Chapter 7

Floor 76

The Doctor got Alex out into the hallway where Montana and Harper were waiting for them.

"I thought I told you to stay on the top floor," said the Doctor, "Do you humans ever listen?"

"You don't listen," acknowledged Harper.

"Yes, but I usually know what I am getting myself into."

The Doctor gently laid Alex down on the floor and took out the teleport watch. He placed it into Alex's hand. He set the coordinates. "Harper, we're going back to the sub station. Montana, you get on the search for Tesla Howard. Contact UNIT, they will have full authority. Montana, go!"

Montana didn't say anything and went back to the elevator.

"Doctor, will she be okay?" asked Harper.

"I don't know, Harper. I don't know," said the Doctor, taking holding Alex's hand.

Harper put her hand on the Doctor's hand and they pressed down. All of them vanished in the blue light.

Russo Home

Jerry and Theresa were making something to eat for dinner as Harper ran up the stairs. She threw everything off the couch, but a pillow for Alex's head.

"Harper, what's wrong?" asked Theresa.

"Something's wrong with Alex."

"What is it? Is she in trouble?" asked Jerry.

"Yeah, you could say that," said the Doctor, carrying Alex over his shoulder.

"What happened?" asked Jerry.

"V-Strain." The Doctor set Alex gently down on the couch.

"What's V-Strain?" asked Theresa.

"Vampire Strain. It's a virus that transforms anything into a vampire like creature. V-Strain is named after the Vampire working class of the planet Quadesia. A Dark Times planet destroyed in the War for Time. The very first Time War and the second most deadly. Second only to the Last Great Time War," said the Doctor.

"What? That's not the truth about vampires," said Jerry.

The Doctor stood up and glared down on Jerry, "Don't question my knowledge on the War for Time and Vampires. Countless Gallifreans died to beat the Vampires and gain control over time. Rassilon, Omega and the Other rose up and they destroyed the Vampires and then they hunted down the Vampires like the animals they were."

The Doctor jerked and lost balance. The Doctor collapsed onto a chair. "What's happening to me?"

"Doctor, your shoulder is smoking," said Theresa.

"What?" the Doctor took off his jacket and shirt.

"Oh my god," said Jerry.

"What is it?" asked the Doctor.

"I don't know. We're injected with it too?" asked Jerry.

"Yes, I was, but nothing should have happened, I'm immune, unless he altered it," the Doctor said, "If I change into a Gallifrean Vampire, I don't think anything could stop me if I change. That's the ultimate monster."

The Doctor screamed in pain as his body convulsed and he passed out himself. Alex moaned and started to convulse herself. The Doctor's eyes popped open and he stood up. The Time Lord reeled over in pain and said, "I will win! I will win! I WILL WIN! I will not convert! Get away from us. I don't know how long I can control it!"

The Doctor collapsed again and Jerry stood over him, but was slammed into by Alex. Her eyes were neon orange and her teeth were all fangs. She snarled at her dad and went in for the kill. She raised her hands to kill her dad and her fingers hand claws. As she swung her hand, but her arm was grabbed and she whirled around. The Doctor held was lucid enough to know what was going to happen.

"Get out. Get out all of you!" said the Doctor, "Get K-9 up here to guard us and shoot us down if he has too. GO!"

Everyone ran out and Alex came back to lucidity, "Doctor, what's going on?"

"We're transforming into True Vampires. Slowly we will lose our humanity or you will. I'll lose my Time Lordiness."

"I don't want to change," said Alex.

"No choice," said the Doctor, "It won't matter talking about it. We will change no matter what."

Alex sat down and started to convulse again. The Doctor came and held as she was shaking. K-9 rolled up in the doorway. Alex stopped shaking and he set her down on the couch. He walked over to K-9 and said, "Stun us if we try to leave. Max on me because I don't know how powerful I will become or how resistant I'll become."

"Yes, Master," replied K-9.

"Good boy," said the Doctor, scratching behind K-9's robotic ears.

"Affirmative," said K-9 with his mechanical ears moving back and forth.

A light bulb the size of Mt. Perdition went off in the Doctor's mind. "Why didn't I think of that before?" He smacked himself on the side of his head.

"What is it, Master Doctor?" asked the mechanical dog.

"Go downstairs and give these instructions to the others," said the Doctor. The Doctor explained the plan to K-9, "Do you understand?"

"Affirmative, but I do no think it is a wise decision, Master," said K-9.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but it is the only plan I have," said the Doctor, "I can get this out of me, but she can't. It's the only plan I have and the only one that has the remotest chance of actually working. I have to do it, for her."

The Doctor turned around and looked at Alex, silently crying at her changing body. Her entire genetic structure was changing and it was not a pleasant feeling. It was downright painful. The Doctor should know. His body changed 13 different times and soon to be 14th time. He could cleanse his body by doing the one thing he didn't want to do: regenerate. He would break Alex's heart. The way he felt for her was incarnation specific and if he regenerated he would lose the relationship they had and it would be replace with a different one. Plus who knew what Fifteen would be like. He could be a loony man in a multicolored horror of a coat. No wait that was Six, his mid-life crisis. Maybe he'd be kind of loopy like his Fourth self or be the ladies man that was the Eighth Doctor. He couldn't possibly know, but he knew he wouldn't be the same as he was now and that would crush the poor little girl's heart.

The Doctor looked with sadness on Alex. She was there transforming into some kind of monster, but he could fix her. Unlike her, he was going to change no matter what. Either into a Gallifrean Vampire or the Fifteenth Doctor. He just hoped it wouldn't be both of those things.