A/N: Bonus chapter!

Don't own, don't sue.

Rose was right. The helicopter landed at a mansion on the outskirts of London. Rose had to hold in a snort. It was so pretentious. The manor was nearly twice the size of the behemoth Pete and Jackie owned in the other universe. More tellingly, it was newly built, not one of the old houses with their prestige and reputation, but also beauty. No, this entire house spoke of new money, and of someone determined to flaunt it.

Joshua Naismith waited for his captives in the entry to a large sitting room, accompanied by a pretty woman in her twenties. He smiled at the sight of the Master strapped to a chair and frowned briefly at Rose.

"Who is that?" He questioned the guards holding Rose in place by her elbows.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"We don't know, sir, but she was with 'im." One of the guards said. He jerked his head toward the Master. "There were others there, and we wanted to get away right quick, so we brung her too."

Naismith continued to frown.

"Daddy," The young woman said, "She's not going to ruin my present, is she? Maybe she's one of the disciples."

Rose raised an eyebrow at that, but she didn't speak. As far as she was concerned, she was exactly where she was supposed to be. Rose didn't particularly want to see where they would lock her up if she said the wrong thing, so she bit her tongue.

"Sit her over there, then." Naismith said, pointing to a chair across the room from the Master.

The seat placed her with a good view of the mass of technology in the corner. The main structure was good sized, a little larger than a standard lift, and was an open type of construction. Cables and wires and tubes ran everywhere from it to an array of computers set on temporary desks. On one side of the room was a divided, glass chamber that sent a shiver of foreboding down Rose's spine. Two men sat inside it, monitoring something from opposite sides of the glass.

She looked away from the glass room just in time to see Naismith's guard release the strap around the Master's mouth.

"I'm hungry." The Time Lord growled.

Naismith sent for food. "So, who is the girl?" He asked the Master.

"I don't know." He said. "But I was hoping to find out, before you kidnapped me. Thank you for that, by the way. I wasn't looking forward to the old nostalgia tour."

Naismith looked a little disconcerted.

"You could just ask me who I am." Rose said. "And I'd like to warn you, whatever it is you want with him, forget about it."

"You don't have the right to order me about in my own home, little girl. Harold Saxon is the key to fixing the immortality gate. A gift." The man announced proudly, "For my daughter."

Rose rolled her eyes before she could help it. "You don't know what happened the last time someone gave this idiot technology. I do. I walked the ravaged Earth, watched as nations fell, people were slaughtered. All of that? It was just a whim, for him. It was fun."

Over Naismith's shoulder, Rose saw the Master narrow his eyes. Naismith himself was unimpressed.

"That never happened."

"It did. But hardly anyone remembers. The paradox couldn't be sustained and the timeline reversed. Please, Mr. Naismith, I am begging you, keep him away from the computers."

The pleading in her voice seemed to have some effect on him and he paused to consider.

"We'll keep a close eye on him. Now, who are you?"

"Captain Tyler of Torchwood Team Echo." Rose replied at her frostiest.

Naismith's guard snorted. "Torchwood's been gone for years. Since the Battle of Canary Wharf."

"Torchwood One, has been gone since then. There are, other, functioning branches." Rose replied.

Despite the lingering skepticism Rose saw lingering on both their faces, Naismith seemed more inclined to take her seriously. The Master, though, was still suspicious.

He was distracted, though, by the arrival of his feast. Rose watched, revolted, as he plowed through the meal.

Naismith talked while the Master ate. "The immortality gate." The man said, his voice full of wonder and lust.

Rose frowned. Messing with longer lifespans didn't tend to go well. She was the exception, judging by Lazarus and Cassandra.

Naismith continued to explain to the Master what the Time Lord was expected to do. Although he never looked up, Rose caught the gleam in his eyes as he soaked in every word.

"Sir." Rose tried again to convince Naismith of his folly. "I'm begging you, please, don't let him near those computers."

"I've heard your advice, but we have everything perfectly under control." The man answered. He directed the Master to a terminal. "Go ahead and work your magic."

Rose stiffened as she felt the Tardis land nearby.

The Master glanced over and caught her eye. "Time's running out. Better get to work." He said.

His fingers flew at lightning speed over the keys. With all eyes on him, Rose carefully worked her sonic out of her pocket and activated it with the sound dampeners on. No one noticed the faint click of her handcuffs releasing.

