After a year, I've finally done it! The story has been completely rewritten and is now up to par with my current writing. All of the following chapters have been rewritten, so I hope you enjoy! I would love to hear your feedback on how it's changed, what you liked, what you didn't. Also, for those that preferred, I have published a story with the original writing of the story. I don't own Doctor Who, just Victoria.
So, here we go! Thanks for keeping up with me over the years, I hope you enjoy!
Victoria released her head as her vertigo began to settle. No matter how many times she used her vortex manipulator, she would never get used to how disorienting it was.
As her headache slowly began to lessen, she looked at her surroundings. She was standing in an open field of grass that overlooked a grey ocean. On the other side of the water was a huge city with cars flying overhead.
A large gust of wind picked up around her, throwing her red hair out of place and an odd scent into the air. She reached down gently and picked up the grass, taking a hesitant sniff as the scent of apple filled her nose.
As she looked around, she noticed a tall, slim building to her right. On the side, a large green moon was printed onto the white surface.
She was glad the medical notes Owen had left behind had been of some use, because the rest of his notes were rubbish.
Victoria glanced at the message on her vortex manipulator one last time before slipping the device off her arm and placing it in her pocket. She repeated the words to herself as she walked towards the entrance.
As she pushed open the glass door, Victoria was greeted by the sight of cat women walking around dressed in nursing garb. After spotting the elevator on the other side of the lobby, she quickly made her way, smiling politely at the nurses as they passed.
As she slipped into the lift, the interface asked her which floor Victoria was going to. "Ward 26 please."
"Commence stage one: disinfection." the voice spoke, causing Victoria to tense slightly. She never enjoyed disinfection, the drenched cat feeling never something she's been a fan of.
After a few moments of waiting, the cold liquid began to rain down harshly on Victoria. Her jeans stuck uncomfortably to her legs and her overcoat began to weigh her down.
Victoria began to sputter as a white powder hit her in the face as the disinfectant abruptly stopped showering her.
The white powder was immediately followed by an air dryer, causing her to sigh in happiness. She could feel the stiff material of her jeans loosen as they dried, and her jacket no longer felt as if it would drag her down. Her red hair, previously straightened, began to curl at the tips.
A small beep echoed through the elevator, signaling that she had made it to her floor. Standing in the green lights that lined the walls, a nurse stood by the door with her hands clasped.
"Can I help you, Miss?" she asked, though her voice slightly muffled by the veil over her face.
"Yes, I'm looking for… the Face of Boe," she hesitated, having almost said the wrong name.
The nurse nodded and gestured towards her left. "Right this way."
- Page Break -
Of course, Victoria had heard rumors about who the Face of Boe was, but her dad, Jack Harkness, would never be able to confirm it. Not because he doesn't want his daughter to know, but because he didn't know himself. And he wouldn't, not for thousands of years.
But the message she had received was signed by FB, which confirmed it for Victoria the moment she read it. As she approached the glass jar her father's head floated in, she felt her heartbreak.
According to the kind nurse who had shown her the way, he was dying simply of old age. Although morbid, she was sure her father was happy to finally be able to be with his loved ones after all the years of watching as they passed away.
Victoria rested her hand gently on the glass of his tank and smiled sadly. "Oh, Dad. Look at you."
His eyes remained closed as she stood there, but she didn't mind. Seeing her father on the brink of death was hard for her. She had seen him dying before, had held him in her arms when a mission had gone south. She always knew he'd come back. But this time was different.
It was only when a hand had lightly tapped her shoulder did Victoria come out of her daze. Turning around, she was greeted by an extremely handsome man placing his phone in his pocket, almost taking her breath away.
He was in his early thirties, perhaps only around five years older than her. He had wild brown hair that seemed to stick in so many different directions. His eyes were dark brown, although bright, seemed to hold a sort of darkness within them. He was smiling at her, and to herself, she decided that it was her favorite feature of his.
She noted the odd outfit he was wearing. He was wearing a brown pinstripe suit with a funky tie, white converse, and a beige overcoat. The coat reminded Victoria of her own, which was a coalish grey color. However, there was something else about him that seemed familiar.
Victoria tilted her head to the side, silently questioning him for his appearance in front of her.
"Victoria?" he questioned, a look of disbelief crossed his face as he stared at her, quickly beginning to recognize her.
"I'm sorry, have we met?"
