"Where are we, Doctor?" Mark asks with a wide smile as he leans against the console. The Doctor grins at her newest companion as she dashes around the console, pressing the necessary buttons and pulling a lever.

"Cardiff," She replies with a wide grin and notices the confused and disappointed look Mark had on his face.

"Cardiff?" Mark questions, wondering why they were in an insignificant city on Earth when they could be in a different time, place and/or galaxy.

"Yes, Cardiff. What no one realizes is that Cardiff is built on a rift in time and space. Like the San Andreas Fault in California but this bleeds energy. Once in a while I land the TARDIS here, open up the engines and let her soak in the energy to use as fuel," The Doctor replies, stepping away from the console as she says this in one breath. Mark was used to her rapid speech and nods, going over what she had said in his head at a slower pace.

"So it's a pit stop." Mark says, understanding lightening up his features. The Doctor grins and leans back against the TARDIS, moving a piece of her hair from her eyes. This was one of her younger - and admittedly better looking - regenerations. With chocolate brown hair that fell just past her shoulders in messy waves, eyes the same colour and wide grin she was easily one of the prettiest regenerations she has had. She was tall and thin and wore a blue pencil skirt and matching blazer with red converse. Her unusual outfit actually looked good on her and she always had her long tanned trench coat with pockets that were bigger on the inside.

"Exactly." The Doctor nods and turns to look at the console and up at the Time Rotor as the

TARDIS soaked up the energy from the rift.

As she did this, a handsome man dressed in a long coat, that didn't fit in with the current time's modern fashion, and a backpack on his back was running towards the unusual blue box which

was placed in front of water tower, above the Torchwood Hub. Captain Jack Harkness ran as fast as he could towards the box which contained the person he had been waiting for since his Vortex Manipulator broke after leaving him stuck in 1869 after the incident on the Game Station.

"Doctor!" He shouted, hoping that the TARDIS wouldn't dematerialise after the Doctor finally appeared. He would finally get some answers.

"All powered up. Engine's are full!" The Doctor flicks a switch and walks around the console with furrowed do eyebrows. "Quicker than normal," She muttered to herself as her eyes drift to the monitor and slightly widen. The sprinting figure of Jack Harkness appeared on the TARDIS monitor. The Doctor sees him and a look of panic appeared on her face, an expression she tried

to hide from Mark. She quickly starts the TARDIS with a sad look in her eye that lingers on the still running body of her old friend. She wished she could talk to him, apologize for what Ross had done to him, but even through the monitor she could see the damage to time that had happened around him.

Outside, Jack could see the TARDIS starting to leave and leaps with a determined expression on his face. He wasn't going to let her leave again. Inside, the TARDIS console emitted sparks and the Doctor and Mark were thrown to the floor with gasps.

"What's that?" Mark breathes, clinging onto the console as the TARDIS flew through the

Vortex even more violently than usual.

"We're accelerating?" The Doctor says in a confused voice as she looked at the screen, her hands cling onto the console. "We're going into the future. When I've just set the co-ordinates for the past! The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. 50 trillion. What? The year 100 trillion. That's impossible!" The Doctor says with wide eyes, looking at the complicated symbols with shock and a little awe. No Time Lord had ever dared to come this far into the future.

"Why?" Mark was oblivious to the Doctor's thoughts as he questioned her about what was so special about that time. "What happens then?"

"We're going to the end of the universe." The Doctor says and gives up trying to control the TARDIS who was determined that they were going to the end of the universe. As the Time Lord and her companion clung onto the console inside the TARDIS, Jack was clinging onto the outside of the time and space machine as it traveled through the Vortex.

"DOCTOR!" He yells, starting to feel a little light headed and he groaned in his head when he realized what was going to happen. He didn't realize when the TARDIS had landed; his body released his hold onto the blue box and his body dropped on the floor, his eyes closed. Dead.

*Doctor Who*

The TARDIS lands with a thud and the Doctor and Mark stand up. The Doctor looks at

Mark with eyes wider than usual and a questioning look in them.

"We've landed. No idea where though," She mutters the last part to herself as she looked at the monitor, her eyes seemingly stuck on the year, 100 trillion.

"So what's out there?" Mark didn't know whether to be excited or scared; excited because he was at the end of everything and so far in the future or scared because this was the end of everything - all the planets, all the stars, all the people! - and even the Doctor didn't look too excited to be

here.

"I don't know." She replies to Mark who laughs a half hearted laugh.

"Say that again. That's rare." The Doctor smiled slightly before walking away from the console and facing Mark.

"Not even the Time Lords came this far. All too scared of change, I suppose, and the end of everything is the biggest change they'll ever see." The Doctor's eyes were slightly distant, as though reliving something from a long time ago. "We should leave. We should go. We... should really, really go." The Doctor looked at Mark and grinned widely, causing Mark to smile back - because this was the Doctor he was used to - before she headed for the door.

