A short blue light filled the room and was soon replaced with a large, red, spider creature with a dozen black beady eyes on its head.

"The Racnoss... but that's impossible, you're one of the Racnoss!" The Doctor stuttered.

"Empress of the Racnoss." It, or I suppose - she - corrected.

"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss?" I asked.

"Or... are you the only one?" the Doctor added.

"Such a sharp mind."

"That's it, the last of your kind." he noted.

He turned to Donna and I.

"The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago, billions. They were carnivores, omnivores, they devoured whole planets."

"Racnoss are born starving, is that our fault?" The Empress remarked.

"They eat people?" Donna squeaked.

I looked up to the ceiling to see a strange web-like thing stuck up there, and noticed something seemingly out of place. "H C Clements, did he wear those- those erm, black and white shoes?"

"He did!" Donna confirmed with a chuckle "We used to laugh, we used to call him the fat cat in spats."

The Doctor noded and pointed to the ceiling where a pair of black and white shoes were poking out.

"Oh, my God!"

"Mm, my Christmas dinner." The Empress cackled.

"You shouldn't even exist! Way back in history, the Fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss - they were wiped out."

"Except for me."

Donna kept her talking. "But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon energy thing." The Empress tried to turn to look behind her where I too had noticed Lance.

"Oi! Look at me, lady, I'm talking. Where do I fit in? How comes I get all stacked up with these Huon particles?"

Lance descended the stairs, an axe at the ready.

"Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me."

"The bride is so feisty!" The empress hissed as I tried to hide a smirk behind my hand.

"Yes, I am! And I don't know what you are, you big... thing." Donna shot back. "But a spider's just a spider and an axe is an axe! Now, do it!"

Lance swung the axe, but the Empress spun around and hissed at the last moment. He stopped. He glanced round at Donna and started to laugh, the Empress laughing with him.

Lance turned to the Empress. "That was a good one. Your face!"

"Lance is funny."

"What?" Donna remarked, shocked at the turn of events.

The Doctor whispered to Donna. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!"

Lance stared at her pityingly. "God, she's thick."

Donna looked right back at him, so confused.

"Months I had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."

"I don't understand." Donna whimpered

"How did you meet him?" I asked.

"In the office."

"He made you coffee." The Doctor said.

"What?" Oh, Donna.

I've come to realise there are many types of men in the world. Those, like the Doctor, that would do anything for their lover. Cross countries, oceans, universes even - to seem them again. Then, there were men like Lance.

"Every day, I made you coffee." He scoffed as though addressing an idiot

"You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months." The Doctor added.

"He was poisoning me?"

"It was all there in the job title - the Head of Human Resources." I grumbled bitterly.

"This time, it's personnel." He and the Racnoss laughed.

"But... we were getting married." Donna sobbed.

"Well, I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes. And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap - "oh, Brad and Angelina - is Posh pregnant?" X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me, dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia."

Donna listened to this torrent of abuse with an expression of increasing hurt and confusion.

Men like Lance care nothing about others - only about themselves.

"I deserve a medal." He declared.

"Oh, is that what she's offered you? The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you? Her consort?" I argued.

"It's better than a night with her."

"But I love you." Donna whimpered.

Lance growled teasingly. "That's what made it easy. It's like you said, Doctor - the big picture - what's the point of it all if the Human Race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to... go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you, Doctor?"

"Who is this little physician?" the Racnoss asked.

"What she said - Martian."

"Oh, I'm sort of... homeless. But the point is, what's down here? The Racnoss are extinct. What's gonna help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?"

Lance smirked. "I think he wants us to talk."

"I think so too."

"Well, tough! All we need is Donna!"

"Kill this chattering little doctor-man! And his little girlie friend too!" she sneered.

Donna took a defensive stance in front of the Doctor and I. "Don't you hurt him!"

"No, no, it's all right." The Doctor said rather casually.

"No, I won't let them!" Donna replied, frightened.

"At arms!" The Empress called. All the robots pointed their guns at our little huddle.

"Ah, now. Except." I mumbled inching closer to the Doctor.

"Take aim!"

"Well, I just want to point out the obvious—" I tried a bit louder.

