A/N I down own BBC or DW

Book of the Update: Seeing in the Dark by Timothy Ferris

Chapter 11

"Doctor, we have to do something!" Rose said, tears running down her face. "I can't just walk away and listen to them die!" but that's exactly what they were doing. They were walking away from the base, safe from the water, listening to the crew scream and weep in terror and hearing their cries as, one by one, they were transformed.

"I can't," The Doctor said in a strangled voice, his eyes looking anywhere but at the small window.

"You can't change anything, but you could still help them!" Donna yelled, "Save someone, remember?"

The Doctor looked at her, his jaw clenched and his eyes full of churning emotions. Through the comms in each of the helmets, which were still on from their chat with Adelaide, they heard the anguished cries as Roman was hit by just one drop of water and forced them to leave him behind. And then as Ed reported that the shuttle had been compromised and that he'd been hit. They listened through the comms as he hit the self-destruct button and they watched the sky light up as it exploded behind them, the blast flinging them into the air and throwing them down onto the Martian rocks. Pieces of the shuttle rained down around them and small fires ignited on the ground.

The Doctor laid there, face down, as he heard them cry from his comm that the hull had been broken and that they were losing air fast. He listened to them scream in panic and he listened to Yuri try and comfort Mia. He listened to the panicking and chaos from inside and he listened to the weeping. And that was the last straw.

"NO!" He yelled, "No more! I am the last of the Time Lords, the laws of time are mine to control! I do as I like and I save who I want! Me! Me! Me! For once in my life, ME! I can change the universe; I can rewrite history!"

He slowly stood up and strode toward the base, Rose and Donna scrambling after him. "Doctor!" Rose called after him, "DOCTOR!"

"When I first met 'im," Donna shouted as they ran after him, "It was right after he'd lost you. He almost didn't stop! He needs someone to stop him! Someone to keep 'im in check when he gets like this! That's our job! We need to stop 'im before he goes too far and does something horribly wrong!" She yelled at Rose, "Something like this!"

They sped up after the Doctor, who had gotten very far ahead – he was already back inside the base. By the time they reached the door and got themselves in, the Doctor's helmet was thrown onto the floor, what was left of the crew was sealing up the breaches in the hull with some sort of spray foam and the Doctor was yelling some nonsense at Adelaide.

" – they said he will knock four times, and I think I know what that means, and it doesn't mean right here, right now, cause I don't hear anyone knocking, d'you?"

"DOCTOR!" Rose yelled, pointing toward the door, where Andy stood, knocking.

BANG! One.

BANG! Two.

BANG! Three.

"Three knocks is all you're getting!" he said, spinning around to do something on the computer. The door began to spark with electricity and soon, Andy was knocked away and backward, screaming, by sheer electrical power. "Water and electricity; bad mix. Now then, what else have we got?"

"But there's no way to fight them!" Adelaide wailed and the Doctor thought of heat, running back and forth between computers to repair and boost the heating system. "But you said we di-" Adelaide began but was cut off when the complex shook and she was nearly knocked off her feet. "For the future! For the human race!"

"Yes, but there are laws, laws of time. And once upon a time, there were people in charge of those rules but they died. They all died! D'ya know who that leaves? ME! Just me! It's taken me all these years to realize: the laws of time are mine! Andtheywill obey me!"

"DOCTOR! You need to stop!" Donna cried helplessly, Rose joining in:

"Doctor, look at me! Stop this!"

He froze. And slowly, slowly turned to face her, fire and rage and sorrow building in his eyes. "NO!" He yelled, spitting with some emotion that no human could comprehend. "NO! You can't make me! I don't want to lose anyone else, Rose! And now I won't have to! Don't you see?" he cried, begging for her to understand, "This is a good thing – I can change things!"

She stood her ground, facing the rage of the Last Time Lord. "Doctor, it's wrong! You know that better than anyone! Some things just can't be changed! The laws were there for a reason; they were meant to be FOLLOWED!"

