Sounds Like Destiny | Queen of the Winter Night 4/5
Title: Queen of the Winter Night 4/5
Author: Tess/mihane_echo
Rating: Rated E for everyone
Word Count: 7678/31694
Pairing: Ten/Donna
Spoilers: Through 4.13 Journey's End
Summary: The Doctor is thrust back into an amnesiac Donna's path when an alien seeks sanctuary with her.
Disclaimer: The canon stuff belongs to the Beeb and I'm borrowing it to play with. Everything else I made up for my entertainment.
Author's Note: Okay, this has taken like ten thousand years, but here is the first story of my Sounds Like Destiny series, affectionately referred to as AU Series 5. This story replaces The Next Doctor as the Christmas story after Journey's End.
Author's Note 2: Thanks to my beta and good friend lilianvaldemyer for her patience, support and frequent butt-kicking. More thanks than I have words for really. ily darling <3
Author's Note 3: HAPPY CHRIMBLE flist. <3 I hope Santa has brought everyone something awesome and that your days are filled with joy and love.
It was important to dream.
Much as he tried, Wilfred Mott had never been able to convince his daughter of that. Sylvia was made of sterner stuff, distance and reason. Perhaps that was why he had doted on Donna so. She was very much like her father Geoff, whom Wilf had loved as the son he'd never had. They were both dreamers, always laughing, always looking up towards something bigger.
When she'd found it, he knew. Donna had the most amazing smile, all stars. The bounce in her step and the glow of radiant happiness that emanated from her as she told him stories of her travels with the Doctor had been all the proof he needed.
She'd found her place.
And then the Doctor took it from her. Wilf didn't hate him for it; more than anything, the old man grieved as much for him as he did for Donna.
Anybody with eyes could see what she'd meant to him.
But now, with the whole of herself returned to her, Wilf recalled the Doctor's voice, the words he'd spoken that night nearly six months before.
That version of Donna is dead.
She wasn't, Wilf realised. Donna was very, very much alive.
Not that she looked it just now. Helping her down the hallway towards the front room, Wilf took in his granddaughter's sunken eyes, her ashen face. She was shaking as if freezing to death.
And she was beaming.
"Cut it a bit close," she chattered, barely able to hold her head up as Wilf pulled her along. "Abies might have to pull out the big guns."
A wry laugh echoed in their heads upon entering the front room. I shall do my best, Noble one.
"Hang about." Her grandfather blinked twice, once at the tree and then again at Donna. "How do you know about him if you've only just remembered today?"
Donna chuckled; in her condition, it sounded more like a wheeze. "That'd be the DoctorDonna bleeding through. Not enough to make me remember, but I recognised the smell for what it was."
She sniffed in a long deep breath and then let it out shakily. Some of the colour returned to her cheeks. Astonished, Wilf glanced at the tree. Once again, the needles were glowing slightly, and there was a change in his scent. The rich aroma of evergreen saturated the air to an intoxicating level.
Donna opened her eyes. She looked better already. "Why do you think I've been sleeping in here all this time?"
Tenacious as ever, Wilf thought. She hadn't lost it. With a proud smile he leaned forward and kissed the top of her gingery head.
From under the stairs, Dylan emerged, supporting Sarah Jane. The other woman had overcome her grogginess, but still winced as she took tentative steps towards a cushy chair adjacent to the sofa. She thanked Dylan quietly when he deposited her gently into it.
The Irishman looked at Donna. "What about that girl? She's standing around on the drive like the last girl asked to dance at a formal. Bawling exactly like one, in fact."
"Bring her in here," replied Donna wearily. She took another deep breath. "She and I need to have a chat."
"Donna," Dylan said warningly. "You need to rest. You can barely stand."
"I don't need to stand to bark her ear off," she said, dropping heavily onto the sofa. This time Dylan properly looked at his friend, and saw the marvellous blue fury in her eyes. He nodded, then disappeared under the stairs.
Moments later, he returned. They all heard Ophelia before they saw her. "What is she going to do to me? I'm sorry! I didn't know--"
She appeared first, pushed along by the much taller and broader Dylan, who had obviously dragged her by her arm into the house. Her eyes, filled with dread, fell on Donna first; she blinked rapidly and looked away. Then she spotted Abies.
"Abies-sa!"
There was a disappointed note in the tree's voice. Oh, Ophelia. What have you done?
She could not muster her arguments; all the justifications and reasons for what she'd done, for what she'd planned to do, seemed petty and childish. All eyes were on her and she was well aware of the anger in these humans' gazes, the dissatisfaction in Abies' voice.
Having lost all her fight, Ophelia Wode sank miserably against the wall and began to cry.
Donna cleared her throat. "Oi. We don't have time for you to feel sorry for yourself! Heal Sarah Jane, right now. A Pinastran handler like you ought to be able to mend contusions well enough. And while you're doing that, you can start talking," she commanded abrasively. "I want to know exactly what the hell is going on."
Ophelia bit her lip; she felt more frightened of her than she had of the other Time Lord. The man had been sympathetic somehow. She had seen understanding in his eyes, as though he had known exactly why she wanted to do what she was doing.
Something about the woman left her heart shrunken and in her throat.
Timidly she went to the chair Sarah Jane was curled up in, and held out her hands over the woman's limp body. A warm pink-yellow light, the colour of a sunrise, shone from her palms and spread over Sarah from head to toe.
Sarah Jane's eyes widened. As the light died away she sat up, shrugging her shoulders and stretched out her fingers reflexively. She looked up at Ophelia. "Thank you."
The girl sniffed. "I'm sorry. For everything." Turning back to face the room, her bottom lip trembled as she met the eyes of each human in the room except Donna. "Really, I never... meant for any of this to happen."
"That's all well and good," said Dylan harshly. "But the fact is that you hurt a lot of innocent people, including my friend. So if I were you, I'd start explaining."
She hesitated, thick clumps of guilt and shame closing her throat. She looked up at Donna through her eyelashes, keeping her head down. "I didn't know you were a T-Time Lord when I met you earlier, you didn't smell like--"
"That's enough of what I smell like for today, thank you very much," bellowed Donna. "What did you do with the Doctor?"
"I didn't do anything--"
"Your mates did. I reckon you had a hand in it." She paused to take another deep breath, her condition improving by the minute. "C'mon, out with it."
"The Snow Queen," stammered the girl. "She's taken him as a trophy. Her prize, for the subjugation of Earth. I just wanted to keep Abies safe, I didn't think she'd ask me to... to hurt anyone."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," muttered Dylan from the corner.
"Where'd she take him?" asked Donna.
"The comet," said Sarah, before Ophelia could reply. Her voice was concise and steady as she conveyed the facts with her journalist's pragmatism. "I've been watching it for weeks. When the Doctor and I went there, we found out that it's an Eiran comet carrying passengers, all of whom seem to trade and deal in living commodities. Like Abies or the Doctor."
"Eiran," repeated Donna. She looked as though she'd had an idea. "Wait then, so those vandals you were with earlier..." She looked hard at Ophelia. "Those were Frost?"
The girl nodded bleakly.
"What are Frost?" wondered Wilf.
"Walking explosives," replied Donna. "Low-intelligence nitrogen-based lifeforms created by an Eiran Queen. You apply enough pressure to their surface and boom."
"You mean, someone just touched them in the street earlier?" said Dylan. Donna didn't reply; whatever else was on her mind, it was taking up most of her cognitive processes.
"She said she was going to freeze the Earth," said Wilf. "Can she do that? Really cover the whole planet the way she did the Doctor?"
"She's done it before," said Ophelia. "But she has to be close. Very close. Closer than your human-made satellites."
Sarah Jane relaxed slightly. "We should have time to think, then. She won't be that close until five o'clock tomorrow morning."
"No," said Donna absently, her eyes gazing into the middle distance, still lost in thought. "We have to go in the next... fifteen minutes."
I would not advise that, Noble one, said Abies. Your mind is not strong enough to handle the knowledge you possess. You will not survive.
"Don't have a choice," she replied, going to her feet. Standing so quickly, her vision swam in front of her, and her hands went up to her temples as she wobbled precariously in place.
"Donna!" Wilf moved to her side, laid a steadying hand on her arm. "Please rest, there's no reason to rush off--"
"The Doctor's going to die," she said, without anger or impatience, only the firm plainness of a simple fact.
Taking advantage of the room's stricken silence, Donna elaborated. "He was encased entirely in ice, which means he can't breathe. He can hold his breath for longer than any of us could, but not twelve hours. If we wait, we won't be able to save him."
Sarah Jane leaned forward, slid to the edge of her cushy chair. Her eyes had darkened, all business; the defender of Earth ready to fight. "So what are we going to do? Do you have a plan?"
Donna nodded. "Shouting. Lots and lots of shouting."
.
He loved the cold.
The place where he'd grown up on Gallifrey had been cold, even during summer. He had so many memories of running down the slopes of the mountain, his heart pumping in a dizzy race and his blood warming his face, then collapsing on the cold red grass, feeling more and more alive with each hard breath that came out of him in frozen wispy clouds.
This impenetrable glacier pinning him stiffly in place, preserving him like a joint of meat, had none of the same fond recollection. All he could feel was the cold, seeping deep into his bones. The rest of his senses were dulled, smothered beneath the wall of glassy ice, leaving him sightless and deaf, unable to taste or speak or smell.
There wasn't even the perception of time flying past him. How long had he been here? Perhaps only moments had passed.
Perhaps he was savouring the dregs of his last bit of oxygen.
