Prologue: Rebirth
TARDIS interior:
The console room was bathed in the flashing of bright lights as the Old man pulled the de-materialisation lever on the hexagonal central console, an action he had preformed almost infinite amount of times before thought thousands of years and thirteen lifetimes, the ancient time machine groaned as it made its way into the Space-Time Vortex, the internal components of the massive glass column that sat in the consoles centre beginning their movements, the Time lord looked into one of the monitors with his weary, fading eyes.
"Oh there it is... Silly old universe..."
the machine continued to groan around him, the console room now a kaleidoscope of bright colours and shifting, spinning metal
"The more I save it... the more it needs saving..."
he sighed a little under his now distinctly thin breath before smiling a little.
"it's a treadmill..."
the lights of the console room flashed a deep hue of blue as the machine argued in the distorted beeps and groans that made up the language they shared,
"Yes, Yes I know!, they'll get it all wrong without me"
the machine continued its beeps and flashes, speaking to the man in the way only such an old companion could
"Well I suppose one more lifetime wouldn't kill anyone... except me..."
even as he spoke the cells of his body attempted to initiate the process of Rassilon's ancient gift, the Old man's hands began to glow with the excess Temporal energy that permeated his form
the process released, the body begging to die and be born anew.
the old man delayed the oncoming revitalising by at most another few minutes, he limped his way up the stairs that jutted from the circular middle floor that housed the console into the surrounding upper floor the looked over the room, filled with old bookshelves he would never get to read through, not that he was planning on anyway.
"you wait a moment doctor... Let's get it right..."
he slid his wrinkled hands across the ice-cold steel railings, taking in some of the final sensations he would ever feel in this body.
"I've got a few things to say to you!"
he continued to stumble past the shelves, around the walkway.
"Basic stuff first."
he leaned out over the rails and did his best to shout.
"Never be cruel! and Never be cowardly!"
he waited a few moments before exclaiming, marking the statement with an exaggerated point at nowhere in particular.
"And never, ever eat Pears!"
he continued around the gangway, regaining a little of his balance as he went before stopping for a brief second.
"remember: Hate is always foolish, and love... is always wise"
he made his way back down the stairs to the console, every step wearing away at his life.
"Always try to be nice, and never fail to be kind" he paced towards the doors before turning back .
"oh... and, you mustn't ever tell anybody your name... no one would understand it, anyway."
his leg suddenly gave way and he collapsed onto his back, gasping in pain.
"Except... Children..."
he lifted himself off of the ground gasping.
"Children can hear it... sometimes, if their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too... Children can hear your name..."
he slammed his hand onto the console and hauled himself up onto his feet.
"But Nobody else... Nobody else, Ever!"
he stood back up, stumbling a little bit but not giving in, not yet... he still had a bit more to say.
"Laugh Hard! ... Run Fast! ... be kind..."
The time lord looked up at the central column, the last few seconds of his life passing slowly before him.
"Doctor... I Let you go..."
And suddenly his entire body consumed in a cascading inferno of bright oranges and yellows, the machine sparked around the time lord, exploding in shards of metal and glass, seeming to share the pain as the old man began a violent regeneration, every cell in the time lord's body bursting with temporal energy and rebuilding itself, the very genetic code scrambling itself and reorganizing itself into a different variation, skin and muscles and hair growing and shrinking and morphing into something... different, Something new.
the Doctor opened their new, younger, distinctly less angry eyes, and let out a long drawn out sigh, taking in the youthfulness of the breath.
"Well this is... different..."
the voice was distinctly more feminine than the Gallifreyan was used to, the Doctor ran their hands through the new silky, long, dark chestnut hair that ran down to the shoulders which had supplanted the wavy grey there before.
"I'm a..."
the Doctor looked down and ran her hands down her hips and up her chest, taking in the changes that had occured to her body
"a girl... I'm a girl..."
She stood awestruck for a few moments, before laughing out into the smoking remains of the console room, listening to her breathing for a few moments, a little deep for her tastes... but she would get used to it, a smile stretched across her face.
"I'M A GIRL!"
The Doctor span around the console room, sweeping her arms out before running her hands through her hair and giggling excitedly, this was something strange, something novel, something new...
And she couldn't wait to experience more of it.
she slammed her hands down onto the console panels and stared into the distorted reflection in the glass column, she slid her hand over the buttons and levers before wrapping it around the de-materialisation lever.
she pulled the lever, to be met only with silence, she sighed and rolled her eyes before slamming her fist down on the controls,the time machine began to click and hum back into life, it's groaning and wheezing accompanying the blue box slipping out of the Time vortex...
"Come on old girl... here we go again!"