The Finale to Runaway Bride...here it comes!

6. Earth, Wind, Water and Fire

The Thames-river of London, river of time; you could always see where you were, or when you were, in London by checking the Thames. More than once, he had gotten his bearings along by this river. Now he was reoriented again by coming up, and seeing that they were right under the Thames, right under the flood barriers-Torchwood had gotten access to a lot of different places, especially here in London, over the years. He hoped he wouldn't have to clean up one of their little messes ever again.

He came back down, and told Donna and Lance where they were—oddly enough, Donna hit the issue on the spot even though she didn't know it had happened before. (And probably would happen again, if he was any judge of how much villains just loved to attract attention, and hide themselves at the same time.)

And what a marvelous lab they had-Torchwood had built the lair first, but whoever was here now had expanded the lab, upgraded and changed operations, and was still running it if he was any judge of the particles being extracted at this very moment, extracted from the river that had once formed a marshland. It was a deadly game they were playing, he thought, staring at the blue bubbles frothing and foaming, but they had created something brilliant nonetheless, something ingenious and conniving at the same time. Yet he just couldn't allow it to go on-especially with Donna getting doused.

He told her the truth of the Huon particles, and what they were doing to her-all of those enzymes, endorphins, adrenaline, the Huon particles were basically boiling hot with all of that energy, emotion, and life building up inside of her, like a microwave about to burst. The excitement and anxiety of the wedding to come, the nervousness and worry of whether or not Lance would love her—no wonder she slapped him then, again!

"What did I do?" He said.

"Are you enjoying this? You called me an oven, a microwave! A big fat oven with a bun cooking in the oven, and-well, I was just getting bored and tired with all of your talk. Out with it, man! Give me the quick and clean answer!" She said. "All right, just tell me."

All of that was contributing to the power of the Huon energy, and was slowly destroying her, unraveling her atomic structure, like a cancer or a parasite feeding off of her, the host.

Donna would not die, he would swear to that, but he was worried about what was to come-because there was always something to come. And then they heard the voice-the voice of a woman, a hissing female, not a human woman, and the Doctor started to wonder what they had gotten themselves into. He waited, slightly between battle-ready tenseness and nervousness as the iron curtain of Lab 002 slowly lifted to reveal-well, a great big hole (drilled to the middle of the earth, as he soon found out) in a large cavernous room, large enough to host a concert in.

"Someone call for the Rolling Stones?" The Doctor whispered. "Or Queen?" He muttered.

"Oi!" Donna hissed.

"The audience on the floor would fall into the pit, except for those with the great balcony seats just above and to the sides of the stage." He said. 'Oh, look at this!" He marveled. "She has great showmanship, even if she likes to prattle on. 'Hibernating at the edge of the universe, until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to awaken me!' Great lyrics for a song—are you the 'secret heart'?" He asked Donna. "That bit was clever, you have got a heart after all."

"Oh, stop it!" Donna said, punching his arm. "You're not being funny." She said, trying to ignore him.

"Ow!" He said, rubbing his arm. "That hurt! Must you always be so violent? Must it always end in violence?" He paused. "Must it always end?" He whispered to himself, getting the chills.

Lance had already walked out, he noticed-and there were those Roboform things again, pointing their guns at him and Donna—okay, he had to think of something before Lance ruined everything.

Donna was scared and frightened, thinking of what was happening to her, and what was going on-all of this had started because she wanted to investigate H.C. Clements for their involvement with Torchwood. She hadn't been in Spain during the Battle of Canary Wharf-she had been here in London, fighting to protect herself and her family, though keeping out of sight of Daleks and Cybermen. Soon after that, she had been recruited by the Agency, and things hadn't been the same since. It was while on this assignment from the Agency that she met Lance, and got doused—surely the two weren't connected, were they? Was she targeted by whoever was in charge of this Huon particle experiment because of her involvement with Lance?

The Doctor remarked the obvious, "Someone's been digging," looking down, and he was informed of where it went—to the center of the earth. When he asked, "What for?", Donna immediately answered "Dinosaurs" because it was obviously the wrong answer, something that Jules Verne made up, but she thought that it might be clever and stupid to say at the same time. And the Doctor was a madman for talking to thin air, as he himself admitted, and he didn't want to be mad. And he called her down. He called whoever was up there down to where they were, and Donna thought he was insane for being so impatient to meet their fate.

