The Clock Strikes

"Over the years, their foes would find new and, stranger ways to enter the town called Christmas."

|C-S|

A young boy, playing Blind Man's Bluff, spun in a circle as he searched for the other children. He wandered for a bit but, finding no one, frowned. "Are you there? Hello? Am I getting warm?" He paused at hearing a strange sound, removing his blindfold to find he was staring at a Cyberman made of wood, which he'd heard stories of from the two in the tower. He turned and ran through the town. "There's another one!" he ducked as the Cyberman shot flame at him. "There's another one! There's another one!" he rang the alarm bells as he passed them. "There's another one! Doctor! Adelaide! There's another one!"

"Incinerate!" the Cyberman called. "Incinerate! The Doctor is required!"

The Doctor stepped out of the tower, tossing a wooden rifle to the child. He looked noticeably older than he had upon arriving on Christmas. "There you go, Barnable."

The boy grinned. "Thanks."

"Working fine. Nice action." He pointed at him. "Don't leave it out in the rain again." He tossed another toy to a nearby girl. "Fixed the wheels and the antigrav."

"The anti what?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Yeah, may have gone a bit far. Adelaide says I'm always doing that." He turned to face the Cyberman. He'd ended up being the one who faced the threats more often, though Adelaide did sometimes set traps or lead the enemies to him. But, as more threats had appeared, Adelaide had started just studying them in the tower in her curiosity at how the various races had managed to adapt to the limited technology. She'd be interested in this one. "Now then, what do we have today? Don't you move one step further. Wooden Cyberman. Nice. Adelaide?" he called behind him, the Time Lady emerging to lean in the doorway.

While he'd aged, she looked exactly the same. "Low tech as to not set off the alarms?"

The Doctor nodded, limping forward with his cane to face the Cyberman and pulling his sonic out, flashing it before it could lift its arm. "Only bit of tech allowed it. Got in before the truce, which is the only reason Adelaide's allowed us to keep it. Now, I just sent an instruction to your firearm to reverse the polarity and fire out the back end. Now, as we're standing in a truth field, you will understand I cannot be lying. If you like, you can scan my screwdriver, verify that's the signal I sent."

"Signal verified," the Cyberman said, shooting itself in the chest.

"Yes, I probably should have mentioned this" he wiggled the sonic "doesn't work on wood." He strode closer to the Cyberman. "You send your friends up there a message from the Doctor. You tell them the Doctor and Adelaide stay." He shoved the Cyberman over with his cane, blowing on the end of his sonic. "Next."

Adelaide, still standing in the doorway, shook her head at him.

|C-S|

Christmas, as they always seemed to, threw a party to celebrate the defeat of the Cyberman. They did that every time the Doctor or Adelaide (mostly the Doctor) defeated something.

"And there's me arm-wrestling a Draconian," the Doctor laughed as the children jumped up and down around him, all trying to give him their drawing. "I remember that!" He picked one, waving it towards where Adelaide was, having a conversation with a few of the older children. They'd started doing that, him entertaining the young ones and Adelaide answering the older one's questions. "Look!"

|C-S|

"In time, the Doctor seemed to forget he'd lived any other life. But Adelaide never forgot. And the people of the town came to love the man and woman who stayed for Christmas."

|C-S|

"You've got to be the drunk giraffe!" the Doctor told the children that surrounded them, attempting to teach them what he'd declared his favorite dance move in all of time and space. "You've got to commit! Don't be cool, guys. Cool is not cool!"

"Cool is not cool!" the children repeated.

"And what's the dance we're doing?"

"The drunk giraffe!" they cheered.

"The drunk giraffe! Yeah, it is! Merry Christmas. Give me a hug, bring it in." The children rushed forward, nearly tackling him to the ground.

Once the Doctor extracted himself from their embrace, he wandered over to where Adelaide was sitting, reading a book that she'd found somewhere in the village. "Having fun?"

"The TARDIS has been some time," she said, not looking up. She was sitting almost exactly where the TARDIS would appear. He'd noticed, especially over the last century, that Adelaide seemed to get a bit itchy from not being able to travel. He'd never seen that before; normally, she was the better one at staying somewhere.

Barnable ran up to them, hurrying through the crowd. "Hello, Adelaide, Doctor!"

The Time Lord grinned at him. "How's your father's barn?"

