This story will be complete in 28-29 chapters with an epilogue. I've written everything but the epilogue, and am still just tweaking the last little bits.
The next few chapters, out of necessity, borrow heavily from The End of Time (parts 1 and 2.) I am changing some things up, but there will be areas where I re-use dialogue or have to take scenes in a similar way. Should go without saying that none of that belongs to me. I'm going to try to tell the story differently so it's not a scene-by-scene replay of the episodes like rewrites usually are, but there will, naturally, be some similarities. Like the bit you see in this chapter.
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Rose had missed snow. It snowed in Pete's world even less often than it had in her original London, and it had been at least two years since she had last experienced it, and Tony had seen snow only a handful of times in his ten years.
As she stepped out of the TARDIS, bundled in her favourite thick, blue peacoat with a chunky white woolen hat over her hair, she twirled gleefully in the fat, fluffy flakes falling softly to the ground around her. The snow crunched magnificently under her boots and Rose looked to the Doctor with a wide grin, tongue poking out from between her teeth, her eyes shining in the bright light of the sun.
He smiled back at Rose, hands in the pockets of his long, swishy coat. With a soft thwump a snowball exploded on his chest. Rose turned to look at the fleeing Tony who was dashing off wildly in the opposite direction, giggling madly.
"Oh it's on," the Doctor said, a glint in his eyes. He reached down and scooped up some snow, forming it into a ball as he tore off after the boy, long legs carrying him over swaths of ground with each step.
Rose bent down to retrieve some snow of her own, enough for two snowballs, and stepped in front of the TARDIS to conceal herself from their view. She waited patiently, listening.
A moment later, the laughing Tony came running up from behind the TARDIS and Rose aimed true, hitting the child on his shoulder. He stopped and turned, throwing her an utterly betrayed look as he brushed some of the scattered snow from his hair. She smirked. The Doctor's unmistakeable footsteps on the newfallen snow were approaching around the other side of the TARDIS so Rose dodged quickly when she heard him. He lunged for thin air and Rose swung around, shoving the snowball down the back of his suit before he'd regained his footing.
"Now that's not fair!" the Time Lord exclaimed, shaking the snow out of his suit.
Rose crossed her arms across her chest and arched an eyebrow. "Just because I won doesn't mean it wasn't fair."
"I don't disagree by any means, I was just saying that to distract you." He flashed Rose a victorious grin at the same moment a large snowball collided with the back of her head.
"You will come with me," said Ood Sigma, who none of them had seen approach.
The Doctor shook the last of the snow out of his coat and took Rose's hand. Tony made a mock gagging noise behind them and Rose turned to stick her tongue out at the boy.
They crested a hill and Rose looked with awe at what appeared to be a city grown from living rock. Ood walked here and there over arched bridges of snow-covered grey stone.
"That's magnificent!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You've achieved this in only a hundred years? Or did I show up late?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Rose muttered. The Doctor shoved her playfully with his shoulder. "He's good at that."
"It has been one hundred years," the Ood confirmed.
"Then we've got a problem. 'Cos all this is way too fast. Not just this, your ability to call me, all the way back in the twenty first century." He frowned. "Something is accelerating your species way beyond normal."
"And the Mind of the Ood is troubled," Ood Sigma was saying as they walked. "Every night, Doctor, every night we have bad dreams."
Ood Sigma led them down a long path. Rose looked around as they walked. The Doctor appeared lost in thought, and Tony's eyes were wide, taking in the frosty world. It was only a few minutes before they arrived at a cavern from which a warm wind blew.
They walked through the shadowy cave, beneath high ceilings from which stalactites dripped like stone spears. Tony crowded closer to her, his face kept carefully neutral, but she could hear his increased breathing rate. They approached a bubble of warm orange light within the cavern, and Rose felt the air around her warm considerably the closer they came.
"They will stay, they will stay, they will stay," chanted a dozen identical voices.
Ood sigma turned to Rose and Tony and raised a hand. "You will stay here," he ordered. Rose made to object, but the Doctor's expression cut her off. He continued on with the blue-clad Ood.
