Chapter Twelve:

Regeneration

Without thinking, Raiden grabbed the pistol, and shot the Argonigo, immediately killing it. The Doctor didn’t have time to argue about it. He ran and bent over Piper, cradling her in his arms. Piper gasped for breath in between whimpering in the unfathomable pain she was experiencing. She felt her windpipes close, and felt like she choking. “Piper, Piper!” Raiden cried, falling next to her. He looked over at the fob watch, which Piper was clinging to. Golden dust exploded from it. “Piper. Listen to my voice. Keep your focus on me.” The Doctor said firmly, “You’re alright. But it’s going to be painful. Just keep looking at me.” The golden dust swirled and circled in the air above them for a few moments. “It hurts, Doctor! It hurts!” she cried. “I know, I know” the Doctor replied, in pain himself that she had to go through this. Then, the energy flew down, and entered into Piper’s mouth. She gasped for breath again as the energy aggressively entered through her system.

“What’s going on? What’s happening to her!?” Raiden exclaimed.

“Her body is in overload, trying to convert back into Timelord DNA, and the early stages of the regeneration process.”

“Regeneration process!?”

“Yes, it means she’s gonna change. She’ll still have her memories, but her entire appearance and personality will change.”

“She’ll what-!?”

“Doctor…Uncle Doctor…”

The Doctor immediately turned back to Piper. His hearts nearly skipped their beats and soared away when he heard that name. “Uncle Doctor…” She finally said, “Uncle Doctor.” He had been waiting for centuries to hear her say that name. His face broke out into a huge grin. “Hiya, sweetheart” he whispered, exhaling sharply. Tears began to fill in her eyes. “You’re here! Oh my god, you’re finally here! You…! You came back for me!” she sobbed. “Of course I did! I wouldn’t never forget my little Piper.” The Doctor stroked her hair, comfortingly.

“And when this is all over, we can go to the Tardis. You get to choose. Anywhere you wanna go; and we’ll go together, as a family again.”
“Really truly?”

“Really truly.”

Finally, Piper took a deep breath. It wasn’t out of pain. She closed her eyes. The surging energy through her had dissipated. She felt very different. Two hearts…She could feel two hearts instead of one. However, only one was beating. She sat up. Her face had lost all emotion, and her eyes were droopy from exhaustion, and dark circles were forming underneath them. Raiden looked at her nervously. “Does she know where she is? Does she know who she is? Does she even know who I am?” Questions ran through his head as he began to worry. But he was wrong on all accounts. Piper knew where she was, who she was, and who Raiden was. What he didn’t know, what that this wasn’t over yet. Piper had one thing left to do. Slowly, she turned to the Doctor. “How much time do I have?” she asked him. The Doctor shifted his weight. “About fifteen minutes.” “Can…Can I see my mother…? And my father?” The Doctor nodded in understanding. He helped Piper back onto her feet as they silently walked back to the Tardis. All the while, Raiden was dying inside of curiosity and concern. What did she mean by how much time did she have?

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Mrs. Dominique was standing by the dining room windows, eager for her daughter’s return. It was six o’clock in the morning. Saturday morning. The sun slowly peeked over the horizon, awakening the songbirds from their slumber. However, Mrs. Dominique hadn’t slept that whole night. She was worried sick about Piper and Raiden. Part of her wanted to trust the Doctor to take care of them. But part of her still remembered the danger that followed the Doctor everywhere. Mr. Daniel Dominique approached him with a coffee mug in his hand. “Carla, it’s okay. Piper’ll come home soon” Daniel reassured her, “I still don’t understand why you’re so anxious. I mean, you said she’s at Raiden’s house, right?” Carla frowned. She hated to lie to her own husband, especially about Piper. She knew that he loved Piper as his own daughter, but she had no idea how he was going to find out that his step-daughter was actually an alien! Then, she could a machine whirring foggily.

“Vrooom…! Vrooom…! Vrooom…! Vrooom…!”

Carla’s heart skipped a beat. “That doesn’t sound like a street-sweeper. What is that?” Daniel asked. Carla knew. She turned around. “Daniel love, I’m afraid I haven’t been very honest with you” she blurted out, nervously. “What do you mean?” Carla whirled back to the window, where she saw blue police box materializing on the front lawn, out of thin air. When Daniel saw it, he was shocked. “What the heck is that!?” he exclaimed. Without another word, Carla rushed into the hallway and burst out the front door. Before Daniel pursued after her, he saw Piper, Raiden, and a strange man step out into the moist, green grass.

