Author Note:

A quick thank you to everyone who has left me a review so far! I try my best to reply to everyone, but since this site doesn't actually tell me who I've replied to, I find it very easy to lose track. If I've not replied to your review, please know I've still read it, and am very grateful to you for taking the time to read this story and comment on it. (And if you'd like a guaranteed response, this is also cross posted on A03)

Much love to you all, and on with the tale!

Between Hooverville and the Dalek's base, the Doctor's fury at the pointless loss of life had once again overtaken his curiosity for this new hybrid life form.

As he was led into the laboratory, his eyes landing once more on Dalek Sec he couldn't seem to stop the angry words pouring from his lips.

"Those people were defenceless!" He shouted, stalking forward as the hybrid turned to face him.

"You only wanted me! But no, that wasn't enough for you! You had to start killing!" He spat, leaning his weight onto the balls of his feet, hands clenched into fists as he trembled with rage, "'Cause that's the only thing a Dalek's good for!"

"The deaths... were wrong."

In an instant, with four, small, single-syllable words, the Doctor's world turned on its axis. He stared at Dalek Sec, his eyebrows raising in pure shock as he took several deep breaths, recovering from his tirade as he struggled to make sense of what was happening.

"I'm sorry?" He demanded, confusion filling his voice as he tried and failed to make the words fit with all previously known facts. A Dalek believing deaths, any deaths, were wrong? There was no precedent for that.

"That man, their leader. Solomon. He showed courage," Dalek Sec explained, but it made the whole scenario about as clear as mud for the Doctor.

"And that's... good?" He couldn't help but ask, still shocked that the hybrid seemed to be just a little less... Dalek... than before.

"That's excellent!"

The Doctor frowned, and he could feel himself starting to stare so he let his mouth run instead, hands sliding into his pockets.

"Is it just me, or are you becoming just a little bit more... human?" He only half asked, voice soft, scared to shatter the illusion. He didn't need an answer; it was clear to him that Sec was still evolving.

The human race. One of the most cross-compatible species in the galaxy. The most adaptive too. Human DNA was spreading through Sec and changing him, even now when he should have stabilised.

"You are the last of your kind, and I am the first of mine," Sec replied, skirting the Doctor's analysis carefully, and the Doctor narrowed his eyes at Sec.

"What do you want me for?" He asked instead. If it wasn't to kill him, then the creature before him had something else in mind.

"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," Sec explained, moving over to the lab equipment and the Doctor's felt his lips tighten in fury once again as he crossed his arms, glaring around the room.

"Yeah, I found one of your experiments," he growled, "just left to die out there, in the dark."

He knew his moods were becoming mercurial, and he also knew that he needed to do some serious maintenance on his telepathic barriers, but now wasn't the time.

"It forced us to conclude what is the greatest resource of this planet; Its people," Sec continued as though he hadn't heard the condemnation in the Doctor's voice.

Sec turned and flipped a power switch before looking up and the Doctor lifted his eyes, following Sec's gaze. The dark space above them lit up slowly, revealing tray after tray, and rack after rack, of what the Doctor hoped were not the bodies they looked like.

Sec flipped another switch, and one of the racks lowered, letting the Doctor approach it slowly with the Dalek hybrid moving to stand opposite him, the fabric cocoon suspended between them.

"We stole them. We stole human beings for our purpose. Look inside," Sec invited, gesturing to the cocooned body.

The Doctor glared at Sec for a moment, before he pulled away the fabric wrapping with gentle respect, surprised that his hands were no longer shaking, to reveal a man.

The body showed no signs of decomposition and it held no scent of death, but the Doctor swallowed back bile at its unnatural stillness.

"This is the true extent of the Final Experiment," Sec continued.

"Is he dead?" the Doctor asked. All the evidence pointed to no, but he could detect no signs of life either.

"Near death," Sec explained, "with his mind wiped, ready to be filled with new ideas."

"Dalek ideas," the Doctor muttered, disgust welling up in him all over again.

