This chapter. Just wow. I am so, so sorry. But this is where it all plummets south. And so the angst begins, and the event that will result in a centuries long grudge will occur.

Thanks to all who have reviewed!

"What If" by Safetysuit is undeniably the song for this chapter. Give it a listen before or after and you'll understand. I'd say enjoy the chapter, but...yeah.

Got it all figured out inside of my head

There's a bag packed up at the foot of my bed

You say the word, baby I'm all set

We'll cover our tracks, tell a couple white lies

Make sure we got a good alibi

And by the time they catch on, we'll be outta their sight

Long gone, baby

Let's get out of this town tonight

Nothing but dust in the shadows

Gone by morning light

Somewhere we won't ever get caught, ever be found

Baby, let's just get out of this town

Get Out Of This Town - Carrie Underwood

What if it makes you lose faith in me,

what if it makes you question every moment you cannot see

And what if it makes you crash and you can't find the key

What if it makes you ask how you could let it all go

And if this be our last conversation

If this be the last time that we speak for a while

Don't lose hope and don't let go

Cause you should know

If it makes you sad at me

Then it's all my fault and let me fix it please

Cause you know that I'm always all for you

Cause you know that I'm always all for you

What If - Safetysuit

"What are you doing in here?"

From where she was practically pressed against the glass of the window, Aliya quickly spun around. Standing in the doorway of the astrophysics classroom was Theta. His eyes were as bright with childish energy as ever, and his hair messy in a way that only served to make him even more attractive.

It wasn't until he cleared his throat and looked at her pointedly that she realised she had been too busy taking in how beautiful he was to actually form a reply to his question. She went completely red.

"Oh. I was...I was watching the rain," She said, a little sheepishly, nodding toward the window. "It's still enigmatic to me."

Theta's eyes widened with realisation. "Right. You still haven't felt it." When she shook her head, he grinned. "Come along then."

"What?"

"Come along, Arpexia."

Aliya covered her mouth with her hand as she started to grin. "Really? Really, though?"

"Of course!"

Ten minutes later, they had hijacked several transmats down to the base of the citadel. With help from a bit of sonic technology that Theta had been developing for almost his entire time at the Academy, it was a lot simpler than it should have been. The sonic was almost in the stage of working, and with an added ten minutes of tinkering on both of their parts, it had the small door sliding open and the two Time Lords to be bursting out onto the dirt terrain of Gallifrey's ground.

"The air feels damp, but we're still dry," Aliya noted. "We must still be underneath the curve of the dome."

They walked for over five minutes until the film of rain seemed to almost envelope them without actually touching them. Aliya looked at Theta nervously as she pulled out her headpiece and threw it on the ground. His eyes held understanding and overwhelming anticipation. He was excited because she was. Inching forward and shaking her hair completely free, Aliya shut her eyes and braced herself. Then she launched herself forward into the downpour.

The water hammered down on her like a thousand cold kisses across her skin. Within two seconds she was drenched and her hair was plastered to her head while her dress stuck to her. It was freezing but the temperature was of no importance. It was rain. And it was real.

She laughed, joyously and loudly and far longer than she should have. But she couldn't help it - so many decades dreaming of what it might have felt like had led to this. And none of it had come close.

"It's like everything bad is being washed away," She called out, leaning her head back and smiling into the fast falling drops, "I've never felt more alive." Her eyes snapped open and she squinted at him through the sheen of water between them. "Why do we shut ourselves up and away from this? It's our world. It's real and it's meant to be touched."

"The entire universe is meant to be touched, Ali," Theta said to her sincerely. With a boyish grin, he too ran into the first rainfall of the oncoming storm. "I've done this quite a few times," He admitted to her, having to yell over the thunderous sound of the rain, "With things like that, they start to be ordinary. But it's not this time. Not with you."

"Why not?"

"Because you feel it!" He also threw his head and arms back in an attempt to embrace the crying sky. "That very first time, that very first feel of rain." He grinned. "And when you feel it, I feel it."

