Lay down
Your sweet and weary head
The night is falling
You have come to journey's end
Sleep now
And dream of the ones who came before
They are calling
From across the distant shore

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
All of your fears will pass away
Safe in my arms
You're only sleeping

What can you see
On the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
A pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home

And all will turn
To silver glass
A light on the water
All Souls pass

Hope fades
Into the world of night
Through shadows falling
Out of memory and time
Don't say
We have come now to the end
White shores are calling
You and I will meet again
And you'll be here in my arms
Just sleeping

And all will turn
To silver glass
A light on the water
Grey ships pass
Into the West

'Into the West' by Howard Shore, Fran Walsh, performed by Annie Lennox

The thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor lay dying on a deserted planet in a star system that wouldn't be discovered for several more millennia. Chuckling weakly, the man now known to his previous selves as the Valeyard glanced to his faithful blue box.

"Just you and me in the end," he wheezed.

He was so tired and had finally realized why he'd gone back to torment his sixth self. He wanted to die and figured his own self was the only person capable of doing the deed. So, here he was-alone and getting his wish.

The TARDIS grumped sadly to him, but he only smiled in response.

"We had a splendid run, didn't we?" Shifting painfully, he gazed up at the triple moons. One of them had a great depression that strongly resembled a howling wolf. Hearts twisting, he closed his eyes. "They were all special-every single one." Violet eyes couldn't help but stare again at the shape. "But, I should have liked to have seen her once more before I go."

As his final body began shutting down, a familiar song filled the air and golden light lit the night. The Doctor gasped, but could do no more as the so longed for image of Rose Tyler appeared beside him. She was glowing with the power of the Vortex and he needed only one glance to understand where she was in her Timeline. He'd always wondered if she'd come directly to him on the Gamestation, or if she'd done more than he'd ever realize. There were quite a few times in his life since then that he honestly shouldn't have made it out alive.

"Rose Tyler," he managed, a tear sliding free as she smiled that beautiful tongue in teeth smile. The pain in his chest eased, like a long festering wound being lanced. How he'd missed her.

"I see all that is, all that was, all that ever could be, my Doctor and I would not leave you to die alone," she whispered gently, the power she wielded letting them have this final favor.

Gathering his strength, he took her hand and gave it a weak squeeze. "Were you happy?" he had to know.

"Were you?" she countered.

Swallowing, he sighed and didn't bother to temper his words. In these last moments, what would be the point?

"Sometimes. I've loved others, but, oh my pink and yellow Rose-you were always different. I so missed you."

Nodding, she smiled again, but it was a fleeting thing-like butterfly wings on frost. "Then we were the same. However, this time, I will offer you a choice."

A faint echo of curiosity sparked in his ancient eyes. "What choice?"

"Do you want to live?"

He didn't hesitate. "No. My time is over and I am so very tired, my Rose."

Leaning over him, she smoothed back his white hair. "Would you have like to have lived better?"

A bitter, breathy laugh escaped him. "Doesn't everyone? There are so many things I would have done differently, but I've no time left to wrestle forgiveness from myself."

"For this moment, I am scattering myself across Time and Space to lead myself to Satellite Five," she informed him seriously, capturing his attention. "The Guardians are granting you a boon, should you wish it." The golden light in her eyes faded nearly to nothing, letting him see the beloved brown orbs that were leaking agonized tears. Her love glowed in every molecule of her face and he basked in it, having near forgotten how beautiful and right she was.

"Should you ask it, I will scatter myself through Time and Space to lead myself to you always, Doctor. From your beginning to a much different end."

He felt his face go slack with shock and his dulling eyes had doubled in size. "What?" he hissed, disbelieving. "Why would you do that?"

Her expression was tenderness itself as she cupped his cheek. "Because I love you. I would rather die a thousand deaths at your side than to live one life without you. The Bad Wolf is the Heart of your TARDIS. She stretched out her hand and touched life into a barren Jackie Tyler. So you see: I create myself, for you."

It wasn't an all together pleasant sensation being struck speechless. After all this time, the universe could still surprise him and he supposed there was some moral in that that he didn't care to examine at the moment. He was selfish and arrogant and at his core there was a bubbling darkness exacerbated by an abyss of loneliness. Madness took him often now, though he'd long sought to protect the universe from himself. In this so brief eternity, he was dying while the love of his lives asked him to-just once-stop being a self-sacrificing coward. Cackling a rattling laugh, he pondered the havoc he could unleash upon his younger selves and the universe at large.

Because Rose Tyler was the one thing he'd wanted to keep for himself and the only difference now was the Doctor would run.

The Valeyard would take.

"My precious, impossible love," he whispered, sanity abandoning him at last, "I would twist you so utterly you could never escape me."

Pressing a kiss to his temple, she called to the Doctor through the haze of the Valeyard. He jerked and blinked rapidly as his breathing became shallow.

