Davros & the Regeneration

"Your voice is different..." a rasping voice spoke, grating like that of a Dalek. "And yet...its arrogance is unchanged."

*DW* 13 Bannerman Road...Sarah Jane's POV... *DW*

"No!" Sarah Jane whispered in horror. "He's dead!"

*DW* unknown location...Romana's POV... *DW*

"So..." Romana mumbled quietly. "He escaped his imprisonment..."

"Who did?" Jonathan asked her, equally as quiet. "Who is that, Mother?"

His mother fixed him with a stare that spoke volumes of her dread. "One of your father's mortal enemies..."

*DW*

Suddenly, a scarred, deformed, crippled mutation of a man appeared on the TARDIS Viewscreen – one the Doctor recognised at once. "Welcome to my new Empire, Doctor," the creature on the Screen announced. "It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the Resurrection and the Triumph of Davros...Lord and Creator of the Dalek Race." The Doctor just stared in blank shock. "Have you nothing to say?" Davros taunted him.

"But...you were destroyed," the Doctor whispered in horror – for he now knew the implications of what could happen. Davros would recognise Romana at once, owing to the fact that she had witnessed his awakening on Skaro so many years ago, and she would be in mortal peril if he discovered she was a Time Lady – even more so if he found out the truth about Jonathan. "In the first year of the Time War...I saw your Command Ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child! I tried to save you..." In retrospect, that was a foolish thing to do – for Davros would only have carried on being as evil as ever.

"But it took one stronger than you..." Davros informed him. "Dalek Caan himself." With that, he flipped the switch on his wheelchair which controlled the Light Circuit, and a spotlight was placed on the last member of the Cult of Skaro. After a moment, Caan spoke.

"I flew into the wild and fire..." he rambled madly. "I danced and died...a thousand times!"

Davros cut in with an unnecessary explanation. "Emergency Temporal Shift took him back into the Time War itself."

"That's impossible!" the Doctor spat furiously. "The entire War is Time-Locked!"

"And yet, he succeeded," the Dalek creator said, in a voice that would have fit someone shrugging their shoulders. "Oh, it cost him his mind...but imagine, Doctor. A single, simple Dalek succeeded...where Emperors and Time Lords have failed." Those phrases were spoken with the utmost contempt...and the Doctor knew why – Davros didn't like Daleks usurping his self-imagined authority, and he'd developed a hatred of Time Lords ever since the end of their second encounter. "A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations."

"And you made a new race of Daleks?" the Doctor asked in disgust.

"I gave myself to them...quite literally," Davros informed him, unfastening his tunic. "Each one grown from a cell of my own body..." As he said this, he pulled the front of the tunic away, revealing the sickening sight underneath...

*DW* back on Earth...Romana's POV... *DW*

What Romana had just witnessed was the most obscene biological revelation ever imaginable. She evidently hadn't realised how single-minded Davros could be about the continued existence of the Daleks.

"New Daleks...true Daleks," Davros unknowingly told everyone on the Subwave Network. "I have my Children, Doctor. What do you have...now?"

"After all this Time...after everything we've lost...I only have one thing to say to you," the Doctor paused dramatically before speaking again. "BYE!" With that, Romana knew he had begun to head for Earth.

"Right then," she stated firmly, tossing a teleport each at the Jacksons, which both caught. "Jonathan, get your equipment and set off for Bannerman Road. Maria, Alan, go with him. It's time we put an end to this once and for all."

"Good luck," Maria told her with a smile, while Alan gave her a wave. "And be careful."

Romana and Jonathan each returned the smile with a grin – Jonathan's being the toothiest of them. Equipment gathered, they then activated their teleports – with a whoosh, Romana found herself in close proximity to the TARDIS's landing coordinates.

She took the opportunity to survey their surroundings and activated her Artrometer, which would direct her to the TARDIS like a compass, due to the fact that the Capsule was bristling with Artron Energy. But before she could monitor the device, she was taken unawares by a grating metallic voice.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE! DO NOT MOVE!" a Dalek bellowed. At this, Romana spun round to face the Dalek. But instead of firing its blaster, the Dalek entered a panic frenzy. "A-LERT! A-LERT! FULL A-LERT! PRI-SO-NER IS ARMED WITH A STA-SER! PRI-SO-NER IS-"

But before it could complete the sentence, the Dalek's dome was blown sky-high by another energy weapon. When the Time Lady turned to find the source of the beam, she found a blonde girl wielding a heavy ray-gun. "D'ya go lookin' for this kind of trouble? Or are ya jus' unlucky?" she asked wryly.

