"Because you are a Dalek."
The Doctor's words ring through Oswin's head, and her reality falls apart. The room around her shrinks, and she backs against the wall as the screen flies towards her. "I am not a Dalek. I am not a Dalek! I am human! " She shouts, but she knows her efforts are getting her nowhere. On the middle words she hears her voice change, becoming the high-pitched screech that the all creatures recognise as Dalek. She looks out through her viewscreen - eyestalk Oswin, eyestalk - and finally sees things as they are. The Doctor is stood to one side of her, and she can feel his hand now: it is pressed against the top part of her outer casing. Her, as in, the Dalek.
"You were human when you crashed here. It was you who climbed out of the pod. That was your ladder." The Doctor says, his voice taking on a more sympathetic tone after his previous hate-filled comment.
"I'm human." Oswin whimpers, but once again her voice is distorted into a metallic screech.
"Not anymore. Because you're right, you are a genius. And the Daleks need genius. They didn't just turn you into a puppet; they did a full conversion."
Oswin can't listen; she doesn't want to. But she also can't deny the truth of his words.
"The milk Oswin. The eggs and the milk for the soufflés. Where did you get the milk?"
"Eggs." No! Oswin can hear him talking, but all she can concentrate on is the battle in her head. It is his fault. It is his fault that she was trapped in a tiny space looking through a viewscreen. It is his fault that her dream is over. A surge of anger rushes through her, and her carefully built wall crumbles.
"Eggs...stir...min...ate." The anger keeps coming, and with her dream shattered there is nothing to stop it. "Ex-ter-min-ate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate." Oswin walks - rolls - forward, pushing the Doctor against the door. She ignores his words against her, her anger taking over her thoughts. But the word he is repeating breaks through to a human part of her mind. Oswin. Her name. Her human name. Because she is Oswin Oswald. And she is human.
Oswin stops moving, freezing in place with the Doctor pressed against the door behind him. The inhuman anger dissipates, leaving behind only despair. Oswin can't help it, she begins to cry. Massive sobs that wrack her small form and cause strange sounds to echo out in that screeching tone. She watches the Doctor as his eyes widen in realisation, recognising the sounds.
"Oswin?" He asks, his eyes turning soft.
"Help me. Please help me." Her voice doesn't sound Dalek this time; it sounds human. She can see the Doctor's surprised expression, and then he reaches out a hand and touches the same place on her casing again. This time though, Oswin doesn't feel a thing. "Oswin, I can't. If I open this up who knows what I'll find. Do you know what Daleks really look like? They're blobs of flesh in a glass cylinder. What if you're like that?"
"Then I'll take the shields down and you can run. But please just try. I need to know." Oswin watches as the Doctor considers his options, before nodding. He moves his hands to either side of the top part of the casing, and apologises before pulling it up.
Oswin lets out a shriek of pain as what feels like trails of fire run their way up her face. But the pain is forgotten when the next second she feels a hand on her head. The hand is the Doctor's, and she can feel it on her head. Her human head.
"Oh Oswin." He says, and she whimpers again, before tilting her head up. What she sees both terrifies her and makes her ridiculously happy. She can see the Doctor's face clearly, without any screens in the way. And it is one of the most wonderful things she has ever seen. But she can also see her surroundings, the tin can she is trapped in and the walls around her. The combination of sights both scares and elates her and she begins to cry. The Doctor reaches a hand towards her face, his palm cupping her jaw lightly and his thumb stroking her cheek; he smiles warmly at her, before pulling his hand away. It doesn't surprise her when his hand shows traces of deep red blood. She looks at him, her dark brown eyes expressing her question of what's next. She knows that if she actually opens her mouth the only thing she will be able to do will be scream in pain. He seems to get the message though, as he begins to explain what he is going to do.