"The human-Dalek race," Sec corrected, his own voice almost gentle, and the Doctor shook his head feeling ill.

"All these people. How many?" He demanded softly, staring up at the racks above them once more. How many would he have to fight if the Daleks succeeded here? How much fresh blood was staining his hands because he'd failed to stop them at Canary Wharf?

"We have caverns beyond this storing more than a thousand."

The Doctor's gaze lowered from the space above them to stare at Sec, horrified.

"Is there any way to restore them? Make them human again?" He asked, but although he suspected the answer, seeing Sec shake his head in denial still felt like it winded him.

"Everything that they were has been lost."

"So they're like shells," the Doctor exclaimed. "Like your previous casing. You've got empty human beings ready to be converted."

He paused before raising his eyebrow, halfway between incredulous and taunting, "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?" he asked, wondering just how much information they were going to give him before he became a liability.

"Open the conductor plan," Sec ordered the Daleks, moving back across the room and away from the human shell.

Any more of a liability, the Doctor mentally corrected himself, hoping against hope that Martha had figured out what to do with the psychic paper as he followed Sec to examine the plans that the Daleks had just brought up onto a large screen.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Empire State Building, we're right underneath it. I worked that out already, thanks. But, what? You've hijacked the whole building?" He asked, glancing between the plans and Sec, still missing crucial information.

"We needed an energy conductor," Sec said, and the Doctor sighed. He might be a Human-Dalek hybrid, but getting information out of him was still like pulling teeth.

"What for?"

"I am the genetic template. 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 it's sleep," Sec explained and the Doctor found he had to swallow hard at the thought of over a thousand bodies waking up with the minds of Daleks.

"Gamma radiation? What are you— Oh..." he breathed, the pieces suddenly beginning to fall into place. "The sun. You're using the sun."

He ran through dates and times and universal alignments in his head as he spoke, "And I'd say the planet's due for a solar flare pretty soon, am I right?"

"The greatest solar flare for a thousand years will hit the Earth," Sec confirmed, "Gamma radiation will be drawn to the energy conductor, and when it strikes—"

"The army wakes," the Doctor finished, voice dark. "I still don't know what you need me for?" He added, jaw tight.

"Your genius."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, not entirely sure whether he should be flattered or deeply concerned with Dalek Sec's praise.

"Consider a pure Dalek," Sec continued, "Intelligent but emotionless."

"Removing the emotion makes you stronger," the Doctor quoted, frowning darkly and remembering how many times he'd heard that. From Daleks, from Davros, even from the Cybermen. "That's what your creator thought, all those years ago," the Doctor reminded him, the irony not failing to bring a hysterical giggle to the back of his throat, but the Doctor forced it back down.

"He was wrong."

At those three words, the Doctor stilled and he was certain that his hearts stopped beating for a moment before they started again, thundering in his ears and making him sure he'd misheard.

Maybe he'd finally gone insane.

"He was what?" the Doctor rasped, honestly unable to believe that the words he thought he'd heard had come out of the mouth of anything even distantly related to a Dalek.

"It makes us lesser than our enemies. We must return to the flesh and, also, the heart," Sec declared and the Doctor could only blink at him nonplussed as the rest of the lab fell away.

"But... you wouldn't be the supreme beings' anymore..."

The words came from him, but he didn't quite understand why he was arguing with Sec. The voice in his mind told him that he had to be sure this wasn't a trick or a ploy to have him aid them in their invasion of Earth, but pressing the issue could have Sec changing his mind.

"And that is good," Sec said, and the Doctor almost choked on his tongue.

"That is incorrect," came the mechanical voice from one of the Daleks still encased inside their shells.

"Daleks are supreme!" Said the other, and the Doctor felt himself tense. Sec might be mutating with human DNA inside him, but the other three weren't

"No, not anymore," Sec argued, turning on the other Daleks and the Doctor held his breath, knowing that the new creature was walking a thin line between being in control and being deposed.

"But that is our purpose," the third Dalek declared, and Sec finally got angry. Another emotion and the Doctor watched, fascinated and terrified.

