Everything was over the moment Wilf stepped into the radiation chamber, the Doctor just didn't know it yet.

He was much too busy in that moment to be paying much attention to Wilf or any of the other humans scrambling behind him as he faced off against the Master and the Time Lords. The Doctor could vaguely register shouting and scrambling (there was always shouting and scrambling at moments like these), but he spared half an ear to listen for his companions.

He could hear Wilf reassuring one of the scientists. Good. He was alright.

The Doctor listened for his other companion, Thea. A flash of fresh guilt flew through him. He'd barely known Thea. He'd had trainers that lasted longer than he had known Thea and he went through trainers like some people go through post-it notes. They hadn't even been traveling long enough for him to know if she preferred jam or marmalade on her toast in the morning, and now he was probably going to die. She might die too, but that was definitely not happening today.

He could hear her now, getting the scientists out of harm's way while not moving a step to get out of it herself.

How did he keep finding people like this? For once why couldn't he have a companion who ran away and stayed safe?

Never mind that now. Right now, the Doctor had bigger issues. The Master. The Time Lords. He focused. He could do this. He could save everyone and come out the other side. His song would not end today.

Everything happened so fast. First there was just the Master and Rassilon, and the high council of the Time Lords, but then the drumbeat brought Gallifrey itself.

The Master was thrilled. The Doctor was horrified. If Gallifrey was coming back the war was coming back with it. The atrocities of the Time War the Doctor had given everything to end would be here. And for what? Just so the Time Lords could live as beings of pure consciousness. Too bad for the rest of the universe that meant destroying time itself.

No.

No way.

He couldn't let that happen.

The Doctor's fingers tightened around the handle of the gun in his hand. He had almost forgotten it was there. There was a time when he'd said nothing would ever induce him to raise a gun in anger. Ha. He had been younger then, so much younger and so much stupider.

He knew he had to shoot. But what choice could he make that would save the universe? Which would it be? The Master? The Time Lords?

Everyone was talking in turn with the pointing of the gun, trying to convince him to shoot one or the other.

"Kill me."

"Kill him."

"The final acts of your life is murder, but which one of us?"

Then he saw the woman standing behind Rassilon uncover her face. He'd barely noticed her before now. In that moment it's like she was the only person in the room that truly sees him. Her eyes flick behind him. It's only for an instant, but it's enough.

The Doctor knows what to do.

He pointed the gun at the Master.

A moment of fear flashed over the Master's face.

"Get out of the way." The Doctor ordered, waiting just long enough for his oldest friend to be clear before shooting the white point star that was drawing Gallifrey to Earth.

The room shook like an earthquake as Gallifrey was pulled back into hell.

Of course, it couldn't be that simple. Rassilon was going to kill him and the Doctor was ready. He had been told so many times that his song was ending, maybe it was time.

"Get out of the way." The Master's voice ordered. He was staring at Rassilon with the clearest determination the Doctor had seen in him in a long time. There wasn't any madness in that gaze, not anymore.

The Doctor stumbled backward as the Master shot arcs of energy into Rassilon's chest.

"You did this to me. All of my life!" The Master was screaming. "You made me!"

The Master counted off that drumbeat one final time, that pattern of four that had haunted him for so long. With each count, he pushed the Time Lords back. Back into the Time War, back into the hell they themselves had made. With one final scream, they vanished into white light.

When everything finally stilled, the Doctor was sprawled on the floor. He could feel chunks of broken glass poking through his suit, he could feel the burn of injuries only beginning to heal.

He was alive.

"I'm alive." His voice shook as he pushed to his knees.

It couldn't be. It just couldn't. He had known that he was going to die his song was ending but...

"I'm still alive." It seemed more real by the time the Doctor could stutter the words out a second time. He wanted to laugh, but it just came out as gasps. Maybe this wasn't the end. Maybe he didn't have to die. Maybe he still had a chance to make this life into something to be proud of. Maybe...

Tap tap tap tap.

No.

It couldn't be.

He was alive, just please-

Please, no.

Tap tap tap tap.

Four knocks.

He was still going to die.

He couldn't run. Not from this. Why did he ever think he could run?

Tap tap tap tap.

It was Wilf. Wilf had trapped himself in the radiation booth to free whatever terrified scientist had had the misfortune to be trapped in there when everything went to hell.

Why did he keep finding people like this?

Companions who were so... good. Who burned so brightly that they both got burned.

"They gone then? Good-o." Wilf had been silent the whole time. He and Thea had just stayed quiet and watched the whole thing without saying a word.

The Doctor almost wished Wilf hadn't said anything, had let him bask in the glory of being alive for just a few moments longer.

"If you could, uh, let me out?" Wilf said. The room was strangely quiet except for his voice and a pained buzzing from the radiation booth.

"Yeah."

"I mean this thing seems to be making a bit of a noise."

"The Master left the Nuclear Bolt running. It's gone into overload."

"And that's bad, is it?" Wilf asked, trying to keep his voice light but letting the fear seep in.

"No, because all the excess radiation gets vented inside there. Vinvocci glass contains it. All five hundred thousand rads, about to flood that thing." The Doctor looked the radiation booth up and down. He could only see one way to fix this.

"Oh. Well, you'd better let me out, then." Wilf knew exactly what was going on, even if he was pretending not to.

