Jack stood straight and tall as the Daleks advanced on him. He hadn't gone down without a fight, and he wasn't going to go down running away either.
"Exterminate!" the lead Dalek said.
Jack stuck his chin out and puffed up his chest. "I kinda figured," he said, lacing his voice with as much sarcasm as he could muster.
There was a bright light, and the next thing Jack knew, he was waking up on the floor with a gasp. He glanced around wildly, but there were no Daleks in sight. With a groan, he got to his feet and staggered towards the hallway that led to the control room. He looked down and noticed piles of dust all around him.
Wondering if the Doctor had somehow managed to refine the delta wave so that it would only kill the Daleks, Jack rushed down the hallway.
"Doctor!" he yelled, skidding to a stop in the control room doorway. "Doctor, what-" He cut himself off mid-sentence and stared, slack-jawed and speechless for the first time in longer than he could recall, at the tableau in front of him.
Rose stood in front of the TARDIS, and the Doctor knelt at her feet, looking down at the floor. Tendrils of golden light poured through the TARDIS doors and emanated from Rose's body. Even her eyes were sparkling gold instead of her usual rich hazel.
"I can see everything," Rose said, and her voice sounded strange to Jack. It was as if someone else was speaking through Rose, or more specifically like someone else, some goddess, was speaking with Rose, simultaneously and in harmony like they were one being. The Doctor was now gazing up at Rose. "All that is," Rose continued, "all that was... all that ever could be."
The Doctor shot to his feet. "That's what I see," he said, his voice tinged with wonder and horror in equal measures. "All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"
Jack stepped forward slowly. He was reasonably sure there was nothing he could do at the moment but he wanted to be ready if the Doctor needed him.
"My head," Rose said, and to Jack's ears she sounded more like Rose and less like the Rose-goddess hybrid. She also sounded scared.
"Come here," the Doctor said. Jack heard the smile in the Doctor's voice, and for the first time in hours Jack felt confident things were going to work out.
"It's killing me," Rose continued, still sounding terrified.
The Doctor took her hands in his and tugged her closer to him. "I think you need a doctor," he murmured. Before Jack had time to be proud of the Doctor for making a joke, he leaned forward and kissed Rose right on the lips.
Jack watched in shock as the golden light that was emanating from Rose and the TARDIS began to pour from her eyes to the Doctor's. When the stream of light stopped, Rose's eyes were back to normal whilst the Doctor's ice blue was obscured by gold. The two of them seemed to stare into each other for the space of a breath or two before Rose collapsed into the Doctor's arms.
"Rose!" Jack exclaimed. He lunged forward and slid the last few feet on his knees so that when the Doctor lowered Rose to the ground, he could place her into Jack's waiting arms. "Doctor, what's happened?"
The Doctor said nothing and straightened up, facing the TARDIS. He inhaled deeply, and then exhaled slowly and evenly. The golden light flowed from him back into the TARDIS, and as the last of it drifted through the doors, they shut quietly behind it, leaving the blue box looking completely normal. He took another deep, even breath, and a smile more contented than any Jack had ever seen on the Doctor's face caused small crinkles to appear at the corners of his eyes. He knelt down beside Jack and Rose and wordlessly reached out to stroke Rose's cheek.
Jack's arms tightened slightly around Rose's limp frame. "What the hell just happened, Doctor?" he asked grimly. "Is she going to be all right? Where are the Daleks?"
The Doctor raised his eyes to Jack's and winced visibly. He looked back at Rose, kept looking at her as he spoke to Jack. "She's going to be fine," the Doctor said quietly. "The Daleks are gone. She killed them all."
Jack looked down at the slight girl in his arms in shock. "She killed them? She killed them all?" He looked back up at the Doctor. "How?"
"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "She absorbed the Time Vortex. Phenomenal cosmic powers and all that. She saved us." He got to his feet, opened the TARDIS doors, turned back to Jack and Rose, and stretched out his arms. "I'll take her," he said.
Jack started to say it was fine, he'd take her, but something in the Doctor's face had Jack biting back the words and handing over Rose after he'd gotten to his feet. The Doctor shifted her in his arms until her head was resting on his shoulder. He turned and carried her through the doors.
Jack moved to follow, but the Doctor looked over his shoulder with a carefully blank look that stopped Jack in his tracks. "If the TARDIS doesn't let you in," the Doctor said, "I can't make her."