The blonde girl grinned back and ran to his side to grab him by the forearms. "Promise me we'll do this again. After graduation. When we're old. When we've regenerated and are living new lives. Together."

"I promise."

She kissed him elatedly, grabbing him by his soaked shirt and letting the raindrops cascade along their brushing cheeks as their lips moved against each other.

"Dance with me, Ali."

Theta pulled her into a mad dance of irregular steps. It was obviously one of his own spontaneous choreography, made up of whirling pirouettes and attempted lifts that ended up with them sliding in the mud and laughing. In the end he just turned it into a sort of waltz and gripped her hand tightly.

Finally, it was time to accept that they were out of time. They trudged back into the base of the Citadel. Their clothing and hair dripped heavily and steadily onto the smooth grey floor.

"How do we get back up without leaving a trail of water behind?" Aliya asked worriedly.

"We don't. There's a utility room that I would hide out in. They use it to store spare parts that might be useful, and because some of them are sharp, the room's padded with this weird fabric. It'll have us dry in a couple of hours, and we can head back up looking a lot less conspicuous," Theta explained. He pulled her along until he found the utility room and they quickly shut themselves inside.

Aliya took a look around the room which was half full with dangerously pointy pieces of scrap metal. "You take me to the most fascinating places," She joked.

"But the rest of it is comfy." He threw himself down on the padded floor and patted the spot beside him. "We've got a couple of hours to kill before we'll be dry enough, so you might as well join me."

After only a moment's hesitation she was lying down next to him. "This is very comfortable, isn't it?" She asked him, surprised.

"Of course. That's why I suggested it." He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over the back of it, his expression thoughtful. "You know, apparently humans have a higher body temperature than us?"

"I think I remember that from Intergalactic Biology. But why bring it up?"

"It's just interesting," Theta murmured, his thumb still working circles across her knuckles, "Imagine touching one. They would be so warm. Maybe even hot. It would be interesting."

"Now you're just being silly again," Aliya said, with almost a scolding tone of voice, "You can't touch a human. Neither of us will ever likely get near one, unless we get a job that involves going off planet, and there aren't many."

He smiled a secretive smile that was a little unnerving. "You never know."

There was lengthy silence as she stared up at the blank ceiling above them. She couldn't help but run over several possible scenarios in her head about how the evening could turn out. Rule breaking always had such an effect on her.

"If they find us in here, we're going to be on probation for the last five years of our time here," She speculated nervously.

"They won't. Scraps get fetched at the beginning of the day, not in the middle of the night. Trust me."

The young woman inhaled deeply. "Okay." She turned over onto her side so that she could look at him. The soaking fabric of his tunic clung to his torso, and his undershirt was near transparent and revealed the outline of his subtly toned arms.

"Enjoying the view?" Her eyes darted up to his face, which wore a smug smirk. His dark green eyes were alight with amusement. Her face flooded with warmth and she knew she had turned completely red.

"Quite possibly," She said, biting her lip, "You're beautiful."

"That makes two of us." His eyes darkened a shade as they ran over the length of her body, across where her chest still rose and fell heavily from the exertion of dancing, to her hips and legs that were plastered with the golden velvet of her dress, sparing very few details of her shape. When his gaze finally returned to her face, he smiled in that innocent way of his. "But of course, I am the most beautiful."

"Obviously." She wasn't sure how serious he was being, but she wasn't stretching the truth. He was stunning.

Theta leaned in and kissed her gently. Still damp lips again moved in tandem while their bodies rotated so that she was on her back and he was hovering over her. His leg swung over so that it was on the other side of her body - and just like that, she was pinned under him, his weight keeping her down.

"Theta," She breathed, only to have his lips claim hers again, this time with more passion, more want. Her hands gripped his tunic and tried to pull it up so that she could take it off and have him in just the pale undershirt. When he realised what she was doing, he pulled away long enough to laugh and discard it himself.

