Dying Light

He stood in his space, watching the snowy dust falling. The crack in the wall told him much time had passed. Light marked his eyes like the afterglow of a camera flash: glowing spheres like shards of coloured glass, fuzzy in his vision. He walked closer to the crack, staring into the sun beams, its intensity flaring in the falling air. Dust. With leathered hands he pulled his fingers through the murk, leaving clean streaks.

He thought of this place. Empty because the ones he'd loved had left him. He had not moved on with them, but had stayed behind. The only beauty in the place was the beauty left behind by his friends.

As he touched the walls he felt warm memories spark through his mind. Jack's laughter and Donna's as they played tig. Rose's smile stretching across her face. Martha and her warm hugs. Sarah Jane and her wise and true words. The long yet small journey they had shared together.

It was as if he was continuingly burning wood on a fire, sure that someone would come and sit in front of it.

He found himself absent-mindedly drawing a Rose in the dirt with his finger. As much as he tried to forget, her most of all, he found that she was the one who his mind always tended to dwell on. He thought of her in those empty days, where not even the sun gave away the passage of time. He only knew that days were passing by the feeling in his heart. Even asleep a Timelord could tell when today became tomorrow.

The warmth left in his mind had a cold side too. On this planet with its lying sun he'd become trapped. Trapped in a cage locked with the ghosts of his family and friends. The TARDIS was broken, halted forever, and because of that he felt his own strength wavering. He and she were linked, and without her beating heart, his hearts were fading too.

He couldn't leave to go outside – the winds were harsher than any whip and blew the sands into high waves.

Surely it would kill him.

So instead he lay motionless in his home: the last time ship and the last time traveller, dying together in a strange land. He thought of his family lost centuries ago, and his friends and the lives they had now lead. They would have died many years ago, but in this space, watching with eyes that held the universe, he was sure they were still alive.

In his last breathing moments he was sure he could see them – sitting and standing near him.

Sitting next to him was Rose, her hands entwined around him, like a real flower.

"See you soon, O.K?" she said.

Feeling her blossom in the fading light he heard the TARDIS dying.

His empty hands fell beside him.

His song was over.