They soon find themselves in the basement and Cassandra runs towards the lift.
"No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving" the Doctor says.
"This way!" she leads Rose, the Doctor and Chip towards her lair, that's when Chip gets cut off from them as more patients approach.
"Someone will touch him" the Doctor says, Cassandra stops briefly and turns.
"Leave him! He's just a clone thing. He's only got a half-life. Come on!" Cassandra stats running again.
"Mistress!" Chip calls.
"I'm sorry, I can't let her escape" the Doctor grabs Rose's hand and pulls her along.
"My Mistress!" Cassandra runs to the back door and opens it but there are people there too.
"We're trapped! What am I going to do?" Cassandra puts her hands on her head.
"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body. That psychograft is banned on every civilised planet. You're compressing {Y/N} to death" the Doctor says walking towards her.
"But I've got nowhere to go. My original skin's dead."
"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give her back to me" Cassandra frowns crossing her arms.
"You asked for it" she takes a deep breath and blows energy out at the Doctor, {Y/N} falls back landing on the floor, Rose runs over to her.
"You ok?" Rose asks, {Y/N} nods sitting up.
"Yeah..."
"Where'd she go?"
"Oh, my. This is different" {Y/N} and Rose look up at the Doctor.
"Cassandra?" Rose asks, {Y/N} stands up.
"Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts. And hardly used" Cassandra giggles, {Y/N}'s face scrunches.
"Get out of him" {Y/N} says.
"Oo, he's slim, and a little bit foxy. You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it" Cassandra says pointing towards {Y/N}.
"Well, obviously, you didn't look far enough then" {Y/N} grumbles, the diseased patients burst in.
"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what the hell would he do?" Cassandra starts panicking.
"Ladder. We've got to get up" {Y/N} says, Cassandra walks past Rose.
"Out of the way, blondie!" Cassandra starts moving up the ladder followed by Rose then {Y/N}.
"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something" Rose says.
"Yap, yap, yap. God, it was tedious inside your head. Hormone city" Cassandra says referring to when she was in Rose.
"We're going to die if..." suddenly {Y/N} yelps, Rose looks down to see that the Matron had grabbed {Y/N}'s ankle.
"I don't want to sound rude... but get off!" {Y/N} says.
"All our good work. All that healing. The good name of the Sisterhood. You have destroyed everything."
"Go and play with a ball of string" Cassandra sasses.
"Everywhere, disease. This is the human world. Sickness!" another diseased person reaches up and grabs the Matron's ankle and she falls screaming.
"Move!" {Y/N} shouts.
"Maximum quarantine. Divert all shuttles."
"Help us."
"Now what do we do?" Cassandra says.
"Use the sonic screwdriver" {Y/N} says.
"You mean this thing?" Cassandra holds up the sonic.
"Yes, I mean that thing."
"Well, I don't know how. That Doctor's hidden away all his thoughts" {Y/N} groans.
"Cassandra, go back into me. The Doctor can open it. Do it!"
"Hold on tight" the energy transfers.
"Oh, ok. Open it!" Cassandra yells now in {Y/N}'s body.
"Not till you get out of her" the Doctor replies.
"We need the Doctor."
"I order you to leave her" Cassandra rolls her eyes and swaps back.
"No matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout" Cassandra says.
"Cassandra, get out of him!" {Y/N} says.
"But I can't go into you, he simply refuses. He's so rude" Cassandra says.
"I don't care. Just do something!"
"Oh, I am so going to regret this" Cassandra transfers to the woman below {Y/N}.
"Oh, sweet Lord. I look disgusting" the Doctor opens the lift doors and helps Rose in.
"Nice to have you back" he says as he grabs {Y/N}'s hand and lifts her in, she smile in return, Cassandra's face scrunches and her energy makes it to {Y/N} just before the lift closes, she then trips into the Doctor who catches her.
"That was your last warning, Cassandra!" the Doctor stand he at arm's length.
"Inside her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives and they've never been touched" Cassandra whispers, the Doctor takes her hand.
*Time skip*
That's when the nurse the Doctor had talked to earlier lunges at them and the Doctor quickly puts his hands up.
"We're safe! We're safe! We're safe! We're clean! We're clean! Look, look."
"Show me your skin" Rose, the Doctor and Cassandra show her
"Look, clean. Look, if we'd been touched, we'd be dead. So how's it going up here? What's the status?"
"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 over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad."
"You can't do that. If they forced entry, they'd break quarantine."
"I am not dying in here."
