Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything.
A/N Thanks for the lovely reviews. Only the epilogue to go after this one.
Thank you to Vampiyaa for the beta.
Chapter Thirty
Previously
"It's being transmitted all over the universe," she said. "They will all hear the translation."
The Doctor looked horrified as realisation swept over his face, but at that very moment, the air was filled with the sound of the same two words echoing over and over, being broadcast all over the universe.
"Doctor who?"
"Doctor who?"
Clara jumped in shock at the echoing message and saw Madam Kovarian's face tighten imperceptibly across from her. "What's that?" she asked.
Madam Kovarian didn't answer. She touched a holographic panel on the table and the screen lit up with the Mother Superious' face. "So, it is confirmed now?" she asked.
"Yes," nodded the Mother Superious. "We have to proceed as planned."
"Understood," said Madam Kovarian, glancing at Clara out of the corner of her eye. "Something else?" she asked when the Mother Superious did not look as pleased as the situation warranted.
"His machine is gone," she said.
"It went past the shield?" asked Madam Kovarian, in surprise.
"Yes," answered the Mother Superious, tightly.
"No matter," said Madam Kovarian. "We will know if they try to leave the planet."
"Of course," nodded Mother Superious and the link turned off.
"What was that about?" asked Clara, at once.
"None of your concern," said Madam Kovarian dismissively. "You just sit here nice and pretty until we need you."
Clara had no intention of doing that at all. "The TARDIS is gone, isn't it?" she guessed. Madam Kovarian said nothing, but Clara leaned forward eagerly in her chair. "You said I was here as insurance in case the Doctor did not listen to you. And if you know him at all, you would know he is not all that fond of listening to other people. Especially when you hold his friends hostage."
Madam Kovarian turned to her sharply and then laughed. "My dear Clara, there is still a viable chance that he will do exactly what is expected of him with no prompting from us."
"Do what?" asked Clara insistently.
Madam Kovarian's smirk widened. "There is a planet down there. I believe you have been there before, although this is a few years before you were here," she said. Clara looked confused. "Trenzalore," said Madam Kovarian, in a singsong voice.
"Why?" asked Clara. "If we are early then his grave isn't even there on the planet."
"No, but there will be several graves once we are done," said Madam Kovarian with a sinister smile. "Every Time Lord who crosses over to this side."
"Time Lords?" asked Clara, in shock. "But they're all dead. They're gone and can never come back."
"Oh, Clara," said Madam Kovarian in a falsely sweet voice. "You and I have so much to talk about."
"How?" asked Rose.
"I don't know," said the Doctor.
"But the Moment an-and…"
"I don't know," interrupted the Doctor in a louder voice, bringing his fist down on the console, which immediately shut down the echoing 'Doctor Who?' message being broadcast. He looked at Rose who was staring at him stunned and sighed. "The fields of Trenzalore, the fall of the Eleventh, and the question," quoted the Doctor. "The first question. The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight." He sighed again and shook his head. "I always thought it meant my death."
"But it's not though, is it?" asked Rose, softly. "It's a way for the Time Lords…for Gallifrey, to come back into this universe." She exhaled and nodded slowly. "So, first things first, how did they survive? It could have been through the small gap you made in the Time Lock…"
"I told you, it wasn't enough…" interrupted the Doctor.
"Alright, alright," said Rose, raising her hands to stop him. "Then, maybe the Moment was never meant to burn Gallifrey."
The Doctor looked at her in shock. "What?" he asked.
"The Time Lords made it, didn't they? Well, the power source, at least," she amended. "Why would they make a weapon that could kill them and their world?"
"It doesn't matter how they survived," said the Doctor. "They chose the question only I can answer so that they would know it is safe to come back."
"But it isn't though," said Rose, with a quick nod towards the scanner which still showed the ships hovering over the planet.
"No, it is not," agreed the Doctor with a short nod. "I'll have to warn them off somehow. Close the crack for good."
"And you're sure you want to do that?" asked Rose delicately.
He stared at her with raised brows. "You want them to come back? Have you forgotten the last days of the war?" he asked.
Rose glared at him icily. "I remember them very well," she said, her lips drawn together.
He looked immediately chastised. "I know, I'm sorry," he said sincerely.
Rose nodded at him, her glare softening into a look of pensiveness. "They are your people. We don't know how they survived, or how long they have been wherever they are now, or even who survived," she said. "What if we close this crack right now and you never get to know the answers to those questions?"
