Into the Dalek (Part 2)
Evy reached in to the vent and helped Clara out. They'd had to switch positions slightly when they got to the next vent cover so she could get close enough to sonic it open and crawl out, helping the others as well only to frown a moment later when she heard a sort of static, crinkling noise coming off of the woman soldiers, "Is that a Geiger counter?"
The woman reached onto a utility belt and pulled the small counter off, "Standard battle equipment. That's just low level radiation."
"Oh we know," Evy nodded, "We felt it," she gestured between herself and the Doctor.
"You…felt it?" Journey gave them a look.
"We used to play with irradiated building bricks in nursery," Evy shrugged, ignoring the odd looks that the humans were giving them, likely imagining what would happen if a human parent tried to do that.
"The radiation's stronger down here," Clara frowned, "It shouldn't be this high."
"Eves?" the Doctor held up a hand for the counter, using it to sweep over the circuits, walking along them, nodding to himself as he took in the readings, "I've got it. I know what's wrong with Rusty."
"What?" Clara crossed her arms over herself, tensing.
The Doctor just held up the counter, showing Clara and Evy the off-the-charts readings on it before tossing it back to the woman soldier.
Journey's eyes widened at the sight, "Colonel, we have radiation indicators red-lining in here. Could be that the Dalek is badly damaged than we thought."
"Old Rusty here is suffering a trionic radiation leak," the Doctor explained, "It's poisoning the Dalek."
"And us," Clara murmured.
"Which is just as well we're here," Evy moved over to Clara's side, putting a hand on her back and rubbing it in comfort a moment.
Clara smiled at the woman for her efforts. She needed it, more than she was willing to admit, she just…being there, hearing about how the Dalek was slowly killing them, it was reminding her too much of how the Daleks had basically slowly killed her to turn her into one of them. She didn't want to think of that but she knew that her knowledge of the inner workings of the Dalek casing would help them so she had to just…push through it, and be glad that Evy and even the Doctor were being delicate and cautious about this and about her. She was so thankful for Evy being there with her though, times like these, when she had something to be more frightened of than being lost, she could use a motherly figure around.
"Really?" Journey scoffed at Evy's remark however, "Perhaps we should get out while we can. Why should we trust a Dalek? Why would it change?"
"Good question," the Doctor pointed at her, before looking up, shouting to the Dalek, "Rusty? What changed you?"
"I saw beauty," Rusty's voice echoed around them.
"Beauty?" Evy glanced at the Doctor cautiously and then up herself, "You mean…hatred, the Dalek concept of beauty, or actual beauty…"
"In the silence and the cold, I saw worlds burning."
"So Dalek version then," Clara muttered bitterly, it would only ever see destruction and death and hatred as beautiful.
"That's not beauty, that's destruction," Journey agreed.
"I saw more," it continued.
"What?" the Doctor frowned, "What did you see?"
"The birth of a star."
"You had to have seen that in the past though," Evy argued, "Millions of them."
"And have destroyed a million stars," it agreed, "And yet, new stars are born. Resistance is futile."
"Resistance to what?"
"Life returns," Rusty stated, "Life prevails. Resistance is futile."
"So you saw a star being born…" the Doctor repeated slowly as though trying to work out if this was a trick of some sort, "And you learned something. Oh, Dalek, do not be lying to me," he muttered before sighing, turning to the others, "Clara," he turned to her, "Do you know the way to the Trionic Power Cells?"
Clara swallowed but nodded, both grateful and hating that all Dalek cases, inwardly at least, were mostly identical in make and setup, "This way," she turned to lead them off.
"Heading for the Trionic power cells, Colonel," Journey reported as the small group followed Clara down a small hall and through a doorway, leaving them to look up and realize they were right under Rusty's organic mutant portion.
"We're at the heart of the Dalek," the Doctor murmured.
"Geiger counter's off the scale!" the woman soldier gasped, seeing the readings starting to skyrocket, "Looks like it's about to blow!"
"Good," the Doctor nodded.
"How is that good?" Journey shot him an incredulous look.
"The worse it gets the more he loves it," Evy shrugged in answer, "He works better when there's a deadly deadline."
"Deadly deadline?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow at that.
Evy rolled her eyes at that, "Focus," she nodded at the wall of the power cell they'd entered, seeing a crack down it that was radiating energy and light.
"Rusty, can you hear me?"
"Doctor?" Rusty replied.
"Rusty, we've found the damage," he pulled out his sonic, looking at Evy with a nod for her to do the same, "We're sealing up the breach in your power cell," he and Evy turned to the crack, flicking their sonics on to start to seal the hold in the wall as though welding it shut.
"There," Evy called, "That should stem the radiation. No more poisoning."
"That's it?" Clara glanced at them, "Just like that?"
"An anti-climax once in a while is good for my hearts," the Doctor patted the center of his chest, "I get enough stress on them between this one and LJ," he nodded at Evy.
