Sage, Jack and the Doctor all stood at the control panel of the TARDIS, with their hands moving over the controls.
"We've got incoming!" Jack yelled.
Suddenly, a Dalek missile strikes the TARDIS, making the Doctor and Sage grab onto the control panel to keep holding on, but nothing happens.
"The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk." Jack explained.
"And for our next trick." Sage muttered, as she pressed a few buttons and suddenly, the TARDIS comes to a stop. Sage walked over to the doors and opened it. "Rose, get down! Get down, Rose!" She shouted.
Rose ducked down and Jack comes from behind Sage.
"Exterminate!"
The Dalek fired but missed both Sage and Jack, so Jack brought out a modified Defabricator and took out the Dalek.
"You did it!" Rose shouted as she ran towards Sage and hugged her tightly. "Feels like I haven't seen you in years."
"I told you we'd come and get you." Sage whispered to Rose, in her ear.
"Never doubted it." Rose said, letting Sage go.
"I did. You alright?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Not bad, been better."
"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack asked, pouting as he walked towards the women.
"Oh, come here!" Rose laughed as she pulled him in for a hug.
"I was talking to Sage." He joked, but was hit lightly in the chest by Rose. He hugged her anyway. "Welcome home."
"Oh, I thought I'd never see you again." She said, pulling away to see the Doctor waiting in the TARDIS doorway. She ran to him and hugged him.
"Oh, you were lucky. That was just a one-shot wonder. Drained the gun of all it's power supply. Now, it's just a piece of junk." Jack mumbled as they all walked into the TARDIS and shut the door.
"You said, they were extinct. How come they're still alive?" Rose asked.
"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe and the next they vanish out of time and space." Jack adds.
"They went off to fight a bigger war." Sage said. "The Time War."
"I though that was just a legend?" Jack asked, surprised.
"Sage and I were there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole creation at stake. Our people were destroyed, but they took out the Daleks with them. We almost thought it was worth it."
"Now, it turns out they died for nothing." Sage finished off for the Doctor.
"There are thousand of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we doing to do?" Rose asked.
"No good stood around her chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbours." The Doctor said, walking out of the TARDS, followed by Sage.
"You can't go out there!" Rose shouted, worried.
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"
The group of Dalek's shot at the two last Time Lords but the rays are stopped by the forcefield extending from the TARDIS.
"Is that it? Useless! Nul points. It's alright, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything." The Doctor explained.
"Almost anything." Jack said, joining them outside the TARDIS.
"Yes, but we weren't going to tell them that. Thanks." Sage muttered.
"Sorry." Jack apologised, looking at the floor.
"Do you know what they call us in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld?" Sage asked, pointing to herself and the Doctor. "The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right deep down in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face us? So, tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"
"They survived though me."
The lights come on and reveal a large apparatus. Inside the exploded Dalek casing, sat a blue-skinned one-eyed mutant.
"Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks." Sage said, eyeing the Emperor.
"You've destroyed us. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive..."
"I get it." Sage said, interrupting the Emperor.
"Do not interrupt."
"Do not interrupt."
"Do not interrupt."
"I think you're forgetting something. I'm Sage, and if there is one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way to stop me. So if anybody's going to shup up, it's you." She says, pointing at the three Daleks that had spoken. "Okey-doke. So, where were we?"
"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."
"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." The Doctor said.
"That makes them half human." Rose realised.
"Those words are blasphemy."
"Do not blaspheme."
"Do not blaspheme."
"Do not blaspheme."
"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."
"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?" Sage asked.
"I reached into the dirt and made a new life. I am the God of all Daleks!"
"Worship him."
"Worship him."
"Worship him."
"They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You had your own existence. And that make them more deadly than ever. We're going." The Doctor started as they all walk back into the TARDIS.
"You may not leave my presence."
"Stay where you are."
"Exterminate!"
The Doctor, Rose, Sage and Jack all walk into the TARDIS and the Daleks shot at the forcefield again.
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Worship him! You will be exterminated!"
*Time Skip*
"Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!" The Doctor orders stepping out of the TARDIS.
"What does this do?"
"Stops the Daleks from transmitting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?" Sage asked.
"Well, we tried to warn them, but they all was suspended our license because we stopped the programmes."
"And the planet's just sitting there, defenceless. Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone." Sage said.
"She wouldn't go."
"Didn't want to leave you." Lynda said.
"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."
"Oh, my God. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."
The Doctor kneels on the ground, pulling bits out of the conduits.
"Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left us with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"
"You've got to be kidding." Jack said.
"Give the man a medal."
"A Delta Wave?"
"Aha! A Delta Wave!"
"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asked, confused.
"It's a wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and you head gets barbequed." Sage explained to the blonde.
