Of all adventures his father ever told him, Theodore doesn't think he ever told about dealing with nontraditional, but still the case, zombified Daleks.
Daleks weren't his favourite and now, he's dealing with mechanical undead nightmares outfitted with AI from a science fiction movie!
If that isn't a science fiction movie, then clearly, nobody had the fortune of experiencing this, because they'd have some clever ideas, Theodore thinks.
Lila wasn't taking the whole experience well, either the hate for the Daleks strong with her as Theodore, now they get to deal with zombie AI Daleks.
Maybe when Lila survives this encounter, she'll give an idea to David's production company, surely, they'll need something for the holidays, and why not something on the scary side, for all the ghouls and goblins?
Okay, Lila's aware Halloween wasn't celebrated in the UK, as disturbingly as it sounded, but damn it, there's no way they'll fit it in a Christmas special!
If not a Halloween special, then maybe something that'll fit the sensibilities of the land.
October 13th, 2006.
Friday the 13th.
Look out Jason, zombie Daleks are coming and they have a chance of out-scaring you!
Okay, maybe if this was in space, he has a chance, but thankfully, he's not on the menu for this adventure.
Oh yeah, that'll be an adventure, two idiots who barely know what they're doing half the time, trying to avoid Jason on top of zombie Daleks.
… Oh god, someone probably already wrote about that and posted it on the internet.
Ever since David's show aired, lots of creative minds wrote some interesting stories of their own, some good, some meh, and some that made Lila question the sanity of the writers.
Running like the wind, the duo fled through the narrow hallway, the voice of Kershaw disappearing behind them, as they're trying to find a hiding spot.
Finding a door, Theodore forced their way inside, closing it behind him as Lila ran ahead, her heart beating against her chest. She came to a stop in the middle of the room, exhaling sharply, as her heart sounded like caffeinated bongos.
Behind her, Theodore joined her side, his wild hair dripping with sweat, with parts blackened, and his icy blue eyes widened.
"Please tell me it wasn't what I think it is," Lila looked up at him with her chestnut eyes mirroring him, only finding disappointment as Theodore unfortunately told her that yes, it is what she feared, and now that they know what happened, safe to say they can get out and explode the damn place.
Nodding, Lila murmured that she'll be happy to see the sun for once when they return home.
"Al, Al, come in, we figured it out. Can you rig some explosions in Sanctuary?" Theodore reached out to the TARDIS and Al responded that he could come up with something that'll rock the house.
It'll take time, if he rushes, he risks it going off too early, meaning no more of them.
"Fine, fine, just be ready to pick us up," Theodore tells Al before focusing on where he and Lila ran into, his icy blue eyes moved slowly throughout the room.
Frighteningly cold, but no breeze, carefully moving around, there's nothing, until Theodore sees medical equipment.
They haven't been turned on in a while, there's a thin layer of dust on the yellowed chassis of the machines.
There's an operating table pushed away towards the wall, with leather straps hanging loose over the sides, hasn't seen use in a while like the rest of what they saw in the room.
Searching around, they spotted sets of syringes left in the tray near the EKG machine, untouched, but saw some uses at a point, Theodore identifying the residue in the empty syringes as anesthesia.
Theodore concluded that this was the operation room where Kenna went after she was taken.
She couldn't fight back if she tried, drugged, tied down, unable to do anything, powerless after the anesthesia took.
He found evidence backing up his claim, there's a forgotten file left behind in another tray, describing Kenna's blood pressure, medical history, everything needed to prevent complications during the procedure.
Curiously, there's indexes in the file, suggesting that even if children were allowed in Sanctuary, she wouldn't been able to bear them, at least not healthy.
The file's thorough with everything from bloodwork to bone work, Kenna would've had troubles if she was allowed to have the child in Sanctuary.
Her bloodwork suggested that she's a candidate for having children with the infamous SID.
Poor Kenna, doomed from the start.
Turning his head, Theodore heard another voice in the room with them, and promptly grabbed Lila, keeping her behind him as he heard the voice in front of him.
"I don't know you," said the man, "are you another reporter?"
His icy blue eyes moving around, Theodore replied they're not reporters, just uninvited guests, and he wanted to know who's talking to them.
"I have you know, I am Rupert Malone, proud creator of Sanctuary!" the man identified himself as Rupert Malone.
Raising his brow, Theodore inquired what happened in Sanctuary and Rupert Malone stated that he has everything under control, he's certain of it.
Snorting, Lila pointed out, "Right, like you had anything under control to begin with, what the hell did you think was going to happen?"
Theodore lightly nudged her before asking what happened with the servants.
Rupert Malone responded that he took care of everything, the servants no longer acted out line, he assures Theodore of this.
Cautiously sticking his neck out, Theodore tried to see Rupert Malone, but he couldn't see anything until he spotted movement.
Coming towards them, it's a Dalek, and as it came towards them, they heard Rupert Malone coming from it.
"The servants are of exceptional quality, I promise you," Rupert Malone told them this as they're staring in horror.
The Daleks didn't have the standard robotic shrilling voices as one expected, they're talking like actual people, voices a little compressed, but it's expected for a Dalek chassis.
Lila clung to Theodore as she sees the Dalek acting like a person, seemingly baffled that there's people in Sanctuary that he didn't allow.
"Who are you?" the Dalek inquired in an affluent southern accent, the blue light coming from the eye stock as it looked over the two as they stayed away from it.
It's wise not telling something that hated his father since their inception, so Theodore simply told the Dalek his name.
"Oh, like Theodore Roosevelt, yes, my boy. Now, again, how did you get here, I don't recall inviting anyone else to Sanctuary," Rupert Malone asks how they arrived in the underwater city without him knowing, there's no way they could've come from submarines, he's sure that he kept them from running without his say.