The Doctor spared a glance to Thea. She was standing silently next to the booth, next to Wilf. She probably had been this whole time. Thea knew what had to happen. He wouldn't have been surprised if she had figured it out before he did. She had always been like that, just a little bit more intuitive than she should be. It had puzzled him at first, but it didn't matter now. Some other man would walk away from all this and he would be the one to figure it out. That is, if Thea didn't turn and run the second he changed.

He wouldn't blame her if she did.

"Except it's gone critical. Touch one control and it floods. Even this would set it off." The Doctor made a vague motion with his sonic screwdriver before putting it back in his pocket.

"I'm sorry."

"Sure."

"Look, just leave me."

The worst part was that Wilf sounded sincere.

"Okay, right then, I will." The Doctor nodded, looking around, moving because he didn't know what else to do, but his eyes betrayed him. "Because you had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh yes. Because that's who you are, Wilfred. You were always this. Waiting for me all this time."

The Doctor's voice almost broke. He turned away, looking down in a vain attempt to hide the tears welling in his eyes.

"No really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my time."

"Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important." He tried to sneer. It didn't work. "But me? I could do so much more. So much more!"

The Doctor's agonized voice echoed in the empty room.

"But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair!" He screamed, knocking some papers off a desk. The answers to all the questions in the universe could have been on those pages and the Doctor wouldn't have cared. In that instant he could see nothing beyond his own pain.

He went quiet for a long moment. When the Doctor spoke again his voice was broken with the weight of everything he had said. Everything he had done. Everyone he had hurt.

"Oh. Oh. I've lived too long."

Wilf tried to stammer out a protest.

Thea was staring at him.

He stared back at her for a moment. They still barely knew each other, but she had helped him more than she knew. When they first met, she had somehow seen the pain he was in. The pain from Rose, from Donna. 'If you want to talk' she had said, 'that's the good thing about strangers, you don't have to prove anything to them'. He hadn't wanted to talk. He still didn't, but he wanted the chance. Now he would never get it. Maybe another him would, but he wouldn't. He would be dead.

"No." Thea said firmly.

He didn't even have a chance for the word to sink in before she gave him a quick hug and then backed away just as fast.

The Doctor suddenly realized he was handcuffed to a table.

Both his hearts stopped when he realized what she was planning.

"Thea! No, you can't!" He strained against the cuffs, but they wouldn't budge. He felt around his many pockets for the sonic, but it was in Thea's hand.

This couldn't happen. Not again.

The Doctor's mind flashed back to the Library for just a moment. To River Song. To a scene just like this one.

River. Rose. Donna. Astrid and Jack and Martha and Sarah Jane and Mickey the Idiot. He lost everyone. He almost didn't make it the last time. He wouldn't make it this time.

He wanted to beg, "please, no," but nothing came out.

"Love, no. Let me do this. I've had my life; you've still got all of yours ahead of you." Wilf was pleading from the other chamber. He reached for the console, but a word from Thea stopped him.

"No. You have to trust me. Both of you. Please trust me."

Both men looked on, horrified as Thea walked into the empty chamber and shut the door behind her. She counted off quickly before slamming a hand down on the console. Wilf's door clicked open. Thea crumpled. Slowly. Painfully, as her chamber was flooded with lethal radiation. As she fell, she let out a high keening noise from the back of her throat, an agonized expression twisting her features. It was all she could do to curl up on the floor and wait for it to be over.

The door clicked open.

For a long moment nothing happened. The room that had been exploding with sound and movement only minutes before was now impossibly still.

After what felt like an eternity, Thea peeled herself off the floor, staggering to stand in front of Wilf and the Doctor.

"Thea please," the Doctor begged. "Let me out. I can fix this. I'll fix this. Please just-"

He was cut off by the sound of the sonic screwdriver and his cuffs clicking open. The Doctor made to run over to his companion, but she raised a hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Her voice was soft as she reached a shaking hand to her collar, pulling a long chain out from under her shirt. She pulled the necklace over her head, letting the small silver pendant rest in her palm. On first glance, the pendant looked simple, round, like something you could buy at a flea market for 5 pounds. But it wasn't. It was a fob watch, no bigger than a pound coin. She let the sonic slip from her fingers and clatter to the floor, running her fingertips across the surface of the watch.

She met the Doctor's eyes for a moment. "I'm so sorry it had to happen like this."

She opened the watch.

A bright golden light spilled across Thea's face as she stared, unblinking, into the brightness.

An eternity, or a few moments later, the light stopped. Thea kept staring for a few seconds before going completely limp and collapsing to the ground. The Doctor's arms were the only thing that kept her from hitting the floor, catching his unconscious companion inches from impact.

Wilf was by their side in an instant. "Doctor, what just happened? Is she..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

"I don't know, this isn't possible. She should be dead." The Doctor was panicking, his free hand flitting about, first checking Thea's pulse manually, then grabbing for the sonic screwdriver to check again.

By this point even Wilf could see Thea's chest move. She was taking shallow, uneven breaths, but she was breathing.

"She's not dead?" Wilf was tentative, he still couldn't believe his eyes.

The Doctor shook his head, his eyes wide with shock.

"That's good isn't it?" Wilf asked again, louder this time. "You said the radiation was five hundred thousand rads, enough to kill anyone. But it didn't kill her, she's breathing and got a pulse and everything."

"She's got two pulses." The Doctor whispered.

"What'd you mean she's got two pulses?"

"I *mean* she's got two hearts. I have two hearts. I think... I think that necklace she was wearing was a chameleon arch."

Wilf just gave him a blank look.

"She's a Time Lord."