"Trying to have your wicked way with me, Ali?"

"You look better like this," Aliya said with a tiny grin as her hands brushed his chest through the wet shirt. A tiny shiver went through her and her teeth chattered. "We're both freezing, though. We might get ill."

"It'll be worth it." His fingers brushed across the base of her neck. "Besides, I can warm you up."

"You didn't just say that." She groaned exasperatedly into his shoulder. "Friendship over."

"You love me really." When he grinned down at her, she could only grin back. It was impossible to be annoyed with him for more than two seconds.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you can say things like that," She said seriously, and would have continued were it not for the fact that his head bent to press a line of kisses slowly and deliberately down the column of her neck. "Theta."

"You're funny when you're serious, and serious when you're being ridiculous," He was murmuring into her skin, "And you're gorgeous when you're angry. But exasperation doesn't suit you."

"Shhh," She said, and kissed him, hard. The fingers of her left hands curled in the softness of his thick locks of hair while the fingers of her right bunched his shirt up his back. His hands skimmed up her neck to cup her face. When they finally stopped for air - which wasn't for a considerable length of time due to the use of their respiratory bypass systems - Theta briefly caught a damp strand of her hair and twisted it loosely in his fingers.

After regarding the strand for several moments, his eyes moved back to her face. "You have no idea what you do to me sometimes."

Aliya, whose face was slightly pink, gave him a fraction of a smile as she eyed the proximity of their hips. "Sometimes I have a bit of an idea."

He flushed. "Sorry-"

"It's alright. We've decided to wait and I don't doubt you."

"You do make it difficult," Theta said seriously, or as seriously as he could with the tiny smile that his face wore, "But good things come to those who wait." He moved off of her and instead cuddled up to her side. "Besides, this is perfect how it is, we don't need anything more."

She smiled and wrapped her arm around him to hold him tightly to her. They both shivered, and then laughed. "Could use a nice warm human right about now," She said, and he grinned.

"See! I told you. I reckon humans could come in very handy."

"They're not tools to keep in a utility belt, Theta, they're living beings."

"Well, one day I'll meet one and we'll see."

"Sure, sure," She murmured, as usual not giving his words much credit. He couldn't really be serious about wanting to leave Gallifrey, the idea was simply too absurd. "Theta? I've got a question."

"A question? Well I don't know, Ali, that just sounds a bit ridiculous if you ask me," He said with mock seriousness. She poked him in the side and he grinned cockily at her. "No. Go on."

"With graduation coming up...I was just wondering if you'd thought of a title."

"Oh," He said, sounding surprised, "Yes. I have an idea. I was going to think about it for a bit longer before I got your opinion. But I might as well tell you now. And then if you think it's a stupid idea, I'll have more time to think of something else."

"So what is it?" She couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice.

"...the Doctor."

She mouthed the words to herself. Then she shot him a slightly confused look. "Did you even take medical classes?"

"That's not the point, Ali. I don't necessarily mean like a physician. I mean it like...I want to help people. I want to make people better," He explained, with an incredible sincerity. She could tell that it meant a lot to him.

"Well, when you put it like that, then I think it's perfect," She told him, kissing him on the nose and making him smile, "You'd be perfect for that. My Theta, Lord Doctor of Lungbarrow."

He scrunched up the nose she had just kissed. "I don't care much for the formalities. Just the Doctor."

"Well, just the Doctor," She teased, "I think you've found yourself a title."

"Alright then," He replied, smiling, but almost to himself, with self-satisfaction, "The Doctor it is. But what about you?"

"I'm not so sure. I mean, I could just be the Mechanic, but it's so...lifeless," She said with a sigh, "I want something with...with heart and soul, and me. I want to help people, I want to protect people who need protecting...but how would a mechanic like me do that?"

"Does it matter? Your job doesn't define you. Your title shouldn't reflect it."

"Well, I do want to look after people who after vulnerable and need caring for...like a guardian. The Guardian. What about that?"

