A/N: I know that a lot of the Dalek's dialogue is the same, and here's my excuse: I can't get into the mind of a Dalek and change what they are going to say as easily as I can for, say, the Doctor. I don't really think anyone can get into the mind of a Dalek, unless they're truly that evil.
~DW~
I follow the Doctor out of the TARDIS, to what's supposed to be an alien planet. He hasn't taken me to one yet. Instead I step out into a dark corridor that I could find on Earth if I really wanted to.
"Doctor? You said you were taking me to an alien planet!"
"I know! There's a signal coming from here, pulling the TARDIS off course. Now, where are we…?"
He pulls out the sonic and spins in a circle, holding it out in front of him, and if I'm honest, it looks absolutely ridiculous. The lights come on.
"There we are!" he says, and we look around. The hall is lined with display cases, and I don't recognize any artifacts. One catches my eye, and I walk over to it, absolutely disgusted.
"Must be a museum," comments the Doctor, walking over to inspect a chunk of metal. I point to my display case.
"Doctor? That's a Slitheen arm. That is a stuffed Slitheen arm. Where in the world do you get a stuffed Slitheen arm from? Who the hell would want a stuffed Slitheen arm?"
"Oh! Look at that!"
"Hmm? What's that?" The Doctor is standing in front of another display case, which holds something that looks like a robot head.
"Old friend…or, enemy…but what's it doing in a museum? Am I really getting that old?" He taps the glass, and an alarm goes off. Seconds later, we're surrounded by soldiers who are pointing guns at us.
"Nice going."
The guards lead us through several hallways, and I subconsciously keep track of the turns we make just in case we need to run for it. They lead us into a room where two men are talking.
"What does it do?" says the one who I assume is the boss.
"The tubes on the side must be to channel something, so maybe it's fuel…"
"Wouldn't hold it like that if I were you," the Doctor interrupts. A woman tells him to shut up. "But it's wrong!" I roll my eyes. "It looks silly!" I look at him, saying it all with one glare. He holds out a hand, and there are several guns pointed at his head. The boss guy holds up a hand before handing it to the Doctor.
"The key is to be gentle," he explains, running his fingers over the metal piece carefully, and it emits a music note much like a harmonica. I would say it's impressive, but he really doesn't need the ego boost.
The Doctor hands the artifact back to the boss, who makes several failed attempts to play the instrument before tossing it aside. My eyes widen. Why would you just toss something like that?
"Who are you?" the boss asks.
"I'm the Doctor. And you are?"
The boss snorts. "As if you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable alien artifacts in the world and you ended up here by mistake?"
"That's him in a nutshell," I reply.
"Oh! She's English too!" exclaims the boss. He turns to the other younger man who had the artifact before. "Found you a girlfriend!"
"This is Mr. Henry Van Statten," says the man uncomfortably. "I'm Adam; I assist Mr. Van Statten in collecting alien artifacts."
"I own the Internet," Van Statten says smugly. I roll my eyes.
"Don't be an idiot, nobody owns the Internet…right?" I ask, turning to the Doctor.
"So you know everything about anything but the artifacts in your museum here," the Doctor summarizes. "You lock these things up because they scare you, because you don't understand them."
"You think you know better?" Van Statten sneers.
"He does," I retort.
"Yet I've captured you both, right next to the cage as well! What were you doing down there?" he demands.
"You tell me," I say calmly, slipping into my routine. Turn the interrogation around, get answers instead of giving them.
"The cage contains my living specimen."
"Let me see it," the Doctor demands.
"You want to, don't you?"
"Blimey, both of you! We get it! You're tough!" I say, rolling my eyes. I catch Adam smirking out of the corner of my eye.
"Goddard," Van Statten tells the woman, "inform the cage that we're on our way down."
"English, look after the girl. Canoodle, or spoon, or whatever it is you British do. You, Doctor…come and see my pet."
