In Joshua Naismith's study, Kathy and the Doctor have been bound and gagged, strapped upright to two trolleys. Wilf is tied to a chair nearby.

The Master leans toward the two of them. "Now then, I've got a planet to run." He walks away. "Is everybody ready?"

Joshua Naismith-Master appears on the screen in the room. "Six billion, seven hundred and twenty seven million, nine hundred and forty nine thousand three hundred and thirty eight versions of us awaiting orders."

Barack Obama-Master then appears on the screen in the room. "This is Washington. As President of the United States, I can transfer all the United Nations protocols to you immediately, putting you in charge of all the Earth's defences."

"UNIT HQ, Geneva reporting. All under your command, sir." Says a Master in a general's uniform on the screen.

"And this is the Central Military Commission here in Beijing, sir, with over two point five million soldiers, sir. Present arms!" Says another Master in a different uniform.

"Enough soldiers and weapons to turn this planet into a warship. Nothing to say, Doctor? Kathy? What's that? Pardon? Sorry?" The Master mocks their inability to be heard.

"You let him go, you swine," Wilf warns.

"Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss."

"Yeah? Well, I'd be proud if I was."

"Hush, now. Listen to your Master." He turns away but his attention is diverted back to Wilf when the man's phone rings. "But that's a mobile."

"Yeah, it's mine. Let me turn it off." Wilf tries to dismiss.

"No, no, no, no, no. I don't think you understand. Everybody on this planet is me." The Master argues. "And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?"

"It's nobody. I tell you, it's nothing. It's probably one of them ring-back calls." Wilf tries again.

The Master searches Wilf's pockets and finds the revolver. "Oooh, and look at this. Good man!" He tosses it on the floor and gets the phone. "Donna. Who's Donna?"

"She's no one. Just leave it." Wilf tries.

"Gramps, don't hang up. You've got to help me. I ran out, but everyone was changing." Donna sobs through the phone once the Master presses to answer.

"Who is she? Why didn't she change?" The Master demands. While she's concerned for Donna, Kathy bides her time, waiting.

"Gramps, I can't hear you."

"Well, it was this thing the Doctor did. He did it to her. The Metacrisis." Wilf replies.

"Oh, he loves playing with Earth girls. Ugh!" The Master grumbles.

"Are you there?"

"Find her. Trace the call." The Master tells the Joshua Naismith-Master.

"Trace the call."

"Are you still there? Can you hear me?" Donna continues.

"Say goodbye to the freak, Granddad." The Master presses the phone to Wilf's ear.

"Donna, get out of there! Just get out of there. I'm telling you, run!" Wilf instructs.

"She's on Wessex Lane, Chiswick. Open the phone lines. Everyone on Wessex Lane. Red alert." Joshua Naismith-Master reports.

"What do I do?"

"Run, sweetheart, that's all. Run for your life!" Wilf tells his granddaughter.

"There's more of them," Donna tells him.

"Donna? What's happening? Are you still there?"

"They're everywhere."

"Look, I'm telling you to run, Donna," Wilf orders her. "Just run, sweetheart. Just run."

"It's not just them. I can see those things again." Donna cries. "Those creatures. Why can I see a giant wasp?"

"Donna, don't think about that. Donna, my love. Don't!"

"And it hurts. My head. It keeps getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter!" There's a scream then silence.

"Donna? What was that? Donna? Donna, are you there? Donna! Donna! Donna!" Wilf weeps. The Doctor and Kathy begin smiling, and the former winks. The Master storms over and removes their gags.

"That's better. Hello. But really, did you think we'd leave our best friend without a defence mechanism?" The Doctor explains.

"Kathy? Doctor? What happened?" Wilf asks.

"She's alright. She's fine, I promise. She'll just sleep." Kathy tells him. She's thankful that her memories of the show are helping her keep up with all this.

"Tell me, where's your TARDIS?" The Master asks the Doctor.

"You could be so wonderful." The Doctor replies.

"Where is it?"

The Doctor continues. "You're a genius. You're stone cold brilliant, you are. I swear, you really are. But you could be so much more. You could be beautiful. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour. Because you don't need to own the universe, just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough."

"Would it stop, then? The noise in my head?" The Master asks vulnerably and it's in one of these moments Kathy feels sorry for him.

"I can help." The Doctor turns to Kathy. "We can."

"I don't know what I'd be without that noise."

"I wonder what I'd be, without you." The Doctor says.

"Yeah." The Master adds, teary eyed.

"I know where I would be," Kathy mutters.

"What does he mean? What noise?" Wilf questions.

