A/n: Matt Smith is leaving. Try not to cry. Try not to cry... D': okay, I'm crying. *sob* I really hoped we'd get one more season...

I just hope he goes out in a blaze of glory, he kisses Clara before he goes and tells her how he (obviously) feels, we get an awesome song to accompany his regeneration ("Ave, ave Undecim" which means "Bye, bye, Eleven." Or maybe "Vide circum vos, undecim" or "See you around, Eleven"? It'll probably be called Trenzalore or something, though. Or just a variation on "I am the Doctor." Anyway...) , and his last word is Geronimo.

Okay...I'm gonna go in a corner and cry now.

Oh, well, I just now noticed that Matt's news accompanies this chapter rather well...what a coincidence. Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy, in which case always ignore a coincidence.

Well, and I'm rather busy sobbing right now, so...anyway...

Geronimo.

-REMEMBER ME-

CHAPTER FOUR

Regeneration

Rory was from the 60th century, he lived on New New Earth. After that outbreak of plague on Old New Earth, the humans relocated. Indomitable, you would have called them. Indomitable. It's a good thing they are, or I never would have met him.

You would have liked him, I think. Or maybe not. You might have been jealous. But you never even remembered me, so maybe not.

I fell for him, you see. He grew on me. The silly man who made me laugh so hard and made me see the stars, made me appreciate everything I showed him. Because he never would have. He never would have seen any of these things, if he'd never met me.

It was so ridiculous, how we met. You would have laughed.

I met him in the market. And he smiled at me, and I smiled back. We didn't speak, but we connected. And I knew without a doubt I'd found the person I wanted to travel with.

It never would have happened, if I hadn't showed up and saved him from that ridiculous cross-dressing purple alien he'd somehow run afoul of.

It was chasing him around town with these yellow fruit things, and, it was so funny, and ridiculous. Because it had these weird tentacles and this angry expression on it's face. It was hard to see what was so threatening about it, but Rory was running from it like he was absolutely terrified.

Who knows how he'd managed to make it so angry. I'm glad he did, though. Or I might never have met him. I might never have traveled with him. I might never have fallen in love with him.

I was the one who saved him. He was stuck down an alleyway, the alien was almost on top of him, screaming in these high-pitched "wo-lo-lo-lo-lo!" sounds as it approached him, wavy tentacles and all.

And I appeared above him in my TARDIS, with a grin and a way out.

He stayed. And we fell in love.

It was him I was with when I saw you again.

It was him I was with when I regenerated.

I died, you see. I died saving you. And you didn't even know. You didn't even realize.

It was the Daleks. Those damn pepper pots were going to kill you. And they killed me instead. I took the bullet for you. Well, the ray-gun.

You saw, I know you did. You had a new face. I remembered that, I hadn't seen your third face yet. You were handsome, with that face. Tall and striking with ruffles and frills. You saw me, I know you did. Your eyes locked with mine, and you recognized me. Like you'd seen me before, but could never remember my face. I had intrigued you, but you were too afraid. I saw it in your eyes.

You watched me die for you, and you didn't even come back for me. You just drove off in that eccentric yellow car of yours that was so very you, and didn't look back.

And Rory was the one that saved me.

I was dying, on the street, after that damn Dalek shot me. He destroyed it, and he held me in his arms as I was dying.

"Clara!" he called. He was afraid. So afraid. He was crying as he cradled me. "Oh, Clara, please don't die."

I hadn't ever told him of regeneration. I thought I'd outlive him, not the other way around.

"Get me back to the TARDIS," I tell him, panting, dying, hurting. It hurts so much when you get shot by a Dalek. "Quick."

I don't remember quite how I got back to the TARDIS, but somehow Rory managed it. That clever boy. He took care of me, no matter how scared he was. I was scared too, but I couldn't let him see it.

"I should have told you," I tell him, now. Safe in the console room. I set us off, throw us into the time vortex. "I'm sorry. There's this thing that happens, to Time Lords, if we're about to die. It's called regenerating. I can heal every single cell in my body. But I'm going to change. Everything about me changes, and this me dies. I've never had to do this before. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I look at my hands, and they're glowing. "It's started," I tell him. I kiss him one last time with these lips, I tell him one last time I love him with this voice, and tell him to stand back.

Rory might be the last person I see with these eyes, but you're the last person I think of.

I explode, and it burns, and it hurts. Of all the things they tell us about regeneration at the Academy, they just had to skimp on the fact that it hurts so much. I can feel it healing me, though. Every cell. It rips through me, a wave of healing.

And then, it hurts even more, because then I'm changing. Every single bit of me, I can feel it dying and being replaced with something new. It burns, and burns, and burns through me. And I'm only sad that I'll never see you with these eyes again, these eyes that are my eyes. This face that is my face.

I don't want to change.

I don't want to go.

It's too late. I'm regenerating.

Run you clever boy, and remember me.