"Midnight? The vacation planet? Or, well, even 2005 would amaze him, we can continue that adventure! Oooh can we show him something so wildly cool that he can barely wrap his mind around it?" I was bouncing around the Doctor, and he looked increasingly amused at it. He tapped me hard on the nose and I stopped, covering my nose, "Ow."
"Calm down. You're scaring poor Charlie boy," He gestured to the admittedly frightened looking Charles.
"Sorry," I apologized awkwardly. Charles Dickens nodded hesitantly, eyes still taking in the appearance of the TARDIS.
I shuffled quietly, silence echoing out. I could hear my own heart beat, the three sets of breathing, the Doctor breathing about half as much as Charles and I. I observed the bloody floor that we all almost slipped on on the way in, and the small trail of bloody footprints.
"I should probably clean up the mess I made," I admitted, observing it. The Doctor paused and observed the blood splatter as if seeing it for the first time.
"There's some on the outside too… Sorry Charlie boy, you don't mind waiting while my companion and I clean up a bit, do you?"
"No, no, not at all…" Charles said faintly, still observing the TARDIS.
The Doctor leads me to a room across from the med room, which was absolutely covered in my blood, and I grimaced. Ooh, damn, I can see why he healed me, now. I wouldn't have survived without a blood transfusion, would I have? I was forced out of my thoughts as cleaning supplies were shoved into my hands. I observed the old-looking mop.
"Don't you have Swiffer or something… I dunno, high-tech?" I asked.
"Nah," He said happily even as his eyes darkened at the sight of the med room, "This'll do."
"But… It'll just spread it around…" I murmured to myself at the aged mop as I set the bucket down and started on the med room. The Doctor walked off to start on the Console room. We'd meet somewhere in the middle, presumably.
About halfway I had to go to the room and empty out the bucket. I had to do it again when I finished the room, and again when I did my part of the hallway. I met up with the Doctor a few times when he went to empty and refill his bucket.
"You lost a lot of blood," The Doctor mused, "... Sorry I didn't pay more attention to you, earlier. I thought it was just a cut on your hand, and was still angry that you tried going behind my back."
I nodded, brushing off the apology, "Yeah. It's fine. I was pretty out of it by the time I arrived at the TARDIS, and couldn't think straight at all while trying to fix myself up."
It was silent after that, and by the time we both arrived back at the console room to see that Charles had calmed down considerably.
"Ready?" The Doctor asked us.
I held onto the railing and motioned for Charles to do the same. He did, and we were off.
The entire thing shook suddenly, before stopping, throwing all three of us to the floor.
"Huh? What's wrong?" The Doctor asked himself as he hopped to his feet, glancing at the console screen.
"What- er, what, if I may ask, is that?" Charles asked.
"Oh, my trusty companion will tell you," The Doctor evaded. It took me three seconds of being looked at by Charles before I started and realized that I was his "trusty companion".
"Uhh, um, well. It's… Shit, are pictures even a thing? Uh, well, it's like a moving- fucking hell the Doctor was stalling for time, he'll explain," I gave up, gesturing towards the Doctor.
The Doctor gave me and Charles a glance, "It's a machine that makes colored moving pictures. Was that really so hard to say?"
"Oh, come on, Doctor, I suck at explaining things. S'why I'm not a good author or anything," I defended quietly to myself. No one heard anything past the first sentence, I noted to myself as I glanced around.
I frowned at where the Doctor was typing away at the console, lifting my hand to run through my hair, hands catching almost immediately. I pulled at it in frustration. Argh, he needed someone to be his companion, but… I wasn't that. I'd love to take Rose's place. I'd love to do it, ask all the questions, be the one making him happy and saying how amazing everything is, but… That wasn't me. I couldn't be that. I was, at best, a prideful idiot, and at worst an apathetic asshole who pushes everyone away with unaltered cruelty.
The Doctor didn't deserve that. No one deserved that.
"What-" I paused, adjusting my tone to something less sharp, "Sorry, what's wrong?"
He gave me a confused look, and I dropped my hand as inconspicuously as one could be when obviously frustrated, and having dropped it after someone had already noticed. Which was to say, I ignored his prying look and waited for him to answer.
"A signal's coming through. Drawing the TARDIS off course," The Doctor answered.