"To get you out...I have to open the main bit of casing. But I don't know to what extent they've converted you. Getting you out might kill you. I have to ask you: can you take the shields down? Please." The Doctor leans down to be at the same level as Oswin, his eyes staring directly at her. She gazes back, and the pure emotion behind his eyes strikes a chord in her. He has his friends; Nina and the angry Scottish woman. He doesn't need to help her. But he is. The least she can do is return the favour.
Closing her eyes, Oswin begins struggling against her own consciousness. She slips back into the dream, the imagined escape pod, and her computer. She runs to her chair, grabbing her keyboard and falling backwards into it. She begins to type frantically, hacks the pathweb as if it was a general issue security system, and starts to undo the shields. She is about to turn the planet's shielding off, but pauses; her index finger hovering over the return key. Her mind races over possibilities, before she begins to type again, her fingers zooming over the keys. She stops, thinks for a moment, and then continues. When she is done, she presses the enter key with a flourish, and then sits back, allowing her tired eyes to droop closed.
When they open again, it is to the sight of the Doctor's anxious face. Oswin nods slightly, even this small action causing her terrible pain. The Doctor smiles appreciatively at her, before leaning forward and kissing her on the forehead. Normally Oswin would have said something, but instead she simply smiles back as well as she can. She watches the Doctor until he disappears beyond her small area of vision. She can still hear him though, and she listens intently, hearing strange sucking noises, like suction cups being released. She also hears an awful lot of clanks, which echo through the casing and up her body. A particularly loud clang sounds, sending a shooting pain up her body as it shakes the Dalekanium casing. Oswin can't contain her cry of pain, and a short, sharp scream resounds around the padded cell that the pair now occupy. The Doctor's head pops up in front of her, his right hand reaching out to pat her hair as he whispers his apology. His hand wipes her cheek again, before he disappears once more. His tinkering begins again, as he works to remove her from the Dalek shell. After several more painful spasms, the Doctor's face reappears in front of her. He looks deep into her eyes, his green orbs searching, before he moves forward and places another chaste kiss on her forehead. He pulls back and places his hands on opposite sides of the metal casing, and swiftly pulls them apart.
Oswin screams as she feels her body being pulled apart. The wires being yanked out of her felt like white hot needles, burning their way out of her small body. The pain is nearly unbearable, but Oswin manages to hold it in, halting her screams by closing her mouth quickly and biting her tongue. She feels the metallic taste of blood as it flows from her tongue.
The Doctor notices her pain, and she can see in his eyes that he hates being the reason for it. He goes back down to where the wires are attached to her. He works quickly, pulling the remaining wires out of her body, muttering apologies constantly as she struggles against the urge to scream. When he finally removes the last wire from her soft flesh Oswin falls forward, her small body collapsing into the Doctor's strong arms. The Doctor catches her, supporting her head and pulling her bleeding body into him. She still wears the huge winter coat she had worn when climbing down the ladder from the crashed ship, but it is torn and ripped where the wires had been inserted into her. The Doctor cradles her close to him, putting one arm under her knees and the other around her back. He lifts her from the floor and carries her out of the room. He walks down the corridors, past the 'intensive care' Daleks, careful not to jostle his precious cargo.
The Doctor's pace doesn't change, and he murmurs soothingly to Oswin as she hisses with the pain caused by his constant movement. He reaches the teleport just as the shields drop, the circuits in the walls shorting out and sparking as bombs batter the planet's surface. He races into the room, ignoring his companions' worried glances, and places Oswin on the teleport before beckoning them to join them. Rory hands him the remote, and the Doctor kneels down next to Oswin, pushing her hair from her face. He smiles at her, and Oswin musters just enough energy to return the gesture, before he presses the button, activating the teleport.
A.N: Well hello people! This is just an idea that came to me during a really long car ride. I know people have done this before, but I wanted to have a go myself. Just to let you know; this is an experiment into a different writing style, so please review and let me know how I've done. I probably won't continue this, but if you want me to just send a review and I'll consider keeping this going.
-Weird :)