#☆ — big chinny ( gallery. )

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The Age of the Wolf (8/9)

Rating: Mature overall, this chapter is teen

Pairing: Eighth Doctor x Rose Tyler; Eleventh x Rose; Ten x Rose

Written for @doctorroseprompts and Eight x Rose August. Prompt: Dimension hopping!Rose meets Eight / What if Rose was with Eight or met Eight during the Time War? 50th Anniversary Re-Write/Fix-It

Read it on Tumblr: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9

AO3  TSP

An Elizabethan jailer pushed the three Doctors and Rose into a cell. “Come on, you lot, get in there.” When all four were in, he slammed the door closed.

The bowtied Doctor bent down and picked a small metal rod off the floor. He immediately set about scratching into a stone support. “Three of us in one cell? That's going to cause some nasty anomalies if we don't get out soon.”

The pinstriped Doctor’s gazed bounced from his older self to Rose and back again. He asked the other man somewhat curtly, “What are you doing?”

“Getting us out.”

“That’s gonna help?”

“I’m sending a message to a friend. She’ll know what to do with it.”

The wartime Doctor wandered over to the door and began examining it with his sonic.

Rose kicked at the ground while nervously stealing looks at her second Doctor. He had his hands in his pockets and was looking at her with desperate need while trying to appear not to.

The oldest Doctor momentarily stopped his scratching. “Oh, would you both just talk to each other.” He grumbled under his breath as he went back to his task. “Never thought I’d ever say it, but bloody Harkness was right.”

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other, surprised at being called out by one of his selves, before Rose broke out in giggles. The Doctor, not realizing how starved he’d been for the sound of her laughter, walked up and gave her an exuberant hug. He lifted her from her feet and spun her around, making her laugh harder. When he settled her back on the ground, he couldn’t bring himself to pull away. The Doctor had his face buried in her shoulder, breathing in her scent. Rose ran her hands in circles over his back.

“How...how are you here? You’re...I tried everything...I couldn’t...it’s impossible.”

“Back in Pete’s World, the stars were going out. An’ we built this, er, this travel machine. Called it, um, a dimension cannon...so that I, well, so I could…”

The Doctor pulled back enough so that he could see her face while gently asking, “What?”

“So I could come back.” The Doctor grinned brilliantly. “Shut up. Anyway, it didn’t work at first, but then suddenly the Void was dying and the walls between dimensions started to collapse. An’ that’s when it began to work. It was completely random, where I’d land. So many different dimensions. I stumbled across parallel versions of just about everyone I know. But never myself or you. Well, except in this one pocket universe, were you...”

“Pocket universe?”

She took a deep breath and plastered on a smile. “Nevermind. ‘S not important right now. Anyway, it was Mickey who thought of using my TARDIS key to lock us on to the right dimension. Had a couple of near misses after that, showin’ up jus’ after you’d left an’ the like, before finally runnin’ into you.” Rose pointed at the youngest of the Doctors. “That you.”

“Why didn’t you have him bring you to me?” His voice held a little bit of hurt, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

Rose ran her thumb up and down his sideburns. “He needed me.”

His hand covered hers as he leaned into her palm, his eyes fluttering shut. “I need you.”

“Doctor, you know what he’s goin’ through, I couldn’t leave him. But I’m coming back to you...before you know it. I still need help with the stars goin’ out, an’ then I have a promise to keep. Forever, yeah?”

For one shining moment, the Doctor put aside his fears of their disparate lifespans, and allowed the idea of forever with Rose Tyler to wash over him. He closed his eyes and captured her lips in a desperate kiss.

They parted briefly. “Rose, I-” She crushed her mouth against his.

When she next gasped for breath, she assured him, “I know. Me too.” She dragged him back into their kiss.

Rose vaguely heard the other two Doctors arguing about the door and molecules and sub-atomic harmonic resonance, but she let their voices wash over her as she reacquainted herself with the Doctor in her arms.

