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Remnant Who
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Doctor Who or RWBY.
The Empty Child (B)
Beta'd by: -
As always, please comment! It honestly makes my day to read your thoughts and opinions.
Tell your friends!
Honorary (dead) companions:
Clive, Raffalo, Moxx, Jabe, Sneed, Gwyneth, Ganesh, De Maggio, Suki, Pete Tyler
'Bigger on the inside!'s:
2 (Rose, Jackie)
Fantastic's:
9
Harriet Jones' greetings:
6
Exterminates!:
8
Rose slowly and groggily wakes up from her sleep and rises from the bed. There was a timidness as she slowly steps out into the hull. It was dark - the only things truly visible was a slight orange glow and the white of her shirt.
"Better now?" a voice calls out from the dark.
Remembering Jack's voice, and how he saved her, Rose doesn't panic. Instead, she asks "You got lights in here?"
A button was pressed and lights begin to flicker on; revealing the full interior of Jack's ship. It was small and cramped, but wide enough for Rose to stand up fully and stretch her arms if she wanted to.
Jack was sitting in his chair. A mess of wires and circuit boards surrounding him along the walls. "Hello," he smiles.
Rose smiles back. "Hello."
"Hello."
Ruby groaned. "Not again."
"Let's not start that again," she waves, earning a small chuckle from Jack.
"Okay."
Not sure what to do with herself, Rose plays with her top for a moment. Then, while asking "So, um, who're you supposed to be, then?", she walks towards her rescuer.
"Captain Jack Harkness," he says, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a wallet. "One-Three-Three-Squadron, Royal Air Force. American volunteer." Jack lifts open one of the flaps on his wallet and passes it to Rose.
The traveler studies it for a moment then smirks. "Liar. This is psychic paper. It tells me whatever you want it to tell me."
"Caught in the act," Qrow laughed.
Weiss smirked as well. "And with all the technology available to him, I doubt even Rose is foolish enough to think this Captain Jack Harkness is from this time period."
Jack's smile falters for a heartbeat. "How'd you know?"
"Two things." Rose squints as the psychic sheet. "One, I have a friend who uses this all the time."
"Ah."
"And two, you just handed me a piece of paper telling me you're single and you work out."
"I can tell," Yang muttered with a soft purr, earning a harsh jab in the ribs from Blake.
Chuckling, Jack reaches back for his wallet. "Tricky thing, psychic paper."
Rose hands it back. "Yeah. Can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over."
Taking a moment to check the paper, Jack lets out another laugh. "Oh," he smiles slyly, "you Oh, you sort of have a boyfriend called Mickey Smith but you consider yourself to be footloose and fancy-free."
Scoffing, a blush rises onto Rose's cheeks. "What?"
"Actually, the word you use is 'available'."
"Really, Rose?" Blake asked. "You're traveling with a guy who can show you anything, and you still want someone else?"
"Well, there is one heck of an age gap," the Librarian commented.
"Not physically!"
Rose smiles shamelessly. "No way."
"And another one," Jack points. "'Very'."
"Oh come on!" Every female in the room jumped from their seat and glared at Rose.
"Shall we try and get along without the psychic paper?" the blonde asks, getting on her feet and moving to the back of the sip.
Jack gets up from his command chair. "That would be better, wouldn't it?" He hunches slightly as he moves from the cockpit to the fuselage cabin.
"Nice spaceship," Rose remarks.
"Gets me around."
Rose starts running her fingers across the wires. "Very… Spock."
"So?!" Ruby exclaimed. "The T.A.R.D.I.S is better in every way!"
Yang raised a fist in agreement. "Yeah! It can travel through space and is bigger on the inside!"
"All he's got is a bunch of wires!"
"Why are you guys complaining about his tech more than him hitting on Rose?" Qrow mumbled.
"Who?"
Sighing, Rose starts to crawl her way up the bow. "Guessing you're not a local boy, then."
Jack looks down at a device on his wrist. It looks to be leather, but as he flaps it up, he reveals technology well beyond that Rose has seen before. "A cell phone, a liquid-crystal watch, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades." He closes his strange gadget. "Guessing you're not a local girl."
"Guessing right," Rose smirks, now in the pilot's chair. She moves to look out the window but winces as her hands contact the cold metal. They were covered in scabs and red marks.
Noticing this, Jack asks, "burn your hands on the rope?"
"Yeah," she hisses.
"That makes sense," Blake nodded. "Especially considering how long she must have held herself up there and how hard she grabbed the rope when trying not to slide all the way down."
"She mustn't have noticed with everything that's been going on," Qrow agreed. "Hopefully Jack has a first-aid kit."
Before she could worry about it further, a bomb whistles past the cockpit - its shape visible through the glass windows - and explodes a few seconds later. Careful with her hand placement, Rose tries to look out into the night sky. "We're parked in midair!" she realizes. "Can't anyone down there see us?"
"No." He pulls out a small device from a compartment next to him. "Can I have a look at your hands for a moment?"
"Why?"
