"Yesterday morning, Doctor," Colonel Spencer said as he inserted a disc into the computer terminal in front of himself and the Time Lord, "Suzette Wallis, sixty-two years of age, was hit by a truck as she crossed a road in downtown Sydney. She was taken to hospital with serious injuries, and...well, she wasn't expected to make it. Then...this happened."
The Doctor peered closely at the screen as it displayed a video recording of an operating room. Medical staff gathered round a figure lying prone on an operating table. Suddenly the people began backing away in seeming alarm, raising their hands against a brilliant, unearthly light that enveloped the body on the table. In an instant the glow had faded...but there was something different about the body. "It was a totally different woman," Spencer was saying. "Young and healthy. And that wasn't all - "
"Don't tell me," the Doctor said. "When she was x-rayed, an oddity was found in the heart area. Namely...she has two."
Spencer nodded. "The change in appearance, the hearts...when UNIT heard, the signs were immediately recognized. We shipped her straight to a secure location. So far, she's not regained consciousness. We figured you'd be interested. Lucky we happened to bump into you like that, Doctor."
"Yes," muttered the Doctor. "Very lucky..."
OOOOOOOO
The young woman, known for now only as Suzette Wallis, groaned slightly, opened her eyes, and looked up from where she lay on the bed to see the Doctor standing next to her and looking right back at her. Glancing down, she saw she was wearing what looked like a white hospital gown. The room was small, grey and featureless. "Where...am I?" she slowly asked, then murmured "Is that my voice now? Sounds weird."
"You're in a secure UNIT facility," the Doctor told her. "And your voice isn't the only thing different about you...because you've just regenerated." From out of his coat pocket he produced a small, handheld mirror and held it up to Suzette's face.
Her eyes widening as she took in her reflection, she brought her hands up to feel her new face, and whispered "At least there are no more wrinkles or grey hair." She looked at the Doctor then, gave a small and sheepish smile, and said "No offense."
The Doctor abruptly withdrew the mirror, placing it back in his pocket, then said "Now then, question: How does normal, old, perfectly human Suzette Wallis suddenly develop a Gallifreyan's twin heart system and a Time Lord's ability to regenerate?" He turned and paced across the room as he spoke. "Conjecture: Poor, human Suzette Wallis was always a facade; a cleverly concocted invention by a chameleon arch to hide a child of Gallifrey." The Doctor turned and bore his steely gaze at her. In the woman's eyes was a mixture of sorrow, guilt and fear.
"You know a lot," she said. "But then...you're not part of this time or place yourself, are you? There's a fire in you...a fire I've known before, a fire familiar to every soul on Gallifrey. My name - my true name - is Vrexannor, and I last saw you at the Battle of Skull Moon. Do you still refuse to go by your old name, renegade?"
The Doctor was silent a moment before replying. "I am the Doctor, that I can promise you. Those days of hating myself are done, like the Time War."
At these words, Vrexannor started. "The Time War's over? What happened? How did it all end? Are the Daleks gone for good?"
The Doctor stepped forward and said "It might be simpler if we mind-lock. That way, you'll know what happened...and I'll know all about you." Vrexannor seemed slightly nervous on hearing this, but then nodded in agreement. The Doctor was directly over her now. Closing their eyes, they both whispered "Contact."
The Doctor's memories flowed into Vrexannor's mind...and she saw a very old and tired man carrying a bulky sack across a desolate waste; she saw the old man stood before a blood-red jewel insde an old barn, and with him were two much younger men whom she sensed were his future selves; then they were orbiting Gallifrey in their TARDISes as they shifted the planet to the safety of another dimension and obliterated the attacking Dalek fleet; she saw the man currently with her as he faced the Lord President and a squad of Chancellory Guard...
Vrexannor's memories flowed into the Doctor's mind...and he saw the smoke-filled interior of a damaged Battle TARDIS as it careened through the time vortex; a woman in Gallifreyan battle armour holding onto the console and crying tears of grief, horror and despair; her shaking hands fitting an ornate fobwatch into a device; a helmet lowering from the ceiling...
The link broke. Their eyes snapped open, filled with new knowledge. "You saved Gallifrey," Vrexannor breathed. "You saved the Time Lords. For a long time you thought you'd destroyed them all, but now they're back."
"And you deserted," the Doctor said. "You fled the field of battle, and hid."
As he observed Vrexannor, the Doctor saw tears brimming in her eyes. "Everything was burning," she said, her voice shaking. "The war took my whole family...our people grew more monstrous and cruel every day. We did things...things that made me sick. I had to get away, far away, bury my true self as deep as I could. So I went to a place were the horrors were kept out. My TARDIS was dying; I programmed it to dematerialize and self-destruct as soon as I'd used the chameleon arch and was outside on Earth. And for so many years, my true self was inside that fobwatch, while Suzette Wallis lived an ordinary human life. A peaceful one. Then, just a few days ago, the perception filter around my watch broke. I opened it and..." She fell silent, and her gaze hardened. "So what now, Doctor? Will you take me back to Gallifrey to answer for my desertation? You know I'll be dematerialized, or imprisoned. Or will you leave me here, an outsider now that my true nature is known? Well, Doctor? It's in your hands now. What is to be my fate?"
OOOOOOOO
The Doctor stood at the door of the TARDIS and looked out into deep space as the one-person spacecraft carrying Vrexannor flew off to the stars. It had not been too difficult to pursuade UNIT to release her into his custody. He had asked Vrexannor if she'd like to travel with him; she gave her reason for declining his offer as needing time to herself, though the Doctor quietly suspected she still felt some fear of him. He told himself this was entirely understandable.
And so he brought her here, where she was able to secure a ship with which to travel the galaxy in peace, to go wherever she wished. As the distant craft shrank to a point and vanished, he whispered to himself "Another renegade runs...I hope it's as good a run as mine."