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The four stood in the console room together, none of them saying a word. The Doctor moved over to the monitor. He stared at it, trying to block out the presence of the other three people in the room. Athena came up to his side and rubbed his back, "How long until we get there?" she whispered.

"We're following them. We're right behind the fleet. Looks like all seventy-five are there."

"That doesn't necessarily answer my question, Doctor." Athena replied, still trying to keep her voice low to keep the Doctor as calm as possible.

"Any minute. Literally…any minute."

Jack picked one of the laser guns up and primed it. He walked over to Athena and held it out in front of him. "You ever fired a gun, Athena?" He asked.

"No, I haven't." Athena started. The Doctor finished for her, "And she won't be starting today, Jack." Athena glared up at him, "What happens if I get separated from you lot? I'm not going in defenseless, not like last time." The Doctor stared at her, in disbelief at what he just heard. "I'm taking that gun and there isn't a damn thing you can say about it." The Doctor tried to speak, but no sound came out.

Jack handed Athena the gun and she examined it. Jack began instructing her how to use it. The Doctor couldn't take it anymore, he had to move away from them. His Athena, shooting a gun. What had he done to her? He remembered on the Tristorian ship, when they first ran into the Daleks. She condemned the Daleks to a burning death simply because he told her to. She didn't question it. Who was this girl now? She was always tough, but he had changed her, just like he had every other companion.

He felt physically sick. He left the console room, looking for the safety of his room. He was walking through the hallways and then he was running. He ran towards his room and threw the door open and ran into the bathroom. He emptied the contents of his stomach into the toilet.

He pushed himself away from the bowl and sat up against the wall. He was shaking. Not only was he terrified of facing the Daleks again, he was mortified at the thought that he had completely changed Athena. He rarely asked, but he had pieced together enough information about Athena to learn that she had been involved in several knife fights throughout her life. That scared him. She had assured him that she never killed anyone, but that didn't make it better because now she was killing. She was killing for him. He had this realization with so many of his past companions, but never had he reacted this way, so suddenly. He didn't know if the thought of loving her scared him or not. Was this really the person he maybe wanted to try to start a sort-of family with? Someone he had turned into a killer?

As soon as he began questioning his emotions for her, he calmed down. He loved her. He loved a killer. But then again, so was he, or at least, he could be. He hated that she killed for him, but he still loved her. He would do anything for her, and he knew she would do anything for him. She already had.

Athena listened to everything Jack and Ianto said about the laser gun. She had never held a normal, human gun before. Now she had this huge monstrosity that she had to strap across her torso just to keep it upright. They told her it needed several seconds to recharge after each shot. Basically, don't miss or you could die. She was terrified. But she knew it was the Daleks or the universe.

The TARDIS jolted as it locked onto the nearest Dalek ship. Jack, Ianto, and Athena all fell against the console. It wasn't until then that they noticed the Doctor wasn't in the room.

"Doctor, a little help?" Jack shouted towards the hallway. He didn't come.

The TARDIS lurched again, throwing the trio onto the grated floor. Then a deep, almost unhappy, hum sounded from the Time Rotor. Ianto sat up and rubbed his head. "Is this a common occurrence?"

"No…not at all." Jack started. He stood up and tried to make sense of the monitor. "Doctor! Get your skinny ass in here!" He still didn't come. Jack scoffed and tried to read the monitor again, but only about 20% of what was on the screen wasn't in Gallifreyan.

Athena stood up and shifted the gun to rest on her hip. She moved towards the door and stood on the tips of her toes to try to see out of the window, but she was too short. She unlocked the door and pushed it open slightly to look outside. She looked into what appeared to be a small auxiliary engine room. She stepped out of the TARDIS. No one noticed. The door shut behind her. She spun around and looked at the now shut door.

The Doctor walked back into the console room.

"About time you joined us!" Jack shouted. "The TARDIS is freaking out!"

The Doctor stormed up to the console. "I changed my mind. That's what it was. Psychic link, she was reacting because I decided we're leaving. She doesn't want to be here, she's on lockdown. She's locked all of the exits and she'll only accept the coordinates of our last destination." The Doctor started entering coordinates and pushing and pulling the appropriate buttons and levers.

"What changed your mind?" Ianto asked.

"Chances are the Daleks are just floating through space. They don't have a commanding officer, we destroyed him."

"But wouldn't they have appointed a new Dalek by now?" Jack asked.

"Maybe." The Doctor sighed. He knew they had, he was trying to justify to Jack and Ianto his decision to turn back. "But I really don't think that this fight is worth it. The four of us against all of them? We can't…we could. We really could, but…"

"You don't want to risk it?" Jack asked. "You don't want to risk her." He answered his own question.

