Btw a lot of y'all don't follow me I highly suggest you do. I ask questions about this plot in my announcements that a lot of yall don't see cause you don't follow. But it's entirely up to you! 🫶🏻

✧

"I have never felt that small before. You treated me like I was a dog."

- Lily Carter

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Platform One
5.5/Apple/26

FOR LILY, NOW HER THIRD TIME STANDING IN THE TARDIS, IT STARTED TO STRANGELY FEEL LIKE HOME. She started up the ramp, her arms wings at her sides and a head full of possibilities. "You know what's funny?" She asked the Doctor who stood waiting by the console. "Since we've met, since the dreams started, I wrote down everything in journals- like the one you read this morning. After graduating school, I have tried to get published at every publishing company in London- including a view in the states and Australia." The Doctor was completely focused on her words. She had rarely seen that look before on his face and it made her nervous. "But no one wanted to hear my words. All I wanted was to help someone out there with my stories of you."

"I read an excerpt from one." He told her and Lily remembered that- from when he first entered her room."You're talented."

She scrunched her nose and shook her head. "They didn't think so. No one had. I started to see no hope in my future .. in my life." She grabbed her locket and started her nervous habit. Lily noticed the Doctor take note of that. "And then you came back and I felt seen and heard for the first time in my life- besides my mum and Rose, of course." She leaned a hip on the console making it sing and tried to stop the tears from escaping the rims of her eyes. "I still haven't found my purpose in life but I hope I do soon." Lily sniffled and casually rubbed the tears away, hoping the Doctor hadn't noticed. "I don't know what I'm telling you all this." She adds a short laugh.

"Eh, It isn't you." He crossed his arms and gave her a shrug. "I guess I still have that face where people tell me everything."

Lily laughed at that, leaning off of the console, and turning around so he wouldn't see her wipe away the remainder of her tears. "Now," She faced that Time Lord again with a smile. "I still expect the whole nine yards. Remember that this is a trial." Lily teased him.

He seemed pleased she was teasing him as his demeanor changed. "Alright then, Lily Carter, you know how this goes." He gestured around them. "This is the TARDIS. It can bring you anywhere in time and space and it is now at your disposal." He winked- Lily's smile widened into a grin. "So, where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

"Forwards."

"How far?"

Their grins matched one another's as she challenged him. "As far as you can."

He was unfazed, rolling his eyes. "It's a time machine- I can go as far as you'd like."

Lily started laughing, but the Doctor didn't copy her- he frowned, looking very offended. "What?"

"You think you're so impressive."

He opened his mouth and gasped which only made Lily giggle louder. "I am so impressive."

"Mm-hmm." She nodded to the console. "Prove it."

That seemed to excite him. He was nearly jumping with glee as his voice level grew and went for the controls. "Oh, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go." He said as he started on the buttons and switched the knobs. "Hold on!" Was his warning before he sent the TARDIS into motion- he and his companion holding onto the console as the box shook.

Before long it stopped and Lily looked behind her shoulder as the Doctor spoke. "Well then, go on." She looked back at him. "Step outside and see who's so impressive now."

There was anything that could be outside those doors. Absolutely anything in this universe and that's what excited Lily the most. The feeling of the unknown was euphoric to her. Her heart was about to leap out of her chest when she left the TARDIS, leaving the door open behind her for the Doctor to exit. After exiting a sharp pain entered her left temple. Lily fought the dizziness that came after and shook it off as a side effect of traveling for the first time. When she looked up she found herself in a room and descended the stairs in front of her to stand facing a large shutter that covered the entire wall. When the shutter started to lower she only then realized that it wasn't a wall but a window. The view outside, an orbital view of the Earth, nearly took her breath away.

She glanced behind her shoulder to see if the Doctor was with her. When she saw him pocket his screwdriver and shutting a panel on the wall she understood that he was responsible for the shutters to descend. Lily looked back to the Earth, hearing the Doctor join her at her left side. "Where are we?"

She could see him crossing his arms in the corner of her eye- something this model of the Doctor seemed to do often. Lily couldn't stop admiring the Earth. "You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day. . . hold on."

She stopped only briefly to watch him look at his watch. Lily was happy she looked away because, as if the Doctor timed it perfectly, a bright glow of an orange and gold sphere started to engulf the planet and slightly blind her.

