Chapter 21 - The Destroyer of Worlds

"You got here quicker than I'd imagined," Davros said with glee. "You must really have loved her. Thought your pompous race lost that ability long ago. "

"You're one to talk," the Doctor pointed out darkly. Davros smiled.

"We are perhaps more similar than you might think, Doctor."

"We are nothing alike," the Doctor hissed.

"No, you're right," Davros immediately agreed. "You destroyed your race and I raised mine from the ashes."

"I'll destroy you too," the Doctor promised.

"No longer in the business of saving people, Doctor?"

"You don't deserve to be saved."

They were on the bridge. Davros could control nearly everything from there. Which meant the Doctor could too. If he could get at the controls. A thousand different scenarios and a thousand different possibilities got examined and discarded inside his mind as his gaze travelled over the room. There were Daleks at the edges, all with their exterminator guns following every move the Doctor made.

"And who are you to decide that then, Doctor?" The Doctor glanced over at Davros. He had to fight the fire burning in his chest. The fire that called for immediate retribution. "God?" Davros mocked.

"Isn't that what you called yourself?" the Doctor asked back.

"I am the creator of all Daleks," Davros said and smiled. "What have you created?" There was a knowing sort of glint in Davros's eyes that the Doctor really didn't like. He knew something the Doctor didn't. Something that gave Davros a perverted sense of satisfaction.

"We could have ended it," the Doctor said. "The Time War. It could have ended with us. Why?"

"Why did I kill her?" Davros asked. "Wouldn't you rather know why, all of this?" Davros indicated the space around them. "Don't you want to know what I've built?"

"I don't care," the Doctor growled. "I want to know why she had to die!"

"Oh, he was right about you, Doctor," Davros laughed. The Doctor narrowed his eyes at Davros.

"What? Who was?"

A voice dripping with madness rose from the shadows.

"The Time Lord will come, he'll watch her die." The Doctor twirled around. "The Time War ends." There in a dark corner of the room was a Dalek. The top and middle parts of its armour looked like it had been ripped apart, revealing the true Dalek inside. It was difficult to think they'd once been humanoid. Now they were nothing but a disgusting mass of tentacles, the one eye in the middle of their squid-like body the only remnant of what they'd once been. The Doctor always felt a sense of revulsion at the sight of them, their forms so perverted and distorted, creations of a brilliant mind lost in insanity. "Soon. Soon the stars shall die."

"Dalek Caan," Davros declared with pride. Dalek Caan laughed, a mad, twisted sound.

"Had a feeling I might be seeing you again," the Doctor said darkly.

"Doctor," it laughed.

"Dalek Caan is the reason I'm alive," Davros said.

"I fleew into the Time War," Dalek Caan cackled. "I saw all of time and matter."

"He knows what is waiting for you, Doctor," Davros said.

"Pain," Dalek Caan laughed. "Pain for the last of the Time Lords, the destroyer of worlds." The Doctor turned back to Davros.

"Is that why you killed her!?" he screamed. "Because an insane Dalek told you!?"

"I would kill her, Doctor, to see you as you are. The man who murdered millions. The man behind your mask of mercy." The Doctor froze. He stared at Davros.

"What do you mean, would? You did, you did kill her. You shot her! Shot her dead right in front of me!" The Doctor's hands balled into fists.

"Did I?" Davros said with a twisted smile while Dalek Caan's manic laughter echoed in the background.

"I'm warning you, Davros," the Doctor hissed, his tone of voice deadly. "Don't play games with me. Not where she's concerned. You won't like it."

"The hour is at hand," Dalek Caan cackled. "The time is come."

Davros pressed a few buttons on the control-pad on his chariot and a holographic screen flickered to life above them. The picture flickered, went out and came back again.

"Annabelle?" Davros asked. "Is everything ready?" At first there was no reply. Then a voice, hard and angry but beyond beautiful echoed through the room.

"Annabelle Conn 's dead you piece of crap."

The picture flickered and a blond girl appeared on the screen. The Doctor stared as Rose Tyler rose like a phoenix from the ashes of his own grief. It was impossible. He'd watched her get hit. He'd watched her fall. Immediately he tried to reach her through the bond, calling out with his mind, desperately searching for hers. But there was nothing. It was just as silent and empty as before. He stared at the picture of Rose and couldn't understand how she could be there. Was it a trick? Another way for Davros to push him to his limits?

"What is this!?" the Doctor barked at Davros.

"Doctor?" came Rose's voice, the pitch and tone exactly as he remembered and would always remember. Nothing could ever scrub her from his mind. No amount of time or regenerations. She was woven into the very fabric of his being. "Doctor, is that you?"