"You've fixed the leak alright, but he says it's bigger on the inside now."

The Doctor shrugged. "Shush, they'll all want one."

Adelaide stiffened, making the Doctor spin, as the TARDIS started to attempt to land. Barnable frowned, not understanding. "What is that? What's that noise?"

Adelaide stood, though it was the Doctor who spoke. "Well, where have you been for three hundred years?"

"What's that?"

"It's our ship."

Barnable shook his head. "Your what?"

"It's our TARDIS. That's how we got here in the first place."

The boy frowned. "Does that mean you're leaving?"

When the TARDIS had fully materialized, both Time Lords were shocked to see Clara clinging to the outside, holding her key in the lock. The Doctor hurried forward, tapping Clara's back to make her turn. "What are you doing here?"

Clara blinked, seeming a bit out of it for a few seconds. "I was in space."

"You were in the time vortex," Adelaide corrected, coming forward. "The TARDIS must have extended the force field."

The Doctor shook his head. "No wonder she's late, dragging you around."

Clara seemed to settle, narrowing her eyes at them. "You tricked me!"

"We saved you."

"You didn't even say goodbye!"

"We're furious with you!" he pointed his cane at her.

"Well," Clara crossed her arms, "I am not even talking to either of you!"

After a second, the Doctor and Clara laughed, hugging each other tightly before Adelaide was dragged in too.

|C-S|

The tower was not nearly as messy as it could have been since Adelaide reorganized it every few years. For a whole year, she hadn't let the Doctor inside in case he messed something up.

Clara wandered throughout the room, examining the various drawings and letters they'd received from the children over the centuries. She couldn't help but notice a few of them, written with much neater penmanship, appeared to be homework assignments of a sort.

It seemed that Adelaide had started doing what she'd done on Gallifrey, biding her time by becoming a teacher.

"Fixing toys, fighting monsters, teaching children, cleaning up the mess," Clara said, turning to where Adelaide was standing. "You've been having some exciting centuries."

The Doctor walked into the room, having gone to check that everything was okay about the TARDIS. "The turkey isn't done yet."

Clara glanced at the crack, which hadn't changed at all. "Is it still asking the question?"

"Oh, never stops." He sighed before moving towards the stairs, Adelaide coming to help him climb. "Come upstairs. It's almost time."

"What for?" Clara asked, following.

"Dawn," Adelaide called. "Light here only lasts for a few minutes. We never miss it."

|C-S|

The Time Lords sat beside Clara at the top of the tower, a small fire burning before them. "Well, it's a standoff," the Doctor explained to Clara, sitting between her and Adelaide. "They can't attack in case I unleash the Time Lords, and I can't run away because they'll burn this planet to stop the Time Lords. Hey," he chuckled to himself, "after all these years, I've finally found somewhere that needs me to stick around." Adelaide shook her head at that. "A town called Christmas. Could've been worse. Right," he adjusted Handles in his lap, having made a nest of blankets for the head, "there you go, buddy. Comfy?"

"Comfort is irrelevant," Handles told him.

"How's that, is that better?" the Doctor adjusted him.

"Affirmative."

The Doctor patted Handles' head. "You just take it easy, buddy." He leaned closer to Clara, speaking a bit quieter. "He's getting old. We do our best for him, but we just can't get the parts, you know." He chuckled. "Hey, I know the feeling."

Clara adjusted the marshmallow she was toasting in the fire. "Where did you get these?"

"I have a supplier," the marshmallows were the Doctor's. He'd tried to make Adelaide a strawberry garden in the beginning, but he'd quickly discovered that this planet was not suited for strawberry growth. It hadn't stopped him trying, even if he'd yet to grow anything. "The pink ones are the best." The Doctor ate one straight.

"I have developed a fault," Handles said.

"Hey, don't you worry, Handles, you're just dreaming. The sun's coming up very soon. You just hang on in there."

"I have developed a fault." The head's voice started to shift to static, having been fading for a while now. "I...I...I have developed a fault."

"Hey, Handles," the Doctor picked up Handles. "Come on, come on. One more dawn, you can do it. You've got it in you. Come on, just hang on in there."

"Attention! Emergency! Att..."

"Handles, what is it?" Adelaide asked, having a guess.

"Urgent action required. You must patch the telephone device back through the console unit..." Handles powered down, finally done.

