Sorry for the long delay between chapters. I feel safe in saying there has been a bit of a roller coaster of tragedy and life in the United States here. I also had some personal tragedy that distracted me from continuing my writing. I hope the same will not happen anytime soon but the future is always changing.

I do not own Doctor Who, but my brother better return my DVDs soon!


Fortress Ian

The war between the Kaleds and the Thals left many memories on their successors. The Thals learned to move on eventually and seek peace, but the monstrous Daleks were still stuck in the war for dominance that destroyed two civilizations after 1000 years of war.

Now on a different world far from where it began a new battle between the old foes resumed, only now it is not dominance but total extermination the Daleks want, of the Thals and the last Timelords they have discovered to exist in the universe.

The high pitched screeches of the staccato voices filled the jungle around the seemingly stone fortress. Both sides had shown remarkable shields, but the Daleks always improved their ability to kill and destroy. Forming into squads of three, 6 triads floated above the uneven floor of the jungle and focused fire at the Thal battlements.

The Thals had learned from a long war against the hated mutants in their travel machines and were one of the few races to successfully repel the Daleks until they simply went away to a different scheme for conquest and death. Now the new version proved more than a match for their shields. One emitter after another began to overload exposing the fortress to the Dalek firepower.

Jenny saw one of the towers blow apart half way up and crumble out into the jungle, killing an unknown number of Thals. She saw bloodied men and women, still seeming too perfect to be real even injured being taken to nearby medics. She also saw the reason they carried swords with their guns. They could be seen at different points along the wall to deflect or absorb the Dalek energy weapons.

The warriors seemed to consult the hilt on occasion and switch to a new blade while the one they handed off was set against the outer wall. Another warrior would also collect those blades and rush to a gun emplacement or shield control and insert it into a slot which seemed to drain off the excess energy stored inside.

Sound tactic making the Daleks give them power to use but risky to collect. Jenny's pre-programmed tactics quickly saw the advantages and disadvantages to such technology, but she was not allowed time to absorb it as one of the gates leading in through the wall began to spark and buckle under concentrated fire from without.

Romana rushed to the control center off to the right running a gun turret while Rory seemed to stare at the gate fixated. She saw him stand with his dark hair seeming to be as still as his limbs. She rushed around and instead of finding fear, intense concentration lined his every feature. Not only that but he seemed vastly different from before.

He had been warm and accepting in his home, almost like her father, but now she saw the other face her father also had on Rory's face, the one that stood up to injustice or when talking about the Timelords' War.

Jenny looked into the face of a man who she would follow any order from. Sensing her study of him Rory flicked his gaze to her and smiled his normal smile. His dark eyes alight with ideas. Looking around he seemed to find what he wanted.

"Come on Jenny, we need to give the Doctor some more time," following in his wake, she saw him easily pick up a sword and a gun and despite never looking like the type, they now seemed a part of him, as if he had always held them. Jenny followed suit and also tied her blonde hair back so it would not get in her line of sight at the wrong moment.


A scarred woman was commanding the Thals on the wall. Her blonde hair was streaked with silver but she looked in her prime and even with her cheeks crisscrossed with what seemed to be fine scars she was still stunning to Rory.

It was always odd when the Roman in him sprung up, it had often funny results with Amy and often he seemed older than he was when complaining, but as the Doctor had once asked him, he could bring it out too. He had only done it when Amy had been taken to Demon's Run and even he had been stunned by the changes it brought out in him.

Nervousness was just gone, ordinary concerns were a dream to reach for, and nothing mattered but victory to reach his goals. Now Amy and River were with the Doctor, but if found the Daleks would kill them just as surely as anyone else they found. The Last Centurion would not allow this to pass.

"So the human thinks he can fight and the Daughter of the Doctor wants to follow in her father's footsteps, I have no time for indulgence..." all three flinched as more firepower caused another chunk of the shield to fail. The sapphire gaze held no remorse in it as it looked at the two interlopers in the battle.

"You have rigged the gate area with traps and the ability to collapse at your choice yes?" Rory never broke his gaze from the now surprised look on the Thal. She narrowed her eyes and seemed to re-evaluate him from head to toe. Whatever she saw impressed her, she grinned warmly and nodded.

"You seem to have an idea in your eyes warrior, what are you called and what is the plan?" she winked at him and to his credit Rory only felt a slight blush he did not think showed. Jenny seemed to be awaiting his orders as well, he had seen she was a soldier just as much as the Thals.

