Prolog: The Parting of Ways
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All right, so the following is an AU version of the Doctor's Tenth Regeneration. Hopefully I'll get into the series soon. R&R if you could. Let me know what you think :-)
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Who would've thought that his own TARDIS would be the thing to do him in? Figured the 9th Incarnation of the Doctor. Well, technically it was Rose who did him in, but with a little bit of help from a friend. Now he was going to regenerate, and there was no to ways about it.
As he manned the controls, he felt the process beginning. His cells where beginning to change, he was beginning to change. Now if only Rose would understand, the Doctor would make her understand, even if it wasn't in this form.
"What happened?" Questioned the Beautiful Blonde that had been resting on the floor of the TARDIS's control room. She was beginning to come to, and slightly groggy after the Doctor had removed the energy from her body. "Don't you remember?" Came the non-committed response.
"It's like," Commented the Blonde, the ever faithful Rose Tyler, as she raised to her feet pausing to find the right words. "There was this singing."
"That's right. I sang a song, and the Darleks ran away." Replied the Doctor, trying to remain cheerful for Roses sake. All the while he kept piloting the Time Machine with an ease born of experience.
"I was at home," Said Rose, trying to remember the events leading up to this situation. "No I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS. There was this light." The Doctor's face began to drop into sadness, the energy of his regeneration was slowly beginning to show. He hid his hand hoping to hide it for as long as possible. "I can't remember anything else."
The Doctor wasn't sure how to reply to this, his usual bravado didn't exactly cut it, and his end was playing on his mind. Looking over at the woman he had come to know, the Doctor silently wished he had more time but it wasn't meant to be. "Rose Tyler." He threw out there, with a short desperate laugh. "I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona! Not the City Barcelona, the planet." Babbled the 9th Incarnation, really starting on a roll, trying to hide his pain. "You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses." He continued laughing, as Rose laughed with him. "Imagine how many times you'd tell that joke, and it's still funny."
"And why can't we go?" Queried the ever questioning Rose Tyler, a small inkling tickling at the back of her skull.
"Maybe you will. Maybe I will. But not like this." Responded the Time lord, turning back to the Control Panel of his machine.
Rose finally begins raising herself to her feet, as she utters "Your not making any sense."
"I might never make sense ever again. I might have two heads, or no head." He exclaims, his manic energy returning as he lets out a laugh that pretty much cries 'Insane Man Here!' to the world. "Imagine me with no Head! And don't say that's an improvement." The Doctor now has Rose smiling at his slight wackiness. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with." Now Rose's smile is beginning to falter.
After a few moments, the Doctor's body racks itself with energy, doubling the Time Lord over. Approaching him, Rose is stopped with a gesture and a "Stay away!" from the Alien himself. The pain is now coursing through him, ignorable no more. "Doctor, tell me! What's going on?"
"I absorbed all the energy of the time vortex, and no one's meant to do that." He let out, the pain evident now. "Every cell in my body's dying."
"Can't you do something?" Questioned Rose, looking worried and sounding desperate.
"Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death." The On Coming Storm responded, a wave of pain hitting as he pauses for a moment. "Except, it means that I'm going to change." The 9th Master of Time exclaimed a look of mock happiness beginning to mingle with the look of pain. "And I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face." He utters as his look turns to sorrow. "And before I go..."
"Don't say that!" Interrupted Rose, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"Rose, before I go. I," The Lord pauses, grinning. "just wanna tell you, you were fantastic! Absolutely fantastic." He pauses again and calms down a little. "And you know what?" He asked, as Rose shakes her head slightly. "So was I." he replied his usual manic grin wider then ever, as even Rose smile a little even in her grief.
Then without warning, the Doctor began exuding a bright yellow energy from every orifice. Rose stood back as the regeneration process took hold. Every cell in the Doctor's body began to change. Rose took a couple of steps back, and shielded her eyes from the light.