Rose was brought back to reality by the need to breathe. The Doctor’s grip around her waist had gotten tighter and tighter the longer she stood in his arms. “Too tight.”

“Oh! Sorry!” He loosened his hold but kept his arms encircling her.

The pinging of the metal rod hitting the floor and the oldest Doctor arguing with his youngest self drew their attention.

“Oi! Chinny?”

The Doctor holding Rose nodded. “Yeah, you do have a bit of a chin.”

Before the eldest Doctor could let loose against his wartime self, Clara barged through the door nearly stumbling and clutching at the vortex manipulator around her wrist.

The eldest Doctor asked, “How’d you get in here?”

“It wasn't locked.”

He wrung his hands. “Right.”

Clara gestured at the other men in the room. “So they’re both you, then, yeah?”

“Yes.”

She grinned wickedly at the Doctor who still had his arms wrapped around Rose’s waist. “Nice suit.”

He beamed at her and adjusted his tie. “Thanks.” Rose rolled her eyes, but slipped her hand into his with a smile.

“And Rose.” Clara waved that the other woman. “You were totally right about the way it makes his bum look.”

The Doctor preened at the compliment and waggled his eyebrows at Rose.

Rose looked between the Doctor and the young woman. “You...I’m sorry do we know each other?”

Clara shot a panicked look at her Doctor, whose own eyes had gone wide. He shook his head as discreetly as possible. Clara plastered a big smile on her face. “Oh, uh, no. Just, er, you know. He’s the Doctor. You’re...blonde. Must be Rose. And I am gonna stop talking now.”

“Right and you know my thoughts on his arse in these trousers how?”

Clara swallowed hard. “Erm, lucky guess?”

Rose narrowed her eyes at the oldest Doctor. He tapped the end of his nose and winked at her. Rose nodded and let it drop.

Clara spun around and looked back at her Doctor. “Hang on. Three of you and one Rose in the cell, and none of you thought to try the door?”

Rose blushed.

The wartime Doctor tapped his chin. “It should have been locked.”

The oldest Doctor agreed. “Yes. Exactly. Why wasn't it locked?”

Queen Elizabeth, at that moment, pushed the door open and entered the holding cell. “Because I was fascinated to see what you would do upon escaping. I understand you're rather fond of this world. It's time I think you saw what's going to happen to it.”

--

The sight of an alien planet headed straight for Earth caused massive panic both on the streets and in the Naismith Mansion.

A technician was banging on the door of a locked, glass booth. “Help me, please. Somebody, please.”

Wilf slipped unobserved through the doors amid the chaos and into the room. He made his way over to the glass booth. “All right! I've got you, mate. I've got you.” Wilf went into the the open half of the booth and closed his door which unlocked the technician’s side. “Come on. Go on.” The man ran without a backward glance, leaving Wilfred trapped on his own.

--

Queen Elizabeth escorted the Doctors, Rose, and Clara to the Zygon lair hidden in the dungeons. “The Zygons lost their own world. It burnt in the first days of the Time War…” The wartime Doctor’s steps faltered. Rose slipped her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. “...A new home is required.”

The Doctor quietly murmured to Rose, “Will the effects of this war never be behind us?”

She lifted her head and kissed him softly. “They survived, that’s something.”

Clara surveyed the activity of the Zygons from entrance at the top of the chamber. “So they want this one?”

“Not yet. It's far too primitive. Zygons are used to a certain level of comfort.”

Clara leaned over to her Doctor and whispered, “Kate turned into one of these creatures right before I came here and found you.”

The Doctor put his fingers to his lips, and glanced around the room, eyes catching sight of a glass cube.

A Zygon walked up to the Queen and asked, “Commander, why are these creatures here?”

“Because I say they should be. It is time you too were translated. Observe this. I believe you will find it fascinating.”

