CHAPTER 4

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Reunion of the Daleks Part 4

The Doctor's TARDIS sped through the Vortex as he tried to contact Oswin Oswald. He hadn't had any success so far. He knew that she wasn't currently traveling with Marissa Queen aka the Rani, her usual traveling companion and her best friend, because she had told him that Oswin had gone to meet with the Dalek Resistance.

The problem was that Marissa didn't know where the Dalek Resistance's base was located. Oswin hadn't told her to keep her safe so that the other Daleks wouldn't come after her to find out anything. That precaution of Oswin's was coming back to hurt the Doctor now though because he couldn't find her to help Rose.

Rose had become very sick and weak ever since the Dalek Emperor had separated her from the Vortex with his new weapon. The Doctor was very worried about her because he didn't know what a prolonged separation from it might do to her. It had been a part of her since she was eight years old after all.

Shareen had told him that something like this had happened before when the Daleks had turned Rose back into a human again for a short time. She had become very sick for a while as she transformed, but then she was normal again. This time though she wasn't getting better. Perhaps she could take the separation as a human but not as a Time Lady for some reason. It could be because Time Lords by nature were so connected to time. He wasn't quite sure.

The Doctor decided to try something devious in order to flush them out. He quickly built a voice modulator and pretended to be a Dalek as he made an audio transmission that would go out throughout the universe.

"THIS MESSAGE IS FOR THE EMPRESS OF THE DALEKS. I HAVE SEVERAL SECRETS TO GIVE TO HER THAT WILL DAMAGE THE MAIN DALEK FORCES. I WANT TO JOIN THE RESISTANCE AND HELP HER TO STOP THE FALSE EMPEROR," the Doctor transmitted in a Dalek voice and then he added a set of coordinates at the end of the message.

"Isn't this very dangerous? It might not be Oswin that shows up but the Emperor instead to stop these supposed secrets from being given away," Ian asked.

"I know that that could happen and probably will, but I don't know of any other way to find her quickly. Oswin seems to be very good at covering her tracks. She's one of the hardest people to find that I've ever met," the Doctor admitted.

"You do know that if Oswin does come, she's going to be exposed to an attack by the Emperor now. She might not come because she knows this," River said.

"Yes, that's true. However, I think that she'll risk that and come anyway to get the secrets if it will help her cause. Oswin is very brave. I'm counting on that bravery to make her come to me," the Doctor said.

"Always manipulating people, aren't you?" River asked.

"I'm trying to save Rose. I'd do anything for her," the Doctor said in a passionate voice.

"I know. If it were you, I'd be acting the same way if not worse," River said.

"River, I . . . ," the Doctor started to say.

"It's okay. I'll always have feelings for you, Doctor, but I know that you love her more than me. I've dealt with that and moved on. I'm actually happy for you. You're happier with her than I've ever seen you. Much as I hate to admit that," River said.

"Thank you for saying that. You know I'd never want to hurt you," the Doctor said.

"I know. You're the man who wants to make people better. That's one of the things I love about you. It seems like opposites do attract sometimes," River said with a grin.

"Already . . . moving on . . . and I'm . . . not even . . . dead yet," Rose joked as she came slowly walking up to them with Shareen's help.

"Rose, we weren't . . . ," the Doctor started to say before he was interrupted by River.

"Will you calm down? She knows that. She was making a joke. She has a wonderful sense of humor. I like that about her. I always say if someone can't laugh in the face of overwhelming danger than they're not worth having around," River said with a grin.

"You're a very strange woman, do you know that?" Polly said to River with a smile.

"You're good. You're figuring that out about me already. Of course that's the tip of the iceberg. I'm also just a little bit crazy," River said with a big grin.

"We . . . could be . . . sisters," Rose commented with a chuckle.

"Are you alright, Rose?" Barbara asked.

"Not . . . really. I'll . . . be okay . . . though," Rose said.

"You can barely speak. You're not going to be okay," the Doctor said worried.

"You . . . worry . . . too . . . much," Rose said with a weak smile.

"You're the most jeopardy friendly person I've ever met, and I know River. Of course, I'm worried about you," the Doctor said with a sigh.

"I heard that little crack. I'm going to ignore it though. For now," River said.

The happy but tense atmosphere in the TARDIS was broken when a voice came through on the console saying, "This is Oswin Oswald. I'm coming to meet you. If this is a trap, you're going to regret it though. I'm bringing friends."

The TARDIS landed at the coordinates that the Doctor had given to Oswin. It was on an old abandoned but still functioning space station that orbited around a deadly planet called Narcissus. The planet was full of lethal gas that had once been released into the atmosphere by accident. Now the space station was here to serve as a warning beacon for everyone not to land there. It transmitted warnings around the clock on all known frequencies and languages to stay away from the planet. The Doctor thought that it was the perfect place to stage a mysterious rendezvous with Oswin.