"Oh, excellent. Excellent! Mr. Danes?" Naismith said. His eyes never left the swirling mass in the middle of the gate.

"The visitor will be restrained." The massive Mr. Danes responded, moving forward with the straightjacket.

The Master's protestations and Naismith's answers were faint to Rose. Her eyes were drawn to the wormhole and the melody she could hear from it. Not just a melody, either. She frowned. It sounded like the Tardis, but not. It sounded like many Tardises. Layers upon layers of harmonizing song. But almost drowning them out was the pounding, four-beat sound of a drum.

"Turn the gate off now!" The Doctor's voice cut through the din in Rose's head.

The Master cackled even as the guards swarmed the Doctor. He pulled free of the straightjacket and jumped over the guards, landing right in front of Rose.

"And who, are you?" He asked, grinning into her face.

"Not someone you wanna mess with." She answered. Rose stood and snatched at the Master's shirt, as she had before, but he skipped backwards, stepping into the gate.

"No, no, no, not again." He laughed. "Homeless, was I? Destitute and dying? Well, look at me now."

"Turn it off!" Rose and the Doctor yelled.

Instead, Naismith spoke as though in a daze. "He's inside my head."

"I see him, in my head. Doctor!"

Rose turned toward Martha's voice. Donna, Wilf, and Mickey all stood in the doorway, clutching their heads. Martha stood still and straight next to Mickey.

The Doctor glanced at his friends, then at the booth containing the nuclear controls for the gate. Rose saw the moment the thought occurred to him.

"Quick! Everyone over here, help me." He ran over to the booth and clambered in one side, pulling Rose along with him. The rest of the crowd piled into the other, squeezing in tight. The door closed and they relaxed, their headaches clearing and vision returning.

"Donna, press that red button and let me out." The Doctor ordered. He ran his hands through his hair.

Rose chewed gently on her lip. He was at his most frantic, and that's when he tended to make mistakes. She'd have to watch carefully.

Their door unlocked and Rose followed the Doctor out of the box. The Master's eyes caught on her immediately and narrowed.

"What have you done?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh, you're going to love this." The Master said. His smile was gleeful as he looked at his best enemy. It faded again as he once again looked at Rose. "Why are you not affected?" He demanded.

Rose blinked in surprise. "Oh. Mental shields, I suppose."

Her answer only seemed to make the Time Lord more frustrated. "Who are you?"

"What is it, hypnotism?" The Doctor persisted. "Mind control. You're grafting your thoughts inside them, is that it?"

"Oh, that's way too easy. No, no, no. They're not going to think like me, they're going to become me." The Master glanced at the clock. "And, zero!"

"You can't have." The Doctor said. His face was pale as he glanced around the room. Other than his friends in the booth, and Rose at his side, everyone was the Master.

"No!" Donna shouted from the box, banging on the side. "You can't do this!"

Multiple Masters answered her.

The original Master turned to the Doctor. "The human race was always your favorite, Doctor. But now, there is no human race. There is only the Master race."

Rose winced. "Really? That's the best pun you could come up with?"

The Masters turned to stare at her. "Do you mind? We're taking over the world, here."

"And doing a shite job of it, I'm sure." Rose quipped. "I give it no more than two hours before the Doctor stops you."

The Master's mouth dropped open and he gaped at her. The other Masters nearly tackled both the Doctor and Rose to the ground.

Rose had to grin even as her hands were roughly tied behind her back. Their friends were making an awful ruckus in the booth. They pounded on the door, yelled insults, and Wilf was threatening the Master. As she was tied to a chair, a Master duplicate released the door lock on the booth and more duplicates pulled out the Doctor's family. The Master ran out of chairs to tie them to, so they had to double up. Rose thought, she wasn't sure, that Mickey didn't mind terribly having Martha tied to his lap. She'd have to tease him terribly later.

"Tell me, where's your Tardis?" The Master asked, as though simply making conversation.

The Doctor shook his head. "You could be so wonderful." He said simply.

"Where is it?" The Master growled.

Rose rolled her eyes as the Doctor spoke again. It seemed he was, once again, trying to talk the Master out of an evil plot. Sure, she always gave her foes a chance, but the Master had used up his first, second, hell, even his fifth chance.

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

Rose bowed her head at the end of his speech. The pleading tone in the Doctor's voice was enough to make tears well up in her eyes. Even now, surrounded by his friends, the Doctor still felt alone. She sighed. Then she tuned out the rest of the conversation as she once again dug out her sonic. After the last time, she'd stashed it in her sleeve and the Master had been too distracted to search her.

