On meeting the first ever Dalek-Human hybrid my first thought was: You are one sad, strange little man.
My second thought was that he was ugly. The face, at least. The tentacles actually looked normal on the hybrid, give or take a few adjustments to his genetic coding. My mind was already coming up with stabilizing formulas, having seen the Dalek genetic codes in the failed brain. Granted I should see the working ones first...
These are not normal things people think of when confronted with a hybrid of Daleks and humans.
Back before, maybe I would've been disgusted by my own thoughts.
I know I had been while Planning this back Home.
I know seeing this made me understand why the Galactic Federation had been scared of generic experiments. That this was why they had been called abominations. The reason that, though they released Pops from parole, they always kept a close watch over him. Over us.
That didn't stop me from theorizing. From correcting. From improving.
There was so much untapped potential...something that could be worked with if I had my hands on it.
A Time Lady wanting to upgrade a Dalek. Truly the universe had seen it all.
The Dalek hybrid looked around at the group of stunned humans and pigmen. The other Daleks watched him with the blankness all Daleks possessed.
Behind me, the Doctor was losing his mind.
Grief poured from our mental link. The kind of grief poisoned by anger. Toxic feelings of rage and grief mixed together, a blackness tainted by green that left no room for light. It was enough to make anyone sick. The anger of a Time Lord was not one easily quelled.
He raged that they lived. He raged that it was then that stayed on this side rather than Rose. He grieved first her anew- we were barely a month without her. A month without Rose Tyler was a cursed life, or so the Doctor's grief made him see. He mourned his people anew too. He mourned so sourly my own lips could taste a lemon.
Poor Martha was only confused. She had remembered our words earlier, just before arriving at this time. Daleks, a word that made us both fall. She knew they were strong enemies. She barely understood what they stole.
Dalek Sec...Upgraded Dalek Sec only seemed awed. He observed the room with new vision. Granted, it was still a single eyesight, but the world wasn't covered in a layer of blue. Imagine discovering other colors exist...that you could finally see them...it must be dazzling.
The hybrid was used to his new legs quite quickly. Lingering muscle memory from Diagoras, no doubt. Like a baby doe taking their first steps. These weren't things taught, they were things known.
He raised a wrinkled arm to us.
The Doctor grabbed my arm. He walked me towards the side, along the dividers. He kept us from the Dalek's sight.
His touch burned that same rage back at me.
Blackness and green spread into me. It darkened me. It invited me into ts rit. Whispers filled with malice echoed in the air. Be like us, it said. Feel our rage. They stole so much. Let them feel it. Show them who you are- show them why they should fear you. Terra Johnson, the Fallen Star, Predator to the Daleks.
"These humans will become like me." Dalek Sec commanded his brethren. "Prepare them for hybridisation."
The pigment advanced on the people. Laszlo watched with sad eyes. Martha was the loudest voice among them.
"Leave me alone! Don't you dare!" She commanded them.
The Doctor pulled out the old radio. I watched him activate it. Music began to play- coming out into this room that stunk of death. It seemed to chase away the feelings of the dark for just a moment.
Sec turned about, trying to find us. His new ears alerted him to the sound. Though he didn't know it, but his human parts ached with familiarity. "What is that sound?"
"Ah, well, now, that would be us." The Doctor admitted. He stepped out from the panels. He held up the radio for them, lowering it on a table.
I walked out too. Though inside I was pushing away those things- the feeling like oil on my very soul- a grief that demanded to be acknowledged- I looked different. My posture was straight, watching them ready to protect and defend what was left.
"Hello. Surprise. Boo. Et cetera." The Doctor taunted, tone full of boredom.
Sec's eye widened. "Doctor. Terra." His eye showed off the human emotion of fear. The one emotion the Daleks could never hide.
"The enemies of the Daleks." Dalek Caan shouted.
"Exterminate." Dalek Jast shrieked.
"Wait!" Sec commanded.
The copper Daleks held their fire. The pigmen froze too at their masters obvious terror. I walked up behind Sec, observing him. The Doctor stood at his front. Sec had to choose to look at myself or the Doctor. The hybrid was switching between one in the other.
The Doctor took full of advantage. "Well, then." He went to Sec's face, giving Sec the choice of staring his predator in the eye or watch the one at his back. "A new form of Dalek. Fascinating and very clever. Wouldn't you say, Terra?"
Yes, a time to speak. My true thoughts here had to be hidden. My fascination had to be put aside. "It's something." I remarked.
Sec chose to turn to look at me. I kept my face blank. "The Cult of Skaro escaped your slaughter." He accused. His eye showed that human fear once again.
The first mistake of the Daleks.
They never expected us to be there.
"How did you end up in 1930?" The Doctor demanded to know.
Sec had to turn to him again. "Emergency temporal shift." He glanced back at me, taking note of my hand on my Bag.
The Doctor gave the best smug grin he could when Sec turned back to him. It was more scary than joyful- a backwards echo of Victorious. "Oh, that must have roasted up your power cells, huh?" The Doctor taunted. "Time was, four Daleks could have conquered the world, but instead you're skulking away, hidden in the dark, experimenting. All of which results in you."
"I am Dalek in human form." Sec revealed.
"We noticed." I noted. Sec turned to me. One Dalek kept his eyes talk aimed my way, ready to fire any time their leader gave permission I bet. "Diagoras was the kind of person you expect to bond with a Dalek."
Sec showed no surprise that I identified his human half. The Doctor looked less so. We both recognized that suit. It had that same smug attitude that man had.
"What does it feel like?" The Doctor interrogated. "You can talk to me, Dalek Sec. It is Dalek Sec, isn't it? That's your name? You've got a name and a mind of your own. Tell me what you're thinking right now."
"I feel..humanity." Sec admitted. He turned his back on the Doctor, looking at me once again. At the sight he ended up gazing down at his shoes.
"And what does humanity feel like?" I questioned.
"I feel everything we wanted from mankind." Sec admitted. He looked up at me. "Which is...ambition, hatred, aggression and war." He spoke in delight, in a rush of these dark emotions that struck him down to his core. "Such a genius for war."
"No, that's not what humanity means." The Doctor dismissed.
They are when they feel afraid.
"I think it does." Sec countered. I eyed him with understanding. In seeing humanity at their worst, you tend to forget how they are at their best. "At heart, this species is so very Dalek."
"All right, so what have you achieved then, with this Final Experiment, eh?" The Doctor demanded. "Nothing! Because I can show you what you're missing with this thing. A simple little radio." He tapped the top of it.
I glanced over Sec's shoulder to the humans and pigmen. They watched with fear, trepidation. The humans were standing on antsy feet, ready to escape at a moment's notice.
"What is the purpose of that device?" Dalek Jast commanded.
"Well, exactly. It plays music. What's the point of that?" The Doctor wondered. He watched the Daleks dangerously. I kept my ground, watching Sec as he observed the new emotions rushing through him. The ideas of music, what it brought to him, what emotions the Doctor was bringing up for him. "Oh, with music, you can dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it."
The Doctor turned to look a Dalek in the eyestalk.
The Doctor and Rose, dancing in World War II.
The Doctor and Rose, singing around the console to Elvis.
The Doctor and Rose, falling in love with their theme songs playing overhead.
Music...it really changed them.
"Unless you're a Dalek of course. Then it's all just noise." The Doctor used his sonic on the radio. It let out a loud screech.
I ducked past Sec. He was holding his head as the screeching increased. The Daleks were whirling around, panicked.
"Run!" The Doctor yelled at the humans.
I ran past Martha. She moved to run beside me.
The lot of us rushed into the sewers. We ran. Ran so fast, like we always did.
==ROTF==
We walked under the arch, back into Hooverville. We'd escaped into the theatre. Tallulah helped all of us out without being seen. She stuck with us, too scared of the pigmen and Daleks to stay alone.