Within minutes of their arrival on the station, Oswin appeared with a small army of Daleks that answered only to her. Her expression changed from a look of determination to one of shock and worry in the space of a second.

"Rose, what happened?" Oswin asked as she raced to her friend's side.

"The Emperor of the Daleks used some kind of weapon on her to separate her from the Vortex. She's been getting weaker and weaker ever since. Can you help her? Do you know anything about what he could have done to her?" the Doctor asked.

"The Emperor? So he is alive. I had hoped that the reports from our spies were just rumors, but it's true. I have heard reports on a weapon that the Daleks had come up with that was supposed to disrupt telepathic links, communications, and all forms of remote control. It could be used to disrupt the link between Rose and the Vortex too I suppose," Oswin said.

"That sounds likely. Is there any way to reconnect her with it? Do you know exactly how the weapon works? How is it blocking her from the Vortex?" the Doctor asked.

"Dalek Epsilon would know more about it than me. He's been studying all of the Daleks' newest weapons," Oswin said.

"THE WEAPON COATS ITS TARGET IN A NEW KIND OF NANOTECH DEVELOPED BY THE DALEKS. THE NANOTECH BLOCKS AND REPELS VARIOUS FORMS OF ENERGY OR COMMUNICATIONS FROM REACHING THE TARGET. THE NANOTECH CAN BE MODIFIED TO BLOCK OR REPEL DIFFERENT FORMS OF ENERGY AS NEEDED. IT COULD EASILY BE USED TO REPEL THE POWER OF THE VORTEX AND KEEP IT FROM HER," Dalek Epsilon explained.

"How can this nanotech be removed? Is there any way that you know of?" the Doctor asked.

"NEGATIVE. I KNOW OF NOTHING THAT CAN REMOVE OR DESTROY IT. I DO KNOW OF ONE WEAKNESS THAT IT POSSESSES. IT HAS A LIMIT TO HOW MUCH ENERGY IT CAN REPEL. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THAT LIMIT IS," Dalek Epsilon said.

The Doctor began to smile as he said, "I can work with that. Thanks, Epsilon. I never thought I'd want to hug a Dalek."

"PHYSICAL CONTACT IS NOT NECESSARY. I MERELY WISH TO AID THE ALLIES OF MY EMPRESS," Dalek Epsilon said.

"We've been over this before. I'm not an Empress. My name is Oswin," Oswin said firmly.

"I APOLOGIZE, OSWIN. I DID NOT MEAN TO CAUSE YOU OFFENSE. MY AFFECTION FOR YOU MAKES ME GIVE YOU SUCH A TITLE UNCONSCIOUSLY SOMETIMES," Epsilon said.

The Doctor was taken aback by that as he said, "Affection? Daleks don't have affection for anyone."

"These Daleks do though, Doctor. Epsilon especially," Oswin said as she patted Epsilon's casing and displayed her own affection towards him.

"So you think that you can help Rose now?" Shareen asked with her face filled with hope now.

"If there is a limit to what the nanotech can block, then I can overload them. I just have to find out what that limit is," the Doctor said confidently.

"I . . . know . . . what . . . to do . . . then," Rose said as she gestured towards the console where the Heart of the TARDIS was kept.

"I'm not sure about that, Rose. In your weakened condition, we don't know how a massive exposure like that might affect you," the Doctor said with worry.

"It's . . . the . . . only . . . way," Rose said in an ever weakening voice.

The Doctor saw her pale face and began to wonder for the first time if he might not be able to help her this time. He had to find the limit quickly, or her health would continue to fail until it was too late. He decided to take the risk against his better judgment.

"Okay, Rose. You win," the Doctor said.

"Are you sure about this? I don't want anything to happen to her. She's my best friend," Shareen said.

"She's going to die unless the connection is reestablished quickly. We have to do this," the Doctor said.

Shareen reluctantly nodded as Rose briefly squeezed her hand and managed a weak smile at her. She had even lost the energy to speak now. The Doctor and Shareen began to work together to help Rose get back to the TARDIS.

At that moment, the Emperor of the Daleks and his army arrived. They began to fire on everyone instantly, and Oswin's Daleks quickly moved to cover everyone else.

"PROTECT THE EMPRESS. DEFEND HER TO THE DEATH," Epsilon ordered the other Daleks.

"I don't need anyone to protect me, Epsilon. I can fight my own battles," Oswin said defiantly.