Jack blinked at him, confused, but the Doctor simply continued into the console room, stooping down to lean Rose against one of the coral columns. Shaking his head, Jack stepped towards the doors. Unlike every other time he crossed the familiar threshold, he felt a strange sense of resistance, as if the air had gone thick. The Doctor stood next to Rose, arms crossed and face impassive, watching as Jack stepped forward. Narrowing his eyes, Jack murmured something indistinct and affectionate to the TARDIS, and although he still got the sense he wasn't entirely welcome, he was able to push through the doorway.
The TARDIS shuddered around them once, twice, then settled back down, the only indication that something was wrong being the change in pitch of her humming.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows and crossed to the console. "Interesting," he said softly, stroking the controls soothingly.
Jack shut the door behind him and strode up the ramp impatiently. "Please explain to me what just happened," he said tightly.
"Unfortunately," the Doctor replied, "I haven't the time." He nodded towards Rose. "She's waking up," he said mildly. He began programming a trip into the Vortex into the controls and nodded towards Rose. "Go on, I'll take care of this and be with you in a mo'."
Jack shook his head in frustration, but knelt down at Rose's side anyway. He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Hey, you," he said softly. "Wake up, sleepyhead. You're missing the We Saved the Universe party."
Rose stirred, blinked herself awake. She glanced blearily back and forth between Jack and the Doctor. "What happened?" she asked.
"I've been wondering that myself," Jack muttered under his breath.
The Doctor looked over at them from where he was leaning over the console. "Don't you remember?" he asked. Jack thought he detected a faint trace of surprise, but it was difficult to tell with the Doctor when he was being cagey, which he definitely was.
Rose sat up straighter and shook her head slightly as if trying to clear out cobwebs. "It's like... there was singing?" She glanced hopefully at Jack, who shrugged.
"I think I slept through most of the good stuff, doll."
"You're right, Rose," the Doctor said, uncharacteristically cheery-sounding. "I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
Rose shook her head, dismissing this as patently false no matter what she did or didn't remember. "I was at home," she began, then shook her head again. "No, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS, and..."
Although Rose was staring sightlessly at the grating trying to remember what had happened to her, Jack was watching the Doctor carefully, which meant that unlike Rose, he noticed an echo of the golden light from before shimmer along the Doctor's hand, before he flexed it a couple times and the light dissipated.
Uh-oh, Jack thought, memories of the legends about Time Lords coming back to him. If that's what I think it is, things are about to get complicated.
"I can't remember anything else," Rose finally said. She looked up to find the Doctor watching her closely. Smiling, she glanced between him and Jack. "Well then, boys, aren't you gonna fill me in?"
"Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, using that special tone of voice he used when he named very special things. "And Jack Harkness," he added, and Jack was surprised to hear the same tone when the Doctor said his name as when the Doctor said Rose's name. "I was gonna take you so many places," the Doctor continued. "Barcelona," he said, "not the city Barcelona, the planet. You'd both love it. They've got dogs with no noses," he explained. He focused on Jack, a wry grin on his face. "Imagine how many times you'd end up telling us that joke, and it would still have been funny!"
Jack smiled, noting another faint streak of golden light racing from the Doctor's fingertips and up under the sleeve of his leather jacket. He knew what was coming; he knew what the Doctor was doing. He hoped that having him there would help make up for the fact that they'd never quite gotten around to explaining regeneration to Rose.
"Then why can't we go?" Rose asked, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.
"Maybe you will," the Doctor replied with a shrug. "And maybe I will. But not like this," he finished. He looked back down at the TARDIS controls.
"You're not making sense," Rose said laughingly. She pushed herself to her feet and Jack stood with her, one hand on her waist in support and, though she hadn't realized it yet, comfort.
"I might never make sense again! I might have two heads. Or no head!" He laughed to himself, but Jack shook his head slightly. Not helping, Doctor, he thought. "Imagine me with no head," the Doctor muttered.
Rose grinned and nearly stepped forward, but then the Doctor looked back up at Jack and Rose, his face suddenly serious. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with. Jack understands," he added. "You've heard of it, I'm sure?"
"Yes," Jack said, nodding and squeezing Rose's waist slightly. "I have."
Suddenly, a violent burst of golden light pushed the Doctor back from the console. He doubled over, clutching his stomach and wincing in pain. Rose pulled away from Jack's light grasp and rushed toward the Doctor.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed, reaching out to touch him. He scrambled backwards.
"Stay away!" he cried out. "Keep her back, Captain," he added through clenched teeth. Jack stepped forward and placed comforting but restraining hands on Rose's shoulders.
