A deadly commotion rages on by the time we reach the storage bay. Peering around the doors to where the Tardis stands, caught in the middle of Torchwood's last fight for self-defence, I curse under my breath. "No way we're getting past that. If— What are you doing?"

Glancing to the hand I push against his shoulder, the Doctor frowns. "Being clever. Why?"

He doesn't wait for a response. I watch, dumbfounded as he pushes his way through the small gap between the doors and crawls his way across the room. His return is accompanied by two black bulks of metal that he carries like handbags. I wince at the close passing of a Dalek ray over his head and reach to yank him back through the gap. "Of course. 'Clever'."

A series of loud clanks from the ceiling soon divert our attention as it slides open. "What are they doing? Why do they need to get outside?"

His 3D glasses are back on again. He squints through them at the Daleks gathered protectively around the Genesis Ark. "Time Lord science?" he mutters to himself. "What 'Time Lord science'? What is it?"

They rise up and out of sight.

Letting the doors shut once more, he leads us back down the corridor. "We've got to see what it's doing, we've got to go back up. Come on. All of you, top floor."

"But that's forty-five floors up! Believe me — I've done them all," Jackie loudly protests.

From around the corner, Jake suggests, "We could always take the lift."

—

Up in Yvonne's office, the windows show a pale city, fogged over. The Genesis Ark hovers in our sight. It starts to spin. Its speed gathers and gathers until just a blur of light hangs in the sky. Something emerges. And another something. More and more, shooting off across the white expanse. Daleks emerging from the darkness within.

"Time Lord science — it's bigger on the inside."

Mickey and I exchange fearful glances. "The Time Lords put those Daleks in there? What for?"

Once again, his expression hardens. Dread and anger and fear. "It's a prison ship."

"How many Daleks?" Rose timidly questions.

"Millions."

Even from here the screams are louder than thunder. Overwhelming. Innocent civilians are dying and I don't know what to do. I'm sick of this feeling.

"I'm sorry," Pete shakily speaks up, stumbling away from the windows, "but you've had it. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do." He takes a spare button from one of our operatives and tosses it over to Jackie. "We're going home. Jacks, take this. You're coming with us."

"But they're destroying the city!"

He scoffs and puts it on for her with a degree of gentleness I haven't seen him display before. "I'd forgotten you can argue. It's not just London, it's the whole world." She tries to look to us but he guides her gaze back to meet his. "But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks, and it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?"

Turning to us, his cartoonish glasses on once more, he breaks into a wide grin. "Oh, I'm ready!" I barely manage to dodge out of the way before he races over to the nearest computer desk. "Equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood! Slam it down and close off both universes."

"We can't just leave. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?" Rose objects.

"They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution. Oh, yes! Well? Isn't anybody going to ask? What is it with the glasses?"

She barely waits a second, excitement already taking over any fear. "What is it with the glasses?"

"I can see! That's what! 'Cause we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate words, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding, and the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here, and you lot — one world to another, via the Void." Coming to an abrupt stop, he revels in his own humour. "Ooh, I like that. Via the Void!"

Forcing my smile back down, I fix him with a pleading stare. "Doctor..."

"Look. I've been through it, see?"

The 3D glasses are placed over my eyes, fingers carefully pulling my hair from my ears to slot the tips over them. I should protest with the fact that I could have done it myself but the delicacy of his touch stops all of my thoughts in an instant. Surrounding him and his pink-green aura are hundreds of dark spots. With each sway of his body, they move with him. "Gods, that's fantastic," I murmur, offering the glasses to Rose next.

"Reboot in three minutes," the computer chides.

Beaming at him, Rose reaches for the space around his head. "What is it?"

"Voidstuff."

"Like, um, background radiation."

The comparison sparks a proud shout of, "That's it!" He turns her around to face the rest of us. "And the only one who hasn't been through the Void — your mother. First time she's looked normal in her life."