He looked away, not meeting her eyes. "No, Rose. I can't! Not anymore!" and scrambled to the computer again as some alarm sounded. Rose looked at Donna helplessly and Donna flinched, tapping her eye. Rose lifted a hand and touched her own eyes, tilting her head in a question. Donna nodded, looking anywhere except at her eyes.

"Environment controls are down," Adelaide informed everyone and the Doctor looked over at her, grinding his teeth together.

"Not beat yet," he muttered, looking around frantically, "I'll go outside!" he ran over and picked up his helmet, but it was broken. He looked at Rose. "Give me your helmet." She shrugged helplessly and pointed to the ground, where hers had met the same fate as his. He turned to Donna, and her eyes widened.

"No. No, you can't have it. There's nothin' here can be changed, Doctor, you said so yourself! It's wrong!"

He growled, violently running his hands through his hair, nearly ripping it out. "FINE! Fine! Still not beat….not beat yet!" he cried, looking around, "Not beat. NOT BEATEN!" He threw the helmet down. "You've got a spacesuit," he pointed at the crew, "in the next section!" and ran off to the next section, only to quickly return at the sight of the water blocking off the exits. "We're not just fighting the flood!" he yelled maniacally, "We're fighting time itself! And I'm gonna WIN!"

"Something is happening to the glacier!" Yuri yelled, looking at the image on the screen.

"Think, think, think, think! What've we got? Not enough oxygen," he ran over and began opening bins. "Protein packs. Useless! Glacier, glacier, glacier, think, think, THINK!" he began to babble incoherently, mumbling a string of completely random words, all running into the next. "AHHHH! Look at the room. Section F. What's in section F?"

"Nothing!" Yuri told him, "It's just storage!"

"Storing what?"

"I don't know! Uh, the robots, the atom clamps-"

"ATOM CLAMPS!" The Doctor yelled, opening up a cupboard, "Who needs atom clamps? I have a funny robot!" he swung the door open fully to reveal Gadget the robot. "ROSE!" he yelled and she ran over.

"Yeah?"

"I need your TARDIS key, give it to me!" she took the chain off from around her neck and placed it in his palm. He put it in Gadget's claw-hand and closed the fingers tightly around it, running over to the table and putting on Roman's control gloves. "Going in!" He said, watching the screen as he carefully maneuvered Gadget through the doorway and out of the complex.

Only Donna noticed Adelaide sigh in defeat and sink into the captain's chair, typing in a command that made the screen flash red alerts. "Oi! What's that your doin'?"

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled, swinging his arms to make the robot move.

"Implementing captain's protocol," said the computer and the Doctor looked up, a warning written on his face.

"Adelaide! What are you doing? If I have to fight you as well, then I will."

"Nuclear device now active and primed," said the computer in an annoyingly cheery voice.

The Doctor looked back at the screen that showed Gadget the robot: "Alright, blast off! FASTER!" He yelled at the screen. Rose walked over to stand behind him and looked at the video showing what Gadget saw at that exact moment. He was headed straight for the TARDIS. She almost laughed.

The complex began to shake and sparks flew from the walls. People fell to the floor all around him, but the Doctor seemed not to notice as he was so intent on the screen, moving his arm just slightly forward and around, miming putting a key into a lock. Gadget the robot did the same, following the commands sent to him by the gloves. "And we're in!" he laughed maniacally at the screen, his tongue flicking in and out as he concentrated.

Rose looked at Adelaide, who was kneeling on the floor, shaking her head at him, and then at Donna, who leaned against the wall for support, tears running down her face. She looked back at the screen and saw Gadget set the TARDIS into motion and watched her dematerialize and then looked to the middle of the room and watched the beloved ship appear to save their lives yet again.

The Doctor ran and flung open the door of his ship, yelling for everyone to get in. Everyone – that is to say, Donna, Yuri, Mia, and Rose ran inside, but Adelaide wouldn't budge. "You're going to save us?"

"Yes, yes, now get in!" He yelled, looking at the clock. It showed 8 seconds.

