A/N: Part 2, let's go!
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is this story and my OC.
Please review and no flaming is tolerated. Enjoy :)
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
"You said there's only one place left to find.
Together we can save the world tonight.
Get ready for it."
– Take that: 'Get Ready for It' (III [2014])
ICU
Cass-Katy leads the way down a good old-fashioned metal staircase. The whole place was lined with cells, thousands of them. Curious, the Doctor opens one at random, revealing a very sick looking man sitting inside the cell. Rose gasps in shock and looks at the poor man with deep sympathy, while the Doctor just stares at him grimly. Cass-Katy, however, has a completely different reaction when she sees him.
"That's disgusting." She exclaims, earning daggers from Rose for her tactless remark. However, the Doctor barely acknowledges the comment. "What's wrong with him?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor says to the poor man. He closes the door and moves on to investigate another cell, this one containing a young woman in a similar condition to the man.
"What disease is that?" Rose asks, quietly.
"All of them. Every single disease in the galaxy." The Doctor explains with an eerily calm voice. "They've been infected with everything."
"What about us? Are we safe?" Cass-Katy wrinkles her nose with disgust.
"The air's sterile." The Doctor confirms. "Just don't touch them." He closes the cell door and turns away to walk over to a nearby banister. The Doctor's face was hard and angry.
Rose comes over to him, looking confused.
"How many patients are there?" She asked.
"They're not patients." The Doctor stated, angrily.
"But they're sick." Cass-Katy pointed out. The Doctor shakes his head with disgust and squeezes the metal bar beneath his hands with a grip so tight his knuckles were turning white.
"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick." He emphasises to a horrified Rose and an indifferent Cass-Katy. "Lab rats. No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm." The Doctor was practically spitting fire in his outrage.
"Why don't they just die?" Cass-Katy asked, as though the answer to this current predicament was obvious.
"Plague carriers. The last to go." The Doctor explains, coldly.
"It's for the greater cause." A meek sounding voice calls out and all three of them turn to see Novice Hame cautiously approaching them, looking nervously at a furious Doctor's face. The moment he sees her, the Doctor pushes off the banister and strides up to her with a determined gait. Rose and Cass-Katy follow him, also looking for answers too.
"Novice Hame," the Doctor addresses her. "When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" He indicated to the cells containing the sick people. Hame looks at the cells reluctantly.
"The Sisterhood has sworn to help." She insisted. This was obviously the wrong thing to say as the Doctor's face only hardened.
"What? By killing?" He snaps.
"But they're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence." Novice Hame insists, not seeing what the big deal was. The Doctor decided to set her straight and explain just what the 'big deal' was.
"What's the turnover, hmm?" The Doctor's voice practically dripped derision. "Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? For how many years?" When she didn't answer immediately the Doctor shouted. "How many!?" Hame jumped, and so did Rose and Katy inside her own head. Cassandra, still in control of Katy's body for the moment, merely rolled her eyes at what she viewed as the Doctor's dramatics.
"Mankind needed us." Hame attempted to calm him down. "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." Rose turned a nasty shade of green while Cass-Katy made a face, and the Doctor glared harder. "That's all they are. Flesh."
"Those people are alive." The Doctor insisted, stubbornly.
"But think of those Human's out there, healthy and happy, because of us." Hame pointed out the so-called brightside of this horrific situation. The Doctor shook his head.
"If they live because of this, then life is worthless."
"But who are you to decide that?" Hame challenged.
"I'm the Doctor." He responded, pointedly. "And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me." Cass-Katy steps forward, between the Doctor and Hame, addressing the nervous Cat-Nun-Nurse.
"Just to confirm. None of the humans in the city actually know about this?" She asked, curiously.
"Katy!" Rose was appalled, and went to reprimand her sister even further, but was stopped by the Doctor's restraining hand and a stern look.
"We thought best not." Hame answers Cass-Katy's question with mild confusion.
"Hold on." All eyes swivel to the Doctor. "I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand: what have you done to Katy?" The Doctor demands, his temper simmering underneath the surface of the calm façade he was portraying.
"I don't know what you mean." Hame replied, and even Rose was looking at him with confusion.
"And I am being very, very calm." The Doctor continued, as though Hame hadn't spoken. "You want to be aware of that. Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing." Rose pales when she realises what the Doctor was implying.
"Oh, my God…" She breathes, and the Doctor ignores her.
"Whatever you've done to Katy's head, I want it reversed." The Doctor orders, and Rose glares at Novice Hame for messing around with her sister's head. It definitely explained why the brunette was behaving so unlike herself; what with the manner of how she had been speaking and the way she had rearranged how she dressed. Rose instantly felt guilty about the negative thoughts she had had about Katy from the moment they had stepped into this hospital.
"We haven't done anything." Hame insisted.
"I'm perfectly fine." Cass-Katy stated, unconvincingly.
"These people are dying, and Katy would care." The Doctor insisted, and Cassandra, realising that the jig was up, breaks character and grabs the Doctor's attention.
"Oh, all right, clever clogs." Cass-Katy pulls the Doctor's tie out from beneath his suit jacket and pulls him closer to her with it. "Smarty pants. Lady-killer." She smirks seductively at the Doctor who stares at the woman he loved with worry and bewilderment.
