The trip between the Empire State building and the theatre was taken at a run and Tallulah used her staff keys to get them inside without any unwanted attention.
The moment the doors were unlocked, the Doctor took off through the building and burst through the doors that led to the audience seating, dashing down one of the aisles while shrugging off his long coat.
"This should do it, here we go!" He shouted exuberantly, flinging his coat over the seats to his right, before moving left into the centre section and climbing onto the velvet-covered seats, letting his overeagerness mask the fear bubbling in his stomach.
The screwdriver was already in his hands and buzzing loudly, by the time the others caught up with him, and he could hear Tallulah complaining about the dark and spooky silence of the theatre at night, questioning their location, considering the imminent Dalek invasion and the Doctor had to remind himself, again, that there wasn't enough time to explain his plan to the humans around him.
Tongue pressed against his teeth, the Doctor aimed the sonic around the theatre, adjusting the setting to make sure that the signal was being broadcast in every direction. He had to make sure that the Daleks came for him before they launched their attack on the city, and not after.
"Doctor, what's happening to 'im?" He heard Tallulah ask, and smothered a sigh. The only 'Him' that could make Tallulah sound that tearful was Laszlo, which meant the pig-man's body was failing him faster than the Doctor had predicated.
'No time, Time Lord,' he thought to himself as the sonic began beeping at him.
"Not now, Tallulah. Sorry..." he told her firmly, distracted, but it only drew Martha's attention and her frown.
"What are you doing?" She asked him quietly, but the room was made to carry sound and the Doctor knew everyone had heard her question, and that everyone would hear his answer. That made explaining anything to his companion that much more difficult.
"If the Daleks are going to war, they'll want to find their number one enemy," he told her, keeping his voice purposefully light, despite the echoes of screams erupting inside his mind.
Finally finding the right frequency on the sonic, he aimed it above his head, hoping that the Daleks were smart enough, or stupid enough, to follow it.
"I'm just telling them where I am. In the meantime, you need to get out of here," he added, and he saw her jaw drop from the corner of his eye.
"I'm not leaving you!" She argued stubbornly, arms crossing over her chest and the Doctor couldn't stop a soft growl of frustration, his dark eyes turning on Martha as he stepped down off the theatre seat, the sonic still buzzing away in his hand.
"I'm telling you to go," he ordered firmly, "Frank can take you back to Hooverville—"
"And I'm telling you, I'm not going," Martha responded, eyes flashing furiously but they had no effect on the Doctor.
"Martha, this isn't a discussion, it's an order!" He almost shouted, watching her reel back and her own anger flare in response.
"What are you then? Some sort of Dalek?" she demanded, and her words felt like she'd managed to kick him in his respiratory bypass. It felt like the air had been sucked from the room.
"It couldn't kill Van Statten. It couldn't kill me. It's changing.
What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?"
How did facing the Daleks always turn him into this? He wondered.
He'd thought he was better than the soldier that the Time War had turned him into, but the first time he met them again without Rose there to balance his darkness, he'd reverted once more.
He felt sick.
The Daleks didn't leave him much time to contemplate the thought. A loud crash was their only warning, before the human Daleks marched through the doors at the back of the room, filing down each main aisle and flanking them on both sides.
It was too late for Martha to leave now, or any of the others, even if he could convince them.
Tallulah was gasping, meaningless words filling the air as she fought admirably not to panic, Laszlo had risen to his feet so that he could stand between the shaking blonde and the emotionless facing surrounding them, and Frank and Marth both backed up to the centre, as far from any of the human Daleks as they could get.
Quickly, before it could be considered a weapon, the Doctor stored the sonic screwdriver inside his jacket and watched the human-Daleks stalk, single file into the room, boxing them in.
"Humans with Dalek DNA," Martha breathed, her voice torn between amazement and horror. Frank made a sharp move to run, but the Doctor grabbed the shoulder of his coat quickly, bringing the teenager to a sudden halt.
Their panic driven response to fight or run had been part of the reason he'd wanted them to leave.
"It's alright, it's alright," the Doctor told them all quickly, "just stay calm and don't antagonise them," he instructed, hoping that for once the humans would listen to him.
He stared around the room, with eyes wide, and dared to hope that his plan had worked because, if not, then the Time Lords were about to become well and truly extinct.
"But what of the Dalek masters?" Laszlo asked, his voice agitated as he cradled Tallulah to him protectively, "Where are they?"
The Doctor found he didn't need to answer Laszlo because almost as though they'd timed it for dramatic effect, the moment the pigman finished speaking the theatre stage exploded.
