Through Thick and Thin
The End of Time
It was the last day of the Time War on Galifrey. Rassilon, Lord President of the Time Lords, strode determinedly through the halls of the Great Citadel to the chambers of the High Council, flanked by two guards. They reached the chambers where the rest of the Council were waiting. "What news of the Doctor?" Rassilon asked.
"Disappeared, my Lord President." a Time Lord answered.
"But we know his intentions." a Time Lady added. "He still possesses the Moment. And he'll use it, to destroy Daleks and Time Lords alike."
The Visionary confirms." the Time Lord added, gesturing to a wizened woman with a tattooed face sitting at the end of the table, surrounded by scrolls of paper covered in writing and drawings.
"Ending, burning, falling, all of it." the Visionary rambled. "The black and pitch, and screaming fire, so burning."
"All of her prophecies say the same." the Time Lord told Rassilon. "That this is the last of the Time War, that Galifrey falls, that we die, today."
"Ending, ending, ending, ending!" the Visionary chanted, sounding frenzied.
"Perhaps it's time." the Time Lady said. "This is only the furthest edge of the Time War. But at it's heart, millions die every second, lost in bloodlust and insanity. With time itself resurrecting them, to find new ways of dying, over and over again, a travesty of life. Isn't it better to end it, at last?"
Rassilon got to his feet. "Thank you for your opinion." he sneered and raised his left hand, on which he wore a metal gauntlet. The gauntlet began to glow with blue energy and the Time Lady screamed as she was disintegrated into atoms. "I WILL NOT DIE!" Rassilon roared with rage. "DO YOU HEAR ME?! A billion years of Time Lord history riding on our backs. I will not let this perish! I will not!"
The rest of the council wisely fell into line. "There is, um.. There is one part of the prophecy, my Lord." the first Time Lord began cautiously, picking up one of the Visionary's scrolls and bringing it to Rassilon. "Forgive me, I'm sorry. It's rather difficult to decipher. But it talks of two survivors, beyond the final day, two children of Galifrey."
"Does it name them?" Rassilon questioned.
"It foresees them locked in their final confrontation, the enmity of ages, which would suggest..."
"The Doctor and the Master." Rassilon sneered. He should've known it would be them two. The Master had fled from the war like the troublesome coward he was, and the Doctor wasn't much better. He'd refused to participate in the war until an incident with a crashing ship above Karn had persuaded him otherwise and since then, he'd been a constant thorn in Rassilon's side.
"One word keeps being repeated, my Lord," the Time Lord said, "one constant word; Earth."
"Earth." the Visionary chanted. "Earth. Earth! Earth! Earth!"
A holographic projection of Earth appeared on the council's table. "The planet Earth." the Time Lord explained "Indigenous species, the Human race."
"Maybe that's where the answer lies." Rassilon pondered. "Our salvation, on Earth."
~8~
Shareen had managed to give the Master race the slip but the Doctor and Wilfred weren't so lucky. They'd both been taken to Naismith's office where Wilfred was tied to a chair, while the Doctor had been put into the chair the Master had been brought to the mansion in, the strap placed over his mouth. "Any sign of the girl?" the Master asked a guard, who had been searching for the runaway Shareen.
The guard shook their head.
"Ah, it doesn't matter." the Master dismissed. "With six billion me's, she won't get far." He then turned to the bound Doctor. "Now then, I've got a planet to run." he crowed, revelling in his triumph. "Is everyone ready?" he asked a video screen.
The screen showed the video feed from the gate room. "6,727,949,388 versions of us awaiting orders." Naismith-Master replied.
The feed then showed the White House. "This is Washington." Obama-Master reported. "As President of the United States, I can transfer all the United Nations protocols to you immediately, putting you in charge of Earth's defences."
Next came a feed from U.N.I.T's Geneva headquarters. "U.N.I.T HQ, Geneva reporting." the Master in charge of the base said. "All under your command, sir."
This was followed by a link from Beijing, where a Commissioner-Master was reporting. "And this is the Central Military Commission here in Beijing, sir. With over 2.5 million troops, sir. Order arms!" he ordered into a microphone, and the link showed Masters in Chinese military uniforms lined up outside the Forbidden City presenting their rifles.
The Master was pleased. "Enough weapons and soldiers to turn this planet into a warship." he gloated and turned to the bound and gagged Doctor. "Nothing to say, Doctor? What's that? Pardon? Sorry?"
"You let him go, you swine!" Wilfred said angrily.
"Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss." the Master rolled his eyes.
"Yeah? Well, I'd be proud if I was." Wilfred said defiantly.
The Master held up a finger. "Hush, now. Listen to your Master."
Just then, a mobile phone rang. "But that... that's a mobile." the Master blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, it's mine." Wilfred chuckled awkwardly. "Let me turn it off."
"No, no, no. I don't think you understand." the Master said, walking over to him. "Everybody on this planet.. is me. And I'm not phoning you. So who the hell is that?" He knelt down and started searching Wilfred's pockets.
"It's nobody." Wilfred tried. "Probably some ring-back call."
But the Master wasn't convinced. "Oh-ho, good man!" he smirked as he held up Wilfred's revolver for the Doctor to see. He tossed it away and continued to rifle through the Human's pockets until he found the mobile. "Donna. Who's Donna?"
"She's no one, just leave it." Wilfred tried.
The Master just smirked and answered the phone.
~8~
"Gramps, don't hang up!" Donna said frantically from where she was hiding in the alley off the side of the Noble house. "You've gotta help me! I ran out. Everybody was changin'."
~8~
"Who is she?" the Master demanded. "Why didn't she change?"
"Well, it was this thing the Doctor did." Wilfred replied, pointing to the Time Lord. "He did it to her, the metacrisis."
"Oh, he loves playing with Earth girls!" the Master chortled.
"Are ya there?" Donna called desperately over the phone.
"Find her. Trace the call." the Master ordered his doppelgängers, then turned back to Wilfred. "Say goodbye to the freak, granddad!" he gloated.
In the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw the guard ball their fist at the Master's insult at Donna.
"Donna, get outta there!" Wilfred yelled into the phone, anxious for his granddaughter to get as far away from this demented lunatic as possible. "Look, just get out of there! Run!"
~8~
"What do I do?" Donna pleaded as she ran through the alley.
"Run, sweetheart, that's all! Run for your life!" Wilfred urged.
Donna screeched to a halt when she saw a Master blocking her path. She turned round to see two more coming at her from behind. "There's more of them!" she gasped.
"Donna? What's happening? Are you still there?" Wilfred said over the phone.
More Masters surrounded Donna. "They're everywhere!"
"Oh, I'm starving!" one of the Masters grinned wickedly.
"I'm still hungry!" another said, gnashing his teeth menacingly.
"Just run, sweetheart!" Wilfred urged.
"It's not just them." Donna said as the images of the horrifying creatures flashed through her head. "I can see those things again. Those creatures. Why can I see a giant wasp?"
"Donna, don't think about that." Wilfred tried. "Donna, my love, don't!"
"And it hurts!" Donna whimpered, clutching her head. "My head, it keeps gettin' hotter an' hotter an' hotter an' hotter!" she screamed and a blast of golden energy poured out of her, knocking out the attacking Masters. "What did I..." Donna began, before promptly fainting.
~8~
"Donna?" Wilfred frantically said into the phone "What was that? Donna? Donna, are you there? Donna! Donna..."
The Master saw the Doctor grinning behind his gag. He strode over and removed the gag. "That's better, hello!" the Doctor grinned. "But really, did ya think I'd leave my best friend without a defence mechanism?"
"What happened?" Wilfred asked worriedly.
