//------------------------------//
// Journey's End 
// Story: The Day My Life Began 
// by Authora97 
//------------------------------//

	The Doctor was regenerating.

It has been a pretty busy day, that was for sure. I mean, yeah, going to the alien market Shan Shen was normal for us. We had been to almost a dozen of them with Rose way back when.

This trip was supposed to be a calming one. Yesterday we had stopped a coup on the planet Xoelia, an invasion on Qouater, and helped the people of Rama build their Treeborg prototypes. All in all, a pretty normal day.

Donna had been a bit weirded out though. The Ramaians looked basically like Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, except they were blue and not pirates. Well, maybe that one was a pirate...

Sorry. Not helping. Back to my story.

The Doctor decided to take us to the Shan Shen market after Donna asked/ordered him to take us somewhere calming. The Time Lord went along with it, if only because the last time he said no to that (also the first time) Donna kept hitting his arm till he said yes.

I had been holding off on this for over ten years, hoping that by the time I’d come up with a way to save her life. I’d gone Home while wandering around. Donna had just walked into the tent. So, it was like hopping right onto a moving train when I came back.

The Doctor and I had gone running towards Donna, appearing just in time to see the beetle drop from her back. She explained to us her dream, how the Doctor and I had died with the Racnoss, that all the other things we had stopped had gone on and killed most of planet earth.

Then she brought up the people who had told her the Doctor and I called her important. That’s right, people, plural. It wasn’t just Rose helping fix the gaps in time. The Doctor had pressured her on Rose, so all I knew was that someone else had been helping. Dang, that made me mad!

After that, we rushed to Planet Earth-yadda yadda yadda. You know how today goes! If you haven’t watched it on Netflix a trillion times (like I did), then you read about it in a fanfic!

So, we landed on the resolute streets of London. Ours friends were in trouble, twenty-seven planets had been abducted, and I was starting to get hungry. The Doctor had pressured Donna again, asking her if Rose had said anything else, when the ginger said one of my top ten favorite lines on the show.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Oh, I had screamed when I saw Rose again. It had broken my hearts when we lost her at Torchwood. I had been arguing with myself over what to do for weeks. Originally I was all for letting myself fall into the Void instead. Then a sad realization came to me.

I was a Time Lady. The Last Time Lady. Abandoned on Earth long before the Last Great Time War, with nothing more than a perception filter and the smoked up rags on her back. She managed to survive to my age at the time, 180, all the while avoiding the Doctor and his hijinks.

Then, ya know, I showed up. First Day. Real drag. Future Me had been there, Terra Four as she delightfully informed me. Eleven was there too, dressed up in purple tweed and a darker bowtie. Oswin had been there, which sent me reeling. It confused me more than that Christmas Special.

End of the day, I ended up regenerating into Terra Two. First Day and I was already dead. Well, I think I died twice, never really got to find out what happened to Four after Eleven dropped me off in 2005.

Where was I? Right. Losing Rose. She was a really great friend, one of the best. She was a person I could talk to when Doc was annoying me with teaching me about Time Lords and all that jazz. 

But, I had to lose her, as much as it pains me to say. I realized I couldn’t put the Doctor through the pain of losing his race again. He would have moved on eventually, and then he was going to lose the Master. It would just break him, and I couldn’t do that to him.

Then we met Donna Noble. Lucky she was there to help with the Racnoss. I was useless against giant spiders (I blame Mister Waternoose). Then I met Martha, after pleading with the Doctor to let me go investigate the hospital alone. He had started yelling at me through the telepathic Tine Lord bond thingy, so I began retaliating by calling myself the Doctor. That showed him!

Then, you know what happens Season Two. Shakespeare, Daleks, 42, the Family of Blood. That was when I regenerated into Three. That gave me a headache. The joke is funny because I was shot in the head.

Terra Three is ginger. Bright sunshine yellow eyes, olive skin, curly shoulder length ginger hair, and a dress I had patched together in the TARDIS. It had a raspberry pink bodice, a cool blue knee length skirt, wrist length snow white sleeves, and those cool shoulder puffs that had white and pink stripes! My shoes were pink boots, ones I always wore demanded immediately after I regenerated. There was a TARDIS blue bowtie around my neck, which I was told was a poor costume decision. Shows what Ten knows. It’s not a real party until I’m wearing a bowtie.

There was a loud scream in front of me. I remembered where I was. Oops. Terra Three was kinda like Pinkie Pie and Annie, a bit air headed and loved to randomly start singing.

The Doctor reached out, blasting his spare hand. That was actually really fun to see Jack with the spare hand, back on Utopia. The hand glowed bright yellow as it took in the regeneration energy.

It was good to see Jack too. He was a great friend, reminding me a lot of Darcy way back when. He would have sec with anyone, he had killed people, and he felt like my annoying little brother. Last I had seen him, he was being tortured by the Master.

That’s a time I would rather skip.

The Doctor just grinned up at the four of us. “Now then. Where were we?” The others stared stunned. I was relieved. He was fine. He was gonna be fine. The Time Lord walked over to his hand, leaning over. “There now.”

The Doctor gently blew on it, the dust floating away. He was smiling. “You see?” He sat up, leaning on the console with his elbow. “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.” He fixed his tie, giving a quick look of questioning. Ten was really vain. “So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand.” I giggled at the pun. Heard it s billion times but it was still funny. “My hand there. My handy spare hand.”

He stood staring right at Rose. A sort of hopeful look on his face. Rose was looking down, her face half hidden by her straight blonde hair. “Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That’s my hand.” Rose carefully looked up, still unbelieving that the Doctor almost died running to her. The Doctor gave her the same look he gave whenever he offered to take someone onboard. “What do you think?

Rose took slow steps towards him. Her shoes slightly echoing on the metal grating. “You’re still you?”

The Doctor smiled, as if a five year old had asked him that. “I’m still me.”

The two hugged, and I nearly squealed. Okay. I did. I started hopping up and down, my hands excitedly clapping together. I turned to Jack, beaming. The two of us had been trying to get them together practically since Jack joined the team. Seeing them together made the shipper in me happy, not gonna lie.

“You can hug me, if you want.” Donna offered Jack, trying to sound nonchalant. The man, who I have seen flirt with an alien resembling Jabba the Hutt, just laughed. Donna frowned. “No, really. You can hug me.”

Jack instead just turned to me, giving me a hug that lifted me into the air. I let out a loud laugh of surprise. “Put me down!” I laughed.

“Not a chance, Terra.” Jack said.

I knew why he was hugging me so tightly. He was after the Torchwood episodes with Gray. First Terra had been working with the good people at Torchwood Three since 2005, even though she was physically a teenager. She’s been like a sleeper agent, patiently waiting for me show up and ruin her life. Jack had explained that to me in Utopia. The Torchwood thing, not the ruining her life thing.

The phone call earlier showed what I needed to know. Tosh and Owen were alive. First Terra was tucked away in the dungeons, watching over the Weevils inside to make sure they were okay. Terra’s memories told me that.

Their hug finally ended. They were both smiling wide. Suddenly, Rose turned around to face me. Jack put me down then. “Wait. But, you changed?”

My smile shook a bit. This was why I had waited until after Rose was gone to find a time to regenerate. The only place I knew with enough time to get myself figured out,  and to give Terra Two time to prepare, after Family of Blood.

“Yeah.” I admitted. “It was a long time after you, ya know. We were fighting aliens and I was trying to give Doc time to get out. I was totally fine after. Made myself this dress.” I reached down the skirt, feeling the nice cool fabric in my hands. “Oh! And the boots! I love boots. Have you tried boots before? They’re awesome. I like these pink ones cause it’s my favorite color and I can run in them, like really really fast!”

Rose blinked. She looked like she was still struggling with the information that I had regenerated. She let out a sort of awkward laugh. “Wow. That’s...that’s good.”

Terra Two was far from shy, she was more the strong and silent type. She would get excited at some things, and end up going on a typical teenager rant of joy. Those were Terra Three’s most common form of communication. Haha, communication. That word’s long.

Before I became this lovely lady, I thought about stuff it would be nice to have again. Stuff I hadn’t had in awhile because of this life, stuff I thought I would never have again. Things like hope, or pure childlike joy, or any shred of innocence.

It felt really hard to think hopefully these days, especially after the Graveyard, but I kept on. Lilac was more than enough to remind me of why I should work to be better. 

I clapped again, nearly hopping in place. “Huzzah! Rose you’re back!” I nearly squealed, rushing up to my friend and hugging her tight.

Rose hesitated, but hugged me back. I was reminded of when she had been captured by Daleks, after being zapped by the teleportation thing. It felt like we would never see Rose again. It was scary.

“I missed you, Carolina Rose.” I told her.

It was true. It had been almost fifteen years since I’d seen her last. Really, honestly seen her, not on a computer screen or Facebook photo. This was Rose ‘Bad Wolf’ Tyler. Why wouldn’t I miss her?

Oh. That nickname. I gave it to her after Father’s Day. Jackie had asked me to watch Rose, and she was crying so I sang her that song. Carolina Rose. I thought it fit her and Doc’s relationship perfectly. Still do.

“Missed you too, Terra.” Rose said. It was held back, but accepting. I guess she had hoped I was still Two, then realized time still moved here. I had to have changed at some point.

There was suddenly a loud banging noise. The lights in the TARDIS switched off, except for a few of the emergency ones and the blue light in the hand jar.

The Doctor immediately got back to work. “They’ve got us.” He twisted a few knobs, dashing about the console. He ended up at the computer screen. “Power’s gone. Some kind of chronon loop.”

I held on tightly as the TARDIS tilted back. It was shaking worse than when he drove!

After awhile, it finally stopped. We were all able to get our footing back. Once that happens, Jack gave us the rundown of where we were going.

“There’s a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They’re calling it the Crucible.” Jack gave a somber look. “Guess that’s our destination.”

Donna looked over at Rose. “You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?”

