The Doctor's hearts were pounding. Her breath came in quick, sharp bursts, leaving her mouth and forming the tangible air that separated her from it. That thing. That dreaded, round thing that had haunted her for thousands of years. It kept cropping up over her time-stream, all the time, each regeneration, she could never get away from them. They were supposed to be gone. They were supposed to be destroyed. Now they were standing there, five of them, surrounding her.
'We will exterminate you.'
Those words were like a familiar nightmare she had stored at the back of her mind for so long, now realised.
'Oh no you won't.' She said, her voice strong with conviction. The only thing that kept her going was the promise of finding Yaz, a promise she had made to herself, one that she would never break so long as there was still air in her lungs. If only Yasmin hadn't been with her, she would have nothing to lose.
Her fists clenched by her side, thinking about how many she had lost. How many she had lost to the Daleks in particular. How many she had failed.
'You won't because you never have. For years and years, you've never been able to kill The Doctor.'
The revelation, she hoped and could see, shocked the Daleks immensely. Not many could sense shock in the deadliest creatures in the universe, but The Doctor was an expert by now.
'You are not The Doctor.' They answered back in those mechanical voices, static, painless, no feelings to hurt.
'I am. And I've had enough of seeing you creatures destroying everything you come into contact with.'
'You are not The Doctor.' They repeated adamantly.
The Doctor's mouth twitched, closing in a straight line, trying to restrict the anger bubbling insider her.
'Rose. Martha. Donna. Amy. Rory. Clara. Bill,' She said each name with gusto, watching the Daleks acknowledge the information, 'there have been countless more.'
Each word she said caused a blow to her hearts.
'You have been the cause of so much grief.' She said, shaking her head and closing her eyes. Picturing the screams of humans, aliens, creatures, planets. Gallifreyans. Screaming.
She opened her eyes, facing the Daleks in determination.
'You will never win.'
The Doctor saw it; a millisecond before it happened, their eye-stalks set on her, their guns raised. A twitch, and The Doctor dived, seconds before a burst of light shot out from their gun, hitting the Dalek behind. As she threw herself sideways, she raised her sonic, blinding the eyes of The Dalek blocking her way, running past so quickly she almost tripped. The Doctor ran down the hallway, seeing the floor light up with the attempts of extermination as the creatures pursued her. Turning to face them mid-run, she pointed her sonic vaguely at each Dalek she could see, blinding each one of them.
'Good old Sheffield steel,' she muttered, rounding the corner, her eye scanning all over the wide corridors, looking for rooms, more hallways, anything. The Doctor knew she wouldn't have long, she would encounter more Daleks soon enough. Where had they taken her? The Doctor could hardly imagine anything worse than Yasmin being in danger, especially in the prisons of the Daleks. She was glad that Ryan and Graham had been too busy for an adventure, so glad that she didn't have to figure out how to get all four of them out of the predicament they were in. The Doctor ran down another hallway, a maze consisting of the same walls, the same Dalek sized holes as every other. She thought of Yaz, this morning, full of hope and thrill for the promise of adventure. She had been lying there, in The Doctor's bed, hair hanging low over her eyes and the hugest smile on her face. She had perked up when The Doctor had proposed another trip, her bare skin pressed on hers as she had thanked her with kisses.
It had felt like a day ago since that happened, an innocent, distant memory from where they were right now.
'Where do you wanna go?' She had asked, ready to enter in the date and location on the console, watching Yaz's eyes drift in wonder.
'What about another planet?'
'Ooh yes! There's some great planets out there. Some real wonderful ones, beautiful ones. Actually, there's a planet made entirely of pearls, and a planet with thousands of butterflies, and a gas that makes you laugh continuously. That one is definitely dangerous,' she had chuckled, remembering a particularly eventful night spent on that planet with one of her previous companions. She had thought of taking Yaz somewhere special, somewhere she hadn't taken anyone else before. A thought had entered her mind.
'I've got just the place.'
Yaz's eyes had lit up and The Doctor had pulled the lever. If only she had known the planet they were about to land on had been taken over by the small group of Daleks that had survived, slipped through her fingers. At first it had been nice, the planet was still relatively how The Doctor remembered it to be; yet as they explored further she became curious of the destruction they found. It was too late after she had figured out what was on the planet.
Her eyes flickered, wondering where they could have put her...The Doctor circled round the place, quietly thinking out loud to herself.
'They needed a human. That's why they didn't exterminate her. They took her for some other purpose. Where did they take her? Think, think, Doctor!
The increasing panic and rise of emotion affected her reasoning, only wanting to reach Yaz before they could do anything to her.