"She's alright, she's fine, I promise." the Doctor reassured him. "She'll just sleep."
"Tell me, where's ya TARDIS?" the Master demanded to his fellow Time Lord.
"You could be so wonderful." the Doctor said softly.
"Where is it?" the Master demanded.
"You're a genius." the Doctor continued to ramble. "You're stone cold brilliant, I swear, ya really are. But you could be so much more. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars." In the corner of his eye, he saw the guard turn their head sharply in his direction. "It would be my honour," the Doctor continued. "'Cos ya don't need to own the universe, just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the whole universe. That's ownership enough."
The Master seemed to consider this. "Would it stop, then? The noise in my head?"
"I can help." the Doctor offered, causing the guard to stare at him again.
"I wonder what I'd be without that noise." the Master murmured.
"Wonder what I'd be, without you." the Doctor commented, sending the guard a quick side-eyed glance to keep quiet to preserve their cover.
"What does he mean?" Wilfred asked. "What noise?"
"It began on Galifrey." the Master told him. "As Children. Not that you'd call it childhood." he sneered. "More a life of duty. Eight years old, I was taken for initiation. To stare into the Untempered Schism."
"What does that mean?" Wilfred asked.
"It's a gap in the fabric of reality" the Doctor told him. "You can see into the Time Vortex itself. And it hurts."
"They took me there, in the dark." the Master continued. "I looked into time, old man, and I heard it calling to me. Drums, the never ending drums."
~8~
On Galifrey, the High Council were discussing the Master. "The Untempered Schism, that's where it all began." Rassilon said, bringing up a projection of the Schism.
"History says the Master heard a rhythm." the Time Lord told him. "A torment that stayed with him for the rest of his life."
"A drumbeat, a warrior's march." Rassilon observed.
"A symptom of insanity, my Lord." the Time Lord replied.
The Visionary suddenly started tapping a rhythm of four beats on the table with her finger. Rassilon suddenly realised what the beat was. "A rhythm of four. The heartbeat of a Time Lord." he smirked, an idea of how to escape the war occurring to him.
~8~
"Listen to it." the Master said, leaning back in the office chair as he finished recounting his tale. "Listen."
"Then let's find it." the Doctor encouraged. "You an' me."
"Except..." The Master got to his feet. "Oh! Oh, wait a minute. Oh, yes. That's good!"
"What? What is?" the Doctor asked, certain that whatever it was, it wasn't good at all.
"The noise exists inside my head." the Master rambled. "And now six billion heads. Everyone on Earth can hear it! Imagine! Oh, yes!" he laughed, before suddenly his head briefly flashed to a skeleton, before changing back and he flopped down on a settee.
"The gate wasn't enough." the Doctor sighed. "You're still dying."
"This body was born out of death." the Master replied. "All it can do is die." He stood up again. "But what did you say to me in the wasteland? You said 'the end of time.'"
"I said something is returning." the Doctor replied. "I was shown a prophecy. That's why I need your help."
"What if I'm part of it?" the Master said. "Don't you see? The drumbeat is calling from so far away, from the end of time itself. And now it's been amplified six billion times. Triangulate those signals, I could find it's source... Oh, Doctor... that's what your prophecy was, me!" He promptly slapped the Doctor on the cheek. "Where's the TARDIS?"
"No." the Doctor tried to reason. "Just stop. Just think..."
"Kill him." the Master ordered the guard, gesturing to Wilfred.
"I need that technology, Doctor. Tell where is is, or the old man is dead."
"Don't tell him!" Wilfred said bravely.
"I'll kill him, right now!" the Master threatened, but the Doctor was completely unfazed by the threat.
"Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, ya still bone-dead stupid." he smirked.
The Master rolled his neck at the insult. "Take aim." he ordered the guard, who aimed their rifle at Wilfred.
"You've got six billion pairs of eyes, but ya still can't see the obvious, can't you?" the Doctor continued casually.
"Like what?" the Master scoffed.
"That guard is two inches too short." the Doctor smirked.
The Master turned to look at the guard, who lifted their visor up to reveal Shareen. "Surprise!" she spat and promptly slammed the butt of her gun into the Master's face, knocking him out cold. "That's for calling Donna a freak." she snarled at his unconscious form. "And this is for every evil thing you've ever done!" And she began to give the evil Time Lord a well-deserved beating.
Just then, Rossiter and Addams, the Vinvocci, came hurrying in. "Never mind him." Addams said to Shareen. "We need to get out of here, fast!" She began untying Wilfred, while Rossiter moved over to free the Doctor.
"God bless the cactuses." Wilfred said as he was freed.
"That's cacti." the Doctor corrected.
"That's racist!" Rossiter scowled as he struggled to undo the straps on the Doctor's chair.
"This prophecy of yours, where did it come from?" Naismith-Master asked on the video screen
"Come on!" Addams urged. "We've got to get out!"
"There's too many buckles and straps!" Rossiter groaned.
"Just... wheel him." Addams told him, and Rossiter did just that.
"No, no, no!" the Doctor protested as Rossiter wheeled him out. "Get me out! No, no, don't! Don't! No, no..." But his protests fell on deaf ears.
Shareen gave the Master one last kick to the face, then she brought up the rear.
"What's going on?" Naismith-Master demanded as he saw the group rushing past the screen .
"Which way?" Rossiter asked once they were out of the office.
"This way." Addams replied, taking the lead.
"No, no, no, the other way!" the Doctor protested. "I've got my TARDIS."
"I know what I'm doing." Addams retorted, heading off in the way she'd pointed to
"No, no, just listen to us!" the Doctor protested in vain as Rossiter pushed him in the direction Addams was going. Shareen and Wilfred had no choice but to follow. "Shareen, can't you get me out of this thing with ya pen?!" the Doctor called irritably.
"Left it at home." Shareen waved him off.
~8~
In the office, a bloodied and bruised Master recovered. "Find them." he ordered the guards. "Find them!"
~8~
The escapees reached the stairs leading down to the cellar "Not the stairs! Not the stairs!" the Doctor cried, but Rossiter didn't listen and wheeled him down the stairs; a rather painful experience. "Worst rescue ever!" the Doctor grumbled once they'd reached the bottom.
"Serves ya right for takin' the Master's side again." Shareen snarked as she and Wilfred brought up the rear.
They reached the Vinvocci's lab just as the Master and the guards surrounded them. "Gotcha!" the Master crowed.
"You think so?" Addams retorted and pressed a button on her wristwatch.
"No, no, no, don't!" the Doctor protested, but too late. The quintet disappeared from the mansion and reappeared inside a spaceship in orbit of Earth. "Now get me outta this thing!" the Doctor demanded.
"Oh, don't say thanks, will ya?" Addams snorted.
"He's not gonna let us go!" the Doctor huffed. "Just hurry up an' get me out!"
"Alright, keep ya hair on, Peacock." Shareen snorted as she and the Vinvocci resumed work on freeing the Doctor.
"Oh, my goodness me!" Wilfred gasped, seeing Earth outside the viewport. "We're in space!"
"Come on!" the Doctor called irritably to the others.
"Oh, quit whining." Shareen waved him off.
~8~
On Earth, the Master worked on a laptop in Naismith's office, trying to find the destination of the teleport. "Open the teleport and follow them!" he ordered the guards.
~8~
The Doctor was finally free of the chair and he promptly used his sonic screwdriver to disable the teleport controls, preventing the Master's goons from pursuing them.
~8~
The Master managed to get the co-ordinates. "They're still up there." he smirked. "Target practice."
~8~
"Where's your flight deck?" the Doctor urgently asked the Vinvocci.
"But we're safe!" Addams argued. "We're a hundred thousand miles above the Earth."