The Doctor turned to the blonde a well, looking like he finally figured something out. “Rose! You’ve been in a parallel world. That world’s running ahead of this universe. You’ve seen the future. What was it?”

Rose steeled herself. “It’s the darkness.” She admitted, sounding just the tiniest bit scared.

“The stars were going out.” Donna recalled from her dream.

Rose only nodded. “One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying.” She started slowing down, as if nervous. “Basically, we’ve been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could.” Come on, Carolina Rose, just say it. “Well, so I could...”

The Doctor was already grinning. “What?”

“So I could come back.” Rose explained, as if he couldn’t figure it out. 

I hummed K-I-S-S-I-N-G. The Doctor just grinned at her, letting out a happy laugh. 

“Shut up.” Rose told us both.

“I think that’s an impossibility for me.” I cheered, smiling proudly.

“Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse.” The blonde got on with explanation, reminding us that we were stuck in a Dalek’s holding beam. “Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything.”

Okay. The Doctor was looking a bit scared now. That was a scary thing to hear, that even the Void itself was dead. That made me start to think, though, could this reach my world, my Home? Could this thing reach Lilac?

No. No. This was a separate universe than mine, a whole other reality. This thing would go out to the edges of this world, but leave mine be. My daughter was safe.

My friends were not.

“In that parallel world.” Donna spoke up again. “You said something about me.”

“The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it’s, it’s weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you.” Rose explained.

Donna shook her head. “But why me?” She asked. I watched her in sad understanding. “I mean, what have I ever done? I’m a temp from Chiswick.”

And I’m a teenage girl from Charleston.

The computer screen began to beep. The Doctor went up to it, reading the screen.  “The Dalek Crucible. All aboard.”

The TARDIS shook again as we made our final descent.

“Doctor. You will step forth or die.” A loud voice proclaimed from outside. 

The Doctor walked towards the door, stopping just at the end of the walkway. The rest of us took steps forward, waiting to see what he would do. I ended up standing next to Donna, remembering how the next few minutes would go for her. “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 reminded.

“You’ve got extrapolator shielding.” Jack added. 

The Doctor turned to us, seeming just as helpless as we felt. “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.”

That was when it started. The beating. The single heartbeat echoing in my ears. It was loud, and it was all I could focus on. There were some murmurs of the others talking, but I could only hear the beating.

If I was this bad and there was only one heartbeat, I can only imagine how bad it was for the Master. Four beats constant going on and on in his twisted little head.

Well, not so much twisted as it was dented. The Time Lords put him through that just so they could enact their stupid plan to eliminate the Daleks and put themselves up as gods. It made me angry. It really, really did. It was the main reason I used measures to put me on the TARDIS as the Master was stealing it.

“Terra?”

I blinked, shaking my head. I had forgotten where I was for a second. “Woah. Yeah. Um, sounds good.” I said.

“Yeah.” Donna jumped onto my bandwagon.

The Doctor gave us both sad looks. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing else we can do.”

I agreed with him. There was nothing else I could do to save Donna, nothing other than what was already being done.

“No, I know.” Donna said.

“Surrender, Doctor, and face your Dalek Masters.” The Dalek ordered.

“Daleks.” Rose nearly started to laugh. This was probably reminding her of the Bad Wolf.

“Oh, God.” Jack joked. I guess a man who can’t die wouldn’t be scared of Dalek.

The Doctor had walked back up to the front of the group. He gave us all a questioning look. “It’s been good, though, hasn’t it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did.” He smiled at Donna, proud. “You were brilliant.” He turned to Jack. “And you were brilliant.” Then Rose. “And you were brilliant.” Finally, he looked at me. He smiled bright, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe I was there. “And you were brilliant. Blimey.”

He turned to the door, slowly walking to the door.

Showtime.







The Red Dalek began changing the second the doors were opened. “Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!”

“Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!”

All the while, I stood right in the doorway. Donna stopped nearly the exact time I did. The heartbeat was kicking in again. It was getting louder. It was getting closer.

“Behold, Doctor. Behold the might of the true Dalek race.” The Red Dalek decreed.

Donna and I turned around, me looking straight at the hand.

“Terra! Donna!” The Doctor called out. “You’re no safer in there.”

That broke us out of it, but before I could even get one foot in the direction of the doors they slammed shut.

I stared at the doors for a second, momentarily confused as to why they shut. I remembered then that it was Dalek Caan, guiding us all towards fulfilling the prophecy.

Donna came up beside me, ending up pushing me away from the doors. She started hitting them. “Doctor? What have you done?” She yelled.

I looked towards the hand again. This was Plan B. Get stuck inside with Donna. I had told myself I would never let the Doctor go through the pain of being the last of his kind, the way I had felt for my whole life. At least he had people, I have nothing. I named my species, how sad is that?

Now I had to. I had to make him think I was dead, so I could save our best friend, because River Song said that’s what I did.

I trust River Song. She wouldn’t lie to me, not about this. Never about this. 

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t do anything.” The Doctor informed.

“Oi! Oi, I’m not staying behind!” Donna yelled at him.

I started walking towards the hand. There was no heartbeat, yet I found myself just staring at it. What would happen if I touched it? What would my being a Jumper have on Doctor-Donna and the Metacrisis? Would they get any of my future knowledge? Would they get aspects of my personality? What if it gave them the ability to jump? That might have an effect on Rose and the Metacrisis (I already hate calling him that) staying in there world.

Oh my Storyline. What if he came out ginger? That might actually be funny.

“What did you do?!” The Doctor yelled.

“Nothing!” I found myself saying on instinct. What? He did occasionally ask me that...when I did something really stupid...

“This is not of Dalek origin.” The Red Dalek said.

Donna kept pounding fruitlessly on the door. “Terra, can’t you get this thing open?” She shouted at me.

I was about to responded, when I realized I couldn’t think of a thing to say. What could I say? Those doors aren’t gonna open for a long time Donna. Those doors will only open when you’re basically dead, Donna. The Doctor’ll think we’re dead now so that the Daleks can crush his soul, Donna.

Why did I agree to Plan B?

“Stop it! They’re my friends. Now open the door and let them out.” I’ll admit, I was a boy touched that I was being included in his yelling.

“This is Time Lord treachery.”

The Doctor scoffed. “Me? The door just closed on its own.”

“Nevertheless, the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed.”

Then I remembered something important. I hated the Tower of Terror. Truly, honestly hated that ride.

The TARDIS dropped into that hole in the ground. I clung onto the console, screaming as we fell.

“Terra!” Donna yelled, grabbing onto the handrails.

“Donna!” I yelled back, keeping a firm grip on the console. Apparently traveling with the Doctor was like riding a bike, you never forget how tight to hold on.

Soon enough, the TARDIS started to explode. Fire appeared in random places, those round things started sparking up. Donna let out another yell as she ran over to the console.

I had to let the console go because it was burning up. Donna ended up practically falling next to the hand. I joined her there.

We started screaming again as the console sent out large sparks, a few nearly hitting us.

Smoke filled the console room. I started coughing to get it all out, Donna too. I wished I could have done this alone. She heard the beating too, no matter how much I wanted to save her from this.

Then the beating resumed.

Our coughs stopped as we turned to look at the hand. It was bubbling up, like when we met Jenny. It looked almost sickly gray, with the way the lights were hitting it. 

I gently lifted my hand up, the chaos around me forgotten. Reaching out towards it, I touched the glass surrounding it. Beside me, Donna did the same.

Yellow regeneration every shot out from it, hitting me in my forehead. I gasped as I felt it reach inside of me, feeling it take parts of me to force into the Metacrisis.

The energy wrapped itself around me, going deeper and deeper. I started to pant as it absorbing the data needed for the completion. I even felt some of it being given up, but from Donna and the Doctor coming together inside my head. It was mixing me up.

Then, it exploded.

Donna and I were forced back in by the force. After a moment, we watched as it glowed brightly. Then it expanded, with legs and arms and a head.

He sat up. I could see the Tenth Doctor’s face through the golden dust. The dust vanished in a flash, revealing the Doctor. 

“It’s you!” Donna said.

The Doctor nodded. “Oh, yes!”

I let out a squeak, covering up my eyes with my hands. “You’re naked! Ew!”

“Oh, yes.”

Two more lights went out. I kept my eyes covered. My first naked guy was not gonna be the Doctor!







The Doctor patched up the last of lights, using the coat of blue pinstripe suit. I was sitting on the pilot seat, feeling relieved that everybody here was safe. Donna was still very confused over what had happened.

“All repaired. Lovely. Shush.” He said, walking up towards the now repaired console. “No one knows we’re here. Got to keep quiet.” He started walking around the console. I followed after them, a giddy smile on my face. “Silent running, like on submarines when you can’t even drop a spanner. Don’t drop a spanner! I like blue. What do you think?” He said, sounding a lot like me when I get excited. Well, when Terra Three got excited.

“You are bonkers.” Donna argued.

The Doctor seemed appalled. “Why? What’s wrong with blue?”

“I think you look good in blue!” I cheered. “The blue’s much more stand-outish than the brown one. It blended in, but the blue makes you stand out! Trust me, I know how to stand out. I’m dressed in pink, white, and blue!”

“Is that what Time Lords do?” Donna turned towards me. She was apparently very angry at the Doctor. “Lop a bit off, grow another one? You’re like worms.” She was starting to panic, get all shouty.

I shook my head. The Doctor was buttoning the last few buttons on his jacket. “No, no, no, no, no. He’s unique. You ain’t never had a friend like him.” I sang that last part. Darn Three likes to sing.

“Because all that regeneration energy went into the hand.” The Doctor said, holding up the old hand. “Look at my hand.” He wiggled the fingers. “I love that hand. But then you touched it. Wham!” He flung it out us.

The two of us shouted. I started to giggle at the jump scare.

He shushed us. “Instantaneous biological metacrisis. I grew out of you. Still, could be worse.”

Donna growled. “Oi, watch it, spaceman.”

