My Guardian Angel

I;m so sorry for the loooong wait! If anyone is still reading this, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Four

Donna fell to the ground, at the Doctor's side.

She almost threw up at the state of his injuries, gulping when she saw the blood. With shaking hands, she reached for him and gently rolled him onto his back, so she could have a better look at him.

It didn't take long for her to regret that decision. He looked terrible. Not a part of him was untouched. His skin was black and blue and he had lost a huge amount of blood. She was certain that if he were human, he wouldn't have survived. Donna fought back the tears that were threatening to spill. Crying wouldn't help her or him. He needed her to be strong.

Quickly, she unbuttoned her large coat and draped it over him, hoping to keep him warm and spare him his dignity. If he hadn't already lost that completely, along with his mind. She pushed that terrifying thought out of her mind at once.

"Doctor?" She whispered, touching his face carefully.

There was no reaction.

"Doctor! Please, you have to wake up!" She glanced again at her hands. She new she had mere moments before the connection with the White Guardian was lost. Donna gave him a small shake and was relieved when he let out a low moan in response.

"That's right. Come on Doctor. Look lively!"

He opened his eyes and stared up at her. He leant forward as if to touch her but then drew away again. She sighed.

"Doctor, there's really isn't any time for this. You have to get up now. We have to go!

He spoke so hoarsely, she only just caught his words.

"So bright. Like a wolf howling at the moon."

Donna was almost beside herself.

"Yeah right." She grabbed his arms and pulled him up, helping him to put his arms into her coat. "For such a skinny bugger, you are a heavy lump, aren't you?" She couldn't help but be flippant. It was the only defence mode she knew.

"Rose," he whimpered, touching her cheek.

"No, Doctor. It's Donna."

He stared at her more closely, blinking his eyes. "Donna?"

She smiled at him. "Yes, that's right. That's the ticket. Donna Noble!" She kissed his forehead affectionately. "Can't forget me, darling!"

He hang his head, not having the energy to hold it up anymore. "I thought.. you glowed and.. you were like her." He grasped her hand.

She gave it a squeeze. "Doctor, I have no idea what your talking about and I don't care. Now, just hold on to me! We've got to catch a lift off of a friend."

"Donna, there's no point. There's no escape from here. The TARDIS has betrayed me."

"Doctor, the TARDIS is waiting for you."

He chuckled. It was the sound of giving up to Donna. She hated it. The Doctor pointed at the blue box, still standing beside him.

Donna shook her head incredulously. "What?" She demanded.

"The TARDIS is right here, Donna. It won't let me in."

She was stunned. "Doctor, there's nothing there!" She blinked, figuring the ruse out. "Those things were playing with your mind, Doctor. Using illusions to fool you. I saw the Rose one.." Her voice trailed off.

The Doctor gazed up at her. "You can't see her? She's not there?"

"No! Now, can we please get out of here?!"

Holding his trembling body against hers tightly, she shouted out into the darkness: "White Guardian!" She waited a few seconds. When nothing happened, she tried again.

"WHITE GUARDIAN!"

Nothing. No bright light. No shining star. Only black.

Now, she wanted to cry. Desperately, she pleaded. "WHITE GUARDIAN!"

The Doctor suddenly collapsed against her and she grunted, just managing to catch him and stop his fall.

"PLEASE!" Donna howled into the night. She held onto her friend, trying to comfort him.

"I don't know what to do, Doctor." She whimpered. "I've let you down."

He shook his head and mumbled but couldn't manage any words.

A low laugh suddenly was all around them, making them both react. Donna stood up to her full height, glaring into the darkness, ready for whatever was coming.

"Easy to laugh at someone but not show your face, isn't it?" She taunted.

The laughter became louder.

"Why don't you come out of the shadows, you cowardly piece of.."

"Donna." The Doctor gasped. "Don't."

"Why not!" Donna demanded, rounding on her crumpled friend. "Just because you've given up?"

"You will not leave your home, Doctor."

Both the Doctor and Donna started. The Black Guardian had appeared before them, his face triumphant.

Donna, swallowing her fear, instantly moved forward, shielding the Doctor.

"You're not going near him again, mate, you got that?"

The Black Guardian didn't even acknowledge her presence. He spoke only to the Doctor, who sat on the ground behind her.

"It is not to late for you to join me, Doctor. Speak my name now and end this."