The Doctor looked down at the console for a long moment. "You're right," he said finally. "Like always," he added with a wry smile. "But I'm not going to risk starting the Time War anew for the sake of my curiosity. I'm going to close that crack and if Gallifrey is out there somewhere, then we will find another way, a safer way for them to make it back here. Until then, I won't speak my name."
"Okay," said Rose, holding his gaze steadily. "How do we close it then?"
"They are only broadcasting that one question and unfortunately for us, we are the only two people in the universe who cannot lie about that answer," he said. "But fortunately, I am also very clever. I just need to…"
They were cut off by the echoing sound of a homing beacon and they exchanged confused looks before walking out of the TARDIS cautiously. They saw a hologram of Tasha's face in the sky, the look on her face serious.
"Doctor, Rose," she greeted tightly.
"Alright, Tasha?" asked the Doctor, looking a bit uncertain.
"So, it is true? It is the Time Lords?" she asked.
"How did you know?" asked Rose but the Doctor chuckled humourlessly.
"Oh, Tasha," he said, shaking his head. "I am so sorry."
It was her turn to laugh. "Sorry? You are sorry?" she asked bitterly. "I died, Doctor. The Daleks showed no mercy."
"Daleks?" hissed Rose, looking at the Doctor. "How?"
"You gave me the answer yourself, Rose," said the Doctor. "This is where you crossed over from the other universe. It is a weak spatial point in this universe. No wonder Gallifrey chose this spot too. But the Daleks, they knew it too. They recognised the transmission as Gallifreyan, just like we did. Only thing was…"
"They could not translate, though they suspected that it would be a message only you could decode," said Tasha. "The last survivor of Gallifrey."
"But if I say my name, then I'm no longer the last, am I?" asked the Doctor shrewdly.
Tasha shook her head with a smile. "You will not bring them back, Doctor," she said. "The Daleks will not tolerate the return of the Time Lords."
"So, you'll lower the shields and let them attack us, is it?" asked the Doctor. "Ruthless but efficient, just like the Daleks."
"No, Doctor," said Tasha. "The Daleks do not want blood. Not this time. If you walk away and let us destroy Trenzalore then you and your friends will be spared."
"I can't let you do that," said the Doctor, talking as if they weren't discussing the fate of the universe but having a simple chat among friends. "If you destroy the planet, then it could cause a cataclysmic explosion. Ruin any chance of the Time Lords ever returning."
"Exactly," said Tasha.
"Hang on," interrupted Rose. "You said his 'friends' will be spared."
"Oh," said Tasha. "Didn't I mention?"
Another hologram appeared in the sky, this one showing Clara walking down an alley and being taken by three Daleks. The Doctor and Rose stared in horror as the hologram dissipated.
"She is still alive," said Tasha. "Leave in your TARDIS and let the Daleks destroy Trenzalore and she shall be returned to you, unharmed. If you disobey, we will kill her, then the two of you, and destroy the planet anyway. You have an hour to evacuate."
"What about any of the people on this planet?" asked Rose.
"We released a plague that wiped them out," said Tasha, in a matter-of-fact voice. "One hour. No more."
She vanished from the sky, leaving the Doctor and Rose in silence. The Doctor looked back at the tower, and then between his ship and Rose. Rose grabbed his hand and made him meet her gaze.
"What do you need?" she asked, her voice sounding much like the commander in the war.
He lifted up her left hand and kissed the ring. "I need time and a diversion," he said. "Also, getting Clara out is a priority."
"Do you need the TARDIS?" asked Rose.
He considered it for a moment and then shook his head. "I need a few things from the TARDIS and then she's all yours," he said.
Rose nodded and then kissed him fiercely for a moment. "Be careful," she whispered, resting her forehead on his.
"You too," he said and kissed her again lightly. "I mean it. You are the one walking into the lion's den."
"I'll be fine," said Rose, with a bright smile that didn't fool him for a second. "I've done the walk before. It's practically my favourite walk at this point."
He returned the smile shakily and pulled her towards the TARDIS. In the back of his head, he felt an ominous ticking that he had only felt ten times before.
The fall of the Eleventh…
Clara sat back in her chair, her mind reeling. The Time Lords and Gallifrey had somehow survived and they were trying to come back through Trenzalore. She looked at Madam Kovarian who was sitting opposite from her, calmly letting her process it all.
