Thirteen
'Mutation'
- aka Dalek (Part Two)
The broadcast from the Cage had shut down and the Doctor's stomach sank deep because he knew that Dalek had gathered enough strength to destroy everything. The power short circuited seconds later, plunging them into darkness until the backup generators sprung into life, but it was too late, the Dalek had already downloaded the entire internet. It knew everything. And it could kill.
Crouched in front of the computer, Van Statten's personal assistant Goaddard tapped desperately on the keyboard of the computer trying to get back online. He knew it wasn't going to work but he watched on the map as the entire state of Utah's power supply was wiped out...and then all of America. There was nothing he could do except kill the Dalek.
His hope in getting out of this situation unscathed was beginning to dwindle at that point. The dull ache running through his body from the tests reminded him of that fact as well as Rose and Ella - the two people in the whole entire universe that he promised he would keep safe - were in danger. And he didn't know if he could get them out of it.
"It's not just energy," The Doctor told them. "That Dalek just absorbed the entire internet. It knows everything."
"The cameras in the vault have gone down," Goddard confirmed.
The Doctor turned to Van Statten. "We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it, now."
Goddard didn't wait for the orders from her boss, instead turning and speaking into her earpiece with authority. "All guards to converge on the Metaltron Cage immediately."
They waited and listened as the deafening sound of gunshots rippled over the speaker...followed by the sound of them dying. The Dalek was too powerful, they'd never be able to kill it with normal bullets.
But Van Statten didn't care about his soldiers, the people he hired to do his dirty work for him. He only cared about money. And the Dalek was high on that list for him. He bent over the table and ordered for them to stop firing.
"But it's killing them!" Goddard yelled, furious at the orders that he was trying to give.
"They're dispensable. The Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?"
There were no more gunshots but no one spoke over the intercom. They were all dead. He needed to get Ella and Rose out of there right now. Turning to Goddard, the Doctor demanded to see any and all maps they had of the building as calmly as he possibly could. Now was not the time to let his emotions get the better of him.
With a couple clicks of her mouse, Goddard brought up a large map and began pointing at it. "That's us, right below the surface. That's the Cage, and that's the Dalek."
"This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?" He asked, directing his questions towards Goddard and only Goddard, not caring to include the selfish man that hung over his shoulder. The man that had just ordered his men to die did not deserve an opinion in his books.
"Lots of them but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."
"We've got to keep that thing alive. We could just seal the entire vault. Trap it down there," Van Statten told them as though it was no big deal.
The Doctor turned and pinned him with a dark glare. "Leaving everyone trapped with it?" He said, standing straight from his crouch to tower over the man. "Rose and Ella are down there. I won't let that happen, got that?" The Doctor let out a breath of annoyance and turned back to point at the map on the screen. "It's gotta go through there, what's that?"
"Weapons testing," Said Goddard.
"Give guns to the technicians, lawyers, anyone, everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it."
Of course it was Van Statten that had an issue with the Doctor ordering for the Daleks death. He paced around his office like a wild animal trying to get the Doctor to change his mind, not wanting to lose out on the millions that he could make using the Dalek. If the Doctor had any patience for the man previously, it was completely gone at that moment.
"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something."
The Doctor stared darkly at the computer screen in front of him, not giving Van Statten the satisfaction of looking at him. "Where's the nearest town?"
"Salt Lake City."
"Population?"
"One million."
The Doctor looked over at him finally, "All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs."
Van Statten blanched as though unable to believe that was the case but he had seen it, heard the way it had easily and mercilessly killed anyone in sight. "But why would it do that?" He yelled, pent up fear breaking the surface of his usually arrogant face, he was starting to crack under the pressure.
"Because it honestly believes they should die," The Doctor said simply, his voice much calmer than the other man, needing to get the point across to him. "Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing. And you Van Statten, you've let it loose," He ended with a yell, quickly losing his patience.