He frowned, considering it. "It's okay. But considering that there are actual higher beings called the Guardians, it might not be the best move."

"Good point."

"Not just the Protector?"

"It's taken, by that Mirraflex politician."

"Oh, yeah."

"Anyway, it doesn't quite sound right. I don't want to be just someone who protects, I want to be someone who watches and cares for people. Oh!" She turned to look at him with a new light in her eyes. "What about the Angel? It means the exact same thing as protector or guardian, but it just sounds more caring, don't you think?"

"The Angel," He said experimentally, before smiling, "Yes. That's a good one. You know, I think humans have a version of that word, but it means something rather different."

"Does it matter?"

He shrugged. "No." He smiled widely at her. "Well, let's hope the Doctor and the Angel are a bit more put together than we are."

"I think I'll still go by Aliya a lot of the time. I just prefer it."

"I think I'm going to like the Doctor."

And with that, they spent the next couple of hours discussing titles and potential futures, while meanwhile the rain pounded down against the glass of the citadel dome, preparing the world for a new, if incredibly damp, day.

More years passed and the year of graduation came. Aliya kept trying to learn what Theta's plan was, but he continued to refuse to divulge it. Their final exams came and went, and Aliya gained reasonably good marks while Theta scraped by with 51%, though by his elation, one would have thought he had received a double first.

Throughout the month leading up to graduation, he had continued to put off telling her anyway. He would just grin and tell her that she was going to love it, that she was going to think it was brilliant, that he would tell her the night before graduation, the night before it all happened, that he had it all organised.

On the penultimate night before graduation, Aliya could barely contain herself. After two and a half decades of wondering, she was finally going to find out how they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. Her trust in him had been solid for a long time, she had no room for doubt amongst the pure excitement. And sure enough, when she turned up outside his bedroom door that night, he beamed at her and gathered her up in a bone crushing hug, laughing loudly.

"I can't believe this is really happening," He said, unable to keep the wide smile from his face, "Sit down, sit down."

"So I'm finally going to know? Your complicated plan?" She asked while sitting down.

"But that's the thing, it's not complicated. It's so simple, that's why no one will see it coming," He told her enthusiastically. "But alright. Well, down in the TARDIS scrapyard, they have a whole bunch of old TARDISes to be repaired or salvaged. It's not well guarded, not like the new models are. I managed to get in there, and you won't believe it, but one of them is unlocked…"

She grinned, also unable to keep it away because she knew that any second she was going to hear the brilliant plan. "Let me guess, you've been exploring in it. Or stealing parts to build contraptions."

"No."

"Then what?" She laughed. "Come on, I want to hear about your plan, not about some old open TARDIS in the scrapyard."

He just laughed as well. "But that's the point! That TARDIS is our way out! Tomorrow night, after graduation, you and me can hop in it, and fly away. No one will know that we've left until we're long gone. You'll be able to disable the tracking system on it immediately. And you'll be able to fix it if it breaks."

She stared at him, unable to be sure if she had heard him right. "What?" Her smile had slipped slightly, and her heart had skipped a beat.

"That's the plan, Ali. We can run away. We're going to see the universe, and none of them can do a single thing to stop it," He grabbed her hands, his eyes holding hers as he grinned at her. "You and me. Time and space. Everything that ever existed, right there for us to see, right there for us to touch. The Doctor and the Angel, free from anyone's rules."

"Please tell me this is a joke," She said weakly as the feeling of dread set in.

"Of course it's not! As if I would joke about something as brilliant as this!" He scoffed. "You'll need to pack a few clothes, but we can start collecting alien clothes right away, build up an entire collection as we go to new places-"

"Stop it!" She shouted, making him go quiet and look at her curiously.

"What?"

"Have you gone insane?" She asked, staring at him with eyes starting to well up with tears. "We can't leave Gallifrey."

"Of course we can," He replied, looking at her as if she were highly deluded. "I've worked it all out."

