Thanks to A Soul's Wish, doctorsherlokiarty, ShuTheDragon, bella cullen the original, NicholasFlamelFan, Ronin Kenshin for following/faving my story.
Ronin Kenshin: thanks
Mariah (Guest): They'll definitely stop the Dalek. Yes, I have taken them down again. I honestly had too many stories on the go and was struggling to continue with my TF stories. I'm hoping to have them back up at a later date as long as my motivation for them comes back.
NicholasFlamelFan: yeah, I really hate him too. I'm glad you like Charlotte and the way she's incorporated in this story.
Everything hurt. Every single part of her body felt like it was on fire. Charlotte whimpered, her throat having gotten pretty sore from all the screaming. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to pass out. But the shackles were stopping her from doing the former and the bloody machine was keeping her on the verge of falling unconscious.
Suddenly the machine was cut off. Charlotte let out a sob of relief as she had a reprieve from the constant pain from the beam. The shackles around her wrists sprang open and she fell forward into the Doctor's arms. "Doctor", she whispered looking up at the Time Lord overjoyed that he'd saved her. Then she passed out, the pain having been too much for her to handle.
The Doctor gathered the unconscious woman in his arms, his hearts aching at the state she was in. He was most definitely going to do something to Van Statten for putting her through the 'examination'. It was nothing short of torture especially for a human who had a lower pain threshold than he did. Of course he could do anything to the moronic ape just yet, he still needed him…unfortunately. But as soon as the Dalek had been dealt with then he was going to show Mr I-own-the-internet exactly why he had the moniker, Oncoming Storm. The Time Lord turned and walked out of the room, carrying Charlotte to the lift.
~Office~
The Doctor crossed the room and gently set Charlotte down against a wall. Ideally he'd have taken her back to the TARDIS where she'd be much safer but he unfortunately he didn't have time to make that particular detour. "Look after her", he said to Goddard who nodded. She understood that what Van Statten had done to both of them was wrong and felt a truckload of guilt over the unconscious brunette. If she hadn't been so afraid that she would have her mind wiped and dumped in a random place…she would've tried to stop the examination. All she could do now is look after Charlotte and hope to redeem herself. The ginger moved over to the curly haired brunette and sat down.
The Doctor went over to a monitor mounted on the wall which showed the camera feed of just outside the Cage. "You've got to keep it in that cell", he ordered.
Having heard his voice, Rose glanced at the small monitor "Doctor, it's all my fault", she said, her voice full of guilt. The Time Lord rolled his eyes. Of course she'd be the reason the Dalek had a sudden lease of life. He really knew how to pick them, didn't he?
"I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations", one of the guards informed them.
"A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat", the Doctor countered. Sure enough the door to the Cage opened mere moments later.
"Open fire!" Bywater ordered. He and the soldiers shot at the Dalek.
"Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed!" Van Statten shouted seeing all this on the monitor.
"Rose, get out of there!" the Doctor called to his companion but the blonde just stood there. Seriously? Run you stupid girl! He thought.
The Dalek advanced on the group, the bullets doing nothing to slow it down. Bywater turns to the female guard who was standing next to them. "De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?"
The woman nodded "You, with me", she ordered to Rose and Adam before turning and hurrying away. The pair follow after her.
The Dalek glided up to the monitor near to the Cage and smashed it, absorbing the electricity. The alien wails as its damaged outer casing slowly bends back into shape, thanks to the electricity now coursing through it. The rust fades away, bringing the Dalek back to its former glory.
"Abandoning the Cage, sir", Bywater said into his mouthpiece.
~Office~
"Doctor!" Goddard called as Charlotte began to stir. The Time Lord hurried to Charlotte's side.
"It hurts", she mumbled.
"Where does it hurt?" the Doctor asked gently. Goddard got up and went over to the computer to find out what the Dalek was up to as she'd seen it smash the monitor near the Cage.
"Everywhere", Charlotte answered, eyes pricking with tears "I want to go to the TARDIS", she pleaded. It hurt the Doctor to hear that tone in her voice, on the verge of tears. He wished that he could take her to the TARDIS but he couldn't right now.
"The second the Dalek is stopped we will go to the TARDIS", the Doctor promised "I just need you to hold on for a bit. Can you do that?"
Charlotte nodded, wincing at the action "yeah…I-I think I can", she said. The Doctor leant forward and pressed a light kiss to her forehead.
"Rest", he said quietly "we'll be back in the TARDIS before you know it". He watched her close her eyes before standing up and going over to where Goddard was still working at the computer.
"We're losing power. It's draining the base", she reported. Her eyes then widened at what she saw on the screen "Oh, my God. It's draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah".
"It's downloading", the Doctor stated.
"Downloading what?" Van Statten asked.
"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down", Goddard said looking at the computer screen worriedly.
"It's not just energy", the Doctor said "That Dalek just absorbed the entire internet. It knows everything".
"The Daleks survive in me!" they heard the Dalek declare over the audio just before there was a sound of its weapon being fired. Then static.
"The cameras in the vault have gone down", Goddard said as she tried to check the other feeds.
"We've only got emergency power", the Doctor said.
"All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately", Goddard called into the comm.
