Hello! Next chapter is up as promised... and the GCSE results are in! OMG! That basically covers it - today I've been a headless chicken, in almost every sense of the phrase. Ah well. Enjoy!
Meanwhile, in her cell on Barcelona, Rose stared at the other side of the door.
"Let's talk." Repeated the guard.
"What do you want to talk to me about?"
"I want to help you."
This was greeted with understandable scepticism.
"And why would you want to do that?"
"I want to take revenge... on my brothers. The other Daleks in the Cult. Since the moment we were born by the Emperor of the Daleks, there has been rivalry among us. I knew more than my brothers – the emperor had accidently made me omniscient. A mutation in the creation process. I could see into the past and all the possible futures. I saw all that was, and all that could be. They could not understand my superior intelligence. They have always hated me for it. For years they pushed me to the sidelines. Always... always... Dalek Kahn was to be the hider, the coward, the slave in the background. They didn't understand the pain of knowing everything, seeing everything at once – how it hurts, all the time. They gave me a poison – they secreted it into my shell many, many years ago. A parasite that fed on my inner matter slowly, using a powerful acid. It is destroying me from the inside out. I can see the possible futures – I know there I nothing I can do. Death is approaching – my own brothers have killed me. Their actions will be revenged!" His sucker flashed manically on and off.
"If you and the Doctor are kept alive, there is a chance that you will destroy them. They do not deserve to be Daleks after what they did to their brother. If I revenge their actions I will die with honour!"
At that second, Rose's womb suddenly racked in pain. Contractions. Arrived with terrible timing. The sudden stab was white hot and burning. In a panic, Rose realised that she was going into labour. Suddenly, terribly, Bad Wolf surged within her. A concentrated cosmic energy was absorbing the intense pain, emanating from her. She doubled over, yelling in pain even as it subsided.
The pain terrified her. She was going to lose all control if she didn't do something. Bad Wolf was going to go wild... it could wreak havoc... she wasn't going to be able to carry on much longer if she didn't do something.
Theta... I need you.
She looked back up at the Dalek, beginning to take in what he had said. "I see... So how are you going to... help me?"
The intercom sounded again. "Hostage must be prepared for removal in two Earth minutes."
"We do not have much time! The Doctor and yourself are in incredible danger. The blood transfusion that made you immortal saved the Doctor's life at a price. Both of your sets of DNA have been twisted into a new form. It's a mutation – unnatural, unstable. More dangerous than the most lethal cancer you can imagine. It is making you immortal now, but soon the mutation will break free from its base and alter the entire structure of your genes. When it alters your genes you will no longer immortal – and then the resulting explosion will kill both of you without bringing you back to life, or leave you horribly burned. It saved the Doctor's life, but this time if it doesn't kill you it will turn you into a monster. Rose Tyler, if you do not do something about it, it will kill your child."
Rose's mouth dropped open. "Great! So you're telling me how I'm going to die? Oh, very helpful - "
"LISTEN TO ME! I don't know what you are going to do. I don't know how you are going to stop this mutation – you future is just too unstable. I will, however, let you escape this place – if you kill the Daleks."
"That's definitely gonna happen if I have anything to do with it."
"It is good – the scum! They do not deserve to live-"
"Yeah, yeah, you said... so how are you gonna get me out of here, anyway?"
"The hostage must be prepared in thirty seconds!" The intercom sounded impatient.
"I will provide a distraction so you can get away. Listen carefully – at the end of this corridor there is a room, the only other room on this base. It contains the machine that will reduce your child to concentrated energy. You will wait BEHIND the metal doors so they cannot see you. After I have done what I have to do you will run in, grab the teleportation device on the east wall and leave. The rest is up to you."
"Wait – is the Eye of Skaro in there?" Dalek Kahn nodded.
"I'm not leaving without it."
The Dalek paused. "I'll see what I can do."
Then he pressed the button that released the metal grille on the cell door and set off down the corridor, leaving Rose to follow in his wake. Seconds later, Rose saw a set of huge metal doors at the end of the walkway. As they approached them, Dalek Kahn pressed a combination of buttons on a keypad and one door opened, leaving Rose to hide behind the other.
Dalek Kahn moved across the huge metal expanse, and the other three Daleks turned to follow his movement. From her position behind the door Rose could see the machine shrouded under a black cloth in the centre of the room, with the three Daleks clustered around it. Directly in front of it was a glass cage on a pedestal with a small wooden cube inside it. Upon seeing it, Rose felt Bad Wolf resurge in her system. Her fingertips white hot sparked for a moment and she forced them to stop, fighting an inner panic. She was going to burn up if this carried on...
As Dalek Kahn approached his brothers, Dalek Sek spoke.
"Where is the hostage?"
Silence.
"Dalek Kahn! Answer me! WHERE IS THE HOSTAGE?"
"She's waiting behind the door."
And Dalek Kahn turned so he was directly facing the pedestal. Suddenly he shot out a blue laser directly onto the glass cage. There was a crash as the glass shattered, and then suddenly there was chaos. All of the Daleks began firing, Rose ran in among the temporary melee and grabbed the cube, feeling it hot in her hand.
Dalek Sek noticed her. "Stop the hostage! Sedate her!"
The east wall was only a few metres away – Rose ran towards it, and she was only a few steps away when the contractions came again. Doubled over in pain, she screamed and all three Daleks were stunned for a minute by the bursts of white light. As the glare disappeared, Dalek Sek suddenly remembered the teleportation devices. He turned and blasted them with a blue laser, watching them dissolve into dust with a smirk on his face. It was a good job he'd remembered to bring a spare – and that Rose didn't know anything about it.
Rose yelled in frustration, then noticed to her horror that the Daleks were closing in on her again. She ran towards the door as fast as she could, but three bullets of laser light powerful enough to blast her against the opposite wall were zooming after her.
In the doorway, Rose realised what was happening, and screamed in terror, almost certain she was going to die. But as fate would have it, she didn't. Dalek Kahn sped forward and absorbed the impact of every single one. The force was enough to send him flying through the air, to land in a crumpled heap on the other side of the floor, stone dead.
"I'm sorry," Rose whispered. Then she ran.
She sprinted as fast as was possible back down the corridor, hearing the pounding of her heart above the shouts and shrieks of the pursuing Daleks. Within seconds she was at her cell door – she slammed the button that caused her cell door to close and felt the live charges escape from her panicking fingers. The keypad plastic melted into the wall as the heat vaporised it, making it useless. But the door slowly started to close, as the processor remembered the keypad's last instructions. Throwing herself inside, Rose pressed herself against a wall and waited for the Daleks to catch up, absolutely petrified.
What on earth was she going to do now?
Oh yeah... forgot to tell you about Charlie... he had his birthday last week, and I was going to get him a present but one day I happened to discover a lonely and abandoned baby hand grenade lying abandoned on my doorstep, so I gave it to Charlie who's promised to take really good care of it.
Charlie and the little tiny hand grenade both want you to review :D
