Finally the final chapter!

Part 5

Exhaustion

Anno 2008 - Tenth Doctor, 7106 - Jack, 19054
(Between Torchwood Seasons 1 and 2, that is, while the "first" Jack is touring the universe with the Doctor and Martha)

"Where the hell have you been!"

Jack could not help smiling as one Gwen Cooper caught him in an angry hug, "we've been looking for you for hours!"

"Oh, you know me," he replied sheepishly, "been here, done that." As his eyes travelled from one of his former team mates to the other, nostalgia washed over him more forcefully than ever.

His gaze finally rested on Ianto, and his heart skipped a beat. He gently pushed Gwen away to approach his former lover. Ianto's expression was a stern one, and as Jack pulled him into a fierce, desperate embrace, he was no longer sure if this had been a good idea.

After his peculiar journey to the beginning of the universe, Jack had returned to 2009 and discovered an amnesic yet so very alive Ianto wandering the streets of London. They had stayed together as a couple for another twenty years before death had parted them yet again.

Jack had seen his lover perish twice, but here he was, holding him in his arms once more – smelling his scent, feeling his heartbeat, listening to his voice, "It's good to have you back, sir."

…sir.

It was a simple word that brought him back to reality – this Ianto, the only Ianto he could meet up with because Jack's own younger self had run off for the Doctor, was not his Ianto yet.

His heart broke as he pulled away at last. "It's good to be back, guys," he grinned and turned to face his team with the playful mask he had already worn back then, "What happened while I was away?"

He was perfectly aware of his acting skills not fooling anyone in that particular moment. They knew something was wrong, they knew that something had happened to him during those few hours, but he would not bother telling them what.

They did not yet need to know that five hours could equal half an eternity.

Their mere presence made his heart ache in regret and nostalgia, but for one, shiny moment, he knew that that beautiful frown adorning Ianto's face in that moment was worth ripping open wounds that had been closed for thousands of years.

Every time Jack had met him, the Doctor had been in a hurry – to get somewhere, to explore something, or to save the world once again. It had been fun, but he had often wondered about his friend's mad dash through time and space.

If you have a time machine, you simply do not need to hurry.

It had taken Jack centuries to understand why his friend was always on the run.

The Doctor had never been in a hurry to get somewhere…but to leave the past behind.

In the course of his own long life, Jack had begun living by that philosophy as well. He had often met people from his past – people from so long ago that he could hardly remember anything about them but a strange, nostalgic aftertaste. He had found out what his actions and decisions had caused. Admittedly, he had only rarely faced truly horrible consequences, but he had always found himself flung back into a past he could never return to.

…just like this time.

And that simple realization pained him more than countless deaths had.

He spent several weeks with his old team, pretending not to know the fates that would befall them so very soon. He was acting the part of a man he no longer was, and in that sense, he could as well try impersonating anybody else, really.

"Tell me what's wrong, Jack."

Shaken out of his reverie, the immortal was surprised to find the reason of his bittersweet mood swings entering his office. "You used to be better at hiding your emotions," Ianto commented with a gentle smile as he sat down opposite from Jack, "either that, or whatever had you missing was something you should really talk to me about."

Caught red-handed, Jack leant back and ran a hand through his hair. The man in front of him might not be his Ianto, but he was close. Wonderful, observant Ianto, always there to steady him. "You have a grey hair, Jack," his friend remarked quietly.

Their eyes meeting was all it needed for Jack to sigh in resignation. But when he opened his mouth, his voice failed him at first. "…I forgot," he brought out at last. Two words, and they meant so much.

Leaning forward, Ianto gently reached for Jack's hand, "Forgot what?"

"I could have saved them," the immortal replied tonelessly, "We had set up everything, and all I had to do was pressing a button at the right time." To him, much time had passed since that fateful day on planet Kelt, but that did not make the experience any less real, and maybe, it summarized his own situation quite adequately. "I started wondering what true death would feel like, and…" He gulped. "…and I never pressed that button," he spoke shakily and grit his teeth, "A world burned in front of my eyes, because of me, and in that moment I was neither shocked nor sorry…I envied them."

Ianto's eyes had widened, and Jack smiled back at him tiredly. "That's the sort of monster I am," he whispered, "I forgot to value life."

"I cannot even begin to understand," Ianto admitted quietly as he pulled Jack into a comforting embrace, "but I am here. For you."

The immortal closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax for once.

Ianto would only stay his for few more weeks.

What was Jack to do then?