~corridor~
With De Maggio in the lead, she, Rose and Adam ran past a group of guards that were on their way to the cage. The moment they'd disappeared down the corridor, Bywater rushed up to the guards. "Cover the north wall", he ordered "Red division, maintain suppressing fire along the perimeter. Blue division…" he broke off and screamed as the Dalek shot him in the back "argh!"
The other guards fire upon it but the bullets melt before they could even touch the armour. The Dalek exterminates another. More guards appear behind it, surrounding the alien, also shooting at it. But even with the extra men, it did no good. All it did was increase the number of casualties as the Dalek killed them one by one.
~Office~
"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" Van Statten shouted at Goddard hearing the gun shots.
"It's killing them! Goddard argued.
"They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique" Van Statten leaned forward over the comm "I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me? Do you hear me?"
The sound of gunshots stop but the three of them realized that it wasn't due to the guards doing what Van Statten had said. It was because the Dalek had killed them all. Goddard shoots Van Statten a glare before pulling up a map of the base onto the computer to show the Doctor.
"That's us, right below the surface. That's the cage, and that's the Dalek", she explained indicating to the blue moving blip which was the Dalek.
"This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?" the Doctor asked.
"Lots of them…but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them", Goddard explained.
"We've got to keep that thing alive", Van Statten stated "We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there".
"Leaving everyone trapped with it?" the Doctor rounded "Rose is down there. And I'm NOT leaving her. Have you got that?" Van Statten got up, fully prepared to argue but the Doctor just turned back to the computer. He pointed at a spot on the map "It's got to go through this area. What's that?" he asked.
"Weapons testing", Goddard replied.
"Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it", the Doctor ordered. He then went back over to Charlotte to check on her. She was still resting thankfully.
"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor", Van Statten sneered at the Doctor while he checked on the exotic beauty "If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something".
"What's the nearest town?" the Doctor asked glancing at him.
"Salt Lake City", Van Statten answered.
"Population?" the Doctor questioned.
"One million", the American answered.
"All dead", the Time Lord said bluntly "If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs".
Van Statten frowned "But why would it do that?"
"Because it honestly believes they should die", the Doctor angrily "Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose!"
He shot the American a glare before going over to the computer to address everyone in the loading bay via the comm. According to the map of the base that was where the Dalek was heading to "The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot", he explained.
"Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot" the commander scoffed "Positions!"
The man gave the signal and the soldiers readied their guns. But what came into the loading was not the Dalek but Rose and Adam. "You two, get the hell out of there!" he shouted at the pair. Rose and Adam ran past them and out of a doorway at the other end of the loading bay as the Dalek appeared on the opposite side.
The Commander ordered his men to fire upon the Dalek but once again the bullets were simply melting before they struck their target.
Up in the office, the camera feed for the loading bay suddenly popped up on the computer screen. "We've got visual", Goddard said with slight confusion on her face. Why did the camera feed pop up on the computer all of a sudden?
"It wants us to see", the Doctor stated. They watch as the Dalek rose up into the air and blasted the fire alarm, causing the sprinklers to the set off. It then fires downward at the now water covered concrete floor, electrocuting everybody.
"Fall back! Fall back!" the Commander shouted before he too was killed.
~Office~
Heavy silence fell over the office as the last person was killed. The Doctor stared at the screen, his fists clenched. Van Statten should've let him kill it when he had the chance. But he didn't and now even more people were dead. "Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place", Van Statten muttered, finally conceding to the fact that they should leave.
"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out", Goddard reminded him angrily.
"You said we could seal the vault", the Doctor said.
"It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war" Van Statten said, heading to the computer "Steel bulkheads…"
"There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive", Goddard pointed out.
"We've got emergency power. We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors", the Doctor said.
"We'd have to bypass the security codes" Goddard sighed "That would take a computer genius".
"Good thing you've got me, then", Van Statten replied.
The Doctor looked at him thoroughly surprised "You want to help?" he scoffed. All this time he'd been so adamant about keeping the damn Dalek alive, now he wants to help trap it?
"I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me"
A screen on the wall suddenly flashed on, the Dalek standing in the middle of the loading bay. The Doctor straightened up, shifting until he'd blocked the Dalek's view of Charlotte. He didn't want it to know that she was in a vulnerable state.
"I shall speak only to the Doctor", the metal alien stated.
"You're going to get rusty", the Doctor commented.
"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me", the Dalek explained.
"What's your next trick?" the Doctor asked.
"I have been searching for the Daleks"
"Yeah, I saw" the Doctor rolled his eyes "downloading the internet. What did you find?"
"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes…"
"And?" the Doctor asked waiting for its point.
"Nothing", it stated "Where shall I get my orders now?" it asked, its voice rising sounding almost scared.
"You're just a soldier without commands", the Doctor taunted.
"Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer!" the Dalek declared.
"What for?" the Doctor asked, exasperated "What's the point?" silence from the Dalek "Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for".
"Then what should I do?"
"All right, then" he nodded slowly "If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself".
"The Daleks must survive!"
"The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don't you just die?" the Doctor shouted with a passionate hatred.
"You would make a good Dalek", the Dalek stated before the screen went blank. The Doctor stared at the screen, dumbstruck by its declaration.
"Seal the Vault", he ordered.