"Excuse you," Evy muttered, shaking her head with a fond smile, "I'd be long dead given all the shocks you give my hearts with your antics," she turned before he could defend himself, shouting up to the Dalek, "Rusty? How are your systems?"
Rusty was silent for a long moment.
"Rusty?" the Doctor frowned.
"The malfunction is corrected," it finally stated.
Journey glanced at the Time Lords to see them exchanging uneasy looks at Rusty's phrase, "What's happened?"
"Not entirely sure…" the Doctor murmured as the lights began to power up around them.
"It's like it's waking up."
"That's because it is," Clara cleared her throat, "Rusty?" she shouted, her voice cracking to have to talk to the Dalek herself, "What's going on?"
Rusty just repeated, "The malfunction is corrected. All systems are functioning. Weapons charged."
"Oh, no, no, no!" the Doctor's eyes widened.
"Exterminate. Exterminate!"
"Rusty don't!" Evy yelled.
"Exterminate. Exterminate!" the small group was nearly thrown into the walls as the Dalek began to move with them inside it, "The Daleks will be victorious The rebels will be exterminated."
"What?!" the woman soldier gasped, hearing the change in Rusty's orientation.
"Colonel?" Journey tried to call into her comms but no one answered, "What's happening out there?!"
All they could hear was Rusty's shouts of 'Exterminate!' as they tried to brace themselves for the movement of the Dalek.
"What happened?" the woman soldier demanded.
"Daleks don't turn good," the Doctor stated, "It was just radiation affecting its brain chemistry, nothing more than that. No miracle."
If looks could kill, Evy was quite sure that Journey's glare at the Doctor would have had him dead and buried on Trenzalore, "Let me get this straight. We had a good Dalek, and we made it bad again? That's all we've done?!"
"The Dalek was never good," Clara nearly spat, her voice breaking being the only sign that she was more upset than angry, "There is no such thing as a Good Dalek, it was broken and it's orders were broken but we just fixed it."
There was NO such thing as a Good Dalek, there couldn't be. She didn't classify what happened to her as being a Good Dalek, she HAD to think of it as her grasping her humanity once more, that she had been a GOOD human instead. She needed to cling to that notion, that she had been a human in the end, as she'd kept shouting as the Doctor and Evy ran off with LJ. Daleks were evil, all of them, there could never be a fully functioning, sane, pure, good Dalek, it was impossible. And if she clung to that, then the fact that she'd been turned into one was easier to bear, because it meant she had never ever truly been a Dalek in the first place. Brainwashed and stuck into a Dalek casing, but she'd always been human, and that was easier to bear than to think she'd ever let herself be turned into those monsters.
"You two were supposed to help us stop the Daleks!" Journey rounded on the other Time Lords for that, "Not set it on us!"
"I would watch your tone, young lady," Evy gave her a hard look, "YOU asked us in here, into a Dalek, we couldn't expect that the radiation was what turned it good. We had HOPE that something else had, and we were proven wrong. Now, instead of placing blame, how about we try to find a way to STOP it?"
"Exterminate!" Rusty's cries echoed, making Journey look up at that, tense, "Exterminate!"
"Clara?" the Doctor looked over at her, seeing her standing there with her eyes closed, biting her lip and hugging herself, "Clara," he walked over to her, "What is it?"
Clara took a shaking breath and opened her eyes to look at him, filled with tears, "Are we going to die in here?" she asked him quietly, her voice breaking at the thought. She couldn't die in a Dalek casing, not again, she couldn't handle that.
"No," the Doctor said, his voice so firm and determined that Clara could feel a sprig of relief bloom in her, "No we won't."
Evy glanced over at Journey as she and her fellow soldier spoke quietly before moving closer to Clara, "We are not going to die here, Clara, we've faced the Daleks too many times for them to get us like this."
"I'm sorry," Clara swallowed.
"For what?" the Doctor frowned.
"For getting you to come here today," Clara told them, "It was me, I know, you said that the decision was made cos of what I said that we should find out what made it good so we could use it against the others. But there's nothing that turned it good, not really, the Daleks are and always will be evil," she rubbed her head, "We came down here for nothing."
"No," Evy shook her head, "Not nothing," it couldn't be nothing, they could NOT have put their son's Link through this for nothing.
"What then?" Clara looked at the two Time Lords, "It's not like we can cause the same radiation poisoning in every other Dalek and it's not like they'd all have the same reaction to seeing a star born."
The Doctor stared at her a moment, "Clara Oswald you are brilliant!"
"What?" Chara blinked at that completely thrown.
"Beyond brilliant," the Doctor just continued, "And no, we aren't going to die down here. Not now."
"Wh…"
"The rebels will be exterminated!" Rusty shouted above them, making Clara flinch.
"Understood, Uncle," they could hear Journey speak into her comm., "Yeah. Me too…"
"Whatever you're going to do, don't do it," the Doctor spun around to face Journey, "This Dalek must not be destroyed. We can do better!"
