Chapter One

An Unlucky Beginning

There was a large crack before thunder boomed, causing the windows to rattle with the force of the sound. Allie wrapped her blankets around her even more tightly, creating a much tighter cocoon made of blankets as she struggled to pretend that she was somewhere, anywhere else. Somewhere where there wasn't a storm which sounded almost as if it was a hurricane rather than the quite ordinary summertime thunderstorm. The wind howled as lightning flashed with a crack only a short moment before the boom of thunder which made the windows rattle again. That was a close strike. She shivered, placing a thick pillow on top of her head as she wished the worst of the storm could pass and she could sleep peacefully.

BOOM! She paused before jolting upright. It wasn't thunder. It sounded like something crashed into her house. She blinked, believing for a few seconds that fear had finally made her completely insane and she was hearing things.

"Of course I'm hearing things," she muttered to herself, "I do have ears. Nitwit."

It was then that she heard the ceiling above her creak with footsteps. Or it was the house settling. She always had those two sounds confused with each other. After all, ever since she inherited the house, she formed the habit of hearing footsteps in the attic and finding nothing but boxes which were all that constituted her childhood and her family's past. There weren't much in the attic and at times it bothered her that so much of her family's legacy was completely unknown to her. Whole generations were unknown to her.

Thump! This time, she knew that someone had to be in the attic if she wasn't completely insane. Crack! Boom! She reached over to her nightstand to turn on her lamp as lightning hit at most half a mile away. She could almost hear a tree shattering off to the distance, just under the howl of the wind and the ruckus in her attic. Her lamp gave her only a few moments of light before she could hear the sound of every appliance in her home lose power all at the same time.

"And this is how all horror stories start. With a blackout and an intruder in the attic," Allie muttered to herself as she opened the drawer and fumbled around for her flashlight.

Turning it on with a click, she padded out of her bedroom with her flashlight in her hand, knowing full well that she was dressed in only a tired old yellow t-shirt with Mario and Yoshi emblazoned on it along with some Japanese text she had no clue what it said and a pair of cut-off shorts which started life as skinny jeans. She opened the door with no intention of being quiet. She knew that it was hopeless for her to sneak around – she had nothing worth stealing and she wasn't going to put up a fight anyways. Whack jobs love targets which fight back and she wasn't going to play that little game with whoever it was who came crashing into her attic.

Lightning flashed. A few seconds later, the rumble of thunder permeated the house. At the very back of her mind, she registered that the time it took for the sound to reach her meant that the storm was moving away. What made this be a back-of-the-mind type of thought was the fact that she gripped the rail of the stairway in order to keep her from falling down the stairs. She didn't want to accept the idea that she'd let out a frightened cry.

She resumed walking up the stairs as she heard more boxes fall onto the floor with a crash. She hoped that the boxes which fell didn't have anything fragile in them. She was less fearful by the time her hand was on the doorknob. If it was a thief or a murdering psycho, would they have come for her with a weapon in hand already? What bothered her was that light was coming out from around the door. Somehow, something in the attic was emitting light without using electricity.

Pushing the attic door open a crack, she saw a figure in the attic surrounded by the light which hit her in her eyes, nearly blinding her. It was when she heard someone groan as if they were in pain. She opened the door further, seeing a hunched over figure who was clearly distracted by something.

"We're in someone's attic!" the figure exclaimed, clearly a man, "of all places on Earth and you crashed into someone's attic!"

"My attic, to be exact," she stated as she walked into the attic, wanting to get to the bottom of the situation so that she could return to bed and maybe sleep at some point that night.

It was then that she saw the state of her attic. There was a rather sizable hole in the ceiling where she could see rain pouring in. What helped her see the rain was that there was a source of light in the room. In the center of where the roof was destroyed was a blue box, the doors open wide enough to show light, but also a rather large fire within. As soon as she looked at the blue box, the doors closed by itself with a boom.

