A/N: Hey FanFiction! :D This is the final chapter of "His Darkest Hour" so I really really hope you like it :D Please, if you do like it either favourite this, me or just review :D Enjoy! :)
His Darkest Hour
Chapter Six: A Final Farewell
The two of them lay back, knowing that this was the end. They could both feel the very time around them seeming to squeeze them tighter, restricting their breathing and forcing their hearts to beat slower... slower. Their systems shutting down, and as all hope drifted away infront of their closed eyes, they succumbed to the dark.
That was when a familiar voice drifted into their conciousness. "Hey! Sleepyhead!"
The Doctor's eyes snapped open to find a sea of red waving before his face. For a moment he thought he was back on Gallifrey, watching the red stalks waft in the wind, but then a palid white face started to drift into view. "Pond?"
"And he's awake! Finally! Do you have any idea how heavy you are mister? You should consider losing a few pounds." The Doctor heaved himself up so he was sitting and gazed around at the so very welcome sight that greeted him.
He was back in his TARDIS, the countless lights around the walls seemed to glow happily, as though even she had been worried about what could have happened. Rory sat exaughsted in one of the chairs that surrounded the console. "She's right you know," he said when he noticed The Doctor had a woken. "You weren't exactly light."
"Oi!" The Doctor cried, standing up and staring incredulously at his two companions, "I'll have you know I do a lot of running to keep this fit!" The two of them collapsed with laughter but The Doctor couldn't find what was so funny. "Did you do what I asked?"
Amy shot him a scornfull look, the kind that could stop a Cyberman dead in its tracks at 50 paces. "Well yes! What did you expect?"
The Doctor chuckled nervously. "Yes, that's exactly what I was expecting."
Earlier on the TARDIS found herself rematerializing again, but this time in an entirely different cupboard, in an entirely different place. The Doctor stepped out, went "Ah. Wrong turning." and returned inside. He disappeared moments later... but not before allowing the two humans that stood astounded infront of him into the TARDIS.
"You know," Amy said, as she watched The Doctor close the door behind them, "I did say in the garden."
"Yes I know but, close enough I think," he grinned running back to the console.
"Why do you need us?" Rory asked as he leant back against the railings that ringed the TARDIS console. "What about For?"
The Doctor paused, his smile faltering. "Things got... complicated. But that's why you're here," he said, attempting to regain his usual demeanour, but it just wouldn't remain. He looked away. "We're gonna land!" He said, the usual Doctoresque playfulness returning for now, "and then you'l wait for precisely10 minutes before following."
"10 minutes?"Amy asked, quizical. "But how will we know where to go, I know you. You could go anywhere in ten minutes!"
"Simple," The Doctor said, as the TARDIS started to warble and they left Leadworth behind, "Follow the trail."
Amy held up one of the many Jammie Dodgers they'd found. "Really?"
The Doctor grinned. "What? I thought they highlighted the importance of your task." He took the biscuit from Amy and bit into it, enjoying it for a moment before his face turned sour. "They taste better when not mixed with Crimenicide, I find. Where's For?"
"In his TARDIS," Rory said, taking the biscuit from him and looking at him like an exasperated father. "Did you know there was red grass growing in there!" The Doctor just nodded, but he was smiling at the one time he'd been in there, the old playground of their childhood that seemed so long ago.
The Doctor checked the scanner, and found that they had managed exactly what he'd asked, For's contraption had vanished, replaced by the TARDISes it had been made from. "You did positively charge mine didn't you?"
"Yeah and For's is negatively charged," Rory said, heading away from the control room and shouting back behind him. "Don't' worry Doctor we do know what we're doing you know, at least," he paused, "when you tell us how."
The Doctor grinned, switching the scanner so that it linked with the TARDIS that stood next to his. "For?" He asked rather tentatively, not sure what reaction he'd recieve from the other TARDIS.
He could see For's black leather jacket slung on a white stone nearby, but no sign of For. "One minute Doctor," his voice drifted from somewhere in the bedlam that was his TARDIS. "Just rearranging things."
"I can see that." For came into view, the remains of what looked like the invisibility matrix The Doctor had created slung over his back. "Hey that took me ages to make!"
"I told you I don't like the whole invisibility thing." For was grinning, but he seemed to know that this was their final farewell. The Doctor sighed, unable to put it off.
"You know you have to go back," he said, trying to stay positive. For did a better job of it, he always did.