The Zygon marched over to the the glass cube and placed his hand on top of it. He vanished in a glow of blue light, just as a figure appeared one of the 3D landscapes Clara and her Doctor had seen in the Under Gallery earlier.

Clara and Rose went up to the painting to inspect it more closely.

Rose turned to her husband. “That's him! That Zygon’s in the picture now.”

The wartime Doctor walked up beside the two women and reached for Rose’s hand. “It's not a picture, it's a stasis cube. Time Lord art. Frozen instants in time, bigger on the inside, but could be deployed as…”

The pinstriped Doctor walked up on the other side of Rose. “...Suspended animation. Oh, that's very good. The Zygons all pop inside the pictures, wait a few centuries till the planet's a bit more interesting, and then out they come.”

The oldest Doctor joined the group and stood beside Clara. “You see, Clara, they're stored in the paintings in the Under Gallery, like cup-a-soups. Except you add time, if you can picture that. Nobody could picture that. Forget I said cup-a-soups.”

Rose smiled fondly at her future Doctor.

Clara turned back to him. “And now the world is worth conquering. So the Zygons are invading the future from the past.”

He smiled proudly at her deductions. “Exactly.”

The Doctor in pinstripes cocked his head and spun to face the Queen. “And do you know why I know that you're a fake? Because you're such a bad copy. It's not just the smell, or the unconvincing hair, or the atrocious teeth, or the eyes just a bit too close together, or the breath that could stun a horse. It's because Elizabeth, the real Elizabeth, would never be stupid enough to reveal her own plan. Honestly, why would you do that?”

“Because it's not my plan. And I am the real Elizabeth.”

“Okay. So...backtracking a moment just to lend context to my earlier remarks…”

“My twin is dead in the forest. I am accustomed to taking precautions.” The Queen raised the hem of her skirt and removed a dagger from its sheath tucked into her garter. The Doctor took a discreet step back from the blade. “These Zygon creatures never even considered that it was me who survived rather than their own commander. The arrogance that typifies their kind.”

Rose asked, “Zygons?”

“Men.”

The two women shared a knowing grin.

Clara leaned forward in interest. “And you actually killed one of them?”

“I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but at the time, so did the Zygon. The future of my kingdom is imperilled. Doctor, can I rely on your service?” She turned to the pinstriped Doctor.

“Well, I'm going to need my TARDIS.”

“It has been procured already.”

“Ah. Well...”

Rose stepped forward. “If there is anything I know about the Doctor, it’s that he will always defend the Earth against its enemies.”

“She’s right, this is like a second home to me and I pledge to keep your kingdom safe, my Queen.”

“Excellent. Now, my love, you have another promise to keep.”

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow the pinstriped Doctor. “‘My love?’”

The Doctor with great hair and a big gob stood gaping like a fish, unable to find the words for an explanation.

Rose narrowed her eyes. “Wha’ kind of promise did ya make?”

“Er…”

The bowtied Doctor swung his arm across Rose’s shoulder. “Your Majesty, about that. He’s actually already married.”

The pinstriped Doctor’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

His older self glared meaningfully.

“Oh! Right, yeah, sorry, so sorry about that. Misunderstanding...thought I was proposing to a Zygon.”

The Queen turned to him in fury. “Doctor!”

The Doctor raised his hands. “Don’t worry, I won’t let it affect my solemn vow to your kingdom. I’m still your man for that.” He ran toward his TARDIS and yelled over his shoulder, “In fact, I’ll just go take care that now shall I? No time like the present...or the future as it is may be.”

He opened the door and hurried inside. The others smiled nervously at the Queen as they backed toward the TARDIS.

“Right, we should really be helping with that. Ta.”

They followed behind the other Doctor and entered the TARDIS. The oldest Doctor popped his head out surprising the queen. “You might want to write him a letter just to remind him of his promise. Erm, just a thought. He seems a bit scatty.”

When he re-entered the TARDIS, the wartime Doctor was contemplating the console room. “You've let this place go a bit.”

