Chapter 36: Everybody Lives

A/N- I'm sure you all hate me for the late update. School is really kicking my ass so I haven't had a lot of time to do anything. Hope you enjoy this chapter anyways and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to BBC

Off She Goes-Bad Suns

When you can't believe in yourself

All you hear is anyone else

And if you'd just believe in yourself

We can tune out everyone else

That's alright

Ooh, that's alright

Alright

"You see? Just an ambulance," Jack had said when they uncovered the ship.

It definitely didn't look dangerous. She expected it to look more threatening. Then again, the Doctor didn't look dangerous but she knew he could be quite scary.

It wasn't very hard to get to the ship this time. Many of the guards were seeking shelter from the bombs. The rest, Jack was easily able to make them let the group pass by pulling rank.

"That's an ambulance?" Nancy questioned in astonishment and confusion. Kit was starting to think maybe it wasn't the best idea to have Nancy along.

"It's new warfare technology," Kit lied, trying not to alarm her too much. "It's experimental." Nancy gave her a skeptical look but nodded anyways.

"They've been trying to get in," Jack observed. It was true. There were large dents and burn marks around the entrance.

"I'm not surprised," Kit shrugged. "They probably think it's from Germany." Jack started fiddling with the key pad. "What are you doing exactly?"

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it," he replied in defiance.

Just then, the containers made a loud bang and sparked causing them to jump back. An annoying alarm started to ring and a red light on the key pad started to flash.

"Didn't happen last time," Jack defended.

"It hadn't crashed last time," the Doctor explained. "There'll be emergency protocols."

"And what do these emergency protocols do exactly?" Kit questioned.

Before the Doctor could reply, they heard a loud bang. They turned to where the noise came from. It seemed to be coming from the hospital doors. It didn't take a genius to guess that the patients were awake. She could only guess that the alarm was the thing attracting them.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled as the banging on the door got louder. The door wasn't going to hold the patients forever.

The Doctor snapped his head to Jack. "Captain, secure those gates!"

"Why?" Jack questioned.

"Just do it!" The Doctor ordered. Jack looked reluctant but left all the same. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire," she replied.

"Show Rose and Kit." He tossed Kit his sonic screwdriver. "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight D."

Rose looked down at the sonic in Kit's hand in confusion. "What are we doing?"

"Reattaching barbed wire. Go!"

Nancy took off running towards the barbed wire and Kit and Rose followed close behind her. They stopped at the cut barbed wire and crouched down.

Kit looked over at the sonic in her hand. It was a lot simpler than her Doctors but still more complex than the one she had. It wasn't too hard to figure out though. It wasn't going to take her too long to reattach the wires which was good because the loud banging was getting more aggressive.

"I thought this thing only locked and unlocked door," Rose commented.

"Nah, it can do a lot more than that," Kit muttered as she started to fix the wires.

"And how'd you know?" Rose questioned.

Kit realized her mistake and bit her lip. "Because."

"Because why?"

She was half way done mending the barbed wire and she really didn't want to do this right now. Not to mention, she suddenly realized she didn't hear the banging of the hospital door anymore. This either meant that the patients gave up or they were out of the hospital heading towards them. She hoped for the earlier but knew it was the later.

"Because—just because, Rose. I'll tell you later." When I can come up with a good excuse, she thought.

"What is that thing anyways?" Nancy finally piped in.

Kit sighed, not really having time for this. "Experimental warfare."

"Again?" Nancy asked skeptically.

"Yep."

"You know I don't believe you." She shook her head. "I don't believe any of it. So, who are you?"

"It doesn't matter," Kit stressed.

"With everything happening, I think it does. Look, there are people running around with gas mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Please, tell me."

Kit sighed in frustration. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Fine. None of these things are experimental warfare. They're from space and we're time travelers. Happy? Do you believe me now?"

"What?" Nancy looked at her like she was crazy. "Of course I don't believe you!"

"We are though," Rose added. "We have a time travel machine."

"Okay, so let's say for a second that I believe, why come here?"

"For that thing," Kit nodded over towards the ambulance as she reattached the last couple of wires.

"And the future you're from…?" She asked softly.

"What about it?"

She shifted nervously. "Is it good? Is there even…" She looked up at the raging sky. "A future left."

