"Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

The young blonde woman paused, mulling it over for a moment. Finally, she decided:

"Forwards."

"How far?"

"Um… one hundred years."

The Doctor grinned almost manically as he threw the TARDIS into motion, whirling them through the Vortex. Quickly, the organic Time machine landed. The Doctor, thoroughly impressed with himself, stepped back, gesturing to the doors.

"There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the twenty second century."

Rose gaped, clearly halfway disbelieving him.

"You're kidding!" she said, and he scoffed, rolling his eyes as he stepped back up to the console.

"That's a bit boring, though. Do you want to go further?"

The pink and yellow human laughed with her eyebrows raised.

"Fine by me," she responded, most definitely feeling the thrill of the adventure. The Doctor flew around the console again, ecstatic to see that she was enjoying the wonders of the TARDIS already.

When he made an attempt to dematerialize again, however, he found that the lever was stuck in place, causing him to pause.

"Come on, old girl, let's give her something fantastic."

"Are you- are you talking to your machine?" Rose asked with a note of incredulity, and the TARDIS lights flickered in a manner that could only be described as irate.

"Yes, the TARDIS is sentient," the Doctor replied, only halfway paying attention. Pulling the scanner around to face him, he gave it a little tap, but it was black. The TARDIS gave a quiet hum, as if encouraging him to go outside.

It held a hint of warning.

Glancing up at the ceiling, the last of the Time Lords gave a small nod, his grin fading. He had long since learned that she would always bring him where he needed to go.

"She's sentient, like- like she can think?" Rose cut him out of his thoughts, and he flinched. "How does that work?"

"Well, she seems to want us to go out here," the Doctor said, collecting himself. "And I trust her. Always have, always will. Come on, let's see what she wants for us in the twenty second century."

Rose noticed that he seemed to have gotten quieter than his excitement from before, and she stepped a bit closer to him.

"You alright, or…?" she questioned with uncertainty, but his grin from before spread across his face.

"'Course I am, Rose Tyler! Come on, quick errand in the twenty second century Earth, and then we're off to the stars."

They stepped outside to ruins.

It was a strange sight to behold, actually. Half the buildings were in some awful disarray, debris scattered along the road, and the other half were in pristine condition, like they had just been built. Seeing this, a real smile stretched across the Doctor's face.

"Look at this," he murmured, stepping forward and stretching his neck to the sky, before his gaze turned back to Rose. "I'm not sure when we are exactly, but this is what I love most about humans. Something awful must have happened here, and you lot, what do you do? You just keep rebuilding. No wonder you live on. You never give up."

A scream echoed through the air, making both of the time travelers jump out of their brief reverie. The Doctor grinned at his companion, and Rose returned the expression before he grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of the scream.

They ran, the wind rushing through their hair, and when they arrived at the apparent source of the scream, a modest two story house, the Doctor hesitated.

"Is something wrong, Doctor?" Rose asked, still holding onto his hand. He shook his head, breathing in the air.

"I just thought…" he began, furrowing his eyebrows. "It's nothing. I just thought I heard something familiar. Shall we?"

They walked up to the front door, where the Doctor gave a sharp knock. After a few seconds, the door creaked open, and, upon looking down, the two companions saw a tiny eye peeking out nervously. The Doctor smiled at the small human, giving a little wave.

"Hello there," he said, and he pulled out his psychic paper. "I'm the Doctor, I heard there might be some trouble here? What's your name?"

"Alex," the little boy said quietly after a moment's hesitation.

"Lovely to meet you, Alex. What seems to be the trouble?"

"My mummy, she collapsed," he said, tears brimming at his eyes. "She started… she started screaming."

The Doctor crouched down to meet the boy's eyes, and stated completely seriously, "Well, lucky for you, there's a very good chance we can help. Can you let us in?"

The boy nodded, a few tears escaping his hazel eyes. He made to open the door, when a shout echoed from inside the house.

"Alex, what did I tell you? We don't open the door to strangers!" a man's voice exclaimed, and the boy disappeared from view. A man appeared in the gap then, and the Doctor could have sworn he had seen him somewhere before.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked with a raspy voice. His face was twisted in a mixture of anger, fear, and worry. "And why are you here?"

"Just here to help," the Time Lord responded innocently, raising his hands up. "You seem a bit paranoid. Mind if I take a step inside?"

"Yes, actually. You don't exactly look like local. How do I know you're not a Robohead?"

"A- Robohead?" the Doctor asked in mild curiosity.

"Oh, don't be stupid. You know they're still around. Even though we managed to take down the invasion, there are still some of them crawling around here, just waiting for the right time to infiltrate and exterminate everything we've rebuilt here. And you-!" The man looked at Rose now. "You haven't said a word. What's your name?"

"Er- it's Rose. Rose Tyler. What's yours?"

"And you?" the man dodged the question, looking at the Doctor now.

"I'm the Doctor. I heard a scream from this residence. I've come to help."

The man looked as though he'd been struck. He glanced back into the house, then back at the Doctor and Rose again.

"But that's impossible," he murmured. "Why, you- you don't even look like him!"

The Doctor gave a tight smile, one that was mostly without humor.

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

"But- but you're younger than he was! He was- older, with white hair, feeble-"

The Doctor snorted, slightly offended at that last bit. "Yeah, well, I've changed a lot since I was like that. Lots of good moisturizer. Anyways. Do you want my help or not? What's wrong here?"

"You… you really don't know, do you?" His voice dropped to a whisper. "She told me that you might be different when you came back, but I… never expected it to be this drastic-"

Another scream permeated down the stairs and through the doorway. The man's eyes met the Doctor's. He opened the door, revealing his whole face. The Doctor recoiled in shock at the sight of the man, David, that he had left his granddaughter with centuries ago.

"Please. If anyone can help her, it's you."

The Doctor fought the urge to run as yet another shout of agony assailed his ears. He swallowed the wave of nausea in the back of his throat and forced himself to brush past David and run upstairs to a sight that he never thought he would see in any of his lives.

His granddaughter- his Susan- was knelt on the floor in a nursery, clutching her head, whimpering.

Instinctively, he lowered his telepathic shields, only to be nearly attacked by first the emptiness, and next the agony that was being projected from his granddaughter. It was an agony, he realized, that he himself had felt, and he had felt it only when he had woken up after burning Gallifrey, realizing that his mind was completely and utterly empty.

He crouched down next to her, his hands trembling as he placed them over hers, lowering them away from her head so that he could replace them with his own. Gently, he entered his granddaughter's mind, giving her a soft sleep command. Her whimpers died away as her eyes slowly fell shut, and she collapsed, asleep, in his arms.

He looked up at David, who was in the doorway in front of Rose. The Doctor only then realized that he had tears in his eyes.