Rebirth of the Doctor
A/N: So this is my first fic in a long time...and more importantly, it's my first Doctor Who fanfic. I've chosen to tackle what I think is a fairly ambitious subject, and I sincerely hope I do justice to it.
Basically, this story is set between The Day of the Doctor and the Series 1 premiere 'Rose'. It follows the perspective of the newly-regenerated Ninth Doctor and how he deals with the immediate aftermath of the Time War, something we've never really seen tackled in any official material to my knowledge.
Prologue – A New Life
London, 2013
"Well gentlemen, it's been an honour! And a privilege", he said.
"Likewise", 'Sandshoes' replied.
"Doctor", 'Bowtie' said smiling. Emphasizing the name.
Their name. His name.
Beaming at his future selves indulgently, he continued, "And if grow to be half the man that you are", he turned towards Clara, "Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed".
"That's right, aim high", she laughed, hugging him. Clara Oswald. His future companion. The girl who had reminded him of who he was. The girl who had reminded him of the promise he'd made. The girl who had inspired him to save an entire race.
The 'impossible girl'.
Curious phrase...where did that come from?!
A thought suddenly struck him. Something he'd almost forgotten, in the triumphant spirit of the moment. "I won't remember this, will I?"
Bowtie replied, "The time-streams are out of sync. You can't retain it, no".
He'd known the answer of course, deep down. But hearing it said, hearing himself say it...it pricked him a little nonetheless.
He mused out loud, "So I won't know that I tried to save Gallifrey, rather than burn it. I'll have to live with that." Putting on a brave face he added, "But for now, for this moment, I am the Doctor again!" He beamed once more at his future selves "Thank you!"
Well then, he thought to himself, time to go.
"Which one is mine?" he asked out loud, looking at the three TARDIS's lined up in a row. So different, yet the same. "Ah", he said, noticing the battered looking one at the end of the line. He'd have to clean it up quite a bit. Looking at the other two next to it, he knew it was practically a fait accompli.
He stepped into his TARDIS, and shut the door behind. Shut the door on his past. Or was it his future? It was so easy to get tenses mixed up when one was a time-traveller...
No, he resolved as he activated the TARDIS, it was the past he'd shut the door on. The future awaited him. New lives. New faces. New companions. New adventures. He'd only caught a glimpse, and the glimpse was glorious indeed!
He felt like his old self again. He felt reinvigorated. He felt renewed.
Renewed...
He first saw it from the corner of his eye. The golden light seeping out of the palm of his light hand. Energy...regenerative energy.
The regeneration process had begun!
"Oh yes, of course. I suppose it makes sense", he muttered to himself. The Sisterhood of Karn had made him a warrior. But the war was over. It was a time for peace. There was no use for warriors anymore. It was time to be someone else again. It was time to be...the Doctor.
"Wearing a bit thin", he observed as he leaned back, letting the energy consume him. "I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time!"
Look at you, talking to yourself like a senile old man, just when you're becoming young again, he scolded himself.
There had been times when he'd feared the change. Feared dying...and being reborn as a new man. But this time, knowing he was on a path to a better future, knowing the happy days that were coming his way, he welcomed it. Embraced it like an old friend.
The energy coursed through his ancient body, like warmth healing his every wound, like a flame re-igniting his spirit. He felt his skin changing, his bones shifting, his face re-shaping into another form. His eyes becoming sharper, livelier. His mind...at total peace. A blank. A clean slate.
He spent an eternity in this state. And the eternity ended as soon as it began. The last of the energy was expelled. The warmth was gone.
He was gone.
He stood in the middle of the machine. The wheezing sound engulfed him. At once familiar and alien.
He stood in the middle of the vast room. Standing there, surrounded by all the empty space, a profound feeling of isolation washed over him.
He was alone.
He didn't know why, but he was so alone.
He walked up to the control panel. His hands moved over the instruments. He knew them and didn't know them. He didn't know how. Or why.
His hands grasped a lever. Out of sheer, instinctual curiosity, he pulled it.
A siren echoed through the room. Followed by a voice. A voice that jolted him.
"ALERT! ALERT!" it sounded. And suddenly, an apparition materialized in the middle of the room. A hologram, he somehow knew.
It was an old man. A fierce looking old man in a tattered coat, with a scarf and a bandolier.
He knew the man. It felt like looking into the face of...an old friend. A long-forgotten face from a childhood dream. Was it?
"TARDIS Systems compromised! Emergency landing initiated!" the apparition spoke in that voice both known and unknown before it disappeared.
Suddenly the wheezing stopped. There was a feeling of settling. Of arrival.
Yes, he had arrived. Somewhere.
Instinctively, he moved towards the doors. The opened as he approached.
He stepped out into the glare of the sun. He raised a hand, shielding his eyes.
He was in a field. An open field stretching out for miles around him.
He walked towards the sun. Its warmth enveloped him, just like the other warmth had. The warmth in which he'd been born.
He walked for miles and miles. He walked for eternity. He walked without destination, without urgency. Without time.
He walked until exhaustion finally overcame him and everything around him went black.