a/n: Although I have not ruled out writing another story in this 'verse, this is the final planned story in The Slow Path series. It may be a bit of a roller coaster, and I will label a few chapters for slightly graphic content later in the story.

This is a work-in-progress, and I am not sure how regularly I'll be able to post, but it's more than half finished so it shouldn't be too long between chapters. And please note, although this story is not really a rewrite of the episode The End of Time, it may contain snippets of dialogue from that episode and does contain spoilers for it.

I want to thank everyone who has been even mildly involved in the writing of this series, in particular Bittie752 who has acted as beta, cheerleader, and chief hand-holder for a large portion of it, and Kelkat9 who listened to me whine about the end of this and helped clarify the direction that this eventually headed. Thanks, guys!

Last note. I have tried very hard to keep this entire series within canon, or at least so there are no major contradictions to canon through the episode The End of Time, and this story is no different.

Convergence

Converge (verb) – to move toward one point and join together: to come together and meet

Convergence (noun) – the process or state of converging.

~oOo~

Prologue

This is the story of how I died.

I grew up on a beautiful planet – but a planet where for countless millennia nothing ever happened. My people had almost god-like power over all of time and space, and yet they were content only to observe from a distance, never to travel, never to interact with what they considered lesser beings.

I, on the other hand, had wanderlust, a thing unheard of among my people, and I wasn't content to simply watch the universe from a distance. And so I stole a TARDIS and fled.

For almost a thousand years I traveled through all of time and space. The universe was as wondrous a place as I had always imagined. There was so much to do, so much to see. I traveled to meet new people, breathe new air, see new stars above my head and feel new ground beneath my feet. And along the way I met friends, so many friends, many of whom traveled with me. Some, like Nyssa and Ace, were invited, while others, like Leela and Tegan, weren't, but all became very dear to me and when they left, my hearts were always a bit broken.

But while we traveled, my friends and I, we tried to fight evil, to right wrongs, to make a stand and do what was right when everyone else ran away. It was a good life.

But then came the War. The Last Great Time War. The War I ended. The War I intended not to survive. But survive I did. Friends and enemies alike all died, and I was left alone. The Last of the Time Lords.

But then I met a girl. A beautiful human girl. Rose. And I saved her life and she saved mine and suddenly I wanted to live again.

We traveled. Sometimes we traveled with others, but in the end it was just the two of us. Better with two, she said. And she was right. Oh, how she was right. And as her people would say, I fell for her. Hard. Head over heels. Arse over teakettle. And everyone, friends and enemies alike, all knew how I felt for her.

Eventually in our travels we encountered an old enemy, an enemy that shouldn't have existed, and I sent her home to save her life. And in true Rose fashion she wouldn't hear of it. She ripped apart the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex and came back and saved me. But it was killing her, so I gave up a life to save hers.

And in the fires of regeneration, I was reborn out of love for her.

We traveled again, and after a few miss-starts we grew closer than ever. I was happier than I had ever been in any of my lives.

But then I lost her.

Again to save her life I sent her away, and again she came back.

When she came back I was angry, furious at her for being so impulsive as to leave her mother forever and risk dying for me. Didn't she know, didn't she understand that I was trying to save her, that I couldn't bear the thought of her dying? But in the face of my anger she was calm and reasoned when she told me she was never going to leave me. And it was then that I truly understood the depths of her feelings for me.

Her words both thrilled and terrified me. No one had ever felt for me the way that she did. And inwardly I vowed to never send her away again.

But in the end I lost her anyway.

The love of my life, the reason for my very existence was gone, trapped in a parallel dimension, and there was nothing I could do. It was impossible.

But Rose Tyler never takes impossible for an answer. Against all odds, she found a way back to me. At the moment I saw her again, standing alone on that darkened, bombed out street, for one brief instant I thought the universe was being kind for a change. Everything I wanted in the universe was wrapped up into one human girl, and there she was in front of me. I ran to her, flat out, just wanting to hold her again in my arms.

And then I was shot. And I realized the gods weren't kind, they were impossibly cruel, holding her out for one instant only to snatch her away.

"Your song is ending."

Those four words had followed me since Donna and I were on the Ood homeworld. For a long time I stubbornly refused to believe what they meant, but oh, I knew. Deep down, I knew.

I was going to die. Not just regenerate, but die.

These are the things I thought about as I lay on the pavement, my head cradled in the lap of the woman I loved more than life itself, content that at least I saw her one last time before I died.

But I didn't die, not that time at any rate. Instead I began to regenerate, and in an effort to stay with Rose I tried to halt the regeneration and accidentally created the meta-crisis.

And I lost her again. This time for good.

And the words that heralded my death continued to follow me.

"Your song is ending."

Words have power. I once used six words to take down a government.

"Don't you think she looks tired?"

There were four words to predict the return of the Master.

"You are not alone."

Four words to predict my death.

"Your song is ending."

But there are two words that have saved me in the past, and only two words could save me now.

"Bad Wolf."