A/N: Meh. I didn't care how the previous chapter came out - too much bloviated (and capitalized) exposition - so I've rewritten it. If you read it before this chapter came out, please do go back and re-read.

Bad Wolf's Paradox

Trapped in the paradox of its own making, the Dalek Emperor's trans-dimensional bomb unleashed its planetary-sized explosion even as it was being transported through time and space under the power of the seven vortex manipulators strapped to its shell. The dimensional shielding the Emperor had used to bind the parallel worlds together at the point of its predicted detonation meant the cataclysm was not ripped apart, but rather the entire effect was sent in each of seven directions simultaneously, ripping open the space-time continuum along the seams.

The tail end of the blast, like the furthest effective zone of a jet engine, blew the seven humans backwards, through the rift barrier and back into their respective worlds, tossed across whatever space they had been standing in moments before to land in a heap, gasping and coughing.

^..^

John leapt across the chapel and scooped Hannah up, holding her close. "Good god!" he cried. "What was that all about? Where those the other versions of you?"

Hannah nodded. "I don't know what that was, really. Something to do with the one originally from the Alpha universe. I don't want to know any more. I'm just glad it's done, whatever it was." She looked up at John. "Let's get that treasure and get the hell out of here."

"Right. And we won't be back."

^..^

Picking herself up and dusting herself off, Swedish Rose paused for a moment, realizing the time jumper was gone. Good thing we'd decided to stay here, she thought. Hearing Thorsten call her from above, she smiled, climbed the stairs out of the cellar, and went to make dinner.

^..^

Rhosyn swung her head sharply, peering across the library patio at young Paul, who was still staring at her, mouth and eyes as wide as they would go. Knowing instinctively that he was much more important than processing what had just happened, including the eerie feeling of having meaning telepathically implanted in her mind even as she heard the incomprehensible words with her ears – and she'd never be able to figure out how that had worked – she put it all aside to consider later, and concentrated on the young man.

"Paul..." she began, faltering, then stronger. "This is what I've been trying to show you. There is so much more out there in the world than the tiny little piece you'd see with that gang. They'll only hold you back. You might become a big man here – what, in six city blocks? But the world is so much bigger than that. Don't let yourself be trapped by them."

Paul swallowed, hard, managing to close his mouth. "They're gonna be gunning for me now," he squeaked, as the realization hit him of the inevitable results of his having rejected the gang.

"Then I'll help you get away," she said simply. Rising, she walked over to stand before him. "Tonight. I know somewhere you can go." Her cousin, outside of town, would put him up for the night, and then the contacts she'd been making in the network of dojos would help him get set up somewhere up north.

He stared hard into her eyes, trying to gauge her sincerity. But then, in all his fourteen years, she was the only one he'd ever known that he really could trust. He nodded, stood, and took her hand, as they turned together to start his journey into his future.

^..^

"You OK?" Joel squeaked as he pulled Jack up from the floor. "What the hell was that?"

Jack laughed. "Just another day in the life. Didn't I promise that you'd never be bored?"

^..^

Breathing gingerly, feeling as though she'd burst from fear and wild excitement – now that it was all over – Byzantine Rose slowly picked herself up from the dusty chapel floor behind the Hagia Sophia. I did it. I did it again! I really did! The unfamiliar satisfied triumph of the mouse that roared coursed through her veins. A sunrise smile was breaking out on her face as she turned towards the doorway –

– and stopped cold. She'd forgotten about the Prelate kneeling there. He'd obviously witnessed the entire thing. Oooh shit. Not again! Tears of worshipful joy were streaming down his face, as he raised his clasped hands to her in prayerful supplication. She didn't want to hear whatever it was he was about to say.

Squaring her shoulders, she stepped closer to him, unknowingly creating a halo effect around herself from the stained glass portrait behind her. She raised a hand, and his prayer of thanksgiving died on his lips. "This must never be known," she intoned, using her best classical 'church' Greek. "I command you keep this absolutely secret. You must never tell another living soul, but only write a secret account, to be passed on to your successor, for his eyes only, and his successor, and so on down the years. No one but the Prelate of Constantinople must ever be told." She stopped a moment, considering, then added another command. Apparently this was some sort of weak spot between the worlds; the Emperor – whatever he was – had mentioned some sort of rift that was "binding the parallels together".

"Further, this chapel must be sealed forever. No one must ever enter it again. It is too holy for mortal men."

"Blessed Saint Rose, it will be done as you command," breathed the Prelate, about to die from sheer transcendent wonder at having witnessed the epic – albeit short – and incomprehensible – battle between Good and Evil inside his own cathedral.

