A/N: "The Day of the Doctor" is truly a wonderful tribute to fifty years of Doctor Who. I must particularly congratulate John Hurt, who created such an amazing, complex Doctor in such a short span. Here's to many more years of adventures through time and space!
Gallifrey falls no more!
Remarkable, it was, that of all his incarnations, this would be the one to fail from age; this hadn't happened since his very first life, such a very long time ago. How remarkable that despite all the horror and death of the Time War, all the bloody battles, it was this last exertion that triggered his regeneration. Dying not in battle, not by the evils wrought by either the Daleks or the Time Lords, not by the barrel of a gun or at the hands of a megalomaniac - just by simple Time.
How very strange.
The painful burning sensation, which had started in his fingers, swiftly spread to the rest of his body, licking like flames up his neck, engulfing him completely as it had before. There was no other agony more acute as he burned up from the inside out, his old self being destroyed one cell at a time.
But it was different, this time. He was ready for the pain, and he welcomed it with open arms, because this time, he knew. He Knew.
Even as his old life burned away, taking with it that precious knowledge, a tear of joy fell from his eyes.
Miraculously, beyond everything he had ever dreamed possible, thirteen Doctors - all of him from across time and space - had united for one shining moment to save his home.
He wouldn't remember this glory, couldn't remember it. Time wouldn't let him. He would spend the next four centuries or more believing that he had destroyed everything, had used that wretched Moment to kill all those children, to end all those precious, innocent lives that knew nothing of the Skaro Degradations, or the Horde of Travesties, or the Could-Have-Been King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres.
But he set aside that thought joyfully, because he would remember the truth in the end. Whether or not their desperate, madcap plan had actually succeeded, he went to his death gladly, not as a Warrior, but, finally, as the Doctor.
Though it would take centuries for him to remember, he was redeemed. At peace.
With that final thought, the regeneration consumed him. The Time War was over, at long last.