Digging around Rupert Malone's office further, Theodore and Lila learnt he was aware of the growing disposition against him when word broke of what happened to Kenna.
People began questioning his control over Sanctuary, growing restless at the stringent rules that he placed on them, with what happened to Kenna being the one that broke the camel's back.
If not for him genuinely concerned about the servants hurting people, Theodore and Lila would've believed that he was responsible for what happened to everyone else during the Christmas party.
It took enough adventures for them to see how scared he was, not letting them on the second floor, not letting them in his office, showing regrets for approving them in the first place, the delicate mind of a flawed man trying his damndest.
What became of him, they don't know, but doubt he's alive at this point, if he'd gone down to the Ward.
Nothing else for them to search, the two planned on leaving the office, and finding their way into the Wards.
It wouldn't be an adventure with Daleks if they didn't go looking for them, would it?
"Of all things, they used Daleks for servitude, what idiot came up with that idea?" Lila grimaced as she looked towards Theodore with concern in her chestnut eyes.
Daleks weren't their favorites and for good reason. Whenever they encountered them, all bets are off trying to survive.
Here, someone willingly used them as servants until they lost control and the Daleks rebelled against Richard Simms and everyone in Sanctuary.
The fact someone got their hands on Daleks, without dying horribly in the process, used whatever to control them, and the fact the plan worked at all, it's the stupidest thing Lila heard!
"Nobody could've controlled them, even my father couldn't, and he rewired their chassis more than once!" Theodore sucked air through his teeth as he stated that it's improbable that a human could've controlled Daleks.
His own father couldn't, even with his Sonic Screwdriver!
While Daleks weren't known for diplomacy, they made up for with their inhuman treatment of others, stealing and pillaging, using stolen technology for their own uses.
Upgrading their chassis, protecting them against their abundance of enemies, they've got countermeasures against tampering, believe him, his late father did everything he could against them, but even that wasn't always enough.
Like Cybermen, their second hated enemy, they upgrade with their stolen technology, due to the numerous encounters with the Doctor that they're always ready whenever he's afoot, they're wise to his antics by this point.
That's why it's usually better just destroying them with whatever's available, they can't be dealt with as easily as they were when they first started out.
This is just destroying them, capturing's a different story, the fact someone captured them alive, that wasn't alien, or had backing from UNIT, it's insane thinking about it, and Theodore's saying it!
"What do you think?" Lila asks Theodore's opinions on dealing with the Daleks this time around and he suggested that they'd check for survivors, see if Kershaw's what he is, and if he is, get him and the rest out of Sanctuary.
Implode it into the seabed, let the weight of the water destroy the nasty buggers like empty cans.
Nodding, Lila joined his side as they're ready to look for an access into the Ward when, as they should've known by now that nothing's as easy it looked, they started hearing a low groaning noise coming from somewhere.
It didn't sound like a person or a Dalek, hard to describe, but it sounded close, that much Theodore deduced.
Looking around, Lila wondered where it's coming from, and damn if she jinxed herself, as she got her answer, with floor slowly bowing underneath their feet.
Unable to keep their footing, they're forced backwards, Theodore immediately reaching out and grabbing Lila with his long arm, yanking her to his side, as he instinctively protected her while they fell from the hole that opened underneath them, plunging them and everything in the office into the darkness below.
Lila closed her eyes as she pressed her face into Theodore's chest, her body tensed as it numbed. Didn't even want to open her eyes as they fell god only knows how far into the hole, until she audibly groaned, both coming to a stop, on top of the rotted flooring.
Forcing herself, Lila opened her eyes, pulling away from Theodore's chest as she turned her head, the only light coming from the large hole above them.
Opening his eyes, Theodore blinked a couple of times as he ran his hand through his wild hair, feeling debris coming out, as he glimpsed around.
They're alive, good.
Looking down at their legs, they've still got them, and Theodore helped them up as they carefully avoided the debris laying on the ground.
The desk shattered into splinters, the glass bottle and cup nothing but brittle glass, with the whisky underneath. The papers in the desk resting on the ground, some still in the air as they slowly fell down, underneath the rotted floor, broken barnacle shards.
The ceiling must've incurred one too many barnacles and the weight limit reached within days, with Theodore and Lila breaking it as they gone inside the office.
Carefully moving around the rubble, Theodore helped Lila as they found the flat solid ground away from the pile of shattered rubble.
Exhaling sharply, Lila held her chest as she blinked several times, before her chestnut eyes darted towards Theodore with worry.
"You, okay?" Lila immediately asks him as he patted off the debris from his stitched coat.
Flicking off the bit of flooring off his shoulder, Theodore assured her that he's fine, before immediately asking if she's okay.
Looking down to her legs that stopped quivering, Lila didn't see any injuries, and as she looked up, she noticed a small line of blood going down the corner of Theodore's forehead.
She reached into her front jean pocket and brought out a piece of napkin that she kept, never know when she needed it.
On her toes, she reached up with the napkin, gently pressing it against the blood.
Feeling the soft napkin against his head, Theodore thanked Lila with a kiss on the forehead, before taking over, gently taking the napkin from her.
Pushing it down on the small cut on his head, Theodore patiently waited as he felt the cut slowly closing on its own, before he pulled away the bloodied napkin.
