"Can't you see?" the second Doctor finally hissed, stabbing at Donna with a finger. "Davros' weapon, his greatest weapon, is her: it's got to be her! All this stupid charade with stealing planets, gathering the companions, the Dalek that just happens to graze you instead of killing you outright: it's all part of the conspiracy!
"Everything that's happened has been to create her. Now she's been trained and controlled by Davros and placed in the TARDIS." His hair seemed to bristle with barely concealed rage. "And with her mind, and his will, and the TARDIS, the universe will fall. This universe, and all others, one by one."
"Lock her up. Lock all of us up if you have to, but you can't risk letting her loose, not for one moment!"
Donna silently mouthed a very bad phrase; even Jack with his wide-ranging experience of intergalactic slurs was impressed. Then she plastered a smile on her face.
"Don't you just hate it when people talk about you like you're not even there?" she finally said sweetly to the room in general. "Like, tellin' everyone that I'm some great super-weapon." She crossed her arms and her smile was touched with a smirk. "Of course, I'm not debatin' that I am super."
"What's the matter with you?" Rose said, staring at the second Doctor with puzzled eyes. "Don't you trust any of us at all?"
"Who trusts?" He said those words as though they were an absolute, something that could not be questioned; and his eyes widened as his audience shifted, moving a little way away from him.
"That sounds like something Davros would say," the Doctor finally said, slowly, painfully.
"He did," Donna chimed in. "Long ago, when he was hurt and frightened and alone and – oh. Oh!"
She pressed both of her palms to her temples. "Oh, I'm – I'm a fool. A blind selfish fool to -" She dropped her hands and looked up at the second Doctor, eyes suddenly sad. "All this time, I've been blabbing about what you gave me – but I never thought about what I gave you."
"What, the funny accent?" he jibed.
She shook her head. "That's not just what I gave you. I gave you – myself. All my human memories. The memories of a girl who was alone too often, of a woman who was afraid of being alone all her life. I gave you the thoughts and feelings of a human who was about to die, alone, all alone and afraid and not understanding. Me, Donna Noble. Dying here, with the TARDIS."
The second Doctor's forehead was creased in pain.
"I am alone," he gritted. "There's never been a human-Time Lord metacrisis, because there can't be. I am alone and – and I'm going to die. Alone."
He shot a look of pure hatred at the Doctor.
"No, don't look at him," Donna said, coming close and putting one hand on his shoulder. The second Doctor turned, violence in every line of his body, and she ignored that. She just looked at him.
"I gave you my life," she finally said. "And a death...and the knowledge that someday, you would die. But," she took his hand and pressed it to her chest, let him feel the beat of her single heart, "so will I. I will die, and so will Sarah Jane, and Mickey, and Martha, and Jackie. And Rose. All of us. And we don't spend our days before we die hating the world that's going to kill us, no. We love it, because it's going to give us death no matter what, and it's a great thing, the only thing, to get love out of it as well."
His lower lip trembled, and he looked about to cry. Donna stepped forward, touched her forehead to his, but it was Mickey who came close and took them both into one embrace. And then Jackie was there, Martha and Rose, Sarah Jane, and they all held onto him, onto each other, let the warmth of their human flesh surround him.
The Doctor watched, frozen, feeling a hard pain like steel through the core of him. And then suddenly there were arms around him as well; Jack behind him, embracing him, his cheek pressing against the Doctor's. The Doctor reached up, not looking, and cupped Jack's face in his hand, feeling the unforgettable sensation of immortal skin against his.
"I know," Jack whispered. "I know."
"I can't keep them," the Doctor said, his voice broken.
"I know."
The sun was bright again on Earth, and the children were playing, laughing, whooping and telling tales. Sarah Jane looked excited enough to start playing hopscotch herself.
"I have to get home to Luke, he's-"
"Sarah Jane." The Doctor cupped her arms with his hands. "Sarah, please listen."
"All right..."
"Your favour, from the Eternal. Use it – carefully. Remember: they are very whimsical. And not in a good way."