"…The drumbeat is calling from so far away. From the end of time itself." Rose heard the Master say.

"The drumbeat?" She said, almost involuntarily. She could still hear it. Rat-a-tat-tatting through the wormhole.

The Doctor and the Master both looked over at her.

"What about it?" The Master growled.

"I can hear it." She said. "But there's music too." Listening to the music, Rose could forget about everything that was happening. No! She forced her eyes back open. Forced herself to concentrate.

Both Time Lords were still staring at her.

"It's real" They said in unison.

The Master laughed. "It's real, and it exists in six billion heads! Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine. Oh yes. Where's your Tardis? I need it!"

"Right, that's about enough." Rose said. She unlocked her cuffs with the sonic just as one of the guards slammed the butt of a rifle into the Master's head.

The guard took off his helmet, revealing a green, spiky sort of alien. Rose shook her head briefly and unlocked the Doctor as a second green alien ran into the room.

"Where'd you get a sonic?" The Doctor asked, digging his own out of his pocket and turning to help Rose untie their friends.

"Not the time!" Rose said as one of the aliens led them out of the room.

"Which way?" the male alien asked.

"This way!" the female one answered.

"No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor said "This way. I've got my Tardis."

The aliens looked at one another as the rest of the group followed the Doctor, but they followed along too.

Rose sighed in relief to see the doors of the Tardis. Their beautiful ship was unharmed. She only paid half attention to the reactions of the new members of their team upon seeing the inside of the ship. Instead, Rose focused on the Doctor.

He bent over the console, staring intently at nothing.

Rose rested a hand gently on his shoulder. "You have to go back there, don't you?"

He nodded.

"I'm comin' with." Rose informed him.

The Doctor looked up at her. "Rose…"

"And don't say it's too dangerous. I can do dangerous. An' you can't bloody stop me anyhow."

He grimaced. "I need to know what he's doing first."

"So we can stop it?"

"Yup. The old team. Shiver and Shake."

"Something's coming, Doctor. Something big, and bad." Rose shivered. She hadn't been able to shake the dread from the Tardis.

"A star fell from the sky." The Master's voice echoed in the console room.

Behind Rose and the Doctor, the companions fell silent.

"Don't you want to know where from?" The voice continued through the com system.

The Doctor didn't answer, only stared at the console.

"Because now it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond, and the diamond is a whitepoint star."

"No…" the Doctor whispered.

"And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift."

"No." The Doctor repeated.

"Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be spectacular."

"Doctor… that's bad, yeah?" Rose said quietly.

"A whitepoint star is only found on one planet." The Doctor stood up and swallowed hard. "Gallifrey. Which means it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning."

"You're saying that like it's a bad thing." Martha broke in.

The Doctor looked at her, his mouth falling open. He ran a hand through his hair and let his hand fall to his side, reaching out slightly. Rose silently threaded her fingers through his.

The drumbeat began to pulse through the Tardis com system.

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

"The signal. The drums. Ever since he was a kid." Martha said.

"If they can follow the signal, they can escape before they die." The Doctor confirmed.

"Why's that a bad thing, Doctor?" Martha asked. "You can't tell any of us you don't miss them."

"Not like this." The Doctor shook his head. "The way I choose to remember them, well, they changed. They were in an endless war. All my enemies? The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them."

His words made all of them pause, and the only sound was the echoing drumbeat.

"Then let's stop him." Rose said.

The Doctor squeezed her hand and headed for the Tardis door.

Wilf blocked his path. "Doctor," he said, "I don't know what we're walking into, but you said it's dangerous. I, I want you to have this." He held out an old, but well maintained, pistol.

The Doctor's companions fell silent. Martha and Donna remembered the last time they'd seen the Doctor with a gun, on Messaline. Rose remembered the horror on his face when he realized he was pointing a gun at her, in Utah.

The Doctor shied away from the gun a little. "No." He said.

"Just take it. Just in case. You don't have to use it." Wilf insisted.

"You had that gun before, in the mansion, and you didn't use it?"

"Too scared, I suppose." Wilf said.

"Me too." The Doctor said, closing his hand over the gun. He took a deep, shaky breath and pushed through the doors.