Jack steps towards her. "Please." Slowly, Rose nods and holds out her hands, palms up. The device in Jack's hand begins to buzz and whir but nothing seems to happen as he waves it across her hands.
"You can stop now," he says, earning a confused look from Rose. "I know exactly who you are. I can spot a Time Agent a mile away."
"Well, obviously not," Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.
Ruby nodded in agreement. "Either that or Rose just happens to look like one."
Rose leans down a bit. "Time Agent?"
"I've been expecting one of you guys to show up," he continues. "Though not, I must say, by Barrage Balloon. Do you often travel that way?" He turns off the device and starts to remove the tie around his neck.
Qrow's eye twitched.
"Sometimes I get swept off my feet," Rose stammers. "By balloons." Jack suddenly starts tying the cloth around her wrists.
Qrow began to sweat.
"What are you doing?" the blonde asks with a hint of panic.
All Jack says is "Try to keep still." He holds Rose's open palms still as he reaches above her, pressing buttons and flipping switches without so much as a glance. A small alarm beeps before a flurry of yellow droplets - beads of light itself - swarm down and start to encircle Rose's wounded hands. The golden lights make a soft humming sound and cause her hands to glow.
"Nanogenes," Jack explains. "Sub-atomic robots. The air in here is full of them. They just repaired three layers of your skin."
The nanogenes form into a small ball - expanding and contracting - before dispersing completely as Jack repeats his pressing of buttons. Then, in the warm, orange light of the ship, they see that Rose's hands are now completely healed.
"Wow," Blake whispered.
Weiss nodded in agreement. "With technology like that… think of all the lives that could be saved."
"All the huntsmen and huntresses who die because a hospital is nowhere near," Qrow agreed. "This could save them all."
Yang rubbed her chin. "Which raises the question…"
"Why does he have them?!" Ruby finished.
Jack removes his necktie from Rose's wrists.
"Well," she mutters, "tell 'em 'thanks'."
The two share a chuckle before Jack turns and pushes back into his ship. "Shall we get down to business?" he asks, grabbing a bottle of wine from underneath a floor platting.
"Business?"
Jack smiles. "Shall we have a drink on the balcony?" He presses another button and a section of the ceiling folds down, revealing stairs. "Bring the glasses."
Rose, after he climbs up, grabs two wine glasses from a table and follows. When she enters the open air, the first thing she notices was what she was standing upon.
Or, more exactly, what she wasn't.
Even though the ship was there, she couldn't see it.
Ruby's eyes went wide. "That's really cool."
"Explains why he hasn't been targetted, that's for sure," Qrow agreed. "But I guess it's a double-edged sword - they don't target it, but they could also just hit it by happenstance."
With shaking feet, Rose steps forward towards her savior as he stares up at the large and imposing clock tower shining above them.
"Isn't that the thing the Slitheen destroyed?" Yang asked. "Big Ben?"
The Librarian nodded. "Yup. But, again, technically Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the tower."
"Then what's the name of the tower?"
"The Elizabeth Tower."
"I know I'm standing on something," Rose stutters. Thankfully, Jack reaches into his coat and pulls out a fob; after pressing it (and giving a loud beep!), the ship's disguise fades away, revealing a mighty spacecraft almost as large as a city block.
"Okay," she nods. "You have an invisible spaceship-"
Jack nods. "Yeah."
"-tethered up to Big Ben for some reason." The sound of a bomb exploding causes the girl to flinch.
"First rule of active camouflage," Jack explains, uncorking the bottle in his hands. Rose lets out a loud and surprised shriek as the cork goes flying off into the night sky. He starts to pour into the glasses Rose is holding. "Park somewhere you'll remember."
"Definitely," the Librarian agreed. "I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten where I parked the T.A.R.D.I.S."
Yang turned to him with a smirk. "How do you lose a blue box with the word 'Police' on the side?"
"You'd be surprised how easy," he sighed.
Somewhere on the ground, Nancy was running across train tracks in the dead of night. Her bag of food was slung over her shoulder - which she kept casting glances over. Her pace slows at the sight of an overturned railcar.
The food she stole was quickly hidden inside the car. She removes foodstuffs from her bag just to push them into the crevices of the metal box. She freezes when she hears something in the distance crackle, like a twig, and stands up when the Doctor is revealed to be standing behind her.
"How'd you follow me here?"
"I'm good at following, me," he smiles. "Got the nose for it."
Yang snorted. "It's definitely big enough."
Nancy frowns. "People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to."
"My nose has special powers."
"Yeah? Is that why it's so…"
"What?" the Doctor asks.
"Nothin'."
"What?" Eyes crossing, the Time Lord tries looking at his nose.
"Nothin'!" For the first time, a smile crept across Nancy's face as she teases the Doctor. "Do your ears have special powers too?"
"What are you trying to say?"
Nancy giggles and picks up her sack. "Goodnight, Mister."
A fit of laughter echoed throughout the theater.
"Does he not know how big his nose and ears are or…?" Ruby asked.
"Oh, most definitely," the Librarian answered. And with good reason. "But I think he's being oblivious for her sake. She's laughing. He's gotten her to open up."
