Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. I only own Alex.
A few minutes later, the trio was standing in the doorway that led to Bracewell's laboratory. They all silently watched as a Dalek glided up to Bracewell, who was fiddling with some papers on a very crowded table, one of several around the room. "Would you care for some tea?" it asked.
Bracewell glanced at it and nodded. "That would be very nice, thank you."
Once the Dalek had glided off, the Doctor entered the lab, followed closely by the girls. He eyed a few devices before abruptly turning to the professor. Alex trailed along behind him while Amy examined some of the devices. "Alright, Prof!" he bellowed. "Now, the PM's been filling me in. Amazing things these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them."
"Just doing my bit," Bracewell replied modestly.
Listening to them, Amy picked up a scanner from one table. "Not bad for a Paisley boy," she commented.
Bracewell smiled at Amy. "Yes, I thought I detected a familiar cadence, my dear."
Alex hopped up onto a table and swung her legs as she examined a file. "How did you come up with these…Ironsides?" she said, having to stop herself from saying Daleks.
"How does the muse of invention come to anyone?" the professor shrugged. Alex and the Doctor glanced at each-other, both thinking that this hadn't answered their question at all.
"But, you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?" the Doctor continued.
"Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head! Wonderful things! Like…let me show you." He removed a file next to Alex and flipped it open, showing it to the Doctor. Alex craned her head to look over it without getting up from her comfortable perch. "Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight." He reached over and grabbed another file. Alex hopped off the desk to get a better look at this one.
"Gravity bubbles that can sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere," Bracewell smiled at them. "Came to me in the bath!"
"TMI," Alex muttered, studying the file. She didn't understand most of it, but what she could looked correct.
"And are these your ideas or theirs?" the Doctor asked. He knew that no human, not even a genius, could fathom this stuff in this time period, let alone even write proper files on it!
"Oh, no, no, no," Bracewell protested. "These robots are entirely under my control, Doctor. They are…" He paused as the Dalek brought him his tea. "Thank you…the perfect servant and the perfect warrior!"
The Doctor glared at him and Alex tensed a little, remembering his reaction on Starship U.K. "I don't know what you're up to Professor, but whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them. Call them what you like, Daleks are death."
"Yes, Doctor!" Winston called from the doorway, entering the room. Another Dalek followed closely behind him. "Death to our enemies! Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich!"
The Doctor grimaced. "Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too!"
In a classic cliché of bad timing, a Dalek rolled up to the Doctor, a tea tray balanced on its plunger. "Would you care for some tea?" it asked, completely unaware of the tense situation it had entered.
The Doctor snapped. He furiously knocked the tray to the ground, not even noticing Alex and Amy jump. "Stop this!" he yelled. "What are you doing here? What do you want?"
"We seek only to help you," the Dalek answered.
"To do what?"
"To win the war!"
"Really?" the Doctor scoffed. "Which war?"
The Dalek stared at him. "I do not understand."
"This war, against the Nazis?" the Doctor asked. "Or your war? The war against the rest of the universe? The war against all life-forms that are not Dalek?"
"I do not understand," the Dalek insisted. "I am your soldier."
"Oh, yeah?" the Doctor sneered. He turned and picked up a giant spanner. "Okay. Okay, soldier, defend yourself!" Before anyone knew what was happening, he began banging the spanner as hard as he could against the Dalek. Alex raced to try and stop him but Winston yanked her back, not wanting the girl to accidently get hit during the Doctor's tirade.
"Doctor, what the devil?" Winston demanded as he struggled with Alex, who was still kicking against him, dead-set on stopping the Doctor. Amy shrieked a little as the Doctor pounded the Dalek, causing it to say "You do not require tea?" Alex might've laughed at that were it not for the seriousness of the situation. That and the fact that this was the second time today that someone was holding her against her will.
"Stop him!" Bracewell cried. "Prime Minister, please!"
"Let me go!" Alex cried, almost getting out of Winston's grasp but he grabbed her back at the last second.
