Epitaph

Luke Smith

Luke stared into the mirror. Life. It was a strange concept. He'd heard once that a live body and a dead one had the same amount of atoms, the effect of one or the other should have been the same. It was a cold observation, heartless and so incredibly wrong.

Life was immeasurable, etherial. That one quality that could never be seen or fully understood. Until now that was a comfort, that one unanswered question. Superstition and religion had tried but Luke was a scientist, he couldn't see any other way to be and now it had let him down.

The boy in the mirror looked back at him with haunted eyes. He wanted to see tears. He wanted to scream, shout, to tear his room apart with his bare teeth. Burn it all to the ground.

None of that would help, not even the Doctor could help. Instead he just looked back at himself. Knowing that he had lost something. Something that couldn't be measured or understood.

Maria Jackson

Maria had fallen into the chair as soon as she'd heard the news. It was like a thunderbolt to her heart. Her father was already on the phone, booking their flight back to England.

There'd been nothing, no warning no chance. She was just gone, taking a huge part of Maria with her. She closed her eyes and remembered the word she had shown her. That fateful night, just after moving into Bannerman Road.

She saw the lights from her bedroom window, unable to sleep Maria's curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked out. They she was, with an alien. Helping it reach back into the stars and back home.

All their adventures; aliens, monsters things that defied description. Wonders beyond anything she could have dreamed.

Maria cried, she cried because she couldn't stop. She cried for Luke and her friends.

K-9

K-9 Mark Four ran the information through his positronic processor. There was only one possible conclusion. The task the Doctor-master had built him for was complete. He had only one possible option, to continue. Master Luke and his friends would need him, he'd be there for them. He owed it to her.

Master Luke was inconsolable, but K-9 knew his duty he would continue it until the end, as it should be.

Clyde

For the second time Clyde tied his finger into his tie. Screaming out loud Clyde ripped the damn thing from his neck and threw it into the corner. In his sudden anger he punched the wall. Again and again he pounded on the plaster, it hurt like hell.

He needed the pain, he needed to feel something more than the emptiness in his heart.

Four years, just four years earlier his best chance in life was tossing burgers. He didn't know where he was going now. In the last four years he'd grown into a man he could be proud to be. All thanks to her.

Now she was gone, and he was left. He couldn't even thank her, prove who he was now. She was gone and all he had to show for it was a broken hand.

Mr Smith

The equation is flawed, a vital component is missing.

Thousands of acute mathematical algorithms scattered across the Xylok's crystalline lattice. Information danced through the hybrid processor, silicon and crystal working in combination. Inescapable conclusions folded into each other, producing geodesic logic diagrams across eight dimensions.

A correct equation was perfect. Each problem solved with a symmetry that was almost holy.

The problem he had been set would not balance. The sides didn't match.

The equation was flawed. A component was missing.

Rani

Rani hadn't left the house. Not since she'd found her. It wasn't right, it wasn't. She'd fought Daleks and Zygons and antimatter monsters from beyond the edge of the universe.

Not like this. Not like this.

All the people she'd helped all the lives she'd saved. The world should know, it should be in mourning. Complete strangers should be in the streets, thanking her. Regretting… Children the world over should be crying their beds. Terrified that she was gone.

She was gone.

That didn't mean her job was. Rani knew she had to continue, had to find a way to keep going. In her memory, it was the only thing that would honour her.

The Doctor

'Was she a good friend?' Amy asked, tears standing in her eyes.

The Doctor put an arm around his companion and pulled her close. Nine hundred and eight years, friends came and went. As much as he loved humans their lives were so fleeting. 'One of the best Amy, one of the best.' he told her. Looking up at the screen as it showed Sarah-Jane Smith. Full of life, on her adventures with him.

He couldn't cry, it wasn't the place of a Time Lord to show emotion. Amy understood that without words, so had Sarah. 'It's okay.' She said quietly. 'It will be alright.'

'Of course it will, of course.' He said pulling her tighter.

End Epitaph

Authors note:

RIP
Elisabeth Sladen.