A Rose By Any Other Name

by AristaHolmes

The Doctor, The Master, a Temperamental Tardis and a very special Rose. A thread ties all of these together, a thread woven through time. (Full Summary Inside)

10. The Most Vicious Creatures

Rose would never find out if the Torchwood teams quick assimilation of her choice was due to something Jack did or said, or if it was simply a result of them going home, cooling off and thinking about it logically.

Jack was denying all involvement, and she didn't want to rock the boat by questioning the others and so she left it alone and things swiftly returned to normal in the hub.

Ianto's early morning visits were coming less frequently, as did his nightmares, letting him sleep for longer more often and Rose began finding herself with spare time on her hands.

Used to waking early now, the time she had once spent asleep she now spent buried in Torchwood files, and by the time Jack came out of his room every morning she'd usually managed to pick out two or three potential cases for him to look over.

The damage to her shoulder healed quickly and it was around a week after the faeries incident before the bruise across her jaw was faint enough to hide with makeup, but the discolouration and pain along her ribs took longer to heal and Jack insisted she avoid driving until she could move without discomfort.

Said discomfort didn't stop the blonde from insisting she come along when the next serious case fell into their laps though, and although Jack argued with her for longer than she would have liked, Rose found herself in the back seat of a Torchwood SUV, watching grey skies and fields flying past them.

"I hate the countryside," Owen grumbled for around the third time in the last hour, the eighth since they'd left Cardiff central, and Rose turned her eyes from the landscape to grin at the look of utter disgust on the doctor's face.

"It's dirty, it's unhygienic... and what is that smell?" he demanded, and Rose couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up at Gwen's dry answer.

"That would be grass," she told him, and he slumped in his seat.

"It's disgusting," he muttered, and Rose nudged him with her elbow.

"Look on the bright side, my fellow Londoner, at least we've not been road blocked by a herd of sheep yet," she teased, and he shot her an entirely unamused glare.

Just after lunch they saw a burger van parked on the side of the road, and Jack pulled over so they could grab something to eat and check the maps while stretching their legs.

While Owen paced the grass beside the road impatiently, and Ianto went to place their orders with the burger van, Rose hopped onto the car bonnet and watched Tosh and Gwen fight against the wind to spread out a large map of the local area.

"Seventeen disappearances within the last five months," Jack started, hands on his hips as he stared around the open countryside with a speculating look, "The police are clueless."

"Now there's a surprise," Owen grumbled, "No offence, PC Cooper!" he added, raising his hands in a conciliatory manner in Gwen's general direction and the woman just shook her head at his antics, grinning.

Ever since the doctor had heard about the location of their latest mystery, he'd done nothing but find things to complain about, and Owen was beginning to get on everyone's last nerve, but even so Rose could almost understand.

While she hadn't spent much time with the man since being released from his hawk-like care soon after her arrival, she'd seen enough as his patient to see exactly why he preferred working on the dead instead of the living.

Owen liked the clean clinical approach to medicine and as soon as you added sick or injured humans to that equation things became messy. All evidence to the contrary, Owen didn't like messy, so placing him in the middle of a field with no modern conveniences was probably not far from his worst nightmare.

Rose often found herself thinking the doctor would have been better suited to a hospital like the one she'd seen on New Earth, so she tried not to begrudge him his complaints.

"The last known whereabouts of each one is somewhere around here," Jack's voice interrupted her thoughts though and he'd approached the car, beginning to circle a small area on the map that Gwen and Tosh were still trying to hold flat, one edge of the paper trapped under the edge of Rose's leg.

"All within a twenty mile radius," Tosh noted, eyes scanning the area Jack had indicated and Gwen looked up from the map, glancing between Rose and Jack for her answers.

"Anything else linking them?"

They had all started looking to her on cases to some degree and Rose didn't quite know how to feel about the slow shift. The team seemed to see her and Jack in the same light, leaders, but Rose didn't have any intention of running this team, that was Jack's job and she intended to let him keep it.

It worried her though that they were starting to look to her as often as Jack for their orders, because at some point she was going to ask them to do one thing while Jack asked for something different, and then it became a matter of whose orders they decided to follow.

"None of the bodies have every been found," Jack answered Gwen after he waited a moment to see if Rose would reel off the information in the case file she'd compiled for the Captain, but when the blonde made no move to speak he filled in the rest of the team, "these people just fell off the radar. No patterns in age, sex, race... One minute they're here, the next pfft. Gone."

"The rift doesn't spread out this far, does it?" Gwen asked frowning and Jack shrugged.

"We can't be sure," Rose finally said, "We don't know enough about it to be sure... but we don't think so."

"It's increasing in activity all the time though," Jack added and Owen spun to face them at the end of another rotation of pacing.

"Oh come on," he cried, clearly frustrated, "aliens aren't gonna bother hanging around out here... Probably some sort of weird suicide club with people choosing the same spot to end it all... God knows, if I had to spend too long up here I'd want to top myself," he added miserably, and Rose couldn't help but offer him a reassuring grin.

"You may be right, but where're the bodies?" she asked, and since the doctor didn't have an answer, he went back to sulking and pacing, muttering under his breath.

"Here you go," Ianto cut in, handing the first burger to Owen who took it with the first grateful look he'd worn since they left Cardiff, and Ianto moved over to the car, handing out the rest of the orders, "Careful, they're hot," he warned, and Rose accepted the cheeseburger and tray of chips with an appreciative hum.

"You sure you don't want anything, Tosh?" Ianto asked, but the woman shook her head firmly.

"Really sure. A friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places," she told them all. Ianto's burger frozen on the way to his mouth, and Jack's got placed on the bonnet of the car. Gwen and Rose froze mid chew and the only person unaffected by the woman's admission was Owen, and then Rose started to laugh.

"We fight aliens for a living, I think my health's more at risk from that than a burger van," she said a moment later, and slowly Gwen continued her meal, but it seemed Ianto and Jack had been permanently deterred.

"We'll start with the most recent victim, Ellie Johnson. The last record we have is a recording of her making a phone call; she dropped out of signal mid-call, but the coverage map placed her somewhere about here," Jack told them, pointing at the map again, and they all stared at the location he indicated as they ate, "looks as good a place as any to set up camp."

Rose quickly swallowed her mouthful of food when she saw Owen freeze, mouth wrapped around his burger before he pulled it away sharply, his face stiffening into a disgusted glare as he turned his steely eyes on Jack.

"I'm sorry, did you say 'camp'?" the doctor asked, as though he didn't quite understand the meaning of the word, or hoped he didn't and Rose could see the glimmer of amusement in Jack's eyes as he turned to offer Owen a smile that drew a sneer from the doctor.

Her own eyes narrowed though and she glared at Jack, "you never mentioned camping," she told him, and his smile widened to a grin.

"Didn't I? Ah well, consider it an adventure," Rose shared a glance with Owen and despite her own distaste for the idea, the look of absolute horror on the doctor's face drew soft laughter from her that merely prompted Owen to ball up the tissue from around his burger and lob it at her head.

After lunch it only took another couple of hours driving to reach the area Ellie Johnson had gone missing in and it didn't take Jack long to select a site to set up camp, protected from the high winds by several steep hills on two sides, and a nearby patch of forest that would also provide firewood.

"What's the matter with a hotel?" Rose heard Owen ask Jack as they were pulling all their equipment out of the back of the SUV and she moved closer to listen to Jack's answer.

"People are going missing around here, do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?" he asked, and Rose glared at him again.

"Oh, because we're going to be so much safer out here," she interrupted sarcastically, and Owen flung an arm around her shoulders.

"Exactly, thank you Rose!"

She smirked up at him, "we Londoners have gotta stick together, yeah?" she offered hugging the man briefly before moving away to grab another crate of stuff as Jack sighed.

"No other race in the universe goes camping," he told them, "celebrate your own uniqueness." but Rose couldn't resist one last jab at the ex-time agent.

"Do you know why we're the only race in the universe to go camping?" she asked sweetly, batting her eyes innocently, her tongue creeping out the side of her mouth as she grinned at Jack and she watched wariness creep over his face, somehow knowing he wasn't going to like her answer.

"It's because it's shit, and the rest of the universe knows it," she told him, enjoying the snort of laughter her words drew from Owen, and the eye-roll she got from Jack as he ruffled her hair in retaliation.

"Just get your tent up," he told her, eyes glittering with well hidden amusement.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Owen demanded of the open field, aiming a kick at his own pile of folded canvas, and Rose frowned down at her mess of parts, before shooting a pleading look at Jack.

"Do they come with instructions?" she asked, and after giving a loud and long suffering sigh the Captain moved to help her set up.

"Some of my pieces are missing!" she heard Owen shout and glanced over, but Ianto was already moving to help the doctor so she set to work, following Jack's instructions and feeling about a hundred galaxies out of her element.

It didn't take long for Gwen to start throwing around some 'classic camping games', which Rose thought sounded far too much like the girly sleepover's she'd been dragged to as a kid, but the woman was determined, even in the face of Owen's now foul mood.

Ianto had helped him for a while, but the doctor's frustration with the tent ended up with Ianto leaving him to it, so the only part the doctor had together was half the mental framework as he argued with Gwen.

"Oh, come on, it's just a bit of fun," she defended her newest game, eyes sparkling cheerfully, "Who was the last person you snogged?" she asked and Rose snorted in amusement before she started thinking about the question and her smile slipped.

It might sound like innocent fun to Gwen, but it was a loaded question, and she let her eyes close for a long moment, letting their bickering wash away the sudden pain in her chest.

Cassandra may have been in the driving seat, but the feel of his thick hair sliding between her fingers, still made her skin tingle.

The way his body had rocked towards her in response, even though the force Cassandra put behind the kiss should have pushed the Time Lord backwards...

"You even sound like an eight year old, who the hell says snog?" Owen asked, clearly not interested in giving an actual answer, and Rose focussed on the conversation to push away the memories as Gwen continued pushing the 'game'.