It was at that moment that Goddard moved back into the room again stating that she'd gotten through to the soldiers at weapons testing and they were setting up protection as they spoke. She patched them through over the phone before the Doctor even had to ask, and he shot her a grateful nod before he began to speak.
"The Dalek's surrounded by a forcefield," He told the soldiers over the speaker. "The bullets are melting before they even hit home. But it's not indestructible! If you concentrate your fire you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."
A soldier over the other end was quick to dismiss him. "Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot."
Oh you have no idea, the Doctor wanted to say, but for once he had to trust what they were doing. He had no control over the situation.
There were a couple of tense moments as the soldiers geared up, preparing themselves to fire. In the office Goddard pulled a chair up next to the Doctor to see the screen better, acting more like a leader than her own boss was, who had taken to pacing around the space behind them nervously awaiting results. And right when the Doctor had assumed the Dalek had entered the area, the commanding officer called out for the rest of his men to hold their fire, and for three people to get the hell out of the way.
The Doctor's hearts raced as he realised that those people must've been Ella, Rose and that other guy that had been made to look after them while the Doctor went to see the Dalek. They were closer to the Dalek then he had initially thought.
Shortly after they moved out of the way the Dalek rolled through and the firing started. The loud echoing of gunshots was all that could be heard from over the speaker, and they anxiously awaited results from the other end.
And then a TV screen that hung by the door sprung to life, a live cast from the weapons testing area. The Doctor looked up at it, watching in horror as the volley of bullets didn't affect the Dalek whatsoever. It was invincible to their attack.
"It wants us to see," He realised.
The Dalek began to levitate then, the soft blue light emanated from under its body as it continued to rise and then he watched as it shot at the fire alarm with precise accuracy. Water rushed through the building then, spilling over the soldiers. The Dalek was going to electrocute them, a nice and easy way to kill everyone on the floor. And the Doctor was left powerless once again as he had to watch electricity spill out over the soldiers, watch them writhe and die in agony.
He hoped that Ella and Rose got out before then but he was beginning to lose hope in even that case.
"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy," Van Statten began a little nervously, the Doctor looked over at him sharply. "Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."
"Except there's no power to the helipad, Sir," Goddard said impatiently. "We can't get out."
"You said we could seal the vault?"
Van Statten shot around the side of the desk to gain control of the computer. "It was designed to be a bunker in the event of a nuclear war. Steel bulkheads-"
"There's not enough power," Goddard dismissed with a shake of her head. "Those bulkheads are massive."
The Doctor shrugged. "We've got emergency power we can reroute that to the bulkhead doors."
"We'd have to bypass the security codes. That would take a computer genius."
Van Statten raised his eyebrows, the arrogance back in play on his face. "Good thing you've got me then."
"You want to help?"
"I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me."
The live recording overhead crackled with sound once again and the metallic robotic voice of the Dalek could be heard. A shiver ran down the Doctors spine.
"I shall speak only to the Doctor."
The Doctor straightened to look at it. "You're gonna get rusty," He said, watching as the water continued to rain down above his enemy.
"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time-traveller regenerated me."
"What's your next trick?" He asked lamely.
"I have been searching for the Daleks."
"Yeah, I saw," The Doctor said, crossing the room to regard the Dalek closer while Van Statten and Goddard continued to work on the bulkhead. "Downloading the internet. What did you find?"
"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes."
"And?"
"Nothing. Where shall I get my orders now?"
"You're just a soldier without commands."
"Then I shall follow the Primary Order. The Dalek instinct to destroy. To conquer."
"What for?" The Doctor asked passionately. "What's the point? Don't you see it's all gone. Everything you were, everything you stood for."
The Dalek paused, contemplating. "Then what should I do?"
"All right then," He said, leaning forward. "If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself."
That drew a strong reaction from the Dalek, who spoke almost immediately afterward. "The Daleks must survive!"
"The Daleks have failed!" The Doctor yelled, losing his patience. "Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct? Rid the universe of your filth. Why don't you just die."