Rose touched her arm. "Nancy, this isn't the end. I know how it looks, but it's not the end of the world or anything."

"How can you say that? Look at it!" Nancy snapped, pulling her arm away.

"Because we're from the future," Kit gave her a reassuring smile. "We would know."

"But—"

"Listen to me," Rose cut in. "I was born in this city. I'm from here, in like, fifty years' time."

"From here?"

"I'm a Londoner. From your future."

"But—but you're not…"

"What?"

"German."

Rose shook her head. "Nancy, the Germans don't come here. They don't win. Don't tell anyone I told you so, but you know what? You win."

"We win?" She said in awe.

"I don't want to interrupt this moment but the wires are all reattached," Kit cut in. "And we better get going because I have a feeling we don't have a lot of time."

...

They all met back at the ambulance. The Doctor had a look of determination on his face. Jack, on the other hand, had a look of uncertainty.

"Well, Captain, open it up." The Doctor gestured to the ambulance. "Unless you're no longer confident in your views."

Jack glared at him. "I still believe what I said, this isn't what caused all of this."

Kit rolled her eyes impatiently. "Instead of having a pissing contest, can we just open the damn thing!"

"Fine! Fine! I'm going," he grumbled.

Jack opened up the ambulance and Kit was surprised to see he was right; there was nothing in it. Still, something didn't sit right with her. It was an ambulance; therefore, it couldn't just be completely empty. There should have been something in it even if it was a bandage or two.

Kit had been treated with alien technology a good amount of time and what she knew was that every species had their own type of medications and remedies. Earth had its types of medications because of what the land offered them but every planet had different things to offer. Who knows what this ambulance had in it?!

But… there still should be something, even small, in this ship, she pondered.

"It's empty. Look at it," Jack said with a sigh of relief.

The Doctor crossed his arms. "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops?" He looked around at all of them. "Rose? Kit?"

He was right. What did she expect from this transporter? She bit her lip in thought. It was empty… but it shouldn't be. No, she thought to herself. It could be empty. It could be empty if there wasn't anything actually physical in the ambulance. It could be empty if it was something that was almost alive. It could be empty if said thing could get out on it's own. It could be empty if it was…

"Nanogenes!" Kit exclaimed.

The Doctor nodded. "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God," Jack muttered.

Kit's eyes widened. Oh, God was right. Nanogenes were programmed with a certain species so they could fix and heal correctly. Although they were fairly adaptable, they needed an example of a species before they could start helping. A child with a gasmask could possibly confuse the nanogenes into thinking that was a species on its own.

"Getting it now, are we?" The Doctor mocked. "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask."

"And they brought him back to life? They can do that?" Rose asked in astonishment.

The Doctor shrugged. "What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know," Jack defended.

They stared at each other until it seemed like the Doctor had had enough and walked away from Jack. He headed towards the ambulance, probably trying to make the alarm shut off.

Kit watched him until she heard Nancy yell, "Rose!"

She turned to see Nancy staring off in the distance in terror. Kit couldn't see what Nancy was shouting about because of the thick fog. It was what she heard first that made her understand the girl's terror. There was a quiet chanting of a word. A single word that was starting to cause her great fear. Mummy.

"Doctor!" She shouted. "They're here!"

"But I don't get why they're here," Rose bit her lip. "Is it because of the alarm on the ambulance?"

"Yes, it is," the Doctor answered before Kit could. "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."

"But the gas mask people aren't troops."

"They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you," he explained.

"That's why the child's so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing," Rose recalled.

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes." The Doctor looked over at the patients walking towards them. "All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four-year-old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

The patients came right up to the barbed wire. Kit thought that they would start trying to break it down but instead they stood there waiting.

"They've stopped," Kit observed.

The Doctor nodded. "Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."

"The child?" Jack questioned.

"Jamie," Nancy corrected.

"What?"

"Not the child. Jamie." There were tears in her eyes.

"So how long until the bomb falls?" Rose changed the subject.

"Any second," Jack said in a panic.

"What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?" The Doctor scolded walking past Jack.

"He's just a little boy," Nancy interrupted.

"I know," the Doctor said sympathetically.

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy," she muttered.