"Mine was Rhys," she announced, and any other time Rose would have found the woman's happy marriage sweet, but she was trying not to let herself sink into memories of the Doctor, and she didn't mean the grumpy one still setting up his tent.

"Yeah, well that's a surprise," Owen muttered darkly, and Rose forced her eyes open when she felt someone come and stand beside her. Turning her head slightly, the brisk wind drying her unshed tears she found Ianto watching her carefully.

"You ok?" he asked, and she took a moment to consider his question, before offering him a sad smile.

"Probably about as well as you," she conceded, seeing the pain Gwen's game had brought up in his eyes and he nodded his acceptance at her words, offering the blonde a one armed hug before he moved back to the camp beds he'd been putting together.

"Your turn, Tosh!" Gwen announced cheerfully, and Rose watched the technician startle at suddenly being singled out.

"It's easy for you-" she protested, but Gwen just rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, spill the beans!"

"Owen," Tosh said quickly, keeping her eyes on the kitchen supplies she was sorting. Rose could almost feel the startled silence, and she shot Jack a look to see if he was going to stop this game before they were all at each other's throats, but the man didn't even seem to be listening.

"Really?" Gwen asked, and Owen glared at Tosh.

"Tosh, love, in your dreams," he muttered, and the technician offered a tight smile, before taking a deep breath and expanding on her confession.

"Three am, Christmas Eve, in front of the millennium centre. Waiting for a cab. I had mistletoe."

"Christmas?" Owen all but demanded, "You've not had a snog since Christmas?" he asked, and Rose could see the embarrassment on Tosh's features so she drew the focus off the young woman.

"Who say's 'snog', Owen, you sound like you're eight," she teased, throwing his own words back at him as she came over and took a seat on one of the beds Ianto had put together for them to use as benches, grinning when he flipped her off and turning back to Tosh and Gwen.

"Lucky me, eh?" he offered, and Tosh smiled tightly, tucking her hair behind her ears before taking a seat next to Gwen.

"So, who was yours?" she asked, and Owen paused just long enough for Rose to suspect things were about to go sideways.

"Gwen, actually," the doctor said and Rose's eyes widened. She glanced over to the vehicle to see Jack suddenly watching them intently, and he met her concerned gaze with one of his own.

"When was this?" Tosh asked, and Rose wished she hadn't.

"It was complicated," Gwen defended quickly and Rose cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Didn't take you long to get your feet under the table..." the technician muttered, and Gwen's head whipped round to stare at her, her mouth falling open with a shocked "What?"

"So was it just a kiss, or-"

"Tosh, leave it," Rose warned, frowning at her and she saw Jack drop the paper's he'd been going over before coming over, ready to help her mediate what looked like it could quickly turn into a genuine fight.

"Jack," Owen said when the Captain took a seat, and Rose couldn't help but groan, somehow knowing where this was going.

"Are we including non-human lifeforms?" the man asked, and the mood lifted slightly.

"Oh you haven't!" Gwen said, looking to Rose for a denial, but she just shrugged, "Jack's never been what you'd call prejudiced," she offered, and Gwen's jaw dropped in shock as the Captain grinned across the table at the blonde.

"You're a sick man, Harkness, disgusting" Owen offered, shaking his head and Rose smiled.

"I never know when he's joking!" Gwen exclaimed, and Rose shook her head, "Assume he's never joking, and you won't be far wrong," she offered, and Jack laughed easily.

Rose grinned back at the Captain until she realised they were all looking at her and her smile slipped. She let her eyes lower to the table as she tried to prepare herself to talk about the Doctor with these people when she felt a light touch on her spine, and whipped her head round to stare at Ianto sitting beside her.

She knew, just from that hand on her back what he was about to do for her, and her eyes widened in surprise and awe and a deep gratefulness she didn't know how to express.

"It's my turn, is it?" he said, and everyone instantly sobered, "it was Lisa."

The silence was deafening, and Rose felt her heart break for him, and guilt welled up. The Doctor wasn't dead, and he was doing this for her so she took his hand in hers and squeezed.

"Ianto, I'm sorry-" Gwen said and he offered her a tight smile that didn't quite manage to reach his eyes.

"Sorry she's dead, or sorry you mentioned it?" he asked, and Gwen just shook her head, not knowing the right answer.

"I just... didn't think..." she tried and Ianto shook his head.

"You forgot," he corrected, but there was no judgement in his voice, just honesty and that seemed to almost hurt more.

Rose saw Jack turn a glare on Ianto and tightened her hold on the man's hand in silent support, before Owen broke the tense moment.

"We should get some firewood," he announced and Gwen leapt at the chance to escape.

"I'll give you a hand."

Tosh excused herself to play with her electronics leaving Rose, Ianto and Jack seated at the table, with Ianto staring down the his hand in Rose's grasp, and Jack's eyes boring into his skull.

"Ianto-"

"Thank you," Rose whispered, her soft words silencing Jack's anger instantly, and realisation flooded the Captain's face, his jaw tightening, "you didn't have to do that," Rose continued, and Ianto offered her a sad smile.

"Rose, they already know about Lisa... Whoever you were thinking about, you shouldn't have to share that just because they asked," he told her gently and Rose hugged the Welshman tightly.

"Still, thank you," she said again, before taking advantage of the team's distraction to hide out in her tent for a while and reign in her emotions.

---

In the time it had taken for the Dalek-Human hybrid to pull itself from the now obsolete Dalek casing and rise to stand on it's stolen feet, the Doctor let his horrified gaze rove over the new breed of Dalek and catalogue the various physical changes.

While the body was the rather familiar humanoid form of Mr Diagoras, the addition of Dalek DNA had warped the surface skin and turned dexterous finger into a parody of the tentacles the Daleks utilised to control their shells.

The brain was engorged and exposed, framed by whirls of bone where the human's skull had split to make room for the larger mass and there were more of the familiar tentacle like appendages hanging down either side of it's face.

The singular eye twitched and spun around the room as the Dalek acclimatised to organic sight, but there was no visible nose beneath it and a small part of the Doctor wondered if they had a sense of smell now, or if the lack of nose indicated a lack of that sense.

The newly formed Dalek was slow to speak, either a relic of their mechanical speech patterns or difficulty adjusting to the lips, teeth and tongue of it's new humanoid form, but the words it spoke were clear and articulate and absolutely something the Doctor could not allow to happen.

"These humans will become like me. Prepare them for hybridisation."

Before the New Dalek had even finished its order, the Doctor ducked behind Frank, and moved away from the group of humans while the Pigmen advanced on them. He quickly, cautiously, moved closer to the Daleks by keeping the lab equipment between him and them, mind already planning his next move.

He had his arm sunk up to his elbow in his bigger-on-the-inside-pockets when he heard Martha start to scream, a perfectly reasonable level of panic considering the situation, he conceded, but he had to force himself to ignore her for a moment as he pulled out the small radio Solomon had found for him. With some quick jiggery-pokery and the sonic screwdriver, the small device began playing a music station, the musical notes filling the air and halting the removal of the humans.

He could hear all the movement in the room stop as everyone began looking for the source of the music, and he let himself pause for a moment. Facing Daleks was never easy for him, and these were the Cult of Skaro, these were the reason he lost Rose, but staying in control was the only way he'd get Martha out alive.

"What is that sound?!" Dalek Sec demanded, and the Doctor released the breath he'd been holding, and stepped into view.

"Ah... well now, that would be me," he admitted, turning the dial on the radio to the off position and placing it carefully on the nearest surface before focussing on Dalek Sec, hands sliding into his pockets as he continued, "Hello, surprise, boo... Etcetera..."

He couldn't quite manage to inject the same level of manic cheerfulness into his voice as he'd wanted to, his wounds too close to the surface and his fury too close to breaking free.

"Doctor," Sec named him as he came to a stop facing the new breed. The Doctor held his gaze even as the other Daleks began their information exchange.

"The enemy of the Daleks."

"Exterminate!"

The Doctor's frame tensed, his head tilting back slightly in a movement of disgust, rage and unwavering acceptance of the fact that he might very well be about to die as he stared down the Dalek that had shouted for his death.

"Wait!" Sec commanded, and the other Dalek's seemed to freeze in shock or surprise. The command had the Doctor's eyes moving back to Sec as well, but he barely paused, not willing to waste the time that Sec's command had bought him.

"Well then," he said simply, taking a few steps and crossing the small distance between Sec and himself until he was close enough to touch the hybrid before him, "a new form of Dalek. Fascinating... and very clever," he admitted, his mind beginning to wonder what the addition of human DNA would do to these Daleks, his mind on the changes Rose's mere touch had wrought on the Dalek in Van Statten's basement.

"The Cult of Skaro escaped your slaughter," Dalek Sec announced, and the Doctor felt his jaw clench, but there was no use arguing semantics with the creature.

"How did you end up in 1930?" he asked, eyes narrowing with anger and frustration, and just a hint of morbid curiosity that he couldn't quite stifle.

"Emergency temporal shift," Sec answered him and the Doctor couldn't have smothered his surprised laughter if he'd wanted to, eyebrows shooting into his hairline as dry chuckles escaped him and he stared around at the other three Daleks

"Oh ho ho! That must have roasted up your power cells, yeah?" he asked, grinning as he turned his back on Sec and moved closer to the two Daleks behind him, eyes darkening as he taunted them. An emergency temporal shift would explain the vortex readings the Tardis had discovered.

"Time was... four Daleks? Could have conquered the world," his delight in their predicament was rolling off him in waves as he continued to point out to the most arrogant race in the cosmos that they were living like sewer rats, "but instead you're skulking away... hidden in the dark... experimenting..." he reeled off, making a show of studying to room intently, with clear disdain written across his features.

"All of which results in you," he finished, looking the new hybrid up and down, giving the appearance of being distinctly unimpressed. He wished he was but truly what the Daleks had accomplished was brilliant, no matter how terrifying.