Silence rang out. It seemed even Van Statten and Goddard were too scared by his outburst to utter a single word as the Doctor worked to school his fury back into a manageable state. If only he was able to kill the thing before and then none of this would've happened, hundreds of lives wouldn't have been lost...Rose and Ella wouldn't be in danger...and he wouldn't have to be reminded of how old he was, how deep his fury ran.
And then the Dalek spoke once more with haunting words that the Doctor would remember until the day he died.
"You would make a good Dalek."
The screen turned to black then and the Doctor could see his reflection. A disheveled old man with spit lingering on his lips from his outburst, practically shaking with anger that only he could control. He couldn't even recognise himself in that moment. He was a total stranger, someone he'd tried to hide deep inside and forget about.
The Doctor sucked in a deep breath, forced himself to look away. "Seal the vaults," He barked.
They'd been running for what seemed like years. Rose's feet ached and she had a twisting stitch that sat high up in her shoulder and constricted with every shuddering breath she took and maybe she would've stopped for a breather a long time ago if it hadn't been for Ella's hand gripped tightly in hers, pulling her along. Must be adrenaline that gave Ella the energy, she didn't even look puffed or affected by the constant running like her and Adam did, the threat of the Dalek finding them had forced Ella out of whatever fear induced state she had been in and now she was leading the way like she usually did.
They would probably be out of this never ending maze by now if they were running on flat ground and not climbing up stairs. Rose was never the one that excelled in sports at school instead opting for sitting on the sidelines with Shireen gossiping. If she'd known there'd be a lot of running when travelling with the Doctor maybe she would've paid more attention, tried a bit harder.
And then her phone rang.
Rose sucked in a breath and used all of her energy to reach into her pocket for her phone while still being tugged along by Ella. She swore she was gonna scream if it was just her mum calling again to bicker on about John from down the street or to complain about food prices.
"This isn't the best time," She said breathlessly, not bothering to check the contact before accepting the call and pushing the receiver to her ear.
"Where are you?" The Doctor asked from the other line, getting straight down to business.
Rose hesitated trying to slow to a stop but finding it hard to slow Ella down. She had no clue where they were or how many staircases they'd climbed during their attempt at an escape and every flight looked exactly the same.
"Ahhh I don't know," Rose exclaimed. "How am I supposed to know where we are when we're running for our lives!"
"Level 49," Ella called out.
Rose tried to repeat it. "Level-"
"Yeah I heard," The Doctor cut off, never the one for patience. "You've got to keep moving. The vault is being sealed off up at level 46."
"Can't you stop 'em closing?" Rose asked anxiously, doubting that they'd have enough time to climb three flights of stairs.
She'd seen the Doctor do incredible things, he was more than capable of stopping Van Statten from locking them down there with the killer alien.
"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you. Now for God's sake, run."
"Oh God!" Rose cried, pulling the phone away from her ear to swing her arm back and forth like a propeller in the hopes that that would help her move faster. "He's closing the doors we've got to hurry."
It felt like they practically flew up those last few flights of stairs, running faster than Rose had ever run in her entire life. The clock was ticking but she could see the finish line now, they were going to make it.
"We're almost there," Rose said to the Doctor over the phone, trying to keep her pace steady to not fall behind.
A loud ringing noise whirred from around the corner they were rounding, the door was lowering. Rose, thinking that she could run faster with both arms free to flail about by her sides, pulled her hand out of Ellas. It wasn't until it was too late that she truly realised how much Ella had been helping to pull her along and now she was falling behind.
She watched Adam roll under the door followed closely by Ella, both making it safely to the other side. Rose lowered herself to the ground too, getting ready to roll underneath in the nick of time but the resounding click of the door fastening itself against the concrete floor told her that she was too late. She'd missed out.
With a shaky breath, Rose stood and flattened herself against the door but it wouldn't budge. She really was stuck there with the Dalek.