The red-hooded girl nodded. "Meaning she'll be more likely to help him. And… I think she needed it."
As Nancy turns to leave, the Doctor calls out to her.
"Nancy!" The girl pauses. "There's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?" Though she doesn't answer, the look she gives the Doctor confirms his theory. "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky - that's when it landed.
"And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"
The girl pauses. "There was a bomb," she whispers. "A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."
"Take me there."
She shakes her head and scoffs slightly. "There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through."
The Doctor's confidence doesn't waver. "Try me!"
"He's the Doctor," Weiss smiled. "And he's not scared of anything."
"Not ghosts, farting aliens, plastic men, or mean trampolines!" Ruby agreed.
Blake leaned over. "What about the Dalek?"
"We took care of it! No creepy kid is a match for that…" Ruby's voice slowly became less and less sure of itself.
You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"
He nods. "I really want to know."
"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."
"And who might that be?"
Nancy stares him dead in the eyes. "The doctor."
"Wait…" Blake held up her hands. "She couldn't mean… you know?"
"Technically," Weiss nodded. "He deals with time travel and we already saw last episode that it is possible."
She turns to leave, with the Doctor following behind her, a strange grin on his face at her most recent words.
"You know, it's getting a bit late. I should really be getting back."
Jack and Rose now lay down atop the spaceship, looking up at the stars with glasses in their hand. The blonde sets down her glass and rises to her feet.
Confused, Jack says "We're discussing business."
"This isn't business. This is champagne."
"I try never to discuss business with a clear head," Jack smiles as he tosses back his drink.
Qrow raised his flask. "A man after my own heart." He began to drink but froze when he realized what he said and spit it out.
"It is a smart business tactic as well," Weiss agreed. "If they think you are not in the correct frame of mind, they may try to manipulate you and that'll allow you to see what they truly want."
Rising to his feet, Jack steps up to Rose and asks, "are you traveling alone? Are you authorized to negotiate with me?"
"What would we be negotiating?" she wonders.
"I have something for the Time Agency," he explains. The man casts a glance over his shoulder - as if worried someone may be listening in. "Something they'd like to buy. Are you in power to make payment?"
"Well, I- I should talk to my…" Rose tries to think of the word. "Companion."
Jack raises his eyebrows. "Companion?"
A small nod. "I should really be getting back to him."
"Him?"
"Yes, him," Ruby snapped. "Jealous?"
Rose looks down at her watch which - obviously- was not set to the correct hour. "Do you have the time?" she asks.
Jack practically scoffs as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out another fob. However, when he presses this one, the gargantuan clockface of Big Ben lights up (revealing the time to be 9:30 on the graduation).
"Okay," Rose gasps as the clock tower chimes. "That was flash. That was on the flash side."
Blake, sadly, nodded in agreement. "That was impressive."
"Did he time that exactly?" Qrow asked. "What are the odds she asked that right at that time, right when the bell would ring?"
The Librarian shook his head. "He most likely made it ring. Big Ben chimes every hour, with smaller ones every fifteen minutes. But I bet that device he used made the bell ring."
"So," Jack asks, leaning close to Rose, "when you say your 'companion', just how disappointed should I be?" He places his hands around her waist.
Blushing, the blonde looks down at his hands, as well as their 'floor'. "Okay, we're standing in midair, on a spaceship, during a German air raid. Do you really think now's a good time to be coming on to me?"
Taking her hand into his, Jack brings her knuckles to his lips. However, just before they make contact, he smiles. "Perhaps not." He lets go of her and turns back to the center of the ship."
"It was just a suggestion," Rose stammers, chasing after him.
"You fool!" Yang yelled. "He got you with the bait-and-switch! He drew you in like a fish and let you go because he knew you'd come right back."
"How do you know so much about picking up girls?" a cold-glaring Blake asked.
"Um… T.V?"
Jack smiles. He whirls around and asks, "do you like Glenn Miller?" Before Rose could answer, he presses his fob again and, from the bowels of the ship, music began to play.
The Librarian gave a nod of approval. "Moonlight Serenade? Great pick - it actually got inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. But I prefer the Frank Sinatra cover over Miller and his orchestra's instrumental piece."
"What's it about?" Weiss asked.
"Two lovers spending a romantic evening together," he laughed. "In the moonlight of a June evening. Jack picked this song well."
Holding out his hands as an offer to dance, Jack took Rose's right in his own before wrapping his arm around her waist. Atop a spaceship, the two dance in the music for a brief moment, surrounded by gunfire and bombings in the light of Big Ben.
"It's nineteen, fourty-one, the height of the London Blitz - the height of the German bombing campaign and something else has fallen on London. A fully-equipped Chula warship. The last one in existence, armed to the teeth. And I know where it is… because I parked it." Rose giggles slightly at the man's tone. "If the Agency can name the right price, I can get it for you. But in two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever."
"So that was him they were chasing," Ruby realized. "That tube-thing, it's a warship!"
"And it's full of weapons," Qrow agreed. "I wonder if whatever the empty child is… perhaps he's a weapon - or under its effect."