"Are you out of your mind?!"
"By human standards, no," Evy remarked, "That would be ME. But by our people's standards…then yes, greatly so."
"Oi!" the Doctor pointed at her but saw her smiling at him in amusement, teasing him. He shook his head at her, it seemed like this him wasn't quite used to her human this time, but he'd get there, though he had to admit he rather liked that she seemed more entertained by him than exasperated like her last self had been. He did NOT miss the smacks and the kisses he got from her here and there were far more worthwhile, "Look at where we are," he gestured around, focusing on the humans once more.
"In a Dalek," Journey deadpanned.
"Exactly! Inside a Dalek, where we've never been!"
"Speak for yourself," Clara grumbled under her breath as Evy put her arm around Clara's shoulder in comfort, Clara absently patting Evy's hand in thanks.
"We cannot waste this chance though," the Doctor continued, giving Clara an apologetic look, "It won't come again."
"What chance?" Journey argued, "I have my orders…"
"Because a soldier always follows orders?" Evy countered.
"Yes," Journey gave her a hard look, "And I am a good soldier."
"A Dalek's a better one," Evy grew serious, "It takes…a great warrior," her gaze drifted to the Doctor, recalling what his name meant among the Gamma Foresters, "To be able to beat that."
"What, and that's him?" Journey scoffed, nodding at the Doctor.
"No," the Doctor agreed, moving over to Evy and Clara, placing his hands on their shoulders, "It's us."
"And our son," Evy added, "Our…older son."
"But he's not here right now."
"Wish he was though," Clara murmured.
"The point is," Evy looked at Journey, "The three of us, we CAN stop this, we can stop the Dalek."
"And we CAN do one better than just stop it," the Doctor grinned.
Journey eyed them intently, a firm frown on her face, but eventually it faded into a defeated look, "So what do we do?"
The Doctor just grinned.
~8~
The Doctor led them up a ladder, towards an upper level near the inner casing of the Dalek, getting them closer to the organic portion of it, allowing them to see a majority of the shell above them.
"The Dalek isn't just some angry blob in a Dalekanium tank," the Doctor told the humans quickly, "If it was, the radiation would have turned it into a raging lunatic."
"It is a raging lunatic, it's a Dalek," Journey gave him a look for that.
"But for a moment, it wasn't."
"The radiation started to affect is brainwaves," Evy explained, "It gave it a moment of expanded consciousness, allowed it the ability to consider things outside the realm of a Dalek's programming."
"And when it did, it was able to see what the other Daleks were enough to want them destroyed. Do you see?"
But the humans just looked blank.
"Daleks prize hatred above everything else," Evy continued, "They see hatred as good. If you were to affect the way its mind worked, then it started to see past that, see what hatred really was. If a Dalek could truly see itself in the grand scope of the Universe, it would hate itself in the right context, and want to end it."
"Rusty's mind has been influenced by the radiation," the Doctor nodded, pointing at her, "It's still got that affecting it, it's just that without the constant influx its mind started to recover. All we have to do is try to trigger what the radiation allowed it to start to see. What it saw, what it felt, it's still in there, and its mind may be just damaged enough from the radiation to let it snap back to that line of thought."
"And how are we supposed to snap it back?" Journey shook her head.
"From there," the Doctor pointed up at the ledge they'd first walked past.
"The cortex vault?"
"The evil engineering?" the woman soldier frowned at that, not sure how getting up there would help make the Dalek NOT evil anymore.
"Exactly," Evy nodded, "That is where the affected memories are stored, where the trigger is. It'll be suppressed now that the radiation isn't affecting the systems, but it's still there."
"So…we're going to try and show the Dalek the star being born again?" Clara followed along.
The Doctor snapped his fingers and pointed at her, focusing on Journey a moment later, "You need to get up there, find that moment and reawaken it."
"How?" Journey scoffed at the near impossibility of it all.
"Haven't the foggiest. Do a clever thing."
"Which means I'll go with you," Evy told her, "I'm sure we can work something else once we get there…"
"Evy," the Doctor shook his head, not wanting to be parted from her within the Dalek.
"Do you want this to work?" Evy countered, not even needing him to finish speaking to know what he was thinking, "Then we need to spread out as many resources as we can. I'll go to the memory banks and you can confront the Dalek."
"What, confront the Dalek?" Clara looked at the Doctor, wide eyed.
"Once the memory's been reinserted, the Dalek will be suggestible to new ideas," the Doctor explained to her, "It will be open again. And I will show it something that will change its mind forever."
"No," Journey shook her head, "This is crazy. There is no way that we can get back up there in time!" she gestured to the ledge high above them where the memory bank was located in a bid to give them even one thing that stood in their way of the ridiculous plan working.
"Yes, there is," the woman soldier countered, slowly pulling her own harpoon from her back and holding it up for Journey to see her intentions.