"How now, Time Lord? Still clinging to life?"
The Queen's impious whisper was the only thing that could filter through the cold to his blocked ears. The Doctor ignored her, concentrating on keeping his heartsbeats slow and regular, his breath locked up so it could last.
"Made a mistake, didn't we? Tried to save everyone and trusted the wrong person. You Time Lords always were a meddlesome lot. I suppose it's a miracle Ophelia Wode lives in my pocket, poor little thing. I might've actually been killed if she'd listened to you and betrayed me."
His anger was rising. He'd always had a temper, though in this incarnation it did seem to be more brutal. He had to relax. She couldn't get under his skin if he didn't let her.
"Not that it's done her much good, backing me. She's damned the last members of two extinct species and perpetuated the genocide of the humans and every other creature that resides on that magnificent blue bauble. All for nothing. For the same pathetic ending as you and her raggedy little tree."
Earth will be safe, he bellowed telepathically, unable to stay quiet. I'm not the only guardian, there are people I trust who will defend it. You haven't won yet.
"You think so?"
I'm betting my life on it.
The Queen hummed a haughty little laugh. "You really think one of the humans will be able to save you from me?"
No, replied the Doctor. They'll do what humans do best, and rip you to bits. They'll blow this comet apart.
"Would they really sacrifice their precious Doctor?"
I'll already be dead. They'll know that.
She hesitated.
Then, abruptly, the ice around him melted away. The Doctor dropped the floor, gasping and choking, his hands holding his throat. Looking around, he realised he was still trapped in his icy prison. There was no room to stretch out, and barely enough to turn around, but he could move, and see, and hear.
Moreover, he could breathe.
The Snow Queen was towering over the glass cell, her black eyes glittering with ill intent. She pressed her hand lovingly to the ice.
"Now you won't have to hold your breath. I'm nothing if not benevolent."
With one last lingering look, she swept away.
.
The plan was a simple one; everyone else seemed incredulous when Donna explained how easy the whole thing was. Her grandfather had an expression of triumphant delight on his wrinkled face as he went upstairs-- for what, Donna was unsure. She had the nagging idea he thought he was coming along.
Dylan looked less sullen, which for him was practically pleased as peaches. He'd jogged over to his house to pick up some supplies Donna needed, of which he had many, due to his borderline status as a complete scoundrel.
Sarah Jane, at least, understood that the simple plans didn't necessarily mean automatic victory. Already, she was compiling data on her mobile, which she'd remotely connected to her supercomputer. Her finger slid across the screen rapidly, eyes following each piece of material she accessed.
Donna didn't know the other woman well, but their mutual friendship with the Doctor, the common ground of protecting the Earth, was enough for her.
"Sarah Jane." Sarah looked up with quiet apprehension, but also visible was a steely resolve. She really had been doing this a long time, Donna thought.
"It really is up to you. If you fail, there's no way to bring her down."
The older woman hummed a nervous chuckle. "No pressure then, eh?"
Donna forced a smile and then excused herself. She thumped up the stairs quickly and slipped into her bedroom, moving with purpose across the room to her chest of drawers. For the second time today she stood over her jewellery box, except this time, she wasn't fishing for earrings.
She brushed the studs and hoops along until she found it again. All this time, it had been sitting in plain view; she had literally looked at it everyday, never pegging it, never thinking twice about why it was buried with her jewellery.
She drew it out on its long chain, let it dangle in front of her. An ordinary Yale key, small and silver. He'd forgotten to take it with him when he brought her home. Dangerous, if she'd ever realised what it unlocked.
Or maybe he had left it on purpose, hoping it could lead her back. That was a happy thought.
Swept up in the tide of remembering and planning, she hadn't let herself feel anything; there hadn't been time. But for just a moment, gazing at her TARDIS key, an inkling of joy trickled into her mind.
She'd finally remembered. At long last she could tell him everything she'd wanted to tell him before, and there he was, off being frozen to death. Typical, really.
Fear gripped her heart like a vice, squeezing slowly and tortuously. A dozen what ifs surged through her mind: what if he was already dead? What if she couldn't stop the Queen? What if her mind didn't hold out long enough to save him, or to talk to him, even to see him, just one last time?
She pressed a hand to her mouth, stilling the quiver there. Now was not the time to be getting emotional.
"Private Mott reporting for duty."
Donna turned to look at her grandfather; he was bundled up in heavy coat and muffler, with his red berry pulled down over his white hair. A large paintgun was cradled in the crook of his arm as he saluted her.
Their eyes met, and the broad grin on his face faltered. "Oh, Donna."
She'd blinked too late; a tear had already slid down her cheek. "I'm fine, Gramps. Really."
"No, I know you're worrying about him," he said, reading her as easily as a book. He shuffled over to her, slinging his weapon, and took her hands. "Don't you fret, darlin'. He's a Time Lord, remember? That great big mighty race that watches over everyone from beyond space and time and stars. He'll be fine."
"He won't." Her voice was a wobbly tremor. "He's not as strong as he pretends, not when he's on his own. I know that better than anyone." She sniffed, shaking her head. "That's why he needs someone with him."
"Which is what we're about to do, hey?" Wilf smiled encouragingly at her. "Rushing off to save him. Dry your tears."
She nodded, rubbing at her eyes. Then she tipped her head. "We?"
"You don't think you're flying off to a comet on your own, do you?" He scoffed. "Your mother would have my head."
"And mine, if she ever finds out I brought you with me!" She opened her mouth to say more, but he shook his head.
"I'm going and that's final."
Donna pouted slightly, knowing he'd put his foot down and feeling all of eight years old for it. "If anything ever happened to you, I would never forgive myself."
"That's makes two of us. So, let's not let anything happen, hey?" He tugged on her hand impatiently. "C'mon. You were the one who said we had a short timespan."
.
Twilight was fast descending upon Christmas Eve, leaving the sky a milky grey. Against such a sky, Donna thought the blue of the TARDIS seemed a richer hue than she remembered. It seemed like the only thing she could see. She jogged over to the timeship, key in hand and paused at the door, hand upon the wood, eyes gazing up at the beloved sign over her head proclaiming it to be a police public call box.
"Donna!"
She turned; Dylan was catching up to her, an overstuffed rucksack bouncing against his back. "What's this?"
"The Doctor's ship. I have some tinkering to do if this plan is going to work."
"And is it going to work?" he asked, his tone sceptical.
She slid the key into the lock, humouring him with a grin. "You think this is bad? I scared away a giant wasp with a magnifying glass once."
Dylan's eyebrows furrowed. "You never did."
She laughed; under her hand the door to the blue box clicked open and she pushed in. "Suit yourself. I won't mention the time the Doctor fought off a creature made of living magma with a water pistol."
The TARDIS was exactly the same as it had been the last time she was here, the cumbersome coral struts supporting the domed ceiling, the curved lamps in the walls. Her boots made a familiar metal clunking sound as she went over the grated floor, and the hum and breathe of the ship billowed around her in warm welcome.
All her nervous anxiety, all the abandonment and dejection, drained out of her. She sighed, feeling relaxed and content.
No time, she reminded herself. She strode quickly to the console and pulled up one of the floors. As she dug through the trunk she found there, she realised Dylan hadn't followed her in.
He was still standing at the threshold, green eyes wide at the interior of the timeship. Then he turned, glanced behind him at the street and the houses, and then back into the ship.
"It's... It's..."
"Bigger on the inside, I know," she said, amused. She continued her search. S for Sea Devil, S for Shambonie... Sontaran...
"Here it is!" Out of the box she drew a stereo speaker so big it stood nearly as high as her shoulders. Along with it, a long loop of cable. This she slung on her elbow, then shut the trunk and replaced the grating. She looked back up at Dylan.
"Give us a hand?"
Shaking himself from his stupor, he went to her. Carefully they hauled the speaker down the ramp, which was thankfully lighter than it appeared, to just inside the door's length. While Dylan held it in place, Donna knelt behind it, unwinding the cable and plugging it into the sockets in the back of the speaker; all the while, she rooted one-handed through her coat pockets for the sonic screwdriver.
"A speaker?" said the Irishman drily. "Really?"
She looked up at him through her eyelashes, noticeably miffed. "You got a better idea?"
The sonic in hand, she adjusted it and then gave it a buzz over the sockets. There was a snap and a crackle of sparks. She squealed. "Sorry! Wrong setting."
Dylan watched her tweak it a second time. "So... This Doctor. What is he to you?"
"My best friend," she replied without hesitation. "I love him more than anyone I've ever loved, in all my life."
Busy with her task, she didn't notice the stunned disappointment on Dylan's face. He dropped his gaze to the grated flooring. "Love, like family? Or... are you in love with him?"
Donna pressed her lips together. The answer wasn't unknown to her, or even hard to admit. But thinking of her feelings for the Doctor wasn't something she could afford to do now. That's not true, she admonished herself. She hadn't liked to think of them even when she was with him. The situation had been too complicated, too comfortable, to jeopardise with a random confession of not-just-mates affection.
Not just affection.
But she'd accepted the fact that her feelings weren't returned. And she'd been okay with that.
Just being with him had been enough.
Which is why I have to save him. I want to go back. I can't stay in a world without him in it.
Donna lifted her eyes to Dylan's, her blue-gray gaze steady. "Whether I am or not doesn't matter. We're friends, that's the way we like it."
His eyebrows furrowed, as if he wanted to say something. But Donna bent again, went back to buzzing the sonic. This time the cables locked into place. She hopped to her feet and then glided backward, tossing out the cable as she did; when she reached the console she circled around until she found a wireless hypercosmic jack, and connected it.