"That's a Silurian warhead," Jack explained with a frown and glanced back at the newspaper, "Just disassemble it and we're done. Besides, we can build neat new stuff from that."

Toshiko arched an eyebrow. "I figured that much," she pointed out impatiently, "But how exactly are we supposed to disassemble an alien warhead that's about to explode any moment?"

Jack frowned back at her, but got up at last. Of course, he had never gotten around to explaining his team how to act in such a situation. As a matter of fact, he had not even known the first time around.

Maybe that was the reason he had remembered his Torchwood time as such an adventurous one. He was thousands of years of experiences older now, and rarely anything ever managed truly exciting him anymore.

His crew urged him to the platform the bomb was stored at, and he was mildly surprised to see there was a whole ten minutes left for him to do his magic. "Time to disco, eh," he muttered and set to work.

Altogether, it took him three minutes to deactivate the bomb and another four to dismantle it. As he leant back to stretch from another task finished successfully, his team stood speechless.

"I've never seen anybody disarming a nuclear warhead quite as leisurely," Toshiko commented at last.

"I just know what I'm doing," Jack grinned and tried to ignore the traitorous thoughts crossing his mind. He had developed a certain routine at this because he had saved people so many times from explosions – not because this was just a game to him. Admittedly, if you looked at it from an objective point of view, this would not kill him either way. In the course of his long life, he had seen many friends come and go. But the comparatively short time he got to spend with humans did by no means imply that he would carelessly jeopardize their lives.

Especially not the lives of these precious people that had once, so very long ago, shown him how to value his own existence.

A clap shook him out of his brooding.

"Now, with the good deed of the day done," Gwen announced just a bit more enthusiastically than necessary, "how about some pizza?" With that, she produced a stack of cardboard boxes seemingly out of nowhere and grinned.

"So there I was, stranded on a tropical island with nothing but a gun and a palm tree," Jack stated with a good-natured grin, "and I was desperate enough to ride a pair of turtles home."

Toshiko arched an eyebrow. "Sounds awfully familiar," she smiled, "I do seem to remember the story from another Captain Jack."

He shrugged and reached another slice of pizza. "Well, that Jack got that story from my biography, then," he replied with a sheepish grin.

Suddenly, Gwen snorted into her drink. "You mean the story where you really lay drunken on the beach for weeks until some smugglers saved you?" she inquired, laughing.

Jack joined in with a chuckle of his own, "That's me, alright."

Everyone shared a laugh as Gwen reached for the final pizza. When she opened the box, however, her eyes widened.

Jack noted her reaction with a worried frown, but when their gazes met, she started grinning once again. "'Dear Jack, if you ever feel like calling it a day, come around to join me'," she read and arched an eyebrow at her boss, "There's even a cute little heart at the end, and some charming doodles. You seem to have left quite an impression."

As he reached for the box to examine the message for himself, Jack smirked at Ianto. He had been the one to place the order after all, hadn't he? But his lover's unhappy expression told him otherwise.

Slightly confused, Jack frowned at the cardboard.

His eyes widened.

What Gwen had identified as doodles were, in fact, space-time coordinates…and, oh God…

"Guys, we've got a problem!"

Everyone's heads turned to the door where Owen stood panting. "The other artefacts we found at the site," he explained hastily, "they indicate an invasion within the next twelve hours."

"What?" Jack exclaimed and jumped to his feet, much like the rest of the team, "How?"

Grimacing, Owen buried his hands into his pockets. "That's what I'd like to know," he grumbled as he led the way to the lab, "how the hell does the delivery boy know anything about outer space?"

Jack's heart skipped a beat when he caught sight of him; brooding over a large fragment, he was wearing glasses and pinstripes.

The Doctor.

"I'm really not a boy anymore," the time lord replied and met Jack's eyes with a grin, "but at least I'm not the oldest man in the room."

Not minding the slight jab in the slightest, the immortal strode over and pulled his dear friend into a tight hug. He did not fail to notice that the Doctor felt unusually cold thanks to the horrible weather outside, but his mere presence managed warming his heart nonetheless. "It's good to see you," he whispered with a smile and pulled away at last.

"You didn't phone for some two hundred years," the time lord commented with an arched eyebrow, and Jack frowned back. "Neither did you," he pointed out and grinned. They had taken on travelling together sometimes and sometimes not, and that was absolutely alright. Both had their freedoms that way, but they were never alone. In some idiotically romantic sense, they had no longer needed each other's immediate proximity to know the other was there.

But…

Just as all the other times, Jack had…not truly realized how much he had missed the time lord until this very moment.