"Yeah." The Doctor agreed. "Yeah…"

"Something to live for." Jack sighed as he glanced at Ianto. "Good for you Doctor. But the Daleks, they'll destroy whatever they want."

"The trace led us out here. This section of the universe doesn't even have a name. They're nowhere. There isn't a planet for millions of lightyears and they're in Tristorian ships, not even Dalek ships, they can't go very fast."

"You'll willing to risk it, Doctor?" Jack pried.

"I don't like the idea of running, Jack, but…they aren't doing anything, the Daleks."

"That makes them easy targets." Ianto stated. Guilt spread across the Doctor's face, no doubt he had turned Jack into what he turned Athena into. And then Jack turned Ianto into another killer. "They aren't expecting us." Ianto continued.

"Let's keep it that way. No more deaths." The Doctor responded. Right before he was about the start the dematerialization process, he realized Athena wasn't in the room.

"Where's Athena?" He asked. Jack and Ianto scanned the room and shrugged their shoulders. Panic and worry found its way into his voice, "Where's Stephanie?" He asked. He only used 'Stephanie' when the situation was dire. He got confused stares from the other men in return. "Stephanie!" The Doctor shouted. He turned and ran towards the hallways, Jack and Ianto hot on his heels. They reached a three-way division and split up.

Athena tried to open the door. It was locked. She glared up at the TARDIS, "Come on…this is ridiculous! I'm not an enemy, you know me!" She shook the doors again. She remembered that Jack and Ianto were in the console room. She began pounding on the door, "Jack! Ianto! Let me in!" Without warning, the TARDIS's familiar wheezing filled the air. Panicking, Athena pounded on the door even louder, until there was nothing there. She fell forward on all fours. She tried to compose herself, she was trembling. She stood up and looked for a place to hide in the small engine room.

The Doctor ran to Athena's room and threw the door open. She wasn't there. He knocked on the bathroom door and didn't get a reply. He opened the door to find it empty.

Jack ran into the galley and found no one. He ran towards the Doctor's room and didn't see her in there either.

Ianto was confused and had no idea where he was going. He stumbled into the library and quickly ran through the aisles of books. He didn't see Athena anywhere.

The TARDIS's wheezing resonated through the hallways. The Doctor's eyes widened out of shock. "No…no no no no. No. No! No! Don't you dare!" He shouted as he ran through the halls and towards the console room. He couldn't stop the dematerialization process and he hadn't found Athena.

The Doctor heard Jack and Ianto come into the console room. He turned to face them and they both shook their heads. The Doctor's hands flew up to his hair and he began pulling at it, trying to hold back angry tears. He kicked the console and screamed at it. The TARDIS wasn't letting them go back. He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, pointed it at the Time Rotor and shut the TARDIS down, causing sparks to fly from the Time Rotor.

"Doctor…what are you doing?" Jack asked cautiously.

"We aren't moving until the TARDIS agrees to take us back."

"But you wanted—" Jack started.

"Athena isn't here."

"We may just not have found her." Ianto offered, trying to calm the Doctor.

"No. She's not here." The Doctor yanked a grating off the floor. "I'm going to rewire the TARDIS's circuitry and force her to take us back." He was about to jump down when a metallic voice filled the air.

Athena was walking around the engine room, trying to find a place to hide. There weren't any options, the room was perfectly plain. There was the auxiliary engine in the middle of the room, and the walls were perfectly flat, no nooks or crannies. There weren't any cupboards or closets eithers. She just had to hope that a Dalek didn't come by.

She had been in the engine room for what felt like hours, she had no idea how much time had actually passed. Then she heard the familiar faint humming that came from a Dalek motor. She stared down at her gun, blanking on how it worked for a moment. The Dalek turned and entered the doorway and stopped. Athena and the Dalek stared at each other for what felt like years.

"Intruder!" The Dalek shouted. "Intruder!"

Athena suddenly remembered how the gun worked.

"Exterminate!" The Dalek shouted as it primed its laser and aimed for Athena. Athena aimed for the Dalek and primed her gun. She was quicker. She didn't remember firing, but now only the bottom half of the Dalek remained and it was smoking. There was a scorch mark on the wall behind it and pieces of metal scattered around the Dalek remains.

She began shaking again. She had never killed anything, face to face. Sure, she blew up that Dalek ship, but facing someone and pulling the trigger was something different. A few tears escaped and rolled down her face.

