Chapter Twenty-One -
"Rose, we're not supposed to be down here." Adam hissed at her as they neared the Cage. For the twenty minutes that Rose had been 'wandering' around the floors, Adam had been trailing behind her trying to get her to go back to his office.
"But I want to see this specimen, don't you?" Rose asked allowing Adam to grab her by her elbow and pull her to a stop a couple of feet away form the door leading into the room just outside the Cage.
"Of course, but we're not allowed in there without special permission from Van Statten." Adam whispered to her, fear in his eyes as he glanced at the doorway. "If you want to see the Metaltron, I can patch into the camera in the Cage. We'll be able to see the Metaltron with a live feed and I'll be able to keep my job."
"We are already here, why would I want to walk back up all those stairs just to stare at a tiny screen to see this 'Metaltron' when I can just walk through those doors and see it in person?" Rose asked and Adam sighed in annoyance.
"You'll never get three steps past that doorway. The soldiers in there will stop you." Adam informed her.
"You the supposed 'genius', figure out away for us to get into the Cage." Rose ordered in annoyance knowing that had she had the psychic paper she would have been able to flash it and easily gain access into the room.
"You're not gonna drop this, are you?" Adam asked.
"Nope." Rose told him causing his to groan in annoyance. His hand ran through his hair as he turned away from her. She watched him, waiting to see what he would do.
"Fine, but if I get you in there, you owe me a date." Adam told her causing her to laugh.
"Think again, mister. I'm with the Doctor, I don't date other people." Rose told him.
"Then you're not getting my help getting access into the Cage." Adam told her.
"Then I'll just figure out another way in." Rose told him as she began to look around, her mind racing to figure out away in.
"Damn it, Rose. Just give me one date! That is all I'm asking in exchange for risking my job for you!" Adam hissed at her.
"And asking for a date is risking more than just your job if the Doctor finds out." Rose told him. "The Doctor isn't a sharing kind of guy.
"Another reason you shouldn't be with him! He is too possessive! Won't allow you to do anything you want to do, always gotta do what he wants you to do!" Adam hiss.
"You're about to get a right smack, if you don't shut up." Rose growled at him, her eyes flashing. "Now, are you or are you not going to get me access into that Cage? Or am I going to have to do it alone? And just a quick warning: if I get hurt in any way, you'll be wishing to be dead by the time the Doctor is through with you."
"Come on." Adam growled out before beginning to lead her into the room, digging out his badge.
"Hold it right there." A soldier ordered the second he got within three steps into the room.
"Level three access." Adam told them, flashing his badge at them. "Special clearance from Mr. Van Statten." He led her past the man in an orange hazard suit fiddling with a drill. Rose looked around the Cage, taking in all the tools used to torture the Dalek laying on the metal table just inside the Cage.
"They've been torturing it." Rose hissed at Adam as the Cage door shut, while turning to look at the Dalek. Rose took a deep breath and shoved her fear away. She had to do this. There was no other way around this. They had to destroy this Dalek and fusing her DNA with it was the only to way to so.
"Don't get too close." Adam whispered to her. Rose rolled her eyes at him before cautiously making her way towards the Dalek. This was for the Doctor. She was doing this for the Doctor. The Dalek was looking away from her, at the ground. Rose took another breath when she got right in front of the Dalek.
"Hello?" Rose asked bending to be able to look into it's eye-stock. She waited for an answer she knew wouldn't come. "Are you in pain?" She asked it, not expecting an answer, she paused to mentally steel herself. "My name's Rose Tyler. I've got a friend, he can help. He's called the Doctor." She informed it, the eye-stock shifted and Rose knew she had it's attention. "What's your name?"
"Yes." The Dalek told her.
"What?" Rose asked it and the eye-stock rose to look at her.
"I am in pain. They torture me," the Dalek told her, and even though she knew it was using kindness to trick her, she knew that the statement about them torturing it wasn't a lie and her heart felt for the creature, "but still they fear me." For good reason, too. "Do you fear me?" The Dalek asked her.