Adelaide took the Doctor's hand as he patted the head again. "Thank you, Handles, and well done. Well done, mate." The birds started to sing, signaling the arrival of dawn. The trio stood and made their way to the edge in order to greet it better. "What do you think of our new place? We come up here once a day for a few minutes, to remind us of what it is we're protecting."

Clara smiled down at the town illuminated by the dawn light. "It's beautiful." She turned to the Time Lords. "Why did you send me away?"

"We would have buried you a long time ago," Adelaide told her.

Clara shook her head. "No, you wouldn't. I would never have let you get stuck here."

"Ha!" the Doctor laughed. "Everyone gets stuck somewhere eventually, Clara. Everything ends."

"Except you."

The man shook his head. "Have you been paying attention? I'm an old man now." He gestured to his face.

"But you don't die. You change. You pop right back up with a new face."

"Not forever," Adelaide said. "We have thirteen different faces, twelve changes."

Clara nodded. "Okay, so you're number eleven, so..."

"The Time War," she reminded the human.

The Doctor nodded. "I didn't call myself the Doctor during the Time War, but it was still a regeneration."

"Okay, so you're number twelve."

"Number ten regenerated once and kept the same face," Adelaide said. "I was there."

The Doctor shrugged. "I had vanity issues at the time." He sighed. "Twelve regenerations, Clara. I can't ever do it again." He looked out at the planet below. "This is where I end up. This face, this version of me. We saw this planet in the future, remember? All those graves, one of them mine."

"Change the future."

"We can't."

"You've got your TARDIS back."

"Ha!" he laughed. "You think we're just going to fly away, abandon everyone?"

"Of course not," Clara answered quickly and Adelaide wondered if the truth field let you tell a lie if you believed in it hard enough. "But you've been protecting this town for over three hundred years. Do you not think it's anybody else's go yet?"

Adelaide shook her head. "There is no one else to protect it." She supposed she was earning the title of the Doctor's protector now. The protector of many, she'd heard herself called before. Maybe this was really why.

"It's not going to be you forever. It'll end the same way, whatever you do."

The Doctor clenched one of his fists. "Every life I save is a victory. Every single one." Adelaide said nothing.

"What about your life? Just for once, after all this time, have you not earned the right to think about that?" The Doctor looked at her. "Sorry. Wrong thing to say. We shouldn't be having an argument."

"Clara," Adelaide said, "we've been having that argument for the last three hundred years."

"But you didn't have your TARDIS."

He shrugged. "Ah, yes, well, that made it easier to stay, true."

There was a rumbling noise and Tasha's face appeared in the sky. "Doctor! Adelaide!"

"Look who's woken up!" the Doctor called up.

"The Church of the Silence requests parlay. Your rights and safety are sanctified."

The Doctor nodded. "We'll be right up."

"I'm sending a transporter."

"Nah," he waved a hand, "don't bother. We've got our motor back." The projection disappeared.

Clara shivered, eyeing the fact the planet had already gotten dark again. "It's gone dark."

"Yeah, well, the sun's gone down."

"Already?"

"Everything ends," the Doctor said. "And sooner than you think."

|C-S|

The trio approached Tasha, fully clothed that time since Tasha had stopped enforcing that regulation on the Time Lords long ago.

"She hasn't aged much," Clara whispered.

"She's against aging," Adelaide said, shaking her head, not that she could say much as she hadn't aged herself.

"Approach!" Tasha called.

"Confess..." a Silence hissed from the side.

Clara shivered. "what are those things?"

"Confessional priests," the Doctor explained. "Very popular. Genetically engineered so you forget everything you told them."

Clara blinked, looking away from the Silence. "Told who?"

"There you go."

|C-S|

The Time Lords had been a bit uneasy about the fact that Tasha had neglected the majority of the normally required ceremony and just brought them to her chambers. They'd all sat around the table she now had in there, with Tasha putting a box down in front of the Doctor. "Satisfactory?"

He frowned at its contents. "Where are the pink ones?"

"You're hyper enough as it is," Adelaide told the Doctor, making him pout at her.

Clara raised her eyebrows at the scene before her. "So, this is sweet. Middle of a siege and you three have little chats?"

Tasha sighed. "She's right. This situation cannot continue."

