The Doctor burst into golden light but turned, aiming it at the bubbling hand near the base of the console, leaving him the exact same man he'd just been. He cracked a beaming grin, breathing hard and facing the group of stunned others.
"Now then, where were we?"
No one said a word as he bounded over to his bubbling hand as its jar swirled with golden residue.
"There now," he breathed, lightly blowing away the dust. "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me. So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand. Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"
"You're still you?" Rose breathed after his ramble, approaching him.
"I'm still me."
The two hugged in relief and Donna turned to Jack with a smile.
"You can hug me if you want," Donna said, making Jack laugh. "No, really. You can hug me."
The Doctor let Rose go with a smile and turned to Fallon but she wasn't looking at him and his smile fell.
"Fallon?" He called out, making the others eye the woman as he headed over cautiously. "You alright?"
She didn't respond and even when he stood right in front of her, she kept her gaze firmly on the floor. He reached out, brushing his finger across her temple and speaking softly.
"I'm okay, see? Perfectly fine and I only did that because… well, I didn't want you hurt. I understand if you're angry at me."
"I'm not," she grumbled, making him raise a brow.
"Really? You sure sound it."
Her head snapped up and she glared at him, though it was painfully obvious that she was actually upset.
"I'm not angry I'm just… frustrated with your stupidity. Do me a favor and stop trying to save me from dying."
He cracked a smile. "Well, I don't know if I can agree to that."
She bristled like an angry cat and he held up his hands in surrender with a chuckle.
"B-But I suppose I could be a little more careful for the both of us, eh? How's that?"
She wasn't exactly thrilled with the compromise but gave in as Rose eyed the dynamic between them with a small frown. Suddenly though, the power in the Tardis went out and the Doctor moved toward the console.
"They've got us. Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop."
The ship jerked, nearly throwing them to the ground if they hadn't held onto the railing. The ship steadied though and Fallon turned to Jack.
"You've been involved in this mess for a while, I'm guessing, so what are we dealing with, Jack? We're going to need all the information we can get."
Jack nodded, pleased that Fallon pulled herself together to help deal with the problem as well. She might not be as well-versed in the alien side of things, but her experience made her invaluable when it came to all sorts of strategy-making.
"There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."
Donna looked at the Doctor. "You said these planets were like an engine, but what for?"
He turned to Rose for help. "Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"
"It's the darkness," Rose answered quietly as Donna remembered what Rose had told her.
"The stars were going out."
"One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, um, this travel machine, this, this uh, dimension cannon, so I could... Well, so I could…"
"What?" The Doctor asked as Fallon frowned, trying to wrap her head around what all of this meant for them.
"So I could come back," she said as the Doctor cracked a smile. "Shut up. Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."
"In that parallel world, you said something about me," Donna questioned.
"The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you," Rose said.
"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick."
The scanner went off then, announcing the group had landed and the Tardis gave one more jerk before the voice of the Daleks echoed from outside.
"Doctor, you will step forth or die."
The Doctor looked at the group in the Tardis. "We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in."
"You told me nothing could get through those doors," Rose countered but Fallon spoke up, eyeing the wooden doors herself.
"These things just moved planets into a time bubble and have been turning off universes like lamps," she said, turning to Rose. "You think they can't get through a set of doors?"
The Doctor nodded in agreement. "She's right. Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting Tardises, they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood."
"What about your dimension jump?" Jack asked Rose, looking for a way out.
"It needs another twenty minutes. And anyway, I'm not leaving."
The Doctor turned to Jack. "What about your teleport?"
"Went down with the power loss."
"Right then. All of us together. Yeah. Donna?" He called out, seeing her stare off into space and he approached her, concerned and startling her as he called out to her again. "I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."
"No, I know," she muttered as the Daleks demanded the Doctor come out again.
"Daleks," Rose said with a tight smile.
"Oh, God," Jack replied, both letting out a bit of nervous laughter.
Fallon was serious though, still watching the doors until the Doctor came up beside her and lightly touched her hand. She looked at him and cracked a slight smile, giving his hand a squeeze before letting go as he turned to face them all.
"It's been good, though, hasn't it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did. You were brilliant," he told Donna, then turning to Jack, "and you were brilliant," and Rose. "And you were brilliant." He turned to Fallon then, smiling brightly despite the situation. "And you, of course… Blimey."
He took a breath and headed out the doors, leading the way for the others as the Daleks chanted at their exit.
"Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!"
"Behold, Doctor. Behold the might of the true Dalek race!" The red Dalek leader called out and the Doctor glanced back, seeing Donna was hesitating inside the Tardis.
