A/N - this chapter is a rewrite of Evolution Of The Daleks

xi. evolution of the daleks

"These. Humans. Will. Become. Like. Me!" The... thing says. "Prepare. Them. For. Hybridisation." A pig slave takes hold of me and I struggle. Stupid things. "Leave me alone!" I scream. Where the hell is the Doctor? "Don't you dare!" A song begins playing and everyone stops, leaving me to get out of the pig slave's hold. "What. Is. That. Sound?" The thing asks. The Doctor steps out, a radio in his hands. "That would be me." He sets the radio down on a laboratory bench. "Hello. Surprise. Boo. Et cetera." Took him bloody long enough.

"Doctor."

"The. Enemy. Of. The. Daleks!" One Dalek says.

"Exterminate!"

"Wait!" The thing says. I raise my eyebrows apprehensively. "Well then," The Doctor says. "A new form of Dalek." He walks forward. "Fascinating and very clever."

"The. Cult. Of. Skaro. Escaped. Your. Slaughter!"

"How did you end up in 1930?"

"Emergency. Temporal. Shift." The Doctor scoffs, "Oh, that must have roasted up your power cells, yeah?" He strides away, looking about. "Time was, four Daleks could have conquered the world but instead your skulking away, hidden in the dark, experimenting, all of which results in you."

"At least there's only four," I point out. All the Daleks look at me. Oops. "Rose. Tyler!" The thing says.

"Leave her alone." The Doctor says, stepping in front of me.

"I. Am. Dalek. In. Human. Form. I. May. Look. Human. But. I'm. As. Emotionless. As. A. Dalek!" You don't look anything like human, I'm tempted to say. Idiot Dalek. Do we humans look like an Ood?

"What does it feel like? You can talk to me, Dalek Sec. It is Dalek Sec, isn't it? That's your name? You've got a name and a mind of your own. Tell me what you're thinking right now."

"I... feel... humanity..."

"Good. That's good."

"I. Feel. Everything. We. Wanted. From. Mankind. Which. Is. Ambition. Hatred. Aggression. And. War. Such... A. Genius. For. War!"

"No, that's not what humanity means."

"I. Think. It. Does! At. Heart. This. Species. Is. So. Very... Dalek." The Doctor glares at it before going on. "All right, so what have you achieved then? With this Final Experiment, eh? Nothing! 'Cause I can show you what you're missing with this thing." He points at the radio. "Simple little radio."

"What is the purpose of that device?"

"Well, exactly. It plays music. What's the point of that? Oh, with music, you can dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it," He looks at me when he says that and I smile. "Unless you're a Dalek of course. Then it's just NOISE!" He aims the sonic at the radio and a high pitched wail comes from it. "Run!" We run away, the pig slaves trying to get to us as we do so.

I lead the prisoners through the sewers, Frank running next to me. We stop, unsure of where to go. The Doctor rushes past. "Come on! Move!" We keep on running, following him. Tallulah's just near us, so the Doctor calls to her. "And you, Tallulah! Run!"

"What happened to Lazlo?" She asks, bewildered. I grab her and she starts running with us. We find a ladder and the Doctor stops and says, "C'mon! Everyone up!" All the prisoners go up, and then Frank, Tallulah, me and then the Doctor. He closes the lid to the sewer shut and sonics it down. I wipe my head. That was too bloody close.

We gather around the main fire, and Tallulah and I sit on crates across from Solomon, the Doctor and Frank standing up behind me. "These Daleks," Solomon says, "They sound like the stuff of nightmares. And they wanna breed?"

"They're splicing themselves into human bodies. If I'm right, they've got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville. We've got to get everyone out."

"Hooverville's the lowest place a man can fall. There's nowhere else to go."

"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!"

"There's got to be a way to reason with these things."

"There's not a chance." I say.

"You ain't seen 'em, boss," Frank adds.

"Solomon, they took my mum and my best friend away from me. They're emotionless and merciless. They don't care about anything that isn't Dalek."

"Daleks are bad enough at any time," The Doctor says, "But right now they're vulnerable and that makes them more dangerous than ever." We hear a whistle in the distance and frightened screaming. "A sentry." Solomon explains, standing up. "Must have seen something." A man comes running down the hill. "They're here! I seen 'em! Monsters! They're monsters!"

"It's started," The Doctor says.

