The TARDIS landed on a dusty, grassless patch of some planet. The controls had been set to random and this is where his ship had decided to take them. "Well, Allons-y! Things to see! We don't have all day!" In his usual boyish excitement he was already out the door, leaving Donna Noble to catch up with him whenever she readied herself.
"Oi! Where have you taken us, Spaceman?" The red-head half-asked, half-demanded as she stepped out behind him and into a space that looked like pictures she had seen of the American Plains.
"Planet called Saso 7, apparently." The Doctor stated, looking around for some sign of locals. Before he could say anymore, a figure broke the horizon, booking it towards them and putting him instantly on high alert. He reached in his pocket and grabbed his sonic screwdriver, preparing for the worst.
"Run!" The figure yelled, revealing herself to be a girl who appeared no more than twenty, in tattered clothing that had been rather fancy once upon a time. The Doctor saw the fear in her eyes and grabbed Donna's arm and started to pull her back to the TARDIS.
The girl made impressive time and reached them in time to slam the door in their faces, closing them in and herself out. Through the crack in the door, The Doctor saw them, the reason she had been running… Veerals.
He heard a thunk against the door and he opened it up and pulled the girl inside, realizing that there was more to her than he had first realized--- she wasn't human.
She fell to the floor, writhing and moaning from pain as the Veeral inside her ate away at her organs and laid its eggs. "What is that thing?" Donna asked, obviously terrified at the insect like body she saw ripping through the girl's skin.
"It's a Veeril! Get back, that thing gets inside of you, it'll eat you alive and use your shell as a breeding ground." The Doctor responded hastily, yanking her back against the center consul, trying to keep her safe.
"But what about her?! Aren't you going to do something about her!? You aren't just going to leave her there…are you?" The Doctor could see that Donna was getting frantic. Watching a Veeral devour someone was hard on anyone, especially the first time.
"She can survive it, you can't!" His eyes were wide as he watched the scene in front of him unfold. She needed to do something soon or his statement to Donna would not be true.
"What? What do you mean she can survive? You said yourself that the bug was eating her alive!" Right, he had yet to explain that.
"Because she's a Time Lord, Donna! She can regenerate, she can save herself. You're just human!"
As if one cue, bright yellow-orange energy erupted from the mysterious second Time Lord's hands and head. Donna shielded her eyes from the bright light and huddled closer to the Doctor. "What's happening?" She asked, startled, trying to get some handle on the situation.
"Ahh! Yes!" He had been waiting for this since he had figured out what she was. "Yes! Reeeegeneration, Donna! Keeps Time Lords going. If our body is dying, we've got this nifty little trick to make sure it doesn't. We change every last molecule, become someone else."
"And that thing inside of her?"
"Gone! It can't survive the regeneration, the energy is too great, that's something only Time Lord's can handle."
The energy faded and a new girl was laying on the grated floor of the TARDIS. The Doctor instantly jumped forward to help her to her feet. She was smaller, Donna noticed, having seemingly lost a foot or so. Her dark skin had gone pale and brown hair had turned to blonde. "What just happened!?" A still confused Donna noble asked, realizing that she was being ignored.
"Captain!" The Doctor exclaimed, his eyes lighting up like those of a three year old boy who had just walked into a toy store. Even if Time Lord's lacked the ability to recognize each other through regenerations he would have known it was her. She was, after all, the only Time Lord who dressed like and called herself a pirate.
She blinked a few times, clearing the leftover regeneration fogginess from her mind before she accepted his hand and let him help her to her feet. "Doctor." That was all that was needed. Seconds later, he pulled her into a large hug, his skinny frame nearly engulfing her 5 foot body.
"You're short!" He commented with a sparkle in his eye. Yes, as a matter of fact he was going to make fun of her new body right after regeneration.
"And you're still not ginger!" The Captain replied without missing a beat. She knew how particular he was about that physical trait and as far as she knew, he still hadn't ever been a red-head.
The Doctor mock pouted and was about to respond when Donna Noble's voice interjected. "Oi! Spaceman! Tell me what is going on! Who is she? Do you two know each other?" Right, he thought to himself as Donna shot off questions. There was Donna.
"Donna!" He said, drawing out the A in her name for the fun of it. "This is The Captain! Captain, Donna, Donna, Captain." He introduced them, the boyish glee in his voice still present. He was excited, this was a new development.
"But who is she! What just happened?"
"Time Lord." The Captain responded before the Doctor could jump in and confuse the poor girl even more. "I'm a Time Lord. That was regeneration, I was dying… I saved myself by becoming someone else. Nifty little Time Lord trick, isn't it?"
Donna was still confused. "But… Doctor, I thought you said you were the only one."
His face instantly darkened and his demeanor changed to become more serious. "So I did." He turned and made his way to the TARDIS consul, hitting some buttons and flipping some switches as he made an attempt to free them from the planet before any other accidents happened. He set a destination for them, a nice,quiet little planet with absolutely amazing tea- perfect for the story time that they were about to take part in.
"I'm sure the Captain would love to tell us all about it once we get off this planet." Where had she been all this time? Did she really not know about the return of the Master? Or the Daleks and the Cybermen and the Slitheen? He squinted, toying around with the idea that she had just been drunk for the past hundred or so years on the pirate planet Raxzusa. It wasn't something he'd put past her. She had, after all, done it before.
"In the mean time," The Captain said, clearing her throat and joining the man at the consul. "I'm sure you'd love some help flying this thing considering you're one man… and one man who never passed his driver's test." She winked at him as the all too familiar whirr-whirr sound filled the room. He returned a little smile and nodded to some levers and buttons opposite of him that needed to be handled. Yes, a little help would be nice.