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Valarie asked, leaned against the console. Martha stood back with her arms crossed, watching as the Doctor worked his magic with the consoles controls.

"Well, Cardiff is like the San Andreas fault in California. It sits on a shift except this shift bleeds time and energy." He explained. "The TARDIS needs to, well, refuel to explain it simply."

"So this is a pit stop?" Martha asked. He nodded at her. He told them it would only take a short amount of time, twenty seconds. Valarie stood up and walked to his side and looked towards the monitor. She leaned in, scrunching her face and even tucking a lose strand of hair behind her head. She leaned back.

"I meant to ask, what does all of this mean?" She pointed at the circular symbols overlapping one another on the screen.

"Oh, that's gallifreyan." He explained.

"Why can't I read it? I thought the TARDIS translated everything."

"Well, they weren't made with humans in mind. In fact this particular TARDIS was made probably eons before humanity crawled out of the forests, and that was probably eons before you or Martha were even thought of. These are only meant to be operated by time lords, and that is the language time lords write and read in. Of course, now I'm the only one who can read and translate it." He scratched the back of his head, a hand in his pocket as he watched the TARDIS's status on it taking up the energy.

"So, what I'm hearing is that you are a old man."

"Oh yeah. I'm nine hundred and three. That's about, oh, eight hundred and eighty-three years before you were born."

"So not only are you old, you're a creep?" She giggled with a raised eyebrow. He leaned in close to her face. He leaned a arm behind her body, drawing closer to her face. She could practically feel his breath on her face. Her breath slightly hitched, trying to conceal the tension she felt and keep her smile.

"For sure, I am definitely a creep." He snapped a lever down and was gone from her space as he had been. The TARDIS groaned as it usually did. It then rocked sharply to one side and sparks exploded from the wires above. Alarms echoed as the TARDIS seemed to be losing control. Sparks showered them as they tried to cover themselves and were thrown from side to side.

"Somethings wrong. It's sending us into the future. The year one trillion, five trillion, fifty trillion, the year one hundred trillion? B-but that's impossible?" He asked watching the rapid gallifreyan symbols flash on the screen.

"Why is that impossible? What happens then?"

"We're going to the end of the universe."

The TARDIS finally stopped its shaking after a few moments, the silence deafening. The doctor stepped back and looked up at the console.

"What is out there?" Valarie asked.

"I don't know."

"That's rare." Martha scoffed.

"Not even the Time Lords came this far. We should go. We should really, really go." He looked to them before cracking a grin and running towards the door. He snagged his long coat and shrugged it on as he opened the door. The two followed him out into the open. It was dark like night, and they looked to be on a mountainous terrain. Martha was the first to notice the man lying on his back to the ground.

"Oh my god!" She gasped running towards him. "No pulse, you've got that medical kit in the TARDIS." Martha ran back into the box as the Doctor approached the seemingly dead man. Valarie followed hesitantly with a look of horror and concern on her face.

"Hello again." The Doctor looked his body up and down. "Oh, I'm sorry." He sighed. Valarie grabbed his arm, almost hiding behind him as she looked at the man.

"Do you know him?" She asked. Martha rushed out with the kit, opening it and pulling the stethoscope out.

"Old friend of mine. Must have hung onto the outside of the TARDIS through the vortex. That's very him." He sighed as Martha tried to find a heartbeat. She pulled the stethoscope out of her ears and shook her head.

"Well, I'm sorry but there's no heartbeat. He's gone."

The man burst back to life it seemed as he gasped for a deep breath of air, grabbing onto Martha. She screamed as his suddenness shocked her. He coughed and fought for breath before his blue eyes drifted to Martha. He smiled.

"Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?" He still fought for a good breath, but placed a hand gently on Martha's face. Valarie held the Doctor's arm tighter and looked up to him in confusion. This man had seemingly sprung back from the dead and now the first thing on his mind was about trying to get some. The Doctor simply looked to her and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Martha Jones."

"Well, nice to meet you Martha Jones." He flirted back. The Doctor interjected, having heard the routine Jack put on countless times before.

"Oh, don't start that now!" He groaned as Martha helped Jack stand. He was wobbly, but even then stood very tall. He was a larger man, but the clothes he wore seemed out of place for the end of the universe.

"Doctor." He sighed.

"Captain."

"Good to see you."

"And you. Same as ever. Although, have you had some work done?" The Doctor asked, the girls assuming it was some inside joke between the old friends as he cracked a smile.

"You're one to talk." Jack snapped back.

"Oh, right. New face. Regeneration. How did you know it was me?" The Doctor asked, recalling how different he had looked the last time he had saw Jack.

"The police box gives it away." He nodded at the TARDIS. "I've been looking all over for you. You abandoned me." Valarie recoiled at the thought of the Doctor abandoning someone.

"Did I? A lot happened up there. Busy life." The Doctor sighed. Valarie and Martha couldn't pin point if there was true animosity between the two or if this was simply how these friends treated one another. Valarie watched as Jack's gaze finally rested on her, having then really noticed her. He smiled and approached her, holding a hand out. When she took it, he kissed the back of her hand.

"And who is this one?"