Nobody would've overstepped his authority allowing anyone disallowed from coming to the underwater city.
It was a gamble, believe Lila, but it's a gamble that paid off because she got the idea of using her psychic paper as proof that they're allowed into the underwater city.
Grabbing it from her pocket, Lila held it up to the Dalek's eye stock, telling it that they were referenced and offered chances of living in Sanctuary, they took the submarine like everyone else.
The Dalek took it as gospel, believing that the two had been invited by someone it knew, and it apologized profusely for the mishap.
Can never be too sure, Rupert Malone always liked to say!
Seeing how jovial the Dalek was it began explaining everything that went on in Sanctuary, could've easily mistook it as a dream, but no, it's happening in real life, with Theodore and Lila lost for words.
On their minds, they know how the Dalek ended up that way.
When the AI rebooted itself, it was corrupted, and parsed together what didn't crash it, causing it to turn humans into Daleks.
Think the alien from the titular movie, trying to repurpose humans for its own uses, and change out the part where the Dalek comes out of the chests, and instead shoving people into the chassis.
When the Daleks barked orders, it was the AI trying to round up the humans for conversion, just like Cybermen do, making them a disgusting hybrid with the warped protocols the progenitor Dalek AI used.
"Where is everyone?" Theodore asks Rupert Malone as the Dalek moved around the room, its eye stock bobbing as it did.
Rupert Malone said everyone's here with him, he noticed that Theodore's not showing the reactions accustomed coming down from topside into Sanctuary.
He offered a grand tour of Sanctuary, but Theodore declined, instead asking why everyone's down here, and not up on the first floor.
"We're getting the Christmas party together, don't you know, it's very impressive, I'd thought you know about it," Rupert Malone sounded displeased that Theodore wasn't aware about their upcoming Christmas party that they're working together creating.
Large bundles of food, libations of expensive kinds, presents for everyone, it'll be a hit, Rupert Malone assures him.
Seeing how he's unable to comprehend that the Christmas party already happened, Theodore theorized that parts of their memories went when they were converted into hybrids.
They have no memories of what happened to them, except for Kershaw, because he was found later. Everyone else ended up taken right then and there.
"Theo, what do we do?" Lila attempted to reach out to him mentally and he answered as he held her close to him.
Chewing on his bottom lip, Theodore decided there's nothing more for them to do, they're gone, once they're in this form, death's a mercy.
"Al, how're we on the explosives?" Theodore reached out to him and he responded that he's done, just waiting on them, but if they can get the Daleks in a nice spot, that'll help make sure nothing slips through.
"Good, once we do, you come here right away, understood?" Theodore instructed Al before turning towards Lila with the plan on getting the Daleks in one spot.
Lila winced as she knew what this means and Theodore assures her that he has a plan.
With her safely behind him, Theodore then asks the Dalek in front of them, "Do you know who's your enemy?"
Rupert Malone sounded disappointed that Theodore asked him such a question, but Theodore added, "The enemy in which you were born to destroy?"
All Daleks since their incarnation were born with the desires of destroying the Doctor.
There's a change in the Dalek's tone as he started questioning what Theodore's saying, but eventually, it turned into the robotic voice that everyone knows and feared.
In a low voice, the Dalek responded, "The Doctor."
Putting on his pearly whites, Theodore leaned forward and told him, "Guess who I am?"
Night and day, the Dalek went from pleasant to blood thirsty, reacting wildly to Theodore outing himself as the Doctor.
The outburst alerted the other Daleks and soon echoes of the same robotic shrill everyone came to known and hate followed.
Without a word, Theodore fled with Lila in tow, as the Dalek began demanding the annihilation of the Doctor.
As Theodore said, you can be sure they're consistent in one thing.
Back in the hallway, they're fleeing, and they spotted the Dalek with Kershaw's voice, now belligerent, wanting them dead, Daleks coming out of the woodwork. All were the guests of Sanctuary, turned into Daleks.
It didn't take long finding a space for all of them, there's an area further down where Richard Simms produced the servants, a nice circle, and Theodore lured all the Daleks into the room, Lila tucked away safely.
Weapons raised, they were readied to open fire, but crafty Theodore snuck out of the area with Lila, trapping them inside.
Theodore gave word and Al played it close to the chest, appearing before them, and they ran inside as the door closed behind, the noises of the Daleks attempting to fire their way out of their prison.
Once safely away, Al detonated the bombs, and poof, no more Sanctuary, all the Daleks destroyed, and this time, nothing of them remained.
Al made sure of that.
The AI, everything, rubble for the ends of time, forever at the bottom of the seabed.
No one will ever find Sanctuary ever again and it will not become nothing more than a myth, a legend.
No doubt, someone will try again, but hopefully, nobody thinks of using a burnt chassis of a dead Dalek for their own use.
Still, one of the easier adventures Theodore had, still gave him a sour taste in his mouth.
The fact that the AI managed to replicate Daleks despite the damages. He didn't even need to know how they managed forcing people into becoming their experiments.
Forced them by their stocks, getting into the awaiting shells, closed them up, watched them covert.
Bloodless, easy, efficient, the way for the Dalek and the Cybermen.
If they'd pulled open those chassis, they'd see a sight worse than death, and perhaps it's a good thing they didn't.
That said, Theodore didn't need to think on anything more, he knew what happened to Sanctuary.
A man with dreams made something grand, but his penchant for stringent rules caused strife, forcing his heavy hand, and his desire catering to the whims of the elite ended up costing him dearly, when he opted the use of something he didn't understand.
The resilience in the AI, a man who didn't understand what he was looking at, proved fatal.
Frankenstein's monster, in the flesh, wrapped in metal.
Now, gone in the sea, never to be seen or heard from again.
THE END