"An' he's got every single missile on the planet ready to fire!" the Doctor countered.
"Good point." Addams conceded and led the way.
Wilfred didn't move. He was transfixed by the sight of Earth down below. Shareen came back to led him away. "But we're in space!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know." Shareen replied. "Cosmic, isn't it? C'mon!" And she led him in the direction the others had gone.
~8~
"Turn everything you've got to the skies." the Master ordered his doppelgängers. "Find me that ship. Prime the missiles."
"Open up the radar, maximum scan." the U.N.I.T General-Master ordered.
~8~
On the Vinvocci ship, the quintet raced onto the flight deck. "We've gotta close it down." the Doctor ordered.
"No chance, mate." Rossiter retorted. "We're going home."
"We're a salvage team." Addams added. "Local politics have got nothing to do with us. Not unless there's a carnival. Sooner we get back to Vinvocci space, the better."
"You're not leaving." the Doctor retorted, flashing his sonic screwdriver at the controls Addams was working at and the ship promptly went dead. He shushed the two aliens until the only sound to be heard was the ship creaking.
~8~
"Lost him." the U.N.I.T General Master reported to the Master.
"What about teleport co-ordinates?" the Master tried. "I need that information."
"He's cut the link, sir." one of the Guard-Masters from the cellar reported. "No trace, all dead. Still..." Gunfire sounded as the guards shot the teleport controls. "No way back now. They're stranded."
The Master took comfort in that. Now there was no way the Doctor and his two insignificant Human friends could ruin his plans.
~8~
On the Vinvocci ship, Addams spoke up, piecing the eerie silence. "No sign of any missiles. No sign of anything. You've wrecked the place!" she said angrily.
"The engines are burnt out." Rossiter said, checking the instruments. "Just auxiliary lights and life support. Everything else is kaput. We can't move. We're stuck in orbit!"
"Thanks to you!" Addams fumed at the Doctor. "You idiot!"
"Oh, shut up, spiky!" Shareen snapped. "If it wasn't for your stupid machine, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!"
Addams gave her a dirty look and stormed off, Rossiter following her.
"I know you, though." Wilfred said, more supportive of the Doctor. "I bet you've got a plan, haven't you? Eh? Come on! You've always got a trick up your sleeve. Nice little bit of flim-flam, sort of thing, eh?"
The Doctor just looked at him solemnly.
"Oh, blimey." Wilfred groaned as the truth hit him; the Doctor had no plan to fix this mess.
"Cosmic." Shareen grumbled. "Why is it every time your evil boyfriend shows up you become useless?" she asked the Doctor irritably. "I should've just shot that evil bastard when I had the chance." And she stalked off in a huff.
~8~
It was now night time on Earth and the Master was preparing to get to the bottom of the noise in his head "Night has fallen." he remarked. "Are we ready?"
"Every one of us is prepared." Naismith-Master replied .
"Then we listen." the Master ordered. "All of us, across the world, just.. listen." He closed his eyes, concentrating, as did all the Masters across the world. The Master's eyes snapped open after a moment. "There. The sound is tangible. Someone could only have designed this. But who?"
~8~
"The signal has been sent." a Time Lord reported to Rassilon. "A simple task of four beats transmitted back through time, and implanted in the Master's mind as a child."
"Then we have a link, to where the Master is right now." Rassilon smirked, bringing the hologram of Earth back up.
"But we're still trapped in the time lock, sir." the Time Lord pointed out. "The link is nothing more than a thought, an idea."
"Then we need something to make the link physical." Rassilon decided "Something so... simple."
"So small and shining." the Visionary rambled. "Shining bright and cold, the tiny, tiny star, falling, falling, burning, burning, burning."
Rassilon looked at his staff, which had a small diamond imbedded on it's head; just the thing that would do. "Small enough to follow the link." he said as he removed the diamond. "And if this were on Earth..." He chucked the diamond at the hologram.
~8~
The Doctor was working in the engine room of the Vinvocci ship when he Doctor saw something streaking through space towards Earth. He went to the viewport for a closer look then dismissed it as just a meteor. Right now, meteors were the least of his problems.
~8~
On Earth, the Master race heard a sound in the air. "That sound, it's coming from above." Naismith-Master observed.
"It's coming from the sky!" the Master said, running out onto the balcony and seeing a meteor crashing to Earth nearby. "Get out there and find it!" he ordered.
"Yes sir!" the guards answered and rushed off towards where the meteor had landed. It wasn't long before they were reporting back what they'd found. "it's a diamond, sir." one of the guards said over the comm. "Oh, the most impossible diamond. You won't believe it, sir. It's a whitepoint star!"
The Master was delighted at this news. This was definitely a big Christmas present from heaven.
~8~
Wilfred made his way through the gangways and corridors of the Vinvocci ship, trying to find his friends. Presently, he found Shareen standing by herself in a corridor, looking at her phone. "You alright?" he asked her.
"Yeah, just checkin' my missed calls." Shareen sighed. "They're all him now, aren't they?" she sighed, looking at the missed calls from her parents, grandparents and friends. "Everyone on Earth I know, they've all turned into that evil nutter. I hate that man! I swear to ya, Wilf, I'm gonna kill him. Even if it's the last thing I ever do, I'm gonna kill that evil psychopath!"
Just then, Wilfred heard a clanging nearby. "Is that you, Doctor?" he called, he and Shareen going to investigate the noise. "Doctor? Anyone?" They entered a large room that was completely empty. "Oh, we're lost." Wilfred sighed.
"And yet you are found." a woman's voice said from behind them and they spun round to see the woman from the church standing there. "Events are closing. The day is almost upon us." she told Wilfred. "But tell me, old soldier, did you take arms?"
"I brought this." Wilfred replied, pulling out his revolver, having retrieved it before they'd fled from the mansion. "But what am I supposed to do?"
"This is the Doctor's final battle. At the end of his life, he must stand at arms, or lose himself and all this world, to the end of time."
"Huh, easier said than done." Shareen remarked. "Peacock never uses guns; he prefers to let other people do his dirty work for him. Who're you, anyway?"
"I was lost... so many years ago." the woman said vaguely.
"Oh, thanks, that explains a lot(!)" Shareen snorted, looking away for a moment. When she turned back, the woman had gone. "How does she keep doing that?" she wandered.
"Search me." Wilfred shrugged.
~8~
Presently, the two Humans found the Doctor hard at work with some wiring. "Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended then?" Wilfred asked him.
"Just tryin' to fix the heating." the Doctor shrugged.
Wilfred plopped down beside them with a sigh. "D'you know, I've always dreamt of a view like this." he chuckled, looking at the view outside the viewport. "I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look. " He pointed at Britain. "Brand new day. My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. D'you think he changed them, in their graves?"
"I'm sorry." the Doctor replied gravely.
"No, not your fault." Wilfred reassured him.
"Isn't it?" the Doctor asked rhetorically.
"Let's not go there, Peacock." Shareen said tactfully, slumping down on the floor. "Hope ya don't mind me sayin' this, Peacock, but I bloody hate your evil boyfriend!"
"He's not my boyfriend." the Doctor said weakly. "He was a friend... long ago, but not anymore."
"Then why d'you keep takin' his side?" Shareen asked him.
"I don't." the Doctor protested.
"Yes, you do." Shareen challenged. "I heard ya talkin' to him back at the mansion. You cared nothing for what he did; you just brushed it off an' offered to help him!"