"I will. I'll save it for – for the end of days. The real end. Oh, but I do have to go, he's only fourteen and he's sure to be worried." Abruptly she twitched, a sort of jolt. "But…there's something you should know. About Esselle."
The Doctor's face did not freeze, but it seemed to slow suddenly. "What about her?" he asked neutrally.
"Well, when she was - reaching through me, and she told me about the distortion of the time rates, I caught a thought from her, just in passing, that she knew how boring it could be for a human, trying to interface with Eternal time. After all, she'd been human once."
"She thought that?"
"Yes. I - didn't even remember it, until just now." She tried to read his expression. "Is it - do you think that it's important?"
"It might be. It might be. Sarah Jane, thank you. Thank you for everything, and give your Luke my best."
"Oh, I will, I will. Bye!" and she dashed off, bright in the sunlight.
Jack and Martha asked to be dropped off together; which rather made sense. Martha was smiling, Jack was - thoughtful. The Doctor paused for an instant, to see if Jack's thoughts would rise to the surface.
"I asked Donna a question," Jack said, his face suddenly sad. "I asked her if she knew how I'd become immortal, since you wouldn't tell me."
"Oh. And?" The Doctor's upper lip drew a little back from his teeth.
"She wouldn't tell me either. Said that it would be stealing, basically: taking something that you didn't want me to have, and giving it to me. She did say that it was a mistake. And that the - person - who gave me immortality, didn't keep any for themselves. And she said that there might be an end for me."
"An end - no, Jack, I can't see how that's possible."
"She suggested that I pray."
Martha and the Doctor looked at him with expressions of shock.
"You are not going to pray to Davros," the Doctor said, his words an order. "He's not worth it. He's - he was, only a man."
"No, I'm not going to pray to Davros."
"Good."
"I'm going to pray to Ravon."
"What?" asked Martha; she hoped that the trauma of being captured by the Daleks hadn't unbalanced Jack mentally.
"Ravon?" the Doctor asked, eyebrows bristling with his frown. "Ravon?"
"Ravon. Over there, in his dimension, they call him the God of Blood – which means the living blood that is not shed in vain. The blood that runs in the limbs of children, the hearts of lovers, the minds of the wise. The God of honourable death, and glorious gestures. If anyone can give me an end, I'd - I wouldn't mind if it was a glorious and honourable one."
The Doctor's mouth twisted, and he suddenly stepped forward and hugged Jack, hard.
"You certainly have earned it," he said, voice muffled. "And I only wish that I could give you what you wanted."
Jack moved a little away, and smiled, and pressed his lips to the Doctor's face. "You have."
"You - take care of him, won't you Martha?" the Doctor entreated.
She laughed. "He doesn't need me to doctor for him."
They walked away, laughing, and the Doctor turned at a touch to his elbow. Somehow he was not surprised to see that it was Mickey, nor was he surprised when he said that he was staying here. Not going back with Rose.
"My Gran's gone," he said. "Died in her sleep. And Rose - she's got her own life, now. And maybe I can see - I don't know, something different for me."
He embraced the Doctor, quickly, and then backed off, smiling at him. "And if it weren't for you and Rose, I'd be a mechanic still. Fiddlin' around and not knowing what I wanted to do. Not knowing what I could do."
"And that is?"
"Anything, Doctor." He widened his eyes in a comical expression of gleeful madness. "Anything."
He laughed, and headed after Jack and Martha. The Doctor watched him go, and felt as though he was snapping a thread that held his hearts together.
Not yet, he thought. The thread wouldn't be cut until his next stop.
The doors of the TARDIS opened, and a fresh cool breeze came through, smelling of salt. A familiar smell.
Rose stepped outside, following her mother. She saw the long expanse of sands of Bad Wolf Bay, and opened her mouth to speak.
But there was no chance to say anything. Instead there were hot hands out of nowhere on her, dragging her away into sizzling blackness, the last sight the Doctor's face strangely doubled as he looked up to the sky and screamed.
And she screamed in answer, as the first blow came smashing down on her.