Satisfied, she stood up and pocketed the sonic. "All set. Time to go save the skinny Spaceman."
.
Three faces, lined with tension, looked up as Donna reappeared in the front room. Ophelia was kneeling on the floor next to Abies, looking very much like she was about to be sick. Wilf still looked rather thrilled, but it was understated now, as though exactly what they were doing was beginning to sink in. Sarah Jane was sitting with grim patience on her chair.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
Donna nodded; with a finger she gestured to the other woman's mobile. "How much did you get?"
"Just under a terabyte," she replied. "I think at one point I started getting children's shows."
"That's good. Everything is good." Donna smirked. "It's not like she's gonna mind." She breathed out a heavy breath. "Allons-y, I suppose."
Noble one! Wait, please.
All eyes turned to the corner where Abies stood, softly glowing in the darkening room. He stretched out a brightly glowing branch. Clip this sprig and wear it on your person.
Ophelia balked visibly. "Abies-sa, you can't!"
"What is it?" asked Donna.
It is one of my core branches.
Shaken, she looked from his beady eyes to the branch, and then back again. "I can't. If I take that, you'll die."
I am dying regardless. This will but quicken what is already occurring. He wheezed softly. Please let me do this. You have saved me once. Now I shall help you in the only way I can.
Anchored by the gravity of the old tree's gift, Donna moved forward and accepted it. The whole branch, long and a bit unwieldy, snapped off the trunk with surprising ease, almost as though Abies had simply let it go. Behind her, Dylan approached with a switchblade and clipped off the sprig Abies had indicated. He handed it to Donna.
I have filled it with as much Bohemallad as I can muster, said Abies. It will support your mind for a short time, but once that time passes...
Donna swallowed. "I understand." Her expression changed to one of soft empathy. "Thank you so much, Abies. For everything."
It was my honour, Noble one.
With a barrette pulled from her hair, Donna secured the sprig to the front panel of her coat. Ophelia stood, her head bowed, and Donna assumed correctly the girl's expectation to be ordered to come along. The idea that Abies could die, especially without her, was plaguing her. She was struggling not to break down, her body language broadcasting to all her lost and desolate demeanour.
Having lost her father, Donna could very much sympathise.
"You stay here," she said kindly. "He ought to have you with him at the end."
Ophelia looked up, surprised. She sniffed. "Thank you."
"Donna, your mother's gonna be home in half an hour..." Wilf reminded her and at once, both of them imagined Sylvia coming home to find a strange girl in their house, talking to their tree.
Donna winced at the mental imagery. "It's all right, we'll be back before that." She returned to Ophelia with a warm smile. "We'll take you home after everything's over."
Watching the team of four troop into the hall and out of the house, Ophelia realised that perhaps the Time Lords weren't as frightening as she had believed them to be.
.
The door creaked open, a smidge at first. Heart thumping high in her chest, Donna peered out onto the voyager's deck of the Eiran comet.
A dozen Frost were standing in formation around the TARDIS; beyond that, the passengers were milling around, still chatting amiably, and further beyond, she could see the centre where the Queen's throne was. There was a smaller block of ice nearby. The Doctor...
Quietly she shut the door, and then turned to face Dylan and Wilf. Dylan was wearing his rucksack backwards, the top unzippered so that he could more easily reach inside for the contents. Wilf was preparing his paintgun. All three were wearing earpieces, in case they were separated in the coming scuffle.
"There are at least twelve Frost already out there," she told them. "Now, the Queen isn't omnipotent, she can only make so many at a time, but once one goes down, she can make another in a heartbeat so don't stop. Just keep going, until we get to the Doctor. And keep as far away from them as you can. They can freeze you instantly if you're caught in the blast."
"I think that means I ought to go first," said Dylan, pulling a handful of M-80 firecrackers out of his bag. "Lob a couple of these in their direction, we'll use the doors as a shield when the girls all go off. When it clears a bit, we can run past."
He sidled past Donna to the door, wrapping a rubber band around six of them. Donna shook her head. "Where do you even get these? They’re illegal!"
"Oh, Noble. The surprises up my sleeves."
"We're in a box that's bigger on the inside. I think your surprises are fairly tame."
He shot her a cryptic grin and then nodded. She tugged her muffler up over her mouth and nose; in her peripheral vision, she saw her grandfather do the same. Then she pulled the door open for Dylan, holding it steady. He lit his explosive carefully, chucked it out the door and stepped back as Donna pressed it shut.
Seconds later there was a tiny boom, and a shake against the TARDIS doors.
Donna flung open the doors and bolted out. The white cloud of several Frost had descended on the top of the comet's surface, obscuring the immediate area. Knowing the general direction that she needed to go in, Donna kept running, the sonic primed and in hand. She emerged from the other side of the cloud, eyes stinging; five Frost who had not been taken out by Dylan's first attack were waiting, but before they could do anything, she heard his voice come scratching over the earpiece.
"Duck!"
She turned back the way she had come and dropped to her knees, covering her head with her arms, as another little bundle of M-80s sailed over her head. It bounced off one of the ice warrior's heads and landed on the icy tundra, disappearing under her pewter-booted foot as she advanced. It went off with a loud bang and Donna yelped as a second white cloud rushed over her. She rose quickly and started running once again.
On the voyager's deck, people had noticed the commotion. Being mostly white-collar, professional at the least, many were unprepared to tolerate such behaviour, and began teleporting out. Beyond the shadowy shapes of more Frost soldiers looming in the cloud, Donna could see the figures of varying alien species as they simply disappeared. Behind her, she could hear the pops of M-80s and occasionally, on the wind, the thwip of a paintball being triggered.
She was nearly at the threshold of the deck when a lump of fine crystals, snow-like, bulged up out of the tundra. It mutated rapidly into a humanoid form, merely a head and torso, its waist ending in the tundra floor. It was a gigantic Frost soldier, easily ten feet from the ground to the top of its head. Unlike the ordinary Frost, who were slimmer, this one had broad shoulders and beefier arms. Its fist was nearly twice the size of Donna's head.
She screeched, skidding to a stop, and then aimed and sonicked. Setting fourteen-hundred-and-nine-B had no effect on the legless megasoldier; it merely stared at her, apparently bored. One of its long arms raised high, and with incredible speed, came smashing down toward her.
Donna yelped again, nimbly dodging the blow, as well as the next that followed. One of the great arms swept across and she ducked, her forehead pressed against the icy ground as the limb rushed over her, tendrils of her ginger hair picking up in the wind left in its wake.
She sat up, lifting her eyes to the behemoth's stout form. Realising it was already swinging again, she scrambled to move out of the way in time.
A tiny pinprick of red shot from behind her and nailed the giant Frost in the heart, splattering runny paint down its frozen chest. The creature stopped dead for a moment, as if stunned by what had happened, and then burst. Lost in the dense cloud that followed, Donna pushed herself up just in time to meet a steady arm that looped through hers.
"C'mon, girl, we're nearly there!" cried her grandfather; she heard the echo in her radio.
Donna grinned, even though he couldn't see her. "Nice shot, Gramps."
They emerged again into clear air, this time on the voyager's deck. Immediately they were mobbed by a pack of kimono-wearing Sumohm who were shouting angrily, unintelligible things about "dangerous" and "violence" and "a place of business."
"Capturing people and locking 'em up in ice isn't any sort of business," bellowed Wilf, pulling Donna away.
She paused. "Where's Dylan?"
"Right where you told him be. He's keeping the rest of that lot off our backs," her grandfather replied. "He's got more ammunition than we had in the War, I think." On his face was a mixed expression of shock, awe and joy. "Blimey, this is a lot of aliens."
Donna smiled, knowing that despite everything, he was pleased. He followed along behind her, looking around like an excited child, as she strode across the deck to the centre. There the Snow Queen was seated on her throne, softly stroking the lion's mane collar of her coat, as if unperturbed by the goings-on past the deck. Her downcast eyes never lifted, but all the same Donna had the sense the Queen was intensely aware of her presence.
The Doctor's tomb was next to her. The ice, clear as smooth glass crystal, showed his condition clearly, and Donna felt a weight off her heart to see he was alive, no longer in danger of smothering. He was slumped against the side of the glass, his head tipped back and eyes on the stars above him. As she approached, he noticed her.
And then, he recognised her.
Like lightning he shifted, sitting up properly, hands pressed against the ice. His brown eyes found hers, wide and round, disbelieving but hoping. She saw him mouth her name.
Donna smiled mirthfully at him. She had missed him so much. For one moment, there was no one else, no disaster underfoot. It was just him and her.
The moment passed and she turned her gaze to the Queen. "Your Magnificence, I'm going to give you a chance," she began. She got no reaction, which only made her speak louder, more firmly. "Let the Doctor go. Leave Earth in peace, and don't ever threaten us again. Because if you do, I will know about it."
This time, the black eyes slid up to centre on Donna. She didn't blink. "And who are you?"
Donna flung her head back, standing tall. "I'm Donna."
"A human." It was a statement, not a question, stressing a simple fact: the Queen did not care one bit that the human in front of her even had a name, much less what it was.
Donna's blood began to boil. "Yes, a human."
A derisive chuckle passed the Queen's lips. With smooth, agile moves she stood to her full height of ten feet and stepped down from her chair. Step by slow step she advanced on Donna, until she was towering over the smaller woman. Clearly she meant to frighten.
Clearly she didn't know who she was dealing with.
