#elek x oc

[haedia]

WIP folder tag game

rules:

1. make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

2. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

3. tag as many people as you have WIPs

So, full disclosure, I just saw this and wanted to do it 'cause I think it will make me actually work on these more since they've been collecting dust for the most part?

Here are my canon Rook/Kiore Aldwir-focused WIPs (Rookanis):

A Trip Home

Oops, Saved Minrathous and Now the Demon Boy is Sad (actual title to be determined later)

Poem for Kissing Triptych (poem to accompany an art piece I have plans to do)

Velvet and Black Satin

Currently Untitled Veilguard Thing -- Modern Thedas AU Shenanigans

Catching Crows -- Modern Thedas AU Shenanigans

Here are my Nera Aldwir/Kiore's cousin-focused WIPs (endgame Elek x Nera x Illario, though mostly Nera x Illario since Elek is kinda busy for awhile post-game):

First Time with Elek (this one is titled but I'm holding it close to my chest)

2nd Time with Elek

Earlier Time with Illario (This one is set the night Lucanis leaves on his ill-fated contract)

Elek meets Illario for real, post-game

Turbo Slut Saves Thedas (this is mostly notes and some dialogue)

Anyway. Feel free to ask about any of them. I'll share bits that I like and that will hopefully be encouraging to put my efforts into it more (especially since I'm going on a trip at the end of the month that I don't want to do and it'll be a nice distraction)

As for tagging: Uh, if you like this and wanna participate, consider this an official tag. I'd love to see what you have in your folders, too, and would appreciate the tag back so I can see/respond. But otherwise, it's no biggie/no pressure. c:

[arilynn170]

I made this 2 days ago

This OC belongs to @quinklequonkle

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 15:  Fantasy Land

Current Masterlist // Previous Story

Fandom: Doctor Who // Pairing: 11th Doctor x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​​​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​ @anotherunreadblog​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​ @foxesandmagic @kmc1989 @caplanbuckybarnes​​​​

[If you would like to be added to this specific OC’s taglist, let me know!]

"Renata? Renata, you've overslept! Wake up!"

Somebody laughed but Renata felt too groggy to make it out right now.

"Renata, I know you're tired but I don't think you would like to fall behind on your schedule. You'd hate it, actually. You're all about routines, after all. Wake up already!"

Renata sat upright on a bed suddenly, her eyes blinking fast to clear up her blurry vision. Soon she found the man who was talking to her and she almost fell out of her bed from shock...and fear.

A tall man with dirty blonde hair, neatly parted, was smiling at her so sweetly...like he always did. "Sometimes I wonder how much time you actually put into these routines of yours…"

"Elek…" Renata said breathlessly. She could feel her hearts pounding in her chest. "How are you...?" This couldn't be possible. He couldn't be here with her.

And yet, Elek chuckled softly at her. "I think you slept pretty hard again. You're so confused. Didn't have another dream did you?"

"Dream?" Renata tilted her head slightly. When she said the word, she got a faint image of a man and a blue box — a TARDIS. As quickly as it came, it left.

"Gala?" Elek called to her gently. His hand cupped the side of her face. "Maybe you should lie back down and rest for a bit more."

"I'm fine…" Renata said slowly, sounding like she wasn't truly sure if that was the case. She started hearing a chirping noise...birds. They were...chirping. "Elek, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I'm not sure, a-a bird…"

"What's a bird?"

Renata blinked and the bird chirping faded away, leaving her in a moment of daze.

~ 0 ~

"Honestly, Asgari, can't you let it go?" The Doctor groaned as he strode down a hallway with a brunette woman hot on his trail.

She was outraged and the fact that the Doctor kept walking away from her only made her angrier. "No!" She shouted so hard that the Doctor winced into a stop. "You just got up and left and I had no idea where you were!"

"I just went out for a bit," he turned to face her and internally sighed. He honestly lost count how many times his wife got angry with him per day. "I was going to come back!"

"With you, I never know!" She huffed. "I never know anything about you and what you're gonna do!"

"Yeah, I know," he mumbled under his breath. Years of marriage had gone by for them and yet Asgari still felt like a stranger to him no matter how hard they tried to make things work. Not even the birth of their first child brought them closer.

Asgari shook her head at her husband. "I just want to know that if I need you, you'll be here."

"Of course I'll be," the Doctor said. He wasn't that terrible that he'd leave her behind to her own luck.

Asgari didn't seem so convinced and the Doctor thought it was fair. He'd just woken up that morning with a need - an urgency - for air. Asgari had been fast asleep and their daughter slept soundly in the next room. As much as the Doctor looked on at their daughter, he couldn't make the suffocation go away. He needed to leave the house for a bit. 'A bit', however, turned into hours. Asgari woke up and freaked, understandably.

"You should be," Asgari told him quietly, the disappointment flooding her simple three words. With one last look between them, she left him.

The Doctor thought it best to follow her to try and work it out but he started hearing a funny noise in the air. If he was correct, and he usually was, it sounded like Earth birds chirping…

He yawned. Maybe he should've stayed in bed…

~ 0 ~

"RORY-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y!" Amy yelled at the top of her lungs, clutching her very pregnant belly. "It's starting!"

Rory had only just arrived home to hear his wife crying out for him. He left his bike to fall on the ground and hurried inside the house. "Ah. OK, OK!" However by the time he found Amy, she was sitting down in the kitchen with a bowl of batter in front of her...not looking like she was in labor as she had said only seconds ago. "False alarm," she shrugged. "What?" Rory blinked at her, confused.

"False alarm!"

"What!?"

Amy let her wooden spoon drop into the bowl as she huffed. "Well, I don't know what it feels like. I've never had a baby before." She couldn't help it if she kept repeating the false labor thing several times. It was her first child; she was clueless.

"So, when's the Doctor and Renata stopping by?" Rory moved on before Amy yelled at him. He came over to peek into the bowl and stuck a finger into the batter, much to Amy's annoyance.

She swatted his hand away and when he refused, she grabbed the wooden spoon to threaten his hand with. "I don't know," she shrugged. "Renata said tomorrow but you know with the Doctor's piloting skills…"

"Noo," Rory sarcastically said. He ended up taking the wooden spoon from Amy to fully taste the batter. "Well, he better get it right if he doesn't want to get on Gabby's bad side. She's coming in today."

Indeed Gabby would be coming to Leadworth for a visit since the Doctor and Renata promised that they would stop by. Gabby showed up a few hours later and, much to their delight, so did their Time Lords. The TARDIS appeared in their cottage's front yard and out popped the alien pair.

"Oh dear," Renata stepped out to see the flowers the TARDIS had ruined. "We've crushed your flowers."

Rory agreed. "Oh, Amy will kill you."

Renata made a face, making Gabby chuckle. "I should stop letting the Doctor land us. He makes messes as soon as we get somewhere."

The Doctor shot her a look for her comment. "Not on purpose!"

Renata playfully rolled her eyes at him and moved on to hug Rory and then Gabby. "It's so nice to see you all."

"I know, nice to see you too," Gabby hugged her back tightly then moved onto the Doctor. "How come you guys don't stop by more often?"

"Gabriella, I thought we went over this: the Doctor's piloting skills!"

"Oi!" the Doctor once again shot Renata a look. "You're getting too carried away!"

"Where's Amy?" Renata asked, looking around curiously. She figured that the TARDIS' loud landing noises would have brought Amy out like a magnet.

"She'll need a bit longer," Rory jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the cottage's entrance.

"Whenever you're ready, Amy," called the Doctor, promptly ignoring Renata's 'Don't be rude' remark. He was much more interested in Amy's new protruding stomach. "Oh, wahey! Wahey. You've swallowed a planet!"

"Doctor!" Renata couldn't believe her ears...actually, she could because it was him. Still, it wouldn't mean that she would stand for it. "She's pregnant!" She beamed at the sight of Amy. "Oh my goodness, you're pregnant!"

Amy laughed and received her hug. "Yup. Pregnant."

"You're huge!" The Doctor exclaimed, either ignoring Renata's scold for it or simply not hearing her in all his awe.

Amy shook her head at both of them. Neither had changed a bit and that was just fine. "Yeah, I'm pregnant!"

It still somehow did not click for the Doctor. "Look at you. When worlds collide!"

"Wow," Gabby was truly amazed how he was regarded as one of the most intelligent beings in the universe and yet...he did this.

"Oh, look at you both. Five years later and you haven't changed a bit!" He went on and hugged Amy. "Apart from age and size."

"Doctor!" Renata huffed. "For the love of God!"

He stared at Amy until they all literally saw a spark in his eyes that came just before he asked, "Are you pregnant?"

Amy shook her head at him and started back for the cottage, prompting Rory to follow.

"You really haven't changed," Gabby laughed as she followed too.

"What?" The Doctor was left asking until Renata turned him towards her. "What I do?"

The Time Lady smiled at him. "You're unbelievable."

When the group was all settled, they decided to take a stroll through Leadworth. Gabby had only been in the town for Amy's and Rory's wedding so she wanted to see what else was around.

"Ah, Leadworth. Vibrant as ever," the Doctor said, clearly a strain due to its significant small size.

"It's Upper Leadworth, actually," Rory smiled proudly, "We've gone slightly upmarket."

"Where is everyone?"

"This is busy," Amy gestured to the very few people in the street. "OK, it's quiet, but it's really restful and healthy. Loads of people here live well into their 90s."

"I like it," Renata said, unsurprisingly for the others. Of course she would love the quaint towns like Leadworth. "I think it's a good place to live in and start a family."

Amy eventually slowed down until she had to take a rest on a bench. "Sorry," she apologized and rubbed her stomach.

"Don't be, it's normal," Renata said and sat down next to her. "Girl or boy?" She asked with as much curiosity as Amy's blood relatives had whenever they got into the same discussion.

"Don't know," Amy shrugged. "It's going to be a surprise."

"Oh, how nice," Renata beamed and looked at the others, specifically at the Doctor. "We are going to be here on time when this child comes." He playfully rolled his eyes at her but agreed he'd like to be there as well.

"I want to be here too," Gabby nodded. "I'm going to be an aunt! Are there names yet?"

"A few, but that's a surprise too," Rory said, sharing a knowing smile with Amy. They clearly had a name in mind.

"Alright," Gabby shrugged and turned away to get a better look at the town. There really were hardly any people on the street. "So, um, what exactly do you do here?"

"A lot," Rory said defensively, as if Gabby was already viewing Leadworth like the Doctor had: a small, boring town.

"Like what?"

"We relax...we live, we listen to the birds."

"Yeah, see, birds. Those are nice," Amy agreed somewhat as they started hearing the faint chirp of a birdsong.

"We didn't get time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS days."

The birdsong started getting louder.

"Uh...my head…" Renata rubbed her temples. Maybe she was exaggerating but the chirping sounded way too loud.

"Oh, blimey. My head's a bit, ooh…" The Doctor said with a scrunched face. "No, you're right, there wasn't a lot of time for birdsong back in the good...old... days."

Everyone had drifted into a sleep.

~ 0 ~

Gabby continuously giggled as she and Donna watched the tenth incarnated Renata and the tenth Doctor go back and forth in their little bickering session. They walked behind the pair down a street filled with cheerful celebrating humans.

"Doctor, I cannot believe you are this ridiculous," Renata huffed at the Doctor who had stopped at a stall to try on a classic funny hat.

"What? You don't like it?" He asked, tilting his head.

"No! Stop being a child and get us back to the TARDIS!"

He didn't wince with her scream but he didn't looked pleased to find that she was upset with their destination. "It's a simple celebration, Renée, have some fun."

"I don't like it," Renata shook her head.

"Well, Gabby and Donna sure do!" The Doctor returned the hat to its proper place. "Don't we, ladies?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh sure, bring us into your argument. No thanks!" She promptly grabbed Gabby's arm and walked down a few stalls ahead. "Oh those two will be the death of me!" It was her turn to huff. "You know very well that they argue because they're attracted to each other."

Gabby agreed with a light chuckle. "I know."

"Maybe we should help them. Give 'em little nudges," Donna smirked. "Whaddya say?"

"I say that Renata will kill us but…" Gabby stopped walking and turned to face Donna. "We're the best duo they've got so let's go for it!"

Donna laughed and high-fived Gabby. They really were the best duo together. They returned to the bickering Time Lords to break them apart by suggesting that they go find somewhere to eat. Little did they know that they would be searching for a romantic spot for them.

Gabby was in charge of finding the spot while Donna bided some time for them. She had just turned down the corner when she heard a significantly loud bird chirping somewhere. She stopped and looked up at the sky. It was as normal as any Earth sky.

But then she felt so tired.

She yawned and brought a hand to her mouth to cover it up. Her eyes felt quite heavy suddenly...like she wanted a nap…

~ 0 ~

"I had a terrible nightmare…" the Doctor was saying to Renata when Amy, Rory and Gabby joined them in the console room.

"Me too," Renata was pale as she recalled her own dream. She hadn't dreamt about Elek in years, and that was just before she had met the Doctor again in 1969. Now suddenly she was dreaming that she was back on Gallifrey, married to Elek...

"Yeah, don't ask," the Doctor scrunched his face. He wasn't prepared to talk about Asgari again. He himself didn't like what he dreamt about as it made him beyond guilty remembering that he wasn't the best husband that Asgari deserved.

"You guys had bad dreams too?" Amy was rubbing her flat stomach as if she really was pregnant like she had been in her dream.

"What? Seriously? You guys too?" Gabby looked around and saw everyone, except for Rory, wore similar pale faces. She felt sick to her stomach and it wasn't because of the dream with Donna...but more to the fact that it was another reminder how she had failed recently to keep their endeavors on Renata and the Doctor safe.

"I had a dream but it wasn't a nightmare," Rory shrugged and glanced at Amy. "We were married."

The Doctor took note of the silent, but flashy, red lights on the console. That was unusual. "What's wrong with the console?"

Amy arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, in a little village."

"A sweet little village, and you were pregnant…" Rory trailed off when he realized that Amy knew exactly what he was talking about...as if she had the same dream.

"Yeah, I was huge. I was a boat!"

"You guys had the same dream?" Gabby quickly looked at the Doctor and Renata. "What did you dream about?"

The question kept them both silent.

"Okay…" Gabby cleared her throat, figuring she might as well go first. "I dreamt with you guys, but the previous you guys...and Donna." She looked down momentarily. Even if the dream had been a short one, it made her miss Donna like crazy again.

"You guys were there too," Amy suddenly remembered and pointed at the Time Lords. "But these current versions, not the last ones like Gabby's dream."

"Were we in any of your dreams?" Rory curiously wondered since it seemed like they were crossing dreams.

"No," Renata said quickly, and the Doctor agreed a few seconds later. "I was on Gallifrey...with my late husband." She waited to hear the Doctor's reaction but instead he admitted that his dream involved his own late wife.

"I haven't dreamed about Asgari in centuries," he confessed. "But it felt real."

"So did mine," Renata confessed. Everything about Elek had been accurate down the same way he used to laugh.

"I don't understand what's going on but I know that something's going on," Gabby declared and blew out some air. "Did you all hear the birds chirping in the end?" There was a collective nod amongst them. "Oh yeah, something's going on!"

"Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode. We probably jumped a time track…" the Doctor tried to say but even he didn't look convinced of his own words. "Forget it, we're back to reality now."

Amy stiffened. "Doctor, if we're back to reality how come I can still hear birds?"

"She's right," Renata whispered and turned to him, eyes filled with fear. "I hear it too."

They even felt the same tiredness as the first time just before everything went dark.

~ 0 ~

Renata blinked and she was back with Elek, having a calm breakfast together. She swallowed hard. "Elek…"

~ 0 ~

The Doctor blinked to find himself watching his young daughter fast asleep in her room. There was a terrible pit in his stomach now…

~ 0 ~

"Rory," Amy reached for Rory's hand and grabbed it tightly, "I'm scared."

"I know," he nodded in agreement.

While they had woken up from the chirping noise, their versions of the Doctor, Renata and Gabby acted like nothing had happened.

~ 0 ~

When they had been all pulled back into the same world in the TARDIS, they did a quick relay of what their world had done in the few minutes they'd been apart.

"We're looking at the park again," Amy and Rory had told them together.

"But there's ducks this time," Rory pointed out for the sake of adding more details to that world. He wanted to believe that maybe that other world really was theirs. Why wouldn't it be? It was lovely, calm and he and Amy were together and starting a family. It was just...amazing.

Gabby was slightly less hopeful. "Donna and I...we're planning again," she said quietly. "You and the Doctor...we're trying to push you together."

"Oh," Renata scratched the side of her head. "That, uh, that sounds right."

"Mhm," Gabby nodded. "That's what we used to do," she whispered. Was it wrong to hope - just a tiny bit - that the other world was the real one? The other world had Donna with all her memories. They were still friends and travelling together with the Doctor and Renata - their small space family. It was all so great...like it used to be once.

"What about you two?" Amy asked the silent Time Lords. She noticed that there was some reluctance from both of them to describe their worlds. "What are you doing right now?"

Renata swallowed hard. "Elek and I had breakfast together. He's going to work...I'm going to my foundation." Whether or not she wanted to, her gaze landed on the Doctor.

Knowing all eyes were on him to share, he did so, albeit quietly. "Just...just watching my daughter sleep."

Renata's hand flew to her stomach then. She had to swallow another thick lump in her throat.

A warm smile spread across the Doctor's face. Whether or not that world was real, that was his daughter. His firstborn. "It's like we're living the life we would've had if the war never happened."

"Yeah," Renata agreed with her gaze anywhere but him. She still saw, from the corner of her eye, that the Doctor had moved away from her, trying to work the controls again but if he was being honest, he was doing it to put some distance between them again. She felt it and she...may have agreed. Everything was fuzzy, reality wasn't clear. She, like him, had the guilty suspicion that maybe, just maybe, this reality wasn't theirs and they were truly meant to be on Gallifrey with their respective spouses.

They shouldn't be acting like anything beyond friends.

"So what do we do?" Amy once again pushed for some answers. "You said the TARDIS was dead, what do we do to get it back?"

"I don't know," the Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "I don't - I have no idea what's going on. Everything's off, sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, something, is overriding my controls."

"What could be so powerful to do that?" Gabby was wide-eyed with the news. In her long time travelling with them, she had never known anything to be able to do that. The Daleks in the Crucible were a different story. Plus, the only Daleks in the universe were mere scavengers right now. They couldn't be behind all this.

"Well, that took a while!" A new man's voice startled the group. They all quickly got in the same spot and turned to see the short man standing across them. He was rather familiar but no one could pinpoint how yet. It could be the similar clothing. "Honestly, I'd heard such good things. Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Him in the bow tie." His eyes flickered then to Renata, his smile stretching widely. "Oh, and the Vortex Butterfly. Who could forget about you? Certainly not that one." He jerked a thumb at the Doctor, and for the briefest moments his eyes had shifted over to Amy.

"How did you get into my TARDIS?" The Doctor stepped in front of the group, eyes narrowing on the stranger. "What are you?"

"What shall we call me? Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord."