"Rose..." Her name fell of his lips, nothing more than a whispered plea. A plea for it to somehow be real.

"Doctor!" Her tone rose in pitch, coloured by elation.

"Davros," the Doctor growled. "If this is a trick, I swear on all the souls who perished at Arcadia that I'll tear you apart."

"It's not a trick Doctor." It was Jack's voice. "She's alive. Really alive." The Doctor shook his head.

"No," he said. "No, she's gone. Rose is dead. It can't be her." He was so scared of hoping only to have it ripped away from him again. He'd lost her too many times. He couldn't take it anymore.

"Doctor...," she said softly. He refused to even look at the image of her. He knew Davros was smiling, enjoying every moment he suffered. "The first word you ever said to me," she said and he looked up in despite of himself. A careful half-smile was playing about her lips. Beautiful, beautiful Rose Tyler. Run, she mouthed silently.

The Doctor took a careful step forwards, coming in to her view. Her lips spread in a full on smile.

"What happened to Annabelle Conn?" Davros, asked, interrupting them. The camera panned and Jack came into view. He looked terrible. Blood soaked his shirt and judging by the amount he must have died for a bit.

"I shot her," Jack told them. "She recommended it." The camera panned back to Rose.

"Doctor," she said urgently. "You have to go. Get off this ship."

'Where are you?" the Doctor asked.

"Don't worry about me, just go."

"Go? Rose Tyler...-"

"Don't argue!" she interrupted him. Davros laughed.

"He won't leave Miss Tyler," he told her. "Will you, Doctor?" Davros turned to the Doctor, his smile twisting his deeply lined face. The Doctor ground his teeth together. No of course he wouldn't leave, not without Rose. Not a chance.

"I'm coming to get you," he told Rose without preamble. Dalek Caan's manic laughter filled the room and Davros pressed a few buttons on his chariot. Rose screamed out. The Doctor immediately stopped and turned back to the screen. Something had grabbed a hold of her. Something metal around her wrists that forced her down to her knees.

"No!" the Doctor screamed as something drilled it's way into the base of her skull. Normally he would have felt her pain but now he felt nothing, only saw her suffer and that was somehow worse. "Rose!"

He turned to Davros.

"Release her!" he demanded.

"This is what she was created for," Davros said. "Now watch her burn." He pressed another button. The Doctor lunged himself at Davros, thinking to keep his promise and tear him apart. But before he reached him he felt a singe across his arm and another across his leg. He went down on one knee. He glared up at the Daleks that had shot at him. To hinder and wound not to kill. Not yet. Davros wanted to play with him more. The thought made the Doctor growl in anger. He looked up at the screen.

Rose was on her knees, her breathing laboured, sweat trickling down her forehead. He could see her there and yet he couldn't quite allow himself to believe it was her. Feeling her being ripped from him was about the worse he'd ever felt. He had been frantic, mad. It was pain like he'd never known because it hit him physically just as much as emotionally. It was like having the thing you loved most taken from you at the same time as your hearts was literally cut out of your chest. He could still feel the ache, like a wound that would never heal. But if she was in fact alive. Than this was nothing. Nothing compared what would happen if she actually died.

"Stop!" he heard Jack scream. "You're killing her!"

"Not killing her, no," Davros refuted. "Waking her up." The Doctor struggled back up on his feet. the Dalek guns around the room following him.

"No!" Davros suddenly exclaimed. "What is this!?" He turned around, driving his chair to a set of controls on a dome like structure. He called a Dalek forth. "Find out what's wrong!" he barked at it. The Doctor looked at the screen. Rose was still on her knees, panting but no longer screaming. Something had gone wrong. The Dalek moved over to Davros. It used its manipulator arm to access the controls.

"POWER IS CUT O-FF," the Dalek explained.

"How?!" Davros barked. "Give me visual!" Another smaller, holographic image appeared above the controls. It showed an engine room. "Pan! Pan!" Davros insisted. The camera turned, showing more of the room.

The Doctor's eyes grew round as he saw Mickey and Martha hunkered down on the floor, cutting wires apart. He had all but forgotten the job he'd asked of them, only having been able to focus on one thing.

"Ah, " Davros said as he saw them. "The Doctor's children of time." Both Mickey and Martha twirled around.

"Yeah, whatever you were trying to power up, you can forget it," Mickey said, holding up a cut cable before tossing it on the floor.

"Get them!" Davros ordered his Daleks. "Get them!"

"You better run," the Doctor told them. "Thank you." They both gave the Doctor a nod before turning around and running. Davros turned his chair around, facing the Doctor.

"You think we can't repair the damage?" he snarled at the Doctor. "We have planned this for so long there is nothing that can stop it."