The Doctor growled back. “Oi, watch it, Earth girl.” The two flinched back, my dropped in equal states of shock. “Ooo. I sound like you.”

“You sounded like me I minute ago.” I commented

The Doctor nodded. “I did. I did. Now I sound all, all sort of rough.”

“Oi!” Donna snapped.

“Oi!” The Doctor shot back. I rolled my eyes.

“Oi!”

I slapped my hands over their mouths. They looked over at me. This was my more preferred method of keeping the Doctor and the companion from arguing. “Children, behave.” I scolded them. I turned to Donna. “He picked up some of our voices, that’s all.”

The Doctor flinched away. “Is it? Did I? Oh, you are kidding me. No way.” He was gaping. “One heart. I’ve only got one heart. This body has got only one heart.”

Donna gasped. I laughed. The two of us reached out, feeling his one beating heart. “What, like you’re human?”

“Oh, that’s disgusting.” The Doctor grimaced, flinching away from us. 

“Oi!” Donna snarled.

“Oi!”

“Not this again.” I rolled my eyes, slapping my hands over their mouths again. “No more fighting.” I glared at the Doctor. “Being human is not disgusting, shut up.” I turned to Donna. “Now be nice. He’s a growing boy figuring out his body.” I could barely say the last part with a straight face.

I lowered my hands. Donna was actually grinning a bit at the joke. The Doctor was still disgusted. “No, wait. I’m part Time Lord, part human.” He almost shrugged. “Well, isn’t that wizard?”

Donna looked like she was figuring it out. “I kept hearing that noise, that heartbeat.”

“Oh, that was him.” I said, pointing at the Doctor. Said man walked behind me to work on the console. Strange thing is, I knew exactly what he was doing. Like, I knew which knob he was turning and why. Guess that’s what I got from him, how to work the TARDIS console. “His single heart. Because he’s a complicated event in time and space. It rippled back, converging on us. On you.”

Donna frowned at us both, the big picture still unclear to her. “But why me?”

The Doctor shrugged like it was obvious. “Because you’re special.”

“Oh, I keep telling you, I’m not.” Donna argued. I gave an almost unbroken frown. She honestly believes it.

The Doctor snapped his head up to attention. “No, but you are. Oh. You really don’t believe that, do you?” He asked, those bits of Donna coming to life inside his head. They were practically mirroring the ones in my own head, so I understood what she was implying. How could I not? “I can see, Donna, what you’re thinking. All that attitude, all that lip, because all this time you think you’re not worth it.” The Doctor pieced together. 

“Stop it.” Donna asked. There wasn’t any of her usual force behind it. No snark, no sarcasm or any semblance of anger. She was just asking us not to see how she viewed herself.

The Doctor ignored it. “Shouting at the world because no one’s listening. Well, why should they?” Then he turned to me. The Doctor was searching, and I could see it in his eyes. He was finding the parts of me in his head.

“Stop.” I pleaded. “Stop that. Right now.” The Doctor kept searching in his head. “Stop it!” 

“You.” The Doctor dropped his jaw.

What was he seeing? Was it how I knew about all of this? Was it that I knew how today was gonna end? Maybe it was that he was seeing any of the other stuff I knew about? Oh, Story this was a bad idea. Stupid, stupid me! What had I been thinking?!

“You.” The Doctor pointed a finger at me. I flinched back, closing my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see him get angry at me. Maybe he was seeing what I did to Darcy. What I did to all those other people who’ve died because of me.

“You’re afraid of being left alone.” The Doctor explained. “You’re afraid of being abandoned by people you thought actually cared about you.”

I looked down at my feet, feeling suddenly embarrassed at this. Please just figure out the whole destiny thing so we can move on. “Please stop.” I asked.

“But you’re not scared because they leave. You’re scared of how they will see you.” The Doctor said. He was close. Dear Story he was close.

“Please stop.” I pleaded, shaking my head as I realized the only conclusion he could get to from this. “I am begging you. Stop looking at it.”

“You are scared of them thinking you’re a freak.” The Doctor revealed.

I flinched, as if burned. “Don’t call me that!” I screamed at him. The half human/Time Lord started gaping at me.

The Doctor shook his head. “Oh, no. You think you’re some kind of freak.” I was about to start crying. I was not a freak. I was not a freak. “You try to hide by smiling all the time, by making jokes and laughing at everything, but you still think you’re the freak.”

I flinched back again. “Stop saying that word.” I pleaded. “I hate that word.”

“Why do you think that?” Donna asked, her voice as quiet as when she first found out about Rose.

My lip quivered a bit. ‘Because it was the only thing I heard any time I went to school? Any time I was myself? Because they were the words that my sister told me in the time I needed her most?’ I shook those thoughts out of my head. Apparently it was up to me to get us back to normal. “Donna, you are special. Just look at what you did. Your car, Donna, look what you did with your car.”

Donna and the Doctor looked confused, the Doctor only for a moment. “My car?”

“It’s like, we were always heading for this.” The Doctor said, sounding like he was going to go on a rant again. “You came to the TARDIS, and you found us again. Your granddad. Your car. Donna, your car!” He waved his hands at her. “You parked your car right where the TARDIS was going land. That’s not coincidence at all! We’ve been blind. Something’s been drawing us together for such a long time.”

“But you’re talking like destiny. There’s no such thing. Is there?” Donna asked, giving worried looks to the Doctor and I.

“It’s still not finished.” The Doctor’s hands were gripping onto his forehead. He was reeling from all this stuff coming together. “It’s like the pattern’s not complete. The strands are still drawing together. But heading for what?”

There was suddenly a very loud buzz coming from the computer screen. The TARDIS gave a great big shake.

I turned to the screen. “The twenty seven planets. It’s like they’re charging up.” I said.

“It’s...” The Doctor leaned over, staring at the screen with me. “It’s a-”

“Single string z-neutrinos compressed.” I said. The Doctor gave me a wide eyed look. I shrugged. “What? Smartest kid in the room, Doc, keep up.”

“No way.” The Doctor said, looking back to the screen. He was horrified.

Then I remembered. Those people...the test subjects...all dead...Jackie was this close to being one of them.

The glow on the other planets vanished. The three of us backed away from it. I was grimacing in disgust. Those people did not deserve that. No one deserves that, except the icky Daleks.

Oh. Did I just say icky? Three has the strangest vocabulary.

“What was it? Doctor, Terra, what did it do?” Donna asked.

“Every atom in existence is bound by an electric field. Protons, neutrons, that stuff.” I began. “Those planets coming together made a counterbalance to that electric charge, canceling it out.” I took a few steps back, thinking over how to properly tell Donna. “That was just a test. Focused on...”

“On what?”

I gulped. “The humans they were taking from the planet. The tested in on the humans they stole.” I gave her a serious look. “Once that thing reaches full power, it’ll destroy everyone and everything. It won’t stop-”

“The stars were going out.” Donna reminded us.

“The twenty seven planets become a vast transmitter. Blasting that wave long across the entire universe. It’ll never stop, not til it’s all gone.” The Doctor explained. “Davros is going to destroy everything.”

I nodded. “We need to stop it.” I turned to the Doctor. “Doc, you got a plan?”

The Doctor paused, looking grave. 







Donna held the mish mash of parts the Doctor was handing her. “So what is this thing?”

“It’s our only hope.” The Doctor explained, starting to build it. “A Z-neutrino biological inversion catalyser.”

“Yeah. Earth girl, remember?”

“Davros said he built those Daleks out of himself.” I explained.

The Doctor kept tightening the thing on top. “His genetic code runs through the entire race. If I can use this to lock the Crucible’s transmission onto Davros himself-”

“It destroys the Daleks?” Donna finished.

The Doctor had a determined look. “Biggest backfire in history.”







The Doctor held up the finished product. “Ready? Maximum power!” I grabbed the device, giving him a nod.

The TARDIS lit up. The whirring noise started, and I smiled. Always loved that noise. 

Once we knew we landed, I walked towards the doors.

“Terra, give me-”

“No.” I snapped, turning to look at the Doctor. “Ladies first, Doc.”

With that said, I grabbed the door handle. The doors opened up, and I stepped onto the Dalek Crucible.

“Not impossible.” I shouted, lifting the weapon up a bit so it was aimed at Davros. What, it was the fake one right? ...right? “Just a bit unlikely.”

I ran towards Davros, hearing the New Doctor following after me.

“Don’t!” The Doctor screamed.

Davros held up his finger, and I saw the blue beam of lightning head straight for me. I dropped the weapon, my knees hitting the metal flooring. The New Doctor went down too, catching me before I could hurt myself on the ground.

“Activate holding cell.” Davros ordered.

The New Doctor and I looked up, seeing the blue force field surrounding us. I turned to the others, giving a weak smile and a nervous wave. 

“Doctor! Terra!” Donna yelled, running out from the TARDIS. She slid over, grabbing the gizmo. “I’ve got it. But I don’t know what to do!”

“Donna!” I screamed as Davros blasted Donna back into the wall. She fell, hunched over. The New Doctor held onto me before I could jump after her. “Donna, talk to me! Please!”

“Donna! Donna! Are you alright, Donna?” The Doctor yelled.

Donna didn’t respond. I felt like crying. Was she dead? She couldn’t be dead. Not Donna. Never Donna. Donna was like family to me, she couldn’t be dead.

I couldn’t look away from Donna. The New Doctor held me back, even though I didn’t fight back. She...she hasn’t moved. 

“Destroy the weapon.” Davros ordered. A Dalek blasted it.

The New Doctor held my arms, helping me to my feet.

“I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic.”

“How comes there are two of you?” Rose asked.

“Is she okay?” I whispered to the New Doctor.

“Human biological Metacrisis.” The Doctor answered Rose. “Never mind that. Now we’ve got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb.”

“Detonation in twenty rels.” The Red Dalek yelled. It started counting down. 

“Doctor, is Donna okay?” I whispered again.