"It began on Gallifrey, as children. Not that you'd call it childhood." The Master explains. "More a life of duty. Eight years old. I was taken for initiation, to stare into the Untempered Schism." Kathy remembers her box. The pain.

"What does that mean?"

"It's a gap in the fabric of reality. You can see into the Time Vortex itself. And it hurts." The Doctor explains.

"They took me there in the dark." The Master continues. "I looked into time, old man, and I heard it calling to me. Drums. The never ending drums. Listen to it. Listen."

"Then let's find it. You and me." The Doctor pleads.

"Except." Kathy sees the realisation dawn on the Master. "Oh. Oh, wait a minute. Oh, yes. Oh, that's good."

"What? What is?"

"The noise exists within his head, and now within six billion heads," Kathy explains. A signal the Time Lords had sent.

"Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine. Oh. Oh, yes." The Master cackles as his skeleton becomes briefly visible again. He bends over in pain.

"The Gate wasn't enough. You're still dying." The Doctor tells him.

"This body was born out of death. All it can do is die." The Master retorts. "But what did you say to me, back in the wasteland? You said the end of time."

"I said something is returning." The Doctor answers. "We were shown a prophecy. That's why we need your help."

"What if I'm part of it? 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 all those signals. I could find its source. Oh, Doctor. That's what your prophecy was. Me!" He slaps the Doctor. "Where's the TARDIS?"

"No. Just stop. Just think."

The Master points to Wilf. "Kill him." A helmeted guard goes over to Wilf. Kathy tries not to smirk knowingly. "I need that technology, Doctor. Tell me where it is, or the old man is dead."

"Don't tell him." Wilf pleads.

"I'll kill him right now!" The Master yells.

"Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone dead stupid." The Doctor remarks casually.

"Take aim."

"You've got six billion pairs of eyes, but you've missed what's right in front of you." Kathy continues.

"Like what?"

"That guard is one inch too tall." The Doctor tells him.

The guard knocks out the Master with his rifle butt and then removes his helmet to reveal a green spiky head. "Oh my God, I hit him. I've never hit anyone in my life." Rossiter exclaims.

Green Addams runs in. "Well, come on. We need to get out of here fast." She frees Wilf while Rossiter releases the Doctor and Kathy.

"God bless the cactuses!" Wilf cries.

"That's cacti." The Doctor corrects.

"That's racist!" Rossiter admonishes.

"I am sorry." Kathy apologises.

"Come on! We've got to get out." Addams warns as they struggle to free Kathy and the Doctor.

"There're too many buckles and straps," Rossiter tells her.

"Just wheel them."

"Really?!" Kathy grimaces at the thought of being pushed along like the Doctor had in the episode.

"No, no, no. Get me out. No, no, no, don't. Don't! No, no, no." The Doctor complains as they are pushed out of the room.

"Which way?" Rossiter asks as they make it into the corridors. He pushes the Doctor with Addams pushing Kathy upfront and Wilf bringing up the rear.

"This way." Addams instructs.

"No, no, no, no, no. The other way. I've got my TARDIS." The Doctor yells. Kathy just lies back and lets herself be pushed without complaint as there's not much she can do right now except take in what's happened in the past day.

"I know what I'm doing," Addams replies.

"No, no, no, just, just listen to me!"

"Not the stairs. Not the stairs!" The Doctor yells as they reach the stairs to the basement, but it's no use and Kathy experiences a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride down. "Worst rescue ever!"

They make it to the Vinvocci lair where they pause.

"Just, just stop and listen to me!"

The Master runs in with armed guards. "Gotcha."

"You think so?" Addams presses her wristwatch.

"No, no, no, no, don't!" The Doctor cries but they all get teleported anyway.

They appear in the teleportation room on the Vinvocci ship.

"Now get me out of this thing!" The Doctor immediately yells.

"Don't say thanks, will you." Addams snaps.

"Thank you. Now get us out please." Kathy tries to say more kindly though she knows they need to get a move on.

"He's not going to let us go. Just hurry up and get me out! Come on." The Doctor wines.

"All right!" Addams snaps.

"Oh, get a move on. Come on!"

"All right."

They finally get Kathy and the Doctor free. The latter leaps up and zaps the teleport controls with his sonic screwdriver. Kathy relaxes at that.

"Where's your flight deck?" Kathy demands.

"But we're safe. We're a hundred thousand miles above the Earth." Addams argues.

"And he's got every single missile on the planet ready to fire." The Doctor counters.

Addams grumbles. "…good point." Addams, Rossiter, Kathy and the Doctor run out. Kathy returns to gently lead Wilf away from the window.

"But we're in space!" Wilf gasps.

"I know buddy."

Wilf laughs gleefully.

They reach the flight deck and the Vinvocci begin working on the controls.