There was a low stone bench nearby so she took a seat, waving Tony down beside her. He plopped down heavily beside her, looking a bit disgruntled himself at being left behind. It was hardly the first time she'd been sidelined on an adventure, and Rose suspected strongly it would not be the last.
"The Ood are telepathic," Rose told Tony. "Except for Ood Sigma, with that ball thing, none of them are actually talking. You're hearing it in your head." She tapped his forehead and smiled.
"I think I can tell," Tony said. "It's more like feeling than hearing."
Rose nodded, impressed. "Took me a long time to get used to it. My first trip with the Doctor, I met the Face of Boe. First time anyone talked to me telepathically and I didn't even realize it."
"Can I talk back to them that way?"
She shrugged, honestly not knowing the answer. "Maybe. Some people are more telepathic than others. I'm not, not at all. I can only talk to the TARDIS because of Bad Wolf. Torchwood tried really hard to train me and I was pants at it." She suspected the boy was telepathic, since it seemed to be the norm among the Doctor's people, but she had no way to be sure.
Tony nodded absently and closed his eyes, seemingly trying to listen.
She heard the Doctor explaining to the Ood about the Master's wife.
Tony's eyes flew open a moment later. "I saw that!" he said, surprised. "When the Doctor showed them. That's the man in my dreams. The Master."
"That's what I was afraid of," Rose sighed. "Now hush, I'm trying to eavesdrop." Tony flashed her a conspiratorial grin and closed his eyes again, clearly intended to attempt to eavesdrop telepathically.
The voice of the Ood Elder rang even in Rose's head, and she made no concerted effort to open her mind to their telepathy. "….But something more is happening, Doctor. The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark. The Ood have gained this power to see through time, because time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil, and these events from years ago threaten to destroy this future, and the present, and the past."
After a moment, they heard the assembled Ood chorus "The end of time itself."
The Doctor came running back towards them. "Now, we are going NOW. Tony, Rose, come on!"
They rose from the stone bench and took off after the fleeing Time Lord, out into the snow, and up the well-trod path, and back down the hill to where the TARDIS rested.
The Doctor ran frantically around the console, setting their destination. "Tony, hit those buttons there top to bottom. Rose, pull out this lever after Tony's done." He moved them both into position with hands on their shoulders.
"Doctor, where are we going?"
With a determined glint in his eyes, he said "Earth" and pulled a lever, throwing them into the Vortex.
"Rose, Tony, stay in here. Do not, I repeat, do not follow me this time. Just don't." Rose opened her mouth to object, but the Doctor placed a finger on her lips, giving her a fierce look. "Not this time. Please just stay here, Rose. I won't be long"
She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Fine."
"Tony, make sure she stays here, eh?" the Doctor said with a wink at the boy.
On impulse, he leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek before he turned and strode out the doors. He stalked out to the edge of the hill of rubble in the dockyards on which he had landed the TARDIS.
He inhaled deeply and let his mind rove over the collected scents. The salty spray of the Atlantic, alive with algae. Earth and rock and distant snow. The smell of exhaust and metal, filth, and construction. He drew the air deep into his lungs, and his eyes snapped open as he caught the very faintest scent of his foe. He turned to look in the direction it originated and his sensitive ears heard though the storm of sensory input; clang, clang, clang, clang.
The rubber soles of his runners slapped the ground as he took off at a charge, his legs blurring beneath him as he consumes ground. The burn in his lungs gave way as his respiratory compensation kicked in and he felt more oxygen flood his blood. Hearts pumped in a galloping synchronicity, propelling him further.
Across a desolate yard, he saw the Master. No longer in his fine suit, he stood dressed in a ragged hooded sweatshirt and torn jeans, but his face had not changed, he still looked like the Harold Saxon he had been, clearly deranged even from a distance. The platinum-haired Time Lord screamed and leaped high into the air, bounding away. The Doctor's feet pounded the Earth below him as he gave chase once more, stopping as he came face to face with the Master, only a few metres away.
His skin flashed translucent and for a moment he looked almost like a radiograph.
"Please, let me help!" he called across the yard full of construction materials. "You're burning up your own life force!"