Her indignant shout falls short as he races off again, towards the blank wall from which we had first arrived. The pull on my arm is unexpected. Letting out a surprised yelp, I look back to Rose in bewilderment but the Doctor is in my view almost immediately, his face alight as if none of the day's events or the years of separation ever happened.

He whirls me around in a sheer overflow of energy. It's sudden and wild but I somehow know with the tightening of his fingers around my waist that he has no intention of letting go."But the Daleks lived inside the Void, they're bristling with it — Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse! The Voidstuff gets sucked back inside."

"Pulling them all in!" Rose cheers.

"Pulling them all in!"

Proper laughter escapes me for the first time in a long while. I didn't think that this could happen again. I didn't think that I could have them back, have everything back, just as it was before. The Dream Team.

Mickey frowns. "Sorry, what's the Void?"

"The dead space. Some people call it Hell."

He strings the button around his neck with a chuckle. "So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell? Man, I told you he was good."

But Rose soon breaks the anticipation with hesitance, "But it's like you said... we've all got Voidstuff — me, too — 'cause we went to that parallel world." As if to conform it, she looks down to her own hand and flexes the fingers to watch the particles gather. The glasses come off and she looks to the Doctor. "We're all contaminated, we'll get pulled in."

"That's why you've got to go."

"Reboot in two minutes."

"Back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that: 'Pete's World'. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."

Only now do I notice how our hands are still connected. I don't dare to let go this time. Nor do I break eye contact. His eyes are the only part that has aged since I left, I'm sure of it. They are deeper, darker.

Don't you dare. Don't you dare.

"And then you close it... for good?" Pete interrupts.

I still don't look away. If this is to stop, it's on him.

And he does. He looks away. My breath catches in my throat.

"The breach itself is soaked in Voidstuff. In the end, it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput."

Finally, Rose voices both our fears, "But you stay on this side?"

"But you'll get pulled in."

He looks to each of us. The contact holds for just a second more before he is off again, running back to the others. "That's why—" he lifts one of our newly acquired devices "—I got these. I'll just have to hold on tight. Been doing it all my life."

Rose gapes at him. "We're supposed to go?"

"Yeah."

"To another world, and then it gets sealed off?"

"Yeah."

"Forever? That's not gonna happen."

He doesn't acknowledge her this time, typing away commands at the computer. The room jolts with a sudden tremor. Growing impatient, Pete begins to lead the way. "We haven't got time to argue. The plan works, we're going. You two, as well. All of us."

I set my button down on the desk beside the Doctor. The stubborn sound causes him to freeze. Again, he resists the urge to meet my eyes.

"I'm not leaving him!"

Jackie fixes him with a fiery glare the second she hears her daughter's decision. "I'm not going without her."

"Oh my God. We're going!"

"I've had twenty years without you, so button it! I'm not leaving her."

Startled, the girl rushes for her attention. "You've got to."

She scoffs, "Well, that's tough!"

"Mum."

"Reboot in one minute."

"I've had a life with you for nineteen years... but then I met the Doctor, and Inara. And all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us, for the whole stupid planet, and every planet out there... he does it alone, Mum. But not anymore. 'Cause now he's got us." Movement passes in the corner of my eye. The Doctor is right behind her. I don't realise what he's doing until it's too late, until the button is around her neck. "What are you—"

She is gone before she can speak. Pete gives the command and that's it. Just a flash of light and it's only us left.

"You're a bloody idiot, you know that?" I snap.

He is already back by the computer, offering a quiet mutter, "You should've gone with them."

"To that place?"

"To the safer place. Yes."

Huffing, I approach and lean against the desk. "Don't do that. Don't you dare—"

"I think this is the 'on' switch."

At the sound of Rose's voice, our exchange is broken. Any relief I should feel is dulled by the knowledge of what she just left behind. The Doctor is by her immediately, shaking her by the shoulders. "What were you thinking? Rose, are you— Once the breach collapses, that's it. You'll never be able to see her again, your own mother."

Her voice trembles, just a shaken exhale, "I made my choice a long time ago and I'm never gonna leave you." He knows it's true, we all do. His hands fall away. "So what can I do to help?"