"Donna! You're no safer in there."
The doors slammed shut though, surprising him. Donna couldn't have done it and was shouting from inside as well.
"What did you do?" He demanded from the Dalek leader.
"This is not of Dalek origin."
"Stop it! She's my friend. Now open the door and let her out!" The Doctor demanded but the Tardis wouldn't open.
"This is Time Lord treachery."
"Me? The door just closed on its own."
"Nevertheless, the Tardis is a weapon and it will be destroyed."
The Tardis suddenly fell through a hole in the ground, sending it and Donna down through the ship.
"What are you doing? Bring it back! What have you done? Where's it going?"
"The Crucible has a heart of Z-neutrino energy. The Tardis will be deposited into the core."
The Doctor went pale, his hearts aching at the thought of what was about to happen. "You can't. You've taken the defenses down. It'll be torn apart!"
"But Donna's still in there!" Rose added as Jack shouted as well.
"Let her go!"
"The female and the Tardis will perish together. Observe," it said, bringing up a monitor of the Tardis in the core. "The last child of Gallifrey is powerless."
"Please. I'm begging you. I'll do anything! Put me in her place. You can do anything to me, I don't care, just get her out of there!" The Doctor begged.
"You are connected to the Tardis. Now feel it die."
"Total Tardis destruction in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven, six," a Dalek counted down as Rose moved up to the Doctor and wrapped her hand around his.
Fallon stood by his side as well, not knowing what she could do to try and help. Words did nothing to convince the Daleks and she'd seen how useless human weapons were against them. The pistol Jack had given her would be useless. She looked at the Doctor, seeing the agony of the Tardis's slow death rolling through him and she lowered her head. She couldn't offer much more than Rose was but at least it was something. So she took his hand and leaned into him, offering him what comfort she could.
"The Tardis has been destroyed. Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?" The lead Dalek demanded to know once the Tardis had vanished from the core of the ship.
"Yeah," the Doctor murmured.
"Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?" It mocked, pissing off Jack.
"Yeah? Feel this!"
"Jack, don't!" Fallon shouted when he drew his revolver, firing uselessly at the Dalek only to get killed.
Fallon went to grab him but the Doctor stopped her, holding tight to her elbow.
"Don't. Leave him."
"They killed him," Rose breathed but the Doctor's eyes didn't stray from Fallon.
"I know. I'm sorry."
Fallon knew he was still alive. As another immortal, it was a given but the Doctor was right to pull her away. There wasn't anything she could do for Jack now and maybe, if he was lucky, he'd have a chance to do something when he got back up. The Daleks didn't know about him or her. Jack was their opportunity to surprise them. She slowly nodded, letting the Doctor keep her away as the lead Dalek handed out orders.
"Escort them to the Vault. They are the playthings of Davros now."
"I don't like this, Doctor," I muttered under my breath as we were brought to the Vault. "What's Jack gonna do in a ship full of Daleks?"
"Dunno," he breathed, eyeing the Daleks as we were marched in. "Still, it's something."
"The others though," I reminded him. "Sarah Jane, Martha. Doctor, they're not going to just sit back and watch this all happen. Humanity isn't like that. They fight to the death. They're going to do something stupid and we—"
"Move away from the Doctor!" A Dalek ordered, rolling over as another coerced Rose a few feet away.
"Fallon, do as it says," the Doctor demanded, grabbing my arm briefly. "The more of us alive, the more of a chance we have at doing something."
I grit my teeth but nodded as he let me go and I moved where the Dalek wanted.
"Activate the holding cells," Davros ordered and a light shined down on each of us as he cackled. "Excellent. Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained."
"Still scared of me then?" The Doctor asked lightly reaching out and lighting up his containment.
"It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long."
"No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?" The Doctor mocked him.
"We have an arrangement."
"What," I scoffed. "He's like their pet or something?"
"That's it! You're their pet!" The Doctor laughed and Davros rolled over to Rose.
"So very full of fire, is he not. And to think you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find him again."
"Leave her alone," the Doctor said sharply.
"She is mine to do as I please."
"Then why am I still alive?" Rose asked.
"You must be here. It was foretold. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan."
Said Dalek was lit up, drawing our attention to it as the octopus wriggled in its broken casing. "So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames."
"It's an octopus," I muttered, getting a small smile from the Doctor.
"It's a Dalek. It's what they look like inside those shells. You've met him before, Rose. The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War, unprotected."
"Caan did more than that. He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. Both of you."