He just kept holding onto me. 

“Stand witness, Time Lord.” Davros ordered as a screen popped up. “Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and. Oh. The end of the universe has come.”

Donna finally got up. She looked positively furious, like she was this close to slapping Davros in his slimy looking face.

Instead, she snuck over to the wire station.

“Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”







The screen cut off. An alarm started going off. I smiled, brightly. It was working. It was working! 

“Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous backfeed reversal loop.” Donna cheered, flipping another switch. “That button there.”

I started to clap. “Woohoo! Go Donna! Go Donna!” 

The Doctor was gaping at her. “Donna, you can’t even change a plug.”

“Do you want to bet, Time Boy?” Donna challenged.

“You’ll suffer for this.” Davros growled. He lifted his hand up.

Donna pouted, lifting a lever. David was electrocuted by his own blast. “Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion.”

“Huzzah!” I cheered, clapping and hopping in the force field. “Huzzah for Donna!”

“Exterminate her!” Davros ordered.

“Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate.”

Donna began flipping more controls, looking a bit bored. There was, however, a smug grin beginning to grow on her face. 

No shots fired from the Daleks. “Weapons non-functional.”

“Phwor.” Donna almost rolled her eyes. Sorry, or was that me? Maybe both.  “Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix.”

“How did you work that out?” The Doctor asked. “You’re-”

“Time Lord.” The New Doctor and I said. “Part Time Lord.”

“Part human.” Donna finished. “Oh, yes. That was a three-way biological metacrisis. Part Doctor, part Donna, part Terra.”

“The DoctorTerraDonna.” The Doctor said. “Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The DoctorTerraDonna.”

Donna responded to that with: “Holding cells deactivated. And seal the Vault.” I ran over to Donna, giving her a great big hug.

“I thought you died for a second there.” I informed her.

Donna patted my back. “And what? Miss this?” She laughed. She looked to the Doctors. “Well, don’t just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work.”

They did as Donna ordered.

“Stop them! Get them away from the controls.” Daleks yelled.

Another switch. “And spin.”

I started clapping and hopping again.  “Haha! You spin my head right round, right round.” I sang. I went to the controls Donna had just used. “I wanna make them go the other way!” 

Push the lever, spin the circle thing...

I giggled as they spun helplessly the opposite direction.

“What did you do?” New Doctor asked.

“Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator.” I explained. The brown suited Doctor blinked at me. “Wasn’t that obvious?”

New Doctor grinned. “But that’s brilliant!”

The Doctor tilted his head. “Why did we never think of that?”

“Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human.” Donna bragged.

“That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth.” I cheered, smiling at Donna.

She smiled back. “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.” Donna gave us a bragging smirk. “Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute.”

New Doctor cheered. “Ha!”

It just took a few flicked switches and levers. I looked towards the companion group, watching them carefully. Soon after, Jack made his way towards the TARDIS.

“Come on then, boys.” Donna said once the other Daleks were dealt with.  The Doctors looked up to her. “We’ve got twenty seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron.”

Davros started driving up. “Stop this at once!”

Jack came running out from the TARDIS, holding the guns he and Rose brought onboard. That sentence made me frown. “Mickey!”

“You will desist!” Davros shouted.

I looked over to Dalek Caan. The little octopus was just watching over it all, letting out little pleased giggled. 

Mickey trained his gun at the Dalek creator. “Just stay where you are, mister.“

Jack kicked a Dalek. It rolled away on its little wheels. “Out of the way.”

Sarah Jane and Rose were doing the same to the other Daleks. Even Martha was getting in on the fun!

“Good to see you again.”

“Oh, you too.”

“Ready?” Donna asked. I snapped to the Time Lord Team, seeing them finish up the last of the sequences. 

I reached out, grabbing one of the rods. “And reverse.” Donna said.

“Off you go, Clom.” The Doctor cheered, pushing in the rod.

“Back home, Adipose Three.” The New Doctor added, pushing in another one.

“Bye bye Pyrovillia!” I giggled, pushing in the one I was holding.

“Shallacatop, and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Sorted. Ha!” Donna cheered loudly.

I smiled at Donna. She was confident, you could see it in her eyes. She was finally using her full skills, being the most important woman in the universe. The most important person I know.

“Ha!” The New Doctor laughed.

“We need more power!” The Doctor said. He began pulling out wires and putting other ones together. 

Rose came up, her mother by her side.  “Is anyone going to tell us what’s going on?”

Donna started. “He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. The two of us-”

“Aloha!” I waved. I pointed at the New Doctor. “We touched the hand, and he grew out of that but that fed back into us.”

“But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life.” Donna explained. “Thank you, Davros!”

“First time anyone’s ever said that.” I pointed out. 

Donna nodded. “Got that right.” She grinned at Rose. “Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind.”

“I already had that bit!” I cheered. “I just got a few extra IQ points! I also think I got some more of Donna’s humanity, and she probably got some of mine as well as sons other stuff. Let’s not focus on the other stuff.” I brushed those off, hoping no one would ask. I turned to the New Doctor. “I wonder what other sorts of stuff you got.”

Sarah Jane came up. “So there’s four of you?”

“Four Doctors?” Rose realized. 

“I can’t tell you what I’m thinking right now.” Jack commented.

Gosh, he reminded me so much of Darcy it hurt. Darcy would have not only told me what she was thinking, but how she planned on making that fantasy a reality.

Except, you know, excluding me from that. She was my twin sister. That’s a whole other argument.

“You’re so unique the timelines were converging on you. Human being with a Time Lord brain.” The Doctor concluded.

“But you promised me, Dalek Caan.”   Davros questioned the Dalek, facing him. “Why did you not foresee this?”

The Doctor looked up at the laughing Dalek. “Oh, I think he did. Something’s been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time.”

“This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor.” Caan explained.

“You betrayed the Daleks.” Davros snapped.

“I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!”

Oh. Now take as a girl who will quote things whenever she gets the chance, those were quotes. Not sure from who, could even have been a what, but I felt it in my gut that those were quotes.

Good quotes too.

“Heads up!” Jack warmed, aiming his gun at the Red Dalek.

Red Dalek lowered himself to the ground. “Davros, you have betrayed us.”

Davros argued. “It was Dalek Caan.”

The Red Dalek ignored this. The Doctor ran to the wire station. “The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated.”

The Dalek blasted the wires just in front of the Doctor, sending him back. I ran up to him, making sure he got back up okay.

“Feel this!” Jack shouted, blasting the Dalek with his gun.

The Doctor went back to the machine.  He put on his glasses. “Oh, we’ve lost the magnetron. And there’s only one planet left. Oh, guess which one. But we can use the TARDIS.” He ran to the blue box.

Now, here comes the tricky part. The part I had known I couldn’t change no matter what we did. The part I knew I had to do, just like I did back in Pompeii.

The New Doctor twisted some knobs. “Holding Earth stability. Maintaining atmospheric shell.”

“The prophecy must complete.” Caan reminded.

Davros brushed it off, actually sounding the tiniest bit scared. “Don’t listen to him.”

Caan went on. “I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor.”

“He’s right.” The New Doctor explained. “Because with or without a Reality bomb, this Dalek Empire’s big enough to slaughter the cosmos.” He stressed. “They’ve got to be stopped.”

“Doc, just wait for the Doc.” I asked, already knowing he was gonna say no.

He glared at me, almost enraged. “I am the Doctor.” He argued. “Maximising Dalekanium power feeds. Blasting them back!” As he explained this, the New Doctor was  twisted and pushed the various levers I had seen the New Doctor use when I watched it on TV.

The Crucible shook. The Daleks in the room started exploding. A few let out startled screams as they blew. I could hear the explosions of the smaller Dalek ships from outside. 

“What have you done?”

I looked over to see the Doctor’s angry face. “Fulfilling the prophecy.” The New Doctor answered.

The Crucible shook again, starting to crumple. 

“Do you know what you’ve done?” The Doctor yelled at himself. “Now get in the TARDIS! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!”

The Doctor ushered us all towards the TARDIS. “In! In! In! In!” I waited by the doors to make sure everyone made it on board. 

New Doctor was doing a head count inside. “Sarah Jane! Rose! Jackie! Jack! Mickey!”

There was a large explosion in the vault. I looked at the other two living creatures inside. “Davros!” I called out to him. 

The Doctor did too. “Davros? Come with me. I promise I can save you.”

“Never forget, Doctor, you did this.” Davis yelled. “I name you. Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!” Then, a mountain of fire sprung up around Davros. He was gone.

“One will still die.” Caan added.

The Doctor and I ran into the TARDIS. I took slower steps, choosing instead to lean on handrails as I watched them all pilot the TARDIS.

“And off we go!” The Doctor almost barked.

Sweet Merciful Storyline. Did that real just happen? I mean, I don’t feel guilty at all about it. It was another one of those things that I can’t change. A fixed point in the plot, I can’t fight those things!

There was nothing I could do to stop Rose from becoming the Bad Wolf, because that meant killing the Tenth Doctor. I couldn’t stop Rose from being lost at Torchwood, even though I fought tooth and nail on it for months. 

I couldn’t stop the death of the Human Daleks, even though I had used my own genetic code in place of the Doctor’s. I couldn’t stop the Master from dying, even though I made sure Lucy didn’t have a gun. She ended up using one she had stolen days ago, hidden in her dress.

I couldn’t stop Miss Foster from dying. I couldn’t save Pompeii, but that one was a loss from the get go. It was me that pushed the button, blowing up Pompeii. The thing is, I would do it again. It doesn’t even feel strange, or wrong, I just knew if I had a second chance I would do it again.

If it wasn’t me that did it, it was the Doctor. I won’t let him do that. He had already lost so much, more than I will ever understand. I never had people, a shared race that could teach me how to do this. Everything I knew, I had to learn. I learned that I can’t change things too drastically, or the new events will be worse than the original ones.

