A quick one-shot about that epic scene at the end of the episode Bad Wolf. How did the Doctor feel, facing an army of his enemies for the first time in so long?

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The screen flickers into life, and there they are. His worst enemies. Daleks. He's vaguely aware of Jack's indrawn breath, of the others tensing, but he has to take a moment to hold back those terrible, tragic memories that crash over him like a wave.

"I will speak to the Doctor!" one of them shrieks. He fakes an insouciant smile.

"Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello."

He waves cheerfully, while trying desperately to keep in check a wave of emotion.

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. You will not intervene."

"Oh? Why's that, then?" No more insouciance, no more fake cheer. He knows them as they know him.

"We have your associate," the ranking Dalek grates. "You will obey or she will be exterminated!"

Silence for a moment. The humans, scared. Himself, terrified. This brings back too many memories of Skaro, Perganon, Ascinta, Arcadia, thousands more battlefields all across and throughout time and space, back when he was…..the other one. But when he looks at Rose-that dumb little ape from an insignificant planet who happened to grab his fancy back during that little altercation with the Nestene Consciousness, he looks into her eyes. There's fear, yeah-you'd have to be an absolute lunatic not to be scared when being held hostage by the Daleks. But, surprisingly, beyond that fear, there's hope. Courage. Because she knows that he will come for him.

She believes in him. That takes his breath away for a moment, and it gives him strength. The Doctor will not let her down.

"No," he says. Everyone else turns to look at him, but he's barely even aware of it.

"Explain yourself!"

"I said no."

"What is the meaning of this negative?" it screeches.

"It means no."

"But she will be destroyed!"

Oh, it wishes. Now he's standing, in fury, the anger and power of a Time Lord rushing through him. He couldn't save Romana. He couldn't save Leela or Andred. He couldn't save Borusa, or Flavia, or his family, or any of the others. But now he has a chance to make it right, to make even a tiny bit of their sacrifice worthwhile.

"No! Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then, I'm going to save the Earth. And then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"

The others are looking at him. Jack, Lynda, the Controllers….before, he was worried and scared. But he's done this before. Old territory. He's saved the Universe with a scarf, he's single-handedly destroyed whole legions of Daleks….save a bunch of humans and his favorite planet? Oh, yes.

"But you have no defenses! No weapons! No plan!" it yells, now starting to sound scared. Good. It should be. He's already thinking ahead, brain going a hundred miles a minute, and honestly, he's the Doctor. Why would he need a plan?

"Yeah," he grins in response to the Dalek's last comment, knowing just how to unnerve them even more. "And doesn't that just scare you to death."

One last thing. What was it? Oh, yes.

"Rose?" he says.

"Yes, Doctor?" she says. Oh, the hope, the courage in that human's voice.

"I'm coming to get you."

Conversation over. He pulls out the handy-dandy sonic, turns off the screen, and turns back to his friends with a grin. The Doctor is in.

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