The couple's dancing slows and Jack's voice becomes sharper. "That's your deadline. That's the deal. Now, shall we discuss payment?"
Rose looks up into the man's eyes in a daze. "Do you know what I think?" she asks.
"What?"
"I think you were talking just then."
Jack sighs as if annoyed by how good of a seduction he had managed. "Two hours, the bomb falls. There'll be nothing left but dust and a crater."
"Promises, promises," she giggles.
"Are you listening to any of this?"
A slight shudder runs through Rose's body - kickstarting her brain. "You used to be a Time Agent," she ascertains. "Now you're some kind of freelancer."
"Wait… He's a Time Agent?" Weiss asked.
"Apparently," Ruby nodded. "Which means he must have been pretty bad if he can't even recognize those in his own organization."
"Used to be," Qrow corrected.
Blake cocked her head. "What's is a Time Agent, actually?"
"I think they were temporal policemen," the Librarian explained. "Without the Time Lords to watch over everywhen, someone had to."
Cracking her knuckles, Yang made a very astute observation. "He's an ex-time cop. And now he plays by no one's rules."
"Well that's a bit harsh," he responds, pulling Rose to his chest. "I think to think of myself as a criminal," he purrs.
Rose makes a noise between a whimper and a giggle. "I bet you do."
"So this companion of yours, does he handle the business?"
"Well…" Rose smiles, "I delegate a lot of that, yeah."
"Well, maybe we should go find him."
"And how're you going to do that?"
"Easy." Jack steps back and pulls out his wrist-device again. He presses on it and a loud beeping begins to surround them. "I'll do a scan for alien tech."
Rose lips her lips and turns away with a bright smile on her face. "Finally," she whispers, "a professional."
Blake and Ruby were completely stupified. "I can't believe it…" they mutter. "YOU GAVE UP THE DOCTOR FOR HIM/THAT?!"
At the location of the 'bomb' site, Limehouse Green, the Doctor and Nancy scout out the area with wary movements. From his jacket pocket, the Doctor pulls out a small and alien-looking set of binoculars and brings them up to his eyes. Strange symbols fly around the edges as he looks across the field.
Soldiers stood at post behind a tall barrier. At the center of the area, barbed wire surrounds a crater. A tarp covers the object inside with floodlights shining upon it.
"The bomb's under that tarpaulin," Nancy explains. "They put the fence up overnight. See that building? The hospital?"
The Doctor looks up for a moment and notices the large building on the other side of the park. "What about it?"
"That's where the doctor is. You should go talk to him."
Yang shook her head. "If it's really a past or future him, won't that mess up everything and bring Reapers here?"
"Not necessarily. Reapers showed up because a paradox was created when Rose saved her father. It's also likely due to the fact her timeline up to meeting the Doctor can be considered a near-fixed point. But if the Doctor was always supposed to meet himself, then it'll be fine." The Librarian leaned back. "I will say this, the Doctor has met himself before."
"Are we ever going to see that?"
"Maybe."
"For now," the Doctor explains as his gaze returns back to the crater, "I'm more interested in getting in there."
Nancy doesn't budge. "Talk to the doctor first."
"Why?"
"Because then maybe you won't wanna get inside." She turns and starts marching back up the stairs.
"Where are you going?" he asks, not even bothering to turn around.
"There was a lot of food in that house," she explains. "I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."
The Doctor fiddles with his goggles. "Can I ask you a question? Who did you lose?"
"... What?"
Slowly, the Doctor turns around, sliding the binoculars back into his pocket. He looks at the girl with age and sadness. "The way you look after all those kids," he nods. "It's 'cos you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."
For a moment, there seemed to be a second of silence - even with the air raid in the background. "My little brother. Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me; I told him it was dangerous, but he just…" tears welled up in the young woman's eyes. "He just didn't like being on his own."
Ruby clutched her chest. "Oh, Gods… That's… I can't even describe…"
"It's horrible," Qrow whispered. "Losing family, knowing it to be partially your fault."
"And she spends each night making sure none of those other kids have to resort to scavenging different areas. She finds one and brings them there. Bringing the odds down greatly."
"What happened?"
"In the middle of an air raid?" She scoffs. "What do you think happened?"
The Doctor nods understandingly. Then, to her surprise, he looks up to the sky and smiles. "Amazing."
"What is?"
"Nineteen, forty-one. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing." Above them, more planes crash and burn as they hit Barrage Ballon wires while others continue to drop bombs around the city. "Until one tiny, damp little island says 'No! No… not here.'"
"That's pretty damn amazing," Yang said.
"It was a beacon of hope to everyone," the Librarian agreed. "So many countries had already fallen."
"But England didn't."
"But England didn't."
The Doctor chuckles again. "A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me." He nods to Nancy. "Off you go then. Do what you've got to do. Save the world."
The two then part ways, the Doctor heading down the steps while Nancy marches up. But neither of them notices the small, black figure of a child in a mask watching just across the way.
Qrow clutched his chest in surprise. "Gods! I hate that!"