Suddenly spotting a smaller yet still wide enough entrance, she darted down it quickly, coming to a dead end.
Letting out her frustration, she hit the wall, angry at herself for never checking how safe the planet was first.
Turning back round, a flash of light blinded her, and she ducked so quickly she felt the breath knocked out of her body. The Dalek stood a few feet away, cornering her.
The Doctor only had three seconds to work out a plan.
'Where is Yaz? Why do you need her?'
'We will exterminate you.'
'Of course you won't, I'm The Doctor. You'd rather let me live a few more years to make a special comeback than just shoot me here and now.'
'That is untrue. I will exterminate you now.'
The Doctor laughed. 'Go on, then! But be warned...you don't know what this regeneration is capable of, do you? This sonic screwdriver has had a few enhancements. I could destroy you. I could make you writhe about in agony inside. Or, you could tell me where my girlfriend is and live.'
The Dalek almost looked fearful. The Doctor gained closer, pulling the Dalek's gun and pressing it into her chest, whilst she held her sonic up against The Dalek's bronze casing.
'Do it,' She said, 'do it before I do it to you.'
The Doctor smirked, holding the gun to her, feeling the pulse of energy rise up. Before the Dalek could even shout 'exterminate' she moved the sonic and pointed it at the gun, blasting it away.
'Now, you tell me where Yasmin Khan is or I'll obliterate you piece by piece. You can't kill me now. I've already won,' The Doctor stared at it fiercely, 'You're one selfish Dalek to not give up your life to take me down. I reckon the others would kill you for that anyway. Where is she?'
'She has been kept below.'
'You mean downstairs? How'd you get down there, then?'
The Dalek gave no answer, and The Doctor turned her head toward the dead end. Suddenly, it became clear.
'The first thing you do when I escape from the controls room is check this hallway. Why? Because you're guarding it from everyone else. It's a door I can't get through without Dalek access.'
She studied the door, noticing a small circle right at the edge of the wall.
'Eyestalk scanner.' She smirked. The Dalek seemed to squirm as she said it.
'You can get me through that wall with your eyestalk still attached or I snap it off.'
Begrudgingly, The Dalek moved toward it, the wall sliding away.
'Very selfish Dalek.' She said, before pointing her sonic at its eyestalk and removing it before closing the wall shut behind her. It descended down on a smooth slope, not too much so the Daleks could slip, however.
Creeping up on The Daleks guarding strange cage-like rooms, she kept her silence until one of them looked away from her direction. There were four in total, and the sonic screwdriver hit every one before they could respond with more extermination.
Now running to the rooms, she searched for the sight of Yaz, her hearts pounding.
And then she saw her. The sight was sickening, and The Doctor felt shocks of pain as she glanced in through the window. Laying motionless on a table, tubes and wires running in and out of her, Yaz slept. The Doctor hoped it was sleep and not death, and searched frantically at trying to enter the room. She noticed red numbers counting down. 42, 41, 40. The Doctor's eyes dilated in panic, trying to make sense of the buttons and panels that were keeping the room locked. She tried to sonic it, in different ways. None of them worked. 30, 29, 28, 27. She could feel the pain rise up inside her, bubbling in her stomach. She looked again, her brain working the fastest it could go. 20 seconds. Suddenly running toward the blind Daleks, she took off their gun and eyestalk, running back to the chamber. Scanning them in, she heard a sound and the door opened. The Doctor felt so relieved to have gotten in she could hardly breathe. As she rushed over to Yaz, still lying still on the table she noticed the countdown continued. 9, 8, 7. Ripping out all the leads and tubes protruding from Yaz's skin, the countdown descended to 4, 3, 2.
Stop. The Doctor could finally breathe again when she realised the countdown had stopped on 2, one second from, she assumed, hurting or killing Yaz. Tears even spilled from her eyes. She wiped them away quickly as she saw Yaz instantly search for breath and open her eyes. Latching onto the sight of The Doctor, Yaz had no time to waste pulling her in, and kissing her. The taste of Yaz's lips on hers felt like a blessing, the most welcoming thing in the universe. The Doctor couldn't let go, kissing her hard, hands cupping her cheeks to catch the tears falling down her skin.
'I'm sorry, this will never happen again, I promise. I won't let go of you again.'
Yaz's arms clinged to the Doctor's, looping round her neck. She didn't want to remove herself from her, the need to feel how real she was overpowered everything else. She kissed her lips, her jaw, her cheeks, counting every one like stars in a constellation.
'Are you okay?'
Yaz nodded slowly, her actions delayed and her eyes out of focus.