"Who are you? How did you get into my attic and what do you want from me?" Allie asked quickly as she watched the man, noticing that he had a rather imbalanced gait as she turned her flashlight to illuminate him.

If she were to place an age based on the man's physical appearance, she would put money on him being somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five. He carried with him a black cane with a metal orb at the end near where he gripped it. He wore a top-hat and dressed in a black suit which clearly looked as if it had seen better days and this wasn't it. A bit of black hair peeked out from the top hat, contrasting with his pure blue eyes which made her think that she was quite wrong on his age. His eyes carried a weight to it which made her almost believe that he was much, much older than he seemed. His face was rather average with a flat nose and thick eyebrows. He gave her a smile which seemed to ooze good nature. She was almost willing to believe that he was harmless. But what troubled her was that he was hunched over, leaning on his cane and pain was etched on his features.

"Sorry for waking you. We had a bit of a crash land," he stated as he tried to stand up straighter, only to flinch and hunch back over, "this was the only place she could get to safely."

"Are you okay?" she asked, not making much sense out of the man's words other than the fact that he was speaking in some form of accent.

"Yes and no. Currently not okay, I'm a long way from okay. But I'll be fine soon. Of all the ways for me to break it to a human that I'm not…well, human…" he said before saying in a cheerful tone, "don't worry. I'll be fine and so will the TARDIS. She's closed the doors so she could repair herself. Just stand right there. Can you do that?"

"Okay, completely disregarding stuff I'm not understanding for now, why are you being so cheerful about dying? Do you actually think that I'm gonna stand here while you die?" she almost snapped at him in a near-panic as she started to walk closer to him.

"Stop! Stay there. I'm trying to keep you calm while explaining what's going to happen to me. Can you just wait a second?" he asked, watching her, his eyes alarmed by her actions as she backed off and gave him a nod, "Okay, good. I'm about to undergo a rather painful process. Every cell in my body is going to change radically and so will my personality. My memories will remain intact. Got it so far?"

"So your face and personality is going to change right in front of me. Oh yeah, like that's not a problem or nothing to worry about," Allie snapped sarcastically, "I don't even know who or what you are."

He shot her a cheeky smirk before removing the top hat with as much of a bow as he could muster, showing that he had a rather nice head of hair before saying, "I'm known only as The Doctor and I'm the last Time Lord in existence and, if I am correct, I'm also the first human-friendly alien you've met in your life. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

He placed his top hat on top of a tower of boxes before reaching over and shook her hand politely, much like a very polite gentleman. She could see just a slight sadness on the edge of his eyes.

"And I'm very sorry that I won't get to know you in this form, but I will get to know you after I regenerate," he said with a smile before setting the cane next to the top hat before standing up straight as what seemed to be golden particles wafted off him, making his skin and hair shimmer with a soft golden light.

He gave her what she could call a hopeful smile as he moved away from the boxes, placing a good amount of distance away from the boxes and the walls as the golden light started to glow in severity as more and more particles radiated from him. His arms flung out as his head snapped back quickly and synchronized with each other which made her think of a puppet whose strings were yanked as the particles became jets of brilliant golden energy coming off of his arms, head, and even legs.

She could almost make out his face as it changed. She could almost see his nose becoming a rather elegant and regal nose as his hairline took over what was his slightly large forehead which was becoming shorter. His black hair shimmered as it grew longer, becoming almost ringlets of a reddish hue as his chin became narrower and a bit sharper. His eyebrows became thinner and a bit fine. It was about at this time that she could hear him let out a cry of pain, which quickly became higher in pitch before quickly becoming a cry of surprise and almost glee as the energy dissipated.

"I'm alive!" the newly-regenerated Doctor exclaim in his new voice, which was rather high, "lemme take stock of everything real quick. Important bits first. Two legs. And they're almost equal in length!Nice! Last body had a shorter left leg. Gave me quite the trouble, I'll tell you that." the Doctor said, shooting Allie a grin before lifting his new left foot and hopping rather awkwardly, "Two feet, good. Five toes on each foot, good," the alien said, standing before stretching the two new arms in front of them, "Clearly, I got two arms. Right's clearly being quite obviously dominant. Why couldn't I get a left-dominant body? Anyways, five fingers on each hand," he said, wriggling his new fingers around with a gleeful chuckle before rubbing his hands over his face, "And one head with two ears, two eyes, a nose and a mouth. Oh and the mole's back! Ha!"