Slowly the Doctor's new incarnation began to take shape, and the process came to a slightly anti-climactic stop. The new Doctor had become a somewhat handsome man with a tall and lanky body, shaggy blonde hair, a rough goatee, tanned olive skin that would make a supermodel jealous, twinkling deep blue eyes, and hands that were shorter then was the human norm for someone of his stature.
This new Doctor took a few moments to adjust, before looking over at Rose. "Hello. Oka-" This new Doctor gulped, not quite use to this new body. "Taste's like toothpaste. Weird!" He pauses for a second. "Now where was I?" Questioning himself, the Doctor collected himself. As he remembers his eyes light up, and a quirky grin crosses his face. "That's right, innit? Barcelona!"
All the while, Rose is staring at him, a look of confusion and sadness spreading and staying on her face as she takes in this new strange man that has taken the place of the Doctor, HER Doctor.
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The new Doctor is fiddling with the controls of the TARDIS, still dressed in the clothes of his recently regenerated predecessor."Let's see 'ere. 6 PM, Tuesday. Five thousand and four, no, better make that six, don't really wanna run into Clacko again." He muttered out loud. Rose apprehensively approaches this new person, wondering what in the heck just happened. "Course set fer Barcelona!" He utters confidently as he steps away from the controls, turning to his befuddled companion. "Now then, waddo I look like?"
The 10th Version of the Doctor doesn't even give Rose a chance to reply, as he excited tries guessing himself. "No! I godit! Let's see 'ere." The Doc begins checking off limbs and parts. "Got myself some legs, arms, hands! Slightly small for my liking, but hey, what cin you do, right?" The Lord of Time asks retorically. "Hair! Plenty of hair to be sure. 'N' I 'ave a beard. Always wanted to 'ave one but I never quite got round to it, ya know? Little bit thinner, but no matter I'm sure I can work something in." He finally stops the self assessment and turns back to Rose, grinning with child like glee. "So, what do you think? Good? Bad? The guy with the Gun?" He queried.
"Who are you?" Asked Rose, apprehensively. Questions about the location of her Doctor and who this strange new man was were running through her mind.
"I'm the Doctor." Was the enthusiastic reply.
Rose shook her head, refusing to believe that. "No, where is he? Where is he? What have you done to him?" She put to him in increasingly worried tones.
"You saw me change, right? I changed. Kinda suddenly I admit, but I changed." Was the reply.
"I saw you sort of explode and then you replaced him, like a, a, a teleport, a transnet, or a body swap or something." Finally growing in confidence and anger she approached the new Doctor. "You're not fooling me. I've seen all sorts of things - nanogenes, Gelf, Slitheen." The Girl from the Estate pauses, the realization that this man might actually be Slitheen hitting her. "Oh, my god, are you Slitheen?"
"I ain't no Slitheen," commented the Doctor calmly and authoritatively.
"Send him back. I'm warning you, send the Doctor back. RIGHT NOW!" Cried Rose desperately wanting her Doctor back.
"Rose, it's me! The trusty old Doctor." Intoned the Doctor, equally desperate for his friend to accept what was going on. "I kicked the proverbial bucket so to speak, to save my skin I 'ad ta change my body. Every single cell. But essentially it's me, right?"
"You can't be." Uttered Miss Tyler, not wanting to believe this new man was the one she had come to care for.
"Then how could I remember this? The very first word I uttered, trapped in that basement thing, surrounded by shop window dummies of all things, not so long ago. I took your hand, I said one tiny little word. 'Run!' wasn't it?" Replies the Doctor, taking Rose's hand in the process, his piercing blue eyes begging the young lady before him to believe in him as she had always done. "My Doctor." She uttered quietly, finally believing. The Doc grinned his boyish grin, releasing her hand and taking up the controls of the TARDIS again. "'N' We never really stop did we? Traversing time 'n' space. Running all over the flamin' show. Occasionally we 'opped. And that one time on Faust Twelve, where we had to Chicken Dance, but that's neither here nor there..." The new Doctor finally stopped noticing the defeated depressed look on Roses face.
