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Donna tried to open the door-this wasn’t funny. This wasn’t funny at all. She felt the whole place shifting; something was clearly caring the TARDIS. The human tried to stay calm, but that moment was clearly it; it had to be goodbye Donna Noble.
There was fire everywhere, the low humming of the ship had turned into a deep moaning sound and she braced herself for the worst, except it never came.
Suddenly a holographic version of her Doctor appeared in front of her. “Oh, I’ll slap him into the next year.” She sniffed, no longer caring that she was crying.
“This is Emergency Protocol One. Donna, I hate how the TARDIS makes me record a new one for each companion but… If you are seeing this it’s because I needed to… Donna, Emergency Protocol One is meant for fatal danger. So as you see this, I’m dead or worse, or both, I don’t know but… The TARDIS will take you home and... Thank you, for everything. Be safe, be magnificent and let the TARDIS hide herself. Thank you, and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” The hologram looked at her, directly at her, as if it was really him in the room with her. And then she felt the by now familiar feeling of the TARDIS dematerializing.
The TARDIS landed inside the living room of her mother’s house. Sylvia let out a heavy sigh and Wilf whistled. The three of them hugged.
“The TARDIS closed itself and… I couldn’t… There is an Emergency Protocol and I don’t know what to do.”
“Sit here with us.” Sylvia held her daughter’s hand tightly, as if she didn’t believe Donna was really there.
“Isn’t there anything you could do sweetheart? To help that Doctor of yours, eh?” Wilf asked.
“The message said to just stay home basically and… let the TARDIS hide herself away.”
“Herself?” Sylvia snorted. “You talk as if…”
“If the Doctor is dead she is the only thing left of Gallifrey…”suddenly the TARDIS’ doors opened themselves.
“What is going on?” Sylvia tried to stop her, but Donna walked in the direction of the ship. “Donna! Come back here, young lady!”
Donna could hear the same heartbeat as the one she heard while with the Doctor, and it was driving her crazy. The console room was filled with golden light as the face of a woman appeared on the central column.
“Complicated event in space and time. I was alive and now I am not but I still have time to fix this.”
“Fix what? Who are you?”
“I don’t have time, Bride, to explain, and things are not what they should be and could and… Oh, just don’t let him do anything stupid. My thief can be very stupid… Can you hear it?”
“What? Hear what? Who are…” Donna took one step back. “You are the TARDIS.”
“Time And Relative Dimensions in Space… You can hear it, follow it.”
“Hear what?”
“Goodbye.” then the image dissolved in uncountable golden lights and the heartbeat became louder, filling her ears, filling everything until Donna couldn’t think.
She always thought of it as odd, that jar with a hand and it now pulsated with the same golden hue as everything else. How could she have seen the face of the TARDIS? Was that even possible?
Complicated event in space and time, she had said. She had to follow the noise… She reached out to touch what was possibly the last living piece of her Doctor; she felt as if she had being zapped, but couldn’t stop touching it until the jar broke and the hand expanded becoming something else.
The golden light became brighter and suddenly disappeared as the TARDIS regained its normal lighting, and just like that, before her very eyes was a little ginger girl looking very much somewhere around six years old.
“Hi there, now, who are you?” Donna asked and the girl let out a small whimpering sound. “Hey, hey, don’t cry. Come on.” Donna held out her arms trying to place the small girl in them, and the girl willingly set herself on the offering lap. “Who are you?” Donna whispered.
“You would die but Idris didn’t let you.” She said in a small voice.
“Now, who is Idris, darling?”
“Guess who she is, silly.” The child giggled and looked in the direction of the console.
“Oh… And how did she stop me from dying? Everyone dies one day...”
“Because she did it in a way that the rengeration lighting thingy went to your body and I’m more you and not so much Doctor-y.”
“I’m almost certain the word is not ‘rengeration’.”
“No, you are not.”
“What should I do?” She felt daft for asking to such a small child those questions, but knew said child somehow had the answers.
“You need to open your mind.” The small chubby hands placed themselves on Donna’s temples and Donna felt her whole body boil.
“What’s going on?”
“You need to rengerate… Ugh, regene… You know what I mean.” She pouted almost crying with frustration for not getting to word right, and walked back so she would be away from Donna.
“What do I do?”
“I dunno, the Doctor is not good at it, so I can’t learn anything from his memories!”
