It's Over Isn't It?

So this is the first crossover fic I've ever published. I hope you like it! It's about the Ninth Doctor, as he deals with the stress and guilt following the Time War, and coped with his regeneration trauma. It's not treating the 50th anniversary special as canon, since I haven't really enjoyed the show since season 5, so there are a few contradictions.

The TARDIS lurched back and forth frantically, the machinery screeching and smoke and flames erupting from the console. The Cloister Bell had been chiming ominously since the Doctor had ended the Time War. For just the past ten minutes, he had been the last existing Time Lord, and she was the last TARDIS. It was no wonder she was upset...

In the Doctor's tired and wounded state, he had given up on trying to calm her down and control her. He staggered wearily as he backed away from the console, turning around to protect his face from the fresh burst of flames. He tripped gracelessly forwards on the stairs leading towards the doors and they opened of their own accord, leaving him to collapse, face first out of the TARDIS and on to a bright, sandy beach.

Still feeling his injuries, the Doctor lay almost motionless on the sand, and heard the creaky TARDIS doors close behind him. They both needed time to repair and rebuild after what they'd been through...

The Doctor could feel himself burning up inside and his hearts beating faster. He knew this body was done for. In truth, he probably could have recovered from his injuries without regenerating if he tried, but he couldn't bear to see his current face in the mirror anymore. This was one life he was glad to see end.

With the moments he had left, the Doctor tried to get his bearings. He could hear and smell the sea behind him, the Atlantic, he suspected, but in his disorientated state, he could have been wrong. He turned his head to the right. The bright sunlight hurt his eyes, but he could just about make out an enormous statue built into the cliff, overlooking the sea. It was of a giant woman, not a human, but one with two faces and six arms, although three had succumb to age and crumbled at the wrists. Two of the hands were cradling a small house. The house seemed to be of human design and construction, but the statue clearly wasn't, but the Doctor was in no condition to identify it's origin.

As he felt regeneration energy coursing through him, and saw golden light shining from his hands, the last thing the Doctor heard was the hurried footsteps and breath of someone frantically running towards him, before he shot to his feet and erupted in a violent, golden glow. The feeling was indescribable as the Doctor's skin, blood, bones and flesh all realigned, tearing themselves apart and reassembling in his new form. As it began to fade, the beach swam back into view. The Doctor took in his surroundings again, it was always strange experiencing a place with new eyes and skin, but he could tell that little had changed in the few seconds he had spent regenerating, save for the small boy who had ran over.

The boy seemed around twelve years old. He was a little overweight, with curly black hair and wore a red shirt with a star on it. He stared at the Doctor, open mouthed, with appropriate awe for what he had just witnessed. For some reason, he was holding up his right palm, which looked slightly damp.

"Morning..." The Doctor greeted the child, before, once again, falling face first on the sand.

-x-x-x-

The Crystal Gems had been dealing with disasters of their own. The day had started like any other. Garnet had reported the location of a corrupted gem, and the team had dispatched to contain it without incident. Then, they returned to the temple, where Steven had persuaded everyone to watch an episode of Crying Breakfast Friends with him.

Half way through the episode, Garnet had begun to grow restless. Subtly at first, looking around, with a nervous cringe beneath her visor, before she startled everyone by shooting to her feet.

"Garnet, is everything alright?" Pearl asked, cordially.

"It... I..." Garnet mumbled.

She took a step away from the others, holding her forehead with one hand, resulting in her falling from Steven's raised bedroom, and crashing onto the living room table. As she did, she glowed a bright white, and Ruby and Sapphire emerged, rolling into the centre of the house.

"Whaaa..." Amethyst was quietly perplexed.

"Are you guys okay!?" Steven cried, running down the steps towards them.

Ruby quickly got her bearings and ran towards her partner. "Sapphire!" She desperately cried. "What's wrong!?"

Sapphire stood in place, holding her head and gently writhing in distress. "It's... all... changing!"

Before anyone could ask her to elaborate, a shroud of ice quickly rose from the floor and encompassed the small gem from head to toe.

"Sapphire!" The occupants of the house cried in unison, as they gathered around.

"What's wrong with her!?" Steven desperately asked, looking towards Ruby.

