Very minor spoilers for the 11th Doctor's outfit - if you haven't seen the pictures :)
Footsteps in the Sand
Chapter 3
He could sense the Master now. The dancers were suddenly sinister as the room was darkened and they became shadows with luminous masks that goaded , mourned and jeered out of the darkness, pulsing, beating to the drumbeat.
"It is returning through the dark"
The music stopped and the dancers stood like gargoyles along the edge of the red carpet. The Doctor was reminded of the Weeping Angels, their lit faces waited in the dark.
"And then Doctor…oh but then…"
DUM-DUM-DUM-DUM - the drums ended the song with immense force.
"He will knock four times"
"WELCOME, ALL!" declared the new voice of the Master from the masks of the dancers. It was light-hearted, almost jovial - but through the gaping masks of motionless dancers it was menacing.
There was scattered applause throughout the room, but people were clearly disturbed by the heaviness of the darkness upon them.
"WELCOME, DOCTOR!" shouted the dancers with a disturbing tone.
Nobody clapped this time, but looked around in alarm, the reflected light of the dancers highlighting the anxiety in their faces.
"Knock-knock-knock-knock" the Master seemed to have tapped a microphone, "Is this thing on?" the dancers recited with a malicious laugh - a laugh the Doctor had known since childhood. A laugh that held nothing but pain.
The new Doctor opened his eyes afresh to an old universe. He slid his tongue over new teeth. Jack leaned over him.
"I'm sorry," the new Doctor looked at Jack, "I'm so…" the words seemed unnatural to his new form.
Jack nodded, "Let's forget."
"I could do that," said the Doctor solemnly, "I can make you forget."
The Doctor turned towards him, a madness in his eyes.
They burned…
Jack paused a moment and looked at his hands, the red sand clung to his sweat like dried blood.
'Uncle Jack!' Steven ran towards him.
He shook his head.
"I couldn't," muttered Jack, "I need to remember."
They were silent a moment while events settled themselves into the past.
The past is relative, thought the Doctor…sometime all was still to happen.
Dum-dum-dum-dum
The past is gone, thought Jack.
He grinned at the Doctor.
"So, you're number what? - five? Six?"
"11, actually," returned the Doctor, his tone lighter now.
Jack whistled, impressed.
"What colour's my hair? The Doctor asked looking towards his fringe which hung large and brown over his forehead, "Oh," he sighed, disappointed, "I was hoping for ginger…ginger" he repeated, tasting the new accent "ginger, do I sound Scottish?"
Jack laughed.
"A little." he deliberated.
The Doctor stood up slowly, Jack rose with him, supporting him by the elbow.
"I like it," Jack declared as the Doctor raised his eyebrows and fiddled with his hair, "But, man are you young! You make me feel old," he finished with a mutter.
"I'm going senile, I'll be a child next."
Jack laughd.
"I feel," the Doctor began, feeling at his torn collar, "I feel…I need a dickie bow…and…and tweed!"
Jack stared at the man. The Doctor's dark shock of hair flapped in the wind.
Jack looked releived and nodded slowly in understanding.
"Yep, still old."
They stood, and although each felt weak and brittle, both felt painfully anchored to life, and each understood the emptiness of the tundra that stretched bleakly to the horizon. The red sand shifted and heaved into waves that rippled the landscape, blown by the warm, dusty wind.
"Where are we?" asked Jack, squinting at the large sun that loomed unnaturally over the planet.
The Doctor paused and squinted at the looming sun. His face was angular, but handsome, his skin fresh and pale.
"Gallifrey," he answered.
Jack frowned and pivoted to look directly at the new Doctor, but he had already turned away from the empty world.
He had turned, reluctantly, back towards the TARDIS, it was like the running shoes of a tired man, but it was his nature now to run. He didn't want to look at it - with its beckoning door that had opened onto such worlds - beyond his thoughts as a child on this very planet; but he couldn't look at the bleak landscape now either.
"Err - Doctor!"
The Doctor spun round, his torn and burnt clothes feeling unnatural on his more muscular body. The patch of disturbed sand where he had regenerated now glowed golden, and it was beginning to seep into the red sand around in.
"These things never go well," the Doctor lamented and kicked some sand on top of the golden centre, like a feeble attempt to put out a fire, where it was instantly absorbed into the golden sand.
"Well the gold is…nice too," noted Jack hopefully.
The Doctor looked confused.
"A planet can't regenerate," he said fearfully.
To be continued...
Let me know what you think, this is my first Doctor Who fanfic :) and the new outfit? I think it's quite adorable :D