“Ah, it's his grunge phase. He grows out of it.”

“Oi!”

Rose leaned against a coral strut and cooed, “Don't you listen to them, darling. You’re gorgeous.” All three Doctors looked at her with the same mix of pride and amusement.

An alarm blared and the pinstriped Doctor at the controls got a shock. “Ow!” The console room flared and the grating was replaced by metal plating and stone. The walls shone with light coming from deep set roundels. “The desktop is glitching.”

The youngest Doctor took in the changing console room. “Three of us from different time zones. It's trying to compensate.”

“Hey, look. The round things.”

“I love the round things.”

“What are the round things?”

The pinstriped Doctor shook his head. “No idea.”

“Oh dear, the friction contrafibulator.” The bowtied Doctor reached over and flipped a switch which completely replaced the mixed era decor with his own console room. “Ha! There, stabilised.”

The pinstriped Doctor regarded it in awe. “Oh, you've redecorated.” He face dropped into a pout. “I don't like it.”

“Oh. Oh yeah? Oh, you never do. Listen, we're going to the National Gallery. The Zygons are underneath it.”

Clara snapped her fingers. “No, U.N.I.T. HQ. They followed us there to the Black Archive.” The three men all turned to her with identical glowers. “Okay, so you've heard of that, then?”

--

Inside the Black Archive, Kate Stewart and her team arrived to find a set of Zygons cloned in their images. Kate walked over to a conference table and sat down. The Zygon clone of Kate took the seat across from her. “You'll realise there are protocols protecting this place. Osgood?”

“In the event of any alien incursion, the contents of this room are deemed so dangerous, it will self-destruct in-”

“Five minutes.” Kate lifted a remote and set the timer. Each second counted down with a beep. “There's a nuclear warhead twenty feet beneath us. Are you sitting comfortably?”

“You would destroy London?”

“To save the world, yes, I would.”

“You're bluffing.”

“You really think so? Somewhere in your memory is a man called Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. I am his daughter.”

“One word from you would cancel the countdown.”

“Quite so.”

“It's keyed to your voiceprint.”

Kate nodded. “And mine alone.”

The Zygon Kate smiled and yelled over her shoulder. “Cancel the detonation!”

The timer stopped at 2:50.

“Countermanded!”

“Cancel the detonation!”

“Countermanded!”

“We only have to agree to live.”

“Sadly, we can only agree to die.”

--

The pinstriped Doctor was fighting against the controls. “I’m trying to bring the TARDIS in. Why can't we land?”

“The Tower of London is totally TARDIS-proofed.” The two older Doctors gaped at Clara. She shrugged. “That’s what the Zygon Kate told me earlier.”

Rose questioned, “How can they do that?”

“Alien technology plus human stupidity. Trust me, it's unbeatable.”

Both women exclaimed, “Oi!”

The wartime Doctor blurted, “We don't need to land.”

“Yeah, we do. A tiny bit. Try and keep up.”

“No, we don't. We don't. There’s another way.” He glanced at Rose.

With a nod, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the Eye of Discord. She held it in her hands and focused inward.

The pinstriped Doctor’s eyes practically bulged out of their sockets. “Rose, is that…? What are you doing with...?”

The wartime Doctor moved to stop his older self from pulling the device from Rose’s hands. “Leave her. She knows what she’s doing.”

Rose’s eyes flashed gold and a swirling pathway opened from the TARDIS to the Black Archive. She gave the others a manic smile before jumping through the newest time fissure.

--

The group of five appeared in the Black Archive to a very surprised set of U.N.I.T. employees in duplicate.

The youngest Doctor greeted, “Hello.”

“I'm the Doctor,” added the pinstriped Doctor.

“Sorry to just pop in.”

Clara shook her head at the trio. “Also the showing off.”