"I am Dalek in human form!" Sec told him, and the Doctor suspected he was supposed to react to that announcement. His love of humans was well known amongst the Dalek forces so he kept his features carefully still. Standing sideways on to Dalek Sec, he pressed his lips together tightly for a long moment, frowning with eyes narrowed, a sharp calculating look pinned Sec in place for a moment and then another before the Doctor spoke again.

His tone was like dark velvet, his question quiet and soft and deadly, and he could feel the storm rolling through his mind, screaming that he bring destruction to these monstrosities.

"But what does it feel like?"

The Dalek seemed confused by the question and it said nothing, it's head tentacles twitching and shifting in response, but it didn't speak and the Doctor moved towards him again, coming to a stop directly in front of the Dalek and studying it's features intently.

"You can talk to me Dalek Sec, it is Dalek Sec, isn't it? That's your name?" he asked, "You've got a name and a mind of your own," the Doctor taunted, feeling like he was poking a snake with a stick, "Tell me what you're thinking right now."

Part of him wanted a repeat of the Dalek that Rose had changed, but there was a larger part that wanted Sec to prove him right, to prove that the Daleks were beyond saving, to give the Doctor the smallest reason to obliterate them.

"I feel... humanity," Sec answered slowly and the Doctor nodded in response, even as the Dalek turned his back.

"Good, that's good..." he said slowly, and against his better judgement he could feel the familiar flicker of hope igniting in his hearts, and desperately tried to stamp it out. The universe wasn't that kind to him.

"I feel... everything we wanted from mankind," Sec continued though, and the hope died without the Doctor's help, his eyebrows pulling into a frown all over again when Sec turned back to him, eye narrowed in familiar Dalek rage, "Ambition, hatred, aggression and war... such genius for war!" Dalek Sec announced, hands tightening into fist's and the Doctor shook his head.

"No, that's not what humanity means," he tried to argue. Surrounded by three Daleks and the new hybrid perhaps this shouldn't have been the outcome part of him had been hoping for, even if it was the one he'd expected, but Dalek Sec cut off his argument, his decision made, and the Doctor released a mental sigh at the failure, once more, to save them from themselves.

"I think it does! At heart this species is so very Dalek!"

"Oh right, so what have you achieved then, with this Final Experiment, eh? Nothing!" he snapped, angry and disappointed, sad and resigned all at once, his emotions a tornado to accompany the storm, "'cause I can show you what you're missing with this thing," he continued softly, pointing at each Dalek in turn, and taking a dark pleasure in watching each of them reel back from him instinctively, "a simple little radio."

"What is the purpose of that device," one of the Daleks demanded, and he barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes, knowing that now he didn't dare stop watching the monsters from his nightmares, but what he couldn't hold back was the dark sarcasm that erupted from his unstoppable gob.

"Well, exactly; It plays music. What's the point of that?" he all but sneered, pausing before he continued in a pointless attempt to explain music to a species with no emotions.

"Oh, with music... you can dance to it," he told them, remembering spinning Rose around the console room while Jack watched, laughing, "sing with it," he continued, remembering Rose humming songs in the kitchen as she cooked breakfast, and the Doctor had to pause a moment to swallow down the burning hate for these creatures that was sitting in his chest.

"Fall in love to it," he added, his voice soft as images of Rose in that pink dress swam before him, her arms around his waist as they swayed gently to the music playing at the Queen's coronation street-party. While everyone around them celebrated the coronation, they were celebrating being alive, together, hands entwined once more.

The feel of her hand sliding into his gave him strength, and he let his suddenly warm fingers slip into his pockets as he turned his now determined gaze back on Sec, and grasped his sonic screwdriver hidden inside his coat.

"Unless you're a Dalek of course, then it's all just noise !"

In an instant he created a feedback loop on the radio and Dalek Sec and Pigmen reeled back in pain as the high pitched sound ricocheted around the room. He thought for one terrifying moment that the other three Daleks might be a problem, but they began reversing away from the Doctor, placing themselves between the incapacitated Sec and the Doctor.

"Protect the hybrid!" they called to each other and the Doctor made the most of the confusion, turning to the terrified humans and ordering them to "Run!"

He made sure Martha and Frank were some of the first out, and brought up the rear forcing them all to move faster as they moved back into the maze of sewer tunnels.

They ran through the tunnels, the Doctor directing them from the rear and encouraging them to keep the speed up. When the humans began to slow, hesitating at turns, he ploughed ahead taking the lead while shouting for them to keep moving. They stumbled over Tallulah, lost in the warren of passages, and grabbed her, pulling the show girl along with them, and even when the group found an access ladder and returned to the surface, the Doctor wouldn't let them stop running.

Together they ran through Manhattan and through central park, only slowing down within sight of Hooverville, the Doctor only letting them stop to rest once he was able to find and speak with Solomon, desperate to save as many of the people in the park as he could.

With the help of Frank he tried to explain to Solomon just how dangerous the Dalek's were, but he knew that it was difficult for humans to comprehend such a creature without seeing them.

"These Daleks, they sound like the stuff of nightmares... and they want to breed?" Solomon asked, and the Doctor crossed his arms over his chest uneasily, trying to ignore the gun the man had resting against his shoulder.

"They're splicing themselves onto human bodies, and if I'm right, they've got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville," the Doctor warned, keeping his voice low and quiet to avoid a panic or an all out riot. Most of the men were armed with weapons now and the last thing he needed on top of the Daleks were humans with guns panicking, "you've got to get everyone out."

"Hooverville's the lowest place a man can fall, there's nowhere else to go," Solomon argued and the Doctor sighed. He knew that, but they couldn't stay either.

"I'm sorry, Solomon, but you've got to scatter. Go anywhere, down to the railroads, travel across state, just get out of New York" he pleaded, still trying to keep his voice low while impressing upon the man the urgency, but the human wasn't thinking like a Dalek and Solomon shook his head in disbelief.

"There's got to be a way to reason with these things," he continued to protest and the Doctor resisted the urge to growl. If it had been any other species in the universe, he might have agreed.

"There's not a chance," Martha offered, her voice dark as she sat beside Tallulah at the campfire, arms wrapped around herself from either the cold or the still clinging fear the Doctor could see in her eyes and Frank stood to back up both the Doctor and Martha.

"You ain't seen 'em, boss," he confirmed, shaking his head in denial of Solomon's hope.

"Daleks are bad enough at any time, but right now they're vulnerable... and that makes them more dangerous than ever," he whispered, eyes boring into Solomon's and he could see the hesitation there and knew he had to drive his point home if he had any chance of saving these people.

"Think... think... think of an animal, right? a... a wolf," he swallowed hard, but forced himself to continue, "A wolf's dangerous, but it won't attack a man with a gun because it knows it might come away worse off... but if you corner that wolf, make it vulnerable? You give it no choice but to fight, and fight that much more fiercely than before. By making it vulnerable, you make it a thousand times more dangerous."

Before Solomon could respond they hear a sentry whistle, and then a voice shouting warnings, and the Doctor felt his skin begin to crawl.

"A sentry. He must have seen something," Solomon murmured, and as the sentry ran through Hooverville shouting, the panic began to build, and the Doctor's face hardened. They were too late.

"It's started," he said. He saw Solomon look at him, fear in his eyes now and the man immediately began issuing orders.

"We're under attack! Everyone to arms!"

Frank grabbed up a weapon, his face a mask of determination and fear, but many ran.

"Come back! We've got to stick together! It's not safe out there! Come back!" Solomon continued shouting, but the Doctor couldn't help but believe that the ones who were running were the smart ones. He wished he could join them as Martha moved to stand beside him, and he glanced down at her.

"We need to get out of the park," she almost seemed to beg, but he shook his head, shouting over the screams surrounding them.

"We can't! They're on all sides. They're driving everyone back to us!" he told her. He could hear her quickened breathing and rapid heart rate and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, not that it did any good when Tallulah suddenly started wailing as well.

"We're trapped!"

"The we stand together," Solomon told her, voice firm, "Gather round, everybody come to me. You there, Jethro, Harry, Seamus, stay together!"

The men formed a circle, Martha, Tallulah and the Doctor in the centre, as well as those who'd not had time to grab a gun of their own.

"They can't take all of us," Solomon ground out, and the Doctor had the urge to correct his assumption, but the sounds of gunfire stilled his tongue as the bullets began flying at the surrounding pigmen.

"If we can just hold them off till daylight," Martha gasped, desperately looking for any ray of hope to cling to, and the Doctor felt a wave of sadness crash over him as he obliterated that small hope.

"Oh Martha, these are just the foot soldiers," he told her softly, eyes fixed on the skyline as she turned and whimpered in fear.

"Oh my God."

Hovering in the sky above them was one of the Daleks, and all the Doctor could think about was where the others might be.

"What in this world is that?" Solomon demanded as the Doctor racked his mind for some way out.

"It's the devil! A devil in the sky! God save us all, it's damnation!" someone started yelling, and the adrenaline jumped through the Time Lord's system when he saw Frank raise his gun.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" the teen got off one shot from his rifle before the Doctor could reach him and push the weapon to the ground.

"That's not going to work," he growled, even as Frank stared at the way the bullet had bounced off the Dalek's casing.

"There's more than one of them," Martha whispered in his ear, her hands clinging to the sleeve of his coat, and the Doctor swallowed a sharp 'I know' as a second Dalek flew up to the first and began firing its weapon around the Hooverville camp.

As the humans ducked flying debris and cowered down in fear, the Doctor stayed still, head whipping around to study the destruction, his wide eyes following the two Daleks as he processed their attack pattern.

"They're not shooting us," he muttered to himself, and shook his head. He'd been right, the residents of Hooverville were the second batch of hybrids. The more the Daleks could keep alive the better their plan went.