"I prefer intruder," Renata moved up to stand beside the Doctor, though she still couldn't bring herself to look at him. "You're trespassing."

"One could say so have you," he grinned. "But in other ways."

Renata's face paled. "What are you—?"

"Don't play stupid, Butterfly. I am in the past, the present - I am in everyone's head," the man made sure to look at every single one of them. "All of you carry secrets and guilt that you're too afraid to confess to."

"That's called being a human," Gabby tried to say but the man scoffed harshly, making her wince.

"No, that's what we call a terrible being."

The Doctor had reached for something inside his pocket and chucked it at the Dream Lord. Unlike everyone else who was surprised to see the thing go through the man, the Doctor wasn't. "Interesting…"

"I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord - it's in the name, isn't it? Spooky, not quite there." The Dream Lord disappeared and reappeared behind them, making them spin around to face him again. "And yet, very much here."

"You said in our heads," Rory pointed out. He was messing with them in their minds?

"Anyone want to take a guess what that is?" The Doctor made a gesture for anyone to try it out.

Amy was eager to answer first. "Um. Dream Lord. He creates dreams."

"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks."

"And what about the gooseberry here, does he get a guess?" The Dream Lord nodded over to Rory who immediately jumped at the insult.

"Listen, mate, if anyone's the gooseberry around here, it's the Doctor."

The Dream Lord snorted. "There's a delusion I'm not responsible for."

"No, he is," Rory insisted, ignoring the Doctor's offended expression. "Isn't he, Amy?"

"Oh, Amy, have to sort your men out. Choose, even. That's one guilt," the Dream Lord grinned at the ginger.

Amy was now the center of attention and how she wished she wasn't. "I have chosen," she argued.

"Right," the Dream Lord said before glancing at Renata. "She would know though. After all, she was in the same position once upon a time. Got any tips on how not to screw it up?"

Renata breathed rather quickly in that moment. "Stop." Her voice had been a whisper. She felt her stomach twisting when she got to wondering how deeply this man knew her, of the Doctor, and their friends.

"None of you can fool me," the Dream Lord began, his voice cold as he once again gave each of the travelers a sharp look. "I see your minds, I see your thoughts. Oh...and I do see dreams. My dear Amy, when I say that you need to choose it's because I know you need to choose. I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy. Blimey, I'd blush if I had a blood supply or a real face."

"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" The Doctor cut him off before he went any further.

"Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground."

"Am I?"

"If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop. The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student... I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are. Where was I?"

"Being a pain in the ass," Gabby was quick to answer. "What the hell are you? Because right now, you're looking like a parasite."

"Did Donna tell you that?" The Dream Lord sent her a big ole smile as she paled. "Oh, right, she can't anymore...because of you…"

"Leave her alone!" Renata snapped, but the man laughed.

"And here comes Mama Butterfly to save you. It's ironic, isn't it, Gabriella?" The man set his hands on his hips. "She's helped so much and yet..what did you do in return?"

Gabby's fell silent with her terrible guilt gnawing at her. She failed Renata, and Donna; that's what she had done. Renata always helped her, always looked after her as if she really was like a daughter to her and when the time came...she wasn't able to help Renata. In the Crucible, instead of helping Renata put an end to the Daleks, she got all weak and needy. When Donna had been so close to that severed hand, she wasn't able to stop her. She let the meta-crisis happen and lost Donna.

"Here's your challenge," the Dream Lord made a dramatic, long pause. "Each of you have been placed in a different world, only problem is I can't remember which one's the real one...can you?" He shot them a smirk. "Could be this one, where you're all together…" His eyes met the Doctor's and Renata's. "Or could it be one of the other worlds? On Gallifrey? Maybe the humans aren't real. Or perhaps it's still 2009 and Donna Noble is still travelling with you. Decide."

"And if we don't play along?" asked Renata defiantly.

"Then you're stuck forever going between different worlds. Each time you jump, though, you'll get weaker. Oh, and I might have thrown in a bit of a danger in some worlds."

"This time I wasn't the one to ask," the Doctor mumbled to her and earned a whack on the side.

The chirping noise alerted them that they would be jumping worlds again.

"Doctor, what do we do?" Amy covered her ears but then realized she wouldn't be able to hear the Doctor's answer. "Doctor!"

"Try to keep your eyes open for something that doesn't make sense!"

"Uh, that's going to be hard!" Rory gestured to the Doctor first in his long list of things that didn't make sense. "We're in a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside, with a bow tie-wearing alien, a woman who sprouts butterfly wings, a girl who does the same thing…"

"Right, we get it, thanks," Renata muttered. "Just simple things! Sometimes we just…" She trailed off when the chirping became too loud for her. "...simple...just...simple things…"

"Ren? Ren!" The Doctor caught her slumping body and met her gaze one last time before her world went dark.

~ 0 ~

"Renata, you have to be more careful," Elek was holding the Time Lady in his arms. It took Renata a few minutes to realize they were right in front of the door; Elek was leaving for work but not anymore. "I love that being clumsy is an endearing part of your personality but right now it is the utmost importance that you take it easy."

"Clumsy?" Renata tried pulling herself away from him but he had such a firm grip around her that it was futile to try. "I'm not...I've never been clumsy."

That didn't make sense. "Try to keep your eyes open for something that doesn't make sense!"

At the Doctor's voice, Renata felt a series of chills run through her body. The Doctor. She loved im - had once loved him. That was in her past...wasn't it?

"Renata, I think you should go lay down again," Elek resolved that this was the best, and safest, option for Renata. "You're starting to worry me. The pregnancy is taking a toll on you."

Renata's hands came to rest on her stomach. She hadn't noticed it straightaway but she'd learned soon enough from Elek that she was pregnant. With no war, she was able to keep her pregnancy going. Her unborn child once again lived inside her.

"Oh God…" Her voice was shaky enough without her body deciding to join her in trembles. She was pregnant? Or she wasn't? She was with the Doctor, in the TARDIS - their TARDIS — as he once told her...if he had ever told her.

~ 0 ~

"You can't just keep watching your daughter and pretend like nothing's wrong," Asgari was beside the Doctor, keeping her tone quiet so their daughter, who remained asleep, wouldn't wake.

"Believe me, I'm not pretending," the Doctor took in a deep breath. He couldn't tear his eyes off his child no matter how much he tried. If this was all fake, then the illusions were so real...and if it was fake, then it was cruel.

Asgari shook her head. "You know, sometimes I wish we hadn't gotten married at all. I feel like we got along better before we were forced to marry."

The Doctor kept quiet but he silently agreed on that. Asgari was a lovely woman, when she had been his friend. She was a bit snarky, but it made her challenging personality all the more fun. They had bickering rounds when they were 'engaged' and those were fun, but that was it. It never compared to what he felt when he bickered with Renata, when he was so close to her ginger, freckled face. Asgari was beautiful but Renata was simply breathtaking.

But had their story truly ended the night before his wedding?

Did he never meet her again?

His hearts ached with both love and guilt. Love for his Renée, and guilt for Asgari and their children.

~ 0 ~

"I don't like being near to them," Amy whispered to Rory as they watched their versions of the Doctor, Renata and Gabby try a swingset. "They might not be real."

Rory couldn't help the scoff that escaped his lips. "Why would you think that? Why would you think that this world isn't real?"

"C'mon Rory," Amy turned to him, "Is this...is this really what we want our future to be like?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"I just feel like we could have more than…"

"A family?"

Amy fell silent. It only made Rory feel worse. How come he always ended up on this side of the path and Amy was stuck on the other one? He didn't feel like he demanded much, but it always seemed that way for Amy.

"Do you not want this?" He asked her, quieter as if anyone was listening in. "I thought you'd chosen me, not him."

Amy smiled at him. "You are always so insecure!"

Her nonchalant attitude wouldn't change the topic this time. "You ran off with another man!" He huffed.

"Not in that way! And Renata was there too, and Gabby!"

"Yet it didn't make much of a difference in the end, did it?" Rory's snap was a hard blow but one that he felt had to be made. It wasn't fair that Amy kept acting as if nothing happened because it did happen.

Amy looked down guiltily. "I said I was sorry."

"Yeah, but did you mean it?" Rory waited for her to answer but as it seemed, Amy was more troubled than previously thought.

~ 0 ~

"Oh this place is amazing!" Donna beamed at the lovely restaurant Gabby had found for them. It was like an old fashioned place with red brick walls, wooden tables and a pretty loud band playing in the corner.

Gabby only nodded as she kept looking at Donna and then the Doctor and then Renata. She couldn't get over the fact that this might all be fake, a plain farce.

The Doctor sure seemed to love the place. "It's great!"

Renata, on the other hand, wasn't so sure. "Does it have to be so loud?"

"They're just playing a gig," Donna shrugged. "They'll be off soon enough, you'll see. Go find us a table, hmm?" She glanced at the Time Lords with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah, alright. C'mon, Renée!" The Doctor offered her his arm and though Renata still didn't seem to like the place, she linked her arm with his.

"Let's see what we can do to push them together," Donna immediately told Gabby when they were gone. She pulled the girl towards the counter and called for the first employee that passed by.

Gabby watched and listened as Donna explained the situation to the employee. She smiled at Donna's determination to make things as romantic as possible for their friends. It was truly like nothing had changed. No doubt they would get into so much trouble from Renata if they were caught but it never mattered to them. They were the duo, the wing women, of the Time Lords and they had to do whatever they could to make them open their eyes.

[themarcspector-hasmovedblogs]

wip wednesday

tagged by: @multiverse-of-themind (thanks! 🥳🤠)

tagging: @gothamrains / @moonsaints / @deathlessfable/ @thelittlestspider / @theaisstillhere / @elizabethtaylors / @fayelistic and anyone who wants to share whatever they're working on too. say i tagged you!

note: i am doing fic//tober & fl/ufftober this year and these are excerpts from stuff i'm writing for both as a challenge to post my work instead of hoarding it. some things will likely be edited before i post it properly. it's all fandom x oc influenced stuff, cause i am still trying to figure out which prompts i wanna use for my original works. characterizations might be choppy cause they're all first rough drafts.

1) cloud x matt

Claudia smiles a bit, brushing Matt's cheek with her gloved left hand.

“The Man Without Fear? Scared?” she teases, using the same hand that comforts him to pinch his cheek and make him give her that infamous Matty smile. “You’re fucking with me. Clowning me, really.”

He chuckles. “Maybe? Maybe not.”

“You’re full of shit, then.” She says in a way that says she doesn’t believe he actually is full of shit, and that she's messing around. Then, right after that, she pulls him by his tie to kiss her.

It’s not a long, passionate kiss but it is enough to prove she means what she says. Because, if she didn’t, he would have to deal with her walking away and leaving him with nothing. “But scout’s honor…which, I realize you can’t see...But, I'm swearing on thin mints, and you know I don't fuck around when it comes to thin mints."

2) cloud x marc...she is attempting to bond...lmfaoooo

“You know, I doubt anyone’s ever told you this, but you bring a whole different meaning to 'what would you do if you had God in a box?',” Claudia had told Marc one day, taking a sip from her coffee cup as she looked at him with her very tired eyes.

“How did you answer that question when you were asked?” Marc asked, diverting the question away from his own response, as he typically did when they talked about things that revealed a little too much.

“I always said I would throw it, once it reached my hands. It sounded like too much responsibility -- too much I wouldn't want to know." Her shoulders shrugged and she made a face. "I guess that said - and still says – a lot about me,” she replied, taking another sip of her coffee. "And truthfully, I don't get how you do it, honestly. It sounds like a headache."

"Do what?"

"Walk around with a God in a box..."

3) sidney x matt (crack ship potential! accidental thing that happened due to one of the prompts giving me an IDEA!) but sid is dreaming. this isn't a real confession.

Matt let out a slight chuckle. “Nobody warned you about me, huh?” he asked, teasing. “I thought you knew when I hired you. I thought you knew the rumors?”

“That you’re a blind guy who falls down stairs a lot and has the most excellent hearing ever?” she asked.

“That I’m Daredevil,” he said seriously.

Sidney scoffed. “That doesn’t make any sense though.”

“That’s because you wear rose-tinted glasses.” He said right back.

“You literally wear red glasses, Matt,” she replied dryly.

4) cloud x elektra tw: violence, but it's kind of cartoony sjkdfhksjdf I HATE THEM LOVE THEM

"You two really need to stop playing this games of kill or be killed," Matt says to both Cloud and Elektra sternly, as they sit on the couch.

Cloud's got her leg draped over Elektra's legs, and Elektra's arm is wrapped around Claudia, and they're both holding in laughter because they're being lectured over their ridiculous little game.

"Why though? I looooove pushing Claudia off buildings, and she thinks it's incredibly funny when she comes back to life. No one's actually getting hurt here, Mathew." Elektra argues, before letting out a laugh.

Claudia laughs back. "And Elektra's a fun challenge. Do you know how hard it IS to kill her? I'm pretty sure she took on gh.ost rider once...Killing her is kind of a little ego boost for me. Like, who else can say they killed The Elek//tra Nat//chios 44 times and lived to tell the the tale?"

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 16: To Let Them Go

Current Masterlist // Previous Story

Fandom: Doctor Who // Pairing: 11th Doctor x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​​​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​ ​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​ @foxesandmagic @kmc1989 @caplanbuckybarnes​​​​

[If you would like to be added to this specific OC’s taglist, let me know!]

"It's really cold. Have you got any warm clothing?" Amy rubbed her arms endlessly to spark some heat within her. They had continued jumping from reality to reality, still having no idea which was one true. The TARDIS was ice cold now without power.

"What does it matter if we're cold?" snapped the Doctor. He was working at the console trying to bring up some power but there was absolutely nothing to work with. He felt Renata's hand touch his arm and with one look from her, he knew he'd rudely snapped at Amy. She hadn't deserved that. "Sorry," he sighed and rubbed his face.

"Amy, why don't you try the little room behind you," Renata suggested and made a nod towards the room down the staircase. "There should be some warm stuff down there."

"Thanks," Amy said quickly and hurried off with Rory.

"Are you guys okay?" Gabby asked the Time Lords when it was just them. "I mean I know that there's this weird thing going on but I...I get the feeling that you guys don't want to…" She didn't finish her sentence but she made a gesture towards the gap of space between Renata and the Doctor.

"Nothing to worry about, Gabbs," the Doctor put on a smile for her. "Go get something warm for yourself."

Gabby felt like maybe if she left, it would give them a chance to talk. Plus, she kind of was a little cold. Thanks to her new DNA, she wasn't as susceptible to extreme temperatures as a regular human but she was still affected a little.

"We need to do something," Renata said to the Doctor as she started for the opposite side of the console. "We can last a little longer in the cold but not them. And, of course, none of us will be able to survive a cold star."

The Doctor watched her cautiously as he went to a specific part of the console which then made Renata reposition herself at another side. "We can make a generator," he spoke quietly.

"Good," Renata nodded. He rummaged through the compartments, taking out several miscellaneous things. Renata stared at him without saying a word. Her eyes were studying every feature of his, trying to find something - a clue - that would tell her whether or not he was real. It shamed her to realize her hearts yearned for him despite not knowing which world was real. If this was a fake world, then the Dream Lord was cruel and she was still a cheater. She had Elek and she was still fantasizing about the Doctor. But if it was the real one...she was actually with the Doctor. She had started a relationship with him. That was riveting.

"Ren?"

Renata blinked. The Doctor was standing across from her but with a small contraption in front of him. He worked fast.

"Renata, I need your help," he said again. He was holding out a loose wire and needed her help to attach it while he worked on the other side of the device.

"Right…" Renata pushed herself to walk to his side, albeit slowly. She swallowed hard once she stood beside him, close enough to touch him.

"I'm sorry," he said when she had taken hold of the wire and he got back to work. "I know it's hard right now."

"Not knowing whether or not you're real?"

He stopped working and looked at her. There was a sad twinkle in her eyes that made him want to throw everything aside and hold her until she felt better. It was awful that she made a point, though. She might not be real right now, she could just be an illusion. Everything around them could be false and he could actually still be on Gallifrey...fighting with Asgari...watching their children grow up…

It made his hearts ache - what's more it made him ache for Renata. He had all these memories of her from both worlds and he wasn't sure which one was real. He loved her in both worlds and he wondered if she still loved him when they weren't sure if they were together.

"I'm real," he said to her.

"Yeah, but are we?" Renata pursed her lips together. "In my other world, I'm living with my husband...and I'm pregnant." The Doctor froze entirely. She placed her hand over her stomach. "I'm pregnant with my child. I'm supposed to be married."

The Doctor moved around the console and in two strides he was in front of her. "And here we're together. You wouldn't want that?"

"Well, I…" Renata felt like her air had left her lungs having him so close to her. "I'm not...it's all so confusing."

"The external environment is," he agreed, "But I'm asking you about the inside. Your feelings. Do you love me?"

Renata bit on her bottom lip the moment the question was asked. There was a raging 'YES!' that screamed within her. It was both scary that it was that strong and yet...eye-opening that her hearts were so sure of her feelings.

"Renée?" The Doctor touched her arms and she instantly felt chills run down her body. At the same time, the Doctor felt sparks under his palms. There was an insane desire to lean closer to her face and...and…

"Can I get some space please?" Renata's whisper pulled him out of his thoughts. He had actually gotten close to her face while he was thinking about how he wanted to get closer. Funny how things worked.

"Sorry," he mumbled and let her go. As soon as he did, Renata hugged herself. She was missing his touch already and that alone was guilty enough. "I'm just confused," the Doctor admitted to her. "That other world feels real but I...I don't want it to be real."

Renata met his look with surprise. "But your daughter is there. Don't you want to be there with her?"

"I love my daughter, but I'm pretty sure that she's gone." And that was another thing that stumped the Doctor. If he thought that the other world was false, shouldn't that break whatever power was holding him to that world?

"Are we any close to figuring this stuff out?" Amy led Rory and Gabby behind her, all bundled up in odd clothes. Their presence pushed the Time Lords into their working stride. They couldn't waste time trying to figure out if they were still in love with each other.

"Ah, Rory, wind," the Doctor handed Amy an attached wire, motioning her to head for the monitor. "Attach this to the monitor, please."

"I was promised amazing worlds. Instead I get duff central heating and a weird, kitchen wind-up device," Rory was eyeing the machine with distaste.

"It's a generator, actually," Renata told him. "Please wind."

"It's not enough," Gabby shivered in her spot, repeatedly rubbing her arms to create some more heat for herself.

"Why is the Dream Lord picking on you?" Rory asked the Time Lords. "Why us?"

Before anyone answered, the monitor flashed to life and showed the group they were near a starscape.

"Where are we?" Amy asked once the Doctor and Renata moved in behind her to see for themselves.

"We're in trouble," the Doctor said with a resignation that of course this would happen.

"What is that?"

"It's a cold star," Renata breathed in at the sight. The Doctor dashed for the doors to see it in person and subjected the entire room to a bright, blinding light. "Doctor, close that!" Renata scolded him.

"Okay, so a cold star means we're in trouble?" Rory waited for a more detailed explanation on how that worked.