"What do you matter, human? What can you do? No weapons. No power. Just arrogance," she shook her head, sneering. "Arrogance and words."
Anger, caustic and hot, filled Donna's body. Her fists tightened, clenching the sonic screwdriver in her right. With her left she stabbed an orange-nailed finger at the Queen.
"Big mistake! And let me tell you something, Your Flippin' Magnificence, but it wasn't your first! You think you can just fly your lump of ice into my side of the galaxy and kidnap my best friend and threaten my home? Who do you think you are?"
Her voice rose, and then Queen winced, stepping back. Donna followed, replacing the step the Queen had taken back. Step by step, the Eiran woman retreated, and Donna matched each one. "You're a nobody! Just another big-headed alien dumbo who mistakes humans as insignificant or worthless. I am sick of the rest of the universe thinking they can pick a fight with us!"
Louder and louder, Donna shouted, in a proper Noble fury now. The Queen was covering her ears, her shoulders hunched, a low keening whine coming from her. Her eyes shut involuntarily against the pain.
"Not just us, though! Everything on this comet, all the people you've frozen because of your greed, how dare you?! People are not playthings you can take and trade and give away! So I'm going to warn you one more time." By now the Queen was cowering against her throne, just under eye level with Donna, whose face was flush with passion. Her blue-gray eyes blazed with cool fire. "Let the Doctor go and go home. Or you'll find out exactly how much I can make words hurt."
She stopped to take a breath and the Queen seized her opportunity. With a snarl she lashed out, catching Donna by the front of her coat. The blast of chilled air slammed into Donna's chest, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her backward at the same time.
Flung high and far, Donna landed hard, tumbling and skidding over the ice. When she'd finally stopped, she didn't move.
.
"Donna!"
With a roar of frustration the Doctor pounded and kicked at the wall of his cell, his hearts high in his throat as he watched Donna's body fly and then land in a heap. Her grandfather hurried over to her, kneeling at her side and trying to rouse her.
He had never wanted, needed, to be at her side more than now, when he was trapped and powerless. It tore at him to watch her be hurt while he could do nothing, and it filled him with desperation as he sagged his head against the ice. Please get up, please be all right, Donna, please--
"Your woman is a loudmouth," muttered the Queen, her voice as always emanating from the ice; she shot him a sideways glance through the prison wall; if she saw the Storm brewing in his eyes she didn't mark it. "You two fit well together, meddlesome and arrogant and mouthy."
"And hard to kill," he said, as Donna pushed herself up. Relief washed over him in waves, and he grinned. That's my brilliant girl.
.
"Are you all right?!"
Wilf's voice was slightly higher pitch than usual, and he held onto her arm tightly, as though afraid to let her go. Wincing, Donna rubbed at her chest where the Queen had slammed her. It ached, but the collarbone didn't seem to be fractured at all. Nor any of her upper ribs.
"Just bruised," she replied with a groan. "Blimey, she packs a punch."
"We ought to have stayed home with Sarah Jane. We could've done this from Earth."
"No," said Donna, meeting his eyes. He could see the determination in her, shining and clear. "I have to give her a choice." Gently she pushed his hands off her arm, squeezing his fingers lightly, and then nodded. "Best get out of the way, Gramps. I don't want you to get hurt."
His face tightened, protests at the ready, but he said nothing. He nodded, squeezed her hand and then toddled off to hide behind one of the pillars that ringed the deck.
For a brief moment the two women stared each other down, then Donna parted her lips to speak. The Queen wasn't about to give her another chance; she flung out both hands this time, except Donna slid aside, ducking behind another pillar. Safe behind her shield, she lifted the sonic to her ear, listened for the change as she scanned through the settings.
The frozen wind died down. "What was that about being insignificant? You're hiding, human! With your tail between your legs, you're retreating like a coward!"
The sonic clicked into place and Donna spun out from behind her pillar, facing the Queen. The ice woman lifted her hands for another blast. Donna pressed the blue light of the screwdriver to her throat, against her vocal cords.
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU," she yelled, her voice amplified a hundred times. "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE A HUMAN BEING."
Donna's voice boomed out over the deck. The Queen screamed in agony, her hands going to her ears but it was too late. The damage was done. Thousands of cracks, tiny and fine, shot through the pillars and floors. Many grew larger, dividing into long ugly rakes through the ice. A long thin crack sliced through the front of the Doctor's cell, and he reeled back from it, as if expecting it to burst open.
In the centre of the deck, the Queen herself shattered into a million tiny pieces. The pieces fell, like a pile of clinking icy crystals, to the deck.
"Wahay!!" Wilf cheered, pumping his arms into the air and whistling joyously. Donna lowered the sonic with a sigh, then jogged over the deck to the Doctor.
He was still inside his prison, to her dismay. He was bumping his shoulder along the faultline, trying to weaken the crack enough to break through. But as she approached, he stopped, his gaze following her. For a long time they took each other in, so close to being together again and yet so far.
Donna smiled, her eyes welling with tears. If you weren't in there, she mimed, I'd slap you.
He grinned eagerly back at her. I'd let you, he mouthed.
"Hang on," she said, even though he couldn't hear her; the ice was too thick to let sound pass through it. "I'll get you out." She started fiddling with the sonic.
"Did you really think it would be so easy?"
Dread gripped Donna by the throat at the sound of the Queen's voice. She turned, almost expecting to see the tall woman looming behind her, but there was no one there. Across the deck, behind the throne, to the left, to the right, there was nothing.
Behind her, the Doctor was thumping insistently upon the walls of his prison. She waved a hand at him without looking. "Not now!"
"How funny," sighed the Queen; the sound came from everywhere: the floor, the stalagmites, the pillars, the throne, the Doctor's cell. "After all your shouting, at the end of the day humans really are nothing but foolish, ignorant, backwater trash. I am this comet. The body you destroyed was nothing but a shape, a remnant of the body I used to have before my consciousness merged with my comet."
Donna swore under her breath. "Dylan? Can you get to the TARDIS?"
"Yep," his Irish tones came in loud and clear over her earpiece. "She's tossing up Frost still, but it's only a hop, skip and a boom away. We going to plan B?"
"Yeah."
Abruptly her heart thundered in her ears; for a moment Donna thought it was fear or adrenaline. But then her vision swam, everything around her bobbing as though on a vast ocean. She blinked, shook her head to clear it, and glanced down at the sprig of Great Fir Bohema pinned to her coat. The glow was fading.
She turned a doleful expression on the Doctor, who simply looked out anxiously at her, not understanding her sadness.
She wouldn't be able to tell him. There was no time.
Better go out with a bang, she thought.
Marching straight out onto the floor, Donna swept her arms out dramatically. "Right. So, you beat me. It didn't even cross my mind that you actually might be a giant lump of ice floating in space. Couldn't see that coming, not with my stupid little human brain-- Oh!"
She stamped one boot down, fully aware that she was treading on the Queen's body. "Except, I'm not just a human anymore. Humans don't have space flight, so how do you think I got here? Flapped my arms?"
"I don't understand," said the Queen.
"I'm part-Time Lord," Donna said deliberately. "Best of both worlds, all in my head, including flying his TARDIS. And everything there is to know about, well, anything."
"You're saying you knew and you came unprepared? With no weapons, just your words and a sonic device?" The Queen laughed. "That must be the human part of your mind."
"No, the human part of me was leaving my friend Sarah Jane on Earth. You've got a nasty habit of knocking her around. Thought she'd be safer at home."
"You should have done the same for yourself," advised the Queen. Around the deck, Frost were popping up everywhere. "Because now I'm going to kill you. Your mate will be all alone."
"For all your talk about humans being ignorant, how could you miss something this obvious?" Donna taunted incredulously. "Pay attention: this is the part where you screwed up. Out of all the planets in all the systems in all the galaxies, you picked the one with two Time Lords watching over it. And this is why you never compete with me. 'Cause I've got the Earth on speed dial."
The sonic primed, Donna aimed and pressed the button. Shooting across the deck, into the outer tundra, the buzz of the screwdriver found its target: the speaker she had set up, sitting right in the open doorway of the TARDIS.
.
Back on Earth, in a little loft in Ealing, Mr. Smith's screen lit up. "Sarah Jane, the hypercosmic jack on the TARDIS has been activated," he said.
Sarah Jane nodded. "Begin transmission."
.
On the comet, a terabyte of information began to blare out of the speaker: songs, talk radio, advertisements, films and television, all jumbled together into one massive wall of sound. It boomed out of the TARDIS at something in excess of a hundred and fifty decibels, barrelling across the surface of the comet.
The alien businesspeople who were left screeched and cried out, hands over their ears; Wilf clamped his hands over his own as the sound crashed into them. Donna winced, squeezing her eyes shut.
Beneath them, the comet was quaking violently and all around them, they could hear screaming. The cracks from before widened; whole chunks shattered and broke away as the Queen lost stability. The pillars collapsed, the ice disappearing before it ever hit the floor. Stalagmites melted seamlessly into the tundra. The last to go was the Doctor's prison; the glassy ice shattered into thin pieces and vanished in mid-air.
With one final quake, the screaming stopped. Donna let go of the button on the screwdriver.
Her arm dropped to her side, the sonic slipped from her nerveless fingers. Her body wavered, swaying like a treetop in the wind. She felt weightless, as though the ties that bound her to life had disconnected, all but one, the will to live. Instinctively her hands lifted to her head, fingertips pressing to her temples where the pain was throbbing the worst.