"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"Well, get started and do it then." Lynda says.
"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?" The Doctor asks.
"Twenty-two minutes." Somebody responded.
A few minutes later, after rerouting of bits and pieces, Jack spoke up.
"We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."
"Do they know about the Delta Wave?"
"They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor and Sage. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels. Five hundred to four nine five. So, they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."
"Who are they fighting?"
"Us."
"And what are we fighting with?"
"The guards had guns with basic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."
"There's six of us."
"Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare." Sage said.
"Right, now there's four of us."
"Then let's move it. Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls."
Pavale and the woman ran off to the lift, after hearing the Doctor's orders.
"I just want to say, er, thanks. I suppose, and I'll do my best." Lynda says.
"Me too." The Doctor replied and they shook hands, before Lynda moved away.
"It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye." Jack says.
"Don't talk like that." Rose said, demanding slightly. "The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."
"Rose, you are worth fighting for." Jack said, grabbing her face and kissing her. He turned to face the Doctor and Sage. He smiled at them. "Wish I'd never met you two. I was much better off as a coward." He then kissed Sage and then the Doctor. "See you in hell." With that, Jack ran off, leaving Rose, Sage and the Doctor.
"He's going to be alright, isn't he?" Rose asked, but got no response from either Sage or the Doctor.
*Time Skip*
Sage sat next to the Doctor, who was talking quietly, making sure Rose didn't hear the two of them.
"Suppose..." Rose began but trailed off as she walked up to the two of them.
"What?" The Doctor asked, looking up at her.
"Nothing." She shook her head.
"You said suppose." Sage said, standing up.
"No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?" Rose asked.
"As soon as the TARDIS lands in front of that second, we become part of events, stuck in the timeline." The Doctor explained.
"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that." Rose said, crossing her arms.
Both Sage and the Doctor shared a look before Sage walked closer to Rose. "There's another thing the TARDIS could do." She began as Rose looked at her. "We could leave. Let history take it's course; we go to Marbella in 1989." Sage suggested.
"Yeah, but you'd never do that."
"No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it?"
"Well, I'm just too good."
"The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" The Doctor asked, also standing. They all move over to the console.
"Is that bad? Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"
"Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the TARDIS to cross my old timeline. Yes!" The Doctor exclaimed as he pushed Rose and Sage into the TARDIS.
"Hold that down and keep position." Sage said, standing across the console of the TARDIS.
"What's it do?"
"Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart." The Doctor said, scratching the back of his neck.
"I'd go for the first one." Rose said, nodding.
"Me too." The Doctor said. "Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!"
As soon as he said that, Sage's head flew up to look at her husband. She instantly knew what he was planning and she didn't want him to. Her eyes met his and she could see the sadness in them. Her eyes widened as he smiled sadly at her; causing her to move away from the control panel and towards him. She shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. He smiled again at his wife before running out the TARDIS door, closing it and leaving Sage and Rose in the TARDIS. The engines started and Sage shook her head again, sighing sadly.
"Sage, what's happening? Can I take my hand off? It's moving." Rose asked, looking towards the brunette. She noticed the few tears falling from her eyes and Rose knew what had happened. She ran to the door. "Doctor, let us out! Let us out! Doctor, what've you done?"
Sage looked up as a hologram of the Doctor appeared in the TARDIS.
"This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. Either Sage or me are dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."
Rose turned back to the door and banged on it. "No!"
"And that's okay. Hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you, so did Sage, and that's what we're doing. The TARDIS is taking you home."
"I won't let you."
"I really do hope Sage is with you though. If she is, she'll protect you and will look out for you. She always will and I bet you're fussing and moaning now. Typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can never return to me. Emergency Programme One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do. Let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it. No one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember us, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing. Have a good life and not only look after yourself, but Sage... that is if she's there. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life."
The hologram of the Doctor flickered out and Sage closed her eyes, looking to the floor.
"You can't do this to me. You can't. Sage. Take me back! Take me back! No!" Rose shouted.
She ran over to the console trying to use the controls, whilst Sage just watched. She knew that the Doctor had probably done something to the controls, meaning that she couldn't fly it back to him when they reach back to London, 2006. The TARDIS soon stopped and Rose ran outside then back in, after noticing she was home.
"Come on, fly. How do you fly, Sage? Come on, help me!"
Sage looked at Rose sadly, as she continued to try to start the TARDIS. Rose gave up trying after a few minutes, knowing it was hopeless. She walked out of the TARDIS, leaving Sage alone in the TARDIS. She looked around before pressing a button on the console to turn the power off. She left the TARDIS to find Mickey running towards them.
"I knew it! I was all the way down Clifton Parade, and I heard the engines. I thought, there's only one thing that makes a noise like that." He said, smiling before dropping it, seeing Rose and Sage's expressions. "What is it?" He asked Rose, softly.