“Piper!” Mrs. Dominique ran out the lawn, ignoring that she was in her slippers, and they were getting wet and covered in grass as she walked through the lawn. “Mummy!” Piper cried. Carla embraced her daughter, squeezing her tightly. “Piper, my little girl!” Carla exclaimed. Piper wrapped her arms around her mother, almost wanting to cry with relief. Daniel stepped out, now completely confused. “Raiden, what’s happened? Who’s this?” he asked, pointing at the Doctor. “I-it’s a long story…” Raiden stammered, glancing at the Doctor. The Doctor was emotionless. His face looked to be in a permanent frown, in complete firmness, as if he desired to emotionally detach himself from the situation. Then, Piper embraced her father. “Daddy!” she hissed in his ear as she embraced him. Daniel returned his affections, but he was starting to freak out slightly by Piper’s sudden dramatic affection. She had never acted this way, at least, not in a long time. “Piper, what’s happened? Are you alright?” he inquired. But Piper didn’t answer. She could feel something coming. She turned back to her mother. “Mum,” she said firmly, “I need to tell you something-” She wasn’t able to finish as she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She cried in agony as she clutched her stomach, squeezing her eyes tight and bending over. “Piper!” both her parents cried as they ran to her. “Carla, call 911” Daniel started to instruct. “No! Don’t!” Piper objected, grabbing her father’s shoulder, “It’s not that!” Piper’s heart raced as she looked at her uncle with widened eyes. The Doctor nodded to her, signalling her time was almost up. Piper nodded back. She spoke again. “Mum, I opened the fob watch. Then, something went wrong…I got shot, and-” “You got shot!?” Daniel exclaimed, “What are you talking about, Piper!? You don’t have a gunshot wound!” She couldn’t explain. She didn’t have time. It was time. “Get back!” Piper hissed. “Piper, what is going on!?” Daniel asked again. His heart was also palpitating. This was scaring him. What was wrong with his daughter!? Then, Carla began to pull him back. “Daniel, do what she says. Trust me” she assured, firmly. Daniel didn’t object. He couldn’t. Piper stood back up. She raised her hands. Glowing golden dust began floating around her hands. Her face also began to glow, brightly. Piper turned around, slowly, to look at her uncle. “I…I hadn’t done this in a long time…” she told him, “Uncle Doctor…I’m scared.” “I know. Just focus on what you want to stay, who you desire to be” the Doctor instructed. Piper nodded, a nervous smile, curling up on her lips. Suddenly, she arched her back straight up to the sky. She felt an overwhelming force of energy burst from her, as if casting a deadly spell from her fingertips. Her face was scalded with blasting heat. Everyone observing the phenomenon backed away in fright.

Then, it was over.

Piper tumbled forward, taking a big gasp of air. She leaned forward on her knees. Then, she felt sporadically energetic. Everyone turned their gaze back to the new, teenage girl standing before them.

Piper had turned from having a skinny, rectangle-like body structure, to a middleweight, hourglass figure (Her clothes were now considerably smaller than before). Instead of silky, long black hair all the way down her back, and cobalt blue eyes, she had bright, long, coarse, fiery-red hair below her shoulders, and wide, starry blue eyes. Instead of being tall at 5”8, she was 5”3, much shorter than before. Everyone stared her, dumbstruck at an entirely new person in front of them. Once she finally caught her breath, she started to laugh. Her face broke out into a huge grin as she cheered in excitement. “I did it! Uncle Doctor, I did it!” she cried. The Doctor smiled back, and couldn’t help but find her newfound joy contagious. Piper pulled strands of her new hair in front of her eyes. “Hair! I still have hair! Thick, luscious red hair!” Piper cried. She looked down. “Oh my god, I’m chubby! And short! Like, five inches shorter! Well that’s a bit rubbish, ain’t it?” Suddenly, her sudden energy left as quickly as it came. She started to faint and fall over, but her mother caught her. Raiden ran over to them, in surprise. “Piper, you okay?” Raiden asked, almost half-laughing at her unexpected flamboyant behavior. The Doctor also walked over, smiling. “You got over excited. Regeneration does that to you in the first few minutes” he chuckled. Piper scoffed. “Yeah, no kidding.” Then, she raised an eyebrow. “Sarcasm? Am I sarcastic now?” She asked herself, “Sarcastic and ginger…” “Winning combination, I’ll say!” Raiden exclaimed, chuckling nervously. Piper felt a limp go up her throat as she started gagging. Raiden jumped back in surprise. Golden energy went spewing out of her mouth, as she straightened suddenly, almost head-butting her poor mother. Piper turned to her. “I apologize, mother,” she said, a bit breathless, “But I’m tired from that out of nowhere spaze-out, and I’m probably going to faint soon…and dizzy. Getting very dizzy.” Mrs. Dominique couldn’t help but laugh, even though previously she was extremely worried. “Raiden, would you be a dear and help Piper up to her room?” She asked, then looking up at the Doctor and her husband, “It seems we have a great deal to discuss.” Raiden nodded. He gently put his arm underneath Piper’s, behind her back, and began helping her into the house.