"That's why we're freezing. It's not a malfunction," the Doctor returned to the console. "We're drifting towards a cold sun."

"The Dream Lord said there would be danger in some worlds," Gabby remembered, swallowing hard. "This must be one of them."

"This must be the dream," Amy said immediately, a ghost of a smile tracing her lips. "There is no such thing as a cold star. Stars burn."

"And it is," Renata gestured to the monitor. "It's just burning cold."

"Is that even possible?" Rory made a face.

Renata hated to only be able to shrug her shoulders. She looked at the Doctor but even he was puzzled. It wasn't something they'd faced before.

Rory figured out that neither of them knew the answer to his question so, like Amy, he dared to believe that they were finding a solution. "Okay, so if this is something you haven't seen before does that mean this is a dream? One of the other worlds is real?"

"I don't know," the Doctor huffed. "But I'd say we've got about 14 minutes until we crash. But that's not a problem."

"What is then?" Gabby asked, her voice full of dread.

"Because we'll have frozen to death."

Renata covered her face. He really could've put that into better words.

"Stay calm. Don't get sucked into it, because this just might be the battle we have to lose." The Doctor had pulled out a stethoscope to use on the console.

Rory snorted at him. "Oh, this is so you, isn't it?"

The Doctor paused to meet the man's glare. "What?"

"What a weird new star, 14 minutes left to live and only one man to save the day. I just wanted a nice village and a family!"

"Oh dear Doctor," the Dream Lord appeared behind the Doctor. "Dissent in the ranks. There was an old doctor from Gallifrey, who ended up throwing his life away, he let down his friends and—"

"Shut up," snapped Renata through gritted teeth, but all she got was the attention shifted on her.

"And the prim-trim Time Lady who did everything so wrong. Question is, have you repaired everything? Or are you still living in sin?"

Renata pursed her lips together. Sin. "I don't know, honestly..." she confessed. There were times where, as happy as she was, she still wondered if she was truly absolved from all her mistakes in the past. Sins. She was always raised to do the right thing, — the thing expected of her. Make no mistakes, be the best. It was hard being truly happy when that lingered in the back of her head.

While in her thoughts, Renata noticed that the Dream Lord had frozen in his spot, caught in a moment that apparently did not affect anyone else.

"What's—?" Gabby had just started to ask when the Dream Lord came back to life again.

"Best figure it out then," he picked up where he left off with Renata. "Or not."

And the birdsong started again.

~ 0 ~

Renata was having a difficult time deciding whether or not this Gallifrey was real. The way Elek held was so real, how could she ever decide it was fake? Everything was the way it used to be.

You're living in sin, reminded the annoying voice in her head. She bit her lower lip as she watched her husband beside her on the couch, completely immersed into a book. Because she 'hadn't been feeling well, he decided to stay with her for the day. He had one arm wrapped around her waist, letting his hand rest over her stomach. Every now and then, he would press a kiss to her hair and whisper something sweet to her.

It was just all nice and sweet...or so it felt like it. Renata felt her stomach twist and churn each time Elek paid her any attention. She was his wife and yet her mind was thinking about the Doctor and where he was. Her hearts ached for him and that alone made her feel terrible.

Oh God, I love him, she let her eyes close. She was still so completely in love with that man and it pained her to admit it. Her husband was right there for God's sake and she couldn't stop thinking about the Doctor.

Renata glanced at Elek and not a second later did he meet her gaze. He smiled at her and reached to cup the side of her face. "What is it?" He asked her as if he already knew something was bothering her.

The real Elek would do that too. Renata bit her lower lip. "Are you happy with me?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"Do you think you would've been happy if you hadn't married me?" Renata knew what she was trying to get from that question, she was just that sneaky that she was able to cover it up with a similar question. If Elek hadn't been forced into the arranged marriage with her, could he have had a better wife than her?

"Where's this coming from?" Elek lifted an eyebrow at her. "Should we try to rest again?"

Before he started moving, Renata gripped his arm around her to keep him still. "Just...just thinking."

"Well stop thinking those thoughts. I'm happiest with you," he leaned forwards to her, bringing his arm from around her. His book was abandoned on his other side as he cupped Renata's face with both hands. "And our child, of course. I love you."

Renata swallowed hard when he moved to kiss her. Guilt was flooding her. Oh God, I'm terrible, she concluded. Suddenly, Elek froze like a statue. For a moment, Renata thought she had said it out loud...but she hadn't. Whatever froze Elek vanished a moment later and he was able to kiss her.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor stormed down a hallway picking things up and tossing them to the side. He was ignoring half of what Asgari was yelling at him. It had to be about his rude behavior again and how he was mistreating their things, but he was on a mission. He knew, he was absolutely sure that this world wasn't real. He remembered what life with Asgari was; there was no way in hell that he could've ever stayed with her for all of his lives.

This was the fake world but it wasn't disappearing like he thought it would once he made his firm decision. That meant something else had to be done in order to break the illusion, but what? He thought maybe there was something hidden in the house, hence the careless picking and tossing of things.

"Would you please stop throwing my things!?" Asgari shrieked when one vase nearly hit her head.

"Just stop it! Stop it!" The Doctor whirled around abruptly, making her crash into him. "I know you're not real!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Asgari looked at him like he had finally lost it. If she was in on the game, she was acting perfectly.

"This world is not real," the Doctor glowered at her, coming nose-to-nose with her. "Quit playing. How do I get out?"

"What are you talking about?"

The Doctor turned away from her. "It's all done here!" He shouted for the Dream Lord to hear. "I know who you are, I know what you are, and I want to get out of here so we can have a chat!"

"Keep it down!" Asgari grabbed his arm to stop him from walking. "You're going to wake up your dau-"

"Don't finish that," the Doctor snapped, yanking his arm out of her grip. "My daughter is dead and I wish nothing more than to bring her back, but this is not it. A cheap illusion of her is more heartbreak."

"You're acting crazy—"

"I know it's my fault everything went wrong between us, Asgari, but I can't do this," he swallowed hard. He expected Asgari to continue pestering him for an explanation but instead he was met with silence. When he met her eyes, he noticed that she had frozen in her spot. "What is that?" He remembered the brief moment the Dream Lord had done something similar but why? Why had it happen?

~ 0 ~

"This has to be the real world," Rory told Amy as they walked along the solitary street of Leadworth. "It's all nice."

"I feel it in both places," Amy admitted.

"I feel it here. It's just so tranquil and relaxed. Nothing bad could ever happen here."

"Not really me, though, is it? Would I be happy settling down in a place with a pub, two shops and a really bad amateur dramatics society? That's why I got pregnant, so I don't have to see them doing Oklahoma!"

Rory looked at Amy with such a sigh. "You really can't see us living a tranquil life?" He asked in a way that made it clear that if she said 'no' then it would mean she had never thought about living a life with him at all.

With Rory, it was either all in or nothing. Maybe that's why she was more afraid than she led on. It was scary committing to something as big as marriage and everything it implied. Travelling with the Doctor and Renata was easier to do. If she was running for her life, then there were less moments to commit to something huge like marriage. Was it right? Probably not. Was she doing it? Hell yeah.

"Oh," she heard Rory. He had stopped walking, leaving her a few steps ahead. She followed his gaze to a group of elderly people across from them, staring at them like zombies.

Amy had the sense to backtrack her steps until she stood by Rory again. "Why aren't they moving?" She asked him in a whisper. "They're just...staring."

"Hello peasants," the Dream Lord's voice startled the pair. He had flashed in between them and the elderly people. "What's this, attack of the old people? Oh, that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream, hasn't it? What do you think, Amy? Let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS."

Amy felt Rory take her hand, squeezing it tightly like he was reminding her that she wasn't alone. That was also Rory. A part of her wanted to smile had it not been for the situation.

"Oh, trying to comfort the wife?" The Dream Lord sent a specific smirk towards Amy. "But I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?"

Amy frowned. "Shut up! Just shut up and leave me alone."

"But listen, you're in there. Loves a redhead, the Doctor! Has he told you that Renata's first incarnation was a redhead? And we all know what happened there." He gave a suggestive wink.

"Shut up," Amy snapped. "I don't...I don't care."

"Right. Evade the guilt, why don't you? Make yourself feel better, justify yourself," the Dream Lord glowered at Amy in a familiar manner. It startled Amy for a moment. "It's what we do, right?"

Amy swallowed hard. She suddenly gripped Rory's hand tighter.

"This is the danger in this world," Rory pulled Amy back when the elderly people started walking towards them.

Both of them nearly gagged when one of the elders opened their mouth to reveal a big ole eye inside.

"Aliens," Amy quickly assumed.

"Trying to kill us," Rory chimed in.

"Run?"

"Oh yeah."

They turned around and did just that, leaving a laughing Dream Lord behind.

~ 0 ~

"Look at them," Donna sighed contently as she and Gabby watched the 10th Doctor and 10th Renata awkwardly try some of the samples the waiters had brought by their table.

Gabby stood beside Donna, both waiting for their drinks at the counter. She was nervously biting her index nail as they watched the entire thing unfold. Everything looked so normal and real.

"I think with one final nudge, they'll finally kiss or something," Donna chuckled. "That would be hilarious but our team's efforts would have finally given fruit."

"Because we're the best team," Gabby finished in a quiet whisper.

"Exactly," Donna agreed with a proud smile.

"We really were," Gabby said. "Are. I don't know."

"You alright?"

Gabby shook her head. "No, far from it actually."

Donna gently turned the girl around. Her competitive expression was gone and in its place was a concerned look. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Don't try that with me Gabby," said Donna sternly. "I know you. You can tell me anything, you know."

"I know," Gabby agreed nostalgically. She wished she could still hear Donna say that from time to time. When they were in the TARDIS and she didn't get something or when she was trying to win Renata over, Donna was always there to listen and help her. "You have no idea how much I miss that. Or...or I think I miss it. I don't know if this is real."

"If what's real?" Donna said, confused.

"You," Gabby said. "I miss you Donna. I have memories that...that don't include you anymore because I lost you, we lost you. And I feel awful having new memories without you." Because even now, as confused as she was, she could vividly remember the adventures she had with Renata, the Doctor, Amy and Rory. None of them included Donna anymore.

"Oh, but I'm not going anywhere," Donna waved it off, even chuckling about it. "I'm going to travel with you guys forever."

Tears welled in Gabby's eyes upon hearing the familiar words. "Yeah, y-you said that," she choked the words out before the tears overtook her. The memories in her head were starting to overtake her.

"Oh, oh, don't do that," Donna quickly took her into a hug. "Ren's going to think I made you cry."

Gabby hugged her friend tightly, whether it was real or not she was hugging Donna again. "I really miss you, Donna!"

"But I'm right here," Donna insisted, patting Gabby's back.

"Are you? Because I think I lost you a long time ago. I remember that we traveled to the early days of Earth, we met and fought a God, we met Agatha Christie...we tried our best to help the Doctor and Renata sort their feelings out. We bonded a lot...you helped me find my way in the TARDIS, became my friend...and when the time came to help you, I wasn't able to do it." Gabby pulled away from Donna and instead of meeting her puzzled look, Donna seemed to be understanding every word Gabby was saying. "I should have been able to help you and keep you away from that severed hand. If I had, then you would still have been with us. You would've been there to help us find Ren a cure; you would have been there to help me kick River Song's ass when she flirted with the Doctor; you would have been there to see me unveil my first artwork in front of" — Gabby laughed through her tears — "a whole crowd of aliens in Zhe's gallery. But best of all you would have been there with us every second after our two dumbass time lords regenerated. We would've been together - our little space family."

"But I'm not," Donna said, her expression stoic. "Because you didn't help me."

"I didn't," Gabby nodded to herself. "But it wasn't my fault, and I know that my Donna would have told me that. You have accusation in your eyes, in your voice. You can't be my Donna. Time has passed and my Donna has moved on but I'm still there in the TARDIS...watching you take in that energy...I never left that moment, even if I tried lying to myself about moving on. But my Donna would want me to keep going — for the both of us — and who knows, in this impossible world...we may meet again. For now, I think it's time to say goodbye...somehow. And I think this is as close as I'll ever get."

"Goodbye?" Donna raised an eyebrow at the girl.

Gabby nodded, letting out a shaky breath. "Goodbye Donna. Thank you for being with me when I needed you; for being my first friend in space. I hope you live well as I will try to do the same. You may have forgotten about me but I swear that I won't ever forget you."

And right before Gabby's eyes, Donna started disintegrating...as was everything else around her.

~ 0 ~

The group re-awoke inside the TARDIS, coming to find that the entire interior was now covered with snow and ice. Even their bodies had been frosted.

"Ah, it's colder," Amy clutched her blanket over her.

"Alright, we all need to agree which world is the real one," the Doctor immediately said as he buttoned up his jacket.

"Where's Gabriella?" Renata had noticed that Gabby hadn't appeared with them this time. She jumped from the floor, nearly slipping with the iciness under them. "Gabriella!"

"Don't bother," the Dream Lord appeared by the staircase. "She won," he muttered, clearly upset by the matter.

"Won?" Renata lifted an eyebrow at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means she figured it out. Smart girl that one."

"So where is she?" Rory looked around cautiously.

"Back in the real world," the Doctor said. He was beginning to realize which world was the real one and it just made him angrier. He moved beside Renata, putting a hand over her arm. "It means she's safe."

Renata met his gaze and nodded with him. "But are we?" Her eyes flickered to Amy and Rory who apparently hadn't had much luck unlike Gabby. "We can't let anything happen to them."

"I know." Without thinking, the Doctor wrapped an arm around her waist. He pulled her to his side. Renata didn't even notice when she leaned her head against him. It just came automatically to her.

"Oh so dramatic," the Dream Lord swayed his head. "We're on a clock, people. Nine minutes until impact. Best get the conversation moving and I've been meaning to have a word with Amy."

"Oh, no! Not her!" Rory blocked the way to his finance.

"Yeah, you're not quite threatening," the Dream Lord shook his head at him. "Not like the tall, dark hero over there, huh?" He made a nod towards the Doctor but this time the latter was too focused on keeping Renata warm that he didn't even hear.

Renata smiled softly when he put his coat over hers. It was freezing and he was just making it worse for him, but he didn't seem to care. His eyes were locked on hers and for a moment Renata forgot they were in mortal danger. It was just him and her, like they often wished it could be.

I love you, she thought again. She absolutely did. Guilt or not…

"Guilt or not…" she whispered, her eyes widening when it struck her.

"Ren…?" The Doctor barely got her name out when she shook his arm.

"Guilt! That's what this is about! We're guilty! We're all guilty!"

"Oh no, you're going to ruin the game," scowled the Dream Lord. "Time to go, sinful girl!"

Renata soon heard the birdsong in her ears. "Doctor, Doctor...it's…" Her body slumped forwards but the Doctor managed to catch her.

"I'm here, I'm here!" He fully supported her but he couldn't stop the birdsong from affecting her. He could only listen to her last words.

"You're guilty...we've always been guilty...Asgari...Elek…" Renata's eyes fell shut as she once again jumped worlds.

"What was she talking about?" Amy soon demanded when the Doctor carefully laid Renata's body on the floor. "Guilt?"

"Time to go for you two as well!" The Dream pointed at the Doctor and Rory. "Can't have you ruining it!"

"Wait, no, no!" Rory clapped his hands over his ears when the bird song started.

The Doctor knew it was futile to fight against it. He glared at the Dream Lord as his body was forced down from weariness. "You're going down," he promised. He would lay next to Renata until the 'game' was over.

"Rory, Doctor, don't leave me," Amy was at a loss when it was just her and the Dream Lord.

The man was smirking away. "Amy, we're going to have fun aren't we? Poor Amy. He always leaves you, doesn't he? Alone in the dark. Never apologizes."

Amy followed his gaze towards the Doctor. "He doesn't have to."

"That's good, because he never will. And now he's left you with me. Spooky old, not-to-be-trusted me." Amy glared even when he disappeared to reappear on a chair wearing a lounging robe. This was all just a game to him. "Anything could happen."

"Who are you and what do you want?" She was tired of hearing that question without a proper answer.

"I'm your conscience," the Dream Lord made a sarcastic wave of his hands. Once more he disappeared and reappeared in front of her, wearing his normal clothes again. "I know everything that goes on in that head - in all of your heads. And you're one of the worst."

"I am not," Amy tried to argue but it came out as a weak defense.

"Now, which one of these men would you really choose? Look at them. You ran away with a handsome hero. Would you really give him up for a bumbling country doctor who thinks the only thing he needs to be interesting is a ponytail?"

"Stop it!" Amy demanded. No one would insult Rory like that.

"Oh, defend him as if you've been doing that this whole time - oh wait," the Dream Lord clapped his hands together. "You haven't. What have you been doing exactly? That's right, you keep fantasizing about a man that's not even yours. You wished the woman he actually looks at wasn't even around. And the human? You wish she wasn't around either."

Amy looked down with guilt. Maybe she had thought about that a few times. Her face scrunched. God, she was horrible. Renata had been nothing but kind to her from the start. As a child, she became like a pseudo mother taking care of her because she was scared. As a grown-up, she continued with the same streak. Even when she didn't deserve it, Renata was still kind to her and looked out for her. Gabby even welcomed her in the beginning, taking her under her wing on their first trip together.

"Got choices to make, don't you?" The Dream Lord's voice had become about a thousand times more annoying suddenly.

"Shut up!" Amy growled. "Just shut up! I know I'm terrible! I'm a very terrible person! I don't need you making me see it because I know it!" She waited for the Dream Lord to mock her or at the very least insult her but he did nothing. Actually, he was kind of frozen. "What?" Amy rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, more than what she already was anyways. The man was completely frozen in his spot, like a true statue. "What's going on—?"

The Dream Lord blinked and suddenly he was moving again. "Time to sleep again."

"Wait, what-" Amy heard the bird song start. "No, no," she wagged a finger at him, trying her best not to collapse on the floor out of 'exhaustion' like the Doctor and Rory had. "You froze - I did something, didn't I? I did! I…"

"Sleepy time," she heard the Dream Lord say before her eyes fell shut.

~ 0 ~

Renata had jumped off the couch the moment she was 'awake'. Elek was dumbfounded but she wouldn't stop over that. "This is my own type of hell," she sighed, gazing at him sadly.

"What are you talking about?" Elek got up from the couch and the moment he did, Renata backtracked several steps away.

Renata swallowed hard as her hands came to rest over her stomach. "I've been thrown back into the worst parts of my life. I'm pregnant with a child that will never take their first breath. I'm married to a man that I love but never the way he deserves. I'm stuck in a life of lies, creating more and more lies until I'm just drowning forever."

"Renata, what are you talking about?" Elek took a few quick strides to stand in front of her.

"You and I," she looked him in his perfectly clear eyes, the same eyes that used to offer her endless love. "I failed you, Elek. I failed you from the start and I never had the courage to fix it. I made you believe that I was the perfect wife when I was far from it. You did not deserve that. And I know that I can never fix what happened but I have to move on. I have to let this guilt go, otherwise I'm going to drown and then...what would be the point in me surviving all the horrible stuff that happened? I loved you Elek, I only wished that I could've loved you like you deserved. But to do that, my past would've had to have been erased."

