Hello again everyone! Thank you all for the favorites and follows, plus the reviews too! (Not to mention the patiently waiting, it's been a long week).
And, if you find any spelling errors, at all, feel free to go all grammar and spelling nazi on me. I'm a bit of an editing freak, so when I see a little mishap, it bothers me for so long :L
I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. All rights go to Steven Moffat and BBC.
The Doctor slipped in and out of consciousness. The last he remembered was sending Rose to bed from how exhausted she looked. The Satan Pit had drained her energy, just as the bomb had drained his.
The sphere was still intact and attached to his brain, but it blocked his memories.
The TARDIS let the Doctor sleep for awhile, but eventually got bored, and forced him awake by 'accidentally' crashing.
His body flew across the room and crashed against the console. It didn't do much good though. All he did was groan, still unable to wake.
Suddenly the Doctor fell to the floor with a thud. The TARDIS had rearranged the architecture of the console room. The control panel was now on the catwalks above the room.
His eyes fluttered a bit, but the Doctor was being stubborn, even if he didn't know it.
DOCTOR! the TARDIS mentally screamed at him. He needed to wake up. He needed to get his memories back.
The TARDIS started crashing through all of time in space, just to try to wake the last Timelord up.
The Doctor went face first towards the direction of the TARDIS doors, but his trajectory abruptly changed. His limp body slammed into the railing surrounding the room, causing him to gasp and finally open his eyes.
The TARDIS finally stopped whirling through the universe, not even caring what planet she dropped to.
The Doctor didn't know where he was at first; his vision was shaky and crossed. He was out of breathe from slamming into the railing. Even his back-up respiratory system wasn't helping.
He slowly collapsed to the floor, gasping for air.
"Rose?" he croaked out. He had to know that she was ok.
When he didn't get a reply, he sat up and called out again.
No answer.
The Doctor stood up and looked around, his vision finally clearing.
His mouth went agape at the sight.
"What?" he stammered. He turned around and around to get a good look at the unfamiliar console room.
"WHAT?" He voiced again. The last he remembered, the TARDIS console room was smaller and that it was mostly the color of bronze and copper. Where were the tall pillars? Where were the circles that covered the walls? The blue and green lights? Even the little coat hangers that use to sit by the door were gone.
The control panel reconstructed itself in the middle of the room as the Doctor gazed around.
"Just-just- what?"
The TARDIS purred in reply. She found it rather entertaining how confused her Timelord was.
The Doctor scrunched his eyebrows. Something else felt wrong...
He suddenly slammed his hands over the place where his two hearts sat. The Doctor looked down at his body. He was wearing a bow tie. An old suit that was not pin-striped, and shoes that were not converse.
He ripped off the bow tie and threw it on the floor. "Bow ties are not cool!"
The Doctor sighed in confusion and anger. "Did- did I party with the French again?" he wondered aloud.
His eyes widened when he heard his own voice. He wrapped his hands around his neck.
"MY VOICE!"
He set his arms by his side, his fist clenched.
"Rose? Did you make me regenerate in my sleep?!" If it was Rose who did this, he would be cross with her for a bit, but eventually forgive her. His pink an yellow human was too lovable to be mad at for long.
When he got no answer, he started to do the usual routine for regeneration.
"Oh no..." he spoke after running his new tongue over his teeth. "I'VE GOT NEW TEETH! JUST WHEN I GOT A NEW SET! JUST- ROSE! THIS ISNT FUNNY ANYMORE! THIS BETTER BE A FAKE!"
He huffed out a big breathe in frustration and headed towards the TARDIS kitchen.
"I need a banana," he muttered to himself.
The TARDIS was kind enough to make the kitchen the first room through the narrow hall way. She wanted to see his reaction to his new taste buds.
The kitchen was like how he remembered it-thank Rassilon- but he couldn't find any bananas. No apples either. All he could find was... Fish sticks and custard?
What a disgusting combination, the Doctor thought. How could those even go together?
He headed out of the kitchen, hoping to stumble upon one of the odder rooms of the TARDIS. He didn't want to admit it, but he had a huge banana plantation room somewhere.