"We've got to close it down!" The Doctor declares.

"No chance, mate. We're going home." Rossiter replies.

"We're just a salvage team. Local politics has got nothing to do with us. Not unless there's a carnival. Sooner we get back to Vinvocci space the better." Addams adds.

"We're not leaving," Kathy says. She sonically sabotages the flight controls. The whole spaceship goes dark.

"Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush." The Doctor murmurs as they stay quiet so as to not get picked up by the scans.

Addams looks out the window of the flight deck after a while and Kathy knows a sarcastic remark is coming, "No sign of any missiles. No sign of anything. You've wrecked the place!"

"The engines are burnt out. All we've got is auxiliary lights." Rossiter turns on some lights. "Everything else is kaput. We can't move. We're stuck in orbit."

"Thanks to you, you idiots!" Addams storms off.

"I know you, though. 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 the old Doctor flim-flam," Wilf does Tommy Cooper impression, "sort of thing? Eh?" The Doctor looks at him solemnly. "Oh, blimey."

"Don't worry, Wilf," Kathy says. "We just have to wait."

It is just Kathy and the Doctor in the teleport room, fiddling with the wires, when, what looks to be a small meteorite, goes across space and towards the earth.

"Kathy?"

"Soon."

"Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended?" Wilf asks as he approaches them.

"Just trying to fix the heating." The Doctor answers.

"Oh." Wilf huffs as he sits next to them and gazes out the window. "I've always dreamt of a view like that. Hee, hee. I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look." Wilf points and Kathy looks and takes it in. "Brand new day. My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. Do you think he changed them, in their graves?"

Kathy doesn't want to tell him. "I'm sorry." She says.

"No, not either of you two's fault." Wilf denies.

"Isn't it?" The Doctor counters.

"Oh, 1948, I was over there. 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." Wilf contemplates. "Yeah, you don't want to listen to an old man's tales, do you?"

"We're older than you," Kathy tells him.

"Get away."

"I'm nine hundred and six." The Doctor tells him.

"I'm one thousand and thirty-two," Kathy says.

"What, really, though?" Wilf gapes.

"Yeah." Kathy chuckles.

"Nine hundred years and one thousand years. We must look like insects to you both." Wilf says.

"I think you look like giants." The Doctor argues.

"Listen, I-I want you to have this. I've kept it all this time, and I thought…" Wilf offers his revolver to the Doctor.

"No." The Doctor denies it.

"No, but if you take it, you could—"

"No."

"You had that gun in the mansion. You could have shot the Master there and then." Kathy points out.

"Too scared, I suppose," Wilf says.

"I'd be proud." The Doctor says instead.

"So would I," Kathy says. Honestly, she adored Wilf when watching the show but she adores him even more now that she's met him.

"Of what?"

"If you were our dad." The Doctor replies.

"Oh, come on, don't start." Wilf huffs, holding back tears. "But you said, you were told he will knock four times and then you die. Well, that's him, isn't it? The Master. That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you."

"It's not him." Kathy corrects.

"Then who is it?" The Doctor asks intently.

"I can't tell you. Spoilers."

"Then kill whoever it is first." Wilf offers the gun again.

"And that's how the Master started." The Doctor says. "It's not like I'm an 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." Kathy frowns at what he's saying.

"If the Master dies, what happens to all the people?" Wilf asks.

"I don't know."

"Doctor, Kathy, what happens?"

"The template snaps." Kathy answers.

"What, they go back to being human? 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. You take the gun and he might not be the one who kills but someone will and this will save all the people. Please don't die. You're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die." Wilf sobs, placing the Doctor's hand on the gun.

"Never."

"A star fell from the sky." The Master's voice startles them. "Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor, Katherine." Kathy puts her finger up to indicate to Wilf to be quiet.

"The whole of my life. My destiny." The Master continues. "The star was a diamond. And the diamond is a Whitepoint star." The Doctor gasps. "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 now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor, Katherine. This should be spectacular. Over and out."

"What's he on about? What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?" Wilf questions.

"A Whitepoint star is only found on one planet. Gallifrey. Which means it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning." The Doctor answers, struggling to contain his emotions.

"Well, I mean, that's good, isn't it? I mean, that's your people." The Doctor takes Wilf's revolver and runs. Wilf turns to Kathy. "Isn't it?"

"There was a war, Wilf. No, it isn't. Not right now." She gets up and follows the Doctor.

Kathy runs into the flight deck. The signal can be heard here. Four beats. The Doctor is rushing around, working on bits and pieces. Kathy immediately runs to help.

"But you said your people were dead. Past tense." Wilf says.