The oldest Doctor shook his outward calm off and stormed over to one of the Kates. “Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, what in the name of sanity are you doing? Please tell me you’re not about to do something unbelievably stupid.”

The other Kate replied, “The countdown can only be halted at my personal command. There's nothing you can do. I’m sorry.”

The Doctor in pinstripes attempted to get her to see reason. “Not as sorry as you will be. This is not a decision you will ever be able to live with.”

The bowtied Doctor promised, “I’ll make you both agree to halt it.”

She scoffed. “Not even the three of you.”

The Doctor freshly from the war shook his head. “You're about to murder millions of people.”

Rose walked over to the youngest version of her husband and took his hand.

“To save billions. How many times have you made that calculation?” She looked each of the incarnations in the eye.

The oldest Doctor glanced at Rose and his other self. “Once. Turned me into the man I am now.”

The pinstriped Doctor sighed. “You tell yourself it's justified, but it's a lie so you can sleep at night. Because what I did that day was...it will never feel right.”

The youngest Doctor closed his eyes against the love and understanding in Rose’s.

The oldest Doctor turned back to Kate. “And, because I got it wrong, I'm going to make you get it right.”

“How?”

The middle Doctor glanced at the countdown clock. “Any second now, you're going to stop that countdown. Both of you, together.”

“Then you're going to negotiate the most perfect treaty of all time.”

“Safeguards all round, completely fair on both sides.”

“And the key to perfect negotiation?” The Doctor queried his previous self.

“Not knowing what side you're on.”

“So, for the next few hours, until we decide to let you out…”

“...No one in this room will be able to remember if they're human…”

“...Or Zygon.”

The oldest Doctor jumped on the conference table and pointed his sonic upward. He nodded to the two other Doctors, who both raised their sonics. They activated a memory filter in the ceiling causing both the humans and Zygon clones to blink and shake their heads in confusion.

The two Kates glanced at the countdown clock and as it dropped under 0:07, together they yelled, “Cancel the detonation!”

As the countdown stopped at 0:05, the Doctor fiddled with his bowtie and smiled at Clara. “Peace in our time.”

The two Kates retook their seats at the conference table and began negotiations.

--

The Doctor remained on his knees breathing heavily. The Master looked in confusion at his oldest friend and bitterest enemy. “But this is fantastic, isn't it? The Time Lords restored.”

“You weren't there in the final days of the War. You never saw what was born. But if the Time Lock's broken, then everything's coming through. 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 Neverweres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending.”

The Master’s eyes lit with glee. “My kind of world.”

“Just listen! Because even the Time Lords can't survive that.”

“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 was incredulous. “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.”

The Doctor pleaded with the Master. “You see now? That's what they were planning in the final days of the War. I had to stop them.”

The Master stepped forward, arms spread wide. “Then, take me with you, Lord President. Let me ascend into glory.”

“You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more.” Rassilon raised his gauntlet covered hand toward the Master and slowly opened his fist. The Doctor pushed himself to his feet and stepped between the two. He aimed the revolver he still held at Rassilon.

“Choose your enemy well. We are many. The Master is but one.”

From behind, the Doctor heard the Master cajole, “But he's the President. Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours.”

The Doctor spun around to point the revolver at the Master.

“He's to blame, not me! 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 flipped around to point the gun at Rassilon.

The Master egged the Doctor on, “Exactly. It's not just me, it's him. He's the link. Kill him!”

Rose slipped through the door without any notice as the Lord President addressed the Doctor. “The final act of your life is murder. But which one of us?”

Behind Rassilon, one of the dissenters lowered her hands and caught Rose’s eye. Rose fought back tears as she met the gaze of her mother-in-law for the first time in years - and likely, the last.

The older woman inclined her head, just barely perceptible. And Rose, after taking a bracing breath, did the same and mouthed, “Goodbye.” The corners of the older woman’s lips twitched upward.

