Nothing.
That's all she saw.
A dark, empty abyss of nothingness; absence of light and hope.
She knew what to expect. After all, when time dies, it isn't abrupt like a broken watch or an empty tank of gas. When time dies, it's slow and painful. Everything alive, and everything those living things make, crumbles. Empires, space colonies, whole galaxies go to ruin. The universe was frozen as its creations stopped burning.
The Doctor from stared into the abyss, holding onto the doorpost for dear life. Words escaped her grasp. Her breathing stopped. Both hearts froze. Tears streamed down her face.
She saw the face of death in the place where London once stood.
No time.
No space.
Just her.
"DOCTOR!" Jacob ran towards her. Yet it felt like he was moving an inch an hour.
"GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!"
She forced her mouth to speak.
"I…..can't."
It's everything she fears. The worlds she saves falling into the depths of frozen space. Her homeland, somewhere in the far reaches of the galaxy, devoid of hope and despair.
Nothing left in the Universe, but her.
But her.
If she had hope that there was another way to postpone the end. That's it!
He eventually reached her, but she pushed him away.
"No! Let me see if….I…..could…"
She gripped the doorpost as she felt her body being sucked in, like the abyss was a black hole.
"I see your face…" She mumbled under her breath, as she pulled herself away.
"I will not let you…" She pulled further.
"TAKE…MINE!"
She swung her body away from the doorway as she slammed one door shut. Immediately, with the push of a nearby button, the second door slammed shut.
They were safe again.
She slumped down, leaning against the doorpost in a fit of laughter.
She could sense Jacob's confusion as she wiped the tears from her face.
"That was all I was afraid of? Ha!"
"But you were stunned into silence just now! How could you be so joyful?!"
"Don't you see, Jacob? When you face a fear, it doesn't scare you quite like it used too. I can't believe I used to be scared of that."
She pointed her thumb at the doors and the blackness that emitted from the windows.
"But you've been afraid of it all of your life. You said it terrified you."
"I did. I still am. That's the magic of fear, Jacob."
She still gathered her breath in as she spoke.
"Fear only works before and during the ordeal. Only after, when you've conquered it once or twice, you can point at it and laugh.
"But the crazy thing about fear is that we forget it's there until we need it the least. The moment when we purge our mind of thoughts and delve into what we would normally shy away from, we forget just how afraid we truly were of the monster."
She took a couple of breaths as Jacob tried to help her up.
"Yet despite all of the other monsters I've conquered, this one will always haunt me, not because of memory. Dear me, no. It's an inevitability that I must always consider. Everything I do is to avoid this moment, yet I need to face it every so often."
"Why, Doctor?"
"To try and find a way to stop it."