"Stop what exactly?" the Doctor asked.

"The reality bomb," Davros answered in a matter of fact voice, like he'd expected the Doctor to already have figured it out.

Fear crept into the Doctor's face as he realised just what that meant. That is what all these planets were for. They were energy parts to a bomb. A bomb with the power to wipe out all life in the universe, in every universe. To reset the clock.

"No, Davros," he said. "You can't! Not this!"

"What did you think your Bad Wolf was for, Doctor?" Davros spat. "For years I've been orchestrating events with the help of Dalek Caan's predictions. Years!"

"What are you talking about?" the Doctor breathed.

"Do you honestly think the Emperor was there by coincidence?" Davros hissed. "I sent him! I sent the Emperor through the hole in time. To the Earth, with one instruction. Destroy it. I knew you'd never let it happen. Your precious Earth."

"Why?"

"Dalek Caan saw the Bad Wolf being born out of the fear of loosing you. It was a test. To see if she was the one. The one prophesied about. The one you would risk everything for."

"No." The Doctor shook his head, taking a step back, feeling as though someone had knocked the air out of his lungs. "Canary Wharf? The void ship?"

"All me, Doctor." Davros smiled with utter triumph. And why shouldn't he feel triumphant? He had been playing them like puppets and they had danced along, never knowing who was pulling the strings.

"I suppose the Conn sisters were responsible for making her sick too," the Doctor said. Davros said nothing, only smiled. The Doctor felt sick. Everything planned out to get them here. To this point in time and space. "You're gonna use her to power the Reality bomb, aren't you?"

Davros nodded. "You have made me the prefect weapon, Doctor," Davros said in his raspy voice, sounding to the Doctor as though he was handing down a death sentence. "You, who don't even carry a gun." The Doctor felt like he couldn't breathe. "Do you see yourself now?" Davros asked. "Destroyer of worlds." The Doctor stared at Davros in fear. He was right. The Doctor abhorred violence. But he had destroyed his entire race. No matter he'd done it because he'd felt he had no other choice. He had still done it. Killed them all. Burned his home to ashes. And then he'd met a human girl. Young and beautiful. Innocent and brave. He'd clung to her because she was everything he no longer was. She'd pulled him out of an unimaginable darkness. Saved him. And in turn he had corrupted her, tainted her, turned her into a weapon. He was like a cancer. He poisoned everything he touched.

The Doctor hadn't noticed when he fell to his knees. Suddenly he just found himself staring at the floor, struggling to breathe. Everything he'd thought he was. everything he'd struggled to become was a lie. He should have burned with Gallifrey. It should have ended there.

"Doctor..." Rose's voice. "Doctor, don't listen. Please. It isn't true."

"How can you say that?" the Doctor ground out. "Look at what I did to you."

"No," Rose refuted. "You... you saved my life."

"I condemned it."

"Yes, you did," Davros cut in. "You turned the woman you love into the very thing you hate."

"POWER RE-STORED," the Dalek announced.

"Activate it," Davros said. The Doctor's head flipped up as Rose screamed.

"Stop that!" he screamed at Davros.

"I would if Miss Tyler wasn't so stubborn," Davros growled with frustration. "Just let it go, Miss Tyler," Davros urged her. "Become what you were meant to be."

"No!" Rose screamed. She twisted and turned, trying desperately to escape.

The Doctor looked up and felt his stomach drop. Martha and Mickey were being marched onto the bridge. They hadn't gotten away. Martha dropped her raised hands as she spotted him.

"Doctor!" she exclaimed. She made a move to run to him but a Dalek immediately stopped her, aiming his gun straight at her. And after them came Donna and Sarah Jane. Both gave the Doctor a nod, however. They'd completed their task. At least those people were off the ship.

"Ah, perfect timing," Davros said with delight. "Miss Tyler?" he called. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, but I rather not, so just... button it... why don't you," Rose ground out. Davros chuckled.

"Some friends have arrived. Do you know them?" he asked. Mickey and Martha were urged forwards while Donna and Sarah Jane were held at gunpoint to stay where they were.

Mickey's eyes grew round in utter shock as he saw Rose on the screen. He had to stop himself from rushing forwards. Martha's gaze flickered to the Doctor, concern clouding them.

"Shall I shoot one?" Davros asked. "Or perhaps both of these?" Rose glared up at Davros on the screen.

"Go to hell," she hissed.

"Very well," Davros agreed. "Shoot the girl," he said. The Doctor got to his feet.

"No!" he cried out.

"Then I suggest you urge Miss Tyler to stop resisting," Davros told the Doctor.

The Doctor turned his gaze to the image of Rose. He could see how she struggled.

"I won't let him use me," she told him, her voice strained. "I won't... be a weapon."