She surrounded herself with her force field and began to fire back on the attacking Daleks with her gauntlets that reproduced the same energy blasts as a Dalek gun stalk. She moved forward to attack the Dalek Emperor, and he began to laugh.

"I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS. I WILL CRUSH YOU, AND THEN YOUR PATHETIC RESISTANCE MOVEMENT WILL CRUMBLE. EVERYONE WILL SOON SEE THAT IT IS I WHO IS THE ONE TRUE LEADER OF THE DALEKS!" the Emperor shouted with a raging fury in his voice.

The Emperor and Oswin started to fire on one another as their forces continued to clash. River fired back at any Daleks that got too close to the Doctor, Shareen, and Rose as they made their way back to the TARDIS. Mary and her brother, Alex, then quickly moved forward to help Rose.

"We'll help from here. You need to go take care of those things over there," Mary said to the Doctor.

The Doctor smiled at her appreciatively as he said, "Thank you, Mary Wilkes. I'll remember this."

Polly joined Mary, Alex, and Shareen as they had to practically pick up a steadily weakening Rose. She was now losing all muscle strength entirely by this point. Ian and Barbara held the doors to the TARDIS open as they others carried Rose inside and shut the doors behind them.

The Doctor, River, and Oswin were now the only ones left outside of the TARDIS as they fought side by side with the Dalek Resistance against the Emperor and his forces. Meanwhile everyone inside of the TARDIS was desperately trying to open the console and reveal the Heart of the TARDIS, but they couldn't even budge it.

"We can't move it an inch even with all of us trying to at the same time together," Ian said in frustration.

"It's too bad that Ace isn't here. She could blow it open," Polly said.

"I don't think the Doctor would appreciate us destroying his time machine," Mary said.

"I think that the Doctor would gladly sacrifice the TARDIS for Rose," Barbara said sagely.

"How are we going to get this open? Rose said that Mickey and Jackie had to get a truck to help her open it the first time. We don't happen to have one handy unfortunately," Shareen said in despair.

Rose moved her eyes from her hand to the console over and over until Shareen noticed. Shareen immediately realized what Rose wanted and moved Rose's hand to sit it on top of the console. The touch of Rose's hand seemed to work like a key as the console immediately began to open, and energy began to pour forward from it as soon as her fingers touched it.

Everyone in the console room moved back now as a massive torrent of energy began to pour out of the console and into Rose. Rose slowly stood on her own as she began to laugh with joy. As the console shut itself, Rose continued to glow with energy for a few seconds afterwards before it faded away completely. She felt like a million dollars now.

"Thank you, all of you. I'd be dead right now if you hadn't brought me in here. It worked! I wasn't sure if it would or not, but it worked," Rose said happily.

Then she raced outside of the TARDIS to help the others. The others followed her as they tried to make sure that she was truly alright and not about to fall over at any moment.

Rose raced towards the front lines of the battle to the Doctor's surprise. He turned to say something to her, but she only winked at him as she rushed past him. He knew then that she was up to something, but he had no idea what. He was just glad to have her back happy and healthy again. He shuddered inside as he thought about how close he had come to losing her again so soon after she had died the last time.

Rose didn't stop running until she was right in the middle of the fight between Oswin and the Emperor. She stood in front of the Emperor with a huge grin on her face as if she knew a secret that he didn't.

"IT SEEMS THAT YOU HAVE MORE LIVES THAN A CAT, ROSE TYLER. NO MATTER. I WILL JUST HAVE TO KEEP TRYING UNTIL I FINALLY GET IT RIGHT. I ONLY HAVE TO SUCCEED ONCE," the Emperor threatened.

"You didn't hear because you only just came back recently, but I've already come back from being killed already. Even if you do kill me, Emperor, it won't take," Rose said with her face now full of confidence.

"WE SHALL SEE," the Emperor said as he fired his gun stalk straight at Rose's chest.

Rose's confidence quickly faded from her face and turned to a look of shock and panic. Oswin knew that something was wrong and quickly put her force field around Rose at the last second before the blast would have hit her.

"What's wrong?" Oswin asked.

"ISN'T IT OBVIOUS? HER POWERS HAVE NOT RETURNED! YOU ARE COMPLETELY HELPLESS NOW AND AT MY MERCY, ROSE TYLER. IT'S TIME FOR ME TO FINALLY FINISH YOU. YOU AND ALL OF YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS WILL NOW DIE! THEN THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!" the Emperor shouted.

"THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME! THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!" the Emperor's Daleks all shouted in a chorus together as they continued to attack.

Next: It's the final chapter of Reunion of the Daleks (but not of this series) as the others have to stand alone against the Emperor without Rose's powers to help them. It's at this moment that Ace returns. She always did have good timing.