"So, the Daleks took you over so they could stop the Time Lords from coming back?" asked Clara, just to make sure.
"Yes," said Madam Kovarian. "I was just coming back from a mission, you see. Ever heard of River Song?"
"Yeah, of course," said Clara.
"She was my creation," she said, sighing wistfully. "Well, Madam Kovarian's, at least. It took time and patience to turn Melody Pond into River Song, let me tell you. But I succeeded. If only that little psychopath hadn't fallen in love with him."
"Why did you?" asked Clara. "Why go to all that trouble to kill the Doctor? Was it the Daleks that made you?"
"Oh, not at all," she said. "This was before the Daleks ever attacked the church. The church watches, Clara Oswald. And it foresaw a time when Silence would fall and the Doctor would speak his name and bring forth chaos. We did everything we could to stop him from ever getting to Trenzalore. But we failed. Our psychopath failed and here we are."
"Why would the church not want the Time Lords coming back?" asked Clara, curiously.
"Because the Daleks still exist in this universe and it would have meant the beginning of the Time War yet again," she said. "And this time, we weren't sure if the universe would survive." She chuckled bitterly. "Turns out it was all for nothing. The Daleks destroyed us all and there will be no stopping them."
"The Doctor will stop them. If not today, then some other day," said Clara confidently.
Madam Kovarian's candid demeanour vanished and she sat back in her chair. She opened her mouth to say something but there was a cool chime and she touched the holographic device on the table.
"Yes?" she asked, in a tight voice.
"The Doctor's ship is materialising in the Mother Superious' chambers," came a male voice, sounding urgent.
Madam Kovarian got to her feet. "Take reinforcements. I'm on my way," she said and left without looking back at Clara.
Clara remained stunned for a moment, but then got to her feet and started looking for any guards around the conference room but the hallway outside was empty. With quick and cautious steps, she made her way through the hallway and came across several other corridors with no indications as to where the Mother Superious' chambers were. As an afterthought, she dug into her pockets to look for something to defend herself with, but only found her keys. Nevertheless, she held it between her fingers, ready to jab any potential guards right in the eye.
"You're gonna need more than that to defend yourself," came a voice from behind her and Clara whirled around in shock to see a grinning Rose leaning against the hallway wall.
"Rose?" she asked, in shock. "How did you even-?"
"Doesn't matter how," she said, but Clara saw a heavy black device strapped to her wrist. "We have to find a way back to the TARDIS."
"They said it was in the Mother Superious' chambers," said Clara at once.
Rose nodded, fiddling with the device on her wrist. "That makes sense," she said. "The Doctor merely activated the recall button and the TARDIS materialised at the last location she was in."
"Hang on, so where's the Doctor?" asked Clara as she followed Rose down a hallway.
"Still down on the planet," she answered. "Doing some jiggery pokery to close the crack."
"Wouldn't that stop the Time Lords from coming back?" asked Clara.
"For now, yeah," said Rose. "Until there's a safer way."
"Madam Kovarian ordered reinforcements to the chamber. How are we even going to get past them?" asked Clara.
"Madam Kovarian?" asked Rose, turning to look at Clara in shock. "She's here?"
"Yeah," said Clara. "I mean, sort of. It's her body but the Daleks…"
"Yeah, know what that's like," said Rose, suppressing a shudder but Clara saw her fists clench. "They rarely took prisoners during the war but the ones that did get caught ended up as Dalek drones. Some even kept their intelligence or thoughts and memories. Not that it helped in the end."
"Sorry," said Clara and Rose shook herself to smile shakily at her.
"No, it's alright. Good thing is, I know how to deal with them," she said. "Madam Kovarian, though? There's someone I would have liked to meet before the Daleks got to her."
"You might just get your wish," they heard and rounded the corner straight into Madam Kovarian, the Mother Superious and a few guards.
"You didn't really think that we wouldn't notice an additional teleport device bringing someone aboard our ship, did you?" asked Tasha, raising her eyebrow.
"Actually," said Rose with a wide smile. "I was counting on it."
There was a loud explosion that rocked the entire church and Rose grabbed Clara's hand, prompting her to run.
"What the hell was that?" asked Clara as Rose pulled her down a long hallway that ended in a large archway with double doors.
