Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: Once again, I would like to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who is reading this! Just as a heads up, we are nearing the end of this particular story. I expect to have only one or two more chapters after this one, although I do intend to have a sequel that will continue to tell Rose's story after the events occurring within this one. Now, on to the current chapter!

Chapter 10 – Born Anew

The first thing that Rose noticed as she slowly clawed her way out of the fog of unconsciousness was the beautiful sound of music. It permeated the air around her, filling her grieving body and mind with a sense of peace and comfort. It wasn't the sound that she had finally come to associate with the Wolf, however. This was still the limitless sound of time, but it was more mechanical than that of the Wolf. It was the sound of a single universe, the ballad of adventure and a dying race. It hummed reassuringly at Rose, and she realized with a start that it was the TARDIS. Rose had never before been able to hear the TARDIS. Remembering that it was a slightly telepathic ship, she realized that she heard the music within her mind and not with her ears. Which must mean that Rose had gained some telepathic abilities with the changes that her body had undergone while she was unconscious.

Well, that's new, Rose thought to herself with mild amusement. She curiously wondered what else would come with the new changes to her not-quite-human-anymore body, although the fact that these changes had occurred not entirely due to her own wishes was unsettling and a bit angering.

Before the anger could manifest itself into golden rage, Rose noticed another presence in the back of her mind, the song of a lonely wanderer. Tinged with blue hues in her mind's eye, it was the sound of the universe, with a distinct alien-ish feel. Unlike with the TARDIS, Rose couldn't get any more information from the mental presence, almost as if there was a solid wall blocking her out. After a moment of confusion, Rose realized that it must be the Doctor, the original one, and that he was close by.

Rose groggily opened her eyes, allowing them time to adjust to the low lighting within the room. She noticed that she was no longer in the medical bay, but now within her own bed in her old room on the TARDIS. She rubbed her hand along the pink duvet, taking comfort in the old, yet familiar feel of it. Sitting up in the bed, she gently rested her back against the headboard to better take in her surroundings. It was definitely her old room on the TARDIS, and by the looks of it, not a thing had been changed since she'd last been there. Piles of her clothes still lay haphazardly strewn across the floor, along with opened pop culture magazines and empty tubes of mascara. Pictures of Rose with her family and with the Doctor were taped along the walls in the fashion that only teenagers could manage. A large window along one of the walls showed a simulated view of an alien planet that Rose could no longer remember the name of with purple grass, rose-colored trees, and a deep indigo sky. Gentle sunlight streamed in through the imitation window, all produced by the TARDIS itself, to land on a lonely man sound asleep in a dark pink, fluffy chair in front of the window. He was the only thing out of place in the room that looked as though Rose had only left yesterday.

It took Rose all of a second to notice each of these details. She was surprised at the speed that her mind was now able to process data, and it made her feel as though her brain had been trying to work through jelly for all of her previous years. She supposed that this was another consequence of the changes that she had gone through. Her mind had to be rebuilt to handle the power of the vortex, after all. It shouldn't have been surprising that it felt different and slightly telepathic.

Staring at the Doctor brought feelings of both sadness and relief for Rose as she noticed the changes that he had gone through. He had regenerated again since she last saw him. It had been eight years for her since she traveled with him; five years since she saw him last. But who knows how long it had been for him? They were in the time vortex right now, of that she was instinctively sure, so she could have easily popped in to find a younger Doctor instead of an older Doctor. But this one had clearly known who she was, so to was safe to assume that he was older than the one that she had known. This Doctor was slumped low in the pink chair, his hands awkwardly sprawled across his stomach, his head lolled to the side against his shoulder, and his long legs spread out across the floor. He was wearing a reddish button-up shirt with red suspenders, black pants that were too short for his long, skinny legs, and worn out boots that were laced up. He had a brown, tweed jacket thrown haphazardly across the back of the chair and a TARDIS-blue bow-tie tied around his neck. His big, brown hair flopped across one of his closed eyes, and his face looked so much younger and yet so much older all at the same time. He had permanent frown lines etched across his forehead that seemed to bear the weight of the universe, and Rose knew that if he opened his eyes, she'd be able to see within them the spin of the universe and the pain that comes with too long of a life.

Rose could remember the discussion that she'd had with the Wolf in her mind clearly, and the brief discussion with this new Doctor to get him out of her head. Remembering the golden glow underneath her skin, she immediately stared at her hands in concern. However, they had returned to their usual pale color and Rose breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a flash of pain shot through Rose's body, and she grabbed her stomach with a cry. The sound startled the Doctor out of his sleep. His arms flailed around in confusion and he almost toppled out of the chair before he remembered where he was and why. As he bounded up from the chair to Rose's side, Rose felt a strange sensation rising up within her before she found herself breathing out a wisp of golden smoke. The pain quickly subsided afterward.