The gate to Albion Hospital was locked when the Doctor arrives. He tries to push the massive metal barriers upon but a large padlock prevents him from doing so. After looking around to ensure nobody is looking, he pulls out his sonic screwdriver (Ruby gave a loud cheer) and pressed the tip of the device to the keyhole.
The sonic whirls for a few moments. But, just as the noise reaches its apex, the lock bursts open as smoke steams from inside the locking mechanism. With simple ease, the Doctor pulls the lock and chain down from the gate and pushes it open - making his path to the hospital clear.
Inside, there was no light. The pale moon cast shadows on and from the Doctor as he marches from the entryway to the closest ward. It's there that he sees rows and rows of beds lining the walls - all filled with unmoving patients.
Each of them with a black gas mask covering their face.
"I don't like this," Blake muttered, grabbing Yang's hand for support. "I thought this was supposed to focus on the child. What does this have to do with him?"
"Maybe they're his family?" Weiss offered.
Blake shook her head. "Then why is he trying to find his mother?"
The patients were all in different states of dress. Some wore dresses and suits, while others were in dirty trousers. A few were even in hospital gowns.
After taking in the full sight of the room, the Doctor turns around and leaves. There, in the reception office, he spots one hallway that still had its lights on. He follows it and it leads him into another room. This one also has gas-masked people lying on cots. Children, adults, males, females, and everything in between all lie silently as the Doctor looks upon them in… worry?
Horror?
Confusion.
A door squeaks, causing the Doctor (as well as the viewing part) to jump. However, it was simply an elderly man with a walking cane - dressed in a lab coat - entering from a side room.
The Librarian began to cough in surprise. "Gaius?!"
"Who?" Ruby asked. "A former enemy of the Doctor?"
"No, no… I just know him from a different world. The multiverse has repetitions at times of similar people. Doppelgangers, Echoes, Shades - there are hundreds of names for them." It is funny that this is the Albion Hospital, however.
The crippled man notices the Doctor's gaze and nods to one of the beds. "You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them." He starts to walk to the center of the room, where a litten desk sits.
"Yes, I saw," the Doctor says. "Why are they still wearing gas masks."
"They're not," the man responds with no further explanation. He hobbles past the Doctor. "Who are you?"
"I'm… um. Are you the doctor?"
He nods. "Doctor Constantine.
"That's what she meant!" Yang shouted.
Qrow nodded. "But she could have been less cryptic."
"Well, she just knows him as the doctor. It's just happenstance he's called the Doctor too."
"And you are?"
Avoiding the argument that could follow, the Doctor says, "Nancy sent me."
"Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."
"Yes."
"What do you know about it?"
"Nothing," the Doctor answers, mostly truthful. "Why I was asking. What do you know?"
Constantine gives a while and looks upon all the patients in beds. "Only what it's done."
"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?"
"None of them were," Constantine responds slyly with a chuckle.
Weiss tapped her fingers on the armrest. "That rules out radiation."
"But how'd this all happen, then?" Ruby wondered. "Maybe the masks were sentient at latched themselves onto their faces like parasites?"
"But Doctor Constantine said they weren't masks."
"Exactly! They're alien bug things."
The doctor's chuckles turn to coughs as the man falls back into a chair. The Doctor, the traveler, moves to help him but stops when he holds up a hand.
"You're very sick," the Doctor remarks.
"Dying, I should think," the aged man remarks. "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"
A smile creeps up the traveler's face. "I have my moments."
"Have you examined any of them yet?"
"No."
Doctor Constantine waves to the cots to his left, a nonverbal act of permission. "Don't touch the flesh," he warns.
Qrow frowned. "What happens if he touches them?"
"Maybe it is just medical procedure?" Yang offered.
"I'd think a guy that calls himself 'The Doctor' would know that.
"Which one?"
"Anyone."
The Doctor nods gratefully and walks over to the closest patient. He reaches into his jacket again and pulls out his sonic. Using it as a medical instrument, he waves the device across the person's mask - the blue light reflecting in its goggles.
Confusion flashes in Constantine's eyes but he dismisses it quickly. After watching the Doctor inspect the person, he asks, "conclusions?"
"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side," he deduces. The Doctor inspects his patient further, adding "Partial collapse of the chest cavity - mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns."
"Wait," Ruby gulped, "did he say scarring on the back of the hand?"
Blake nodded. "Yes? What does that have to- Oh, my Gods."
"What's that have to do with anything?" Weiss asked.
"We've seen that same mark before," Yang realized. "On the child. Somehow he has the same mark as this guy."
"Examine another one."
Confused, the Doctor does so, running around the cot and quickly scanning the second patient. The same fusion between skin and plastic was around this one's neck - and the same mark was on her hand.
"This isn't possible," he mutters.
Doctor Constantine barely looks up. "Examine another."
The Doctor repeats his activity again, this time running to a patient on the opposite end of the room. Mask? Check. Scar? Check.
"This isn't possible."
"No," Constantine agrees.
"They've all got the same injuries."
"Yes."