"The humans will surrender!" the first Dalek called out, and the Doctor felt his control snap.

"Leave them alone, they've done nothing to you!" he shouted, even though he knew his words would be meaningless to the monsters above them. He was pinning all his hope on the human-dalek hybrid he was certain was observing back in that lab.

The weapons fire stopped at his words, but he didn't have time to wonder why because a movement beside him caught his eye, and when he turned it was to see Solomon slowly lowering his gun, fingers flexing around it nervously, and step forward.

"No! Solomon!" The Doctor launched at him and grabbed him by the arm, attempting to pull away, "Stay back!"

"I'm told that I'm addressing the Daleks, is that right?" the man shouted up to the aliens hovering above him as the second Dalek returned to the first one's side, ignoring the Doctor still grasping hold of his arm, "from what I hear, you're outcast's too!"

The Doctor's anger was bubbling away just under his skin and he couldn't quite believe the compassion of humanity, even when it was staring him in the face, "Solomon, don't," he pleaded softly, Rose's voice in his ears.

"Look at it."

"What's it doing?"

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants..."

Oh he'd had such hopes for Dalek Sec once the humanity had been introduced to its biology, but all it had done was prove that Rose's DNA had been superior in changing the Dalek instincts.

"Doctor, this is my township," Solomon told him, his words breaking through the memory, "You will respect my authority."

He released the man's arm, partly from shock, and Solomon's hand on his chest pushed him away a step or two, even as he shook his head.

"Just let me try..." Solomon turned away from the Doctor, and all he could do was watch and bear witness to what were probably going to be the man's final words.

"Dalek's, ain't we the same? Underneath, ain't we all kin?" Slowly Solomon lowered his gun to the ground, but his eyes stayed on the monsters in the sky, as though that would do him any good at all.

"Right, see... I've discovered this past day that God's universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was... and that scares me, oh yeah! Terrifies me right down to the bone!"

The Doctor glanced up at the Daleks, and he wondered why Solomon wasn't dead yet and frowned. Was is still possible that Sec might be changing? The Dalek in Van Statten's basement hadn't changed instantly, after all, and once more he could feel the flutter of hope in his chest, even as his fear tried to smother it.

"But surely it's got to give me hope..." Solomon continued, voice strong, "hope that, maybe together, we can make a better tomorrow... so I, I beg you now, if you have any compassion in your hearts then you'll meet with us and stop this fight."

The was a pause, a moment of silence as everyone waited for the Dalek's to speak, but when the people behind Solomon began to shift in fear, the man they'd all elected as their leader prompted the creatures above him.

"Well? What do you say?"

The Doctor turned his eyes from Solomon back up to the sky, only to hear the word that ran through his nightmares.

"Ex-Ter-Min-Ate!"

The ringing sound of the Dalek's weapon, Solomon's scream of agony, Frank's shout of denial, and Martha's shock all washed over the Doctor, and he wondered what the point of it all was.

He was the last Time Lord, the very last and the Daleks just kept on going. Kept resurfacing, unending. Rose had absorbed the Time Vortex to end the war, and they kept on coming. She'd been sucked towards the void and trapped in a parallel world in an attempt to obliterate the Daleks, but these four had survived. Four against his one, still they outnumbered him, so what had he done to make a difference against them?

He'd destroyed his whole planet, committed genocide, and still the Dalek's survived and he could feel madness stroking the edges of his mind.

"Daleks," the Doctor breathed, a curse upon his tongue and he turned eyes blackened with fury on the monsters above him before striding forward.

"Alright, so it's my turn!" he shouted, the sounds of the terrified humans behind him urging him ever onward, "then kill me! Kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people!"

He knew it wouldn't put a stop to the Dalek's, his death, but he didn't think he could stand to watch them destroy another world that he loved. Oblivion would be better than that.

"I will be the destroyer of our greatest enemy!" the Dalek that had murdered Solomon cried and the Doctor's lips peeled back into a snarl of fury and pain and he flung his arms out to his sides, presenting his body as a target and mentally begging Rose to forgive him.

"Then do it! Do it! Just do it! Do it!" he screamed, tired of fighting, tired of struggling to escape their guns, tired of losing everything to the monsters that hunted him. Just tired and angry, hurt and broken.

"Exterminate!" came the sound of his ending, but there was no bolt of energy, so sound of the Dalek firing and the Doctor stood before it, panting with unrestrained despair and anger, waiting for death and beginning to suspect that simply because he'd finally succumb to that desire meant that the universe was going to steal that from him too.

But no, because all a Dalek was made for was killing, and he'd just offered them the greatest prize in the universe on a silver platter.

"I do not understand. It is the Doctor." the Dalek said, and the Doctor frowned. Was its database malfunctioning? Slowly his arms lowered and he stared up in confusion, dark eyes wide.

"The urge to kill is too strong!"

Another pause, another moment of silence where time seemed to stand still, despite the Time Lord knowing otherwise, and then the Dalek's reluctant surrender.

"I... Obey..."

"What's going on?" The Doctor demanded, terrified to hope, terrified not to, shame beginning to well up in his mind as he realised what he'd been about to let them do.

"You will follow," the Dalek ordered, and he could feel shock clawing at his mind now as well, but Martha's shout drew his attention as she ran stand as close to his side as she dared, stopping only when she couldn't bring herself to move any closer to the Dalek's in the sky.

"No! You can't go," she begged, and he pressed his lips together as his mind spun and turned to the woman.

"I've gotta go," he whispered frantically, trying not to let her terrified expression sway him, "The Dalek's just changed their minds. Dalek's never change their minds," he wanted to explain, but knew there wasn't enough time.

"But what about us?" she asked, and he let his eyes skip over the Hooverville citizens. He knew that's not entirely what she meant. If he died she'd never get home, never see her family again, but the Dalek's pending invasion was bigger than her so he turned back to the Dalek who'd issued the order.

"One condition!" he called up, "If I come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here, do you hear me?" he warned, waiting to see just how far the Dalek's were willing to bend for an audience with him.

"The humans will be spared. Doctor, follow." the Dalek ordered again, and he could feel his eyes widen in genuine surprise.

"Then I'm coming with you," Martha insisted, finally moving to stand beside him, but he had plans inside plans beginning to weave their way through his mind again now, and turned his eyes on her.

"Martha, stay here. Do what you do best, people are hurt and you can help them... let me go," he told her before moving to follow the Dalek's. One of those plans swirling in his mind sparked though, and he spun on his heel to face his companion again, moving back towards her with forced nonchalance.

"Oh... and, can I just say... Thank you very much," he grasped her hand tightly, slipping the psychic paper to her and shooting her a quick wink, before moving away. His mind was too much a storm to leave her instructions on the psychic paper and all he could hope was that she was able to figure it out herself.

---

Rose had been dragged out of her tent by Jack's shouts after getting a phone call from Owen and Gwen about a body they'd stumbled over while collecting firewood.

"Apparently, they saw someone watching them, and when they tried to find out who it was, they found a body instead," Jack explained as the rest of them moved up into the woods to look for Gwen and Owen, all of them with their weapons ready.

A few shouts and another phone call later, they found the other two team mates and the pile of bloody bones that had once been a person. Rose handed Owen his medical kit silently, while Tosh and Ianto cordoned off the area with bright yellow police tape.

Considering how little there was left, it didn't take Owen long to examine the remains once he had his equipment bag and a set of gloves, and he sighed as he crouched beside the mangled mess.

"Well, it's not Ellie Johnson, that's for sure," he told them, and Rose moved to stand closer as she listened to his analysis.

"This is a male, late forties, fifties... Wasn't killed here, no blood spatter or signs of a struggle... Must have been brought here after he died."

"Why do that? It's not like they've tried to bury him here," Gwen asked and Rose tipped her head as she considered the marks on the body.

"Maybe you disturbed them and they ran away?" Tosh suggested, and Rose shook her head.

"Possible, but unlikely... whatever did this probably wouldn't need to run," she mused softly, and crouched beside the bones.

"Or maybe it's a warning," Ianto offered, "Whoever's responsible, marking out their territory and Rose pressed her lips together in thought.

"More likely," she conceded, "but I'd have expected more bodies to be found if this was a territorial display."

Jack knelt beside her, his own brow furrowed in thought as they studied what they had and tried to find a reasoning behind it that made sense.

"Cause of death?" Jack asked and Owen shrugged.

"It's impossible to say, the body's been stripped of flesh and bodily organs so what is left amounts to nothing more than a carcass."

"Could the Weevils come out this far?" Tosh asked, and Jack shook his head.

"No, Weevil's don't finish off their victim's like this,"

"And besides, there'd be teeth marks on the bones from the initial bites," Rose added, before pointing, "There's no sign of that, the bones are smooth," and Owen nodded his agreement, before freezing.

Every head whipped around, all of them heard the sound of a car engine, and Rose's eyes widened as she stood and spun to stare at Jack, hoping he'd tell her she was wrong.

"Is that ours?" Gwen asked and Jack cursed softly as he started running, Rose and the rest following swiftly.

By the time they reach the small valley they'd set up in, whoever was in the vehicle had managed to destroy everything from the tables and boxes, to the tents they'd spent several hours setting up.

Jack let loose a shout of frustration as they ran across the grass, and Rose came to a stop as the SUV sped up and pulled away from the campsite.

Her gun was in her hand a moment later and she sent off a couple of rounds aimed at the tires, but missed each time, lowering her weapon with a curse but not wasting any more bullets, she ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"Who had the key's last?" she called back at the others, and there was a moment of silence before Owen cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry," he offered and Tosh let loose a humourless laugh.

"Alright, let's see what we can salvage before it gets dark," Jack called, and everyone moved to the wrecked tents, while Tosh quietly laid into Owen.

It didn't take long for the man's patience to run out though, and his raised voice drew Rose's attention.

