Addi gasped as she spun away from the window. Her eyes met the face of Boe's and she stared at him in awe.
"Addi Tyler," The voice echoed in her head again, "come sit with me."
His eyes fell closed again and Addi sniffed slightly and pushed past the Doctor and sat down in front of Boe. The Doctor became more worried the longer she sat in front of the face of Boe silently, so he left to bring her a cup of water. He came back with two, handing one to Novice Hame.
"That's very kind. There's no need," She thanked him quietly.
"You're the one working," The Doctor replied, keeping a keen eye on Addi.
"There's not much to do, just maintain his smoke. And I suppose I'm company. I can hear him singing sometimes, in my mind. Such ancient songs," Novice Hame told him. Addi smiled from where she sat; she could hear him singing too, except it wasn't ancient for her, it was The Beatles.
"Are we the only visitors?" He asked the nurse.
"The rest of Boe-kind became extinct long ago. He's the only one left," Addi looked over her shoulder at the Doctor sadly. "Legend says that the Face of Boe has watched the universe grow old. There's all sorts of superstitions around him. One story says that just before his death, the Face of Boe will-"
"Impart his great secret to someone like himself," Addi finished with a slight smile.
Novice Hame looked at her with a small nod, as The Doctor handed Addi the cup of water as he sat down next to her, crossing his legs.
"What does that mean," He asked, looking over his shoulder at Novice Hame.
"It's just a story."
"No, it's not," Addi whispered to the Doctor, who looked back over at Novice Hame.
"Tell me the rest."
"It said he'll talk to the wanderers. To a man without a home and a child with a name in the stars. The lonely god and the abandoned child." Novice Hame gave the Doctor a nod before leaving the pair alone with the Face of Boe.
"Addi, how did you know that," The Doctor put his hands around her face.
"He's talking to me, Doctor, he's talking to me in my mind." Addi placed her hands over his with bitter smile.
~~~
Shortly after The Doctor left to call Rose while Addi continued to listen to Boe singing Eleanor Rigby inside her mind. It was a somewhat comfortable thing, having him in her mind, but it was also different at the same time. Addi thought that having someone in her head would be uncomfortable- being able to see all her secrets and memories and whatnot- but it wasn't. He wasn't prying into her head, he was simply just...there, singing to her. The moment was ruined as the Doctor tugged her up and began to drag her down the ward.
"Hey! He was singing Eleanor Rigby. I love that song," Addi protested, but stopped at the sight of a perfectly healthy Duke of Manhattan. "Huh?"
"The nurses are very suspicious around here," The Doctor told her.
"I could have told you that. They're cats for pete's sake, they are meant to be sly," Addi told him in a 'duh' tone.
"Oi! Don't take that tone with me," The Doctor waved a finger in her face to which she promptly bit. "Ow! Why?" He shook his hand about with a pained expression.
"It's rude to point," She replied simply.
"It's rude to bite," He argued.
"I'll do it again, spaceman, don't test me." Addi left the Doctor's side to follow one of the sister's as the Doctor pouted and began going around to other cubicles to observe the patients.
Addison followed nurse Jatt and Casp down a series of hallways, coming to s stop when the lighting went from a sterile white to a murky green. Looking over a railing, Addi looked down and saw a seemingly bottomless hole lined with bulkhead doors on every level. She watched a the Sister Jatt and Casp stopped in front of one of the doors.
"It was having a perfectly normal blood wash and all of a sudden it started crying. It's this one," Sister Jatt opened the door and a diseased man reached out toward them helplessly.
"Please, help me." Addi threw a hand over her mouth in horror. They were experimenting on these poor people.
"Look at it's eyes. So alive."
"Positively sparkling," Casp replied.
"Please, where am I?" The diseased man rasped once more.
"And speech! How can it even have a vocabulary?" Addi backed away from them slowly as to not make a sound.
Sister Casp's voice echoed up to Addi's ears. "I've seen enough, thank you."
"Yeah, me too." Addi sprinted back to where we entered only to fins that the door was shut.
~~~
The Doctor and Rose were standing at the terminal near the lift looking for anything suspicious. Well Rose was not Rose, but Cassandra was pretending to be.
"Nope. Nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop," The Doctor stated while using his sonic screwdriver to look through the building's schematics.
"No, it's missing something else. When I was downstairs those nurse cat nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it?" Cassandra-Rose told him, while stepping up next to him to look at the schematics.
"You're right, well done."
"Why would they hide a whole department? Its got to be there somewhere. Search the subframe." She motioned for the Doctor to do so while stepping back.
"What if the subframe is locked?"
"Try the installation protocol."
The Doctor looked at her, confusion swimming in his eyes. "Yeah, of course. Sorry, hold on."
