"The Last Gift"

[shivver]

Title: "The Last Gift"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Tenth Doctor
Pairing(s): None
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 380

Summary: When there's nothing left to give...


Author's Notes: Written for Flash Fan Fiction Friday for Literary Fan Fiction at deviantArt (prompt: "Control") and drabble contest for who_contest at LiveJournal (prompt: "Child").

References to "The End of Time", "Journey's End", and "The Caves of Androzani".

---

I'm dying. You're coming for me, Death, and there's nothing I can do to stop you. But I can hold you off, just a little longer.

I've failed, this time around. I've been shown my soul and I can see what I've done. I've taken in good, brilliant people, and turned them into fighters, killers. The Children of Time, they're called: my companions, my protégés. The Defender of the Earth, with her stony stare and her gun as large as she is. The immortal Captain with his platoon, hiding under the ground, waiting with their arms and technology for the next attack from above. The Woman Who Walked the Earth and her husband, the "Idiot", tracking alien menaces and destroying them before they can harm their world. The Most Important Woman in the Universe, the one who tried to guide me, to stop me, to keep me from falling into the darkness. The one who never touched a weapon. Ha! Now there's my finest work! To thank her for her efforts, I stole her life from her. And then my Sarah Jane, who waited decades for me to return to her. She still devotes her life and her son to battling the endless threats from the skies.

Without my friends, I lose my way. But with them, they lose theirs. They become my pawns, my soldiers in this eternal war against the universe that I call my life. I train them to analyze threats, draw up strategies, and wade fearlessly into battle. They've left me, all of them, and they're still fighting. And they're training new soldiers to carry on my legacy.

They're with their families now, living their own lives, as normal as they can possibly be, which isn't much. I know you're waiting for them, Death, and they'll come to you eventually. Well, one of them, you'll be waiting a very long time for. The others, you'll see them all too soon. But I can hold you off, just a little longer. Protect them, save them, or at least give them a bit of hope, a little happiness. One last time.

I owe it to my friends to try because I got them into this. So, you see, I'm not going to let you stop me now.

Comments

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

True, true! When I started working on this prompt, it was supposed to be the Fifth Doctor. Then I got sidetracked. Ah well. He'll get his time in the sun someday.