Afterimage
- A Doctor Who Fan-fiction
DISCLAIMER: Extensive knowledge of the DW revived show, series 1-4 is recommended. This is being written by an American DW fan, so if there are any factual errors involving foreign lands, you have my apologies. Also, I'm calling "TenToo" the Meta-Crisis Doctor, so don't go ape, okay? Oh and this (for ) will be at the start of each chapter

Chapter I: The Doctor Reborn

"I don't want to go."
The final words of the Tenth Doctor echoed throughout the TARDIS Control Room. He knew what was about to happen, this time, powerless to stop it. He looked around, one last time, with his own eyes, and looked at his body, admiring its form and structure, knowing that when next he looked, a new pair of eyes would be looking at a new man's body. Same soul, different body. The Doctor drew one last sigh, and shed a tear. Then it began. His regeneration.
Golden energy escaped the confines of his body, tearing through every limb, every muscle and bone, every organ, every single cell in his body, burning, burning and reforming. Into something that he could never be. Into a Time Lord reborn. And just as it always had, it hurt. The Tenth Doctor looked up one more time, and let go. And then he was gone.
[Until a later point, our main character is a reborn Doctor in the shape of the Tenth, as a human called John Smith or the Afterimage]

John Smith woke up in a parking lot, just outside of London, not far from Lauriston Gardens. "Ugh. What happened? Oh, my head!" said Smith. He had been down the pub, but had left early and then... something. He picked himself up off of the ground and walked home to his flat in Central London. The next morning, on his way to work, he had decided to wear a special brown suit, and a long, flowing jacket. That morning, a happy married couple, by the names of Martha and Mickey Smith were walking by. They happened by Mr. Smith, and called out, "Doctor!" In surprise, Smith turned around, and found eyes of strangers, though to them, his eyes were bright as the moon.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" said Smith.
"Of course you know us you old twit!" said Martha, the love of her Doctor in her eyes as always before.
"Doctor, do really not recognize us? You saw us maybe a week ago!" said Mickey.
"No, I have never, to my recalling, met either of you." said Smith
The shock was evident on both of their faces and they demanded and begged him to come with them. Being a fairly easy to persuade man, he reluctantly agreed.
Martha insisted to Smith that he was a Time Lord, and that she demanded to know where his special watch was. He allowed her to search him and that there was no watch. Eventually, she pulled up the UNIT file on the Doctor and showed him everything, including the numerous pictures of someone who seemed to be him.
"But that's not me. That's some man who looks remarkably like me."
"That's you. That is and will always be you! The man who showed the both us the wonders of the universe in all its majesty."
John had had enough and went home, fed up with this Doctor business.
"Doctor who, anyhow? No ones just 'The Doctor'." Thought John.
Distraught, Mickey had tried to follow him and talk with him alone, less forcefully, but ended up getting lost. Martha, in a similar state, had dived into her work, ensuring everything for the defenses of the planet from hostiles was active. Eventually, she checked her e-mail and she found a message from the phone she had given the Doctor! She hadn't been able to check her email for most of the day, and she found the email had come in at about 12:30 that afternoon.
[This is the time I estimate the Doctor was at the control screen in the TARDIS, prior to his regeneration in 2005 and his subsequent crashing]

The email read:
Hello Martha. I'm afraid my time has at long last come. I have one more secret to tell you, the final secret of the Time Lords, and it may save them. With my final hours, I have defeated the Master (again), the War-Obsessed Time Lords and, in sacrificing myself, saved the life of Wilfred Mott, the grandfather of Donna Noble. Time Lords have a program called an Afterimage, where, upon regeneration, a human form of that Time Lord is created and sent to Earth at a preselected point. I will be sent to your time, and you may have, by chance, run into me already. Now, Donna, as you know, had to have her memory wiped due to her absorption of a Time Lord Consciousness. The beauty of an Afterimage, is that it has partial Time Lord Consciousness and half-human, half-Time Lord DNA.
So the Afterimage can absorb the Consciousness within Donna and restore both the memories of and the abilities of myself in another version of me. And Donna can remember, like she deserves to. Then, I can fuse with my meta-crisis form to create an entirely new Time Lord, with the same appearance and memories, but a new a regeneration cycle. I also gave him a special gift that Donna figured out how to use for us. Once she remembers, it can be used.
To travel between universes, I have a message which has been encoded in Gallifreyan below:

[this was a pic of circular Gallifreyan that read, "Void External Field Manipulator"]

You must find and capture my Afterimage, and use Donna to restore my Time Lord consciousness. I know this must be hard for you, but I hope once I can return, that it will become easier. Martha, I do and I have always loved you. You are like a _\~,]{ to me. Please know that I care deeply about you and will always care. The Woman Who Walked The Earth, I need your help once again.
Sincerely,

[this was a pic of circular Gallifreyan that read, "The Doctor"]

Martha would rather die than not find the Doctor's Afterimage again and to restore him as the Doctor. Her Doctor.
Wilf was watching some telly, relaxing as he would in old age. They had recently all moved from the house in Chiswick to the old Naismith Mansion, on account of Donna's winning the lottery. They had had the place reworked, in order to get rid of the alarming feeling about the place that Wilf had explained in secret to Sylvia.
Wilf had converted the science chamber where the Doctor had saved him from radiation poisoning, into a rather nice bedroom. The feeling of duty was sense that had stayed in the room would never fade for him. Every night he dreamed of the Doctor, and sacrifice he had made. Every night, not just for him, but for Donna, he dreamed of him and wished for him to come again. Wilfred longed to hear that sound agin, that familiar whooshing. More than anything, he wished that he and Donna could remember together. But then, she would die.
_

Martha had found Mickey the night before, unsuccessful in the search for the Doctor's Afterimage. They had rested and in the morning, endeavored to find Wilfred Mott, and then the Afterimage, and use Donna's Time Lord conscious to restore him. So she found where Wilfred lived, and payed a visit to the Temple-Noble Mansion. When they knocked, Wilf answered the door.
"Hello there. May ask, what would you like?" Wilf asked.
"Mr. Mott," said Martha, "My name is Martha. Like your granddaughter, I was a companion to the Doctor."
"After what happened, we don't speak that name here."
"Please, sir, we've found a way to let her have her memory back."
"You should come inside, we can all talk in my room."
The three of them went inside, and Martha showed Wilf the email that the Doctor had sent her. They discussed what they should do, and decided to invite Shaun in to dicuss as well.
"Shaun, if there was... a portion of Donna's life, that she didn't know about, that she, had to forget, would you want her to remember?" said his grandfather-in-law.
"I mean, it's her life. I can't just choose for her." said Shaun.
"It has to be you. If we remind her of this, and she remembers, before we do this, she will burn up and die. This has to be you." said Martha.
"It is her life. And she deserves to remember. We should let her remember herself." Shaun words had finality about them.
"Alright. We bring the Afterimage of the Doctor here, and we let him live. We let Donna remember her past. We let everything become how it should have been," said Wilf.
They all seemed satisfied in one way or another with the result of the conference. That evening, the Smith's found themselves once again searching for the Afterimage. In the end, he came to those he had declared a hatred for earlier.
Smith approached them, and said, "Please. You have to help me. Flashes are going through my mind, and I can't remember who I am, and please, please. I NEED YOUR HELP." The scream echoed through even the noisy streets, confused, angry and desperate, to understand what had happened.
"We have a friend who can explain better, but, you are a being created within the last week. You are what's called an Afterimage of a Time Lord, which is a human being containing Time Lord, that's the Doctor's native species, DNA. Basically, you're a human with a temporal and mental link to this Time Lord, called the Doctor," Mickey said, "But if you come with us, if you're willing to give up this empty shadow life of John Smith, a life that you dreamed up, then you can remember and understand."
"Give up what, exactly? I can't remember anything before the day I met the two of you, and the flashes are a waking nightmare. I'd give up almost anything to stop them," said the Afterimage.
"But what are these flashes, though? The Doctor never mentioned them in his email. Can you describe what you see when they happen?" Martha asked.
"I can try. Basically, they started after I left your flat, when you first outright told me I was this Doctor. From there, I had these flashes, like flashbacks or memories, but they feel current. First there was a glowing light, fading into a man, with raggedy clothes and hippy hair, controlling some... strange vessel, laughing, and yelling, 'Geronimo!'
Then, this vessel, which looked like... a... an old phone box, was on fire, and flying and crashing. It flew past Big Ben, almost hitting it and then flew out of view."
"But that's the TARDIS! My god, it has to be! Where was it going, John? Where?" Martha begged to know. " John, John please... JoHn... jOhn... john..."
_