"Doctor, what the devil?" Winston yelled again. "Please, these machines are precious."
The Doctor ignored him, instead choosing to hit the Dalek even more. "Come on!" he yelled, maddening. "Fight back! You want to, don't you? You know you do!"
"I must protest!" Bracewell shouted over the racket.
"What are you waiting for?" the Doctor yelled again. "Look, you hate me! You want to kill me! Well, go on! Kill me! KILL ME!" An even harder strike followed this statement and Alex nearly tore Winston's arms out of their sockets trying to escape.
"Don't!" she cried, her voice barely heard over the consistent striking of metal on metal.
"Doctor, be careful!" Amy begged.
"Please desist from striking me!" the Dalek cried. "I am your soldier!" But the Doctor wouldn't listen, continuing to strike the Dalek as he had wanted to do too many times in his long life.
Alex watched with horror as the Doctor ferociously beat the Dalek. This was like the Starship U.K. again, but worse. This time, she could just see in his face that the Doctor had had personal experience with the Daleks, experiences that hadn't ended well and had cost him. Fleetingly, she wondered what they were but she realized that right now, they didn't matter. What did matter was stopping the Doctor from doing something he would regret. In this volatile state, he was prone to do anything.
With this realization in mind, she stropped struggling against Winston and screamed "DOCTOR, PLEASE STOP! PLEASE!"
All of a sudden, the Doctor just stopped. He had been saying "You are my enemy!" while punctuating each word with a hit but now, hearing Alex's desperate cries, louder than any of the others, he just had to stop. He remembered the look of horror on her face back on Starship U.K. and he knew that if turned around, it would be on her face. Stumbling back from the Dalek, he dropped the spanner on the ground with a CLANK and breathed heavily. "And I am yours!" he cried. He wouldn't hit the Dalek anymore, but he would make the point loud and clear verbally. "You are everything I despise! The worst in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you! I sent you back into the Void! I saved the whole of reality from you!" He took a deep breath before, with a triumphant glare on his face, declaring "I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!" And with one giant kick, he sent the Dalek hurdling across the room.
As soon as the Dalek was no longer in front of him, Alex flung herself away from Winston and kicked the spanner as far away from the Doctor as possible. She turned on her heel and glowered at the Doctor before furiously slapping him. Amy winced and the Doctor hissed slightly in pain, knowing he had deserved that.
"Okay," he grimaced, rubbing his red cheek, "I deserved that."
"Damn right you did," Alex agreed darkly. "Do you have any idea how insanely stupid, completely reckless, and-," She was about to continue but the Dalek across the room suddenly stated "Correct. Review testimony."
The Doctor's voice filled the room. "I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!"
"Testimony," the Doctor repeated, fearful. He positioned himself in front of Alex again and she let him, despite her still furious state. "What are you talking about, testimony?"
"Transmitting testimony now," the second Dalek said.
"Transmit what, where?"
"Testimony accepted!" the second Dalek cheered.
The Doctor hurriedly pushed Alex behind a desk and raced over to Amy. "Get back, all of you!" he cried.
"Marines!" Winston called. "Marines! Get in here!" Two marines quickly entered the lab, guns drawn, but they were no match for the Daleks. One of the Daleks killed them both just a few seconds after they had entered. Alex sucked in a breath and the Doctor gripped her shoulders, fearful that she might faint from shock. But her memory was slowly revealing itself. She was remembering what she had read on the BBC News that night, that people had been dying much like the marines had died now. It wasn't much, but it was something.
"Stop it!" Bracewell shouted. "Stop it, please! What are you doing? You are my Ironsides!"
"We are the Daleks!" the first Dalek exclaimed.
"But I created you!" Bracewell cried, probably in an attempt to assure himself that he wasn't going crazy.
"No," the first Dalek objected. The Dalek then shot Bracewell's hand, revealing to the shock of the others, especially Bracewell, not flesh and bone, but stumps of wire and metal bits. "We created you."
"Victory, victory, victory!" they cried, before teleporting out of the room.