"Sexy," I sighed under my breath, tapping my chest four times.
Why. Why couldn't she wait for Rose? This was an episode that specifically needed Rose. Plus, wasn't there like a huge time-gap between WW3 and Dalek? Well, I supposed… I'd never touch a Dalek. I wasn't kind enough. I wasn't Rose.
My heart ached.
"What does that mean, exactly?" Charles asked, gesturing to the screen, "A signal? How can such a contraption get a … signal?"
"Hm," I shrugged, shaking my head, "Like a pole attracts electricity, the thingy attracts- or, well, reads certain waves, like sound except not, and it goes into this complicated contraption, as you said, which translates it to show on the screen. Anything more than that is too complicated for the three of us to get into."
"See? You can explain things fine!" The Doctor explained.
"I can explain things that I've seen explained on YouTube, yeah. I can, for example, explain how to lockpick, why a lemon battery is absolute garbage, and how computers generally work. That's about it," I refuted casually.
"None of those explain how a TV can get a signal."
"Yeah. Computers and TVs are generally the same. One dude on YouTube explained way deeper than I was looking for, but it generally helped me. AT&T still sucks ass, though," I commented, "Anyway, since we're with Charlie boi, might as well save the location and go somewhere else, right?"
The Doctor gave me a weird look, "Or… We can just see what pulled us off course. That's sure to be an adventure."
I shrugged with a sigh, "Ah, okay."
We walked out of the TARDIS, me turning and patting the exterior of the TARDIS four times and bowing, explaining to Charles that she was very much alive and would appreciate the gesture.
"Don't listen to her," The Doctor warned.
"All hail," I said in return, tapping my chest four times, "It's really just good manners. You know how rude the Doctor is. Don't follow his example."
Charles looked between us two before hesitantly patting the exterior of the TARDIS, "What was it, four times?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"Proper farewell and thank you, is all."
He patted the exterior four times and bowed, "Thank you dearly for taking us here," The TARDIS phased once, and Charles looked amazed, "You were right! How brilliant! Er, but I must ask, where might we be?"
"Earth, Utah, North America, about half a mile underground," He said, not sounding happy.
"When are we?" I pitched in, leaning over to Charles and mock-whispering, "She's a Goddess that travels through time. She allows The Doctor to pilot her."
"Oi! That's not true, don't believe her Charlie," The Doctor called as he walked up to a glowing display case, "We're in two thousand and twelve."
"Ah, the twenty-twelves. What a… Memetastic year this was," I muttered to myself.
"What does "memetastic" mean, if I may ask?" Charles asked.
"A meme is an image with funny words on it, and the tastic comes from fantastic, our resident Doctor's catchphrase," I explained as I looked around. Finding a lightswitch, I flipped it and observed as the lights flickered on row by row. It was almost awkwardly silent, and the Doctor shuffled into me without looking. Charles watched as we both danced around each other before shoving through each other, our pride deeming it impossible to continue the dance. Only I stumbled.
"Someone's got a hobby. This must have cost someone a fortune."
"It's a… Museum," Charles noted after a long silence.
"A big and alien one too," I added under my breath, "Probably shouldn't touch the glass, security must be tight."
"Oh, look at you," The Doctor marvelled.
"An old-age cyberman," I muttered from beside him. I didn't notice the bewildered look I got as he repeated my words silently.
"Er, what is a cyber-man, exactly?"
"A man made of machinery and contraptions," I idly explained, moving so that Charles could see. I totally wanted to have my face pressed against the glass, observing each detail in sharp focus, but alas, Charles would be amazed, while I was just fangirling. I tapped my chest four times in ado to the TARDIS. I loved the opportunity to see all these amazing things, yet I'd rather Rose be here instead of Charles and I.
"An old friend of mine- well, enemy," The Doctor said after Charles turned to him for an explanation, "The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."
"You're rather young, actually," I said at the same time Charles exclaimed his disagreement.
"Nonsense! I'm older than the both of you combined, I'm sure."
"Ah, you're wrong too," I muttered afterwards, glad no one heard me over the sound of an alarm. Sorry, Doctor, what did I just say? I mentally yelled at him, sighing melodramatically and shaking my head.
"Oh dear, it looks like we've just been caught," Charles said, raising his hands with us.