"I... I don't know!" Ruby sobbed, tears welling in her eyes. "One minute we were watching that dumb show, then... then..."

"What!?" Amethyst shouted, anxiously.

"Her future vision just... exploded! Like a million things were about to happen!"

"What does that mean?" Pearl asked, worried and confused in equal parts.

"I don't know!" Ruby angrily replied. "I can't see anymore!"

With Ruby's help, the gems tried melting the ice, which only resulted in it reforming stronger. Sapphire gave no response to any of their pleas. Once they exhausted their immediate options of helping her, they had pushed the frozen gem in front of the house's wood stove in the hopes of thawing her gradually. While they waited, Ruby knelt by Sapphire, looking at her pleadingly through her icy cocoon. Steven and Amethyst sat on the couch, sharing remorseful looks with Sapphire and each other. Pearl had elected to pace back and forth in the kitchen.

Sapphire had been frozen for almost half an hour, when Steven looked towards the door. Along with the sound of the sea, he thought he could hear something else. It was similar to the crashing waves, but different, more coarse and metallic, like a grinding, wheezing sound. It lasted for several seconds, before giving way to the usual sounds of the sea.

"Did... you guys hear that?" Steven looked around, getting shrugs head shakes in response. "I'm... gonna go take a look."

Although curious, Steven main interest was in leaving the house for a moment, to briefly escape his feeling of helplessness. Fortunately, he was greeted by the distracting sight of a strange, blue box on the beach, and just caught a glimpse of its occupant, before he left the box and fell face first onto the sand.

-x-x-x-

"I'm telling you guys! He's some kind of weird gem!"

"Steven, he's clearly a human, just look at him!" Pearl reasoned.

After Steven had witnessed the new arrival's transformation, he had called to Pearl, and she had helped him carry the man indoors, where they had laid him down on the sofa.

"But I saw him change his body! He was really hurt, so he burst into light and changed, just like you guys do! Well... kinda..."

Steven had only seen the man briefly before he changed, but he could tell that he looked very different. His hair was much shorter, for one thing, barely concealing the shape of his head, he had bony cheeks and a larger than average nose and ears.

"But gems don't change instantly! They..."

"UGH! WHO CARES!?" Ruby roared over the two of them. "He has nothing to do with Sapphire!"

"Well... he might be!" Steven said. "I mean, he couldn't have carried that box here like he is now. It must be some kind of spaceship, like the Roaming Eye!"

"Steven, that's not a spaceship, it's a police box from earth." Pearl said, knowingly. "It was a means of contacting law enforcement in the British Isles, during the 19th and 20th century." She frowned and rubbed her chin, thoughtfully. "Although I can't imagine what it's doing here..."

Steven produced his phone. "Well I'm gonna send a picture of him to Peridot. She was on Homeworld the last, so she'll know if he's some kind of fancy modern gem, designed to blend in or something."

As Steven approached, the man groaned and rolled slightly in his direction.

"It's all... changing..." He mumbled, with a worried look on his face.

Steven recoiled, and the occupants of the house shared a started look.

"That's what Sapphire said!" Ruby loudly reminded everyone.

"So this guy does have something to do with what's happening?" Amethyst theorised.

"Well... it's only three words, it could be a coincidence." Pearl said, although she was clearly doubtful.

Ruby pushed past Amethyst on her way to the couch. She lifted the man's long, black coat and started to rummage through his pockets.

"Ruby!" Steven criticised. "People don't like it when you do that!"

The angry red gem ignored him and began to empty the man's pockets onto the floor behind her, looking for some form of identification. The contents of the man's pockets seemed almost disproportionate to their size. The majority of what Ruby found were crumpled up balls of paper, with strange, circular symbols drawn on them. She also found a leather wallet with a blank sheet of paper in it, and a silver tube with a blue bulb at one end.

"I've never seen symbols like these before..." Pearl murmured, as she straightened out one of the balls of paper.

"What do you think that thing's for?" Steven asked, as Amethyst picked up the silver tube.

With little forethought or consideration, Amethyst inserted the tube into her left nostril. "Well I don't think it's meant for nose picking..." She laughed gently. "It's lousy at it."