"We're under attack!" Solomon says and I stand up. "Everyone to arms!" The men start passing out weapons they had collected. But some of the residents run off. "Come back! We gotta stick together! It's not safe out there! Come back!" One man passes me a weapon and I push it away. I don't do weapons. And it was a shovel. I don't think it's going to go well against a Dalek. "We need to get out of the park," I say.

"We can't," The Doctor says. "They're on all sides. They're driving people back towards us."

"We're trapped!" Tallulah says.

"Then we stand together," Solomon says. "Gather 'round. Everybody come to me. You there, Jethro, Harry, Seamus, stay together." The pig slaves have forced everyone into a tight circle by the fire. "They can't take all of us." Solomon starts fighting and the others with guns to so as well.

"Where are the Daleks?" I ask.

"Oh, Rose, like they'd miss the party," The Doctor says. I look up to the sky, and there is...

A Dalek.

Great. I had to say that, didn't I?

"What in the world-"

"It's the devil!" Solomon gets interrupted by a resident of Hooverville. "A devil in the sky. God save us all, it's damnation!"

"Oh yeah?" Frank asks. "We'll see about that!" Frank fires at the Dalek but, of course, the bullets do no damage. The Doctor pushes his rifle down.

"That's not gonna work."

"There's more that one of them," I murmur. Another one appears in the sky. "Oh, god." The Daleks begin to attack, firing upon Hooverville, causing explosions and fires of massive proportions.

"THE. HUMANS. WILL. SURRENDER!"

"Leave them alone!" The Doctor screams. "They've done nothing to you!" Solomon steps forward and grabs him by the arm. "No, Solomon. Stay back."

"I'm told that I'm addressin' the Daleks, is that right? From what I hear, you're outcasts too."

"Solomon, don't."

"Doctor, this is my township, you will respect my authority. Just let me try."

"Please Solomon!" I scream. He pushes the Doctor and I away. I hug the Doctor to me because I know what's going to happen.

Bloody Daleks. I hate them more than I've hated anything else.

"Daleks... ain't we all the same? Underneath, ain't we all kin?" He sets his rifle on the ground. "'Cause, see, I've just 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. But it's got to give me hope... 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. Well, what do you say?"

"Exterminate!" One Dalek fires upon Solomon, killing him. No. This cannot be happening.

"Oh, no!" Frank screams and all of Hooverville scream. Frank rushes to Solomon's side. "No! Solomon!"

"They killed him," I say. "They just shot him on the spot."

"Daleks!" The Doctor screams, pissed off. "All right, so it's my turn! Then kill me! Kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people!"

"NO!" I scream, but Tallulah holds me back. "You can't!" From what I've seen today, the Daleks are more dangerous than ever. They're going to kill him this time. "Get off me, Tallulah!" Tallulah doesn't loosen her grip.

"I. Will. Be. The. Destroyer. Of. Our. Greatest. Enemy!"

"Then do it! Do it! Just do it!" He beats on his chest. "Do it!"

"Don't!" I sob.

"Extermin-" I shut my eyes, but there's no gun shot. "I. Do. Not. Understand. It. Is. The. Doctor!" The Doctor looks towards me, sorrow in his eyes. I look back at him, with the same ferocity. "The. Urge. To. Kill. Is. Too. Strong!" The Doctor mouths the words, I'm Sorry at me. I just shake my head and jut it towards the Dalek. "I... Obey."

"What's going on?" The Doctor asks.

"You. Will. Follow."

"No!" I scream, finally loose of Tallulah's grip. "You can't go!"

"I've got to go. The Daleks just changed their minds. Daleks never change their minds."

"But what about me?" The Doctor looks at the Dalek. "One condition! If I come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here. Including Rose Tyler. Do you hear me?"

"The. Humans. Will. Be. Spared. Doctor... Follow!"

"Then I'm coming with you." I say. "Please Doctor!" I grab the lapels of his suit jacket. "Please."

"Rose, you have to stay here. You can help everyone here. Please, do that for me." He bends his head and kisses me. I kiss back with ferocity and euphoria of what we had. He breaks away and looks at me. "Can I just say, thank you. So very much. I love you." The Doctor grips my hand with both of his and winks. What? As he walks off, I see that he's given me his...

Psychic paper?

I'm applying a bandage to a man's arm when Tallulah walks in with a pot of water. "Here you go, I got some more on the boil."