"Now I'm living a new life, with the man I have always loved...and I'm happy with him. I'm sorry that it couldn't be you. I tried so hard to make it work but I failed. Two hearts..." she smiled to herself, "...and the Doctor claimed both. I have to choose to believe that you're somewhere better now, in peace...with our child somewhere. But I'm still here, and I have a lot of lives to live, so...I'm going to try and do that now. For real this time. I'm going to let you go, Elek. I have to. And I hope that wherever you are now that you can forgive me for my mistakes."

She couldn't keep bottling up the guilt that stirred inside her. That's what the Dream Lord wanted from her, what he wanted from them all. The guilt that sat in her hearts was a terrible disease that would never allow her to be truly happy. If the Dream Lord had his way, she would continue living in this fake world until the guilt killed her. When the world went dark around her, she took with her the face of her husband disintegrating and finally reaching well deserved peace.

~0~

Guilt. Renata had said something about that, hadn't she? The Doctor couldn't stop thinking about it. There was something he was missing and it was staring him in the face! It would be easier to concentrate if Asgari wasn't shouting at him from behind.

"You're terrible! You've always been terrible!" She was busy shouting, unknowingly laying the groundwork for the Doctor's realization.

"I know…"

"You're a terrible husband and a terrible father! You were never here!"

"I know!" He spun around to face her angry face. He blinked. Oh. "I'm...I was terrible," he whispered.

"Yes you are!" Asgari hissed. "You're here but you're never here! You're not here with us!"

"Yeah," he slowly came to agree with her. His eyes met hers. She was angry but there was also a glimmer he couldn't ignore. "I was a terrible husband to you, and not much of a better father to our children. You didn't deserve that. Oh Asgari…" He reached to touch her face, feeling her flinch right as he did it. "You had all the opportunities in the world, and I took them away from you. I married you and under the pretense that maybe we could construct something close to a real marriage but I never followed through. I couldn't. I was in love with someone else. There was never any hope for us. That was on me, it was always on me. I'm sorry." As he expected, Asgari froze in her spot, not even blinking.

It was the truth he always held close to his heart. He said he loved his children despite practically hating their mother, but that was only half true. He never hated Asgari. He hated the arguments they had because she was always right. She always had a right to be angry with him. She was the pillar of the family because he was there but never actually there. He forced her to step up and be the best parent she could be because he was always thinking of someone else, of being somewhere else. And that was horrific of him.

"You deserved so much better than me, Asgari," he nodded. "You and our children. I'm so sorry I failed you all."

As the Doctor withdrew his hand from her cheek, she began disintegrating as did the rest of the world around him.

~0~

Rory was cradling Amy's head in his lap when she finally woke up. They were in the nursery of their cottage. Amy couldn't remember how she'd gotten there but Rory told her he had brought her in on his own.

Amy took him into a hug as he tried to warn her about some possible bruises on her body. "I don't care," she shushed him. She was such a terrible person and he continued being so good to her. "Thank you," she pulled away from him, cupping his face, "You've always been the best to me and I was never appreciative of it."

"What—" Rory started when something crashed through the windows.

Amy yelped upon seeing a statue land on the floor. "What the hell was that!?"

"The elderly people! The aliens!" Rory scrambled up from the floor, motioning Amy to stay down. "They've been chasing us down, remember? Our versions of the Doctor, Renata and Gabby are a no-show!"

"Rory, stay back, please!" Amy reached for him but he was too far gone. "I need you here with me." Never had she spoken true words. "Rory, I need you."

Rory had come up to the window just as one of the elders appeared on the other side. They were trying to climb up. She shot green mist at him and it actually hurt. He stumbled backwards with a hand over his chest.

"Rory!" Amy shrieked when he fell down. she hurried to him.

"No! I'm not ready," Rory wheezed in pain.

Amy was in tears. She had wasted her chance hadn't she? She held him close to her. "Stay, please."

"Look after our baby," he said, dissolving a second later.

Amy watched the dust fall through her fingers. "No. No. Come back!"

But he was gone. Suddenly, she got flashes of the first night she ran away in the TARDIS and willingly decided to leave him behind. How could she do something like that? Rory loved her and she paid him in such a terrible way. She was afraid of committing to the whole life thing but she had never stopped to think about what life would be without Rory.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her hand coming to rest over the pile of dust in front of her. "What did I do? What did I do!?"

A whole life without Rory wasn't appealing in the least. The whole universe could be at her feet and it would change a damn thing. Rory wouldn't be there seeing it all with her. How could she ever think that she could be without him?

"I love you, I do love you," she mumbled to herself, "it just took me forever to love you like you deserve. I'm so sorry, Rory!" Tears blurred her vision as she began to cry.

Behind her, the elderly woman had climbed in and was about to touch her when she came to a stop, frozen. Amy looked up from the dust to see the walls dissolving away. She didn't quite understand what was going on but she felt that she had done whatever it was that she was supposed to do to get herself out of there, and maybe...just maybe, she might get a second chance.

~0~

The TARDIS was back to its warm orange glow. Since Gabby was the first one to wake up in the true world, she had everyone encased in a tight hug as soon as they woke up. She was ecstatic to find them all okay and that they had realized what they had to do to get out of the crazy illusions they were thrown into.

"I don't get it, what happened?" Rory felt like he was the one who understood the least. Everything had gone dark suddenly for him.

"That happened," Renata was eyeing something in the Doctor's palm, quite disgruntled with it. Everyone crowded around them to see six glittering bits in his hand.

"What is that?" Amy frowned at it.

"A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava," said the Doctor. "Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell in the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us."

"It's a parasite that feeds on the guilt of people, the darkness inside of us all," Renata explained in much simpler terms. "Usually wouldn't go for humans. Seeing as each of us had our own guilt hidden away, you have a lot to sustain itself on."

"Not me," Rory said with a light shrug. "At least...I don't think so? Truthfully, I think this whole thing just made me see that a small town isn't really what I want right now...maybe the travelling thing isn't that bad."

"You are one of a kind, Rory Williams," Renata smiled at him. "We're lucky to have you with us." Her words seemed to do a lot for Rory as he smiled contently.

"So what about the Dream Lord?" asked Gabby. "Did we dream him up to? Or was he like the toy you get with the happy meal? Just comes with it?"

"The Dream Lord was an amalgamation of all of us. It just took the appearance of the oldest one in the room," the Doctor smiled sourly. "I'm 907."

"757," Renata shrugged. "But once you faced your guilt, once you admit it out in the open, the illusions had to go away."

"It knew about us specifically though," Gabby said, biting her lower lip. "It was able to construct such a real world for me. It had Donna, just the way she used to be. It definitely brought back my guilt."

"Guilt for what, Gabriella?" Renata had been disheartened to realize that Gabby felt such a load of guilt over something that she had been sucked into the illusions as well. What could've been that strong to make her feel that way?

Gabby smiled sadly. "I always felt that if I had just been a tiny bit faster then maybe Donna wouldn't have gone through that metacrisis and she would still be here."

"But that's not on you. It was an accident."

"I know, but we were such a happy little space family. I felt like I ruined it because I couldn't save her. But…" Gabby met Amy's and Rory's gazes, "...we're not alone. I think we've made some very good friends."

"Well, you could've had one better friend," Amy sighed. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry for everything." She curled her hand around Rory's, tears fresh in her eyes. Lucky for her that he was always the forgiving kind. He kissed their interlocked hands, silently assuring that everything would be fine from now on. "And Renata…"

"It's alright," the Time Lady said, offering her a warm smile. "I think I may know a thing or two about picking between men. At least you made the right choice. Back in my day... I could have made a better one." She looked up to the Doctor, trying to start an apology right there.

I'm sorry, she told him. I should've been braver to say something.

The Doctor leaned down to kiss her temple. We're going to be okay. That was a promise.

~0~

Later on would find the two Time Lords sitting together in their makeshift room of Gallifrey. They had taken a seat on the mushy grass overlooking the citadel. There had been no words exchanged for a good while and for once the Doctor hadn't been anxious to break it. He hadn't shifted at all like he was itching to do something. Renata took a silent notice of it and truly appreciated it. There was just a mutual desire for a peaceful quietness after such a day.

Their companions had naturally recused themselves for some well deserved rest a while back. Even Gabby, who was sleeping less than a regular human would, had opted for a nap. They craved some time alone, some time to think about what happened. And for Renata and the Doctor, that 'time alone' was really some time together...alone.

"Do you think they found peace?" Renata suddenly asked him, breaking the silence between them. He side-glanced her with a questioning glint in his eyes. She met his gaze and elaborated while her eyes slowly lowered to the grass. "Elek and Asgari. Do you think that they found peace wherever they are now? We did them so much harm that I can't imagine the world would be so cruel to them by not letting them rest in peace."

"They were good people," the Doctor said, not an ounce of him doubted that. "We just didn't know how to treat them well."

"Is it wrong for me to feel like it's not entirely our fault?" Even as the words left Renata's lips, she felt a deep disgust with herself for daring to think that was true. "It's terrible, I know, but I just can't help but feel that if the laws had been different...if the rules had been different, maybe we could have been braver and just been together. That way Elek and Asgari would've been free to find people who loved them the way they deserved. Or am I just that terribly arrogant?"

"You? Arrogant? Never," the Doctor snorted at the absurdity he was hearing. "I completely understand what you mean and I think you're right. Everything was against us, Renée. We didn't make the best of choices but we didn't have a lot of choices to begin with. But you're not a bad person. You're far from that." He scooted himself closer to her side, wrapping an arm around her waist and cautiously waiting for her to say something about it.

She didn't.

She leaned her body against his. She needed that warmth from him right now. "I want to be happy," she declared. "I want to do the whole thing. Being together and making it clear to everyone around us that...we are for each other."

"You just described my perfect world," the Doctor said, and relished in her lighthearted giggle. He kissed the top of her head and rested his cheek over it. "Forever."

[saiilorstars]

The Beginning of Everything

Ch. 31: A Time Lady’s Duty

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 10th Doctor x Female OC 

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel​ 

[If you would like to be added to this specific OC’s taglist, let me know!]

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Chapter summary: As the Master gains control of the Earth, the Time Lords strive to save themselves from extinction. The Assessor, for that matter, will do anything to ensure their victory even at the expense of her sister.

[Renata’s new face claim is Livia Brito and the Assessor’s is Ana Brenda]

The Master was relishing in his triumph. He had every single human under his control, every weapon at his disposal, a whole planet just for him...and then came the truly best part. On one side of the room he had the Doctor strapped to the very chair that had kept the Master a few hours ago. There was a thick black strap going over the Doctor's face - finally shutting up that gob of his - with a few other straps to keep him bound. On the other side, the Master had Renata bound to a regular chair but she had no gag on. He wanted to hear more of her excuses, see the shame on her face each time he would remind her of her past. It was his entertainment. The old human beside her was just a plus. He didn't know what he would do with Wilf yet but he was sure to have a plan later on.

"Now, then. I've got a planet to run!" the Master exclaimed, tapping his fingers against each other as he walked towards the controls. He had every world leader as a version of himself.

"This won't last," Renata said after the Master annoyingly checked in with each World Leader. He'd done this three times already.

The Master turned around, glaring at her for a brief second before he grinned. "Oh my dear Renata! You really think that, huh?" he scurried towards her, missing the Doctor squirming under his straps. He wanted the Master far, far away from Renata.

He won't hurt me, he heard Renata's calm voice in his mind. She was having a stare down with the Master three inches from her face. To her credit, she truly did not seem afraid of him.

He's crazy. You don't know what he would do, the Doctor returned.

He won't hurt me because then he wouldn't be able to mock me and shame me if I really died. Renata had no doubt that the Master wouldn't hesitate to inflict some type of pain on her but never to the point of killing her. She was a good source of fun for him, a toy that he could squeeze and laugh at. He could never end that type of game.

"Why are you so silent?" the Master demanded from Renata. Usually by now she would have said something else, something about how this plan was crazy and he would never succeed. But all she did was stare. He looked back at the Doctor who had stopped squirming. He craned his head as if he were going to look at Renata again but he started to laugh. "Oh! Oh! I get it!" He stepped away from Renata so that he was between her and the Doctor. "You opened up your telepathic abilities! You're connected! How romantic. Tell me," his laugh disappeared as he turned to Renata. "How long did that take after I was gone? You waste absolutely no time, my dear Renata."

Renata glared at him but there was still an inkling inside her reminding her that what the Master claimed was true. She did make a terrible mistake in the past. But she would not allow him to guilt her over things that never happened. "I only opened my mind because the situation called for it. I've done nothing wrong."

The Master laughed again and bent down in front of her, shaking his head. "It's hilarious to me that you actually believe yourself. Who would've thought that the noble Renata—" he mocked her name, taking pleasure at her flinch, "—would do something so...primitive like a human. I mean, you—" he gestured back at the Doctor, "—I sort of expect because, well...look at where you've wasted centuries of your lives on." The Doctor glared at him. "Of course you would pick up their ape-like ways. Then again, this did happen before so maybe you were always like this. Having an affair? Hm," he brought a hand to his chin as if he was really pondering on the situation. "I've always been rather infamous myself but you would never catch me having an amorous affair. Pathetic!" He screamed, causing all three of his prisoners to flinch from the sudden volume. "Embarrassment to our people!" A deep, dark fury that crossed his face - that one did make the Doctor fear for Renata's well being. The Master turned on his heels for the Time Lady and rushed right up to her face, so much that she had to lean away. "Betrayal for my brother! He was an idiot but he was still my brother! He showered you with stupid love, stupid gifts and you go and betray him! You should be dead like the rest of them!"

Renata scrunched her face as he kept shouting at her. She could feel some of his spit landing on her skin but it wasn't what mattered. His words were all true. Her stomach churned as she thought of her late husband. Elek. He did give her everything she wanted; everything anyone would've wanted. He was always sweet to her, never once raised his voice even when they did have a arguments here and there. But he was rubbish at arguing - she always pointed that out to him when they made up.

"Maybe it's because I don't want to argue with my beautiful wife," he would tell her later in the day.

"Or maybe you just have no talent at it," she would poke more fun at him to see if she could get one proper argumentative response, but she never did.

There were the gifts that he would surprise her with. Being an Architect gave him ample exploration of the planet. Sometimes he would come home with the rarest of things that he claimed that only fit her. She still remembered her favorite gift: a necklace that he himself had forged. It had her name, her true name, written in Gallifreyan along with hers. He had given it to her just before the War had begun and what truly made it her favorite gift was that it also had their unborn child's name. At that moment, Renata was about four months pregnant and they had come up with a few names until they had decided on their favorite name. She loved that necklace.

When the Master heard the first blip of an oncoming sob, he straightened away from Renata, pleased with his work. Even when she claimed to have moved on, there was always something that would pull her back to her roots.

Renata? Don't cry. Don't cry, you've done nothing wrong. The Doctor struggled even more to get out of the stupid chair holding him back. It was me. It was always me. Gala? I'm so sorry my love. You don't deserve any of this - you never deserved any of it.

Renata could only bring herself to look at him for a few seconds, showing her reddened eyes in the process. That was false. It wasn't all on him. He never forced her into anything. Her thoughts were cut short by the ringing of a cellphone. Everyone froze and slowly their eyes landed on Wilf since the ringing was coming from him.

"But that…that's a mobile," the Master scowled at the old man.

"Yeah, it's mine, let me turn it off!" Wilf struggled to move his hands with the rope around him.

"No, no, no. I don't think you understand." The Master marched over to Wilf's chair. "Everybody on this planet...is me. And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?" He searched for the phone himself and came across the revolver first. "Ooh, and look at this. Good man!" he waved it at the Doctor then Renata. He let it drop to the ground and continued the search until he found the cell phone. "Donna," he read off the screen. "Who's Donna?"

"Nobody, move on," snapped Renata though the tone she was going for didn't exactly portray the snap. She was still trying to recover from her little episode, but she was not going to let it be the reason Donna was hurt.

The Master answered the call to hear Donna's frantic voice telling him all about the "changed people" in her house and in the streets. "Who is she!? Why didn't she change!?" he angrily demanded to know.

"Well, it was this thing the Doctor and Renata did…" Wilf struggled to remember the right name. "The Metacrisis?"

The Master laughed condescendingly. "Of course. "Oh... He loves playing with Earth girls, huh Ren? You would know."

Renata glared at him. At first, the mere mention of the Doctor with Rose Tyler would set her off. A human girl...but things were so different now. She knew better, she knew humans a lot better. She couldn't blame the Doctor for anything. It was his story and it was a tragic one all on its own without her adding ridiculous jealousy.

The Master ordered his clones to track Donna down. Wilf panicked as the clones did the job.

"You just leave her!"

"I wouldn't do that," Renata, on the other hand, warned calmly. Even the Doctor didn't squirm or try to say something behind the mouth strap on him.

The Master craned his head at the Time Lady, smiling sarcastically. "Why?"

"I just wouldn't."

The clones had found Donna in two minutes but just as they closed in on her, she released golden energy from her head that knocked them all out, including herself.

When the Master looked at Renata afterwards, she was smirking but her eyes flickered past him to the Doctor. He was responsible. He growled and stalked towards the Doctor, pulling the gag off him.

"That's better!" the Doctor opened and closed his mouth in strange ways to get the movement back in order. "Hello. But really, did you think I'd leave my best friend without a defense mechanism?"

"Doctor, what happened?" Wilf asked him. He wasn't able to understand if Donna was truly safe or not.

"She's all right, she's fine, I promise. She'll just sleep," he assured Wilf.

The Master exhaled deeply, forgetting all about the stupid human. She would eventually die on her own anyways. "Tell me, where's your TARDIS?"

The Doctor didn't answer immediately. He stared at the Master in an annoying silence. "You could be so wonderful."

"Where is it!?"

"You're a genius," the Doctor continued to ignore the demand. "You're stone-cold brilliant. You are, I swear, you really are."

"Stop it!" he snapped, but instead he got Renata to join in.

"He's not wrong," she said. "You and Elek would have these conversations that I could never dream of understanding. And you know, most of the time Elek was so inspired by you. He admired your intelligence. What would he think right now if he saw this? Wouldn't it be better to travel together?"

"Travel with the likes of you?" he sneered and looked between the pair. "With the likes of both of you!? Ha!"

"But maybe together, all three of us, we could figure out how to stop that noise inside your head," the Doctor said, truly meaning it. He wants to believe that if the noise was gone, things would be so different. Maybe the Master would finally find peace.

"Would it stop, then?" the Master's voice was suddenly quiet. "The noise in my head?"

"We can help."

"I don't know what I'd be without that noise."

"Wonder what I'd be, without you."

The Master stayed quiet for a moment, almost looking like he was considering such an idea. He'd been with that noise all his life, what would he do if he could truly get rid of it?

"What does he mean? What noise?" Wilf asked them.

The Master was too far in thought to deny the human the answer. "It began on Gallifrey. As children. Not that you'd call it childhood. More a life of duty. Eight years old. I was taken for initiation. To stare into the Untempered Schism."