With heavy hearts, I watched the humans go into the encampment. I lagged behind the group. The Doctor walked like a man on a mission. Martha was holding herself, half frozen by the November night air.
My slow gate was noticed by only one. Frank came to my side, as we approached Solomon's tent. He looked at me, an expression like worry clear on his face. I gave him a flat smile in reply. There wasn't anything to say. What could one even say to that face?
Was I supposed to admit that I was scared but not of the Daleks?
Was I supposed to say that I was scared to look up into the black sky, surrounded by all this cold?
How could I admit I was thinking about ways to fix the hybrids, ways to make them better?
How could I admit the Doctor scared me?
Even now, I could hear the Northern accented words like a gong in my mind.
Why don't you just die.
That he did nothing to deny this when he saw me again.
Back in the present, I turned away from Frank to sit down in front of the fire. The warmth of the fire failed to reach me. Tallulah was beside Martha. The two women were shivering, trying to warm up.
Frank sat himself down beside me. I paid him little mind.
Solomon and the Doctor were talking. Solomon had a shotgun over his shoulder. The Doctor seemed to be doing his best not to notice. "These Daleks, they sound like the stuff of nightmares. And they want to breed?"
"They're splicing themselves onto human bodies, and if I'm right, they've got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville." The Doctor explained to Solomon. "You've got to get everyone out."
Solomon shook his head. "Hooverville's the lowest place a man can fall. There's nowhere else to go."
"I'm sorry, Solomon. You've got to scatter." The Doctor warned. "Go anywhere. Down to the railroads, travel across state. Just get out of New York."
"There's got to be a way to reason with these things." Solomon countered.
I couldn't help it. I laughed. A bitter laugh, chilling as the air. "Good luck with that."
"There's not a chance." Martha agreed.
"You ain't seen them, boss." Frank shook his head up at Solomon.
"Daleks are bad enough at anytime, but right now they're vulnerable." The Doctor warned. "That makes them more dangerous than ever."
And you're not? I thought. Nothing vulnerable about you, Time Lord? Nothing making you more dangerous than ever? Hypocrite.
"They're coming! They're coming!" A man called out. He ran back into the camp, shouting louder for all to hear.
"A sentry. He must have seen something." Solomon explained. He pulled the shotgun over his shoulder, holding it up for defence.
"They're here! I've seen them! Monsters! They're monsters!" The sentry continued to shout.
The Doctor reached his hand down. He held my shoulder. I tensed under him. "It's started."
"We're under attack! Everyone to arms!" Solomon shouted.
Frank jumped up from our log. He ran over, grabbing his own rifle. "I'm ready, boss, but all of you, find a weapon! Use anything."
"Come back!" Solomon shouted to the retreating folks. The poor souls who would be taken by the pigmen. "We've got to stick together! It's not safe out there! Come back!"
The Doctor moved his hand to my upper arm. He pulled me up to my feet. It took every part of me not to roll my eyes to the sky, or pull my arm away.
The humans were all scurrying about. Only delaying the inevitable. Many of them would be taken in by Daleks, used for pigmen or for hybrids. Not even I knew the faces of the people who would live, and who wouldn't. Just how many would see another sunrise?
"We need to get out of the park." Martha stated.
"We can't." I argued. "The pigmen would've surrounded us on the ground floor. They were move us all into one place, taking out any stragglers."
"We're trapped." Tallulah realized, shivering but not from the cold.
"Then we stand together." Solomon decided. "Gather round. Everybody come to me. You there, Jethro, Harry, Seamus, stay together."
I pulled my arm from the Doctor's grip. He tried to take it back. I reached inside my Bag.
"Terra." The Doctor warned.
I said nothing.
"They can't take all of us." Solomon reminded them.
I pulled out my gun.
Standing up on the log, I put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. He watched me get ready with a chiding glare.
The pigmen began to advance.
In quick succession, I shot them down. There were plenty of bullets to spare for them. I was able to take out half the pigmen around in the time it took for the humans to shoot a handful.
I was a good shot.
"If we can just hold them off till daylight." Martha hoped.
"Oh, Martha, they're just the foot soldiers." The Doctor warned her.
"We're surrounded every direction but up." I reminded her. "And Daleks can fly."
Martha's eyes widened as she looked to the sky. I was taking out another handful of pigs. A poetic sort of justice, for a cop to shoot a pig. "Oh, my God."
"Yep." I shot at another pigman. He had ducked behind a tent when he spotted my eyes on him. What, he thought I couldn't shoot through a tent? "Not even phased."
Another shot went off. A pig's shriek came from that way.
"What in this world is?" Solomon gawked.
"It's the devil. A devil in the sky. God save us all. It's damnation." A man cried out.
"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" Frank shouted. He raised up his rifle.
"I wouldn't do-" I began.
Frank fired the rifle.
The bullet bounced off Dalek Jast. It didn't even make a dent.
"That's not going to work." The Doctor pushed his way through the crowd. I hopped off the log, keeping guard over him. "Leave them alone. They've done nothing to you!"
"We have located the Doctor and Terra." Dalek Jast reported.
A second Dalek joined in on the fun. Once they were a team they saw no point in wasting time. So, the Daleks began their fire. They blasted around the town. Humans screamed out their dying breaths.
Solomon walked away from the crowd. The Doctor reached for him. I reloaded my gun while the town was attacked.
"No, Solomon. Stay back." The Doctor cautioned.
"I'm told that I'm addressing the Daleks. Is that right?" Solomon called up at them. One Dalek was looking down at us. More specifically, the Doctor and I. "From what I hear, you're outcasts too."
"Solomon, don't!" The Doctor warned.
"We can't promise they won't kill you." I warned.
"Doctor, Terra, this is my township. You will respect my authority. Just let me try." Solomon requested.
I nodded to him, taking a step back.
"Terra." The Doctor pleaded. I shook my head. 'We can't-'
'Doctor. We can't stop him.' I reminded him. 'There's nothing we can do without taking away his choice.'
The Doctor conceded. He stepped back to my side.
Solomon walked forward. He moved his gun so it wasn't aimed at the Daleks.
"Daleks, ain't we all the same?" Solomon asked them. The Daleks stared blankly, floating above Hooverville. "Underneath, ain't we all kin?" He lowered his gun to the ground.
'We have to stop him.'
'We can't.'
"Right. See, I've just discovered this past day, God's universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was."
'We can't just let them kill him!' The Doctor scolded me.
I sent him a mental wave of anger. 'Feel free to fucking try. Stop four Daleks from killing someone without getting yourself killed too. Try it. Try it and see if I ever talk to you again.'
The Doctor said nothing. He only gawked at me.
"And that scares me. Oh yeah, terrifies me right down to the bone. But surely it's got to give me hope. Hope that maybe together we can make a better tomorrow." Solomon preached at them.
'This isn't going to work.' The Doctor stated. He looked between Solomon and the Daleks.
'Nope...he never stood a chance.'
"So, I beg you now, if you have any compassion in your hearts, then you'll meet with us and stop this fight." Solomon requested. Dalek Jast stared on, blank as always. "Well? What do you say?"
'Oh, you poor man.'
"Exterminate." Dalek Jast fired.
If I couldn't save him, then I would watch as Solomon fell.
The blast hit Solomon in the chest. His entire body glowed bright green, so one could see his skeleton if they looked.
Solomon fell to the ground.
The Doctor's rage flared.
"No!" Frank yelled. "Solomon!"
"They killed him. They just shot him on the spot." Martha gawked in horror. The horror of someone who traveled with the Doctor and saw why he hated them.
The Doctor marched ahead. I had no chance of stopping him so I didn't try. "Daleks. Alright, so it's my turn! Then kill me! Kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people!"
"I will be the destroyer of our greatest enemies." Dalek Jast raised his whisk towards the Doctor.