She leans into him, wrapping her arms around her in tears. Sage stood in the doorway of the TARDIS, looking back in then back at Rose and Mickey before shutting the doors.
"Goodbye, old girl." She whispered to the box, sliding her hand over the doors. She heard a soft and low hum from the TARDIS before going silent. She sighed sadly as more tears fell and she placed her hand on Rose's back.
*Time Skip*
Rose sat next to Mickey, as Jackie and Sage sat across from them, eating.
"And it's gone up market, this place. They're doing little tubs of coleslaw now. It's not very nice. It tastes a bit sort of clinical." Jackie said, as they ate.
"Have you tried that new pizza place down Minto Road?" Mickey asked.
"What's it selling?"
"Pizza."
"That's nice. Do they deliver?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, girls. Have something to eat." Jackie said, noticing that Rose and Sage hadn't eaten any of their food.
"Two hundred thousand years in the future and he's dying; and there's nothing we can do about it." Rose whispered.
"Well, like you said, two hundred thousand years. It's way off." Jackie said, which caused Sage's nose to twitch. Rose notices it.
"But it's not. It's now. That fight is happening right now and he's fighting for us, for the whole planet and we're just sitting here eating chips."
"Listen to me. God knows I have hated that man, but right now? I love him and her, do you know why?" Jackie asked. "Because he did the right thing. He sent you back to me."
"But what do I do everyday, mum? What do I do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, each chips and go to be? Is that it?"
"It's what the rest of us do."
"But I can't!"
"Why, because your better than us?"
"No, I didn't mean that. But it was. It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor and Sage showed me a better way of living your life. You know they showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't." Rose said, standing and grabbing Sage before running off with her.
"You can't spend the rest of your life thinking about the Doctor." Sage said, quietly.
"But how do I forget him?" Rose asked.
"You've got to start living your own life. You know, a proper life. Like the kind we've never had. The sort of life that you could have with Mickey." Sage replied as Mickey ran up to them.
"Over here. It's over her as well!"
"That's been there for years. It's just a phrase. It's just words." Mickey says.
"I thought it was a warning. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me, the Doctor and Sage." Rose said, noticing the words. "Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there."
"But if it's a message, what's it saying?"
"It's telling me I can't get back. The least I can do is help him escape." Rose said.
Sage was dragged to where the TARDIS was at by Rose and soon, they soon found it.
"All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip. Just reverse." Rose explained.
"Yeah, but we still can't do it." Mickey says.
"Sage, you and the Doctor always said that the TARDIS was telepathic. This thing is alive. It can listen." Rose said to Sage, who shook her head sadly.
"It's not listening now. She's gone into shut down mode." Sage explained.
"We need to get inside it. Last time I saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened and there was this light." Rose explained to Mickey. "Sage and the Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS. If we can open it, I can make contact. I can tell it what to do." Rose said.
"Rose." Sage said.
"Mmm?"
"If you do that, you're going to die." Sage explained. "It's far too dangerous to look into the heart of the TARDIS."
"That's a risk I've got to take because there is nothing left for me here."
"Nothing?"
"No."
"Okay, if that's what you think, let's get this thing open." Mickey said, butting in.
*Time Skip*
Mickey had fastened a heavy chain to the tow hitch on his Mini. The other end was fastened to the TARDIS console. He drove forwards slowly, trying to pull it open.
"Faster!" Rose shouted.
"Come on!" Mickey shouted.
"It's not moving!" Rose shouted.
The chain broke and Rose kicked the console in frustration.
"It was never going to work, sweetheart. And the Doctor, hell, even Sage knew that. They just wanted you to be safe." Jackie said as Sage watched on.
"I can't give up." Rose muttered.
"Lock the door and walk away, Rose." Sage said, from her spot on the ground.
"Dad wouldn't give up."
"Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was, he'd say the same." Jackie says.
"No, he wouldn't. He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor's life, I'll try anything."
"Well, we're never going to know."
"Well, I know because I met him. I met Dad."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"The Doctor and Sage took me back in time, and I met dad."
"Don't say that."
"Remember when Dad died? There was someone with him. A girl, a blonde girl, she held his hand. You saw her from a distance, Mum. You saw her! Think about it. That was me; you saw me!"
"Stop it!" Jackie whispered.
"That's how good they are."
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Jackie ran off after saying that.
"There's got to be something else we can do." Mickey said, after a few minutes of silence.
"Mum was right." Rose said. "Maybe we should just lock the door and walk away."
"I'm not having that." Mickey's voice reached the blonde's ears. "I'm not having you just, just give up now. No way. We just need something stronger than my car. Something bigger..." Mickey said. "Something like that."