He stared at her for another moment, his eyes scanning her face for something. After a moment, he let out a disappointed sigh, having not found it. "I… I don't think so, no. Not yet, anyway."
Victoria opened her mouth to question him, but he continued to talk before she could speak. "I'm sure you'll meet me sometime soon. No worries."
"Was there something else you needed?"
He straightened at her words, reminding him of his intentions. "Oh, yes. I was wondering how you knew the Face of Boe?"
Victoria was startled by the fact that he knew her father well enough to visit him in the
hospital. After getting over her surprise, she nodded slightly. "He's a friend. He did a lot to help my family."
Shock flashed through the man's eyes, which Victoria had to admit was a fair reaction. Her father was infamous for what he's achieved in his long lifespan.
"I wasn't aware he was close with many people. He sent me a message asking me to visit him, even though I barely know him," he explained, pulling out a wallet to show me the message.
The words flickered slightly, the training she went through as a child kicking in, but she was able to read the words 'Ward 26. Please come".
She shook her head in disbelief before throwing a glare at her father. In the back of her head, she could almost hear him chuckling.
"He sent me the same message. I missed my father's birthday for him," she told him with a sharp tone, causing the chuckling to grow slightly louder. "Sorry, I should have introduced myself early. I'm Victoria Harkness."
His brows furrowed ever so slightly at her words but held out his hand for her to shake. "I'm the Doctor."
Victoria's mouth fell open in shock. She should have known with the mentions of time travel, how he somehow knew her father.
She felt her face begin to grow red despite her attempts to stop it. Here she was, standing in front of the man her father had told her about as she grew up. The longer she stared at him, the more familiar he seemed, most likely meaning she met him when she was a child.
"It's great to finally meet you. I heard lots about you as I was growing up," she told him, falling into place beside him as he started walking towards the door.
He glanced down at her, his face scrunched up slightly as he tried to understand her. "Are you related to Jack Harkness?"
Victoria wanted to be surprised by his bluntness, but she couldn't be. "I'm his daughter."
He stopped where he was standing and stared at her in shock. "You're his… He had a…"
She smiled slightly as the Doctor stumbled over his words. "I was left on his doorstep when I was less than a year old."
He shook his head in disbelief. "I never imagined Jack being a father," he told Victoria honestly.
"He may not have been ready for it before, but having a baby dropped into his lap helped turn things around. He's a great dad, honestly. I don't know what I'd do without him," she told him, a frown growing on her lips as she thought of Boe.
The Doctor opened his mouth to comment, but his attention was dragged to an area to their right. There was a very large man who was extremely happy, for what reason, Victoria had no clue.
As the man waved the two of them towards him, the Doctor moved quickly towards him.
"I didn't think I'd make it. It's that man again! He's my good luck charm. Come in. Don't be shy, both of you!" the man exclaimed.
"Any friendship expressed by the Duke of Manhattan does not constitute a form of legal contract," a stern woman standing beside the bed told them.
"Wince me up! Look at me. There's no sign of infection," the Duke exclaimed, presenting them with a thumbs up.
It was only until after the waiter had asked if they'd like drinks that the Doctor finally began to question the man. "Uh... you had Petrifold Regression, right?"
Victoria silently cursed her father for never letting her study alien medicine, as she felt incredibly lost at the moment.
"That being the operative word! Past tense! Completely cured!" he explained, causing the frown on the Doctor's face to deepen.
"That's impossible," he argued.
"Primitive species would accuse us of magic, but it's merely the tender application of science,"
the nurse explained simply.
"How on Earth did you cure him?" the Doctor asked after a moment of staring at the nurse.
"How on New Earth, you might say," she retorted.
'So that's where we are,' Victoria thought to herself as the Doctor nodded towards an IV drip next to
the bed.
"A simple remedy."
A dark glimmer shone in the Doctor's eyes at her words. "Then tell me," he challenged.
"I apologize, but that's confidential. I don't believe we've met. I'm Matron Casp," she introduced."
"I'm the Doctor," he said before nodding towards Victoria and introducing her. However, before we could discuss anything else, another nurse came for Matron Casp.
"I'm guessing Boe didn't call us here for a social visit," Victoria commented as they walked away from the Duke's private area to look around.
"Yeah, you're right. There's definitely something going on here. Once Rose gets here, we can look around for something suspicious," he told her as they stopped in front of a sleeping patient.
"I can come with you to look around?" Victoria blurted out, her mouth working faster than her brain. She could barely comprehend the fact that the Doctor wanted her to help him.