He stumbled around for awhile, hoping the TARDIS would be generous like she was with the kitchen, and arrange the exotic room to stumble upon him.
When the Doctor's new, lanky and awkward legs started to ache, he finally found his special banana room. He walked through the apple grass and brought out his sonic screwdriver to unlatch a few of the ripened bananas.
"Ok, now to just-," the Doctor went speechless as he gazed at his sonic screwdriver.
"Oh no..."
Not only had his body and console room replaced, but his screwdriver as well. Instead of giving off a blue light, it gave off a green one. It looked suspiciously like the handle of a light saber...
"Ok, Rose. This is just getting ridiculous!" the Timelord yelled in anger. He could just picture Rose hiding behind the door, listening to his frustration with a smirk on her face.
He soniced down a few bananas, his mouth watering for the yellow fruit. He unpeeled one and took a bit. He slowly chewed it, waiting for it to taste amazing.
The Doctor spit out the fruit after realizing how horrible it was.
"It... it must be just a dud, that's all," the confused Timelord stated.
He picked another banana by random and tried it. He spit it out
immediately. "What the-?"
The Doctor was beyond confused.
"I'll just... I'll just try another one," he reassured himself.
Once again, he spit out the banana. "It's- it's just a bad batch."
Eat, spit out, and repeat. The cycle went on, barely being able to convince the Doctor of how in denial he was. "Just a bad batch", "Just not ripened enough", and "Too old" we're the most common excuses.
When the banana trees ran out of fruit to bare, the Doctor put his head in his hands. "Rose? Did you team up with the TARDIS or something?" It would explain how real it all felt. Maybe he was just having a nightmare. Yes, just a nightmare.
The Timelord looked up from his shell of annoyance and confusion. He noticed something. The room had extended.
The Doctor walked to the new territory, expecting something like a new patch of banana trees, but found something different. Pear trees, the Doctor thought menacingly. He hated pears.
He looked up at the ceiling that posed as a fake sky and shouted," Did you do this, Old Girl?"
The TARDIS spoke with silence. Though it was all very funny, she wondered what would happen when he saw the walls. The walls he won't remember.
"Oh, don't tell me you want me to try a pear!" the Doctor realized.
His ship responded with silence again.
"Fine," the Doctor muttered. He hesitated at first, his new and long fingers curling, not sure what to do. After a while of uncertainty, and battles between himself, he reached out to pluck a large green pear. When his fingers brushed the skin, he pulled back as if it had burned his fingertips. His face was wrinkled and riddled with disgust. The horrid little fruit even felt heinous.
The TARDIS creaked a bit, trying to encourage the unsure Timelord.
"Alright! I'll do it!" the Doctor yelled at her.
He huffed out a breathe and snatched the pear before she could complain anymore. He opened his mouth and raised the pear very slowly, stalling as much as he could. When the fruit finally reached his lips, he had to force his new teeth to champ down on it.
The TARDIS silently waited for his reaction.
The Doctor chewed it slowly, uncertain of how to describe the taste.
"Ok," the Doctor swallowed and tapped his foot impatiently. "I submit to this amazing taste, BUT I STILL. HATE. PEARS!"
He threw the pear behind his shoulder an stormed out of his new banana-and-pear room.
The Doctor started wondering aimlessly for Rose's room.
A lot of the doors looked the same, so he had to check in every single room he came across.
He found a Japanese spa, his library, and even a large ball room.
After finding 211 rooms that were not Rose's bedroom, he found the old dressing room where all the regenerations of the past were sent. The scarf, the question marks, even the original bow tie from his 2nd form. Not to mention the absurd cape he wore in his 3rd regeneration.
It was all there, and it would never leave, and almost never be disturbed. The only times the Doctor would ever look back on who he was, was when he thought of who he would be. He didn't know it, but after he lost Donna, he started spending his time in that room quite a lot. The Doctor would hold all of the most memorable items from all his regenerations, trying to grasp how they coped with dying.
Though he did this towards every ending of one form, he never found comfort in it. It only reminded him of how all things end.