"Then our purpose is wrong!" Sec all but shouted, his singular eye wide as he attempted to get the Daleks to submit once more to his commands. "Where has our quest for supremacy led us? To this. Hiding in the sewers on a primitive world. Just the four of us left! If we do not change now, then we deserve extinction," he announced and the Doctor wondered how much of his anger fuelled taunting had stuck, and just how much had been Sec's own analysis of the situation.

"So, just to be clear," the Doctor asked softly as the other three Daleks backed down reluctantly, "you want to change everything that makes a Dalek a Dalek?"

He was still amazed but was beginning to dare to believe, and Sec turned back to him slowly.

"If you can help me," Sec confirmed, and for a long moment, the Doctor was stunned into silence. Truly speechless, but then he nodded and Sec released a relieved sounding sigh before he led the Doctor back over to the human shell.

"Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours," Sec admitted easily. "The new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts."

"But you're the template," the Doctor reminded him, "I thought they were getting a dose of you?"

"I want to change the gene sequence," Sec admitted and the Doctor wondered if he was going to be alive long enough to get used to the non-stop surprises that Sec kept springing on him.

"To make them even more human?" he confirmed, and Sec nodded.

"Humans are the great survivors. We need that ability."

More human wasn't needed, the Doctor knew that just from speaking with Sec. He could explain that he realised quickly. He could pretend to add more and keep Sec as the template. He was human enough to see the senselessness of killing, but that change had been slow.

More human in the sequence would speed up the morality that Sec had been displaying, and the more human there was then the closer the Doctor came to making the Daleks, true Daleks, extinct.

Even with Sec and himself though, the pure Daleks still outnumbered them and he shook his head, grimacing.

"Hold on a minute. There's no way this lot are gonna let you do it," he said, voice soft, and although he knew the Daleks would still hear, Sec seemed unconcerned.

"I am their leader," he told the Doctor, as though that eliminated the problem.

"Oh, and that's enough for you, is it?" The Doctor asked, eyes narrowing at the three Daleks that stood guard over him.

"Daleks must follow orders," said one.

"Dalek Sec commands, we obey," said another, and while something about their swift agreement unsettled the Doctor, he could find no reason to doubt their words. Sec's orders had stopped them shooting him, after all.

"If you don't help me, nothing will change," Sec said quietly, and the Doctor turned to face him, still turning the idea over in his mind.

"There's no room on Earth for another race of people," he warned, wondering what Sec's solution for that would be, but again the new hybrid surprised him.

"You have your Tardis. Take us across the stars. Find us a new home, and allow the new Daleks to start again."

There was a part of the Doctor scoffing, demanding that he ask why Dalek Sec thought he'd let them anywhere near his Tardis. There was an even smaller part screaming in a fury, wanting to know why the Daleks should be allowed to start again when his own people burnt and died, screaming.

The part of his heart that hated war, hated guns and conflict and fighting. That part wanted to help them. Hoped that the other three pure Daleks wouldn't turn on their new hybrid leader, and the Doctor sighed, trying to silence his mind.

"When's that solar flare?"

"Eleven minutes," Sec answered, and the Doctor stared at him in surprise once more.

Eleven minutes to create a new race, Sec really did think he was a genius. Luckily, the hybrid wasn't wrong.

"Right then. Better get to work," he announced, and he saw something in Sec's frame relax at the Time Lord's willingness to help, right before he dove into the Daleks' various mixtures and serums.

Rose had been dragged out of her tent by Jack's shouts about getting a phone call from Owen and Gwen.

"Apparently, they saw someone watching them," Jack explained as he led the way into the woods, the rest of the team on his heels, "and when they tried to find out who it was, they found a body instead."

A few shouts and another phone call later they found Gwen and Owen near a pile of bloody bones that had once been a person, and Rose handed Owen his medical kit silently, while Tosh and Ianto began to cordon off the area with bright yellow police tape.

Considering how little there was left of the body, it didn't take Owen long to examine the remains once he had his equipment bag and a set of gloves.