The Doctor was left struggling to think of a way to justify his behaviour, so Wilfred decided to change the subject. "Ooh... 1948, I was over there." he said, pointing to a continent on Earth below. "End of the Mandate in Palestine. Private Mott. Skinny little idiot I was, stood on this rooftop, in the middle of a skirmish. It was like a blizzard, all them bullets in the air. The world gone mad, yeah." he sighed. "Yeah, you don't want to to listen to an old man's tales, do you?"
"I'm older than you." the Doctor said
"Get away!" Wilfred laughed.
"I'm 906."
"What, really though?" Wilfred stared.
"Yeah." the Doctor confirmed
"We must look like insects to you." Wilfred remarked.
"He certainly likes to treat us like 'em sometimes." Shareen commented.
"No, I think you all look like giants." the Doctor reassured them.
"Then why'd you keep actin' all holier-than-thou an' looking down ya nose at us?" Shareen asked rhetorically.
Wilfred took out his revolver. "Listen, I... I want you to have this." he said, offering it to the Doctor. "I've kept it all this time and I though..."
"No." the Doctor shook his head.
"No, but if you could take it, you could..."
"No." the Doctor said firmly. "You 'ad that gun in the mansion. You could've shot the Master then an' there."
"Too scared, I suppose." Wilfred sighed.
"Join the club." Shareen muttered. "I had the chance to blow that lunatic's brains out and I didn't take it. Guess I thought shootin' him would be too good for a monster like him. I wanted to make him suffer for everything he's done, wait 'till he's begging for death, and then kill him."
I'd be proud." the Doctor said suddenly.
"Of what?" Wilfred asked. "Of Shareen killing the Master?"
"No, if you were my dad." the Doctor replied.
"Oh, come on, don't start." Wilfred said, then something occurred to him. "But you said... you were told... he will knock four times, and then you die." he said to the Doctor. "Well, that's him, isn't it, the Master? That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you."
"Yeah." the Doctor replied.
"Then kill him first." Wilfred offered his gun again.
"An' that's how the Master started." the Doctor said. "It's not like I' innocent. I've taken lives. I got worse, I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes, I think a Time Lord lives too long. I can't, I just can't." He pushed the gun away
"Peacock, if the Master did die, what would happen to the people he changed?" Shareen asked suddenly.
"I don't know." the Doctor replied, not really wanting to answer.
"Doctor, what happens?" Wilfred insisted, realising that the Doctor was lying.
"The template snaps." the Doctor answered.
"What they go back to being Human?" Wilfred asked, and the Doctor nodded. "They're alive and Human?! Then don't you dare, sir! Don't you dare put him before them! Now you take this, that's an order, Doctor. Take the gun and save your life. And please don't die. You're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die!" He broke down in tears as he took the Doctor's hand and placed his gun in it.
"Never." the Doctor said, pushing the gun away.
"Oh, for God's sake, Peacock, stop taking Looney Bin's side!" Shareen glared. "That man is pure evil. Why can't you see that?! Ya know what, if you're too spineless to do it, then I'll do it myself."
"Shareen..." the Doctor began, but before he could continue, he was interrupted by the Master's voice coming over the ship's speakers.
"A star... fell from the sky. Don't you want to know where from? Because NOW it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life, my destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond... is a whitepoint star."
The Doctor stiffened at this news.
"And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift. Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it know? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be spectacular. Over and out."
"What's he on about?" Wilfred asked. "What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?"
"A whitepoint star is only found on one planet." the Doctor paled "Galifrey. Which means... it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning!"
"Well, that's alright, then." Shareen said. "If they're comin' back, maybe they can stop the Master.
But the Doctor looked like he'd been told it was the end of the universe. He grabbed Wilfred's gun and ran from the room with a determined look on his face. The two confused Humans had no choice but to follow.
~8~
In the Naismith mansion, the Master race were getting ready. "Open up the nuclear bolt." the Master ordered. "Infuse the power lines to maximum."
One of the technician-Masters went into one of the booths, releasing the technician in the other one. "Nuclear bolt accelerating, sir." the first Technician-Master reported.
The Master went over to a device that had been built for the occasion and placed the whitepoint star inside it. "Send the signal back and the link becomes a gateway." he grinned as the machine lit up and a bleeping four-beat rhythm echoed out from it, through the stars all the way to Galifrey. "Come home!" the Master cackled in delight.
~8~
The Doctor rushed onto the flight deck of the Vinvocci ship, switched on a comm panel and the bleeping sounded.
"What's that?" Addams wandered.
"Coming from Earth." Rossiter said, checking his computer. "It's on every single wavelength."
~8~
The bleeping reached the Council Chambers on Galifrey. "Contact!" Rassilon smirked. "At last."
~8~
"We have contact!" the Master cheered.
~8~
Rassilon strode into the panopticon of the Time Lords. "Now the High Council of Time Lords must vote." he announced. "Whether we die here, today, or return to the waking world and complete the Ultimate Sanction, for this is the hour whether Galifrey falls or Galifrey RISES!" he held up his staff
"GALIFREY RISES!" the Time Lords chorused.
"GALIFREY RISES!" Rassilon crowed.
~8~
Wilfred and Shareen had joined everyone on the flight deck of the Vinvocci ship. "Have we missed something here, Peacock?" Shareen asked the Doctor, who was busy working on several control consoles. "But you've said time an' time again that all your people are dead, extinct, all gone."
"Inside, the Time War, when the whole war was time locked." the Doctor explained as he worked. "Like sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble, but think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or out of the time lock. Don't ya see? Nothing can get in or out, except something that was already there."
"Oh, that drummin' that he's had in his head ever since was a kid." Shareen realised.
"It's a signal." the Doctor told her. "If they can follow the signal, they can escape before they die."
"Well, big reunion." Wilfred cheered, seeing no problem with that. "We'll have a party."
"There will be no party." the Doctor said grimly. The prospect of the Time Lords returning to the universe was disastrous.
"But you're always bangin' on about your people as if they were saints, Jedi, the best things in the universe since sliced bread." Shareen frowned.
"That's how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old." the Doctor admitted. "But then they went to war, and it changed them, right to the core. You've both seen my enemies, Wilf, Shareen. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of 'em."
"Time Lords?" Addams scoffed, not understanding what the trio were rambling on about. "What lords? Anyone want to explain?"
"Right, you." the Doctor pointed at her. "This is a salvage ship, yes? Ya go trawlin' the asteroid fields for junk?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"So, you've got asteroid lasers!"
"Yeah, but they're all frazzled." Rossiter reminded.
"Consider 'em unfrazzled." the Doctor retorted, flipping a lever and two doors either side of the room opened. "You there." he pointed at Addams. "We're gonna need you on navigation." He turned to Rossiter. "An' you, get in the laser pod. Wilfred?"
"Yeah?" Wilfred asked.
"Laser number two." the Doctor ordered. "The old soldier's got one more battle."
"Right." the Human nodded.
"Shareen, you take the rear laser pod. " the Doctor continued. "Just pretend it's live-action Jedi Starfighter."
"No problem, Peacock." Shareen nodded.
"This ship can't move, it's dead." Addams pointed out.
"Fixed the heating." the Doctor said, flipping two levers and the ship sprang to life again.
"But now they can see us!" Addams cried.
"Oh yes!" the Doctor grinned, taking up position at the helm.
"This is my ship and you're not moving it!" Addams moaned. "Step away from the wheel."
"There's an old Earth sayin', captain." the Doctor answered determinedly. "A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need."
"What's that, then?"
"Allons-y!" the Doctor cheered, and with that, he sent the ship charging towards Earth. "Come on!" he gritted his teeth as they entered the Earth's atmosphere.
"You are blinkin' flipping mad!" Addams grumbled as she tried to stop herself from falling flat on the floor from the rough ride.