"Thanks." I turn back to the man. "You'll be all right. It's just a cut. Try and keep it clean."

"Thanks." The man leaves and Tallulah leans against the wall next to me.

"So what about us? What do we do now?"

"The Doctor gave me this. He must have had a reason. I've known the Doctor for three years, he always has a reason. Unless there's Converse involved. Seriously, who wears Converse with a suit?" We chuckle. I pull out the psychic paper.

"What's that for?"

"Psychic paper. Shows people that are not just fake, but perfection. Can get you into places. The question is, what does he want us to get into?"

Inside Solomon's tent, Tallulah and I are searching through papers. "Wait a minute." I say and Tallulah stops. "Down in the sewers, the Daleks mentioned this... energy conductor. Or something or other..."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know. Maybe like a, lighting conductor or... Dalekanium!" Yes, it's genius! I think...

"Oh."

"They said the Dalekanium was in place."

"In place where?"

"Frank might know."

"He's just outside the tent." We walk out of the tent to see Frank sitting on a few logs, grieving.

"Frank?"

"Hm?" Frank asks, cleaning his face.

"That Mr Diagoras, he was like some sort of fixer, yeah? Get you jobs all over town?"

"Yeah. He could find a profit anywhere."

"But where, though? What sort of things? And why does he do it for the people of Hooverville?"

"I don't know. He does everything. You name it! We're all so desperate for work, you just hoped Diagoras would pick you for something good. Building work. That pays the best."

"But what sort of building work?"

"Mainly building that." He points towards the Empire State Building. Oh...

Tallulah, Frank and I are standing in the service lift of the Empire State Building. It's pretty old, you can see. "I always wanted to go to the Empire State," I say. "All that glitz and glamour. Never imagined it quite like this, though."

"Where are we headed anyway?" Frank asks.

"To the top where they're still building."

"How come those guys just let us through? How's that thing work?"

"Psychic paper. Shows them whatever I want them to think. According to this, we're two engineers and an architect." Frank takes the psychic paper and flips the empty paper over in his hands.

We enter the top floor, the room that Diagoras had obviously been using as an office. It's not finished yet, there's only three walls and you can see right down to New York through empty space. "Look at this place," Tallulah says. "Top of the world." I spot architectural plans.

"Okay, now this looks good. Let's take a look over here." God, I'm starting to sound like the Doctor. Frank joins me and we have a look through the designs.

"Hey," Frank automatically picks something up mentally. "Look at the date. These designs were issued today. They must've changed somethin' last minute."

"You mean the Daleks changed something?"

"Yeah, could be."

"The ones underneath, they're from before. That means that whatever they changed must be on this top sheet but not this one, yeah? We need to check one against the other."

"The height of this place!" We turn around to see Tallulah near the edge of the floor before it's just construction work. "This is amazing!"

"Careful, we're a hundred floors up. Don't go wandering off."

"I just wanna see." I turn back to the designs. There's got to be something I'm missing. The question is, what?

I have the plans spread out on the floor and I'm kneeling, studying them. It's like a game of spot the difference, except millions of lives are on the line. Frank and Tallulah are standing nearby. "I'll got and keep an eye out," Frank says. "Make sure we're safe up here. Don't want nobody buttin' in." Tallulah comes and stands near me.

"There's a hell of a storm movin' in."

"I wish the Doctor was here. He'd know what we're looking for."

"So tell me, where did you and him first hook up?"

"He saved me. Basically, I got caught by show window dummies in the basement of my workplace. One of the best days of my life. I just didn't know it then."

"You're a nutta', you know that?" Tallulah kneels beside me.

"Thanks Tallulah."

"Oi, I'm just tellin' the truth!" I nod. "That Doctor of yours, he's really different, isn't he?"

"Oh, you have no idea how different he really is."

"Yeah, he's a man, sweetheart. That's different enough."

"He's all I ever wanted. I just wish that my mum could see how in love we are."

"Where is she?" Why did I even bring up my mum?

"Gone. Stuck somewhere and she can't get back. It's..." I'm lost for words. "I wish my mum was here to see the Doctor and I. There's no point loving someone if you can't go home and tell your mum."

"Aw, listen sweetheart. You wanna get all sad? You wanna have a contest with me and Lazlo?"

"No," I say hurriedly. "But listen, if the Doctor's with Lazlo now, there's every chance that he could get him out."

