Dimensions Collapse

ONE

A/N: So this is the first DW story that I have written in a very long time, so I apologise if it's not the best start in all of eternity. I'm also not that used to writing adventure (I know, bizarre considering I wrote DW fics for years!), I'm much more your 'let's have a bit of good ol' fluff or angst in a one-shot' kind of writer, but it doesn't hurt to try something new. I usually don't write chapters this short, either. I like them at least over 2000 words usually but I thought carrying on with this chapter would cause it to have less impact, so I stopped when I thought it was right.

By the way, I am completely ignoring what happened in The Stolen Earth and Journey's End and, well pretty much all of series four after The Doctor's Daughter. So no Daleks in this, I'm afraid.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DOCTOR WHO (otherwise, it wouldn't be on so late like it has been; there would be a new series this year and David Tennant would probably still be The Doctor)

Please enjoy! x

"You know what? I think I might stay." Martha Jones said once they landed back on Earth. Their last trip and been an ordeal for them all – but none more so that The Doctor and so Martha figured that staying with him Donna, for at least one more trip, would allow her to make sure that he was really okay. After all, he had just lost his daughter; a daughter who he had only just learnt to accept. For one moment, both she and Donna had finally thought that he had found something to live for. But once again, the universe had decided to be cruel.

And besides, she had missed travelling in the TARDIS more than anything.

"Really?" The Doctor asked. He was shocked; he had been so sure she would leave again so hearing her say that put a smile on his face for the first time in hours.

"Yeah, why not? What harm could one more trip do?"

"Alright then, where do you want to go?" The Doctor asked, pushing buttons and pulling levers. "We could go –

"How about somewhere quiet?" Donna piped up. Since being with The Doctor, she was yet to have a trip out that didn't somehow land up in life or death situations. Right now, all she wanted was a holiday.

"I took you to the Car—

"The Caribbean doesn't count, Doctor. It was 41st Century and we nearly got our heads chopped off!"

"Welll...It started alright." The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. It was a habit of his sure, but it had become more so since he'd been with Donna.

"Everything with you starts alright; it's how it ends is what you have to worry about." Donna sighed. "Was it always like this with you?" She turned to address Martha, who was trying desperately not to laugh.

"All the time. Went to New York – twice – and both times we had trouble." She laughed.

"It's not my fault! It's not like I go looking for trouble!" The Doctor exclaimed, trying to defend himself as best he could. Apparently, it didn't seem to work.

"No, trouble just comes looking for you." Donna told him. "Anyway, how about we get this spaceship in gear and head off someplace?"

"Thought you wanted somewhere quiet?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh I've given up on that idea."

The Doctor just shrugged and made to pull the last lever when suddenly the TARDIS shook with force, sending all three occupants to grated floor. It felt like an earthquake, but bigger – much bigger. The ground still continued to shake for moments after the initial shock, preventing any one of them from being able to stand. Once the shaking had subsided and the TARDIS stood still again, the Doctor groaned, rubbing his head, before pulling himself up using the ship's console in order to read the scanner.

"What the hell was that?" Martha asked as she, too, stood up, pulling Donna up with her.

"No idea." The Doctor reported, his eyes still drawn to the scanner in front of him. "But whatever it was, it wasn't your standard earthquake."

"Where are we?" Donna asked.

"Same place we were before; we've not moved." The Doctor moved away from the screen and headed towards the doors. Both Donna and Martha followed suit, eager to know what was out there.

The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors to reveal Marth's house not far from where they were. Nothing appeared to have been altered in anyway. The sun was out; there were clouds in the sky (they were a little grey – it was clearly going to start raining soon). The only sign that something had happened, when The Doctor stepped out from the box, was that people were lifting themselves from the floor and the fact that a few streetlamps had fallen or were learning rather dangerously towards the road. Maybe it had been a standard earthquake, then.

"Thought you said it wasn't your standard earthquake?" Donna said as she and Martha made their way out. "Looks like an earthquake to me."

"But we're in England, we don't get earthquakes of that strength. We're not on a fault line."

"Exactly." The Doctor said. "Unless the nearest fault line has produced an earthquake going way off the Richter Scale or Yellowstone has blown." The Doctor ran back inside the TARDIS and checked the scanners for any sign of either of those happening. He found nothing of the sort. But what he did find, however, was much more terrifying.

"It wasn't an earthquake or Yellowstone." The Doctor said grimly as Martha and Donna came back inside. He didn't even bother to look up from the screen.

"Then what was it?" Martha asked. There was fear in her voice, though she did her best to hide it. Whatever The Doctor was about to say was far from good, but she refused to let fear claim her.

The Doctor, however, didn't answer and continued to look at the screen. His eyes were dark but both Martha and Donna had known him long enough to be able to detect the fear he was desperately trying to hide.

"Doctor, what was it?" Donna asked him, repeating Martha's question in the hope of gaining some kind of response from the Doctor. She received nothing, but she didn't give her. "Doctor." Donna was less successful than Martha at keeping the fear from her voice, but still the Doctor refused to look at her for the moment. It was clear that he was thinking; thinking about what he was going to say.

Eventually he looked up at the two of them. There was no light in his eyes, just the dark and fear. There was something else too; something neither of them knew.

"The universe is collapsing."