A/N - Terribly sorry if you're reading any of my other stories and waiting for an update... This popped into my head one day and I wrote nearly half of it in my math class so it took hardly any writing time out of the others! I just wanna say, I haven't seen much Classic Who (sadly) so I'm not sure if they explain regeneration. If they do, please forget what you have learned while reading this. And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for the possible feels at the end... Also this is un-beta'd so if you see any mistakes please tell me! Enjoy...

Disclaimer - The idea for regeneration along with Doctor Who and Time Lords and...skrew it...I own none of this...

Regeneration. The process Time Lords use to repair themselves when they would otherwise be dying. Over the millennia that Time Lords have been using this, there are still some that are confused by the process. In this short reading, you will find what you need to survive your first regeneration with your sanity. Although, if you still find yourself confused afterward, then do try to keep your wits about you when you find yourself regenerating.

Body

Regeneration was made to be painful. It's a self-preservation technique. Make something painful enough so no one wishes to so it again. Depending on what causes you to be on the receiving end of a regeneration changes how painful it will be for you. For example, some sort of projectile hits you. In one of your hearts, stomach, any major artery, what have you. You will feel the cells around the area die, each and every individual cell. The feeling is reminiscent of the tingle one feels after blood rushes back to a foot or hand. Only increased one hundred fold. Instead of an annoying stinging sensation, one feels as if they are being run through with spikes. The feeling will branch outwards from that point, thankfully growing duller along the way. When the regeneration occurs, you will fells as if you are surrounded by little, and not so little at some points, spikes.

For those that have ingested a poison are not as lucky as the previous. The sensation will be the same but it will be the worst along the path the poison followed, often leaving the Time Lord incapacitated.

Finally, the worst fate is for those that have been affected by something that targets the whole body, such as intense radiation or a hit from a Dalek ray. They receive no reprieve from the intense stabbing. Their entire being has the worst of the sensation.

If one has a strong will, they may be able to dampen the pain slightly. However, it is not advised for it will cause a catastrophic amount of energy to be released, causing more harm than good.

The act of regenerating is different for everyone and each regeneration. The ways you can regenerate are; a slow morph, cocooning, a morph between both bodies until it finishes, instant change, and a 'fiery explosion'. While these are not 'set' to a certain regeneration, the first three usually occur when one is unable to stand. The last two are so intense that they only happen when you are standing, or else the regeneration energy wouldn't be able to escape correctly, causing blow back and death.

Don't be surprised to find you have changed quite dramatically after regeneration. This should be the least shocking to learn about for you should have seen your genetic providers after they have regenerated, or at least someone around you. But for those who don't know, you're entire appearance changes. Sometimes, the change is so extreme that you may change genders. It is also not uncommon to find that as you grow older, the bodies you obtain after regeneration grow younger, with fewer defects. It is not always the case but it seems to trend with most Time Lords.

Another thing that would be helpful to know is that you can choose what you look like. Well, you can have a template in your mind of what you wish to look like. For those that have tried this, the results have varied dramatically. Some are in too much pain, physically as mentioned earlier or mentally as will be mentioned, to stay focused on the image and either end up with something completely different or they look similar to their template but parts of their face, hair or eye color, or their physique is slightly skewed.

A different tactic you may try is simply focusing on one word. Such as handsome, tall, athletic, and so on. Once again, since those are covering very broad areas, you may not be pleased with what you end up with. All in all, you may simply wish to allow your regeneration occur naturally, unhindered and see what you end up with.

Mind

In the academy, they explain how you change as a person after regeneration but they don't go into detail how the person you are now dies and a new person goes flaunting away. Every little tick, particular and peculiar like and dislike, and sometimes even loves become foreign to this new person. There are signs, apart from the stinging pain mentioned earlier, that act like a doomsday clock to the appearance of this new person.

Not long after the stabbing begins to work its way across your body, you start to feel your mind begin to change. More specifically, all the memories you have acquired in that body begin to…alter themselves. It is something akin to aging. A Time Lord's mind retains a perfect account of everything that happens in their life with the ability to remember exactly what happened to them, down to the last breath. When it comes to regeneration, however, some things become a bit fuzzy.

Happy memories, for example, stay happy but the reason they were happy become lost, like when you hear a joke so many times that it is no longer funny, or, similar to aging from a child to a teenager and so on, your tastes change so you don't find it amusing anymore.

The same cannot be said for sad memories. Heartsbreak and tragedy stay the same throughout the regenerations. Even if your morals shift severely, that pain stays with you for all of your lives.

By the time you finally begin to regenerate, you are in so much pain and many even forget that they are regenerating. A few, not many but still quite a few, if they have lived long enough or are not prepared for what is about to happen to them, go mad from the ordeal.

In the end, even when each regeneration is unique, every Time Lord that regenerates shares one thing with the other. They don't wish to change. They have grown comfortable with the life they have led and don't wish it to change. They know that as soon as they do, they can't go back to how it was before. Change causes the past to die and brings forth an uncertain future. One last thing passes through each and every Time Lord that is on the verge of regeneration. Before the last of their brain cells decay and die to be replaced immediately, five words fly through them.

"I don't want to go."

Again, so sorry...kind of. I'm very Moff-tastic when I want to be... soooooooooooo...like it or hate it, please review!