"But what does that mean?" Wilf continued to ask. He had no idea what the man was talking about.

"It's a gap in the fabric of reality," the Doctor simplified it. "You can see into the Time Vortex itself. And it hurts."

"You get three reactions basically," Renata said quietly. She could see the raw pain the Master held just by remembering his initiation. "You either run away, go insane or you get inspired. Very rarely do you see another reaction."

It didn't take a lot for Wilf to decide what reaction the Master had. Renata knew the Master's story, and she knew the Doctor's story.

Which one were you? the Doctor asked her. He was gazing at her curiously, unable to decide whether or not she was as against the Initiation as the Master was.

A small smile came to Renata's face. I was inspired. I saw the Gallifreyans and how they struggled outside the Citadel. I wanted to help them. It was at that moment that Renata set out to find a way to help the people their city had forgotten about simply because they chose against regeneration. It shouldn't have mattered what they decided. They were still of the same species, the same kind originating from the same world. They should have always been one.

You were amazing even as a child, the Doctor remarked and enjoyed seeing the blush spread over Renata's face.

"I saw the worst," the Master bad turned to Renata, once again sneering at her. "Not all of us could be inspired," he mocked her and moved away. "They took me there, in the dark. I looked into time, old man, and I heard it calling to me. Drums, the never-ending drums."

~0~

Gallifrey.

Two Time Lords were bringing in a Time Lady with a ruddy appearance. Her pale face had bruises and cuts that were still open. Her brunette hair was tangled in knots. She had her arms gripped by each Time Lord and they wouldn't let go until they reached their destination. Twice she had tried to run away and if she could, she would.

Finally, they stopped in the Matrix room where the Assessor waited. She stood on a platform when her sister was brought inside. "There you are." She gave a nod at the two Time Lords to leave them. "Renata, you look well."

Renata's emerald eyes glared at her sister. "Why am I here?" She had just received her newest location to move towards to when all of a sudden she had two Time Lords demanding to take her away, all on orders from the High Council.

The Assessor stepped down from the platform and walked up to her sister. "I have a task for you."

"But I just got a new assignment—"

The Assessor raised a hand - a very clean hand which just angered Renata all over again - to command silence. "Forget it. The Council has assigned you to a much more important duty. Failure is not an option here."

"What do you want?" Renata asked. She couldn't understand why the hell the Council wanted something from her. If anything, they needed to get off their behinds and do something to help them. Time Lords were dying outside and yet the High Council - those snobby creatures - wouldn't leave their protected chambers. They were letting everyone else die, including her.

"We got word that the Doctor has stolen the Moment. And just so we're clear, the Moment has the power to destroy the entire planet along with the Daleks. You are going to find him and stop him from activating it."

Renata nearly keeled over but she didn't because she knew that her sister was playing a joke on her. The Assessor would never want her near the Doctor, not after what happened in the Academy. Centuries may have passed but the anger in the Assessor was still as raw and fresh as the day she found out about them.

"I know you must be confused but time is of the essence. If you don't hurry, all of this—" the Assessor gestured to the room they were in, the room where all of their history was in, as an example of what they were saving, "—will be lost."

"You're not joking," Renata whispered. "You really do mean it. You want me to find the Doctor?" Anger quickly filled her face. "You forbade me from seeing him again! Don't you remember!? You literally threatened me! You blackmailed me! You were prepared to hurt him if I didn't end things! You destroyed my life! And now you want me to go find him? You want me to save you? Do you want me to save the very institution you once said would kill the Doctor?"

The Assessor wasn't phased by her sister's outburst. If anything, she thought it was embarrassing. But her sister was always more...emotional than the rest of their family. She didn't understand that things worked in a specific way and each of them had to do their respective tasks. "The situation calls for it. The Doctor's family is dead. You are the only one who could stop him. He will kill us all."

"No! Absolutely not! You will not use me!" Renata was beyond furious that she shoved her sister away.

The Assessor struggled to regain her balance and sent a dark glare her sister's way. "I advice you not to do that again, little sister." She dusted her robes off, something that made Renata want to throw her to the floor. The Assessor's robes were elegant and clean as was her appearance. She was untouched by the war.

And here she was, demanding for a soldier to keep fighting.

Renata had already been beaten and worn down by the war to hold what little restraints she had to keep herself composed. She had lost everything and even then, when she was so alone, the Assessor never once offered her support. They were the last of their family and yet it didn't feel that way. Renata lost it. "You haven't fought for us! You haven't fought for me! You don't care about anyone! Our parents died months ago and you didn't even check up on me!"

"You were fighting," the Assessor said, her tone still untouched by Renata's spats. "You had a duty, so did I."

"You have no duty! You haven't been out there!" Renata frantically pointed out the door. "People are dying! The children—" she stopped to close her eyes, "—are dying. I saw a whole group of them disintegrated in one second." Tears rolled down her face. "Cece," the use of her sister's nickname was the only thing that made the Assessor shift with actual emotions, "My own child died inside me. It wasn't enough that I lost Elek, I lost my child. You did not care."

"The casualties are part of a war. They are not surprising," the Assessor said, though her eyes did linger on her sister's stomach for a few seconds. "You think that I am not affected by the passing of our family? My own husband died, did you forget? But I have a responsibility and I will continue doing it until my last breath. The same goes for you now."

"You still don't care," Renata shouldn't even be surprised by that, but she always clung to a little bit of hope that somewhere inside the Assessor did have feelings. She did love her family, her. "I've lost most of my lives and you are now asking me to put myself in further danger."

"How many lives do you have left?" the Assessor inquired.

"What—"

"How many lives?" the Assessor demanded this time.

"Three more!"

"How would you feel about a whole new cycle?" the Assessor slowly tilted her head, knowing that she now had her sister's entire attention. "The Council understands your journey is treacherous and they are prepared to grant you a new regeneration cycle. All you have to do is retrieve the Moment from the Doctor."

Renata raised an eyebrow at her sister. They must be really desperate to offer that type of deal. Regeneration cycles were not handed out lightly. There had to be exclusive reasons for somebody to receive a whole new cycle.

And yet everyone was dying.

Maybe...the Doctor had figured out a way to make everything stop. He always knew what to do. A small smile came to Renata's face when she recalled the many times he helped her solve her problems. She hadn't allowed herself to think about him much after they parted ways. But now the Assessor was making her go back to a painful moment in her life. Renata was forced to drive the Doctor away and now the Assessor was taking it back just to save her own skin?

Fury bubbled inside Renata. She laid eyes on her sister and the woman still didn't offer up any emotion. Everyone was dying and she didn't care. The Council didn't care. No more, Renata gritted her teeth behind her closed lips. They shouldn't have had the power they did. Oh, she hated them all. She hated all these people in power who did nothing for their citizens. And now the Assessor was dangerously close to being added to that list.

It's time to end it, Renata decided. She had nothing left. Her husband was gone, her child was gone, her parents. The Doctor had long been gone. The Assessor had never been there. I deserve better.

Renata straightened herself up and walked up to her sister. "I want the cycle first," she spat in her sister's face.

The Assessor smirked.

~0~

Present Day.

"Listen to it," the Master commanded the two Time Lords with him. "Listen." But of course, without a mind connection, neither Renata nor the Doctor could hear the drums...but they now knew that they were real.

"Then let's find it, you and us," the Doctor attempted to construct yet another speech to stop the Master, but a new idea had crossed the Master's mind.

"Oh! Oh, wait a minute! Oh, yes. Oh, that's good!"

"What? What is?" Renata dreaded what he had come up with, although a part of her asked herself what more could he do that would be worse than what he had already done to the planet.

"The noise exists within my head. And now within six billion heads. Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine! Oh... Oh, yes!" His laughter was cut short with another skeletal flash struck him. He dropped with a groan.

"The Gate wasn't enough. You're still dying," the Doctor grimly.

"This body was born out of death. All it can do is die," the Master was able to pull himself up after a few minutes. "But what did you say to me, back in the wasteland? You said, "the end of time.""

"I said something is returning. I was shown a prophecy. That's why I need your help."

"What if I'm part of it? Don't you see?" the grin was quick to return to the Master's face. "The drumbeat is calling from so far away, from the end of time itself. And now it's been amplified six billion times. Triangulate all those signals. I could find its source! Oh, Doctor... That's what your prophecy was. Me!" He crouched in front of the Doctor. "Where's the TARDIS?"

"No. Just stop. Just think—"

The Master rolled his eyes and suddenly pointed a finger at Wilf. "Kill him!" A helmeted soldier moved towards Wilf and aimed his gun at him. "I need that technology, Doctor. Tell me where it is, or the old man is dead."

"Oh stop it," Renata frowned. "Why not redirect it at me instead? Maybe you're not the only one with a little bit of power left." Had she been anyone else, he might have had the gun aimed at her but here she was completely unharmed. The mental torture was the only thing he used against her, but never physical harm.

The Master shot her a glare, practically warning her to keep her mouth shut. "I'll kill him, right now!"

"Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone-dead stupid," the Doctor's calmness despite the situation was the first thing the Master should have noticed.

"Take aim," he ordered the soldier.

He never was smart for the obvious. Renata smiled at the Doctor. He over thought too much. His brother didn't.

The Doctor was able to smile back at her. The Master noticed their silent smiles at each other and scowled. "What us going on!?"

"What I think the Doctor meant to say is that you've got six billion pairs of eyes, but you still can't see the obvious," Renata made a face at him.

"Like what?"

"Well, for starters, you're over exerting yourself - oh!" Renata exclaimed as if she only just remembered the real point they'd been trying to make. "And that guard—" she nodded at the soldier holding the gun on Wilf, "—is one inch too tall."

It was only then that the Master finally gave the soldier a good look, but it only lasted a few minutes before the soldier hit him with his rifle. He pulled his helmet off to reveal Rossiter underneath.

"Oh, my God, I hit him. I've never hit anyone in my life!" He was absolutely stunned at himself, but Addams ran into the room looking primed for the job.

"Oh I know, it gets you the first time," Renata smiled at him with a chuckle. "I never hit anyone—"

"What about me?" frowned the Doctor. "You hit me loads of time in the foundation."

"Yeah, but those didn't hurt. I meant like an actual smack or something. And the war doesn't count either."

"You did hit me hard enough to hurt!"

"I did not!"

"Don't you remember when you threw a—"

"Both of you stop!" Addams cut in to scold the two.

Renata flushed with embarrassment. No one had ever scolded her too. What was going on with this new body of hers? She did not want to be like the Doctor. The universe truly could not handle two of him.

"We need to get out of here, fast!" Addams said, throwing a look at the unconscious Master on the ground. She doubted Rossiter had him hit hard enough to be out for anything more than a few minutes.

Rossiter had untied Renata while Addams untied Wilf. The Doctor proved to be a bit more difficult with the multiple straps.

"God bless the cactuses!" Wilf laughed when he could finally stand up from his chair.

"That's cacti!" the Doctor called.

Rossiter stopped struggling with the straps, quite offended with the two of them. "That's racist!"

"Please don't offend the people who are saving us!" Renata scolded the Doctor and Wilf. There we go, she did the scolding because she wasn't rude.

"This prophecy of yours, Doctor...where did it come from? Doctor?" one of the Master's appeared on the screen behind them.

"Come on! We've got to get out!" Addams told Rossiter, she thought he was far too slow.

"There's too many buckles and straps!".

Addams groaned. "Oh just...wheel him!" Rossiter didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed the chair by the handles and started turning them for the door.

"No, no, no! Get me out!" the Doctor shouted at them. "No, no, don't! Don't! No, no, no!"

Renata ushered Wilf ahead of her but she stopped for a moment just outside the room, smiling - almost laughing - as she heard the Doctor ahead of her, shouting for them to properly release him. Her smile suddenly dropped while her eyes widened. "You are not rude!" she scolded herself before finally running after them.

With all the chaos and running away, the Doctor couldn't get either Vinvocci to listen to him and take them to the TARDIS instead. Even Renata, when she caught up, couldn't get them to change course and she wasn't going to let them take the Doctor either. They would have to come back for the blue box afterwards.

"Not the stairs... Not the stairs!" the Doctor fought to get out of the remaining straps but the stairs had come up and now he was being rocked in all directions. "Worst...rescue...ever!" He only stopped fighting for a second when he heard something strange behind him. "...is that laughing? Renata, you're laughing!?"

Renata caught herself quick and covered her mouth. "No!" she gave the muffle answer and focused on running and nothing more.

The Master had caught them in the teleporting room but despite that, the Vinvoccis were one step ahead. They teleported themselves out of the building, off the planet, and onto their ship.

"Now get me out of this thing!" the Doctor practically ordered while he wriggled like a worm.

"Don't say thanks, will you?" Addams scoffed as she went to help him out.

"He'll thank you when we cut off the weapons the Master still has!" Renata sighed as she hurried to undo the straps on him.

"Oh, my goodness me...we're in space!" Wilf had found the huge glass wall at the end of the room. He could see planet Earth, bright as ever despite what was going on. With a view like this no wonder Donna loved traveling.

"We'll come back to the exciting part, Wilf! Promise!" Renata said just as she'd pulled the Doctor off the chair. From her force, he leaned just a bit too close to her face, not that he cared. He quite liked her new face.

"Come on!" she urged him to remember what they were supposed to do.

"Right!"

Adams couldn't understand what was the huge rush. They were no longer in danger since they weren't even on the same planet as that crazy man. "But we're safe! We're a hundred thousand miles above the Earth!"

"And he's got every single missile on the planet ready to fire!" the Doctor said, making her finally realize the problem.

"Oh. Good point. This way!" she took the lead out of the room. Renata hurried for Wilf who was still taken by the grand sight of space.

"But we're in space!"

"Aha!"

"We've got to close it down!" the Doctor said as soon as they found the controls.

Rossiter gave him a mad look. "No chance, mate, we're going home."

"We're a salvage team. Local politics has nothing to do with us," Addams argued as well. "Not unless there's a carnival. Sooner we get back to Vinvocci space the better!"

"No you are not!" snapped Renata and before Addams could open her mouth, Renata continued to shout. "The whole reason Earth is the way it is right now is because of your stupid machine! If you and your people had been more responsible, this machine would have never fallen into the hands of the humans! Therefore you are responsible and under the rules of the Shadow Proclamation you have a responsibility to help us fix things! And just so we're clear…" Renata pulled out her sonic and used it on the controls, effectively killing the entire power line.

The Doctor was stunned by her actions and her entire outburst as a whole. He was about to do the same thing but that's what he always did. That was no shocker. But Renata had finally come around humans and Earth to the point that she would do anything to help them and save them.

Plus, she looked incredibly good arguing someone's ear off. I love that woman, he concluded with a huge grin on his face. Also not a shocker.

"You've wrecked the place!" Addams was in complete outrage. If she wasn't green, she would've turned red from anger.

"The engines are burnt out!" Rossiter was in a state of panic instead of anger like his co-worker. "Just auxiliary lights. Everything else is kaput. We can't move. We're stuck in orbit!"

"Thanks to you. You idiot!" Addams spat enough to make Renata wince.

Okay, so maybe she hadn't thought it through but if she hadn't killed the power, the Master would've killed them. But, there was still a bit of guilt sitting on her shoulders. She might have doomed them anyways. "I'm sorry," she said as Addams and Rossiter stormed out of the place.

"Hey, you did what I was going to do anyways," the Doctor walked up to her and brought his hands to her arms. He offered her a supportive smile and pulled her into a hug while she struggled to accept the reality.

~0~

Gallifrey.

"My Lord, I have my sister," the Assessor had brought Renata into the main chamber of the Council, though not before cleaning her younger sister up a bit. She would be damned if Renata embarrassed her.

Renata's face had been cleaned up for the meeting and any blood dripping on her had been forced shut with a bit of the Assessor's own regeneration energy. It didn't surprise Renata though that her sister had done that, because she knew that the Assessor only did it to make her 'proper'. Her hair had been forcibly untangled and Renata dared to say it hurt almost as much as each of the cuts and bruises she'd gotten from battles.

"Excellent," Rassilon looked the brunette over from his spot at the table. She didn't exactly return the gaze. This was the first time she walked into a chamber of the Council, and much more she was seeing a Visionary. Hardly anyone saw a Visionary up close.

The silver-haired woman continued to write on her scroll, acting as if she was the only one in the room.

"But we may have found another solution," Rassilon said as he gestured to the hologram of Earth behind him.

"But...that's Earth," Renata recognized the blue-green planet almost straight away. She looked at her sister for an explanation, but even the Assessor was puzzled.

"What doe that planet have to offer us?" she asked, sharpness tinging her tone.

"Our very salvation," Rassilon's tone was even sharper, a piercing that reminded the Assessor of her place. "We have sent a signal. A simple task of four beats transmitted back through time, and implanted in the Master's mind as a child."

"What!?" Renata blinked. The Master always complained about a noise in his head, one that - shamefully - she and her husband never believed in. "You...you did that to him? The endless drumming, he would call it. You're the one who put it inside his head?"

The Assessor gripped Renata's arm, silently telling her to shut her mouth. "Forgive me, my Lord, but what is the plan? I thought I presented one myself."

"The Master is on Earth, in the future, and if we can establish a link then perhaps we can leave the Time Lock."

"But it's just an idea," frowned Renata. "To establish a proper link you would need something physical…"

"Something...so simple," Rassilon agreed and turned away to consider what might do.

"So small and shining, shining bright and cold, the tiny, tiny star, falling, falling, burning, burning, burning," the Visionary babbled on to herself.

The Assessor blinked when she realized what it could be. Her head snapped in Renata's direction, her eyes lowering to the jewel around Renata's neck. Without a warning, she reached over and pulled the necklace off Renata's neck, ignoring her sister's cry.

"That's mine!" she made to take it back but the Assessor raised it over her head. This current incarnation of Renata's was quite petite.

The Assessor ordered for her sister to be taken into custody. "The Master would recognize this straightaway," she walked up to Rassilon holding the necklace in her hand. There was a clear diamond at the end of the silver necklace, one engraved with Gallifreyan names. "After all, he did help his brother forge it."

Renata was in tears as she fought the two Time Lords holding her back. "That's mine! Elek gave it to me! Assessor, please! That's-that's mine!"

Rassilon took the jewel into his hand and examined it briefly before looking up at the Assessor. "Do not fail me," he darkly warned, but the Assessor remained calm.

She was always sure of herself. "I would never."

Rassilon threw the diamond into the hologram. Renata cried loudly for her lost jewel but still her sister did not flinch.

It was a means to an end.

~0~

Present Day.

On the Vinvocci ship, the Doctor worked to get the power back on. Renata helped with what she could but she had to stop when she noticed from the corner of her eye something shiny soaring through space. It was heading for Earth!

"The last thing this planet needs is a meteor," she sighed as she walked towards the glass wall.

Down on Earth, the Master and his clones had pinpointed the impact of the 'meteor'. The clones all searched the crash site until one soldier found something peculiar in the middle of the crater. It glittered.