~DW~
"This is your workshop?" I ask Adam, observing all the cluttered papers and spare pieces of metal and plastic. It's basically a junkyard. A useful junkyard, but a junkyard.
"Sorry about the mess, I just do my own thing most of the time, as long as I deliver the goods; Mr. Van Statten is okay with it." I poke around at a few things, wires, mostly. I could never understand any of this stuff.
"You must be some sort of genius, then."
Adam laughs. "I try. Here, what do you think this is?" He hands me something.
"This," I say expertly, "is a chunk of useless metal."
"Well…yeah. But I think it may have come from a spacecraft." I place the lump of metal down on the desk. "You see," Adam continues, "it's all true. You know, everything you thought wasn't true about aliens, and invasions, it's all real!"
"Wow," I say, trying to sound surprised and amazed. This guy has no idea. "So, what exactly is your job?"
"I catalogue alien life," he explains.
"How did you end up here?"
"Mr. Van Statten has agents all over the place. I got recruited from this place called the School."
"What?" Adam looks at me.
"There's this place called the School. They experiment, on, well, humans…and I was one of them. They did something that increased my mental capacity, and basically, I turned into a genius overnight."
"You're an experiment too?" I ask in wonder.
"Wait, you're from the School too? What did they give you?" he asks excitedly. I frown. Adam is way too excited about this.
"Well, um…wings. I can fly," I tell him.
"That's so cool!"
"Sometimes it is, yeah, but other times…I just feel like a mutant freak, you know? People look at me like I'm a monster. That's why I never tell anybody…speaking of which, please don't mention this to the Doctor?" I beg.
"I won't breathe a word, I promise," he says, drawing an X over his heart.
"God, I would kill to know what's going on down there," I mutter.
"Lucky you, you got stuck with the guy who patched into the comms system," Adam smiles wickedly. My eyes light up. He reaches over and turns on his computer screen.
I watch a man approach a robot that looks like a giant pepper shaker, with a plunger and a whisk for arms. This is the alien? The man attacks it, and it stands defenseless.
"Oh my god, they're torturing it! You just stand here and watch this?" I turn to Adam accusingly. "After what you witnessed in the School, you stand here and watch this, and it's all just fine and dandy?"
"I had no idea, I swear!"
"Get me down there, Adam. Now."
~DW~
I storm into the room with the door that leads to the cage, right past the guard.
"Hold up!" cries a guard, but Adam just flashes his ID card angrily.
"Level three access, permission from Mr. Van Statten."
We stride right past the guards and into the cage. I stare at the creature, pity clear in my features. Nothing, alien, human, or otherwise, should ever have to be treated like that.
"Don't get too close," Adam warns from behind me, and I roll my eyes. For a kid from the school, he sure isn't as tough as the Flock.
I walk up to the alien slowly and peer into the piece that looks like its eye.
"Hello?" I say carefully. "Are you in pain? My name's Rose, Rose Tyler, I've got a friend who can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"
"YES," it replies electronically.
I'm startled, because for some reason I hadn't been expecting an answer. "What?"
"I – AM – IN – PAIN." It raises its eyepiece and I look at it sympathetically. "THEY – TOR – TURED – ME. THEY – FEAR – ME. DO – YOU – FEAR – ME?"
"No," I say softly. "I'm not afraid of you. I'm so sorry."
"I – AM – DY – ING."
"No!" I cry. "There's got to be a way I can help you!"
"I – WEL – COME – DEATH. I – AM – GLAD – THAT – BE – FORE – I – DIE – I – MET – A – HU – MAN – WHO – WAS – NOT – A – FRAID."
"Oh," I gasp sadly. A memory creeps up on me.
FLASHBACK
The smell of medicine and cleaning alcohol is too much. My eyes water and my hair flies behind me as I run down the halls, desperate to escape the cruel whitecoats. I'm exhausted and hurting, but I run.