"All right, I've said I'm sorry!" he growled, and Tosh spun on him as Rose narrowed her eyes. The woman had been spoiling for an argument ever since she found out Owen and Gwen had shared a kiss.

While Rose couldn't say she approved of the woman, who had a partner waiting for her at home, kissing Owen, ultimately it was none of her business.

"Basic security protocols, Owen", Tosh growled at him, gesturing wildly, and Rose sat back on her heels from where she'd been crouched searching through several broken items.

"Oh get off your high horse Tosh, I was carrying that stupid gear," Owen tried again, and Rose could see the guilt shifting into defensiveness and stood, brushing the dirt from her jeans as she made her way over to the pair.

"What, the whole time?"

"And then I was trying to put that bloody tent up... and then, well yeah, I sort of forgot I'd left them in there, but I'm sorry. I'm human, I ballsed up!" Owen growled as Rose reached them.

"That's enough, it was a mistake, and there's nothing we can do about it right now," she told them, before shaking her head as Tosh opened her mouth to continue berating the doctor, "Let it go, Tosh," Rose told her, a hand on the woman's arm before she turned with a huff and continued scavenging for undamaged equipment.

"Look, Owen, don't beat yourself up over it, it could have happened to any of us," Rose said, but he just glared at her.

"But it didn't," he muttered quietly, and Rose blinked before offering him a small reassuring smile.

"I once let an alien blackmail me into giving them access to the Torchwood weapons store," she told him, her voice equally quiet and he glanced up at her surprised and she just shrugged, "I'm only human, as you said... we all make mistakes Owen, all you can do is learn from them," she offered.

Jack waited until Rose left Owen to return to scavenging before he voiced his thoughts, "Looks like the body wasn't so much a warning as a distraction," he called and Rose nodded as she moved to stand between him and Gwen.

"Looks like, and that's particularly worrying," she replied as Gwen jumped in.

"That means we've been watched since we arrived," the woman said and Rose nodded.

"Yes... it also means that whatever we're dealing with is smart, and humanoid in form... It's been watching us, analysing... it planned and executed a very effective distraction to get us away from camp, and it managed to drive our car away, so it's familiar with earth technology," Rose summed up, shaking her head before letting her eyes meet Jacks, "I don't like any of this Jack, we can't rule out that there's more than one," she told him and he nodded his agreement.

"Tosh, can you get a tracking signal?" he asked, but it was Ianto who answered him.

"Already done, I took the liberty... It's currently three point four miles west from here," he told them, and Owen grunted a soft sound of complaint.

"Probably gunning at ninety, no doubt, you steal a piece of equipment like that, you drive straight till morning," he muttered and Rose frowned, brushing her windblown hair out of her face.

"You think it's running?" she asked, but before Owen could answer Ianto cut in quickly.

"Actually, no... It's been stationary for the past four minutes... I'd go so far as to say it was parked."

Gwen brought their map over, and studied it for a moment as everyone waited, before she sighed.

"There's a small village in that area, other than that, nothing for thirty miles."

"Call me suspicious, but this has all the hallmarks of a trap," Tosh said and Jack couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing," he admitted, and Rose shook her head.

"Everything about this stinks, Jack," she warned, and he nodded before answering.

"Yeah... Anyone fancy a walk?"

Eventually they came within sight of the village and stopped long enough to catch their breath and study the surrounding landscape. They were all but certain they were walking into a trap, so it didn't do any harm to take a few minutes of preparation.

"Why would anyone wanna live out here?" Owen asked, staring at the row of terraced houses, and shaking his head.

"Has the car moved?" Jack asked Ianto and they both peered at the small screen before the Welshman answered.

"No. Not for a hour now." he confirmed, checking his watch to be sure, and Rose bit her lip before making a quick check of her weapon.

"Well, we're not going to find anything out standing around here," she said, and checked the overcast sky above them, "and it'll be getting dark soon... worst case scenario, at least we can find somewhere to hole up for the night, the last thing we wanna be is out in the open."

They'd been watched all day, and their vehicle was being used as bait. They decided there was no point in trying to sneak up on the village and the Torchwood team made no attempt to hide their approach.

When they reached the outskirts of the village though there wasn't a soul to be found, and what Rose found most disturbing was the lack of birdsong. It was like everything natural knew there was some evil here that it needed to avoid and she shivered, fighting the urge to shove her hands into her pockets as she watched Jack mentally plot their next move.

"Tosh, Ianto, follow that signal, see if you can find the vehicle," he decided after a moment before turning on the rest of them, "You three, you're with me... Let's see if there's any room at the inn."

Rose eyed the building for a moment before nodding, "At the very least there should be plenty of furniture was can use to barricade the doors for the night," she agree, and moved to follow him inside checking her gun as she went, Gwen and Owen close behind her.

---

Between Hooverville and the Dalek's base the Doctor's fury at the pointless loss of life had once again overtaken his curiosity for this new hybrid life form, and as he was led into the laboratory, his eyes landing once more on Dalek Sec, he couldn't seem to stop the angry words pouring from his lips.

"Those people were defenceless!" he shouted, and the hybrid turned to face him as the Doctor stalked towards him, "you only wanted me! But no, that wasn't enough for you, you had to start killing!" he spat, leaning his weight into the balls of his feet, his hands clenched into fists and he trembled with rage, "'cause that's the only thing a Dalek's good for!"

"The deaths... were wrong."

Just like that the Doctor's world turned on it's axis. He stared at Dalek Sec, his eyebrows raising in pure shock as took several deep breaths, recovering from his tirade.

"I'm sorry?" he demanded, confusion filling his voice now as he tried to make the words fit with all previous known facts, but a Dalek believing that deaths, any deaths, were wrong? There was no precedent for that.

"That man, their leader, Solomon... He showed courage." Dalek Sec explained, but it made the whole scenario about as clear as mud.

"And that's good?" the Doctor couldn't help but ask, still shocked that this hybrid seemed to be a little less... Dalek, than before.

"That's excellent!"

The Doctor frowned, and he could feel himself starting to stare so let his mouth run instead, hands sliding into his pockets.

"Is it just me, or are you becoming just a little bit more... human," he only half asked. He didn't need an answer, it was clear to him that the creature before him was less Dalek than when he'd woken, and in the same way that the human race spread itself across the universe, one of the most compatible species for cross-breeding, the human DNA was spreading through Sec and changing him, even now, after he should have stabilised.

"You are the last of your kind, and I am the first of mine," Sec replied, skirting the Doctor's analysis carefully and he narrowed his eyes at Sec.

"What do you want me for?" he asked instead. If it wasn't to kill him then the creature before him must have something else in mind.

"We tried everything to survive when we found ourselves stranded in this ignorant age. First we tried growing new Dalek embryos, but their flesh was too weak," Sec explained moving over to the lab equipment and the Doctor's eyes darkened again as he crossed his arms, glaring around the room.

"Yeah, I found one of your experiments," he growled, "Just left to die out there, in the dark," He knew his moods were becoming more mercurial, and he also knew that he needed to do some serious maintenance on his telepathic barriers, but now wasn't the time.

"It forced us to conclude what is the greatest resource of this planet; It's people," Sec continued, before flipping a power switch and the dark space above them lit up, revealing tray after tray, rack after rack of what the Doctor hoped were not the bodies they looked like.

Sec flipped another switch though and one of the racks lowered, letting the Doctor approached it slowly, with the Dalek hybrid moving to stand opposite him, the fabric cocoon suspended between them.

"We stole them. We stole human beings for our purpose. Look inside." Sec invited, gesturing to the cocooned body and the Doctor glared at him a moment before pulling away the fabric wrapping with gentle respect, surprised that his hands were no longer shaking, to reveal a man.

The body showed no signs of decomposition, and it held no scent of death and the Doctor frowned down as Sec continued to speak.

"This is the true extent of the Final Experiment."

"Is he dead?" the Doctor asked, all signs pointed to no, but he could detect no signs of life either.

"Near death," Sec explained, "With his mind wiped, ready to be filled with new idea's."

"Dalek idea's," the Doctor muttered, disgust welling up in him all over again.

"The Human Dalek race," Sec corrected, his own voice almost gentle, and the Doctor shook his head, feeling ill.

"All these people. How many?" he demanded softly, how many would he have to fight if the Dalek's succeeded here. How much fresh blood was staining his hands because he'd failed to stop them at Canary Wharf?

"We have caverns beyond this storing more than a thousand," and the Doctor's gaze lowered from the space above to stare at Sec, horrified.

"Is there any way to restore them? Make them human again?" he asked, although he already suspected the answer that Sec gave.

"Everything they were has been lost."

"So they're like shell's," the Doctor exclaimed, "Like your previous casing... You've got empty human beings ready to be converted..." he paused before raising his eyebrows, halfway between incredulous and taunting, "That's going to take a hell of a lot of power, this planet hasn't even split the atom yet, how're you going to do it?" he asked, wondering just how much information they were going to give him before he became a liability.

"Open the conductor plan," Sec ordered the Daleks, moving back across the room and away from the human shell.

Any more of a liability, the Doctor mentally corrected himself, praying Martha had figured out what to do with the psychic paper as he followed Sec to examine the plans the Daleks had brought up onto a large screen.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Empire State Building, we're right underneath it, I worked that out already, thanks... But, what? You've hijacked the whole building?" he asked, glancing between the plans and Sec, still missing crucial information.

"We needed an energy conductor," Sec explain and the Doctor sighed, he might be a human-dalek hybrid but getting information was still like pulling teeth.

"What for?"

"I am the genetic template. My altered DNA was to be administered to each human body. A strong enough blast of gamma radiation can splice the Dalek and Human genetic codes and waken each body from it's sleep," Sec explained, and the Doctor found he had to swallow hard at the thought of over a thousand bodies waking up with the minds of Daleks.

"Gamma radiation? What are you-Oh..." he breathed, the pieces suddenly beginning to fall into place, "The sun. You're using the sun," he ran through dates and times and universal alignments in his head as he spoke, "and I'd say the planet's due for a solar flare pretty soon, am I right?"