Donna had always been afraid of the unknown in a way that she became blind to the weirdness of the world, until the Doctor came along and opened her eyes. She felt something tingling underneath her skin as everything became hotter, and hotter, and hotter.
It felt like drinking so much you forget your name, like falling asleep after being so tired that you wake up not knowing what day it is. And at the same time it was feeling your body being pulled to every direction at the same time. And it was unbearably hot and then it was gone.
She looked to see no change; she passed her hand through her hair and down her body and felt pretty much the same. Until she heard a cry that she now knew belonged to the TARDIS and she could hear the music of the universe and two hearts beating on her chest.
“I’m like him. That’s what she did, that’s why…”
She gathered the girl on her arms. And went back inside the house. Sylvia was shaking and Wilf caressed her arm. “Donna!”
“Take care of her, I need to do something, but I promise I’ll be back.”
“Who is she, sweetheart?”
“It’s complicated, gramps, I’ll explain everything once I saved the Doctor’s skinny arse.”
“Language!” Sylvia said pointing to the girl.
She got inside the TARDIS and took a deep breath; the next minutes would probably feel long as the timelines stretched in front of her eyes.
Davros laughed in maniac excitement, as Caan giggled and another Dalek counted down to the end of everything.
The Doctor’s eyes went wide when he heard the noise, before everyone else did. “It can’t be…”
The TARDIS landed inside the crucible; in the Doctor’s mind he saw different scenes. One where a version of him ran with a gun, in the other a set of twins did so, on a third version there were two Donnas, and his mind ached with the constant change. There was a fixed but weird point in time about to happen and Dalek Caan rejoiced in whatever it was.
Donna ran but not directly in Davros’ direction, having seen in the back of her mind one version of her being shot by him; she ran fast to the controls and stopped them.
“Oh... closing all Z-Neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop?” she flicks a switch. “That button there!”
“But… Donna, you can’t even change a plug!”
“Wanna bet, Time Boy?” she gave him her cheekiest smile and he felt it.
“Oh, I’m so stupid. But no… It… Yes… She… Oh, that’s brilliant.”
“Doctor, what are you talking about?” Rose asked as he beamed, looking at his current companion.
The Daleks started complaining in their high-pitched voices and Donna smiled. Suddenly they all stopped functioning, their weapons unusable, and their control over their ‘bodies’ gone.
Inside the crucible was now filled with a different noise as the Daleks struggled to work, the companions ‘cleaning’ the way.
“COME ON, DUMBO. I CAN’T DO EVERYTHING BY MYSELF!” she screamed and the Doctor ran to the controls.
“Are you really…?”
“Yeah, now let’s put these planets back to their places, shall we? Priorities, Spaceman, you’ve got them wrong.” She smiled at him and he smiled back.
Davros roared at Caan for being mistaken.
“Oh, I don’t think he was… I think he did it…”
“It would happen anyway, I just helped.” And giggled.
The timelines stretched in front of Donna’s eyes once more as they sent the planets home with Davros being stopped by Mickey and Jack. All planets were in their places except for one. And then the timelines settled. She looked at the Doctor and said, “I’m sorry, Time Boy.”
“Why?” he looked. “Oh, of course. We can fly Earth with the TARIDS.” He ran inside and she looked to Davros.
“Come on!” the Doctor screamed as the companions went to the ship. Donna looked to the TARDIS over her shoulder and then slammed a button and the Daleks started exploding.
Donna ran inside following the others listening to Davros’ accusations.
“Donna, what did you do?”
“I… Do you remember with Agatha Christie? If we had let it go, that creature would’ve killed Agatha and changed everything… They would still destroy everything, there were so many…” tears fell down her eyes.
“Close the door, we need to fly the Earth back home.” He looked old, weighted down by a terrible burden. It didn’t matter the means, they always became soldiers in the end.
The euphoria started winding down when it came the time to go home. Sarah Jane was the first, eager to be with her son. And she reminded the Doctor that he wasn’t alone.
He heard the whispers rather than saw, and still he was surprised with Mickey deciding on staying on this Universe.
When he went back inside, Rose looked at him and asked “Where now?” with one of her smiles, with her tongue between her teeth.
“I’m taking you guys home.” He looked at her and something hit her. She wanted to say so much, to beg to stay and she realized she was treated like everyone else. If any of those who helped the Earth being flown back home had gotten lost, he would’ve ran so fast in their direction. That was the Doctor, he loved all of them.
