Chapter 14 - War of the Exes
The Doctor immediately realised that he had no choice but to fight. He raised his hands, and tried desperately to recall his Venusian Aikido.
The Exes both charged towards him, one behind the other. He sidestepped one, grabbing its arm and using its force to turn it into the second one. They met in a crash of limbs and fell to the floor.
"Jack!" the Doctor called again, hissing through gritted teeth at the pain now coursing through his shoulder. "Let me out!"
The Exes were back up. One went for him. He took its arm again and pulled it over his dislocated shoulder, shrieking in the process as the Ex flew headlong into the wall. He then took a side step, stuck out his foot and caught the other one in mid-run. It spiralled to the floor. Something broke but the Ex didn't seem to care, jumping back up again for a second assault. The Doctor parried once more, before picking up an abandoned metal tray and using it as a shield to take a few blows with quick reflexes from the second Ex as he ducked and dodged the first.
"Jack!" he cried again, looking to the window. Jack was just staring, for once looking absolutely stunned.
The Doctor's distraction almost caused his death, when the second Ex ducked his metal shield and leg swept him. He crashed to the floor with a yelp, the metal dish flying out of his hand.
The two Exes loomed over him. He pulled back his legs and kicked out, but his body was was so weak he could barely get any force. Luckily the move caught the first Ex off guard and it stumbled backwards, allowing the Doctor enough time to scramble to his feet. But the second Ex was back, and clearly had spotted the Doctor's arm was causing him problems and instead of biting him, it caught that instead - yanking it bodily towards it. The Doctor shrieked out, bright white spots immediately blistering his vision of pure, undivided agony. He stumbled to his knees, trying to push the Ex away from his arm but barely about to stay upright. Impulsively he tried to pull his arm away but that made the pain even worse.
The Ex turned so his arm went up his back. The Doctor nearly passed out there and then. He fought to stay conscious as the first Ex dived onto him, its teeth bared. In desperation he flew out his free fist but the Ex deftly dodged it and grabbed his head and shoulder, exposing his neck ready to bite.
The Doctor grabbed its neck and clutched it tightly, desperately, but it made no difference. The second Ex yanked his arm again and this time he couldn't stop himself from passing out, hitting the floor, limp and unconscious.
The Doctor woke up, and immediately panicked.
He sat up to find he was back in his holding cell. Ex-Rose was still in the cell next to him. He quickly checked himself over for any bites or scratches but he was clean. Jack must have finally realised he was about to get killed and had stormed in and shot them before they could eat him. Either way his arm felt like it had been half torn off, but after a quick examination he realised that surprisingly the assault on it had put the dislocated bone back in its socket. Not that he dared to move it too much.
In the distance he could hear concentrated bursts of gunfire. There was some sort of fight going on. There was a guard on the door, so the Doctor struggled forward, grunting with pain.
"Hey," he said. The guard didn't move. "Hello?" The guard still didn't move.
The Doctor grabbed a bar of the cell door with his good hand and shook it. The guard still didn't move.
"Well, that's rude," the Doctor mused out loud. That made the guard turn. The Doctor was about to tell him to go and get Jack when suddenly he realised that the guard wasn't human. His cheeks were hollow, his skin pale, his lips blue... He was an Ex.
He growled at the Doctor and made to open the cell door.
The Doctor abruptly realised he couldn't defend himself again. He didn't have the strength left. He backed into the corner, desperate to keep the Ex away despite knowing it would do no good…
Bang!
A gunshot, and the Ex in front of him hit the floor - a bullet through his head. The Doctor looked up and saw Jack standing there, slightly panicked.
"Jack," the Doctor began, but Jack cut him off.
"They're all changing!" he cried.
"How?" the Doctor asked quickly.
"How the hell should I know!?" Jack cried. "You're the doctor! You tell me how it's happening!"
The Doctor thought hard. He'd recognised the people that Jack had let attack him. They had been guarding his cell. Plus the other one, guarding his cell…
The penny dropped.