"It's a diamond, sir," he picked it up as he informed the Master. He scraped the dirt of the jewel to see a clear pattern of Gallifreyan names. A laugh came to him. "Oh... the most impossible diamond. You won't believe this. It's a Whitepoint star!"

The Master had enough laughter to last him a lifetime.

~ 0 ~

Wilf had gotten lost in the ship for a few minutes. It was like a maze and after another odd interaction with a woman he was sure was part of his imagination, he finally found Renata and the Doctor in the main room where Renata had killed the power.

"Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended?" he asked the pair, but they didn't seem so cheery.

"Just trying to fix the heating," the Doctor mumbled while he crossed two particular wires.

"Sorry," Renata said yet again. The heat was off because HE she killed it.

The Doctor, by this point, was more than done with her relentless apology for something that was going to be done either way. "Renée, just stop it."

Wilf took a seat near them. Renata drifted towards him, figuring the heat wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

"D'you know, I've always dreamt of a view like that," Wilf gave a nod towards the glass wall. No matter how many times he looked at the Earth, it wouldn't stop taking his breath away. It was simply amazing. "I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look. Brand new day." And yet there was no cheer for the new day. He kept thinking about Sylvia and Donna, and everyone else he once knew. "My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. D'you think he changed them, in their graves?"

Renata lowered her gaze, unable to answer him because the answer might not be the one he wanted to hear.

"We're sorry," the Doctor said for him and Renata. He came over to the two and sat down next to Renata.

"It's not your fault," Wilf told them. They were the good guys. They had no say in what the Master did.

"The noise inside his head…" Renata scrunched her face as if something was trying to come to her, "I swear there is something I'm missing. There's something tickling in the back of my head about it. Something that's telling me I'm forgetting something."

"Seven-hundred fifty-eight, something's bound to slip your mind," the Doctor joked only to see if he could get her to smile. He did. And it was so worth it.

"Never say a lady's age," she lightly jabbed him on the side, making him smile now.

"You're how old?" Wilf gawked at Renata. He had to study her face again but even when he did, it didn't make sense. Her new face was younger than the last one she had on.

"You want to hear somebody really old?" Renata jerked her thumb at the Doctor. "He's 906! Yeah, he's old!" She thought she would definitely get the Doctor back with that one, but all he did was smile fondly at her.

He just wanted to see her cheer up for a bit. He still didn't forget the fact she'd died only hours ago and he'd missed it.

Wilf shook his head at the two. "We must look like insects to you."

"I think you look like giants," the Doctor corrected him, extending that fond smile to him as well.

"My perspective on humans has changed in this last 2 years," Renata said with her own warm smile. "And I have Martha to thank, and Gabriela...and Donna." Wilf teared up in that moment as he wondered just what amazing things his granddaughter had to have done in her time up here in space. She had changed so much because of it and Renata and the Doctor. She had been a better person - she was a good person right now but being her other self gave her so much more perspective.

He couldn't let them die now, not on his watch.

"Listen, I... I want you to have this," he took out his revolver and held it at the pair. "I've kept it all this time, and I thought…"

"No," the Doctor said calmly. He expected this to come up sooner or later.

"No, but if you take it, you could…"

"I couldn't," Renata confessed. For all the harm the Master had done to the Earth and herself, and the Doctor, she knew she wouldn't be able to end him. She wouldn't even try to fight it.

"You had that gun in the mansion. You could have shot the Master there and then," the Doctor pointed out to Wilf.

"Too scared, I suppose," Wilf said, lamenting his courage.

"I'd be proud," the Doctor suddenly said, starting a new thought.

"Of what?"

"If you were my dad."

Wilf did a double take at the Doctor, waiting for him to take it back or laugh it off. "Oh...come on...don't start!" The Doctor smiled wider at him, but when he did it reminded Wilf of what was coming for him. He didn't deserve that. "But you said...you were told... he will knock four times, and then you die. Well, that's him, isn't it, The Master? That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you."

Renata tried her best not to react but her body flinched. It was an automatic response to such a horrid thought. She leaned on him, not even noticing it with all the thoughts that ran through her head. "I wouldn't let him," she whispered.

The Doctor put an arm around her, having heard her perfectly well. He gave a nod to Wilf's question and that was all Wilf needed to try and hand him the gun again.

"Then kill him first."

"That's how the Master started. And it's not like I'm an innocent," the Doctor started off on grim note, not that he could help it given his track record. He always knew what he'd become, but he would get by because he would push it away. He wouldn't think about it. "I've taken lives. I got worse - I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long. I can't. I just can't."

"But there's a difference," Renata raised her head off his arm. "The Master likes it. He likes what comes with death. You don't. And you know what? None of us are innocent. I'm certainly not."

The Doctor studied her eyes for any trace of doubt, a doubt for her words that she'd just said. Not too long ago he believed that she would be angry with him for what he did to their planet. Even as she denied such accusations, there was always a part of him that wondered if she was truly sure. It was no secret that she longed to be back on Gallifrey, who's to say that she wouldn't change her mind about him one day?

"If the Master dies, what happens to all the people?" Wilf thought to ask after taking another look at the planet.

"I don't know."

Wilf didn't buy that answer. "Doctor, what happens?"

"...the template snaps."

Wilf blinked. "What, they go back to being human?" He couldn't believe his ears, nor his eyes when both aliens nodded at him. Here they were lamenting the human race's current situation and there was always that one solution!? He was a bit angry now, properly angry. "They're alive and human? Then don't you dare, sir. Don't you dare DARE put him before them. Now you take this, that's an order, Doctor. Take the gun! You take the gun and save your life! And please don't die!" The tears got the best of him, but how could he calm down? He had done so much for their planet and now some man was going to kill him dead? And the Doctor wasn't even going to fight it! That simply couldn't be. "You're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die!" He forced the gun onto the Doctor's hand and closed his fingers over it. "You take it!"

But the Doctor still refused.

Renata shut her eyes, wishing everything would just stop. It had to stop, right? One way or another. But he might die. She shuddered a breath.

Maybe it's my rightful punishment, the Doctor's voice filled her mind. He wasn't looking at her, he couldn't. His gaze had become glued to the glass wall out of guilt. I went too far on Mars and I...I've done too much harm. Maybe my time is up.

Renata reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. Only one of us should have to regenerate and I already did it. There's no reason why you need to follow.

Before the Doctor could respond, the Master's voice came over the speakers. "A star fell," his tone was mocking, or at least getting ready to mock. "It fell from the sky. Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond...is a Whitepoint star. And you, my dear Renata, might know about it considering I helped my stupid brother forge it." Renata's body jumped up from the floor on instinct. Her hand immediately went to her neck. "And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift. Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be...spectacular. Over and out."

"Renata?" the Doctor cautiously got up and turned the woman around.

Her eyes were widening, as if she was just realizing something. She rose her head with a mouth hanging open. "Oh Doctor...it's my fault. It's my fault."

"What? What does that mean?" Wilf got up as well, but he couldn't understand why Renata was so mortified all of a sudden. Neither could the Doctor.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. A Whitepoint Star diamond was only found on Gallifrey…

"It's coming back to me! The-the thoughts! I-I buried them so long ago - that's my Whitepoint Star! The Assessor gave it to…" Renata swallowed hard as a lump had appeared in her throat. The tears were filling her eyes quickly. It was coming back to her in a rush. "She took it from me, Doctor. She pulled it off me…" her shaky hands found her neck, ghosting the place where her beautiful Whitepoint Star had once hung long ago. "They stole it from me! And now they're coming here! The Time Lords are coming back!"

The Doctor couldn't make sense of everything Renata was seeing but she was letting her mind fully open to his and so he could see the same rush of images she was getting. The Assessor, Rassilon, the Whitepoint Star…

The Assessor had yanked it off her sister and handed it over to Rassilon.

Renata screamed and jumped for her necklace to be returned, but it was too late. It was far gone…

Until now.

A deep fury coursed through his entire body in that moment, a fury that went for so many people on that planet. He didn't know how much of it went to the Assessor, but it was a big one. He turned away from Renata and picked up the gun from the floor as he stormed out of the room.

"What happened? I don't understand," Wilf tried to calm Renata down, but the Time Lady was weeping.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor ran into the control room where Addams and Rossiter were still trying to make the necessary mends to get them home. He went straight for the comms and turned all communications back on. As soon as he did, everyone began to hear the four beats.

"What's that?" frowned Addams. What else could go wrong now!?

Rossiter checked the computer for the information. "Coming from Earth. It's on every single wavelength."

~ 0 ~

Gallifrey.

Renata was sitting on the ground over her knees, much too exhausted to keep crying and thrashing. Her sister had once again proved that she loved nobody, not even her own family.

"Contact! At last!" Rassilon exclaimed, making Renata raise her head. Everyone seemed content with the results, including the Assessor. She was smirking, like she had planned the whole thing.

Of course everything would turn out fine. She had made sure of it, just like always.

Rassilon strode out of the room, prompting everyone else to do the same. The Assessor walked after the group but instead of leaving with them, she stopped beside her sister on the ground.

"You took one of the last things I had from Elek," Renata said, her voice strained from her sobs. She gazed ahead but at nothing in specific, she was just lost. "Ripped it right off me like it didn't matter…like he didn't matter."

The Assessor said nothing as she bent down in front of Renata. She put a finger underneath Renata's chin and turned her head to face each other. "Renata, it didn't. A Time Lady must do what is expected of her. You had the means to help our people and you did. You did your duty."

Renata seized the Assessor's finger under her chin and shoved it away. "This was not to help our people," she snapped. "It was to save you and the Council, to those in power."

"Our people," the Assessor said again, making it obvious that she didn't see anyone else below their class as part of their kind. "Cheer up, Renata. You still have the locket." She barely touched the golden pendant around Renata's neck. "I didn't take it all from you."

"Yeah you did," Renata whispered. "You took it all away."

The Assessor's face went flat when she realized Renata wasn't talking just about the White Dwarf Star. "I saved you," her voice was low, warning Renata not to try and argue that matter with her again. "Because of me you had a life fit for your class. The Doctor would have ruined you."

"And now you're here, asking me to go back to him."

"And you will do it if we need to. Mother and Father raised you to always do whatever was asked of you. Never forget who you are, Renata," the Assessor straightened on her feet and ordered the Two Time Lords with her to make sure Renata did not move.

Author's Note:

The Assessor is, uh...sort of...mean? But at the same time she's kind of stupid for not seeing that Renata is going to double cross her in the end. (Go Ren, scam them!). Also, the next chapter is the LAST chapter of this story *sniff* I'm kind of sad about that. I've had this story for a long time now .

Random but since it's Halloween, and I frikin love Halloween, feel free to drop suggestions for any halloween one shots with Avalon!

P.S As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "noble-crescent" and the tag I created for any posts having to do with my work is # noblecrescentedit.

[saiilorstars]

The Beginning of Everything

Ch. 32: And That’s the Beginning and End of Everything

// Story Masterlist // 

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 10th Doctor x Female OC

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel​

[If you would like to be added to this specific OC’s taglist, let me know!]

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Chapter summary: The final face-off between Renata and the Assessor begins in the middle of the final battle between her, the Doctor and the Time Lords. Who will survive? And what will the sisters do to each other?

[Renata’s new face claim is Livia Brito and the Assessor’s is Ana Brenda]

‘I love her, and that's the beginning and end of everything.' - F. Scott Fitzgerald.

~ 0 ~

Present Day.

The Doctor worked truly hard on the Vinvocci equipment to get them back to Earth. There was a new incentive and it was a huge one!

"But you said your people were dead, past tense," Wilf was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that these Time Lords were no longer dead. Five minutes ago they had been. What changed?

"Inside the Time War, when the whole War was time-locked — like sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble but think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or get out of the time-lock. Don't you see? Nothing can get in or get out, except something that was already there."

"And that was the signal. The Master has been hearing it since he was a child because that's what the High Council did." Renata was doing her best not to get distracted while fixing the wires in front of her. She was still trying to process everything she had remembered. The Assessor and the Council...everything they did. How could she forget that? Well, she had a pretty good idea. She had regenerated into her last incarnation only hours after the Assessor had taken the Whitepoint Star from her. It was a traumatizing war, a terrible death — she had pushed it all away to start anew. She sealed everything away except for the deal she made with the Assessor. That's all that survived with her."

"If they can follow the signal, they can escape, before they die," the Doctor said in a quick-paced tone.

"And that's not good?" Wilf assumed by their terrified faces.

"Not the Time Lords at the end of the War," the Doctor shook his head. "It changed them completely, right to the core."

"My own sister became even more heartless than before," Renata's hands stopped working again. "She stole my necklace to use it for the High Council's needs. She had no regard for my pain."

"I am going to need you both to start explaining what the hell you're talking about!" Addams strode up to the pair with no intention of letting them go. "You killed our ship and now you want to fix it to go back there!?"

"Just shut up and listen!" snapped the Doctor in a loud volume, startling Addams. "Right, you! This is a salvage ship, yes? You go trawling the asteroid fields for junk?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"So, you've got asteroid lasers!"

"Yeah, but they're all frazzled," Rossiter reminded them with a pointed look on Renata, only now the Time Lady wasn't concerned with the ship. She was too deep in her thoughts.

"Consider them unfrazzled." The Doctor flipped a lever and made two doors on opposite sides of the room slide right open. "You there - I'm going to need you on navigation." He nodded at Addams then moved onto Rossiter. "And you, get in the laser-pod. Wilfred?"

"Yeah?"

"Laser number two. The old soldier's got one more battle!"

"Right!"

"But this ship can't move. It's dead!" Addams reminded them, but the Doctor had taken care of that as well.

"Fix the heating!" he pushed two large levers on either side of the control panel, starting the ship back up.

Addams still didn't look too pleased. "...now they can see us," she pointed out, folding her arms.

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor turned away and grabbed Renata's hand, pulling her away from the controls. He settled down for her, for that moment. "We're going to get that back, okay? That Whitepoint Star? You're getting it back, I promise."

Renata met his gaze and raised an eyebrow at him. "You would fight for it?" She let the doubt cover each of her words. Why would he fight for a necklace that her husband gave her? If what he said about her was true, wouldn't he be overly jealous about the jewel?

"Because it's important to you," the Doctor answered both her out-loud question and her silent question. He wiped a few tears off her face with his thumbs. "And a good man gave it to you." He never even met Elek but he knew - from the very start - that he had been nothing but kind to Renata. He had cherished her and loved her each day of his lives. He'd done what the Doctor wished he could've, and he would never harbor any resentment towards the man. If anything, he owed Elek for messing up the beginning of his relationship with Renata. If it hadn't been for him, perhaps Renata could've truly loved Elek.

"This is my ship!" Addams exclaimed, pulling the Doctor back to the present. "You're not moving it. Step away from the wheel!"

"There's an old Earth saying, Captain, A phrase of great power, and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need," the Doctor began, straight serious that even for a second there, Renata was curious what old quote he knew.

"What's that, then?" Addams asked.

"Allons-y!"

Renata's face went flat. "Oh you—" But the ship lurched forwards, ending whatever she was going to say.

His piloting skills were really questionable. It apparently didn't matter if it was a TARDIS or a ship — he just wasn't the best pilot. The others practically screamed as the ship took a harder pace as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

"You are blinkin', flippin' mad!" Addams gripped onto a railing, letting her scream echo throughout the room.

The Doctor ignored her and called to Rossiter and Wilf to go into the laser pods just like he told them once. "We've got to fight off the entire planet!"

"How does this thing work!?" Wilf called from his pod. Everything was all fancy, nothing like in his time.

"The tracking's automatic. Just deploy the trigger on the joystick!" Rossiter explained from his own pod.

"Doctor, we've got incoming!" Renata managed to put herself in front of a computer without falling.

"You two, open fire!" the Doctor called to the pods. They were just getting the hang of the controls but they needed to act fast before the missiles struck them.

It seemed like Rossiter got it first. He gave quite a war scream as he took out the first missile.

Wilf soon got the hang of it and took care of the second and third missile. "Ha, ha! Oh, I wish Donna could see me now!" She would've had the laugh of her life seeing her old gramps in a space battle.

Addams had found her way to the computers beside Renata and was appalled to see the missiles doubling in numbers. "There's 16! And then another 16 of them!" They were going to die alright.

"Go to the rear-gun lasers!" ordered the Doctor.

"Show me where!" Renata told the Vinvocci urgently.

Of course with the Doctor's attempts to evade the missiles, the flying ship would send both women back and forth before they could actually reach their intended location. It was impossible when the ship actually spun. But at least they got all the missiles down and the only casualty was the front window being blown away.

"Lock the navigation!" the Doctor instructed afterwards. "To England! The Naismith mansion!"

Addams inwardly groaned but did as told. Renata struggled to make her world stop spinning after such a terrible flight, but eventually she found the Doctor's arm to keep her steady.

"How are we landing, exactly?" She sent him a sharp look. His mind had suddenly stopped being so open to hers. The ship neared the England ocean, Addams warning them they were getting lower and lower. "Doctor?" Renata asked again, her grip on his arm becoming tighter as the Time Lord refused to answer.

"Doctor!" Wilf came rushing into the room after getting out of his pod, along with Rossiter. "Doctor, you said you were going to die!"

"He said what!?" Addams gawked and immediately shot the Doctor a warning look. She was not going to become part of whatever plan that man had.

"But is that all of us?" asked Wilf. "I won't stop you, sir, but is this it?"

"Absolutely not!" Addams screamed her head off since nobody was listening to her.

Renata, on the other hand, was the opposite. She did not scream, she did not scowl, not even frown. She only stared at the Doctor. "What are you planning?" Her tone was dangerously low, though. It was that type of scary anger where a scream wouldn't cover it.

His mind had been completely shut from her now.

The Doctor was grim but just for her, he would let it go for one moment. "I do love you, Renee. And I won't let you die for me." He pulled his gaze away from hers, as if that would make him braver. He bent down to the ground, right over the hatch.

"I don't know what you're planning but you are not leaving me behind," Renata warned him, watching him try to lift the hatch. "I'm done with that. You're not getting rid of me this time." She was determined to show him that this incarnation was different from her previous ones. She may not know where she stood with him in regards to an actual relationship, but she knew that where he was she wanted to be too. They were a team, albeit an unorthodox one, but a team. In fact, she didn't think she ever felt such a determination.

She didn't even notice the golden wisps of energy briefly emanating from her fingertips.

The Doctor held Wilf's gun tightly in one hand. He raised his head to see Renata staring down at him. "Not you," he tried to say but Renata bent down next to him, letting them be face to face.

"Only me," she corrected. "Because only I will fight for you the way you deserve it. It's not just you anymore, it's me too. If they are back then I want a word with them." Her eyes flickered to the revolver in his hand. She wasn't sure how to feel about that but she supposed once they stood in front of...them, she would know. So, she seized the Doctor's free hand and cracked a smile, almost a smirk. And then, just like that, she threw herself down the ship first but with their connected hands the Doctor was right beside her. They fell down the long way, crashing through the glass dome of the Naismith mansion. Each shard that penetrated their skin was painful enough, but then came the solid smack of the ground.