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, unsure of how to respond. "Why not? You're Jack's daughter after all," he told her after a moment.
Internally, she winced at his words. So that's who she was, Jack's daughter. For all of her life, people knew her for her intelligence and her actions, and now when it mattered the most, she was her father's daughter.
"Right," she nodded, albeit a bit mournful at his words.
"Oh look, there's Rose," he nodded towards the entrance where a blonde woman was looking around. Her father had spoken of Rose before, and he was absolutely correct when he said she was beautiful.
"Rose!" he called out, waving her towards the two as they stood in front of the red man somehow floating in the air. "There you are. Come and look at this patient. Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it. They've invented a cell washing cascade. It's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one," he said, moving away from the man.
However, Rose was not interested in the Doctor's words but was staring strangely at Victoria, who had yet to say anything.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder when he realized that neither of the girls was beside him. He glanced between them before gasping lightly.
"Oh, right. Rose, you remember Victoria? Victoria, meet Rose Tyler," he said, gesturing towards the redhead. Victoria glanced at the Doctor questioningly as he left out the first half of her last name.
He seemed to understand her confusion, and gently shook his head. She puffed out a small breath before holding her hand out to the blonde to shake.
"Nice to meet you," she smiled, but Rose stared at the girl as if she had two heads. After
realizing she wasn't going to shake her hand, Victoria awkwardly dropped her hand back down to her lap where she tugged at the hem of her jacket.
The Doctor glanced at Rose with concern, immediately beginning to wonder what had happened to her. Victoria had a similar expression on her face, trying to figure out the difference between the girl in front of her, and the girl her father had told her stories about.
After a beat, the Doctor went back to talking. "Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine. I need to find a terminal. I need to see how they're getting these cures. And if they have the best medicine in the world, why aren't they sharing it?"
"I can't Adam and Eve it," Rose responded, and over her head, Victoria and the Doctor shared a concerned glance.
'What in the world is she saying?' Victoria shook her head but stayed quiet.
"What's with this voice?" the Doctor questioned, and Rose shrugged slightly
"Just larking about. New Earth, new me," she explained with a teasing grin, her tongue poking out of her teeth slightly.
"I can talk. New New Doctor," he grinned at her, and Victoria couldn't help but feel as if she were missing an inside joke. However, she could tell that the Doctor wasn't recognizing the fact that Rose was flirting with him.
"Mhm, aren't you just," she said flirtatiously before reaching up, her hands gripping the Doctor's hair tightly as she pulled him down into a kiss. The Doctor's hands flailed around wildly as if not knowing what to do, and Victoria stared at them in shock.
'Well, this isn't how I thought the evening would go,' Victoria thought as she struggled to close her mouth.
With a loud smack, Rose quickly pulled away from the Doctor, her breathing shallow as she recovered from the kiss. "Terminal's this way," she breathed, stumbling away from the pair.
Victoria looked back at the Doctor and wasn't sure whether to laugh at his appearance or to feel worried about Rose's odd behavior. "Um… Well that was interesting."
The Doctor reached up and patted his hair down slightly with a small blush covering his face. However, his face was screwed into a frown, obviously not happy with what had just happened.
"Not sure what that was all about," he said after a moment, clearing his thoughts slightly.
"Are you two…" she asked after a moment, an embarrassed blush taking over her whole body at the question.
Almost immediately the Doctor shook his head, his face scrunched slightly in disgust. "No! No, no, no. Rose is like a little sister," he told Victoria, and she couldn't help but feel slightly at ease to hear that there was nothing going on between the two.
"They did something to Rose," he said after a moment as they began walking in the direction that the blonde went. "We need to figure out what's going on here fast."
- Page Break -
By the time Victoria and the Doctor caught up to Rose, the blonde had grown impatient, tapping her foot slightly with her arms crossed over her chest.
The Doctor didn't seem to notice, but as Victoria looked at him she realized he probably noticed more than the two girls could combined. "Nope, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop," he rambled as they stopped in front of Rose.
"No, it is missing something. When I was downstairs, those Nurse Cat Nuns were talking about intensive care. Where is it?" Rose questioned, and he smiled at her, albeit somewhat forced.
"You're right, well done," he nodded slightly, praising the girl slightly.
"Why would they hide a whole department? It's got to be there somewhere. Search the sub-frame," Rose suggested harshly, nodding at the control panel as if he should have done it earlier.