The Doctor was calling out from the phone, she could hear the desperation in his voice before she'd even raised it back up to her ear. He wanted to know if they were alright, if they made it through safely. And she had to break the bad news.
"Adam and Ella made it…" She sucked in a breath, trying to stop her voice from wavering. "Sorry. I was a bit slow."
The mechanical whir of the Dalek grew closer, rounding the corner ominously. So this was it then, this was how she would die. She never thought that an alien that looked like a salt shaker would be the one to finish her off. It was getting closer to her, gliding along the floor.
She turned back to the bulkhead, not wanting to look at the thing before it killed her. The Doctor hadn't said anything. He was probably blaming himself for it all. She didn't want him to remember her as the girl he killed...he was too good a man to deserve that.
Running a hand over her face, Rose tried to remember how to be calm. "See you, then, Doctor," She said, her voice shaky with emotion. "It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay, it wasn't your fault. And tell Ella that too - I let go of her hand - I was stupid. But do you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
A little smile peaked on her lips despite the tears that were leaking out of the corner of her eyes - and then…
"Exterminate!"
She couldn't breathe. The ground was tumbling out from underneath her and she couldn't fucking breathe. How had she run that fast when what felt like seconds before her feet were nailed to the floor in the Dalek's Cage? How had she kept up with Adam? How had she allowed Rose to let go of her hand, watched in horror from her position on the ground as the doors closed, separating them.
There was no Rose. Ella had done a headcount, checked it twice. It was just her and boring Adam. They'd made it past the door, they were free...and they'd gone and left Rose in danger. The Dalek wasn't that far behind them, it would've caught up by now and Rose was dead. One of her only friends...and Ella was never going to see her again.
She couldn't breathe. Ella launched herself up from the concrete and pressed herself to the door she'd just come through, banging at the metal and hoping with everything inside of her that Rose would magically appear behind her and that her mind was just playing some sick joke on her.
"Fuck!" Ella howled, guilt tearing through her as her screams cut at her vocal chords uncomfortably.
Fuck uncomfortable, her friend was dead. Her friend was dead and it was all her fucking fault. She should've made sure she was in front of her, she should've kept grip on her hand, she shouldn't have gone under the closing gap before she knew that Rose was safe!
A hand placed itself on her shoulder and she reeled back, pushing and shoving at Adam until he was at least a couple meters away from her. He must've caught the wild glint in her eyes and backed up another few steps, raising his hands up as he went.
"Don't you fucking touch me!" She told him, trying to keep her balance and get some air into her lungs because she still couldn't breathe.
He should be more upset, it was Rose. Kind, sweet, funny Rose who had given him a chance and flirted with him even though he was so boring. Why was he more interested in trying to get her to leave instead of helping her to tear the fucking door off the ground and get to her?
She felt like she was going to have a heart attack. Everything hurt, her heart was leaping out of her throat every second that she stood there and yet she couldn't suck in a proper breath to calm herself down. She was going to die. She was going to die and the Doctor was going to lose two friends in one day. The Doctor…
Ella pointed at Adam who was still standing there staring at her like a fish out of water, gaping at her like an idiot. "W-where's the Doctor? I need to see, see him right now!" She demanded, stumbling off down the hallway and taking a sharp right, hoping that she was going in the right direction.
There were muted voices travelling down the halls, getting louder as she approached. Ella tried to focus to hear what they were saying and if she could recognise them. She needed to find the Doctor and tell him what happened - that it was her fault. Then one familiar voice rang out, loud and clear and angry, one that she felt she could recognise anywhere. She paused at the door that it was coming from, trying to calm herself down to no avail. Adam pushed past her and opened the door with his security pass but the Doctor was too distracted in his own little world to notice their appearance.
His voice was callous and cruel as he launched words at Van Statten from across the room, eyes dark and piercing. "I said I'd protect them. They were only here 'cause of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me."