"I am called the Last Centurion by some, and I will not let these monsters near my wife or child today, I need you to make that gate fail just enough to get 3 groups in and collapse it on them, be ready for my signal after that," not giving the commander a chance to question Rory whirled to Jenny.

"I need you to get Romana to have the turrets convincingly fail and also be ready at my signal, you will have at least two of the Dalek groups to deal with, go" Rory saw the plan in his head and knew the last group would remain behind no matter what happened. If this worked the Daleks should fall back, if not it would mean they were inside the fortress and practically all the Thals in his vision would be dead.


Romana's TARDIS

"This seems very tidy from the legends about you Doctor," Solavar caressed the dark wood rail around the control console as she watched the Doctor and River land the TARDIS in stealth. Amy was with K-9 sitting on one of the chairs. The room hummed as she was used to from the Doctor's TARDIS, but the Queen of the Thals was right, the Doctor seemed to like things a bit of mess.

Her fiery hair was suddenly tugging from her right hand, she had been twirling it in nervousness as the Doctor had kept plans vague for the Dalek saucer. He also had used this TARDIS after disconnecting it from the shields. Apparently whatever advantage it gave was only enough for the saucer shot and not the overall Dalek attack.

"Well you know how it is, people have different aesthetics, personally my old girl had this obsession with white roundels like you would not believe..." bright smile plastered on his face the Doctor whirled once in place as the final part of landing completed without detection. He did not underestimate the Daleks here, they were better at TARDIS hunting than even his people had at first been willing to believe. Even so he had learned a few tricks since then.

"All right sweetie, I will take it from here, you stay put until my signal...try to stay out of trouble," River was never more beautiful than when she smiled at the Doctor and checked on her weapons. This part was fairly straight forward, River would head out and then Amy and Solavar would also go with K-9. The Doctor would never leave the TARDIS unless absolutely needed.

"I hate this plan," the Doctor actually seemed to be pouting as River slipped out what now appeared to be tree bark. Amy and Solavar stared at him and he just shrugged as he turned to the console to track River's progress. True to form she was already in place and had disabled the sensors.

Amy saw him hunch his shoulders the way he did when worried, but there was no choice if they wanted to be sure the Daleks stayed in the dark about his being alive. It was too soon and the Silence would be looking for sure if the Daleks mentioned it.

"All right, now you two behave and get going, K-9...keep them safe," the Doctor watched as they also left the TARDIS.


The golden hull was only ten feet away from them when they emerged. River was no where in sight but that meant little as she would be wise to hide. K-9 trundled forward with remarkable ease, but the Daleks had flattened the area around their vessel for their own ease of travel. The lowered ramp seemed far too easy an entrance, but it was the only way.

Amy saw the dark skinned Queen of the Thals seem to transform subtlety from an impossible beauty to deadly warrior in a blink. She now put of the air of danger and strength that left no doubt of her ability, her own gun and sword at the ready.

"Well, let's not keep the overgrown pepper pots waiting shall we?" Amy saw her comment draw a large smile from Solavar and both advanced behind K-9 into the saucer.


Fortress Ian

"Shields are failing at the main gate and its protective turrets, estimate total collapse imminent!" the nearest Dalek's analysis encouraged greater focus of withering fire on the main gate. Three of the triads had risen to also continue the assault on the main guns as their shields were worse.

Their own shields were being cycled and strengthened by all 3 units at once, a shield that could absorb a lot of damage, then pass its locus to the next unit so the former could repair and recharge. The Thal defeat was inevitable.

The turrets suddenly sparked and fizzled like mad. Thals evacuated the towers in droves and rather than finish the towers, all the triads focused fire on the main gate at last. The shield blinded to the brightest white and then scattered into tiny particles of energy. The physical gate already had one door barely on its dark metal hinges and it was the easiest thing for the Daleks to blow them open.

Never to trust the obvious, two triads covered from the air as 3 moved forward into the main courtyard of the Thal fortress. Bodies were strewn everywhere, some moving, other obviously unconscious or dead. Even now the clothing of yellow v-necked attire and white pants rattled up a priority 1 extermination order inside the Dalek machines, only the Doctor rated as high to them.

