The road less travelled...

Title: A Time of Endings – Waking Up To The Truth
Author: katherine_b
Rating: PG
Summary: Donna’s memories are returning.
Word Count:
Characters: Donna and the Masters
A/N: Written for juliet316 who, as part of my timestamp meme, asked for “Missing scene from A Time of Endings where Donna realizes what she has to do to save the Doctor before she arrives in Chapter 8.”
A/N 2: Also written for the forty-ninth weekly drabble challenge with the prompt ‘laughter’.

Donna opens her eyes and stares blankly at the blue sky above her before blinking and slowly pulling herself up into a sitting position with a soft groan.

Her head is starting to ache from all the times it keeps hitting the ground when she passes out after the power explodes out of her.

Even if she wasn’t already planning to slap the Doctor, she’s fairly certain that he deserves it now, just for that.

Just like the other five times, the Masters in various clothes are standing around her, the mocking laughter frozen on their faces. For some reason, every time they find her, they laugh, just like they did the first time they thought they had her surrounded in that alley. Donna remembers how confused she was the first time she regained consciousness to find herself encircled by unmoving men. Thankfully, as time has gone on, various pieces of information have trickled back into her mind in a steady stream, until she’s feeling as if she’s got a handle on everything now, including the Doctor’s numerous confrontations with his oldest enemy.

She’s can’t help agreeing with his general view of the Master, though, which is that, for all his brilliance, he’s still an idiot. After all, if they’re all the same person and thus share a collective consciousness, she can't understand why the message isn’t getting back to the original Master about where she is. She has to hope that he’s got more important things on his mind, because the only other conclusion she can draw is that he’s a self-obsessed moron.

Which, she has to admit, might also be a fair description of the Doctor sometimes.

Donna looks at the immobile men around her, unable to help grinning a little at the sight of one of them in fishnets and an incredibly short skirt. Presumably, since it’s the middle of the night, one of the streetwalkers has decided to put in an appearance. Whipping out her phone, she snaps a few photos for her own amusement and that of the Doctor.

She eases around the group, knowing from earlier experience that the perception filter won’t work as well if she touches one, and then gets her bearings again. Her knowledge of the Doctor’s thoughts is strengthening and she’s using that as her internal compass to guide her to him and the TARDIS.

Her fingers are tingling, and when she looks down at her hands, tiny sparks of energy seem to dance on the surface of her skin. She concentrates and watches as it pools into her palm, almost as if it’s water.

The thought crosses her mind that it doesn’t feel like liquid, that it seems more like energy – and that she seems able to control it at a thought. In her mind she imagines it forming into small balls, which she mentally juggles.

She stares in astonishment as the energy in her hand does a rather clumsy version of what she saw in her mind. Trying it again, the movement is smoother and she knows that eventually she will be able to control it at will.

This is a relief, as it will give her at least some way of defending herself, and possibly the Doctor, against the Master.

Furthermore, the idea occurs to her as she looks around to find that the sky is starting to lighten in the east, that, if she can focus the energy that she exudes when any of the Masters get too close, it may keep her from passing out again.

She practices over the next few hours as she moves through the streets, until she’s got this remarkable new power under some degree of control. It’s not perfect, but for now at least, it will have to do.

As she approaches the large house where she knows that the TARDIS is waiting, the Earth begins to shake and the sky glows red. A glance over her shoulder reveals a massive shape – almost certainly a planet – which is being brought into being next to the Earth, and as she suddenly recognises it as Gallifrey, those parts of her mind that came from the Doctor know exactly how bad this is going to be.

She breaks into a frantic run, hoping that, if she hurries, she might be able to protect the Doctor from the greatest threat he’s faced.

Donna only hopes that, whatever's happening inside that building, she'll be in time to save him.