"Then do it! Do it! Just do it! Do it!" The Doctor commanded.
"Exterminate-" Dalek Jast paused. The eyes talk rose up, as if looking at the taller Sec. "I do not understand. It is the Doctor and Terra." Another pause your head the reply.
I took steps forward. The Doctor was so confused over the hesitation
"The urge to kill is too strong." Dalek Jast yelled. The whisk shook as it fought the urge "I...obey."
It moved the whisk away.
"What's going on?" The Doctor asked, confused as to why he wasn't dead yet.
"You...you don't need to correct them." I told him.
"You will follow." Dalek Caan ordered us.
"No! You can't go." Martha called out. She towards us. She stopped when she realized how close she was to the Daleks.
"We've got to go." The Doctor argued. "The Daleks just changed their minds. Daleks never change their minds."
"This is a new thing. So many news things from Daleks...how can we not be curious?" I asked.
Martha started at us. "But what about us?"
"Daleks!" I immediately shouted. "We have a condition before we join you!"
"If we come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here!" The Doctor yelled. "Do you hear us?"
"Humans will be spared." Dalek Caan promised. If they had teeth, they would be clenching them. No wonder he goes insane. "Doctor, Terra, follow."
"Then I'm coming with you." Martha argued. She rushed to our side. She grabbed the Doctor's coat, holding it tight.
The Doctor held her hand. Gently he lifted it off him. "Martha, stay here. Do what you do best. People are hurt. You can help them." The Doctor reminded her. "Let us go."
She didn't want to though. "Terra. You can't." Martha pleaded at me. She had desperation in her eyes, that I'd convince him to stay.
But I wanted to go.
And the Doctor would never let me be alone with a Dalek.
Never again.
"We have to." I told her.
As her expression crumbled I walked off towards the Daleks. The Doctor made to join me. He paused in his walk. He turned back, reaching for Martha's hand.
"Oh, and can I just say." The Doctor took her hand in his. "Thank you very much."
Martha watched, stunned, as the Time Lords walked away. Daleks overhead, leading us like demented reindeer.
'You gave her the psychic paper yes?'
'Yep...it's on her now.' The Doctor walked up to my side. 'I'm sorry you're dragged into this.'
'Don't worry. I'll complain forever.' I told him.
The Doctor turned to me. He gave me a searching stare- a look like he was walking me to my doom.
I couldn't exactly tell him we weren't.
==ROTF==
We arrived back in the Dalek Labs. Sec stood at the end of the hall. A third Dalek stood at his side. Their backs were to us.
"Those people were defenceless!" The Doctor yelled.
Sec jerked around, surprised at the shouting.
I glared at Dalek Thay behind him.
"You only wanted us, but no, that wasn't enough for you." The Doctor marched towards the hybrid creature. Sec showed some surprise at the rage- no doubt feeling new feelings that no Dalek had before. "You had to start killing, because that's the only thing a Dalek's good for."
"The deaths were wrong." Sec replied.
The Doctor paused in his ranting. "...I'm sorry?"
I stepped forward. "Come again? Did- did you just say they were wrong?"
"That man, their leader, Solomon." Sec continued blowing the Doctor's mind. "He showed courage."
"And you're okay with that?" I asked.
"It's excellent." Sec praised.
The Doctor was beginning to fall into the classic 'Blue Screen' mode. "Is it me or are you just becoming a little bit more human?" He guessed.
Sec did not deny this. "You are the last of your kind, and now I am the first of mine."
"Okay...but what do you need us for?" I asked. "People don't keep us alive unless they need us for something."
Sec conceded that point. "We tried everything to survive when we found ourselves stranded in this ignorant age. First we tried growing new Dalek embryos, but their flesh was too weak."
"Ah yes. The brains in the sewer." I mused.
"Yeah, we found one of your experiments." The Doctor scolded. "Just left to die out there in the dark."
Sec didn't bother to apologize. "It forced us to conclude what is the greatest resource of this planet. It's people." Sec walked over to a breaker switch.
"Oh no." I hummed.
He flipped it upright. Above, lights came on. It showed off the hundreds of hundreds of bodies on stretchers. Sec flipped another switch. It lowered a body draped in a sheet.
"We stole them. We stole human beings for our purpose. Look inside." Sec offered.
The Doctor looked up at me. I walked up to the body. Still, I respectfully uncovered the man's face. He had skin pale like death, and stringy blond hair.
"This is the true extent of the Final Experiment." Sec revealed to the Doctor.
"Is he dead?" The Doctor asked, somber.
"Near death, with his mind wiped, ready to be filled with new ideas." Sec explained.
"Dalek ideas." The Doctor reasoned.
"Well are human ideas that much better?" I noted. The Doctor gave me a look. 'In a decade, they'll start World War II. They weren't done with the first one, it wasn't bad enough for them to decide to never do it again. Nah, they made it bigger and badder.'
"The Human Dalek race." Sec amended.
"How many are to be in this new race?" I asked him.
"We have caverns beyond this storing more than a thousand." Sec explained.
"Is there any way to restore them? Make them human again?" The Doctor asked.
"Everything they were has been lost." Sec explained. And dare I say it...he actually sounded...sad about that.
"Okay. Okay..." I reached up, brushing aside the man's hair. "They're like your shells...like your empty one right over there but these are new. Well it's got the symbolism of a Dalek, I'll give you that."
"You've got empty human beings ready to be converted." The Doctor added on. "That's going to take a hell of a lot of power. This planet hasn't even split the atom yet. How're you going to do it?"
Sec turned to the Daleks, who had been watching the whole thing go down. If they had expressions, they'd be sneering. "Open the conductor plan."
A Dalek pressed his plunger to a panel. It lit up a holographic screen showing off the plans for the Empire State Building.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Empire State Building. We're right underneath that. I worked that out already, thanks." The Doctor snarked. "But what, you've hijacked the whole building?"
"We needed an energy conductor." Sec excused.
'Well we've all done something weird for science. Don't you lie and say you haven't pressed your finger to a hot surface just to see what would happen.' "What for?" I prompted.
"I am the genetic template." Sec waved at the screen. It showed two strands of DNA. One human, one Dalek. Even Dalek DNA strands looked full of hate. "My altered DNA was to be administered to each human body. A strong enough blast of gamma radiation can splice the Dalek and human genetic codes, and waken each body from its sleep."
"Is that gamma radiation?" I noted, pointing up at the screen. His silence was confirmation enough. I turned to Sec, staring him in the eye. "If this makes the Hulk, I'll break you arm. Actually that's a great test for Science!"
Sec did not seem to think it as clever an idea as I did.
"Though I do approve using the power of the sun." I praised. "That's clever."
'Would you mind to stop praising the Daleks?' The Doctor told me.
'But...the power of the sun.' I countered. 'Science!'
"Soon the greatest solar flare for a thousand years will hit the Earth." Sec reported. The holographic screen showed this. "Gamma radiation will be drawn to the energy conductor and when it strikes-"
"The army wakes." The Doctor finished. He was watching at Sec, something like apprehension on his face.
"And you need us to help!" I spoke, pretending to just realize it. "Yeah? That's why we're here? You need us to help with the process of making your army?"
"We do need your level of genius." Sec confirmed. I preened at the praise. "Consider a pure Dalek, intelligent but emotionless."
"Removing the emotions makes you stronger. That's what your creator thought, all those years ago." The Doctor recalled.
"He was wrong." Sec spoke.
'Of course he was. He built the Daleks! Davros was fucking insane.'
The Doctor stared. His brain had officially gone blue-screen. "He was what?"
The Daleks around us were full on 'Halloween-Town seeing snow for the first time' levels of confusion. Their heads were spinning around. The eyestalks were moving about like crazy. Honestly it made my entire day.
This was amazing.
This was world changing.
The dawn of a new age, started by a Dalek who became human.