"Inside the Time War. And the whole War was Timelocked." The Doctor explains. "Like, sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble but just think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or get out of the Timelock. Don't you see? Nothing can get in or get out, except something that was already there."

"The signal. Since he was a kid." Wilf realises.

"They can follow the signal; they can escape before they die," Kathy explains.

"Well, then, big reunion. We'll have a party."

"There will be no party." The Doctor retorts.

"But I've heard you talk about your people like they're wonderful," Wilf argues.

"That's how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old." The Doctor replies. "But then they went to war. An endless war, and it changed them right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them."

"Time Lords, what lords? Anyone want to explain?" Addams whines.

"Right, yes, you. This is a salvage ship, yes? You go trawling the asteroid fields for junk?" The Doctor rapidly asks.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"So, you've got asteroid lasers!"

"Yeah, but they're all frazzled." Rossiter points out.

The Doctor throws a lever and two gun alcoves open on either side of the flight controls. "Consider them unfrazzled. You there, what's your name?" He points at Addams. "I'm going to need you and Kathy on navigation." Then points to Rossiter. "And you, get in the laser-pod. Wilfred."

"Yeah?"

"Laser number two. The old soldier's got one more battle." The Doctor says. Wilf nods and pats him on the arm.

"This ship can't move. It's dead!" Addams snaps.

Kathy rolls her eyes and steps up to the machinery. "Fix the heating?" She throws two levers forward, and the ship powers up.

"But now they can see us," Addams exclaims.

"Oh, yes!" The Doctor cries joyfully.

"This is my ship, and you're not moving it. Step away from the wheel." Addams demands.

"There's an old Earth saying, Captain. A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need." The Doctor narrates.

Kathy sighs and puts her head in her hands. "Oh god."

"What's that, then?"

"Allons-y!" The Doctor powers the spaceship down towards the Earth. The spaceship dives through the atmosphere. "Come on! Come on!"

"You are blinking, flipping mad." Addams cries and gets to work.

"You two. What did I say? Lasers." The Doctor says to Rossiter and Wilf.

"What for?" Rossiter asks.

"Because of the missiles!" Kathy snaps. Sometimes she can't deal with stupidity. "We've got to fight off an entire planet that's aiming missiles at us!" Rossiter and Wilf run off to their station.

"We've got incoming," Addams warns.

"Look at this one! Oh, my God!" Rossiter exclaims from his pod.

"You two, open fire!" The Doctor skims the ocean, dodging the missiles.

"Oh, my word!" Rossiter exclaims.

"Whoa. Whoa!" Wilf yells.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Rossiter continues.

"Open fire! Come on, Wilf!" Kathy cries. She sees the moment Wilf shoots down a missile through the front wind.

"Whoo!" Wilf yells. "Oh, I wish Donna could see me now."

"And there's more. Sixteen of them. Oh, and another sixteen." Addams warns.

"Then we've got to get on the rear gun lasers!" Kathy yells.

"You two, open fire! Now!" The Doctor orders. Rossiter and Wilf continue destroying lasers while Addams and Kathy fall about, struggling to stand with how the Doctor is moving the ship.

"No, you don't!" The Doctor cries. The ship spins all the way round causing Kathy to scream as she struggles to hold on.

Suddenly the front window gets blown in. Addams and Kathy find a station.

"Lock the navigation!" The Doctor orders.

"Onto what?!" Addams asks.

Kathy starts doing what he says. "England. The Naismith mansion. Coming up."

"Destination?" The Doctor calls after a few minutes.

"Fifty kliks and closing. We've locked onto the house." Addams replies. "We are going to stop, though. Doctor? We are going to stop?" The Doctor doesn't reply.

"Doctor?!" Wilf calls as he stumbles in along with Rossiter. "Doctor, you said you were going to die."

"He said what?!" Addams exclaims in alarm.

"But is that all of us? I won't stop you, sir. But is this it?" Wilf questions but again there's no reply. Kathy knows the Doctor won't but she can't help but look at him in concern.

The spaceship is heading straight for the mansion before the Doctor pulls the spaceship's nose up at the last moment, then opens a hatch in the floor and, with the revolver ready, jumps down.

Kathy quickly stands and runs over to the hatch and jumps herself. She falls through the hole the Doctor had created in the glass dome and lands hard on the marble floor of the Gate room next to him. She struggles to stand and sees the Doctor struggling to do the same.

Kathy looks past him and sees five Time Lords have arrived - the Gate has been replaced by a white space, raised up by two steps. She slowly turns her head and sees the Master staring at her. She doesn't understand the look in his eyes.

"My Lord Doctor. My Lord Master and his lesser descendant. We are gathered for the end." Rassilon, Lord High President of Gallifrey, greets.