"You three, what did I say? Lasers." the Doctor ordered Wilfred, Shareen and Rossiter.
"What for?" Rossiter asked, still not getting it.
"Because of the missiles." the Doctor answered simply. "We've gotta fight off the entire planet."
And so Wilfred, Shareen and Rossiter hurried off to the laser pods.
~8~
On Earth, the ship had appeared on radar. "All NATO defences co-ordinated, sir." the General-Master reported. "Awaiting your command."
"I don't need him." the Master snorted. "Any second now, I've have Time Lords to spare. Take him out. Launch missiles!"
~8~
Wilfred strapped himself into one of the Vinvocci ship's laser pods. "Hey!" he whistled up to Rossiter. "How does this thing work?"
"The tracking's automatic." Rossiter answered. "Just deploy the trigger on the joystick."
Wilfred grabbed the controls and the pod began to swivel around. "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" he exclaimed as he tried to get the hang of it.
Shareen meanwhile had taken up position in the third laser pod. "Alright, Looney Bin, do ya worst!" she said grimly.
"We've got incoming!" Addams warned, seeing incoming missiles on her computer.
"You three, open fire!" the Doctor ordered the gunners.
"Oh my god!" Rossiter gasped, seeing missiles streaking straight towards them through the sky.
The Doctor made the ship do a corkscrew as he took evasive action. "Open fire!" he ordered. "C'mon, Wilf, Shareen!"
Wilfred, Shareen and Rossiter opened fire on the missiles, picking them off one-by-one. "Whoo!" Wilfred cheered. "Oh, I wish Donna could see me now!"
"And there's more." Addams groaned as she saw more missiles coming for them. "16 of 'em. Oh, and another 16!"
"Leave 'em to me!" Shareen said and opened fire on the new volley. "Yeah, Han Solo's got nothing on me!" she crowed as she picked several of them off with ease.
The Doctor meanwhile did a loop-the-loop to shake off some of the missiles. During the course of the dogfight, one of the blasts blew out the front viewport, and the Doctor and Addams were forced to duck below their consoles until the emergency forcefield activated "Lock the navigation." the Doctor ordered Addams.
"Onto what?"
"England! The Naismith mansion!"
~8~
"He's heading straight for you." the General-Master warned.
"But too late." the Master grinned, knowing that the Doctor wouldn't get there in time to stop him. "They are coming!"
~8~
Rassilon strode into the panopticon, passing two Time Lords who were kneeled on the floor with their hands over the eyes, as if they were weeping. "The vote is taken." Rassilon announced. "Only two are against and will stand as monument to their shame, like the Weeping Angels of old. Now the vanguard stands prepared, as the children of Galifrey return to the universe, to Earth!" He held up his staff as he, the two weeping Time Lords and two guards were enveloped in a white light.
~8~
The Master laughed excitedly as the space in front of the gate began to glow brightly.
~8~
The Vinvocci ship sped over the English coast. "Destination?" the Doctor asked.
"50 klicks and closing." Addams replied. "We've locked onto the house. We are gonna stop, though? Doctor, we are going to stop?!"
The Doctor didn't answer; he just grimly concentrated on his piloting.
~8~
The Master laughed and jumped on the spot as he saw red robed-figures emerge from the light.
~8~
Shareen, Wilfred and Rossiter returned to the flight deck, having finished dealing with the missiles. "Doctor." Wilfred called. "You said you were going to die."
"He said what?" Addams spluttered.
"But is that all of us?" Wilfred asked. "I won't stop you, sir, but is this it?"
He received no answer; the Doctor just grimly stared at the rapidly approaching city of London, steeling himself for the inevitable confrontation with the Time Lords.
~8~
The Master watched gleefully as Rassilon, the weeping Time Lords and the guards emerged from the light. The Naismith-Master looked out of the window and saw the Vinvocci ship thundering towards them. "I think I should warn you..."
"Not now!" the Master snapped, not bothered about them.
~8~
Just as it seemed like they were going to crash into the house, the Doctor suddenly slammed on the retro thrusters and pulled up. He brought the ship into a hovering position just above the house and went to a hatch in the floor. He opened it and saw that they were directly above the glass dome in the gate room. With the revolver in hand, he looked at Wilfred and Shareen then jumped from the ship. He crashed through the dome and landed in a heap on the floor, right before Rassilon.
"My Lord Doctor. My Lord Master. We are gathered for the end." Rassilon announced as he strode forward.
The Doctor tried to aim his revolver at the Lord President, but the fall had knocked the wind out of him and he could barely move.
~8~
Addams had taken control of the ship. "Just.. just turn it round, land it." Wilfred demanded.
"We are not going in there!" Addams said hastily.
"I am not leaving that man on his own, not today. Land it!" Wilfred demanded.
"You heard the man!" Shareen agreed. "Land this thing, Spiky!"
Addams gave a begrudging grunt and complied.
~8~
Groaning, the Doctor slowly rose, first to all fours and then he knelt, resting on the back of his legs. "Listen to me." he wheezed. "You can't..."
"It is a fitting paradox that our salvation comes at the hands of our most infamous child." Rassilon remarked, eyeing the Master with contempt.
"Oh, he's not saving you." the Doctor panted. "Don't you realise what he's doing?"
"Hey, no, hey!" the Master cut him off. "That's mine. Hush." He turned to Rassilon. "Look around you. I've transplanted myself into every single Human being." He gestured to his doppelgängers. "But who wants a little mongrel species like them? Because now I can transplant myself into every single Time Lord. Oh, yes, Mr President, sir, standing there, all noble and resplendent and decrepit. Think how much better you're going to look as me!"
Rassilon simply held up his gauntlet which began to glow, and all across the world, the Master's doppelgängers were enveloped in the same blue glow that had occurred when they'd changed.
"No, don't. No, no, stop it!" the Master whined as the glow faded and all Humans were restored to normal. "No! No! Don't!"
"On your knees, mankind." Rassilon commanded the scared and confused Humans, who wisely obeyed.
"No, that's fine." the Master said, trying to regain control of the situation. "That's good, because you said 'salvation'. I saved you. Don't forget that."
"The approach begins." Rassilon announced, and a low rumbling sounded in the air.
"Approach of what?" the Master asked.
"Something is returning." the Doctor told him. "Don't you ever listen?! That was the prophecy. Not someone, something."
"What is it?"
"They're not just bringing back the species. It's Galifrey. Right here, right now.
And sure enough, the planet Galifrey appeared in space right next to Earth.
~8~
In the Noble house, Sylvia and Shaun recovered. They had no idea what had just happened. The last thing they remembered was seeing the face of a strange man in their minds, now they found that an entire day had gone and they had no memory of it. Then Shaun noticed something else; Donna was nowhere to be seen. "Donna." he gasped. "Where's Donna?"
Suddenly, they felt the house tremble and they rushed outside to see a red planet in the sky looming closer, causing mass panic. Shaun took off to find his missing fiancé, while Sylvia could only stare in horror at the approaching planet. "Oh, Doctor... please." she whimpered, knowing that he was no doubt working to stop this.
~8~
At the Naismith mansion, the terrified Humans fled the house in panic, while Wilfred and Shareen fought their way through the crowds, determined to help the Doctor. "Out the way, idiot." Shareen muttered as she barged past a blustering Naismith.
"I did this." the Master said to Rassilon. "I get the credit. I'm on your side!"
Wilfred and Shareen entered the room and Wilfred saw a trapped technician frantically banging on the glass booth he was sealed in. "Alright, I've got you." Wilfred said, rushing over to release him.
"Wilf, don't... Don't!" the Doctor warned, knowing that Wilfred would end up trapped himself, but it was too late. Wilfred sealed himself in the other booth, releasing the technician, but trapping himself.