He was working a lot better than the last two tries. The Dalek in Van Statten's museum had lost his mind, with mine and Rose's mind pressed in with his. The Daleks in the Game Station were almost exact opposites of what was happening here: humans turned into Daleks, though they were in the tin cans and not flesh bodies. Those bastards lost their minds in the change.
But these, Sec wanted to make be like Oswin.
He wanted to make a whole species with that amount of humanity.
Humans exactly like Oswin.
I'll sign on for that shit any day.
"Okay...say more." I nodded.
"It makes us lesser than our enemies." Sec carried on. "We must return to the flesh, and also the heart."
"Oooh I'm liking this. How would that keep you the supreme tin cans that you are?" I questioned.
"We would not be." Sec answered. "And that is good."
"That is incorrect." Dalek Thay yelped.
"Daleks are supreme." Dalek Jast dismissed.
"No, not anymore." Sec told them.
"But that is our purpose." Dalek Jast snapped.
"Then our purpose is wrong." Sec snapped back at them. The Daleks whirled back as Sec was dismissing what was essentially their entire history. "Where has our quest for supremacy led us? To this. Hiding in the sewers on a primitive world, just four of us left. If we do not change now then we deserve extinction."
"You want to make the Dalek race...but without all the parts that make them Dalek." I reasoned.
The Doctor was staring like Sec and I both lost our minds.
"If you can help me." Sec pleaded. He walked over to the human again. "Tell me, what do you know of genetic engineering?"
I followed him. "Are you joking? I did it for a project once in a human grade school." I chuckled. In my defense, nobody told me I had to build the project out of clay and not living beings. Also it was Pops' fault for not locking away his notes. "It's a specialty of mine."
"Then your help will be needed." Sec accepted. "The new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts."
"Come on, make it a challenge." I cheered.
"But you're the template. I thought they were getting a dose of you." The Doctor pointed out.
"I want to change the gene sequence." Sec admitted.
"To make them even more human?" The Doctor asked.
"That would fix a lot of the anomalies I'm seeing in you." I told Sec. "And what I saw in the brain. It was good for a rush job-"
"Terra. Compliments." The Doctor warned.
"Are a boon to a wounded soul, what of it?" I countered. The Doctor looked ready to hiss at me. "How much more humanity do you want them to have?"
"Humans are the great survivors. We need that ability." Sec told me.
"You can't actually be considering this." The Doctor told me.
"Have considered it." I told him back. "Liked what I saw. Moving forward with the plan. The power of science compels me, Doctor. I have no choice but to see where this goes."
The Doctor gawked at me like I was a whole different person. A Time Lady, helping a Dalek to make more Daleks. What kind of atrocity was I? Well I was used to letting down my species. "What."
"Anyway Sec. How do you plan on getting this past the others?" I gestured with a thumb to the three Daleks.
"What?"
"I am their leader." Sec stated. He gave his subordinates a glare, to remind them of such.
"So they'll just step in line?" I reasoned.
"Daleks must follow orders." Dalek Thay stated, as though we were pulling out his non-existent teeth.
"Dalek Sec commands, we obey." Dalek Caan spoke in a hiss. Well a hiss for a Dalek.
"What?! This can't be happening." The Doctor ran his hand through his hair. "I've lost it. I'm seeing things. There's no chance this is happening in front of me right now."
"If you don't help me, nothing will change." Sec told the Doctor and I.
"There's no room on Earth for another race of people." The Doctor dismissed.
"We have a box." I reminded him. "They can fit."
"Yes. Your TARDIS." Sec turned to the Doctor. "Take us across the stars. Find us a new home and allow the new Daleks to start again."
The Doctor stared in infinite confusion. There was no hope for this man. He had lost his mind. Too much confusion in the past ten minutes for any lick of sense.
I turned to Sec. "How long do I have?"
"Eleven minutes." Sec reported.
"I told you to give me a challenge." I teased.
Sec smiled at me, grateful.
Author dammit...a Dalek just smiled at me. What the actual hell.
I'm so excited.
==ROTF==
'You can't do this!'
'Wrong. I can do this. I can't take any of your negativity.'
'You're helping the Daleks!'
'And you're not. See? Nothing's changed.'
'Nothing's-?! Have you forgotten what they've done? What we lost because of them?!'
'I remember feeling your hate.' A pause. 'Hearing you shout all that hate at the Van Statton museum...hearing it echo in my head like you'd said it to me instead. Sometimes, I still wonder if you actually were asking me.'
'Terra.'
'And I remember seeing those Daleks- seeing Rose take them out with a wave of her hand. Of hearing them all shout blasphemy at us, for saying they were human. Now I see a Dalek who wants to make that- but make them more. To fix the mistakes of his past.'
'It's not right. What they've done to these people is wrong. We have to stop them.'
'Stopping them means committing genocide. On two counts.' Another pause. 'I won't stop a species before it's even begun.'
'They can't live. Anything that's even the smallest bit Dalek will go wrong. Or worse, those Daleks will turn and slaughter us all.'
'So either let them commit genocide on three counts-'
'Will you stop saying genocide?!'
'-or us commit it on two?'
'...I can't. I can't help them. Not after- everything we've lost.'
'Then let me do it.'
'Why? Why help them?'
'Because of everything they've lost. For the Daleks, there's no way to go but up.'
'We shouldn't.'
'Sec smiled at me. Can you ever say a time when you've seen a Dalek smile? Especially all fill of pure hope and good shit? Imagine a whole new race of Dalek-humans, all smiling. Can't you picture it? Dalek-humans, being better than their old ways. Learning. Growing. Evolving. Actually working towards becoming a being capable of good! All because one Dalek saw the good in humanity over the bad.'
The Doctor said nothing more to me.
Which was good, because I was dealing with chemicals. Ignoring them for too long leads to explosions. We don't want those...yet.
==ROTF==
"This isn't working." I complained, waving my hand at a jar of boiling green liquid. "Chromosomal grating is too erratic for what you have planned." I rushed over to another spot on the walls, checking other chemical mixtures.
My mind was laser focused on what was needed. It needed so much more. There was so much work to be done, though I knew I could accomplish it in time.
"You gotta more chromatin solution?" I asked Sec. The hybrid was pouring in a blue chemical into a red one. The Doctor walked to stand behind me. "I wanna split the genome to force the Dalek-human sequence right in it's cortex!"
"We need more chromatin solution." Sec told a Dalek.
"The pig slaves have it." Dalek Caan answered.
'I'm telling you this is-'
"UGH!" I pointed a finger at the Doctor. "Tell me this is a bad idea one more time and I will use you in it!"
The pigmen came in, carrying crates. Laszlo among them.
"Ah. Terrific!" I skipped over to the boxes. In my other hand, I swirled a beaker. It was getting the formula to air out. Bubbles formed on the top line.
"These pig slaves, what happens to them in the grand plan?" The Doctor asked Sec.
"Nothing. They're just simple beasts." Sec answered. He worked on another step of the formula. "Their lifespan is limited. None survive beyond a few weeks. Power up the line feeds."
"Ah. I can fix that." I waved a hand. I went up to Sec's side, pouring what was in my beaker into one of his. "When we're done here I can build something with all this stuff to balance out their internal systems. My guess is a combination of overworking and genetic deficiencies. You made them rush jobs, didn't you?"
Sec pointedly avoided my eyes. Across the room, the Doctor was speaking to Laszlo in hushed whispers.
"Laszlo, I can't undo what they've done to you, but they won't do it to anyone else." The Doctor promised.
"Do you trust them?" Laszlo asked.
I ignored the underlying insult.
"I know that one man can change the course of history." The Doctor told him. "Right idea in the right place at the right time, it's all it takes. Terra believes in this. I believe in her. She's not let me down yet. I've got to believe it's possible."
'You always say the sweetest things.' I praised.