"What's happened to you?" He muttered, anxiously. Cass-Katy continues playing with his tie, ignoring his question.
"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to find it out." Cass-Katy stated, casually.
"Who are you?" The Doctor demands, sternly. Cass-Katy's smirk broadens and she leans up to whisper into his ear.
"The last human."
"Cassandra?" The Doctor looks at her with surprise, and Rose's eyes widen when he mentions the familiar name.
"Wake up and smell the perfume." Cass-Katy pulls the vial of perfume from Katy's cleavage and squirts the vial up his nose, causing him to pass out.
"Doctor!" Rose shouts out in alarm and steps forward to catch him, only to receive a face full of the 'perfume' herself and she collapses, unconscious, by the Doctor's side. Hame gapes at Cass-Katy's actions with both shock and confusion.
"You've hurt them. I don't understand. I'll have to fetch Matron." She tells Cass-Katy frantically.
"You do that." Cass-Katy encourages her. "Because I want to see her. Now, run along. Sound the alarm!" Hame turns and runs off, just as Cass-Katy pulls on a nearby power cable and sets off the alarms.
The Doctor regained consciousness, and for a moment, he had forgotten where he was. But it wasn't until he attempted to stand up and smacked his head against something hard in front of him; that he realised, that (A) Rose was slumped unconscious on his lap, and (B) that he was also trapped inside a cell. Then he suddenly remembered: (C) Katy was being possessed by Cassandra, the last human!
"Let me out! Let me out!" He used his fists to knock against the cell door to grab somebody's attention, as Rose regained consciousness.
"Doctor? What's happening?" Rose questioned, groggily. The Doctor ignored her, trying to find his sonic screwdriver, and realised to his annoyance, that it was stuck inside his pants pocket, out of reach.
'Naturally…' The Doctor thought sarcastically. An amused laugh caught both his and Rose's attention, and they saw a warped version of Katy's face looking through a viewing window in the cell door in front of them.
"Aren't you lucky there was a spare?" Cass-Katy mocked them. Chip, who had arrived while the Doctor and Rose had been knocked out, was standing dutifully beside his mistress' side. "Standing room only."
"You've stolen Katy's body!" the Doctor stated, furiously.
"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor, and your pathetic, bratty little companions." Rose bristled at the insult, especially because the words were coming from her sister's mouth. "And now, that's exactly what I've got: One thousand diseases." Both the Doctor and Rose's eyes widened in realisation. "They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about three minutes left. Enjoy!"
Cass-Katy turns and starts to walk away.
"Just let Katy go, Cassandra!" The Doctor demands, causing Cass-Katy to pause midstep.
"I will," She promises. "As soon as I've found someone younger, and less common, then I'll junk her with the waste."
"You leave her alone, Cassandra!" Rose demands, protectively.
"Now hushabye." Cass-Katy ignores Rose and turns away. "It's showtime." She states, as Jatt and Casp suddenly come into view.
"Anything we can do to help?" Jatt questions Cass-Katy, politely. Rose immediately starts kicking at the cell door, trying to find a weak point so that she and the Doctor could break free.
"Doctor, what can we do?" Rose asked, frantically.
"Just hang on. I'm already working on it." The Doctor tells her, distractedly. He was attempting to reach for his pocket and not succeeding very well. Rose frowns at him with both confusion and curiosity.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to get my sonic." The Doctor responded, impatiently.
"Where is it?" Rose asked, trying to be helpful. The Doctor grunted uncomfortably, still trying to reach and grope around.
"In my pocket. But I can't reach." He stated, and Rose immediately reaches her hand down to help.
"Here. Let me." She offers, and the Doctor immediately hesitated, as they were already in a compromising and fairly intimate position together, stuffed inside a cramped cell; but realised that he essentially had no choice and reluctantly nodded.
"Fine. Just hurry it up!" He snapped, ignoring the hurt and affronted expression on Rose's face when he said this. The Doctor also attempted to listen in on the conversation taking place outside the cell.
"Straight to the point, Whiskers." The Doctor cringed at the selfish tone in Katy's voice, and hated the fact that those words were coming from her mouth. "I want money." Casp lets out an amused and incredulous laugh.
"The Sisterhood is a charity. We don't give money. We only accept." She explains, a bit condescendingly. Cass-Katy raises Katy's eyebrow disbelievingly.
"The humans across the water pay you a fortune, and that's exactly what I need. A one-off payment, that's all I want." She demanded, haughtily. "Oh, and perhaps a yacht." Cass-Katy received a few raised eyebrows from both the two nuns in front of her, and from the Doctor and Rose still trapped inside the cell behind her. The requests Cass-Katy had just made did not seem right coming from sensible, compassionate Katy's mouth. "In return for which, I shall tell the city nothing of your institutional murder. Is that a deal?"
"I'm afraid not." Casp shook her head. A sour expression appeared on Katy's face.
"I'd really advise you to think about this." Cass-Katy warns them.
"Oh, there's no need. I have to decline." Casp insists. Cass-Katy decided to resort to blackmail to get her own way.