She heard the whirring of two more motors. "Exterminate!" She heard them shout. She primed her gun and ran behind the engine. She heard them enter the room and begin firing. She could tell they didn't have much of a reload delay. She took a deep breath, came out from behind the engine and shot one of the Daleks. It exploded just like the other one, causing the last Dalek to stop firing momentarily out of shock. This allowed Athena time to jump back behind the engine.

She saw one laser beam pass her abdomen, just missing her. Her gun was recharged and she took in another breath before jumping out from behind the engine again, which was now riddled with holes. Amidst the shooting she hadn't heard the other three Daleks enter the room that were now facing her.

She hesitated, even when she heard "Exterminate!" and the laser shoot. She snapped back and was able to maneuver herself out of the immediate impact of the laser, but it still grazed her leg. She knew it grazed her leg because she saw the beam of light continue to the floor and leave a scorch mark, but she saw blood spilling down her leg. She felt a hot, searing pain spread through her left leg. She began sweating and having trouble breathing, she couldn't tell if it was a panic attack or a reaction to the laser. Then, she couldn't feel her leg. She tried to stand up and promptly fell over. The Daleks had stopped firing. She assumed that she amused them. She was certain the wound would kill her eventually, she could feel her heart racing and her head was pounding, as if the laser shot were venom. Were they going to let the wound kill her, or were the Daleks going to shoot her again?

The four Daleks surrounded her. She was sitting on the floor, one leg bent up and the other dead and completely useless. She was having even more difficulty breathing. With considerable effort, she propped her gun on her working leg. "Don't you…dare." She huffed out. She coughed and spluttered, trying to get air into her lungs. The gun slid off her leg and she couldn't pick it back up. She looked back up at the four Daleks. This was how she was going to die. She swallowed and tried her best to calm her racing heart.

The Doctor, Jack, and Ianto all stilled.

"TARDIS detected!" the voice had said. "Doctor!" It shouted at them.

The Doctor stood up and a projection illuminated the room. He saw at least forty Daleks in a room. No Athena.

"You followed us with hostile intent, Doctor." The Dalek said.

"No, no, you're mistaken. No hostile intent. Well…decided to leave. To leave you alone." He responded.

"A coward. A runner." The Dalek pried.

"Maybe. Better than a killer." The Doctor shot back. "Where's Athena?"

"The intruder?" The Dalek asked back. "Bring in the intruder!" It shouted to the room. Athena was brought into the room, supported by two Daleks. She was limp, she looked lifeless The Doctor's hearts clenched and his jaw set rigid. He had to suppress his emotions, he couldn't let the Daleks know she was valuable to him, they would kill her. Jack's eyes widened and Ianto's hands flew to his mouth. Without warning, the Daleks sped up and away from Athena, causing her to fall and scream out in pain. The Doctor rushed towards the projection, as if trying to help. At least she was alive.

"If you do not bring your ship aboard, Doctor, she will die." On cue, three Daleks came up behind her and primed their lasers and aimed at her.

With considerable effort, she pushed herself up and twisted around so she was sitting up as best as she could. "Don't do it Doctor." She took another breath, "Leave. Just go!" Athena shouted at the projection of the Doctor and the console room.

"Don't hurt her!" The Doctor shouted back. "Athena, I'm coming to get you."

"Don't be so…stupid!" She shouted back, gasping for air.

"Listen here, Dalek. All you lot." The Doctor stared, his Oncoming Storm glare raging. "There isn't a force in this universe that can stop me once I get started. I've murdered, ripped worlds apart, committed genocide for much less than this. I am the Oncoming Storm. I am the Bringer of Darkness. And right now, the only thing keeping you alive is the fact that I'm not there yet."

"See you soon, Doctor." The projection shut off.

"Oh, you will." The Doctor replied to the air.

Jack pulled Ianto back the main console and partially up the ramp towards the hallways. He knew the Doctor had revenge on the mind and even if an ally got in the way, the Doctor may accidentally strike them down.

The Doctor jumped down into the grating underneath the console. Within minutes he had the circuitry rewired. He climbed back up and surfaced near the jumpseat. He used it to pull himself up all the way and turned to face the Time Rotor. He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the Time Rotor, turning the TARDIS back on. He ran to the console and began re-entering the commands to take the TARDIS onto the Dalek's ship.

The TARDIS landed and the Doctor turned to Jack and Ianto. Jack saw the rage in the Doctor's eyes. They were storming, much like Athena's did when she was angry. "We're going." The Doctor said. That was all it took. The three headed towards the TARDIS doors, Jack and Ianto priming their guns.