"No...I won't. You know that. Every time you mentioned leaving, I made it clear how ridiculous the idea was!"

Doubt finally started to cloud his dark green eyes. "Ali...what are you saying?"

"I won't go," She said quietly, "I've never wanted to and you should have known that."

"But...but it's the plan."

She got up and did her best not to turn into a sobbing mess. "Well the plan is ridiculous and isn't going to work because you'll be minus a passenger!"

He stared at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. "But...you said that you wanted to be with me forever. This is the only way."

"Gallifrey is my home, it's all I know...how could I leave it?"

"Because you love me," He whispered, his eyes becoming desperate. "Because you want to see the universe."

She held out her arms helplessly. "I can see the universe just fine from here. I made it clear from the start that I didn't want to leave. You should have listened."

"But…"

"You lied. You told me that you were sure that I would love the plan," She said shakily, running a hand through her hair. "You weren't sure, you assumed because you were blinded by what you wanted."

"You can't say no!" He yelled. "I planned it all, I'm ready to go!"

"And I never will be!"

"I'm offering you the universe!"

Aliya covered her mouth as tears ran down her cheeks. "Well I don't want it," She whispered, and his face turned completely ashen. "I trusted you. I worried and you told me, you told me that I had no reason to. I didn't try and make my own plan because I had so much faith in you!"

"'Don't make this my fault, you're the reason that the plan isn't working!"

"The plan isn't working is because it's a terrible, selfish plan!" She shouted, choking out the words. "Don't you see? Now I have to marry the Defender, now we can't be together! In two days, I'll be in someone else's bed and it's all because you didn't bother to ask what I wanted."

That really got him. He stared at her with eyes full of injustice and anger. "So you would rather stay on Gallifrey and marry someone you don't love, someone who isn't me...instead of leaving Gallifrey, seeing the universe and being with me."

Her face crumbled. "Don't say it like that. Please."

"You're going to be sleeping with someone who isn't me, all because you're afraid of change," He said, having moved from upset to furious, "Well, it's good to know how much you care about me."

"How can you even-" She couldn't get any more words out because her throat was so constricted with tears. With one last, despairing look, she fled from the room and hurried back through the halls until she got to her own bedroom. She threw herself on the bed and let out everything she had been trying so hard to hold in.

With a flood of tears and a piercing scream into her covers, her world fell to pieces.

As pain and fear and betrayal consumed every part of her, her body shook and her awareness of time slipped away. Much later, when she had run out of tears and instead lapsed into suffocating silence, there was a knock at the door.

When she didn't answer, Theta came into the room anyway.

"I didn't come to try and change your mind," He said slowly, "We're never going to agree. We're both at fault and we're both terrible people and now we have to live with this."

"Then why are you here?" She asked hopelessly, staring at him with reddened eyes.

"Because if I only have two days left with you then I don't want to throw away another minute," He breathed, and when her entire body slumped and her face relaxed into a sad sigh, he climbed onto the bed with her and wrapped his arms around her body. "I love you. And I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." She curled into his body and let the familiar and comforting smell of him wash over her. Oh, she wasn't sure what she was going to do without his smell. "I love you. And that makes it hurt more than I can bear."

"Everything's going to be alright."

But it wasn't, and both of them knew that.

"Just...don't leave. Stay until the last possible second," She whispered into his neck, "You know, I think I need a Doctor."

He laughed against her cheek, but she felt the saltiness of tears there too. "No Doctors here. Just a scared, selfish little boy."

"That's okay, because he's got a scared, selfish little girl for company."

And so they lay there in each other's arms for the whole night, falling asleep and momentarily forgetting that their lives were laughing at them and planning years of misery to make up for the decades of joy that had come before.

*silently crying* Not fun to write. Okay, I lied, I got sick enjoyment out of it but gave myself majorly painful feelings. These two retards are so bloody miserable all the time.

Let me know what you thought in a review!

Love you all,

-MayFairy :)