"No, Gretchen," Journey stepped over to her, "It'll bring the antibodies back down on us!"
The woman, Gretchen, ignored her however, turning to look at the Time Lords, "Tell me the truth. Is worth it?" she looked them in the eye, "I've come this far. Probably going to die anyway. Wouldn't mind something to do for the rest of my life. Is it worth it? This plan. Is trying it even worth it?"
The Doctor nodded, "It will save what's left of your crew," he promised, all of them knowing that the Dalek had likely turned on the Aristotle and was slaughtering them even now.
Gretchen nodded, "Gretchen Alison Carlisle. Do something good and name it after me?"
Evy nodded, crossing her hearts.
Gretchen took a deep breath and readied her harpoon when Journey leapt forward and tried to grab her arm, "No, Gretchen!"
But Gretchen just pulled away, yanking her arm out of Journey's hold and firing two harpoons up towards the memory bank, "Go!" she shouted as a familiar whirr sounded, the antibodies starting to come after them.
"They're coming," Clara gasped, "The antibodies!'
Journey quickly moved to the wires attached to the harpoons and locked a pulley to both of them, "Grab hold of the rope," she called to Evy, grabbing the woman's wrist and yanking her towards one of the pulleys to hold, "Don't look down."
"I'm not afraid of heights," Evy reassured her, turning to look at Clara, "Clara?"
Clara swallowed hard, but shook her head, "No," she whispered, "No I…" she glanced at the Doctor, "I'm going with the Doctor."
"What?" the Doctor turned to her, startled, he could tell how much being inside the Dalek was affecting her, could guess which bad memories it stirred, "Clara…"
"I'm going," Clara said, determination setting in despite the waver in her voice, "I…I need to face this. I need to face it."
The Time Lords looked at each other a moment before nodding, understanding that this was something Clara really did have to do and do for herself. She needed to be able to look a Dalek in the literal eye, to see and reassure herself that she had NOT been that creature, she was human, in the end, she had been human and not a Dalek. Evy reached out to the Doctor, tugging him closer by the hand that grabbed hers to kiss him quickly as Journey set off her pulley, flying up the wire towards the ledge, leaving Evy to follow once she'd said her 'goodbye' to the Doctor.
Gretchen looked over at the Doctor and Clara, powering up her weapon as the antibodies came into sight, "Good luck," she told them.
The duo gave her a solemn nod in return before hurrying away, trying their best to ignore the sounds of Gretchen firing her weapon and the scream she gave as the antibodies attacked.
~8~
The Doctor reached out and helped Clara onto what appeared to be a catwalk that spanned right across from the Dalek's eye, the two of them cautiously moving insight of it.
"Are you sure about this?" the Doctor glanced at Clara, feeling the girl clutching his hand and not letting go from where he'd helped her up.
Clara swallowed hard, remained silent, but gave a short nod, still clinging to his hand.
He held her gaze one moment longer before he focused on the Dalek as they reached its eyeline, "Well, Rusty, here we are. Eye to eye to eye."
"You cannot save the humans!" the Dalek decreed, "They will be exterminated. I shall join the Dalek units in the final attack!"
~8~
Journey panted as she pulled herself up and over the ledge beside the memory banks, Evy hurrying to pull herself over as well, "So what do we do?" she looked at the woman.
Evy quickly led the way over to the panels of lights, looking them over quickly, "Some of these panels are out…"
"Yeah, we've got a damaged Dalek," Journey deadpanned, "You want to complain to someone?"
"You want to mind your tone?" Evy shot back at her, giving Journey a chastising look, "It's not damaged," she corrected, "If it were, the lights would be flickering or broken or more panels would be off."
"So?"
"So, when the radiation was sealed away, the memory panels that it didn't need were able to be shut off again, suppressed. We need to get the lights back on. One of them has to contain the memory of the star."
"Seriously?" Journey scoffed.
"Deadly," Evy nodded, moving over to one of the vent covers in the wall, crouching down with her sonic and flashing it along the edges to break it off, "Ok, you get in there and…"
"What, ME?" Journey gaped.
"Yes. You."
"Why?"
"You're trained for crawling through small spaces aren't you?" Evy countered, gesturing at her military garb, "And really, would it be the smartest thing to have the person with the GUN standing outside if the antibodies catch up to us? That'll just make them attack more!"
Journey opened her mouth to argue…but really couldn't because that DID make sense. It was the weapons and the threat that made the antibodies attack and they'd be less inclined to do it to a woman just standing there than a person dressed in military uniform with a weapon at hand.
"Fine," she huffed, swinging her gun onto her back and moving over to the panels.
"I'll keep an eye out for the antibodies," Evy called as Journey crouched down and started to crawl into the small space behind the memory panels.
"How do I get them lit when I reach one though?" Journey asked, "I don't think a Dalek's got an on switch."
"Daleks can extrapolate DNA from touch to help convert to power," Evy remarked.