"You've got a bad superiority complex. Has anyone told you that?" Kathy grunts.

The Doctor drags himself onto his knees while Kathy is able to turn and plonk herself onto her behind instead to get a better view of everything.

"Listen to me. You can't!" The Doctor pleads.

"It is a fitting paradox that our salvation comes at the hands of our most infamous child," Rassilon says.

"Oh, he's not saving you. Don't you realise what he's doing?" The Doctor warns as he still leans his weight in his arms.

"Hey, no, hey! That's mine. Hush. Look around you. I've transplanted myself into every single human being. But who wants a mongrel little species like them, because now I can transplant myself into every single Time Lord. Oh, yes, Mister President, sir, standing there all noble and resplendent and decrepit. Think how much better you're going to look as me."

The Lord President holds up his metal gauntlet. It glows and everyone who looks like the Master goes through the head blur thing again.

"No, no, don't. No, no, stop it! No, no, no, don't!" The Master cries. Finally, everyone on Earth is restored to themselves.

"On your knees, mankind." The people obey looking terrified.

"No, that's fine, that's good because you said salvation. I still saved you. Don't forget that." The Master says desperately. There's the sound of rumpling.

"The approach begins," Rassilon says instead.

"Approach of what?"

"Something is returning." The Doctor explains through clenched teeth.

"Don't you ever listen?" Kathy snaps.

"That was the prophecy. Not someone, something."

"What is it?" The Master asks.

"They're not just bringing back the species. It's Gallifrey. Right here, right now."

Kathy sees the big burning planet appear in the sky. The tidal forces of the new planet make the Earth shake. The people run from the room. Kathy winces in pain the vibrations are causing.

"But I did this. I get the credit. I'm on your side." The Master says desperately.

Wilf pushes his way in. "Come on, get out of the way. Get out of the way! Doctor? Kathy?"

A technician is hammering on the door of his locked glass booth. "Help me, please. Somebody, please."

"All right! I've got you, mate. I've got you." Wilf goes into the open booth.

"Wilf, don't. Don't!" The Doctor tries.

Wilf unlocks the other booth. "I've got you. Come on. Go on." The freed technician runs.

"But this is fantastic, isn't it? The Time Lords restored." The Master tries.

"You weren't there in the final days of the War." The Doctor replies. "You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock'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-weres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending."

"My kind of world."

"Just listen! Because even the Time Lords can't survive that."

"We will initiate the Final Sanction. The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue until it rips the Time Vortex apart." Rassilon confirms.

"That's suicide." The Master argues.

"We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone. Free of these bodies, free of time, and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be."

"You see now?" The Doctor says to the Master. "That's what they were planning in the final days of the War. I had to stop them."

"Then, take me with you, Lord President. Let me ascend into glory." The Master offers.

"You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more." Rassilon prepares his glove but the Doctor is on his feet, aiming the revolver at the Lord President. "Choose your enemy well. We are many. The Master is but one."

Kathy scrambles to her feet and stands at the side to watch.

"But he's the President. Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours." The Master argues. The Doctor turns and aims at the Master. "He's to blame, not me. Oh, the link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back. You never would, you coward. Go on then. Do it." The Doctor aims at the Lord President again. "Exactly. It's not just me, it's him. He's the link. Kill him!"

"The final act of your life is murder. But which one of us?" Rassilon goads.

"Doctor!" Kathy interrupts. "There's a third way. There's always a third way."

Behind the Lord President, the Woman lowers her hands. Kathy knows that this Woman had opposed Rassilon's plan to destroy time itself, along with the Patriarch of the House of Stillhaven. Rassilon condemned her and the patriarch to stand behind him in the Panopticon and cover their faces 'as monuments of their shame, like the Weeping Angels of old' and had her name erased from time as further punishment. The Doctor's gaze falls on the Woman. The Woman stares at the Doctor. But then, her eyes flicker just a fraction to the right. Meaning, behind the Doctor. Meaning the Master. And the Doctor pivots round, one last time, switches the gun to his other hand, now aiming it right at the Master.

"Get out of the way." The Master smirks, realising, and moves and the Doctor shoots the diamond in its gizmo. The link explodes and the Time Lords begin being sucked away. "The link is broken. Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell."

"You'll die with me, Doctor," Rassilon says.

"I know." Rassilon aims his gauntlet at the Doctor. The Woman covers her face again.

"Get out of the way." The Doctor steps back next to Kathy and the Master attacks the Lord President with his energy. "You did this to me! All of my life!" He hits them again. "You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!" He hits Rassilon with a new blast at every count. The president is forced to his knees. The Time Lords and the Master disappear in a bright light and Gallifrey fades away from the sky. The force of it all knocks Kathy and the Doctor down.