"They won't hit the bride. They're such very good shots."

"Just- just- just- hold on, just a tick, just a tiny- just a little- tick." the Doctor interrupted. "If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So, reverse it... the spaceship comes to her."

He once again tweaked the tube of Huon particles which caused both the particles in the tube and inside Donna to glow.

"Fire!"

The robots fired their guns. Prepared to die - in a time that was not my own in a basement of an office building - I curled around the Doctor. But my ears heard no explosions, nothing penetrated my flesh. I peeked my head off the Doctor's shoulder to see that we were in the TARDIS.

I let the Doctor go and he bounded to the console. "Off we go!"

"You know what we said before about time travel? Well, now we're gonna use it." I smiled at Donna.

The TARDIS lurched and we were sent spinning through the vortex.

"We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something's buried at the planet core, it must've been there since the beginning. That's just brilliant. Molto bene! I've always wanted to see this. Donna - we're going further back than I've ever been before."

It was only then that I noticed Donna's shoulders were shuddering with the silent tears pouring down her cheeks. I pulled her into a side hug to comfort her.

The TARDIS, having arrived at its destination, clicked quietly as it cooled down. The Doctor peered around the console at the miserable Donna and I sat in one of the chairs.

"We've arrived... want to see?"

"I s'pose." She mumbled unenthusiastically

The Doctor swung the monitor round.

"Oh, that scanner's a bit small. Maybe your way's best." he went to the door and waited for me to haul Donna up.

"Come on." I told her as she stood resignedly and joined the Doctor

"No humans have ever seen this. You two 'll be the first."

"All I want to see is my bed." Donna grumbled.

"Donna, Teaganne - welcome to the creation of the Earth." He opened the doors onto a spectacular sight causing both Donna and I's mouths to fall open. The sun shone through beautifully coloured dust and gas clouds, enormous rocks floated around.

"We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas."

He pointed to the large ball of light. "That's the Sun over there, brand new. Just beginning to burn."

"Where's the Earth?"

"All around us... "

"in the dust." I whispered in awe.

There's a large difference between still space, a supernova, and the creation of a solar system. Still space has a calming look to it, the freckled stars winking randomly from far away, small gasses hovering around. A supernova is practically screaming at you - even though sound doesn't travel in space - in a loud but beautiful voice. But creation is inspiring. Watching gravity slowly pull the drifting rocks together like a huge jigsaw puzzle being completed for the first time - random and unknown.

"Puts the wedding in perspective. Lance was right. We're just... tiny." Donna remarked.

"No, but that's what you do. The human race. Making sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed." the Doctor said with a proud smile.

So, we came out of all this?"

"Isn't that brilliant?" He mumbled, watching our awestruck faces as a massive chunk of rock floated lazily past the TARDIS.

"I think that's the Isle of Wight." Donna joked, causing us all to laugh.

"Eventually, gravity takes hold. Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it." The Doctor lectured. "All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in, everything, piling in until you get the..."

"Earth."

"But the question is... what was that first rock?"

A large star shaped rock emerged through the clouds.

"Look." I pointed.

The doctor dropped down to a scared whisper. "The Racnoss..."

"Hold on - the Racnoss are hiding from the war! What's it doing?" He had gone back to the console and started cranking a wheel around.

The rocks, the particles of dust and gas, all started zooming towards the Racnoss as though drawn by a magnetic force.

"Exactly what you said." Donna and I gulped

The Doctor ran back to the door to look. "Oh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the Earth... they became the centre of the Earth. The first rock."

The TARDIS suddenly shuddered violently and we were nearly knocked off their feet.

"What was that?" Donna asked.

"Trouble." I grumbled.

He slammed the doors shut. The TARDIS shuddered and tipped as we were pulled back.

"What the hell's it doing?" Donna yelled over the racket.

"Remember that little trick I pulled - particles pulling particles? It works in reverse - they're pulling us back!"

He desperately tried to pilot the TARDIS but it was beyond his control as we whirled through the vortex.

"Well, can't you stop it? Hasn't it got a handbrake? Can't you reverse or warp or beam or something?"

"Backseat driver." The Doctor shot back. "Oh! Wait a minute!"