The Doctor’s mother moved her eyes to her son. He stood frozen, unable to even pull air into his lungs. She too remained unmoving, though he noticed her eyes flicker to a place over his shoulder. His mind raced as it recalled the layout of the space. His eyes flared for a moment and he turned once again back to the Master.

The Master closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable.

“Get out of the way.”

The Master’s eyes popped open. He jumped out of the way just before the Doctor fired at the apparatus holding the White Point Star. A flare of light heralded a gale that blew through the area. The Doctor dropped the arm holding the pistol as the Time Lords fought against the winds pushing them back into the Time Lock.

“The link is broken. Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell.”

--

The Visionary looked up from her scribing and chanted to the heavens, “Gallifrey falling! Gallifrey falls! The Wolf rises! The Age of the Wolf begins!”

--

Rassilon screamed, spittle flying from his mouth, “You'll die with me, Doctor.”

“I know.” The Doctor’s head dropped.

Rassilon took aim at the Doctor with his gauntlet. The Doctor’s mother lowered her eyes as a tear fell and she re-covered her face. Rose was about to make her move, when the Master clambered to his feet and yelled, “Get out of the way!”

The Doctor jumped back as the Master sent an energy blast at Rassilon using up his unstable life force. He raged at the Time Lords, “You did this to me! All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!”

The Doctor and Rose stood transfixed, watching as the Master hit the Lord President over and over with energy bursts until he collapsed to his knees. The Master stepped closer and closer, energy pouring from him unrelentingly. It intensified until, in a brilliant eruption of light, all Time Lords, save the Doctor, disappeared from Earth.

The Doctor stumbled to the window and noticed Gallifrey gone from the sky and people celebrating in the streets. He backed up and leaned against the wall, feeling every painful twinge of his battered body. “I'm alive. I've…there was...I'm still alive.”

Rose ran up to him and, although she wanted to throw herself into his arms, she feared hurting him. He crushed her into a hug, not caring.

--

Clara walked over to the photo board containing pictures of the Doctor’s known companions. She played with the push pin stuck into a black and white photo of a teenage girl with a pixie cut. She glanced to the corner of the room and noticed the wartime Doctor sitting alone, staring into a steaming cup of tea.

She strolled over and perched on the arm of his chair. “Hello.”

“Hello.”

“I'm Clara. We haven't properly met yet.”

“I look forward to it.” The Doctor took a sip of his tea while Clara sat quietly studying him. “Is there a problem?”

“No, I just noticed you here all alone.”

The Doctor let his eyes drift over to where Rose was laughing and joking with the other Doctors. She met his gaze and her smile widened.

The Doctor sighed. “The way they both look at me. I'm trying to think of a better word than dread.”

“It must be really recent for you.”

“Recent?”

“The Time War. The last day. The day you…”

“The day I had to kill them all?”

“The Doctor, my Doctor, he never wants to talk about the day he did it. The day he wiped out the Time Lords to stop the war.”

“I don’t imagine one would.”

Clara scrutinized the Doctor’s face and appeared to be making a decision. “You wouldn't...Because you haven't done it yet. It's still in your future.”

“You're very sure of yourself.”

“He regrets it. I see it in his eyes every day. He'd do anything to change it.”

The Doctor gestured over to the negotiating table. “Including saving all these people? How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think? Look over there. Humans and Zygons working together for peace.”

Rose appeared and sat on the Doctor’s lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

The Doctor considered Clara. “How did you know?”

Rose watched as Clara struggled with how to answer the Doctor’s question.

Finally, she sighed. “Your eyes. They...they’re haunted, but not filled with the same self loathing that I sometimes see in him.” She gestured to her Doctor.

“Is he...does he...do I-”

Clara leaned over and touched his knee. “I don’t think you’ve ever really gotten over it, but you always say that Rose made you better.”

He said low enough for Rose’s ears only, “I've seen all I need to.”

“I know.” Rose smiled gratefully at Clara, before kissing the Doctor’s crown.

“Clara!”