Shareen meanwhile looked at the Time Lords. "Bloody hell, it's James Bond!" she muttered as she saw Rassilon.
"But this is fantastic, isn't it?" the Master said. "The Time Lords restored."
"You weren't there in the final days of the war." the Doctor growled. "You never saw what was born. But if the time lock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been-King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-wheres. The war turned to hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending!"
"My kinda world!" the Master laughed.
"Just listen!" the Doctor snapped. "Cos' even the Time Lords can't survive that!"
"We will initiate the Final Sanction." Rassilon announced maliciously. "The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue, until it rips the Time Vortex apart."
"That's suicide." the Master exclaimed. Even he had to admit that was going too far.
"We will ascend to be become creatures of consciousness alone." Rassilon continued evilly. "Free of these bodies, free of time, and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be."
"You're insane!" Shareen burst out. "You're no better than the Daleks!"
"You see now?" the Doctor told the Master. "That's what they were plannin' in the final days of the war. I had to stop them."
"Then take me with you, Lord President." the Master said to Rassilon. "Let me ascend to glory." He knelt down and stretched his arms out.
"You are diseased." Rassilon sneered. "Albeit a disease of our own making. No more."
The Master slowly lowered his arms, realising that all his life, he'd been just a pawn in the High Council's own self-interests.
The Doctor had heard enough and promptly aimed Wilfred's revolver at Rassilon. "Choose your enemy well." the President scowled. "We are many. The Master is but one."
"But he's the President." the Master goaded. "Kill him and Galifrey could be yours!"
The Doctor turned and pointed the gun at him "He's to blame, not me!" the Master protested, then realised. "Oh, the link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back. You never would, you coward!" he spat, seeing the Doctor waver. "Go on, then, do it!"
The Doctor aimed his gun at Rassilon. "Exactly. It's not just me, it's him! He's the link, kill him!" the Master egged.
"Shut up, Looney Bin!" Shareen snapped at him.
"The final act of your life is murder." Rassilon said coldly to the Doctor. "But which one of us?"
The Doctor wavered again, unable to bring himself to pull the trigger. Suddenly, one of the two weeping Time Lords behind Rassilon lowered their hands. Wilfred and Shareen stared as they saw that it was the woman who kept appearing to them. The Doctor stared too as he recognised the woman as his own mother. Shareen suddenly noticed that the woman was motioning with her eyes to something at the back of the room. She followed her gaze and realised, then she grabbed the revolver from the Doctor and aimed it at the Master. "Shareen, no!" the Doctor began.
"Get out the way, Looney Bin!" Shareen told the Master, who blinked in surprise before quickly realising and he dove out of the way. Shareen then fired at the device holding the diamond. which exploded in a shower of sparks, severing the link.
"What have you done?!" Rassilon stared, going purple with rage.
"She's broken the link." the Doctor realised. "Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into Hell!"
Rassilon was furious. "Then you'll die with me, you interfering primitive!" he spat at Shareen, raising his gauntlet, ready to wipe out the silly Human who had ruined his plan.
"Not if I kill you first, 007!" Shareen retorted, aiming the revolver at Rassilon, but before she could fire, Rassilon was suddenly hit by a bolt of electricity.
The bolt had come from the Master. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!" he roared, as he bombarded the evil President with energy, getting closer each time. "ALL MY LIFE! YOU MADE ME! ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"
There was a dazzling white light and the Master, Rassilon and Galifrey all disappeared back into the Time War.
~8~
In Chiswick, Sylvia and the other Humans all cheered in relief as Galifrey faded from view.
~8~
The Doctor was lying on his back on the floor of the Naismith mansion. He rolled onto his side with a groan, his suit torn and his face covered in cuts and bruises, but he was still very much alive and well. "I'm alive." he gasped. "I've... there was..." He pushed himself up to a sitting position. "I'm still alive." he laughed shakily.
"Don't look too pleased with yourself, Peacock." Shareen said as she staggered over to him. "You were useless... again. Muggins here had to save the day. Ooh, I've just saved the whole of creation." she realised.
"How does it feel?" the Doctor asked her.
"I dunno." Shareen blinked. She'd always been the bridesmaid, never the bride when it came to saving the day, but today, she had been the hero and she was only just beginning to process this.
Then, four knocks sounded.
The Doctor stiffened, hoping he'd imagined it. Then the four knocks then sounded again. The Doctor realised that he'd forgotten where Wilfred was. He slowly turned round to see him knocking on the glass of the booth he was sealed in. "They've gone, then?" he asked the Doctor. "Good-o. If you could let me out."
"Yeah." the Doctor murmured, realising that this was what Carmen had meant when she said 'He will knock four times.'
"Only this thing seems to be making a noise." Wilfred continued, pointing to the whirring control panel behind him.
"The Master... left the nuclear bolt running." the Doctor said as he slowly got to his feet. "It's gone into overload."
"And that's bad, is it?"
"No. Cos' all the excess radiation gets vented into there. Vinvocci glass contains it. All 50,000 rads, about to flood that thing."
"Oh." Wilfred chuckled nervously. "Well, you'd better let me out, then."
"Or just turn the bloody machine off." Shareen added.
The Doctor shook his head. "It's gone critical." he told the Humans. "Touch one control and it floods." He took out his sonic screwdriver and eyed it solemnly. "Even this would set it off."
"I'm sorry." Wilfred said, realising that in saving the technician, he'd made himself responsible for the Doctor's impending death
"I know." the Doctor sighed, putting his sonic screwdriver away and turning away to gather his thoughts.
"Look, just leave me." Wilfred urged.
"Wilfred!" Shareen stared, horrified that her friend was willing to die like that.
"No, really, just leave me." Wilfred insisted. "I'm an old man. I've had my time."
"Don't say that!" Shareen said. "C'mon, Peacock, you're the man who knows everything. Surely there's gotta be some way of stopping this stupid machine!"
The Doctor gave a resigned sigh, knowing that there was only one thing for it. "There's one way." he told Shareen, then he took a deep breath and walked over towards the booths.
"No... no, no, please, don't!" Wilfred begged, realising what the Doctor was about to do. "No, don't, please!"
"Wilfred, it's my honour." the Doctor told him. If there was any Human that he had to sacrifice himself for, he was glad it was Wilfred. "Better be quick." He stepped into the other booth. "Three, two, one." He slammed his hand down on the red button, releasing Wilfred, who scrambled out to join Shareen.
A red light filled the Doctor's booth as it flooded with radiation. Wilfred and Shareen could only watch helplessly as the Doctor screamed and slid down to the floor, where he curled up in agony. The two Humans watched until the machine switched off, leaving a sombre silence in the room. "He's still alive." Shareen realised, seeing that the Doctor was still breathing.
The Time Lord then slowly unwound and sat up. "Hello." Wilfred breathed.
"Hi." the Doctor answered, pushing himself to his feet.
"Still with us, then?" Wilfred asked cautiously.
"The system's dead. I absorbed it all." the Doctor answered. "The whole thing's kaput." He put his hand on the door and pushed it open. "Oh, now it opens, yeah." he muttered and stepped out.
"Well, there we are, then. Safe and sound." Wilfred said. "Mind you, you're in a hell of a state. You've got some battle scars there."
"Can't you just expel the radiation, Peacock?" Shareen asked the Doctor. "Like ya did in the hospital?"
"Too much radiation." the Doctor replied and covered his face with his hands. There was a slight sizzling sound and the Doctor lowered his hands to reveal his face completely healed.
"But they've..." Wilfred blinked. "Your face! How did you do that?"