"How can you tell all that without looking?" Allie asked.

"Time Lord thing," the Doctor said lightly with a chuckle before frowning.

"What is it?" Allie asked, flashing her flashlight at the Time Lord and gaping at what she saw in his place.

"Something's out of place. Something I missed," the Doctor said with a frown, "something big and very, very noticeable. And I'm just not catching it."

"Yeah, I'd say so," Allie remarked dryly.

"Don't tell me," the Doctor said worriedly with a pause as he gave her a serious look as if he was going to ask the most important question in his life before asking, "I'm not ginger, am I?"

"I think hair color should be at the bottom of the list," Allie commented.

"My voice is a bit higher than I'm used to," the Doctor said, clearly deep in thought, "confound the regeneration process. My synapses always are on the fritz for fifteen hours afterward."

"Would you rather I tell you what you're not noticing?"

"But that'd ruin half of the fun. Brand new body. Kinda would like to figure everything out for myself. It's the exciting part about it all. Learning about my new body and personality. Everything's new and unknown. How is it not exciting?"

"Maybe because who you were not even five minutes ago is dead?"

"But I'm still alive," the Doctor said, "who I am hasn't changed. I'm still the same man I've always been. Just a new coat of paint. Think of it much like a chrysalis becoming a butterfly. The butterfly isn't a brand new insect, just is a new stage of life for the caterpillar. And very much like a new butterfly, nothing ever fits quite right afterward. Not like I could complain about that again."

"And why's that?" Allie asked.

"Because I've just used up my last regeneration," the Doctor said with a frown, "now, when I die... it's going to be permanent. No more me. No more traveling all of space and time in the TARDIS."

She watched as the alien nearly collapsed into a sitting position, obviously on purpose and out of depression. Suddenly, the lights turned on. She stared at the Doctor, who was sitting on the floor in the middle of the attic. She stared at the Doctor, realizing that before the alien regenerated, he was a man. The alien absentmindedly slipped out of the long coat they had been wearing and was frowning.

"I think perhaps you should look down," Allie said, uncertain about the alien's reaction to what she'd noticed for a while now.

She watched as the alien looked down in morbid curiosity before staring in abject horror at what the alien saw before poking at the offending left lump of flesh. The alien blinked, clearly in disbelief before closing her eyes. Allie could tell that the alien was taking a few deep breaths before returning to pay attention to the two mounds of flesh on the now-female chest in complete and utter terror.

"No, this just can't happen!" the Doctor exclaimed before tearing her attention away from the sight that clearly terrified the alien, "I'm just in a very effeminate body this time around. This isn't happening. Just not happening."

"You're a chick," Allie stated, wanting to beat that into the alien's apparently thick skull.

The alien jumped onto her new feet and strode so that the two of them were face-to-face, only mere feet apart. Allie noticed that she had a few more inches of height compared to the alien, who was giving her quite a glare of anger.

"No! This happens to other Time Lords, not me!" the Doctor exclaimed, now fuming as she continued to glare at Allie, "I'm the Doctor! I'm above that! I'm better than that!"

"So this…happens...during...what was it that you called it...regeneration?" she asked.

"Every now and again, there can be a slight change in gender, but it's uncommon" the Doctor stated off-handedly before returning to her panicking and frustrated mood, "this just can't be happening! Over thirteen hundred years and twelve bodies of being a bloke! And all of a sudden, this?!"

"Oi! Don't knock being a chick unless you've been one for years!" Allie exclaimed.