"And then what? Don't talk crazy. There's no future for me and him. Those Dalek things took that away. The one good thing I had in my life and they destroyed it." She stands up and walks away.

"Gotcha!" I exclaim. I found it! "Look!" Tallulah comes to have a look at the plans. "There, on the mast. Those little lines? They're new. They've added something, see?"

"Added what?" Ohhh. We figure it out at the same time and look at each other.

"Dalekanium!"

The lift doors open and we turn to see the Doctor and Lazlo. "Doctor!" I squeal.

"First floor, perfumery." I lead him over to the plans. I'm using all my self-control not to snog him right now.

"We worked it out. We know what they've done. There's Dalekanium on the mast. And it's good to see you too, by the way."

"Oh, come here." He grabs me and pulls me up for a kiss. It's less passionate then before, but I'm not complaining. We hear the lift bell ding and he drops me and runs to the lift. "No, no, no. See, never waste time with a kiss." He must of seen my angry face because then he says, "Unless it's Rose Tyler, and you should always waste time on a kiss." He uses a sonic screwdriver on the panel. "It's a deadlock seal. I can't stop it."

"Where's it going?"

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

"11:15," Frank says, checking his old-fashioned watch.

"Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits."

"Gammon radiation?" Tallulah asks, a puzzled expression on her face as she holds Lazlo. "What the heck is that?" I lead the Doctor outside, the others following.

"Oh, that's high. That's very- blimey, that's high."

"And we've got to go even higher!" I say. "That's the mast up there, look. There's three pieces of Dalekanium up there. I think... Anyway, we've got to get 'em off."

"That's not 'we', that's just 'me'." Hell. To. The. Nizzy. No!

"I won't just stand here and watch you. I can't."

"No, you're gonna have your hands full, anyway. I'm sorry, Rose, but you've got to fight."

"But, I can't. You've changed me so much that I can't fight without feeling guilty. So, no."

"Rose," He takes hold of my hand. "You need to do this for me." He brushes my face with his fingers and kisses me softly. I don't care that the others are there, I just kiss him back. He breaks from the kiss and runs up the stairs.

"I love you," I mutter to myself after he's left.

We've made makeshift weapons and we are facing the lift. I look at the old-fashioned lift... thingy at the top of the door and the lift is slowly rising. "The lift's coming up." I say.

"I shoulda' brought that gun," Frank says.

"Tallulah, stay back," Lazlo says, pushing Tallulah behind him. "You too, Rose. If they send pig slaves, they're trained to kill."

"The Doctor needs me to fight. I'm not going anywhere!" Things can change with a kiss.

"They're savages. I should know, they're trained to slit your throat with their bare teeth." He suddenly collapses to the floor.

"Lazlo? What is it?" Tallulah says, kneeling to his level. Lazlo struggles to stand.

"No, it's nothing. I'm fine. Just leave me." He falls back to the floor and leans against the wall. Tallulah kneels beside him once more and puts her hand to his forehead.

"Oh, honey, you're burnin' up! What's wrong with you? Tell me." Yeah, what is happening? Frank and I turn back to the approaching lift.

"One man down and we ain't even started yet," Frank says to me.

"It's not looking good, Frank."

"Nope." I hear the storm and...

Hold on. That might just work.

Good old Ben! "Wait a minute," I say. "Lightning." I run over to the other end of the room. See, the Doctor said Benjamin Franklin got electrocuted my lightning using a kite, maybe, just maybe, we could get the lightning from the lightning strike to the lift doors so the pigs get electrocuted! It's genius!

I'm good.

"What the hell are you two clowns doin'?" Tallulah screams from where she's comforting Lazlo.

"Even if the Doctor stops the Dalekanium, this place is still gonna get hit. Great big bolt of lightning, electricity all down this building. Connect this to the lift, and they get zapped!"

"Oh my god, that could work!"

"Then give us a hand," Frank says, holding one metal rod to himself. Tallulah runs over. Within thirty seconds, we finish.

"Is that gonna work?" Tallulah asks.

"It's got to."

"I've got it all piped up to the scaffolding outside," Frank says.

"Come here, Frank and sit in the middle and don't touch anything metal." We huddle in the corner of the room. Suddenly, one of the metal rods fall over. I quickly run over and fix it, quickly. The lift doors ping open and the pigs are here.

And then I painfully get electrocuted.

And that was when I died.

A/N - don't favourite/alert this story without reviewing