Lily braved the sting in her eyes to look back to the window and watch. The breath caught in her throat when she then realized what she was witnessing. "Is that the sun?

"This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."

✧

"Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for 15:39, followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite."

As the intercom blared out that information in a robotic, woman-like voice, Lily walked along the Doctor down a corridor after leaving the viewing room and the TARDIS behind. "By guests they mean aliens, right?"

"Of course. We are in space after all." He stopped in front of a door and took out his screwdriver to, yet again, work on a panel.

"But what are they all doing onboard this spaceship?"

"And it's not exactly a spaceship." He explained when the door opened and she followed him inside to another large room with more viewing spots of the Earth and Sun "More like an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn."

"That's horrid." She cringed. "Why would they?"

"For fun. Mind you," He put his sonic away into his jacket pocket, joining Lily's side to watch the outside. "When I said the great and the good, what I mean is, the rich."

Lily snorted at the irony. "Not much has changed then. But, hang on," A memory passed through her head. "They did this once on Newsround Extra. The sun's expanding, which takes millions of years. Something has to be preserving it until the right time?" She nodded to the machines whirling around the star. "Is that what those things are doing?"

"Brilliant." She heard the Doctor mutter, but when she looked to her side he was already looking away. Like he was hoping she hadn't heard him. "Those are gravity satellites. They're holding back at the sun."

She shook her head, another question forming. "But I thought the continents shifted. Why does it look the same to me?"

"They did, and the Trust shifted the back. The National Trust that is. That's a classic Earth. But now the money's run out, nature takes over."

"How long has it got?"

"Bout an hour," He grinned, giddy with delight. "Then the planet gets roasted!"

The look Lily gave him wasn't kind, but he was still giving her the same carefree grin."Am I missing something? Why are you so happy about it?" She gestured to the planet with both hands and then gave the Doctor a raised brow. "Shouldn't we save it? That's what you do. I've seen you do it countless times. You jump in at the last minute and save everyone."

"Not this time, Red. Not today." His eyes stayed on the Earth and she watched the brightness of the sun light up the blue in his eyes. She almost sighed at the sight. "Times up. The universe moves on."

"What about all the people?" Lily looked back at the Earth and, this time, couldn't find it in herself to look away. "They're helpless. They're going to die. We can't let that happen."

"It's empty, Lily. They're all gone. No one left."

The sun no longer burned her eyes. "It's just me then."

"Who the hell are you?" A voice yelled out at them, making the Doctor and Lily turn towards a blue-skinned person with golden slit eyes striding towards them.

"Oh," Lily was taken aback. "Well, aren't you just a piece of sunshine."

"How did you get in?" He ignored her comment and stopped when he was right in front of them. "This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's me! I'm a guest. Look," The Doctor reached into his coat pocket and Lily suspected him to pull out his screwdriver. Instead, she was startled when he revealed a piece of blank paper tucked inside a leather book. He held it up to the Steward's eyes. "There, you see? Everything is fine. I'm the Doctor," He nodded to Lily, who continued watching the blank paper with furrowed eyebrows. "This is Lily Carter. She's my plus one. Is that alright?"

The Steward, after seeing what he wanted to see, seemed pleased and nodded. "Well obviously." He bowed his head at the couple. "Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy."

As he briskly walked away Lily brought up her confusion in a hushed tone. "That paper you showed him?" She pointed to it still in his hands. "It was blank."

"The paper's slightly psychic," he explained, pulling it out to show them. "It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time." He ended up tucking it back in his pocket.

"Hmm," Lily noted. "That's new."

The Doctor smirked and looked down at Lily. "How am I doing so far?"

There were maybe five inches between them two but Lily wasn't fazed. She just wondered how they got this close and who was the one to lessen their distance- or were they both guilty of that? "On a scale from one to ten?" He nodded, eyes searching hers. Lily had hoped she wasn't blushing at the attention she was receiving from him. She pursed her lips and pretended to think for just a second before speaking her answer. "A six."

The Doctor looked wounded, not backing up but only narrowing his eyes like he was trying to see if she was lying or not. "A six?!"

She laughed when she saw her plan of throwing him off worked. "That's being generous given that we only just started, Doc. Impress me some more and then points will add up." She patted him on the shoulder before pulling away, leading them further into the room.

"Oh," She heard the Doctor say with a chuckle and his steps behind her. "I intend to."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

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- Kayleigh