"A diversion," said Rose, pushing the doors open to find the TARDIS sitting innocuously in the middle of the chamber. "Get in," she told Clara. "And press the blue, glowy switch next to the helmic regulator. It will take you down to the planet."
"What about you?" asked Clara.
"I'll be fine. Just go," ordered Rose.
Clara seemed reluctant to leave but they could hear footsteps coming towards them, so at an imploring look from Rose, she unlocked the TARDIS and went inside. The switch was just where Rose had said it would be and she pressed it, hoping it was the right one. The TARDIS started to dematerialise and Clara's heart thumped frantically in her chest, hoping that Rose would make it out safely too.
The TARDIS landed with a thud and Clara ran outside the doors, only to wish that she hadn't a moment later, when she realised how cold it was. Fortunately, she saw the Doctor run out of a tall tower, a large beaming smile on his face. Clara ran over to him and hugged him, feeling relieved for the first time since she had walked into that alley to investigate.
"You have no idea how good it is to see you," she said, still holding onto him tightly.
"I think I do," he said and then pulled away to tap her nose playfully. "Where's Rose?"
Clara froze and the Doctor's smile vanished. "She stayed back, didn't she?" he asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.
"Yeah," said Clara. "Doctor, I'm so…"
"No, she must have a plan," he said firmly, cutting Clara off. She rather thought that it sounded like he was reassuring himself, so she didn't see fit to contradict him.
"Yeah, I know," she said, plastering on an encouraging smile instead. "So, what jiggery pokery have you been doing down here?"
He smiled at her, though it wasn't the bright beaming smile from before. "Something that will keep the Time Lords safe for the time being," he said. "Come on, I'll show you."
Clara fell into step beside him as he walked to the tower in the middle of the deserted town square. She was shivering lightly from the cold but didn't want to complain. However, the Doctor noticed and started taking off his jacket as they reached the base of the tower.
"Here," he said, offering it to her.
Clara took it with a grateful smile, which dimmed when she saw the ring on his finger in the low light. She tried to stamp down the slight hurt she felt but her mouth seemed to have lost its filter. "You got married?" she asked, and felt like wincing at the accusatory tone of her own voice.
The Doctor looked at her carefully and then shook his head. "Not exactly," he said. "No, hang on, yes," he said, correcting himself almost immediately. "Yes, Rose and I got married. Just when we came down to this planet, in fact."
Clara had more questions to ask about that and she could feel them right at the tip of her tongue, and she had to clamp a hand down on her mouth to stop herself from speaking. She saw the Doctor's eyes widen before he grimaced apologetically.
"Truth field," he said. "I'll tell you what you want to know but you might not want me to hear what you are about to ask, so I'll change the subject, okay? You can ask me anything after we are out of here." Clara nodded slowly and the Doctor smiled at her, nodding towards the tower. "Come on, I'll show you what I've been working on."
Rose heaved a sigh of relief as she watched Clara disappear with the TARDIS. She turned around as the doors were thrown open and Madam Kovarian, Tasha and the guards entered the chamber. To say that they were furious was an understatement.
"What did you do?" spat Tasha, going over to her personal controls near the altar to check for the damage that Rose might have caused with explosions.
"Nothing drastic, just minor explosives to your vents. The air might have been turned up just a tad," said Rose, playing with a golden chain around her neck, which held a delicate glass vial, about an inch in length. There were barely distinguishable Gallifreyan symbols carved onto the glass, which were invisible unless you knew where to look.
"Why didn't you escape?" asked Madam Kovarian, looking at her shrewdly.
"Well, personally, I wanted to meet you," said Rose, sounding pleasant though her eyes were hard. "You featured quite a bit in River Song's journal."
Madam Kovarian smirked. "Oh, don't tell me you actually like her," she said. "She could quite possibly be the only one who could compete for the Doctor's affections with you."
"Not really," shrugged Rose. "He has loved plenty and a lot of people have loved him. It isn't a competition. But I really wouldn't expect you to understand."
"The ventilation systems are undamaged," said Tasha, looking up from the controls. "There was apparently a blockage but it has been resolved."