"It can't end either," the Doctor closed the box, sitting back.

"Why did you ever come to Trenzalore?"

"Well, we did come to Trenzalore," the Doctor snapped, "and nothing can change that now. Didn't stop you trying though, did it?"

"Not me," Tasha shook her head. "The Kovarian Chapter broke away. They traveled back along your timeline and tried to prevent you" she looked specifically at the Doctor "ever reaching Trenzalore."

"So that's who blew up the TARDIS. I thought I'd left the bath running," the Doctor mumbled the last part.

"They blew up your time capsule, created the very cracks in the universe through which the Time Lords are now calling."

Adelaide shook her head. "A destiny trap. Once they became part of history they couldn't change it."

"They engineered a psychopath to kill one of you."

"Yes, that didn't go to plan," Adelaide sighed.

Tasha nodded. "I'm not interested in changing history. I want to change the future. The Daleks send for reinforcements daily. They are massing for war. Three days ago, they attacked the Mainframe itself."

The Time Lords stiffened. "They attacked here?"

Clara frowned. "How did you stop them?"

"Stop them?" Tasha laughed. "It was slaughter."

"Why didn't you call us? We could have helped."

"I tried. I died in this room, screaming your names."

They went quiet for a few seconds. "No..."

"Oh." Tasha blinked. "I died. It's funny the things that slip your mind." The Time Lords, gesturing for Clara to follow them, stood. "Ah!"

"No! No, no, no, Tasha, no, please, not Tasha! No! Fight it!" the Doctor tried. "Tash, fight it!"

A Dalek eyestalk burst through Tasha's head as other Daleks entered the room. "Step away from the Dalek unit, Doctor," they ordered, as the Time Lord was the one who had leaped forward.

"You shouldn't even know who I am."

"Information concerning the Doctor and the protector were harvested from the cadaver of Tasha Lem."

He smirked. "Bet she never told you how to break through the Trenzalore force field, though. She'd have died first."

"Several times."

"Well, you'd better kill me, then, go on. But before you do," he soniced the comms, projecting the question through the room. "I'm a tough old bird. I'll be ages dying. Way enough time to answer a question. And, oh dear, what happens then, boys?"

Tasha grabbed Adelaide before she could do anything. "You will die in silence, Doctor, or your protector will die."

"Wouldn't be much of a protector then," Adelaide said, twisting just enough that she could elbow Tasha in the face.

The shock of it made Tasha stumble back, seeming to jerk as she took control again, and destroy the Daleks with the weapon that had come out of her hand.

"And she's back!" the Doctor cheered, running to Adelaide and taking her hand. Tasha settled herself again, rolling her shoulders. "Right, get us back to the TARDIS," he told Tasha. "Can you do that?" They stepped back towards the teleport booths.

Tasha turned to face them. "Yeah, but quickly, the Dalek inside me is waking."

"Fight it," the Doctor said, as though it was something simple to do."

"I can't."

"Listen to me." The Doctor smirked. "You have been fighting the psychopath inside you all your life. Shut up and win. That is an order, Tasha Lem." They stepped into the booths as Tasha nodded.

"The force field will hold for a while, but it will decay, and there are breaches already."

The Doctor nodded. "Then this isn't a siege anymore, it's a war." He looked to Tasha. "It's all up to you now. Fight the Daleks, inside and out. You can do it, I know you can."

"Oh, I see," Tasha sighed. "You've got your TARDIS back, haven't you? Time to fly away."

"Tasha," Adelaide said, making the woman look at her, "thank you for trying to maintain peace."

Tasha nodded at them. "Fly away!" she pulled the lever, teleporting them away.

|C-S|

The Time Lords worked on piloting the TARDIS together, Clara sitting off to the side. They had yet to speak, the pair seeming to have reached the point together where they could communicate without words...though they did occasionally still both reach for the same levers and buttons as they tried to do parts of both jobs.

It seemed that connection existed more for plans than piloting.

Adelaide was the one who looked over at her when something dinged. "Your turkey is done."

"Either that or it's woken up," the Doctor shrugged.

Clara jumped from her seat. "Do you want some?"

"Go on, then."

"Got any plates?" she moved to go beneath the console.

"Do you know, I've even got Christmas crackers."

Clara paused before she descended, turning back to them. "One thing, both of you. Look at me so I know you're not lying, even you, Adelaide, and tell me you will never send me away ever again."

