"AH!" The doctor fell up against the Tardis wall. The regeneration was a bit more painful that he had remembered it being. He grabbed his burning hand in agony as he lied on the floor screaming. The Tardis shook as it flew past space and time. Flying thousands of light years a into bits and particles as it passed by. The Doctor reached for his Sonic Screwdriver. The little tool found his grip. With the push of the button, it lit up. He scanned his body to see what was wrong. The search came out negative.
"Nothing? NOTHING!" He yelled, "What the bloody hell is wrong with me?!" He tried making his way off the floor, but the twisted pain only made him collapse again. He tucked away his screwdriver into his pants pocket to keep it safe from the danger. A pillar fell down right next to him. It burst into flames. Pushing with the strength he found, he rolled out of the way. The heat wave took over the Tardis. Sweat and blood was dripping from the Doctor.
Without any warning, the Tardis immediately came to a halt. The Timelord was launched forward from inertia's sudden force. He smacked into the other wall and cried out in pain again. Once he had laid for a few minutes; the regeneration had finished its course.
Twenty-four more hours of this and the pain will go away. He thought as he stood up and studied the damage. The wounds were healing on the doctor faster than he estimated they would. He grabbed his screwdriver out of his coat and pushed it up against the Tardis' controls. Nothing happened. Nothing would turn on. He was in the middle of nowhere, with pains he couldn't explain, in a new body. He ran over to the doors of the Tardis, but they refused to budge.
"Wha….WHERE AM I?!" The Doctor turned around to see a young woman standing in his Tardis looking confused. Last time this happened, it was his brilliant companion, Donna. However, this time, a girl with short messy brown hair and dark green eyes stood right where Donna had also appeared. She was tall and had rather a well defined figure.
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked looking shocked to the point it made the girl uneasy.
"I…I don't know." She replied scratching the back of her head.
"You don't know who you are but you've managed to get on my Tardis. How does that happen?" He rushed over to her and scanned her with his screwdriver.
"Hey!" She scowled.
"You are definitely human. You have a bunch of strange energy readings off of you. Like you've just fallen through space and time." The doctor continued his scan as he mumbled on about millions of other readings he got off her.
"Can you please just tell me where I am?" She asked again speaking slowly and barely beyond a whisper.
"You are with me in the Tardis." He replied. He just stared at her for a second. She seemed rather familiar, like he had known her from somewhere. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"And you are?"
"I'm the doctor."
"The doctor?"
"Yes. Just 'The Doctor'. Everyone called me that." The girl rolled her eyes.
"So, this Tardis thing. What exactly is it?"
"It's my spaceship and before you ask, yes. I'm an alien." He spoke his line. She raised her eyebrow.
"I guess you get that a lot." She studied her surroundings with a little uneasiness. The doctor staggered over to her.
"You alright?" She asked.
"No….I'm kinda in some pain right now. I can't seem to figure out why," He clutched onto the side of his hip, "But first! I need to land my ship, but I need the power to be restored. Stay here!" He ordered as he lowered himself cautiously down further into his ship. The girl rushed over to him but stood there awkwardly. She looked at the doors and ran over to them. Again, they refused to budge. She ran back over to the doctor.
"Is there anything I can help with?"
"No! Just stand there." He ordered. She paced for a few seconds around the Tardis to get a feel for her surroundings. She raised her voice.
"You know, I really don't know what's going on, but if you could give me something to do, it might ease my nerves a bit." She popped her head down under the floor where the doctor was. He was lying there clutching his side.
"I've never had internal pain this severe before." He re-adjusted himself so he sat a little more comfortably on the hard metal floor.
"I thought you said you were a doctor. You should know what's wrong."
"Even a genius like me cannot always figure out what's wrong. Never mind that. I do need to figure out who you are." He grabbed the girls arm and shoved it near his body. She lost her balance and tumbled down into the bottoms of the Tardis with him.
"OW! What was that for?" She stood up, brushing off the wrinkles in her clothes.
"What's your name?" He asked.