"Just once," he repeated his thoughts, "I'd like to have something the universe wouldn't take or taint. If ever I dreamed, I dreamed of you, Rose Tyler, my Bad Wolf." He smiled sadly, meeting her eyes with all the emotion he would never tell her-all the hearts breaking love and longing. "I dreamed a dream you were mine forever."

Golden light flared brightly as the last Time Lord passed. Clutching him to her chest, the Bad Wolf desperately analyzed his words through the searing agony threatening to destroy her. They were sufficient.

A feral grin split her face as she grasped her love's fading Timeline. The Bad Wolf, Rose Tyler, they were two sides of the same coin. One gave life, one destroyed. One loved, the other hoarded. Rose's compassion defined her while the Bad Wolf would rip from existence those who threatened her own.

They both claimed the Doctor and in his final breath, he claimed them-they were forever one woman, bound to him.

Glancing to the singing TARDIS, the blonde nodded. "I'll see you soon, Mother."

With barely a thought, she gave herself over to the beloved Timeline.

Then, that reality rewound.

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief as he successfully made a run for it in his freshly 'borrowed' Type 40 Mark I. Elation soon filled him and a grin spread over his features as he tugged on his shoulder length black hair. He'd done it! He was free! A laugh erupted as he let that wonderful, new emotion sweep him along.

"The universe at my fingertips," he realized gleefully.

The moment slipped away as shock seized him when a voice interrupted his self congratulations.

"I have been waiting for you, Doctor."

Spinning, he faced the console with defiance. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Some of his ire deflated as he watched in stupefaction the panel to the Heart of the TARDIS slide open. Tendrils of light licked at the edge of the access panel, but it was the glowing figure emerging that had his complete attention. The panel slammed closed, leaving a radiant blonde woman behind. Her brown eyes were measuring, yet warm as they met his grey.

"I am the Bad Wolf-born from the Heart of this TARDIS."

She stepped closer, her face transforming into an expression that took his breath away. It didn't even occur to him to retreat from her.

Instead, he held very still as the unfamiliar entity caressed his cheek. Stretching up, she whispered in his ear, in his mind, "Rose Tyler."

The name-her true name, he realized with a gasp-rattled until it clicked into the hole in him made just for it. Echoes of memories thrummed through him-Timelines that would never come to pass. For one hearts-stopping blink of Time, he saw everything-knew all that name would come to mean to him. He blinked again and it was gone, leaving him with only the surety that she was his and that he'd been given something infinitely precious: a second chance.

"I know you," he said huskily, framing her face and wondering why his was wet.

Joy lit her being, drawing a laugh full of simmering emotion from her. "You did. You do. You will."

All around him, Time swirled and shifted, a new Timeline Prime leaping into existence. He didn't understand the storm raging inside him, straining toward her golden brilliance. He didn't understand how he knew she was the one thing he'd ever believe in or why he knew she'd given everything to him.

He only knew that he was hers and he'd destroy worlds-realities-to keep her by his side.

Her fingers traced his lips as she watched his eyes deepen and accept his true potential.

"Time's Champion," she named him, "Defender of the Valiant Child, Lover of the Wolf, the Oncoming Storm."

A smug smirk curled his mouth as he took up the mantle his other life would have tried to outrun. She made it lighter, somehow, and the power in her words sealed them as Truth. He was so much younger and so much less weary and that spark of life in him still burned like a super nova. He was arrogant and cocky, but damned good at living. The power humming between him and the woman before him didn't scare him as it had his later selves.

"Time's Bride," he responded, "the Valiant Child, Bad Wolf, Fortune's Hand."

His hooded gaze was searing, stretching a command, an oath betwixt them as he pinned her to the console. Her power curled into him invitingly, submitting to his need for the words.

"How long are you going to stay with me?" he demanded, the question ripped from a dark, desolate place he never explored lest he be swept away.

Raising her head, she bound them into one Timeline, one fate, one love that stretched across the stars. Her mouth hovered under his-temptation itself as she gave the only answer she ever had, did, would give.

"Forever."

AN: This was a little rabid plot bunny that refused to be shaken. I know I twisted the Valeyard to suit myself, but there you go. I hope you like it nevertheless! :)

This is dedicated to Bonnie5572, because you actually voted on extending one of my oneshots. Thank you so much for that. (You were the only one.) I don't know when I'll be able to get something up on that vein, so hopefully this will suffice until then.

Again, this is my anniversary year and I love you readers and writers out there to bits. Keep on being amazing! A special shout-out, though to greeneyescutie, JollyRoger1, OTHCharmfan, SittingOnTheEdgeOfTheUniverse, Acoustic Dancer, The Doctor Rose, An Irish Rose, Laikayaniel and Spacegirl. I can't get enough of your kind reviews!