Change back?

Summary: I loved the regeneration from 9th to 10th Doctor so much that I think it should be told in more detail. 9Rose & 10Rose

Disclaimer: All official Doctor Who stuff belongs to BBC etc. - I only borrow it for this story.

Notice: I'm sorry for the rather long pause. Hopefully you still enjoy this story. Thank you for your reviews so far!

I was now able to put an improved version of this chapter online, thanks to StarSurfer who looked through it.

This chapter has been partially rewritten and re-published with some additions but without being beta-read again on 24th June 2008.

Although there was no heat and only his skin seemed to be affected, the being in front of Rose looked more like a living flame than a man - only held together by the Doctors clothes.

More frightened than ever, the girl clung to a pillar of the Tardis and could do nothing but watch.

Chapter 3 – Hello

Rose really wanted to look away, but she just couldn't tear her eyes off the scene in front of her. She didn't know if the golden light had bewitched her or if she was simply too scared to miss any chance to help him.

The young woman had seen many wonders and horrors during her travels through time and space, with the Doctor always there to protect her. Now she something bad was happening to him, and she didn't know what to do.

The pillar which Rose held on to seemed to get slightly warmer and to hum softly. It was a soothing sensation and somehow she knew it was a message from the Tardis: she needn't be afraid of what was going on.

'When did I learn to read signs from the ship?' she wondered briefly, but accepted this newfound knowledge nevertheless. Once more, something stirred in the back of her mind – somewhere in the region where her lost memories of the recent events were sleeping.

However, reassurance from this rather unexpected source helped her to remember that the Doctor was an extraordinary being. Whatever was happening to him, it might not be as bad as she feared. And more important, she was determined to stay with him, as long as he wanted her at his side.

Suddenly Rose noticed a slight change in him. He wasn't merely engulfed by golden fire anymore. The strange flames actually appeared to peel away his skin, although – to her relief – they somehow didn't harm him. For a moment she got the feeling that the Doctor was shrinking and expanding at the same time. When his hair began to lengthen really fast for a few seconds, she feared he was captured in some sort of fast-forward time-trap. But then the spell broke and he relaxed and exhaled – which made her aware that she had been holding her breath since this 'change' had begun.

As abruptly as it had started, it all ended. The golden light disappeared into thin air – and a strange man, clad in the Doctors clothes stood in his place.

He was pale, with dark eyes and a wild tuft of hair that was short around the neck but rather long at the top. Rose immediately noticed that the old leather jacket and the black trousers didn't really fit him. He wasn't that much smaller, but considerable thinner or rather more slender than the original owner. Although she knew this was absurd, she couldn't help thinking: 'Why did this guy steal his clothes?!'

The man himself looked a bit surprised and took deep breaths, as if he just had run and stumbled into this scene. He greeted her with a casual „hello", before contemplating his new teeth and making strange grimaces. 'Alright, at last this guy seems to have the decency to feel weird, too', Rose thought irritated, 'But I bet, I can beat him. What on earth is going on here?'

She had no chance to ask the intruder anything, because suddenly he seemed to have regained his composure and wondered: „Where was I ...", as if he just had a conversation with somebody. When he turned towards her, he held his chin high, stood upright and said one of the last things Rose would have expected: „Oh, that's right – Barcelona!"

This left her speechless, but she asked herself how this stranger could know what the Doctor had been talking about a few moments ago. The carefree smile this man beamed at her did nothing to calm her. Quite the contrary, because for a heartbeat the saw the Doctor's well-known face, complete with steel-blue eyes, short hair and big ears, overlapping with this new one. The different voices mixed together in her head, where the name of the planet echoed over and over with two very different accents.

OOO

One moment he was all worried about how Rose would take the change that was going to happen and gritted his teeth to fight the pain that tormented his body. But only a double heartbeat later he already welcomed the well-known surge of rejuvenating power that was brought upon him, physically as well as mentally. For the ninth time he would regenerate, starting his tenth life.

Well, he hadn't really consciously experienced all his previous regenerations, sometimes he had just been too injured and simply woke up with a new face and a more or less changed personality. And of course, a Time Lord usually still had a full grown body after the first one was worn out, so it wasn't actually a full new life. Nevertheless, the process itself felt very much like a birth and in most cases he was quite a different man thereafter. No matter how often he had called the long life of his race and this special ability a curse – the Doctor couldn't deny how wonderfully refreshing and bracing it was to feel this energy flow through every cell of his body and even his mind.

When he realized he could use his lungs again, the Time Lord knew that his regeneration was complete. If everything went right, it only was a matter of seconds.

At first he staggered a bit before finding his balance with this new, leaner body. Gradually he was adapting to the changed length of his limbs. Settling in a new form was rather easy for one of his race, after all it was just a shell.

The more tricky part was to cope with the memories of the past lives. In one moment you felt like the king of the whole universe, bursting with energy and feeling larger than life in that brand new body. But sooner or later everything that was in your mind, all the experiences and all the knowledge had to catch up. And suddenly, it appeared as if the full weight of the world was resting on your shoulders alone. This took some getting used to, especially since there obviously was more of all this the longer one lived.

Fortunately, a regeneration didn't leave a Time Lord completely brainless until the mental process, too, was completed. This was essential, because sometimes the memories would return slowly or incoherent at first.

Thus, the Doctor greeted the young, blonde woman that was nearby with a courteous „hello", although he didn't remember her name. She looked a bit startled, but it didn't concern him much at that moment. After all, he just had realized how strange it felt to speak with his new set of teeth, and the new voice.

However, his brain was catching up rather fast, and only few beats of his two hearts later, more memory-fragments returned to him. 'I just have talked about something to her ... where was I?' he mused, partly in silence and aloud.

Some bits and pieces of the more recent events were still cloudy, especially the ones that had lead to this regeneration, but he felt the urge of putting his newfound energy into action. So he turned to Rose and cheerfully wanted to continue their conversation about the grand planet Barcelona. Yes! She was his companion, one of the best, and he was sure they would have much fun there.

The fact that she still stared at him as if he was an alien with two heads was not very surprising, after all she obviously had just seen him regenerate right in front of her, and he had to admit that really could be weird.

To be continued ...