And it was a horrible fate, as that woman's voice warned, for she was a hideous spider-woman, like something out of a B-movie, a Hammer horror picture show, she was so huge! And she was right up on that stage, like the Doctor said she would be—apparently she did like to show off her hideous frame. Donna was in shock, speechless, while the Doctor was prattling on about the Racnoss—Empress of the Racnoss, apparently. 'Queen' was appropriate, then. He was trying to explain to her who the Racnoss were, and she was just nodding her head, trying to take it all in and staring at the spider-woman so that she wouldn't take her unawares-she didn't want to be gobbled up by a spider-woman! Omnivore?

Born starving? What sort of-no wonder she was so big, she ate whole planets or something! And people too, just like she suspected! And H.C. Clements was dead! Oh, poor man, he was such a good man, too, she liked him, and she had made fun of him even though he had been so nice to her and everyone else in the office.

She spotted Lance—oh, good boy, Lance! He would save her and the Doctor while the Doctor was prattling on! She started talking as well, hoping to distract the Racnoss, as she was a good talker, too. She cried out to Lance, but Lance—he stopped, right in mid-swing, and started laughing with the Racnoss.

She couldn't believe it! Not after all of these months—she loved him! And he was joking with the Racnoss! The Racnoss, the spider-woman, said he was funny! Her whole world was dissolving around her. She had believed in him, she had believed in Lance, and oh, what a fool she was!

The Doctor even had to apologize to her—had he known? Did he figure it out as soon as he met Lance that Lance was-oh, what a fool she was for falling in love with him. She should have gone on investigating H.C. Clements, instead of fooling around with him. She cried out to Lance, trying to stop him from ruining everything, but he called her the stupidest, cruelest things then, calling her stupid and inept, and he didn't believe in her, he didn't love her. She was shocked and mortified, about ready to cry, as she wondered if it was true—if she was as stupid as she pretended to be. The Doctor explained how she had gotten so full of Huon particles from the coffee Lance had served her, and it made sense-she hadn't been targeted for getting involved with Lance, Lance had targeted her, and she had gotten involved with him on her own. It was all a set-up, and she hadn't expected it-she was new to this whole investigating thing. What a spy she was, falling in love with her own poisoner and the enemy.

'Head of Human Resources'—he had only married her to keep her here. And he was prattling on now. Oh, yuck, he had slept with the spider-woman! Oh, that was it, that was it, get her out of here. But the Doctor wanted to find out more—why couldn't he just stop it already?

The Doctor watched and listened as it unfolded around him, keeping his eyes on Donna as he hoped she wouldn't do something—no, he shouldn't think of her like that. She had already been downgraded and bullied enough by this man, Lance, for far too long, and he had to wait for her to come to her own conclusion—to make her own choice of what was the truth. He tried not to laugh, because it was not true, it couldn't be true, that Donna was-Lance was just being cruel. It had to be that way. Any human was special in his or her own way, but Lance-and others like him-were just cruel. And stupid for taking cruelty to whole new levels of trickery and betrayal. Lance had his own reasons for doing what he did, but they were too short-sighted, not seeing that the big picture was more than just the stars, as he was being tricked and played with as well by the Empress of the Racnoss. And Lance called him a Martian—oh, boy, he was wrong, but the Doctor didn't correct him now. Finally, he tried to get a bit more information, and they blocked him off, the Roboforms about to fire—Roboform, that might be a good disguise-so he called his TARDIS to come rescue them and find out for himself what was at the center of the earth. They had to go back-back, backwards in time, not just space, and Donna had to sit down and have a good cry for just a minute.

"Are you all right?" He asked after letting her sit there.

"I'm fine-just peachy-keen and dandy." She said sarcastically. "All my life, I waited to meet the right man, the right man who would sweep me off my feet and take me away from here, and the right man—was just an idiot who used me and betrayed me to the spider-woman! The giant, red spider-woman-" She cried.

"It's all right, Donna, it's all right-you're going to be fine." He hugged her. "That man wasn't worth it." He said. "You're going to be safe now." He whispered.

"Safe? I can't be safe-" She pushed herself away from him, and shook her head. "Not anymore," She whispered.

"We've arrived," He announced after a moment, and showed her the earth forming from 'dust, rocks, and gas', the sun brand-new, and the solar system not even formed yet. Donna stopped crying, stunned by everything.