"Stop it." The Doctor snapped at him again. When Jack finally pulled away from her he answered. "This is Valarie Scott."

"So, I just got to ask. Battle of Canary Wharf, the list of the dead said Rose Tyler."

"Oh! No, she's alive and safe. Her, her whole family and Mickey. Tucked away in a parallel dimension." Jack cried out in a relieved laugh, the two finally snapping and hugging one another. Valarie stood back. She had been familiarized with who Rose was at this point, but when her name was brought up she felt a ball of sadness form in her stomach. How could someone she had never met possibly made her feel that way?

--

They blindly walked along the path, Jack and Martha hanging back as he explained what had lead him to where they were now. Jack explained how the Doctor had left him over hundred years in the future, and in an unfortunate turn of events due to a faulty vortex manipulator - something the Doctor loving called a space hopper and spent a good two minutes bashing - Jack had ended up living through the entire twentieth century. Valarie pondered this, knowing Jack couldn't possibly be a Time Lord but he looked too human to be anything but just some guy who happened to be immortal. She looked to the sky as he talked about his earlier trips with the Doctor.

"Why is it just pitch black?" She asked the Doctor who gazed up.

"End of time. All the stars have burnt up. Not a single one is left. Just faded away, into nothing." He explained as they came to the edge of a cliff overlooking the remnant of some civilization.

"So the suns gone? Shouldn't we be, you know, frozen?" She asked.

"They must have some form of atmospheric shell. Besides, you, Martha, and I would be frozen. Jack, I'm not so sure about." He looked to Jack, the two making eye contact as he knew what had became of Jack. It was a fate he didn't want to wish on anyone.

"Does anyone survive?" Martha asked quietly.

"Not sure. I suppose we just have to hope that life found a way." The Doctor said. Jack pointed a finger down to a lower path in the canyon.

"Well he's not doing to bad." A man sprinted below, constantly looking back as he cried out for help. Behind him a larger pack of things that appeared human but screamed, snarled, and growled behind him. There could have easily been over thirty people chasing him.

"That looks like a hunt if I've ever seen one." The Doctor took off towards the direction the man ran in with the others following suit. They came to an intersection in the ridges, Jack to be the first to get his hands on the man.

"They're coming!" He cried. The group came close, Jack shoving everyone back and pulling a revolver from under his long coat. He pointed it at them, struggling with the decision to shoot or not.

"Jack, don't you dare!" The Doctor shouted as Jack jerked his arm above his head and fired three warning shots into the air. The Doctor looked to the man they intercepted and informed him of their ship nearby. When he looked to the direction of the TARDIS more of those with the group chasing them appeared.

"We're close to the silo." The man told them. "If we get to the silo, we are safe."

"Silo?" The Doctor asked.

"Silo sounds great to me." Jack said as the group gained its courage after the warning shots and began to approach again.

"Silo!"

"Go!" Valarie yelled as they ran from the merging groups, lead by the man. After running from the relentless group a fence came into view. The guards lining the fence cried to them.

"Show me your teeth! Show me your teeth!" they yelled at them. When they reached the fence, the man who lead them there instructed the same before baring his own teeth. The hesitantly did so. The gates were opened swiftly after an announcement they were human, and they were shuffled into the silo.

--

What had happened after they were ushered in was a blur in Valarie's mind. She knew few things to be true. Humans made it to the end of time somehow. A man named Yana was working on a rocket ship to get the surviving humans to a place called Utopia, which Valarie felt unsure if it was true if this was truly the end of the universe. Yana was an older man, wearing an oddly old fashion outfit whose assistant was a young alien woman. She was blue, was insect like in appearance, and started every sentence with 'chan' and ended it with 'tho'. Yana had also been gracious enough to have the TARDIS retrieved for them, as it was now nicely tucked into the lab they all stood in.

The last thing Valarie knew was in the backpack Jack had carried with him this entire time contained something odd.

A human hand in a jar.

"And why do you have a hand in a jar?" MMartha asked as she had been the one to find it. The Doctor and Jack had been in deep conversation with Yana who explained the plans to get the refugees to Utopia, but the problems with the ship hindered this. Upon seeing it Jack shrugged.

"But that, that's my hand."

"Your hand?" Valarie asked in shock.She looked at his right hand, which seemed real enough.

"I told you I had a Doctor detector."

Valarie moved and stood over a seated Doctor, looking at his hand with wide eyes. She grabbed it, holding it between hers and almost feeling it. Somewhere in her mind she wondered if it had been a really good, futuristic one the whole time. It was warm like a real one at least. He watched in amusement as she felt of his hand and even rolled his sleeve down a little to see if there was a line or scar.

"I lost it Christmas day. Barely out of regeneration, so I was still self healing. Just grew it back." He explained.

"Might I ask what species you are?" Yana asked.

"Time Lord. Last of them."

"Chan, is it said I am the last of my species too, tho." Chantho explained with a smile, almost relieved someone could relate to her. The Doctor wiggled his fingers, bringing Valarie out of her daze that was focused on his hand.

"It is real. One-hundred percent me. Promise." He smiled. He then turned to Yana.