He glanced up and caught Rose's eyes, and she nodded, silently encouraging him as he sighed.

"Well, it's not Ellie Johnson, that's for sure," he told them, and Rose stepped close as she listened to his analysis.

"This is a male. Late forties, fifties. Wasn't killed here, no blood splatter or signs of a struggle. Must have been brought here after he died."

"Why do that? It's not like they've tried to bury him here," Gwen asked, and Rose tipped her head as she considered the body.

"Maybe you disturbed them, and they ran away?" Tosh suggested, and Rose shook her head.

"Possible, but unlikely. Whatever did this wouldn't have any need to run," she mused softly and crouched beside the bones.

"Maybe it's a warning," Ianto offered. "Whoever's responsible, marking out their territory."

Rose pressed her lips together in thought and shrugged, "That's more likely," she conceded, "but I'd have expected more bodies to be found if this were a territorial display."

Jack knelt beside her, his own brow furrowed in thought as they studied what they had and tried to find a reasoning behind it that made sense.

"Cause of death?" Jack asked, and Owen shrugged.

"It's impossible to say. The body's been stripped of flesh and bodily organs, so what is left amounts to nothing more than a carcass."

"Could the Weevils come out this far?" Tosh asked, and Jack shook his head.

"No, Weevils don't finish off their victims like this."

"And besides there'd be teeth marks on the bones from the initial bites," Rose added, before pointing. "There's no sign of that, the bones are smooth," she explained and Owen nodded his agreement, before freezing.

Every head whipped around at the rumbling that echoed through the woods. All of them heard it, but it took Rose a moment to place the sound of a car engine starting and her eyes widened as she stood and spun to stare at Jack, praying that he'd tell her she was wrong.

"Is that ours?" Gwen asked, and Jack cursed softly as he started running, Rose and the rest of the team following swiftly.

By the time they reached the small valley they'd set up in, whoever was in the vehicle had managed to destroy everything. From the tables and boxes to the tents they'd spent several hours setting up.

Jack let loose a shout of frustration as they ran across the grass towards the car, and Rose slid to a stop as the SUV sped up and pulled away from the campsite.

Her gun was in her hand a moment later and she sent off a couple of rounds aimed at the tires, but missed each time, lowering her weapon with a curse but not wasting any more bullets.

"Who had the key last?" She called back at the others, and there was a moment of silence before Owen cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry," he offered, and Tosh let loose a humourless laugh.

"Alright, let's see what we can salvage before it gets dark," Jack called and everyone moved to the wrecked tents while Tosh quietly laid into Owen.

It didn't take long for the man's limited patience to run out and his raised voice drew Rose's attention to their bickering.

"All right, I've said I'm sorry!" He growled, and Tosh spun on him as Rose narrowed her eyes. The woman had been spoiling for an argument ever since she found out that Owen and Gwen had shared a kiss.

While Rose couldn't say she approved of the woman, who had a partner waiting for her at home, kissing Owen, ultimately it was none of her business.

"Basic security protocols, Owen," Tosh hissed at him, gesturing wildly and Rose sat back on her heels from where she'd been crouched on the grass to search through a pile of broken items.

"Oh, get off your high horse, Tosh! I was carrying that stupid gear," Owen tried again, and Rose could see the guilt shifting quickly into defensiveness and climbed to her feet, brushing the dirt from her jeans as she made her way over to the pair.

"What? The whole time?"

"And then I was trying to put that bloody tent up, and then, well, yeah. I sort of forgot I'd left them in there, but I'm sorry. I'm human. I ballsed up!" Owen growled as Rose reached them.

"That's enough. It was a mistake, and there's nothing we can do about it right now," she told them, before shaking her head as Tosh opened her mouth to continue berating the doctor.

"Let it go, Tosh," Rose told her, a hand on the woman's arm before Tosh turned with a huff and moved away to try and salvage more of her damaged equipment.

Rose turned back to Owen and crossed her arms to fend off the cold wind, but his eyes were on the ground, and she could spot avoidance a mile off.

