"You will all be exterminated."
- Red Dalek, Journey's End

"Like I was saying, feel this!" Jack fires towards the Red Dalek, the one who had sent them down to the Vault in the first place, leaving only the bottom half of it behind. Garrick stood with Jasper, both of them by the TARDIS to make sure that nothing tried to get in whilst they were saving the world.

"Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one. But we can use the TARDIS."

The Doctor runs into the TARDIS, leaving everyone outside to make sure that nothing ruined their insanely perfect plan. Penelope was holding down a button, as instructed by the other Doctor.

"Holding Earth stability. Maintaining atmospheric shell." Caan spoke over to them, and something in it chilled Penelope, so she swapped places with Donna. Making the girl hold down the button as she ushered people into the TARDIS.

"The prophecy must complete."

It was wrong. Something was wrong. This couldn't work so easily. Davros, still unable to attack, spat words at the Doctor by the console.

"Don't listen to him."

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor."

"He's right." Penelope turned to look at him in horror, this man could never be the Doctor if he thought like that. She marched over to him as he continued, seemingly in a trance. "Because with or without a Reality bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped."

"You can't do that." Donna nodded, agreeing with her after seeing the look in this person's eye. It was dark, the look of someone about to do something they would have to regret later.

"Just, just wait for the Doctor."

"I am the Doctor. Maximising Dalekanium power feeds. Blasting them back!"

"No!"

Daleks start exploding all over the Crucible and all over the Medusa Cascade. The Doctor runs out of the TARDIS, seeing the horrified face of Penelope as she took a step back from this person with his face. He wasn't the Doctor to her; she couldn't even see the semblance of John in him anymore.

The actual Doctor, the one full of mercy and forgiveness, watched as the Daleks continued to explode in sorrow.

"What have you done?"

"Fulfilling the prophecy."

Then came the anger, the one that had left Penelope behind, that had haunted her for so many months.

"Do you know what you've done? Now get in the Tardis! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!"

Explosions are starting to wreck the Vault. Penelope rushed to get everyone inside, Jasper and Garrick helping and refusing to go in until she had. It was sweet of them, if a little stupid. She was just glad they were getting out of here.

She watched, fires starting to spread, as the Doctor held out his hand towards Davros. From behind him, she tried to stay aware of how far behind her Garrick and Jasper were standing. But it was hard with the smoke closing in, she wished he would hurry up.

"Davros? Come with me. I promise I can save you."

"Never forget, Doctor, you did this. I name you. Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!" A wall of flames leaps up and Davros points towards them as best he could with his vision impaired. "I refuse to go alone!"

Shooting blindly, Penelope had to duck to avoid getting shot, hearing it hit the metal wall somewhere behind her. She sighed in relief that in his last moments he wasn't able to do anything.

As he gave a last, pained scream. It was over.

"Penelope.." Turning around, her heart sank irreparably. Something choked out of her, but she wasn't sure what it was as she found herself unable to breathe.

Garrick was facing her, blank eyes staring into nothing. Electrical burns ran the length of his side, nearly melting off the side of his face. It was a sight that no one should have to see. Despite only knowing him for a short amount of time, she had already spent time imagining what a life as his daughter would've been like.

Tears welled, but not for him..

Jasper was smiling at her, blood seeping into his shirt as he clutched his side. Electricity jumped between the gaping hole in his side. There were violent flashed between him and when Penelope had found him in his apartment. Blood everywhere, everywhere. God, it was still on her hands.

"Sorry.. I couldn't- I couldn't get him out the way." She was only able to bring herself to move as Jasper crumpled to the floor. Landing on the floor besides him, breaths wracking her chest painfully as she rolled him over into her arms. Pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"No, no, no. Jasper, look at me. It'll be okay we'll get you in the TARDIS."

"Garrick-" She looked over to the man she had so wished she had any memories with. But there was nothing, all she saw was the time she spent with the man in her arms. Garrick isn't anything to her but a name and a ghost of a person. Jasper is everything.

"He.. just- just keep looking at me."

"You don't need me."

"I do, fuck, Jasper I need you more than anyone else. You're the only fucking reason I-"

"I know, I know. I'm so sorry but he's your father."

"He's nothing to me. I don't know him. I don't need him. I need you Jamie, please don't leave me, I don't want to be alone again." She was sobbing now, but trying so hard to keep it in, wanting to be to able see him. Fuck, she needed to see him.

"Yo- you only call me Jamie when I've done something wrong." He shuddered a breath, coughing up blood and the realisation was slowly setting in for him. There was nothing to be done, the power that Davros had used in those last moments was too much. He was dying.

She couldn't accept it yet. It isn't over, even as blood pooled around them, and she could only see one side of his chest rising. There is still the TARDIS, still the Doctor. Something can be done.

"You're fine, fine. You just.. oh god. It'll be okay Jamie I promise."

"Penelope, I need you to take care of yourself now that you don't have anyone to do it for you." Her heart shattered, but that last thread of hope still wrapped itself around her as she pulled Jasper up, hugging him to her chest.

Tears fought their way through, spilling down her face and glistening against the raging fires around them. If not for the way Jasper had reached up to gently caress her face, she would've thought that time had ceased, and this was all a nightmare.

"Why does it sound like you're saying goodbye, you're going to be fine. Isn't he, Doctor, he's going to be fine. Tell me he's going to be fine." It was a kind of anger the doctor had never seen in her before, not even after Lazarus. He wondered who this woman was and what happened to her. The epiphany that he did this would come later, but for now he was shocked at the way she spoke and how she held him.

It was here, stupidly, that he realised how much he missed her. And as she cried, it was like his hearts were breaking again.

But it was Jamie Jasper that was suffering. He was having to say goodbye to the woman that he loved without ever having a chance to live that life. The life filled with making her happy and making up for what the doctor did. He knew he was close, there was a flickering at the back of his mind that felt like it was slowing down. He needed to tell her. It was cruel to do it now, but he couldn't die having not said it.

That thought almost made him laugh. Dying. Perhaps this was some sick and twisted joke of the universe making him delirious enough to laugh in the face of his death. It was this thought that put a strained smile on his face, beaming up at the love of his life.

"I love you.. Penelope, I need you t-" as Penelope's screams became muffled against his ears, Jasper made a horrible realisation.

The universe's real joke was time. Either giving someone too much or not enough. Never allowing anyone to rest happily, plaguing them with the knowledge that they weren't able to give peace to those they're leaving behind.

Dalek Caan gurgled in the corner glee almost overflowing at the poor boy dying alone on a Dalek ship for absolutely no reason.

"They will still die"

This was the universe's joke, and Jamie Jasper was right, it was sick and twisted and it hurts.