They formed a silent and somber parade through the hallways of the Naismith Mansion. The Doctor was in the lead, hands buried in the pockets of his coat, so focused that even Rose striding along so close behind him couldn't distract him from his goal. Donna and Martha marched along, determination writ in the corners of their mouths, ready to do whatever they must to save the planet. Mickey seemed almost in his element. After years at Torchwood, there wasn't a lot he wasn't prepared to handle. Lee and Wilf hovered, just a bit uncertain, but grimly ready to help. Rose's stomach twisted. She didn't want to lose any of these people.

Rose fought back the instinct to shield her eyes from the brilliant light pouring through the space where the gate used to be. She focused instead on the five figures standing on the dais that hadn't been there before. The figure in front was a tall, imposing man in ornate robes. In his right hand he held a staff, or a scepter, or something like that. The other hand was encased by a dark gauntlet. Of the other four Time Lords, two covered their faces with their hands, and two wore odd headdresses.

"Seriously, Doctor, that was fashion on your planet?" Rose couldn't help but say.

The Doctor's shoulders twitched, but he remained looking straight ahead.

The man in front spoke. "My Lord Doctor, my Lord Master, we are gathered for the end."

"And I thought just calling themselves Time Lords was pretentious enough." Rose heard Martha mutter.

"Listen to me, you can't!" The Doctor said.

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

"Oh, he's not saving you. Don't you realize what he's doing?" The Doctor said, gesturing around the room. Despite his friends behind him, the room was still quite clearly full of the Master copies.

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

Rose rolled her eyes.

The Lord President, whoever he was, didn't seem to think much of that plan either. He raised his gauntleted hand and it glowed blue with an electric looking force. Just as before, the heads of everyone in the room began to shake and shimmer.

"No, no, don't. No, no, stop it!" The Master screamed. "No, no, no, don't!"

A brief grin of satisfaction crossed Rose's face. If only, she thought, the Master was the biggest problem in the room.

"On your knees, mankind." The Lord President ordered.

Those in the room still shaken from being the Master dropped instantly. The Doctor's companions crossed their arms.

The Lord President hissed at them, raising his scepter. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the Master.

"No, that's fine, that's good, because you said salvation. I still saved you. Don't forget that." The Master said, sounding almost as though he was trying to convince himself.

The Doctor strode passed the podium of the still glinting diamond and stood between the Master and the Lord President.

The Lord President ignored both of them. "The approach begins." He said instead.

"Approach of what?" Asked the Master.

"Something is returning. Don't you ever listen?" The Doctor said. Rose could almost hear him rolling his eyes at the man who had once been his childhood friend. "That was the prophecy. Not someone, something."

"What is it?" The Master turned to the Doctor.

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

His announcement was punctuated by a sudden change in air pressure, an enormous roar, and the Earth shaking. With a cry, Donna tumbled backwards into Lee and knocking them both to the ground. Martha stumbled and was steadied by Mickey. Wilf staggered to the glass room and leaned against it for support. Rose, after checking her friends were alright, held her ground. This one may be the Doctor's fight, but she would be there to support him however possible.

Through the windows, she could see it now. Gallifrey. Orange and huge and approaching.

"But, I did this. I get the credit. I'm on your side!" The Master protested.

Rose half turned to a noise. The technician in the booth was hammering on the door.

"Help me, please. Somebody, please." The man said, his voice muted by the glass.

"All right!" Wilf said, still standing at the corner of the booth. "I've got you, mate. I've got you." He added as he bustled into the open booth.

Rose frowned, something seemed very bad.

"Wilf, don't. Don't!" She and the Doctor chorused. They shared a glance as Wilf hit the button, unlocking the other booth.

"I've got you." The older man said. "Come on. Go on."

Rose shook her head. Donna's grandfather was an amazing man. So full of courage and hope, and ready to help anyone.

The technician, on the other hand, was ready to get out of the room, and bolted as fast as he could.

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

"You weren't there in the final days of the War." The Doctor replied. His voice, though quiet, was heavy with weariness and pain. "You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock is broken, then everything is coming through." His voice grew stronger as he enumerated the enemies they'd face. "Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending."

The Master grinned. "My kind of world."

"Just listen! Because even the Time Lords can't survive that." The Doctor glared at the Master, then at the Lord President.

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

The Master gaped blankly at him briefly before stuttering out, "That's suicide."

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

Rose grimaced. This was the cause of the horror of the Tardis. The ripple that the Ood sensed. It wasn't just the return of Gallifrey, it was the return of the bloody superiority complex of the people that inhabited it.