"You are made from stardust, as is everything else on planet Earth." He said. "So was my planet, too." He muttered. "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, it all begins and ends the same."

"Puts the wedding into perspective," She said.

Should there ever be a peaceful moment, by himself or-with a companion, he liked to stand still and look around at where they had ended up. It might be crowded, it might be secluded, it might be majestic, or crude, artificial or natural, advanced or primitive—wherever it was, whatever it was, they would take a moment to stop, stand still, and stare. And that moment was now for him and Donna.

"That's what you do, the human race—make sense out of chaos. Blocking it out with-with weddings, Christmases, and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed." He said.

And the Racnoss egg ship was at the center of it all—imagine that! They were called back all of a sudden, by the Empress Racnoss using the reverse pull—and he had to finnagle the ship so that at least they would be pushed to the side of where they called to-extrapolator! Ride the wave!

He got out, he had to stop the Racnoss from being freed and feeding on the planet Earth, and Donna was right behind him-or at least she was. "Donna!" He cried.

Oh, he was so stupid! He had lost her, and she was the key! She was the key to the whole evil plan of the Racnoss, and he had—why hadn't he told her to stay inside the space-TARDIS at all costs? Oh, well, the Empress Racnoss would have probably torn the great TARDIS apart trying to get to her; or tried to, at any rate. He had to get in there—

"Hello, Roboform!" He cried with a smile on his face as the robot pointed a gun at him. This was going to be fun.

"I hate you." Donna told Lance.

"I think we've got a bit beyond that, sweetheart."

The spider-woman started prattling.

"I'm stuck in this spider-woman's web, after seeing the beginning of the earth!" Donna cried. "Why couldn't you have been more-patient, or understanding, instead of being so insistent on getting your own way that you had to follow the orders of a spider-woman, and drug me? So what if you wanted to travel and see the universe? Not while putting my life at risk, and the lives of billions of people!"

"What are you talking about?" Lance asked.

"The Doctor was right, you're not worth it. You're just a stick in the mud, and stupider than I am! Trusting the spider-woman-give me a break, who would ever trust the spider-woman? And sleeping with her?!" Donna cried. "That's sick! That thing is a man-eater—literally!" She shouted.

"Man-eater?" Lance gulped.

The particles were purged out of her and Lance, the bride- and groom-to-be, to awaken the Racnoss, and Lance was indeed—eaten. Donna cried out in pain, remembering her love for him, but she had to live—she was going to die. Oh, God, she was going to die, and get eaten, and the Doctor—that stupid Martian had left her. She wasn't going to live. She started crying for herself as well as Lance, looking down into that hole to the center of the earth.

But then—the Racnoss Empress called out to the Doctor! She laughed just to see him up there on that platform, unveiling his mask and that robe, and he was-amazing, she had to admit to herself. Donna gasped as she was freed from the web, and then—screamed as she swung down and across to the Doctor—hitting the barrel beneath him, and falling onto the ground.

"Thanks for nothing," She said, but she was glad to see him alive. Unfortunately, they weren't going to be for long.

The Doctor offered one last chance to the Empress of the Racnoss, as shadows wavered behind him like light reflected off of water, being awfully generous in her own opinion, but the spider-woman just laughed at him. Donna was certain that this was it, there was no way that the Doctor could-no, she refused to doubt him, she would believe in him. Even as the Roboforms aimed at them, she told herself, he had shown her, and done, great things to help her, and she would believe in him, she would believe that they would live, even if they had to die to prove her wrong.

And they didn't—the Roboforms 'relaxed', the Doctor had reprogrammed them, he had 'pockets', and Donna was glad for that. He wasn't from Mars? Then—what was Gallifrey? She thought to herself. But the Racnoss hated him for that! They murdered the Racnoss? Then—Donna looked up at the Doctor; what was he doing here? What-was the Doctor? She thought.

"I warned you. You did this." The Doctor said. He looked merciless. He wasn't smiling or laughing now. And the balls in his hands—where they from the wedding party? Oh, God, what was the Doctor going to do? She thought.

They flew up into the air, so bright and shining, and went off—exploding with a cascade of water, the Thames, and fire—fire so bright and hot, she had to cover her head and look away. Oh, Doctor, Doctor, what have you done? She thought to herself that he was a monster as she watched the agony of the Racnoss.

