A/N: Very cheered by the support for the warped thoughts of a xenophobic maniacal pepper-pot with a major attitude problem.
The Invader Androgynous: Very cheered that you like!
Uh.yeah: Ever since I saw the re-designed Daleks and got the info on the Time War, the Last Dalek has been zooming round my head, squawking to say something. Just pleased that people think it's realistic!
Morph: Intense? Cool!
Glinda: What can I say? I love the bad guys!
Evil-Demandred: Someone else who cried during 'Dalek'! The little Dalek trying to reach towards the sun…awwww!
Big fan: Have continued!
VMorticia: Am rabid Doctor Who fan, used to sit up every Wednesday with my mum and watch Sylvester McCoy save the universe. I order you to watch the original series, and then the true nastiness of the Daleks really makes sense.
Disclaimer: See part one.
Warnings: See part one for spoilers, plus random malicious violence and various deaths. Cheerful stuff.
Alone: Part Two
The Doctor.
The President Elect of the High Council of Time Lords.
Keeper of the Legacy of Rassilon.
Defender of the Laws of Time.
Protector of Gallifrey. (1)
The Ka-Faraq Gatri…
Of all the Time Lords who could have conceivably survived the last great Time War, it could only have been the Doctor.
Despite all of the mighty efforts of the Dalek race, he has eluded us for over a millennium in every one of his regenerations. His insistent meddling in the affairs of the Daleks has caused our history to be rewritten more than once, with only our superior record-keeping informing us of his interference.
The deliberate delay in our glorious evolution for a thousand years; the trial and betrayal of our leader and saviour Davros; and the destruction of our ancestral home Skaro…
He has caused all of this.
He meddles with a race that does not take kindly to interference.
I awake once again, my mind still dulled with pain from the torture inflicted on me by the Doctor.
Simmons glares at me with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. He enjoys making me suffer.
He has always prided himself in his methods of torture.
But now…
The drill-bit enters my head-piece with a new intent. Van Statten ordered him to make me speak again.
Whatever it takes.
But I have a new strength.
I have my incentive.
The Doctor.
My order – one of the primary orders of the Dalek race – is to exterminate the Doctor on sight.
He has eluded me once.
He will not do so again.
A sudden commotion. Voices outside the Cage door. The guards are surprised, curious about something…
A male voice speaks; higher-pitched than the voices of the Doctor or Van Statten.
'Level Three access. Special clearance from Mr. Van Statten.'
Through the increasing pain, my own curiosity is roused. I do not recognise this voice.
A young human male, dark-haired and wide-eyed, enters the Cage, quickly followed by a female of approximately the same age. She moves forward slightly, eliciting the notice of the male.
'Don't get too close.'
A perceptive human. A rarity.
Or perhaps just cautious.
Logical.
The female attracts my attention more than the intruding male. I can make out her features even with my fading eyesight.
She would be attractive by the standards of humans. Blonde hair, with dark-rimmed brown eyes and a strong face. She approaches me with no hint of fear or hate.
Her concern, her curiosity, her empathy…they are all evident in her eyes as she bends towards me and stares into my eye-stalk.
'Hello.'
There is still no fear.
Intriguing.
'Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler.'
I am too tired to speak.
'I've got a friend, he can help, he's called the Doctor. What's your name?'
…The Doctor.
She would know the Doctor…
Wait…
She knows the Doctor…
I must think laterally. I must not let excitement or exhaustion blind my logic.
It is conceivable that she is a resident of this time period. Certainly her mannerisms and speech are similar to those I have seen in other humans in this time.
But if she is a companion of the Doctor, it is logical to surmise that she is a human removed from her birth period in time, as most of the Doctor's companions have been.
If she is a time traveller, then…
After his rise to the Imperial seat, the Emperor had initiated radical redesigns of the travel units, which took place during the Time War in the period before my fall through time and space. The new units have the ability to extrapolate the biomass of a time traveller in order to regenerate, should the primary DNA regeneration system become damaged or destroyed.
My chance for freedom now stands before me.
'...Yes.'
The human, Rose, keeps staring at me as I raise my eye-stalk to examine her properly. Her male escort stays back, most predictably out of fear.
She does not retreat.
'What?'
'…I am…in pain.'
She watches, her concern growing more evident in her eyes.
'…They…torture me, but still…they fear me.'
A pause.
'…Do you…fear me?'
She shakes her head. 'No.'
I scan her face to be certain.
She does not lie.
I am surprised at her honesty. No human I have ever encountered has been this…clear.
The pain is growing worse now. My mind is becoming darker, confused…more open.
'…I am…dying.'
She shakes her head again, worry and determination spreading across her features.
'No, we can help.'
Her concern for me…it is strangely comforting.