"The greatest solar flare for a thousand years will hit the Earth," Sec confirmed, "Gamma radiation will be drawn to the energy conductor and when it strikes-"

"The army wakes," the Doctor finished, voice dark, "I still don't know what you need me for," he added, jaw tight.

"Your genius."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, not entirely sure whether he should be flattered or deeply concerned at Dalek Sec's praise.

"Consider a pure Dalek; Intelligent but emotionless," Sec tried to explain and the Doctor frowned.

"Removing the emotion makes you stronger," the Doctor quoted, remembering how many time he'd heard that from Daleks, from Davos... Even from Cybermen, "That's what your creator thought, all those years ago," the Doctor reminded him, the irony not failing to bring a hysterical giggle to his throat, but the Doctor forced it back.

"He was wrong."

At those three words the Doctor stilled, and he was certain his hearts stopped beating for a moment before they started again, thundering in his ears, making him sure he'd misheard. Maybe he'd finally gone insane.

"He was what?" the Doctor asked, honestly unable to believe that the words he thought he'd heard had come out of the mouth of anything even distantly related to a Dalek.

"It makes us lesser than our enemies. We must return to the flesh, and also the heart," Sec declared, and the Doctor could only blink at him for a moment, nonplussed, as the rest of the lab fell away.

"But... you wouldn't be the supreme beings any more..."

The words came from him but he didn't quite understand why he was arguing with Sec. The voice in his mind told him he had to be sure this wasn't a trick or a ploy to have him aid them in their invasion of the Earth.

"And that is good," Sec said, and the Doctor almost choked on his tongue.

"That is incorrect," came the mechanical voice from one of the Dalek's still encased inside their shells.

"Daleks are supreme," said the other, and the Doctor felt himself tensing. Sec might be mutating with human DNA inside him, but the other three weren't.

"No, not any more." Sec said, turning on the other Dalek's, and the Doctor held his breath, knowing that the new creature was walking a thin line between being in control and being deposed.

"But that is our purpose," the third Dalek argued, and Sec finally got angry. Another emotion, and the Doctor watched, fascinated and terrified.

"Then our purpose is wrong!" Sec all but shouted, his singular eye wide as he attempted to get the Daleks to submit once more to his commands, "where has our quest for supremacy led us? To this. Hiding in the sewers on a primitive world, just the four of us left! If we do not change now then we deserve extinction," he announced, and the Doctor wondered how much of his anger fuelled taunting had stuck, and just how much of that had been Sec's own analysis of the situation.

"So, just to be clear..." the Doctor asked, as the other three Dalek's backed down reluctantly, "you want to change everything that makes a Dalek a Dalek?" he asked, still amazed, but beginning to dare to believe.

"If you can help me," Sec confirmed, turning back to face the Doctor, and for a long moment the Time Lord was too amazed to respond, truly speechless, before he was able to nod and Sec released a relieved sounding sigh before he led the Doctor back over to the human shell.

"Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours," Sec admitted easily, "the new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts."

"But you're the template," the Doctor reminded him, "I thought they were getting a dose of you?"

"I want to change the gene sequence," Sec admitted, and the Doctor wondered if he was going to be alive long enough to get used to the non-stop surprises Sec kept springing on him.

"To make them even more human?" he confirmed, and Sec nodded.

"Humans are the great survivors. We need that ability."

More human wasn't needed, the Doctor knew that just from speaking with Sec. He could explain that, he could pretend to add more and keep Sec as the template. He was human enough to see the senselessness of killing, but that change had been slow. More human in the sequence would speed up the morality that Sec had been displaying, and the more human there was then the closer the Doctor became to making Daleks, true Daleks, extinct.

Even with Sec and himself though, the pure Dalek's still outnumbered them, and she shook his head, grimacing.

"Hold on a minute, there's no way this lot are gonna let you do it," he said, voice soft although he knew the Daleks would still hear, but Sec seemed unconcerned.

"I am their leader," he told the Doctor, as though that eliminated the problem.

"Oh, and that's enough for you, is it?" the Doctor asked, eyes narrowing at the three Daleks that stood guard over him.

"Daleks must follow orders," said one.

"Dalek Sec commands, we obey" said another, and while something about their swift agreement unsettled the Doctor, he could find no reason to doubt their words. Sec's orders had stopped them shooting him after all.

"If you don't help me, nothing will change," Sec said quietly, and the Doctor turned to face him, still turning the idea over in his mind.

"There's no room on Earth for another race of people," he warned, wondering what Sec's solution to that would be, but again the new hybrid surprised him.

"You have your Tardis. Take us across the stars. Find us a new home, and allow the new Daleks to start again."

There was a part of the Doctor scoffing, and demanding he ask why Dalek Sec thought he'd let them anywhere near his Tardis. There was an even smaller part screaming in a fury, wanting to know why the Daleks should be allowed to start again, when his own people burnt and died screaming, but the part of his heart that hated war, hated guns and hated fighting wanted to help them, hoped that the other three pure Daleks wouldn't turn on their new Hybrid leader, and the Doctor sighed, trying to silence his mind.

"When's that solar flare?"

"Eleven minutes," Sec told him, and the Doctor stared at him in surprise once more. Eleven minutes to create a new race, Sec really did think he was a genius. Luckily, the hybrid wasn't wrong.

"Right then. Better get to work," he announced, and something in Sec's frame relaxed at the Time Lord's willingness to help.

---

Gwen, Rose and Owen followed Jack inside the tavern, all of them flipping their torches on as they spread out to look around.

"Looks well used, mostly clean, no dust," Rose muttered as she wove her way between tables and chairs, watching Owen approach the bar that Gwen was standing behind.

"Pint of best please, love and, er, yeah get one for yourself," he joked and Rose shook her head at the man's antics, but it seemed to give Gwen an idea as she moved to open the till.

"There's money in here, so where the hell is everybody?" she said and Rose bit her lip, continuing to cautiously make her way through the building, placing her feet carefully and stepping lightly to keep any sounds of movement to a minimum; they still didn't know what they were dealing with.

"Weapons out?" she asked Jack and he nodded as they split up, Gwen following Jack, and Rose moved to cover Owen as they worked their way through the building.

Between the two of them, Rose and Owen cleared each room methodically, but when they heard Gwen gagging, they went looking for her and Jack.

"That burger come back to haunt you?" Owen asked as he moved past her and Rose stopped, placing her gun free hand on the womans back.

"Oh my god," she heard Owen mutter from the next room, just as a door slammed from the front of the building.

"Rose," Jack called as he dashed past Gwen, and the blonde was on his heels, trusting Owen to take care of their friend while she and Jack rand back through the pub, searching for whatever or whoever had slammed the door they'd heard.

One thing was for certain though, they weren't alone there, and the two of them kept their conversations strictly to hand signals.

Bursting through the front door of the pub, the two of them kept their backs to each other and frantically scanned their surroundings, searching for anything out of place. Owen and Gwen nearly got shot as they barrelled out of the building just after them, but neither Rose or Jack spotted anything out of place, and as they cautiously lowered their weapons, adrenaline making Rose pant for breath, Gwen bent over once again, promptly throwing up.

Rose moved to her side, and pulled her hair out of her face, trusting Owen and Jack to watch their backs.

"Was there another body in there?" she asked gently, and Gwen nodded, gasping for breath, her eyes wild.

"Jack.. Jack please, tell me what's going on here?" Gwen pleaded, slowly standing straight again, and Rose released her hair, but the American just shook his head. He didn't know, and that alone scared Rose more than anything else.

"Come one, let's look in here," he suggested, nodding at the next building along, and Rose shot one look at Gwen and another at Owen.

"Stay with her, keep watch out here," she ordered, before following Jack. He gave them a countdown before the both entered the room, eyes and weapons scanning for anything hostile.

Rose advanced through the house, Jack at her back but just before she reached the kitchen she froze, eyes flicking everywhere, and she heard Jack make a sound of frustration.

"What is it?"

"There's another body in the kitchen," Rose explained, her voice tightly controlled as she backed up a step, only checking over her shoulder briefly when she heard Gwen appear in the doorway, Owen at her back, eyes still scanning the countryside for movement.

"Same as the others?" Jack asked Rose, and she nodded.

"Yeah."

"What did this Jack?" Gwen asked, her voice filled with panic and unshed tears, "'cause whatever it is, it can't be human... How far's it going to spread?" she asked, but the Captain didn't have any answers for her.

"Stay focussed," he told her and Rose shot him a glare, before nodding for him to swap places with her. With Jack's gun on the kitchen and back door, and Owen's weapon focussed on the outside, Rose flicked the safety on her own weapon and tucked it away to focus on Gwen

"I should be at home having dinner with Rhys. What am I doing here with you?" Gwen muttered, eyes wide and wild, "Don't you ever get scared, huh?" she demanded, and Rose offered her a sad smile.

"All the time," she promised softly, "but I turn it into something useful... I'm scared right now, but giving into it isn't going to help us get back home," she told Gwen and the woman reluctantly nodded, taking several deep breaths and calming herself down.

"There's another two houses," Owen said a moment later, voice dark, "We'd better take a look."

Rose nodded, and after checking on Gwen once more, she drew her gun again, and all four left the building together.

"You two, check that one," she ordered, sending Owen and Jack into the next house, and Rose led the way over to the next one in the row, both her and Gwen pressed either side of the frame.

Taking a breath Rose tugged on the handle but the frame was warped, swollen and the door was stuck.

"Locked?" Gwen asked and Rose frowned, shaking the door again until she heard the sound of a chain rattle and she nodded.

She managed to tug the door until it eased its way loose of the rotten frame and then waited a moment or two, listening for any movement inside.