Amy looked over at the Doctor, who looked absolutely horror-stricken. "What just happened, Doctor?"
"I wanted to know what they wanted. What their plan was," he breathed. Realization hit him in his hearts like a gunshot. "I was their plan!" The Doctor ran out of the room, Alex hot on his heels as Amy and Winston hurried after them.
"Hey!" Amy cried, indignant.
"Testimony accepted. That's what they said," the Doctor rambled. "My testimony."
Alex knew what he was thinking even before he could say them out loud. "It may not be that bad Doctor," she assured him, although she knew that she was probably lying. "Maybe they just needed that testimony to remind themselves they were Daleks." The Doctor looked down at her, wanting to believe her reassuring words, but he just couldn't. They both knew it wasn't the truth.
"Don't beat yourself up," Amy reassured him, having caught up with them. "You were right." As they were now standing in front of the TARDIS, she looked at it expectantly and asked "What do we do now? Is this what we do now? Chase after them?"
Absolutely NOT! The Doctor thought. "This is what I do," he corrected her. "Yeah, and it's dangerous, so you two wait here."
Alex gaped at him. "What, so you mean we've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the LONDON BLITZ?!"
The Doctor knew that she was, understandably, freaked out. "Safe as it gets around me."
He smiled at her but Alex wasn't having it.
"You are insane, you know that?" she asked. "The Daleks will kill you!"
Amy nodded her agreement. "Exactly! You can't go there alone!"
As Amy argued with the Doctor over going off by himself on what she deemed a suicide mission, unbeknownst to him, Alex slipped into the TARDIS behind him and darted into the doorway of a staircase leading into the further depths of the TARDIS. The ship murmured, part amused at her tricking the Doctor, but part worried as well, as she knew Alex had never properly faced the Daleks before and didn't really know how deadly they were.
Alex patted the wall in reassurance. "Don't worry," she whispered. "I'll be fine. I'm going to stay in here and keep an eye on him, just to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
Outside, as the Doctor ducked into the TARDIS, Amy smirked. She had seen Alex inching her way into the TARDIS and she approved of the fact that Alex was going to keep an eye on him. The way he had acted when he had been furiously hitting the Dalek scared her and once again, only Alex had been able to snap him out of it. It was a safe bet that should the Doctor start to get really angry again, Alex could calm him back down.
Winston looked over at her and smiled as the TARDIS dematerialized. "Miss Locke is certainly protective of him, isn't she?"
Amy nodded her agreement. "Yeah, it's weird. She seems to be the only person who can actually get him to stop doing something horrible. It's good that she's going with him."
However, a split second later, the materialization noise of the TARDIS rang through the air, followed by the TARDIS landing right in front of them again. Another second later and out came the Doctor and Alex. The Doctor had grabbed Alex by the waist and had flung her over his shoulder, ignoring her repetitive kicking and basic threatening. Rolling his eyes, he set her on the floor right next to Amy. "I mean it," he warned her, although Amy caught an undercurrent of amusement coming from him as well. "Stay here." The Doctor ducked back into the TARDIS again and the ship immediately dematerialized again.
Amy looked over at a pissed Alex. "How'd he find out?" she cried. "You didn't pop out of nowhere, did you?"
Alex glared at her. "Of course not. Ten seconds after we left, he suddenly turned and ran over to where I was hiding. He said he knew I was on board because his adrenaline levels went up a few notches." Alex thought about the various reactions her body had had to the Doctor's body. "Apparently, when we're near each-other, our bodies go all hormonal or something. Anyways, before I could run off, he had lifted me over his shoulder and he simply piloted the TARDIS, running all around the console while I was flopping on his back!"
Amy cackled. "I would've paid so much to see that!" she chortled. She just could imagine Alex screaming at the Doctor as he raced around the console with him keeping her over his shoulder, pointedly ignoring her as he tried to keep his own amusement about her defying him under wraps.
Alex glared at her. "Not funny," she insisted. She looked over at Winston. "So, to recap, the Doctor has stupidly dumped me here instead of keeping me by his side so I can calm him down when he gets hissy about the Daleks."