We were corralled into a room and I listened to the speakers, "Attention all personnel, Bad Wolf One descending, Bad Wolf One descending." I blinked. So Rose was still a major player in the game, I see. But… Why was it telling us? Those signs were entirely for Rose, weren't they?
I shifted uncomfortably. This wasn't supposed to happen. Charles couldn't run fast enough, he'd have to stay above level… Thirty-something. Shit, how would I free the Doctor if the Dalek didn't escape? I closed my eyes in exasperation, before crossing my arms. Had they allowed us to, I'd have been pacing back and forth.
How would I keep Charles from dying, the Doctor from being tortured for the rest of his lives, and the Dalek from killing everything? This all sucked. It really, really sucked. I'd… I'd have to nick the Doctor's sonic- no, that wouldn't work. I pulled my lips into my mouth, biting down on them, before letting them roll out of their position to go back to normal. I bit the side of my cheek. Fuck. I had no clue.
We're led to the room by a blond woman with curly hair put up in a pony tail. I relaxed slightly. Finally. Americans. I wasn't quite a patriot, but it made me feel better when I was surrounded by fellow grade-A assholes like me, and there wasn't a place better to find them than America or Australia. Plus, I felt more at home in America 2010s, where I had grown up.
"-eight hundred thousand dollars for it," A british voice said. I sighed. Of course, this idiot. I had entirely forgotten about him, but he kind of saved Rose and the Doctor's ass, since they'd have died had Adam not done what he did. Of course, there were other ways around it, but still.
"What does it do?" The man who I knew was an idiot asked critically. I recognized that he had to be smart in business to have lasted as long as he did, but then I mused that he'd probably taken over for his dad or something similar.
"Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel."
"I wouldn't hold it like that," I interjected before the Doctor could on a half-assed plan, "you look stupid."
"Shut it," The woman who brought us snapped.
"No seriously, that's wrong," I said, "It's not even a fuel-thing."
"What is it?" The British idiot asked eagerly.
"Well, I can show you," I held out my hand plainly, not even flinching when guns trained on me. If I got the Doctor's position, then neither of them would be in danger, and we'd hopefully escape unharmed. After a moment's hesitation the American idiot handed it over. I gently stroked it, like it was my phone after I almost dropped it, and musical notes came out in a gentle sway, oddly enough seeming to throw a tune of relief in the mix. I blinked. Was it slightly psychic or was that just a coincidence?
The Doctor nudged me, asking what I was doing.
"Just shut up and let me do the talking, this won't end well otherwise," I whispered back, knowing that everyone in the room heard that.
"I think she may be right, Doctor," Charles input.
"It's a musical instrument," The man, what was his name? Van Statten. The idiot, said, sounding surprised. I wasn't fooled, he had no heart.
"Ah, yeah, and you have to be gentle when playing it or it'll sound like shit," I mentioned, handing it back for Van Statten to try.
He was, as I suggested, gentle, and I was slightly surprised. Huh. Maybe he listened to me because I explained it while handing it over? I didn't know.
"Good, you've got the hang of it, I guess," I complimented.
"As do you," He said, throwing the instrument on the floor. I glanced at it with a heavy sigh, "Who exactly are you?"
"I'm Justice. These are my, er, travelling buddies, you could say. Who're you?" I asked, casually dismissing the Doctor even though I was taking his role. Oh goddesses what am I doing? Will this even work? I damned hope so, otherwise we're all dead.
"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake," He scoffed.
"Pretty much sums us up, yeah," The Doctor agreed.
"Ah, again, we're travellers. We travel to unknown places for fun. None of us have any idea who you or your armed guard are."
"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little "travelling buddies", both older than dirt," Van Statten casually insulted as he walked closer, standing only slightly taller than me.
"Oi!"
"My word!" The duo exclaimed in unison.
"They're English, too! Do you have a type? Will little Lord Fauntleroy join you next?"
"Ah, hopefully not. He doesn't seem the brightest," I casually insulted back. Ah, American politics at its finest. If no one caught on the the subtext, it was a small conversation, really. He wondered if I really didn't know who he was and asked if I was someone important. I explained kindly that I was quite important, and that I had no clue who I was dealing with. All without actually having the conversation. It's also known, in some cases, as a dick measuring contest.