Romana recognised her voice from the Subwave Network – this was evidently Rose Tyler. But her appearance was one that alarmed Romana – for she had seen this face over a century ago in her lifetime. But now wasn't the time to get nostalgic – she had to find the Doctor. How opportune it was, at that moment, that the Artrometer finally indicated a reading.

"What's that?" asked Rose curiously.

"Artrometer," Romana answered. "It detects Artron Energy – the background radiation picked up by a Time Traveller," she added for clarification. "TARDISes are bristling with them. And right now, I'm trying to use this to find the Doctor's – ah! I've got a reading!" she announced. She then beckoned to the others. "This way!"

*DW*

Sometime later, the twosome caught sight of the Doctor, Donna Noble and the TARDIS. However, only Donna seemed to have caught sight of the pair. She finally said something to which the Doctor turned around – and gazed right at them.

Moments later, they both rushed to embrace him. And they nearly did, but for one thing neither party had considered...

"EX-TER-MI-NATE!" a Dalek screeched. Not a few seconds later, an energy bolt erupted from its blaster and the Doctor fell like a puppet that no longer had any strings.

"NO!" Romana shouted. The Doctor couldn't die now – Jonathan barely knew his father. She was about to turn her staser on the loathsome creature that was the Dalek, but someone else beat her to it – when she looked around, she found that the someone in question was Captain Jack Harkness, wielding what looked like a modified early 201st Millennium defabricator, which he used to eviscerate the Dalek.

Eventually, the pair got to the Doctor's collapsed form, soon joined by Jack and Donna. Romana cradled her once-long-ago lover in her arms, trying to ease the pain.

"Romana..." the Doctor gasped, grinning a grin worthy of his 4th self in spite of his pain. "It's great to have you back...more than great, brilliant..."

"It's wonderful to be back," Romana told him. "Separated by Reality no more..." The Doctor tried to reply, but what came out was a cry of pain. "Don't give in! You're not dying here...you can get through this!" Even as she said this, she knew there was a possibility he would not – this thought threatened to overcome her.

"COME ON! GET HIM INTO THE TARDIS!" yelled Jack. "QUICKLY, BEFORE MORE DALEKS GET HERE!"

*DW* in the TARDIS... *DW*

When the group finally did get him into the TARDIS, it was a frantic, panicked riot in the Console Room.

"What are we gonna do?!" cried Donna, at a complete loss as to how to help her best friend. "There must be some medicine or something!"

"Get back!" called Jack nearby. "You two! Do as I say and get back!" He shouted at both Romana and Rose. "He's dying, and you know what happens next! Especially you, Romana!"

"Do you think I don't know what happens, Harkness?!" she bit back snappily. "I have been through this! This," she gestured to herself, "isn't my 1st life!"

"What d'ya mean?!" shrilled Donna, frustrated at the lack of answers. "What d'ya mean, 'what 'appen's next,' or, 'this isn't my 1st life?'"

Romana's mind touched the Doctor's. She could feel the fear of his impending departure. I'll still love you, Doctor, she assured him. Capricious and arrogant though you are, I love you...

That's why I can't go yet, he called to her. Because I love you too, Romana. I've got to stay for Jonathan as well. I can't assume he knows about regeneration...

Doctor, you can't cheat death, Romana told him sternly.

But he said only one thing; Just you watch me. Now get back! With that, the contact broke.

"Rose, we've got to get back! It's happening now!" Romana commanded the girl beside her. But Rose wouldn't budge.

"But he can't!" she choked out.

"He's got to do this in order to survive!" Romana snapped, frustrated at the lack of action on Rose's part. "Now get back! This can be an explosive process!" With that, she managed to persuade the girl to get back.

Romana and Jack then proceeded to usher Rose and Donna into a corner of the Console Room. "Good luck, Doctor!" Jack told him. He could only imagine how painful the process was the last time he regenerated.

"WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Donna shrieked finally.

"When a Time Lord or Lady is dying," Romana began, trying her best to explain it in layman's terms, "his or her body heals itself by changing every single cell. It's called regeneration."

"But you can't!" Rose cried finally, overwhelmed with tears. She might not have any chance with the Doctor anymore, as Romana – someone who totally outshined her, no question - was here, but that didn't mean she would be ready to see him change. It had been hard enough with the last regeneration.

"It's too late," the Doctor told them sadly. "I'm regenerating." With those words, he burst into vibrant orange flames as the regeneration kicked in...