"YOU KNOW THE DOCTOR. YOU UNDERSTAND HIM. YOU WILL PREDICT HIS ACTIONS." The Dalek advanced towards her menacingly, but Rose stood her ground.
"You think you can win? Hundreds of you, only one Doctor, and already your shaking in your pepper pots. I'm not gonna tell ya anythin', cos you already know. You. Will. Lose."
"TARDIS DETECTED IN FLIGHT." One Dalek from the other side of the room said.
"LAUNCH MISSILES. EXTERMINATE!"
The Dalek stayed close to Rose as the others worked on trying to stop the Doctor. Suddenly, Rose heard the beautiful sound of the TARDIS materializing around her and the Dalek. She turned around as the console room began to appear around them.
"Get down, Rose!"
Rose immediately dove and covered her head. There were two shots fired, one from the Dalek, and then one from Jack. With a scream, the Dalek was completely destroyed. Sparks flew and smoke filled the room. Rose stood and was immediately in the Doctor's arms.
"I told you I'd come and get you." He said, squeezing her tight.
"Never doubted it."
"I did, you alright?"
"Yeah, you?" She fixed the lapels on his leather jacket.
"You're safe, I'm okay." He looked her in the eyes and she could see the raw emotion.
"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack asked.
"Oh, come here!"
"I was talking to him." Jack joked as he took Rose into his arms. "Welcome home!"
She breathed him in for just a second, it was hello for him but it was goodbye for her. She knew why the Doctor would leave him. She didn't like it, especially since it was her fault, but she knew she would never be able to convince him to go back for Jack. She was afraid to let him go, but she did. Rose took a moment to take them in. Her Doctor, her first Doctor, and Captain Jack Harkness. Soon enough, she'd never see either again.
"Rosie." Jack said in a low, tender voice. "You alright."
"Yeah." She said, swallowing. She shook it off and got back to business. "So, I thought you said the Daleks were extinct, but there's hundreds of 'em out there."
"One minute, they're the greatest threat in the universe, the next they vanished out of time and space." Jack agreed.
"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War." The Doctor answered. Rose took his hand, but he refused to take his eyes off the dead Dalek before them.
"I thought that was just a legend." Jack said, mystified.
"I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them." The Doctor gave Rose's hand a squeeze, as if that was all that was holding him together. "I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."
"Wot we gonna do?" Rose asked in a small voice. She was afraid, not in the same way as last time though. She was afraid of messing up, getting it wrong, and losing the most precious people in her life.
"No good stood round here, chin-wagging." The Doctor said, letting go of Rose's hand. "Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have the answers, let's go meet the neighbors."
The Doctor strode toward the doors and exited with a confidant flourish. Jack and Rose trailed behind. The moment those doors swung open, shouts to exterminate rang out, then the piercing sound of the Dalek guns. Every beam was stopped short by the forcefield.
"Is that it?" The Doctor taunted. "Useless. Nul points! That forcefield can hold anything back."
"Almost anything." Jack corrected.
"Yes, but I wasn't gonna tell 'em that, thanks."
"Sorry."
They were at a stalemate. The Daleks still surrounded them, but so long as the forcefield held up, they were safe. Safe, Rose thought. Yeah, right. In a Dalek ship, surrounded by the most hateful creatures in the universe. Safe was relative, though.
"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld?" The Doctor asked the Daleks in very serious, threatening tone. "The Oncoming Storm." That name sent shivers down Rose's spine. "You might've removed all your emotions, but I reckon, right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So, tell me, how did you survive the Time War?"
"THEY SURVIVED THROUGH ME." Boomed a warbled voice. They all turned towards the darkness. Lights flickered on to reveal the emperor of the Daleks himself; massive, intimidating, and overpowering. The sight of it filled Rose with fury.
"Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks." The Doctor introduced; his voice was shaky as he stared at the massive Dalek contraption before them.
"YOU DESTROYED US, DOCTOR." The being inside said, pulsing inside his incubator as he spoke. "THE DALEK RACE DIED IN YOUR INFERNO, BUT MY SHIP SURVIVED, FALLING THROUGH TIME. CRIPPLED BUT ALIVE."
"I get it…" The Doctor started.
"DO NOT INTERRUPT! DO NOT INTERRUPT! DO NOT INTERRUPT!" Chorused the surrounding Daleks.
"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages and you haven't got a way of stopping me. So, if anybody's gonna shut up, it's you!" All the Daleks backed up in fear when the Doctor yelled. "Okie-doke. So, where were we?"
"WE WAITED HERE, IN THE DARK SPACE, DAMAGED BUT REBUILDING. CENTURIES PASSED, AND WE QUIETLY INFILTRATED THE SYSTEMS OF EARTH, HARVESTING THE WASTE OF HUMANITY. THE PRISONERS, THE REFUGEES, THE DISPOSSESSED, THEY ALL CAME TO US. THE BODIES WERE FILLETED, PULPED, SIFTED. THE SEED OF THE HUMAN RACE IS PERVERTED. ONLY ONE CELL IN A BILLION WAS FIT TO BE NURTURED."
Rose couldn't stop her face from contorting in disgust as the emperor spoke. It turned her insides hollow to hear what these monsters had done. She felt some pity for the humans they once were, but mainly she felt anger for what they'd been twisted into.
"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." The Doctor answered.
"That makes them half human." Rose said mournfully.
"THOSE WORDS ARE BLAPHEMY!" The Emperor shouted in anger.
"DO NOT BLASPHEME! DO NOT BLASPHEME! DO NOT BLASPHEME!" The Daleks said in unison.
"EVERYTHING HUMAN HAS BEEN PURGED." The Emperor continued as the Doctor looked around at all the Daleks around them with a terrible realization. "I CULTIVATED PURE AND BLESSED DALEK."
"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"
"I REACHED INTO THE DIRT AND MADE NEW LIFE. I AM THE GOD OF ALL DALEKS!"
"WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM!"
"They're insane." The Doctor said in horror. "hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad; but it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever." The Doctor took a pause. Rose could see him shaking in fear as well as anger. Finally, he turned back to the emperor. "We're going."
"YOU MAY NOT LEAVE MY PRESENCE!" The emperor shouted at them as they made their way back to the TARDIS.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" A Dalek shouted at them.
"EXTERMINATE!" They all began to shout. Their guns fired as they shouted that same cry, over and over again.
The Doctor placed his forehead against the wooden doors and took a breath. Then, just as quickly, he bounded up to the controls and flew them back to the GameStation.