"No." She whispered thankful that she had locked her fear for the Dalek in the back of her mind and could no longer feel it. The Dalek's eye-stock dropped and for a split second Rose wondered if it could sense her fear.
"I am dying." The Dalek told her softly, and Rose allowed her heart to be tricked by it.
"No, we can help." Rose told it.
"I welcome death." The Dalek told her before lifting its eyes-stock back up to look at her face. "But I am glad that before I die, I met a human who was not afraid." This Dalek deserved an award for it's acting, but then (Rose thought as she allowed her eyes to tear up) so did she.
"Isn't there anything I can do?" Rose asked as a tear fell from her eye.
"My race is dead. I shall die alone." The Dalek told her, pulling at her compassion. And damn, if it didn't work. Even though she knew it was all a trick, Rose felt her heart clench at the thought of this thing, or anyone, dying alone. But she would use this chance to contaminate the Dalek. She reached out and placed a hand on its armor.
"Rose, no!" Adam cried out a second too late. Rose gasped in pain at the burning pain in her hand of the Dalek taking her DNA. She quickly pulled her hand away and held it to her chest. She had done it. She had used her DNA to contaminate the Dalek. Now they just had to wait until it actually took hold. Rose quickly backed up to stand next to Adam, her hand still cradled to her chest.
"Genetic material extrapolated." The Dalek cried out in victory. "Initiate cellular reconstruction!" It broke out of the chains that were holding it in place as the Cage door flew open.
"What the hell have you done?" The hazmat guy demanded as he ran in with his drill. He quickly made his way over to the Dalek, Rose went to stop him but something kept her from doing so. The Dalek lifted up its plunger arm up at the man. "What ya gonna do? Sucker me to death?" The man taunted before the Dalek latched onto his face with the plunger. The man screamed. Rose watched in shock horror as the man was sucked dry.
"Go!" Adam yelled as he literally pushed her out of the Cage, the door slamming behind them.
"It's killing him! Do something!" Rose cried running over towards soldier, crying as she knew that there was nothing they could do. They were all going to die because of what she had to do.
"Condition red. Condition red. This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!" The soldier announced over the comms. "Seal the Cage!" He ordered. Rose backed up from the Cage door knowing that it wouldn't even slow the Dalek down.
"What's going on? What is happening down there?" Goddard's voice came through the speakers as her image appeared on the screen.
"I don't know. It just started acting up. It broke through the chains and it's killing Simmons." The soldier quickly informed her.
"You've got to keep it in that cell!" She heard the Doctor order, the way his voice started from far away from the mic alerted Rose that he had just run into the room. Rose followed the urge to have the Doctor see her and quickly made her way over towards the camera.
"Doctor, it's all my fault." Rose informed him.
"I've sealed the compartment." The soldier informed him. "It can't get out. That lock's got a billion combinations."
"The Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat." The Doctor told them. As if to prove the Doctor's point, the Dalek began to calculate the combinations on the lock. Rose was pulled away from the screen and pushed towards the exit by the soldier. It was a tense moment as they watched and watched for the Dalek to unlock the Cage door. Rose wanted to bolt. Wanted to run away. Wanted to get to the Doctor before forcing them to hide in the TARDIS. But her body wouldn't move, wouldn't listen to her.
"Open fire!" The commanding soldier ordered be fore him and De Maggio began to shoot pointlessly at the Dalek.
"Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed!" She barely heard Van Statten order over the sound of the guns shooting.
"Rose! Get out of there!" She barely heard the Doctor yell out as the Dalek began to move forward, out of the Cage, pushing them back.
"De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive." The commanding soldier ordered when they had to reload. "That is your job, got that?"
"You! With me!" De Maggio ordered before quickly leading them back down the hallway as her commanding officer stayed behind and shot at the Dalek. Rose's body ran at a light speed to keep just behind De Maggio yet in front of Adam even though Rose wanted to book it. A picture of a stop sign flashed through her mind and Rose knew then that it was Bad Wolf trying to get her to stop trying to force her body to run faster. An image of her stuck inside the vault flashed in her mind. She had to get trapped in the vault.