Victoria couldn't help the frown that creased her brows ever so slightly as she watched the blonde snap slightly at the Doctor.
"What if the sub-frame's locked?" he asked Rose innocently, but there was an edge to his voice. She figured he was trying to test Rose to see what was truly going on with her.
"Try the installation protocol," she said, glancing down at her fingernails as the Doctor pulled out his sonic.
The Doctor nodded along with her words and pointed the sonic at the interface on the wall. "Yeah. Of course. Sorry. Hold on."
He activated the sonic, causing a whirring noise to fill the air as he did something to the controls. After a few moments of listening to just the sonic, a bit of the wall slid down into the ground, revealing a dark hallway.
"Intensive Care. Certainly looks intensive," the Doctor muttered to Victoria as they followed Rose into the hallway, the blonde having taken initiative to continue on.
The floor was made of grate, and as they followed it deeper into intensive care, they were greeted by grate stairs as well. From the top of the stairs, all three of them had a view of what the intensive care truly was.
The walls were lined with glowing green pods, one stacked on top of another, stretching the entire length of the room. If she had to guess, Victoria would say there were thousands of the glowing pods.
The trio walked through the room in silence, a heavy mood settling on them as the Doctor began to lead them through the room.
They walked down three flights of stairs before the Doctor approached one of the pods, his sonic screwdriver in hand. He pointed it at the lock, releasing the seal on the pod door.
A hiss filled the air as they stared at the inside of the small pod. An extremely sick man was propped into a somewhat seated position, his skin covered in blisters and cracks, his close incredibly dirty as if he were in there for a long period of time.
"What disease is that?" Rose asked, her face scrunching in disgust to match the horror in her voice.
It's every disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything," the Doctor explained somberly, staring at the man helplessly.
This did nothing to satiate Rose's fear, however, but made it stronger."What about us? Are we safe?"
"The air is sterile. Don't touch them," the Doctor instructed harshly as he closed the cell door, not pleased by his friend's behavior.
"How many patients are there?" she asked, her body angled away from the capsule as if she would get sick by just looking at the man.
After the Doctor had closed the man's pod, Victoria moved to check other surrounding pods to see if the people inside were any different.
"They're not patients," he responded after a moment, staring distantly at the woman Victoria had checked on.
"But they're sick," Rose shook her head in disbelief.
As Victoria closed another capsule door, she thought hard about the situation. "Oh."
The Doctor glanced over at Victoria, and he could tell by the melancholy look in her eyes that she had figured out what was happening.
"They were created by the Sisters to have every disease," she answered quietly, causing Rose to look in her direction questioningly. "The doctors and researchers can experiment on them to find a cure. It's… disgusting."
"Why don't they just die?" Rose asked, not seeming to be disturbed by the revelation.
"Plague carriers. They're the last to go," the Doctor told her as they began to hear quiet footsteps approaching them from behind.
"It's for the greater cause," a nurse told them, sincerity lacing her words.
"Novice Hame, When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" the Doctor asked with a frown.
"The Sisterhood has sworn to help," she told him.
"What, by killing?" the Doctor asked, his disgust for what they were doing prominent in his tone and face.
"But they're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence," Novice Hame pleaded, trying her best to make them understand.
"What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!" the Doctor growled, stepping closer towards the nurse.
"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh."
Victoria shook her head, her anger beginning to boil over. "But they're living, breathing people! How can you call yourself a nurse? Ethics, Novice Hame, does not seem to be something in your vocabulary."
The nurse took a step backward, Victoria's words seemingly doing more than the Doctor's.
"These people are alive," the Doctor repeated, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he stared at the woman.
"But think, there are humans out there that are happy and healthy because of us," Novice Hame told them weakly.
"If they live because of this, then life is worthless," the Doctor glared.
Novice Hame shook her head and stood up taller. "Who are you to decide that?" she demanded.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose Tyler and Victoria," he told her, staring down at her.
"Just to confirm," Rose spoke up from behind Victoria. "None of the humans in the city know about this right?"
"We thought it was the best," Nurse Hame explained after a moment, moving her gaze from the trio, unable to look at them.
"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand.
What have you done to Rose?" he asked dangerously, moving closer towards the nurse.
Victoria couldn't help but gulp at the sight of him, the darkness and fire in his eyes were strong.
She had heard the stories of the Oncoming Storm from her father, but she never expected it to be like this.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she shook her head, her face scrunching in confusion.