I go through random doors, because as great as my sense of direction is, there's no way I can navigate my way around this place, and I need to find the Flock ASAP. I fling open a door and lock it behind me, leaning against it for a moment of rest. Whimpering from the corner of the room meets my ears, and I walk closer to see if it's Angel or Nudge.
"Hello?" More whimpers. I walk closer, and as my eyes adjust to the dark I can make out a small, trembling figure. It's a girl with black, wavy hair, and pale green eyes. She hugs her knees. Her face is tear-streaked, and she's dirty and bruised, just like me.
"What's your name?" I ask softly. She coughs, and I notice the blood staining her shirt. "Are you okay? What happened to you? What did they do?"
"I'm expiring," she chokes out, and it's no louder than a whisper.
"I drop to my knees next to her, reaching a hand out tentatively. She leans toward my touch, and I wrap my arms around the poor girl.
"What's your name?" I ask again, and she shakes her head.
"I don't have one."
"Well, then, let's give you one," I say, trying not to cry. "Any ideas?"
"No."
"How about Sarah?" I look down at her and she smiles slightly.
"Sarah," she whispers. "I like Sarah." She starts to cough violently.
"Hey! Sarah! We just gave you a name, right? You can't expire now, come on! I can get you out of here, with my friends! They're trapped here too! You can come with us, we can be happy…"
"It's okay," she says softly. "I'm happy. I'm not going to suffer anymore. They can't hurt me." A tear falls down my cheek, as she coughs again, closing her eyes. A feel her pulse until it stops, and I lay her down on the ground carefully.
I'm never going to forget Sarah, the Flock member that never was.
END FLASHBACK
No creature should ever feel the need to accept death like that. To be okay with it, because no one can hurt them anymore.
"There's got to be something I can do," I insist.
"MY – RACE – IS – DEAD. I – WILL – DIE – A – LONE."
I lay a hand on the cool metal of the alien, before it glows hot red and I pull my hand away.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Adam yelps. I nod.
"Yeah, can't be burned, it's a mutant thing," I say quickly, brushing it off as the alien starts to rattle in its chains. Its tone changes when it speaks, from sad to angry.
"GEN – ET – IC – MAT – ER – IAL – EX – TRAP – O – LATED. INIT – IATE – CELLU – LAR – RE – CON – STRUC – TION!" My eyes widen.
"What have you done?" A guard races in as the alien breaks out of its chains. Adam backs up, pulling me with him out of the room. We watch on the screen. The plunger attached to the alien reaches up toward the guard's face and he laughs. Then, basically, he got plungered to death. Which technically wasn't a proper term until I made it up just now.
Another guard shouts into a speaker. "Red alert! Repeat, red alert! This is not a drill!"
~DW~
"Keep it in that cell!" the Doctor shouts over the computer. I race over to the web cam.
"Doctor, what did I do? What did I do wrong?" I ask.
"The compartment is sealed. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations," says the guard.
"A Dalek can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat," the Doctor says solemnly.
I stand next to Adam with security, and the door swings open in no time. They let out open fire on the Dalek, and I scan the room for an extra gun. I don't see any and sigh angrily. What's a girl got to do to help?
"Rose, get out of there!" the Doctor shouts. I look at him and take in how worried he is. I've never seen him like that, and if he's so concerned, maybe I should leave…
"With me," says De Magio, one of the female guards. Adam and I follow her out of the room. We run past another bunch of guards, through the halls. I find my way to a flight of stairs.
"That's more like it!" With Adam on my heels, we race to the first landing. I turn back to De Magio. "Are you coming?"
"It's coming! Get up!" she cries. She meets us up at the landing. The Dalek comes in and stops at the bottom of the stairs. I smile with relief
"What, big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs?" Adam mocks from beside me.
"I demand that you return to your cage," De Magio commands. "Mr. Van Statten will be willing to negotiate, if you wish. Yes, we imprisoned you, and that was wrong, but people have died and that stops right now. The killing stops. Understood?" The Dalek says nothing in response. "I demand that you surrender, is that clear?"