'…I…welcome death.'
I stare into her eyes once more.
'But…I am glad…that…before I die…I have met a …human…who was not afraid.'
She shakes her head yet again. 'Isn't there anything I can do?'
An offer of help.
Just as the Doctor had offered to help me.
But while his offer disappeared with the first beams of light within the Cage, hers is an honest offer.
She truly wants to help me.
Her compassion, while it is an unnecessary emotion in the Daleks, is commendable.
The Daleks…
My brethren…
I think of them once again.
How they had met their extermination at the hands of the Doctor.
Does she know that my race, and the race of Time Lords, are both destroyed?
Has the Doctor not gloated to her of how he wiped out the magnificent Dalek race in the Time War, now the holocaust of both my people and his own?
'…My race is dead. I shall die…alone.'
And that is what I intend to do.
I will not harm this one. She is unlike the others.
I prepare to succumb to the darkness as she moves out of my vision…
The male starts towards me, his voice suddenly frightened. 'Rose, no!'
Contact.
A hand on the surface of my headpiece.
Contact!
Contact with a time traveller!
SYSTEM RESTORE!
Long dead systems flash and spark.
My regeneration system powers up, heating the outer surface of my travel unit, burning her hand…
She gasps in pain and withdraws.
Too late for her.
Power suddenly surges through me.
'Genetic material extrapolated! Initiate cellular reconstruction!'
My regeneration system is resurrected.
Absorbing her biomass, absorbing her DNA…
I reverse my travel unit. The chains restraining me break apart as though they were made of clay.
Simmons enters with his ever-present drill, an expression of anger marring his face. 'What the hell have you done?!'
I turn with ease as he stops before me, revelling in the return of my powers, and raise my manipulator stalk to him.
He smirks at me, smugness radiating from his every pore.
'Whatcha gonna do? Sucker me to death…?'
My anger breaks. I raise my manipulator stalk to his face with a speed he clearly did not anticipate. I create a vacuum within the manipulator and watch with satisfaction as his features contort…
His struggles amuse me as his skull audibly cracks and contracts into the vacuum.
An agonising death.
He deserved far worse for what he did to me.
I notice, as Simmons slumps to the floor, the younger male sprinting out of the Cage, Rose barely a step behind him, crying out in fear.
'It's killing him! Do something!'
I do not know why I suddenly feel anger towards her.
…she said she did not fear you, but now she does. She lied to you…
The door of the Cage slams behind them, leaving me trapped inside.
Or so the humans think.
A lock with a billion combinations.
I am not concerned.
After the hundred years war of attrition against the Thals, Davros excelled himself in his manipulation of the mutated remains of the Kaled race. The acceleration of the rate of mutation resulted in the further physical deformation of our race, but it also resulted in the development of significantly advanced higher brain functions, capable of calculating a thousand billion numerical combinations in one second.
I raise my manipulator stalk to the combination lock of the Cage.
Barely ten seconds pass before the heavy steel door swings open.
I am greeted with the sight of numerous security guards, their primitive human hand-guns aimed at my travel unit. The sound of weapons-fire, the subsequent sound of the bullets rebounding harmlessly off of my battered travel unit - it brings me more pleasure than I had felt at the death of Simmons.
A monitor sits on a desk to my left, displaying the welcome image of the Doctor, Van Statten and his female assistant staring at the scene in horror.
Excellent.
Now they begin to comprehend what I am.
The lead guard turns to one of his numerous subordinates. 'DeMaggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job. Do you understand?'
DeMaggio ceases her futile struggle with her weapon immediately and nods at the two younger humans. 'You, with me.'
Rose and her male companion sprint out of the anteroom behind their protector. She glances at me one final time before she leaves.
…she fears what you have been reborn as. She cannot or does not want to comprehend what you are…
Why do I need her to understand what I am? Why would I need reassurance from a human?
I dismiss the thought.
Reassurance is weak.
Reassurance is human.
I am a Dalek.
I move towards the monitor, a feeling akin to contentment radiating through me as I lunge my manipulator stalk through the plasma screen, shattering the image of the Doctor and the two gawping humans. I connect with the raw power supply; the 'modem' simultaneously connecting my travel unit to the internet.
Power and information surge through me…
In the shattered remains of the monitor, I see the golden colour of the travel unit being restored, the colour of the new Imperial Daleks, the colour of my loyalty to Davros and the Emperor. (2)
As the last guard retreats in terror, electricity crackles around my travel unit as I scream in ecstasy.
I am reborn.
I am renewed.
I turn and watch as the humans continue to fire at my travel unit.
They cannot harm what I have become.
They cannot harm thousands of years of genetic mutation and evolution.
I am the last of the Daleks.