"It's started." the Doctor replied, looking at his hands.
Wilfred walked over and hugged the Doctor, sobbing into his jacket while the Doctor remained stoic. Shareen meanwhile swept a computer monitor off a desk in frustration. "Stupid alien piece of crap." she muttered, wandering what possessed the Vinvocci to design their gate with such an ill-thought out death trap feature.
~8~
At the Noble house, Shaun had found the unconscious Donna and brought her home. "It's no good. She's freezing." he fussed, putting his hand on her forehead. "How long was she lying there? It's like hypothermia! Try 'em again."
"I did, it's engaged." Sylvia cried, having unsuccessfully tried calling an ambulance. "Everyone's dialling 999, I can't get through!"
"We've got to do something! Wake her up. Donna, can you hear me? Donna?"
Just then, Sylvia heard the sound of the TARDIS materialising, and Donna began to stir, then her eyes fluttered open.
"Donna? It's me." Shaun fussed over her. "I'm here. You're safe, you're home."
"But I was... what happened?" Donna groaned, nursing her sore head, then she became aware of her mother and fiancé fussing over her. "Did I miss something... again?"
Sylvia smiled in relief at her daughter being safe and sound and went outside while Shaun looked after Donna. Sylvia peered out of the doorway to see the TARDIS in the street outside. The door opened and Wilfred stepped out, followed by the Doctor and Shareen. The Doctor had freshened up on the way back from the Naismith mansion, having replaced his torn suit jacket with a fresh one. Sylvia smiled at the sight of the trio
"Oh, she's smiling." the Doctor noted. "As if today wasn't bad enough. Anyway... don't go thinking this is goodbye, Wilf." he told Wilfred. "I'll see you again, one more time."
"What d'you mean?" Wilfred asked. "When's that?"
"Just keep looking." the Doctor replied. "I'll be there."
"Where're you going?" Wilfred asked him.
"To drop Shareen off and then get my reward." the Doctor replied, then he and Shareen went back inside the TARDIS.
"Actually, Peacock, I'm gonna wait till you've regenerated before I go home." Shareen told the Doctor once they were alone.
"You sure that's what you want?" the Doctor asked her.
"Well, it's not what I want, but it's for the best." Shareen replied. "Last time you regenerated, you went into a coma. Someone's gotta be there to make sure that doesn't happen again."
"Very well." the Doctor conceded. "But I'm not regenerating yet. I'm gonna get my reward first."
~8~
Martha Milligan-Jones ran through a disused warehouse, dressed in black and carrying a rifle. Gunfire ricocheted off the ground behind her. She took refuge behind a concrete wall where Mickey Smith was also taking cover. Like Martha, he was dressed for combat. "I told you to stay behind." he reprimanded.
"You looked like you needed help." Martha retorted. "Besides, you were the one who persuaded me to go freelance."
"Yeah, but we're bein' fired at by a Sontaran." Mickey pointed out. "A dumplin' with a gun. An' I promised Tom I'd keep you safe."
"Yeah, well, tough. Cos' I promised Tish I'd keep you safe." Martha countered
The two Humans didn't know that a Sontaran had taken up position on a catwalk nearby. He aimed his rifle at them and was about to fire when a voice called out to him, "Oi, Spudhead!"
The Sontaran turned to see Shareen standing on the catwalk making a face at him. Suddenly, something hit his probic vent and the spud fell to the floor, revealing the Doctor standing there, the TARDIS mallet in his hand.
"Nice whackin', Peacock." Shareen praised.
Mickey was pouring over a map of the building "If we go in here an' down to the factory floor an' down past that corridor, then he won't know we're here." he announced
Martha happened to look up at that moment and saw the Doctor standing on the catwalk, Shareen too. "Mickey." she tapped her colleague's shoulder and he looked up too
"Hey." Mickey waved in greeting to his friends.
Shareen waved back while the Doctor nodded his greetings to his former companions and then they both went on their way.
~8~
Luke Smith walked down Bannerman Road, talking to his friend Clyde Langer on his mobile. "That was the maddest Christmas ever, Clyde. Mum doesn't know what happened. She got Mr Smith to put out a story saying wi-fi went mad all over the world, giving people hallucinations. How else d'you explain it?" He began to cross the road, not looking before doing so. "A face in everyone's head..."
Suddenly, Shareen came out of nowhere and pulled him out of the way of an oncoming car. She led him back to the pavement, where the Doctor and the TARDIS were standing. "Didn't they teach ya at school to look both ways before crossin' the road, kid?" Shareen chided Luke.
"It's you!" Luke gasped at the Doctor, remembering seeing the Time Lord during the Dalek invasion earlier that year, then actually meeting him in person at his mother's ill-fated wedding not long ago. "Mum!" he called as he ran over to No 13.
"What?" Sarah Jane asked as she came out of the house. "What is it?"
"It's him. It's the Doctor." Luke replied, across the road to where the Doctor was returning to the TARDIS.
The Doctor looked back at his former companion and waved, a solemn look on his face. Sarah Jane smiled sadly. She knew what that look meant; the Doctor was about to regenerate again.
~8~
Captain Jack Harkness sat in a bar on the planet Zog, downing his sorrows following the recent incident with the 456, which had led to the destruction of Torchwood and the death of Ianto Jones. The barman came over and handed Jack a note. "From the man over there." the barman told him
Jack looked up to see the Doctor standing across the bar. Jack opened the note to see that it had 'His name is Alonso' written on it. Jack looked up again and the Doctor nodded towards the person sitting next to Jack. He followed their gaze to see a young man in an old fashioned sailor's uniform sitting there. It was Alonso Frame fron the spaceship Titanic. Jack looked back to the Doctor, who saluted a finger to his forehead. Jack gave him a proper salute and the Time Lord left the bar.
Jack turned to Alonso. "So, Alonso, you going my way"? he asked.
"How d'you know my name?" Alonso questioned.
"I'm kinda psychic." Jack grinned.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know what I'm thinking right now?"
"Oh yeah." Jack grinned, and ordered the man a drink.
~8~
The next stop on the Doctor's farewell tour was a book shop where a woman named Verity Newman was signing copies of her book The Journal of Impossible Things. Verity Newman was a descendant of Joan Redfern and her book was a recount of Redfern's time with John Smith. The Doctor went inside to talk to Newman while Shareen stayed outside, having not forgotten Redfern's terrible attitude during her time in 1913. Shareen passed the time by answering the phone calls from her worried family. "Yeah, I'm alright, mum." she was saying to Hayden. "It's kind of a long story as to what happened, but I can tell you that I didn't change. And mum, I love you an' dad, you know that? And tell Zara that I love her too, even if she is a stuck-up cow."
~8~
In the spring of 2010, Donna and Shaun exited a church to storms of cheers from their families and friends. Donna laughed and proudly showed off her wedding ring. A very proud Wilfred kissed his granddaughter and hugged his grandson-in-law. "Three cheers." he announced. "Hip, hip..."
"Hooray!" the guests chorused
"Hip, hip..."
"Hooray!"
"Hip, hip..."
"Hooray!"
Donna soon got busy organising everyone for the wedding photos. "Right, c'mon then, you lot. Get in! This photo is just with with friends. Come on. An' I want all of you in it, come on. That's it. Well, friends an' Nerys." She took her place in front and centre, right next to a scowling Nerys. "I'm only joking." Donna reassured. She was on much friendlier terms with Nerys these days. "Oh, look at her."
"You made me wear peach." Nerys moaned.
"That's cos' you are a peach." Donna teased. "Furry skin, stone inside, goin' off."
"Ok, smile." the photographer announced.
"Cheese!" everyone chorused as the photo was taken.