"This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die."
"Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna? Why did the Tardis door close? Tell me!" The Doctor demanded as Davros grinned.
"Oh, that's it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is," Davros declared as the Doctor remained silent. "Why so shy? Show your companion. Show her your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that too."
"I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed," the crazed Dalek cackled.
"What does that mean?"
"We will discover it together. Our final journey."
"Then, what about me?" I asked, drawing Davros's attention as I frowned. "You said the crazy octopus saw Rose and the Doctor both. Am I not included in this little prophecy thing?"
Davros rolled over to my containment cell as I looked down on him with a frown. "Dalek Caan?" He asked, turning to the crazed Dalek as it seemed to shiver; it's one remaining eye running over me before its screech rang out across the room.
"The being is an unknown! They are not in the prophecy!"
"Well then, we'll just have to take care of that, won't we?" Davros purred with a smirk, pressing something on the arm of his chair and suddenly the room felt as though it were on fire as electricity ran through my body.
"Stop it!" the Doctor bellowed as Fallon fell to the ground, screaming in agony as Davros laughed. "Please! Stop it! Let her go! I'm begging you!"
"Why should I?" Davros scoffed as the woman squirmed on the ground. "You have so many humans to choose from. Losing one more shouldn't be a problem for you, Doctor."
The Doctor didn't know what to do. Fallon would die again and it would be all his fault if he didn't do something. He swore he would protect her, that he'd try everything in his power to keep her safe. Her not being a part of the prophecy didn't matter to him right then, what mattered was how he could help her, and to do that, he needed to make her be important. Important to him. He clenched his eyes shut as her screams rattled through his head before he finally couldn't stand it anymore and pressed himself up against the barrier separating him from Fallon.
"Stop! I love her!"
Everything seemed to freeze at that moment. Davros and Rose turned to face him in disbelief and shock, and the electricity that had once been torturing Fallon ceased, leaving her gasping for breath on the ground. The Doctor wasn't sure if she'd heard over her pained screams but he meant every word. He'd been holding back for her sake but having found someone who could live out their years with him, who he thought about and worried about constantly? She meant the universe to him and he couldn't let her keep getting killed.
"You…" Davros laughed, rolling toward him as he glared down at the man, hands clenched into fists at his sides as the man mocked him. "The Doctor? Fallen in love with a human woman? Oh, this is amusing."
"Leave her alone," the Doctor growled out angry and upset with what was happening—to Fallon and to the rest of the universe. "You can do whatever you want to me, but you don't touch her."
Davros scoffed, rolling away. "I'll allow her to live a moment longer if only to watch your hearts break at the sight of her demise because the ending approaches. The testing begins."
"Testing of what?" The Doctor asked.
"The Reality Bomb. Behold. The apotheosis of my genius."
A hologram screen was brought up as the twenty-seven planets began to glow.
"That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string. No, Davros. Davros, you can't! You can't! No!" The Doctor bellowed, understanding what weapon the Daleks had created and what it was about to do to a group of unknowing humans.
They appeared to almost turn to dust and scattered into the air as the planets dimmed.
"Doctor, what happened?" Rose asked, not understanding as the Doctor remained in cold silence, devastated and absolutely boiling with rage.
"Electrical energy, Miss Tyler. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality Bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter," Davros explained as a pained voice spoke up from nearby.
"T-The stars were going out," Fallon reminded her. "The planets are a-a transmitter, an amplifier."
"Firing a wavelength across the entire universe," Davros cackled. "Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"
The Doctor couldn't lift his head as he grieved for those people who'd been reduced to atoms and those that were to come if he didn't somehow stop them. But what could he do? He was stuck here, unable to escape the containment field. Then, the static screen above flickered to life with a familiar face speaking to the Daleks.
"This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat. Can you hear me?" Martha called out and the Doctor turned to Davros.
"Put me through."
"It begins as Dalek Caan foretold," Davros mused as Dalek Caan cackled.
"The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die."
"Stop saying that!" The Doctor snapped at him briefly, still looking up at Martha. "Put me through!"
"Doctor!" Martha called, glad to see him but her smile fell. "I'm sorry, I had to."
"Oh, but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent," Davros hummed as Fallon pushed herself up onto her knees, eyes flickering over Martha's face.
"They've done something," she muttered, catching the Doctor's attention. "Those damn human idiots have done something stupid."
"Fallon, what do you—"
"I've got the Osterhagen Key. Leave this planet and its people alone or I'll use it," Martha declared.