"English, please!"
"Just slap the panel and it'll turn on. Now go!" Evy gave Journey's feet a little nudge with her own as the woman disappeared within.
~8~
"We saved your life, Rusty," the Doctor spoke to the Dalek, "Now Clara and I are going to go one better. We're going to save your soul."
"Daleks don't have souls," Clara reminded him at the same time that the Dalek stated, "Daleks do not have souls."
"Imagine if it did though," the Doctor glanced at Clara and then the Dalek, "What then, Rusty? What would happen then?"
~8~
"I'm in the cortex!" Journey reported to Evy.
"I never would have guessed that, thanks," Evy muttered to herself, "Have you reached the dimmed ones yet?"
"Yeah, just give me…" a moment later there was a flash of light within one of the panels as they were illuminated.
"You've gotten the panel on," Evy told her, "That surge just then was an electrical pathway activating. It'll be linking up the memories and…"
"I really don't care!" Journey cut her off, "Was it the star?"
~8~
"Doctor!" Clara gasped, putting her other hand on his arm and squeezing it so he'd look at her. She just pointed up where they could see a pulse of light travelling from the memory banks above them, down along one of the cables, and towards the Dalek.
He glanced over his shoulder, towards a holographic screen that the Dalek used for visual, connected to the feed from the eyestalk, to see memories were playing out on it, soldiers dying in battle, "Your memories," he warned the Dalek, "We're about to give some back to you."
~8~
"No!" Evy shouted back from where she was leaning over the ledge just outside the databanks, able to see the faint holographic image, "No, war."
"Great," Journey muttered.
"Have you reached the next one yet?"
"No!" Journey huffed, "I thought the other bloke was the impatient one!"
"Oh we're equally impatient, I think," Evy remarked, she glanced over to the side and slowly started to back away when she saw what was flying towards them.
~8~
"See, all those years ago," the Doctor turned to face the Dalek, handing Clara his sonic with a nod towards the cables and tubing that were running along the catwalk, "When I began, I was just running. I called myself the Doctor, but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro. And then I met you lot and I understood who I was. The Doctor was not the Daleks," he glanced at Clara as she worked on cutting the tubing apart, "Time Lords, humans, neither are Daleks," he added meaningfully, just for her, seeing her pause in her work before getting back to it, faster than before.
~8~
"Journey," Evy backed away, towards the memory banks once more, "You may want to hurry, the antibodies are on the way."
"Oh come on," she could hear Journey muttering through the walls, "Give me the star…" before another panel of lights sprang to life.
~8~
The Doctor looked over at a tug on his pant leg to see Clara pointing behind him, another impulse coming down from the memory banks, this one of the Daleks flying through space, attacking the Valiant when the Earth had been stolen, "Oh, look," the Doctor's expression grew grim at the sight of it, thankful that Evy was up above and wouldn't have to look at the ship that reminded her of her brother and how he'd died, "It's your memories again. It's like somebody's mucking about up there. Memories, all those memories…"
"Do you remember the star you saw being born?" Clara asked quietly, moving to stand beside the Doctor, one of the cords in her hand as she gave it to him, the first time she'd actually spoken directly to the Dalek herself, she didn't want to hear the man talking about memories, about all the different memories he had, she wanted to focus on just the one they needed.
~8~
"How's it going Journey?" Evy called as she remained as still as possible, staring at the antibodies…all of which seemed to be flying into an invisible wall in an effort to get to her.
"Almost there!" Journey grunted, "Last panel…"
"A little faster if you could…"
Evy reached up and wiped under her nose, not even needing to look down to know there was blood on her hand. The antibodies might be small, but they were persistent, knocking into the wall she'd erected, and two of them were starting to fire at it, she wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer if Journey didn't…
The lights of the last panel flickered suddenly and burst to life, making the antibodies shake midair before they simply turned and began to float away.
"You did it," Evy breathed, turning to knock on the wall so Journey could hear her better, "You've found it, Journey, the Dalek's been reset!"
~8~
"I…" the Dalek blinked at the duo before him, "I remember."
They glanced over their shoulders to see the star, the memory playing right behind them, "You saw the truth, Rusty," the Doctor turned back, Clara unable to face the Dalek and choosing to watch the beauty of the star instead, "Remember how you felt. You saw a star being born. The endless rebirth of the universe…"
"No," the Dalek argued and the Doctor could tell its mind was struggling to hold to its Dalek programming, to fight the damage and the scarring that the radiation had caused, the way it had changed, the way it wanted to change now that the star was triggering its memories..
"And you realized the truth about the Daleks…"
"Truth? What is the truth?"
"Let me show you the truth," the Doctor moved to clasp the cord that Clara had given him in his other hand, "My Link's opened your mind and now I'm coming in," he pressed the ends of the cords together, grunting and biting his tongue to keep from crying out with Clara beside him as the energy passed through him, much like in New York all those centuries ago, when he'd been holding onto the mast of the Empire State Building in an effort to affect the Dalek-Humans below, to change the way THEY thought, and here he was, doing it again, "I'm part of you," he panted, "My mind is in your mind."
