Some people have told me that I apologize too much so I'm going to stop, sorry. I just feel like if I don't then people will think I'm mean and do these things deliberately, but I promise I don't. Life just gets in the way. I love you all!
I don't own anything from Doctor Who, and I hope you enjoy!
The Doctor gripped onto the console, fighting against the evil that was corrupting his system. "No. You are not," He pulled himself up, pressing some buttons on the console. "You are not going to win!" He yelled, slamming down a button, causing a strong electric shock to be sent through his body. He fell onto the ground, his hair on end, and he felt fried. He grimaced as he stood up, but he pulled himself back up to look at the monitor. "Oh god, Clara." He said, watching as Cyber-Nina gutted her like a pig. He shook his head, standing himself up all the way, using the console to support his weight.
He watched in horror as she fell to the ground. He gripped the monitor tightly, squeezing his eyes shut. "This is all a dream. None of this is happening. This is all just a bad dream. Clara's still alive. Clara is still alive." He mumbled to himself. The TARDIS made a loud groaning noise and he opened his eyes, looking back at the screen. He smiled wide as the gold light of regeneration energy flowed from her hands. "What?! How did… but. Oh! Yes! Yes! Yes!" He spun around in excitement, all of the possibilities of living the rest of his life with Clara. He jumped around, kicking into the air.
He abruptly stopped, eyes going wide. "Oh god, she's still part human. She won't be able… it might…" He ran back to the monitor as he watched Clara in the midst of regenerating, Nina now thrown onto the ground. "Come on, bring them to me, Sexy!" The TARDIS hummed and Clara fell onto the floor next to the Doctor, just having completed regenerating. He ran to her, momentarily forgetting about Nina.
He knelt down beside her, she still looked the same. His eyes were wide with worry. His hands were on her face, looking for signs of life. "Come on, Clara. You're strong, you can get through this! Come on." He frantically searched for his sonic screwdriver. When he found it he ran back to Clara and did a quick scan. He looked at the results. She was still alive, but her body wasn't coping well with the regeneration. He closed the screwdriver, shutting his eyes and thinking of what to do.
His eyes shot open when he heard, "What the hell just happened?"
He looked up to see Nina standing beside him, rubbing her head. "Nina! Or Cyber-Nina. Which one are you?" He stood up, scanning her with his sonic. He checked the results and nodded. "Nope, just Nina. You must've got hit by some of the regeneration energy, wiped all of the Cyber widgets out of your system! Good."
She took a step away from him. "How do I know you're not the Clever guy?" She asked tentatively. "And what the hell happened to your hair?"
His eyes went wide and he looked at Clara. "My hair! I need to fix my hair! I can't let Clara see me with my hair like this! And where is my coat? What did that bastard do with my coat?!" He spun around running his hand through his hair. "Oh, this is just great! Ruined hair, no coat, and where am I supposed to my sonic?!"
Nina eyed him suspiciously. This definitely didn't seem like Clever, but you never know. "You didn't answer my question."
He turned back to her, frowning. "Don't you see I have a dilemma here?! I need to find my coat!" He ran around the console room, looking for his coat. "Aha!" He yelled, jumping up with his usual purple coat on. He smiled, putting his sonic away in its usual pocket. "Okay, now for my hair. I'll be right…"
He was stopped by Nina gripping his arm. He frowned down at her. "Answer my question!" She yelled rather angrily.
The Doctor tugged away from her grip and straightened his coat. "Fine, if you need to know. I shocked myself with quite a lot of power, it was rather painful. Clever is gone, dead, for good! That's why my hair is like this! Now, I need to go fix it before Clara wakes up! She's a Time Lady now, I need to give her the news! And I need to find out how it happened. Well, she's part Time Lady actually. She's still half human. But I can't let her see me with my hair like this!" He ran down a corridor, shouting, "She's a Time Lady!"
ooooOOOoooo
"And that's what happened while you were resting. Did I miss anything, Nina?" He asked, turning to his left to look at Nina.
They were now in a small town diner waiting for a waiter to come and take their orders. "Um, I don't think so. Except for the part about how the hell that blue box is bigger on the inside, how Clara managed to stumble upon you of all people, what the hell regenerating is, how Clara can regenerate, how that Clever monster thing got into our brains, how that blue box can travel in time and space, and just generally what the hell is going on?!"
"Also, how did I become a Time Lady?" Clara added.
The Doctor scratched the back of his head. "Well, that's quite a lot of questions."
He was about to start answering them when a waitress walked up to their table. "What can I get you, this fine morning?" She asked in a rich country accent.
The Doctor smiled widely. "America and its country accents! I tell you, I love America. What do you want Clara?" He asked, looking at her excitedly.
She rubbed her head, thinking for a second. "Um, do you have any alcohol?" The Doctor frowned at her. "What? This is a lot to take in! I'm only human." She turned back to the waitress. "Well?"
The waitress shook her head. "No, but we do have coffee."
"Yeah, I guess that'll work too. I'll have some coffee, and um, I don't know. Whatever he gets." She gestured to the Doctor.