"Osterhagen what? What's an Osterhagen Key?" The Doctor questioned and Martha was slightly hesitant to explain.
"There's a chain of twenty-five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart."
"What? Who invented that? Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?" The Doctor argued as Martha tried to offer an excuse.
"The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option."
"That's never an option!" Fallon countered, getting to her feet with a cringe. "God, what is it with all you humans in thinking that you have the right to decide how your entire race dies!"
"Don't argue with me, Fallon! Doctor!"
"I'll argue all I like because it's our Earth too!" Fallon shouted back.
"But I reckon the Daleks need these twenty-seven planets for something. But what if it becomes twenty-six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"
"She's good," Rose hummed with a smile, but the Doctor didn't agree.
"Who's that?"
"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler."
"Oh my God, he found you."
Another screen appeared then with Jack on it this time, accompanied by Jackie, Mickey, and Sarah Jane.
"Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls. Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off."
"He's still alive and… oh my God, that's my mum," Rose pointed out as Fallon groaned.
"Jack, what the hell are you doing?"
"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe. I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."
Fallon threw up her hands, frustrated. "The Goddamn human race!"
"You can't!" The Doctor agreed with her. "Where did you get a Warp Star?"
"From me," Sarah Jane explained. "We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners."
"Impossible," Davros breathed, recognizing her. "That face. After all these years."
"Davros. It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?"
"Oh, this is meant to be. The circle of Time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation."
"And I've learned how to fight since then. You let the Doctor go, or this Warp Star gets opened."
"I'll do it," Jack said seriously. "Don't imagine I won't."
"Now that's what I call a ransom," Rose said with a smirk before she saw the Doctor's expression. "Doctor?"
"And the prophecy unfolds," Davros hummed as Dalek Caan chuckled.
"The Doctor's soul is revealed. See him. See the heart of him."
"You stupid stupid people," Fallon said.
"Now, come on, Fall—"
"No!" She shouted, stopping Jack and making him stiffen at her shout. "Because you are! All of you! Don't you see what you're doing? This moron, this… this idiot of a man chose you people to go with him on his travels because you were the best of humanity! Every single one of you! And this is how you repay him? The Doctor never has a gun or, or a weapon, and the second he's not around… the second you all feel threatened, what do you do?" She threw a hand at the screens. "You pick up a weapon and throw around threats to commit genocide! Genocide of your own damn people! I'm not a good person and even I wouldn't stoop that low!"
The group on screen looked away shamefully as Fallon cursed.
"Goddamn idiots. The lot of you. All you've done is made him look bad. All you've done is mock the Doctor and everything he stands for. And I get it. I've done stupid shit before. I've killed people and hurt people out of desperation but this? This is far beyond that. This is you thinking you get to make the choice for a whole race of people. This is you pushing the button that will kill billions of children down there on Earth. People who haven't even begun to live yet and what gives you that right? Huh?" She turned to Jack with a glare. "Oh, but you just want to blow up this ship, yeah? What then, Jack? You've just killed the Doctor, all of us, mothers and daughters and friends, and the one man who might be able to stop this from happening in the future. Hell, you just blow the ship up, and who's going to put those planets back, because you've just locked them away in a time bubble with no hope of escaping."
"Fallon," the Doctor muttered, drawing her gaze to him. "They're trying to help."
She frowned, ready to argue but Davros cut in.
"Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."
"Who was that?"
"Harriet Jones," Rose explained sadly. "She gave her life to get you here."
"How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name?" Davros mocked him as Fallon took a step forward only to be stopped by the containment cell around her. "The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."
"Enough. Engage defense zero five." The lead Dalek announced and before anyone could so much as breathe another threat, the Daleks transmatted them all into the Vault.
"Don't move, all of you! Stay still!" The Doctor ordered them, not wanting anyone else to die as he placed his hands on the cell around him.
"Guard them! On your knees, all of you. Surrender!" Davros commanded and the Daleks surrounded the group as the Doctor told them to do what he said. "The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"
"You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!" The Doctor begged as the man laughed.
"Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one!"
Yet, there was a wheezing, groaning sound soon echoing through the Vault, stunning everyone in the room.
"But that's—"
"Impossible."
The Tardis materialized and the Doctor stepped out, holding a device in his hands.
"Brilliant," Jack breathed as the other Doctor ran at Davros and the Doctor tried to stop him.
"Don't!"
Davros lifted a finger, hitting the other Doctor in the chest with a bolt of electricity, sending him and his weapon to the ground.
"Activate holding cell."
The other Doctor was captured and Donna stepped out of the Tardis next, heading for the device and grabbing it.