Clara watched on, her gaze fixed to the holographic screen as the Doctor's memories played across it.
"I see your mind, Doctor," the Dalek agreed, "I see your universe."
"And isn't the universe beautiful?"
Clara had to smile at it, at the stars and the planets and just…all the wonders he had seen with Evy and LJ and other companions alike.
"I see beauty."
"Yes, that's good," the Doctor nodded, "That is good. Hold on to that."
"I see endless, divine perfection."
Clara had to laugh at that, the image had shifted to three women that Clara recognized, three of Evy's past incarnations along with her present one, all of them smiling at the Doctor in his memory, the last one fading to him holding LJ in his arms for the first time, to images of his boy's first steps and first words and first smile…
"Make it a part of you," the Doctor encouraged, "Remember how you feel right now. Put it inside you and live by it."
"I see into your soul, Doctor. I see beauty. I see divinity. I see…hatred."
Clara frowned at that, spinning around, "Hatred?"
"I see your hatred of the Daleks Doctor," the Dalek continued, "And it is good!"
"What?" Clara spun back around, her eyes widening as she saw images of when the Doctor had faced the Daleks in the past, how he'd stopped them, destroyed them…
"No, no, no," the Doctor shook his head, "You must see more than that, there must be more than that!"
But the Dalek was too far gone, the images of the numerous ways the Doctor had defeated the Daleks in the past too much for it to handle, "Death to the Daleks. Death to the Daleks. Death to the Daleks!"
"No, there must be more than that. There must be more than that. Please…"
"Doctor," Clara reached out and gently pulled the cords apart, making him drop them, "There isn't more to it than that," she told him, her voice hard, "The Daleks are evil and they must be exterminated."
Just behind her, over her shoulder, Rusty took up the cry, "Daleks are evil. Daleks must be exterminated. Daleks are evil. Daleks must be exterminated. Exterminate!"
The Doctor looked at Clara to see her looking over his shoulder as well and turned to watch as Rusty made his way through the Aristotle, firing at the Daleks that were within, not stopping, not slowing, until every last one of them had been destroyed, "The Daleks are exterminated."
"Of course they are," the Doctor sighed, "That's what you do, isn't it?"
Clara just swallowed hard at that, thinking about how SHE had destroyed all the Daleks on the Asylum so long ago, how she had been just like Rusty…but different, she was a human, she was doing it to save other people's lives, save the life of a baby, this…this was just destruction for hatred's sake.
She took a breath, no, she was not a Dalek, nor had she EVER been, she had been very, VERY human.
But a small voice in her head had to remind her…she wasn't human anymore.
~8~
The moment that the remaining quartet were removed from the Dalek and resized, Journey ran for her uncle, hugging him tightly, "Journey!" he breathed in relief as he embraced his niece.
"Uncle Morgan," Journey smiled pulling away.
"I have transmitted a retreat signal," the Dalek stated as the trio of Time Lords came to a stop near it, but still quite a few feet away, Clara seemed reluctant to step any closer and the Time Lords were not about to make her, "The Daleks will believe the humans have initiated the ship's self-destruct."
"And what will you do?" Evy frowned at the Dalek, they couldn't be sure just how long whatever they'd done to it would last, whether the Dalek would eventually revert to how it had been or keep its new vendetta against others of its kind.
"I must go with them."
"Of course you must," the Doctor muttered, "You've unfinished work, haven't you?"
"Victory is yours, but it does not please you."
"You looked inside me and you saw hatred," the Doctor shook his head at the Dalek, "That's not victory. Victory would have been a good Dalek."
Clara looked away at that, she wasn't sure she could handle a Good Dalek existing. Because then it would make what she had been, and what she'd done, one step closer to actually being a Dalek and she didn't want that. It made her sick to her stomach to think of that, to think about that echo-life she'd had. Daleks were the mortal enemies of the Time Lords and she felt like…like she'd betrayed everything she was when she'd been taken, even if she'd been a human in that life, even when it hadn't been HER that had done it. Thinking about how she had memories of a life where, for an entire year, she was a Dalek…it made her feel dirty. It made her question how in the Universe she could have been blessed with the Captain as her Link after becoming a monster like that, it made her question how he could look at her and know she'd been a Dalek at one point and not be utterly repulsed by her.
Evy stepped closer to her, putting an arm around her in comfort, not reading Clara's thoughts, not needing to, to know she was growing more upset by their continued presence around the Dalek.
"I am not a good Dalek," the Dalek turned its eyestalk to the Doctor, "You are a good Dalek," before rolling out of the room.