Amy stopped laughing as she listened to Alex's statement. This was serious. Without Alex there, there was no telling what the Doctor would do. "What's he expect us to do now?" she groaned.
Winston stared at her as though this was obvious. "KBO, of course."
Amy blinked. "What?"
Alex smiled, recognizing Winston's famous catchphrase. "Keep buggering on," she said in synch with him.
A few minutes later, Alex, Amy, and Winston were back in Winston's office. Alex was pouring over the Dalek documents, desperate to find some kind of weakness in the seemingly impenetrable creatures. She was running a hand through her hair, signifying stress, when an officer came in. "Prime Minister?"
"Yes?"
"Signal from RDF, sir. Unidentified object. Hanging in the sky, Captain Childers says." Alex looked up at this. "We can't get a proper fix though. It's too far up."
Winston looked over at the girls, who both looked determined to do anything they could to help the Doctor. "What do you think Miss Pond? Miss Locke?" he asked them. "The Doctor's in trouble and now we know where he is!"
"Yeah," Amy said, getting excited and pumped. "Because he'll be on that ship, won't he? Right in the middle of everything."
"Exactly," Winston confirmed.
Five minutes later, Amy was helping Alex go over the Dalek documents, as they had begun to call them, still searching for something that could help the Doctor defeat them. Alex was scribbling notes on the back of an order form for cigars, something she insisted helped her think. As she did so, a soldier raced into the room.
"The generators won't switch off!" he informed them. "The lights are on all across London, Prime Minister!"
"What?!" Alex shrieked.
Amy shook her head. "Has to be them. Has to be the Daleks."
"But how are they doing it?" Alex cried, racing out of the room. She quickly darted up to the roof and poked her head out. Sure enough, London was lit up like a Christmas tree, lights lit up in every home for miles. Groaning softly, Alex went back inside. The Germans were on their way and if London was still lit up in twenty minutes, all of the city would be destroyed in less time than that.
She found Amy and Winston in the Map Room and joined them just in time to hear someone tell Winston "German bombers sighted over the Channel, sir. ETA ten minutes, sir."
Winston groaned. "Here they come! Get a message to Mr. Atlee! War cabinet meeting at oh three hundred hours! If we're all still here," he muttered.
"We can't just sit here," Amy argued. "We've got to take the fight to the Daleks."
"How? None of our weapons are a match for theirs."
"Oh God," Amy groaned, pacing a bit, "we must have SOMETHING!"
"…six oh four Blenheim squadron, stand by."
Suddenly, Alex and Amy realized the solution at the exact same time. Looking at each-other, they grinned and turned to Winston, excited looks on their faces. "Oh, it's staring us right in the face!" Amy cried.
Winston stared at them. "What is?" he asked.
Alex smiled. "A gift from the Daleks."
Minutes later, Alex, Amy, and Winston stormed into Bracewell's laboratory only to find Bracewell sitting in a chair, a gun to his head.
"Bracewell, put that gun down!" Winston ordered.
Bracewell didn't however. Instead, he just stared off into the distance as he said "My life is a lie and I choose to end it."
"In your own time Paisley boy," Amy said, marching up to him. She and Alex had agreed on the way here that she would do the heavy talking with Bracewell, seeing as how he had identified with her being Scottish and was thus closer to him than the American Alex. "Because right now, we need your help."
"But those creatures," Bracewell protested. "My Ironsides, they made me? I can remember things. So many things. The last war. The squalor and the mud and the awful, awful misery of it. What am I? What am I?"
"What you are sir, is either on our side or theirs," Winston retorted. He bit on his cigar before quickly taking it out. "Now, I don't give a damn if you're a machine, Bracewell." He stared at the man critically. "Are you a man?"
Amy bent down next to Bracewell. "Listen to me. I understand. I really do," she insisted as she carefully removed the gun from Bracewell's hand and placed it a distance away on the desk. "Look, there is a spaceship up there lighting up London like a Christmas tree. Thousands of people will die tonight if we don't stop it, and you are the only one who can help take it down."