"I'll tell them, and you've got no way of stopping me." She points out. "You're not exactly Nuns with Guns. You're not even armed."
"Who needs arms when we have claws?" Casp stated, before unsheathing her claws and hissing and spitting like the cat she was. The Doctor's eyes widened before turning his attention on Rose who was still fumbling around trying to locate the sonic screwdriver for him.
"Have you got it yet?" The Doctor snaps.
"I did. But it fell out of reach." Rose responded, defensively.
"Well, hurry up. Your sister's about to become a human scratching post because of Cassandra." He points out, sounding both urgent and annoyed. However, Cass-Katy appeared to have a different plan in mind.
"Well, nice try." She sighs, shrugging, before turning towards Chip. "Chip? Plan B." He nods and pulls a nearby lever, which unlocks the cell doors and releases what is contained within each one, including the Doctor and Rose. The sick people are very dazed, as the Doctor turns and immediately growls at Cass-Katy.
"What've you done?" He yells.
Cass-Katy smirks at him and Rose.
"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up." Cass-Katy and Chip back away. "See you!" She chirps and blows a kiss, before running off, followed closely by Chip. The Doctor rushes after them with Rose on his heels, looking nervously at the approaching diseased people.
"Don't touch them!" He tells both Rose and the two horrified nuns. "Whatever you do, don't touch!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Rose retorts, as she and the Doctor run after Cass-Katy and Chip. The diseased people advance on the nuns.
"Please save us." One of them, a man, pleads with a voice raspy from lack of use. Jatt swallows nervously and starts backing away with Casp.
"I think we should withdraw." Jatt suggests.
"We understood what you did to us." The man explains to the nuns. "As part of the machine, we know the machine." Jatt continues backing away, getting increasingly anxious, as Casp studies him curiously.
"Fascinating," She remarks, impressed. "It's actually constructing an argument."
"And we will end it." The man frowns at them, before turning and shoving his hand into a socket; electrocuting himself and unlocking every single cell door in the ICU, freeing all diseased people.
"They're free." Jatt exclaimed in horror. "By the Goddess Santori, the flesh is free!"
"Stop the pain!" Another man urges.
Jatt and Casp turn to flee, however Jatt is almost immediately cornered by the advancing crowd of diseased people. She spits and swipes fearfully at them, but a nearby woman suddenly touches Jatt and she dies, screaming. Nearby, the Doctor, Rose, Cass-Katy, and Chip hear Jatt's dying scream and both Rose and Cass-Katy immediately pale.
"Oh, my God." Rose exclaims, causing the Doctor to glare at Cass-Katy.
"What the hell have you done?!"
"It wasn't me." Cass-Katy protests, defensively. The Doctor snarls in frustration, grabbing Rose's hand to protect her when they start running to keep her with him. The blonde barely acknowledges this in her fear.
"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra!" He instructs, before pulling her none too gently towards a nearby staircase. "We've got to go down."
"But there's thousands of them!" Cass-Katy whimpers.
"Run! Down! Down! Go down!" The Doctor orders, uncaring that Cass-Katy was terrified. The former flap of skin had brought this all upon herself. At the entrance to the ICU, Casp snatches a nearby telephone and shouts down into it.
"Quarantine the building!" She orders, and the overhead speakers sound the red alert.
"This building is under quarantine."
Basement
The Doctor, Rose, Cass-Katy, and Chip eventually make it to the basement where Chip had lured Katy to Cassandra's hideout in the first place. Cass-Katy breaks away from them to hail a lift.
"No, the lifts have closed down." The Doctor explains to her. "That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving." Cass-Katy groans in frustration before turning and pointing down the corridor towards her lair.
"This way!" The four of them head in that direction. Unfortunately, Chip somehow gets cut off from them as more diseased people suddenly come out of nowhere and approach them. The Doctor immediately stopped to give aid.
"Someone will touch him." He warns Cass-Katy, who is predictably dismissive of her creation.
"Leave him! He's just a clone thing. He's only got a half-life. Come on!" She insists and continues running down the corridor towards her lair.
"Mistress!" Chip calls out, pleadingly. Both Rose and the Doctor hesitate, before reluctantly and regretfully making a choice.
"I'm sorry, I can't let her escape." The Doctor tells Chip, who's face falls in horror and disgust as the diseased people start shuffling towards him like zombies. He cowers away in fear before jumping down a nearby chute labelled 'Waste'.
Basement Room
Cass-Katy leads both the Doctor and Rose back to where she had started from: the basement room where she and Chip had hidden, but immediately runs for the backdoor. However, she slams the door closed when it reveals more of the diseased people standing behind it trying to gain access inside. The Doctor and Rose watch as Cass-Katy goes for another door, only to come across another group of diseased people.
"We're trapped!" Cass-Katy panicked after slamming the door in their faces. "What am I going to do?"
"Give me back my body!" Katy takes momentary control again of her own body to give her opinion, before Cassandra hastily takes back control, looking irritated.
"You shut up!" Cass-Katy suggests, but the Doctor steps forward.
"No, Katy has a point. You're going to leave her body." The Doctor orders Cass-Katy who looks at him defiantly. He turns and points towards the machine that had trapped and imprisoned Katy in her own body in the first place. "That psychograft is banned on every civilised planet. You're compressing Katy to death."