"Advance, find the Timelords and exterminate!" the 9 Daleks landed on the stone inside as their 6 counter parts above continued to cover the air. They were the first to see the oddity. A man advanced on the Dalek party, if not for inconsistency they would have shot him immediately. His features were fed into their databanks and the answer was a human, not a Thal.

"State identity and purpose here, are you with the Timelord?" the long history of the Doctor made this likely. If this human held any information they would drain it from him before he died. He held a Thal sword and carried a gun but did not raise either. Instead he seemed to chuckle.


"My identity is the Last Centurion, and my purpose is to protect the contents of the Pandorica," Rory chose his words well, the Daleks swiveled their eye-stalks to each other not in confusion, but surprise. He knew they would not remember all of it, but enough of the story had returned thanks to Amy that they would know enough. He was rewarded for his daring stand.

"Impossible, you should not exist!" the Daleks had stopped just inside the gate arch and the ones above had targeted him. They were still in need of information or he would be dead, and he had gambled on it to keep them in place, he was ready.

"I don't care what you think, but I do care where you are...NOW!" as if by magic the fallen Thals leapt up as one and opened fire on the Daleks. The turrets that had done such a wonderful show of failure whipped around and the same to the airborne triads. The overall effect of blinding the Daleks to the danger they were in.

The shields may be good at deflecting energy but solid objects are a different matter! As Rory watched, all the stones around the arch fell inward as the ones beneath the Daleks gave way. They had no time to react or counter this move on the ground and fell into a bit as all the stones fell on top of them. The units above could not keep up their shields at point blank range and retreated back to the jungle and their commander.

Rather than simply hope the rock had done their job, the Thals opened up more fire power into the pit as the actually wounded and the last of the tower could evacuate to the next wall of the inner fortress. Rory saw Romana's dark hair flow behind her as she seemed to consult a datapad as she retreated. Jenny was by his side with the rest as they fell back cautiously to the next wall.

Their caution was valid as all 9 Daleks rose from the pit, damaged but otherwise alive. Even so they fell back, recognizing that they were now vulnerable to more serious damage.


"Well done, it worked!" the commander of the Thals had suffered a cut on her forehead and blood was trailing down her face, but she smiled wide as the Daleks left her home. Rory was less inclined for cheer. He had hoped to smash at least one triad, but damage to all of them would have to do for now. His comfort slipped as he saw the a glow appear in the jungle just outside the walls and a word he had hoped not to hear.

"Restoring!" the synthesized voice carried to the battered Thal force and all knew what it meant. Romana looked at him in hopelessness as she showed him the data from her pad.

"It is worse Rory, even if we could destroy even one, only one is needed to bring this fortress down, we no longer have the power to stop them, only slow them down and physical traps only dent that armor," graphs and numbers flitted across the screen, but he saw the clearly labeled shield output and Dalek firepower ones.

"All right plan B then," Rory the Roman seemed calm even in the face of defeat. He did have one more plan but it was just plan crazy, but looking at the Thals pick themselves up and prepare to fight again he was reminded of his old regiment, fake as they had been. He pulled Jenny, Romana, and the commander close and began to flesh out his next gamble.


Dalek Saucer

"You will stay where you are, if you move, you will be exterminated!" the single Dalek on the saucer had found them almost immediately. Apparently he had been left in case of the exact thought of sabotage or confiscation of the ship occurred to the Thals. Amy and Solavar had thought they would get farther with their part of the plan.

"You are a known companion to the Doctor, and you are a Thal, you will be exterminated now!" it seemed to sound excited as it targeted Solavar first, Thals being worse to it than a simple human. It never saw K-9 advance from behind and apply his nose to it.

"Warning, systems compromised, warning, out of control...out of control...OUT OF CONTROL..." its eye-stalk switched off and its manipulator and gun lowered as it drifted off to the left. Amy smiled wide as K-9 wagged his tail at them.

"Enemy neutralized...most satisfactory," Amy smirked at his cheek and petted him as she passed. She had turned the corner before she heard the discharge of the gun. Whirling back she saw Solavar looking grim at the now smoking remains of a Dalek. Blood oozed out of the casing and a stench of decay and rot came from it that made her sick. Sparks flickered from with in and seemingly without feeling Solavar fired into the hole she had made.

Amy felt a shiver at the lack of rage in the other woman. This was not a pleasurable thing for her, but it was easy. How could she do that so coldly?