He laughs and runs off. The Doctor made to follow him, but as he rounded a pile of girders, he had to slow to avoid running into one Wilfred Mott.
"Oh my god, Doctor! You're a sight for sore eyes"
"Out of my way!" the Doctor shouted. He raised himself over the metal I-beams and looked around, but the Master was no longer visible. Behind him he heard people gathering and voices began to chatter.
"Did we do it? Is that him?"With a frustrated sigh, he dropped to the ground and turned to see a white-haired woman clad in a bright red coat talking quickly. "The Silver Cloak. It worked. Because Wilf phoned Netty, who phoned June, and her sister lives opposite Broadfell, and she saw the police box, and her neighbour saw this man heading east." She finished, nodded to herself in satisfaction.
He spoke quietly and urgently to Wilfred as an aside. "Wilfred, have you told them who I am? You promised me…"
"No, I just said you were a doctor, that's all," he said defensively. "And might I say, sir, it is an honour to see you again." He finished with a quick salute.
The woman in red pushed between them. "Oh but you never said he was a looker. He's gorgeous. Take a photo!"
"Not bad, eh?" one of the men said outrageously. "Me next."
"I'm Minnie, Minnie the Menace. It's a long time since I had a photo with a handsome man," she simpered, inserting herself at his side under his arm.
"Could you just get off him? Leave him alone," Wilf grumbled.
"Hush you old misery," Minnie chided. "Come on Doctor, give us a smile. That's it." The assembled group all turned to the man with the camera.
There was a soft click. "Hold on, did it flash?"
Mini shook her head. "No, there's a blue light. Try again!"
"I'm all fingers and thumbs," the cameraman said helplessly.
The Doctor tried to pull away from the group of elderly sleuths. "I'm really kind of busy, you know."
"Oh it won't take a tick, keep smiling," Minnie urged, pulling herself back to his side.
The Doctor jumped forward. "Is that your hand, Minnie?"
"Good boy," she purred, patting his bum.
Photo taken, the group dispersed. Wilf hung back a moment.
"I've been looking for you," he said.
"I gathered that, yeah," the Doctor said, eyes roving the derelict construction site.
He looked at the Doctor seriously. "Come to tea with me, we need to talk."
"Just hang on," he said. He pulled a mobile out of his pocket and hit a button, raising it to his ear. "Yeah, it's me... What do you mean?... Yes I have a mobile. Martha gave it to me, remember?... No. Well yes, but no…. Yeah, not far. Just head, towards the cranes… Yeah… See you soon."
He closed the phone and returned it to his coat pocket.
"So you're travelling with someone, then?"
The Doctor smiled genuinely. "Yeah. Two, actually. They'll be here in a minute. Just parked a bit away."
"Good, you shouldn't be alone," Wilfred said with a nod to himself.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" the Time Lord asked, a bit annoyed.
Wilfred shrugged. "Because it's true. You're a special kind of man, Doctor. The sort who's never quite complete all on his own."
They lapsed into silence and the Doctor rocked back and forth on his heels, hands in his pockets. Wilfred looked around at the construction site, the piles of rubble and metal and wire.
The Doctor heard footsteps approaching and smiled as he saw Rose and Tony come 'round the pile of rusted metal beams.
"Hello again, sweetheart!" cried Wilfred happily, opening his arms to greet Rose with a hug.
She laughed happily and embraced the older man. "Hullo Wilfred!"
The Doctor looked at them, confused. "You two know each other?"
"I met Wilf here when I was looking for you last time," Rose smiled as Wilfred released her.
Wilfred smiled back at Rose, his face brightened considerably. "So you found him then?"
"She's good at that," the Doctor said, unable to stop the wide, fond smile that came over his features.
"And I'm Tony, nice to meet you sir," the boy said, extending his hand in greeting.
"Nice to meet you, young Tony," Wilfred smiled, taking his hand in a firm shake. "How'd you get mixed up with this pair then. eh?"
Tony shuffled his feet on the graveled ground. "Nothing better to do." His eyes were sad, but he offered no further explanation.
The Doctor reached over and ruffled the boy's hair and turned back to Wilfred "So you said we needed to talk?"