Rose and the Doctor both stared in shock at the golden smoke as it slowly dissipated into the air.

Rose looked over at the Doctor, frozen in confusion on his way to her bedside. She asked him with concern, "What was that?"

"Uh," He ran his hand through his long, floppy hair and a confused look remained plastered across his long face. "That was regeneration energy."

"Huh?" Rose's mind felt strangely blank, and it made it difficult to focus.

"The thing is," he shuffled his feet for a moment, "you seem to have regenerated. Sort of."

"WHAT!?" Rose frantically grabbed at the ends of her hair, bending her head at strange angles in an attempt to see if they were still the golden blonde that she remembered. They were.

"Don't worry!" The floppy-haired doctor added quickly. "Not an actual regeneration. Just, sort of. That golden stuff is the same type of energy that changes me during a regeneration. You remember that Christmas when I regenerated? I was breathing that stuff out like crazy."

Rose nodded.

"Yeah, well, it also signifies the end of the regeneration process. You seem to be done cooking now," the Doctor offered up a small smile.

"But, I'm still me, right?" Rose struggled to get out from under the blankets in an attempt to find a mirror, but she found that her limbs were very weak and felt a bit off.

"Oh yeah, sorry! You're still you, still all pink and yellow and Rose-ish. The changes were more internal than external."

"Okay, that's good then, I guess." Rose stopped her struggle to get up, choosing instead to stretch out her sore limbs. They felt strange, as though the nerves themselves were raw and feeling more than they ought to. She could practically count the individual threads making up the blankets that her fingers rested on by touch alone.

As Rose realized the hyperactivity of her nerves, she began to feel a semblance of control come over her, as though her new state of being was just snapping into place. It was then that she felt her mind surge, and hundreds of thoughts and questions began to whir about within it simultaneously in a chaotic manner. She noticed all of the details in the room with a single glance and noticed each of the strange new peculiarities that had come about within her own body in the next microsecond. She noticed the golden presence of the Wolf within her mind's eye, quietly observing the situation, just as she noticed the look of concern mixed with confusion and excitement on the Doctor's new face. And as Rose noticed all of these things, her mind began processing them all at once. She had questions, so many burning questions.

"Am I a Time Lord, then?" She asked, the words tumbling from her lips as fast as they could speak as they tried impossibly to keep up with the increased pace of her mind. "I mean, if I regenerated—Can I—Oh, and what about—And the Wolf said—But then I-" the words cut off with a piercing cry as Rose clutched at her head. There were so many thoughts in her mind, and she couldn't keep up with them all. How could one person think so many things at once? It wasn't right. This insanity would surely destroy her.

The Doctor quickly grabbed the sides of her head, turning it so that she was staring into his green eyes, his hands on either side of her own as they clutched at her temples. "Focus, Rose. Look at me. Focus on me. Clear your mind."

The frantic wave of thoughts began to slow as she forced herself to stare into his strange new green eyes. She focused on the hint of time and the swirl of the universe that she could just make out within their depths, allowing her mind to think of nothing but that until it was calm and peaceful once more.

Once Rose relaxed, she was able to look away from the Doctor once more and he removed his hands from her head just as she removed her own. She looked at him questioningly, hesitant to ask more questions lest her mind take off again.

"Your mind has been expanded suddenly," he answered her frightful look in gentle tones. "You've been living with a human mind for so long now. It's all you know. Yours will be more like mine now. The sudden expansion has come as a shock, but you'll get used to it eventually. Well, you probably will."

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It just fell right back into his face.

"I'm not sure how to explain the difference," he began. "I haven't exactly known anything different than this, but think of your brain as being like a computer. A computer processor in the old days could only run one process at a time. When something new needed to happen, the current process is either paused or completed before the next one can run. Newer processors have multiple cores, allowing them to run multiple processes at a time. Your mind has just been upgraded from a single core processor to one with hundreds of cores, far more powerful than any Earth computer from your time."

Rose blinked blankly at him, her knowledge of computers not quite advanced enough to follow his description.

The Doctor sighed audibly, then tried to simplify further, "The ability to process hundreds of thoughts all at the same time has just been granted to you. It is a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it. Just, try to concentrate on one thought at a time, and the rest will just keep running in the background, waiting until you're ready to examine them. Your brain really is like a giant, magnificent computer." The Doctor smiled proudly at his metaphor.

Rose blinked unamusedly at him once more, but she took his advice and tried to consciously focus on only a single thought. As she did so, she could feel all of the others pushed into the background, whirring about as they were processed but distinctively less prevalent than before. This was going to take some time to get used to. She had a feeling that it would be a while before she'd get the hang of it and be able to carry on a coherent conversation without other stray thoughts working their way in. No wonder the Doctor was always jumping topics all over the place, if he felt anything close to this mental chaos.