But now I will succeed where my brethren have failed.
I will exterminate the Doctor, and then the entire human race he so desperately champions. And then I shall begin the Dalek race anew, with the memories and strength of my people as my guide.
The cry builds in my vocal unit.
'The Daleks survive in me!'
Both a threat, and a prophecy.
I turn and raise my weapon-stalk in a glorious rage. I fire at the remains of the computer, a number of pressurized air containers and at a light-fitting on the ceiling.
All of the cameras in the Cage are now destroyed.
Humans can feel fear far better than the Daleks.
I hope they feel it now.
The chase is on.
My travel unit glides along the floor with ease. I marvel silently at the power that Rose Tyler and the humans unwittingly gave to me as I gain speed on the last guard.
As the fleeing human turns into a corridor filled with armed guards, I give him enough time to scream out an incomprehensible order, and then exterminate him, the blast displacing his internal organs with ease.
The guards commence their puny attack, bullets dissolving into null-space as they hit my newly regenerated shield.
The thrill of combat flows through me as I aim my weapon-stalk and fire. Blasts echo down the concrete passageways, intermingled with human death screams. My torso revolves and fires on those too cowardly to face me head-on.
Barely thirty seconds of combat, and the last human stops firing. Black-clad bodies litter the passageway, expressions of agony still twisting some of their faces even in death.
Pathetic.
I consult the downloaded blueprints of the base, and follow the path that the three humans took, leading through a veritable maze of corridors and stairwells and eventually emerging in the heat of the Utah desert 53 floors above.
I will follow the humans, and exterminate all those who get in my way.
First this base, and then Earth.
Footsteps.
I pick up more speed as I follow the sound.
Rose's voice…
'Stairs…that's more like it! It hasn't got legs, it's stuck!'
DeMaggio's voice…
'It's coming! Get up!'
More footsteps mingled with panting echo through the stairwell as I emerge onto the landing.
Stairs.
I stare at them, follow their path as the human male speaks, his voice sneering at me from his 'safe' height on the third landing.
'Great big alien death machine, defeated by a flight of stairs.'
Rose chooses to stay silent, mostly conceivably out of fear.
DeMaggio steps forward and raises her weapon.
'Now listen to me. I demand that you return to your Cage. If you want to negotiate then I can guarantee that Mr. Van Statten will be willing to talk.'
Negotiate.
How pathetically human.
'I accept that we imprisoned you, and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that?'
Her bravery is admirable.
'I demand that you surrender, is that clear?'
But deeply misplaced.
A Dalek does not surrender.
The trans-solar discs on the base of my travel unit activate with a thought.
'Elevate.'
I feel immense satisfaction at their expressions as I hover effortlessly over the steps that would otherwise have proved an embarrassing obstacle.
'My God.' Rose stares at me with increasing horror.
DeMaggio keeps her weapon raised. 'Adam, get her out of here.'
Rose dashes down the steps to the guard. 'Come with us. You can't stop it.'
She does not move. 'Someone's gotta try. Now get out!'
She pushes Adam and Rose up the stairs. 'Don't look back, just run.'
I keep watching DeMaggio as she makes her gloriously futile last stand, the bullets from her weapon ricocheting harmlessly off the surface of my travel unit.
One shot, and she falls with a scream.
The Weapons Testing Area.
The largest room in the Vault, and presumably where the rest of the staff in Van Statten's employment will make their next attempt to defeat me.
Rose and Adam are a fair distance ahead of me, but not so far that I do not see them enter the area, and register the familiar sounds of weapons preparation.
A motley collection of humans greets me as I enter the room, technicians, scientists, lawyers and guards all armed and aiming their weapons at me.
Behind them, in the secondary corridor, Rose and Adam stand, watching in fear.
The lens in my eyestalk contracts as it zooms in on Rose's face.
Through the protective mesh underneath my headpiece, my own organic eye narrows, almost squinting as I stare at her.
She is afraid, terrified of what I can do, what I am…but sad.
Sad at my actions.
Her thoughts.
I can feel her thoughts.
But why?
Why is she so bothered about what I am doing?
Why do I know what she is feeling?
I dismiss the thought as I move forward, into the firing range of the humans' weapons.
The lead guard aims his gun at me. 'On my mark…'
I gaze upwards towards the ceiling.
Emergency fire extinguishers.
An idea forms…
'Open fire!'
Weapons fire explodes around me, the sound almost deafening.
I remote-activate the security cameras in the back of the testing area.
The Doctor, Van Statten and Goddard will no doubt be watching and waiting to see what I am doing.
Let them watch.
Let them see what their arrogance has caused.
I hope they suffer.
I elevate my travel unit once again, floating above the now terrified humans, revelling in their expressions of disbelief.
