Doctor Who?

Deus Ex Machina

On the hillside, a couple of miles back, the ship that had transported the Doctor and the Valeyard suddenly exploded, sending a wave of heat over the near-dead Doctor. But he was too gone now to care. The sound of time ripping increased, growing louder and louder. It sounded as though some great beast were breathing in and out, each inhalation growing stronger. Thunder and lightning accompanied the sound, until the explosive noise trembled the very atoms of what remained of the Doctors body. A tear began to open in front of him, two hands stretching the gap into a wide gash. A blue box scraped into existence, forcing itself into the real world. A loud thud was heard, and the doors to the TARDIS were flung open.

"Come on, get into the TARDIS!"

The Doctor didn't understand the sight in front of him, didn't know whether it was real or fake. His brain had stopped thinking, he couldn't process the words being said to him. He didn't even comprehend quite what the magical box that had appeared from nowhere even was, just that he recognised it as home. As safety. Strength that he shouldn't have had was summoned to him, and against the laws of physics, he dragged himself, inch by inch, towards the TARDIS. By the time he was laid by the entrance all that remained of him was his head and his collar, with a stump of a shoulder attached by threads. He perched his chin onto the lip of the TARDIS floor, convulsing and straining, barely able to concentrate on staying alive, and pulled himself into the time machine. The second he made contact with the console room floor, he felt light and fuzzy, a warm tingling sensation showering him. But he then felt a fire begin to burn within him. The most terrible pain shot through him, but he had no lungs with which to scream. The tiny fraction of consciousness he still had flickered, giving up. Bolts of lightning shot through the air into his scalp. Like tiny pins, they dug their way into his brain, his mind, his soul, and retrieved what dregs remained. His eyes shot wide open and his mouth formed a screaming, howling shape. The pain from earlier had increased tenfold. It felt like tiny grains of sand were trying to escape from his skin. Suddenly, an eruption tore through his skin, Fire burned out of his mouth. He saw vortexes of light swirl past him. It was as if he were inside of a dream. A swirl of light and golden energy engulfed him. The pain increased. Tiny hands grabbed his cut off limps and ripped them out of his body. Where every single nerve had been disintegrated, he felt a new one scorch into place. With a sickening noise of flesh slapping, he felt his new lungs grow, and with them he screamed as loud as he could. His body contorted and stretched itself right again. All the while his mind was flicking over and over. A new persona was forcing its way into his head. It tore and tore at his mind. He thought he would evaporate from all the heat. The old persona marched back in. He felt the two tackle each other in his mind. Would this torture end? begged the Doctor to his body. He saw the other person in the console room, cringing at the sight before them. Another spiral of pain rocketed up his spine, his new body parts linking up to his nervous system. Never before had he been so close to not returning to life than this. Voices called to him.

"Doctor..." they whispered, "It's time to come home... Join us, we've been waiting a long time..."

At that moment, he saw... Faces. Faces he had once known, faces that he had worn, faces that he had sworn to destroy. He felt who he was starting to shudder and shatter. The new persona was winning the fight. But at what cost? He knew that the regeneration had gone on for far too long, but couldn't stop it. His face then began to convulse. A new one forced its way through his features, and he began to feel his new body's differences. But his mind was still fighting, and while that was happening, he couldn't stop the regenerative energy from spilling its way through him, like a river through a gorge. What had once been new skin began to burn. The energy was now destroying what it had just created. It was at this point that the person who had flown his TARDIS, had saved him, reached under the console for a device. They unplugged it from a port in the base of the console and pointed it towards him. As they switched it on, a sucking noise filled the air. The Doctor's old mind was ascending. He could feel it retreating to the outer fringes of his brain, joining its predecessors. The new persona had won finally, and the excess regenerative energy was retrieved by the device. A blue cooling glow was expelled from the device, healing the burns on his new flesh, leaving him pure and new-born. He felt his hairs on his body stick up, as he had burnt his clothing off during the process and was feeling the cold temperature of the console room. He looked at the man who was returning the device to its hatch. "First door on the left, second right, under the stairs, past the-Tell you what."

He reached over to the console, which was a shining white, brand new, and pushed a few buttons.

"It's just down this corridor." He said, flicking another switch, and causing a door to open in one of the walls.

The console room was a vast space, with three arches of what looked like volcanic rock connecting the rooftop scanner to the room. The scanner was roughly eight meters in diameter, and bulged outwards, like a fish eye. On it was splayed the local star system. Around the upper circumference of the scanner was a ring of Gallifreyan symbols. They swivelled round the top, showing that the TARDIS was switched on and ready to fly. There were six walls at the far edges of the room, each one littered with roundels, indenting into the side. Every roundel glowed a faint gold, illuminating the edges of the room. The room was lit by the huge scanner and from underneath the floor. The base level of flooring was a pale grey, which lead to the outer door and the walls. The next level was ten meters from the walls, and circled the main console unit. It was made of glass, you could see a reflection of the scanner overhead being projected from the floor. A step lead up to this level from the base floor, allowing a dignified escalation to the higher level. One leading up from each quarterly turn of the circle. There were three more levels, each a small distance up from the previous one. Roughly two and a half meters in on the fourth level was placed the last circle. This one was smaller than the other four, and in the centre housed the main console unit. The room was clinical, feeling more like a scientific lab than someone's home, obviously newly unpacked. Tiny lights flickered on the central console, the rotor in the middle of it red and crystallised.

A red tie flicked over the newly regenerated Doctor's shoulder. He was comparing it to his new beige safari jacket. Beneath it he wore a brightly coloured flowery Hawaiian shirt, leaving the top two buttons left undone. His legs were covered by a pair of canvas trousers with detachable bottom halves. Tanned leather brogue boots sheltered his feet, and a couple of white socks sprung up his ankles.

He decided against the red tie, and put it onto a coat hanger. The rest of his outfit he had found on a chair, almost as though it had been place there. As he looked into the mirror he thought he recognised himself. Thinning dark-blonde hair topped his head, above a roundish face with curved noise and piercing blue eyes. He had a fair amount of size to him, being shorter than his previous body, with slightly stubby legs. He'd have said he looked about thirty-seven, if he was being generous. But his looks still bugged him- he swore he'd seen this person in the mirror before. Then he remembered the man in the console room and bolted back. The man in the beige safari jacket working at the main console looked up at his footsteps and smoothed down his shirt, both of which were strikingly similar to the Doctor's own clothing. He smiled.

The Doctor burst in.

"Who the hell are you?!"