He used his sonic screwdriver on the interface causing the whole wall to slide up. Addi stood on the other side breathlessly, when her eyes landed on the two, she ran to Rose and hugged her tightly. Cassandra-Rose looked at the small girl in her arms in some sort of disgust before seeing the Doctor looking and patting Addi on the back awkwadly.
"Oh dear, oh dear. You're alright, shhh, shh."
Addi pulled away from Rose in confusion. "You aren't Rose."
"What? Of course I am-"
"Shut up, I'll deal with you later." Addi grabbed the Doctor and pulled him into the murky green lighting, Cassandra-Rose following behind them.
"Intensive care, certainly looks intensive," The Doctor kept pace with Addi as the wandered further into the dark space.
"You have no idea," Addi muttered darkly stopping in front of one of the bulkhead doors and pulling it open to reveal a sick and diseased man similar to the one she had seen earlier.
"That's disgusting! What's wrong with him?" Rose-Cassandra's face scrunched up the longer she looked at the ill man.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor shut the door and moved onto the next one, opening it to reveal another ill patient- this time a woman.
"What disease is that?" Rose-Cassandra covered her mouth as if trying to protect herself from the illnesses these people carried.
"All of them. Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything," The Doctor told them bitterly.
"It's disgusting," Addi frowned.
"You're telling me, I mean look at them-" Addi rounded on Rose-Cassandra angrily.
"I'm not talking about them! They didn't ask for this, they've been raised to be disease carriers! That's what's disgusting," Addi glared harshly at her and Rose-Cassandra stepped away from the smaller girl. The doctor placed a comforting hand on Addi's shoulder.
"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick," The Doctor paced up and down the walkway.
"Lab rats," Addi added sadly.
"No wonder the sister's have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm," The Doctor continued to pace as Addi closed the door of the sick woman.
"Why don't they just die?"
"Plague carriers are always the last to go," Addi told her not-sister-sister.
"It's for the greater cause." Addi spun around to look at Novice Hame.
"Novice Hame, when you took your vows, did you agree to this?" The Doctor asked her.
"The sisterhood has sworn to help."
"By killing," Addi spat out at the nurse.
Novice Hame looked at her. "But they're not real people, they were specially grown-"
"The live, the breathe, the talk, cry, reach out for help, and you're telling me that they aren't real people?" Addi angrily took a step forward, but was pulled back into the Doctor's chest.
"What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!"
"Mankind needed us," Novice Hame began, taking a step forward toward the raging pair. "They came to this planet with so many illnesses, we couldn't cope. We did try, we tried everything. We tired 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."
"These people are alive!" The Doctor shouted back.
"But think of those humans out there. Alive and happy because of us," Novice Hame tried to justify their actions, but it only made Addi's rage boil hotter inside her stomach.
"If they live because of this then life is worthless," She tore herself out of the Doctor's hold and stomped toward the nurse.
"But who are you to decide that?" Novice Hame asked the girl in front of her calmly.
As if physically hurt by the comment, Addi stumbled back into the Doctor. He wrapped his arms around her tightly as if trying to comfort her. The Doctor looked down at the nurse with a calm expression, but deadly eyes.
"I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me."
Rose-Cassandra stepped forward awkwardly. "Just to confirm, none of the humans in the city actually know about this?"
"We thought it best not," Novice Hame answered causing Addi to scoff sarcastically.
"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to Rose?" The Doctor asked deadly serious.
"I don't know what you mean," Novice Hame replied 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 so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed." Addi stared deeply at Novice Hame.
"We haven't done anything."
"She's telling the truth, Doctor. This wasn't them," Addi told him, glancing into his eyes as if begging him to believe her.
"I'm perfectly fine," Rose-Cassandra spoke to them.
"These people are dying and Rose would care," The Doctor retorted harshly.
Rose-Cassandra tugged Addi away from the Doctor and pressed the small girl to her chest. Addi tugged harshly to try and get away from her not-sister, but with no luck. "Oh alright, clever clogs. Smarty pants. Lady-killer."
"What's happened to you?" The Doctor inquired.
"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to find it out." She adjusted her grip on Addi slightly.
"Who are you?"
"The last human." That seemed to ring a bell with the Doctor since his eyes widened.
"Cassandra?"
"Wake up and smell the perfume!" Rose-Cassandra grabbed a small perfume bottle from Rose's coin slot and sprayed it into the Doctor's face. The tall man stumbled before falling to the ground unconscious. Cassandra spun Addi around to look her in the eye. "Now, what to do with you, you smart little thing."
"Get out of my sister," Addi spat.
"Sister, hmm? Well, I don't want to deal with your smart mouth right now," She sprayed the perfume again into Addi's face and the girl fell limp in Cassandra's arms.