When she heard nothing, she gave the door one last wrench and the chain tore free of the rotten wood. The first thing she saw was the terror on the teenager's face as she aimed her gun at him, but then she was moving on instinct, turning her body side on to present a smaller target and trying to step back out of blast range, even though she knew it was too late.

Fire erupted along her left hip and arm as the shotgun spray burnt its way through her clothes and scattered against her skin, the blows knocking her off the doorstep, dropping her to the ground as she heard Jack yelling for her, and Gwen shouting into the building, her own gun aimed at the terrified kid.

Rose felt her own hand press against her bloody arm and felt herself yell in pain. She knew she was trying to speak, but through the shock and the pain she couldn't tell what words were passing her lips. Rose just knew she didn't want anyone to kill the kid for this. The fear she'd seen in his eyes before he'd pulled the trigger...

"Rose! Rose!" she heard Jack shouting for her, but couldn't focus through the pain yet to respond, and when Owen dropped beside her, medical gaze seeking out her injuries, Jack moved to back up Gwen.

"Gwen, what happened!?" she heard Jack shout, and her eyes spun to stare at the sky as she gasped for breath, adrenaline and fear and pain mixing in her mind.

"A kid with a shotgun," Gwen shouted back.

"Are you hit?" Owen shouted over at Gwen, but his eyes were fixed on Rose.

"Few pellets hit my arm, but I'll be fine..."

Jack was back beside Rose a moment later, and Owen looked up from the blonde to the American, "We need to get her somewhere I can work to stop the bleeding," the doctor explained and Jack nodded, carefully sliding his arms around her and picking her up as she cried out in pain at the movements.

"It's ok, I've gotcha, Rose, I've gotcha," he muttered, and she tried to relax, knowing that tensing would only hurt more. She didn't know where Jack and Owen were taking her, she just rode out the pain, letting her throat issue sounds of agony whenever it needed to, only becoming aware of her surroundings again when Owen swept a kitchen table clear and Jack placed her on it gently, fingers wiping away tears she'd not known she was shedding.

"I'll check upstairs," Jack said, "Gwen stay here, watch Owen's back while he works on Rose, and let him check your arm as soon as he can," Jack ordered, pulling his gun to check the rest of the house and Rose whimpered.

"I thought I was done having to look after you," Owen griped at the blonde, and she choked out a pain filled laugh.

"Jeopardy friendly, that's me..." she gasped, right hand half trying to cradle her injuries, and half recoiling from the agony her touch was igniting.

"Alright Rose, now listen to me; Listen!" Owen snapped his fingers, drawing her gaze as she blinked rapidly, "I need to look at your wound now, ok? Stay calm."

Rose couldn't stop a whimper escaping her, knowing just how much it was going to hurt, but nodded and let her right hand clasp the edge of the table to keep from striking out at Owen.

He didn't bother trying to peel her hoodie off her frame, just cut up the sleeve to get at the pellet marks on her upper arm. There were a few just above her hip that he checked too, but after a moment he nodded, calming slightly.

"Ok, it could have been much worse," he told her, unwrapping a sterile pad and pressing it against the wounds scattered across her arm, "I need you to hold this and apply pressure while I work on your torso, alright? The pellets are lodged near the surface, you've been bloody luck, if he'd got you straight on-"

Rose nodded frantically, pressing the pad against her bleeding arm and groaning in pain, "I know, I turned," she gasped and Owen shook his head.

"You are something else," he muttered, digging through his bag and pulling out a needle, "You want a quip about feeling a small prick?" he asked her grinning, and Rose choked out another laugh, as a fresh round of tears left her eyes and she shook her head.

"I'm sure your patients must have loved you," she muttered as he injected the local anaesthetic into her arm and waist.

"Let's get these pellets out, eh?" he said, ignoring her comment easily, "There's gonna be a certain amount of residue, so just relax, lie back and think of Torchwood," he teased her gently as he exchanged the needle for a pair of tweezers and peered intently at her injuries.

"Why'd you stop being a doctor?" Rose asked a few minute later when she felt her breathing slowing as the anaesthetic took effect and the pain was blocked enough for her to form full sentences again.

"Excuse me, I still am a doctor," Owen grumbled, and Rose grinned up at him.

"You know what I mean, why no more patients?" she asked and Owen sighed.

"I've never been a people person, I'm sure you noticed," he admitted, "Not dealing with the patients any more, that's ideal... It was always the bit I hated, but medicine?" Owen let the sentence go unfinished and Rose let her eyes shut as her breathing slowly returned to normal.

"Ah, you beauty," Owen muttered a moment later, and when Rose opened her eyes he was holding a small shotgun pellet before her in a pair of tweezers, "Medicine, I'm good at," he told her grinning, and Rose couldn't help grinning back as he returned to picking the metal out from beneath her skin.

She heard Jack coming back down the stairs, but kept her eyes closed and concentrated on making sure her breathing stayed steady so Owen could work.

"What's taking Tosh and Ianto so long?" he said as he came back into the room, and Rose could hear the concern in his voice.

"Jack, give them a chance, it might be locked up or under guard," Gwen said, her hands starting to shake now that the adrenaline was fading and her own pain was kicking in.

"Or they could be dead!" the kid who shot her exclaimed tearfully, "everyone else is!"

"Sit down, tell us what happened here," Rose heard Jack growl at the teenager, but she was in no position to defend the kid. She heard the stranger drop into a seat and opened her eyes to see Jack bent before him, desperate now for answers.

"Tell us what happened?" he asked the shaking teen again, his voice only a fraction calmer.

"It's not human!" the kid all but shouted, trying to rise to his feet and run, but Jack grabbed his arms gently, and Rose relaxed back against the table, letting Jack deal with the terrified teen, "look my mum won't know what happened, they're only expecting me back for the weekend..."

"Listen, we'll get you home, okay?" Jack tried to calm the boy, and Rose focussed on the methodical progress Owen was making, starting near her hip and digging out pellets up to the edge of her ribs.

"What are you going to do? You can't fight them, they're too strong!" the kid shouted, "the only thing we can do is barricade the door-"

"No, we'll make base at the pub, like Rose said it's a stronger building, more resources we can use," Jack decided firmly, and Owen pulled away from her waist, pressing a fresh gauze pad over the still bleeding wounds, before taking her hand and the blood soaked pad away from her arm, moving onto the next bleeding section of her body.

"What about Tosh and Ianto, should we go after them?" Gwen asked, but Jack shook his head a moment later.

"Not until we know what we're dealing with," he decided.

"What if it's too late by then?" Gwen argued, but Jack had made up his mind, and Rose couldn't help but think that it was the best option. Splitting up further only made them easier targets.

"They're not children, they know what to do... Can she be moved?" Jack asked Owen and Rose knew he was talking about her.

There was a moment of silence before she opened her eyes and saw Owen nod slowly, "If we're careful, I think I've got all the pellets, but any rough movement's gonna aggravate the wounds and restart the bleeding," he explained.

Jack moved to pick her up again but Owen shook his head, "As much as I hate to admit it, you're a better shot than me, I've got her," the doctor said and Jack nodded.

"I'll look at your arm once we're in the pub," Owen told Gwen and she nodded as he turned back to Rose and she let out a shuddering breath while he threw his equipment back in the medical bag.

"Ready?" Owen asked a moment or two later and Rose nodded. Part of her wanted to stand and walk on her own but she could still feel trails of blood leaking from her skin and knew that they at least needed to stop bleeding properly before she tried anything that might tear the wounds open further.

Jack pulled out his gun again and moved outside, checking that their path was clear as Owen gently scooped Rose up and she tried to smother a fresh whimper of pain.

"Come on," Gwen ordered the teen, checking her own weapon as the group went to barricade themselves into a building with a door that still locked.

---

"There's no point in chromosomal grafting, it's too erratic," the Doctor explained to Dalek Sec. He'd swiftly looked over what they'd tried before and mentally processed a replacement treatment.

Now as he ran between lab stations he was trying to explain the process to Dalek Sec so that the hybrid would understand what he was doing.

"You need to split the genome and force the Dalek Human sequence right into the cortex."

"We need more chromatin solution," Dalek Sec ordered, and the Pigmen were instructed to bring in the supplies the Doctor needed. The Doctor spotted Laszlo, and let a tendril of his mind work on that problem as well.

"These pig slaves," he queried as Sec moved to stand beside him, watching the Doctor work on the new solution, "What happens to them in the grand plan?" he asked and Sec shook his head.

"Nothing. They're just simple beasts. Their lifespan is limited. None survive beyond a few weeks." he explained, before turning to the pure Daleks to begin issuing more orders, and the Doctor cautiously moved over to Laszlo who'd been listening to his fate.

"Laszlo, I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered, "I can't undo what they've done to you, but they won't do it to anyone else," he promised, and Laszlo met his eyes, brave and determined.

"Do you trust him?" the man asked and the Doctor found his throat tightening, because the answer he wanted to give was a resounding no.

"I know that one man can change the course of history," he said in the end, "The right idea in the right place at the right time is all it takes... I've got to believe it's possible," he admitted, shrugging one shoulder and after a moment Laszlo nodded his acceptance of that and the Doctor returned to processing the solution needed for the new breed of Dalek's.

"The line feeds are ready," came from one of the Daleks a few minutes later, and the Doctor spun round from the lab equipment and ran across the room.

"Then it's all systems go!" he exclaimed, filling a tube with his concoction.

"The solar flare is imminent, the radiation will reach Earth in a matter of minutes," Dalek Sec announced, and the Doctor could feel a buzz of excitement running through his veins. So far, so good.

"We'll be ready for it," he reassured Sec, grinning as he slammed the syringe-like tube he'd filled into a giant vat of the template DNA from Sec.

"That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure into a brand new pattern; Power up!" he shouted, a small part of his mind reeling that he was issuing instructions to Daleks and they were following them without question.

Laszlo and another of the pigmen threw the power switches and the Doctor watched the blue solution travel through the tubing system to each of the human bodies, his tongue pressed to the back of his teeth anxiously before he was forced to smother a grin.