He pulled out what looked like a giant switchboard covered in little wires and connectors and a bunch of technological things I didn't know the name of.

"The extrapolator! Can't stop us, but it should give us a good bump!"

He hooked it up to the TARDIS console and gave it a slight whack as the TARDIS materialized back in the chamber.

"Now!"

"We're about 200 yards to the right. Come on!" He called from outside the TARDIS. We ran.

When we arrived at the doorway leading up to the Thames Flood Barrier, Donna stopped - scared and out of breath. "But what do we do?"

"I don't know! I make it up as I go along!"

"Well that's reassuring!" I huffed.

"But trust me, I've got a history."

"But I still don't understand." Donna continued. "I'm full of particles - but what for?""

"There's a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unravelled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist but the Racnoss are stuck."

There was a glint to my right as I watched the Doctor. A robot grabbed Donna from behind, covering her mouth so she couldn't scream and dragged her away.

"They've just been in hibernation for billions of years. Frozen. Dead. Kaput! So you're the new key. Brand new particles, living particles!"

Before I could speak up another robot tried to grab me as well, but I was too quick.

"Doctor!" I hollered as I pried the hunk of metal from around me.

He finally looked behind him and noticed Donna gone and my predicament.

"They got Donna."

He groaned and looked up and down the empty corridor. He opened the door with his sonic screwdriver, only to be confronted with another armed robot.

Rather quickly, the Doctor disarmed the other robot and pulled the face off.

"What do we do now?!"

He held up the mask to my face with a smirk.

"No."

He grinned.

"You might as well unmask, my doctor-man. And the girl too"

I pulled off the mask and cloak.

"Oh well. Nice try."

The Doctor emerged from hiding behind me. "I've got you, Donna!"

He aimed his sonic screwdriver up at her and the web loosened.

"I'm gonna fall!"

"You're gonna swing!"

"Come on, Donna!"

With a bit of persuading, she swung right over the hole on one of the stands of web and towards the Doctor and I.

"I've got ya!"

Donna screamed and swung right underneath the Doctor, smashing into the wall with a dull bang.

The Empress smirked.

"... oh. Sorry."

Donna sprawled out on her back below us.

"Thanks for nothing." She hissed. I hid a chuckle behind my wrist as the Empress spoke.

"The doctor-man and his child amuse me."

"Hey!" I am not his child!

"Empress of the Racnoss - I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet. I can find you a place in the universe to coexist. Take that offer and end this now."

"These men are so funny."

"Well?" I prompted.

"What's your answer?"

"Oh - I'm afraid I have to decline."

She laughed.

"What happens next is your own doing."

"I'll show you what happens next." She hissed. "At arms!"

The robots rose their guns.

"Take aim!"

I smirked slightly, remembering the Doctor tampering a bit with the robots.

"And—"

"Relax."

The robots went limp.

"What did you do?" Donna asked.

"Guess what I've got, Donna?" He pulled a remote control from his trousers."Pockets."

"How did that fit in there?"

"Bigger on the inside, of course!"

"Robo-forms are not necessary. My children may feast on Martian flesh." The Empress sneered - still not accepting that she had lost.

"Oh, but we're not from Mars." I told her.

"Then where?"

"My home planet is far away and long-since gone. But its name lives on." He stated proudly. "Gallifrey."

"They murdered the Racnoss!" The Empress exclaimed, suddenly angry.

"I warned you. You did this."

He produced a handful of baubles.

"No! No! Don't! No!"

The Doctor threw several handfuls of the baubles into the air. Some surrounding the Empress and some smashing into the walls of the corridor, destroying them and letting the water from the Thames rush though in torrents. Another bauble exploded causing a fire at the Empress' feet. She wailed as water flooded into the chamber and down the hole.

"My children!"

The Doctor stood watching in silence, surrounded by fire and water, while the river swirls down the hole like it's a plughole. The scene would have been beautiful if my ears weren't clouded with the shrieks of a dying Rachnoss.

"No! My children! My children!"

"Doctor! You can stop now!" Donna yelled.

But the Doctor couldn't stop - he watched the Racnoss writhe and wail in agony with dark eyes, full of some secret pain. It was in those sorrowful eyes I saw revelation. This broken man can't be left alone. Ever. I need to stay with him.