"Can you change back?" Questioned Rose innocent, so desperate for her Doctor to return. "Do you want me to?" Asked the Doctor.
"Yeah." Was the reply.
"Umm, huh." Came the awkward response to a otherwise simple request. "Can you?" Came the determined question.
"Not particularly, no." Came the response that Rose new was coming but hoped wasn't the case. There was a few moments of awkward silence. "You wanna 'ead back to yer mudders?"
"Do you want me to?" Reply Rose a little to quickly.
"Not really, no. But it's your choice 'n' all, if ya wanna go 'ome." The Doctor stops, allowing a another brief but awkward silence to pass. Their looks say it all, this isn't Roses Doctor, and this updated version figures he'll never be able to replace him. "Right-o then. Cancel Barcelona!" Stated the Doctor as he started changing the controls of the Time and Dimension machine to send them back to the Powell Estates, and the home of Jackie Tyler. "Let's try London, Powell Estates. Say... the 24th of December. Consider it a Christmas Present, right?"
The 10th Generation Time Lord looks slightly smug as he finishes setting the controls. "There ya go." The TARDIS begins emanating its usual grinding noise as it changes chronological and spacial directions in the Time vortex.
"We're going home?" Asked the slightly reluctant Rose Tyler. The Doctor shrugged, leaning up against the central control panel. "Up to you really. Back to yer mum. It's all waiting. Beans 'n' mash. Sussies 'n' chips." He pauses. "No, wait. Christmas. Turkey!Though, knowin' Jackie, Nut Loaf'd be more up 'er alley." Rose let off a small grin. "Ah Ha! A smile!" Cried the Time Lord, glad to have provoked a positive emotion this time. "No it wasn't." Was a shy reply, the grin becoming slightly bigger. This set off a short "Yes it was/No it wasn't" Argument between the two of them.
"C'mon, love. All I did was change..." Uttered the Doctor with a grin, before suddenly having a flash of energy run through his body, doubling the Time Lord over in pain. "What?" Queried Rose suspiciously. The energy courses through the Doctor's body again as he attempts to reply again. "Uh oh!" Cried the Doc as he clutched the control panel for support. "Are you alright?" Asked the Blonde.
The Doctor released a small parcel of energy from his mouth in response. "What's that?" Asked Tyler again, as the energy evaporated into the air. "My regeneration is goin' a little screwy..." Blurted out the Time Lord as he began dry retching.
"Look, maybe we should go back. Captain Jack would know what to do." Suggested Rose.
"Ack, he's got plenty ta do at the mo, rebuildin' the Earth." Responded the Doc, as he stumbled around the control centre. He notices one of the switches on the console. "I haven't switch that one in years." He uttered as he flipped the switch, causing the TARDIS to rock like a sinking ship. The question - "What are you doing?" was put to the Doctor by the ever faithful Rose.
"Putting on a li'l speed!" Cried the Doctor in amazement as me began flipping switches and twisting dials. Rose caught onto one of the handles of the Control Console and held on for dear life as the Doctor sent the decades old Time Machine hurtling through space. "C'mon you beaut of a machine! Faster! Faster!"
"What are you doing?" Screamed Rose as she held on.
"Going faster! Putin' a skid mark or three in the vortex." Cried the Doctor a mixture of mania and insanity in his voice. For a few moments he manages some clarity. "The regeneration's gone cock-eyed." He uttered apologetically as a skull-spliting head ache crashes through his head. "Oooh, my head..." He groaned before the crazied look returns. "Let's good faster!"
A light bell begins to toll in the control room. "What's that?" Asked the Doctor's assistant.
"We're gonna crash! We're gonna crash! 'N' it's gonna be pretty damn sweet!" Jived the Lord of Time as he danced around the Controls.
"Well do something!" Came the reply.
"To late, 'old on ta somethin'!" Cried the TARDIS's designated driver.
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I know this is pretty much the end of the first season and the Christmas special of Doctor Who, but I wanted to kinda introduce my AU Doctor. Will try and get the first episode up soonish. But let me know what you think.