We Will Rise |2| The Ascension

Chapter Forty Four: Journey's End

The familiar golden energy was streaming from the Doctor's hands and head, and it was bright enough to cause most of them - except McKenzie, Rose, and Zosia - to look away. With obvious painful effort, he managed to point both his hands towards his spare hand in the jar under the console, allowing it to absorb the energy and releasing him from the regeneration sequence.

"Now then," he grinned, regaining his balance. "Where were we?" The rest of them just stared at him in shock.

***

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Suddenly, a figure appeared on each side of the car, both carrying large guns, and they shot the Daleks. Sarah Jane frowned, getting out of her car. "Mickey?"

He laughed. "Us Smiths got to stick together!"

The other one, a blonde woman, nodded to her curtly. "Jackie Tyler, Rose and Alex's mum. Now where the hell are my daughters?"

***

Gwen and Ianto ran out of bullets in their clips and stopped firing, realising the Dalek wasn't shooting back, or screaming its usual cry. What's more, the bullets they'd fired were hanging in mid-air between them and the Dalek.

Ianto frowned, shrugging, and Gwen edged forwards to touch a bullet. Her finger hit a block before it, and the air rippled like water. "What the hell?"

***

The Doctor checked on his glowing spare hand. "There now." He blew on it gently, and the glowing stopped as he looked back up at the others, who were still staring at him in varying degrees of shock. Steve's arms had gone slack, still around Zosia, but neither of them seemed to notice. "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me, I'm gorgeous." McKenzie tilted her head in agreement, shrugging. "So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand, my hand there, my handy spare hand. Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"

McKenzie approached him slowly. "You haven't changed a bit."

"Nah, not me," he grinned at her. "Good enough for you, why would I change?"

She smiled. "Thanks." She hugged him, and he laughed, lifting her off her feet. He beckoned Zosia over. "C'mere, princess." She ran over and the three of them had a group hug while Clint pretended to barf in the background until Natasha told him off, rolling her eyes.

Once they'd done, Rose approached the Doctor. "You're still you?"

"I'm still me," he promised. They laughed, hugging, and then Rose moved onto McKenzie as they all relaxed.

"You can hug me if you want," Donna said, nudging Jack, who laughed. "No, really. You can hug me."

***

Ianto frowned, having analysed the situation with the help of one of the computers. "It's a Time Lock. The ultimate defence programme. Tosh was working on it. Never thought she finished it, but she did. The Hub's sealed in a time bubble. Nothing can get in."

"But that means we can't get out," Gwen sighed.

"Nope," Ianto agreed. "Not without unlocking that Dalek. We're trapped inside. It's all up to Jack and the Avengers now."