"What I don't get," said Rose, continuing on as if Tasha hadn't interrupted, "is your whole insane plan to use River to stop the Doctor from getting to Trenzalore. Why does the church care if the Time Lords return or not?" Then she got a shrewd look on her face. "Or did you just not want the competition to return? The Time Lords were the original watchers of the universe, weren't they? You lot wouldn't even have been a blip on the radar. But no more Time Lords meant that you could take up that position with ease. The Daleks want to conquer, but you just want to watch and interfere. Shape the universe into what you would want it."
"It doesn't really matter," said Madam Kovarian, seemingly unfazed at Rose's revelation but Rose saw Tasha stiffen imperceptibly.
"I wasn't talking to you," said Rose and turned to Tasha. "You are still in there somewhere Tasha Lem, though I can't say the same for you, Madam Kovarian. And that's why I stayed behind. To make sure I was doing the right thing."
"What are you talking about?" asked Madam Kovarian but Rose didn't look away from Tasha.
"You just have to say the word," said Rose, looking at Tasha imploringly. "Tasha Lem, I am speaking to you."
"I have had enough of this," snapped Madam Kovarian. "Kill her," she ordered the guards.
"Tasha," said Rose. "You know what must happen. You are the Mother Superious of the Church of the Papal Mainframe. You have to make the choice."
Tasha raised her hand and a Dalek ray gun emerged from it. Rose tensed visibly at the sight of it but held her ground. Without missing a beat, Tasha turned the gun on Madam Kovarian and shot her point blank. Madam Kovarian let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain and fell to the ground, dead.
"Do it," said Tasha as the guards rounded on her. "Do it now, Rose Tyler."
"I am so very sorry for this," said Rose, and with a quick flick of her fingers, she broke the glass vial that was around her neck. A fine, odourless blue mist escaped from the seemingly clear vial and the guards and Tasha fell to their knees in pain, screaming at the top of their lungs. Elsewhere in the church, every person turned by the Daleks was suffering the same fate. Rose blocked out the screams as best she could and ran to Tasha.
"The ventilation systems," gasped Tasha through the pain. "That was very clever. And you had the activation agent around your neck. The Dalek conditioning in my head said that it was familiar the moment I saw you hold up the vial."
"It was used in the war to take down turned Dalek soldiers and their ships," said Rose.
"What happens next?" asked Tasha as the pain started to dissipate. "The Dalek conditioning did not include that part. How long will it be till I die?"
"Any moment now," said Rose softly. "I'm sorry, Tasha. You know this is…"
"Irreversible, yes," she nodded. "I knew that before I shot Kovarian." She looked at her dead form and choked back a sob. "We were married once, you know. Before she became so twisted in her agenda that she forgot what we stood for." Tasha looked up at Rose with wide eyes. "You have to tell the Doctor that I had nothing to do with River Song. I tried to stop Kovarian. I promise I did."
"Sshh, it's okay," said Rose gently, as silence fell around them, indicating that the Dalek soldiers on board the church's ship were now all dead.
"Why am I still alive?" asked Tasha, her voice very weak.
"The poison affects the central nervous system where the Dalek conditioning is," said Rose, reciting the explanation quietly. "You broke through the conditioning so it's taking your body longer to…"
"To die," she finished and then closed her eyes. "Thank you."
Rose sat on the floor, holding Tasha's hand as she took her last few breaths. When Tasha's final breath escaped her body, Rose got up slowly and picked up a purple shroud from the altar and covered Tasha's body with it. As an afterthought, she moved Madam Kovarian and the guards so that they were lying side by side and used as many shrouds as she could to cover up their bodies too. If there was one thing that the war had taught her, it was to always treat the dead with respect.
Once the bodies were respectfully covered, Rose went over to Tasha's controls and activated the comm. system to the planet.
"Doctor?" she asked, choosing not to activate the hologram. "Doctor, are you there?"
"Rose?"
She could hear the worry in his voice and her heart clenched. "Yeah, it's me," she said. "You can come up now."
"What about-?" He cut himself off mid question and there was a long silence that followed. "I thought those samples had perished in the war."
"I found some in my old clothes on the TARDIS," she said, knowing he had realised that she had used the nerve agent.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said. "Tasha, she uh, she almost recovered…enough to give permission…"
"Rose," interrupted the Doctor. "You did the right thing. They were already dead. It was obscene to have them masquerading as puppets controlled by the Daleks."
"I know," said Rose, though she closed her eyes in relief at hearing it from him. "Are you coming up here?"
"Yes, I'll need their ship's power to finish this last bit," he said. "Clara and I will be right there."
