But sleep did not avail her the comfort she wanted. The hours seemed as if they were minutes or seconds of a quick willow-wisp on the water. The tears flowed down her eyes. She had let go of the only people who would be there to comfort her.

"Ryan, Yaz, Graham," she whispered, almost hoping life was a dream. The pain was almost searing now, a pain she thought was gone. "Oh, Graham, if only I could apologize to you now," she cried. She turned and tossed, hoping to just forget everything. "If only I had pressed that button- It would all be over. I would vanish from the world, and all memory of Time Lord civilization would disappear from this universe."

The Time Lady got up from the unkempt bed and looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing an old, baby blue nightgown, she found in the wardrobe. Probably Nyssa's or Victoria's. Time blurred around her head. She heaved a breath, saying "I can't live in the body anymore. I must let go…"

The blood-red flame emanated from her hands, but she doubled her fists to hold it back. "...but it hurts too much to let go." She turned, hardly bearing to look at the mess she was in. "I could have ended it all. I could have killed all of us. The Master, his terror, and my life."

"Yes, Doctor- all you could have done was die," a little voice in her head laughed.

She turned, to look back at herself.

"But you didn't Doc'," The old familiar voice of Graham said heartily. "And that's what makes you who you are. You aren't gonna' stoop down to the low levels of the baddies you've stopped.

"Graham? Where are you?" She shouted. Suddenly a whole host of voices flooded her mind.

"Doctor, you can stick through it, you just have to believe," Ryan and Yaz said, in a chant-like manner.

"Ya' still 'ave a duty, Doctor," the highlander said.

"Come on Doctor, you've faced regeneration before. You can face it again," the voice of Peri said.

"Jamie, is that you? Peri?" The voices in her mind were taking picture form, though wispy and blurred.

For a moment, the Doctor smiled, but then the pain was searing again. "Oh, you can't listen to them, Doctor," the strange voice said again. "But I know who you should.."

"You are you? Show yourself!" The Doctor demanded.

"Alright," the voice said, right before a strange ripple of thunder.

"The Doctor must die!" The Cyberleader said, the images more clear for her, before switching to a Dalek saying, "The Doctor must be Exterminated!" And then a myriad of Sontarans, Silurians, and all those terrors she had faced in all her 14 lives chanted in one voice: "DEATH to the Doctor."

"No, no, this isn't right," she heaved. She clutched her legs as she sank down to the floor, her two hearts beating.

"O, but it is Doctor, you keep proving it, " The voice said again. "Maybe you shouldn't regenerate this time, and just breathe your last."

"Maybe…" she gasped.

She heard the squeak of the TARDIS doors, and as the footsteps came closer, she looked up to see a familiar face. "So this is my replacement, well one of them, at least." The quizzical look, the blue, patchwork, jacket. It made her smile a little.

"How did you find me?" She asked.

"The TARDIS sent a distress signal, probably to itself at all points in time, and I answered. Come on then, let's get you back on your feet." Her sixth life gave out his hand, and she took it, getting back up. She then hugged her former self. "What's gotten you down, Doctor?"

"I guess, pre-regeneration trauma," she sighed.

"Oh yes, that," she shook his head. "Has it happened many times… after me?"

"Not really, but the last regeneration suffered it, but it somehow hurts more this time."

"Physically, or mentally?"

"Both. I just don't want to suffer through it if it hurts the more I do it! Sometimes I want the fire to just engulf me and just be done with life."

"Now, now there. That doesn't sound like the Doctor to me."

Her eyes widened and she looked deeply into her sixth self. "Maybe your right. It's funny, I heard Peri telling me to not give up a few minutes before you came in."

The sixth Doctor chuckled. "Well, I'd agree with Peri this time."

The Doctor gave a smile back. "Yes, your right. She's right. Jamie, Graham, and the rest were right. I'm the Doctor, and I still have a duty- to do what's right."

"Now that's the Doctor. I hope the best for you, well, I guess that's the obvious." He smiled, and turned, but then said, "Be the Doctor, no matter what." And then went his way.

She waited till the TARDIS doors closed before she collapsed. She let the energy flow freely from her. And it did hurt. She doubled her fists, but it was too late. All she could do was bear it. "Be the Doctor," she said through gritted teeth. She gasped her last breath and laid peacefully. The change had already begun. Straight, blonde hair curled and became a long, rich brown. Green eyes becoming a light hazel.

She stood up and breathed her first. She looked around the bedroom and smiled, running from the hallway in the Console room, and quickly pulled the lever. The gently whizzing of the TARDIS excited her.

She looked at her reflection in the walls and smiled. "First, you'll need a new dress, second, this will be a new adventure. Oh, and by the way, you can call me the Doctor."