"Ah… This is Mr. Van Statten," the British idiot explained.
"And what's his relevance?" I muttered, not breaking eye contact with the dick, both of us sizing the other up.
"Mr. Van Statten owns the internet."
"Impossible," I shrugged, rolling my eyes, and tilting my head as my blank eyes met Van Statten's again.
"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that, right kids?"
"Well, no, let's not," I interrupted, "Because, one, if you owned the internet you'd know who all three of us are. Two, owning the internet was made impossible specifically so no one person could gain or abuse the power given. At most you can own one-fourth of it at a time, I believe, and if you do it's obviously not the more informative parts, is it?"
"And you claim greater knowledge?" He asked.
"Claim? Who needs claims when I have facts?" I muttered, not quite remembering what the Doctor said.
"Ah, excuse me, if I may, what is the internet?" Charles asked, and the entire room went silent. Van Statten and I kept eye contact, before I pulled my lips into my mouth and nodded, turning to glance at Charles. It was a show of power, turning my back on the man.
"The internet is a giant storage of power, connected by the screens I told you about earlier. It's all really complex, and is like your everyday… Post office. Except not physical unless you're by a screen," I explained, before turning back to Van Statten when Charles' expression turned slightly less confused, "Sorry, where were we?"
"I captured you," Van Statten reminded, sounding both eager and unpleased with the slight I'd given him, "Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"
I glanced at the Doctor, and he nodded for me to go ahead, "You tell me."
He glanced at the Doctor, sizing him up. I had made a mistake, showing that I deferred to a higher power. Oops, I needed to fix that.
"Don't mind him, just making sure he and my other companion are still okay," I waved off. I think the only reason the Doctor didn't speak up then was because he saw how tense I was. He must've grasped that I had knowledge of this event.
"The cage contains my one living specimen," Van Statten commented.
"Does it have a name?"
"Like you don't know."
"Show me."
"You want to see it?"
"My word! Just get on with it! No need to be courting each other in public decency," Charles complained.
Van Statten glanced over, "Bit old fashioned, isn't he?"
"Eh, all geniuses have their quirks," I brushed off.
We kept eye-contact for a moment. Without breaking eye-contact, he spoke, "Goddard. Inform the Cage, we're heading down," He broke eye contact, walking off, "You, English, look after the men. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Justice, come and see my pet."
I spun around, putting a firm hand on the Doctor's shoulder, "Don't do anything idiotic. Since we're all humans they'd not exactly be kind and put us in a cage if we did something stupid, now would they?"
I walked with Van Statten, vaguely uncomfortable.
"We can't get it to speak," Van Statten started as we walked.
"Oh?"
"Yes, we've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside."
"Inside?" I drawled pointedly.
"Welcome back, sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting," Some dude in an orange suit said as he walked up beside Van Statten.
"Metaltron. I like it. It's very…" I trailed off, making sure my words sounded as derisive as I wanted them to, "Sci-fi."
Van Statten grinned sharply, "Thought of it myself. Although I'd much prefer to find out its real name. Do you think you'll be able to get it to speak, or should I get that other man, the Doctor?"
I rolled my eyes, "You think I'm a figurehead or something? How would he know?"
The orange hazmat man walked up, "Here, you'd better put these on. The last guy to touch it burst into flames."
I didn't glance at the mitts he was holding, "I'll be fine."
"Go ahead, Justice. Impress me."
I shake my head and step through the door, hearing Van Statten's comment. Well, the door wouldn't open unless I got the Dalek to speak. Shit.
The door slowly closed behind me and I glanced around. Ah. Typical cement bunker-esque look to it. Very… retro. I blinked. Ah, am I calling a decade ago retro, then? That's… Well, true, I admitted.
"Great. I'm, well, I'm sorry you've had to go through this. The man, Van Statten, seems to think he's smart, but don't mind him. I'm here to help you," I admitted. Because truly, wasn't I? None of us would get out of here alive, not unless something drastic happened. I observed the glowing blue, "Do you have me on record? The Red Justice? Associates with River Song and others?" I casually skipped mentioning the Doctor. No need to oust him, was there?
"Jus… Tice?" The Dalek asked, "ear's" lighting up, "Red Just-ice?" It yelled.