The Doctor gave me a wry grin. 'Don't push your luck. I still think this will go wrong.'
'But?' I prompted.
'But I can see the heart behind it.' The Doctor glanced at Sec. The hybrid was starting to pour the solution into our formula. I beamed at the beaker. 'You want my help don't you?'
'Well it wouldn't go amiss!'
The Doctor sighed. "If you can't beat them..." He walked over to our latest creation, lifting it up. "You're going to need to add more."
I beamed at him.
Sec beamed too. "Thank you, Doctor."
"Yeah...thanks Doc Brown." I praised.
The Doctor gave me a small smile. "What do you need me to do?"
I pointed across the room. "Well if you wouldn't mind-"
The three classic Daleks watched in growing disgust. A Dalek working with not just two Time Lords, but the two Time Lords that were said to have wiped out their entire people. All working towards the creation of what they saw as abominations on Dalek-kind.
==ROTF==
"I'VE DONE IT!" I shouted loudly, throwing my arms up in the air. I hugged the container of blue liquid. "Aren't you perfect, sunshine? I can't wait to see you all grown up."
The Doctor put a hand on my shoulder. "We still have work to do."
"Don't kill my good vibes! I'm a Time Lady, they'll just come back weirder!" I reminded him. The Doctor and I smiled at each other.
"The line feeds are ready." Dalek Caan reported.
"Then it's all systems go." The Doctor told me.
I reached for a large syringe, dipping it into our solution.
"The solar flare is imminent. The radiation will reach Earth in a matter of minutes." Sec warned us.
"We'll be ready for it." The Doctor assured Sec.
I filled up the syringe with the solution. When it was filled to exactness, I ran it over to a brass still.
"That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure in a brand new pattern." The Doctor reported. I squeezed the solution down into the hatch. "Power up!"
Laszlo turned a breaker.
"Start the line feeds." Sec instructed.
The Daleks pressed their plungers onto buttons. It set off the machines. It sent up the solution into the clear plastic tubes running all over the place.
"There goes the gene solution." The Doctor mumbled.
"The life blood." Sec corrected with a nervous look in his eyes.
"Oh Author let this work." I crossed my fingers. "Make it so I haven't screwed it up."
It worked. The entire thing worked...for thirty seconds.
Red alerts started going off.
"What's that?" The Doctor asked, pointing up at the warnings.
"Author dammit!" I grumbled. Rushing to a panel, I tried to fix the problem.
"What's happening? Is there a malfunction?" Sec asked his underlings. They refused to speak. "Answer me!"
"They're screwing up my gene feed! Can one of you kill them?" I ordered.
"Impossible. They cannot disobey orders." Sec snapped at them.
The Doctor came to my side. He tried to work. "It's an override-"
"Yeah I noticed!"
Dalek Caan rolled up to us. It held up the whisk. "The Time Lords will step away from the controls."
I held up my hands, growling. I can't wait for you to go insane. Still the Doctor and I backed up.
"Stop! You will not fire." Sec ordered.
"They are enemies of the Daleks." Dalek Jast yelled.
"And so are you." Dalek Caan snapped.
One of them aimed their whisk towards Sec. The hybrid flinched in shock. "I am your commander. I am Dalek Sec."
"You have lost your authority." Dalek Caansnapped.
"You are no longer a Dalek." Decreed Dalek Jast, who was happily aimed at me.
"What have you done with the gene feed?" The Doctor demanded.
"The new bodies will be one hundred percent Dalek." Dalek Caan answered.
"No. You can't do this!" Sec snapped.
"Pig slaves, restrain Dalek Sec, the Doctor, and Terra." Dalek Jast ordered.
A pigman grabbed my arm. I braced myself for a fight.
"Release me. I created you. I am your master." Sec commanded the pigment holding him.
A loud alarm went off. The Daleks whirled around.
"Solar flare approaching."
"Prepare to intercept."
From behind us, there was a ding.
Laszlo "There's the lift." Laszlo whispered.
The Doctor glanced at me. 'Ready?'
'Yep.'
"After you." The Doctor offered.
I elbowed the pigman, crouching low enough to kick his legs out from him. When he fell I ran to the elevator.
The Doctor rushed with me. He used his sonic on the door. It whooshed open.
"The Doctor and Terra are escaping. Stop them! Stop them!" Dalek Caan shrieked.
"We'll come back Sec!" I yelled out for him.
He used the sonic to shut it. The elevator door slid shut.
"We've only got minutes before the gamma radiation reaches the Earth." The Doctor reporter. "We need to get to the top of the building."
Laszlo was panting, clutching his chest.
"Laszlo, what's wrong?" The Doctor asked.
"Out of breath. It's nothing." Laszlo shook his head. The Doctor reached his hand for his shoulder. "We've escaped them, Doctor. That's all that matters."
The Doctor seemed to disagree. 'You said you could fix this?'
'Not fix what they've. Just stabilize. Why, do you?'
'No. Stabilizing him is our best bet. But we'd need the lab.'
'If the Daleks win, we won't get to it.'
'Then we better win.' The Doctor looked at me. 'Hadn't we?'
==ROTF==
The door pinged. It slid open to reveal the top most floor. Martha, Frank, and Tallulah were inside, around a table covered in blue prints.
Martha turned back at the noise. She smiled wide when she saw us. "Doctor! Terra!"
"You have reached your destination." I joked.
"First floor, perfumery." The Doctor joked at the same time. The two of us exchanged grins.
We walked out. Laszlo limped into Tallulah's arms. "I never thought I'd see you again." She hugged him.
"No stopping me." Laszlo promied.
Martha ran to us, showing the blueprint with the added Dalekanium. "We've worked it out. We know what they've done. There's Dalekanium on the mast. And it's good to see you too, by the way."
"Guys can we save-"
"Oh, come here." The Doctor pulled us both in for a hug. I groaned.
Behind us, the elevator doors began to close.
"No, no, no!" The Doctor ended the hug. He ran to the elevator, holding up his sonic. The elevator still went down. "See, that's what Terra always says. never waste time with a hug."
"You're darn right!"
"Deadlock seal. I can't stop it." The Doctor seethed.
"Damn you hugs!" I shouted.
"Where's it going?" Martha asked.
"Right down to the Daleks." The Doctor explained. "And they're not going to leave us alone up here. What's the time?"
"11:15." I answered.
The Doctor ran his hand through his hair. "Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits."
"Gammon radiation? What the heck is that?" Tallulah questioned.
The Doctor and I ignored it. At the edge of the construction, the Doctor stopped to look out into the city. I went to the ladder.
"Oh, that's high. That's very. Blimey, that's high." The Doctor noted.
"And we've got to go even higher." Martha told him. "That's the mast up there, look-"
"What the hell are you doing?" The Doctor asked, turning to me.
"Climbing a ladder." I answered. Pausing in my climb, I glanced at him. "Why?"
"You can't." The Doctor argued.
"There's three pieces of Dalekanium on the base." Martha told him. "We've got to get them off."
The Doctor sighed. "You're going to argue?"
"And complain." I gave him a too sweet smile.
"Yeah..." The Doctor turned to Martha. "That's not we, that's just me and her."
"Already climbing up!" I reminded him.
"I won't just stand here and watch you." Martha dismissed.
The Doctor "No, you're going to have your hands full anyway." The Doctor told her. He grabbed the ladder. "I'm sorry, Martha, but you've got to fight."
"Oh!" I pulled my gun out from my pocket. Holding it out for Martha, she eyed it warily. "Give it to Frank. There's enough ammo in there to take out the pigs. Just tell him not to point at his shoes, or any of you."
"But what if it's the Daleks?" Martha countered.
"Pfft. They wouldn't come after us when they're so little time." I dismissed. She took the gun. "Thank ya kindly. Keep the humans alive."
I climbed the rest of the way up. Once there, I stared at the lightning rod surrounded by Dalekanium.