"Oh I'm intending to," For said, dropping the cables upon the grass and grabbing his jacket. "I'm going to stop what you showed me from happening if it's the last thing I do."
The Doctor chuckled. "If anyone can For, it's you." He may have been laughing, but inside his gut churning. He hated lying to his friends, but no matter what he did it always seemed to be the only to keep them happy, keep them safe. "I wish I could go with you For, but we can't afford another cross-over."
"I know," For said, his eyes sad. "I'll see you sooner than you think. I won't leave you alone Doctor, I'll make it so you have the whole of your race with you. I promise." The Doctor sniffed, tears glistening in his eyes and he very nearly told him everything then; how it would be pointless going back, how even he couldn't change the outcome of the Time-War, how he just wanted him to stay, to have even the smallest part of his heart back.
But he didn't he just smiled, wiped his eyes and said, "Until then eh For?"
"Yeah, until then." And For engaged his TARDIS, vanishing before The Doctor's eyes and back into the Time-Lock that would close behind him. Rory returned to find The Doctor stood silently at the console, staring blankly at the scanner with an unsure Amy standing not too far away, looking awkwardly at The Doctor.
The Doctor flicked the switch that would send Skaro back after For, shutting the lock and ensuring none of this ever happened. Even the New Dalek Paradigm would never have come here, they would just return to wherever they were before this all began. Lucky them.
He looked at his two companions, both of whom seemed to be scared of what The Doctor might do next. He just smiled and sniffed again. "Why don't you two head down to the library? There a beautiful planet called Apllapachia that I want to show you at some point, I'm sure there's a guide book in there somewhere." Amy nodded and began to walk to the library, but as she stepped past her husband he didn't follow.
"Won't you be coming with us?"
The Doctor grinned at him. Rory, possibly the nicest Roman he'd ever met. "No, I've got some work to do here, For really did a number on my old girl... I'll catch you up later." Rory nodded, but Amy had to tug at his arm before he moved anywhere.
When they were safely out of sight The Doctor collapsed onto the nearest chair and held his head in his hands. I couldn't tell if he was crying but he sat there for a long time, not moving, just covering his face and when he finally did move, he walked straight past the way to the library and up the stairs into the bowels of the TARDIS.
Anything to avoid thinking about his best friend's face, and how he'd just sent him back to his death.
We disconnected from the interface and The Doctor cleared his throat as thought he'd was about to cry again. "Well," he said, swallowing hard, "there you go."
There you go? I thought as I followed him out. There you go what?
"I think I have everything I need. I know what I need to do now." I turned around and leant on the wall opposite as he shut the door behind us.
"What you need to do? I thought we were writing a warning to others, so they wouldn't use whatever it was that you found?" The Doctor just smiled a knowing smile and strode off in the direction of the main control room.
"Well that was the original plan yes, but then things kind of went awry in my mind, as they often do, and what was once going to be a warning is now a command!" He seemed to be getting very excited as we descended the stairs to the console, him taking then two at a time before he darted underneath to start fiddling again.
"What do you mean Doctor?" I dropped into the chair when I reached the bottom of the staircase, realizing just how tired using the interface made me. Having only a slightly psychic mind when using a psychic interface will make you tired... very tired.
"That's a good question!" I heard numerous clicks, clunks and whirrings as he continued to work. "Well I could mean the warning the Epthatyle gave me at the James' about how I must go over the horizons of the Universe, or I could mean the very warning we were jsut writing to others, or maybe I mean the warning my mother used to give me about never swallowing Lego..." The Doctor paused. "Okay maybe not that one but the others are definitely plausible."
He ran back upstairs, and gave me a look that just radiated excitement. It felt as though some of the old Doctor was starting to find itself, that he was finally getting over his "death" at Silencio Lake. "Basically Alex," he said breathlessly, "we're going over the horizon of the Universe!"
And then he pulled a lever, messed with the zig-zag plotter, activated the gravitic anomalyser and sent us hurtling where even he had never dared go before.
A/N: So? What did you think? :) Please let me know I really do want to get better at this whole writing thing :P Please Review basically! :D And don't worry this will continue, and end, with the final installment of this pentalogy; "Over The Horizon" but it will take me awhile to do it as I want to hear what you think of this first so I can improve, and I also want to make sure I know everything I need to before I write it :) But don't worry... I will start it as soon as I can I promise :) Thanks for reading :)