"The virus has become airborne," the Doctor said. "Rose must have caught it from the girl… Maybe her resistance was up and it took a while but eventually it infected her… The guards must have caught it off of Ex-Rose and everyone else from them, like dominoes…"
Jack's eyes widened. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand.
"Right, come on, we're getting out," Jack said, making to undo the chains.
"Not without Rose," the Doctor said quickly, glancing at the girl in the next cell. She was still staring at him, her teeth bared.
"You fucking kidding!?" Jack swore. "She's infectious!"
"I'm not leaving her here!" the Doctor told him firmly.
"Dream on," Jack said. "I need you to get the fuck out of here in your time machine, she's just gotta die!"
"She's not dying!" the Doctor insisted. "If you won't bring her I'm not coming with you!"
Jack laughed, somewhat hysterically. "I don't need you conscious, Time Lord!"
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Last chance," he said, as Jack finally got the chains off of the door.
"What the hell are you on about? Come here!"
The Doctor swallowed, glancing at Rose. "Okay," he said, and thrust his arm straight through the bars into Ex-Rose's cell. Seconds later she plunged her teeth right into his flesh.
He cried out in pain, despite how much he'd prepared himself for it. He watched as the blood instantly began to run from around her teeth, quickly forming a puddle on the ground. He pulled back his arm purely by instinct, howling in pain and clutching it to his chest. Ex-Rose immediately dropped to all fours and began to lap up his blood like a carnivorous puppy as suddenly he felt the infection shoot up his arm, deadening his body process as it went straight to his brain.
It exploded with pain like a bomb going off inside his head. He screamed and fell the floor, convulsing as the infection wracked his body, coursing up and down his spine from his toes to his brain and everything in-between…
Who was he? He was the Doctor. A Time Lord. Gallifrey, Davros, Daleks, Rassilon, Omega…
He was the Doctor, a Time Lord. He was… He was the D… He was...
He passed out.
Jack yelled in alarm, backing away as the Time Lord collapsed, bleeding profusely from the wound in his arm. "No!" he shouted, but it was too late he knew. The Time Lord was now an Ex-Time Lord. Not even a Gallifreyan immune system could cope with the infection.
Jack swore loudly, and quickly ran out of the cells to join the evacuation.
When the Doctor woke up, someone was crying.
He opened his eyes to see a woman kneeling over him, sobbing. Immediately his instinct told him to attack her.
Bite her! Scratch her! Infect her! Consume her!
'No,' another little voice said from somewhere inside his jumbled-up head, 'she's your mother.'
He blinked and looked at her again. Yes. She was his mother. He couldn't infect his mother…
Wait, why did he want to infect anyone?
Attack her! Attack her now!
'Your name is the Doctor,' the little voice said again. 'You're a Time Lord. You're 900-years-old and right now, you have to save Rose Tyler.'
Rose Tyler.
"Rose!" he cried out, turned his head and saw he sitting into the next cell, blood around her mouth. Her blood? No, his blood. He was bleeding all over the floor...
She'd bitten him. No, he'd made her. He'd wanted to be an Ex. Why? Why did he want this?
Then he remembered.
He launched to his feet, the hallucination of his mother shattering into nothing. Despite his injuries he was strong on his feet. There was no pain. Not anymore. Through his muddled head he realised that his body was dead and he was in limbo - unable to regenerate.
Jack had left the cell door unlocked, so the Doctor quickly moved out of the door. He blindly followed a plan that had formed spasmodically in his head - get the blue wand, get the blue wand…
He found a bag on a nearby table and practically ripped it open. Objects spilled out. By instinct they knew they were his. He shoved them all into his pockets but held onto the blue wand, moving back to Ex-Rose's cell. After a small struggle he unlocked the door and held out his hand to Ex-Rose. She wouldn't eat him anymore, he was one of her own.
