The Daughter of Gallifrey

17: The Fall of the Time Lord

Here she was again. Somewhere else.

Caroline whirled around, inspecting her surroundings and grasping for recognition. She stood in a barren landscape, all sides depicting destruction. Debris and embers crunched under her bare feet. Their warmth startled her. It hadn't been long since whatever had occurred and decimated what had once been here.

She looked to the sky, hoping she could place herself on a certain planet or system by studying the celestial bodies visible, but a thick cloud of smoke and ash darkened the atmosphere and blocked her view.

Caroline coughed, the acrid air irritating her throat. Her mouth felt dry, and her tongue became coated with a foul taste.

Taking a closer look at the burnt remains around her, she ran her hand over a particular pile of ash. Grey particles stuck to her fingers. She hesitated but was desperate, and it seemed like something the Doctor would do.

As soon as the grit touched her tongue, she knew. Caroline spluttered and began to gag violently. She fell heavily to her knees. Holding back her bile, she wiped her hand on what she realized was the white smock from her earlier vision. Tears were suddenly pouring down her cheeks, and sobs racked her body as they had before.

These tears were not for herself though, or even her mother. They were for a whole other race entirely.

The Trees of Cheem.

The ashes were all that remained of their intricately simple and legendary civilization. This had to be Cheem. Destroyed, razed, wrecked, annihilated.

She knew their race was spread throughout the universe, but this was their home planet, established after their evolution and escape from the Panjassic Asteroid Field.

Caroline was far away from the Williams' home in England. Very far.

Very, very far.

She had somehow traveled hundreds of years forward and light years away from Earth.

Caroline stood, still trembling from grief. A slight breeze began to move away the suffocating smoke until she was able to make out a shape on the horizon. She began to move toward it. It was a spiraling tower, glowing bright blue from its pinnacle. It was too far away for Caroline to really investigate, so her feet quickened.

A shout stopped her in her tracks, and she sunk several inches into a drift of ash. The yell was distant and so very faint, but audible enough.

"RUN! TAKE HER AND RUN!"

It was the voice she would recognize any time, any place. One she would never forget.

The Doctor.

She wanted to shout, shriek, call out, but she couldn't. Caroline found she was not in complete control of her body.

This was just getting stranger. And more frustrating.

Her body, thankfully, did continue to run, now almost at a full sprint. Her breathing was labored, and her head was pounding. She was seriously regretting her previous sedentary lifestyle. She would've cursed if she knew any good ones.

"NO! NO, RORY! NO, WE CAN'T-!"

Amy.

"PLEASE, WE HAVE TO! HE SAID-"

Rory.

"I DON'T CARE! NO, NO-" Her distressed voice was cut short.

Still hastening across the sorrowful wasteland, Caroline's hearts nearly stopped as she heard the TARDIS materializing. Her head swung from side to side as she sought hysterically for the beautiful blue box. Her search was fruitless.

No TARDIS.

She listened intently. Only the wind answered her. And a faint hum generating from the direction of the looming structure.

No Amy. No Rory.

Her body turned to lead as she discerned that that familiar sound was also present when the TARDIS was de-materializing. Meaning, it had left. Whoever was aboard had left. Who was still here? If anyone?

And why could she still not make a sound?

The ground began to quake, causing her steps to falter. Her legs were jelly, but still held her upright as she pushed herself forward with all she had. The spire ahead of her trembled, too.

Rather abruptly, Caroline found herself at the base of the tower. It no longer shook. Neither did the ground. It had collapsed.

The rubble stacked high above her. Fire crackled, but she didn't know where. Sparks sprung from clumps of broken wires. She struggled up the pile of newer debris. She was covered in the dust that hung in the air and her eyes stung, as did her lungs and throat.

Clambering over part of what was once a staircase, Caroline caught a glimpse of it.

Of him.

Her breath caught in her chest, her body struck statue-like. She found now her body agreed with her instructions.

"No." Her voice was strangled and distraught and erupted from her very soul. "No, no, no. NO!" Suddenly she was on all fours, scrambling over the rubble. Sharp pains plagued her flesh as she crawled over bent metal and broken glass and sparking electrical equipment. Caroline herself didn't even register the physical affliction; she was consumed wholly by anguishing heartache.

When she reached him, her fingers grabbed frenziedly at the debris pinning him down, slicing her hands and bloodying her already filthy smock. She clutched at the back of his jacket, heaving him over on to his back. His nose was split, and his eyes still open. They were cold and inanimate, so alien looking. Gone was all the light they once held.

All the light and mischievousness and brilliance and genius and empathy and wit and elation and nonsensical humor. All that feeling.

All that life.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

Dead.

The Doctor was dead. Her Doctor was dead.