"But, Suzie? If I live, she'll never become what she was supposed to, like you said!"

"You can inspire her face to face then!" He insisted, "Now, come ON!" 4 seconds.

"You can't know that! I will not be responsible for the entire of the human race going wrong!" and with that, she reached forward and slammed the door shut, shoving the Doctor the rest of the way inside and he heard it click locked. "TWO SECONDS!" She shouted from outside and he distantly heard the TARDIS begin to dematerialize without him. He absently wondered who kept driving his ship, but all he could really do was stare at the blue door, half dumbstruck, half in admiration.

He felt a small, cool hand on his face and looked up into Rose's golden eyes. Golden eyes.

"Rose, your…"

She shushed him. "Shhh, Doctor. It's alright. I'm alright. Stand up, that's it. You need to drive the ship now," she told him gently and he followed her directions like a child.

When the TARDIS rematerialized somewhere in a world of snow and buildings, they all stepped out in silence. Mia stumbled away from the group, walking around the TARDIS once or twice. "W-what is that thing?" she asked, pointing a shaky hand at it. "I-it's b…bigger, I mean….'s bigger on the inside!"

Donna walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her. "It's alright. 'S just a ship."

She pulled away and looked at the three of them in confusion. "Who the hell are you people?" she looked like she was going to cry, and Rose had no idea what to say, nor did anyone else. Mia turned and ran away, turning back to look at them once or twice.

Yuri made as if to run after her, but stopped. "Uh…thank you."

"You take care of her," the Doctor told him and he smiled faintly.

"I will…sir." And he ran off after her.

Suddenly, the Doctor slumped back against the TARDIS. Things were changing in his memory – in history. He recalled a webpage written about the disaster that was Bowie Base One, the first Martian colony. He also recalled new information – things that had not been there when he read the page. A section about its sole survivors – Yuri Kerenski and Mia Bennett. That was new information; it wasn't supposed to be there. He had changed history. He had gone too far.

He looked up when he heard someone gasp and saw Donna standing with her hands over her mouth. "Doctor, it's an Ood," she whispered loudly, pointing behind her hand, like she was trying and failing to be secretive.

He looked beyond her and saw Ood Sigma. "I've gone too far, haven't I?" the Ood just tilted its head to the side, but the Doctor fell to his knees. "Is this it? My death? Is it time?" the Ood vanished, as if blown away by the wind, and the Doctor got to his feet, shaking.

His hands shook as he tried to unlock the TARDIS. He ended up dropping the key onto the snow and he seemed to simply collapse, curling up around his knees on the ground by the key.

Rose bent down and picked up the key, unlocking the ship. She placed an arm around his shoulders and guided him up to his feet and into the TARDIS, letting him fall apart on her shoulder once they were safely inside. She said nothing, just wrapped her arms around him as he wept. She never once said 'I told you so' she never once pushed him away. She knew he needed her, and she let him use her.

After a while, he composed himself and pulled away, sniffing and wiping his face off with the back of his sleeve. "Thank you. Both of you," he added, pulling Donna in for a hug. He released her and ran around the console, starting the dematerialization of the TARDIS while he continued to talk. "Thank you for knowing when to stop me," he paused what he was doing and looked at them. "Even if I didn't listen." He looked right at Rose for the last few words. "And I'm sorry. For everything."

A/N Okey dokey then. We'll be starting again with The End of Time in the next chapter and I know that that particular episode is sort of…slap-dash and out of place, but I really do love the character development we get for the "modern Doctor Who" Master and I love Matt Smith's Doctor, so as much as I hate to say it, Ten will be regenerating sometime in the next few chapters. I'm so sorry. Feel free to yell at me via review or PM. I would. Especially by review. Even bad reviews are still reviews, so I welcome whatever it is: Constructive criticism, flames, happiness, tears, good reviews, whate'r.

ALSO, I've put up a poll in my profile, please go and have a look. It's about what I should do with River later on in the story – if I don't get any feedback from you lot, it'll probably turn out awful!