"There goes the gene solution," he announced, and Sec's response bordered on awed.

"The life blood..."

A klaxon sounding was like a bucket of ice water over the Doctor's head and he spun, staring around the room for the source of the problem, although his gut told him where he needed to look.

"What's that?" he demanded, hoping he was wrong, but Dalek Sec had barely begun to respond when he saw the problem.

"What's happening?" Sec demanded of the Dalek's, "Is there a malfunction? Answer me!"

"No no no!" the Doctor cried, hands grabbing at his hair as all his hopes came crashing down again, "The gene feed! They're overriding the gene feed!" the Doctor cried, running to the controls and trying desperately to reverse whatever the Daleks were doing to disrupt the process.

"Impossible," Sec scoffed, "they cannot disobey orders."

"The Doctor will step away from the controls!" one of the Dalek's shouted as it approached, and the Doctor raised his hands, stepping back, knowing he had no choice left and as he reversed so the Dalek advanced, it's weapon primed.

"Stop!" Sec ordered, "you will not fire!"

"He is an enemy of the Daleks," said another, and then the one with it's weapon still aimed at the Doctor took over, and the Time Lord felt his hearts sink.

"And so are you," it told Sec firmly, as their weapons moved to encompass the hybrid as well.

"I am your commander. I am Dalek Sec!" the hybrid shouted at them, and the Doctor put a hand on the hybrid's chest to stop him from lunging at the Daleks surrounding them, but they ignored his words. The three pure Daleks had clearly decided his fate already.

"You have lost your authority."

"You are no longer a Dalek."

"What have you done? What's going into the gene feed?" The Doctor demanded. Trying to determine whether or not Sec was still a Dalek wasn't going to help him stop the three that had turned on them.

"The new bodies will be one hundred percent Dalek" they answered him and Sec lost all semblance of control, still new to the emotions now running through him.

"You can't do this!" he cried, but the pure Dalek's were unconcerned with Dalek Sec's wishes.

"Pig slaves, restrain Dalek Sec and the Doctor," they ordered, and the Doctor was relieved to see Laszlo grabbing both of his arms, knowing that if there was a way out, the man would be running with him.

If he could only find the right moment to make a run for it.

"Release me! I created you! I am your master!" Sec ordered the pigmen, but it seemed that they too no longer recognised Sec as a Dalek.

"There's the lift," Laszlo whispered in the Doctor's ear, and he let his brown eyes settle on their only chance as he sighed softly.

"After you," he muttered back and together they make a dash for it. Laszlo pushed the other pigmen aside and the Doctor held the sonic screwdriver ahead of them to make sure that the lift doors were open when they reached them.

"The Doctor is escaping! Stop him! Stop him!" the Dalek's cried, and the pigmen advanced, but one more burst of the sonic closed the lift doors in their faces and they began ascending to the top floor of the Empire State Building.

"We've only got minutes before the gamma radiation reaches the Earth," the doctor rambled his plans aloud as he slipped the sonic back into his coat, "we need to get to the top of the building... Laszlo, what's wrong?" the Doctor asked, frowning as he studied the man.

He was leaning against the back wall of the lift, gasping for air and the Doctor could feel the waves of warmth coming from him.

"Out of breath," he gasped, shaking his head, "It's nothing. We've escaped Doctor, that's all that matters," Laszlo told him. The Doctor frowned but took him at his word, after all, there was nothing he could do for the man anyway, not with Daleks and a gamma radiation wave heading for Earth.

He let his hand fall on Laszlo's shoulder gently and they shared a quiet moment as the lift rose through the building, releasing a sharp ding as the doors opened to reveal Martha, Frank and Tallulah.

"Doctor!" Martha cried and he couldn't help but grin at her as he stepped out.

"First floor perfumery," he quipped, but no one was listening as Tallulah advanced on Laszlo beaming, and Martha beckoned him over to the plans of the building excitedly.

"We've worked it out, we know what they've done," she told him, as he ran from the lift to peer at the plans she was indicating, "there's Dalekanium on the mast, and it's good to see you too, by the way," she teased, and he turned his brown eyes from the paper to her smile and grinned down at the young woman.

"Oh, come here" he said, scooping her up into a hug, lifting her feet from the floor and spinning them both in a circle, thrilled for one moment that they were both still alive until the lift made it's sharp ding sound again and he dropped Martha to the ground and dashed for the closing doors.

"No, no, no, no!" he shouted, as he slammed hard into the now sealed lift doors and sighed, bringing out the sonic to try and reverse the lift's direction and shaking his head with a growl, "See? Never waste time with a hug..."

He slammed his hand against the wall in frustration and put the sonic away when he realised it was useless, "deadlock sealed, I can't stop it..." he added.

"Where's it going?" Martha asked and the Doctor answered without thought as his eyes scanned the room and his mind ran ahead of him.

"Right back down to the Daleks, and they're not going to leave us alone up here... What's the time?"

"Uh, eleven fifteen," Frank told him and the Doctor cursed mentally.

"Six minutes to go, I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits," he muttered to himself, ignoring Tallulah's questions as Martha grabbed at his coat and dragged him over to the edge of the building.

As they approached the edge though he found himself stopping, hands raising to brace against the steel bar above his head as his eyes went wide wide, "Oh... that's high... that's very- Blimey, that's high..." he muttered, eyes wide. If he fell from here, he wouldn't get a chance to regenerate.

"We've got to go even higher," Martha told him, guiding him to a wooden ladder and pointing up at the rest of the tower, surrounded by metal scaffolding that went up at least another five floors.

"That's the mast up there, look, there's three pieces of Dalekanium on the base and we've got to get them off," she told him, and he stared at the scaffolding as lightning flashed in the sky above them.

His body catalogued the temperature of being up so high at night, and his mind factored in the wind chill from the storm before he shook his head and turned back to meet Martha's determined gaze.

"That's not we, that's just me," he told her, watching her back stiffen in indignation.

"I won't just stand here and watch you," she snapped and the Doctor shook his head as he turned.

"No, you're going to have your hands full down here anyway," he told her, "I'm sorry Martha, truly sorry, but you've got to fight," he told her, eyes sad but determined as he remembered the lift slowly descending, ready to bring pigmen or Daleks or both up to their location.

He didn't let her argue with him, although once she realised that he needed her to rally the others to fight, she reluctantly agree to stay behind, and the Doctor began climbing.

The temperatures were freezing so he focussed on regulating his body temperature to combat the cold, but there was only so much he could do, even as a Time Lord.

He ignored the spiralling path that the workmen had built, and used the strength in his wiry body to climb up the actual structure of the Empire State Building, racing against time itself to reach the mast with enough time leftover to remove the Dalek's addition before the gamma strike.

Once he reached the mast the Doctor had to crawl across to the Dalekanium, and wrapped his arms around the piece he was working on so he wasn't blown off the top, struggling to drawn breath in the icy air. He could feel his body fighting against the below freezing temperatures and slowly losing, even as he pulled out the sonic and began the slow process of unscrewing the bolts that were keeping the alien metal in place.

He worked as fast as he could, but the ever present clock in his head was telling him that it wasn't fast enough, even as he was pulling the first panel of Dalekanium off, flinging it to one side so that there was no chance of the gamma strike spreading it through the building.

He moved to the second of the three pieces, and shook his head. He had less than a minute left, but all he could do was keep going and hope he thought of something. His fingers were numb from the cold and in a split second the sonic had slipped from his fingers and fallen.

The Doctor dove for the device, but knew before he'd moved that he had no chance of catching it, and cursed loudly in Gallifreyan, the words disappearing into the storm as he wasted several seconds watching the sonic screwdriver vanish into the dark.

He still had two panels to remove, no time, and no sonic, and he found his hands pulling at the metal as though he could tear it free with his bare hands. He cried in pure frustration but the Dalekanium wouldn't give way and he released it with another shout of fury and anger.

Backing up a moment to think, he ran his achingly numb hands through his hair as he desperately racked his mind for some solution, and not liking anything he came up with. Desperate times, though, he thought, breathing deeply as fear settled in his hearts, but he knew there were no alternatives.

With less than ten seconds the Doctor climbed the base of the mast, and wrapped his body around it, breathing heavily as his body anticipated the pain to come. He had no guarantee that this would work, and no way to be sure he'd come out the other side, regeneration or not, but there was a chance, a small chance, that the introduction of Time Lord DNA before the Gamma radiation hit the Dalekanium could change the new Daleks just as effectively as human DNA had changed Dalek Sec.

No matter how small the chance, it was now the Doctor's only option, and he drew panicked breaths through his teeth as he mentally counted down the seconds left until the Gamma strike.

Frame tensing as he clung with everything he had to the metal mast, the lightning hit and screams were wrenched from his body as electricity scorched through his every cell. Between his screams he sobbed and mentally begged for the relief of death, but he refused to unclench the muscles in his arms and legs that held him in place as his whole frame shook.

If the Daleks took over the Earth in nineteen thirty, he would never meet Rose, his mind whispered, and a warmth settled over him, detaching him from the agony that was taking over his every cell.

His throat screamed and his eyes cried and his muscles tensed and clenched and spasmed as they held their position but for the first time in days his mind was quiet, and the Doctor sank into his memories of her.

Her tongue in teeth smile. Her soft hoodies. Her bright, easy laughter. Her love of running and vanilla scented soap. Her waves of golden hair. He let himself remember her hand in his and the way she tucked her face into his shoulder when they hugged. He let himself remember the first time he hugged her and the first time he took her hand and told her to run. The Doctor remembered the first time she'd fallen asleep against his shoulder in the media room, and he remembered when she'd come back to save him; Bad Wolf.

"I want you safe, my Doctor."

He blacked out then, muscles relaxing as he fell to the mast platform below him, landing hard and unconscious with golden memories filling his mind.