Rassilon was mildly impressed with the entrance, but nothing would beat theirs. He looked over his shoulder where a few of the Council had gathered with him, along with the two who dared to object to their plan of salvation.

"My Lord Doctor. My Lord Master. We are gathered for the end," he said once he returned his attention to the trio.

The Doctor grunted as he peeled himself off the floor. He tried taking the revolver off the floor as well but he only managed to briefly aim it at Rassilon before dropping it again. His entire body was aching and he doubted that this time he would be able to heal from it. He glanced to his left and saw Renata more or less groaning the same.

"Renata," he tried to help her but his arms were too weak to help anyone, even himself. "Renata!"

"What did you say?" demanded a sharp voice behind Rassilon.

Renata scrunched her face — her face that now hurt — but she ultimately picked herself up better than the Doctor. It was when she was on her feet that she finally saw what was around them. She stopped completely at the sight of the Assessor. Of course her sister wouldn't recognize her, yet. The Assessor was too focused on the Doctor beside Renata. Just like those centuries ago, her eyes still held the same hatred.

"It is a fitting paradox that our salvation comes at the hands of our most infamous child," Rassilon went on, speaking primarily to the Master standing only a few feet from the pair.

"Oh, he's not saving you. Don't you realize what he's doing?" the Doctor struggled to speak without feeling the echoes of pain inside his chest. Renata helped him stand up but she had to keep a grip around him for a few minutes.

"Hey, no, hey! That's mine! Hush!" snapped the Master as he moved around the room."Look around you. I've transplanted myself into every single human being. But who wants a mongrel little species like them? Because now I can transplant myself into every single Time Lord. Oh, yes, Mr President, sir, standing there all noble and resplendent and decrepit. Think how much better you're going to look as me!"

The threat made no effect on any Time Lord. The Assessor let out a small noise akin to condescension.

Rassilon held out his gauntlet-covered hand and with one glow of it, the humans all returned to normal. The Master was mortified to see his grand plan stripped from him like that, so easily like it never even happened.

"No, don't...! No, no, no, stop it! No, no! No, no! Don't!"

"On your knees, mankind," demanded Rassilon and since all the humans there had the sense to be afraid, they knelt without protest.

The Master took in a deep breath as he tried to see he wasn't completely lost. "No, that's fine, that's good, because you said salvation. I still saved you, don't forget that."

"Oh, they never cared," Renata groaned with exasperation. She looked over her shoulder to the man. "Don't you get it? The High Council never cared. They are responsible for that noise in your head. I saw them throw my Whitepont Star just to establish the link that would save them."

"What did you say?" the Assessor once again demanded, this time her eyes narrowing on Renata. "How could you possibly know that?"

Renata whipped her head to meet her sister's gaze. Unlike the last time she saw the Assessor, she wasn't afraid. She didn't fear her sister anymore. After everything that she'd gone through recently, the Assessor was no one to have fear for. "I was wrong, you didn't take everything away from me…" the Assessor's eyes were beginning to widen, "You forced my hand and I stupidly played into it. You're not going to do the same again to me. CeCe."

The Assessor was rightfully stunned. Her dark eyes scrutinized the black haired woman from head to toe. The clothes were far to vulgar to be that of a Time Lady but then again only her sister would call her that wretched nickname. "...Renata?" Renata raised her head high, just like she was accustomed to. It was her place, after all. That's what the Assessor always said. "How...how are you…?"

"I tricked you," Renata said with no attempt to hide her smirk. "Because in the end, CeCe, I tricked you."

Though her words were brief, it was enough to send the Assessor into a whole new level of rage. "What do you me—" But before she could finish the question, a violent rumbling rocked them all on their feet. A bright light lit up from the windows.

"What's going on!?" the Master scowled.

"Something is returning. Don't you ever listen?" the Doctor was just as exasperated. "That was the prophecy. Not someone, something."

"What is it?"

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

Because now the Gallifrey as a whole was coming, intending on knocking Earth out of its own orbit to take its place.

The Master was beyond shocked that he'd been played like that. "But I...I did this. I get the credit!" he started scowling again as he looked at the Time Lords. "I'm on your side!"

"You're on their side because they wanted it to be so!" snapped Renata. "They're manipulators," she said directly at her sister. "No regard for anyone else but their own skin. Such a shame that you're what's left."

The Assessor's face grew red as a tomato from the anger. "You will not speak to me like that!"

"What are you going to do!? You already took everything! There's nothing left to dangle in front of me anymore!" Renata's humorless laughter only made her sister infuriate more. "You have finally met a version of me that you can't control. It must burn."

Chaos was ensuing all over the room. The humans were terrified of the intruding alien planet coming for theirs so they ran out. Wilf made it inside but before he could reach the Doctor or Renata, he found his way towards the technician booths where one employee was desperately banging against the glass doors to be let out. The Doctor could barely move as it was, and he didn't know who to go to. The Master? Wilf who was now locked in one of the booths? Or the two sisters in a standoff? Or the mastermind behind everything, Rassilon?

"But this is fantastic, isn't it?" the Master rose from the ground, ignoring the Doctor's glare. He still wasn't getting it!? Amazing. "The Time Lords restored."

"You weren't there in the final days of the War!" the Doctor cut in before he made any other assumptions. "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 Never-weres, the War turning to hell. And that's what you opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending!"

It wasn't admittedly what he had in mind but the Master would take it if it meant victorious. "My kind of world."

"Just listen! 'Cause even the Time Lords can't survive that!"

"We will initiate the Final Sanction. The end of time will come at my hand," Rassilon confirmed. "The rupture will continue, until it rips the Time Vortex apart."

"That's suicide," the Master said.

Even the Assessor had paused for a moment to evaluate the implications. "My Lord…"

"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."

"Was that...was that the final plan?" Renata was truly horrified to hear that, much more to know that her sister was in on such a plan. "CeCe…"

The Assessor faltered. Her eyes flickered to Renata, letting her see for one moment a scared woman. "I...I didn't know the extension of the plan but…" She took in a breath, one that was hard too from what Renata saw, "...if it our Lord President's decision then...we will follow."

"No," Renata shook her head, utterly disgusted.

"This is what made me do it," the Doctor told her quietly. "I knew what they were planning and I had to stop them."

Renata's eyes watered up. "Oh CeCe...how far you've gone…"

"We do what we must to survive," the Assessor said with her head held high. "I always do what I must, something you clearly—" Her eyes hardened on the Doctor, "—will never get. You say you tricked me, Renata, and for what? For him? The man who, as much as he tries, will never be good enough for you." She took a heavy pleasure watching the Doctor react to her words. Even centuries later, it still hurt him to know the truth.

"He was always good for me," Renata's voice was soft and honest when she looked at the Doctor. "I was trapped and for one moment — one small moment in my life — he made me happy." Her mind then opened up to show the Doctor those precious memories of theirs back on Gallifrey. They were running down hallways, sneaking around to see something they shouldn't but something that always brought out her laughter. They bantered and bickered about the oddest of things and even when the Doctor clearly won — from his vast well of knowledge — he never belittled her like the Assessor would. He would explain and show her what he meant. Their hugs, their hand-holding, their kisses — they were all treasured memories.

The Doctor saw them all one by one and felt the stinging of tears pricking his eyes. They were his best memories too. He brought a hand over Renata's cheek. "I was only happy there too," he nodded.

The Assessor audibly growled at the pair, completely outraged that her words were no longer holding the effect they always did. "Let go of her!" she yelled.

The Doctor did but only to sent a dark glare in her direction. "You hurt her."

"And you didn't?" she almost laughed in his face.

"I did and I will always regret it," the Doctor swallowed hard. "But I will always try to make up for it, if she allows it..." He glanced at Renata with nothing but hope that she really would let him try at least.

"Enough of this!" the Master pushed them apart to get up front. "Let me ascend into glory." He knelt down in front of Rassilon with his arms outstretched.

"You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more," Rassilon didn't look at him twice. He let his gauntlet do the talking. Energy started springing from it but before it reached out to the Master, a revolver clicking took the moment away.

The Doctor had found his strength to aim it right at the President.

Rassilon seemed amused but he would humor the Doctor by making a well pointed out difference. "Choose your enemy well. We are many. The Master is but one."

"But he's the President. Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours!" the Master jumped on the boat that would save his skin. However, the Doctor turned the gun on him now. "Oh! 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."

Renata's head changed each time the aim did. She didn't know what to do, how to help, but she just wanted to do something.

"I told you that he would ruin you," the Assessor spoke from her spot, raising her head as she smirked proudly. Once again, she'd been right. "He could never be on our level."

Renata closed her eyes as a new wave of fury rippled through her. The Assessor would never be able to change her tune. There were always these small moments where the Assessor would do something that would make Renata believe that perhaps her sister wasn't all bad. But maybe it was just a fact. It wasn't the Council's fault that her sister was the way she was.

The golden energy once again sparked from her fingers but this time the Assessor noticed it, although she wasn't sure what it was.

"The final act of your life is murder. But which one of us?" Rassilon taunted the Doctor as the Time Lord once again switched aims to hold it at the Master.

Behind Rassilon, however, there was a woman who'd been covering her face and the Doctor noticed her lowering her hands. He blinked twice to make sure he was seeing right. He couldn't...he couldn't quite remember but…

A bubbling feeling took place in his chest, like a wave of serenity coming to aid him. The Doctor watched the woman's eyes flicker to something on their side. With the gun being pointed at him for so long, the Master was beginning to realize that this was truly the end for him. He locked eyes with the Doctor, almost accepting that he'd lost all over again.

"Get out of the way," the Doctor suddenly ordered.

A grin broke across the Master's face. He dove out of the way and gave the Doctor the opportunity to shoot the device holding the Whitepoint Star. Once shot, the link went dead.

"The link is broken. Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell!" he cried with just a hint of a smirk.

"You'll die with me, Doctor!" warned Rassilon.

"I know," the Doctor let the revolver drop to the floor. This was where he met his end as well.

But Rassilon never made a move. The Master did. "Get out of the way!" he told the Doctor and Renata. "You did this to me!" He started firing electric bolts at Rassilon. The President staggered backwards with each blow. The Assessor quickly dove out of the way before she was caught in the crossfire. "All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! FOUR!" He gave the last powerful blow but he'd gotten too close to the link as well and was pulled in with it.

And so the link started pulling everything else.

"You blundering idiots!" the Assessor lost her entire cool facade as she fled from the link's grip. "We have the right to survive! We are Time Lords!" She stormed directly towards Renata and grabbed her by the shoulders, shoving the Doctor away. "And you! You had a duty! I always did everything right and I always made sure that you did everything right!" Renata allowed her sister to continue shaking her like a rag doll, but inside something was burning. Literally. "But you were always the odd one! Of course it had to be you! You-you had to go and fall in love with the likes of him! That — it was the beginning of everything! If you had never met the Doctor, then you would've done your job as a Time Lady!"

"LET ME GO!" Renata seized her sister's arms, squeezing them with a golden energy wrapping around them. The Assessor's eyes widened when she saw the same energy swirling inside her sister's eyes. "You're right, meeting the Doctor was the start of it all. It was the beginning of everything and it should have had a much different ending! A better one! But you took care of that! You made sure that I was as miserable as you! Elek never deserved me because I couldn't love him the right way. But you know what? I am so done with you Cece. I dare to think that even while I was out there, fighting our war, you considered me dead. I was never going to be your sister, no matter what I did for you. Because all you ever cared about was appearances and the High Council. So..." Renata felt a terrible pang across her chest knowing what she would have to do. "You want to die for their cause? Then go right ahead, but I refuse to follow you any longer. Serve your people like you always did. Till the end."

The Assessor tried shaking out of Renata's death grip. The energy around her was burning like fires from the war and it only seemed to be getting stronger. "What...what are you?" Her voice trembled with fear as she watched the energy dance around her sister's body.

"I don't know," Renata answered honestly while the golden energy spread behind her back, flapping like a butterfly. The Assessor soon recalled the Visionary's scroll. The Time Vortex and a butterfly. The Vortex Butterfly. "I love you Cece but it's time to say goodbye."

The Assessor's eyes widened one last time before Renata pushed her away with her newfound energy. The Assessor was the last thing to go into the pull before everything was shut off.

"Renata!" the Doctor tried reaching her but Renata screamed as she once again expelled golden energy. He was thrown back, hitting the side of a machine with a thud.

Unlike the other times where Renata would collapse from expelling energy, it gathered behind her back again and fluttered brilliantly like a golden butterfly. Renata sucked in a deep breath and tilted her head back, her arms stretching outwards. She could feel the energy moving with her, not against her this time. It was becoming a part of her, solidifying as her regeneration finally stabilized.

Far, far away one Gabby Gonzalez felt the echoes of the Time Vortex alerting her that Renata would be just fine.

When the golden energy died down, Renata was left standing but she appeared to be hazed for a moment. She raised her left hand, turning her palm over and smiled when a small butterfly formed above it.

"Ren…?"

Renata turned her head to see the Doctor struggling to get off the ground on his own. "Doctor!" she dashed to help him. "Oh, look at you!" She cupped his battered face.

"It's okay, I'm still alive. You're alive," he laughed shakily, prompting her to do the same.

"Yes, yes, we are," she agreed and kissed his nose. "I'm sorry what she said — the Assessor. She's going back and she's going to offer me the deal, and I'm going to say yes because she betrayed me. I'm a terrible person." She could remember perfectly now the way her deal was granted. They would offer the new cycle as a last hope that she would take the Moment from the Doctor, but Renata had seen what they nearly did. Her sister had stolen from her without a second though. She would betray them because they betrayed her.

"It's okay," the Doctor wound an arm around her neck, bunching some of her hair as he brought her closer to him, resting their foreheads against each other's. "It's okay, you never have to apologize for that."

But just as they relished in their victory, in their moments, they heard four knocks against glass. Renata flinched against the Doctor's forehead while the Doctor himself froze. The four knocks went again and this time they turned to see where it came from. Wilf was knocking against the glass of the booth he was in. He'd let the technician go without realizing what would come out of it.

"They've gone, then? Good-oh. If you could let me out...?" he smiled meekly.

The Doctor swallowed hard as he pushed himself up. "Yeah…"

Renata couldn't stand right then.

"Only, this thing seems to be making a bit of a noise," Wilf pointed behind him to the whirring control panel behind him.

"The Master...left the nuclear bolt running. It's gone into overload."

"And that's bad, is it?"

"No...'cause all the excess radiation gets vented inside there. Vinvocci glass contains it. All 500,000 rads, about to flood that thing."

"Oh! Well, you'd better let me out, then!"

"It's not that easy," Renata scrunched her face to keep herself from crying. She forced herself to stand up and turn around. "It's gone critical. Touch one control and it floods. Even our sonics would set it off."

"...I'm sorry," Wilf said once he realized what it meant. All this time he'd been so worried that the Master would kill them and it turned out to be him. "Look, just leave me."

"Okay, right then, I will," the Doctor said as if he would really do it. As if. "Cause you had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh, yes! 'Cause that's who you are, Wilfred. You were always this. Waiting for me all this time!" He was related to Donna Noble, of course her convergence wouldn't end with just her. It had to extend to her grandfather and yet the Doctor wouldn't leave him there. He couldn't.

"No, really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my time."

"Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important. But me? I could do so much more!" the Doctor yelled at the ceiling and turned away in deep fury. "So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair!" He swiped an entire desk clear but stopped when he caught himself, when he caught his words.

Was he really throwing a child's tantrum? Acting like a God who fought to stay alive even when his time was clearly up? That's exactly what he did on Mars. It keeps happening, he realized. This life...he'd lived it too long, so long and most of the time it had been heartbreak after heartbreak that it finally got to him. He let it get to him.

"I've lived too long," he concluded out lout and turned back towards Wilf. "I played the game of Life and I went down a path that I shouldn't have. I'm not God, I never should have tried to be one. This is my punishment, a lesson."

"Doctor, it's not," Renata said sadly. "You know what? Let me do it."

The Doctor humorlessly laughed. "You died once when I promised you that I would be there for you—"

"But you were!" she blurted, no longer caring what it would do to the future. "You were there, Doctor! Just...just not this you!" The Doctor only paused so that she could explain herself better. "You promised me that you would come back and you did. Another you did. A...future you. He came and he was with me when I died. He was there, telling me that I was going to be okay. He made my last moment peaceful and-and I don't want you to die now."

"I was there?" the Doctor asked, his eyes tearing up but this time with relief. "I was truly there?"

Renata nodded her head, tearing up herself. "Yes. You carried me out to my garden and you stayed with me until the end. So you see? This isn't a punishment."

"No, but it is where I have to go," he decided. "Because I need to be that man who can keep his promises to you."

"No, Doctor—"

"I want to be that man." He started towards the booth, forcing himself to keep his eyes locked ahead and not on the distraught Renata behind him. Despite Wilf's own protests, he opened the second booth door and stepped in. "Wilfred...it's my honour. Better be quick. Three, two, one." He pressed the button to release Wilf and once he was out, the radiation flooded his own booth.

"Doctor!" Renata ran towards the booth but it was far too late. He was being engulfed by the radiation. She was forced to watch him fall to the ground, curling up in true pain. Those few minutes felt like a lifetime for her.

But then, slowly, the Doctor regained his balance and was able to come out. Wilf was so confused but he still waved a hand. "Hello?"

"...hi," the Doctor stopped to help Renata stand on her feet. She'd fallen with him on the other side of the glass.

"Still with us?" Wilf asked again.

"The system's dead. I absorbed it all. Whole thing's kaput."

"There we are then, safe and sound. Mind you, you're in hell of a state. You've got some battle scars there."

Renata looked up at him as he covered his face with his hands, the next time he lowered them his injuries were completely healed.

Wilf was stunned. "But they've...your face! How did you do that?"

The Doctor stared at his hands. "It's started…"

Renata threw her arms around him, sniffling to herself but she promised at the same time that now she would be with him, just like he had been for her.

Do you mind one last round? The Doctor was looking at her with a resigned smile. She had no idea what he meant but she nodded her head fervently.

~ 0 ~

Sylvia Noble was right outside the house when the TARDIS materialized across the street and to their wonder, she was smiling.

"Hm, didn't know she did that," Renata remarked, actually making the Doctor and Wilf laugh beside her. She blinked after a moment when something hit her. "That was rude, wasn't it?"

The Doctor would let her ponder on that for a while. He turned to Wilf with a genuine smile. "Don't go thinking this is goodbye, Wilf. We'll see you again, one more time."

"What do you mean?" the man frowned. "When's that?"

"Just keep looking. We'll be there."

"Where are you going?"

"To get my reward." The Doctor reached for Renata's arm and gently tugged her into the TARDIS. They had a few stops to make after all.

~ 0 ~

Martha Jones ran as fast as she could down a paved area, but the rifle in her arms was a bit heavier than she thought it'd be. Finally, she ran up behind a concrete wall where her husband, Mickey Smith, was hiding at. He was appalled to see her there.

"I told you to stay behind!"

"You looked like you needed help. Besides, you're the one who persuaded me to go freelance!" she reminded him, leaving no chance of an argument there.