The Doctor just gave its retreating figure a dark look, shaking his head at that, but still remained silent. He would rather the Dalek call HIM that than Clara, to be called such a thing given all Clara had endured would surely be too much for her. So he merely turned without another word and put his arm around Evy's waist, needing comfort from her as well before turning the two women with him to walk out of the room, not even sparing the other humans another thought.
It wasn't till they reached the TARDIS in the hanger that he even paused to the sound of Journey rushing after them, "Wait, please!" the girl called, coming to a stop behind them, "Take me with you."
The Doctor looked at Evy who nodded, guiding Clara into the TARDIS and leaving him to deal with Journey, "We think you're probably nice," he began, "Underneath it all, we think you're kind and you're definitely brave. We just wish you hadn't been a soldier," he sighed, "We've too many of them around our son to begin with," he mumbled, turning to step into the TARDIS after the women, shutting the door behind him, leaving Journey to watch the box fade out of existence moments later.
~8~
"Clara?" Evy called as she and the Doctor stepped back into the TARDIS from picking up LJ from his playdate with his godfather.
"Yeah?" Clara's voice called from below the console where she was using a randomly placed mirror that was down below to finish up her makeup.
"We've got someone that's rather eager to see you…"
"CLARA!" LJ cheered when he saw her peek up from the stairs, hurrying over to her.
She burst out laughing as she sat on the edge of the steps she'd walked up to let the boy hug her, giving the Time Lords a questioning look over the boy's shoulder. He was dressed in a pair of dark trousers with bracers on them, a button up dark blue shirt…and a very large, long coat over him.
JACK was all the two could mouth to her as she rolled her eyes.
LJ loved to dress up like his godfather as opposed to dressing up like his father's last incarnation with its bow-tie.
"Ooh," Clara hugged the toddler tightly, "I needed that LJ, thank you for the hug."
LJ beamed at her and turned to hurry over to his toys, plopping down to play with them as his parents and Clara watched fondly as he switched from his dinosaur toys to his spaceship toy instead.
Clara stood up and looked over at the Time Lords as they began to pilot the box, "How do I look?" she asked, gesturing at her new outfit. After that encounter with the Dalek, she'd taken a very hot shower and had to change her clothing, feeling too dirty to continue to wear what she had been, actually going so far as to throw her last outfit into a supernova much like the Doctor favored doing.
The Time Lords hadn't asked any questions or commented on it at all for which she was thankful, she just…she'd rather forget the entire situation happened. Keep moving forward.
"Sort of short and round-ish, but with a good personality, which is the main thing," the Doctor answered.
Evy shook her head as the question went right over his head, "She meant her outfit," she informed him, leaning over to give him a small peck despite his obliviousness, "And you look lovely Clara," she told the woman, moving to pull a lever to set the box down, "Oh, look at that, distracted AND only 30 seconds after Clara left," she gave the Doctor a pointed look for her piloting abilities, half-mocking how he'd put it off as being distracted that had set them down 3 weeks after Clara had last seen them.
"Pfft," the Doctor moved over to her side, "How were you distracted?"
"You were in the room, weren't you?" Evy gave him a teasing smile, making him grin roguishly for it and lean in to steal a kiss from her, Evy's hand coming up to his cheek as she returned it.
Clara leaned on the edge of the console, shaking her head at them.
'Must they always do that?' the TARDIS huffed above her.
"I think so," Clara laughed, but she didn't have as much of a problem with it, it was nice to see, in a way, to know that even after so many centuries as a Linked pair, the two still felt that way about each other. It made her smile to think about her own future with the Captain, that they'd get that far, be together that long, and still feel that much love for each other, "So," she continued when they pulled apart, "When will I see you again?"
"Oh," the Doctor blinked and looked over, almost as if he'd forgotten she was in the TARDIS still, "Soon, I expect. Or later. One of those."
Clara smiled at them and turned to head for the door, pressing a kiss to her fingers and patting LJ on the head as she passed, pausing when she got to the doorway to look back at them, "I don't know."
The Doctor, who had been standing with his chin on his Link's shoulder, observing over it, with his arms around her, hummed and looked over at her, "Sorry?"
"You asked me if you're a good man and the answer is I don't know about THIS you yet," she said, sounding more sure than she had when she first answered, "But I think you try to be and I think that's probably the point."
"And that," Evy smiled, "Is why you are an amazing teacher," she laughed, "You should have picked that as your title instead of staying with Clara."
Clara rolled her eyes at that, waving to them before stepping out of the TARDIS. She took a deep breath, pulling her phone from her pocket, remembering why she'd stepped into the room in the first place, and began to head out of it…only to nearly run into Danny Pink as he walked down the hall.
"Ah, hey," he smiled sheepishly, stepping back to avoid walking into her.
"Hey, Danny," Clara tried to keep her voice calm before she turned and started to walk down the hall faster, hoping that the Time Lords would either wait till she got Danny far enough away before dematerializing or did so silently.
Danny frowned a moment, "Have you changed your clothes?"