"Tell me what's going on," Rose said firmly. "One of you tell me what's happening."
"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex," the Doctor ground out. He made a visible effort to straighten up and lightened his tone. "No one's meant to do that!" Wincing again, he went serious. "Every cell in my body is dying."
"Can't you do something?" Rose exclaimed in horror.
"Yeah, I'm doing it now! Time Lords have this little trick, it's... sort of a way of cheating death. Except... it means I'm gonna change." He focused on Rose. "And I'm not gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face."
He forced a laugh, and Jack leaned down to whisper in Rose's ear. "It'll be all right, I promise." Rose shook her head, still worried and confused.
"Before I go," the Doctor began, and Rose tried to jump forward, though Jack still kept her back.
"Don't say that!" she said sharply.
"Rose," the Doctor said, and something in his tone had Rose backing down and leaning against Jack.
"Before I go," the Doctor continued, "I just wanna tell you - both of you - you were fantastic." He smiled at the two of them, beamed really, and Jack felt like no commendation he'd ever received whilst working at the Time Agency had come close to giving him the same sense of satisfaction as the look of pride for the two of them on the Doctor's face. "Absolutely fantastic," he repeated. "And d'you know what?"
Rose shook her head wordlessly.
"So was I," the Doctor said, a huge grin spreading across his face. Jack and Rose couldn't help but smile in return.
Then streams of golden light exploded in all directions from the Doctor's body, streaming particularly from his arms, stretched out wide, and his head, thrown backwards. Rose yelped and pressed instinctively back against Jack. Neither Rose nor Jack could seem to tear their eyes from the incredible sight in front of them, however. The Doctor's hair lengthened, his face reshaped itself, and after a few moments, the golden light died away and in front of Jack and Rose stood a completely different man wearing the Doctor's clothes.
Jack thought that actually seeing regeneration in action was possibly more impressive and definitely more terrifying than reading about it or hearing about it in campfire stories. He couldn't imagine what was going through Rose's mind.
The new Doctor looked down at himself, bemused, before looking back up at Jack and Rose and grinning. "Hello!" he said brightly. "Okay, ooh," he added immediately, swallowing and running his tongue over his teeth experimentally. "New teeth," he muttered. "That's weird."
Jack felt himself smiling a little, and decided he was probably going to like this new Doctor.
"So, where was I?" the Doctor continued, glancing back and forth between Jack and Rose. "Oh, that's right! Barcelona!"
Rose leaned against Jack and watched incredulously as some skinny bloke in the Doctor's clothes bounded over to the console and began pressing buttons and pushing levers. He muttered about the coordinates he was setting as he did so, but Rose didn't really register what he was saying.
"Jack..." she whispered tentatively. "Jack, what happened?"
"It's fine," he said. "He's fine."
Whatever else Jack might have said was interrupted by the skinny bloke, who had bounced and danced his way back to standing in front of them and was beaming at them proudly. "Well then," he said brightly. "What do I look like?"
Rose gaped at him and shifted closer to Jack.
Before Rose or Jack could reply, however, the bloke held up his hands to prevent them from doing so. "No, no no, no no no no no no no. No, don't tell me!" He shook himself experimentally. "Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands..." He circled one wrist with the other hand and flexed. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." His hands flew to his head. "Hair!" he exclaimed, clutching it in his fingers. "I'm not bald! Oh," he added, running his fingers through it, "big hair!" His hands drifted down to his sideburns, which were long. "Sideburns," he said delightedly. "I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin," he mused. He slapped his flat belly thoughtfully and murmured, "Little bit thinner... that's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it."
Suddenly he froze with a look of wonder on his face. "I... have got... a mole. I can feel it, right between my shoulder blades, there's a mole." He rotated his shoulders a bit and then shrugged. "That's all right. Love the mole." Grinning, he focused on Rose. "Go on then," he said. "Tell me. What do you think?"
Rose blinked at him, unsure of herself and extremely confused. She shook her head slightly and then turned around and addressed Jack instead. "Who is he?"
"I'm the Doctor!" the skinny bloke said from behind her. She thought he sounded rather disappointed at her reaction, but she refused to face him again.
"No," she said to Jack, her voice gaining firmness. "Where is he? Where's the Doctor?" She gave Jack a split second to respond, and when he didn't, she whirled back on the skinny bloke. "What have you done to him?"