He took a deep breath to calm down his nerves. Everyone's questioning gazes were on him anyway, so he turned around for introductions. "Guys, this is a really good friend of mine," he announced with a half-faked smile, "I've known him for practically all my life and he's –"

"Oh my god," Gwen interrupted him and staring at the Doctor, "You're Jack's secret pizza box admirer!"

The Doctor chuckled lightly, "I'm his doctor, actually." A slight frown grew on his features as he explained, "I really just wanted to drop by for the message and be off on my merry way, but then I found these inscriptions." He all but glared at the stone fragment in his hands and abruptly looked back at Jack. "And I really should be going." With a final nod toward the crew, he placed the stone on the table and strode out of the room, only to be held back by his friend in the hallway. "What the hell are you doing?" Jack demanded, "Is this some fixed point in time? Is something terrible going to happen?" He hesitated before adding more critically, "…because I don't quite think anything I've never heard about happened in 2008."

The Doctor met his gaze evenly, and he looked sorry. "I'd like to say that I just stumbled upon these inscriptions and they don't mean anything because whatever threat is coming doesn't quite make it here," he expounded quietly, "but I'm afraid this new turn of events came to be because I chose to meet you here."

Jack took a deep breath and set off towards his office with his grip on the Doctor's cool wrist firm enough to urge his friend along. "It doesn't matter whether you caused it or not if we can stop it in time," he ground out as he sat the time lord down and closed the door behind them, "So explain."

Watching his friend ever so carefully, the Doctor heaved a sigh. "Most sufficiently receptive species noticed that there was…" He hesitated ever so slightly, "…a crack in time, so to speak."

Jack arched an eyebrow, "and it leads here? Where from?"

The Doctor grimaced. "From the end of the universe," he explained and tilted his head, "But that's beside the point, don't worry about it. The rift will close soon enough." He ran a hand through his hair and looked at Jack, "The real problem is that it attracts the attention of others who take it as, well, advertisement. This place is no longer defended, it says."

"But it is," the immortal pointed out angrily, "Why would they think otherwise?"

The Doctor looked at Jack, and his eyes looked incredibly tired in that moment. "I'll just have to prove them that it is," he explained and got up, "Just this one more time."

Jack frowned back, and he tried to ignore the shiver that was running down his spine. "That's what these coordinates are about, isn't it?" he asked quietly, "You're dying for real, and you know when and where."

The Doctor simply smiled at him. "I'm not dying, Jack," he assured him and pulled his friend into a hug before whispering into his ear, "I'm way past that stage already." His voice dropped even further. "There's nothing left of the Doctor that can count as properly alive," he explained quietly, "Even this me is nothing but an afterthought manifested for convenience."

Jack's eyes widened.

So this was it?

This?

The Doctor had gone, and he had left him with nothing but a telegram?

Just as he finally understood why the time lords's touch felt so incredibly chilly, Jack's own heart froze. "Stop joking," he laughed nervously as he gripped the cool torso in his arms even more tightly, "You can't die," he demanded, "not just like that, and not without me."

"I'm not leaving you behind," the Doctor clarified and hugged back, "I'm leaving with you."

Jack's heart was beating so loudly barely anything else registered with his mind. For several minutes, they stood in silence with Jack clinging to the Doctor like a life line.

"I'm here because I made a promise to you," the time lord finally offered quietly, "I asked the universe when and where you would be tired enough for me to invite you over, and I must admit, I was surprised to find you with your old crew again."

Finally, Jack stepped back again and watched his friend tiredly, "You think this is a good-bye tour?" Deep down, he knew it to be true, to some extent at least. He was exhausted, but…he had never dared thinking on, because this had never been an option to begin with.

"You can take all the time you need," the Doctor replied gently, "but I already know you're coming."

Their eyes met, and something strange happened. Jack's breathing quickened as his heart beat rapidly within his chest, and he realized then that he was…excited again. "The last big adventure, eh," he drawled, and he grabbed the Doctor's hand with a smile, "But we've first got to stop an invasion, don't we?" He walked to the room's exit, yet the time lord didn't budge. "This is my responsibility," the Doctor pointed out in a deliberately slow manner, "I can deal with this alone."

Jack stared at him in disbelief. "We're way past this," he clarified, "whatever the problem, it's neither mine nor yours, it's ours."

While a bit startled, the Doctor smiled at last. "Do you want to come because of the necessity," he enquired carefully, "…or because of the adventure?"

Jack frowned, but the question was easily answered, "Because of the old times."

