Xkitor fired. The Doctor blinked in surprise. Just as the Dalek had fired its powerful energy weapon it had suddenly recoiled backwards, as if in shock, causing the blast to miss by miles. The Spawns themselves were similarly shell shocked, relaxing their weapons and each making an identical exclamation of surprise.

"What is it my lord?" Usahn questioned out of concern.

The Doctor realised that this was probably going to be his best opportunity to escape and exploited it. He punched Ushan in the face and followed through with a kick in the stomach. Usahn tried to bring up his pistol but the Doctor spotted it quickly enough to knock it out of his hand. The Doctor punched Usahn again but it didn't seem to do as much as the previous one and he was quick to block the next one that the Doctor threw. The Roboman suddenly exploded into aggressive action that took the Doctor completely off balance, he managed to frantically block the first couple of blows but too slow to stop the palm that reached behind his defences like a snake and grasped his neck.

"Very clever, Doctor," Usahn snarled, "very clever. But it is time you accepted the inevitability of you defeat."

"I think it's time you accepted the inevitability of this pistol!"

They both twisted their heads towards this female voice to discover Broxa stood on her own with the pistol in her hand. Usahn instinctively reached for the pistol in his robes despite knowing that it wasn't there and the Doctor grinned.

"Not the best line in the world," he said, "but excellent timing nonetheless."

"Don't celebrate just yet," Usahn said snidely. "You didn't see her practising in our hiding place."

"Shut up," Broxa snarled, but the reality was that she was worried about that.

"Or what? You won't try to shoot me, there's too much chance that you will hit the Doctor," Usahn taunted.

This was true, Broxa was all too aware of her inability to use this strange new weapon; she had never actually been any good with any weapon that had required aiming. The Spawns slowly started to stalk over to her causing her to twist round to point the pistol at one of them, it caused each one she pointed at to pause at that moment but it was clear she was just delaying the inevitable; she needed to fire the weapon at Usahn, even if she missed and hit the Doctor, otherwise it was all over.

She turned towards the smirking Roboman and aimed at him as best she could, shaking heavily. She was about to squeeze the trigger when she suddenly remembered Singh's advice. Maybe she should try aiming at the thing next to him. It didn't please her that the Doctor was the only thing near enough to aim at but there was nothing she could do about that. She aimed at him and fired.

He made no sound as the energy hit him and illuminated his skeleton. He simply said, "Oh," once the glow had faded and collapsed to the ground dead.

"Good shot," the Doctor enthused, his companion just stared at the dead Roboman in shock.

"No! No, No! You shall be exterminated for that!" Xkitor screamed in fury. He pointed his massive cannon at Broxa and charged up a shot.

The Doctor took a couple of steps forwards and dived at Broxa, tackling her to the ground just in time to avoid the yellow ball of energy.

"I hit him," she breathed in shock.

"No time to celebrate," the Doctor said, pulling her to her feet, "we need to run.


Xkitor took several minutes to charge up for each shot that he fired so the Doctor and Broxa had gone by the time he was ready to fire again. His Spawns were trailing them but he didn't have much faith in their success. He seethed as he slowly elevated himself again, his Roboman was dead and the Doctor had slipped through his fingers once again.

Enough was enough, his puppets had done as much as they were going to achieve, it was time he entered the battle himself. He fired at the nearest house completely razing it to the ground. It was time to show the universe the power of the Daleks once...

"Come in Xkitor!"

What?! That was the Doctor's voice! And so close. But that's impossible.

"Hello, can you hear me?"

There it was again. "Doctor?"

"Ah good, I was afraid I had mucked it up for a minute there," the Doctor's voice replied.

"How are you doing that? Tell me, or I will destroy you!"

"Hah, not a very convincing argument," the Doctor laughed. "How will you know how I did it once you have killed me? You'll have to wait until I'm ready to tell you myself." He giggled and suddenly went silent.

"Doctor? Doctor!" It was no good, the Doctor had gone. Xkitor realised that the Doctor was up to something, and that was never a good thing. Luckily Usahn had been able to tell him where the Doctor's hideout was, he would dispatch a few Spawns there to deal with him. Even if they did fail it probably wouldn't matter, by then the Doctor would be too late to enact whatever plan he was cooking up, for Xkitor was going to destroy Thoruxa Medio. He'd like to see the Doctor get out of that.


The door was kicked down violently causing all those inside to scream in fright, they calmed down when they realised that it was the Doctor carrying Broxa.

"Make way," he shouted, "get some water."

Only then did they realise the reason Broxa was being carried. She was panting heavily, her eyelids were fluttering and her skin was red. As she was lowered onto the offered bed she muttered statements indicating delirium.

"Heat stroke," the Doctor stated. "My fault really, didn't warn her to protect herself in any way. She's from a very cold planet you see, doesn't know about the perils of living somewhere hot." He took the bowl of cold water that had been offered, soaked a cloth and placed it on her forehead.