Clara turned to her Doctor and called out, “I’ll be right there, I’m just talking to-” She turned back to the cuddling couple to find them gone. She glanced left and right, but they’d vanished. “Doctors!”

--

Rose and the Doctor found themselves back where they started - in the Doctor’s childhood barn. Rose was holding the Eye of Discord in her hands, and sticking straight out of the top was a shaft tipped with a bright red ruby. It was reminiscent of a long stemmed rose. He quirked his brow at her.

“You wanted a big red button.” Her hands started to shake. “One big bang, no more Time Lords. No more Daleks. Are you sure?”

“I was sure when we left, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It’s just there’s no other way to save at least a portion of the universe...all those worlds, their people. The Zygons...when I first heard they’d lost their homeworld. I...I thought maybe it was a sign that the universe was better off dead. All the suffering that’s already been caused. That can never be erased. But to see them and the humans working together...together, Rose! I realized that the universe can, no, does survive.”

“In no small part due to you.”

The Doctor placed his hand just above the button. He closed his eyes.

Rose tilted her head as if she was listening to something only she could hear. “You know the sound the TARDIS makes?” The Doctor opened his eyes and turned his attention to Rose whose eyes had just began to take on a low glow. “That wheezing, groaning? That sound brings hope wherever it goes.”

The Doctor released a long held breath. “Yes. Yes, I like to think it does.”

“To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone…” A slight breeze began to blow around them, the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS filling the space. Rose smiled. “...even you.”

Two TARDISes materialize at the far end of the barn. The pinstriped Doctor exited one, Clara and the bowtied Doctor the other.

Clara appeared relieved to find Rose and the younger Doctor. “I told you. He hasn't done it yet.”

“Go away now, all of you. This is for me to do.”

The pinstriped Doctor eyed his next self. “These events should be time-locked. We shouldn't even be able to get here.”

“So something let us through.” The bowtied Doctor eyed Rose.

Her eyes flashed gold. “My clever boys.”

“Oh!” The pinstriped Doctor bent over and grabbed his head, it was as if a jolt had gone through his body. His eyes fell on Rose in shock. “The Moment. You...my...you’re the Moment? My Lady Moment. Bad Wolf! And we’re...” His jaw dropped open.

The bowtied Doctor reacted a little less dramatically with a simple cringe as the memory unfurled in his mind.

“Go back. Go back to your lives. Go and be the Doctor that I could never be. Make it worthwhile.”

“All those years, burying you in my memory, and it wasn’t even a real memory. You made me forget Rose completely!”

“What would you have me do? She insisted on staying, before we had ever even met her. I can’t forget the whole bloody war, no matter how appealing the thought. We came up with the idea of creating a false memory based on an alternate timeline and to bury it at the bottom of all the memories that you’d never want to remember anyway.” He mumbled to himself, “Glad to know it works.”

“I pretended that the Doctor...you...didn't exist during the Time War. Keeping you a secret, even from myself. A false Doctor...”

“Thinking you weren't the Doctor, when you were the Doctor more than anybody else.”

“You were the Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right.”

“But this time…”

“You don't have to do it alone.”

The two older Doctors placed their hands, one on top of the other, hovering over the sparkling red ruby.

The younger Doctor looked at his two successors with gratitude. “Thank you.”

“What we do today is not out of fear or hatred. It is done because there is no other way.”

“And it is done in the name of the many lives we are failing to save.” The oldest Doctor caught sight of Clara whose eyes were full of tears. “What? What is it? What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“No, it's something. Tell me.”

“When you told me you wiped out your own people. I just...I never pictured this you doing it, that's all.”

“If you like, you can wait for me in the TARDIS.”

“‘Cos there isn't anything we can do.”

“He's right. There isn't another way. There never was. Either I destroy my own people or let the universe burn. And if I have to be the one to make the decision, then the very least I can do is support myself in it.”