Morgana was proof of that. I had tried to stop the whole thing, right from the get go, and ended up as the very thing I was trying to stop.

The Dalek ship had to explode, otherwise the Daleks would still be scattered across everywhere and everything. There still had to be this whole plan in the first place, so that the Doctor will notice Amelia has forgotten about Daleks. He had to notice that so he could truly realize the dangers of the time cracks.

Still haven’t figured that whole thing out with those. Stupid Silence.

He has to understand the change of the cracks so he can find a way to reseal them. That way Amy can have her parents and Rory back, and River Song.

I took a calming breath, trying to slow my doubled heartsbeat. I heard the sounds of the TARDIS dematerializing. My hands gripped the handrails tightly.

“But what about the Earth? It’s stuck in the wrong part of space.” Sarah Jane pointed out.

The Doctor just typed on the computer screen. “I’m on it. Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?”

“Loud and clear. Is Jack there?” Gwen asked.

“Can’t get rid of him. Jack, what’s her name?” The Doctor asked. 

Jack smiled. “Gwen Cooper.”

The Doctor nodded. “Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?”

Gwen hesitated. “Yes, all the way back to the eighteen hundreds.”

The Doctor grinned, him and Rose looking at each other and smiling. “Ah, thought so. Spatial genetic multiplicity.”

“Oh, yeah.” Rose laughed.

Ah, just another human I failed to save.

Well, couldn’t save Gwyneth then there wouldn’t be a rift that the TARDIS uses as a fuel stop which would make it impossible for Margaret to be turned into an egg using the heart of the TARDIS, which would stop Rose from finding out about the TARDIS heart. That would also stop Jack from finding us again in Utopia, where he gets some much needed answers from the Doctor, and me.

I know. It’s those little butterfly wings that people don’t think much of. Or, you know, just forget to piece together.

“Yeah, it’s a funny old world. Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me.” The Doctor explained to the Torchwood Team.

“Doing it now, sir.” Tosh said.

“What’s that for?” Donna asked.

I walked a bit closer to the group, starting to feel better. This was all getting exciting. I was standing next to Donna now, happily looking at the screen showing off the people of Torchwood. I could still see Gwen, but behind her I saw Owen.

“It’s a tow rope. Now then. Sarah, what was your son’s name?” The Doctor asked.

Sarah Jane beamed. “Luke. He’s called Luke. And the computer’s called Mister Smith.”

Ah, now I was thinking about Lilac. Stupid biscuit eating frog turd, that’s a biggie. I would have to tell about today when I get back. That’ll be fun. 

“Calling Luke and Mister Smith. This is the Doctor. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg.”

“Is Mum there?” Luke asked. The young boy ran towards the computer screen, looking very worried.

The Doctor grinned. “Oh, she’s fine and dandy.”

“Yes! Yes!” Sarah Jane cheered. Luke smiled.

“Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?” The Doctor said.

“I regret I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals.” Mr. Smith admitted.

The Doctor frowned. “Oh, blimey, that’s going to take a while.”
Sarah Jane cut through the large crowd. Rose stepped out of the way so the elder companion could have a go. “No, no, no. Let me. K9, out you come!”

“Affirmative, Mistress.”

I couldn’t help but smile. K9 was a pretty cool dog. 

“Oh! Oh ho!” The Doctor cheered. “Oh, good dog! K9, give Mister Smith the base code.”

“Master. TARDIS base code now being transferred. The process is simple.” Oh, that is so the Doctor’s dog. 

The Doctor guided Sarah Jane to a spot on the controls. “Now then, you lot. Sarah, hold that down.” She did so. He pointed just in front of Mickey. “Mickey, you hold that.” Mickey immediately moved to the correct knob. “Because you know why this TARDIS always is always rattling about the place? Rose?” He paused in his lecture. “That, there. It’s designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed.” He stopped the lecture again. “Martha, keep that level. But not any more. Jack, there you go. Steady that. Now we can fly this thing.” He stared at the Tyler. “No, Jackie. No, no. Not you. Don’t touch anything. Just stand back.” The Doctor said. “Like it’s meant to be flown.”

He looked over at me. I was smiling, happy. It was awesome! But, it was weird. The thing he did where he ran around the console trying to fly it was my favorite.

“We’ve got the Torchwood Rift looped around the TARDIS by Mister Smith, and we’re going to fly Planet Earth back home.” The Doctor said, after a brief pause. “Right then. Off we go.”

I watched with joy as the others piloted the TARDIS. Donna and I, we supervised. I felt like a grown-up!







I smiled a bit, seeing everyone happily congratulate each other. They were all laughing, and cheering.
Martha had come up to me, and gave me a big hug. After she hugged me, Jack had a go. It reminded me of hugging Pinkie Pie.

They eventually stopped hugging me, and I went back to watching over them. It always made me happy to see everyone else happy. To know that they had succeeded with or without me, and that I was being allowed to see it. It really brightens your mood.

Mickey had just walked out of the TARDIS, and I watched him go with a proud smile on my face.

“Terra?” A voice asked.

I looked up, seeing Rose standing in front of me. “Yessum?”

Rose smirked, nervously looking about before coming back to facing me. “This reminds me a lot about you. Standing off in the corner, just watching the rest of us run about.”

I giggled. “Yeah. Corners are my natural habitat. It says that somewhere, I just know it.” The two of us laughed.

Rose paused. “We thought you were dead.” She almost whispered. “The Doctor and me. We were-”

“Doctor and I.” I corrected her.

Rose frowned, rolled her eyes, and shook her head. “Now that’s like the Terra I know.” She went on with that. “We thought you were dead.  I just, I thought I lost ya just after finding you. I never even got a chance to get to know your new self.”

I shook my head. “Carolina Rose, you already know me. I’m Terra. I like the stars, the songs, and sitting in corners. What more about me do you need to know? Well, except maybe that I like sugar cookies. Seriously, I think I’m obsessed with those. It’s almost unhealthy, but that might be because I put a lot of sugar in them.”

Rose laughed. A sad laugh, that changed to happy. “Wow. I thought the Dkctor had a gob.”

I rolled my eyes, walking towards the doors of the TARDIS. “Rose, don’t even get me started.”

I walked out the doors. I smiled at Mickey, who had just fist bumped the Doctor. “Don’t think you can get away without saying goodbye to me.”

Mickey grinned. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” The man went up to me, and hugged me. I hugged him back.

“Don’t think you won’t be seeing us again, Mickey the Idiot.” I promised him.

He just laughed. “Oh, I know you’ll be followin’ me around, Terra the Creepy.”

I laughed. As soon as it became obvious to him that I would never stop calling him that, he started calling me Terra the Creepy. When I owned up to it, it didn’t hurt so bad. It felt really nice.

The hug ended, and I gave him one last proud smile. “Now, get going. Whole worlds been waiting on ya, Mickey.”
Mickey nodded. “Yeah, see ya boss.” He turned to the Doctor. “See ya Doctor.” He began chasing off after Jack and Martha. “Oi! You two!”

“Thought I got rid of you.” Jack commented.

I laughed. While laughing, I ended up facing the Doctor. He was giving me an almost sad look. “Ter-” He stopped suddenly, and looked behind me.

That was when I got nervous. He was starting to look a bit scared, then really angry. Like, super angry. Was I going to get yelled at now? Why was he about to yell at me? Why wasn’t he looking at me?

I looked the direction he was looking, and my jaw dropped.

She was standing a couple away, leaning on one of the many trees. She was wearing a blood red long sleeved shirt, black jeans, and black boots. She had a black cloak on, covering most of her body from sight.

She had some friends behind her, practically standing ten feet away. A tall looking guy, but he was expertly hidden by his cloak. A boy, a few inches shorter than her. Then a girl, completely cloakless. She was tall, but very young. She had her bleach blonde hair in a bob cut, a purple fuzzy vest, and a pair of orange shorts on. She wasn’t even trying to hide.

That first girl, neither was she.

“Darcy?” I said, starting to cry. She glared at me. “But...it...you can’t...”

She ignored me, looking over towards a blonde girl. “Groot.” She barked.

“Darcy, talk to me!” I ordered, ignoring the strange name for that girl. “I’m sorry about what I did! Please just talk to me!”

“I thought her name was Gamora.” The Doctor commented.

My jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh. Gamora? That name stinks!” I looked over at Darcy. She still wouldn’t look at me. I knew only one more tactic that would get her to look my direction. “Witch!”

The girl stopped. She nearly turned around (twice) but fought the urge. It was working.

“Come on!” I shouted. “Witch!”

“Gah!” Darcy let out. It was like she holding back her argument.

“Witch. Witch. Witch.” I started to chant. I just needed to hear her say it one last time.

My sister fought against it, strongly. I saw Groot glaring. “Gamora-” She growled.

“BITCH!” Darcy snapped, turning towards me with her purple eyes wide. “Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!” She was panting. “Bitch.” She held up her hand, smiling wide. “There! Five for five!”

I smiled, giddy. She was looking at me, talking to me, joking with me. “I’m sorry.” I began. “I’m so sorry. I should have known something was wrong so I could have fixed it.”

Darcy’s happy smile faded. She frowned, angrily, like her face when she tried pushing me off a volcano. “What? Because you have to fix everything? Because you, the all powerful Terra, have to be the universal repair girl? That saving others meant more than saving me?”

I flinched back. It was true. If I hadn’t been so focused on the plot in Child’s Play 3, I would’ve saved Darcy. The job was put before my family.

“Yes. I did wrong. Saving you should always be my number one thing.” I admitted. “It’s something I’ll regret to my grave.”

“Good, cause that’s just where I was gonna meet ya.” Darcy snapped. I tilted my head. “Well, there’s a pretty little grave out there with your name on it. Well, not really your name, closer to the name of a doll, but close enough.”

My eyes widened in sickening realization. Of course. Of course. Darcy was my sister, my twin sister. She didn’t age like she was supposed to, she had memories of days she’d never lived. She had to be like me, too.