Weiss' eyes went wide. "How can that be? All these people, all those the Doctor passed earlier, they all have the same wounds?"
"It's like… mimicry," Blake thought. "Whatever is affecting them is duplicating the injuries over and over - across all those infected."
"Then that means the empty child is patient zero."
"Exactly the same," the Doctor clarifies. He returns back to the original one he examined.
Constantine nods. "Yes."
"Identical, all of them. Right down to the scar on the back of the hand."
Before the Doctor could notice, Constantine moves his hand back - covering the scar on his skin.
"He's got it too!" Ruby gasped, pointing at the screen.
"But he's not one of them, yet," Qrow added. "Did he beat it?"
"How did this happen?" the Doctor asks. "How did it start?"
"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim," Constantine explains.
"Dead?"
"At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward. The exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that?"
Yang cocked her head to the side. "Alien mambo-jumbo?"
"Magic?" Ruby offered.
"No, that's Merlin" the Librarian giggled.
The Doctor cannot. He turns back and forth between the different bodies around him, searching for an answer.
"What would you say was the cause of death?" Constantine asks.
"The head trauma," the Doctor answers.
"No."
"Asphyxiation?"
"No."
"The collapse of the chest cavity."
Constantine barely lets the Doctor finish before saying "No."
"All right…" The Doctor looks down at the elderly man with a slight glare. "What was the cause of death?"
Doctor Constantine pauses as if having difficulties getting the words out. "There wasn't one."
For a brief moment, the Doctor turns pale.
"That's not possible," Qrow gulped. "The head trauma alone would-"
"They're not dead." He uses his cane to kick a small waste basket. A loud clanging roars throughout the room and - making the Doctor leap back - at the sound, the 'lifeless' masked bodies sit up. Every single one looks up as if expecting… something.
The Doctor whirls around, expecting an attack.
"It's all right," Constantine says. "They're harmless. They sort of sit there. No heartbeat; no life signs of any kind. They just… don't die."
"Oh my Gods," Ruby whispered. "Are the people still inside? Are they hurting? In pain?"
"Whatever is doing this doesn't care at all for what people feel," Blake hissed.
Every single patient in the room rose and earns the Doctor's gaze. "And they've just been left here?" he asks. "Nobody's doing anything?"
Slowly, the zombie-like patients begin to lie back down. Though they do continue to watch the Doctor as their heads hit their pillows.
"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?" Constantine asks.
"Just you? You're the only one here?"
Constantine nods. "Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."
A dark cloud passes over the Time Lord's eyes. "Yeah," he whispers. "I know the feeling."
Everyone turned to the Librarian with horrified looks on their faces. "Did the Doctor… have a family?" Weiss asked.
"Everyone has a family," he answered, earning him a punch on the shoulder from Yang.
"You know what she means," she said.
The Librarian sighed. "You have to remember that the Doctor has lost everyone. His entire race. Not just his parents, but all his friends as well. But yes, the Doctor did have children a long time ago. He had a brother, I believe, and even a granddaughter. Who - in fact - was one of his first companions as they flew throughout the cosmos."
Blake covered her mouth in shock. "So when he lost everyone-"
"He lost everyone in the Time War."
"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb," Constantine remarks.
"Probably too late."
Constantine nods. "I know. here are isolated cases…" The man clutches his cane as he gives a wet cough. "Isolated cases breaking out… all over… London."
The Doctor moves to help him but the man holds up his hand.
"Stay back," he orders. "Stay back!" His pigmentation seems to grow paler and paler with each word. Something seems to be caught in his throat. "Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight-oh-two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."
"Nancy?"
"It was her brother."
Qrow's eyes went wide. "That lying-"
"She didn't lie, Uncle Qrow," Ruby said, defending the girl. "But if that was her brother-"
"And all these people are copying his wounds-"
"Then isn't the empty child Jamie?!"
Constantine struggles to remain standing. "She knows more than she's saying," he warns. "She won't tell me but she-" The man's voice suddenly cuts off. He reaches for his throat with his open hand, gasping for breath. His eyes water and lose focus as he looks up at the Doctor. "Mum…my?"
The Doctor takes a step back.
"Are… you… my… Mummy?"
Screams started to echo throughout the room.
The horrific sight that followed would haunt the Doctor forever. Constantine's mouth, once choking, reveals that from his throat, a vent forms. It pushes up from his lips and warps around his mouth. His face seems to stretch as his skin turns from caucasian to a latex-like rubber. Two large silver rings push themselves out and around Constantine's eyes, filling with glass that no light can shine through.
As the black seeps further around his face, all that remains of Constantine's visage disappears. And, when it does, all that the Doctor could see was a black mask covering the man's profile. Like all the others, the mask wasn't so much covering him but was a part of him.
What remains of the man slumps over lifelessly.
"..."
"I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Pass the bucket?"
"Me too."
"I'll take that when you are done."
After some gargling noises, the party looked back up at the screen with newfound horror.
Ruby closed her eyes and looked away until Constantine left the screen. "Is that what happens to everyone affected?"