"Oi!" Donna shouted, her indignation at being ignored having now overtaken her fear. "Are you blind, deaf or what? I'm talking to you, Blackie!"

Now, the Guardian turned to her. He wrinkled up his nose as if he was looking at something that disgusted him.

"Oh, I see you, human. As one of your kind would see a slug or an ant. That is the scale of the importance you hold with me, lowest of all species. Look at you. You stand there, holding in your hands gifted power, more wondrous than your tiny brain could hope to comprehend. Do not speak to me again."

Donna could not believe her ears.

"Lowest - of - the - species? Did you just call me.."

The Black Guardian had tired of her. With a wave of his hand, Donna was picked up by an invisible force and thrown through the blackness, landing in a heap, a large space now between the Doctor and her. She watched, franticly, as the Guardian approached her best friend and bent over him.

"Why waste your time with insects like her, my friend. I will give you the planet Earth and it's human race as your own private plaything. You can even spare them and keep them as slaves if you wish! If you would but join me!"

The Doctor didn't have a chance to reply as Donna had hurled herself to her feet and had once again thrown herself between the Doctor and the Guardian. The Black Guardian was outraged. He stared at Donna with a mixture of frustration and amazement.

"Humans are so weak, are they?" The Doctor whispered. "Maybe you've got that wrong?"

"Girl," the Guardian softly. "The light will fade in moments. Once that has happened, you will be at my mercy. Move aside now and I will make your death quick and clean. Understand?"

"No," Donna said simply. "I'll never leave him.

The light seemed to shimmer and die, leaving a mere glimmer. The Black Guardian smiled. "I can wait. The White Guardian's power is nearly done. He has only enough strength to protect you, not enough to aid your escape."

Donna gasped. So that was why the White Guardian didn't answer her. His power was getting weaker and weaker. She couldn't hope for any help from him. Just what was she going to do?

"Let her go," the Doctor muttered.

The Guardian smiled evilly. "And if I do spare her, Time Lord, what will you give me in return?"

The Doctor, knowing with that one statement that he was beaten, closed his eyes. He was backed right into a corner. And he could see no way out.

Donna saw his pain and whirled round to him. "Don't you DARE do anything stupid Doctor. Look at what you've been though! Don't you give in to him now!"

The Black Guardian stepped forward. "I offer you a new choice, Doctor. Join me, or watch your human pet be torn apart by my Night Stalkers." He paused, enjoying the torment written all over the Doctor's face. “Which is it to be?”

A few painful moments passed before the Doctor finally opened his eyes and stared up at Donna.

“I'm sorry,” he murmered to her. “I won't let him hurt you.”

“NO!” Donna shrieked. “I won't let you do this!”

The Black Guardian smirked. “A wise choice, Doctor. And completely to be expected, naturally. Time Lords are so predictable.” He chuckled and then held out his hand.

“Come Doctor. Take my hand and join with me.”

The Doctor was in turmoil. He knew he was giving the Guardian control of the Time Vortex but if he was forced to watch Donna die, horribly, then that last flicker of light inside him would go out and he would be lost anyway. And Donna would suffer for nothing. This was the best he could do.

He got to his feet slowly.

“Doctor!” Donna was sobbing, tears falling down her face, uncontrollably. “You must know this is wrong!”

The Doctor couldn't look at her. Donna rounded on the Guardian, any hint of fear long gone. “You say he's got a dark side. Well, you're right. I've seen it.” The Guardian nodded. Donna saw a flash of water and fire and screaming and death. She saw a figure high above, a man whose anger and need for vengeance surrounded her, nearly choking her. She could feel the terror once more that she had felt that day. This man was damaged and wrong and frightening..

“That's not who he is!” Donna shouted in the evil being's face, pushing the memory it had placed in her mind to one side. She concentrated on the laughter and the kindness and the goodness that she had also seen and felt from the Doctor. That was the true man she had discovered since that that horrible Christmas and she had grown to love him.

“You have no idea what he is capable of, girl!” The Guardian said, scathingly. He had caught some of Donna's thoughts in his own mind, had seen the wonderful way she saw the Doctor for himself and he hated it. He noted the fading glimmer shining in the humans hands. She had seconds to spare. Soon, she would be unprotected and the Guardian would be rid of her, no matter about his agreement with the Doctor.