"But I've got nowhere to go." Cass-Katy whines. "My original skin's dead."
"Not my problem." The Doctor states, angrily. "You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give her back to me." He orders, and Cass-Katy pouts before a smirk stretches across her face, making both the Doctor and Rose shudder at the malicious expression on Katy's face.
"Alright then. You asked for it." Cass-Katy states before taking in a deep breath and blowing bright pink energy out, which engulfs the Doctor and possesses him. Katy, now free from Cassandra's invasion, stumbles clumsily into Rose's arms.
"I got you!" Rose steadies her sister, who groans and clutches at her head.
"Oh, my head." Katy mumbles, then looks around in confusion. "Where'd she go?" Then her eyes widen when she spots the Doctor and realises what has happened. "Oh, no."
"Oh, my. This is different." Cassandra marvels from inside the Doctor's body, making his voice sound very flamboyant.
"You've got to be kidding me." Katy stated.
"Cassandra?" Rose questioned, cautiously. Cass-Doctor appeared to be amused by her predicament.
"Goodness me, I'm a man." Cassandra states. "Yum. So many parts. And hardly used." Both Katy and Rose blush and glare at Cass-Doctor. "Oh, oh, two hearts!" She gasped in surprise. "Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba!"
"This is just all kinds of wrong…" Katy winces as Rose glared and yells at Cass-Doctor.
"Get out of him!"
"Ooh, he's slim, and a little bit foxy." Cass-Doctor ignores them, instead choosing to tease as she looks knowingly at Katy, who looks back at 'her' warily. "You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it."
"That's none of your business." Katy growls, and all three of them jump when the diseased people suddenly break in. Cass-Doctor immediately begins to panic again.
"What do we do? What would he do?" 'She' demands. "The Doctor, what the hell would he do?!" Both Katy and Rose look around for an exit before Rose spots a nearby ladder that goes up. She immediately points towards it.
"There! The ladder. We've got to get up." She states and goes to lead the way but gets shoved aside by Cass-Doctor in the Doctor's stronger body.
"Out of the way, blondie!" Cass-Doctor shouts rudely, before making 'her' way up the ladder rungs.
As they were climbing up, both Rose and Katy attempt to convince Cassandra to vacate the Doctor's body.
"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something." Katy points out to Cass-Doctor who merely sneers in her direction.
"Yap, yap, yap. God, it was frustrating being inside your head. Don't you ever stop talking? You were starting to give me a headache." 'She' bitches, and Katy scowls.
"It's a good thing that I don't want to physically harm the Doctor's body, otherwise I'd give you more than just a bloody headache!" Katy states.
"We're going to die if—" Rose's annoyed voice is cut off when she suddenly yelps in surprise. Both Katy and Rose look down to see that Matron Casp had somehow followed them into the lift shaft. She had grabbed Rose's ankle in her anger.
"Get off me!" Rose yells, kicking out her leg to dislodge the nun's grip.
"All our good work. All that healing. The good name of the Sisterhood. You have destroyed everything." Casp accuses.
"Go play with a ball of string." Cass-Doctor suggests snidely.
"Everywhere, disease. This is the human world. Sickness!" Casp's rant suddenly cuts off and she screams out in pain, as lesions suddenly form on her skin. This causes her to let go of the ladder and she falls screaming to her death.
"Move!" Rose yells urgently, her eyes widening in alarm, and both Cass-Doctor and Katy continue on without question.
They eventually make it to the end of the lift shaft, with a couple of sealed doors as their only way out, due to the rapidly approaching group of diseased people climbing up the staircase behind them, cutting off the only other escape route. Cass-Doctor attempts to pry apart the doors with both of 'her' hands, but the doors will not open.
"Now what do we do?" Cass-Doctor whined, making both sisters cringe at the sound.
"Use the sonic screwdriver." Rose instructs, impatiently.
"And for the love of God, do not whine. It really does not sound right coming from the Doctor's mouth." Katy glares at Cass-Doctor and wrinkled her nose. Cass-Doctor rummages around the Doctor's jacket breast pocket and pulls out the sonic with two fingers as though it were contaminated.
"You mean this thing?" Cass-Doctor questions distastefully.
"Yes, that thing!" The sisters say in unison.
"Well, I don't know how. That Doctor's hidden away all his thoughts." 'She' complained, and Rose rolls her eyes, and Katy let's her head thud against the metal rung in front of her face in frustration.
"Cassandra, go back into me." Katy reluctantly instructs, bracing herself for the mother of all headaches she was likely to be suffering after this adventure was over and done with. "The Doctor can open it. Do it!" But she was willing to put up with some discomfort, if it meant she, her sister and the Doctor didn't die from EVERY known disease in the universe from a simple touch of the hand.
"Hold on tight." Cass-Doctor warns her before transferring the pink energy again. Cass-Katy barely hangs onto the metal rung after the transferal is completed. She groans in annoyance. "Oh, wonderful. I'm in here again." She bitches before glaring up at the Doctor who had almost instantaneously recovered from being compressed by Cassandra and was now aiming the sonic at Cass-Katy with a thunderous, protective expression on his face. "Open it!"