"EL – EV – ATE."
The Dalek rises in the air and up the first few stairs.
"Adam, get her out of here," De Magio demands.
"Come with us, you can't stop it!" I cry.
"Someone has to try." Adam drags me up the rest of the stairs. I hear De Magio's scream from the corridor, and wince. We run.
We end up in the middle of a hall, not knowing which way to turn, and when I look to my left, there's a bunch of soldiers standing by with their guns pointed in our direction.
"You two get the hell out of there!" the commander shouts. We make it outside the door the moment the Dalek comes into view. I stop for a moment and watch it, and it stops as well. It focuses on my face and turns in our direction.
"Why was it looking at me?"
"Maybe because it wants to slaughter us?" Adam suggests.
"No! It was looking right at me."
"It's a chunk of metal that's trying to kill us. I seriously doubt it was looking at you."
"Really!" I insist. "I don't know, like there's something inside the metal, looking at me…like it knows me."
Adam pulls my arm and takes off running again, and I follow. Not that long after, my mobile starts ringing.
"Not the best time!" I yell to the Doctor.
"Where are you?" he says urgently.
"Level 49," I say, glancing at the sign on the wall.
"Keep moving. I need you to make it to Level 46 as soon as possible, Rose. The vault doors are going to close."
"Can't you stop them?"
"I'm the one closing them. I can't wait for you. I can't help you. Now, run!"
Adam and I pick up speed, if even possible.
"Adam," I shout to him, putting my hand over the phone speaker so the Doctor won't hear, "how fast can you go?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, the School give you super speed or something?"
"I wish!"
Well, it was worth a shot. I pick the phone back up to my ear.
"We're nearly there! Give us two seconds!"
The bulkhead lowers, and Adam is a bit faster than me. He rolls under it just in time, while I nearly run into it. The Doctor shouts to me from the other end of the phone and I lean on the cool metal, breathing heavily.
"Sorry," I say quietly. "I was a bit slow." I turn to see the Dalek rounding the corner.
"See you then, Doctor. I'm sorry. Thank you, for everything. And remember, it wasn't your fault, alright? I wouldn't have missed it for the world." I turn to face the Dalek, and prepare to be exterminated.
"Go on, kill me then," I say, somewhat annoyed by the fact that this freaking Dalek won't just exterminate me and get it over with. "Why are you doing this?"
"I – AM – ARMED. I – WILL – KILL. IT – IS – MY – PUR – POSE."
"You killed all those people. And now what? What are you waiting for? There's got to be a reason I'm still alive right now!"
"I – FEEL – YOUR – FEAR."
I'm confused. The Dalek is afraid? "What do you expect?"
"DAL – EKS – DO – NOT – FEAR. MUST – NOT – FEAR."
Suddenly its death ray goes off on rampage, wildly shooting at the wall.
"I – AM – CON – TAM – IN – ATED!"
~DW~
I face the Dalek's screen and almost sigh with relief when the Doctor's face appears on it.
"Rose! You're alive!" he cries, and the relief and happiness in his voice is evident. I smile.
"Can't get rid of me!" I joke.
"I thought you were dead," he says, clearly hurt. I look into his eyes and see the worry.
"OP – EN – THE – BULK – HEAD!"
"Don't do it, Doctor," I say calmly. "I'm not worth it."
"WHAT – ARE – EM – OT – IONS – IF – YOU – WILL – NOT – SAVE – THE – WO – MAN – YOU – LOVE?"
Disbelief takes over my features. The Doctor? Love me? Never in a million years. It kills me to admit it, but yeah, maybe I like the Doctor. A lot. Maybe it's just enough to call it love. But he could never feel the same way.
"Rose Tyler, you are most definitely worth it. I killed you once. I can't do it again."
The bulkhead opens slowly, and I walk through it with the Dalek following. It directs me into the lift, and I must say, the atmosphere is not only tense, but extremely awkward.