Wilfred, Sylvia and Minnie watched from the side. "How about it, Wilfred?" Minnie asked him.
"Eh?"
"Well, it's never too late." Minnie said, dropping confetti on his head.
"Will you behave, Minnie?!" Wilfred snorted. "Honestly!"
"I'm going to catch that bouquet." Minnie said and walked away.
"Oh, dear." Wilfred chuckled, shaking his head.
Sylvia glanced over to the church gates and saw the TARDIS, with the Doctor and Shareen standing by it, proudly watching the wedding. "Dad." Sylvia tapped her father's arm and they walked over to the time travellers.
"And here you are, same old face." Wilfred said, glad to see them. "Didn't I tell you you'd be alright? Oh, they've arrested Mr Naismith. It was on the news. Crimes undisclosed. And his daughter. Both of 'em, locked up."
"Good." Shareen said. "That means they won't be meddlin' with any more alien gates anytime soon."
"Yeah, but I keep thinking, Doctor, there's one thing you never told me. That woman, who was she?" Wilfred asked.
"Yeah, she seemed to know you, Peacock, so who was she?" Shareen agreed.
The Doctor didn't answer; he looked to the happy couple and changed the subject. "I just wanted to give you this." He handed a small envelope to Wilfred. "Wedding present. Thing is, I never carry money so I popped back in time an' borrowed a quid off a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was."
Sylvia gasped.
"'Have it,' he said." the Doctor continued. "'Have that on me.'"
"He was a nice bloke." Shareen finished.
Sylvia and Wilfred headed back to join Donna. Wilfred handed her the envelope. "Oh, don't tell me, it's a bill." Donna rolled her eyes. "Just what I need, right now." She opened the envelope. "A lottery ticket?"
Her mother and grandfather looked at each other in shock.
"What a cheap present. Who was that? Still, ya never know, it's a triple rollover this week. Someone's already picked the numbers, maybe they're the lucky numbers." She stuffed the ticket into her bodice and went off to find her husband.
Sylvia and Wilfred both smiled, realising that the Doctor would've known what the winning numbers for that week were and the numbers circled on the ticket must be the winning numbers. They looked back to the Time Lord and Wilfred saluted him. The Doctor saluted back while Shareen waved, then they both went back inside the TARDIS. Wilfred got teary-eyed as the box dematerialised.
~8~
The TARDIS was parked on the snow-covered Powell Estate on New Year's Day 2005. Shareen stood by the box watching her younger self, Rose and Jackie Tyler walk across the estate. "I'm late now, I've missed it." Rose complained. "It's midnight. Mickey'll be callin' me everything. This is your fault."
"No, it's not." Jackie protested. "It's Jimbo! He said he was gonna give us a lift, then he said his axle broke. I can't help it."
"Get rid of him, mum. He's useless."
"Listen to you! With a mechanic. Be fair though, my time of life, I'm not gonna do much better."
"Don't be like that." Rose encouraged "Ya never know. There could be someone out there."
"Maybe." Jackie sighed "One day.
"Yeah, well, if ya see anyone for me, give 'em my number." the younger Shareen said. "Hey, happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!" Rose and Jackie laughed, then mother and daughter shared a hug. "Don't stay out all night, 'Reen!" Rose said as the trio parted ways.
"Just you try an' stop me!" the younger Shareen laughed and went off towards Eichen House, while Rose and Jackie made for Bucknall House.
The older Shareen watched as Rose paused to talk to the Doctor, who was standing in the shadows in a dark corner, his face hidden by the darkness. They both spoke for a bit, then Rose scampered off after her mother. With the coast clear, Shareen came over to join the Doctor, who was now on his last legs. "C'mon, Peacock. Let's get ya back inside." she told him, and they began the long, slow walk back towards the TARDIS. They were halfway there when the Doctor's legs gave out and he collapsed to his knees in pain.
Shareen helped him up and they saw a projection of Ood Sigma standing before them. "We will sing to you, Doctor." he said. "The universe will sing you to your sleep."
The Doctor and Shareen heard the Ood singing a song of mourning as they resumed their walk.
"This song is ending, but the story never ends." Ood Sigma told him before disappearing.
The Doctor and Shareen went back inside the TARDIS and the Doctor leaned against the door to catch his breath. Once he gained his strength back, he took off his coat and tossed it over a Y-beam. He then looked at his right hand to see it glowing with energy. Knowing that the end was near, he walked around the console, leaning on it heavily as he set the TARDIS into motion, piloting the box into orbit of Earth, out of the way. Once they were in orbit, the Doctor continued his circuit before stopping on the other side of the console. "I don't wanna go." he said sadly.
"Man up, ya big wuss." Shareen said, half-joking, half-serious. "At least ya gettin' another shot of life, which is more then what we Humans get. Hey, see ya on the other side, Peacock."
Energy began to flow from the Doctor's face as he held out both hands slowly. "Shareen, you need to stand back." he warned, knowing that what was coming next wouldn't be pretty.
Shareen heeded his advice and backed up towards the jump seat. The Doctor then threw his arms out to his side and his head back as regeneration energy exploded out of him. It was too much for the TARDIS to take and Shareen was forced to dive for cover behind the jump seat as the released energy demolished one of the y-beams and set the console room ablaze. The Doctor stood amidst the destruction, energy pouring out of him.
The energy finally died away to reveal that the Doctor was now a gangly man in his mid twenties with floppy brown hair, green eyes and a prominent chin. "Legs." he gasped, his accent now a Northampton one. "Still got legs. Good." He kissed his legs and continued with his inventory. "Arms. Hands. Fingers. Ooh, lots of fingers." he noted, then moved onto his face. "Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose. I've had worse. Chin. Blimey! Hair." He ran his hand through his longer hair. "I'm a girl!" he cried, before checking for an Adam's apple. "No, no! I'm not a girl." he laughed with relief, then checked his hair colour. "And still not ginger!" he grumbled.
Shareen, who had come out of her hiding place, could only stare at him in complete bewilderment.
"There's something else." the Doctor said to himself. "Something important, I'm, I'm, I'm..."
"On fire, you idiot!" Shareen shrieked as the TARDIS began to come down around them.
"Now that's not very nice." the Doctor remarked as he dashed to the console, just about the only part of the room not on fire. "Haha! We're crashing!" he laughed as he checked the monitor to see that they'd been knocked out of orbit and were caught in Earth's gravitational pull.
"Are you enjoying this?!" Shareen glared as she joined him.
"Oh, yes! Geronimo!" the Doctor whooped in excitement as the flaming TARDIS plummeted towards Earth.
Author's notes: And so we say goodbye to the 10th Doctor and hello to the 11th. We're also nearly at the end of this story; just one more chapter to go. Figuring out how to work Shareen into this episode's plot took a bit of thinking, but I'm satisfied with how I've managed it. I figured it was about time Shareen had a big hero moment of her own. Rose, Martha and Donna all had their big hero moment, so I thought that this episode was a good opportunity to give Shareen her own one by stopping the Time Lords. I bet she'll be not too shy about reminding the Doctor of this every time he starts his Time Lords are saints rhetoric! As with the Themii series, I omitted the Doctor's hissy fit during the Four Knocks scene as I really dislike that tantrum he throws, so I've had him be more accepting of his fate. In fact, the main point of The End of Time was the Doctor paying the price for his arrogant mistakes in previous adventures and the Four Knocks scene should've been about him realising this and accepting it. I've always found EoT a bittersweet story as it marks the end of the RTD-era, however, with RTD returning this year, some of that bitter sweetness may no longer apply. Anyway, hope you like this chapter and see ya next time for the finale.