The Doctor climbed up. He pulled out his sonic, sliding it upright. "You hate giving up your gun. You could've stayed down there."
"You needed the help more than they did." I countered. "You're stuck with me, Doc Brown."
The Doctor smiled, gratefully. "Sailor, let's get to work."
==ROTF==
Let the record show we tried our best.
But a tiny little sonic isn't shit to bolted on Dalekanium.
We could only just barely lift it away. The metal up here was too cold for the sonic to unscrew it properly. Or they'd also welded it? I don't fucking know. These things were heavy and the tips of my fingers were freezing.
The power of Science was compelling me once again.
The Doctor let out a loud yell as he fell back. The Dalekanium stubbornly unmoved. Worse yet, his sonic had fallen to the floor below. Now there really wasn't anything we could do. He looked up to the cloudy sky. Lightning had started going off in the distance.
Pushing myself to my feet, I held my hand out to him. He accepted it. When I pulled him to his feet, I kept hold of his hand.
"This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" I asked the Doctor.
The Doctor's shoulders sagged. "Yep. But just me. This is my fight. I should've stopped the Daleks back then. With this, I can stop them. It's our best chance."
"Nice knowin' ya, then." Before he could give another word of encouragement I threw the Doctor to the hole in the floor.
"Wha-" He stumbled down onto the ladder.
"Terra don't do it!" He yelled.
"My mess, I have to clean it!" I hugged the lightning rod. "Dalek Sec wanted new Daleks. By hell, he'll get 'um!"
Above, the clouds were lighting up in blue.
One reached down to us.
I was right, it did burn.
I shrieked at the pain. Being hit by lightning wasn't a common occurrence...unless you were me. This happened a lot to me.
"Live!" I screamed past the pain. "LIVE my creatures LIVE!"
Blackness.
==ROTF==
The Doctor was tapping my cheek when I woke up. "Come on, Terra, come on, wake up. You can do it. That's it."
My eyes opened with what I hoped what a creaking sound effect. "Ugh...such...a shitty...day."
The Doctor pulled me up, pressing me against his chest.
"Doctor! Doctor?" Martha called out.
"Why do they always like you best?" I mumbled into his jacket.
"Cause you hate people." The Doctor dismissed. He kept holding me tight. It was much warmer than the chill of the night.
I hummed. He wasn't wrong there...
Martha came onto the landing. The metal floor alerted me to her movements. "Look what we found halfway down." She held the sonic out to the Doctor. "You lot are getting careless."
"Sounds right." The Doctor noted. "Terra, how are you feeling?"
"Dead inside...but that's normal." I mumbled.
"Hiya." Martha waved at the Doctor.
"Hi." The Doctor grinned at her.
"Is she alright?" Martha pointed my way.
"She'll be fine, give her a minute." The Doctor assured.
I squinted at her. "...why are you not giving me my gun?"
"See? She's fine." The Doctor cheered. "Good job on living."
"So did the pair of you, just about." Martha smiled. "I can't help noticing there's Dalekanium still attached."
The Doctor sat up. He looked at the lightning rod, eyes wide.
I let out a relieved sigh.
==ROTF==
Downstairs I saw they had the lightning rod trap set up.
"Where the hell is my gun?!" I snapped.
Frank rushed over. He held it out to me, face scrunched up in embarrassment.
"Why didn't any of you use it?" I questioned.
"We're sorry, Terra. We didn't know how." Frank admitted.
"Didn't know-?!" I yelped. "It's a gun! You point it and shoot! Unless you're Stormtroopers it would've been fine!"
"Terra! Big picture." The Doctor reminded me. I groaned out. "The Daleks will have gone straight to a war footing. They'll be using the sewers, spreading the soldiers out underneath Manhattan."
"How do we stop them?" Laszlo pleaded.
"There's only one chance." The Doctor looked down at me. "Terra got in the way. That gamma strike went zapping though her first."
"You were gonna do it."
"I could've handled it."
"I've been hit by lightning more times than you've regenerated." I countered.
"Yeah but I've been hit more than you have."
"Have not."
"Have too!"
"Have not!"
"Focus!" Martha shouted. We turned to her. "Yeah, but what does that mean? About it going through Terra first?"
"We need to draw fire." The Doctor deflected. "Before they can attack New York, we need to face them. Where can we draw them out? Think, think, think, think, think."
"I've got it!" I cheered.
"Where?" The Doctor prompted.
"Tallulah with three L's and an H!"
"That's me." She replied, still holding a winded Laszlo.
"The theatre!"
"The theatre!" The Doctor cried out, seeing me genius. "Oh you're quick. It's right above them, and, what, it's gone midnight? Can you get us inside?"
Tallulah shrugged. "Don't see why not."
"Is there another lift?" The Doctor asked.
"We came up in the service elevator." Martha admitted.
"That'll do." He beamed at me. "Allons-y!"
I laughed.
Though inside, I worried.
Miles below, Dalek-human hybrids were rising to their feet.
Exactly how much of me did they get?
==ROTF==
The theatre had the lowest of lights on. Cast from the moon shining in front the hall windows. It didn't make the room any less creepy. The Doctor had to use the sonic to activate the rest of the lights. They cast the room in light bright enough to see beyond your own face, though it was still creepy
"This should do it." The Doctor remarked. He walked into a row of seats. "Here we go."
"There ain't nothing more creepy than a theatre in the dark." Tallulah shuddered. "Listen, Doctor, Terra, I know you got a thing for show tunes, but there's a time and place, huh?"
"Showtunes knows no such limits." I countered.
Laszlo fell back into one of the seats. He clutched his chest again before his arm tiredly sagged to his side.
Tallulah moved to help him. "Laszlo, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's just so hot." Laszlo panted.
Tallulah pressed her hand to his forehead. "But it's freezing in here. Doctor, what's happening to him?"
"Not now, Tallulah. Sorry." The Doctor dismissed. He stood up on one of the chairs.
"Terra? Can you help him?" Tallulah pleaded.
'Well I've got a water bottle full of the solution to cure him but it needs to be injected directly into the bloodstream. Just stabbing him with a syringe wouldn't very good now, would it?'
I told Sec to give me a challenge. When he didn't, I made one for myself.
"Ask me in ten minutes." I told her.
"What are you doing?" Martha asked the Doctor.
I climbed up beside him.
"If the Daleks are going to war, they'll want to find their number one enemies." He held up us sonic. He activated it. "I'm just telling them where we are."
He raised it higher. It whirred for a long moment.
The Doctor looked at me for a long moment. Though we didn't talk, the Doctor and I knew well and good what the other would say. In the end our argument was moot. He wouldn't stand alone against the Daleks, not now and not ever again.
Also, we were in agreement that Martha wasn't safe.
"Martha. You need to run." The Doctor told her.
Martha dropped her jaw. "I'm not going anywhere!"
"I'm telling you to go." The Doctor argued. "Frank can take you back to Hooverville."
"And I'm telling you I'm not going." Martha snapped. "Terra isn't going!"
"This is her fight as much as it's mine." The Doctor countered. "Martha, that's an order."
"Who are you, then? Some sort of Dalek?" Martha snapped.
"Hey!" I scolded.
The doors to the theatre were slammed open. They flew off their hinges, hitting the ground with loud thuds. Humans marched in. All of them were holding up Dalek style whisks as guns.
"Doctor! Oh, my God!" Tallulah gasped. The hybrids marched down the aisles to block us in. "Well, I guess that's them then, huh?"
"Humans, with Dalek DNA?" Martha asked.
The Doctor hopped down from the chair. He held Frank's arm, keeping the man from rushing at the hybrids in a fistfight. "It's alright, it's alright. Just stay calm. Don't antagonize them." The Doctor advised.
I climbed down too. My eyes scanned over the hybrids. All of them still had their greyish tinted skin from being so near death. Becoming hybrids had done little to change that. All of them kept their faces blank. "They have no reason to attack yet. We're all fine." I added.