The lights in the hallway began to flicker before going dim. What was happening? What was going on? What was the Dalek doing? She and the Doctor had never spoken about what happened with the Dalek the first time around. It was too much of a traumatic experience for both of them. Though, she did remember that after this, the Doctor had started sneaking into her room at night to watch her sleep. She knew he thought he had always gotten away with it, but he had always left something behind: A bookmark from a book he had been reading, a coffee ring on her bedside table nearest the chair he would use, a few bits and bobs of whatever item he had been destroying at the time. That, and after she had connected with the TARDIS, the old girl began to give him away.
"All guards to converge on the Metaltron Cage immediately." She heard Goddard order over the comms.
"Civilians! Let 'em through!" De Maggio cried out as they came upon a group of soldiers running at them, towards the Cage. The group of soldiers allowed them to pass before they quickly took up a defensive position. Rose flinched when she heard a scream before guns began firing. They ran faster and didn't stop running until they came to the stairway.
"Stairs!" Rose heard herself say. "That's more like it! It hasn't got legs, it's stuck!"
"It's coming! Get up!" De Maggio ordered and they ran up half a floor before stopping to watch the Dalek slowly enter the stairway. Rose watched it look at the stair, her body shaking with adrenaline and her fighting off her need to run from the Dalek.
"Great big alien death machine. Defeated by a flight of stairs!" Adam taunted causing the Dalek to turn to look at them.
"Now listen to me." De Maggio started. "I demand that you return to your Cage. If you want to negotiate, then I can guarantee Mr. Van Statten will be willing to talk." Oh, he'll be willing to talk once the Dalek had its laser pointed at him. "I accept that we imprisoned you, and maybe that was wrong," (Maybe? Maybe it was wrong? There was no maybe about it! It doesn't matter if the thing was a murderous pepper-pot from space! That is no reason to imprison someone and torture them. Rose mentally screamed at her.) "but people have died, and that stops, right now. The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?"
"Elevate." It said slowly, as if taunting them, daring them to do something to it.
"Maybe we should start running again." Rose pointed out.
"Adam, get her out of here." De Maggio ordered.
"Come with us." Rose begged knowing that this woman didn't have to die today, that she could come with them and survive. "You can't stop it."
"Someone's got to try." The woman told her before pushed her up the stairs as Adam took off, leaving her behind. "Now get out! Don't look back, just run!" Rose bit her lip to keep from screaming as she heard De Maggio start firing at the Dalek. Rose flew out of the stairway, easily catching up to Adam, and allowed a tear to fall from her eyes when she heard De Maggio scream as the Dalek killed her.
"Don't stop!" Rose called to Adam as he looked back. "We have to keep running! We have to get to the Doctor! He'll know what to do!" They ran through the labyrinth like hallways, sliding around sharp turns (Rose catching Adam when he nearly tripped and fell), while trying to get to another stairway. Why did Van Statten think it was a good idea to separate the stairways? Why couldn't there have been one long stairway up?
Rose and Adam ran into the large area where they tested the weapons they found and modified only to come to a sliding stop. An army of men were in a defensive position behind boxes, walls, on the cat walk, anywhere they could find.
"Hold you're fire!" Rose heard someone order. "You two, get the hell out of there!" They quickly ran pasted the army and through the door on the other side of the room. Rose felt her body come to a stop and turned to look back into the room. Bad Wolf was not going to let her get too far ahead of the Dalek. Rose watched, panting from adrenaline, as the Dalek casually rolled into the room. Its eye-stock turned and locked onto her. The Dalek was watching her, feeling her emotions. It was beginning to become contaminated. Adam grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the door as the Dalek turned its body to face them.
"It was looking at me." Rose told him as Bad Wolf forced her body to stop, pulling Adam to a stop.
"Yeah, it wants to slaughter us!" Adam hissed at her pulling at her arm to try and get her to start running again.
"No, but it was looking right at me!" Rose told him, knowing that he wouldn't understand.
"So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing, it's looking all around." Adam told her trying to urge her to continue running. But it was too soon, if Rose continued running now she would be too far ahead of the Dalek. Bad Wolf couldn't allow that.