"I'm alive. I've. There was. I'm still alive." The Doctor gasps. Kathy sadly looks toward Wilf and watches as he knocks. Knock, knock, knock, knock. Kathy sees the Doctor's face fall. Knock, knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock, knock.

"They gone, then? Yeah, good-o. If you could let me out?" Wilf asks.

"Yeah."

"Only, this thing seems to be making a bit of a noise."

"The Master left the Nuclear Bolt running. It's gone into overload." Kathy explains sadly. She gets up along with the Master.

"And that's bad, is it?"

"No, because all the excess radiation gets vented inside there." The Doctor explains. "Vinvocci glass contains it. All five hundred thousand rads, about to flood that thing."

"Oh. Well, you'd better let me out, then." Wilf says.

"Except it's gone critical. Touch one control and it floods. Even our sonics would set it off." Kathy explains.

"I'm sorry." Wilf apologises.

"Sure." The Doctor mutters. "There's no other way is there?"

"No," Kathy replies.

"Look, just leave me," Wilf tells them.

"Okay, right then, I will." Kathy can hear the emotion building up in his voice. "Because you had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh yes. Because that's who you are, Wilfred. You were always this. Waiting for me all this time."

"No really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my time."

"Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important." The Doctor snaps. "But me? I could do so much more. So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair!" He screams and pushes off stuff on a table. "Oh. Oh. I've lived too long."

Kathy thinks about her own life, and how long she has lived. She'd probably have to use up her own regeneration energy like the Doctor had except she wouldn't have to change. This makes Kathy tempted to take his place but she worries she'll alter the Doctor's timeline too much if she stops this.

"No. No, no, please, please don't. No, don't! Please don't! Please!" Wilf cries tearfully as the Doctor slowly walks toward him.

The Doctor opens the other chamber door. "Wilfred, it's my honour. Better be quick. Three, two, one." The Doctor quickly goes into the open booth and unlocks Wilf's side. Wilf runs out and a red light floods the Doctor's booth. Kathy winces at the Doctor's pain. He curls up into a ball on the floor. Then the power shuts down.

"What?" Wilf mutters. After a few moments, the Doctor gets up. "Hello."

"Hi." The Doctor replies.

"Still with us?"

"The system's dead. I absorbed it all. Whole thing's kaput." The Doctor pushes at the door, it creaks open. "Oh. Now it opens, yeah." He comes out of the booth. Kathy watches him sadly. She knows she'll see this face again but that doesn't stop seeing the end of this one hurt any less.

"Well, there we are, then. Safe and sound. Mind you, you're in hell of a state. You've got some battle scars there." Wolf says. Kathy looks at her own scrapes and knows they'll take a bit longer. The Doctor rubs his face and the cuts vanish. "But they've- your face. How did you do that?"

"It's started," Kathy says as the Doctor gazes at his now unmarked hands. Wilf hugs the Doctor.

They arrive outside the Noble home again and Kathy sees a happy Sylvia at the front door, beaming as they step out of the TARDIS. Wilf gives her a wave, which she returns.

"Oh, she's smiling. As if today wasn't bad enough." The Doctor grumbles causing Wilf and Kathy to chuckle. "Anyway, don't go thinking this is goodbye, Wilf. I'll see you again, one more time."

"You know you'll see me again. All that stuff we've got to do." Kathy says.

Wilf nods. "Yeah. But what do you mean Doctor? When's that?"

"Just keep looking. I'll be there." The Doctor replies.

"Where are you going?"

"To get my reward."

Kathy watches at an abandoned factory as Mickey and Martha, two people that she hasn't had the chance to meet yet, have their backs to a Sontaran, who has a clear shot. The Doctor hits him on the probic vent with a hammer, knocking him down. Kathy stands by him as they look down at the two.

She sees when they notice them. Mickey steps forward and yells, "Hey!"

Kathy and the Doctor look at them before walking away.

Next stop is Bannerman Road. A young Luke Smith is on the phone and crosses the road without looking, and the Doctor drags him away from being run down. Kathy gives him a stern look.

"But it's you two! You're…"

"You need to look when crossing the road, Luke." Kathy admonishes him. Then she and the Doctor walk back to the TARDIS.

"Mum! Mum!" She hears Luke yell.

The Doctor and Kathy look back as they stand at the TARDIS doors and wave goodbye to Luke and Sarah Jane.

At a downtown drinking hole in Zaggit Zagoo, capital of Zog, Kathy's eyes look past the Slitheen, Graske, Judoon, Hath, Judoon and a little Adipose and land on another companion she hasn't met yet, Captain Jack Harkness as he drinks alone.