"Look, Owen, don't beat yourself up over it. It could have happened to any of us," Rose said, but he glared, kicking at a bent tent pole that had been sunk into the damp soil.

"But it didn't," he muttered quietly, and Rose blinked before offering him a small reassuring smile.

"I once let an alien blackmail me into giving them access to the Torchwood weapons store," she told him, her voice equally quiet and he glanced up at her surprised, but she just shrugged.

"I'm only human, as you said. We all make mistakes, Owen. All you can do is learn from them," she offered before moving away and leaving him to stew.

As she turned she caught Jack watching them, and offered him a small smile that he returned, before he raised his voice, calling out across the decimated campground so that everyone could hear him.

"Looks like the body wasn't so much a warning, as a distraction," he called, and Rose nodded as she moved to stand between him and Gwen.

"Looks like. And that's particularly worrying," she replied as Gwen jumped in.

"That means we've been watched since we arrived," the woman said, and Rose nodded.

"Yes. It also means that whatever we're dealing with is smart, and humanoid in form. It's been watching us and analysing. It planned and executed a very effective distraction to get us away from camp, and it managed to drive our car away so it's familiar with Earth technology," Rose summed up, shaking her head before letting her eyes meet Jack's.

"I don't like any of this, Jack. We can't rule out that there's more than one," she told him and he nodded his agreement, her concern mirrored back at her in his bright blue eyes.

"Tosh, can you get a tracking signal?" He asked, but it was Ianto who answered him.

"Already done. I took the liberty. It's currently three-point-four miles west from here," he told them, and Owen grunted a soft sound of complaint.

"Probably gunning it at ninety, no doubt. You steal a piece of equipment like that, you drive straight 'till morning," he muttered and Rose frowned, brushing her windblown hair out of her face.

"You think it's running?" She asked, but before Owen could answer Ianto cut in quickly.

"Actually, no. It's been stationary for the past four minutes. I'd go so far as to say it was parked."

Gwen brought their salvaged map over and studied it for a moment as everyone waited before she sighed.

"There's a small village in that area, other than that nothing, for thirty miles."

"Call me suspicious, but this has all the hallmarks of a trap," Tosh said and Jack smiled at her.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," he admitted, and Rose shook her head.

"Everything about this stinks, Jack," she warned and he nodded.

"Yeah... Anyone fancy a walk?"

None of them liked the plan, but with no tents, no transport, and night approaching, they also didn't have much in the way of choices.

Three miles later, they finally came within sight of the village and stopped briefly to catch their breath and study the surrounding landscape.

"Why would anyone wanna live out here?" Owen asked quietly, staring at the rows of terraced houses and shaking his head.

"Has the car moved?" Jack asked Ianto and they both peered at the small screen as the Welshman answered.

"No, not for an hour now," he confirmed, checking his watch to be sure and Rose bit her lip before making a quick check of her weapon.

"Well, we're not going to find anything standing around here," she said, and checked the overcast sky above them, "and it'll be getting dark soon. If nothing else, maybe we can find somewhere defensible to hole up for the night. The last thing we wanna be is out in the open."

Without knowing how long they'd been watched for, and with their vehicle being used as bait, they quickly decided that there was no point trying to sneak into the village, and they moved together across the final stretch of ground until they hit the outskirts of the village.

It was like a ghost town, and Rose shivered. Not a curtain twitcher, or kid skipping school, but what Rose found most disturbing was the distinct lack of birdsong. It was like everything natural knew there was some evil there that it needed to avoid, and she fought the urge to turn and run the other way, focussing on watching Jack as he frowned and quickly put together their next move.

"Tosh, Ianto, follow that signal. See if you can find the car," he decided after a moment, and the two moved to leave before Jack had even finished turning on the rest of them. "You three, you're with me. Let's see if there's any room at the inn."

Rose eyed the building for a moment before nodding, "At the very least there should be plenty of furniture we can use to barricade the doors, and food for the night," she agreed, and moved to follow him inside, checking her gun again as she went, with Gwen and Owen close behind her.