"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten declared defensively, focused on the Doctor and his personal attack.
"Your collection?" The Doctor yelled with a shake of his head. "Well, was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Rose? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore. To be a part of something greater…"
"Exactly!" He exclaimed standing from his seat and gesturing out widely. "I wanted to touch the stars-"
"You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label 'em. You're about as far from the stars as you can get!"
Ella slipped then, knees crumbling out from underneath her. She tried to reach for the wall to aid her fall but her arms were like noodles - bendy and weak. Her fall disrupted the Doctor and his anger and he bounded over to her, kneeling by her side with a hand on her shoulder. It was almost impossible for her to breathe and she kept puffing and sucking in the air, her chest rapidly rising and falling to no avail. Nothing helped.
"D-doctor," She started with a slight hiccup. "You have to open the doors we have to help her!"
The Doctor shook his head. "She's gone Ella."
"It's my...it's my fault!"
His eyes narrowed at her, judging as a deep frown slipped onto his lips. "Ella breathe."
"We have to help!" She insisted.
"Take a breath."
"C-can't," Ella denied as her head rolled around on her neck, her muscles feeling like jelly, unable to bear her weight. The air around her was too thin, practically non-existent at this point.
The hand that was on her shoulder smoothed over the blue top she was wearing and she sunk into the touch instead of pushing him away like she did Adam. When the Doctor spoke next it sounded like he was underwater and far, far away from his crouched position directly in front of her.
"You - get her some water," Her vision was beginning to swim, her hearing tingling save for the pounding and rushing of her overworked heart. "Ella, Ella look at me," His worried face came into focus slightly but she was shaking too much to really notice him.
"Take a breath with me Ella...come on you can do it. Nice and deep, come on."
She struggled over a breath and the lightheadedness returned but he still praised her for her attempt and told her to take another one, counting out loud as she sucked in the thin air, choking and sputtering along the way.
Finally she felt like she had some control. The air was thickening and easier for her to breathe and her swimming mind was beginning to calm, tiring from her little freakout. She clutched at the glass of water that had been handed to her until she had leached all of the coolness from the cup and the Doctor stayed by her side the entire time, worried gaze lingering on her.
"She let go of my hand," Came the rumbled weak voice of Ella, drawing the Doctor's attention back to her. "I was dragging her along and then she just...let go."
"It's not your fault."
Ella shook her head. "I wanted to go down there, I should've never done that."
"Ella," He said seriously. "It's not your fault. I brought you both here, that's on me."
"Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies."
Ella froze at the sound of the Dalek coursed through the speakers. Now the thing was trying to play games with them as if it hadn't done enough already. First it killed her friend and now it was trying to use her as bait to kill them too? And how did it even get access to the speakers in the room so easily?
Anger crept onto Ella's face and twisting in the pit of her stomach and she looked over to the Doctor only to find his expression was one of joy. He didn't look like a man who had just lost someone he promised to look after. He was smiling.
Following his line of sight Ella came to find a tv screen hung above the door she had just come through. It was lit up with the live footage of the Dalek in the hallway Ella had just escaped from...with Rose by its side. And she was very much alive. The breath got knocked out of Ella again but this time she didn't seem to mind because she was relieved that Rose wasn't dead.
"You're alive!" Exclaimed the Doctor, eyes stuck on the screen, marvelling at Rose the same way Ella was.
"You can't get rid of me," Rose said a little breathlessly.
"I thought you were dead," Ella called from next to the Doctor, sitting up a little straighter so she could watch her friend closer and wiping at her face a little wearily.
"Open the bulkhead," The Dalek demanded once again.
"Don't do it," Rose told them desperately.
"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you care for?"
Ella scuttled to her feet, joining the Doctor by the computer. He looked conflicted on what to do but they didn't have a choice. Rose had already died once and those few minutes were awful there was no way they could condemn themselves to that again. She peered over his shoulder watching as his finger hesitated over a button on the keyboard.