"Yes," she blinked, a bit startled that he'd noticed such a small thing, "Yes, I…I have. Well noticed."
"Ok, good," he shrugged.
"Yes, good. Very good. Good work. You passed the test. Observant you are," she'd have to be careful with that.
"So um…" Danny began after a moment, "I…I don't think I'll go to the dinner tonight," he told her.
"Oh, ok."
"But um…drinks with friends on Friday? Is that still open?"
"Yeah," she smiled, "Course it…" she trailed off when she caught sight of something outside the window of the school's courtyard, "Is," she turned to Danny, "See you then? Say half 6?"
"Sure," he nodded, turning down one hall as she moved down another...only to pop her head back around it a moment later, watching Danny go, making sure to wait till he'd rounded another corner before she grinned and dashed back.
Clara opened the doors to the courtyard and ran to the man standing before what looked like a small shed, "Cap'n!" she cheered, throwing her arms around him.
J Smith laughed as he wound his arms around Clara, picking her up to spin her around a bit before setting her down, "Hello Cla…" he didn't even get to finish before she tugged him down by the front of his shirt to kiss her, his hands coming up to her cheeks as he went, only pulling apart when they needed to breathe, "Not that I didn't love that," he told her, a dazed quality to his voice and gaze that made her giggle, "Because I really, really did. But what was that for?"
"I just…missed you," she shrugged, "And, not that I don't love seeing you, because I really, really do," she mimicked, "But what are you doing here?" usually she expected to find him randomly appearing in her sitting room, rarely did he actually come to her school, IN the school even.
"You hugged me," he told her.
"I always hug you."
"Mini-me."
"I always hug mini-you."
"Yeah," he nodded, starting to rub the back of his neck, "I meant…you were upset," he told her, "I could tell, today, about…" he checked a watch on his wrist, "2 minutes ago, you hugged me tighter than you ever hugged mini-me. I couldn't really hug you back all that well as a toddler so I thought I'd come and offer my services now that I'm grown," he opened his arms to her.
Clara gave him the softest of smiles, the most loving of looks, before she stepped into him, winding her arms around his middle as he put his around her shoulders, just…holding her, hugging her, not asking what upset her, but just…being there for her.
And that was just what she needed after the day she'd had, a hug from the best hugger in the Universe.
He was right though, a hug from him was far more than a hug from his baby self. She had to wonder if this was what it felt like for the Doctor and Evy when they hugged and knew that yes, it certainly was, and she also knew she wasn't going to let go anytime soon. But that was ok, because neither was he.
He certainly was the Doctor and Evy's son.
A/N: Poor Clara :( But Jara hug :) I have to say, I'm really excited for Robin Hood :) I can say there's going to be a twist in those chapters that will have something to do with The Unicorn and the Wasp for this series ;)
Next chapter...LJ just might get jealous, the Doctor just might get jealous, and Evy's still got it ;)
Some notes on reviews...
That's ok, I know not everyone will like an OC, whether it's an adult or a toddler. I'm not quite sure I, personally, would go so far as to wish a toddler to suffer, be in pain, or be slapped as child abuse is illegal and very wrong. I can say though that, as Clara cares a great deal for LJ, she will not ever physically strike or harm him nor will LJ be removed from the story. I can't say if there are others that dislike LJ too, I feel like, if I didn't like an OC, I wouldn't be able to continue reading a story, unless everything else about it was utterly fantastic and just kept pulling me in, though as OCs are a big part of stories like mine I will never fault anyone that stops reading if they don't like an OC, I really would rather people read what makes them happy than suffer through stories or OCs they don't like :)
Oh Clara will definitely be very special to Evy :) She's practically her daughter-in-law (at least in Evy's mind lol) ;) I can say we may see a bit of a fallout for the Time Lords and Clara, but for a much different reason than in the show }:) I hope you liked the bit of J at the end :) He'll have little cameos in quite a few chapters, but play a larger role in at least one episode ;)
Lol, it was a definite coincidence that they both ended up being from X-Men :)
Clara has J's memory of his life from birth to when they Linked yup :) She's just got so many other memories from so many of her echo-lives that she sort of has trouble sorting what's what and from who :) It's a bit of a jumbled mess in her head so she may not know when un-Linked J will pop up as there's so much going on in her mind and her numerous echo-memories take up so many lifetimes that J's sort of get lost in the mix :( Oh yes :) There are times when LJ's off with Jack and J has no idea what Clara's got up to till she tells him and then he sort of freaks out about it :)
I can't say if Missy will have the same fixation on Clara as she does in the show, but if she did, it probably wouldn't be a crush as she's his nephew's Link and basically family :)
Evy's definitely been able to get over her fear of Daleks after facing them so much, now we just have to see if her fear of skeletons is the same :) J will meet/hear of Danny a few times but we'll have to wait and see his reaction ;) I've got something in mind for Clara's one-day regeneration, it probably won't be till JLC leaves the show yup :)