Wood and metal were sprayed across the room, and all five of them ducked, taking cover between the rows of seats to avoid the shrapnel of the Dalek's arrival.
One of the girls screamed, and the Doctor had to push Frank down when the teenager had frozen in fear at the resounding explosion, but the Doctor knew he couldn't stay hidden, and as the room settled he slowly raised his head above the edge of the velvet seats.
Eyes narrowing to peer through the smoke, his hearts began to beat faster as adrenaline flooded his system, and his hand tightened around the top of the seat in front of him when he finally spotted Dalek Sec.
Chained, between the two pure Daleks, and forced to crawl like an animal, it made the Doctor's blood boil. His burning fury rose higher and he reluctantly forced himself to tighten the mental chains around the oncoming storm. The memory of Rose and Martha's accusatory questions still whispering in his mind.
He shot glances at the human-Daleks, but when they made no move to advance, the Doctor rose slowly to his feet once more. Frank, Laszlo, Tallulah and Martha all copied him, more cautious in their movements but trusting his lead.
The Doctor couldn't spare them any attempts at reassurance, and he waited to see what the Dalek's next move would be, his frame tensing as his mind raced in a thousand directions as he attempted to account for all possible paths.
"The Doctor will stand before the Dalek's!" One of them shouted its order, and the Time Lord braced himself with a deep breath, feeling more than ever like he was walking towards his own execution, but he placed on Converse covered foot on the back of the seat in front of him and pulled himself up onto it.
He walked across the backs of the seats easily, the extra height allowing him to stare directly into the blue eyestalks, instead of staring up at them towering above him, and after climbing forward four rows he came to a stop.
Spine straight and arms at his side, for once in his life he remained silent. The wrong word at the wrong moment now could mean the end of everything. He had to be careful, balance the Dalek's need to kill with their ego and pride, if he and the human under his care had any chance of getting out of the theatre alive.
"You will die, Doctor. It is the beginning of a new age," the Dalek on the right informed him before the one on the left picked up the declaration.
"Planet Earth will become New Skaro!" Left Dalek shouted and the Doctor felt his chin raise as he stared them down definitely.
"Oh, and what a world," he said slowly, voice firm and strong and dripping in sarcasm that the Daleks would not detect. All of it an act. A mask to hide the utter fear and hate roiling in his mind.
"With anything just that slightest bit different, ground into the dirt," he growled, before pointing at the breathless, chained new being crouched on his hands and knees between the pure Daleks.
"That's Dalek Sec," he reminded them, "don't you remember?" He knew they did. Their memory banks weren't the problem, but these new human-Daleks hadn't known that, and he had to remind himself over and over that his words weren't for the pure Daleks gazing back at him on stage.
"He's the cleverest Dalek ever, and look what you've done to him. Is that your new empire, hmm? Is that the foundation for a whole new civilization?"
Nothing about the Daleks were civilized, he screamed in his mind, but he was carefully selecting which words to speak aloud. Like a florist picking and choosing only the best blooms for a bouquet.
He briefly spared a momentary thought on wishing he could let Sec know of his plans, but regardless, when the Hybrid spoke the Doctor couldn't have crafted a better speech if he'd tried.
"My Daleks, just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you—"
"Incorrect. We will always survive," the Dalek on the right stated firmly.
"Now we will destroy our greatest enemy; The Doctor!" Left Dalek shouted, and the Time Lord felt his shoulders tense and ground his teeth together.
All the years of the Time War, and all the deaths he'd cause and stopped. Was he really going to end up murdered? In a theatre? In 1930? By a stinking Dalek?
"But he can help you!" Sec cried, trying desperately to convince them again, but the denizens of Skaro had deemed him the Oncoming Storm for a reason, and their hatred of him was ingrained far too deeply for a pure Dalek to accept his help.
"The Doctor must die!" Left Dalek declared.
"No, I beg you... Don't!" Sec pleaded, but the Doctor fixed his unwavering gaze on the Dalek to his right, watching the gun twist towards him, and the familiar battle cry ring in his ears.
"Exterminate!"
He sucked in a sharp, involuntary breath as his whole frame braced for the agony that was about to encapsulate his world, and his only hope now was that they wouldn't fire again before he had a chance to either regenerate or convince the human-Daleks to stop blindly following orders.
His jaw fell open in shocked horror, however, when Sec all but threw himself in front of the Dalek ray, screaming in agony as he dropped to the ground dead.
The Doctor shook his head, disgust crawling over his skin.