Even the enteral, impossible man would become only a story in the end.
"Oh, finally! I can get out of this bizarre outfit," the Doctor bounced up and down on his feet, similar to a small child about to receive some sweets.
"And I can see how I look," the Doctor rubbed his hands over his face.
The excited Timelord bounced into the room, searching through all his old clothes and even the new ones he kept for future regenerations.
Pile upon pile, he couldn't find his pinstriped coat, converse, or his over coat. He knew he had a blue suit somewhere around there...
"Come on, can I at least find my tie?" the Doctor asked himself.
The TARDIS had really missed the tenth Doctor. She was glad to have him back and all, but she knew he wouldn't be able to find his old outfit. The blue suit was with him. His duplicate. And Eleven had left the old suit back with poor Amy Pond. It was all tattered and scorched from the crash, not to mention the regeneration power.
As the Doctor muttered and mumbled his complaints while he worked through the mess, he ignored the large floor mirror at the center of the room. He didn't want to see how this new regeneration looked compared to his last.
He was still a bit confused how this nightmare let him keep his personality, but not his face.
I guess it's a good thing, the Doctor thought. He was still the same person on the inside.
"YES!" the Doctor suddenly yelled. He was arms deep in a massive mound of jackets (none of which were the over coat) and held a tie in the air proudly. It was a miracle he found it. Plenty of his past embodiments wore ties, but he always kept a spare pin-striped tie.
He threw the tie into the only clean spot in the room (in front of the mirror) and continued to search.
The TARDIS took pity on the Doctor and scattered the elements of the suit through all the hills of clothes.
After what seemed like hours of searching, fueled by curiosity and want, the Doctor finally pieced together the whole outfit.
He didn't look in the mirror until he had all of his gear on. The Timelord didn't get to see his face for the first time often, he might as well savor the moment.
He covered his eyes as he blindly stepped in front of the mirror. "Ok, please be ginger, please be ginger, please be ginger..." the Doctor begged himself.
He removed his hands and opened his eyes. His jaw dropped open with a gasp.
"I look look so young!" the Doctor exclaimed.
He does look young for over a thousand years old, the TARDIS thought.
The Doctor let out a sad sigh. "And I'm still not ginger..."
He ran his fingers through his hair. "Dear Rassilon my hair is thick. Not to mention darker."
He examined his eyes to find they weren't brown, but green.
"If this is real, Rose did a pretty good job." He knew Rose was good with makeup, but not this good.
He smiled in the mirror to confirm his earlier speculations.
"Yep, new teeth." the Doctor noted. "And I'm taller as well!"
The TARDIS creaked in anticipation. He needed to finish the routine of new-body-and-face. She had to show him the walls. The reality of it would tell him that this isn't some sort of dream. If only it was...
"What? Am I taking to long for you or something?" the Doctor asked.
The TARDIS creaked in reply.
"Fine. What do you want me to go and see?" the Doctor started to drawl on. "Maybe when I find Rose, we can go and visit Jackie!"
He rubbed his check in memory of when the over protective mother slapped him. He shivered at the thought.
"And after that we can go find the lost moon of Poosh!" the Doctor smiled at the thought.
This is how it was after regenerating. Even if this isn't a nightmare, you don't ask questions, you don't ponder on the past. You start where you left off. But the Doctor was questioning why he had to regenerate, and why only his face changed. He didn't remember getting seriously hurt in at the pit. He didn't know how the regeneration went wrong.
The TARDIS grumbled. Anything to convince him to keep moving.
"Alright then," the Doctor pronounced. "Allson-y!"
The TARDIS stayed silent as the Doctor bounded off to find Rose. But he wouldn't find Rose. Merely the absence of her.
I hope you guys don't mind the cliff hanger. Now, we must discuss important business. I am starting school TOMORROW.But, I will still update on Sundays, even if they are the worst days in the universe. Oh, and if school gets in the way.
And, if you don't believe me, I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I WILL ALWAYS UPDATE MY FANFICS.
See you guys next week!
PS, I couldn't help with that one little Sherlock reference...
