Lost In Thought

Rise as a Phoenix

LizBeth

Regeneration as a concept is strange.

The closest that humans could probably relate to it is the story of the Phoenix. The tale of a beautiful bird made utterly of fire, that when it grows old, instead of dying, it burns itself to ash, and is reborn in the remains. It's the same bird, but the Phoenix must grow again.

In Time Lords, as Gallifreyan's only gain the ability of regeneration through exposure to the Untempered Schism and completing trials as they progress through the Academy, it's a similar process. When our bodies are dying, too old or injured to go on, the pure Time in our blood triggers a burning of our cells, our very being, almost to the very core. But instead of turning us to ash, in which we would be reborn as an infant, like the Phoenix, we are instead recreated as anything.

Man, woman, some variation of the two, we won't know until after it's done. We could be tall, short, fat, thin, old, young, anything. We don't have to grow up to maturity, but we do have to learn who we are all over again.

That was what was happening to me right now.

The first time I regenerated, I didn't get time to work out who I was before being forced into a Chameleon Arch, and turned into a little human girl who didn't know who she was either. But this time, I was giving myself a moment to process as I changed, body burning away the damage from the Dalek's beam, before resetting to the beginning of the previous regeneration and going from there.

It meant that when I sat up on the TARDIS, to have a blanket fall off my face, and everyone who had been staring at the Doctor, still the same, and stare at me instead. "What did I miss?" American, but with a nice, soft voice, and I could feel a great deal of soft curls around my head. "Oh, I'm approving of this so far. Brother, what happened? You were shot yourself."

He shrugged, crouching down before me as I discovered that I was slightly taller, filled out my clothes in a different way, with muscles, not just the curves. "Found a loophole. You okay?"

"Of course. Regeneration is still new to me. Doesn't scare you until you get to later points when you realise how few you have left." And got to my feet, the shoes now actually slightly loose. "Are you okay?" He pulled a face. "I'm sorry, I should have heard the Dalek sooner, been faster to get you."

"Don't. I should have just looked where I was going." And he hugged me, kissing the mass of curls around my head. "I'm just glad that you decided to stick around with your daft big brother a little while longer."

I gave him a smile, going to reply, but the TARDIS suddenly jerked, the Gorgeous Girl going dark as I sighed. "I see they still found us. That sounded like a Chronon Loop. Don't bother checking your Vortex Manipulator, Jacky, it'll drain the power in that and your Dimension Jump too, Blondie."

Which was when Rose stepped towards me. "You're Elizabeth?" I nodded. "Wow. That's, that's an even bigger change than the Doctor, last time. It's far from a bad change, you're gorgeous, but it's a big change."

"If it helps, I don't think I'm the type to throw punches this time. That's good for you, I'd initially been planning to add a black eye to that split lip." And moved on to Donna, who was just staring at me. "Shiny? It's still me. I'm still Elizabeth, still the girl you called Remy, the girl you saw utterly lose control when her daughter died. Is that okay?"

"Y, you're..." She took a breath, going to take my still gloved hand lightly, and I let her. "Sorry, it's just. It'll take some getting used to, but wow. Wow, Lizzy."

Beaming at her, I gave her a hug next, before now looking to Jack. "You okay, there, Captain Douchebag?"

"Oh, there's that feisty Professor!" He laughed, rushing to hug me tight, lifting me up. "I thought you'd gone all soft on me. But, we should probably get to business." Given that we were heading towards a Dalek fleet to rival the advanced guard at the beginning of the Time War? Probably for the best. "There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."