He had to turn this around, and quickly. They'd already tried to shoot him once, and he mentally apologised to Sec for the way he was about to use his sacrifice, but with any luck, that sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.
"Your own leader," he said slowly, letting his distaste leech into his words as he stared at them a moment, feeling a stab of pain at the loss of life. And this time, it was a fresh, new life.
"The only creature who might have led you out of the darkness, and you destroyed him," he said slowly, not needing to feign the disbelief in his voice.
That Sec had given his life for the Doctor to survive was the final piece of proof that the humanity had scorched out the Dalek in him, but the Time Lord couldn't spare the time to mourn the might-have-beens, as potential timelines shattered inside his head.
It did, however, give him a sliver of confidence that his own plan might just pan out.
"Do you see what they did? Huh?" He continued, turning to stare around the room at the human-Dalek hybrids, and they weren't staring at Martha, Frank, Laszlo or Tallulah now. They weren't even watching him. All eyes were on the Daleks.
"You see what a Dalek really is?" He prompted.
The Doctor turned back to the pure Daleks on the stage and tilted his chin up once more in defiance of them. That was all the time he could waste. All the time he could eke out for the DNA in the new hybrids to mutate. He'd set the trap, and now it was time to bait it with the only bait a Dalek might take.
"If I'm gonna die, let's give the new boys a shot. Whaddya think, eh?" He goaded.
At least if this didn't work, he allowed himself a moment to contemplate, he wouldn't be killed by a pure Dalek, but something new and different and that was all he could hope for.
"The Dalek humans, their first blood." He could tell from the way the Daleks had remained silent that they were considering the request, and he spread his arms wide, once more making himself a target and inviting death to him.
"Go on," he snarled, letting his anger and rage keep his muscles locked, and the tremors of fear away, "baptise them!"
"Dalek humans, take aim," the Dalek on the right ordered, and the Doctor fought to keep his breathing steady as his hearts began speeding up at the sound of every weapon in the room being prepared to fire, but the Daleks took too long and he could feel the fear fighting back against his rage, urging him to run.
"What are you waiting for?" He demanded, "Give the command!"
The Dalek's didn't hesitate again, and the Doctor sucked in a deep breath. He braced for the death he was half convinced was about to reign down upon him and summoned memories of Rose into his mind, her presence both a shield and a balm.
"Exterminate!"
"I love you," she'd said, and despite her tears, the words were strong, fervent, and utterly undeniable.
"Exterminate!"
"I want that suit back in one piece," she'd told him, her tone playful but her eyes said that he'd better be in one piece inside of that very same suit.
"Obey! Dalek humans will obey!" Came the cry, but the Doctor still didn't dare move. The new hybrids were clearly thinking, but what decision they would come to was still undetermined.
"If I believe in one thing... I believe in her," he'd said...
That still held true. If his fate hung in the balance, then he would tip that balance in his favour with memories of her.
"They're not firing..." he heard Martha whisper, confused amazement in her voice, and the Doctor had the hysterical urge to laugh and cry when she blurted out her shocked realisation, "what have you done?"
He couldn't answer her yet. The outcome was still being decided, so he just waited with Rose guarding his mind, even as he offered up his body in sacrifice.
"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you," she'd sworn.
Less than thirty minutes later she'd been forced to break that vow, or so he'd thought, but there she was. Inside his mind. Still with him, still protecting him, still helping him, and he realised that his remarkable pink and yellow human had been right all along.
"You will obey! Exterminate!"
"Why?" One of the new hybrids asked, and the Doctor let his head turn slowly to stare at the one who'd spoken.
"Daleks do not question!" Came its shouted response, and slowly the Doctor let the memories settle back into their correct position in his mind as hope sparked, and he watched the confusion building in the eyes of this bright new creature, bristling with potential.
"But why?" He asked, and the Doctor fought the urge to giggle at such a childlike question. He wanted to marvel in this new life form, standing so close to him, but the Dalek's were so very good at destroying anything good.
"You will stop this!"
"But... why?" The hybrid asked again, and this time his gaze turned to the Doctor, and the Time Lord wanted desperately to answer him, to teach him, to show him so many things, but these marvelous new life forms had to make this choice themselves. They had to choose between mercy and murder without his guidance.
They were less than an hour old, and already they'd witnessed betrayal, death and destruction, but with his own actions they'd also seen sacrifice and so he waited. He held the man's eyes with a firm and patient gaze, his arms now hanging loosely at his sides and the memories of Rose held close, in case he needed them once more.
"You. Must. Not. Question!" The Dalek ordered, and if it hadn't eradicated any emotion beyond hate, the Doctor would have said there was a thread of frustration in its mechanical voice.