A though suddenly popped into Kits head. "Why is he asking for his mummy, Nancy? Did she die recently or something?" Nancy didn't say a word and just looked away from her. "Nancy?"

"I don't know!" She snapped.

Kit looked up at the Doctor who wore the same curious expression on his face. Nancy was hiding something. There was more to this.

"Nancy? What aren't you telling us?" Kit tried again. "Whatever you know could really help us right now."

Tears started forming in Nancy's eyes. "It's my fault."

"What do you mean?"

She started shaking her head violently. "It just is."

Suddenly the whole crowd of patients starting erupting in a chant. "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy," they kept saying.

The Doctors eyes light up in realization. "Nancy, what age are you?" He asked slowly. "Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?"

Suddenly a whistling of a bomb was heard. It hit right behind the patients making a small explosion. The bombs were getting closer and if they didn't get out of here soon they were done for.

"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds," Jack told them. Just as he said that another bomb hit, this one even closer than the last.

"You can teleport us out," Rose suggested.

"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols. I can only take myself and one other person again," He said with a look of regret.

The Doctor was still watching Nancy. "So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do. Take Kit though."

Kit's head snapped towards the Doctor. "Hell no!"

"Kittredge," Jack warned. "You're just a kid. You shouldn't be here and you shouldn't die here."

"I'm not going to die here!" Kit stressed. "And if the Doctor and Rose have to stay then I'm staying too."

Jack gave her a look of defeat and sighed. "I had a feeling you would say that. Fine, stay." Before anyone could say more, Jack vanished with a pained look in his eye.

He'll be back, her gut told her. I know he will.

The Doctor didn't seem affected by Jack leaving and went back to interrogating Nancy. "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he?"

Nancy shook her head in great sadness.

"You're his mom?" Kit questioned in disbelief. "That's why he keeps asking for his mummy."

"You lied. You even lied to him," the Doctor finished.

The gates suddenly broke open. In the very front of the crowd of patients was Jamie. He almost seemed to know they were talking about him.

"Are you my mummy?" He asked.

"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop," the Doctor told her.

"Mummy?" The child asked again causing Nancy to wince.

"Tell him," the Doctor tried. Nancy just looked at him with deep sadness and regret. "Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."

The child started walking towards them now. Nancy took a deep breath and turned around to face her child. She started taking steps closer to Jamie.

"Are you my mummy?" Jamie asked several times.

Nancy took a deep breath in. "Yes. Yes, I am your mummy."

The child didn't seem to be listening and asked, "Mummy?"

Nancy was still for a second and Kit worried that this plan wasn't going to work. Nancy then dropped to her knees in front of her child.

"I'm here," she said in less than a whisper.

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes," Nancy stressed.

"Are you my mummy?"

This isn't working, Kit thought in dismay. She really thought that maybe this would actually help the nanogenes recognize what a human looked like but it didn't look like that would be the case.

"He doesn't understand," the Doctor told Rose and Kit. "There's not enough of him left."

Nancy didn't stop though and said in a stern voice, "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." Nancy suddenly pulled Jamie into a huge. Kit held her breath as she watched. "I am so, so sorry."

The nanogenes started to surround them as Nancy continued to hug her son. Kit may have been wrong. This could be working after all.

"What's happening?" Rose asked. "Doctor, it's changing her, we should—"

"Shush!" The Doctor quieted Rose as he watched the exchange. "Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."

"What's happening?" Rose tried again.

"See?" The Doctor pointed in excitement. "Recognizing the same DNA."

Jamie pulled back and stood up straight. The nanogenes suddenly disappeared. The Doctor took off running towards the kid and Rose and Kit ran after him.

The Doctor looked Jamie over. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one."

The Doctor grabbed the gasmask. Everyone seemed to be standing still. No one wanted to move a muscle as they waited. The Doctor slowly, all too slowly, tried to lift up the mask. To everyone's happiness and surprise, the mask came off and reveals a sweet little boy face.

"Ha-ha! Welcome back!" The Doctor cheered and lifted Jamie up high. "Twenty years till pop music— you're going to love it!" The Doctor gave the boy a hug.

"What happened?" Nancy asked.

"The nanogenes recognized the superior information, the parent DNA," he explained. "They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!"