"They can repair their machines and regenerate if given time Amy Pond, I will take any opportunity to eliminate a threat to my people," the beauty of her face gave her words far more impact, every line of her dark complexion simply emphasizing that this was how the world is for her. Another shiver went up Amy's spine at the distance in her eyes and voice.

"Even so it seems cold to kill them like that," Amy turned to go and found Solavar's hand holding her arm. The woman cupped her pale skin in her dark hand gently as she raised her eyes level.

"The Daleks have murdered worlds child, whole civilizations, advanced or not, are just gone because of them. I will not hesitate to destroy one of them if given the chance, and I will certainly not leave one alive behind us. That does not mean I do not pity them for being unable to change, but I accept what is here and now," the speech over she let Amy go. This time Amy felt a more noble truth in her companion. K-9 continued down the corridor of shining silver color looking for their target.


Finally he wagged his tail again at what appeared to be a blank wall. Solavar reached for it and found a panel to open a hidden door. Weapons raised she put her back to the wall and glanced inside, it saved their lives.

"EXTERMINATE!" Dalek fire power blasted into the hallway burning the far wall with sparks, but when it ended there was no damage. Amy made a note to not lean on a wall that thing hit as she had no doubt the metal might conduct that weapon along it.

"One more hiding in a control center, clever, we would not detect it with all the equipment," Solavar smiled wide to Amy. K-9 could not do his trick twice either as the Dalek fired at him when he tried to enter. Both were wondering how to get past it when they heard a clang and then more energy discharges, but like the Thal weapon not the Dalek.

"WARNING, VISION IMPAIRED...I CANNOT SEE!" Solavar needed no prompting, nor did K-9, they both opened fire and then whipped back away from the door as an explosion rocked the ship. Amy heard some coughing and then River emerged from the smoldering room.

"Well that is one way to take out a brain center of a starship," the smudges on her clothes and face did nothing to hamper the welcome sight of her daughter. Amy saw the destroyed equipment the Dalek had been in the center of, it had not been hiding there as Solavar thought, Amy could see tubes and connections leading to all the panels around it.

"I thought it was just a computer and not an actual Dalek," Amy saw Solavar do a closer look and nod with respect to Amy's analysis, River did not seem surprised.

"Given this is an older ship design, they probably had to use one to make it compatible with them and some improvements, the sensors and weapons were nearly repaired before I got to those, now there should be one more.." Solavar grabbed River and threw her into Amy's arms. She got the full blast of the Dalek that had come up behind River.

"NO!" Amy and River both caught the falling Queen of the Thals, but there was no life in her, she was gone. River went to reach for her weapon but found her Amy's hand already holding it in place, seeing the raised look she knew it was too late.

"That is enough, you will drop all weapons and you artificial animal will deactivate or you will both be EXTERMINATED!" with no alternative River dropped her weapons, 3 pistols, 2 knives, and something that looked remarkably like the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Dalek remained immobile and River finally removed her wrist band as well. It backed up and indicated for them to pass as K-9 remained immobile now.

"Halt! Exterminate!" both women whirled in time to see K-9 also be destroyed. Amy felt tears burn her eyes, artificial though he had been, she had become quite fond of the metal dog. The Dalek prodded them forward and they went deeper into the ship. Their missions were a success, but it had cost precious lives.


Romana's TARDIS

The Doctor leaned heavily on the console. He had seen through K-9 all that had happened, up to his destruction. He had known it would be risky sending them in, Amy would not be held back with River in danger and Solavar would protect her people, but he had not imagined this after such victories. All to protect his dirty secret, to prolong the inevitable discovery that he was still alive despite the best attempt by the Silence.

The saucer was dead now, one Dalek would not be able to repair it to be a threat against the Thals. It was time the Daleks remembered something about him, about why they called him the Oncoming Storm. He had sworn to go back into the shadows, to stop being center stage, and this would not violate that oath.

Long ago the Daleks had never thought him a threat, it was not until they had made him angry that they learned the terrible error of that assumption, when ten million ships had burned. That is when they had accepted what he was, that even for them bogey men do exist.

He flipped two switches on the console. He could not be foolish even at the home stretch, ultimately he had to save the Thals and his friends if he could. If that meant making the Silence goal come true, the so be it, but now it was time for the Doctor to come back into the light.

As he exited the ship it dematerialized and left the jungle once again, while inside the ship his sonic screwdriver activated. It continued to trill until it was retrieved and deactivated, all unnoticed by the Dalek on board thanks to Amy and River.