Laszlo was still panting in his seat. "But what of the Dalek masters? Where are they?"
The stage floor exploded upwards. The humans all screamed, flinching away. The Time Lords ducked too, peeking over the seat to watch the Daleks make their grand entrance.
Daleks Jast and Thay entered the stage. Between them, led on a chain held by Dalek Jast, Sec crawled on his knees. Oof, that suit had seen better days. The Dalek hybrid looked so defeated, crawling on the ground like a showpony for his former underlings.
I narrowed my eyes on the Daleks. My hearts went out to Sec, the poor creature. He had only wanted the best for his new kind, only wanted our help in its purest form.
"The Doctor and Terra will stand before the Daleks." Dalek Jast commanded.
The Doctor stood up, the same time as I. Together we gave the Daleks our best looks on condemnation.
The prey was in the open.
The predators were ready to hunt.
The Doctor climbed the seats again. I went up. The hybrids kept their attention on us, waiting to take aim for the command on their masters.
"You will die, Time Lords. It is the beginning of a new age." Dalek Jast decreed.
"Planet Earth will become New Skaro." Dalek Thay agreed.
"Oh, and what a world." The Doctor scoffed. "With anything just the slightest bit different ground into the dirt."
"Look at him." I nodded to the Sec, still kneeling in defeat. "Remember that guy? Dalek Sec? Your leader. Your hope for a new start for Daleks. You've overthrown him, gone against your own nature for it. Was it worth it? All this work, for what return? Your new kingdom, built on traitors who wouldn't hesitate to cut down neighstayers."
The hybrids hid their reactions from the masters. If one cared to look, they would see rebellion sparking in their minds.
"My Daleks, just understand this." Sec cautioned. Even broken down by his people, he wanted to help. Solomon would've liked that, I would think. "If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you."
"Incorrect. We will always survive." Dalek Jast informed.
'He's not wrong.' I mumbled.
"Now we will destroy our greatest enemies, the Doctor and Terra." Dalek Thay promised.
"Incorrect. We always survive." I countered.
The Doctor gave a diressive grin at my side. Yes, oh yes, we always survive. Even when he doesn't want to, even when I don't want to, we live on.
"But they can help you." Sec told his former brethren.
"The Doctor and Terra must die." Dalek Jast commanded. He raised his whisk to me.
I glanced at Sec, telling him with my gaze not to interfere.
But he wasn't looking at me. "No, I beg you, don't." Sec pleaded.
"Exterminate!" Dalek Jast yelled.
"No!" I yelled, as Dalek Sec rose to take the shot.
He screamed out in pain. His body lit up in green. He fell to the ground, his corpse smoking.
"You killed him!" I shouted at them, enraged.
"Your own leader. The only creature who might have led you out of the darkness and you destroyed him." The Doctor ranted at them. He turned to the hybrids, who were now looking at the stage. "Do you see what they did? Huh? You see what a Dalek really is?"
They said nothing.
That spark of rebellion was burning just that little bit brighter.
"If Terra and I are going to die, let's give the new boys a shot." The Doctor offered with bite. "What do you think, eh? The Dalek humans. Their first blood. Go on, baptise them."
"Dalek humans, take aim." Dalek Jast ordered.
The hybrids raised their whisks at us. Behind, the humans huddled together for strength.
"What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?" I snapped.
"Give the command!" The Doctor demanded.
"Exterminate!" Dalek Jast cheered.
Nothing.
Just a great big heaping pile of nothing.
"Exterminate!" Dalek Thay repeated.
"Obey. Dalek humans will obey." Dalek Jast ordered when the hybrids continued to refuse.
"They're not firing. What have you done?" Martha asked us.
"You will obey. Exterminate." Dalek Jast ordered, glaring at the group leader.
"Why?" The hybrid asked in monotone.
"Daleks do not question orders." Dalek Thay snapped, confused.
"But why?" The hybrid repeated, with more feeling.
I grinned at them.
"You will stop this." Dalek Thay commanded.
Foreman "But what if we don't feel like it?" The hybrid questioned.
I couldn't help it- I laughed.
Dalek Thay couldn't help it. He was seething. "You must not question."
"But you are not our master." The hybrid looked my way. I grinned at him. "And we, we are not Daleks."
"No, you're not. And you never will be." The Doctor promised.
The Daleks turned to us. Always so suspicious of us, this lot.
"The lightning strike hit me first. They got a bit of me inside of them now." I admitted, pretending to be apologetic. "Bratty Americanized teenager mixed in with Dalek tendencies? The horrors I've unleashed on mankind."
"Time Lord DNA got all mixed up. Just that little bit of freedom." The Doctor winked arrogantly.
"If they will not obey, then they must die." Dalek Jast countered. He shot the hybrid speaker. He screamed as he fell.
"Get down!" The Doctor ordered the humans behind us.
They ducked.
"Begin fire!" I commanded the hybrids, ducking behind the chairs I was standing on.
They did.
The sounds of Dalek firing raged on overhead. The hybrids screamed when shot, falling to the ground. Shouts of the Daleks catchphrase were the only real thing one could hear over the shots.
Until I heard one explosion. A quick peek showed Dalek Thay had been blown apart by a hybrid. I beamed with pride.
"Extermin-" Cried out Dalek Jast just before a shot took him down too.
Justice.
For Sec.
I got to my feet. Walking to aisle, the hybrids kept their whisks raised up. "Good job, all of you. Good job. You got them. You got those Daleks!"
The Doctor walked to the hybrids on the other side. "It's alright, it's alright, it's alright. You did it. You're free." He encouraged them.
For just a single shining moment, they were.
"I'm sorry." I told the hybrid closest to me. "But you got to be free."
Before she could question what I meant, the screaming began. The hybrids clutched their heads, shrieking in pain. They fell to their knees as they were deactivated by Dalek Caan.
They died free from their chains.
"No! They can't! They can't! They can't! They can't!" The Doctor raged.
As the hybrids in the aisle met their ends, they fell on their sides. Unlike in the show- their death didn't end there. They crumbled apart like ash. Their bodies turned into grey statues, before immediately crumbling onto the ground.
It was very much horrific. More horrific than in the show because it didn't happen there.
This had been because of me.
Because I had given them some of me.
They were like this because of what I gave for them.
I held back a shudder about what that meant for me, should I ever die. Would I crumble like this too?
"What happened? What was that?" Martha asked, going to the Doctor.
"They killed them, rather than let them live. An entire species. Genocide." The Doctor seethed.
I began marching up the aisle, towards the doors.
"Where are you going?" Martha called out.
"They took down only two of them!" I ranted over my shoulder. Pausing on the threshold, I glared out on the piles of ash in my wake. "There's one Dalek left. And I plan to have words with him!"
"Oh, yes." The Doctor rose to his feet. His own expression was twisted in rage. "In the whole universe, just one."
And we both knew.
Nothing was more dangerous.
==ROTF==
The Dalek lab had seen better days. And this day was only going to be worse.
The Doctor and I stood at the end of the hall. Dalek Caan stood on the other side. He somehow looked more pathetic than the Dalek in the Museum. Because at least that Dalek decided to go out by taking everyone down with him. This Dalek was completely and unavoidably alone.
"Now what?" The Doctor asked him.
"You will be exterminated." Dalek Caan promised.
I groaned, my head falling back.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." The Doctor waved off. "Just think about it, Dalek what was your name?"
"Dalek Caan."
"Dalek Caan. Your entire species has been wiped out." The Doctor began walking closer to the Dalek. I kept in step with him. "And now the Cult of Skaro has been eradicated, leaving only you. Right now you're facing the only two people in the universe who might show you some compassion." The Doctor warned. "Because I've just seen one genocide. I won't cause another."
Not again.