"Not until you get out of her."
'Doctor! Priorities!' Katy snaps from inside her own head, causing Cass-Katy to wince, but not necessarily disagree with her prisoner either.
"Can't we just get out of here first, Doctor?!" Rose unknowingly echoes her sister's objections also.
"We need the Doctor." Cass-Katy agrees, earning a glare from all three of them.
"Don't help me." Rose insists as the Doctor stubbornly refuses to budge.
"I order you to leave her!" The Doctor growls, then nearly slips off the ladder when Cassandra swaps back into his body again.
"That's not what he meant." Katy moans, tiredly. Cass-Doctor sighs before speaking snootily.
"No matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout."
"Cassandra, get out of him!" Rose starts losing her patience.
"But I can't go into your sister, he simply refuses. The same thing will happen if I go into you as well. He's so rude." Cass-Doctor complains.
"Pot. Kettle. Black." Katy retorts through thinly veiled patience. "We don't bloody care where or who you go into. Just do something!" Cass-Doctor pauses momentarily and looks beyond the sisters towards an oncoming diseased woman who was only seconds away from catching up to them.
'She' makes a revolted face.
"Oh, I am so going to regret this." Cassandra transfers herself directly into the woman on the ladder below them, giving the Doctor the opportunity to quickly sonic the doors open, and hastily reach down to grab both Katy and Rose's hands and pull them in. "Oh, sweet Lord. I look disgusting." Cass-Woman looks down at herself in her mint-green hospital scrubs and her lesion-covered hands. The Doctor briefly but protectively pulls Katy into a tight hug and plants a kiss on her forehead.
"Nice to have you back!" He grins at Katy who smiles back. Cass-Woman's eyes narrow angrily when she realises that the Doctor was going to trap her in the lift shaft with the rest of the diseased people.
"Oh, no you don't." The pink energy manages to latch onto Katy, who grunts and stumbles forward onto the linoleum hospital floors just as the Doctor manages to shut the lift doors again. He whirls on her the second they are safe.
"That was your final warning, Cassandra!" He mellows out when he sees the tortured, sober expression on her face when she sits up and leans against the wall. Rose leans over and places a concerned hand on her 'sister's' shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Rose asks, gently.
"Inside her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us." Cass-Katy mumbles, looking upset. "All their lives and they've never been touched."
A solitary tear trails out of Katy's eye and down her cheek. The Doctor pauses for a moment, realising that Cassandra was finally understanding the consequences of her actions after experiencing a split second in that poor woman's head. He offers her his hand and Cass-Katy looks at it for a moment before reaching up and accepting the hand.
Ward 26
The three of them head back to Ward 26 and jump back in surprise when Frau Clovis lunges at them with a metal stand. She and the rest of the ward had obviously come across other diseased people during their adventures down in the basement.
"We're safe! We're safe! We're safe! We're clean!" The Doctor reassures the businesswoman showing her his hands, both front and back. "Look, look!" Frau Clovis glares at them mistrustfully.
"Show me your skin!" She demands, and all three of them show her their hands, like the Doctor had just done before during his explanation when Clovis first lunged at them.
"Look, clean. Look, if we'd been touched, we'd be dead." The Doctor reassures the stressed looking businesswoman. Clovis nods and lowers the metal stand cautiously. "So, how's it going up here? What's the status?" The Doctor requests, urgently.
"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." All three of them look at her with horror and disbelief. "If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad." Clovis elaborates.
"You can't do that!" Rose protests.
"If they forced entry, they'd break quarantine." The Doctor agrees.
"I am not dying in here." Clovis stubbornly insists.
"We can't let a single particle of disease get out." The Doctor stresses. "There is ten million people in that city. They'd all be at risk. Now, turn that off!" Clovis clenches the device to her chest and glared defiantly at the Doctor.
"Not if it gets me out." She sneers, earning a look of disgust and disdain from everyone still standing in the ward. The Doctor looks heavenward, probably gathering more patience to deal with the mounting crisis he had going on around him … and the idiots all around him.
"All right, fine. So, I have to stop you lot as well." He realises. "Suits me." He runs over to where he had momentarily left Rose and Cass-Katy. "Rose, Katy, Novice Hame, everyone!" He brushes past a surprised and confused Duke of Manhattan as he snatches intravenous solution bags off metal stands. "Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Now move it!" Everyone darts around and collects drip bags, while the Doctor grabs a long piece of heavy yellow silk rope and hangs them around his body. He takes each drip bag and attaches them to the rope. "How's that? Will that do?"
"I think so." Rose responds as Cass-Katy looks at him with confusion.
"I don't know. Will it do for what?"
Ward 26 Waiting Room
Without replying to Cass-Katy's question, the Doctor immediately turns and heads straight for the nearby lifts, which he opens with a quick 'point and click' from his sonic. Both Rose and Cass-Katy are quick to point out the potential flaw in what they assume is the Doctor's plan.
"Uh, Doctor. The lifts aren't working." Rose points out, but the Doctor carries on with his plan without batting an eyelid.
"Not moving. Different thing." The Doctor retorts back. "Here we go." He puts the sonic between his teeth and takes a running jump at the exposed lift cables in front of them.