Crestfallen, the bloke looked between her and Jack. "You saw me, I... I changed," he said to her quietly. He gestured back to where the Doctor had exploded. "Right in front of you," he finished.
Rose took an angry step forward. "I saw him sort of explode," she insisted, "and then you replaced him, like a... a teleport or a transmat or a body swap or something." She gave him a cold glare. "You're not fooling me."
She turned back to Jack. "You said the Doctor is fine," she said, poking Jack in the center of his chest. "So where is he? And how do you know?"
Jack reached up and cupped Rose's cheek, his thumb making soothing strokes along her cheekbone. "He's right there, Rose. That's the Doctor."
Rose jerked backwards, shaking her head. Not Jack too, she thought wildly. "No," she told him. "No!" She turned back to the skinny bloke. "Send him back," she said, her voice rising. "I'm warning you, send the Doctor back right now!"
"Rose," he said pleadingly, "it's me. Honestly, Jack's right, it's me." He took a deep breath and leaned forward slightly. "It's like I told you, I was dying. To save my own life I changed my body. Every single cell, but... it's still me."
Rose glanced over her shoulder at Jack, who nodded encouragingly. "You can't be," she whispered to the skinny bloke.
He stepped forward until they were standing close together and gazed steadily into her eyes. "Then how could I remember this? Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar, surrounded by shop window dummies, oh, such a long time ago... I took your hand..." He paused and took her hands in his to emphasize the point. "I said one word," he continued, his voice dropping to an intense whisper. "Just one word, I said... run!"
Rose stared into his warm brown eyes, so different from the ice blue she was used to, but something inside her recognized something in those eyes, something deeper than color. Something like a soul. "Doctor?" she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Hello," he said with a grin.
Rose shook her head numbly and reached her hand back towards Jack. His fingers threaded with hers and he squeezed lightly in support.
The Doctor watched the gesture, the grin frozen on his face, before he leapt off to bound around the console again. "And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running." He pointed at Jack. "Picking up strays."
"Hey!" Jack said, but the Doctor was still smiling and Jack didn't sound particularly annoyed.
"One time we had to hop," the Doctor continued. "All three of us, d'you remember? Hopping for our lives!" He began to hop up and down on one leg, the grin shifting from happy to just a little crazy. "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your lives?"
Rose couldn't seem to react, couldn't make herself do anything other than edge closer to Jack. She could tell herself that the fact that Jack wasn't upset about what had just happened testified to the veracity of the skinny bloke's claim to be the Doctor with a new face, but of all the alien things she'd had to wrap her brain around since taking up with the Doctor, this one was the toughest.
At Rose's lack of reaction, the Doctor stopped hopping and trailed off his stream of babble. "No?" he asked tentatively.
"Can..." Rose swallowed, glanced at Jack, looked back at the Doctor. "Can you change back?"
"Do you want me to?"
Rose tried to read his expression but his face was new and so was the language contained in it, so she responded truthfully and hoped it wouldn't hurt him. "Yeah."
"Oh."
"Can you?"
"No," he said immediately, and Rose thought he sounded disappointed. She wondered if he was disappointed in himself for not being able to change back or in her for wanting him to in the first place. He looked down at the floor, and a muscle ticked in his jaw before he looked back up at her and Jack again. "Do you want to leave?" he asked.
Rose felt her jaw drop in shock. "Do you want me to leave?" She could hear an edge of panic in her tone and took a deep breath.
"No," the Doctor said at the same time as Jack said "Of course he doesn't."
Rose nodded slowly. At least she wasn't being kicked out of her home. Yet, anyway.
"But it's your choice," the Doctor continued. "If you want to go home..."
Rose said nothing, and she and the Doctor simply gazed at each other for a few moments until the Doctor turned to the console and began pressing buttons again.
"Cancel Barcelona," he said. He gestured Jack over to the other side of the console and the two of them slipped into their usual pilot and co-pilot rhythm. More evidence in support of the new face still belonging to the old Doctor, Rose supposed. "Change to London," the Doctor continued, "the Powell Estate, ah... let's say the 24th of December." He looked back up at Rose. "Call it a Christmas present."
He stepped back from the console and crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "There," he said. Jack watched the Doctor and Rose silently
"I'm going home?" Rose asked.
"Back to your mum. It's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast... no, Christmas! Turkey! Although... having met your mother... nut loaf would be more appropriate."
Jack snorted, and the Doctor grinned at him. "Just you wait, Captain. You'll see."