" You see now? That's what they were planning in the final days of the War. I had to stop them." The Doctor pled for understanding from his oldest friend.

"Then, take me with you, Lord President. Let me ascend into glory." The Master's body was failing anyway, he might as well leave it behind.

The president dismissed him. "You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more."

The Doctor drew the revolver Wilf had handed him and pointed it at the Lord President.

The leader of the Time Lords smirked. "Choose your enemy well. We are many. The Master is but one."

"But he's the President. Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours!" The Master said.

As if in contrast, the Doctor spun and focused his weapon on the Master, instead.

"He's to blame, not me." The Master protested. "Oh, the link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back. You never would, you coward. Go on then. Do it."

The Doctor turned back to the president.

"Exactly. It's not just me, it's him. He's the link. Kill him!" The Master continued playing Devil's advocate.

"The final act of your life is murder. But which one of us?" The Lord President condemned the Doctor.

Movement behind the president caught Rose's eye. The one woman Time Lord (Time Lady? Rose wondered) lowered her hands from her face. She caught Rose's gaze and gave a small, kind smile. Then she focused on the Doctor, and nodded.

It seemed to be the catalyst the Doctor needed. He faced the Master again.

"Get out of the way." He said.

The Master hesitated before his eyes widened and he dove to the floor. The Doctor shot over his head, knocking the diamond free from its perch.

" The link is broken." The Doctor said as the Time Lords were drawn backward toward the light. "Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell."

Gallifrey shuddered in the sky and began to disappear.

"You'll die with me, Doctor." The Lord President, Rassilon, said.

"I know." The Doctor said, dropping the gun and stretching out his arms.

"No!" Rose screamed. She sprinted forward, but the Master beat her to it.

"Get out of the way." The Master said, pushing the Doctor backward, out of the pull of the light, as Rassilon raised his gauntlet.

The Doctor stumbled and caught Rose as she approached, holding her back from Rassilon.

"You did this to me!" The Master cried out, somewhere between anger and sorrow. "All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!" He punctuated each number with a bolt of the pure life energy that refused to bond with his body.

Rassilon staggered and dropped to his knees. The light surged, pulling in Rassilon and the Master, before vanishing. The last traces of Gallifrey vanished from the sky as well.

"I'm alive." The Doctor said. He hugged Rose to him. "They said I was going to… I'm still alive."

Rose hugged him back, not sure if the shaking stemmed from him or from her.

An echoing four knocks caused the Doctor to pull away suddenly.

"He will knock four times." The Doctor whispered.

Rose bit her lip. So. That was what the Ood told him.

"They gone, then?" Wilf said from inside the glass booth. "Yeah, good-o. If you could let me out?"

"I've gotcha, Gramps." Donna said.

"No!" The Doctor said, standing and striding forward to stop her.

Wilf hesitated before speaking again. "Only, this thing seems to be making a bit of a noise."

The Doctor's voice was dead as he explained. "The Master left the Nuclear Bolt running. It's gone into overload."

"And that's bad, is it?" Wilf asked.

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

"Oh. Well, you'd better let me out, then." Wilf said. He, and everyone else, could tell that something was still wrong.

"Except it's gone critical." The Doctor shook his head. He pulled out his sonic and tossed in the air with a flourish. "Touch one control and it floods. Even this would set it off."

"I'm sorry." Wilf said. "Just leave me. I've had my time. I'm an old man."

"Not as old as me." The Doctor replied. "The Ood were right. My song is ending."

Rose sprinted for the booth, but the Doctor caught her.

"What do you think you're doing?" He hissed.

"Let me do it." Rose pleaded. "It wouldn't kill me, really, I don't think it would."

"I'm not willing to take that chance." The Doctor replied.

"Stop me." Rose said, pulling her wrists away from him.

The Doctor snagged her around the waist. "Mickey!" He called, lifting Rose off her feet as she struggled for purchase against the Doctor.

Mickey nodded before grabbing hold of Rose. He wasn't able to hold on to her long, she fought wildly to get free, but it was long enough. As Mickey sat down to recover from what was probably going to be a black eye and certainly bruised shinbones, Rose threw herself into the closed door of the booth.

The Doctor pressed his hand down on the button, freeing Wilf. As Wilf stumbled from his side, into the arms of his granddaughter, the Doctor turned to face Rose.