"We can't let a single particle of disease get out. There is ten million people in that city. They'd all be at risk. Now, turn that off!"
"Not if it gets me out."
"All right, fine. So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Rose, {Y/N}, novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Move it!" the Doctor shouts everyone grabs drip bags while the Doctor collects a long piece of heavy silk rope and starts hanging the drip bags on his body.
"How's that? Will that do?"
"I don't know" Rose says shrugging.
"Will it do for what?" Cassandra asks, the Doctor and her run towards the lift doors, leaving Rose with Hame.
"The lifts aren't working" Cassandra says, as the Doctor opens the doors.
"Not moving. Different thing. Here we go" he puts his sonic between his teeth and runs.
"But you're not going to" she says, as he jumps down and grabs the lift cable "what do you think you're doing?"
"I'm going down! Come on!" he shouts attaching a round piece of equipment to the cable.
"Not in a million years" Cassandra says.
"I need another pair of hands. What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little?"
"Seal the door!" Cassandra turns around to see the diseased people advancing.
"No!" she jumps onto the Doctor's back.
"You're completely mad. I can see why she likes you."
"Going down!" as the two go down Cassandra screams holding onto the Doctor for dear life, they soon come to a gentle stop on top of the lift.
"Well, that's one way to lose weight" Cassandra says.
"Now, listen. When I say so, take hold of that lever" the Doctor says pointing to the lever.
"There's still a quarantine down there, we can't..."
"Hold that lever! I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself" the Doctor dips the contents of the drip bags into the lift's disinfectant tank "now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got."
"What about you?"
"I've got an appointment. The Doctor is in" he jumps down into the lift "I'm in here! Come on!"
"Don't tell them." Cassandra says.
"Pull that lever!" she does as told and holds the lever down
"Come and get me. Come on! I'm in here! Come on!"
"Commence stage one disinfection."
"Hurry up! Come on!" the contents of the disinfectant tank are poured onto him "come on, come on, all they want to do is pass it on. Pass it on!"
"Pass on what? Pass on what?"
"Pass it on!" the Doctor helps Cassandra down.
"What did they pass on? Did you kill them? All of them?"
"No. That's your way of doing things" Rose runs over a smile on her face "I'm the Doctor, and I cured them!" a women hugs the Doctor.
"That's right. Hey, there we go, sweetheart. Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it. It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand new form of life. New humans! Look at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them. The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! Ha!"
"This is the NNYPD. Please step away from the shuttles."
"All staff will present themselves to the officers for immediate arrest. I repeat, immediate arrest. 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, Rose and Cassandra run to the container that The Face of Boe was in "you were supposed to be dying?" the Doctor asks looking at The Face of Boe.
"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait."
"Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face" Cassandra says crossing her arms.
"Shh!"
"I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew."
"There are legends, you know, saying that your millions of years old."
"There are? That would be impossible."
"Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me."
"A great secret."
"So, the legend says."
"It can wait."
"Oh, does it have to?"
"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day.." Boe gets beamed away.
"That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic. And now for you" the Doctor turns to Cassandra, who was still in {Y/N}'s body.
"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?"
"You've lived long enough. Leave that body and end it, Cassandra."
"I don't want to die."
"No one does."
"Help me."
"I can't."
"Mistress!" everyone turns to see Chip running towards them.
"Oh, you're alive."
"I kept myself safe for you, mistress."
"A body. And not just that, a volunteer."
"Don't you dare. He's got a life of his own."
"But I worship the mistress. I welcome her."
"You can't, Cassandra, you.." Cassandra transfers herself to Chip and {Y/N} stumbles back into the Doctor's arms.
"Oh! You all right? Whoa! Okay?" the Doctor asks looking down at {Y/N} in his arms.
"Yeah. Hey" she smiles.
"Hello. Welcome back."
"Oh, sweet Lord. I'm a walking doodle."
"You can't stay in there. 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" the Doctor says.
"Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last" Cassandra falls to her knees.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I'm dying, but that's fine."
"We can take you to the city."
"No, you won't. 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."
"Come on. There's one last thing we can do" {Y/N} pulls Cassandra to her feet.
*Time skip*
"Oh no, don't. Stop it. Simply not true. Tiny. The beaches were so dismal, and the mosquitoes were.."
"Thank you" Cassandra says.
"Just go. And don't look back" the Doctor says.
"Good luck" Rose and {Y/N} say, Cassandra smiles and walks off, the Doctor throws his arms around {Y/N} and Rose's shoulders and leads them back towards the TARDIS.
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~Bread 🍞