"Systems rebooted. Open access."

He can't even look at the two of us anymore, just pointing to the computer. "Those coordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up!"

She takes the button off for good measure.

The minutes pass without a word. I take my place at the desk that had once been mine, monitoring the abandoned corridors on the live security footage. My eyes don't leave the screen until the all too familiar sight of chrome and soulless sockets comes into view. "Cybermen heading up. Staircase N44, I make at least a dozen."

"One floor," he finishes, mortified stare meeting mine as he races over to join me. "How long?"

"A few minutes. Five at the most."

As if sensing the hurry, the computer chimes in again, "Levers operational."

The news is a relief. Rose is quick to mirror it. "That's more like it. Bit of a smile." When we join her outside the office, her arm links with mine. "The old team."

"The Three Stooges," he jokes. "The Musketeers! Huey, Dewey and Louie! The Big Three!" Seeing my grimace, he cocks his head. "No? Bit blasphemous?"

"A bit."

Passing one of the devices to Rose, I lug the other one over to the side of the room. The Doctor leans in, shoulder to my shoulder, and rests his hand on the handle above mine. There is a quiet beep and a hiss as the metal fuses to the wall. "Press the red button." A similar sound comes from the other side. "When it starts, hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Voidstuff. Ready?"

I run to the lever parallel with his — set into a large half-cylinder of dull brass and flashing lights. Beside me, Rose freezes, eyes fixed on the window. "So are they."

Four Daleks advance on us, four blue, angry glares from their eyestalks. "Let's do it!"

It starts as soon as we start to push the levers. The air around me fizzes, hotter and hotter, brighter and brighter. One hand finds Rose's arm while the other grasps for the clamp fixed to the wall. We link our arms through the handle and pray that it will be enough.

A wind picks up. Every atom of my body pulls towards the light. It's like they have a mind of their own, their strength growing by the second. Still, the pressure builds. The heat. My feet lift from the floor and I seek balance from the side of the lever, kicking out against it.

Glass sprays into the distant office and we duck, just in time to watch several metal husks streak past. They vanish into the white mist, screams ringing in my ears long after they're gone.

Over the gale, I can hear the Doctor's triumphant cries, "The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!"

His face is soon clouded from sight. All I can see now is a blur of bronze and silver. The screams continue. But Rose smiles when she meets my panicked gaze. The lump in my throat shrinks a little. I smile back.

Our interaction is broken by a stream of blazing sparks. Bewildered, I try to look past wild tangles of hair to where the lights on the lever flicker out. It inches its way from us, following the pull.

"Hold on!"

Rose ignores him. With one hand still closed tightly around the handle, she starts to reach. The wind catches onto her in search of another body to take from the world. My fingers close around the crook of her elbow. It slips from my hold.

She falls away, both hands firm on the handle, pulling it back into place. I try to get hold of her once again. The pressure on my hooked arm starts to slide but I pay it no mind. The itch of her woollen jacket fills my touch again and I cling onto it as tight as I can. Another rush of wind and she slips away once more. "Rose, stop!"

"I've got to get it upright!"

She is too far away now. An invisible current guides her further and further from me. Straining with the effort, she manages to strike out against the floor, forcing herself and the lever back. Her eyes lock with mine, then the Doctor's.

Don't you dare.

I uncurl my arm from the handle. Only my fingers lock around it now, and I rely on their strength to keep myself from falling away. It still isn't enough. They are both out of my reach.

The click of the lever fitting into place barely reaches my ears over the thunderous raking of metal on metal and the roar of the Void. "Online and locked."

Her legs dangle in mid air, her position precarious. Another moment and she'll be gone.

"Rose! Hold on!"

"Rose!"

"Hold on!"

I can barely breathe. Only one other option is clear in my terrified mind. My jacket sleeve loops through and I hold onto it for dear life, grasping for my friend with improved chances. "Take my hand! Take my hand, hurry!"

This time the hold on her is too strong. Our fingers graze. With one last frantic wail, she is taken from us.