"I don't know. It's like..." Rose started. "It's like there's something inside, looking at me, like... Like it knows me."
"Open fire!" Rose heard yelled from the room and a second later everyone began to fire at the Dalek. Rose flinched and Bad Wolf allowed her body to start running once more. In, what felt to be, hours later (but was only about ten minutes), they made it to the next stairway. As soon as Rose took one step into the stairway, her mobile began to ring. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket and answered it without looking who it was. If it was her mother, then she would hang up and call her back with an excuse, she needed this line clear for the Doctor to call.
"This isn't the best time!" She growled into the mobile as they ran up the stairs.
"Where are you?" The Doctor demanded.
"Level 49." Rose told him.
"You've got to keep moving. The vault is being sealed off up at level 46." He informed her and Rose nearly cried at what the Doctor was about to go through. She knew that he had barely survived the thought of him loosing her the first time, she didn't know how he would handle it this time now that they were actually together. She hopped that he wouldn't do anything rash.
"Can't you stop them closing?" Rose asked even though she knew the answer.
"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait, and I can't help you. Now fore God's sake, Rose, run!" The Doctor told her, his voice broken and desperate for her to make it. Rose placed a hand on the Adam's lower back and began to push him to go faster. Adam could not become trapped in the vault with her and the Dalek, he would not survive. The Dalek would kill him. Only Rose had the chance to make it out of the vault alive.
"Done it! We've got power to the bulkheads." Rose heard Van Statten inform the Doctor as she and Adam burst through the door to level 46.
"The Dalek's right behind them." Goddard announced and Rose barely bit back the urge to growl at her. Like she didn't know the Dalek was right behind her! Bad Wolf was making damn sure of that! They rounded a corner and the bulkheads were right in front of them
"We're nearly there!" Rose cried into the phone. "Give us two seconds!" It was only then that Rose noticed that she was too close to Adam. If she didn't think of something she would make it out of the vault. Bad Wolf took action. Rose found herself tripping over her own feet, mobile skidding to the ground. Rose grunted in pain as her body slid along the concrete. She jumped up once her body came to a stop, grabbed her mobile and began to run with a slight limp. Rose was a good distance away from Adam.
"Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads." She over heard as she put the mobile back to her ear.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor whispered and Rose hoped he was talking to her and not Van Statten, those bulkheads needed to close! There was a small alarm as the bulkhead began to close.
"Come on!" Adam called back to her as he sped up. He used his momentum to slide and barely make it under the closing bulkheads before it sealed her and the Dalek in. Rose tried to slow herself down to stop, but she couldn't and hit the metal door. Rose rested her forehead on the bulkhead.
"Rose! Where are you? Rose, please tell me you made it! Rose!" The Doctor cried out as Rose slowly lifted the mobile back to her ear, her heart breaking. She really wanted to reassure him that she would be fine. That she would survive. That, once this was all said and done, they would be in the TARDIS traveling through time and space, together.
"Sorry." She told him softly, tears falling from her eyes knowing that what was bout to happen was going to break him. "I was a bit slow." Rose turned to glance behind her and saw the Dalek come around the corner. Rose took a deep breath. She needed to remain calm. She knew that the Doctor wouldn't be able to think clearly once he believed her dead. She would need to be calm for the both of them until she was back in his arms.
"Rose, no. Please don't tell me that. Please lie to me. Tell me you've made it out. Tell me you're on your way up here." He begged her, the sound of his voice cracking alert her to the fact that he was crying.
"See you, then, Doctor." Rose told him.
"Rose." He sobbed out.
"It wasn't your fault." Rose told him knowing he was blaming himself. She wouldn't have that. Even if she didn't some how make it out of this, Rose would not allow him to blame himself. "Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault. I would have done the same if I were in your position." He chocked out a sob. "And d'you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world. If I were ever given a choice, I would choose to to everything all over again." Rose told him honestly as the Dalek made it up to her.
"Exterminate!" It yelled and Rose closed her eyes. Would it actually kill her? Would it decide to spare you once again? It shot at her.