I blinked. Oh. Huh, seems like I did make a name for myself before I died. How… Odd, for me. Hopefully I even made it to River Song, I'd probably be sucked into the closing rift harder than anyone else, wouldn't I? I mean, I travelled the most in the void, if I somehow made it here.
The lights came on, and I saw my very first Dalek in person. I sighed again even as I wandered closer, making sure not to touch it even as I casually walked around it until it stopped screaming Exterminate. It followed me with its eye-stalk, unable to try and shoot me with its broken laser and the chains surrounding it.
"Yes. Me," I stopped in front of it, crossing my arms, making sure I was a pace away from its plunger. I glared into its eyestalk. I wanted desperately to know who I was, what I would become, but… Well, it'd probably give the Doctor a hard time, wouldn't it?
It looked so cool, but… It still was kind of terrifying, wasn't it? I knew what it could do, and I felt fear crawl through me. I let it run its course before crushing it before it got out of hand, my breathing calming with a heavy sigh.
"So. I'm here. Fuck, man. Look at you!" I almost yelled, bending back slightly on my knees and gesturing, a small grin coming to my face, "No long-range weapons, no power to do anything. Hell, I bet you don't want me near you, do you? Dalek." I leaned forward, looking into its eyestalk.
I held no grudge against Daleks, but… Well. They gave Rose's man a good bit of grief, and River's even more so. Plus with what the Ninth had to remember, not even able to recall his act of heroism, well. Okay. I had a slight grudge. That's been multiplied every moment I see how real everything is, and how I'm actually here. So. A bit more than a slight grudge, I'd guess.
"You are an enemy of the Daleks. You must be destroyed!" The Dalek exclaimed. I blinked.
"Eh, maybe later," I shot the Dalek some finger guns as its own didn't work.
"So. Any orders come in recently? Double cheese-murder, maybe? Ha, get what I did there? Cheeseburger, cheese-murder. Because all you do is kill? I mean. You're a hovering-slidy tank, aren't you? Regular guns can't penetrate anything except your eyestalk, anti-tank weapons would be best if you escaped, because if you do, well. You'd murder everyone and everything, wouldn't you? Able to figure out billions of combinations of passcodes in a second, well. This cage isn't really a cage to you, is it? It's more of a torturous vacation. While you wait for what's never going to come," I rambled, hoping to get the message across that this fucker needed to die.
"Ex-plain."
"Oh, your race is long since dead. The Time War's over. No more Daleks. No more Time Lords. No, you both got destroyed," I said casually.
"You. Lie," The Dalek exclaimed after a long moment of silence.
"What?" I asked, hoping the Dalek was just in denial and not that he knew the Doctor was alive, "You should know who I am, what I know. I haven't been very quiet about it, have I? I watched it happen. Hell, I probably helped it happen."
"You said there were no Time Lords left. You stand right there. You lie!"
"What? Dude, I'm human. 100% human."
"You do not know what you are."
I frowned, shifting as I crossed my arms, "Tell me then. What am I?"
It's another long silence. I almost don't think the Dalek will speak to me anymore before it does, "We are destroyed?"
"I watched it happen, yeah. The war. All Time Lords, Time Tots, Daleks, and Davros. All dead. All gone," I explained with a shrug.
"You, who knows the future, sees nothing?" The Dalek almost pleaded. I frowned, shifting. Shit. Hopefully Van Statten got bored and didn't hear that. This was taking a while, didn't they come in by now? Shit, shit, fuck, I was screwed. I should've just accepted the timeline.
No, I told myself, none of these people besides maybe Simmons and Van Statten deserved to die. Simmons? I blinked. Ooh, so that was the orange-suited man's name. Huh, weird time to remember that. I shrugged. I knew all of Nine's episodes pretty closely, it'd be odd not to know the name of every semi-important side-character.
"No Daleks. No Time Lords. There's nothing to see. Not unless you cross your own timestream," I lied easily.
The Dalek looked down as if in sorrow, "Where will I get my orders?"
"There's nowhere to get them. You're too damaged to continue with the order, and, well, I'd suggest self-destructing, honestly."
The Dalek looked into my eyes, or, well, it had to have been looking at one of them, and I kept my stare even and blank.
"Tell me the truth," The Dalek demanded.