“You brought him here, alone and defenceless. You tortured him, raped him, beat him.” Her eyes blazed. “Why? If bringing him to your side was such a foregone conclusion, why all this?”

The Guardian didn't reply.

“I'll tell you then shall I, as it's slipped your mind? You had to set up all of this to break him! You know how much goodness is still inside him, even if it is buried a little deeper now than in the past. That's why you used Rose against him, in my dream. She's a happy memory for him and you wanted to contaminate that. You're sick. He's nothing like you. He's beautiful and loving and caring and good. And you know it! He can contain his darkness, he's already proved it. Don't you get it? You might win today, you might take him but you won't control him. Because he's better than you!”

The Black Guardian was clearly at boiling point. He gestured. Donna saw Night Crawlers prowling nearby and knew why. Very soon, they would feed. The Guardian was staring at her, looking for signs of weakness. She wouldn't let him see any. She would stay strong.

“A very strong speech, Donna Noble.” The Guardian said softly. “Sadly, too little, to late. I would say you have only five seconds left. Anything you wish to add? Or do you think you've said enough?”

He laughed.

Donna waited.

That's when she felt him. The Doctor's hand was brushing against her own. She glanced at him to find him standing beside her. He was smiling and this time there was no pain or fear in that smile. All she saw was the real Doctor. She could have cried again, this time with delight. Especially if he was the last thing she ever saw.

“Take my hand, Donna.” The Doctor whispered. She grabbed him. “Join with me,” he muttered in her ear and he placed his free hand against her forehead. Both of them turned, as one, to smile at the Black Guardian.

“STOP!” The Guardian screamed. “Night Crawlers, attack them!”

As the Night Crawlers prepared to pounce, a light even brighter than any that Donna had conjured surrounded her and the Doctor, completely concealing them from the Guardian. The light then flooded through him, causing him to scream in shock and agony. His roar of pain was unholy and terrible and it was the last thing Donna heard as both she and the Doctor left the darkness far behind, flying back through space and time back to safety, back to the TARDIS.

XXX

And with a thud, they both fell to the floor of their beloved Ship, their eyes hurting from the light. The Doctor lay where he had fallen but with a satisfied smile on his lips. Donna stood up and dusted herself off. She stared around her, not quite believing they had made it out.

“We're really back.” She said, awed.

“We're really back,” the Doctor repeated. “And, she still wants me.” He reached out and touched the bottom of the console. Donna could see he was nearly in tears.

“Told you,” she teased him gently. “But Doctor, how? How did you get us out?”

The Doctor turned and looked at her, his eyes shining.

“I didn't, Donna. You did. You and your inability to ever shut up.” He grinned.

Donna, confused, opened her mouth to ask more questions but stopped in panic when the Doctor gasped and slipped to the floor. He curled up on the ground in her coat and closed his eyes, not moving.

Donna hurried over to him, knelt down and brushed away his sweaty hair. She soon ascertained, with relief, that he was only sleeping. She laid her down beside his, watching him rest, realising how close she had come to losing him.

“I'll always find you,” she told him, leant in and kissed his forehead.

“Donna Noble.”

Donna, letting out a tiny squeak, leapt ten foot in the air and spun round.

The White Guardian was stood before her, smiling happily.

“Well done, Donna. You did very well. Even if there was no time to spare!”

Donna chuckled. “You saved us, didn't you?”

“I transported you out but the two of you defeated the dark.”

“How?”

“I'll let the Doctor tell you that, my dear.” He walked closer to her. “Tell the Doctor my lightness is stronger around him now. I can protect you, him and the TARDIS from the Black Guardian. But he must stay in the light, Donna. Make sure you tell him that. Stay in the light.”

Donna nodded. She offered her hand to the White Guardian. He smiled and shook it.

“Thank you,” she said.

He bowed. “My pleasure.” His expression became sterner. “Donna, the Doctor will need your help to recover from his ordeal. I have given him the gift of sleep for now but it will not last long. I'm afraid that his dreams will be plagued with the horrors he has faced, I can do nothing about that.. Move him to his room now, while he sleeps. Don't leave him alone, even if he tells you too. Be there for him tonight. You will realise how you can heal him. Trust in yourself. Goodbye, my child.”

And with one last wave, he was gone.

Donna looked back over at the Doctor.

“I'm not going anywhere,” she told the sleeping man as she crossed the room to where he was, put her arms underneath him and lifted. “I'm right here.”

TBC