"Clara Oswald," the Doctor said, "we will never send you away again."

Clara eyed them for a second longer before grinning, hurrying to go under the console. "Turkey smells good!"

"Yeah, smells great." The Doctor glanced at Barnable on the monitor, as they'd left the boy waiting for them to return. The Time Lords moved to the door without speaking, knowing that the moment they were outside the TARDIS would bring Clara back to her flats and then return, hopefully without her hanging on that time.

The whole thing happened, for them, in a second. Barnable stood, walking over to stand next to them. "If you're not leaving, why did you bring it back?"

"It's a reminder." The Doctor nodded. "Besides, we might leave tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after that."

And if Adelaide wanted, she could leave whenever. Because this would be a war, and Adelaide didn't like war. She'd never seen a war and she didn't want to fight one. She was a scientist, not a soldier.

She had been tempted to leave, honestly, now that they had the TARDIS again. Just leave the Doctor to defend Christmas and the crack and the Time Lords. But she didn't know how the Doctor would react if she, one of the last constants in his life at the moment, left. If he'd just abandon all hope.

The Doctor could fight the war, could stand on the battlefield and declare no more.

Adelaide would be in the tower ensuring the universe was protected.

Earning the title the universe had given her.

|C-S|

"And so, to the fields of Trenzalore came all the Time Lords' enemies and some that Adelaide had once thought of as friends. For this was the winter of the Doctor. In time, when all other races had retreated or burned, only the Church of the Mainframe remained in the path of the Daleks. And so those ancient enemies, the Time Lords and the Silence, stood back to back on the fields of Trenzalore."

|C-S|

Clara ran into the TARDIS, which had appeared outside of her block of flats, not at all surprised to see Adelaide, still unaged, standing at the console. "What's happened to him?" Clara asked, seeing Adelaide's expression, the Time Lady not quite able to hide it like she normally did.

"He's been asking for you," Adelaide said, straightening. "It's almost time."

Clara walked up to her, standing as close as she was fairly certain she could. "Are you alright?"

"We always knew the Doctor died at Trenzalore." Adelaide touched a bit of the console. "I just always thought I'd have found my own TARDIS first."

|C-S|

Adelaide brought Clara to where the Doctor was sitting. Christmas had clearly been almost completely destroyed, having been suffering under a war for centuries. The tower was one of the last things standing – she'd once heard some people saying it happened due to Adelaide's sheer force of will – and the Doctor sat inside, using the light of the crack to work on the children's toys.

"Doctor," Adelaide said quietly. He was so old now, relying on her for almost everything. It was strange, to know he was about to die, to know that she was about to become the last real Time Lady in the universe.

Unless, of course, the General shifted to asking for her name, and then they'd need to convince her to save them...which would be a very difficult thing to do. She almost hoped they would try.

The man looked up, turning around. "Adelaide." He smiled at her.

"Clara's here," Adelaide guided the human forward, letting Clara kneel before the Doctor and take his hand.

The Doctor shook his head, studying Clara's face. "Were you always so young?"

Clara tried to smile. "Nah, that was you."

"Ah." He kissed her hand.

Adelaide knelt beside the Doctor, the man almost immediately taking her hand. "Clara brought a cracker for you."

"I love crackers."

Clara nodded, holding the cracker she'd been holding to the Doctor. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." The Doctor took it, but he was clearly struggling to pull it. Adelaide just took his hand and helped him pull the cracker. "Is there a joke?"

Clara pulled the small card from the cracker. "Extract from Thoughts on a Clock by Eric Ritchie Junior." She sat back against the chair.

"Is it a knock-knock one? Those are the best."

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Read it, Clara, please," Adelaide said.

"'And now it's time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now. The clock's striking twelve's.'"

The Doctor frowned. "I don't get it."

"Doctor!" A Dalek called from outside. "The Doctor will be brought! The Daleks demand the Doctor!"

A young man ran into the room. "They're here! The Daleks, we can't stop them. They want you."

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, alright, Barnable. Are you Barnable?"

Adelaide squeezed the Doctor's hand. "No, Doctor." For the past few years, one of the only people the Doctor could recognize was Adelaide.