"Yeah, but we're being fired at by a Sontaran. A dumpling with a gun. And this is no place for a married woman!

Martha rolled her eyes. "Well, then. You shouldn't have married me!" But if he agreed with that, she'd kill him on the spot and he knew it.

Suddenly, the very Sontaran they were looking for caught them from behind. He was about to fire when a mallet struck him from behind. The Doctor held the mallet and gazed at Martha and Mickey, nonethewisers yet about their near death experience.

"If we go in here and down to the factory floor and down past that corridor, then he won't know that we're here.." Mickey was busy reading off a map when Martha shook his arm and pointed to the Doctor and Renata behind them. "Hey!" Mickey grinned, even Martha but it faltered when they truly saw the pair's grim faces.

"Ren…?" Martha squinted her eyes at the black-haired woman. She died. Martha felt tears come to her eyes but then she noticed the even worse face the Doctor had on and knew that the story wasn't completely over yet. "Oh no…"

The Doctor offered them one small smile before taking Renata's hand and leaving with her.

~ 0 ~

They finally met Sarah Jane's son, Luke Smith, although the boy was a bit distracted. The Doctor barely saved him from getting ran over by a car.

"But it's you!" Luke blinked at the man in front of him. He forgot all about his cellphone call. "Doctor! Mum! Mum!"

The Doctor smiled at him too then headed back for the TARDIS.

Luke caught up with mother - after looking before crossing the street - and told her about the Doctor. Sarah Jane caught him by the TARDIS and saw the him waving, but she knew that look. She'd know it anywhere. She smiled sadly as well.

~ 0 ~

Captain Jack wearily sat at a bar counter. He was off in how own world until a bartender stopped by to give him a note. "From the man over there."

'His name is Alonso'.

Jack took the note then looked over to see the Doctor and Renata. The Doctor nodded over to the quiet man sitting across from Jack, the same Alonso from the space Titanic. Jack knew what it all meant, even more so when the Doctor gave him a salute with a finger to his forehead.

He was saying goodbye.

Jack raised his head and gave him a proper salute.

~ 0 ~

Renata was front and center getting "A Journal of Impossible Things" signed by Verity Newman. "Lost touch there," Renata chuckled as the author, the granddaughter of her old friend, Joan, signed her copy.

"Yeah, you did," Verity agreed with her own chuckle. "Even did the whole face thing you told us about." Renata had always talked about it, her face changing was a possibility but of course that wasn't quite believed.

"I brought a friend," Renata pulled the Doctor from the line.

"Oh, lovely," Verity smiled at him. "Shall I add onto your book, Renata?"

"Please," Renata fondly looked at the Doctor. "Your name?"

"The Doctor," he told the author, expecting her to do a double take. Verity froze and looked him over and when she couldn't quite finish believing it was the same man, she checked for Renata's confirmation.

Renata gave the nod.

"Was she happy in the end?" the Doctor asked quietly. He knew from Renata's stories that Joan had lived a good life even after the whole mess he created, but he wanted to know from her own family too.

"Yes," Verity answered, smiling softly. "You and Renata changed her entire perspective of the world. It's why she traveled afterwards."

The Doctor smiled sadly. "Good."

~ 0 ~

Donna Noble had finally gotten married and was gleefully showing off her beautiful ring outside the church. And just as they were celebrating outside, Sylvia and Wilf noticed the Doctor around, along with Renata.

Wilf immediately set out for them. It had been months and he always wondered what happened to those two. "And here you are, same old face. Didn't I tell you you'd be all right? Oh! They've arrested Mr Naismith. It was on the news. Crimes undisclosed. And his daughter. Both of 'em, locked up."

"That's good to know," Renata nodded.

"I just wanted to give you this," the Doctor handed Wilf an envelope. "Wedding present. Thing is, I never carry money. So I just popped back in time, borrowed a quid off a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was. "Have it," he said." Sylvia gasped with chills from hearing her husband practically gave their daughter her wedding present. " Have that on me."

"The one time we can bend the rules," Renata smiled proudly as she curled her arm around the Doctor's. "Donna deserves the entire world." She watched Donna have a laugh while the photographer took her picture.

The Doctor gave a final look at Donna as well. That was his best friend, and she would finally get a good ending, one that she did deserve. The pair started back for the console, only stopping to give Wilf and Sylvia a proper goodbye as well. Both sides were tearing up. It was impossible not to.

~ 0 ~

Gabby had stuck to her drawing from the moment Renata had left with that strange man claiming to be the Doctor. She had a feeling that he was being honest, but she just needed a bit more time to confirm for herself. Still, she knew Renata would never go off with a stranger and much less a stranger who had the same TARDIS (least that's what it looked like from outside). Her head had been a bit frantic for a few moments here and there that day.

Gabby clung to hope that they survived whatever they had fought on Earth. She kept remembering the little feeling she got last night. It was so strange because she'd been drawing like usual when there was a ping in her heart. A purple energy wafted from her fingertips, remnants of the Cosmic Butterfly. It was only for a few seconds before it calmed down and turned into a beautiful swirl of purple butterflies and she suddenly knew that Renata was fine. It was like a wave of peace that washed over her. It was for that reason that Gabby continued to wait for them to come back. She knew what she felt was real. They couldn't be dead. They just couldn't be. They had already lost Donna and Gabby didn't know what she would do if she lost Renata and the Doctor too.

With all those concerns and unanswered questions, Gabby set out to draw. She had a few doodles of Donna which she hoped would become the basis of her next statue. She was just finishing shading Donna's bright orange hair when she heard the TARDIS wheezing.

Gabby's face lit up. She dropped her pencil and ran out of her room. In only one minute, she had dashed out of the gallery altogether to see the blue box in the garden again.

"Oh thank God!" she laughed in delight as she ran up to the box. Renata and the Doctor were just coming out of it when she reached them. "You're back! You're back!" Gabby greeted each of them with a tight hug. "I was so worried about you two! I thought I might have to build myself a spaceship to get back to Earth and…" she trailed off when she finally took notice of their grim faces. They were identical.

Gabby stepped back from them. Something was churning in her stomach.

"What's wrong?"

"Gabby Gonzalez, the Cosmic Butterfly," the Doctor had a strange smile on his face but Gabby couldn't figure it out just yet. "My family. Thank you for taking care of Renée, for helping me...for being there with me."

"...you're saying goodbye," Gabby blinked. "You're-you're leaving me? Are you dropping me back to Earth?" The same fear that had crossed Donna's face before getting her memories wiped was now on Gabby's face. "Oh God, are you sending me back?"

"No, never," the Doctor stepped towards her, allowing her to see how strained of a step it had been. In fact, he seemed strained as a whole.

Gabby looked him up and down, forgetting all about her initial fear. "You're not okay," she realized. "You're hurt." She looked past him to Renata and now she could fully understand why the Time Lady was nearly crying. Gabby looked at the Doctor again, now understanding. "You're doing it, huh? Regenerate? It's about to happen."

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah. I had to say goodbye to all my friends and you are one of them."

"But-but isn't there something we can do? Maybe-maybe—"

"No, Gabby. My time is up," the Doctor shrugged. "And it's fine. I may have not lived the best life but it's a lesson. And when I'm good, I'm going to make sure that I don't repeat the same mistakes in my next incarnation. So, this is goodbye. Thank you, Gabby."

Gabby smiled with tears in her eyes. "Goodbye, Doctor. Thank you for picking me up and showing me the stars." She moved closer and hugged him tight. If she was feeling terrible she could only imagine what Renata was going through.

"Doctor," Renata gently called, breaking them apart. "There is one more place you have to go to. She deserves one too."

The Doctor didn't say anything but he didn't have to. She could read him even when his mind was still shut off from her.

Renata held a hand out for him to take and when he did, she directed a gaze on Gabby. "Now Gabriella, we'll be back for you afterwards."

Gabby nodded. "Of course, you...you take your time." They would of course want to be alone for the next part. "I'll be here waiting...and drawing…" She had a good idea of what she wanted to draw next anyways.

~0~

January 2005.

It was New Year's and everything was in full mode party. Only a few people were out of the loop and that only because they missed it.

"I'm late now, I've missed it!" Rose Tyler grumbled while keeping her arms tightly folded over her chest. It was freezing and trying to walk through snow was not the way to get warmer. "It's midnight. Mickey'll be calling me everything. This is your fault."

"No, it's not. It's Jimbo!" Jackie Tyler exclaimed, quite indignant all the fault was being placed on her. "He said he was going to give us a lift, then he said his axle broke. I can't help it."

The mother and daughter went back and forth bickering, until they remembered it was midnight and they had just started a whole new year. They couldn't argue right now.

"Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year!"

"Don't stay out all night," Rose jokingly warned her mother afterwards.

"Try and stop me!" Jackie laughed as they split up. Jackie was going home and Rose was off to find Mickey...until she heard a quiet grunt of pain behind her.

Rose looked back and saw a pair of people, a man and woman, trying to stay above the snow. It looked like the man was struggling to stand on his own because the woman was practically holding him by the waist.

"You all right, mate?" she had to call out. Anyone else would've had the good sense to run away. It was WAS New Year's after all, all the crazies were out...but Rose didn't get that vibe from either of them. "Too much to drink?"

Renata quietly laughed to herself. The Doctor drinking? That would be a sight.

"Something like that," the Doctor said to skip any unnecessary dialogue. He only had minutes left and there was still something else he wanted to do after this.

"Maybe it's time you went home?" Rose suggested, figuring he wouldn't be able to make it down the block even with the woman's help.

"Yeah," the Doctor really tried not to put all his weight on Renata but his feet weren't responding the same way anymore.

Rose figured that they didn't need her help, or probably even want her help. The woman seemed to be just fine. They were close. "Anyway...Happy New Year."

"And you," the Doctor returned and watched her leave in the opposite way. "What year is this?" he called to her suddenly, curious where she was in the timeline. Renata had set the coordinates and he hadn't had a head to pay attention.

Rose stopped to look back and laughed. "Blimey, how much have you had?!" The Doctor merely shrugged, making her laugh again. "2005, January 1st."

"2005?" he repeated, eyes widened as they landed on Renata beside him.

She smiled innocently. She'd taken him here on purpose. She learned well where the Doctor met Rose and how could she not do this for him?

The Doctor leaned his head over hers, silently thanking her for giving him this last time. A few seconds later, he smiled at Rose nostalgically. She had no idea what was to come and his heart swelled for her. It was a lovely story despite its ending. But he wouldn't trade it, he would cherish it. That time was over for him, but not for her. "2005? Tell you what. I bet you're going to have a really great year."

Rose chuckled. "Yeah?" she could with some luck. "See yah!" she waved a hand then hurried off.

"Thank you," the Doctor told Renata as soon as Rose disappeared.

Renata smiled softly at him. "Of course. Now let's get you back to the TARDIS. Won't be good for any human to see us."

She turned them back for the TARDIS and little by little they were able to get closer. Upon making the turn where the box would be, they found Ood Sigma waiting for them.

"Can we help—" Renata was about to say when the Doctor yelped in pain. He nearly fell to the ground if she hadn't reacted fast to stop him. "Sorry."

The Doctor just smiled at her. She would apologize.

"We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep," Ood-Sigma said as he watched the pair. They then heard the gentle tune of a choir singing. "This song is ending. But the story never ends."

"He's right," Renata helped the Doctor towards the TARDIS. "Think of it as a new chapter of your book."

The Doctor only smiled at her for those kind words. He felt a bit more at peace when he was finally inside the TARDIS. It's where he was born and where he would die.

Renata shut the door behind them and brought him up to the console. When she was sure he wouldn't fall, she started the box up. A nice float in the sky might do some good, she thought. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the Doctor taking his coat off. Even that was a struggle. This particular regeneration would be a painful one due to what he'd gone through just before. Renata hoped that this wouldn't affect his next incarnation.

That's what happened to her in her previous incarnation, after all. Apart from the fact that she'd always been a bit reclusive, her last incarnation took it to the next level. She was burdened with secrets and fear because of what she'd gone through just before regenerating. The War, her sister, it moved on with her into her next incarnation. She didn't want the same thing to happen to the Doctor.

"Renata," the Doctor called to her, startling her out of her thoughts. Thinking he was losing his balance, she rushed round the console to meet him.

"I'm here, I'm here!" she assured him. He stopped her anxious hands from moving all around him. He grabbed them and held them tightly with his own. She met his gaze with confusion.

"I'm sorry," he began to say and already Renata was shaking her head. "I don't think I ever apologized for kidnapping you."

A light chuckle slipped through Renata's mouth. "Oh Doctor, you don't have to be guilty over that."

"I'm not guilty," he corrected, quieting her down with his seriousness. "I've never been guilty for kidnapping you. Truth is if I had to, I would do it again. I would steal you all over again."

Renata wanted to laugh but she also wanted to cry. So instead, something of a cross came out. "That's...that's a felony."

The Doctor was able to crack a smile. "And I've always been a thief. Anyone would try stealing you — you're Renata."

"You say that like it's supposed to mean something," she playfully rolled her eyes, but the tears clouded them. He was using up his last minutes to pay her compliments. "I'm just me."

"It does mean something, because you mean something to me." He brought one of his hands up to her cheek. "You always have and you know it. I really wish we hadn't done things the way we did. From the very beginning, I shouldn't have asked you to run with me. I should have stayed and fought for you, spoken to your family."

"It's not just on you," Renata smiled sadly. "I should've been braver. But I don't want you to think about those horrible thoughts right now. They shouldn't be the last things you think of."

"You're right, there's better things to think of. Happier ones." He stroked circles over her cheek. "Our adventures back then were pretty good, huh?"

Renata laughed softly. "Which ones? The ones where I would yell at you for nearly getting us caught? Or the ones where you would nearly get us caught?"

The Doctor put on a strained smile for her. Minutes were shortening. "Mm, it was the beginning of everything. Of us."

Renata sobered fast under his softened gaze. She knew he was in pain. His mind was still sealed off from her but she just knew. "The beginning of everything," she mused. "Yeah, I suppose it was."

The Doctor swallowed down a grunt of pain. He had to make this quick. And part of him was tired of beating around the bush, saying it with an unsure future. He was tired of that. He leaned closer to Renata and willed his words to come out in one go. "I love you, Renata. I've loved you for centuries and if I live for centuries more, you'll still be the one to own my hearts."

Renata once again smiled sadly. Her hearts jolted with the same thrill she would get in her first incarnation. Hearing him say it, to mean it like that with so much intensity...nobody else was ever able to give her that same rush. Not even her husband. "I love you too," she whispered. She touched his arms on instinct when he lowered his head to hers.

It was the same story from the past. He would hover over her lips for an agonizing minute while he took in her face. For him, it was his way to admire the beautiful woman he was about to kiss. He loved remembering it each time; his own special treat.

He finally kissed her a moment later. He made it hard straight away, like he was trying to take as much as he could before some new man stepped into his place. Renata kept up with his speed and strength. It wasn't their first kiss like this, after all, and she secretly loved them. She loved the feeling of his lips fiercely pressing against hers, his arms pulling her impossibly close to him.

Eventually, the Doctor was forced to pull away. The pain was taking him this time and there was no stopping it. "I'm sorry," he held onto Renata for a bit longer. She was just watching him, knowing what was coming now. "I love you, Gala."

A small smile spread across her face. "I love you too, Theta."

His hearts swelled in that moment. She had rarely used his name in the past. Back then, she would remind him that they should only use their names if and when they were married, just like customs demanded. The fact she even told him her name was a miracle but a testament to how much she loved him.

The Doctor moved a few steps back. Minutes were seconds now. He gazed at his hands and saw the regeneration energy beginning to flow from his fingertips. He breathed in jaggedly. He took one last look at Renata, the woman tearing up knowing this was it, and he said: "I don't want to go."

Not a second after did the energy begin to emanate from his body. There was a brief glow around his head before it turned onto a full blast. Renata yelped as the force of it knocked her back. Even the poor TARDIS couldn't handle the burst of energy. A good part of the console caught on fire while the parts that didn't spark like it eventually would. Several of the beams collapsed and crumbled while the box lurched to each side in an attempt to put the fires out.

With the lurches, the Doctor even fell backwards. By the time his back hit the ground, he was a brand new man. He jerked upright with a yelp.

"Legs. I've still got legs, good!" he exclaimed, even kissing his knee for just being there. The regeneration was definitely a wonky one, he could just feel it! "Arms! Hands! Ooh, fingers, lots of fingers!" he wiggled said fingers in front of them to make sure they were all operational. "Ears, yes! Eyes, two!" He blinked particularly hard when one of his fingers nearly poked him. Probably not the best idea to touch his eyes in a ship that had no sense of flying. "Nose, I've had worse! Chin, blimey!" He'd need a proper mirror to examine that chin later on. "Hair - I'm a girl!" He fiercely ran his hands through his longer brunette hair but he calmed himself from the shock when he felt his Adam's apple. "No! No... I'm not a girl." He stopped everything when he pulled some of his hair in front of his eyes and saw the brown shade of it. "And still not ginger! And something else, something important, I'm, I'm... I'm…"

"CRASHING!" Renata's loud scream cut him off and nearly rivaled the TARDIS' own distressed hums. She had clambered back to the console and was frantically trying to control the box before it killed them both. "We're crashing you idiot!"

The new Doctor grinned despite already being insulted. It was a beginning alright, but perhaps things wouldn't be entirely new. Things would be changing, like a metamorphosis.

Author's Note:

To be continued in...Metamorphosis!

I don't think anyone figured out what the next title was going to be called but if you did, kudos to you! The next story is already in motion if you'd like to check it out! Spoilers, you won't be seeing Gabby there until after Prisoner Zero but she WILL be a part of that story as well. I'm so excited to see her become the "alpha" companion because it's going to be super important in regards to her relationship with Amy, then Rory! And as for Ren and 11? They will be...interesting.

As for this story...the final stand-off between Ren and the Assessor was long overdue and I hope it was fitting. I even got the Doctor in there a bit too but I felt like it needed it to primarily be between the sisters. Ultimately, they both did wrong things (Renata scamming the Time Lords for a second regeneration cycle and the Assessor blackmailing her) but only Renata was able to admit it.

THANK YOU so much for all the reads/comments! I have truly loved writing this story so much and I'm happy (and sad) that I was able to finish it. I hope you continue on with me into the next story!

Fun facts of the story (I always like doing these at the end of the stories to let yall know what changed along the publishing process)

1. This was, in fact, not meant to be such a long story. I originally posted this as a one-shot to see how received it would be!

2. Renata's name was originally going to be only Renée but since I couldn't decide between that and 'Renata' I went with both. I only realized after that both names are the same and that Renée was a nickname!

3. Gabby wasn't originally going to be in the story. I learned about her when I started reading the comics and since I'm a sad Latina who is probably never going to see a Latinx companion on the series, Gabby is here to stay for a long while!

4. The Assessor wasn't in my original drafts but I felt like she would be a good addition to the story (Ren probably disagrees with me there...). I haven't decided if I ever want to bring the Assessor back in future stories but it's not a 'no' ;)