Bracewell seemed surprised at this. "I am?" he said dubiously.
"You're alien technology!" Amy pointed out. "You're as clever as the Daleks are, so start thinking. What about rockets? Because you said gravity whatsits-,"
"Gravity bubbles," Alex corrected.
Amy went on, nodding her head at her as acknowledgment. "Gravity bubbles, hypersonic flight, some kind of missile?"
Winston glared at her. "This isn't a fireworks party Miss Pond! We need proper tactical!" Suddenly, an idea came to him. "Oh. A missile. Or…"
"Or what?" Alex questioned.
Winston turned to Bracewell. "We could send something up there, you say?"
Bracewell shrugged, seeming to say it could go either way. "Yes, well, with a gravity bubble, yes, but…theoretically, it's possible that we could actually send something into space."
Winston grinned at him. "Bracewell, it's time to think big!" he declared.
Several minutes later, after Alex had helped Bracewell authorize sending the bomber pilots into space, she and Bracewell raced into the Map Room, Bracewell pushing a wheeled chair with a large radar scanner on it, rigged to his own liking, and Alex having a streak of grease on her nose from ducking under a plane to check and make sure everything was secure. As it turned out, memorizing all those plans while looking for weaknesses in the Daleks had made her perfectly cut out for a job as a mechanic.
Winston looked up at them as they came in. "At last. Are they ready?"
"I hope so," Bracewell said. He placed the radar scanner on the table and wiggled a few knobs, looking for the right frequency. "But in the meantime, this will pick up Dalek transmissions!"
A second later, an image showing the Doctor and a giant white Dalek appeared on the screen. Alex pushed herself to the very front of the crowd gathering around the scanner, right next to Amy. "We are the paradigm of a new Dalek race," the White Dalek proclaimed.
"It's him!" Amy cheered. "It's the Doctor!"
On the screen, the White Dalek gestured to several other Daleks around him, all painted in different colors. "Scientist, Strategist, Drone, Eternal, and the Supreme."
"Which would be you, I'm guessing," the Doctor said. "Well, you know, nice paint job."
Alex frowned. "I'm going to kill him," she said. Honestly! When is he going to learn not to bait them?!
"I'd be feeling pretty swish if I looked like you," the Doctor went on. "Pretty supreme."
"He's got company," Amy grimaced. "New company. You've got to hurry up." A phone started ringing and Bracewell quickly answered it.
"Yes?" he said. "Right. Right, thanks." He hung up and turned to Winston. "Ready when you are Prime Minister."
"Splendid!" Winston cheered.
"Spaceship's exact coordinates located."
"Go to it, Group Captain," Winston ordered. "Go to it."
"Broadsword to Danny Boy," a voice rang out. "Broadsword to Danny Boy. Scramble. Scramble. Scramble."
Back on the screen, the Doctor said "Question is, what do we do now? Either you turn off your clever machine or I'll blow you and your new paradigm into eternity."
"And yourself," the White Dalek pointed out.
"Occupational hazard," the Doctor retorted, tightening his grip on what he was holding out in front of him.
Alex squinted and peered closer to the screen. "Is he holding what I think he's holding?" she demanded, her voice slightly shrill.
"Scans reveal nothing!" a blue Dalek suddenly called out. "TARDIS self-destruct device non-existant!"
"All right!" the Doctor admitted, popping the biscuit into his mouth. "It's a Jammy Dodger, but I was promised tea."
Alex groaned and straightened up. "I knew it!" she cried. "That's it. I am going to kill him! I mean it this time!" Amy and Winston shared an amused look.
On the screen, alarms started sounding. "Alert!" the Blue Dalek cried. "Unidentified projectile approaching! Correction, multiple projectiles."
"What have the humans done?" the White Dalek demanded.
The Doctor was examining some type of scanner on the other side of the room. "I don't know," he replied.
This didn't satisfy the White Dalek though. "Explain. Explain. Explain!"