"Doctor, we can't let her die."
The Doctor nodded and pressed the button and the bulkhead rose, letting both the Dalek and Rose free.
Van Statten leaned forward angrily and glared at the Doctor. "What do we do now, you bleeding heart, what the hell do we do?"
"Kill it when it gets here," Adam said, speaking up for the first time since they had escaped the threat of the Dalek earlier.
Goddard shook her head dismissively, shoulders tight with tension as she hunched over the desk in front of her. "All the guns are useless and the alien weapons are in the vault."
"Only the catalogued ones," He said, and then shrunk under the look of disbelief that Van Statten had sent him.
The Doctor had regained some semblance of composure by the time they made it down to Adam's squashed little office space though he couldn't say the same for Ella who still looked like she could be pushed over with the smallest of pokes. But she had followed him in her state trying and had sat herself in a chair by one of the workbenches watching as the Doctor worked.
He was picking through Adam's weapons corner, cursing the fact that he hadn't known about the area before then.
"Mr Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff," Adam explained a little sheepishly while the Doctor rifled through his stuff. "And when he does, he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."
"What you in a fight?" The Doctor asked incredulously, Ella even managed a tired snort from across the room. "I'd like to see that."
"Well I could do," He said defensively, crossing his arms over his middle.
"What you gonna do, throw your A levels at 'em?" The Doctor looked down into the basket and found what he had been looking for. "Oh yes," He said excitedly, holding up the bulky machine gun for all to see. "Lock and load."
"You're out. You made it," Rose said, staring up at the hole that the Dalek had shot in the ceiling. The sun was warm against her body and she marvelled in it. "Never thought I'd feel the sunlight again."
"How does it...feel?" The Dalek asked then and Rose looked over at it, still finding it weird how she had managed to stop it from killing and get it to change its mind so easily.
The Dalek whirred and clicked and Rose watched curiously as the solid metal holding it together began to separate and levitate to reveal a small tentacle alien trapped inside. It waved its spider-like limbs outside of its casing, stretching and moving around with the feeling of the sun, a vein pulsating in its brain and one eye opening to blink blindly at the light. Is that what a Dalek really was, just some tiny little thing trapped away behind a massive metal construction? It looked harmless.
"Get out of the way!" Called the voice of the Doctor behind her and she turned to see him standing aways away in front of a pale Ella, wielding a massive gun and pointing it right at her, right at the changing Dalek. "Rose get out of the way, now!"
"No," Rose said with a shake of her head, narrowing her eyes at the Doctor. "'Cause I won't let ya do this."
The Doctor snarled. "That thing killed hundreds of people."
"It's not the one pointing the gun at me."
"I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left."
Rose stepped aside, pointed at the little alien that stretched about, so vulnerable and raw. "Look at it."
The Doctor watched it, eyes welling with confusion. "What's it doing?"
"It's the sunlight. That's all it wants."
"But it can't," He said with disbelief, some broken man that Rose couldn't recognise poking out from under all the fading anger.
"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's changing. And what about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?"
The Doctor's jaw slackened and he dropped the gun with a clatter to the floor, stumbling back a couple of steps into Ella who grabbed at his arm, eyes still trained on the Dalek like she couldn't quite accept that it wasn't the same alien that had killed hundreds of workers...that had almost killed her. The Doctor had a faraway glint in his eyes, one full of guilt and despair, so deep and meaningful.
"I couldn't...I wasn't…" He tried, words curling and falling limp on his tongue as he fought for an excuse. "Oh…" He said finally. "They're all dead," He told them brokenly.
"Why do we survive?" The Dalek called, talking to the Doctor.
"I don't know," He replied, lost.
"I am the last of the Daleks."
"You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating," He told his enemy.
"Into what?"
"Something new. I'm sorry."