He pressed a hand against the glass and Rose put hers on the other side of it, he was already clearly in pain. As he crumpled forward into the door, she mirrored him, tears running unchecked down her face, body wracked by silent sobs. Martha took a few steps toward her friend, but Mickey held her away. They could only watch as the Doctor huddled in pain inside the booth, and Rose pressed her body as close to him as she could outside it.

The lights switched off and the noise ceased.

"Doctor?" Wilf said. "Still with us?"

Donna shhhhed him.

Inside the booth, the Doctor stretched out one hand. His friends gave a collective sigh of relief. Slowly, he pushed himself upright. Rose scuttled back from the door. He pushed on it lightly, and the door swung open.

"Sure. Now you open." The Doctor said. He tripped over the edge of doorframe and feel forward, landing heavily on his hands and knees, right next to Rose.

"Hello." He said, looking her in the eyes.

Still crying, Rose shook her head twice before leaping forward. She grabbed his suit by the lapels, and took a deep breath as she looked back at him, surveying his soul. The Doctor nodded softly and leaned forward.

Their kiss wasn't a celebration, their friends could tell.

"He's gonna regenerate." Mickey whispered.

"Gonna what?" Donna hissed back.

"Shh!" Martha told them both.

Neither Rose nor the Doctor heard any of them. They'd waited a long time, too long, for this. Rose felt the Doctor pull her closer, cradle her head in his hand, as she felt his lips against hers, tasted his tears mingled with hers. The kiss was pain, and sorrow, and regret, and most of all, love.

When Rose couldn't breathe any longer, she buried her face in his shoulder, and he held her tight and pressed his face against her.

He pulled back some time later, a small infinity. "Same memories, always." He whispered.

Rose looked up at him with a watery smile. "I know."

"Let's get everyone home."

Rose nodded. She helped him stand.

Both Rose and the Doctor were silent as they walked back to the Tardis. Wilf was trying to lighten the mood, confused about what was happening, since the Doctor was clearly alive in front of them. Donna alternated between glaring at him and trading concerned glances with Martha and Mickey as she trailed behind Lee. Mickey's face was stony and resigned, as was Martha's.

"Well then." The Doctor said when they were all on board. "Time for you lot to head home then. All taken care of and a job well done." He threw the levers and the Tardis launched.

Rose leaned back against a coral strut, her head resting on the Tardis. The Tardis was singing a lament and a lullaby wrapped into one. Sad, to match the mood of her pilot, but comforting, as she tried her best to soothe his pain. Pain. So much pain. Rose could feel it, right on the edge of her mind, his pain was so great that it overcame his shields.

The Tardis settled on the ground outside the Noble's house.

"Doctor." Martha said. She hugged him. She stepped back, biting her lip as Donna took her turn. Mickey hugged him, too. And Wilf and Lee shook his hand.

"Thank you. All of you. It was just… brilliant." The Doctor said.

The door swung open and they took the hint, filing outside with lots of backward glances.

"And you, Rose? Are you leaving too?"

Rose glared at him.

"It's safer out there."

"I don't care about safer. I want to be with you. How many times do I have to tell ya?"

He smiled crookedly at her and closed the doors.

"Is it, now?" Rose asked, hesitating.

The Doctor shook his head. "I have a few more stops to make."

Rose stood with him as he said farewell to their friends. They saved Mickey and Martha from the Sontaruns, stopped Luke from being hit by a car, got a lottery ticket for Donna and Lee for their wedding, and set Jack up for an evening of fun.

Rose helped the Doctor back into the Tardis. His legs were seizing up, but she was able to half drag, a quarter carry him back into the ship as the Ood sang around them. Rose put the Tardis into flight and stood back.

The Doctor, her Doctor, looked at Rose. "I don't want to go." He said.

Rose sobbed as the regeneration energy flared up around him.

"Rose! Get back! I waited too long!" The Doctor yelled as he lost control of the regeneration.

Rose stumbled backward and tripped over a stair as flames shot through the Tardis. Behind her, a coral strut fractured and toppled. Rose dove forward, but a piece of it clipped her on the temple, and the world went black.

And that, folks, is a wrap.

Just kidding. Sort of. This story will be continued, but under another label. Not sure when, but it's more parts that I've been planning since the beginning, so likely within a year. (Sorry, grad school is a lot of work)

Thank you all for your continued support, readership, comments, questions, and enthusiasm, they make a writer happy.