"Danny Boy to the Doctor!" the pilot suddenly called on screen. "Danny Boy to the Doctor! Are you receiving me? Over."
"Oh ho!" the Doctor cheered. "Winston, you beauty!"
Alex leaned back and crossed her arms. Having expected that reaction, she had told the pilot to tell the Doctor something. "Not just the PM Doctor," Danny Boy said. "Miss Alex said to tell you that she and Miss Amy deserved some credit too."
The Doctor laughed. "Ha-ha! Brilliant job as well you two! I'm sure you're listening in, so excellent!" Behind him, Alex noticed one Dalek move slightly at the mention of her name. She decided to ignore it though. Maybe it was nothing.
"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Come in. Over."
"Loud and clear Danny Boy," the Doctor confirmed. "Big dish, side of the ship. Blow it up! Over."
The White Dalek was not happy with this command for it ordered "Exterminate the Doctor!"
"No!" Alex and Amy cried, fearful. They didn't need to worry though for the Doctor ran back to the TARDIS, easily dodging the Dalek's lasers.
"You heard him, Group Captain," Winston said. "Target that dish. Send in all we've got!"
"Broadsword to Danny Boy. Target the dish and stop that signal. Over."
"Understood, sir. Over."
"Oh, good luck lads," one girl next to Alex said.
"Okay chaps, let's put London back under cover of darkness! Tally ho! Cover my back, going in close. Pull out, pull out!"
"We've lost Jubilee sir. Over," a pilot announced.
"Beam still active sir."
"Send them in again," Winston said.
"Flintlock's down sir, and the dish seems to be protected. Over."
A Dalek voice rang out. "Shields intact. Pulse still active."
"Danny Boy to the Doctor. Only me left now. Anything you can do sir? Over."
The Doctor's voice sounded in the Map Room. "The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. I can disrupt the Dalek shields, but not for long. Over."
"Good show Doctor. Go to it. Over. I'm going in. Wish me luck. Over."
There was silence in the Map Room for a few moments until the pilot suddenly called out "Direct hit, sir!"
"Yes!" Amy and Alex cheered, hugging each-other. All around them, others were cheering, celebrating their victory. Alex then remembered something. "One sec Amy, I gotta check something out." Pushing her way through the crowd, Alex raced back up to the roof and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that all of London was now black, completely hidden from the German bombers.
Alex returned to the elevator to go back and join the celebration. She smiled to herself. Everything seemed right in the world now, with the exception of the world war going on just outside. The Daleks were gone and were most likely being destroyed by the Doctor at the moment, London was now safe from the German bombers, and she was extremely giddy about saving the world. Was this what it was like to travel with the Doctor? If so, Alex didn't want to stop anytime soon.
However, all the festiveness in her was quickly kicked out when she saw the Doctor run into the Map Room, straight at Bracewell, and knocked him to the ground with a swift uppercut that Alex couldn't help but admire. Then the action of what he had done kicked in and she ran over.
"Doctor, are you nuts?" she cried, bending down next to Bracewell.
"Doctor!" Amy chimed in, appalled.
"Ow!" the Doctor grimaced, shaking his hand. He looked down at Bracewell. "Sorry Professor! You're a bomb! An incredibly massive Dalek bomb!"
"What?" Bracewell cried while Alex wondered if the encounter with the Daleks had caused the Doctor to completely lose his mind.
"There's an Oblivion Continuum inside you," the Doctor explained. "A captured wormhole that provides perpetual power. Detonate that, and the Earth will bleed through into another dimension. Now keep down." Taking out his sonic screwdriver, he used it to open up Bracewell's chest, revealing a solid metal interior. In the center was a circular pad divided into five blue sections, one of which was turning yellow. The Doctor knelt down next to him while Amy knelt on the other side. Alex stood a little ways away from Amy, not wanting to crowd them.
"Well?" Amy asked hopefully.
The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" he groaned. "Never seen one up close before."
"Oh, well that helps us out a lot!" Alex commented.