"Going," he gasped out. He could feel the infection trying desperately to overwhelm him, but he couldn't let it. He would become completely out of his head. She got up and went to him, taking his hand.
He turned and scooped up the gun of the dead Ex-guard on the floor.
'No, no guns,' the voice squeaked, but although he was trying desperately to listen to it it was so very quiet. Instead, he checked the weapon was loaded and turned off the safety.
'Blue box. Blue box,' the little voice told him.
No, kill! Eat! Consume! So hungry...
He was so hungry. He needed food.
Flesh. Eat flesh. Flesh good.
The Doctor hit his head with the palm of his hand. "Shut up!" he cried out.
'Blue box,' the little voice whispered again. 'Find the blue box.'
He started through the corridor, out of cells and into the main room. There was a full battle going on between the soldiers and the Exes.
Help them. Help your kind. Kill the humans!
'Blue box,' the little voice said, but it was now so quiet he could barely hear it. He noticed one of the soldiers turn to him, gun raised - the Doctor immediately raised his own weapon and shot the human with absolute precision through the neck.
Then they were in the middle of the battle. The Doctor instinctively kept Ex-Rose close and safe as he blasted his way through the crowds. For some reason his brain was telling him to get to the ward so he did, cutting down anyone who dared confront him. Every time he shot a human his inner voice shrieked in pain and alarm, but he didn't particularly care. Not anymore.
He finally got himself and Ex-Rose to the ward, closing the door behind them.
No! Eat! So hungry…
Something was driving him to grab some handcuffs from the drawer. He did, snapping one on his left wrist and attaching the other end to a sturdy metal pole.
'No kill. Not anymore. No more killing.'
No, hungry!
The Doctor ended up whacking his head on the pole. This got him a few moments of clarity through the Ex instinctive haze. He couldn't go out. He was too well-trained as a soldier. He would kill everyone and be unable to control himself...
He looked up at Ex-Rose, who was standing over him, her mouth bloody. Desperately hoping there was enough of Rose left in her, he reached up with his uncuffed hand and placed his fingers on her temple.
There, he put one, clear, objective-driven sentence right into her head.
Get to the blue box.
He then pulled her TARDIS key out of his pocket and hung it around her neck.
"Go," he gasped. "Find… blue box… Rose."
Then she was off, out of the door.
He was highly aware he might never see her again, because He couldn't fight it. Not anymore. He sank like a stone to the floor, finally submitting to the infection as he became a fully-fledged Ex.
Ex-Rose stumbled over the battlefield. Around her were the bodies of the dead and dying. Part of her wanted to eat them, but another, stronger part was screaming at her…
Get to the blue box!
She continued, through the bodies and blood back towards the blue box. People took some shots at her and a few hit, but her dead body felt no pain. She continued, through the battlefield and out the other side. Above her was the towering building in which she knew the blue box was contained. She got inside, followed her instinct, and somehow made it to the blue box.
Key. Use the key!
She ran her blood-covered hands around her neck and pulled out the blue box key. She slotted it into the lock and stepped inside, closing the door behind her.
Immediately she saw the Time Lord standing in front of her. "This is emergency program…" he began to say but she wasn't listening, consumed with desire to eat him. She launched herself forward aggressively, swinging her hands through him but the image just corrupted. Then a strange churning started - weirdly familiar to her though she couldn't quite quantify it - the entire place jolted and she was sent to the floor. There was a final loud, thunk, and the door opened.
Then there was the most divine smell she'd ever encountered. Better than the Humans. Better than the Time Lord. It was, it was…
Immortal.
She looked up to see a man standing there in a trench-coat, his hair black. He said something but it didn't register with her.
His charismatic smile quickly dropped as she launched herself straight at him, going straight for the neck. The man reacted immediately, sidestepping and grabbing her arm. He then pulled back a fist, and punched her straight in the face.
Everything went black.
A/N: I'm giggling cos I've just got this mental image of Jack standing there like, "hey, what's up Ro-ARGH!"