He nodded and immediately ordered fish fingers and custard. "I'm sorry sir, but we don't have those things available. Can we interest you in our sunny side up special?"
The Doctor nodded and said, "That sounds delightful! May I have a cup of warm tea to go with that, please?"
"Sure thing! Anything for you, mam?" She asked, looking towards Nina. Nina quickly shook her head. Clara frowned at her in confusion, but she averted gaze. "Right, let's see. A coffee, two orders of the sunny side of special, and a warm cup of tea. Will that be all?" The Doctor nodded in response. "That'll be… fifteen dollars!"
"Oh, right, money." He patted around in his pockets until he pulled out his psychic paper. "I don't think we'll need to worry about money." He said, showing the waitress the paper.
The waitress gasped and extended her hand to the Doctor. "It's nice to meet you, Mister Governor! Your food will be right up." The Doctor smiled and shook her hand before she went away quickly.
Nina frowned. "Okay, another question. How did that paper make that waitress think you were a governor?" She asked.
The Doctor sighed and took a second before he started, "The TARDIS is bigger on the inside because it's Time Lord Technology. It's all very complicated and clever, so that's all I can really explain about that.
"I actually ended up stumbling upon Clara in the Dalek Asylum, where she was actually a dalek, but she didn't know it. She was a different version of Clara, of course. An echo. She has echoes because she jumped into my time line to save my life, and so now different versions of her are scattered across my time line, saving my life. I still appreciate that, Clara." He squeezed her hand and she nodded.
He continued, "Regenerating is a function that Time Lords and Ladies have the ability to do. It just allows you to keep living after you've died, except with a different body, except not in Clara's case which I'll explain later. I'll also explain why Clara can regenerate later, it's all very complicated.
"Clever got into our brains through Cyber technology, which I don't fully understand.
"The TARDIS is a time machine and a space ship mixed together. TARDIS itself stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.
"The psychic paper can make people see whatever you want them to see, hence the name psychic. Does that help?" He finished, breathing out and looking at Nina.
"Um, not really." She answered. "All I could hear was, 'Blah blah blah blah, Clara, blah blah blah blah."
He frowned at her. "Then you should've been listening!"
The waitress came back with their food and she set them down on their table quickly, smiling at the Doctor. He smiled back and she walked away. He looked down at his plate to see a rather revolting looking fried egg, and a side of bacon. "That doesn't look very sunny side up to me." Clara mumbled, poking at her own fried egg with her fork. She took a sip of her coffee before spitting it out. "Wow, that's some bitter coffee." She used her napkin to wipe her tongue off.
"Would you like my tea?" The Doctor asked, handing it to her.
She nodded gracefully and took a long sip. "So, how am I part Time Lady?"
The Doctor chewed on a piece of bacon and wrung his hands together. When he swallowed he looked at her excitedly, leaning forward. "Well, Clara, you've never asked me how Time Lords and Ladies first came into the world. You see, Time Lords were created by long term exposure to the time vortex. Then it passed down from generation to generation to generation, and so on. When you entered my time stream you had short term exposure to the time vortex."
"Short term my ass! I felt like I was in there for ages. It just… never ended. Until finally it did. For me, it definitely wasn't short term. More like years and years and years…" She looked down at her tea, her eyes pained.
Nina observed her friend carefully, until she turned to the Doctor and whispered, "What the hell did you do to her?"
He shook his head and whispered back, "I'm not completely sure. I'm sure there is much more about her time in my time stream that she hasn't told me." He ran a hand through his hair before extending it towards Clara's, squeezing her hand comfortingly. "I'm sorry, Clara." He said.
She shook her head, looking up at him. "That's the thing; if there's anything I want from you it's not your pity! What are you even apologizing for? Me saving your life?! Just stop okay! I'm sick of you apologizing to me for no reason!" She let go of his hand and stormed off towards the bathroom.
Nina pulled her chair out and glared out him. "Great job." She said coldly before trailing after Clara.
"What did I even do?!" He called after them, looking down at the table and slamming his fists down. He always managed to screw things up with the people he cared about. Why did this always seem to happen when he was trying to be helpful?!
OOOOoooOOOO
"Clara?" Nina asked quietly, carefully entering the restroom. All of the stalls were empty and Clara was standing in front of them mirror.
"I look horrible." She said, staring at her reflection in disgust. "Ugh, I need a bath." She looked down toward the sink, turning it on and running her hands under it, letting the coldness run across her skin.
Nina walked up to stand next to her, looking at her own reflection. "We both look quite horrid, don't we?" She joked, shaking her head. She watched as Clara ran her hands under the cold water.
"It still burns." Clara said quietly, noticing Nina watching. She turned off the tap and stared down at her hands. "I just can't believe it. Me, ordinary old Clara, part Time Lady." She shook her head in disbelief. She wiped her face with her hands, trying to cool it down.
"Does all of it burn?" Nina asked carefully.
Clara moved her hands away from her face and reached for a paper towel. "No, just my hands and face." She dried her face and hands, looking at herself in the mirror again. "I have gotten myself into some deep shit haven't I, Nina?" She asked, turning to her friend.