"Alright," said Rose and ended the communication. Moments later, the TARDIS materialised behind her.
The Doctor stepped out first and cast a grim eye around the chamber, his head bowing quietly in the direction of the bodies covered by shrouds. Clara followed in his wake and looked shocked at the sight of the bodies but didn't say anything. Rose greeted them with a nod, and to Clara's enormous surprise, the Doctor rushed over to her and, without an ounce of hesitation, kissed her full on the mouth.
Clara looked away as they kissed but felt an odd urge to cheer. She had never seen the Doctor look so happy, and despite the severity of the situation, she was very happy for the two of them. The Doctor had stopped her from asking questions down on the planet because of the truth field, but she had only wanted to know if he was alright and happy about the decision to marry Rose. She had her answer now and it filled her with joy for her friends.
She cleared her throat, unable to stop a smile from gracing her face when they pulled away from each other and blushed deeply. "Alright, you two?" she asked cheekily.
"Right, sorry, Clara," said the Doctor, going over to the controls. "This will take some time."
"You going to tell me what you've been doing?" asked Rose.
"I built a receiver on the planet," said the Doctor.
"What for?" asked Rose, confused.
"The crack can only be closed from the other side and since that isn't an option, I have decided against closing it," said the Doctor. "But everyone now knows the location of Trenzalore. So, logically, the only solution is to hide Trenzalore."
"Yeah, you said that to me before," said Clara while Rose lapsed into a thoughtful silence. "I still don't know how you're going to do that."
"Oh, Clara, you know the answer to that," said the Doctor. "How do we hide a planet?"
"In a painting," said Rose, her eyes going wide. "Stasis cube?"
"Stasis cube!" confirmed the Doctor with a wide smile.
"Like the Zygons?" asked Clara, realisation spreading across her face. "That's brilliant."
"I know!" crowed the Doctor. "I contacted our Zygon friends on Earth as I was navigating back up here and they are standing by with Kate to capture Trenzalore in a stasis cube."
"Hold on, that would take a massive amount of power," said Rose. "We are transporting a whole planet across time and space."
"Oh, the power required is colossal," nodded the Doctor. "But we also happen to have the Zygons doing much of the heavy lifting. The TARDIS has enough power and I can use the church's ship to create a conduit to allow the transfer of energy."
"And that will be enough power?" asked Rose, still unconvinced.
"Of course," said the Doctor, easily. "Rose, I need you and Clara to go into the TARDIS. Keep an eye on the power transfer and if it wavers, call for me. Understand?"
"Okay," said Rose. "Be careful."
"Yeah," he said as Clara echoed Rose's sentiment.
The two women went into the TARDIS and the Doctor waited until the doors had closed to pull out his sonic screwdriver. The TARDIS doors locked firmly and the sonic screwdriver dead bolted the doors from the outside. He knew there would be hell to pay if he survived this, but he chose not to dwell on it for the time being.
"Kate, can you read me?" he asked, activating the comm. link from the church's systems.
"Reading you loud and clear, Doctor," said Kate. "The Zygon leader is waiting for your signal."
"Yeah," he said. "On my count, five…four…three…two…one…"
He saw the planet on the screen flicker lightly and he breathed in relief at the fact that the connection had been established. "Link active," he transmitted to the Zygon leader. "Wait on my mark for activation."
"What is the power reading?" asked the Zygon leader.
The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver and frowned. "Power at 68%," he relayed to them.
"That is insufficient power for the transfer," said the Zygon leader.
"I know," said the Doctor and then glanced back at the TARDIS. "The power will be rising soon. Just be ready to make the transfer."
"Affirmative," confirmed the Zygon leader.
The Doctor gripped his sonic screwdriver tightly and focused the energy. He started glowing golden and he almost felt the ghost of River's slap against his cheek for using his regeneration energy. But this was important, and as the heat around his body started inching up, he could see the power rising steadily. He grinned and focused even more and the energy from his Time Lord body was more than sufficient to generate the power necessary. Inside the TARDIS, he heard Rose's exclamation of surprise at the fact that she couldn't get the doors open.
The power continued to rise: 87%...88%...89%...
"Doctor!" He heard Rose shout, followed by frantic banging against the door. "Doctor, what the hell is happening?"