Clara wiped her tears. “If Rose can stay here for you then so can I. That’s what friends do. Support each other even when it’s hard.”

“Rose, you don’t have to stay here for this. Neither one of you does.”

Rose’s lips tightened with anger. “You should know better by now, Doctor, sendin’ me away is never gonna happen.”

The younger Doctor blurted out, “She can’t leave.”

The two older Doctors boggled at the younger Doctor. “What?”

“Bad Wolf. The Moment. She’s the interface of the Galaxy Eater. We need her to make it work.”

The two older Doctors stared at her in dawning horror. “What?”

“This...Roppen...it was always meant for us. It’s conscience is Rose.”

“Rose, I...”

“This is wrong. You shouldn’t-”

“Me here. Does it change the way you feel about me? Ruin me in your eyes?”

“No!” “Of course not!” The two older Doctors yelled simultaneously.

“Then why would you think this would ever change how I feel about you?”

Both men had their mouths open, clearly surprised, and unsure how to answer.

“I love you. You.” She glanced at all three versions of the man she loved. “No matter the face, no matter the fears, no matter what you’ve done in the past, present, or future...I will love you. Forever.”

Rose’s pinstriped Doctor was the first to act. He leaned forward and captured her lips in a fervent kiss.

She pulled back and the bowtied Doctor kissed her on the forehead. She looked at him in confusion. He shrugged. “I...you don’t really know me yet. I didn’t want you to feel-” She stopped his ramble with a quick kiss on his mouth.

“I always know you. My Doctor.”

He blushed and she faced the man she had married. The man she’d shared a lifetime with.

“Doctor.”

“Rose.”

“Thank you.”

“Me? I should be thanking you. You’re the one who saved me...over and over. In so many ways.”

“You let me. You let me into your life and shared it with me. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Better with two remember.”

“How could I not? You had me at, ‘Run.’”

She smiled her tongue touched grin, eyes sparkling mischievously. “Guess we’re even then.”

“Oh?”

The bowtied Doctor injected, “Spoilers.”

The younger Doctor addressed his eldest self. “Take care of her...afterwards. Make sure she gets to where she needs to go, since…” He swallowed thickly. “...I most likely won’t be able to fulfil that promise to her.”

Rose cried, “Doctor, don’t say that!”

“Rose, we both know where today leads. I’ve been wearing a bit thin for years. The Time Lock around Gallifrey is the only thing that’s staved off my regeneration as it is. When it breaks… Please...just know that I love you and will for the rest of my lives.” He gestured to his elder selves. “Not that I doubted it, but it’s still nice to know I’m right.”

Her smile wobbled. “Git.”

He closed his eyes, he never could stand to see her crying, and pressed his lips to hers. For a moment he simply savored the feeling of her soft lips caressing his, remembering each little instance of domesticity he’d shared with this woman. How could he ever want such a life if it wasn’t with her? It filled his hearts with hope for his future and gave him the courage to do what was needed at present. The thought ran through his head that if this was his last chance to snog Rose Tyler with these lips, he was going to make it count. He deepened the kiss until his wife moaned her need.

A subtle throat clearing had the two breaking apart, eyes unfocused, breathing stilted. Rose’s slight blush had the Doctor grinning widely.

He clapped his hands. “Right, er, where were we?”

The bowtied Doctor stepped forward. “You asked me to take Rose where she needs to go next, and on that account you have nothing to worry about. I may be remembering today as it happens, but if there is one thing burned in my memory, it’s the day Rose came back.”

“Thank you.” The youngest Doctor wiped at his eyes. “Well, gentlemen, it has been an honor and a privilege.”

The pinstriped Doctor nodded. “Likewise.”

The eldest Doctor saluted his youngest self. “Doctor.”

The three men placed their fingers around the edge of the ruby red button of the Eye of Discord. The youngest of them raised his eyes and met those of his wife. “I’m sorry.”

He pressed down and the world around them burned.