"Where is Usahn?" Ireenha asked, suddenly noticing his absence.

He looked up at her sadly. "He didn't make it," he said, "I'm sorry."

"I killed him," Broxa slurred.

The Doctor shushed her gently. "You mustn't blame yourself," he said, "there was nothing we could do."

"What happened?"

"He was Roboman," Broxa moaned deliriously.

"You don't want to know," the Doctor said gravely.

"Usahn's dead!" Alisandra exclaimed.

"Is there an echo in here?" The Doctor wondered. "Right, we did manage to successfully plant the speaker and microphone into Xkitor's casing."

"How did you manage that?" Broxa questioned, starting to regain her senses.

"Hush now," the Doctor said soothingly, "allow yourself to heal."

"But the communicator was destroyed," she persisted.

"The empty shell," the Doctor revealed. "I had previously removed the key components for the plan. We now have a direct line to Xkitor."

"What good does that do?" Ireenha asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" He was met with blank looks. "Oh, well allow me to demonstrate then," he brought out a communicator with a flourish. "Hello Xkitor, are you still there?"

"Doctor!" A harsh robotic voice boomed through the communicator. "Stop this this instant."

"Oh?" The Doctor acted as if he were hurt. "Don't you want to hear what my brilliant plan is, and it is a brilliant plan, you'll never guess what it is. Go on have a guess. I'll give you a clue: it's a he and he doesn't have glasses or facial hair. Does that narrow it down at all?"

"Irritating little man!" Xkitor roared.

"No need to be like that," the Doctor tutted, "and that's rich coming from you, you stunted green blob." All the Thoruxans gasped at his last comment. "What? It's true." He briefly switched off the communicator. "Five quid on him threatening to exterminate me," he whispered.

"You shall be exterminated!" Xkitor proclaimed as soon as the communicator was switched back on.

The Doctor grinned at this. "I told you he would say that."

All of a sudden the door was kicked off its hinges and several figures burst through brandishing swords and pistols. There were screams of surprise and fear that was justified this time, only the Doctor didn't cower back.

"Goodbye Doctor," Xkitor taunted.

The Doctor remained impassive as the Spawns began to advance. "Call them off or I will destroy, no forget that, I'm sick of trying to make deals with people, I'm destroying you regardless," he declared.

"And what are you going to do?" the Dalek mocked through the mouth of one of the Spawns. "I'm out here, and you're in there."

"Hey Jude," the Doctor replied. "Don't make it bad."

"What?" the Spawns faltered in confusion.

"Just take a sad song and make it better," the Doctor sang. "Remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better."

He handed Broxa the communicator before starting to sing the second verse. "Hey Jude, Don't be afraid," as he sang he picked up a nearby sitar and started to accompany himself on it. "You were made to go out and get her."

"Stop it!"

"The minute you let her under your skin, then you can start to make it better."

"Exterminate!" Xkitor screamed. "Kill him!"

The Spawns stepped forward to follow through with this order but found that they were suddenly unable to move so easily, it was as if they were suddenly trying to move through treacle. One drunkenly raised a pistol but the shot sailed well wide of its target. The Doctor made no move to dodge, he just remained singing and playing the sitar.

"And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder."

The Spawns tried to advance but continued to act like malfunctioning robots. Xkitor's voice continued to scream pointless orders at them but it made no difference. The Thoruxans themselves noticed that something was wrong and cautiously began to approach them.

"Hey Jude, don't let me down.
You have found her, now go and get her.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better."

A Spawn clumsily slashed at a Thoruxan and missed badly, the momentum of the strike causing it to fall over, and this was enough to cause the Thoruxans to attack in retaliation. And the Spawns were overwhelmed, all their previous strength and intimidation had completely evaporated. They were armed to the teeth and yet the unarmed Thoruxans were still too strong for them. Broxa, not joining in because of her injuries that the sun had caused, stared on in shock as Xkitor howled in fury.

"So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin,
You're waiting for someone to perform with.
And don't you know that it's just you, hey jude, you'll do,
The movement you need is on your shoulder."

"Doctor, please," Xkitor's voice was almost pleading now but the Doctor mercilessly continued.

"Hey Jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her under your skin,
Then you'll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, yeah!"

"Na, na na, na na na na," the Doctor sang loudly ignoring the screams from Xkitor, "na na na na, hey Jude!" he paused in singing to say: "join in with me people!" before repeating the line. He repeated it several times with each repeat a new singer would join in until all the Thoruxans were singing along. Eventually Xkitor became silent and the Doctor sang one final chorus before bringing the song to an end.

"Well done everyone," the Doctor applauded. "We have just defeated Xkitor."

They all did a double take. "Have we?" one of them said.

"More or less," the Doctor shrugged, "there is still one other matter to deal with before we can confirm it, but essentially yes, we have just defeated Xkitor."

"By singing to him," Broxa said sceptically.