John Smith began another flash, and heard a Raggedy Man, say, "Hey there buddy. It's me, you! Anyways, now you have to go with them. Find Donna. Absorb her Time Lord Consciousness. Alright? Then, either the flashes will stop or, you can escape them, by going to a place that you'll remember, Pete's World. Listen, sorry, got to go, urgent business on this end. Good luck, Doctor!"
_

John woke up in the Naismith mansion. Dazed and confused he looked around the room. "Like that vessel, what had Martha called it? Oh, yes, the TARDIS. Both places seem familiar," thought John.
"Hel-" His greeting was quickly muffled and he heard a conversation just outside the door.
"Donna, sweetheart, this isn't easy for me to tell you, but, you have a sort of amnesia. There's a part of your life, a very small, but important part of it that you can't remember, and for good reason, so focus on me," rang another familiar voice, "Shaun said that if you remember or not, he's okay with your choice. It will change your life, so please, think about it."
A voice John had heard again spoke, "Grandad, what do you think? I know that it's my choice and my memories, but I need your thoughts, too."
"I think, personally, if I was you, that I'd like to remember." Wilf said to Donna.
"Alright. Let's do this then."
"Now, before we rush in there, we need you to put on a blindfold, because, before this process takes place, if you see him and remember him, you will burn up and die. So please, please. Let's be careful."
The pair entered the room, and John was asked to stand up, and put his hands on Donna's temples. From there, memories began to surge, racing through John's mind, as the Time Lord half of Donna came to her mind's forefront, and then out into John... Into the Doctor. When the consciousness of a Time Lord was safely removed, the half Doctor restored Donna's memories through physic inversion of hippocampus neurons, basically reversing the process he had gone through to lock them.
"So...many...memories...So...much...pain...andloveandlossandohmygod...STOPITITHURTS!" The half Doctor screamed, fainting, fading... away.

[from here to a yet later point, the protagonist is called the half Doctor]

Donna woke up, throughly confused.
"Grandad! Where's Shaun, and Mum and... Oh my god its him! But why can I remember him! Wait... Sorry, the memories are all a bit scrambled. It's like, I have all these memories from when I couldn't remember him and then memories from when I can. Think of it like, a bridge over ravine, the bridge connects the points where I couldn't and now can remember him. But I also walked through the ravine and up. So my memory is sort of, confused right now. Hey! Why can't I remember how to do all those things I did? The words are there but to me, they have no meaning."
"Same old Donna. Even when he left us, you never changed. I'm so glad to see you with us like this again." Wilf began to cry.
Without another word, the team moved the half Doctor to a bed in the mansion, and waited for him to wake up.
When he woke up, the half Doctor was a bit removed from his genial, lively self. The escape from death, that had been so lucky to succeed, took a lot out of him.
He had noticed Martha watching him sleep several times now. Every so often he'd wake up for a few moments, almost to reassure himself that he was still alive.
He had liked watching Martha. She reminded him of a sister, so devoted to keeping everyone safe and happy. But she was also a friend and a caring companion. He hoped she would accept his offer.