Then she looked up at him—wet and disdainful, contemptible and miserable, dismal and dour, formidable and unwavering. What an unnerving stare he had, full of sadness and unbound by convention. What had she gotten herself into here?

The Empress of the Racnoss screamed as fire burned her, and water flooded the rest of the chamber-cascading down into the hole to the center of the earth. He had destroyed everything, and he wanted to destroy everything after what had just happened to him.

The Doctor stood up there, watching the fire burn and the river flow, and listening to the pleas of the Empress Racnoss, and the cries of the Racnoss children, and he thought—if I were to fall...I would drown and burn at the same time.

He saw a splinter in time-a moment where everything that would come to pass was based on his decision; a moment where his decision might change everything. And he stood upon that precipice, beneath him was fire and water, and he thought that if I were to fall, someday, somewhere, someone might find my body, and they would say, 'the Doctor is dead'! They might shout, or sing, or cry, or praise him, or scorn him, then.

And he could not see, and he could not feel, and he tried not to see, and he tried not to feel-but he could not let go.

"Doctor!" She cried—Donna? He thought. He looked down, and saw her, drenched in her wedding dress-her wedding dress, she had nothing else to wear, nothing else to change into. A bride without a groom, a groom who had drowned or been eaten long before now, a groom who had betrayed her and tricked her, who had poisoned her and sacrificed his own humanity in the process, for he had not loved her, and she had loved him—and he had slept with the Empress of the Racnoss. Perhaps he had deserved to die. Perhaps not. Perhaps no one deserved to die today.

"You can stop now!" Donna cried. It was not that simple—surely it could not be that simple? He thought to himself, looking up. How could he stop this? He clenched his teeth, and gasped. How could he-walk away, he thought to himself; you have stood here long enough.

And he cried, he felt it—the pain of the suffering and loss, and understanding that it was for Donna and Lance, for Rose and for himself, for the Empress and her Racnoss babies—it was all so real. And he had to walk away, he could not bear it, he could not bear the feeling, it was so real and painful, and he had lost everything here today. He could not die, could he? He could not lose himself-not here, not now. He would have to live to fight another day, fight to survive, and get R—Donna out of here. She had to live.

He came down to help her climb, clearing away the obstacles on the stairwell along with Donna, led her as they climbed—high above the water and the fire, rising, high above the Racnoss and her children, leaving it all behind. They climbed out of the sewer, out of the pit, out of that hell-hole of a concert theater hall.

And they arrived at the top, at the surface, just as the Empress Racnoss and her spaceship was destroyed-they had to duck down, closing the lid for a moment, as the explosion rained down pieces of burning wreckage. And the Doctor and Donna stood at the top of the Thames Flood Barrier, laughing at the dry land that surrounded them, the boats that were stranded and the fish that were dying, after they had nearly burned and died. They had made it. They had survived the hell-hole. He laughed, she laughed. They could survive anything, he thought to himself, together—the Doctor and Donna.

"'We are the champions, my friends, and we'll keep on fighting till the end!'" The Doctor sang along to the music inside the TARDIS as Donna laughed.

"You sound worse than my granddad!" She said.

"'We are the champions, we are the champions, no time for losers, because we are the champions—of the world!'" He laughed. "Hold on, Donna, I'm going to have you back home in Chiswick in no time, once I get this TARDIS fixed up. We're alive!" He shouted. "We're alive!"

"Thanks to you, Doctor." She said.

"Thanks to you." He added.

Donna shook her head. She couldn't help herself—just below the surface, when they were about to emerge and the Racnoss star-ship was destroyed, she couldn't help thinking that somehow, somewhere, she was standing on a street corner with two of her mates, watching that same explosion, and there was something on her back. Maybe it was just deja vu, or something like that. She was just glad that the Doctor was alive, too, as that had been a close call.

"I'm just exhausted, wiped out, and blown away by this whole day." She said.

"Oh, come on, you could handle something like that again-" He said.

"Handle? No way, Doctor, I couldn't handle anything like that again!" She said. "It's been one hell of a nightmare—only this morning, I was waiting to get married, ready for it, in fact, and now-I'm just lucky to be alive." She looked up at him. "Thanks to you, Doctor. You gave me the greatest gift of all, Doctor, to see the world form, to see my family, friends, and home in a fresh, new light, to give me a feeling, a taste of adventure, and to save me from the biggest mistake of my life. Thank you."

