Donna wandered through the rabbit-like warren, marvelling at the markets lining the maze. It was alarmingly human, selling material, knick knacks, flowers, and things that looked like vegetables but could very well be another set of aliens. If you took away the multiarmed golems and the sentient gelatinous blobs, she could have been back on Earth.

Suddenly the weight of what she had done finally hit her, and Donna's legs turned to water. She sunk down in a corner, head between her knees, breathing deeply.

Pull yourself together, you twit.

She gave herself a mental shake. You are the most important person in the universe. In all of reality. You are part Time Lord and you just put down the resurrection of the deadliest creature in the universe.

Pull yourself together.

She stood and straightened her shirt, pulling on her mental armour. She was the best damn temp in all of Chiswick, and the galaxy would damn well know it.

I need a plan.

She looked down at the vortex manipulator on her wrist. Donna felt vaguely guilty for stealing the device from Jack, but she knew from the moment the Metacrisis was triggered that it would be only a matter of time before the Doctor was after her, to essentially pull out half of her brain.

The Doctor.

Never had she imagined that she would be one day running from her best friend.

But now Donna had reached her full potential, she was not about to let someone take all of that away from her. Anyone. She would find a way to treat the Metacrisis, cure it, be the first human ever to beat it. Even if it killed her.

And maybe it would.

Get off the street, get moving, a little voice spoke up in the back of her mind. Don't make yourself a static target. After a moment Donna realised that the little voice was her Time Lord mind, entirely more logical and survival-oriented than her Donna mind.

Briskly she strode down the footpath out of the rabbit warren and away from the markets, looking like she had somewhere to go.

And found herself standing on the edge of a raised circular platform overlooking a massive chrome and steel shining city.

"Blimey." She breathed again.

The vortex manipulator on her wrist beeped, and Donna opened the cover, staring at the little readout that was illuminated in front of her.

New Praxia, it said. Donna scrolled down. Situated in the Cygnus constellation, Praxia is known for its wide variety of flora and fauna and its multicultural community.

"Multicultural." She mumbled. From where she was standing, Donna could see giant stick creatures conversing with small, long-armed aliens. "I'll buy that."

She looked up at the three suns. Donna had thought she was free before, but now she knew that what she had felt before travelling with the Doctor was only a taste of true freedom. Even with a headache and an avalanche of awkward memories flooding her mind, she knew she was who she was and who she was supposed to be.

Donna took a lungful of the brisk Praxia air, so foreign and yet so familiar, and smiled, completely at ease despite the constant throbbing of her head.

Someone slammed hard into her back, and Donna spun around, arms swinging.

"Oi! Watch it!"

"S-sorry. Sorry." The person had bounced off her back, eyes wide. Donna's expression softened as she saw under the mop of vibrant white hair and wide black eyes was a boy that might have been fourteen or fifteen.

The kid scrambled back, trying to get back to his feet.

"Whoa, easy, kid." Donna held out her hands, palms up. "Here, let me help you up-"

"I can do it! I mean, I can do it." He got quickly to his feet, his face flushed with exertion and embarrassment. He must have been running and looking back before he had collided with her.

She frowned. "You okay, kid?"

The youth just looked at her, and Donna vaguely wondered whether the TARDIS's translation circuit was wearing off.

"Perfectly fine." The voice was stiff and distant.

The kid looked fifteen, but Donna knew enough about alien life now to know that he could have been anything from a day old to two thousand years plus. He looked at her for a moment longer with those big dark eyes before looking away.

"My name's Donna. What about you?"

"It would be better for you to forget that you ever saw me." The kid said curtly, before brushing past her, striding quickly down the stairs that linked the elevated platforms.

Rude little bastard. Donna stared after him. She had done enough of it over the last months to realise when someone was running from something. And this kid was going as fast as he could.

The amount of running is ridiculous.

Without conscious thought, her feet started moving in the direction the boy had taken.

Donna Noble, you are such a sucker.

With each layer down, the platforms seemed to degenerate into slums and long stretches of space and trash. It seemed that wherever she went, the majority of aliens were no different to humans, wasteful and disgusting.

Occasionally she caught glimpses of the white haired youth, but the sightings got further and further apart until it appeared that he was gone entirely.

"Huh."

Donna was standing between an overflowing bin and a boarded-up building. Something scurried behind her, and she spun, heart beating faster.

Snap out of it, she chided herself. It's probably just a rat. Yeah. Knowing my luck, a space rat the size of a Doberman.

She took another cautious step forward, and that was when she heard the panicked shout.

Without thinking, she was off and running.

The white-haired youth had been forced to his knees in the muck by three creatures in black exoskeleton suits, his arms wrenched behind his back. Electricity danced up and down the creatures' drawn batons, and Donna's eyes widened.

"Move it. Let's get this little worm back to the nest." The lead creature snapped. He was toweringly tall, with an elegant grey snout. "Time to collect the bounty." He grabbed the teenager by the scruff of his neck, hauling him to his feet. "You've been missed, your Highness."

Donna drew in a breath.

And stepped out into the light, hands braced on her hips.

For a moment everyone was frozen in a bizarre tableau, the three policemen and the teenager staring at her.

"Is there a problem here, officers?" She asked pleasantly.

There was a moment of silence.

"Step off, Earther." Another of the policemen snarled. There were barnacles all over his face like the hull of a ship. But Donna had not gotten to where she was today by being a pushover.

"What did the kid do?"

"None of your business." Barnacle-face ground out. Grey-snout held out a hand for silence.

"This is police business and nothing of your concern." He said coldly, turning and soundly dismissing her. Donna's eyes narrowed. No one walked away from Donna Noble.

"Hey, he's just a kid! This has to be police brutality or something!" Before she realised what she was doing, Donna reached out and grabbed Grey-snout's arm.

She realised her mistake the moment she made it.

Hell.

Grey-snout just looked at her, his gaze going from studiously disinterested to blazingly angry. Donna snatched her arm back in case he decided to bite it off.

"You dare attack a law enforcement officer, Earther?" He asked in a deadly voice.

"What! Attack! You've got to be freaking kidding me!" That's right, just keep digging your hole, you idiot.

A third policeman, with deep, burnished red skin took Donna firmly by the arm.

"Since you are so concerned about the boy, perhaps you should accompany us."

Damn.