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This chapter contains spoilers.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

The Doctor had quickly decided that the boring-looking business party was not bad at all, as it took him less than a minute to discover the plates of nibbles being carried around. But the nibbles weren't enough to make him want to stay longer than expected; the decision to do so was only made after he discovered the large, strange-looking machine in the middle of the room.

"That looks like a sonic microfield manipulator!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"What does that even mean, Doctor? I don't speak science. What does the machine do?" Rose was curious.

"Well, I think you're about to find out," the Doctor said as an old man walked up to the machine and clinked his glass for quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began. "I am Professor Richard Lazarus. And tonight, I'm going to perform a miracle!" He made a short speech about changing the world, and then stepped inside of the machine, while the Doctor, Rose, and everyone else there watched, wondering what was about to happen.

The woman standing at the controls hit a button, and the machine started to glow with an eerie bluish light. The outside started to spin around, gaining speed with every passing moment. Everyone watching was squinting their eyes against the light, and waiting expectantly for it to stop.

But it didn't stop. Instead, the machine spun even faster, and seemed to glow even brighter. An alarm began to blare, and only the sound of crackling electricity could be heard over the loud screeching.

"It's overloading!" The Doctor realized, and he turned to watch the woman at the controls frantically hitting buttons trying to stop it. But, after seeing that their efforts were fruitless, he rushed over to help.

"Somebody stop him! Get him away from those controls!" An old woman, Lazarus's partner, yelled from the side as the Doctor began pressing buttons and using his sonic screwdriver to try to stop the machine.

"If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it! Is that what you want?" he yelled, and continued working.

The machine was spinning faster than ever now, and was emitting a high-pitched whining noise. To the onlookers, it looked like it was about to explode.

The Doctor pulled a cable loose, and the machine slowed to a stop. Rose rushed up and pulled the door open, letting out a thick cloud of smoke. And then Professor Lazarus stepped out.

Everybody watched in amazement as a young man exited the box. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, after a time, "I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old. And I am reborn!" Applause rocked the room as everyone realized that Lazarus had successfully deaged himself.

The only people not clapping with excitement were Rose and the Doctor. Instead, they were wearing looks that said, 'that could not possibly have happened. What did that man just do to himself?'

"That's impossible. It's gotta be a trick," Rose said immediately.

"No, I wish it were. But it's real." The Doctor replied in a solemn tone.

"How?" Rose asked him.

"Hypersonic sound waves mixing up his DNA, forcing it to rejuvenate. Simple theory, really. But he can't possibly have allowed for all of the variables. Something must have gone wrong in there."

"He mixed up his own DNA?"

"I know," he sighed. "Mixing up DNA makes it incredibly unstable. It can continue changing, mutating, for who knows how long afterward."

"Mutating into what, though?"

"I don't know. No way to find out now. I'd need to see his DNA to even guess. There are laboratories here, but there's no way to get a sample…" he trailed off.

"Give me a few minutes. I think I know a way to get one. Just go find a laboratory, turn everything on, see if you can find any new information about the machine that might help us, and I'll meet you there in five. Second floor, so I know where to find you," Rose smiled and ran off towards Lazarus as the Doctor went to find his lab.

"Professor, what you did before was absolutely amazing!" she gushed. "I can't believe it actually worked! I mean, 76 years old, you look incredible!"

"Ah, there you are dear," Lazarus said as he heard her voice and turned to face her. "I'd wondered where you ran off to."

"Excuse me?"

"When you left before. Where did you go? I mean, we had just gotten acquainted, you didn't have to leave so quickly."

"Oh, I'm sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone else," she replied, confused.

"No, I wouldn't forget your pretty face."

Rose was getting more confused by the moment. She definitely would have remembered talking to Lazarus before, but she hadn't spoken a word to him. "I really don't know what you're talking about," she smiled, "But if I was talking to you before, where did we leave off?"

Lazarus took her hand in his, and kissed it. "And then you ran off," he told her.

That's weird, Rose thought. That's exactly what I was planning on doing.

And then it hit her. She realized why Lazarus thought he had talked to her before. And for the second time, he was forced to watch as the pretty girl he had kissed ran away.

The Doctor walked through the stairwell door on the second floor, and found himself in a hallway. He strode to the first door he saw, and was pleased to see that it was in fact a laboratory. He ran in, and then stopped short as he turned a corner and saw a familiar-looking blond woman standing at the computers. "Rose?" he asked, bewildered. "How did you get here before me? Did you get your DNA sample?"

Rose turned around, saw the Doctor, and stared at him, an incredulous expression on her face.

"Well? Come on, we need to be quick, before he does something that could hurt someone."

"Doctor?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah, it's me. Hello! Now, we really need to hurry. Do you have the sample or not?"

But instead of answering, she ran up to him, and hugged him, a delighted smile lighting up her face.

"What's that for? Rose, listen, I -" he stopped, as he heard the sound of running footsteps behind him, and turned his head to look.

Rose was mentally kicking herself for not realizing this before, as she sprinted up the staircase to the second floor. Why hadn't she figured it out earlier? 'People seem to see her every time the world is in danger,' the woman had said. Well, the world was certainly in danger now. She ran harder, knowing how important it was for her to find the Doctor first. After all, the woman said that the 'strange man' seen with Rose and Jackie had disappeared…