So, basically, assume the whole Time Lord Victorious thing at the end of Break the Silence hadn't happened and Annabelle continued travelling with the Tenth Doctor, taking Sam and Dean along with them on some occasions. This, obviously, was also a little role-play I did with Sarah (teamfreewillsamdeancas). It was actually a tangent we went off on while working on the rp that eventually became Break the Silence after I said something along the lines of "Imagine what Sam and Dean's faces would be like if they saw the Doctor regenerating." So I guess this is sort of my fault.
Anyway, hope you guys like this little ficlet. The title, by the way, comes from the Chameleon Circuit song of the same name.
Regenerate Me
Annabelle, Sam, and Dean were using everything they had to help the Doctor into the TARDIS. He'd been hit by . . . something the three hunters had never come across before, and though he had managed to walk, all three of them were propping him up.
The Time Lord waved them off, leaned on the console, his hands bracing his weight. Golden energy simmered beneath his hands, and the three of them could see it in his veins. He winced, stumbled back.
"What the hell?!" Sam asked.
"I don't know," Dean said.
"Seriously, dude, what the hell?"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Annabelle cried. "STOP!"
The Doctor shook his head. "It's started. I'm regenerating." He raised his right hand to his face, which was now glowing with the golden energy.
Annabelle, face pale, said,"You're what?! This wasn't mentioned earlier!" Oh, yes, she was definitely panicking.
"There's this thing that happens when I'm about to die," the Doctor explained to the three Winchesters. "It's our little way of cheating death . . . but it means I'm going to change. Sorry. And I can't stop it."
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Annabelle demanded.
"Just stand back!"
"No way!" she protested.
He grimaced, from both pain and holding back the regeneration energy. "No, really, get back!"
"Fine," Annabelle said after a moment, "but only cuz you're freaking me out!" She stepped back, as did Sam and Dean.
The golden light was now swirling around the Doctor's head. His face tilted up, expression both sad and scared. "I don't want to go," he said softly. Then he threw his head back, let the regeneration energy have its way.
"Whoa!" Annabelle exclaimed, eyes wide as light streamed from his head and hands.
The Doctor as she knew him was gone. He gritted his teeth, screamed as the last changes took place.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Annabelle cried. Sam and Dean could only watch with wide eyes. They'd never come across something like this before, and Dean's first instinct was to grab for an angel blade and stab the man who had taken the Doctor's place.
He resisted the urge.
The Doctor, meanwhile, was checking out his new body. He patted down his body, felt his legs. "Legs! Still got legs!" he exclaimed, lifting his left knee and kissing it.
"Who are you?!" Annabelle demanded. "What have you done with the Doctor?!"
He glanced up, looked over at her, Sam, and Dean. "Annabelle, it's me! I am the Doctor. Every single cell of my body was dying. I had to change. Every single cell, but it's still me? So, what do I look like? No, don't tell me."
She shook her head, looking almost frightened of him. "Nononono. You're not the Doctor." Annabelle started backing away slowly. "What'd you do with him?!"
Thoroughly ignoring her, he began checking out the rest of his body. "Good." His hand came up to eye level. "Arms, hands, ooh, fingers!" Those same fingers moved, up, checked the rest of his face—"Ears, two eyes, nose, mouth, chin—Blimey, what a chin!"—then began ruffling through the mop of hair on his head. "Hair! I'm a girl!" he squeaked. "No!" His fingers moved, down, felt his Adam's apple. "No, I'm not a girl." He tilted his head down, began pulling at his hair. One lock fell in front of his face. "And still not ginger!"
"You—!" Annabelle started, pointing an accusing finger at the Time Lord. "What have you done with him?! Where is he?! This isn't funny!"
Oh, yes, he had an audience with him. He turned to the girl, ignored the two other men standing off to the side—the two men who looked somewhat startled, but at least they weren't totally freaking out. "Annabelle, it's me," he said, trying to convince her, and couldn't help remembering the last time he'd regenerated. "I'm the Doctor. You saw me. I just changed right in front of you." Odd, how coherent he was sounding. His old self's synapses must not have completely left yet.
"That doesn't mean anything!" she yelled, sounding close to hysterics. "Cass appears and disappears and makes other people disappear right in front of me too! Who are you really?!"
"I told you, I'm the Doctor! Like I said, every single cell in my body was dying. I had to form a new body, new personality, but it's still me."
Her voice turned heavy with sarcasm. "Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense! Every now and then I become the freaking queen of England!" Annabelle ran off deeper into the TARDIS and locked herself into her room. Sam and Dean hadn't moved from where they'd been standing—which was probably a good thing; they would have been hit by debris if they'd moved. Huh. He hadn't expected his regeneration energy to totally destroy the TARDIS. Then again, his old self had been holding so much back, and there was something—
"There's something else," he heard himself say, "something I'm forgetting. I'm . . . I'm . . . "
Suddenly they were all rocked off his feet. The Doctor landed on the console, looked up, laughing gleefully. "I'm crashing! Hahaha! GERONIMOOOOO!"
Annabelle screamed from her room, and Dean's face was one of absolute terror as he hung on to one of the remaining coral struts. Sam, for his part, looked like he was having the time of his life, much like the Doctor, as the blue police box hurtled toward the planet below.