The Doctor put Jamie down and Nancy gave her son another hug. "Oh, Jamie."

There was a loud whistling of a bomb suddenly. Kit had almost forgot about it. Her eyes widened in terror as she looked up to the sky.

"Doctor, that bomb," Rose interrupted with the same terrified expression on her face.

Much to Kit's surprise, the Doctor shrugged with a smile on his face. "Taken care of it."

"Doesn't feel taken care of!" Kit hissed.

"Watch," was all her said.

Kit looked at him in confusion. "Watch what?"

The Doctor didn't need to answer because just as the bomb was about to hit them, some sort of light beam caught the bomb in mid air. Kit just looked up in shock to see a ship. She hadn't expected that. She didn't even know what was happening which she didn't like.

"Doctor!" Jack's voice came from the bomb. Kit squinted her eyes to see the captain sitting onto of the bomb.

"Good lad!" The Doctor yelled back.

"The bomb's already commenced detonation," Jack explained. "I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."

The Doctor shook her head. "Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"

Jack nodded and then turned his attention to Rose. "Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Goodbye…Oh, and I do love the shirt."

He suddenly, along with the bomb, vanished leaving Kit and Rose speechless. Just as fast as he went though, he suddenly reappeared.

"Oh and Kit?" He yelled to her. "Stay feisty," He winked.

"Wait, you can't—" But before Kit could finished, he disappeared again.

He doesn't plan on sacrificing himself? Kit thought in fear. He couldn't die just yet. He still had to meet a younger version of her. Then again what would she know. Time can be rewritten. Her presence could change the outcome of Jack's life.

Kit looked over at the Doctor. He still didn't seem worried. Kit let herself relax a bit. If the Doctor wasn't worried, then Jack might be okay. She would have to trust him this time.

Just as she came to this conclusion, the Doctor started looking at this hands and moving forward. She watched him in confusion. She had no idea what he was doing or what he was looking at until the nanogenes suddenly surrounded this hands.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

"Software patch. Going to email the upgrade," the Doctor explained excitedly. "You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves."

The Doctor gathered more nanogenes and when it seemed like he had enough, he threw them towards the patients who had just been standing there. The patients all collapsed.

"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!" He beamed.

All the patients started to get up and pull their gasmasks off. Everyone seemed to be just fine. It was strange for everything to work out like this. If Jack really was okay, then that means that they didn't lose anyone. She'd been with the Doctor a long time and even when she was young she learned that no ending was perfect. Sure, they usually saved the majority of people but they usually lost a good amount to do it. This time though, no one had dead. It was a miracle really and definitely something this Doctor needed.

The Doctor took off running and headed over to who she assumed was Doctor Constantine. It was then that Kit noticed a young boy with chubby cheeks. He was tall and very broad, and from his tattered clothing she could assume he was quite poor.

No, she thought. It couldn't be.

She rushed over to the boy who looked like he was ready to cry. "Tony?" She asked.

The boy looked at her in confusion. "Ya? How'd you know me?"

Kit smiled widely. It was him. It was the same Tony from Alf's story. The same Tony that had gone missing. The boys were sure going to be happy having him back safe and sound.

"I'm one of Alf's friends," she tried to explain. "He told me about you. How you fought the empty child and then went missing."

Tony's eyes light up. "Did I do it? Did I save everybody and beat the empty child?"

Bronze not brains, she though as she tried to hide her smile. "Not quite but you definitely helped."

Tony gave her a goofy smile. "I told em I could, ya know, I told em."

She grinned. "You sure did, Tony."

Kit was about to say more but the Doctors voice cut her off. "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state!"

Kit smiled and shook her head. She turned back to Tony. "That's my cue to leave. Can you do me a big favour, Tony?"

"Um, alright?"

"Tell Alf, Jim, and Ernie I said goodbye and tell Ernie that I'm sorry I didn't get to say thank you to his face," she told him. Tony nodded and Kit started to walk away but stopped. "Oh and maybe no more beating strange people up, okay?"

"I guess," Tony said in confusion.

"Kit!" The Doctor yelled. "We got to go!"

"I'm coming!" She yelled back and then turned back to Tony. "Goodbye, Tony. It was really good to meet you."