"And I'm being very, very calm. You want to be aware of that. Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head. I want it reversed now," he demanded, staring harshly at the woman.
Victoria took a hesitant step towards the Doctor, resting her hand gently on his shoulder to pull his attention to her. "I don't think it's because of her. Look at her face, her eyes. She looks confused."
She could feel how tense he was as she gently touched his shoulder, and her words seemed to ever so slightly calm him down.
"I'm perfectly fine," Rose said, trying her hardest to appease the Doctor.
He whipped his head towards her with a glare. "These people are dying, and Rose would have cared."
"Oh, all right, clever clogs. Smartypants. Lady-killer," Rose spoke, or at least, whoever was controlling Rose.
"What's happened to you?" the Doctor questioned, and Rose approached him almost seductively.
"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to figure it out," she told him, slowly drawing out her words.
Victoria watched the blonde with a slight frown from behind the Doctor. The woman didn't seem to care that Victoria was there, her attention solely on the Doctor.
"Who are you?" he asked, a slight growl behind his words.
"The last human," she purred, causing the Doctor to visibly stiffen.
"Cassandra?" he hissed in surprise, taking a step backward, bumping into Victoria in the process. She stumbled before catching her foot on the edge of a capsule and fell to the ground.
She groaned in pain as her head crashed into the metal frame, immediately making her feel dizzy.
In her pain-filled haze, she barely heard Cassandra spray the Doctor with some sort of perfume, causing him to drop to the floor beside her.
Cassandra walked towards the redhead and crouched in front of her, the perfume bottle still in hand. Without a word, she sprayed Victoria with the same perfume, causing black to fill her vision before her mind went blank.
- Page Break -
When Victoria finally began to come to, she groaned in pain as her head began to thump painfully. She kept her eyes closed in fear of the light making her head hurt worse. Even with her eyes closed, she could still vaguely see the bright green light of the pods through her eyelids.
Something warm was pressed flush against her chest and on top of her head, but the back of her head rested on something cool.
"Victoria?"
She struggled to open her eyes, but when she finally did she found her nose pressed against the Doctor's chest while his head rested on top of hers.
Victoria groaned again, the pain increasing from the light as she had assumed. "God, my head hurts."
She tried to reach her hand up to rest it on the sore spot but found they were pinned behind her back against the pod.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked quietly, trying to not aggravate her pain. If she weren't in pain, Victoria would have smiled at the concern he showed her.
"Caught my foot on a capsule door. Fell and hit my head on the metal frame. Was sprayed in the face was a sleeping spray. My head is now in lots of pain," she said, her jaw clenched as she fought against the pain.
It occurred to her that the noises outside of their small pod were also adding to her headache as three voices clashed with one another.
When the door suddenly flew open, she let out a small screech as she fell to the ground. She threw her hands behind her head in an attempt to prevent her head from smashing against the flooring.
The Doctor had been luckier, barely stumbling out of the pod as Victoria groaned on the floor. He reached down and grabbed her hand, pulling her up and onto her feet as he stared at Cassandra.
"What've you done?" he asked in horror, beginning to take in the abundance of patients beginning to walk around.
"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See you!" Cassandra laughed as she and the light blue alien ran towards a staircase.
"Don't touch them! Whatever you do, don't touch them!" the Doctor yelled at Cassandra as the pair ran after them.
To Victoria, the room looked somewhat hazy, and she wasn't a fan of the multiple Cassandra's in front of her.
They watched in horror as a nurse grabbed a hold of one of the patients and immediately crumpled to the ground.
"Oh god," Cassandra muttered as the Doctor and Victoria came to stop behind her.
"What the hell have you done?" he demanded as more patients closed in on them.
"It wasn't me!" she pleaded.
"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra. We've got to go down," the Doctor snapped at her before moving down the stairs.
"Run!" Victoria yelled back at Cassandra and the blue alien as they followed close behind.
The Doctor didn't stop running until they reached the basement where they came to an impasse. Cassandra quickly saw a lift and ran up to it.
She pushed the button frantically even as the Doctor tried to tell her that the lifts were closed.
As Cassandra stepped away from the lift, she took a moment to look around before pointing in one direction. "This way!"
Victoria ran right behind the Doctor with Chip, she had learned, was behind her. She let out a startled gasp as a hand grabbed dangerously close to her hand.