They ignored her though. "So what they've wired him up to detonate?" Amy guessed.
"Oh no, not wired him up!" the Doctor said. "He is a bomb. Walking talking…" He made an exploding sound effect with his hands simulating an explosion while Alex rolled her eyes, wishing he'd get on with it. "…exploding, the moment that flashes red." He pointed to the circular pad on Bracewell's chest.
Amy desperately tried to think of a solution. It wasn't that hard for Alex so it couldn't be hard for her too, could it? "There's a blue wire or something you have to cut, isn't there?" The Doctor looked excited by this suggestion but his face fell as Amy rambled "There's always a blue wire. Or a red one."
"You're not helping," the Doctor told her, glancing down to see the yellow section turning red.
"It's incredible." Winston shook his head. "He talked to us about his memories. The Great War…"
"Someone else's stolen thoughts, implanted in a positronic brain," the Doctor hurriedly explained. Suddenly, he had an idea. He turned back to Bracewell. "Tell me about it. Bracewell! Tell me about your life!" Alex's eyes widened as she realized what the Doctor was going to try and do. That could actually work!
Bracewell simply stared at him. "Doctor, I really don't think this is the time!"
"Tell him and prove you're human," Alex urged him. Looking over at her, Bracewell saw the sincerity in her eyes. "Tell him everything." The Doctor smiled at her, relieved that she knew his plan, as the second panel on Bracewell's chest turned yellow and began darkening.
"My family ran the post office," Bracewell began. "It's a little place just near the abbey, just by the ash trees. There used to be eight trees but there was a storm."
"And your parents?" the Doctor interrupted. "Come on! Tell me!"
"Good people, kind people. They…died. Scarlet fever."
"What was that like?" the Doctor urged. "How did it feel?" Alex frowned at him. She highly doubted that remembering those painful memories would help stop a bomb!
"Please," Bracewell begged, not wanting to remember those tragic memories.
The Doctor ignored those pleas though. "How did it make you feel, Edwin? Tell me. Tell me now!"
"It hurt." Bracewell suddenly gasped. "It hurt, Doctor, it hurt so badly! It was like a wound. I thought it was worse than a wound. Like I'd been emptied out. There was nothing left." As he spoke, the second panel turned red while the third one turned yellow.
"Good," the Doctor nodded encouragingly. "Remember it now, Edwin! The ash trees by the Post Office and your mum and dad and losing them and men in trenches you saw die…remember it! Feel it! You feel it because you're human. You're not like them! You're not like the Daleks!"
Alex felt her heart sink as she watched Bracewell squirm with pain and tears. Honestly! That idiot! How the hell does he think remembering such awful memories is going to help matters? Alex quickly began racking her brain for a second option as Bracewell wept. "It hurts Doctor! It hurts so much!"
But the Doctor didn't seem to notice the professor's obvious pain. "Good! Good! Good!" he chirped. "Brilliant! Embrace it!" A fourth panel turned red. "That means you're alive! They cannot explode that bomb because you're a human being! You are flesh and blood! They cannot explode that bomb! Believe it. You are Professor Edwin Bracewell, and you, my friend, are a human being!"
It was a very enthusiastic speech but the effect was quickly ruined when the fifth panel started darkening. The Doctor paled and ran a hand through his hair, just like Alex did when she was frustrated. "It's not working," he muttered.
"I could've told you that!" Alex cried. "Painful memories won't work! They just cause a person to become more volatile and not be in control of their own actions!"
Amy stared up at her. "Why didn't you say anything?" she cried.
Alex gave her a look. "Do you really think he would've listened to me?" Amy had to admit that she had a point so she just turned back to Bracewell, ending the subject matter.
The Doctor didn't even notice their exchange. "I can't stop it," he realized.
Alex marched over to him. "Don't say that. You can solve this. I have absolute faith in you."
As they talked, Amy thought about what Alex had said. If painful memories made a person completely upset and not in control of their actions, what would happy memories do? Also, Amy had had experience with a certain type of emotion that most everyone had had experience with and Bracewell probably had as well. "Hey, Paisley," she said softly, attracting the attention of the Doctor and Alex. "Ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?"