And then her eyes flickered shut and she fell.
concluded in part five
back to part three
Author: Tess/mihane_echo
Rating: Rated E for everyone
Word Count: 7678/31694
Pairing: Ten/Donna
Spoilers: Through 4.13 Journey's End
Summary: The Doctor is thrust back into an amnesiac Donna's path when an alien seeks sanctuary with her.
Disclaimer: The canon stuff belongs to the Beeb and I'm borrowing it to play with. Everything else I made up for my entertainment.
Author's Note: Okay, this has taken like ten thousand years, but here is the first story of my Sounds Like Destiny series, affectionately referred to as AU Series 5. This story replaces The Next Doctor as the Christmas story after Journey's End.
Author's Note 2: Thanks to my beta and good friend lilianvaldemyer for her patience, support and frequent butt-kicking. More thanks than I have words for really. ily darling <3
Author's Note 3: HAPPY CHRIMBLE flist. <3 I hope Santa has brought everyone something awesome and that your days are filled with joy and love.
It was important to dream.
Much as he tried, Wilfred Mott had never been able to convince his daughter of that. Sylvia was made of sterner stuff, distance and reason. Perhaps that was why he had doted on Donna so. She was very much like her father Geoff, whom Wilf had loved as the son he'd never had. They were both dreamers, always laughing, always looking up towards something bigger.
When she'd found it, he knew. Donna had the most amazing smile, all stars. The bounce in her step and the glow of radiant happiness that emanated from her as she told him stories of her travels with the Doctor had been all the proof he needed.
She'd found her place.
And then the Doctor took it from her. Wilf didn't hate him for it; more than anything, the old man grieved as much for him as he did for Donna.
Anybody with eyes could see what she'd meant to him.
But now, with the whole of herself returned to her, Wilf recalled the Doctor's voice, the words he'd spoken that night nearly six months before.
That version of Donna is dead.
She wasn't, Wilf realised. Donna was very, very much alive.
Not that she looked it just now. Helping her down the hallway towards the front room, Wilf took in his granddaughter's sunken eyes, her ashen face. She was shaking as if freezing to death.
And she was beaming.
"Cut it a bit close," she chattered, barely able to hold her head up as Wilf pulled her along. "Abies might have to pull out the big guns."
A wry laugh echoed in their heads upon entering the front room. I shall do my best, Noble one.
"Hang about." Her grandfather blinked twice, once at the tree and then again at Donna. "How do you know about him if you've only just remembered today?"
Donna chuckled; in her condition, it sounded more like a wheeze. "That'd be the DoctorDonna bleeding through. Not enough to make me remember, but I recognised the smell for what it was."
She sniffed in a long deep breath and then let it out shakily. Some of the colour returned to her cheeks. Astonished, Wilf glanced at the tree. Once again, the needles were glowing slightly, and there was a change in his scent. The rich aroma of evergreen saturated the air to an intoxicating level.
Donna opened her eyes. She looked better already. "Why do you think I've been sleeping in here all this time?"
Tenacious as ever, Wilf thought. She hadn't lost it. With a proud smile he leaned forward and kissed the top of her gingery head.
From under the stairs, Dylan emerged, supporting Sarah Jane. The other woman had overcome her grogginess, but still winced as she took tentative steps towards a cushy chair adjacent to the sofa. She thanked Dylan quietly when he deposited her gently into it.
The Irishman looked at Donna. "What about that girl? She's standing around on the drive like the last girl asked to dance at a formal. Bawling exactly like one, in fact."
"Bring her in here," replied Donna wearily. She took another deep breath. "She and I need to have a chat."
"Donna," Dylan said warningly. "You need to rest. You can barely stand."
"I don't need to stand to bark her ear off," she said, dropping heavily onto the sofa. This time Dylan properly looked at his friend, and saw the marvellous blue fury in her eyes. He nodded, then disappeared under the stairs.
Moments later, he returned. They all heard Ophelia before they saw her. "What is she going to do to me? I'm sorry! I didn't know--"
She appeared first, pushed along by the much taller and broader Dylan, who had obviously dragged her by her arm into the house. Her eyes, filled with dread, fell on Donna first; she blinked rapidly and looked away. Then she spotted Abies.
"Abies-sa!"
There was a disappointed note in the tree's voice. Oh, Ophelia. What have you done?
She could not muster her arguments; all the justifications and reasons for what she'd done, for what she'd planned to do, seemed petty and childish. All eyes were on her and she was well aware of the anger in these humans' gazes, the dissatisfaction in Abies' voice.
Having lost all her fight, Ophelia Wode sank miserably against the wall and began to cry.
Donna cleared her throat. "Oi. We don't have time for you to feel sorry for yourself! Heal Sarah Jane, right now. A Pinastran handler like you ought to be able to mend contusions well enough. And while you're doing that, you can start talking," she commanded abrasively. "I want to know exactly what the hell is going on."
Ophelia bit her lip; she felt more frightened of her than she had of the other Time Lord. The man had been sympathetic somehow. She had seen understanding in his eyes, as though he had known exactly why she wanted to do what she was doing.
Something about the woman left her heart shrunken and in her throat.
Timidly she went to the chair Sarah Jane was curled up in, and held out her hands over the woman's limp body. A warm pink-yellow light, the colour of a sunrise, shone from her palms and spread over Sarah from head to toe.
Sarah Jane's eyes widened. As the light died away she sat up, shrugging her shoulders and stretched out her fingers reflexively. She looked up at Ophelia. "Thank you."
The girl sniffed. "I'm sorry. For everything." Turning back to face the room, her bottom lip trembled as she met the eyes of each human in the room except Donna. "Really, I never... meant for any of this to happen."
"That's all well and good," said Dylan harshly. "But the fact is that you hurt a lot of innocent people, including my friend. So if I were you, I'd start explaining."
She hesitated, thick clumps of guilt and shame closing her throat. She looked up at Donna through her eyelashes, keeping her head down. "I didn't know you were a T-Time Lord when I met you earlier, you didn't smell like--"
"That's enough of what I smell like for today, thank you very much," bellowed Donna. "What did you do with the Doctor?"
"I didn't do anything--"
"Your mates did. I reckon you had a hand in it." She paused to take another deep breath, her condition improving by the minute. "C'mon, out with it."
"The Snow Queen," stammered the girl. "She's taken him as a trophy. Her prize, for the subjugation of Earth. I just wanted to keep Abies safe, I didn't think she'd ask me to... to hurt anyone."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," muttered Dylan from the corner.
"Where'd she take him?" asked Donna.
"The comet," said Sarah, before Ophelia could reply. Her voice was concise and steady as she conveyed the facts with her journalist's pragmatism. "I've been watching it for weeks. When the Doctor and I went there, we found out that it's an Eiran comet carrying passengers, all of whom seem to trade and deal in living commodities. Like Abies or the Doctor."
"Eiran," repeated Donna. She looked as though she'd had an idea. "Wait then, so those vandals you were with earlier..." She looked hard at Ophelia. "Those were Frost?"
The girl nodded bleakly.
"What are Frost?" wondered Wilf.
"Walking explosives," replied Donna. "Low-intelligence nitrogen-based lifeforms created by an Eiran Queen. You apply enough pressure to their surface and boom."
"You mean, someone just touched them in the street earlier?" said Dylan. Donna didn't reply; whatever else was on her mind, it was taking up most of her cognitive processes.
"She said she was going to freeze the Earth," said Wilf. "Can she do that? Really cover the whole planet the way she did the Doctor?"
"She's done it before," said Ophelia. "But she has to be close. Very close. Closer than your human-made satellites."
Sarah Jane relaxed slightly. "We should have time to think, then. She won't be that close until five o'clock tomorrow morning."
"No," said Donna absently, her eyes gazing into the middle distance, still lost in thought. "We have to go in the next... fifteen minutes."
I would not advise that, Noble one, said Abies. Your mind is not strong enough to handle the knowledge you possess. You will not survive.
"Don't have a choice," she replied, going to her feet. Standing so quickly, her vision swam in front of her, and her hands went up to her temples as she wobbled precariously in place.
"Donna!" Wilf moved to her side, laid a steadying hand on her arm. "Please rest, there's no reason to rush off--"
"The Doctor's going to die," she said, without anger or impatience, only the firm plainness of a simple fact.
Taking advantage of the room's stricken silence, Donna elaborated. "He was encased entirely in ice, which means he can't breathe. He can hold his breath for longer than any of us could, but not twelve hours. If we wait, we won't be able to save him."
Sarah Jane leaned forward, slid to the edge of her cushy chair. Her eyes had darkened, all business; the defender of Earth ready to fight. "So what are we going to do? Do you have a plan?"
Donna nodded. "Shouting. Lots and lots of shouting."
.
He loved the cold.
The place where he'd grown up on Gallifrey had been cold, even during summer. He had so many memories of running down the slopes of the mountain, his heart pumping in a dizzy race and his blood warming his face, then collapsing on the cold red grass, feeling more and more alive with each hard breath that came out of him in frozen wispy clouds.
This impenetrable glacier pinning him stiffly in place, preserving him like a joint of meat, had none of the same fond recollection. All he could feel was the cold, seeping deep into his bones. The rest of his senses were dulled, smothered beneath the wall of glassy ice, leaving him sightless and deaf, unable to taste or speak or smell.
There wasn't even the perception of time flying past him. How long had he been here? Perhaps only moments had passed.
Perhaps he was savouring the dregs of his last bit of oxygen.
"How now, Time Lord? Still clinging to life?"
