When the Doctor took my hand and told me to run, I thought it would never end. I thought we'd always be running, the Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS, side by side, forever. But nothing lasts forever. This is the story of our end, my end with the Doctor.

He'd tried to send her away. That idiot man, he was always trying to keep her safe, always sure he knew what was best. But she'd made her choice a long time ago, and damn it, it was her choice to make. It didn't matter that she was leaving her family behind in Pete's World, not really. Because she'd always known it would end like this. It didn't matter now many times she went back to them, because she didn't belong to them anymore. She'd chosen the Doctor the moment she'd set foot in that wonderful, magical box, and she didn't regret that, no matter what she had to give up. It was the choice she'd made, and she'd known the consequences.

The Doctor looked horrified when she popped back into his universe, even after he'd tried to send her off to Pete's World. He'd grabbed her shoulders, desperate, trying to make her see sense. "Once the breach collapses, that's it," he reminded her roughly. "You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!" She could see it, he was blaming himself again, blaming himself for separating her from her family, always holding himself accountable for this that weren't his fault.

Rose met his wild gaze calmly. "I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you." She had to make him see, it was her choice. This wasn't his fault. She'd promised him forever, and she wasn't going to break that promise. She wasn't going to leave the Time Lord who still needed her. And she needed him too. The Doctor and Rose Tyler. They fit together, always.

Not all promises can be kept. Not all ends can be outrun.

She thought they were okay. The Void was opened, the Daleks and Cybermen were being pulled in, she and the Doctor were clinging to the walls, safe. She thought they'd made it, that this could soon be a memory, a story to tell of how she and the Doctor got into trouble again.

That's the lever slipped, and their safe, happy ending was lost.

The companion could hear the Doctor yelling for her to hold on, could see the panic in his eyes, the absolute terror of losing her. She gritted her teeth, fighting to keep a grip on the lever. Her heart was banging against her ribcage, fear burning through her veins. If she let go, it wasn't just the Doctor she was leaving behind. It was the life she'd chosen, a life where she could go to the farthest corners of the universe, save lives, help people, do things that mattered. Desperation to hold onto that life made her heart race even faster, a desperate tempo that pounded in her ears, in her throat, her chest, blotting out everything else. She had to hold on, she had to.

No matter how hard you try, no one can hold on forever.

Her hands slipped. The vortex began to pull her in, sending her falling, falling into the Void, with nothing between her and the utter blackness. The Doctor screamed her name, the word tearing from his throat, a sound of utter desperation. She screamed too, a wordless screech of terror as she was pulled into the Void.

The last thing she saw was the Doctor's expression of terror, panic, loss, and pain, all rolled into one, then that world was gone and everything was dark.

The Valiant Child will die in battle. My time has come.

She could feel her limbs loosening, relaxing as she drifted gently in the black. Her breath was fading, growing weaker, the blackness of the Void crushing in around her vision.

My name is Rose Tyler, and this is the story of how I died.

Darkness.

Then a twitch. A flicker.

But I am not just Rose Tyler.

Strength flooding through her limbs. A breath, and then another, lungs fighting to fill with air.

Rose Tyler shuddered back to life, gentle resignation strwngthening into determination. She could live, she would live, she would fight, because that is what the Doctor had taught her.

I am not just Rose Tyler. I am the Bad Wolf, and this is my story to write!

Her eyes snapped open, blazing with a fierce, golden light. The Bad Wolf felt a surge of power, something that tasted of Time and Fate and Choice. It built up, stronger, all that power built up in that small pink and yellow human.

The Bad Wolf sent herself hurtling through the Void, the power of Time propelling herself through the darkness. She reached out, feeling for a world beyond the Void, somewhere to land. She paused.There. The Wolf grinned.

My story with the Doctor has ended. But there are other stories to be told. New worlds to be seen.

SCENEBREAK

The blond girl flickered into existence. She landed in a forest, in a clearing tinted silver by moonlight. Everything around her was bathed in the golden light of the Bad Wolf, her entire body radiating with it. The Wolf held the glow for a few moments before it faded into nothing. Rose Tyler blinked, confused, head groggy, getting a brief glimpse of the universe she'd landed in. Then she collapsed onto the forest floor, spent.

As the companion fell unconscious, she didn't see the man further back in the trees, who had witnessed her entire, unorthodox entrance.

Nor did she see the glint of a gun in his hand.

Right. Well. Um.

If you are currently rolling your eyes and/or grumbling, "Jayie is bad enough updating the fanfictions she already has, she definitely shouldn't be starting a new one," you are completely right. And I apologize. I really do. But I came up with the idea, and I had to get it down.

I'm going to make myself finish another TSWS chapter before I update this again. I will definitely keep updating The Soldier Who Stayed. Don't worry.