The Doctor steps out, observing the bleak landscape and feeling the slow, almost tired, movement of the planet under her feet. Mark followed her out, his eyes looking excitedly at sightings front of him before his eyes drift to see Jack on the ground.

"Oh my God!" Mark's medical training kicked in, drawing the attention of the Doctor as he runs over to Jack. The Doctor sighs in her head and her eyes drift back to the TARDIS as she listened to the almost melodic hums that were in the back of her head. So the TARDIS didn't like Jack then. "I can't get a pulse. Hold on you've got that medical kit thing." The Doctor opens her mouth to tell him not to bother but Mark was quicker at running than he ever was before and he ran into the TARDIS before the words left her mouth.

Her eyes return back to the still figure on the floor and she almost flinches at the pain she felt in her hearts. Another person's life ruined by her. She walked over to Jack's body and touched his arm softly, almost missing his constant attempt of flirting that would've caused had he been awake.

"Hello again. Oh, I'm sorry," She whispers, standing up quickly when she felt Mark in the console room of the TARDIS, knowing that he would be leaving the ship any second. Mark dashed out of the TARDIS, medical kit in hand, and ran past the Doctor to his patient.

"Here we go." He whispers to himself and sets to work, looking at the man properly for the first time. Handsome - very handsome in fact, he thought grudgingly - with a unique cologne - never smelt that one before! - and an interesting sense of fashion which reminded Mark of the Doctor. "It's a bit odd, though." He voices his thoughts, dragging the Doctor from whatever she was concentrating on. "Not very 100 trillion, that coat's more like World War II." He says looking at the coat which belonged in the past, not this far into the future.

"I think he came with us." Mark noticed her gaze flicker back to the TARDIS and her face turn into a frown before she shook her head with a sigh. She thought this was unusual but then remembered this was the Doctor. She could be talking to the TARDIS, for all he knew!

"How do you mean? From Earth?" This seemed impossible to Mark; how could someone travel from Earth to wherever they are without being in the TARDIS with them? Because he was most definitely not in the TARDIS.

"Must've been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS all the way through the vortex." The TARDIS' upset hums in her head confirmed that. "Not a surprise, that's very him," She says with a smirk.

"What? Do you know him?" Mark asked, his eyes concentrating on the man in front of him rather than the Doctor so she didn't see the slight shine of his eyes; would she be this uncaring about his death one day? Or would she open her eyes and forget about the great Ross Tyler to notice how he felt for her?

"Friend of mine." The Doctor says, oblivious to Mark's thoughts. "Used to travel with me. Back in the old days." Mark guessed that 'the old days' included Ross Tyler, the man he had heard so much about, the one he was constantly being compared to and the one that had been locked away in a parallel universe with no way of returning.

"But he's...I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat." Mark was looking at the dead body on the ground. He had died trying to see the Doctor again! And she was stood there, hands in pockets, without shedding a single tear for her now deceased 'friend'. "There's nothing. He's dead."

As he says this, Jack gasped, taking the first breath of this new life and grabbing onto Mark - who yelled in surprise and fear - for support.

"Oh well, so much for me!" He said, realizing that the Doctor knew this would happen. That explained her calm - almost patient - demeanor. "It's all right. Just breathe deep. I've got you now." He tried to comfort the gasping man, the Doctor in him coming out.

Jack finally looked at the person who was holding him and his deep breaths started to slow down. He had no idea where the TARDIS had taken him but if there was a handsome man willing to hold him and a pretty girl watching, who cares?

"Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?" He asks, looking the dark skinned beauty up and down in a way that Mark was reminded of Shakespeare. Why did he seem to attract the attention of men yet the Doctor - who was most definitely female - did not even see him?

"Mark Jones." He replies with a smile, still holding him in case there were any side effects from whatever he had just gone through.

"Nice to meet you, Mark Jones." Jack says, his voice dripping with the charm that he had perfected in his many years alive.

"Oh, don't start!" Jack heard someone complain and he frowned, not recognizing the voice but knowing that it must be the Doctor. She was probably one of the only girls not to fall for that voice.

"I was just saying hello." He says firmly.

"It's fine," Mark says. Mark grabs his arm as he starts to stand, helping him to his feet.

Jack straightens his coat and looks up at the woman who must be the Doctor. Jack looked the Doctor up and down in the same way that he had to Mark only moments before. She seemed so different, he almost couldn't believe that this was the same woman. But then he looked at her eyes; the old eyes that didn't match the young face. Eyes that he saw in his reflection everyday. The short black hair and leather jacket was gone, replaced by brown hair and pretty pencil skirt which Jack very much approved of. She looked much more happy than the last time he had seen her, even though she was giving him a cold stare.

"Doctor." Jack says with a nod of his head.

"Captain." She replies and both of them smile at each other, Jack grabbing the Doctor in his arms as she rolls her eyes but laughs. "Oh, you'll never change!" She says.