Her body was holding her in place, holding her together. Once that was out of the way she was given free reign. She’s going everywhere she can just to make me hurt. Darcy Anderson can literally haunt me from beyond the grave.

Well, it’s working. It really, really hurts. 

She’s going to the Graveyard. The Graveyard where she stabbed me, and shot me. The Graveyard where I shot her, killed her again. She was gonna die again.

“Darce, please don’t.” I pleaded. “Please. Just stop this fight! It’ll end us both!”

“No.” She argued. “It’ll just end you.”

Darcy didn’t even look at me after that. She grabbed onto Groot, just as they all blinked away.

“You know Gamora?” The Doctor asked, coming up to my side.

I almost burst into tears. “Better than anyone.”

“You were calling her Darcy.” The Doctor pointed out.

“Because that’s who she is.” I said, still trying not to cry.

“And why were you apologizing?” The Doctor asked.

That sentence broke me. “Cause I killed her!” I yelled, snapping towards the Doctor. “Because I killed her and now she’s dead! She’s never...I’m never gonna see her again! Story, I killed her twice! Twice!” I cried into my hands.

I stopped myself. “No. No. I start crying, she’ll show up and slap me. Criers get slapped.” I reminded myself.

Saying it like a mantra, I walked off into the TARDIS. “Criers get slapped. Criers get slapped.”







“Oh, fat lot of good this is.” Jackie complained.

I stepped completely out of the TARDIS, looking over the beach. It looks so much better than it did while I was a hologram.

“Back of beyond. Bloody Norway? I’m going to have to phone your father.” Jackie shook her head. She turned to the New Doctor. “He’s on the nursery run. I was pregnant, do you remember? Had a baby boy.”

New Doctor grinned, delighted. “Oh, brilliant. What did you call him?”

Jackie gave him a thoughtful smile. “Doctor.”

A pause. “Really?”

Jackie shook her head, almost laughing. “No, you plum. He’s called Tony.”

Rose took a good look around. “Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?”

“You’re back home.” The Doctor instructed.

Rose frowned at him. 

“And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened.” Donna explained. “It’s dimensional retro closure. See, I really get that stuff now.”

I smirked. Always nice when you actually understand what the Doctor says.

“No.” Rose shook her head. She was so confused, she was already looking heartbroken. “But, I spent all that time trying to find you. I’m not going back now.” She argued.

The Doctor walked closer towards Rose. “But you’ve got to. Because we saved the universe, but at a cost.” He looked up to the New Doctor. “And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He’s too dangerous to be left on his own.”

The New Doctor frowned at us. “You made me. 

“Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge.” The Doctor gave a ghost of a smile to Rose. “Remind you of someone? 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.” Rose argued, her voice weak with tears.

The Doctor almost smiled again. “He needs you. That’s very me.”

“Don’t you see what they’re trying to give you?” The ginger woman asked. I glanced at her, and felt happy. Donna was happy. She turned to the New Doctor. “Tell her. Go on.” She encouraged. 

The New Doctor hesitated, nervously.   Rose turned looked at him. “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 nearly whispered.

“I’m part human. Specifically, the aging part.” The New Doctor explained. “I’ll grow old and never regenerate. I’ve only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you, if you want.” He shrugged, trying to act as if he wasn’t offering to spend the rest of his life with the love of his life.

Rose had figured it out. “You’ll grow old at the same time as me?”

“Together.”

Rose sounded like she was about to start crying, when she suddenly turned towards me. “What about you?”

I tilted my head. It always surprised me when I got the spotlight like this. I considered it a challenge. “What do you mean?”

“But you...” Rose gulped, calming herself down. “It’s not the same without you there, Terra. You’re my best friend, and I’m never gonna see you again.”

My smile vanished, replaced by a shocked frown. I walked up to Rose, wrapping my arms around her in a comforting hug. Rose immediately hugged me back. “Hey. I’m always there, Carolina Rose, always. Whether you like it or not, I am there. Seriously, I’m like a voice in your head that doesn’t go away.”

Then, there was a bright flash.

“Gah! Biscuits!”

The lot of us turned to the voice on our right.

There, on the beach, was a clone. A Three clone.

She was wearing different clothing, of course. Instead of a dress, it was a raspberry pink shirt that exposed her midriff. It had some see-through material as shoulder frills. It also had cool blue as a border on the top, and a white tank top underneath. She had long cool blue sleeves, too, in place of my white. She wore a cool blue skirt, that barely reached her knees, looking kinda like an upside-down rose.

She still had those pink boots of mine. Her bow-tie was raspberry pink, Whig confused me a bit.

I let go of Rose, taking a small step towards the clone.

Terra shook her head. “Woah. That’s a fun ride. I wonder how I survived though. Was not supposed to do that, I don’t think.” She stopped when she saw me. She smiled, widely. The clone started hopping in place, starting to squeal. “You! Terra! Hi! You totally just stopped me from melting, didn’t you? I know you did! Don’t you dare lie! I can tell! You got me out! Wow. This conversation sounds really familiar.”

I raised a brow, then began to smile.  Melting. A clone who was supposed to melt, but didn’t. Only instances I can think when clones melt was one two part episode of Doctor Who. “Rose, I think I found a way for us to stay together.”
Terra turned towards Rose, suddenly realizing where she was. She looked down, seeing a beach under her feet. She then noticed everyone else. Her smile dropped. “Bad Wolf Bay.” She said, a boredom to her tone. It sounded so 	weird to hear Three as bored.

“Yep.” I said, popping the p.

“Tenth Doctor.” Clone-Terra went on.

“Yep.”

“Meta crisis.”

“Yep.”

Clone-Terra looked at the blue suited Doctor. She ran up to him, in what I assumed would be a happy reunion.

*SLAP*

She slapped him. Hard. Okay. Less happy than I originally thought.

The New Doctor lifted a hand to his cheek, rubbing it. “Two words.” Clone-Terra said. “Two words. They will make you regret everything you ever said to Terra. Everything you ever did to Terra.”

She pushed herself up, whispering in the Doctor’s ear.

He seemed a bit in shock, but still listened to her words. I couldn’t make them out over the wind and the ocean. Biscuits.

The New Doctor suddenly dropped his jaw, taking a step away from Clone Terra (who I am now going to refer to as just Terra). The New Doctor looked down at Terra, who nodded, then looked to me.

I just smiled, waving my hand. “Hello!”

The Doctor’s mouth tried to bring words out, but it wasn’t working.

“Dang. What words could you say that broke him?” I asked Terra. “I might need those!”

Terra looked back to the Doctor. “She doesn’t know.” She said. She gave me an almost sad look. “Not for a long time.”

“Oh you big bully!” I teased, although I was actually a tinsy winsy bit angry.

Future Me can’t lie, but that doesn’t mean she has to tell me everything. She can be as vague as she wants, as cryptic as a prophecy, but she can never tell me the whole of it. Then they’ll be nothing I can stop.

Terra nodded. “Permission?”

I nodded, holding out my arms. “Granted.” Terra immediately ran up to me, and held me tight. Good Storyline, she was good at giving hugs. “You are really good at giving hugs.” I whispered.

Terra hugged me a little tighter. “I had a lot of practice.” She let out a giddy sigh. “Our pretty boy.”

Wow. That was a little too much info, Future Me. “That...that pretty boy? The one River told us about?”

Terra giggled, like a schoolgirl with a crush. “So pretty...”

My jaw dropped. I backed away from the hug. “So that wasn’t some practical joke?!” I asked.

Terra stopped smiling. She was giving me a ‘I know, right?’ look. “I know!”

“But it would’ve been a really funny joke!” I gaped.

“I’m still waiting for the punchline!” Terra admitted.

My jaw dropped. She was from Rebel Flesh, about two hundred years in the Doctor’s future. That long, and still waiting for a heartbreak. “This news is gonna take a while to process.” I took a breath, steeling myself for the question I had been dying to ask. “Darcy was there.” I finally said.

Clone-Terra sighed, hugging me to the point of bruises. “She’s from the Past. You know that. She went to that graveyard and died.”

I frowned. Of course. Why would it be anything else? “Right. Of course.” I sucked in the tears. “Screw me for having hope, right?”

Terra ended the hug, giving me a look of withheld pity. I hate that look. I really, really do. It’s the kinda look that says ‘you haven’t seen anything yet’.

The TARDIS warning bell went off. 

“We’ve got to go. This reality is sealing itself off for ever.” The Doctor said.

Terra grinned, skipping over to Rose and the New Doctor. “I’ll keep an eye on these two strays for you!” She cheered.

I stayed in my spot, waiting for a part that I loved about this episode.

Rose frowned at us. She ran up to us. “But, it’s still not right, because the Doctor’s still you.”

“And I’m him.” The Doctor gave the New Doctor a glance. 

“All right. Both of you, answer me this.” Rose ordered. She looked back and forth from the two of them. They walked up to her. “When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?” Nothing. “Go on, say it.”	“I said, Rose Tyler.” The Doctor said.

Rose motioned for him to go. “Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?”

The Doctor tried to remain impassive. I could see it on his face, he was struggling. “Does it need saying?” He finally decided.

Rose turned to the New Doctor. “And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?”

The New Doctor took Rose’s arm, pulling her close to him. Before she could argue, he kissed her.

I waved Terra goodbye. She gave me a wave back. I went to the TARDIS, happy to know Rose had her Doctor.







Once the TARDIS was in transit, Donna cheerfully went up to the computer screen. She seemed to be in thought, looking at the circles on the screen.

The Doctor looked over at me, regret ready in his eyes. I couldn’t tell what it was of, exactly. The deep regret of having gotten Rose back only to lose her to (ironically) himself, and knowing she would have the rest of her life without him stung worse than I could ever understand. It hurt him a lot, it’ll hurt til the day he died. Hell, he saw Hologram Rose and thought about the guilt.