"But you're not going to—" The Doctor jumps and grabs onto the cable, before looking pointedly at both girls. Cass-Katy gaps at him unattractively. "What do you think you're doing?" She demands agitatedly.
"I'm going down!" He replies, attaching a round piece of equipment to the cables that looks like a makeshift pulley device. The Doctor then looks over at Cass-Katy and reaches out a hand to her. "Come on!" He looks over at his blonde companion. "Rose, keep watch in the Ward. We'll be back in a moment." He explains to Rose who flushes in anger but reluctantly nods and heads in the direction of the ward where Frau Clovis is watching them curiously. The Doctor looks impatiently at Cass-Katy. "Well?"
"Not in a million years." Cass-Katy sneers, folding her arms across her chest and fixing the Doctor with a snooty glare. But he gestures insistently.
"I need another pair of hands." Cass-Katy just looks at him. "What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little?" He suggests, waggling his eyebrows at her. Cass-Katy was about to reject the offer again when the familiar sounds of the diseased people moaning catches their attention, and Clovis and Rose's eyes immediately widen in fear and panic.
"Seal the door!" Clovis shouts into the ward, and the doors immediately slide shut concealing Rose inside with them. Cass-Katy is now trapped with the approaching group of diseased people.
"No!" She squeals and takes a running jump at the Doctor, clambering onto his back, and nearly strangling him with her arms around his shoulders in an iron grip.
Lift shaft
Cass-Katy makes the mistake of looking down in the direction that she and the Doctor were about to plummet and immediately pales.
"You're completely mad." She criticised him, but then smirks flirtatiously. "I can see why she likes you." Cass-Katy teases him, and the Doctor rolls his eyes.
"I'm well aware that Katy 'likes' me, Cassandra." He looks back and grins at her surprised expression. "Feelings mutual." He winks, before aiming the sonic at the improvised wheel they were hanging from. "Going down!"
The duo rides the improvised wheel down the shaft as it plummets at impossible speeds, causing Cass-Katy to let out a high-pitched squeal of fear and the Doctor a loud, triumphant yell as they fell. At the bottom, the Doctor puts on the brakes and they coast to a gentle stop on top of the idling lift.
"Well, that's one way to lose weight." Cass-Katy quips as she jumps down from the Doctor's back and straightens out her shirt which had creeped up a little during the plummet.
The Doctor doesn't waste any time and immediately heads for a tank situated on top of the lift. One by one, he pulls an intravenous solution drip bag from the yellow cord wrapped around him and tears into it with his teeth, depositing the contents directly into the tank. The liquid within starts smoking.
"Now, listen. When I say so, take hold of that lever." The Doctor indicates to a lever that was beside the tank. Cass-Katy reluctantly heads over to it.
"There's still a quarantine down there, we can't—"
"Hold that lever!" The Doctor interrupts yet another bout of complaining from Cass-Katy, who scowls resentfully at him as the continues adding drip bag, after drip bag, after drip bag into the tank. "I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself." He explains, and after he has finished with the last drip bag; he throws it aside and opens the lift's trapdoor. "Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got."
"What about you?" Cass-Katy blinks at him.
The Doctor smirks at her.
"I've got an appointment. The Doctor is in." He replied, very matter of fact, before dropping down into the empty lift. Cass-Katy looks at him like he was crazy as he uses his sonic on the lift doors and opens it. Like the Doctor says, the lever starts to protest; so she throws her entire weight (which wasn't a lot) onto it to keep it in place.
Inside the Lift
The Doctor aims the sonic at the lift doors which immediately slide open, drawing the attention of a large group of diseased people who look up or turn to see him standing completely exposed inside the lift.
"I'm in here! Come on!" the Doctor calls out to the group, encouraging them to walk towards him inside the lift.
"Don't tell them!" Cass-Katy yells at him in alarm.
"Hold that lever!" The Doctor sternly reminds her as the diseased people in the hospital reception start shuffling towards the lift. "Come and get me. Come on!" the Doctor encourages just as the lift's overhead speaker suddenly pipes up.
"Commence stage one disinfection."
"Hurry up! Come on!" the Doctor continues beckoning in the diseased patients before the contents of the disinfectant tank suddenly starts pouring on top of him and the few patients who had managed to get inside the lift. "Come on, come on." The first of the humans promptly turn around and leave the lift, walking back towards their peers. "All they want to do is pass it on. Pass it on!" The Doctor encourages enthusiastically.
"Pass on what? Pass on what?" Cass-Katy yells from on top of the lift, in confusion.
"Pass it on!" The Doctor continues to yell as the disinfected and wet humans touch their diseased comrades. There are sounds of hisses and steam coming off their skin, which immediately clears of symptoms. The Doctor reaches up and beckons towards Cass-Katy who accepts his help down from the lift hatch.
"What did they pass on?" Cass-Katy questions. "Did you kill them? All of them?"