Anno 2008 - Tenth Doctor, 7106 - Jack, 19054

The Daleks' collective point of view

The universe was theirs.

Finally, and after countless battles, there was no race left within the realm that could become a threat to the almighty Daleks.

"We shall celebrate this day by means of destruction!" their leader announced merrily, "Planet Earth shall fall!"

Cheers and ovations roamed through the entire spacecraft, and the commander moved forward. "Launch the attack!" he ordered at the top of his voice, "Kill every single human!"

Another round of cheers echoed through the room as the troops began descending onto the planet. It would be a grand spectacle. All their pent-up hatred and fear would finally find their ultimate release. Revenge was theirs, and it would be sweet.

"I really don't think you should do that."

Everyone's attention turned to the two people appearing in the teleporter.

That voice, that appearance, that incredibly associated hatred. He looked like the Doctor, but he did not feel the same.

And it could not be.

"Now everybody listen up," their arch-enemy's immortal pupil shouted as he stepped forward, "We know you hate us, and we know that you want to destroy us, but if you even try, you will pay dearly." He raised a quantum bomb for everyone to see and glared around the hall, "So take this warning and leave before it's too late."

Honestly, it was a hilarious threat. They would have stopped the puny human before he could even try triggering the detonation, and yet the Daleks felt confused just the tiniest little bit. "Your weapons do not intimidate us," their leader announced, "Earth is lost to you."

As the words were still ringing through the air and the soldiers kept descending, the curious copy of their hated enemy stepped forward at last. "It is as he says, though," he declared and met their leader's stare evenly, "We're not afraid of you, either. This visit is a warning and you should really heed it."

Infamy! Several Daleks approached the duo to render any attempts of escape useless. Whoever dared defying them would not go unscathed, especially if they relied on cheap tricks like these. "Your poor disguise does not fool us," the leader pointed out as he examined the faux time lord that dared blemishing their ultimate victory, "The Doctor burned with the heat of the a thousand suns, and the whole universe is celebrating."

The copy rolled his eyes, but his puny immortal friend started shaking. Suddenly, he pulled an energy gun and aimed at their leader, his eyes full of undisguised despair. "Tell me who did this," he ground out through gritted teeth, "and I won't make you die with the pain of a thousand deaths."

The Daleks enjoyed the human's emotional display greatly, but they would not tolerate him threatening their leader. Surprisingly, however, they did not need to take any measures, for it was the Doctor's lookalike that convinced the man of the futility of an assault. "It's alright, Jack," he whispered as he gently pushed the immortal's arm down again, "we just came to chat, remember?" Both men looked at each other, one terrified, the other apologetic. Finally, the copy addressed the Daleks again. "You're right, though, I'm just residue left to take care of unfinished business," he announced with a shrug, "So what about fulfilling a dead man's last wish?"

"Daleks hold no respect for the dead," the Daleks' commander replied nonchalantly, "I shall destroy the last remains of the Oncoming Storm." He raised his gun arm and shot the copy. The immortal had no time to jump between them, but strangely enough, the faux Doctor stood smiling.

Finally, their leader realized that his gun had malfunctioned. Rather than a ray of energy…a flower hat left his gun arm. "What have you done!" he demanded angrily as a primal sense of fear started flooding their race's collective consciousness.

The smile on the faux Doctor's face only widened. "All over the planet, Daleks are offering flowers to humans," he told them brilliantly, "I think this is a perfect last message, don't you agree?" Ever so casually, he strolled through the hall with his hands in his pockets. They knew he was not real, but every single Dalek he approached still backed away in fear. "The thing is, you really shouldn't have gotten rid of me the way you did," he explicated with a sigh, "Creation itself absorbed my consciousness and, well…" He plucked the flower from the leader's arm and suddenly held three of them in his hand, "Now I can do whatever I want."

Collective fear turned into shared terror, and the Daleks backed away. Only their leader did not…for his movement was restricted by an unknown, terrifying force.

"But if it's any consolidation," the copy that had become more fearsome than the original went on, "you wouldn't even exist if I truly wanted you out of the way."

The Doctor approached the leader, and their feral fear intensified. "I love the whole of creation," he hummed and patted the Dalek's head almost affectionately, "and even a hateful race like yours is beautiful in its own way." That simple sentence was enough to replace terror with angry resignation.

"I would ask of you not to harm what's been important to me," the Doctor added as he returned to his despairing friend's side, "but you really have no choice in the matter anyway."

They continued to watch in seething silence as the time lord's residue offered the flowers to the human and pulled him into a hug before teleporting off the spacecraft at last.