"Shoot her," Davros said. The Doctor lunged himself forwards knowing he was too far away to reach Martha in time. Her eyes met his. Fear. That's what he saw in them. She didn't want to die.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. One of the Daleks aimed its gun and fired. But Mickey somehow managed to knock Martha out of the way at the last second. Both crashed to the floor. The impact knocked the air out of Martha's lungs. It took her a moment to realise she was actually still alive. She sighed with momentary relief. Mickey had saved her before, when they'd been hiding from the Daleks in the belly of the ship. He'd done it without even stopping to think. Because she'd learned that, that was just the kind of man he was. Sacrificing when it mattered most.

The Doctor ran over to them. He grabbed Mickey with hands that shook. The minute Mickey's empty eyes met Martha's she screamed. The Doctor pulled him off her and she scrambled up. Mickey's dead eyes were staring up at nothing where he lay on the floor.

"No, no, no," Martha chanted in desperation. It couldn't be. He couldn't be dead. "Mickey!" she cried. "I just got to know you," her tone of voice saying that there had been the beginning of something there. Whatever that something might have become it was dead now. It would never be. An entire life, full of possibilities snuffed out in an instance.

The Doctor reached down to Mickey's wrist and checked for a pulse, just to be sure. There was nothing. The Doctor stared at the dead boy's face. They'd had their differences. The Doctor had stolen Rose away from him after all. There was no denying that. He had been so desperate to cling to the joy Rose brought him that he hadn't stopped to think of the pain his own happiness cost. Mickey was a good man. He hadn't deserved to have his entire life upended. He had never asked for any this. He'd never wanted to be a part of the Doctor's world. But he'd been too good to turn and run away. And now he was dead. Mickey Smith was dead.

The Doctor swallowed hard.

"Martha, he's gone." He tried to pull her away. Martha pushed him off her.

"This is your fault!" she spat, tears streaming down her face. The Doctor looked as though she'd struck him. Donna made a move forwards but the Daleks stopped her. Martha turned back to Mickey's lifeless body. She shook her head. "I didn't mean that," she cried. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't mean that." Donna and Sarah Jane were clutching each others hands, a desperate bid for strength and comfort where none else could be found.

"Doctor!" Rose. The Doctor felt his stomach twist into a knot. This would hurt her. Why couldn't he ever be strong enough to keep her safe from harm? From all kinds of harm. The Doctor would gladly have traded places with Mickey if it meant Rose wouldn't be hurt. But he couldn't trade their places, however much he might want to. Now Mickey was another death added to weigh on his conscience. One he had to find the strength to bear.

The Doctor turned around, his eyes finding Rose's on the screen. "Tell me he's ok," Rose breathed, still strapped to the wires meant to channel the errant power inside her.

"Rose..." the Doctor trailed off unable to voice it. But his silence told her more than his words ever could. He expected her to scream or cry or curse him like Martha. But she did neither. She just sat there on the floor as slowly light began moving beneath her skin. She clenched her hands into fists, struggling so desperately to regain the control she'd lost the moment she'd learned that the boy she'd once loved died. But she couldn't. Not alone. She needed him and the Doctor could do nothing but stare into her grief-stricken eyes as they began to glow with the power of the time-vortex.

"Finally," Davros said, staring at the image of Rose in awe. Gallifreyans hadn't started out as Time Lords. Proximity to the time-vortex during countless millennia had gradually turned them into what they'd become. It was an intricate part of their physiology, woven into their very souls. But in Rose it was errant. She was human and the power had nowhere to go.

Rose gave the Doctor a slight nod. He realised if she could, she'd turn herself to ashes in an attempt to stop what was happening. He couldn't let her do that. It wouldn't make a difference. Energy couldn't be destroyed only transformed. It would still need somewhere to go.

"Use me instead of her," he found himself saying. Davros turned to him. But the Doctor kept his eyes on Rose.

"But how would we do that, Doctor?" Davros asked.

"If you wound me. Mortally. You can harvest the regeneration energy to power your Reality bomb." A tear fell down the Doctor's cheek. "Use me. Not her."

"And so the prophecy is realised," Dalek Caan's mad voice cut through the room. "The last will sacrifice all for the sake of one."

"Take the Doctor to Miss Tyler," Davros told one of his Daleks, sounding as though he'd been half expecting the Doctor to do this very thing. Or something like it. Which he probably had. Everything planned out. Every little thing to get the Doctor to this moment. To fulfil words that had haunted him since he was a child. It hadn't been enough for Davros to simply kill him. He had wanted to break him. And he had. Davros had showed the Doctor who he was.

A cancer.

A poison.

The destroyer of worlds.