An equally disturbed Weiss gulped and squeezed her forehead. "How is the Doctor supposed to stop this?"
"If it's a virus," Blake added, "then how's it transmitting? What's the cure?"
"And how does Jack fit into all of this?" Yang asked.
Qrow realized that he had crushed his flask. Unlike the others, he watched the entire transformation sequence. "This is why I started… to forget shit like that."
"But if you forget why you're fighting, then you lose that spark," the Librarian whispered. "You can't give up. The Doctor won't."
Taken aback, the Doctor doesn't do anything for a moment. He stares at Constantine's body until a voice from far away draws his attention.
A door creaks open. "Hello?" an unfamiliar voice to him cries.
The second voice, however, is very familiar. "Hello? Rose's small voice cries out.
"Hello?" that first voice asks.
"It's Rose!" Ruby cheered. "She found him!"
Qrow nodded. "And Jack too…"
The Doctor spins around and rushes out the door, coming face-to-face with Jack and Rose. The former closes his gauntlet-device and smiles.
"Good evening," he greets, holding out a hand to shake. "Hope we're not interrupting." The Doctor takes his hand but the strength of Jack's handshake surprises him. "Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over."
"He knows," Rose interrupts. Her companion casts a glance at her. "I had to tell him. About us being Time Agents."
A quick understanding nod is all she gets in response.
Jack slaps the Doctor on the back. "And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock."
A small giggle jumped from Weiss' mouth. She quickly tried to cover it, saying, "That… is an incredibly ingenious way of working his thought process into whatever you may need from him."
"And she already confirmed that he didn't know what, or who, Spock was," Blake agreed.
Noticing the room the Doctor just left, Jack leaves the two alone briefly to inspect its contents.
The Doctor leans over to Rose. "Mister Spock?"
"What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name. Don't you ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor who?
Yang jumped from her seat. "She said the thing!"
"Roll credits," the Librarian agreed.
"Nine centuries in," the Doctor scoffs, "I'm coping. Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."
Rose starts walking after Jack. "Who's strollin'? I went by Barrage Ballon. Only way to see an air raid."
"What?!"
"Listen, what's a Chula warship?" she asks
The Doctor stops completely. "Chula?"
"Does he know that name?" Blake asked.
"There is no record of the Doctor having any involvement with the Chula people," ELI explained. "Though that does not mean he is not aware of their existence."
Back in the dining room of the most recent victim of Nancy's necessary larceny, the young girl was wrapping up a large loaf of bread in a cloth before shoving it into her empty sack. Then, suddenly, the radio turns on.
"Please Mummy," the voice cries out. Nancy drops the bag and turns to the speaker with horror. "Please let me in. I'm scared of the bombs, Mummy. Please, Mummy."
The door slams shut. Wheeling around, she notices a shadow dance across the stairwell - creeping closer to her.
This time, the voice wasn't filtered. He was there. "Mummy? Mummy!"
Nancy panics and looks around the room. Nothing calls out to her so she drops down to her knees and crawls under the table. Just in time too, as she watches the empty child walk across the wall.
Qrow gulped. "What does he want with his sister?"
"Maybe she knows where their mom is?" Ruby offered.
Using his wrist-device, Jack scans one of the patients lying on a bed. "This just isn't possible," he says after checking the results. "How did this happen?"
The Doctor, standing next to Rose with his arms folded, glares at him. "What kind of Chula ship landed here?"
"What?"
"He said it was a warship," Rose says. She leans against the desk in the center. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."
Again, the Doctor asks: "What kind of warship?"
"Does it matter?" Jack snaps. "It's got nothing to do with this."
The Doctor points at the victims. "This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it! What kind of warship?"
"An ambulance!"
Yang frowned. "Well, there goes the parasitic weapon theory."
Jack pulls back his sleeve and opens his gauntlet. From it, a holographic display of the same cylinder object from before is shown. "Look, that's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle - love the retro look, by the way, nice panels - threw you the bait-"
"Bait?" Rose interrupts, earning a nod from Jack.
"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk." He turns off the hologram.
Rose frowns. "You said it was a warship."
"They have ambulances in wars."
"I hate technicalities!" Weiss snapped.
"It's not a technicality," the Librarian whispered. "It's a sad fact of war. There was a time when Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals were a thing too. War is a resource eater, and the biggest resource is manpower. If there are no soldiers, who is supposed to fight?"
Weiss looked at the man. "If there comes a war where there are no soldiers, why did they fight?"
"It was a con," Jack continues. "I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man! I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"
"Just a couple more freelancers," Rose nods.
Jack groans and walks around the room. A chuckle jumps from his lips. "Should have known. The way you guys are blending in with the local color. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain?" The Doctor looks down at his jacket and frowns. "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."
Rose looks at one of the bodies. "What is happening here, Doctor?"
"Human DNA is being rewritten," he says. "By an idiot."
"What do you mean?"
The Doctor shakes his head. "I don't know. Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why?" He looks at another patient. "What's the point?"
"To make more?" Ruby offered. "An army?"
"If this is meant to be an army, they picked a horrible time to form one," Blake frowned.