Rose felt the corner of her mouth turn up in a half-smile and quickly tried to reverse the impulse, but before she could school her features back to impassivity, the Doctor caught a glimpse of her.
"Was that a smile?"
"No," Rose returned.
"That was a smile," the Doctor said, a teasing lilt in his tone.
Rose shook her head. "No, it wasn't."
"Jack?" the Doctor said. "What say you?"
Himself smiling, Jack nodded. "You smiled," he said to Rose.
"No, I didn't," Rose insisted, barely resisting the urge to stamp her foot for emphasis. That, she knew, would only lead to gales of laughter from both men.
"Oh, come on," the Doctor said, suddenly irritated. "All I did was change, I didn't-" He broke off suddenly, gasping as the TARDIS jerked sharply before settling again.
"What?" Rose asked, confused.
"I said I didn't-" Once again the Doctor broke off on a gasp and the TARDIS shuddered around them. This time the Doctor also seemed to be racked by dry heaves.
Nimbly shifting her weight to keep from stumbling, Rose looked to Jack to see what he made of this new development. Unlike before, however, Jack looked alarmed.
The Doctor straightened back up, looking slightly shell-shocked. "Uh-oh," he murmured.
Rose edged cautiously towards him. "Are you all right?" she asked tentatively. She still wasn't entirely convinced he was who he said he was, but if he really was the Doctor then she certainly didn't want anything bad to happen to him.
Before the Doctor could reply, a small stream of sparkling golden light poured from his mouth.
"What's that?" Rose asked, as alarmed as Jack now.
"Oh," the Doctor said cavalierly, "the change is going a bit wrong, is all." He fell to his knees, grimacing as if in excruciating pain. Jack rushed around the console and knelt down next to the Doctor. He took one of the Doctor's wrists in his hand and felt for a pulse.
"Is there somewhere we can go?" Rose ventured. "I know Gallifrey's gone, but..." she trailed off, unsure if it was even wise for her to bring up his lost planet at a time like this.
With Jack focused on the Doctor's pulse and Rose focused on the Doctor's face, neither of them noticed him reach for a dusty lever on the console. "I haven't used this one in years," he said, sounding delighted. He flipped it, and whatever change it made caused the TARDIS to shake violently. Rose stumbled a little, grabbing the console to keep from falling over.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed.
"Putting on a little speed!" the Doctor said maniacally. "That's it!" He continued to turn knobs, seemingly at random. Rose felt like each turn of a knob or push of a button caused the TARDIS to shake even more violently. The Doctor, for his part, was babbling nonsense about time limits.
Rose stumbled around the console until she reached Jack, who was watching the console screen carefully. "On the plus side," he said as the TARDIS jerked sharply sideways, "we're still headed for London on Christmas Eve."
After another sharp jerk, Rose glared at the Doctor. "Stop it!" she yelled.
The Doctor scowled at her. "Oh, don't be so dull! Let's have a bit of fun!" He punctuated his sentences with button-pushing. "Let's rip through that vortex!"
Suddenly, he stilled, gripping the console for support and looking Rose straight in the eye. The warmth and soul she had seen earlier were back, and she felt the urge to cross to him and stroke his forehead comfortingly. "The regeneration's going wrong," he said through gritted teeth. "I can't stop myself." He grimaced in pain again and doubled over, one arm clutching at his midsection and the other still braced against the console. "Ah, my head," he groaned.
Just as quickly as he'd sobered, he became manic again. He shot up straight. "Faster!" he shouted. "Let's open those engines!"
Some kind of warning siren sounded through the console room, and Rose looked at Jack, fighting to keep the panic out of her voice. "What's that?" she asked him, speaking loudly to be heard over the din.
The Doctor popped up next to her like a deranged jack-in-the-box. "We're gonna crash land!"
Rose sighed in exasperation and turned back to Jack. "Can't you do something?"
Jack shrugged and shook his head as the Doctor pronounced that it was too late and they were out of control. He began to skip and jump around the console, laughing as he went. Rose staggered over to Jack. "He's going to kill us!"
Jack flipped a couple switches before shifting his focus from the console screen to Rose. "Actually, there seems to be a method to his madness. It's gonna be a hell of a bumpy ride, but I'm thinking it's reasonably likely we'll arrive in one piece."
A particularly violent shudder and jerk had Rose and Jack gripping the console for dear life, and Rose raised her eyebrows at Jack.
"Did I say reasonably?" he said. "I meant probably. Probably likely."
Rose shook her head, the ghost of a smile crossing her face as she braced for impact.