"Please don't kill them," I say quietly, and its eyepiece spins around to look at me. "You didn't kill me."
"WHY – NOT? WHY – ARE – YOU – A – LIVE? I – AM – MADE – TO – KILL. WHAT – AM – I? WHAT – AM – I?"
The lift door opens to reveal Van Statten.
"Don't move. Don't talk. Don't do anything," I tell him. "It's questioning itself."
"YOU – TOR – TUR – ED – ME. WHY?"
"I wanted to help you," Van Statten says nervously. "I thought if we could get through to you…I'm sorry…" The Dalek advances on him, backing him against the wall. I look on, angry that I can't do anything.
"EX – TER – MIN – ATE!"
"Don't! Don't kill him!" I burst. The Dalek spins and I look right at it.
"You don't have to kill. There's got to be something else you want, anything!"
"FREE – DOM."
~DW~
I stand next to the Dalek on floor 1 of the base. The Dalek fires its ray at the ceiling and sunlight floods through the hole it made.
"You're out, you made it," I smile, because as much as this creature is evil, it got what it wanted in the end, and it chose not to kill.
"HOW – DOES – IT – FEEL?"
The Dalek opens up its casing to reveal the creature inside. It basically looks like a pile of mush with the eyes sticking out, and tentacles like an octopus. I stare at it until a voice behind me makes me jump.
"Get out of the way, Rose." I turn to see an angry looking Doctor with a gun. Not the best combination. "Get out of the way, now!"
"No," I say calmly. "I won't let you do this."
"That thing killed hundreds of people!"
"It's not the one pointing a gun at me," I say coldly.
"I've got to end this. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. That thing is the reason I'm the last of my kind. I've got nothing left."
"Look," I tell him, standing aside.
"What is it doing?"
"It wanted the sunlight. All it wanted was the sunlight."
His voice is shaking. "What…but it can't…?"
"It couldn't kill me. It couldn't even kill Van Statten, and he tortured the poor thing! It's changing, for the good! But what are you changing into, Doctor?" I say, motioning toward the gun. He looks down at it, as if he's noticing it for the first time. He looks completely lost for the first time since I've met him.
"I couldn't…I wasn't…" he looks at the Dalek, and back at me, his eyes filled with unshed tears. "They're all dead, Rose."
"WHY – DO – WE – SUR – VIVE?"
"I don't know," the Doctor replies quietly.
"I – AM – THE – LAST – OF – THE – DA – LEKS."
"But you're not. I'm sorry. Rose did more than regenerate you. You absorbed her DNA, you're mutating into something new."
"That's good though, isn't it?" Finally, some natural advancement. The School should take some lessons.
"Not for a Dalek."
"GIVE – ME – OR – DERS!" The Dalek begs. "OR – DER – ME – TO – DIE!"
"I can't do that," I say. I'm torn between pity and disgust.
"O – BEY. O – BEY." For a moment I think of Sarah, and whether or not she's happy with whatever came after death. I think of how she was so ready and willing to die, because she wanted the suffering to end. I think of how the Dalek doesn't need to suffer.
"Do it."
~DW~
"Is that the end of it? The Time War?"
"Well, I'm the last one left standing. I win, how about that?" the Doctor jokes weakly, looking at the TARDIS.
"Well, if the Dalek survived, maybe some of your people…" I stop when the Doctor shakes his head.
"I would know."
"Good thing I'm not going anywhere," I smile, trying to cheer him up. He smiles back.
"Yeah."
Adam comes running up to us.
"Goddard says they're gonna fill this place with cement, like it never existed."
I look at the Doctor, and we have an entire conversation with facial expressions while Adam looks on confused.
"On your own head," the Doctor says, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. I fist pump my victory.
We both walk into the TARDIS, and I laugh when I hear Adam outside, sounding genuinely concerned for our sanity.
"Doctor? What're you doing inside a box? Rose?" He finally steps inside, and the Doctor starts up the TARDIS.