"I am," I said simply, "But… I might add a bit more details if you tell me what it says about me in your database."
"... The Red Jus-tice. Kill. Knows fu-ture ev-ents based a-round the En-e-my of The Da-leks," I blinked, huh, that was… More than I expected. I focused when the Dalek spoke again, shit, it wasn't done? "Human from ano-ther un-i-verse. Needs time-energy to sur-viive," I swallowed. What? What? "Tell me the truth."
"... Daleks all die by the hands of Bad Wolf. Davros barely survived with his life… Only two or three true Daleks remain alive, and Davros dies for good because of the Enemy of the Daleks. So… Four Daleks survived the Time War. There are the four named Daleks too, but they aren't alive yet… Ah, time, you know? There's so much to know."
"How many are in this time? Explain! Explain!"
"None. You'll have to wait five billion years plus to even have a chance at meeting up with your master. And even then, he'd just order you to self-destruct, wouldn't he? You're useless as you are."
"I am alone in the universe."
"Yeah."
"So are you."
I froze. Ah, I was, wasn't I? I grinned, turning on my heel to face the Dalek where I had been about to walk away. The Dalek observed my expression before backing away. I grinned sharply at it, stalking forward until I was right up in its "face".
"... Have pity," The Dalek finally said.
I tilted my head, "Ah, that's not programmed into a Dalek's exterior shell. How'd you bypass that? I guess being the last alive would make it quite easy, huh?"
"Exterminate! Exterminate!" The Dalek struggled against his bindings, and I rolled my eyes and walked over to a lever.
"Well, if you're not going to kill yourself, I guess I have to do it for you, huh? For Davros, of course," I said, voice dry as I flipped the lever and he started screaming. I watched silently, face in half of a grimace until I was dragged out of the room unwillingly.
When the door was closed, I hummed and shook my head. Ah, murder someone once and… No. I'd not make that joke. I winced and put my hands in my pockets, not liking the rush of guilt over killing two relatively innocent people. Yes, they had deserved jailtime, no, they hadn't deserved death by acid.
I blinked in shock, feeling my sonic screwdriver. Are. You. Fucking. Kidding me?! I forgot about this baby?! Oh, I'm such an idiot. Fucking hell, I was thinking of nicking the Doctor's when I had my own. What. A. Fucking. Joke.
"Sorry about the mess," The kid spoke, The Doctor and Charles Dickens following after him, "Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods. What do you think that is?" The kid handed Charles an inch thick piece of metal.
"I don't understand. It appears to be a lump of metal," Charles said.
"Yeah. Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft. The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist," The kid exclaimed, looking excited.
"That's amazing," The Doctor said deadpan, nodding along as he observed the area, "Charles, why do you think she wanted to do that? Why would she prevent me from speakin'?"
"She seemed more… Ah, how should I put it," He spoke slowly, "She seemed to know more about what was happening."
"... You just might be right, Charlie," The Doctor said with a nod, eyes unfocused at the floor, "Hey, kid, do you have access to the security footage? I want to see what's going on down there."
"Uh, it's Adam, and yeah, I can hack into the comm. System," Adam scrambled to make himself useful and both Charles and the Doctor walked over.
They saw a screen flicker on and the Doctor froze, "Impossible," He said. No one else paid him any mind as they watched the screen.
The girl that was seemingly in charge was in front of the Dalek in the room.
"-database," The girl reasoned, crossing her arms.
"The Red Jus-tice," The Dalek replied. The Doctor watched once he heard that. Who was she, really?
After a few moments the Doctor's eyes darkened. Was she using him?
"Er, excuse me, Doctor, what exactly is time energy?" Charles asked, "Justice seemed rather confused and shocked at the information, but… I can't see why."
The Doctor's eyes focused. Right. She did look rather like she was just told she had cancer, wasn't she?
"Time energy," He supplied, "Energy gotten from travelling in time. I suppose the reason she's so surprised is because she didn't know that information."
"Oh! They moved out of the room, here, I'll just…" Adam trailed off and the view was inside an elevator.
"Daleks. The exterior is just like a tank, the real creature's inside. Looks like a skinned octopus or squid or something. Bit disturbing. They were, uh, genetically created. Or, mutated or whatever. Um, everything else I know about them is kind of not important."