With all of my faith, all of my being, I pray. This can't be it. I can't lose her, too. It can't happen. It mustn't.

A shadow eats its way into the light. In an instant Pete is there, stopping the girl's fall before she can disappear into the Void.

In the next, they are both gone.

Ripples form across the brightness. Then cracks, like crumples in paper. The breach closes in on itself, the light fading, the winds dying.

"Systems closed."

Her name passes my lips. Then again. Again. My throat is raw but the cries still come, as if I expect her to answer me if I can just reach the right volume. When she doesn't, I run. Back to the desks, to the button that lies on the floor. Its yellow heart is fractured. I press it over and over, beating it against the floor and pounding my fist upon it but nothing happens. I am still here. "What do we do?"

No reply comes.

My eyes burn. Fixing upon him, they leak trails of acid down my face. The Doctor stands against the back wall — the spot where our friend had been only moments ago. His hand rests against its smooth surface, willing a fissure to break out across it, tearing open a doorway back to her.

He looks so small against the vast and empty space. Smaller than I have ever seen him before.

"Doctor," I try again, "tell me what to do. Please. I can't— I don't know how to— Please."

A part of me hopes for him to come alight as he always does, bounding away from the wall with some miraculous save. Instead, he walks. His hands hide deep into the shelter of his pockets. He comes to a stop before me. Hope still keeps my head light as he rises me to my feet. Not a single word is offered. The only answer is in the wrapping of his arms around me. A squeeze — protective, possessive, promising.

I know it's the end.

——————

"Will it work?"

He can't even meet my eyes. He hasn't in the past hours since Rose vanished. Even the comfort of knowing she's in the parallel world isn't enough. He steadies himself against the console and burns into its surface with an empty glare. "I don't know."

It hurts to hear the quietness of his voice. The plan is bizarre, even stupid, but I am past caring. I will do whatever it takes to see my friend just once more, be it for just a second. The five years without her smile, her laugh, her curiosity, were unbearable. That goodbye can't be our last. So, forcing a confident smile, I take his hand in mine and guide his finger to the button of his sonic.

We only see an outline at first, transparent and deathly pale. Then, with the rushing of distant waves, she drifts further and further into focus. Rose. She can't be much older than when we saw her last but I can see it in her eyes. What may have been mere days have accumulated with the distance to form a weight I am all too familiar with. I wait for her smile but it doesn't come. "Where are you?" she asks, just a whisper echoing around the new emptiness of the ship that was once our home.

"Inside the Tardis. There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close... and it takes a lot of power to send this projection — we're in orbit around a supernova. Burning up a sun just to say goodbye."

"You look like ghosts."

His breathing stammers and he pulls his hand from mine, just long enough to adjust something on the sonic and point it to the console. "Hold on."

She is clearer now. She takes a few unsteady steps towards us and reaches for our connected hands. "Can I—"

"I'm sorry," I murmur. My stomach ties in knots, heavier by the second. All I want is to pull her in close and refuse to let go but it's impossible. We are a world away.

A squeeze. A grimace. "We're still just an image. No touch," the Doctor says, unwilling to cause too much upset in what are our final moments with her.

Clouds pass over her soft brown eyes. Her bottom lip trembles, her eyebrows bridged with an anxious crease. "Can't you come through properly?"

"The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse."

Her laugh comes out as a strained sigh, "So?"

We know the answer. As much as it hurts.

Only a brief silence passes before the Doctor seeks a distraction. He looks around as if expecting to see anything past the girl before us, anything to not see her cry. A faint outline of hills is all we see, and three figures in the distance. They come into focus the harder I squint. "Where are we? Where did the gap come out?"

"We're in Norway."

Nodding, he seeks the refuge of his pockets with one hand. His thumb traces mine. "Norway. Right."

Another sob is swallowed away and she sniffs. "About fifty miles out of Bergen... it's called Dårlig Ulv Stranden."

We both tense. "Dalek?"

"Darlig. It's Norwegian for 'bad'. This