"Listen," the Doctor said, rounding at Allie with a glare, "I've spent my entire life up until now completely male. And now, I'm not. And it's not like I can up and do that trick again!" the Doctor snapped in anger before her expression changed to one of terror before collapsing into a sitting position on the floor, "I'm gonna die. This is it. I'm going to die."

Allie looked at the alien before approaching the now-woman. Her own head hurt over the impossibility of the situation of the alien who changed his appearance and became a chick. She hadn't even started to think about the blue wooden box which crashed into her attic. She placed a hand on the alien's shoulder.

"Being a chick isn't so bad. Well, most of the time."

"It's not just the gender change. Just that... if I were to suffer a mortal wound... no more regenerations. No more…me. This is the last. That was the last time I would ever be able to regenerate. I'm… I'm going to die. Completely and permanently."

"We're all going to die sometime," Allie said, trying to comfort the completely alien…well, alien.

She watched as the Doctor changed her mood yet again in such a short time, almost leaping to her feet, "right, yes. Horribly rude of me. I plum forgot to ask you for your name. I mean it would be the least I could ask, considering the fact that I crashed my TARDIS into your attic and then regenerated in front of you.."

"Allie Irving," she replied.

"Nice to meet you, Allie," the Doctor said with a polite smile before she collapsed as if she was a marionette whose strings were caught.

"Are you okay?" Allie asked, having failed to catch the alien.

"Yep!" the Doctor exclaimed with a grin, leaping back to try to land on her feet, but nearly fell thanks to a lack of coordination, "regeneration trauma. My body hasn't quite settled yet," the Doctor's mood, yet again changed, looking more embarrassed and uneasy before she asked, "Could I trouble you for some food?"

Author's Note: 3/3/13

So this popped into my head months ago when I had a fun what-if scenario pop into my head- what if the 13th Doctor turned out to be a chick? And this happened. I know that 13 is coming off a bit moody and a bit hyper and a bit of a chatterbox. Mostly because I'm envisioning that with all that regeneration energy within the body, it would be more like a really crazy caffeine and sugar rush. So full of energy and no idea of how to use it all up. So yeah, she's being completely manic due to the energy rush and her body (and mind) has yet to fully settle in. I'm really not trying to copy previous regenerations (like when 11 is trying to get used to his new body) but it's just what I'm seeing regeneration as being like in my head. Also, I'm keeping the original regeneration rule, mostly because it helps facilitate the story and the motivation for this Doctor. Oh the things I've got planned for poor 13. *evil laugh*

~Gregora

Author's Note: 5/13/13

So I decided to revisit this and rewrite whole parts of chapters and in the case of many chapters, whole chapters. I've been meaning to do this for a few weeks, but life happened. My awesome laptop died once again (it's yet to run for 6 months at a time without something breaking) but this time, it's out of warranty (story of my life). I did change 13's first dialogue a bit which made her seem less condescending (don't worry, she still would be later on) and threw in a few references. A lot of the edits I made was partially inspired by my feeling that this fic could be polished up a bit more and because some of my friends who are Whovians-in-training got kinda curious about 13 so I ran a few pick-up games of Adventures in Time and Space.

Unlike the "pick-up" games, I don't think I'll throw in the companion from that half because of the fact that my friend went out of her way to come up with the most brutal backstory ever and half because of the angst levels. And in my defense, most of the events that caused angst was her fault!

Also, just a point of interest: I know Moffat has entered a new doctor after 8. For the purposes of this fic, I'm ignoring that. Half because it would ruin some of this and half because I feel that it's demolishing a good amount of cannon with that move. (I mean c'mon! The song used for DT's farewell scene stuff was called "Vale Decem" or "Farewell Ten". And you're saying DT's Doctor isn't Ten?!*twitch* It's not going to make any sense explaining that to future whovians. "Why are they saying 'farewell Ten' to the Eleventh Doctor?" -rant over-)

I don't know how often I'll be able to update/rewrite chapters of this, but I will be doing that before I go back to writing the next new chapter (which I think I finished on the now-dead laptop...or nearly did finish).

Stay tuned!

~Gregora