Rose stared at the Doctor, confused. Shouldn't they be celebrating its change, the fact that it is bettering itself, that it's mutating into a different version of itself that recognises what's right and wrong and can be persuaded into doing the correct thing.
"But," She said. "But isn't that better?"
"Not for a Dalek."
"I can feel," It said. "So many ideas. So much darkness. Rose. Give me orders. Order me to die," It closed its eye, leant into the sunlight once more.
Rose shook her head, tears pulling at the corner of her eyes. "I can't do that," She said, hoping it would change its mind and not ask her to practically take a life.
"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you! Order my destruction!" It said, demanding voice picking up strength and authority so quickly that it scared her. She wiped a single tear from her face as it became more hysterical with desperation. "Obey. Obey. Obey!"
"Do it," She found herself saying, not able to tear her gaze from it as it awaited death.
"Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?"
"Yep," Rose answered, voice wavering with honesty.
"So am I," It agreed. "Exterminate," It called weakly, the metal casing beginning to slide back into place.
"Rose, get back here," Ella called out from her position next to the Doctor, arm poised in a curl out towards her and voice shaking with nerves.
Rose scuttled back away from the Dalek, tripping over chunks of concrete that littered the floor from the ceiling and wasting no time in getting herself over to the Doctor and Ella. Ella's arm wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her close when she made it to them and Rose was reminded that she was safe and alive as she leant into the embrace.
The three of them watched as the Dalek rose off the ground and a forcefield erupted around it. Within seconds the bright light that encapsulated the alien was gone, along with any trace that the Dalek ever existed, disappearing into thin air.
They were back where all of this first started, standing in front of the Tardis and looking out at the endless array of alien artefacts with a hint of finality. They'd made it out alive and reasonably unscathed. Well, if you don't count the fact that Ella's head was still spinning, blurred by all of the unimaginable things that happened today.
The Doctor patted a hand over the wood of his ship fondly. "Little piece of home," He said. "Better than nothing."
"Is that the end of it? The TIme War?" Rose asked, standing a few steps away from the Doctor.
He nodded with dull eyes. "I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?"
"The Dalek survived, maybe some of your people did too," Ella said hopefully even though it seemed like wishful thinking at this point.
"I'd know," He dismissed with a shake of his head and lifted a finger up to tap at his temple. "In here. Feels like there's no one."
"Well then, good thing we're not going anywhere," Rose said confidently despite all of the shit they'd been through today.
Ella pinned her with a blank look. "You almost died today," She reminded. "Or did you just forget?"
Rose hung her head, shuffled slightly closer to Ella and grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly. "'Course I didn't forget. Don't think I'll ever forget."
Slightly satisfied with the answer, Ella squeezed her hand back with a small, mirthless smile. Adam interrupted the moment having been looking for them since he'd caught word that Van Statten had gone.
"We'd better get out," He advised a little breathlessly. "Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're gonna fill it with cement, like it never existed," He told them, spreading the news.
The blonde shrugged. "About time," She said.
"I'll have to go back home," He said, crossing his arms and peering over at the Doctor pointedly as though he'd finally tacked onto the fact that he wasn't human.
The Doctor regarded him coolly. "Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at 1500 hours."
Rose pitched in, gazing over at the Doctor a little hopefully. "Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars."
He shrugged, completely nonplussed in a way that had Ella smirking. "Tell him to go and stand outside then."
"He's all on his own, Doctor," Rose said a little pleadingly with those big eyes of hers. "And he did help."
"He left you down there."
Rose narrowed her eyes. "So did you."
Adam cut in again, this time a little impatiently. "What are you talking about we've got to leave!"
The Doctor crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at the man and then talking to Rose as though he wasn't there. "Plus he's a bit pretty."
"I hadn't noticed," Rose stated innocently.
He rolled his eyes, grabbing the key for the Tardis out of his pocket and moving to the door. "On your own head," He warned, leading Ella inside and barely waiting for Adam to enter before he'd set the Tardis into flight and took off into time and space.