"No, don't thank me, Donna." He said, looking at her. "Thank yourself. You had it within you all along."

"Within-" Donna poofed it away. "Whatever." She said, sitting back down.

She was also depressed, sad, glad, madly in love and heartbroken at the same time. Madly in love? With the Doctor? Maybe just a little bit. Yet she missed and despised Lance, felt sorry for and hated the Racnoss and her babies-it was complicated. The Doctor was involved. She did not really want to think about it just now. Maybe if she got away from him, if he left her, maybe she could forget all about him and what he had shown her-or maybe not. She did not really want to forget everything about him and what he had shown her.

They landed, and walked out. "A lot has happened, Doctor." She said, half to herself. "I need to regroup, and focus on what I want to do, what are my options and everything." She said.

The Doctor inspected the TARDIS. "She's all right. Survive anything."

"More than I did," Donna sighed. She just couldn't be a part of this. She couldn't be with him anymore. She wanted to go home, and recover from this nightmare of a day.

"You're a gift." The Doctor said. "I'm delivering you back to your parents and family on Christmas night!"

"Oi!" She said, and laughed. "Seriously, though, I hate Christmas."

"Why, Donna?" He asked. "Why do you hate Christmas?"

"It's a lot of fuss and mess over nothing!" She said.

"Is it, Donna?" He asked, tapping the side of his nose.

"What's that about?" She asked.

"Nothing, nothing, Donna." He sighed. "Just the joy and celebration of the holiday season against the winter darkness." He added.

"All right, all right, maybe there is something to it," She said.

The Doctor was wonderful and marvelous, and so very sad, lonely, and depressed, she didn't want to be with him. Walk in the dust—so many memories, so many good-byes and so-longs, he must have felt them before, or something.

"No." She said immediately when he asked her to come with him. He looked so hopeful, forlorn, and longing at the same time when he asked, but she couldn't, not now. And then he looked down, biting at the bit, but now he was trying to hide his disappointment, sadness, and maybe shame. She was ashamed as well for what she said, but it had to be said.

"Do you live your life like that?" She asked. Was it always like this around him?

"Not all the time." He said, looking up. His eyes were shining in the starlight-so was hers, she imagined.

"I think you do." She told him. Beautiful and terrible, she had seen it in him—a stranger he was to her, and she didn't think she could live like that, not with him, not now. "You scare me to death!" She said.

"The Doctor and Donna! Isn't it-isn't it meant to be?" He asked.

"No. Tell you what, I'll invite you to Christmas dinner—Mum cooks enough for 20, Dad does a great Charlie Chaplin impersonation, and you'll love my granddad. He thinks like you. He's got the dirtiest sense of humor sometimes, and he jokes and he smirks and he laughs-you're almost as funny as he is!" She told him. "You'll love him when you meet him."

"Yeah, maybe—someday," The Doctor said, half under his breath. He was leaving without saying good-bye to her—did it always end this way with?

"Oi! Doctor!" She called him, and he came back. "Blimey, you can shout, what?" He asked.

"Am I ever going to see you again?" She asked.

"If I'm lucky." He said.

"Just promise me one thing—find someone."

"I don't need anyone." He said.

"I think you do-I think you need someone whose hand you can hold, to stop you, in the dark." She said.

"Thank you, Donna. Good luck." He said.

"Wait-your friend. What was her name?"

"Her name was Rose," He said, choked up before he left.

"Rose." She said to herself, walking back into the house. She would remember that- and she would remember the Doctor, too; she just hoped that he would remember her, in his own way, shape, or form.

The 'doctor' stood there, watching her go in. "I remember this place. I remember...her." He said, curious and awestruck by this sense of feeling inside him. That red brick house-that red door-and that poor old man saluting to him in the doorway, as he stood out in the rain, before he left, and the red door closed behind him.

"It's a start," His companion said, smiling sadly, as they walked away.

"'Demons run when a good man goes to war;/" The 'doctor' said, reciting. "'Night will fall and drown the sun, when a good man goes to war./

"'Friendship dies and true love lies,'" The companion continued, "'night will fall and the dark will rise, when a good man goes to war./'" She got choked up.

"'Demons run but count the cost, the battle's won but the child is lost…'" He finished sadly as they vanished into the snow that would become rain.