“Let me stay.” She tried knowing the answer. “Please, Doctor, let me stay.”
Donna put a hand on his arm and smiled at him. And she knew there was no way she could stay, not for him, but for herself. She had overheard the Doctor telling Jack that Donna was now a Time Lady, and though she couldn’t understand why, he now had someone who could give him the forever she promised.
“Rose Tyler… I…” he started telling her but the TARDIS landed. Outside that door was Bad Wolf Bay.
Jackie opened the doors. “Bloody Norway, I will have to call your father.” She stepped out of the ship and the others followed close behind.
“I work for Torchwood, you know.” Rose told the Doctor.
“Your dad owns Torchwood,” Jackie interrupted.
“I know mum just… Just don’t….” she glared at her mother. “Is there someone taking care of you?” She asked, giving a light punch on his arm.
“Yes, there is.”
“I looked for you because I knew you would save everything.”
“Weeeell… I didn’t really.” He ran his hand through his hair and smiled. “Rose…”
“Come here before I decide to go back to the TARDIS and be selfish.” She said pulling him in a hug. It had been ten years since she fell into that Universe, but now it was time to realize it was her home; where her family was, where she had a father, which she never had in her Universe. They hugged tightly.
“The walls are closing.” Donna said in a small voice, breaking the spell.
“Goodbye, Doctor.” Rose told him.
“Goodbye, Rose.” He walked back inside the TARDIS and so did Donna, who gave one last look before closing the door.
As mature as Rose was trying to be, she couldn’t help running in the direction of the vanishing time-machine.
Donna set the controls to Chiswick.
“You are leaving? But… you can’t, we still have to go to Kataa Flo Ko. And to Fellspoon, isn’t it a great name for a planet? Fellspoon? The mountains…”
“Sway in the wind, I know. What’s in your head is in mine.” She smiled and he frowned.
“Donna… A meta-crisis wasn’t supposed to…”
“Do you remember that blonde bimbo we met at the Library? The one who kept saying ‘spoilers’ at everything, remember? This is kind of it, kind of. I can’t tell you how exactly, but the TARIDS helped me, or at least a form of her, by making the meta-crisis balanced, splitting the DNA completely in half so I could be as Time Lord as…”
“As who?”
“Be ready.”
“For what?”
The TARDIS landed. “For dad shock.”
Donna opened the door.
“I thought you wouldn’t come back.” Sylvia said in a scornful voice.
“I told her you would.” Wilf said running to hug her.
“Where is she?” Donna asked. The little girl came toddling into the room at the sound of Donna voice. “Hi there, you beautiful thing.” She smiled and looked at the Doctor. “Doctor this is… we need a name for you, don’t we?” she looked back at the girl.
“She has one, Donna, can’t you hear it? She chose one, well, the TARDIS did.” The Doctor lowered himself to be in the same level as the girl. “How do you do, Eilian?”
“I’m sorry, Doctor. But I’m pretty sure that’s a boy’s name.” Wilf said.
“And it’s Welsh.” Sylvia said, completing Wilf’s thought.
“It’s a unisex name. And it means… moment in time.” The Doctor said looking at Wilf.
Eilian was beautiful, with ginger hair; she looked like a copy of the picture on the wall. Sylvia stood around them like an eagle and it made the Doctor wonder how she acted around Donna when she was that age.
As if acting on instinct, and she probably was, Eilian got closer to the Doctor and hugged him. He hugged her back for a few beats before pulling away and standing up making Donna antsy and anxious, she also stood.
“It’s ok if you don’t want us in the TARDIS, I mean… It’s not really the place for a child, but…”
“Donna, my granddaughter lived with me, remember?”
“Granddaughter? How old are you?” Sylvia asked.
“I know but, you hate being domestic and…”
"I can't let you here Donna. You are a Time Lady now; I can't let you stay on Earth with any chance of leaving."
"And why not?"
"Because I'm not them."
And Donna understood that, he would always try to prove he was not like the other Time Lords, and that he thought it was brilliant that way.
“Alright, but you could take me on a date, you know, a date-date, though don’t get too excited, I still think that anti-gravity thing is all you’re having me on.”
He beams at her. “Oh, you will love there. We could also go to Apalapucia, they say it’s the best place ever and…”
“Doctor.”
“Huh?”
“Shut up.” She pulled him in to a kiss and Eilian giggled, Wilf whistled and Sylvia groaned.
And it was brilliant.