Nina sighed and looked down. "Can I be honest with you?"
"Any time, you know that."
Nina nodded, looking at herself in the mirror. "I'm scared. I'm actually, properly, terrified. I have no clue what's going on, what just happened, or what's going on with you. I just… I feel so lost and weak and just… afraid." She squeezed her eyes shut. She never let this side of her show, not to anyone. But she would say anything to Clara.
Clara reached over and held Nina's hand, squeezing it gently. "I know the feeling." She turned to find Nina looking back at her. There was a moment of silence between them, until Clara finally said, "I forgive you."
Nina was taken aback. "W-what?" She asked, slightly confused, but pretty sure she was talking about.
"You know what I'm talking about, and I forgive you. I have for a long time. I just wanted you to know." She said, rubbing her thumb against the back of Nina's hand.
Nina pulled her hand away, shaking her head and looking down at the sink. "No. I don't deserve that. I was horrible to you; I don't deserve your forgiveness."
Clara sighed and put a hand on Nina's shoulder. "Don't say that, Nina. It was ages ago. I was in an emotional state, and you did what you did with reason. I forgive you."
Nina looked up at Clara and frowned at her. "You know what, that's the thing. Do you know why I dumped you? Because I don't. I don't have a clue why I threw away what we had. And you want to know what the worst part of that was. I didn't feel bad for doing that to you at all until I heard that you had tried… that you were going to…" She shook her head and looked down, holding back her tears. "I'm a horrible person. I just…" She squeezed her eyes shut.
Clara wrapped her arms around her friend, pulling her close. "Look, what I tried to do was stupid. I was being an overdramatic teenager that was depressed over losing my mum, and then losing you. But don't ever blame yourself for that. Nina, look at me." Nina lifted her head to look at Clara. "Don't you ever blame yourself for my stupidity. That was not your fault." She hugged Nina tight.
Nina dug her nose into Clara's shoulder, her tears on the verge of escaping. "I'm so sorry, Clara. I'm sorry. I… I'm so sorry." She mumbled into her should, a single tear falling.
Clara pulled away and nodded. "I've already forgiven you. Now, why don't we go back to the Doctor. He has more things to explain, and I need to apologize for being a moody bitch." They both chuckled and walked out of the bathroom. The Doctor looked up at them, frowning when he saw Nina's red eyes.
"Is she…"
"Just don't, Doctor." Clara said quickly. He nodded and Nina went to sit down in her spot next to the Doctor. Clara sat back down in front of the Doctor and said, "Sorry for snapping at you. I'm just not in a very good mood. Lots of stuff is going around in my head, and I just needed to get my anger out somehow."
The Doctor nodded before saying, "Is that why…" He gestured to Nina.
"No! Just continue explaining how I'm part Time Lady now." She said, taking sip of her now cold tea.
He nodded. "Well, even though it might have seemed like a long time for you, it was short term exposure to the time vortex in real time. It wasn't too short not to have had an effect on you, but it was just the right amount not to make you a full Time Lady, which I'm not sure is a bad thing or a good thing. Anyway, we weren't able to notice a difference at first because your system wasn't quite used to your new abilities. You've slowly been growing more powerful as time goes on, until you've now reached your full potential. You were pretty much boiling over with regeneration energy by the time you had to go into the mini Hunger Games match. That's why your wounds healed. All you had to do was think about them and then, bam! They were healed!"
"Is that going to keep happening now?" She asked, chewing absently on a piece of bacon.
He shook his head. "No, your body should be used to the newly acquired energy coursing through your veins." He reached out to hold her hand, smiling widely. "Isn't this exciting?!"
Clara managed to smile back and she nodded. "I guess. How long am I going to live now?"
He frowned, pulling his hand to count on his fingers. "I'm not actually sure, but since you're only part Time Lady I'd assume you got half the average time. So, let's see, that would be six regenerations. And you've already used up one, so I'd not be as reckless as you usually are. Also you probably used up a century or two with healing all of your injuries earlier. It really just depends." He said, shrugging. "But it will be much longer than you would've lived as a regular human." He smiled again.
"So I'll still look young? And also how do I still look the same? Aren't you supposed to look different whenever you regenerate?"
"Yes, you'll always look young and you'll stay this beautiful for as long as you live." He reached out to hold her hand again. "And you look the same because Time Ladies can decide how they look when they regenerate. You must've really wanted to stay you to look completely the same."
She crinkled her nose and said, "Damn, I should've wished to be taller." The Doctor chuckled and leaned forward to press a kiss against her forehead. He frowned when he pulled away.
"Clara, are you warm?" He asked.
She quickly shook her head and exchanged a glance with Nina. "I'm fine. How about we head home now? I'm pretty tired."
"Yeah, me too." Nina agreed, standing up.
The Doctor frowned confused for a moment before standing up and following both of the women to the TARDIS. "Okay. Home it is!"
I hope you enjoyed and I really appreciate all of your reviews!