#crossover imminent

[lunimate]

[edupunkn00b]

The Best of Humanity Chapter 2: Regeneration

[AO3] Chapter 1 (Prelude)

CW: Major character death, police brutality (non-graphic)

The Doctor huffed out a not-quite-laugh, "I get to come back. I get to come back to lose more friends, more family, more people I lo--" The Doctor's voice broke and tears forced their way down her cheeks. She sunk to her knees, fingers still gripped tightly on the console, chest tightening. She wished she could say she'd truly lost count of how many she had lost, but that would be just one more of the Doctor's lies. Images of lost friends and lost loves danced across vision blurred by tears. They were always brilliant, and always brave, running toward danger right alongside her. The TARDIS warbled reproachfully, as though her thoughts were audible. "I don't make them take the risks they do, I swear..." the Doctor said more to herself than to the TARDIS.

As if in response, the ancient memory of Rory's words screamed through her mind. "It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down." The Doctor groaned. Rory had been right.

Donna had been so brave that she would rather burn than lose her time with the Doctor. Bill followed her off a cliff in the Doctor's selfish belief that Missy could be redeemed. And River ... Another sob escaped the Doctor's lips. River put the whole of existence at risk in the hopes that the Doctor could live. And later died in her place to save more than four thousand people. The Doctor felt her grip loosen. "Too many, too many. How many more do I have to lose," the Doctor whispered. "Please, no more, no more."

But as her regeneration slowly started to take hold, the memories took over

After they left the TARDIS for good, Ryan and Graham also continued to fight for humanity back on Earth. That is, they continued the fight until the fight ended them. Ryan died defending his friends from jack-booted "peace officers" during a BLM vigil back in Sheffield. Most of his friends were able to run from the police when Ryan drew them away from the crowd. But Ryan couldn't escape. The officers killed him, claiming Ryan was resisting arrest. The Doctor looked up, eyes caught on the translucent pane at the top of the TARDIS, the broken chameleon circuit taunting her loss: POLICE BOX. Police stole away most of her Fam that night. Ryan's loss was the last pain Graham could carry. His official cause of death was an accidental overdose of the Toposar he'd resumed after scans showed the cancer had returned. The Doctor knew better.

"And Yaz, brave, incredible Yaz. Now we really do have a Universe without Yaz." She tried to close her eyes and her memories to the scene of Yaz pushing her out of the way of the blast. The Doctor didn't even register why Yaz had shoved her before Yaz dropped over the charge just as it detonated. And then there was nothing left of Yaz but the rapidly dissipating heat from where her hands last touched the Doctor.

Images continued to race through the Doctor's mind as she remembered more of the losses she'd endured. Clara was killed by her own oh-so-human hubris and by Me's still-quite-human treachery. Thousands were killed and the entire planet imperiled when that lonely Rattigan boy made his deal with the Sontarans. Jack Robertson had more blood on his hands than even she knew. Simple tourists on a shuttle bus ultimately killed that poor hostess. The Doctor pulled her hand through her hair as she realised that she still didn't know her name.

"Please, no more!" The Doctor's voice broke as her throat tightened and she shouted, "I can't just come back and watch them die! I can fight off the Cybermen and The Master and five kinds of Daleks and every other alien who wants to harm this planet. I can turn armies around at the sound of my name but I can't stop humans from hurting each other? How can I stop them? How!?" The TARDIS warbled softly. The Doctor closed her eyes and whispered, "How can I stop them from hurting themselves?"

The Doctor froze, mouth slack as her eyes opened wide, a wisp of an idea swirling in her head. "How do I stop them from hurting each other and themselves? I've seen that good people in this world can help move it forward. How can I help them to be the better versions of humans that I know they can be?" The Doctor slowly pulled herself to her feet, feeling the first tingles of regeneration energy, as an idea grew tendrils and roots in her mind. She had to work fast.

Breathing shallowed by the pain, the Doctor started to search the TARDIS databases. "I need to pick the right time, just the right time for humans to be receptive. If I wait too long, the damage will be too deep. Too many will be corrupted and I won't be able to turn them around. Too early and ... " The Doctor's voice trailed off, thinking about Nikola and Vincent and Martin and Sylvia and Alan and all the others whose ideas came too soon. She kept tapping at the keys until she found just the right time and place.

"Well, old girl, let's get a shift on. I know what to do." The Doctor blinked rapidly, yanking back her attention from her darkening vision and the fiery pain in her body. "I'm going to need your help. I can feel it blowing in, this new regeneration is coming and I need to be in the right place and the right time. Do you hear me," her voice cracked again as she punched in the coordinates. "This is where I need to go," Idris' voice echoed through the Doctor's head. "Do you see why?"

The Doctor waited, giving the TARDIS time to process both her words and the timespace coordinates she had chosen. She knew the TARDIS could piece it together with what she'd found in the historical database. "This is the moment in time when I have a chance to shape things ... I can help humans be the best of themselves, to be more loving, more accepting of both themselves and one another." The Doctor stopped, her breath hitching as she fought the waves of regeneration energy swirling their way to the surface. "If I make people want to impress me, let me be someone who shows them how powerful they are. Let me be someone who shows them they are loved beyond belief." Maybe, just maybe it would work. "If I can balance out enough of the negative feelings, maybe we really can add enough happiness to the pile of good things that we can tip the scales this time."

"This is where I need to go ... " The Doctor thought she could hear gentle, knowing laughter in the TARDIS' warble as she whispered one more time to the TARDIS, "Please."

The Doctor pulled the lever and pushed herself backwards and away from console, bright, golden light pouring out of her.

[edupunkn00b]

The Best of Humanity - Prelude

Spoilers ... this story takes place a few years after and references the events in Revolution of the Daleks.

The Doctor must find a way to save humanity from its greatest threat.

[AO3]

CW: Major Character Death

This story generally follows a linear-ish progression of cause-and-effect. This first chapter is the major exception. Other than that, the interweaving tale is only a little bit timey-wimey.

Doctor Who reference? Fantastic.

- Logan, in Can Lying Be Good?

---------------

The door to the TARDIS swung open as the Doctor stumbled in, one hand pressed hard against her side, mouth a single, tight line. Even so, a groan escaped her lips as she turned and locked the door behind her. Safe at last, the Doctor sank to the floor of the control room. The concerned warbling of the TARDIS was the last thing the Doctor heard before her vision shifted to black.

...

Some time later, the Doctor's eyes shot open and she sucked in air with a gasp. The pain in her side was back and somehow even worse. "Oh, that's not good. Not good at all," she muttered as she crawled first to her knees and pulled herself up to --mostly-- standing, leaning heavily on the closest wall. The Doctor swayed as she tried to stand still for a moment, focusing on her pain, working to determine just how bad it was.

It was bad.

The Doctor's earlier pain had spread. Her entire left side was now throbbing, and she was starting to lose feeling in the finger tips of her right hand. She felt a sharp pain above her right eye and a deep ache in her head and down her neck that probably meant a brain injury. The Doctor knew what this meant.

And so did the TARDIS. The Doctor gradually became aware of the increasing urgency in the TARDIS' warbling sounds. "Yes, yes, I know, old girl, I know." The Doctor sighed, more a groan than a breath. "I'm dying."

The Doctor stumbled over to the console and leaned heavily against the control panel, resting her forehead against the upper edge. Tears burned at the edges of her eyes. "But unlike my fam, I get to come back."