The barman puts a piece of paper in front of Jack. Jack looks at the Doctor and Kathy, puzzled. The Doctor nods to the note and Kathy smiles and waves. Jack smiles, a little, but stays where he is. He looks at the note and then salutes them before turning to Alonso, the man from the Titanic replica.

Kathy lets the Doctor go into the bookshop on his own to meet and talk with Joan Redfern's great-granddaughter Verity Newman. Kathy didn't feel right intruding but also, it's not something she has a personal connection to.

The bells are ringing for the end of a wedding ceremony. Donna yells gleefully as shows her ring. The wedding guests are throwing rice and taking pictures. The Doctor and Kathy watch in front of the TARDIS just outside the lych gate. Sylvia turns and spots them, getting her father's attention before they walk over.

"And here you are, eh? Same old face. Didn't I tell you you'd be alright?" Wilf greets. "Oh! They've arrested Mister Naismith. It was on the news. Crimes undisclosed. And his daughter. Both of them, locked up. But I keep thinking, Doctor, there's one thing you never told me. That woman. Who was she?"

The Doctor glances toward Donna before reaching into his pocket. "I just wanted to give you this. Wedding present. Thing is, I never carry money."

"And I don't have any modern day money so we popped back in time, borrowed a quid off a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was." Kathy says with a smile. Sylvia gasps and covers her mouth with her hand.

"Have it, he said. Have that on me." The Doctor says. Sylvia is nearly in tears; her father puts his arm around her.

Donna frowns at the envelope she's handed but shrugs and tucks it into the top of her dress. Wilf salutes the Doctor and Kathy before they leave.

The Doctor and Kathy stand in the shadows of an alleyway on the snowy Powell estate. It's been so long since she's seen Rose and it'll be odd not to talk to her. Kathy casts the Doctor a worried look in the dim light as she has her arm wrapped around his waist in an attempt to help support him as he leans most of his weight against the side of a wall.

"Doctor?"

He grimaces as he inhales sharply. "Just need a minute." He mutters, trying to hold back the pain that is spreading throughout his entire body, growing stronger and harder to control. "I've managed to say goodbye to almost everyone…"

She sighs heavily, hating to see him in so much pain, but nods.

A familiar voice cuts in, "I'm late now, I've missed it." Kathy can hear Rose's and another set of footsteps approaching, sounding annoyed. "It's midnight. Mickey's going to be calling me everything, this is all your fault."

"No, it's not!" Jackie Tyler argues. "It's Jimbo. He said he was going to 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!" Her voice turns sad. "Be fair, though. In my time of life, I'm not going to do much better."

"Don't be like that." Rose sighs as they come to a stop just before the alleyway, giving the Doctor and Kathy a chance to see them as she rubs her mother's shoulder. "You never know, there could be someone out there."

Jackie shrugs. "Maybe… one day." She tries to sound hopeful, her face brightening. "Happy New Year!" She smiles broadly.

"Happy New Year!" Rose grins, hugging her. "Don't stay out all night!" She tells her as they pull apart.

"Try and stop me!" Jackie shoots her a look as she walks away.

Rose crosses her arms across her chest, trying to keep warm as she begins walking over towards her flat stairwell as Kathy lets go of the Doctor and steps further back into the shadows, knowing that it is important for the Doctor to say goodbye to Rose by himself, but as he steps forwards, he groans in pain, slipping slightly down the wall.

Rose turns around, looking surprised. "You all right, mate?" She asks, sounding concerned.

The Doctor quickly straightens, "Yeah."

"Too much to drink?"

"Something like that."

She eyes him. "Maybe it's time you go home." She suggests.

"Yeah…" He agrees.

"Anyway… happy New Year!" She tells him cheerfully.

"And you!" He grins as she turns, heading towards the stairwell again, "What year is it?" The Doctor calls after her.

Rose turns back to look at him, her eyes widening, "Blimey, how much have you had?" She laughs and he shrugs slightly. "2005, January the first." She informs him in a clear, slow voice.

"2005." The Doctor repeats, nodding. "Tell you what… I bet you're going to have a great year." He smiles at her.

"Yeah?" She raises her eyebrows, looking amused. "See ya!" Rose shoots him a grin and runs over to the stairwell, opening the door, and looking back at him over her shoulder, before stepping through and hurrying up the stairs.

The moment she is out of sight, Kathy runs forward and wraps her arm around the Doctor, just as he grunts painfully, leaning heavily against her as he places a hand on the wall, "Shh, it's okay." She breathes soothingly to him. "We can do this. Come on, let's get you to the TARDIS."