"Genetically engineered. By whom?" Van Statten asked.
"By a kid born in war. A genius." The girl said, and the Doctor observed her clenching something in her pocket. Her sonic, maybe? Why would she be doing that? "Something of the likes you've never seen. Not human, obviously. Or, well, I don't think he is."
"It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?" Goddard, the curly blond, got us back on track.
I frowned, "Because it has nothing to lose, anymore. It has a reason to escape. A reason to kill again and again."
"You said anti-tank would kill it?"
"It might. It's… really strong. The strongest metal in the universe. Again, the best way to kill it is to send an armour-piercing round right at its eyestalk. That's its weakest point, and it doesn't really kill the Dalek, just short-circuits the tank, so your precious specimen won't be able to fight against the torture any more. You'll have an easier time opening the machine that way too. Just kill the dangerous parts first."
"That's a lie," The Doctor commented, "Smart, though, she's really trying to get it killed."
"Why do you say kill it?" Van Statten asked.
"Because a Dalek isn't a Dalek if it doesn't have its tank, is it? It's just a hate-filled squid that can speak," Justice shrugged, running one of her hands through her hair.
"You talked about a war?" Goddard asked, again refocusing the conversation.
"Yeah. The Time War. The final battle between the Time Lords and the Daleks."
"But you survived, too. And you're human…" Van Statten pointed out.
I shrugged, "I haven't gotten there yet, but yes, I'll most likely participate in the Time War, if I survive long enough. It's in a Time Lock, but with… My travels, time doesn't really seem to matter much."
"But you're from another universe. And you're a time traveller. Who knows the future, no less," Van Statten turned to look at Justice, "And, as far as I'm concerned, being from another universe means you're an alien too."
Justice smacked her palm to her forehead, "I'll be sure to tell the Van Statten of my universe that he's an alien to you, if I ever return, then," She shook her head, "Like seriously?"
Suddenly the noise that just seemed to be the elevator escalated, and the two gunmen tried backing further into the elevator wall as their guns suddenly fell apart. The Doctor watched as the screeching stopped the moment the elevator did.
"Ah, almost broke the elevator there, did you hear the screeching?" Justice bluffed, hiding the existence of her Sonic Screwdriver, "You'll let me and my companions back to where you found us. We'll then leave where we came. No foul no folly, or whatever the saying is."
"And why would I do that when I have a psychic alien from another universe that knows the future?" Van Statten asked.
Justice crossed her arms, "Well, I could just break the elevator and have us all plummet to our deaths instead?"
Van Statten shifted, glancing at the still unopened doors. The Doctor frowned and Charles gasped, Adam staying silent, eyes glued to the screen.
"What is she thinking?" Charles demanded.
"Did you see how the, erm, Dalek was treated? She's tryna keep herself from the same fate, I think," Adam replied.
"But she's human! Why would Van Statten want a human?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, you heard 'im, he said since she was from another universe that she was an alien," Adam said, eyes still glued to the screen.
"Fine," Van Statten agreed, and Justice nodded once.
"Go back on your word and this elevator's rigged to explode, by the way. Just an aside," Justice shrugged, walking out of the elevator.
Adam typed quickly, and the screen changed to the hallway, where guards were swarming and overtook her.
"Good thing that's not the only elevator, then," Van Statten said with a shrug, the passed out girl being carried by guards down the hallway.
Y'all decided that the rewrite wasn't worth it, so here's some more. Sorry, Charlie boi won't get his time to shine until later, but I figured the Doctor wouldn't mind taking him on another adventure, maybe.
;) What do y'all think? Also, I appreciate all of your reviews! Thank you so much, they mean quite a bit to me, and honestly keep me writing most times. Do you want me to reply to them after-chapter?
Also, any ideas for the story (or others, such as Loyalty Beyond Hope, Hidden Agendas, and the rather popular maybe-not-a-oneshot An Angel's Diary)? I have vague plans for the near-future, but if you want to contribute to a bit of lore or some ideas for later in the story I'll happily see if they can be implemented! ^-^' I'm just so happy to have fans, haha...
(P.S. Would you take the time out of your day to convert to Whovianism? All hail the TARDIS.)
(P.P.S. That was a satirical comment, don't sue me for pushing religion on y'all)