"Doctor..." I bumped his shoulder with mine.

"Come on! Time I got you out!"

The Doctor, Donna and I ran up the stairs, soaking wet.

"But what about the Empress?" I asked as we started climbing the ladder.

"She's used up all her Huon energy - she's defenceless!"

When we reached the top of the ladder and clambered out into the night, we saw smoke and joyful citizens and realized the Rachnoss had been destroyed.

Donna caught her breath. "Just... there's one problem."

"What's that?" The Doctor asked.

"We've drained the Thames."

Sure enough, the Thames was completely emptied of water. I snickered as they started laughing and soon joined them, collapsing in laughter for the first time in a long time.

The TARDIS materialised across the road from Donna's house. We stepped outside.

"There we go. Told you she'd be all right. She can survive anything." The Doctor proudly stated.

"More than I've done." Donna said.

The Doctor scanned her once more. "Nope! All the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine."

"Yeah, but apart from that..." I pressed.

"I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day. Sort of."

"We couldn't save him."

"He deserved it." She replied unfeelingly, causing the Doctor's eyebrows to raise.

Donna's face softened. "No, he didn't."

She looked around to the house, "I'd better get inside. They'll be worried."

"Best Christmas present they could have."

"Wait no, you hate Christmas." I remembered.

"Yes, I do."

"Even if it snows?" The Doctor smiled and went inside the TARDIS for a tick. A ball of light shot out of the top little lighthouse thing on the top of the box and exploded like a firework in the sky. When he came back out it was softly snowing. Donna laughed with delight.

"I can't believe you did that!"

"Oh, basic atmospheric excitation."

He grinned at her and she smiled back.

"Merry Christmas."

"And you."

"So... what will you do with yourself now?" I asked.

"Not getting married for starters. And I'm not gonna temp anymore. I dunno... travel... see a bit more of planet Earth... walk in the dust. Just... go out there and do something."

"Well, you could always..." I started, unsure of what the Doctor would think.

"What?"

I shuffled back towards the Doctor. "... come with us..."

Surprisingly the Doctor smiled at my idea.

Donna smiled but declined.

"Okay." The Doctor quickly replied.

"I can't..."

"No, that's fine."

"No, but really... everything we did today... do you two live your life like that?"

"... Not all the time." The Doctor replied unconvincingly.

"I only climbed in about two weeks ago." I mumbled.

"I think you do. And I couldn't." She continued.

"But you've seen it out there. It's beautiful."

"And it's terrible."She countered. "That place was flooding and burning and they were dying and you were stood there like... I don't know... a stranger. And then you made it snow - I mean, you scare me to death!"

"Tell you what I will do though - Christmas dinner. Oh, come on." Donna offered.

Christmas dinner, I hadn't heard those words in what seemed like a year.

"I don't do that sort of thing." The Doctor mumbled.

"You did it last year, you said so. And you might as well because Mum always cooks enough for twenty."

"Oh, all right then. But you go first, better warn them. And... don't say I'm a Martian."

He indicated to the TARDIS. "I just have to park her properly, she might drift off to the Middle Ages. I'll see you in a minute."

After we disappeared inside the TARDIS I slowly turned to the Doctor. "We're never gonna see her again are we..."

He never answered before a shrill yell from an all to familiar redhead came through. "Doctor! Doctor!"

The Doctor told me to stay by the console as he went to talk to Donna.

DONNA

"Blimey, you can shout."

"Am I ever gonna see you again?" I asked.

"If we're lucky."

"Just... promise me one thing; stay with her. You need her."

"I don't need anyone." He countered.

"Yes, you do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you."

"Yeah." He said after a moment.

He paused. "Thanks then, Donna - good luck - and just... be magnificent."

I smiled and gave a little laugh. "I think I will, yeah."

He smiled and retreated back into the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" I called once more.

He opened the door with mock exasperation. "Oh, what is it now?"

"That friend of yours... what was her name?"

He answered with a slight lump in his throat. "Her name was Rose."

He closed the door for the last time - and instead of its usual dematerialisation, the TARDIS shoot up into the night sky. I watched with a sad smile and walked back home.