She could hear Chip begin to run in the opposite direction, having been cut off by a large group of patients.
"Leave him!" Cassandra called out to us without looking back. "He's just a clone thing. He's only got half a life!"
The Doctor glanced back towards Chip, upset that he had to leave the alien behind to catch up to Cassandra. "I'm sorry! We can't let her get away!"
Cassandra continued to run down the narrow corridor until they came to a dead end. "We're trapped! What are we going to do?" she cried out.
"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body," the Doctor demanded as he pointed at a machine in the corner. "That psychograph is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Rose to death!"
"But I have nowhere else to go. My original skin is dead!" she cried, but the Doctor shook his head angrily.
"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give her back to me," the Doctor demanded.
"You asked for it," she said with the shake of her head. She let out a deep breath, causing a pink cloud to fly from Rose into the Doctor.
Victoria ran over to Rose and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, sharing her weight with the blonde as she was starting to wear down from her headache.
"Blimey, my head," Rose groaned, grabbing her head. "Where'd she'd go?"
"Oh my. This is different," Cassandra said, causing Victoria to cringe slightly at the way she was making the Doctor speak.
"Get out of him," Victoria snapped somewhat lightly, not having the energy to fully fight back against Cassandra.
"Victoria?" Rose asked, looking at the redhead in confusion and surprise. "I'm guessing you've met me before too? Nice to meet you, Rose."
"Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts and hardly ever used," Cassandra said slyly, running her hands over the Doctor's body. "Oh, oh! Two hearts! I'm beating out a samba," she said, her mouth dropping in pleasure while shimming to the beat of the Doctor's hearts.
"Cassandra," Victoria warned, pulling her attention towards the two of them. Beside her, Rose stood awkwardly, a small blush painting her cheeks.
"Ooh, he's slim, and a little bit foxy," Cassandra teased Rose. "You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it."
Before Rose could respond, the doors behind them flew open as a stream of patients moved into the room.
"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what the hell would he do?" Cassandra cried.
Victoria looked around for a moment before seeing a ladder behind them.
She pointed weakly towards the ladder, and almost immediately Cassandra ran to it. "Move out of the way, gingy," Cassandra said, pushing Victoria out of the way.
Rose followed Cassandra up the ladder, followed by Victoria. She moved slowly, a wave of
vertigo hit her as she climbed the ladder.
"Cassandra, get out of him!" Rose cried, looking down to see Matron Casp close on Victoria's heel.
Victoria let out a cry as the nurse grabbed a hold of her ankle and tugged slightly. She tried to kick at the nurse, but she knew it was no good.
Almost as suddenly as Matron Casp grabbed her ankle, she let go with a scream. Victoria closed her eyes tightly, knowing that she had been grabbed by a patient, meaning she was next.
"I said get out of her, Cassandra!" the Doctor growled, causing Victoria to look up. It seemed that she had gone back into Rose, leaving the Doctor extremely upset.
Victoria rested her head on the rungs of the ladder, unable to follow the argument above her as her head began to pulse harder.
"Cassandra, get out of her! I mean it, get out right now!" the Doctor demanded again.
"Ugh, I'm so going to regret this," she groaned before jumping into one of the patients below Victoria.
The Doctor gripped his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the hatch above them, opening it enough for them to slip through.
After pulling himself into the new room, he ushered Rose and Victoria up as well.
"Glad to have you back," the Doctor smiled at Rose.
They're smiles dropped immediately at the cry that came from Victoria. Her back was against the wall with her hand gripping her hair tightly, her eyes scrunched in pain.
"What'd you do to her?" the Doctor demanded, causing Cassandra to flinch. "It hurts, it hurts so much. How can she deal with this?"
He crouched in front of Cassandra and placed his hands on her face lightly before closing his eyes as well.
The Doctor was shocked to see how bad of state Victoria's mind was in. Most portions were inflamed from hitting it earlier, her reflexes were slower due to the perfume Cassandra had sprayed her with earlier, and the pressure from Cassandra was quickly smashing her mind.
Rose's mouth dropped open in surprise as the Doctor's hand began to glow gold, the light fluttering around Cassandra's head.
"She says thank you," Cassandra said with a sigh, relieved to no longer be in pain,
surprising the Doctor once again. Without another word, he held out his hand for her to grab a hold of and pulled her up.
"Insider her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives, and they've never been touched," Cassandra said after a moment, looking back towards the hatch, obviously thinking about her moment in the patient's head.