"No." The Doctor responds. "That's your way of doing things. I'm the Doctor, and I cured them." One of the women comes over and hugs the Doctor who willingly returns the hug with a friendly grin on his face. "That's right. Hey, there we go, sweetheart." He lets go of her and steps back, encouraging her to turn and hug a nearby male. "Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it." The Doctor and Cass-Katy watch in amazement at the completely cured group of formerly diseased patients. "It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand-new form of life. New humans!" The Doctor was practically beaming in triumph, while Cass-Katy was still looking confused about what the Doctor had just done with only a few bags of cures. "Look at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive." He turns and looks pointedly at Cass-Katy. "You can't deny them, because you helped create them." Cass-Katy's eyes widened in surprise. "The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! Ha!" The Doctor crowed, happily.
Ward 26
Eventually, the quarantine was lifted when the NNYPD finally arrived to investigate. The Doctor and Cass-Katy watched as Novice Hame and the rest of the Sisters of Plenitude were rounded up and taken away.
"All staff will present themselves to the officers for immediate arrest." The tannoy announces on the overhead speakers. "I repeat, immediate arrest." The Doctor gives Novice Hame a stony look, as she is led away, while Cass-Katy looked a combination of both disgusted and bored with the entire thing, as Novice Hame looked away out of shame. "All new life forms will be catalogued and taken into care. All visitors to the hospital will be required to make a statement to the NNYPD."
"The Face of Boe!" The Doctor suddenly exclaims and rushes off.
The announcement drones on as the Doctor leads Cass-Katy through crowds of relieved, but shaken up patients and their family and friends, until they reach the last person left in the ward, with an anxious and worried looking Rose, waiting impatiently for their return. The very second Rose sees them, she practically launches herself at the Doctor, who barely catches her in her enthusiasm. Rose wrinkles her nose a little when she realises that the Doctor was still wet from his recent decontamination shower a few minutes earlier, but she just as easily dismisses it to greet him.
"Oh, my God! I was so worried!" She exclaims and pulls away from nearly strangling the Doctor to death, to grab Cass-Katy in a bear hug, forgetting in her exuberance that it was Cassandra she was hugging and not her sister, when said person recoils in horror and immediately shoves her away. She gave Rose a dirty look for her troubles. Rose looks hurt for a moment, before remembering who was currently squatting in her sister's body and adopts a sheepish look.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Rose stated awkwardly. Cass-Katy rolled her eyes.
"You were supposed to be dying," The Doctor reminds a thoroughly amused looking Face of Boe, who chuckles indulgently at him.
"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait."
"Oh, I hate telepathy," Cass-Katy groused. "Just what I need, a head full of big face." Katy somehow manages to take over her body for a moment to retort.
"Do you ever stop? Or is talking how you breathe?" She snaps, and the Doctor levels a scowl at them 'both'.
"Shh!" He warns sternly. The Face of Boe chuckles once again.
"Never change, Katy." He mumbles affectionately, before sobering and looking sorrowfully at the Doctor, Rose, and Cass-Katy. "I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew." The Doctor looks at him sympathetically.
"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old." The Doctor stated, and the Face of Boe raised a large eyebrow.
"There are?" He receives two nods, and one bored look from Cass-Katy. "That would be impossible."
"Wouldn't it just?" The Doctor agreed, then looks solemn. "I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me." If the Face of Boe could shrug, he would, but instead he offered a crooked smile.
"A great secret. To both you and Katy." The Face of Boe said that last part to the Doctor privately. The Time Lord's eyes widened a little but recovered easily.
"So, the legend says."
"It can wait." The Face of Boe confirms cryptically. The Doctor's face fell in disappointment.
"Oh, does it have to?"
"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told." The Face of Boe promised. "Until that day." He immediately beams away, leaving the Doctor and Rose looking impressed.
"That is enigmatic." The Doctor stated. "That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic." Rose nodded, in agreement. Then the beaming expression on the Doctor's face faded, replaced with a very serious one as he straightened up from his squat and turned to address Cass-Katy, who immediately looked like a deer-caught-in-headlights. "And now for you…" He glared sternly at the socialite-turned flap of skin currently inhabiting his girlfriend's body. Cass-Katy gulped, trying hard not to wilt underneath the hard look on the Doctor's face, and smiled sheepishly at both him and Rose.
"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?" Cass-Katy pleaded, rather pathetic-like.
"Get the hell out of my sister's body, Cassandra." Rose scowled, and the Doctor nodded in agreement.
"You've lived long enough," his arms folded against his chest. "Leave that body and end it, Cassandra." He demanded. "Give her back to us."
Cass-Katy immediately bursts into crocodile tears.
"I don't want to die."
"No one does." The Doctor agreed, unsympathetically.
"Help me." Cass-Katy pleaded, rather pathetically.
"I can't."
"Mistress!" Suddenly, Chip comes running into the abandoned ward, looking tired, dirty and a little shaken, but for all intents and purposes unharmed. Cass-Katy blinks at him in surprise.
"Oh, you're alive." She states, nonplussed.
"I kept myself alive for you, mistress." Chip explained, looking proud of himself. A sly smirk suddenly spreads across Cass-Katy's face.
"A body," She realises. "And not just that, a volunteer." Both the Doctor and Rose realise what Cassandra was about to do and the Doctor immediately jumps in to stop her.
"Don't you dare. He's got a life of his own." The Doctor protests. However, Chip doesn't look worried, and continues looking at Cassandra in a worshipful way.