"Doctor! I've got it. But I don't know what to do!"
She was hit as well as the Doctor pressed against his cell in concern.
"Donna! Donna! Are you all right, Donna?"
"Destroy the weapon," Davros ordered, a Dalek doing just that before he scoffed. "I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic."
"How come there are two of you?" Rose asked the Doctor.
"Human biological metacrisis. Never mind that. Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb."
Fallon though, had her eyes locked on where Donna had fallen near the console. Donna wasn't there though, having easily slipped to the other side and Fallon bit her tongue to not bring attention to her.
"Stand witness, Time Lord," Davros said, bringing back up the image of the planets as the Reality Bomb was armed. "Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and—Oh. The end of the universe has come."
"Not quite," Fallon said then, drawing attention to her as she smirked and Davros frowned.
"There is nothing more you can do. You're all unarmed, trapped—"
"Yeah, but that's the thing about humans," Fallon replied. "You always underestimate them, especially the ones that appear the most harmless."
An alarm sounded then and Donna hummed from the console she'd been messing with while out of sight.
"Closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there."
"Donna, you can't even change a plug!" The Doctor said, confused and stunned.
"Do you want to bet, Time Boy?" She said with a grin as Davros lifted his arm.
"You'll suffer for this!"
Except the electricity backfired and hit him instead when Donna pulled a lever.
"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion."
"Exterminate her!"
"Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix.," Donna hummed, causing more chaos as she flipped levers and hit buttons, rendering the Dalek weapons useless.
"How did you work that out? You're—"
"Time Lord. Part Time Lord," the other Doctor said as Donna finished.
"Part human. Oh, yes. That was a two-way biological meta crisis. Half Doctor, half Donna."
"The Doctor Donna. Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna," the Doctor breathed, stunned.
"Holding cells deactivated. And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work."
Both Doctors rushed over to help as Davros shouted.
"Stop them! Get them away from the controls!"
"And spin," Donna chimed, causing the Daleks to spin back and forth uselessly.
"What did you do?" The other Doctor asked.
"Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator."
"But that's brilliant!"
"Why did we never think of that?" The Doctor asked and Donna scoffed at them.
"Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for me. Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship. Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute."
Donna started speeding through the controls with the help of the other Doctors as Jack passed Mickey a gun and shoved a Dalek away. Rose, Sarah Jane, and Martha did the same with another Dalek and the trio at the controls began sending back the planets. Fallon though approached the group, confused.
"Yeah, someone going to explain this because I'm a bit lost."
Donna pointed at the Doctor. "He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. I touched the hand, and he grew out of that but that fed back into me. But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind."
"So there's three of you?" Sarah Jane questioned as Rose's eyes went wide.
"Three Doctors?"
"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now," Jack said with a grin before Fallon elbowed him harshly in the side.
"You're so unique the timelines were converging on you. Human being with a Time Lord brain," the Doctor added as Davros roared at the cackling Dalek Caan.
"But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?"
"Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time," the Doctor mused, eyeing the crazy creature.
"This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor."
"You betrayed the Daleks!" Davros accused.
"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!"
"Heads up!" Jack called out as the leader Dalek came down from the upper level.
"Davros, you have betrayed us."
"It was Dalek Caan!" Davros argued.
"The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated!" It shouted, shooting the console as Fallon grabbed the Doctor and pulled him away from it.
"Like I was saying, feel this!" Jack shouted, destroying the leader as the Doctor rushed to where the console was hit.
"Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one. But we can use the Tardis!" He said, rushing into the Tardis as the other Doctor worked on some controls to help stabilize the Earth before Dalek Caan called out.
"The prophecy must complete."
"Don't listen to him!" Davros argued.
"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor."
"He's right. Because with or without a Reality Bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped," the other Doctor said, making Fallon turn to him in surprise at what he was agreeing to.
Donna too tried to get him to see reason. "Just, just wait for the Doctor."
"I am the Doctor," he countered, reaching for the controls only for a loud bang to ring out and a bullet to narrowly miss his hand.
The controls sparked and he cursed.
"No, no, no, no!" He turned to see what had happened and stared in surprise at Fallon. "What have you done?" He said, storming toward her as she lowered the gun. "They need to be stopped!"
"They are stopped!" She shouted back looking him over and scoffing. "You might be the Doctor but you're certainly not acting like him. The Doctor wouldn't commit genocide because of some baseless prophecy told to him by some melting octopus in a metal drum."
"They'll kill everyone! The whole universe!"