Rose closed her eyes in concentration for a moment before picking out the first question that came to mind. "So am I a Time Lord or something, then? If I'm no longer human and I've got a mind like yours?"

The Doctor pulled out a bronze device with a green light on the end and a familiar whirring noise filled the room as he waved it about her. He had a new sonic screwdriver, Rose realized. Once the sonic sound stopped, he pulled it up to examine it and claw-like contraptions emerged on either side of the green light.

He answered after a moment of introspection, "You're not a Time Lord, or Time Lady in the case of a female. But your genetics have been altered by the time energy. At the foundation of your being, you are still human. But you've been altered so much that you'd no longer register as human to even the most advanced biological scanners. Maybe a human hybrid. Your DNA has been augmented, and it now vaguely resembles Time Lord TNA. But it's still human. But it's Time Lord-esque."

"You sound just about as confused as I feel," Rose commented when he seemed to have simply run out of words, apparently a near-impossible feat no matter what body of his.

"You have no idea," the Doctor ran his hands through his hair with frustration. Rose noted with a pang of sadness that this action no longer caused his hair to be adorably mussed; instead, it simply fell right back into place across his face. "You suddenly appear on my TARDIS while we're in the Time Vortex-something that should be completely impossible to do, mind you, not even to mention the fact that you had to have hopped across the Void to do so—and then you've got the power of time about you, and you basically regenerate. You gave me a right fright, you did. Of course I'm confused. I'm downright flabbergasted."

"So, what am I, then?" Rose asked, determinedly focused on this topic.

"I don't know, exactly. You're truly one of a kind, Rose Tyler. Nobody else in existence quite like you. Well, there is this one woman..." he trailed off, thinking that it may not be the best idea to bring up River Song at a time like this. "Anyway, you're somewhat genetically similar but completely different in most ways. Basically, if I had to compare you, I'd say you're closest to the Gallifreyan species. The species that the Time Lords came from. And you're still a lot different from them."

"So what does that mean for me then?"

"A species designation doesn't even begin to cover it, Rose. And I can only analyze your genetics, not whatever this power is that you've got now. But it does look as though you've stopped aging. Your cells seem to be fairly regenerative, restoring themselves at a frantic pace. You won't regenerate, I don't think, but based on the pace of cellular regrowth, you can probably recover from most injuries remarkably fast. That doesn't mean you can't die, though," he pointed at her with a meaningful look.

"Okay, I got it, no being reckless," she said, adding quietly, "like you're one to talk."

"Oi! I heard that!"

"Good."

The Doctor smirked at her. It was good to see some of the patented Rose Tyler stubbornness showing through after the pain and rage that he had witnessed recently from her.

"I suspect you'll have to discover most of the other changes on your own."

"Yeah," Rose agreed reluctantly. She was afraid of that.

"So, will you tell me how you ended up here?" the Doctor asked eagerly, surprised that he was able to keep his curiosity at bay for this long.

A look of complete and utter pain crossed across Rose's face as she remembered the recent events in the other universe. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying. It was all that she could do to shake her head 'no'.

"Okay, later then," the Doctor backtracked quickly, noticing the hurt that the subject caused. "Just—tell me, are you okay?"

"Physically, yes," she replied tonelessly.

He nodded, understanding that her response meant the same thing as his frequent "I'm always all right" responses.

"How long was I out?" Rose asked, trying to change the topic as she slowly moved to get out of the bed.

"About three days," the Doctor replied, keeping a watchful, worried eye on her as she shakily stood up, keeping hold on the edge of the bed to support herself.

Rose nodded and looked down at herself. She was still in the same clothes that she had been in during the Torchwood battle, although her shoes had been removed. Her clothes were ripped, charred, and bloody, although her skin was perfectly flawless underneath the rips that should have indicated massive gashes. She felt disgusting and although she had slept for three days, exhaustion still dragged at her bones. Grief, frustration, and anger lingered just on the edge of Rose's mind, threatening to consume her once more. She suddenly felt claustrophobic and wanted nothing more than to be left alone to her grief.

"Could I have some time alone to clean up then?" Rose asked the Doctor, looking pointedly towards the door as she just barely held herself together.

"Oh yes, right! I'll just be in the console room if you need me," he hesitated for a moment, reluctant to leave Rose's side so soon after her reappearance. But when she continued to glare pointedly at him, he did as he agreed and left her room, closing the door quietly behind him. He leaned against it in the hallway, closing his eyes as he tried to reign in all of the thoughts and emotions that he was feeling. Within the room, Rose sank to the floor, hugging her knees to herself as she cried silently for her dead husband and the confusing situation that she had now found herself in.