"Twelve out of ten!"

"How can your singing kill someone?" she persisted.

"Xkitor is a Dalek, not a humanoid like us and as such he doesn't appreciate music," the Doctor explained. "He doesn't understand it, to him it is just noise. So by subjecting him to a constant source of it through a set of speakers right next to his ears, well it would be like playing this painful high pitched whine constantly. It would drive you mad, burst your ear drums, or in his case blow all his circuits. He isn't dead but he has been incapacitated, he won't be doing anything to trouble us for a long time and we shall use that to our advantage. I shall go and deal with him."

"Right, I'm coming to," Broxa announced. She tried to sit up but he pushed her back down gently.

"You're in no state to go anywhere," he said firmly. "I'll go alone."

"You can't do that," she protested.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "If he starts to come back to life early I'll just start singing again. He thought the Beatles was bad, wait until he hears One Direction."


It was a strange atmosphere around the town. Gone was the fear and panic but this had not been replaced by happiness and joy, it was a very subdued reaction, almost as if people didn't really believe that it was all over; many probably didn't know about the Doctor's success. He could feel eyes on his back as he strolled through the streets, judging him, questioning why he was strolling so casually through the streets. Was he in league with Xkitor? He certainly wasn't from around these parts, could he really be trusted? He chose not to sing cheerfully this time.

He walked through streets littered with Spawns that had all collapsed, the odd one twitching occasionally, and came across Salazars that had been in battle with them. He ignored them all, focusing on following the route back to where Xkitor would be, the only thing he stopped to do was to stoop down to pick up a Spawns pistol.

He paused outside a dwelling on the route, the reason being that it had completely caved in on itself. It was as if something large and heavy had fallen on it; something like a Dalek perhaps? He pushed the door open and the wall collapsed opening up the inside to the elements. Tilted at an angle and half buried in rubble was Xkitor.

As he approached there was a hiss of escaping gas and the front of the Dalek casing opened up. The Dalek creature was looking even more hideous than it did before, now droopy and leaking a suspicious blue liquid.

"Doc-tor," he said weakly.

"Xkitor," the Doctor replied.

"Come to gloat?" Xkitor asked miserably.

"Not exactly," the Doctor replied. "We are the last survivors of the Time War, gloating isn't what you do. No, I'm here to offer you a choice. Soon the rest of the people in this town will realise that you have been defeated, they won't all realise that you still live but the ones who do will come for you, and you will not be able to stop them. I can take you away, give you a sanctuary, you will not be able to take up arms again, you are too damaged and lack the regenerative capabilities of the others to fix yourself, but you will be alive. If that doesn't appeal to you, then I can end it quickly." He brandished the pistol to demonstrate what he meant.

"You could just give me to the mob," Xkitor stated, "why offer this kindness."

"Enough blood has been spilt," the Doctor said. The truth was that he pitied the creature.

"What sort of life can you offer me?"

"A basic existence," the Doctor shrugged, "on a planet where you will not cause any trouble. Enjoy the wind on your skin, conversation with other residents, exposure to art, a chance to heal your crippled mind. I can visit you occasionally if you would like."

"I don't like the sound of that," Xkitor said.

"Yes, I suppose you'd like me to heal you up so that you can try to take over the universe again. What a good idea," the Doctor said sarcastically. "No, you can either live by my terms or die quickly and painlessly. Either one is preferable to the slow drawn out suffering the Thoruxans will unleash on you."

"I choose option three," Xkitor said after a moment's pause.

The Doctor screwed up his face in confusion. "You want to be taken by the mob?"

"No, I have come up with a third option of my own design," Xkitor explained. "Come closer."

Curious the Doctor leaned forwards, and then Xkitor struck. Tentacles shot out wrapped around his neck to pull him even closer, he struggled but there was a lot more fight in Xkitor than he had anticipated. He brought up the pistol to shoot Xkitor but the clawed tentacle shot out and squeezed his wrist until he dropped it again.

Then he heard the sound of Xkitor's engine firing up, he grabbed hold the casing so as to avoid getting strangled when his feet could no longer touch the ground. Xkitor flew higher until he hung in the sky, clearly visible to any onlookers, above the houses. The Doctor continued to struggle but he just couldn't break out of the Dalek's grip.

"I'm going down Doctor," Xkitor said. "But I am not going alone. The Time War shall end today. Nobody wins and nobody loses."

As this was said the Doctor saw the orbs on the lower half of Xkitor's casing detach themselves and slowly fly outwards away from them. the Doctor recognised immediately what was happening, Xkitor was going to kill himself, and because he was trapped in Xkitor's grip he would be killed too.

"So what are we going to call him?" Dominica asked.

"No!" the Doctor shouted, shaking the image away. "I've already seen that."

The orbs floated away until they were arranged in a perfect sphere around the Dalek and his captive. "Goodbye Doctor," Xkitor said, almost sadly, and then he activated the self destruct.