"With what weapon!" She argued. "The planets are back where they should be. Their leaders are in a ship that's about to explode on its own. They're stuck in a time bubble and they have nothing. Don't go making things worse for yourself. You're the Doctor, not a raging lunatic."
The other Doctor looked furious, scowling at her angrily before the actual Doctor popped out of the Tardis.
"What have you done?" He asked, seeing the two staring each other down and the uncertainty of the others as the ship rattled uneasily—alarms going off and fires starting to spark around them. "Get in the Tardis! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run! In! In! In! In!"
Everyone was herded in as the Vault started to fall apart. Fallon waited near the door, waiting for the Doctor to join them. He finally hurried in, giving her arm a brief grab before bounding off to join everyone at the console.
"And off we go!" He called, flying the Tardis as the Crucible exploded.
"But what about the Earth? It's stuck in the wrong part of space!" Sarah Jane questioned.
"I'm on it. Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?"
"Loud and clear. Is Jack still there?"
"Can't get rid of him. Jack, what's her name?"
"Gwen Cooper."
"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?"
"Yes, all the way back to the eighteen hundreds."
"Ah, thought so. Spatial genetic multiplicity."
Rose was beside him and nodded. "Oh, yeah."
"Yeah, it's a funny old world. Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that rift manipulator. Send all the power to me."
"Doing it now, sir."
"What's that for?"
"It's a tow rope. Now then. Sarah, what was your son's name?"
Sarah Jane smiled. "Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith."
The Doctor switched over to them. "Calling Luke and Mister Smith. This is the Doctor. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg."
"Is mum there?"
"Oh, she's fine and dandy," the Doctor replied as Sarah Jane cheered. "Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the rift power and loop it around the Tardis. You got that?"
"I regret I will need remote access to Tardis base code numerals."
"Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while."
"No, no, no. Let me. K9, out you come!" Sarah Jane said, drawing out K9 as Fallon came around and eyed the screen.
"Is that a robot dog?"
"Top of the line for the fifty-first century," the Doctor smiled. "Good dog! K9, give Mister Smith the base code."
"Master. Tardis base code now being transferred," the dog chirped. "The process is simple."
"Now then, you lot. Sarah, hold that down. Mickey, you hold that. Because you know why this Tardis always is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single-handed," the Doctor explained, running around and making sure everyone had their hands on the right things. "Martha, keep that level. But not anymore. Jack, there you go. Steady that."
"I always thought it was because you left the brakes on," Fallon commented as he winked at her and put her hand on a lever.
"Don't go being cheeky now," he chided before coming up to Jackie and pausing. "No, Jackie. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back." He cleared his throat and continued. "Now we can fly this thing like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the Tardis by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home, leaving the time bubble in place so any remaining Daleks in there can't escape. Right then. Off we go."
Soon, the Earth was right back to where it was and everyone cheered, celebrating the success and hugging one another in relief. The Doctor grabbed Fallon, spinning her around with a burst of laughter before setting her on her feet and smiling down at her.
"Not bad, eh? Saving the universe and all."
Fallon rolled her eyes but had a crack of a smile herself. "Not exactly a vacation but could've been worse. Could've died again."
His smile faltered and his hands tighten on her waist, throat tight as he remembered her screams from earlier and what he'd confessed. "Fallon, did you… did you hear what I said earlier when you were…"
He couldn't finish that sentence and Fallon frowned lightly, pushing out of his grip a bit.
"Uh, no. If you're talking about how you convinced Davros to not kill me, I was a bit preoccupied at the time."
The Doctor was both relieved and upset about her not hearing what he'd said. He never wanted to push his feelings onto her but if she had heard his confession then there was the chance that they could have progressed in some way. The memory of her being tormented before nearly killed also hurt and he wasn't sure what to say to her as she hovered just at the tip of his fingers. Begrudgingly, he cracked a fake smile, lightly touching her hand for a brief moment before moving back toward the console to land the Tardis on Earth.
"That's fine. It wasn't that important."
Fallon didn't look convinced but the Doctor was quick to bound off and call over Sarah Jane so he could get her home first.
I watched the Doctor run out a bit confused. Whatever he'd said was probably important and he was just brushing it off but he wasn't about to talk about it now as others started to take their leave. Jack gave me a grin and bounded off with Martha; Mickey heading out right after. Donna was on the phone with her own family and Rose and her mother were just waiting with the other Doctor for the actual Doctor to finish his goodbyes. Rose kept glancing at me though, making me a bit uneasy while not knowing why she kept eyeing me. What was worse was the frown from the other Doctor that hadn't disappeared since I'd stopped him from killing all the Daleks.