He is breathing heavily as they half stagger out of the alley, one hand on the wall for extra support, but soon enough the Doctor is forced to let go and lean on Kathy as they struggle across to the other side of the complex to where they had parked the TARDIS. He winces in pain, grimacing as Kathy continues muttering soothing words to him, just trying to keep him going, when his knees suddenly give out and he collapses onto the snow covered ground with a loud cry, taking her down with him.

Kathy, ignoring the pain that the fall had caused to her own body, immediately pulls herself upright, her eyes fixed on the Doctor as he groans in pain. "Just a little bit further." She murmurs to him, her voice breaking slightly as she felt tears burning the corners of her eyes. "Just a few more steps…" She trails off as she looks up to see Ood Sigma standing a short distance away.

The Ood raises his communication orb and it lights up. "We will sing to you, Doctor." He tells them, his voice calm as the Doctor lifts his head to look at him. "The Universe will sing you to your sleep."

The Doctor takes a deep breath and forces himself back to his feet, leaning against Kathy again as they stagger determinedly over to the TARDIS as the sound of the Ood singing sound in their heads.

"This story is ending, but the story never ends," Sigma says as they reach the doors.

Kathy snaps her fingers and the doors swing open and they step inside. She helps him up the ramp, pulling his coat off as he tosses it over the Y-beam, before glancing down at his right hand and it glows with golden, yellow regeneration energy. He swallows and looks up at Kathy, who tries to give him a comforting smile.

"Everything is going to be okay, Doctor." She assures him gently. "I'll be right here the entire time, you won't be alone for a second, understand?"

He closes his eyes tightly before opening them, his voice trembling, "I'm… I'm afraid."

"Oh, Doctor. Don't worry your next self isn't too weird." Kathy reassures causing him to laugh wetly. The Doctor steps over to the controls. She watches as he hits a lever, sending them off into space.

He stares at the Time Rotor, watching as it goes up and down before moving back around the console, coming to stand in front of Kathy, his eyes filled with tears. "I don't want to go." He whispers to her, sounding heartbroken.

She swallows a sob, almost shaking as badly as he is. "I'll be right here." She forces her voice to sound strong as she tries to smile through the tears. "I will see you on the other side."

The regeneration energy begins swirling around his face, growing brighter and brighter as Kathy takes a step back, preparing herself, knowing that because of how long he put it off and watching the episode, it is going to be violent. He takes deep breaths and looks down at his right hand and then to the other to see that they are both glowing. He looks back at her when he suddenly throws his head back, and the energy pours out of him.

The energy shoots out so violently that it explodes the windows on the doors and causes the console to spark violently, fires shoot up everywhere as Kathy jumps back, covering her head with her arms as debris begins raining down, and the beams all around the room begin collapsing, one just missing her as she throws herself to the floor.

She winces as she can hear the Doctor shouting in pain when his voice suddenly changes, and the regeneration cuts off. She quickly lifts her head to find herself looking at the Doctor… well, the new him. Eleven.

"Legs!" The Doctor cheers almost at once as he looks down at himself, examining his new body. "I've still got legs!" He grabs his leg and kisses his knee. "Good!" He drops his leg and begins patting his chest. "Arms!" He quickly finds his hands, holding them close to his face. "Hands! Ooh, fingers!" He wiggles them excitedly, "Lots of fingers!" He moves up to his face, checking the side of his head. "Ears, yes!" He presses his fingers to his eyes. "Eyes, two!" Down to his nose. "Nose…" He seems to frown slightly at its size. "…I've had worse. Chin…" He feels his chin, his eyes widening slightly. "Blimey!"

Kathy pulls herself to her feet, brushing dust from down her front as she steps in front of him, grinning up at him as he immediately focuses on her. "Yeah, it's huge."

"Kathy!" He cries joyfully and grabs her, pulling her into a tight hug before jolting back. "No, no, no." He shakes his head quickly. "More important things first. Am I ginger?"

Kathy laughs slightly and ruffles his dark hair. "Nope." She replies and his face falls.

The Doctor frowns slowly as he begins shifting around the spot. "There's something else, something important, we're, we're, we're…" He begins tapping the side of his head when something bangs loudly, jolting them as he automatically grabs the console like Kathy does.

"Crashing!" Kathy groans loudly, grimacing as she takes in the mess the controls are in.

The Doctor, on the other hand, grins and runs around the other side, looking across to her as they plummet towards the Earth. "Ha, ha! Whoo hoo hoo! Ah! Geronimo!"

A/N: I recently realised that Kathy shares the same first name as Sally Sparrow's friend (*spoiler* the one who gets sent back in time) in Blink