"So, about getting that rocket going." He smiled. Yana, who seemed to suddenly be within a daze and struggled to continue to speak.

"Oh, er, yes. The problems with the ship. It's the couplings. If we can fix the radiation in the footprint the couplings can operate safely. Problem is, everyone whose tried to go in and fix the radiation has died."

"Well," The Doctor took his glasses off he had put on to read the table on the radiation readings. "lucky for you I have the man for you." The Doctors eyes rested on Jack.

The two left for the footprint below the ship, Martha and Valarie staying with Chantho and Yana in the control room. They could see and hear it all on the screen as Jack walked into the radiation chamber and began to work on the couplings. The more interesting part to Valarie was her conversation. About Jack's immortality, and just how wrong he was. Jack was a walking fixed point in time, and it made the Doctor's stomach turn.

Valarie drifted from Chantho and Martha and took a seat, leaning her heard back. Thoughts spun within it. The Doctor had known so many impossible, remarkable people. Even an immortal. But Rose was someone she couldn't place a finger on. Rose Tyler was an enigma to her. A woman who, through the Doctor's own stories, seemed to resemble a god more then a human. She had always seemed to know the right answers, was brave, and had even done something as powerful as resurrect Jack. And the Doctor hopelessly loved her; he grieved her. Valarie knew she wasn't Rose. She could never dream of being Rose.

It felt like she had been punched in the gut with that thought. How could he possibly reciprocate what she felt when she was a small human, consumed too much in her own selfish thoughts and feelings for him. How could he, nearly a god himself, look upon her a mere human and feel anything remotely close to love? Perhaps he did pity her. Valarie had been haunted with these fear since they had to hide from the family. Her insecurities resurfaced and she had fought them off so desperate. The truth of how she felt laid like bricks on her ribs and felt like every day they suffocated her more.

Sometimes she wondered if telling him would relieve this pressure, but knew it could come at the cost of their relationship.

Valarie came out of her own self-pity driven daze by movement near her. Yana reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a fob watch, looking at it and turning it over in his hands.

"What is that?" Valarie asked. Martha's attention turned the screen within the radiation chamber to the watch in his hands.

"Oh, silly old watch. Had it since I was a boy. They found it on me wondering coast after a terrible storm."

"Have you opened it?" Valarie asked. Yana shook his head.

"No, old things broken." He turned it over. He looked to the girls in confusion of their obvious concern. They acted antsy and almost scared.

On the back was engraving. Unmistakably, gallifreyan engraving.

"Martha, I think Jack and the Doctor have finished working on the couplings. Why don't we go tell them the rockets ready to go." Was Valarie's excuse to leave the room. Her and Martha walked calmly before running once they were out of sight. She felt unsure if it was possible. It felt impossible. The Doctor was supposed to be alone. They burst into the room were the radiation and the footprint was controlled.

"Doctor, it is Professor Yana. He has a watch."

"So?" Jack asked across the room as he worked on controls like the Doctor did.

"It, it had," Valarie stuttered. The Doctor looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"It had what?" He asked. When she failed to answer he grabbed her shoulders. "It had what?!" He yelled. She looked to him with wide eyes.

"It had gallifreyan engravings. All over it. Like yours did. He could barely look at it, like you did."

"But he's looking now, isn't he." The Doctor ran towards the rooms door, it sealing shut. He pulled his sonic out, trying desperately to unlock the door. Yana's voice echoed over the rooms communications.

"Thank you." He laughed almost sisterly. The Doctor cried out for Jack, who was trying to override the doors lock on a pad. Alarms filled the empty hall ways. Foot steps, growls and screams filled it. Yana, or whoever he was, had opened the gates. The people who had tried to kill them before were now inside. They ran towards the lab, which was also locked. They frantically pried at the doors as the group of carnivorous beings rounded the corner, Martha and Valarie practically screaming 'open!' as Jack and the Doctor worked at the doors. Jack, in a moment of desperation and anger, raised a fist and smashed it against the entrance panel. Sparks flew as it broke, but the door opened.

They got, the finger tips of those things brushing Martha's leg as they spilled in. Chantho laid on the ground, seemingly dead. Yana was gone, and the TARDIS door was sealed shut. The Doctor pounded on it. Jack pulled the door shut again, Valarie and him pressing their bodies against it as the things outside pounded on it and pried desperately.

"I'm begging you let me in! Everything's changed, it's only us now! Please!" He screamed at the door.

A bright light shined from within the locked TARDIS. The creatures began to slip in through the door, fingers and hands too close to Valarie's body for comfort.

"Doctor you better think of something!" Jack cried. A hand snagged Valarie's elbow, she yelped, before yanking her elbow away and forcing it back. She elbowed the creature back.

"Anyway Doctor, why don't we have a nice chat. I'll tell you my plan and you can come up with a way to stop me." The voice was haunting familiar. Valarie had heard it recently.

"Just think!"

"Say my name."

"Master, I'm sorry." He begged. The TARDIS began to vanish into thin air. Quickly it was gone.

There Valarie was, stranded at the edge of time.

And there was the Doctor, suddenly terrified at the fact he truly wasn't alone.

—

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