Don't make him kill the Daleks again.
He couldn't take doing it again.
And if killing you didn't disrupt a major event, I would've done it by now.
"Caan, let me help you. What do you say?" The Doctor offered.
Dalek Caan had only one parting phrase. "Emergency temporal shift!"
The Dalek vanished in a blink.
"Caan!" I raged, because I could and I needed it. "Dammit! Dammit!"
The Doctor seethed as much as I. Only he kept it inside, clenching his teeth to hold in his rage.
"Doctor! Doctor!" Martha cried out. We turned back. Martha and Tallulah were carrying in a dying Laszlo. "He's sick."
They helped him to the ground, as he was collapsing.
"It's okay. You're alright." Martha assured him. I walked over, reaching for the syringe in my pocket. Martha turned to us. "It's his heart. It's racing like mad. I've never seen anything like it."
"What is it, Doctor?" Tallulah asked. "What's the matter with him? He says he can't breathe? What is it?"
"It's time, sweetheart." Laszlo warned her.
"What do you mean, time? What are you talking about?" Tallulah asked.
Found it! I pulled it out. The syringe was full of a clearish purple liquid. I sloshed it about, checking for air bubbles.
"None of the slaves survive for long. Most of them only live for a few weeks. I was lucky. I held on because I had you." Laszlo explained, wheezing. "But now, I'm dying, Tallulah."
"No, you're not. Not now, after all this." Tallulah promised him. She turned to us. She spotted the syringe, as most people would. "What is that?"
The Doctor looked too. He stared in confusion. "Good questions, Tallulah with three Ls and an H. Terra. What do you have?"
"I told Sec to give me a challenge. He failed in that regard, so I gave myself one." I cleared the syringe of air bubbles. Kneeling in front of Laszlo, I showed him the cure. "One pig slave stabilizer, ready for use."
"How long have you had that?" Martha asked.
"Well I couldn't exactly just stab him with it." I excused. "People complained."
"You clever thing." The Doctor praised.
I brushed it off. Taking up Laszlo's arm, I handed the syringe to Martha. "Doctor-in-training Jones, I suspect you know where this goes?"
She accepted the syringe. Eyeing the arm, she pulled up the sleeve to expose his skin.
"There's been too many deaths today." The Doctor stated as I got back to my feet. Tallulah hugged tighter to Laszlo. He watched inject the solution, hesitant to feel hope. "Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age old enemies." The Doctor turned to me, smiling. "Thank you, Terra."
"Anyone would have done it." I dismissed.
"Helped the Daleks build a new race? Offer help to their leader, even when everyone was against them?" The Doctor asked. "Not even I wanted to help."
"That's a lie." I scoffed. "Of course you wanted to help. You're the Doctor. I just said it first."
"Of course you did. You're Terra Johnson." The Doctor pulled me in for a side hug.
I complained. "What did I say about hugs?!"
The Doctor laughed, sounding full of new hope despite the awful day we'd had.
==ROTF==
It was morning now.
What a long fucking week.
It was only going to get longer. That didn't help any, but it kept me awake for just that extra bit.
We were all in Central Park. Laszlo had been fitted up with some proper New Yorker clothes, a long hat to try and hide away his more obvious pig features as well as a coat with a high collar. It had been hard to notice in the dark theatre and Dalek alb, but his skin had become a pale skin that was glowing as his health was coming back to him. Tallulah was at his side, refusing to leave it ever again.
The Doctor and I stood. Martha was nervously tapping her foot.
Before long, Frank walked up. Everyone sat up in attention for what he had to say.
"Well, I talked to them, and I told them what Solomon would've said, and I reckon I shamed one or two of them." Frank explained.
"What did they say?" The Doctor asked.
Frank grinned "They said yes." He answered. Laszlo sagged in relief. "They'll give you a home, Laszlo. I mean, er, don't imagine people ain't going to stare. I can't promise you'll be at peace but, in the end, that is what Hooverville is for. People who ain't got nowhere else."
"Thank you. I can't thank you enough." Laszlo replied. He hugged Tallulah tighter to him. She stared at him with naked affection and devotion.
The Doctor, Martha, and I smiled too.
==ROTF==
I stared up at the Statue of Liberty.
"Do you reckon it's going to work, those two?" Martha asked.
"I don't know. Anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York?" The Doctor hummed. He looked out at the skyline. "That's what this city's good at. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd pig slave Dalek mutant hybrid too."
I laughed.
"The pig and the showgirl." Martha joked.
"The pig and the showgirl." The Doctor cheered.
"I would watch that show." I mused. "It sounds good."
"It just proves it, I suppose. There's someone for everyone." Martha remarked. If she glanced towards the Doctor, no one made note of it.
The Doctor immediately went a hundred realities away. A woman with blonde hair, and deep brown eyes flashed in his mind's eyes. "Maybe."
He walked to the TARDIS. I got there first, unlocking the door for them.
"Meant to say, I'm sorry." Martha spoke.
The Doctor tilted his head at here. "What for?"
"Just because that Dalek got away." Martha explained. I looked down at my shoes, trying to push away the feelings of guilt.
There was no other choice.
He had to get away.
There wasn't a way to save them.
My guilt was as stubborn as I was. It mattered little that Caan came back.
Sec got justice
Jast and Thay are dead now
Sec's hybrids died free.
That was the best they could be given.
"I know what that means to you." Martha went on. "Think you'll ever see it again?"
The Doctor gave a thoughtful nod. "Oh, yes. One day." He looked at me. So I gave him a sad smile back.
'I'll have your back.' I promised him.
'You always have.' The Doctor replied. 'I think it's time I repaid that.'
My eyes widened. "You mean-?!"
"Yep!" The Doctor ran to the console. The door shut behind him. "We're going to take Martha back home, and then we're going to get your son."
"MY CHILD!" I cheered in joy. "MY SON! OH MY LONG LOST BABY BOY IS COMING HOME!"
Martha watched me, like I was drinking an original recipe Coke. Or maybe that look was because she realized what the Doctor had said. She was going home.
==ROTF==
He did not have a name.
He did not have an...anything before he was activated this morning.
Wait...hadn't he...wasn't there something...he hadn't-
The man sat upright.
"Whoa, nelly." An arm was on his chest, guiding him back down. He fought against it. A second arm reached on his back. "Relax! Relax! This is a safe space, I promise! Calm the fuck down!"
He panicked more. "Release me!" He could make out his captor. What he saw made him freeze in shock.
A human tree.
The tree pushed him back down onto the- was this a...bed? He had never felt a bed before. "There. You see? No pain. No torture. You've even got a heartbeat, my dude!" The voice was a human voice, as normal voices go. He could not tell if the voice was for a male or a female.
He gawked at the living, talking tree.
The tree blinked- it had eyes!- at him. "Okay. We're still in shock. You have just sorta kinda died so that checks out." The garments on the tree-person gave no clue to their gender either. Did trees even have a gender? He was hurting his brain trying to find answers.
The tree person reached for the monitor. It had been steadily beeping for awhile, he realized. The tree tapped on the screen.
"Vitals are good...better than they were a second ago, whatevs." The tree turned to him. "You're lucky, bud, that she touched that lightning rod. You'd be really dead if the Doctor had done it. Terra's a weird nut."
"Terra." He stated. He remembered that name. He had seen her. The Enemy. She must be stopped. She had...set them free. She had shown them the truth of Daleks. "The Fallen Star is...where?"
"Around. Here. There. Up there." The tree answered. "You remember her at all...that's good too."
"Where...am...I?" He asked, looking around the all white room.
The tree person smiled. He was more startled to see they had teeth. "A safe haven, even for Dalek-human-Traveler hybrids."
==ROTF==
AN: Y'all...I put effort into this. Happy 53rd,Doctor Who!
Don't worry...she's genuinely getting the Dog...what name should the Dog have?