Then there was the guilt over what was happening to Donna. I could see it in his eyes as soon as he saw the New Doctor. He had thought Donna dead already, then even more so after Davros shot her. The Doctor knew either her mind would burn end and she would die, or he would have to kill the Don a we had accepted into our hearts.

It just had to work. I apparently succeeded in my future plan of sending Clone Terra back here for Rose. I could never stand to see her hurt. The Bad Wolf, the Defender of the Earth, my Carolina Rose.

Now here was Donna Noble. She was fierce when she wanted to be (all the time), yet she was still able to be knocked down. She couldn’t stand to hear to the sad song of the stuck Ood, or that family in Pompeii dying, and she figured out the numbers from the Messaline. She always chose a human option. That human instinct. The best of humanity, that’s what she was.

At least, that’s what she was to me. Gonna be honest, Donna became my favorite right when she entered the TARDIS. All that lip was exactly the pick me up I needed after Torchwood. The Doctor had time heal his wounds, nearly three years worth. I had Donna’s jokes and then a regeneration I filled with as much hope as I could muster up.

She wouldn’t die. Even if I have to give up a regeneration or five, Donna Noble will not go back to thinking herself as worthless.

“I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because.” The ginger woman grinned. It was the ‘Doctor’s Going On A Tangent’ grin. “What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it’s got mountains that sway in the breeze.” Donna walked towards us, gaping at the thought of moving mountains. “Mountains that move. Can you imagine?” She twisted a dial on the console.

Oh Storyline. What if she knew? What if she knew what was going to happen and just thought escaped it? That something had made it better? If she knew about the Metacrisis thing, then she knew it would kill her sooner or later.

No. I don’t want to think about that. I don’t want to think these depressing thoughts. Donna was gonna be fine. Fantastic. Terrific. Molto bene.

Oh. Huzzah doesn’t fit that sequence. Biscuits. Does that mean I need to find a new word?

“And how do you know that?” The Doctor asked.

“Because it’s in your head.” Donna explained, like it was as plain as the mole on his back. “And if it’s in your head, it’s in mine.”

The Doctor was staring at her, waiting for any sort of warning signs. I couldn’t look away, praying to everything that they would never come. “And how does that feel?” The Doctor asked her.

“Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain.” Donna took a breath, turning to us.

I straightened myself. This was it. Big moment. Either made it, or broke her.

“You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hot binding the fragment links and superseding the binary-” She suddenly stopped.

I paused, watching and waiting for Donna to say more. She had already missed the repeating binary thing, which made me cheer.

That has to mean something good, right? Right?

Donna shrugged it off. “Nah. Now that I think about it, I like the box. I can see why you don’t change it.”

I let out a breath. She was fine. It worked. It worked! It actually, actually worked! Woohoo!

“Donna, are you feeling alright?” The Doctor asked, walking towards our friend.

“I’m better than fine.” Donna cheered. “I’m terrific.”

I giggled. That was what Terra Two used to say.

“No, but, you know what happens with a biological Metacrisis.” The Doctor clarified, still worried for his friend.
Donna nodded, running about the console. “I know. There can’t be one, because it would burn out the human’s mind. It can’t contain that knowledge.” Donna walked around the console again straight to the computer screen. “And that’s the thing. I knew that was coming pretty soon after it all clicked together. So, I started searching in my head for things that would go wrong.” She paused, one hand gripped on the handbrake and and other pointing at us. “You wanna know what I found? As I looked through my head, this sorta, gold light came over the synapses. It’s acted like a blanket, smothering out the burn.”

I let out a loud squeal, excitedly running up to Donna. “You’re gonna be okay! Huzzah!”

She hugged me back. “I’m gonna be fine.”

I hugged her extra tight, soon feeling the Doctor join in. This was good, this was very, very good.

Oh, yeah, it totally screws up a lot of stuff in the future. I didn’t care. I like challenges. Donna is gonna go nuts seeing Jackson Lake, aka the Next Doctor. I wonder how she would react to Rosita? I can’t wait to see her on the Planet of the Dead! She may even help me on Waters of Mars, and stop the Doctor from what he ends up doing.

Sweet Merciful Storyline. She might meet Amelia Pond. Oh, that is gonna be a disaster.

I can’t wait for it!

The hug cut off. Donna flinched back, letting out a pained gasp. Her hand reached up to her throat, the other went towards her stomach. She started coughing again.

“D-Donna?” I asked. No. No, it would not fall apart. It can’t work and then just not work.

The woman gave another great big cough. It was closer to a dry heave, if I thought about it. She gasped for air.

I tried to rush to her side. The Doctor held my arm, keeping me from checking on her.

“I think it’s start-”

“No.” I growled, not willing to lose hope. It did not happen. It would not happen! “No. That’s not what it is. The Metacrisis would burn her mind, that’s not what’s wrong!”

Then, I felt it myself. I was able to hold back the reactions, since I had felt them before. It felt like someone had just kicked me in the stomach, knocking air from my lungs. I had only felt this once before...one horrible, horrible never ending night...

Oh Sweet Merciful Storyline, no. No she was not. She couldn’t be.

“Donna?” I nearly squeaked.

That was when she collapsed to the ground.

“Donna!” I screamed, running to my fallen friend.

I sat myself on my knees, placing my hands on the sides of her head. She was still coughing, but she was starting to shake like she was going into shock.

“Terra, no, you shouldn’t.” The Doctor said, trying to pry me away.

“I’m not going to suppress that!” I shouted at him. “I touched the hand too!” I said, trying to hold onto the shaking Donna. “She got stuff from me! So we need to get her to Wilf’s house now!” I screamed at him, turning myself so I was looking him in the eye.

The Doctor gave Donna a hesitant look. He relented, running up to the control screen to type in the coordinates.

I went back to the shaking Donna. My fingertips reached to her temple. “Shh.” I placed a small sleep spell on her. The ginger stopped shaking, relaxing on the ground.

That should do for now, at least until we could get her home and in bed.

“You’re sure that’ll work?” The Doctor asked. He was still pulling the necessary switches, giving worried glances to the sleeping Donna.

I gave him a sad look. “If you don’t give them what they want, they’ll just get worse.” I admitted. “She isn’t used to them, so they had a harder impact. They want things to go a certain way, and will do whatever it takes to make it so.”

The Doctor frowned at me, still looking panicked. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve been in her shoes. I know the these things go.” I almost started crying, but held back. I looked back down to Donna. She was still asleep, but her face was grimaced in pain. “I’m sorry, Donna, I really am.”

The TARDIS started to whoosh, making me smile. That noise always gave me hope.




	


After we arrived at the Noble house, Donna had been placed up in her room. Wilf had panicked, Sylvia nearly screamed at us. Once they heard Donna needed some quiet they silenced themselves.

The Doctor and I laid her on her bed. I took off her jacket, playing it over a chair in her room. It took us a few minutes to get the courage to leave the room, still worried about her wellbeing.

The sick feeling in my stomach had stopped. They had to have stopped for Donna too because she looked peaceful. Time was moving as normal. Us without Donna.

I felt guilty. So very, very guilty. I was one word away from apologizing a million billion times to the Doctor. This was my fault. It was supposed to make her better, not worse. She shouldn’t have gotten that much from me. At most I thought she would see the bad stuff I did.

Now, I had taken the Doctor’s best friend from him. It only seemed fair. I had lost my best friend, even had her come up from the past to run in my face what failure I was. Then Future Me showed up, basically out of nowhere.

She said just two words the Metacrisis, just two. It was to make him feel sorry for things he had down to us, but, I can’t think of anything he would need to be sorry for. Each time something close to bad happened to me, I explained to him later that it was me that put myself in the spotlight. Most of the bad things were Planned, deliberate, so as not to let them happen to the others.

What two words could make him do that?

The only thing that did help was that Future Me told me I would get a boyfriend, which was nice. Kinda sad, though, since she still felt he would abandon her.

Storyline, I had abandonment issues. It makes feel sorry for her, also, because in a way she was abandoning him. That was gonna be a rough time, over in Pete’s World.

I hate Plan B.

“She took my mind into her own head.” The Doctor explained to Donna’s family. “But that’s a Time Lord consciousness. All that knowledge, it was killing her.”

“But she’ll get better now?” Wilf asked, with hope in his eyes.

“Yes.” I smiled at Wilf. “It’ll take a long time, but she will.” I couldn’t stop smiling. It had worked! “I used a portion of my own soul to push out the Doctor’s mind.” Then, I frowned. “Only problem with that is my soul gets instincts. We don’t know how. Once my soul went into Donna, it gave a portion of those instincts to her. They were making her sick. She can’t ever come to the TARDIS again, until the instinct says so.”

Wilf lost that spark of hope. “All those wonderful things she did.”

The Doctor nodded, just as sad as the rest of us. Donna was basically cursed to never leave the Earth again. “I know. But that version of Donna is gone. Because if she steps foot on the TARDIS, even for just a second, she’ll burn up.”

Sylvia gaped at us. “But she loves travelling with you both.”

“And we loved travelling with her.” The Doctor gave me a thankful look. “If Terra didn’t do what she did, then I would’ve had to suppress the Time Lord consciousness in her mind.” He shook his head. “And that would’ve meant hiding all her memories of us. She would have never remembered us.”

“But she was better with you.” Wilf said suddenly. 

“Don’t say that.” Sylvia half scolded. 

Wilf turned to his daughter. “No, she was.”

“She’s better than we ever could be.” I told Wilf. “Donna’s human. She, in my honest opinion, was the best example of humanity I had ever seen. That humanity saved worlds, far in the past and far in the future.”

The Doctor added on to that. “There are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away. They will never forget her. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe.”

“She still is.” Sylvia snapped, like the momma bear she was. Like the momma bear they always are. “She’s my daughter.”

I couldn’t help but snap. “Then maybe you should tell her that once in a while.” I growled.

The door to the living room swing open. The fiery haired ginger walked in, glaring at the Doctor and I. A part of me cowered, the other part wanted to cry.