The superior Dalek race had lost the war by winning it, and their hatred for the Doctor had never been greater.

Anno 102 043 152 732 209 - 41st Doctor, 7105 - Jack, 19054
(To the Doctor before, to Jack after the first part of this chapter)

The Doctor's point of view

The end of the universe felt like a strangely suitable destination. However, he had not chosen it for the metaphor – but rather because he stood no other choice anyway.

They had experienced the eerie, foreboding atmosphere of everything ending before. The last time they had travelled to this particular era, they had met the last survivors of humanity, along with one of the last time lords, on a planet far away from the one the Tardis had taken them now.

But that did not mean that their current location was entirely unfamiliar to them; as a matter of fact, a hundred trillion years had barely left any traces on the scenery.

"And here, poor fool, I stand once more, no wiser than I was before."

They stood on a depressing wasteland of a planet under a starless sky. The only lighting was provided by the stratosphere glowing in a faint red, but that did not exactly lift the general mood. And yet, for some reason, the Doctor was humming to himself as he strolled off in a random direction.

Next to him, his ever so faithful companion strode, and he was arching an eyebrow. "Goethe?" he asked, "Haven't heard that in quite a while."

The Doctor grinned, "Do you recognize it?" He walked towards a nearby cliff and looked at the dead landscape below. Sure enough, the remains of a lake that had dried out long ago could still be seen quite clearly. A number of intricate patterns formed what had been its coastline, indicating that it had not quite developed by usual means. Back then, when it had still been filled with water and strange, impossible animals, the Doctor had seen that fractal lake before, and so had Jack.

"Are you serious?" the immortal breathed in wonder as he finally recognized the place they were on, "This place…we never wanted to return here."

With a smile, the Doctor reached for his friend's hand and pulled him in the other direction. "Don't worry," he assured him, "I'm not going to trigger random events this time." He imagined a palm tree, and was relieved not to see it appearing in front of them. "As a matter of fact, I can't," he added light-heartedly and tasted the air, "That strange atmosphere seems to have worn off some trillion years ago." He had figured out the truth about the first planet in the universe quite a while ago, but that didn't mean he was not somehow relieved to find his assumptions confirmed.

"I really didn't expect this," Jack admitted quietly, "The first planet in universe being the last one as well." He gulped. "And nothing changed at all."

Turning on his heels, the Doctor grinned at his friend, "That's the point of it, isn't it?" He suddenly noticed in dismay how he had somehow lost his grip on the immortal's wrist and quickly reached for it with his other hand. Soon.

"I'm really glad you came," he stated at last, watching his friend very carefully.

"I'm glad you remembered," Jack replied softly.

With a laugh, the Doctor started walking again. "I did, didn't I?" he agreed and found his theory confirmed once again, "How have you been?" He already suspected his friend was not going too well right then. For all of this to work, the Doctor would have to send Jack some kind of message through time and space, and obviously, he had, or will have, succeeded in doing so. And if he did it right, he would chose some proper timing at the very least.

While slightly surprised, Jack replied with a smile, "Saying goodbye wasn't easy, but it was long overdue." The Doctor's eyes showed nothing but understanding, and Jack added softly, "How about you?"

As they climbed a small hill, the Doctor's grip on his friend had loosened again, and he was grateful to find Jack holding onto him extra tightly this time. "You already know anyway, don't you?" he pondered tiredly, "It's really just a toxin developed exclusively for me." He no longer felt his friend's hand and had to take an actual look at it to make sure he was still there. "It shuts down one's nervous system bit by bit while rendering regeneration impossible." He could probably have found a way around this; he could probably have cheated death again, just like so many times before. But he had not wanted to, because he had found the one answer he had been looking for all along.

Deciding this place was as good as any other, he sighed softly and sat down. "It's a nice view, isn't it?" he hummed as he watched Jack joining him.

"I like the mountains," the immortal replied good-naturedly, "eerily symmetric, just like the whole idea of this place."

So Jack understood, at least to a certain extent. With a smile, the Doctor leant against his friend. "You know, I actually got a doctorate some decades ago," he chattered as he watched the starless sky, "mostly because you've always been teasing me about it."

He felt Jack chuckling ever so lightly. "I never thought I'd live to see the day," he replied pleasantly, "So you're a real doctor now?" Pondering shortly, he added, "Or, you know, a scientific one?"