"I….I can't remember." She slightly backed up frowning.
"You can't remember your own name?"
"Well you sure can't seem to remember your own either!" She retaliated.
"Do you just not want to tell me? Where are you from?"
"I don't know! I can't remember…..it's like…I've forgotten everything. All I can remember is darkness, then standing behind you!"
"How does that work?" He stared at her for a while. Then he snapped his head the other way.
"Let's get this thing running so I can figure out where you came from." He scanned he screwdriver up and down the tangled cords. Finally, a spark flew out from one of the cords. The Tardis lit up and came to life. The familiar noises filled the air. The doctor turned to the mysterious passenger and smiled.
"Sounds like we've landed somewhere," He jumped up only to fall back down again, "I think that might be the issue. Each regeneration seems to be getting a little more painful. I've got to leave the radiation alone."
"Regeneration…what are you talking about?"
"Nothing. Let's get out of here." He stood up again slowly and pulled himself from out under the Tardis' controls. The girl followed him closely behind. He ran over to the doors and opened them. He took a step outside into a large tropical beach. The temperature was unreasonably hot. The girl stepped out right behind him.
"We're at a beach. How did we get here?"
"I have no idea. This is just where we crashed."
"Well, better here than the top of some below freezing mountain!" The girl turned around and looked back at the Tardis. She immediately fell down on her bottom.
"What's wrong with you?" The doctor turned to the girl. She looked as if she was about to faint.
"It…..it's small….but bigger on the inside?" She cautiously stood back up.
"Yes. As I have already mentioned. It is my spaceship. Tardis. Time and relative dimension in space."
"Time? So…it can not only fly through space, but through time as well?"
"Good job. You're catching on quick." The doctor started walking away from the beach toward the hills.
"Wait!" The girl yelled as she ran to catch up with him, "So, how did I get on your ship?"
"That's what I'd like to know. You cannot just simply be aboard my ship. Especially when it's in a fire like it was. You would've had to be falling through space and time at that same exact second and you would've had to have some sort of connection or energy coming off of you for you to even come aboard like you did."
"It sounds like that's impossible."
"It is! So how you managed to do it is the mystery I have to figure out. Now follow me." He motioned his hand for her to follow him.
"How can I trust you?" She hesitated.
"I'm the Doctor. Besides, you don't seem to be freaking out over all this." He smiled and continued walking.
"If I did, I wouldn't be much help, now would I?" She replied quickening her pace.
"You're a very interesting human." The Doctor took his fingers and stroked his chin. He stopped dead in his tracks as he let out a loud gasp.
"What?! What's wrong?" The girl stopped suddenly with him.
"I'm a little fuzzy! I'm going to grow a beard!" The doctor exclaimed. The girl raised her thick eyebrow.
"You just realized this now?" She asked.
"Well, it's a new look. I have no idea what I look like," He ran his hand through his semi-long hair cut, "It feels like it's long."
"It's definitely a cute cut. I love gingers." She reached to touch his hair, but the Doctor spun around and grabbed the sides of her arms.
"I'M A GINGER?!" He screamed at her. The girl broke free of the Doctor's grip and took a step back.
"y...yeah..." she nervously backed away a little more. The Doctor jumped through the air and hollered out random satisfaction noises.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" He ran back over to her, "I'm actually a ginger!"
"Yes! Yes...good for you!" The girl walked to the side of the doctor to where she tripped on a fallen branch. She fell backwards down a small slope. The doctor tried chasing after her, but his foot slipped from under him as he rolled down the hill with her. Both of them collided and came to a stop at the bottom.
"You alright?" The Doctor picked his head up slowly checking to make sure the girl was still alive.
"Yeah...ouch...," she moaned, "What's that up ahead?"
The doctor quickly stood up and saw a small building in the middle of the jungle land they were in. It was covered in weeds already, yet it looked like it had been built a few weeks ago. The Doctor helped his new companion to her feet.
"Why don't we go take a look?" He gestured toward the building, "And while we walk, I'll think of a name for you."