A big yellow tow truck stopped in front of the TARDIS and sat in it's driver's seat was Jackie.
"Right, you've only got this until six o'clock, so get on with it."
"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?"
"Rodrigo. He owes me a favour. Nevermind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and it's exactly what he would have done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind." Jackie said, as she threw down the keys to Mickey. Sage stood up and looked down at her hands, biting her lip.
"Keep going!" Rose shouted. "Faster! Keep going! Keep going!"
Sage stood as the console burst open, sending a shockwave through the TARDIS. Sage was sent, flying backwards. She groaned and saw that Rose had looked inside the heart and golden energy streamed into her eyes.
"Oh, Rose!" She muttered, a bit annoyed but a bit worried.
"Rose!" Mickey shouted.
Sage stretched her hand out, trying to move. The TARDIS doors slammed shut and the TARDIS started up. Sage finally grabbed onto the railing and lifter herself up. The TARDIS stopped and Sage quickly ran over to the doors, opening them. Suddenly, the Dalek that was close by shoot her in the arm, making her fall against the side of the TARDIS.
"You will not escape!"
The Dalek Emperor yelled as Rose stepped out, silhouetted in a blinding golden light energy tentrils snake outwards.
"What have you done?" The Doctor asked.
"I looked into the TARDIS and the TARDIS looked into me."
"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that."
"This is the Abomination!"
"Exterminate!"
Rose brought her hand up to stop the beam. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."
"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn." The Doctor tried to explain to her but Rose didn't listen.
"I want you both safe. My Doctor, my Sage. Protected from the false god."
"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal."
"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them."
A Dalek that was close by disintegrates gently.
"Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."
All the Daleks, including the Emperor crumbles.
"Rose, you've done it. Now stop; just let go." The Doctor said. Sage coughed and struggled to move, in pain.
"How can I let go of this? I bring life." She said.
Sage gasped and fell face first onto the floor. Looking up, she saw that her arm was healed. The Doctor looked at her.
"But this is wrong! You cannot control life and death!"
"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"
"The power's going to kill you and it's all my fault."
"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."
"That's what Sage and I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"
"My head." Rose muttered.
The Doctor looked at Sage and mouthed 'I'm Sorry' to her. She knew what he was going to do but understood why. She gave him a small nod and a smile.
"Come here."
"It's killing me."
"I think you need a Doctor." He said.
The Doctor leaned in and kissed Rose. Sage went wide eyed when she saw the gold energy transferred from Rose to the Doctor, her eyes to his eyes. Rose then fainted in the Doctor's arms and he exhaled. Sage got up and took Rose from his arms. She smiled at her husband, as he returned it, and they both walked into the TARDIS together, with Rose.
*Time Skip*
"What happened?" Rose asked, after she had woken up.
"Don't you remember?" Sage asked, concerned.
"It's like there was this singing."
"That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." The Doctor joked, leaning against the console for support.
"I was home. No, I wasn't. I was in the TARDIS, with Sage. And there was this light. I can't remember anything else."
Sage watched as the Doctor's skin darkened; she sighed.
"Rose Tyler." The Doctor started. "I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona - not the city. Barcelona, the planet. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."
"Then why can't we go?" She asked, confused.
"Maybe you will. Maybe Sage will, and maybe I will. But not like this." He said, gesturing to himself.
"You're not making any sense." Rose said standing. Sage took her arm in her hand to keep her away from him.
"I might never make sense again." He joked. "I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with."
Sage smiled at her husband before frowning as he doubled over in pain.
"Doctor!" Rose yelled, and tried to move forwards but Sage pulled Rose back.
"Stay away! Stay with Sage!"
"Doctor, tell me what's going on."
"He absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in his body is dying." Sage explained to the blonde.
Rose turned to face Sage. "Can't you do something?"
"Yeah, he's doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means he's going to change, and he's not going to see you again. Well, not like this. Not with that daft old face." She laughed as she explained.
"And before I go..." The Doctor groaned.
"Don't say that!"
"Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. And do you know what?" He asked, and smiled. "So was I and Sage, of course."
He smiled once again before a golden light burst out of the Doctor's body. Rose covered her eyes from the bright light but Sage squinted. Suddenly, a new Doctor was standing in front of them.
"Hello. Okay. Ooo, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona." He said, smiling before he ran over to Sage and pulled her over to the console.
Before she could do anything, he grabbed her face and kissed her passionately, causing her eyes to go wide in shock. He pulled away and the two of them, smiled at each other.
"Right okay, kissing you doesn't feel different. That's good!" He turned away and Sage placed her fingers on her lips, smiling happily, knowing that she didn't lose the Doctor she knew and loved so much. Her husband.
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