Ruby's frustrated groaning interrupted the group's investigation as it slowly grew in volume. "SAPPHIRE!" She screamed at them, as her anger overcame her.

Pearl frowned irritably. "Ruby, we are all worried about Sapphire, but right now, this man is the best clue we have as to..."

Pearl was interrupted by an ear-splitting boom, followed shortly after by an equally loud, although significantly different crash. It was a combination of sounds they had all heard before. Something large had just broken earth's atmosphere and landed nearby.

"Wh... what was that?" Steven asked, rhetorically.

"We'll go check it out." Pearl said, authoritatively. "Ruby, you stay here with Sapphire and this person."

Before Ruby could protest, the remaining Crystal Gems ran for the door and across the beach in the direction of the sound. After their footsteps faded, Ruby clutched her head and began pacing in a circle, growling quietly. Eventually, she realised that she was leaving scorch marks in the wooden floor, which only seemed to irritate her further.

She leapt onto the man's torso and grabbed him by the collar.

"This is all your fault!" She shouted at his unconscious form. "Everything was all fine until you showed up and did whatever you did to Sapphire!" She paused, as if to wait for a reaction. When none came, she cried out in anger. "Well let's see you hurt Sapphire when you're even MORE unconscious!"

Ruby lifted her elbow and a small, cylindrical gauntlet appeared on her hand. With a thrust, she sent it hurtling at the man's face. When the gauntlet was inches away, though, the man's eyes shot open. His knee flew upwards like a blur, sending Ruby flying into the wall, by the door and tumbling down the small staircase.

The man rolled off the couch and dropped into an action stance, with one knee on the ground and bracing himself with his fingers. He thrust his hand into his coat pocket and his eyes widened in alarm, before he noticed his silver tube device on the floor at his feet.

Before he could pick it up, Ruby, who had regained her composure at the same time as the stranger, flew at him like a bullet, screaming as she did. The two of them rolled across the floor, towards the warp pad, in a frantic skirmish, with their fists flailing carelessly.

"Stop... hurting... Sapphire!" Ruby cried.

"You what!?" Came the man's confused reply.

The man scurried on his back to the warp pad, practically holding Ruby above him as she continued to flail her fists and feet at his face. He slapped his one, free hand onto the pad and, to Ruby's great surprise, it burst into life, sending a beam of white light, skywards.

Ruby's shock calmed her down immediately. "Whaa? How did..."

Taking advantage of the distraction, the man seized Ruby's shoulders and, twisting his torso, hurled her into the light, which disappeared, along with the furious gem, a second later. The man quickly climbed to his feet, nursing his bruises, walked back to his device, and picked it up off the floor. He twisted the top section carefully, cringing slightly at the bodily fluids coating the bulb.

Behind the stranger, the warp pad burst into life once more, and Ruby reappeared.

"Alright wise guy, I don't know how you did that, but you're not..."

Ruby's voice increased in volume and threat as she stomped across the house towards the man. Just before she came into punching distance, though, the man pointed his device upwards, the blue bulb illuminated, and a quiet buzzing sound could be heard.

Ruby immediately stopped and her eyes widened, as though she had suddenly remembered she'd left the bath running. Her physical form twitched slightly, and then, like the picture on a TV that had been unplugged, blinked away entirely, leaving her gem to fall to the floor.

The man picked up Ruby's gem, looked at it quizzically, and pocketed it. Then he looked around the house, he was definitely on earth, in the early twenty-first century, that was obvious, based on the appliances, so why were there Gems there? The Gem War ended millennia ago.

As he looked around, he noticed Sapphire for the first time. She was frozen in ice, which was understandable. With the Time Lords and the Daleks all dead, the future of the entire universe had just changed dramatically and become a great deal less predictable. Every clairvoyant in the universe would be in considerable distress until they adjusted.

The man cringed and nursed his head as he looked around, for more clues as to why there were Gems on earth still. He shuddered slightly and another wave of golden light rippled over him. Moments later, there was another mighty crash from outside, which quickly got his attention.

"No rest for the wicked, eh?" He muttered to himself, before picking up the leather wallet, and heading towards the house's door.