Donna sounded like Donna, none of that crazy Doctor mumbo jumbo in her voice. “I was asleep on my bed in my clothes, like a flipping kid!” She shouted. “What do you let me do that for?”

I nervously shifted in my seat. “Neither of us wanted to take off your clothes.” I admitted to her.

Donna frowned at me. “Oh, hush. You know what I mean!”

“You don’t like being put in your nice soft bed?” I asked, tilting my head with Three’s childlike curiosity. “Did you wanna be on a couch?”

Donna motioned with her head towards the kitchen. “We need to talk.”

I frowned. Those are the four words nobody wants to hear. “Yes ma’am.” I lowered my head, walking into the kitchen.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Doctor move to get up with me. “Doc, this is a talk Donna and I need to have alone.”

With heavy hearts, I walked into the kitchen.







Donna frowned at me. There was this look in her eyes, one I saw earlier. She was still very confident, more sure of herself. She still seemed a bit ticked off, but it was fading.

“I woke up in bed in my clothes.” Donna said.

“We were worried you were hurt.” I explained, pulling on my sleeves. A nervous habit Three picked up. It was messing up my sleeve, and I might have to replace it if I keep this up.

The dress was actually really fun to make! I remember dashing about a fabrics shop, grabbing any fabric that intrigued me. The boots were more for fun.

“At first I was like, how did I get here?” Donna made a mock look of thought. Where was this going, I wondered. “Then I remembered. I was getting that sickness, the one where you changed too much of the original story. Last time it happened to you, you saved that operator in Barrow.”

“They were gonna put his head on a stick, what else could I do?” I asked, a bit hurt. 

Something about that made me confused. So I tried to save his life, the sickness came, then Shecame, and then he died. What was so wrong about that?

“So, while I was close to the same thing.” Donna went on. “You put one of those sleeping spells on me. Who taught you to do those?”

“The Princess of the Night, obviously.” I answered, adding a shrug. “Lilac kept having nightmares so I ask if there was a spell for dreamless sleep. I only use it on her if she already had a bad dream, not that I am letting her have them I just want the chance for a good dream to-” My eyes widened when I realized what I was doing.

Donna was giving me a smug smile. “Whatever’s in your head, it’s in mine too.”

My jaw dropped. She knew, she knew about me. Holy crab apple trees.

“Am I ever coming back?” Donna asked. I shook my head.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’ll ever be let back onto the TARDIS.” I said. “I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

“No.” Donna said in a warning tone. She pointed her finger at me angrily. “I know what would’ve happened if you didn’t step in. The Doctor would’ve had to kill me, and that would kill him.” She walked up to me, putting her hands on my shoulders. “And I know you did it all on purpose. You stayed behind in the TARDIS not because you heard the heartbeat, it was because you saw it.”

I nodded, feeling like I was gonna start crying. I tried to fix her, and I ended up giving her my curse. That’s what it was. That’s what it had to be. A curse, not a gift, it got my sister killed, my nearly killed my daughter, and put my friends in danger. Who could consider it a gift after that? The worst part is...I don’t think I can stop. I never could, I never can. I hate constantly having to lie, to have to hide who I really am from people, but I can’t stop.

Cause though it may put my friends in danger, it also saves their lives.

Donna still had to give me what for. “You did a lot of good today. Like what you did on Bad Wolf Bay. You gave Rose a you clone, so she wouldn’t be without in that other world. You did it so Rose wouldn’t be completely alone, ‘cause whenever she and the Doctor would fight or anything like that she had you.” The woman held my shoulders, squeezing them tight. “You did it, your Plan worked today, don’t let just one little thing get you worked up.”

“You are not just one little thing.” I snapped, nearly glaring at her. “Ever. Never say that, Donna. You’re the most important woman in the universe, never think anything less.”

Donna squeezed tighter on my shoulders. “And you, are not a freak. You’re the bravest, and most compassionate person on the universe.” She gave me a kind smile. “And never think anything less.”

I couldn’t fight the tear filled laugh that came after she said that.  Nor could I stop myself from hugging her.





It was raining. My mind instantly blamed the Pegasus, making it rain after a sad day. That now I had to help Lilac put on a raincoat, and that her after school Crusader meeting was cancelled. She always got so disappointed when it rained like this, painting sad water colors the rest of the day. 

Then I remembered this wasn’t Equestria. I was with the Doctor. Rose was gone, Jack was gone, Mickey was gone, Sarah Jane was gone, Martha was gone, and now Donna was gone.

“Ah. You’ll have quite a bit of this.” The Doctor looked up at the rain clouds. Wilf and Donna did too. “Atmospheric disturbance. Still, it’ll pass. Everything does.”

I turned to the grandfather, giving him a hug. “I hope we see you soon, Donna.”

Donna looked upset, but was hiding it. She was good at that. “I was going to be with you forever.”

“We know.”

“The rest of my life, travelling in the TARDIS.” Donna said, wistfully. “The Doctor Donna Terra.”

“And we are eternal grateful that you are alright.” I said. “Today could have ended so much worse.”

The ginger woman nodded, giving a short wave. “I’ll be seeing you, spaceman, spacegirl.”

“Yeah.” The Doctor nodded.

The two of us watched as Donna walked into her house, probably the last time we would see her before Christmas.

“Bye then Wilf.” The Doctor said, shaking Wilf’s hand. He walked out into the rain. I patted Wilf on the shoulder, joining him in the rain.

It felt really nice. God was in the rain...

“Oh, Doctor? Terra?” Wilf called out to us. “What about you now? Who’ve you got? I mean, all those friends of yours.”

“They’ve all got someone else.” The Doctor brushed off.

“Still, that’s fine.” I said, trying to hurry this up. “We’re fine.”

Wilf didn’t believe that. “I’ll watch out for you, sir, miss.”

“She can’t ever come back.” The Doctor said sternly.

“No, no, no.” Wilf shook his head. “But every night, Doctor, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I’ll look up on her behalf. I’ll look up at the sky, and think of you.”

Dang it. That always made me want to cry. 

“Thank you.” The Doctor said.

“That means a lot to us.” I told Wilf.

With that, we walked off into the TARDIS.

He sent her off into flight, and I frowned.

“What do you think her words were?” I asked the Doctor, referring to Future Me. The Time Lore seemed confused at that. “On Bad Wolf Bay, Future Me said two words and you turned into a goldfish. What do you think her words were?”

The Doctor shrugged. “I don’t know.” He started pulling switches on the console.

The TARDIS started up, sending us off. The Doctor took off his coat, letting it fall to the ground. It was a rare oddity to see him without a pinstripe jacket. I pulled down the handbrake, letting the noise fill up the console room. He looked at me curiously.

“I got stuff from it all too, Doc.” I reminded him. “Apparently flying the TARDIS is one of those things. Some of Donna’s confidence is in there too. That’ll hit me hard one of these days.”

The Doctor nodded, a sad smile on his face. “I really thought she was gone.”

“Hey, it’s okie dokie.” I walked up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “She’s Donna Noble. Chances are, even it it did burn her brain, she would’ve found a way back just to confuse us.”

The Doctor, despite his grief, laughed. “Then she’d have smacked us.”

I winced, giggling. “Oh! She would’ve hit us so hard our next regeneration would’ve felt it!”

“We might have regenerated.” The Doctor teased.

I laughed. We laughed for awhile. Not so much at the jokes, but as a way to relieve stress. So much had happened today, for him, for us, and it was still sending me reeling. Rose had come back, Earth was part of some mega death cannon, there was a system of nuclear bombs under planet Earth, the Daleks were gone for now, and Donna couldn’t be a companion anymore.

Then, Rose got together with her Metacrisis, a clone of me came here, Jackie had a baby named Tony, and I could fly the TARDIS.

For what seemed like an eternity, we just sat in silence. Things without other people just drove me mad. If it was just me and him, then I couldn’t take it. We needed people. Who could I get, though? We would only have them until End of Time, when he regenerated. They couldn’t be girls, that never went well. They had to be smart, with at least some knowledge on this...
Idea!

“Hey, Doc?” I spoke up.

He looked up at me. “Yes?”

“I...” How do I even approach this subject? What could I say? “I have some...uh...well, some friends.” I dragged off, thinking carefully on my wording.

“Really?” The Doctor asked, actually sounding surprised.

I nodded. “Yeah, and, after all that, I want to let them know I’m...okay. Would...would you like to see them?”

The Doctor looked a bit surprised at the news, and a little nervous. “Sure. Yeah. Be nice to finally see your friends.”

It took me a second to realize he had said yes. I clapped my hands together excitedly, splashing some of the rain water around the TARDIS. Oops.

Sorry Sexy.

I went up to the computer console, seeing our coordinates were set to random. With a few quick buttons and setting changes, we were on course for the backyard behind ‘my’ house. I ran about the console, pulling down the levers and turning the knobs. The handbrake came last.

“Terra?” The Doctor came up beside me, pulling another lever.

“Yeah?” I turned to him.

He was starting to look giddy. “I don’t think flying the TARDIS was all you got from me.”

I tilted my head. “Well, what else could I get? I already have a marvelous sense of humor.”

The Doctor swung the computer around so I could read it. “What does that say?”

I looked at the screen, then him. I shrugged. “It says that we’re heading towards the United States, South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, 2008, Sol Three, Sector 8023 of the Third Quadrant. Sounds a bit too much like Buzz Lightyear-”

“Terra, don’t you understand what that means?” The Doctor asked.

I half glared at him. “Oi! I understand what it means! Earth belongs to some weird universal thing and that’s awesome. The other eight thousand quadrants are probably interesting-”

“It’s written in Gallifreyan.” The Doctor explained. “You can read Gallifreyan now.”

I blinked at him, looking between him and the screen. He was right. This was what I got from him. “Oh my Story.”

“Isn’t that brilliant?”

“I got your obliviousness!” I groaned, face palming. “I’m doomed!”

The Doctor gave me a playful shove.