Closing it up and tossing it in the crunched rubbish bin near a pile of rotted wood, Theodore rubbed his hands as he studied their new surroundings.
The light they barely had wasn't enough to illuminate the area and Theodore used his Sonic Screwdriver as a lantern, showing that they've landed in a stopgap between the lift in the office and the Ward.
Well, that's one way of finding a way into the Ward, Theodore supposes.
"I heard of bringing the house down, but this is ridiculous," Lila coughed as she walked with Theodore, holding onto his arm, while they searched their surroundings.
There's the lift tube leading down into a different area, they must've fallen into the maintenance area for this section, given there's points in the silver tube for tools opening the access point into the shaft, and an entrance point in a way of a trapdoor in the wall adjacent to them.
Daleks weren't involved in the upkeep of the lift, the trapdoor's too small for their chassis, it might've been Richard Simms or even Rupert Malone taking care of the elevator.
No way Rupert Malone attempted to keep personal repairmen for the elevator, it'd clash with his vision.
Though, that's suspect, currently.
Having an idea, Theodore went over to the door into the lift shaft. He gently used his index and thumb fingers twisting on the screws, giving easily.
He did this and the door opened without having to do much or use his Sonic Screwdriver in his other hand, using it instead seeing what's down the shaft.
Looking up, he doesn't see the lift, so it went and stayed down at the bottom, which he proceeded to look down, but didn't see it, too dark.
So far, it wasn't obstructed, there's ladders jutting out the sides, they're sturdy enough, and haven't rusted.
Of course, Rupert Malone wouldn't risk his neck trying to save money, or make it difficult for him or whoever fixing the lift.
"Looks like we're going down," Theodore tells Lila as he carefully went around the raised edges around the interior of the shaft, carefully moving as part of his shoes hung over the edge.
Reaching the ladder, Theodore gripped it, and stuck the Sonic Screwdriver sideways in his mouth with the light pulsating still as he gripped the bars. He slowly climbed down as Lila joined him, carefully watching her steps as they climbed down into the darkness.
"Al, Al, come in, Al," Theodore reached out to Al as they're climbing down and he heard the TARDIS asking what happened, he heard a loud crash somewhere, and shocked as Theodore told him what happened.
Al commented, "Thank god you're all right, kid, your dad would've had me by the neck if you got hurt!"
He isn't happy when Theodore told him about the Daleks working as servants in Sanctuary, but he mentioned that in his scans, he didn't pick them up, not even a residue.
It's the first he heard of Daleks in Sanctuary and they're usually popping up like red beans on his scanners.
"I don't know what Richard Simms did to them, but Al, is it possible for you to see where they could've come from in this universe?" Theodore asks if Al's able to track the source of the Daleks, where they could've come from, see how Richard Simms might've gotten his hands on them in the first place.
Al agreed and disappeared briefly, when he returned into Theodore's mind, he said that he noticed residues of a Dalek escape pod landing somewhere on Earth.
It was destroyed when it entered the stratosphere, hardly anything survived, except a toasted chassis, at least what Al got out of the scanning.
"However, it landed in the Atlantic Ocean, nobody could've found it at this period, they'd think it's a comet," Al pointed out that it landed in the ocean, too far out for anyone to find, too deep for anyone to search for, nobody should've found the burnt chassis.
"Except for Richard Simms, can you tell me where he was during the descent?" Theodore continued trying to find the answer to his question while trying not to lose his step or his Sonic Screwdriver in his mouth.
Al searched and came across documents that showed Richard Simms out in the Atlantic, he was on recon for something, couldn't find anything more, but Al hedged that he was working on finding a place to construct Sanctuary.
"So, by my best guess, he saw the chassis landing in the ocean, got his gear, followed it down there before it got too deep. Salvaged it, went from there," Al gave his suggestion on how it went down and it made Theodore wonder, causing him to ask another question.
"Al, is it possible that the AI in the chassis survived the descent and reconnected after Richard Simms started experimenting?" Theodore inquired and it took time before Al returned to tell him that he heard of Dalek chassis ghosting long after their creators perished, their AI corrupting for whatever reason, and unaware of what happened.
Of course, with it being stolen technology, it's bound giving Daleks' problems, and they're forced to abandon the technology, going for something else, as they often did once they ran into too many problems, they couldn't solve by blasting away.
Though, nothing about the AI surviving the descent from the stratosphere and saltwater, but Al says he can't be certain, since Theodore's father dealt with them so much, it's a blur what he did or didn't do to them.
"And before you even ask, I can't even begin finding it, I don't think it survived, per se, I think he might've salvaged what worked, and it's like a zombie," Al quickly gave an answer to a question that Theodore didn't have a chance answering, telling him that he can't be certain that the AI survived completely.
It did and didn't.
Corrupted's probably a better word.
It survived the descent to an extent, but the intense heat, the submerge in saltwater, whatever Richard Simms found, wasn't fully working.
Al had a colourful way of describing it.
Think trying to shove the motherboard from an old Atari 2600 into something like an Xbox. Maybe it'll work to an extent, but no amount of soldering's going to fuse both motherboards together and have them work in union.
It just won't work like that; it'd be trying to get water from an atom.
"I'd be impressed if he understood what he was looking at," Al summed what he thinks of their bizarre situation.