The Doctor bounded back in then, drawing our eyes back to him. "Just time for one last trip. Dårlig Ulv Stranden. Better known as… Bad Wolf Bay."
The Tardis was sent off and landed in the parallel world where Rose and Jackie were getting dropped off at.
"Oh, fat lot of good this is. Back of beyond. Bloody Norway? I'm going to have to phone your father. He's on the nursery run. I was pregnant, do you remember? Had a baby boy," Jackie said as everyone stepped out, myself being one of the last.
"Oh, brilliant. What did you call him?" The other Doctor asked her.
"Doctor."
"Really?"
"No, you plum. He's called Tony."
"Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?" Rose asked, turning to the Doctor who nodded.
"You're back home."
"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened," Donna explained. "It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now."
"No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now," Rose argued.
"But you've got to."
"Is this because of her?" Rose challenged, gesturing to me. "You've just… just moved on then with some rando and you're leaving me?"
"What?" The Doctor glanced at me as I kept my mouth shut. "No. No, this isn't because of Fallon. We saved the universe, but at a cost. And the cost is him." He said, gesturing to the other Doctor. "We can't have two of the same person in the same world and he needs you."
"And I need you," she countered before I finally did speak up.
"But he was going to kill them," I reminded her, seeing the confusion from the Doctor as I explained. "The Daleks. He was going to blow them all up if I hadn't shot the controls. That's why he's been angry with me this whole time. Dalek Caan's so-called prophecy was the Doctor destroys all the Daleks and he was going to fulfill it. I just… well, I figured you wouldn't want to have that on your conscious. I've seen enough death to know when too far is too far."
The other Doctor scoffed. "Right, because you would know."
"I would," I said shortly, eyeing him and seeing the hesitation in his eyes because he was a Doctor that didn't know me; knew me less than the actual Doctor beside me. "I've lived for hundreds of thousands of years on Earth. I've killed people and I've saved people. I've watched people commit genocide and never once has it been right. The Doctor wouldn't make that choice if he didn't absolutely have to and his walking away at that moment meant that he didn't have to. But you chose to."
The Doctor took a breath, bringing his hand to his head and dragging it through his hair. "She's right. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."
"You made me," the other Doctor argued.
"Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge. Remind you of someone?" He asked Rose, who listened hesitantly. "That's me when we first met. And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."
"But he's not you."
"He needs you. That's very me," the Doctor said as Donna stepped up.
"But it's better than that, though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her. Go on," she encouraged the other Doctor who gave in.
"I look like him and I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart."
"Which means?" Rose asked, voice soft with hope.
"I'm part human. Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you if you want."
"You'll grow old at the same time as me?"
"Together."
The Tardis whirred as Rose pressed a hand to the other Doctor's chest.
"We've got to go. This reality is sealing itself off forever," the Doctor explained, turning toward the Tardis with Donna and I.
"But, it's still not right, because the Doctor's still you," Rose said, tears rolling down her face as she chased after us.
"And I'm him."
"All right. Both of you, answer me this. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it," she challenged and the Doctor started.
"I said, Rose Tyler."
"Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?"
The Doctor took a breath. "Does it need saying?"
Rose's expression pinched in hurt, her eyes flicking to mine with a hint of hatred before she turned to the other Doctor. "And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"
The other Doctor leaned toward her and whispered in her ear, and she eyed him for only a second before grabbing him and pulling him down to kiss her. The Doctor turned away, leaving them and heading into the Tardis with Donna and me without a word. He sent the ship off and went quiet, eyeing Donna as I shifted uneasily. I felt I was missing something that was happening here but also was uneasy with what had just happened. It didn't take a genius to see what Rose had been to the Doctor and for him to let her go like that was undoubtedly hard. I felt out of place and didn't know what to say or do. Then, Donna cut through the tense atmosphere.
"I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?"
"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked, voice bland and not holding his usual chipper tone.
"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine."
"And how does that feel?"
I was worried now. As a human who has lived a long life, longer than any human should, I knew how hard it was for the human mind to cope with a lot of information. There was a lot I couldn't remember from early on in my life here on this Earth and I didn't remember a thing from before then. It had just been too long. Too much information got thrown out over the years. The human mind couldn't stand holding onto it all.
Time Lords were different, obviously. The Doctor had lived a long life and held onto all that information. Their minds were built to handle multiple personalities and lives and all the experiences in between. I was starting to see now, why Donna having mixed with the Doctor's Time Lord energy could be a problem. The human body can't handle the Time Lord's mind.