The Doctor wasn't quite sure what to say to that, but he shook his head slightly. They didn't have time to waste. Together they ran down the hall until they were greeted by one of the Duke's servants.
"We're safe. We're safe! We're clean! We're clean! Look!" the Doctor said, raising his hands to prove it, the other two quickly following suite
"There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip a signal to New New York, they can send a private executive squad," the man spoke and the Doctor shook his head.
"You can't do that. If they force entry, they'd break quarantine," he explained.
"I don't want to die here!" the man cried.
"We can't let a single particle of the diseases get out, not while there are ten million people in the city, not even five miles away. Now turn that alarm off!" the Doctor ordered.
"Not if it gets me out," the man told us, not budging.
"All right, fine. So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Rose, Novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Rose, get me a cable. Move it!" he instructed
"Cassandra, just… just wait here and don't do anything stupid," he pleaded before running towards the lift with Rose.
"How can you hear me?" Cassandra asked after a moment, deciding to listen to the Doctor. She sat down in a corner away from the door where hopefully they wouldn't be disturbed until everything was safe.
"How should I know?" Victoria snapped in anger as the majority of her headache had finally lessened.
"No need to get snippy with me," Cassandra told her, raising her hands in peace.
"Sure, because having someone else controlling your body wouldn't make you feel terrible,"
Victoria told her, internally rolling her eyes at the "last human".
Cassandra, however, paid the girl no mind. "No, but really. What are you?"
"I'm just a human, Cassandra. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Sure, like I believe that. I… I can see some of your thoughts and memories, but not all of them. It's like you're somehow blocking me from going further," Cassandra admitted.
"Sorry to disappoint," Victoria told her.
Victoria ignored any other conversation Cassandra tried to make with her as they waited for the Doctor and Rose to get back. It was only until the quarantine was removed did Victoria talk to the woman.
"Could we see the Face of Boe please?" she asked, and with a sigh, Cassandra walked over to the tank the head was floating in.
He was finally awake, and Victoria was extremely eager to talk to her father.
"I hope you enjoyed this adventure, Sweetheart," she heard him whisper. "This is such an important moment in all of time, the moment you and the Doctor met. I can't tell you how glad I am to know that I had a hand in the two of you meeting."
"I missed your birthday," she responded weakly, not quite sure of how to feel about what her father just told her.
"I think this was worth it, don't you think?" he asked, causing her to laugh slightly.
"It was."
"Cassandra!" the Doctor called out from behind. "Face of Boe! You're supposed to be dying."
"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait," the Face of Boe told the entire group.
"Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face," Cassandra complained as he projected for her to hear as well.
"Shhh," the Doctor hissed.
"I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew," Boe to the Doctor.
"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old," he responded, causing Victoria to frown. She couldn't help but feel bad for her father, all those years alone.
"There are? That would be impossible."
"Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me," the Doctor said, peering closer at the Face of Boe.
"A great secret."
"So the legend says," the Doctor continued, waiting for Boe to continue.
"It can wait," the Face of Boe told him, mentally waving him off.
"Oh, does it have to?" the Doctor groaned, disappointed for having gotten his hopes up.
"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told to you and History. Until that day," Victoria's father spoke, turning his attention back towards his daughter.
"I love you, Sweetheart," he said just as he disappeared with a flash.
"That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic," the Doctor said, looking at the empty space in front of him. "And now for you."
"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?" she pleaded with the Doctor.
"You've lived long enough. Leave that body and end it, Cassandra," he said, shaking his head.
"I don't want to die," she cried, knowing that the Doctor wouldn't budge.
"No one does," he agreed.
"Help me," she pleaded again desperately.
In the distance, the three of them heard a voice cry out for Cassandra. "Mistress!"
Cassandra almost crumpled in happiness at the sight of her companion. "Oh, you're alive!"
"I kept myself safe for you, mistress," he told her eagerly.
"A body. And not just that, a volunteer," Cassandra said out loud, pleased by the idea. The Doctor shook his head violently.
"You can't, Cassandra. You-" he was abruptly cut off as the pink cloud moved from Victoria into the Chip.
Victoria grabbed her head again, feeling relieved to no longer have the horrible pressure of Cassandra in her head, but was hit with a wave of dizziness.
"Victoria!" Rose exclaimed, rushing over to catch Victoria as she wobbled in her place. "Are you okay?"
"I think I will be, yeah."