She smiled beatifically, sketched the symbol of the cross in the air between them (just as she'd seen priests do a million times), and stepped past him, then quickly dashed down the corridor to find her tour group again.

^..^

"Hey, you all right?" somebody was asking.

Reich Rose shook her head, carefully – she'd bonked it on the wall of the crypt when the explosion had sent her flying backwards. "Yeah, I think I'll live," she replied, then took the proffered hand to pull herself up – only then realizing the owner of both the hand and the voice was the now-grown-up Paul. And there was that spark again – spark, hell, a bloody conflagration, drawing her inexorably to him, turning her insides molten liquid, drowning her in those beautiful sea-green eyes locked on hers. Was he feeling it, too? He had to be – those eyes were practically reflecting flames.

"Um," she managed after a moment, then forced herself to drop his gaze and his hand, and turn towards Charlie (who was smothering a knowing grin). "Well, I've lost the time jumper. Guess I'm going to have to get back home the hard way. Can you guys help me with that?"

^..^

Jared simply sat on the floor, up against a console where he'd landed (having been knocked off his feet by the slightest, absolute tail end of the blast), and stared at his bride. The past five minutes he'd gone from amused curiosity through panic and helpless terror, watching her through the barrier, realizing who she was up against as the voice from their past boomed out, utterly unable to do the tiniest thing to help – let alone take over and manage things the way he'd always done back when he was the Doctor. He'd watched helplessly as his beloved had wrestled with their old enemy, and then somehow had managed to come up with the solution, literally just in the very nick of time. One that he hadn't even thought of, to tell the truth.

And now...

He was still the smartest guy in the room. Absolute genius. And he was still a Time Lord – some of his senses may have been dulled by his human side, but not all of them. And those senses, the ones that had let him feel the rotation of the Earth, how it sped through space on its endless journey around the Sun, and away from the ever-expanding heart of the universe; the senses that let him know exactly where he was in time, and whether history was proceeding the way it should; the senses that showed him the presence of other Time Lords, of rifts, of powerful telepaths, and a hundred other extraordinary things; those senses were screaming at him now, as he grappled with the dawning realization of what had just happened.

Danny stepped across the cavern, shooting Jared a quizzical look then glancing away again, and helped Rose up off the floor.

"Is everything all right?" she asked breathlessly. They turned towards the overhead screens, which once more showed all seven parallel worlds humming along normally. The knots of timelines bending around hers and her dopplegangers' had disappeared.

She blew out a relieved sigh, then swung back towards Jared and walked hesitantly over to him, taking in his gobsmacked expression. "Jared? What is it?"

He unfolded his long limbs, pushing up off the floor, never breaking eye contact with her. "Do you know what you've just done?" he asked, his voice soft and breathless, a hair this side of cracking.

"Saved the universe?" Perplexed, Rose was only half joking.

"That, too. Rose... you just created the Rift."

She shook her head, completely confused. "How could I have done that? It's always been here."

"Because the seven of you sent it off in seven different directions, through time as well as space, and in parallel worlds. It ripped a hole in the spacetime continuum, just as the Emperor intended, but because it was moving like that, the hole – the tear – took the form of the combined Rifts." She started to object, and he shook his head, cutting her off. "Stop thinking linearly. Forget cause and effect. Because the rip went backwards in time as well as forwards, the cause didn't come before the effect in normal spacetime."

Rose gulped, turning to glance apprehensively at the Rift, once more contained within the glass tubing Jared had constructed. "But... there's no more danger now, right?"

"No. It's done."

She nodded, then turned back, reached up and laced her fingers behind his neck, and his arms went around her waist automatically. "Well, I couldn't have done it without you," she commented, aware that she was trying to settle her own nerves as much as his. He started to object, and this time she cut him off. "No, I mean it. Look, maybe individual things may have been done by one or the other of us, but without you – both of you," she admitted honestly, "I would never... have been anything more than an ordinary shop girl." She snuggled up close. "We're a team, remember?"

He laid his cheek on her head, still feeling wary and out-of-sorts. "I just keep wondering what you're going to do next, Bad Wolf," he admitted.

Suddenly she grinned into his collar, then pushed back so she could peer up into his face. "Well, the next thing I'm going to do, I absolutely couldn't have done by myself."

She waited a beat to see if he'd get it, biting her lips underneath dancing eyes, then clued him in, leaning up to his ear and whispering, "I'm pregnant."

His reaction was all she could have hoped for. All thoughts of Rifts and Wolves – Bad or otherwise – fled, and joy shone on his face. "Are you sure?" he squeaked.

"Yes. And somehow... I have the funniest feeling, that it's going to be a boy."

This time he did catch on. "With sea-green eyes?" he grinned.

She nodded, and they shared a kiss of pure joy.