"Astrophysics, Jack," the time lord replied with a sigh. His breathing didn't work right, but he didn't mind. At least he didn't feel the pain. "Mankind kept speculating on the end of the universe, even in the 81st century," he reminisced, "Of course they had no way of knowing that the dark matter would one day decrease in mass, but they had always been guessing that this could cause the universe ending as a massive black hole. Some went as far as to assume that matter would condense enough for a new big bang to take place." He smiled softly. "The end of the universe would be the birth of another," he mused, "it's so human a thought, so incredibly romantic. Whatever happened, there would never be an actual end to anything. Of course they didn't know any better, and in a way, they were right." He wanted to enjoy the beauty of the moment, but the starless sky held no real comfort. Soon, though, it would be filled with beauty once again. Soon.

"I once heard of a mad scientist proposing that the end of the universe might have been its own beginning," Jack commented dryly as he lowered the Doctor's increasingly limp body into a more comfortable position on his lap, "I should have expected that to be your doing."

Noting quite gratefully how much he enjoyed simply seeing his friend, the Doctor chuckled at his words. "It caused quite an uproar," he agreed, "But my arguments were so good they could not outright deny the theory."

"You cheated, though," Jack pointed out as he brushed a strand of hair out of the time lord's face, "You called it a hypothesis, but you already knew it to be true by then."

The Doctor smiled, and so did Jack. For a long while, they simply sat together in silence, both strangely content.

They had spent millennia fighting, struggling, finding and losing friends and lovers all too quickly. Neither regretted anything, though. It had been a good life.

And now that he had stopped running, the Doctor finally allowed himself to appreciate its sheer beauty. He remembered all the exciting adventures he had experienced, all the wonderful things he had seen. But he did not need to remember the greatest miracle of them all, for it was right next to him, holding him gently as he leant down to place a soft kiss on the Doctor's lips.

The gift of life that had both blessed and tortured the immortal throughout his existence left him at last.

For a second, the golden glow surrounded them both. Finally, Jack sat up once more, a peaceful smile adorning his face. The Doctor's insides started burning from the sheer force of the time vortex taking over, but he could not avert his gaze from his wonderful companion.

These were the last minutes of his conscious life, and they were perfect.

"I always loved the peaceful moments with you," the immortal admitted wistfully, "Thank you, Doctor…" His breath hitched, "...for everything."

The Doctor watched his friend closing his eyes ever so slowly.

He would never open them again.

Entirely unbidden, a tear rand down the Doctor's face. He had known it would come to this. Taking his immortality meant taking his life. Jack was always meant to die before the Doctor, if only a few moments.

But that did not make them any easier to bear.

Because with the vortex running through his veins, the Doctor could see everything, and he could do anything.

He could dye the sky yellow and he could turn this wasteland of a planet into the most lively greenery the universe had ever known. He could even crunch a dead universe to start it anew.

But he could never revive his friend, because then…all their struggles would have been for nothing.

The least he could do, though, was to leave his friend a final message.

Breathing heavily, the Doctor stared up at the bright sky that illuminated the colourful, living landscape below. A herd of archefanterixes stomped across the water, and the steady rhythm of their march soothed the time lord's mind tremendously.

His mind was burning, and so was his body. He could not take this kind of power, not for long, and not at all. All of this was strange, and it was wrong, and yet it was right in every way he looked at it.

The universe was defining itself in the most paradox, bizarre kind of way, and the Doctor could not help being amazed at the sheer ingenuity of it all.

Every once in a while during his long life, he had known happiness.

He had seen wonders and beauty, and even if his own life was ending, even though his body was dissolving in the very centre of creation itself – or maybe just because it was – he would make sure for this new, old universe to become as breath-taking a place as he had always known it.

Birth and death, love and hatred, war and peace. Good and evil were really just two sides of the same medal. Only in contrast did they form what he loved so much – the complex, confusing, multi-faceted state known to man…as life.

And his own life...had been a good one.

~Fin~

Admittedly, I only read some stoff on the theories about the end of the universe when I was lining out the plot for the plot. The Big Crunch (that is, the universe condensing again) described here is, from our current point of view, the unlikeliest scenario, but it just fit so well with the story. If you're interested, I put the link to a nice overview article in my profile.

I really loved writing this story, and I hope you kind of liked reading it, too. The idea of wrapping everything together in such a way just seemed interesting enough for me to turn it into an actual story. I could have made it better in many respects, but it been lying around almost finished for some months already and I really want to move on to other projects again.

I'd be really happy to get some kind of feedback (none is a bit unsettling, but oh well) - I'm already glad you read this far, so thank you for joining me on this journey!