"What?" The last panel froze.
Amy nodded empathetically. "It hurts, doesn't it? But kind of a good hurt."
Bracewell blushed. "I really shouldn't talk about her."
Amy raised her eyebrows. "Ooh. There's a her." As she said this, the fifth yellow panel turned back to blue.
The Doctor bent back down, pulling Alex down along with him. "What was her name?" he asked.
Bracewell smiled. "Dorabella," he breathed. The fourth panel powered down.
Alex thought for a moment about the unusual name but dismissed it as the Doctor said "Dorabella? It's a lovely name, it's a beautiful name."
"What was she like?" Alex asked.
Bracewell's smile was even brighter as the third panel shut down. "Oh, such a smile. And her eyes. Her eyes were so blue. Almost violet, like the last touch of sunset on the edge of the world." He sighed. "Dorabella."
Instantly, all the segments reverted back to blue. The bomb inside Bracewell was disabled! The Doctor and Alex grinned. "Welcome to the human race!" the Doctor cried triumphantly.
"It's shoddy and downright despicable but also pretty damn exciting too!" Alex chirped. "You'll love it!"
The Doctor pointed to Winston. "You're brilliant," he told them. He then turned to Bracewell. "You're brilliant!" He then turned to an expectant Amy. "And you, I…" He trailed off and simply kissed her on the forehead.
Amy laughed brightly. "Don't forget Alex! She pointed out that bad memories wouldn't work. She deserves some credit too!" Alex smirked at the Doctor as he turned to her.
"Alex, I could bloody kiss you!" he declared.
Alex blushed brightly, remembering her almost-kiss with the Doctor. Despite her reasonable arguments to herself that she couldn't get involved with the Doctor, she'd be lying if she said that she didn't want to kiss him. The Doctor seemed to remember this as well, blushing as well, although not as bright as Alex. Then, before Alex could even be aware of what she was saying, she said "Save the world and I might let you." She had a suspicion that the Doctor hadn't managed to stop the Daleks before he had come back here.
The Doctor felt slightly breathless at her statement, which only made him want to vanquish the Daleks even more. "Right!" he cried, jumping to his feet and pulling Alex up. "Now! Got to stop them! Stop the Daleks!"
He and Alex were running towards the door, Amy just behind them, when Bracewell cried out "Wait, Doctor! Alex! Wait, wait! It's too late…gone. They're gone."
The Doctor looked stricken. "No. No! They can't! They can't have got away from me again!"
"No, I can feel it," Bracewell confirmed. "My mind is clear. The Daleks have gone."
The Doctor fell against a pole, slumping against it. "Doctor, it's okay!" Amy grinned at him. "You did it! You stopped the bomb!"
But Alex saw that the Doctor wasn't cheered by this thought. "Doctor?" she said hesitantly, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I had a choice," the Doctor told them. "And they knew I'd choose the Earth. The Daleks have won. They beat me. They've won."
"But you saved the Earth. Not too shabby, is it?" Amy pointed out.
"And a much better victory in my book," Alex told him, smiling brightly at him. She then pretended to give him a mock glare. "It is better, isn't it? Isn't it?"
The Doctor chuckled a bit and pulled her closer to him. "No," he said, smiling down at her and then at Amy. "It's not too shabby."
Winston stepped over to them. "It's a brilliant achievement, my dear friend. Here, have a cigar!"
The Doctor waved him off. "No."
A/N: Like how Alex was the only one to calm the Doctor down again? And I like that you all are enjoying the revelation that Alex is a fixed point. I will say she's not a fixed point like Jack, one the Doctor can't stand to be around, but something different. I'll leave you to ponder that...
Thank you to ElysiumPhoenix, WhereThere'sTeaAndBooks, XxKicking Your AxX, and alright1128 for reviewing and thank you to those who followed/favored this story. It means so much to know people like reading it! Please review and see you tomorrow!