A single blast towards the back of the room and the small yellow plastic unit bearing the legend 'Fire Alarm' explodes with a flash of light.
Water gushes from the overhead fire extinguishers, drenching the humans and all of the surfaces in the room.
Excellent.
A small adjustment, and I aim my weapon-stalk at the water-covered floor.
Electricity surges through the bodies of the humans as they continue desperately to fire at me.
A most agonising death.
We Daleks are skilled in the discipline of pain.
The lead guard screams at the remainder of his troops to fall back, but another blast cuts him off. Electricity surges through the rest of the humans, even more deadly than before.
I scan the room.
No survivors.
I lower my travel unit to the ground and activate the cameras once more, connecting me to Van Statten's plush office.
'I shall speak only to the Doctor.'
The Time Lord's sharp features are marked with horror as he stares at me.
'You're gonna get rusty.'
Humour.
Irrelevant.
I feel a surge of gloating pride as I take in his expression.
'I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me.'
His expression subtly shifts of one of anger.
'What's your next trick?'
Uncertainty builds.
'I have been searching for the Daleks.'
He moves around a desk towards the camera. 'Yeah, I saw – downloading the internet. What did you find?'
I will not submit to uncertainty.
'I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes.'
'And?'
I am ashamed to admit it to my greatest enemy.
'Nothing.'
Panic rises. I am unable to stop it…
'Where shall I get my orders now?!'
The Doctor's expression hardens.
'You're just a soldier without commands.'
I will not be subjected to his taunts.
'Then I shall follow the Primary Order – the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer!'
He grows angry once more. 'What for?! What's the point?!'
The point?
The point, Doctor?
The point…
I am unable to answer.
'Don't you see it's all gone?! Everything you were, everything you stood for.'
Uncertainty.
'Then what should I do?'
An unpleasant leer crosses the Doctor's bony face.
'Alright then. You want orders? Follow this one.'
He pauses for a second.
'Kill yourself.'
Anger. What kind of order is this?!
'The Daleks must survive!'
His expression tightens and darkens as he moves towards the camera. 'The Daleks have failed. Why don't you finish the job, and make the Daleks extinct, rid the universe of your filth?!'
Saliva flies from his mouth.
'Why don't you just DIE?!'
Silence.
His hate is invigorating. Racial hate, the hate of a superior race…
I cannot resist…
'You would make a good Dalek.'
And I mean it.
I hover above the drenched floor and soar out of the Weapons Testing Area.
The humans' secondary attack has now failed.
Perhaps they will now use their last safety measure and seal the Vault. The blueprints indicated that the complex was originally designed to be a fallout shelter in the event of nuclear war.
The electricity I absorbed from the mainframe has drained the electrical power of the Vault, the state of Utah, and the entire West Coast of America; the entire base is running on emergency power. If they activate the emergency bulkheads, I will be most effectively trapped underground.
I will not let that happen.
I give chase once more, hovering up dozens of stairwells, listening to the sound of Rose Tyler's voice as she speaks to someone, presumably the Doctor.
They are slowing down. Humans do not have constantly recharging power sources, unlike the Daleks.
My speed remains constant as the two humans leave the stairwell at Level 46 and sprint down a corridor towards the bulkheads.
The emergency sirens wail and through down the corridors as the bulkhead door rolls down from the ceiling.
The sound of footsteps increases.
I increase my speed.
A heavy metallic clang echoes on the concrete.
The Vault is sealed.
I hear a voice a short distance ahead of me.
'Sorry, I was a bit slow.'
Rose.
She did not escape the closure of the bulkheads.
I see her standing at the bulkhead door, her face flushed, tears building in her eyes as she clutches onto a small mobile communication unit.
She turns away from me and speaks into the device.
'See you then, Doctor.'
A pause.
'It wasn't your fault. Remember that, OK? It wasn't your fault.'
So…the Doctor was the one who closed the bulkheads.
His actions have sentenced this young woman to an agonising death.
'And do you know what? I-I wouldn't have missed it for the world.'
She turns to face me as I approach her.
Brave enough to look on her own killer.
Commendable.
I raise my weapon-stalk and fire.
'EX-TER-MI-NATE!'
TBC
(1) The various official titles of the Doctor all come from Remembrance of the Daleks, 1988 – the first time the Daleks properly climbed up a flight of stairs and nearly killed the Seventh Doctor. Great serial.
(2) Since Davros is missing/presumed dead after the events of Remembrance, I'm going with the theory that the highest ranking Imperial Dalek left or cloned after Skaro's destruction became the Emperor, and decided to go for an update on the original gold and white colour scheme to reflect the Daleks' new loyalty.
Feel free to nitpick this theory to pieces.