The Queen's impious whisper was the only thing that could filter through the cold to his blocked ears. The Doctor ignored her, concentrating on keeping his heartsbeats slow and regular, his breath locked up so it could last.
"Made a mistake, didn't we? Tried to save everyone and trusted the wrong person. You Time Lords always were a meddlesome lot. I suppose it's a miracle Ophelia Wode lives in my pocket, poor little thing. I might've actually been killed if she'd listened to you and betrayed me."
His anger was rising. He'd always had a temper, though in this incarnation it did seem to be more brutal. He had to relax. She couldn't get under his skin if he didn't let her.
"Not that it's done her much good, backing me. She's damned the last members of two extinct species and perpetuated the genocide of the humans and every other creature that resides on that magnificent blue bauble. All for nothing. For the same pathetic ending as you and her raggedy little tree."
Earth will be safe, he bellowed telepathically, unable to stay quiet. I'm not the only guardian, there are people I trust who will defend it. You haven't won yet.
"You think so?"
I'm betting my life on it.
The Queen hummed a haughty little laugh. "You really think one of the humans will be able to save you from me?"
No, replied the Doctor. They'll do what humans do best, and rip you to bits. They'll blow this comet apart.
"Would they really sacrifice their precious Doctor?"
I'll already be dead. They'll know that.
She hesitated.
Then, abruptly, the ice around him melted away. The Doctor dropped the floor, gasping and choking, his hands holding his throat. Looking around, he realised he was still trapped in his icy prison. There was no room to stretch out, and barely enough to turn around, but he could move, and see, and hear.
Moreover, he could breathe.
The Snow Queen was towering over the glass cell, her black eyes glittering with ill intent. She pressed her hand lovingly to the ice.
"Now you won't have to hold your breath. I'm nothing if not benevolent."
With one last lingering look, she swept away.
.
The plan was a simple one; everyone else seemed incredulous when Donna explained how easy the whole thing was. Her grandfather had an expression of triumphant delight on his wrinkled face as he went upstairs-- for what, Donna was unsure. She had the nagging idea he thought he was coming along.
Dylan looked less sullen, which for him was practically pleased as peaches. He'd jogged over to his house to pick up some supplies Donna needed, of which he had many, due to his borderline status as a complete scoundrel.
Sarah Jane, at least, understood that the simple plans didn't necessarily mean automatic victory. Already, she was compiling data on her mobile, which she'd remotely connected to her supercomputer. Her finger slid across the screen rapidly, eyes following each piece of material she accessed.
Donna didn't know the other woman well, but their mutual friendship with the Doctor, the common ground of protecting the Earth, was enough for her.
"Sarah Jane." Sarah looked up with quiet apprehension, but also visible was a steely resolve. She really had been doing this a long time, Donna thought.
"It really is up to you. If you fail, there's no way to bring her down."
The older woman hummed a nervous chuckle. "No pressure then, eh?"
Donna forced a smile and then excused herself. She thumped up the stairs quickly and slipped into her bedroom, moving with purpose across the room to her chest of drawers. For the second time today she stood over her jewellery box, except this time, she wasn't fishing for earrings.
She brushed the studs and hoops along until she found it again. All this time, it had been sitting in plain view; she had literally looked at it everyday, never pegging it, never thinking twice about why it was buried with her jewellery.
She drew it out on its long chain, let it dangle in front of her. An ordinary Yale key, small and silver. He'd forgotten to take it with him when he brought her home. Dangerous, if she'd ever realised what it unlocked.
Or maybe he had left it on purpose, hoping it could lead her back. That was a happy thought.
Swept up in the tide of remembering and planning, she hadn't let herself feel anything; there hadn't been time. But for just a moment, gazing at her TARDIS key, an inkling of joy trickled into her mind.
She'd finally remembered. At long last she could tell him everything she'd wanted to tell him before, and there he was, off being frozen to death. Typical, really.
Fear gripped her heart like a vice, squeezing slowly and tortuously. A dozen what ifs surged through her mind: what if he was already dead? What if she couldn't stop the Queen? What if her mind didn't hold out long enough to save him, or to talk to him, even to see him, just one last time?
She pressed a hand to her mouth, stilling the quiver there. Now was not the time to be getting emotional.
"Private Mott reporting for duty."
Donna turned to look at her grandfather; he was bundled up in heavy coat and muffler, with his red berry pulled down over his white hair. A large paintgun was cradled in the crook of his arm as he saluted her.
Their eyes met, and the broad grin on his face faltered. "Oh, Donna."
She'd blinked too late; a tear had already slid down her cheek. "I'm fine, Gramps. Really."
"No, I know you're worrying about him," he said, reading her as easily as a book. He shuffled over to her, slinging his weapon, and took her hands. "Don't you fret, darlin'. He's a Time Lord, remember? That great big mighty race that watches over everyone from beyond space and time and stars. He'll be fine."
"He won't." Her voice was a wobbly tremor. "He's not as strong as he pretends, not when he's on his own. I know that better than anyone." She sniffed, shaking her head. "That's why he needs someone with him."
"Which is what we're about to do, hey?" Wilf smiled encouragingly at her. "Rushing off to save him. Dry your tears."
She nodded, rubbing at her eyes. Then she tipped her head. "We?"
"You don't think you're flying off to a comet on your own, do you?" He scoffed. "Your mother would have my head."
"And mine, if she ever finds out I brought you with me!" She opened her mouth to say more, but he shook his head.
"I'm going and that's final."
Donna pouted slightly, knowing he'd put his foot down and feeling all of eight years old for it. "If anything ever happened to you, I would never forgive myself."
"That's makes two of us. So, let's not let anything happen, hey?" He tugged on her hand impatiently. "C'mon. You were the one who said we had a short timespan."
.
Twilight was fast descending upon Christmas Eve, leaving the sky a milky grey. Against such a sky, Donna thought the blue of the TARDIS seemed a richer hue than she remembered. It seemed like the only thing she could see. She jogged over to the timeship, key in hand and paused at the door, hand upon the wood, eyes gazing up at the beloved sign over her head proclaiming it to be a police public call box.
"Donna!"
She turned; Dylan was catching up to her, an overstuffed rucksack bouncing against his back. "What's this?"
"The Doctor's ship. I have some tinkering to do if this plan is going to work."
"And is it going to work?" he asked, his tone sceptical.
She slid the key into the lock, humouring him with a grin. "You think this is bad? I scared away a giant wasp with a magnifying glass once."
Dylan's eyebrows furrowed. "You never did."
She laughed; under her hand the door to the blue box clicked open and she pushed in. "Suit yourself. I won't mention the time the Doctor fought off a creature made of living magma with a water pistol."
The TARDIS was exactly the same as it had been the last time she was here, the cumbersome coral struts supporting the domed ceiling, the curved lamps in the walls. Her boots made a familiar metal clunking sound as she went over the grated floor, and the hum and breathe of the ship billowed around her in warm welcome.
All her nervous anxiety, all the abandonment and dejection, drained out of her. She sighed, feeling relaxed and content.
No time, she reminded herself. She strode quickly to the console and pulled up one of the floors. As she dug through the trunk she found there, she realised Dylan hadn't followed her in.
He was still standing at the threshold, green eyes wide at the interior of the timeship. Then he turned, glanced behind him at the street and the houses, and then back into the ship.
"It's... It's..."
"Bigger on the inside, I know," she said, amused. She continued her search. S for Sea Devil, S for Shambonie... Sontaran...
"Here it is!" Out of the box she drew a stereo speaker so big it stood nearly as high as her shoulders. Along with it, a long loop of cable. This she slung on her elbow, then shut the trunk and replaced the grating. She looked back up at Dylan.
"Give us a hand?"
Shaking himself from his stupor, he went to her. Carefully they hauled the speaker down the ramp, which was thankfully lighter than it appeared, to just inside the door's length. While Dylan held it in place, Donna knelt behind it, unwinding the cable and plugging it into the sockets in the back of the speaker; all the while, she rooted one-handed through her coat pockets for the sonic screwdriver.
"A speaker?" said the Irishman drily. "Really?"
She looked up at him through her eyelashes, noticeably miffed. "You got a better idea?"
The sonic in hand, she adjusted it and then gave it a buzz over the sockets. There was a snap and a crackle of sparks. She squealed. "Sorry! Wrong setting."
Dylan watched her tweak it a second time. "So... This Doctor. What is he to you?"
"My best friend," she replied without hesitation. "I love him more than anyone I've ever loved, in all my life."
Busy with her task, she didn't notice the stunned disappointment on Dylan's face. He dropped his gaze to the grated flooring. "Love, like family? Or... are you in love with him?"
Donna pressed her lips together. The answer wasn't unknown to her, or even hard to admit. But thinking of her feelings for the Doctor wasn't something she could afford to do now. That's not true, she admonished herself. She hadn't liked to think of them even when she was with him. The situation had been too complicated, too comfortable, to jeopardise with a random confession of not-just-mates affection.
Not just affection.
But she'd accepted the fact that her feelings weren't returned. And she'd been okay with that.
Just being with him had been enough.
Which is why I have to save him. I want to go back. I can't stay in a world without him in it.
Donna lifted her eyes to Dylan's, her blue-gray gaze steady. "Whether I am or not doesn't matter. We're friends, that's the way we like it."
His eyebrows furrowed, as if he wanted to say something. But Donna bent again, went back to buzzing the sonic. This time the cables locked into place. She hopped to her feet and then glided backward, tossing out the cable as she did; when she reached the console she circled around until she found a wireless hypercosmic jack, and connected it.