"But you are not our master," the man said, turning back to the Dalek, and the Doctor fought back a grin. They'd communicated silently, and this one spoke for them all.
"And we..." he hesitated a moment, and the Doctor held his breath, "We are not Daleks."
"No, you're not," the Doctor agreed softly, joy and a tendril of triumph gathering in his voice as the man turned back to him, "and you never will be," he told him, his voice gentle before he drew a steadying breath and turned back to the only threat in the room. The two Daleks on the stage.
"Sorry," he told them, lying through his teeth. He wasn't sorry in the slightest, and it was worth every second of pain from the headache still throbbing behind his eyes.
"I got in the way of the lightning strike," he almost sang, fighting a manic grin. They weren't safe yet, after all. Two Daleks were still more than enough to kill him.
"Time Lord DNA got all mixed up," he added, unable to resist taunting his oldest enemies as they stayed silent on the stage, as though struggling to understand how their master plan had gone so very, very, wrong.
"Just that little bit of freedom," he finished with a wink.
"If they will not obey, then they must die!" Stated the Dalek on the right, and it sent out two shots from its weapon at the one who had been questioning it, without even its customary battle cry.
"Get down!" The Doctor shouted over the screams, diving to the floor and hoping that the humans had been fast enough. Time Lord DNA or Dalek, both species would fight if threatened, and the hybrids had the same ray gun as the pure Daleks.
As chaos erupted above his head, the two pure Daleks began shouting over and over, but they were sorely outnumbered, and it was a matter of moment before both the pure Dalek's exploded and the weapon fire stopped.
"It's alright, it's alright," the Doctor said softly, as he bounced back to his feet, looking around the room at the dead hybrids and the ones still alive. He could feel his smile slowly emerging from behind the storm that was receding back into the depths of his mind.
"It's alright, you did it. You're free," he told them, eyes growing tender as he stared out at the closest thing in the universe to his own people.
His mind was already surging forward. The Dalek in Van Statten's basement and Dalek Sec had both continued to mutate after the initial introduction of an alternative DNA strand, and he couldn't help but wonder at what these new creatures might become.
Did they have two hearts or one? Their bodies were originally human, so did they retain the human's senses, or were they more like a Gallifreyan, or less like a Dalek? They could clearly communicate amongst themselves, but was that the Dalek hive mind, or a manifestation of the Time Lord telepathy?
He gazed at them in wonder and amazement, and a dash of joy, and he watched them watch him. Curiosity and intelligence were growing in their eyes by the moment, and slowly the weapons in their hands lowered as they began to realise that he wasn't going to attack or hurt them.
One more time though, the Doctor felt his hearts constrict as he watched the men and women around him suddenly clutch at their heads and start screaming.
Pain filled his own mind as he realised what was happening a moment too late to draw the sonic and try to stop it.
"No! They can't! They can't! They can't!" He cried out, and he didn't think a shot from the Dalek's weapons could have hurt him more, or cut him deeper, as the timelines shattered within his head. Billions of potential futures fracturing and disappearing into the ether of his mind, as he dashed forward and collapsed beside one of the new beings, staring down at its dead body in horror.
"What happened? What was that?" Martha asked, her voice betraying her own horror at the death now surrounding her.
"They killed them," the Doctor gasped out an answer for her, eyes staring blankly as he struggled to come to terms with the sudden loss. The world spun around him dizzily as time reorganized itself to account for the loss of an entire species.
It was a sensation he'd hoped never to experience again. A brand new race full of thousands of years of potential wiped from existence.
Overcome with hope, joy, wonder and amazement at these beautiful new creatures, he'd forgotten the pure and unadulterated ruthlessness of the Daleks. Forgotten that there was still one unaccounted for. Forgotten, and that mistake had been a costly one.
"Rather than let them live, they just destroyed them. An entire species. Genocide," he explained, voice growing darker as he spoke, grief colouring his mind and darkening his countenance.
"Only two of the Dalek masters have been destroyed," Laszlo realised quietly, "one of the Dalek masters must still be alive."
The Doctor's mind latched onto that and sharpened to a laser-like focus. Turning from grief to the last remaining Dalek, he found the storm in his mind rising once more. Darker, and more furious than it had been since he'd worn leather and boots, with a shaved head and large ears.
"Oh yes," he growled, rising to his feet slowly, "in the whole universe."
He moved to pick up his coat from where he'd thrown it, and slid it over his suit, suddenly feeling the need of its reassuring weight and warmth, and he stalked out of the theatre.
"Just one."