The Doctor could barely hear her over the pain that he was in and the hand not holding the screwdriver closed around a defunct lever to support himself. He didn't even notice how badly his hand was getting cut on the metal lever or the blood dripping onto the controls.
96%...97%...98%...99%...
"N-now!" ordered the Doctor and wrenched his gaze up to look at the planet. Trenzalore seemed to vibrate imperceptibly at first but then it started vibrating so intensely that it was a blur of blue in the dark sky. It continued to vibrate until it became difficult for even the Doctor's superior vision to keep up before vanishing abruptly.
"Transfer complete," said the Zygon leader and the Doctor fell to the ground on his back, his vision swimming.
He vaguely heard the TARDIS doors slam open and Rose bending over him, assessing him frantically. A moment later, he could focus again and had to smile at the berating words escaping Rose's mouth mixed in with colourful swearing that would have made a sailor blush.
"…ought to murder you myself…" she muttered and the Doctor grinned.
"You would miss me," he said, surprised that his voice was steady, considering everything.
"Don't be so sure," said Rose but helped him sit and hugged him tightly as soon as he was upright.
"You would too," he murmured into her neck, smiling smugly when she shivered. With a sudden burst of power, he stood up, picking Rose up with him. "See, I'm fine."
"I see blood," said Clara from behind them, looking just as annoyed as Rose.
"Just a cut, see," he said, holding up his hand, only to realise that the cut was gone. "Oh."
Rose stared at him as tears filled her eyes. "No," she said. "Please, we just started. Please, no."
He cupped her face with his newly healed hand and kissed her mouth softly. "I'm sorry," he said, rubbing his nose against hers.
"What? What's going on?" asked Clara, looking scared.
"He-he's regenerating," said Rose, fisting her hands in his waistcoat as if she could keep him from doing that if she could hold him tightly enough.
"You can't," said Clara, shocked.
A loud explosion that shook the church's ship cut them off. "I think our friends just noticed that the planet they were orbiting is no longer there," said the Doctor. He grabbed Rose around the waist and took Clara's hand, leading them into the TARDIS. He made it all the way inside before he felt the first of the shocks indicating the impending regeneration.
From the expressions on Rose and Clara's faces, they hadn't missed his grimace of pain. He smiled brightly and leaned against the console subtly so he wouldn't fall over like he was feeling he might.
"Clara," he said. "Come here."
With a sob, Clara ran to him and hugged him tightly. "Please, don't go," she said.
"I'm not going anywhere, Clara Oswald," he said. "I'll be right here. Just with a different face. But it will always be me. I promise."
Clara shook with her sobs but nodded. "Really?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"Really," he said. "Cross my hearts."
"Not funny," she said, punching his arm half-heartedly but hiding a chuckle, which was his aim.
She hugged him again and then moved away from him, wiping her tears. The Doctor beamed at her before looking at Rose who hadn't bothered stopping the tears flowing from her eyes.
"Rose," he whispered.
"Thought I made you promise not to go changing on me anytime soon," she said, walking towards him.
"I am bad at keeping promises," he said. "I'll try and do better with this next one."
"Shut up," said Rose, hugging him. "You are lousy with promises. It has nothing to do with regeneration." She pulled away slightly to brush his hair away from his forehead. "Promise you will still love me?"
"Oh, Rose," he said, with a beautiful smile. "There is nothing in the cosmos that can ever change that." He ran the back of his hand over her cheek gently. "Promise you won't leave me?"
"Not unless you want me to," said Rose, meaning it completely.
"You promised forever. I intend to hold you to that," he said. "I'm sorry I locked you in the TARDIS."
"We'll talk about it later. Just focus on this now," said Rose. She felt him trembling and her heart clenched. "Are you scared?"
"Yes," he said with a smile and the regeneration energy shook him violently, disrupting their embrace. Rose moved away a step, knowing that it would not be pleasant for either of them if she was close to him when he regenerated.
"I'm here," said Rose. "I'll never leave you."
"And that will carry me through this," he said, slowly pulling off his bowtie. "We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives." He placed the bowtie in Rose's hand and lifted her fingers to his lips for a quick kiss before moving away again.
The golden regeneration energy was engulfing him almost entirely now and he looked between Clara and Rose with a wide smile. "And that's okay, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this."
He held Rose's gaze as he spoke his next words. "Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor...was me."
A/N Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought.
The epilogue will be up soon.