Satisfied, she stood up and pocketed the sonic. "All set. Time to go save the skinny Spaceman."
.
Three faces, lined with tension, looked up as Donna reappeared in the front room. Ophelia was kneeling on the floor next to Abies, looking very much like she was about to be sick. Wilf still looked rather thrilled, but it was understated now, as though exactly what they were doing was beginning to sink in. Sarah Jane was sitting with grim patience on her chair.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
Donna nodded; with a finger she gestured to the other woman's mobile. "How much did you get?"
"Just under a terabyte," she replied. "I think at one point I started getting children's shows."
"That's good. Everything is good." Donna smirked. "It's not like she's gonna mind." She breathed out a heavy breath. "Allons-y, I suppose."
Noble one! Wait, please.
All eyes turned to the corner where Abies stood, softly glowing in the darkening room. He stretched out a brightly glowing branch. Clip this sprig and wear it on your person.
Ophelia balked visibly. "Abies-sa, you can't!"
"What is it?" asked Donna.
It is one of my core branches.
Shaken, she looked from his beady eyes to the branch, and then back again. "I can't. If I take that, you'll die."
I am dying regardless. This will but quicken what is already occurring. He wheezed softly. Please let me do this. You have saved me once. Now I shall help you in the only way I can.
Anchored by the gravity of the old tree's gift, Donna moved forward and accepted it. The whole branch, long and a bit unwieldy, snapped off the trunk with surprising ease, almost as though Abies had simply let it go. Behind her, Dylan approached with a switchblade and clipped off the sprig Abies had indicated. He handed it to Donna.
I have filled it with as much Bohemallad as I can muster, said Abies. It will support your mind for a short time, but once that time passes...
Donna swallowed. "I understand." Her expression changed to one of soft empathy. "Thank you so much, Abies. For everything."
It was my honour, Noble one.
With a barrette pulled from her hair, Donna secured the sprig to the front panel of her coat. Ophelia stood, her head bowed, and Donna assumed correctly the girl's expectation to be ordered to come along. The idea that Abies could die, especially without her, was plaguing her. She was struggling not to break down, her body language broadcasting to all her lost and desolate demeanour.
Having lost her father, Donna could very much sympathise.
"You stay here," she said kindly. "He ought to have you with him at the end."
Ophelia looked up, surprised. She sniffed. "Thank you."
"Donna, your mother's gonna be home in half an hour..." Wilf reminded her and at once, both of them imagined Sylvia coming home to find a strange girl in their house, talking to their tree.
Donna winced at the mental imagery. "It's all right, we'll be back before that." She returned to Ophelia with a warm smile. "We'll take you home after everything's over."
Watching the team of four troop into the hall and out of the house, Ophelia realised that perhaps the Time Lords weren't as frightening as she had believed them to be.
.
The door creaked open, a smidge at first. Heart thumping high in her chest, Donna peered out onto the voyager's deck of the Eiran comet.
A dozen Frost were standing in formation around the TARDIS; beyond that, the passengers were milling around, still chatting amiably, and further beyond, she could see the centre where the Queen's throne was. There was a smaller block of ice nearby. The Doctor...
Quietly she shut the door, and then turned to face Dylan and Wilf. Dylan was wearing his rucksack backwards, the top unzippered so that he could more easily reach inside for the contents. Wilf was preparing his paintgun. All three were wearing earpieces, in case they were separated in the coming scuffle.
"There are at least twelve Frost already out there," she told them. "Now, the Queen isn't omnipotent, she can only make so many at a time, but once one goes down, she can make another in a heartbeat so don't stop. Just keep going, until we get to the Doctor. And keep as far away from them as you can. They can freeze you instantly if you're caught in the blast."
"I think that means I ought to go first," said Dylan, pulling a handful of M-80 firecrackers out of his bag. "Lob a couple of these in their direction, we'll use the doors as a shield when the girls all go off. When it clears a bit, we can run past."
He sidled past Donna to the door, wrapping a rubber band around six of them. Donna shook her head. "Where do you even get these? They’re illegal!"
"Oh, Noble. The surprises up my sleeves."
"We're in a box that's bigger on the inside. I think your surprises are fairly tame."
He shot her a cryptic grin and then nodded. She tugged her muffler up over her mouth and nose; in her peripheral vision, she saw her grandfather do the same. Then she pulled the door open for Dylan, holding it steady. He lit his explosive carefully, chucked it out the door and stepped back as Donna pressed it shut.
Seconds later there was a tiny boom, and a shake against the TARDIS doors.
Donna flung open the doors and bolted out. The white cloud of several Frost had descended on the top of the comet's surface, obscuring the immediate area. Knowing the general direction that she needed to go in, Donna kept running, the sonic primed and in hand. She emerged from the other side of the cloud, eyes stinging; five Frost who had not been taken out by Dylan's first attack were waiting, but before they could do anything, she heard his voice come scratching over the earpiece.
"Duck!"
She turned back the way she had come and dropped to her knees, covering her head with her arms, as another little bundle of M-80s sailed over her head. It bounced off one of the ice warrior's heads and landed on the icy tundra, disappearing under her pewter-booted foot as she advanced. It went off with a loud bang and Donna yelped as a second white cloud rushed over her. She rose quickly and started running once again.
On the voyager's deck, people had noticed the commotion. Being mostly white-collar, professional at the least, many were unprepared to tolerate such behaviour, and began teleporting out. Beyond the shadowy shapes of more Frost soldiers looming in the cloud, Donna could see the figures of varying alien species as they simply disappeared. Behind her, she could hear the pops of M-80s and occasionally, on the wind, the thwip of a paintball being triggered.
She was nearly at the threshold of the deck when a lump of fine crystals, snow-like, bulged up out of the tundra. It mutated rapidly into a humanoid form, merely a head and torso, its waist ending in the tundra floor. It was a gigantic Frost soldier, easily ten feet from the ground to the top of its head. Unlike the ordinary Frost, who were slimmer, this one had broad shoulders and beefier arms. Its fist was nearly twice the size of Donna's head.
She screeched, skidding to a stop, and then aimed and sonicked. Setting fourteen-hundred-and-nine-B had no effect on the legless megasoldier; it merely stared at her, apparently bored. One of its long arms raised high, and with incredible speed, came smashing down toward her.
Donna yelped again, nimbly dodging the blow, as well as the next that followed. One of the great arms swept across and she ducked, her forehead pressed against the icy ground as the limb rushed over her, tendrils of her ginger hair picking up in the wind left in its wake.
She sat up, lifting her eyes to the behemoth's stout form. Realising it was already swinging again, she scrambled to move out of the way in time.
A tiny pinprick of red shot from behind her and nailed the giant Frost in the heart, splattering runny paint down its frozen chest. The creature stopped dead for a moment, as if stunned by what had happened, and then burst. Lost in the dense cloud that followed, Donna pushed herself up just in time to meet a steady arm that looped through hers.
"C'mon, girl, we're nearly there!" cried her grandfather; she heard the echo in her radio.
Donna grinned, even though he couldn't see her. "Nice shot, Gramps."
They emerged again into clear air, this time on the voyager's deck. Immediately they were mobbed by a pack of kimono-wearing Sumohm who were shouting angrily, unintelligible things about "dangerous" and "violence" and "a place of business."
"Capturing people and locking 'em up in ice isn't any sort of business," bellowed Wilf, pulling Donna away.
She paused. "Where's Dylan?"
"Right where you told him be. He's keeping the rest of that lot off our backs," her grandfather replied. "He's got more ammunition than we had in the War, I think." On his face was a mixed expression of shock, awe and joy. "Blimey, this is a lot of aliens."
Donna smiled, knowing that despite everything, he was pleased. He followed along behind her, looking around like an excited child, as she strode across the deck to the centre. There the Snow Queen was seated on her throne, softly stroking the lion's mane collar of her coat, as if unperturbed by the goings-on past the deck. Her downcast eyes never lifted, but all the same Donna had the sense the Queen was intensely aware of her presence.
The Doctor's tomb was next to her. The ice, clear as smooth glass crystal, showed his condition clearly, and Donna felt a weight off her heart to see he was alive, no longer in danger of smothering. He was slumped against the side of the glass, his head tipped back and eyes on the stars above him. As she approached, he noticed her.
And then, he recognised her.
Like lightning he shifted, sitting up properly, hands pressed against the ice. His brown eyes found hers, wide and round, disbelieving but hoping. She saw him mouth her name.
Donna smiled mirthfully at him. She had missed him so much. For one moment, there was no one else, no disaster underfoot. It was just him and her.
The moment passed and she turned her gaze to the Queen. "Your Magnificence, I'm going to give you a chance," she began. She got no reaction, which only made her speak louder, more firmly. "Let the Doctor go. Leave Earth in peace, and don't ever threaten us again. Because if you do, I will know about it."
This time, the black eyes slid up to centre on Donna. She didn't blink. "And who are you?"
Donna flung her head back, standing tall. "I'm Donna."
"A human." It was a statement, not a question, stressing a simple fact: the Queen did not care one bit that the human in front of her even had a name, much less what it was.
Donna's blood began to boil. "Yes, a human."
A derisive chuckle passed the Queen's lips. With smooth, agile moves she stood to her full height of ten feet and stepped down from her chair. Step by slow step she advanced on Donna, until she was towering over the smaller woman. Clearly she meant to frighten.
Clearly she didn't know who she was dealing with.