"It's okay, Barnable, don't worry. I have got a plan. Off you pop." He smiled at the boy until he left, and then his face fell again. "I haven't got a plan, but people love it when I say that."

"What are you going to do?" Clara asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Talk very fast, hope something good happens, take the credit. That's generally how it works."

"Doctor..."

"Not this time, though. This is it."

"No!"

Adelaide nodded. "We all saw the future, Clara. This is how it ends."

"Change it. Like Tasha said, change the future!"

The Doctor looked towards the crack. "I could have once, when there were Time Lords. Not anymore."

"The Time War would start again," Adelaide said. "Worse than before."

"Locate the Doctor!" the Daleks called again.

Adelaide helped the Doctor stand, but Clara moved to join them. "No," the Doctor said. "You're going to stay here. Promise me you will."

"Why?"

"I'll be keeping you safe. One last victory. Allow me that. Give me that." He touched Clara's cheek. "Our impossible girl. Thank you. And goodbye." And then he turned to Adelaide. "Protect, Adelaide. Please."

She smiled at that, which seemed to make him happy. "I will, Doctor." She hugged him, tightly, but she didn't cry.

The Doctor stepped back and, with a final nod, started shuffling towards the stairs. He'd been insisting on climbing them on his own for the dawns recently, likely having planned to not take Adelaide with him now. "The trouble with Daleks is, they take so long to say anything. Probably die of boredom before they shoot me." He vanished up the stairs.

"The Doctor is required!" the Daleks called again.

Adelaide took a breath, closing her eyes. They'd known the Doctor would die here, they'd known it was inevitable. And they'd known she didn't.

She'd just never thought it would be like this.

"Listen to me, you lot," Clara said sharply, making Adelaide turn. The woman was speaking to the crack, to the Time Lords within. "Listen! Help him. Help him change the future. Do it. Do something!" She knelt. "You've been asking a question, and it's time someone told you you've been getting it wrong. His name...his name is the Doctor. All the name he needs. Everything you need to know about him. And if you love him, and you should, help him. Help him."

The crack snapped shut and Clara stood, turning to the Time Lady, who said nothing. They walked out of the tower together, turning to look up at where the Doctor was standing at the top of the tower to address the Daleks.

"Sorry I'm a bit slow," the Doctor said, leaning on his cane. "I may not be at my best right now."

A Dalek hovered before him. "You are dying, Doctor."

"Yes, I'm dying. You've been trying to kill me for centuries, and here I am, dying of old age." He shrugged. "If you want something done, do it yourself."

"You will die and the Time Lords will never return."

"You still can't work up the courage to shoot me, can you? You're still worried I've got something up my sleeve. Well, you knock yourselves out, boys. I've got nothing this time!"

The Daleks started to fire at the troops of the village, thankfully sparing the majority of the people as Adelaide had refused to let the Daleks set foot in the town.

Adelaide was about to rush into the TARDIS when she saw something appear in the sky, something that honestly made her mouth drop open. The crack, glowing more golden now, had appeared...and there was something that was clearly regeneration energy flowing from it to the Doctor.

The Time Lords were giving the Doctor regeneration energy.

"You will die now, Doctor!" the Daleks cried. "This is the end of you. The rules of regeneration are known. You have expended all your lives!"

"Sorry, what did you say?" Adelaide nearly laughed out loud at the way the Doctor was grinning, reinvigorated. "Did you mention the rules? Now, listen. Bit of advice. Tell me the truth if you think you know it. Lay down the law if you're feeling brave. But, Daleks, never, never tell me the rules!" His hands started to glow with the regeneration energy.

"Emergency! Emergency! The Doctor is regenerating!" The clock started to strike twelve. "The Doctor is regenerating!"

He looked down at his hands, doing a little spin. "Oh, look at this. Regeneration number thirteen! We're breaking some serious science here, boys. Look, Adelaide! I'm the scientist now!" he waved at her, jumping up and down. "I tell you what, it's going to be a whopper!"

"Exterminate! Exterminate the Doctor!"

"You think you can stop me now, Daleks? If you want my life...come...and...get it!" He wound his arms up, firing a burst of regeneration energy from his hands. Each one destroyed more Daleks.

Adelaide stayed motionless, watching the Doctor, but Clara had started to run around, directing people into the tower. "Get inside! Come on, quickly. Get inside, quick!" Bits of burning Daleks fell from the sky.

