Bridgette had no idea what had come over her; she knew she sounded braver than she felt. The look on the Doctor's face what she had approached the dalek leader all but convinced her this was idiocy. But she had to do something. She wouldn't go down without a fight.

As she stood face-to-eyestalk with the dalek, the Doctor shouted, "Bridgette! Whatever it is you're thinking of doing, you don't have to do it! It's dangerous! They could kill you!"

"They won't," Bridgette replied, "they want me alive too much. Doctor?" Suddenly, she felt very afraid and very alone. All the bravado had left her voice as she reached out behind her with one hand, relieved when her new friend grasped it tightly.

"I'm here."

"Doctor, I'm about to do something very stupid, but if you can help it," her voice quavered, "don't let me d- become one of them."

And before the Doctor could convince her otherwise, before she could lose her nerve, she reached up and took the device out of her ear, dropping it to the ground.

Her unconscious body hit the ground three seconds later.


There was nothing for a while, as it usually is when one is unconscious. Slowly, however, Bridgette seemed to regain her mental faculties. She couldn't move her body, but she was precisely where she wanted to be.

The dark space where she kept her dreams and imagination. Her best arsenal.

WHERE HAVE YOU TAKEN ME? No need to ask who that was.

My mind. I may have the home field advantage, but it's just you and me, dalek. I don't have the Doctor, and you don't have an army. Or any weapons, come to think of it.

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

Oh, just shut up! If you can get into my mind, I can keep you here!

YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO A DAAAALLLEEKKK THAT WAY!

Who are you, my mother?

I AM YOUR MASTER! YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!

As of right now, I have no allegiance to you. And besides, I thought I was supposed to be your master?

YOU ARE JUST A PUNY HUMAN! YOU ARE NOTHING TO A DAAALLLEEKKK! There. She had it. It had fallen right into her trap.

What makes daleks so special? Prove to me that I should want to join you. It was a command, not a question.

DAAALLLLEEEKKKKSSS ARE SUPERIOR!

Yeah, yeah, I know that much by now.

DDAAAALLLLEEKS DO NOT NEED TO FEAR! DAAALLLLEEEKKKKSSS DO NOT LOVE! WE HAVE NOTHING BUT AMBITION! HUUUMMMMAAANNS HAVE FEEELLLIINGSS! THEY MAKE YOU WEAK!

You're wrong.

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

I said, YOU'RE WRONG! Fear? Love? Those are our weaknesses? NO! Those are our STRENGTHS! THEY'VE kept us alive this long! Take away my feelings, and you take away everything that makes me human! Everything that makes me ME! SO GO AHEAD! Turn me into one of you! But I promise you, if you do that, I'd be more useful to you if I was dead!

WITH FEELINGS YOU ARE USELESS! YOUR MIND IS PATHETIC!

Bridgette was mad now. Furious. She was losing control, loosing rationality: I AM NOT WEAK! AND I CAN PROVE IT!

And with that, she began to think. She began to feel. She felt as she had never felt before. She twisted her mind around her memories, wandering up and down the hallways of her mind palace.

Wadding through piles of useless, random facts that had been stored away for years, she remembered her friends. The times they'd had. She pictured each of their faces in turn, filling her heart with them.

She thought of everything she had been through. The pain. The confusion. The impatience. The fear.

She remembered her family. They had given her everything, and now she would do the same for them.

And she thought of the Doctor. The TARDIS. What else was out there? Only he knew.

And she would too.

And then it was all too much, and her mind palace was flooded with a cerulean light before everything went dark again.