna on the way out, but she didn't even see us, just looked right through who we were. As it should be.
The rain was still bucketing it down, and dad put his jacket over my head as he looked up into it. "Ah. You'll have quite a bit of this. Atmospheric disturbance. Still, it'll pass. Everything does. Bye then, Wilfred."
"Oh, Doctor, Callie? What about you now? Who've you got, besides each other? I mean, all those friends of yours."
"They've all got someone else." I said softly,hugging him softly. "Still, that's fine. I'm fine."
Wilf looked horrified at the idea of us being alone. " I'll watch out for you, sir, little miss."
Wait, what? "You can't ever tell her."
He shook his head sadly. "No, no, no. But every night, Doctor, Callie, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I'll look up on her behalf. I'll look up at the sky, and think of you both."
"Thank you." We both whispered, then went back to the TARDIS, back to the life we were about to lead. Alone.