"What do you matter, human? What can you do? No weapons. No power. Just arrogance," she shook her head, sneering. "Arrogance and words."
Anger, caustic and hot, filled Donna's body. Her fists tightened, clenching the sonic screwdriver in her right. With her left she stabbed an orange-nailed finger at the Queen.
"Big mistake! And let me tell you something, Your Flippin' Magnificence, but it wasn't your first! You think you can just fly your lump of ice into my side of the galaxy and kidnap my best friend and threaten my home? Who do you think you are?"
Her voice rose, and then Queen winced, stepping back. Donna followed, replacing the step the Queen had taken back. Step by step, the Eiran woman retreated, and Donna matched each one. "You're a nobody! Just another big-headed alien dumbo who mistakes humans as insignificant or worthless. I am sick of the rest of the universe thinking they can pick a fight with us!"
Louder and louder, Donna shouted, in a proper Noble fury now. The Queen was covering her ears, her shoulders hunched, a low keening whine coming from her. Her eyes shut involuntarily against the pain.
"Not just us, though! Everything on this comet, all the people you've frozen because of your greed, how dare you?! People are not playthings you can take and trade and give away! So I'm going to warn you one more time." By now the Queen was cowering against her throne, just under eye level with Donna, whose face was flush with passion. Her blue-gray eyes blazed with cool fire. "Let the Doctor go and go home. Or you'll find out exactly how much I can make words hurt."
She stopped to take a breath and the Queen seized her opportunity. With a snarl she lashed out, catching Donna by the front of her coat. The blast of chilled air slammed into Donna's chest, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her backward at the same time.
Flung high and far, Donna landed hard, tumbling and skidding over the ice. When she'd finally stopped, she didn't move.
.
"Donna!"
With a roar of frustration the Doctor pounded and kicked at the wall of his cell, his hearts high in his throat as he watched Donna's body fly and then land in a heap. Her grandfather hurried over to her, kneeling at her side and trying to rouse her.
He had never wanted, needed, to be at her side more than now, when he was trapped and powerless. It tore at him to watch her be hurt while he could do nothing, and it filled him with desperation as he sagged his head against the ice. Please get up, please be all right, Donna, please--
"Your woman is a loudmouth," muttered the Queen, her voice as always emanating from the ice; she shot him a sideways glance through the prison wall; if she saw the Storm brewing in his eyes she didn't mark it. "You two fit well together, meddlesome and arrogant and mouthy."
"And hard to kill," he said, as Donna pushed herself up. Relief washed over him in waves, and he grinned. That's my brilliant girl.
.
"Are you all right?!"
Wilf's voice was slightly higher pitch than usual, and he held onto her arm tightly, as though afraid to let her go. Wincing, Donna rubbed at her chest where the Queen had slammed her. It ached, but the collarbone didn't seem to be fractured at all. Nor any of her upper ribs.
"Just bruised," she replied with a groan. "Blimey, she packs a punch."
"We ought to have stayed home with Sarah Jane. We could've done this from Earth."
"No," said Donna, meeting his eyes. He could see the determination in her, shining and clear. "I have to give her a choice." Gently she pushed his hands off her arm, squeezing his fingers lightly, and then nodded. "Best get out of the way, Gramps. I don't want you to get hurt."
His face tightened, protests at the ready, but he said nothing. He nodded, squeezed her hand and then toddled off to hide behind one of the pillars that ringed the deck.
For a brief moment the two women stared each other down, then Donna parted her lips to speak. The Queen wasn't about to give her another chance; she flung out both hands this time, except Donna slid aside, ducking behind another pillar. Safe behind her shield, she lifted the sonic to her ear, listened for the change as she scanned through the settings.
The frozen wind died down. "What was that about being insignificant? You're hiding, human! With your tail between your legs, you're retreating like a coward!"
The sonic clicked into place and Donna spun out from behind her pillar, facing the Queen. The ice woman lifted her hands for another blast. Donna pressed the blue light of the screwdriver to her throat, against her vocal cords.
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU," she yelled, her voice amplified a hundred times. "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE A HUMAN BEING."
Donna's voice boomed out over the deck. The Queen screamed in agony, her hands going to her ears but it was too late. The damage was done. Thousands of cracks, tiny and fine, shot through the pillars and floors. Many grew larger, dividing into long ugly rakes through the ice. A long thin crack sliced through the front of the Doctor's cell, and he reeled back from it, as if expecting it to burst open.
In the centre of the deck, the Queen herself shattered into a million tiny pieces. The pieces fell, like a pile of clinking icy crystals, to the deck.
"Wahay!!" Wilf cheered, pumping his arms into the air and whistling joyously. Donna lowered the sonic with a sigh, then jogged over the deck to the Doctor.
He was still inside his prison, to her dismay. He was bumping his shoulder along the faultline, trying to weaken the crack enough to break through. But as she approached, he stopped, his gaze following her. For a long time they took each other in, so close to being together again and yet so far.
Donna smiled, her eyes welling with tears. If you weren't in there, she mimed, I'd slap you.
He grinned eagerly back at her. I'd let you, he mouthed.
"Hang on," she said, even though he couldn't hear her; the ice was too thick to let sound pass through it. "I'll get you out." She started fiddling with the sonic.
"Did you really think it would be so easy?"
Dread gripped Donna by the throat at the sound of the Queen's voice. She turned, almost expecting to see the tall woman looming behind her, but there was no one there. Across the deck, behind the throne, to the left, to the right, there was nothing.
Behind her, the Doctor was thumping insistently upon the walls of his prison. She waved a hand at him without looking. "Not now!"
"How funny," sighed the Queen; the sound came from everywhere: the floor, the stalagmites, the pillars, the throne, the Doctor's cell. "After all your shouting, at the end of the day humans really are nothing but foolish, ignorant, backwater trash. I am this comet. The body you destroyed was nothing but a shape, a remnant of the body I used to have before my consciousness merged with my comet."
Donna swore under her breath. "Dylan? Can you get to the TARDIS?"
"Yep," his Irish tones came in loud and clear over her earpiece. "She's tossing up Frost still, but it's only a hop, skip and a boom away. We going to plan B?"
"Yeah."
Abruptly her heart thundered in her ears; for a moment Donna thought it was fear or adrenaline. But then her vision swam, everything around her bobbing as though on a vast ocean. She blinked, shook her head to clear it, and glanced down at the sprig of Great Fir Bohema pinned to her coat. The glow was fading.
She turned a doleful expression on the Doctor, who simply looked out anxiously at her, not understanding her sadness.
She wouldn't be able to tell him. There was no time.
Better go out with a bang, she thought.
Marching straight out onto the floor, Donna swept her arms out dramatically. "Right. So, you beat me. It didn't even cross my mind that you actually might be a giant lump of ice floating in space. Couldn't see that coming, not with my stupid little human brain-- Oh!"
She stamped one boot down, fully aware that she was treading on the Queen's body. "Except, I'm not just a human anymore. Humans don't have space flight, so how do you think I got here? Flapped my arms?"
"I don't understand," said the Queen.
"I'm part-Time Lord," Donna said deliberately. "Best of both worlds, all in my head, including flying his TARDIS. And everything there is to know about, well, anything."
"You're saying you knew and you came unprepared? With no weapons, just your words and a sonic device?" The Queen laughed. "That must be the human part of your mind."
"No, the human part of me was leaving my friend Sarah Jane on Earth. You've got a nasty habit of knocking her around. Thought she'd be safer at home."
"You should have done the same for yourself," advised the Queen. Around the deck, Frost were popping up everywhere. "Because now I'm going to kill you. Your mate will be all alone."
"For all your talk about humans being ignorant, how could you miss something this obvious?" Donna taunted incredulously. "Pay attention: this is the part where you screwed up. Out of all the planets in all the systems in all the galaxies, you picked the one with two Time Lords watching over it. And this is why you never compete with me. 'Cause I've got the Earth on speed dial."
The sonic primed, Donna aimed and pressed the button. Shooting across the deck, into the outer tundra, the buzz of the screwdriver found its target: the speaker she had set up, sitting right in the open doorway of the TARDIS.
.
Back on Earth, in a little loft in Ealing, Mr. Smith's screen lit up. "Sarah Jane, the hypercosmic jack on the TARDIS has been activated," he said.
Sarah Jane nodded. "Begin transmission."
.
On the comet, a terabyte of information began to blare out of the speaker: songs, talk radio, advertisements, films and television, all jumbled together into one massive wall of sound. It boomed out of the TARDIS at something in excess of a hundred and fifty decibels, barrelling across the surface of the comet.
The alien businesspeople who were left screeched and cried out, hands over their ears; Wilf clamped his hands over his own as the sound crashed into them. Donna winced, squeezing her eyes shut.
Beneath them, the comet was quaking violently and all around them, they could hear screaming. The cracks from before widened; whole chunks shattered and broke away as the Queen lost stability. The pillars collapsed, the ice disappearing before it ever hit the floor. Stalagmites melted seamlessly into the tundra. The last to go was the Doctor's prison; the glassy ice shattered into thin pieces and vanished in mid-air.
With one final quake, the screaming stopped. Donna let go of the button on the screwdriver.
Her arm dropped to her side, the sonic slipped from her nerveless fingers. Her body wavered, swaying like a treetop in the wind. She felt weightless, as though the ties that bound her to life had disconnected, all but one, the will to live. Instinctively her hands lifted to her head, fingertips pressing to her temples where the pain was throbbing the worst.
And then her eyes flickered shut and she fell.
concluded in part five
back to part three