"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain," Donna chirped but you could see she was starting to panic. "You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hot-binding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary."
She sucked in a gasp, tears in her eyes as I grit my teeth and kept my distance, staying silent. I couldn't help. Nothing I could say or do would stop this from happening. This was something the Doctor had to deal with and even then, I wasn't sure how he could.
"I'm fine. Nah, never mind Felspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton." She choked on another gasp, bringing a hand to her head as I winced. "Oh, my God."
"Do you know what's happening?" The Doctor asked as he moved to her side.
"Yeah."
"There's never been a human Time Lord meta crisis before now. And you know why."
"Because there can't be," she answered. "I want to stay."
"Look at me," he said, a bit more forcefully when she didn't. "Donna, look at me."
She faced him, hurt and pain etched into her face and forcing me to look away. "I was going to be with you forever."
"I know."
"The rest of my life, traveling in the Tardis. The Doctor Donna… No. Oh my god. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back," she begged as he held her shoulders.
"Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times."
I opened my mouth, wanting to speak up, to ask if there was something we could do. I didn't even know what he was doing to help her but I could tell she was terrified. That whatever it was, Donna couldn't be here with us anymore. My voice wouldn't come out though. The Doctor knew far more about this than I did and I knew he would've tried to think of any way he could do something else before he resorted to hurting his companion. I had no say in this decision and I knew it was something the Doctor was making with the best of intentions. He was doing this to save her.
"The best... Goodbye."
I clenched my eyes shut as she cried for him to stop, bringing a hand up to wipe at my own tears when she went quiet. I took in a shuddering breath and let it out as the Doctor laid her on the jump seat and began to pilot the Tardis once more. He landed the ship and gathered Donna in his arms, rounding the corner before stopping. It was like he'd forgotten I was there and he hesitated, glancing at the doors.
"Go," I said, waving him off. "It's fine, really. Go do what you need to."
He slowly nodded and stepped outside with her as I sighed heavily and dragged a hand down my face. The Tardis hummed sadly around me and I took a shuddering breath, gathering myself and tipping my head back to look up at the ceiling.
"What now? He's going to be…" I choked, closing my eyes and shaking my head as I ran a hand through my hair. "God, he's going to be a right mess."
There was a creak as the door cracked open and a towel fell out of nowhere, landing on the railing beside me. I picked it up, expecting the Doctor to come in, but he didn't. There was a rumble of thunder though as the quiet hiss of rain outside drew me to the Tardis doors. I nudged it open and looked out at the entrance to Donna's home, seeing the Doctor standing in the rain and Donna's grandfather in the doorway. The older man saw me and waved as I waved back, seeing the Doctor turn and face me with a sad smile. The two men spoke for a moment longer before the Doctor headed toward me. He paused just outside, hair dripping as I reached up and put the towel on his head, ruffling it slightly to start drying his hair.
"Will she be alright?" I asked, stepping back as he came in.
"Yeah," he murmured. "She'll be okay but… I had to wipe her memory. Of us, the Tardis, everything."
"The alternative?" I asked softly, worried as he moved to the console.
"She burns."
I nodded silently as he removed his coat and shifted the towel to lay around his neck. The Tardis was sent off and landed somewhere else as I waited for him to talk. I knew better than to try and interrupt when someone was grieving. Some people needed the interruption but the Doctor was different. He'd lost companions before but I'd never really been around for that other than when I left. I wasn't sure how he'd handle this though, especially with him having to completely wipe Donna's mind.
"You didn't stop me," he said then, not glancing up from his hands on the console as I watched him.
"I couldn't," I explained. "I wasn't sure what was going on and once I did… You know more about it than I do. You would've looked at every option to help her before this one and I… I trust you to do that," I admitted, drawing his sad gaze to me. "How could I stop you when you were only trying to save her?"
For a second, his expression crumpled, falling into deep despair before he bowed his head, unable to drop his guard that low just yet.
"C-Could you…" He started, voice hoarse before he tried again. "Could you… give me some time?"
I nodded pushing off the railing I'd been leaning on. "Whatever you need."
"I'm sorry," he murmured as I moved past him, placing my hand on his back as his shoulders shook ever so slightly.
"Don't be. I of all people understand, Doctor. Take all the time you need and don't be sorry for putting yourself first, especially not for this."
I left him with that, stepping out the Tardis doors and onto the drive of my manor, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath as the Tardis dematerialized behind me; leaving me to let out a shuddering sob.