"Love from Gallifrey, boys!" the Doctor called, sending a final blast from his head up to the mothership.

Adelaide, finally, ran into the TARDIS.

|C-S|

Adelaide had just finished folding the Doctor's old clothes when Clara entered. The man had ripped all of them off upon entering the TARDIS, shouting that he had a right to make a mess in his own TARDIS when Adelaide critiqued him. Once he'd finished, she'd just sighed and started cleaning up the mess he'd made.

"Where is he?" Clara asked, grimacing at the bowl of almost finished fish fingers and custard that the Doctor had refused to let Adelaide clean.

"Hello!" the Doctor called, running up to their level of the console. He looked as he'd done when they'd arrived on Trenzalore, but it was only the process of regeneration into his next body.

Clara smiled at him, thankful. "You're young again. You're okay. You didn't even change your face."

He shook his head, wiggling his fingers as they glowed a bit more golden. "It's started; I can't stop it now."

"This is just the reset," Adelaide called.

The Doctor nodded. "A whole new regeneration cycle." He ate one of the fish fingers, savoring it. "Taking a bit longer. Just breaking it in." But then he hunched over, shaking. Adelaide started to pilot the TARDIS for him, knowing without him needing to say that he couldn't, not now. "It all just disappears, doesn't it?" he said quietly. "Everything you are, gone in a moment, like breath on a mirror. Any moment now, he's a-coming."

"Who's coming?" Clara frowned.

"The Doctor."

Clara shook her head. "But you...you are the Doctor."

The Doctor forced a smile, but he still hunched over, another wave of pain hitting him. "Yep, and I always will be. But times change, and so must I." He sighed. "Amelia..."

Clara looked at Adelaide. "Who's Amelia?"

"This face's first companion," Adelaide said.

"But not the first face this face saw." The Doctor took Adelaide's hand.

Adelaide nodded. "We all change," she said quietly. "We're all different people throughout our lives. And that's okay." She told him it as much as she told herself, the words heavy.

The Doctor squeezed her hand. "You've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me." He looked at Clara, smiling at her, before fixing his attention back on Adelaide. Slowly, he pulled off his bowtie.

Adelaide was, honestly, far less worried this time than the first time she'd seen the Doctor regenerate. She supposed it had something to do with the fact she'd spent centuries coming to terms with his actual death, only to learn that he'd keep living, that she wasn't going to be alone now. The first time everything had happened so quickly...and she'd still been dealing with the lingering effects of having just been a human for multiple years, everything about the Doctor hadn't fully sunken in.

Some of that fear had been hard to shake immediately, no matter how hard she'd tried.

But now she'd had so long to get used to his death, to accept the state the universe would be left in without him. She still hadn't had time to think of who she'd be in the universe without him. Now she didn't have to.

She was happy, but some part of her, worming its way throughout her, hated it.

"No," Clara said, shaking her head, "no. Please don't change."

It happened quickly, quicker than Adelaide had ever seen it before. The Doctor just jerked back for a second and when he straightened again, he had a new face.

A face that looked to be the age Adelaide was. A face that pulled on some distant, faded memory.

He stared at her very intently, as though attempting to memorize her features, before he spoke. "Kidneys!" he said, touching his abdomen with his free hand. "I've got new kidneys." He made a face. "I don't like the color."

"Of your kidneys?" Adelaide said, frowning. It reminded her of the fact that the first thing he'd noticed last regeneration had been his legs.

The TARDIS shook, sending them flying, but both Time Lords managed to grab hold of the console before they went too far. "What's happening?" Clara called, scrambling to keep her own balance.

"We're probably crashing!" the Doctor laughed. "Oh!"

"Into what?"

"Stay calm." The Doctor found Adelaide's eyes again, leaning on the console to see her better. "Just one question. Do you happen to know how to fly this thing?"

A/N: The Doctor has regenerated! These two have quite an adventure ahead of them with his twelfth regeneration...

Thank you to everyone who has continued to read this story! I hope you enjoyed it!

The Crossed Stars will continue in the story Wherever You Go, which is already posted. I hope you come over and check out the next part of these Time Lords' journey!

Notes on reviews:

Littleperson930: Sorry that I'm not sorry ;)

gossamermouse101: I definitely remember getting emotional the first time I watched this episode :)