"But I worship the mistress. I welcome her." He insists, as Cassandra takes in a deep breath and shuts her eyes in anticipation of an immediate transfer.
"No, don't!" Rose shouts in alarm.
"You can't, Cassandra, you—" But the Doctor's protests are a bit late as the energy transfer takes place and Katy swoons and collapses into the Doctor's arms. "Oh! You all right?" He fumbles to help Katy stand up straight. But the poor girl was still dizzy and stumbles again, causing both the Doctor and Rose to instinctively reach out to grab her before she could faceplant on the ground. "Whoa!" The Doctor hollers, protectively wrapping his arms around Katy's waist. "Okay?" He asks with concern.
Katy blinks, trying to regain her bearings. "Yeah," she answers then focuses on the Doctor's face and smiles warmly at him. "Hello!"
"Hello. Welcome back." The Doctor greets his girlfriend, as they exchange relieved, tender expressions with each other; missing the jealous and spiteful look on Rose's face when she notices. But before she could speak up, somebody else does.
"Oh, sweet Lord. I'm a walking doodle." Cass-Chip announces, looking somewhat haughty, which looked rather strange on the normal docile face of Chip. The Doctor lets go of Katy when he was positive she could remain standing up right and focuses back on Cassandra.
"You can't stay in there," The Doctor insists. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done." He states.
"Well, that would be rather dramatic." Cass-Chip observes. "Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time." The Doctor, Katy, and Rose blink or frown at 'him' in confusion. "Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much." 'He' pauses and frowns. "His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last—" Cass-Chip lets out a pained yell and falls to 'his' knees, guided there by the concerned trio.
"Are you all right?" Katy asked, concerned despite the ordeal she had been through.
"I'm fine." Cass-Chip reassures, then frowns and immediately amends her last response when she realises the sad truth. "I'm dying, but that's fine."
"I can take you to the city." The Doctor offers.
"No, you won't." Cass-Chip responds, firmly but gently. "Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore. You're right, Doctor. It's time to die, and that's good." She finally admits, and the Doctor looks resigned.
"Come on. There's one last thing I can do." He explains, before helping Katy and Rose assist Cass-Chip to 'his' feet.
Restaurant
A party is in full swing, crowded with a group of gossiping aristocrats. The TARDIS materialises out of view of the party, and out steps the Doctor, the Tyler Sisters, and Cass-Chip, who was wearing a heavy, black hooded coat with the hood over 'his' head. Amongst the group of partygoers was a younger version of Cassandra, back when she was human and before the countless plastic surgery sessions.
"Oh no, don't. Stop it. Simply not true." Cassandra was babbling away to her friends. "Tiny. The beaches were so dismal, and the mosquitos were—"
Cass-Chip observes 'her' younger self for a moment before turning and giving the Doctor a truly genuine smile, probably the first one in a long time that she had ever given.
"Thank you."
"Just go," The Doctor responds. "And don't look back."
"Good luck." Rose bids her.
Katy says nothing, but smiles slightly at the possessed man, who turns and starts weaving his way through the crowd towards the younger Cassandra. It was a sad moment in Cassandra's personal history, and the Doctor, Katy, and Rose were the witnesses. Cass-Chip paused behind Cassandra, listening wistfully at a past conversation with a sad smile on 'his' face.
"… And if you actually see them, you're shocked." Cassandra lets out a fake laugh, and her guests copy her. "But don't quote me on that. Oh, naughty. A bientôt!" The future Last Human turns away from her 'friends.'
Cass-Chip immediately steps up to her.
"Excuse me, Lady Cassandra."
"I'm sorry, I don't need anything right now. I'm fine, thank you." Cassandra politely greeted 'him'.
"No, I just wanted to say you look beautiful." Cass-Chip complimented her, and Cassandra looks taken aback but flattered. Silent tears fall down Katy's face. Despite how much she disliked Cassandra, this was probably the saddest scene she had ever paid witness to. The Doctor silently steps up beside her and takes her hand in his to comfort her.
"Well, that's very kind, you strange little thing. Thank you very much." She responds politely, before turning to go. But Cass-Chip stops her again.
"I mean it. You look so beautiful."
Cassandra was genuinely touched, "Thank you." Then Cass-Chip promptly collapses, alarming the woman in front of 'him' as she catches and cradles him. "Oh, my Lord. Are you all right? What is it? What's wrong?" She looks around at the gathering crowd looking frantic. "Someone get some help! Call a medic or something, quickly!"
"Who is he?" One of Cassandra's friends asked, concerned. Cassandra looks up at her with her wide blue eyes.
"I don't know. He just came up to me. I don't even know his name. He just collapsed. I think he's dying. Someone do something!" She yells out orders urgently, before looking down at Cass-Chip with worried eyes and starts rocking him like a baby. "I've got you, sweetheart. It's all right. There you are. There you are, I've got you. It'll be all right. There, there, you poor little thing."
The Doctor turns and quietly gestures for Rose and a quietly weeping Katy to go back to the TARDIS.
A few minutes later she dematerialises.
A/N: Sad scene, huh? I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one will hopefully be out soon. TTFN :)