"Mummy?" the empty child asks as he marches into the dining room. With his estranged vision, he sees the table covered in food, but not Nancy hiding underneath it. "Where's my Mummy? Mum-my?"
Nancy crawls backward, barely an inch, but her action causes her bag to tip over. An apple - red as blood - falls out and rolls onto the ground. The sound instantly draws the child's attention. He walks around the table and picks up the fruit.
Seeing an opportunity, Nancy leaps out from under the table. But she doesn't get far. With impressive speed, the child whirls around and points at the door - which swings shut before Nancy can escape.
She grabs at the door handle, but to no avail. It stays locked as she turns to face the boy.
"Are you my Mummy?"
Qrow let out a loud, high-pitched shriek. "That's it! I'm done! The child demon was one thing, but him having psychic powers is too much!"
Yang, in equal shock, grabbed Blake's arm. "How is the Doctor supposed to stop this? The episode's almost done, right?"
"I believe so," Blake nodded, her eyes wide and focused on the screen.
"If he doesn't deal with this now…" Weiss realized.
Ruby gasped. "It's another two-parter?!"
At the same exact moment, the empty child closed the door, the patients rise again. Rose, who was leaning over one, jumps back and shrieks, drawing the attention of both the Doctor and Jack.
"Mummy!" they begin to chant.
"Mum-my!"
"Mummy?"
"Mummy?"
"An army that can't be touched," Blake gulped.
"How are they supposed to defeat this?" Weiss asked. "They're completely surrounded!"
"Maybe the Doctor has a plan?"
Every voice was unique - the room evolving into mismatched cries of people calling out for their mothers.
"What's happening?" Rose panics.
The Doctor moves towards the back of the room as the patients begin to climb out of bed. "I don't know."
"Nevermind!"
"Mummy?" the child asks, staring up at his sister.
She backs up, pulling a chair out between them that the child easily tosses to the side.
"It's me," she cries. "Nancy!"
"Mummy?" the patients ask. They are sluggish and move with no purpose, aimlessly bumping into each other around the room.
"Don't let them touch you," the Doctor warns.
Rose gulps. "What happens if they touch us."
"You're looking at it."
"What about with gloves?" Ruby asked, shaking as she pulls her cloak around her.
"I'd think the doctors and surgeons that worked on Jamie wore them," the Librarian countered. "But maybe a specific kind? It depends on how this is transmitting!"
Closer and closer the small boy steps. "Are you my Mummy?"
"It's Nancy, your sister!" She's now pressing herself to a wall.
With nowhere else to go, the Doctor, Rose, and Jack watch as the masked monsters step closer.
"You're dead, Jamie," Nancy cries. "You're dead!"
"Mum-my," he - it - responds. For the first time, one could see through the goggles.
There was nothing there.
The empty child takes another step closer. "Mum-my!"
The cries of 'Mummy!' echo throughout the room as the trio of time travels are forced to stay still - hoping that not a single outstretched finger will graze them.
They had run out of time.
"It can't end there!" Ruby screamed. "The Doctor has to save the day!"
"But how?" Blake asked. She was visibly shaking, the only part of her not doing so was her arm, which Yang was gripping and pressing herself against.
"I don't know how!"
Weiss clutched her head. "They can't even push their way out. If they touch them, that's it."
"What about Jack?" Yang offered. "Maybe he's got some tech that can save them."
Qrow nodded wishfully. "As much as I'd want that to happen, most of the equipment he's shown has been centered around his ship and his gauntlet. If he has a way to take out a large group of people, why didn't he do so already?"
"Because-! Because…" The blonde dropped her head. "I don't know."
The Librarian, though showing concern, gave a small smile. "Would you like me to play the episode or should we call it quits for the day?"
"If you don't play it we will kill you!" Weiss hissed. A look around showed a nod of agreement from everyone else in the room.
"I'm glad to see you're enjoying this," he smiled. "Hobey-ho?"
"HOBEY-HO!"
Huge, huge thanks to my first-ever supporter!
Helpful supporter - Dalek2150
I'm trying to keep up with my promise of finishing these episodes by the 31'st. That does mean I'm having to ignore my chapters re-writes of MLR, so I hope y'all are grateful!
Also, I caught Fresher's Flu twice in one week. Greaaaat.
I really forgot how disturbing Constantine's transformation was. While the animation doesn't 100% hold up, it's still enough for you to think "Huh. That's terrifying."
I'm not going to do a 'Are you my Mummy' counter, as it doesn't go much further past these two episodes (and yes, I know about the time 10 makes a reference, but that's it). But I will do an informal counter down here when the 4th chapter is done if that's what everyone is interested in.
I can't believe how quickly I was able to work on this chapter. If it wasn't for schoolwork or me needing to take breaks, I bet I can do Tennant's premier episode on Christmas! I'll try - but no promises!
Kinda surprised at the lack of views last month. Don't know why, but one day there was only 3 for my entire collection. Did everyone start going to school, or something? I'm joking. The views aren't why I'm doing this…
The comments are! Speaking of:
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