'Are you hurt?'
'I feel sore, and...a bit stiff.'
Her eyes met The Doctor's, and she noticed the weakness in her face, the confusion and pain.
'I'll get us out of here, I promise,' she said, leaning her forehead on Yaz's.
'Doctor...I can't move.'
The Doctor stared down at Yaz's body, concern lining her face.
'It's okay, we'll get out of here soon enough. Damn, where did my TARDIS go?'
The Doctor looked back outside the room, wondering whether the space would be big enough.
The Doctor helped Yaz, eventually lifting her from the floor. Staggering out of the chamber, she could see Yaz's head drop. Checking her pulse, she realised she had fallen back into sleep, or something of that kind. She needed to get her back to the TARDIS. There wasn't even any time to figure out why the Daleks needed humans, why there were tubes running in and out of her body, why they were even on this planet. She pointed her sonic, and whirled it around her, trying to get a reading. They were getting closer, she could feel it. The TARDIS had parked somewhere inside the prison. Bravely walking the way she had came, she stole the isolated eyestalks and guns she had blown off the Daleks, carrying them in one hand while her strong arms enveloped Yaz, careful not to drop her. She wouldn't let that happen. The Doctor pressed the stalk to the door, watching it slide open. The Dalek she had left behind was still there, moving aimlessly backwards and forwards without its eyesight and gun.
The Doctor charged forward, keeping on guard for any Daleks. She looked at her sonic, reading the tracking signal to the TARDIS. Yaz's head lolled over her arm, completely unconscious from the shock of being hooked up to the Dalek systems. The Doctor, despite all of her courage, was worried about her. She needed to fully check her in the TARDIS, as soon as possible. Whatever it was that was draining her needed to be gotten rid of.
Rounding the corner, near the console room The Doctor had escaped, were more Daleks, all turning to see the two women.
Darting to the side, she fought off most of them, trying to avoid Yaz's limbs being hit. She ducked down behind the panel, laying Yaz on the floor.
'Yaz, wake up. Wake up just for this bit. We need to run, quickly.' She gently shook her, hoping for her eyes to flicker open. They stayed closed, and The Doctor heard the Daleks advancing on them.
Her hands scrambled on the Dalek controls, reading them with the speed of lightning, pulling and twisting levers.
The Doctor avoided the lights shooting out of the creatures' guns, working away on the panel until she grinned. Using her sonic to pull a lever, a transparent barrier rose against the Daleks, freezing them in the space.
'Gotcha.'
'Doctor...'
Yaz was weakly saying her name, eyes open, scrambling slowly off of the floor.
'Yaz! Don't worry, we're near the TARDIS, we can make it through, I've trapped them in.'
Pulling her companion up, she took her hand, running out of the room. Checking her surroundings, she saw the TARDIS standing in an escape pod, tall and proud. The Doctor sighed in relief, grinning as she unlocked it with her screwdriver, following Yaz inside and locking it just as a Dalek shot at them.
Opening the TARDIS, The Doctor wasted no time in dematerialising to another planet, to another galaxy even, she didn't care. All she was thinking about was Yaz, sat on a chair, barely awake. Parking as quickly as she could she rushed over to Yaz, taking her face in her hands.
'Yaz, are you alright?'
She nodded, but The Doctor could tell she was uncomfortable from some kind of pain.
'I'm just going to sonic you, see what's happened. I'm so sorry, I really am. Next time I'll check how safe it is, I promise. I can't believe this has happened.'
The Doctor's eyes widened with warmth, her touch light and gentle on the other girl's cheeks. She lightly waved her sonic up and down her body, watching the signals dance in front of her eyes.
'You're okay, you just need to lie down and rest, drink some water.'
The Doctor carried Yaz into her bedroom, laying her down gingerly. Soon enough, she was sitting up and wide awake, cups of water and packets of biscuits strewn everywhere.
The Doctor had stayed with her, Yaz's head resting on her shoulder and her arms wrapped round her body.
'It frightened me, when they took you away. I completely freaked.'
'I'm sorry I missed that.' Yaz joked.
'You would have laughed at me. But seriously, the countdown and you lying there, motionless...it completely clarified the one thing I've tried to deny.'
Yaz turned her eyes to The Doctor, looking quizzical.
The Doctor gave a sigh, studying her face as she whispered it, 'I love you, Yasmin Khan.'
Yaz looked surprised for a split second, then kissed her fervently, wanting all of her love to be felt on The Doctor's lips, all of her gratitude and admiration and passion.
She drew away, holding her face close to hers, looking up through her dark eyelashes.
'I love you too, Doctor.'