The Doctor grinned at Rieka as she approached, feeling more relaxed since seeing her earlier. He had a way to save her, and it seemed as though she had forgiven him. Though the Time Lord was curious to know who the auburn-haired woman had been, having seen the pair speaking. It seemed – to the Doctor at least – that most of the people in the church knew his Nesdra, however the Doctor was still rather confused as to why they kept calling her Eris.
There was something about the name that was naggingly familiar to the Time Lord, but even with the odd visions he had been having over the last couple of days, he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. Anytime he tried to recall where he had heard the name prior to the visions of the blonde, it was as if his own mind was refusing to remember.
The expressions on Pete and Rose's faces had Rieka pausing in her approach, and a stone settling in her gut at the possibility that Pete had come to the same conclusion that she had. "Luka," the red head called, causing the boy to look up from what he was doing before rushing to her when she motioned him over. "I want you to go and make sure that Mickey is keeping out of trouble," she told him as she glanced to the other before lowering her voice, "And make sure he doesn't tell anyone else about the ice-cream," she added.
Luka giggled, but nodded eagerly before he was once again off, searching for his friend and Rieka let out a quiet sigh as she watched him go. She had no idea how she was going to explain everything to their parents, and even less as to what she was going to tell Jamie.
It felt as though history was just repeating itself.
Luka was only a few months older than his father had been when Jamie had been affected by the nanogenes, and as much as Rieka tried her best to keep him and his family from what was out there, the red head couldn't stop herself from feeling as though she had failed them. Granted that there wasn't a war going on, but as the Reapers continued to try and find a weak point to gain access inside the church, Rieka felt as though a war would have been better.
At least then I'd know what to do...
"So, you're an aunty?" the Doctor's voice broke Rieka from her thoughts and gained her attention. The Doctor's grin disappeared however, seeing her expression. "Is everything alright?" he asked, glancing the way that he had seen Luka go and wondered what could be troubling her.
"Yeah," Rieka replied before she shook her head with a sigh, "No... I don't know," she muttered, running a hand tiredly over her face.
The Time Lord's frown only deepened at her action, recalling how Aries did the same thing in Downing Street. He knew that it was a sign that something was deeply troubling his Nesdra, though knew that it was best to let her tell him when she was ready instead of trying to question her about it. It was hard for him sometimes, wanting to know more about his Nesdra. But he also knew that questioning her until she finally gave him answers was not the way to go about it.
And he wouldn't.
He couldn't.
There was something about his Nesdra that reminded the Doctor of himself. Something that he saw every time he looked into her silver-grey eyes.
"Come on," he said instead, his voice quiet as he placed a hand on Rieka's lower back and guided her over to the pews.
Rieka didn't say anything, just let him lead her before she sat down; the Time Lord sitting beside her. The troubled look didn't leave her face as she continued to think that if her having stayed with Jamie and his family had been such a good idea. And as her gaze wandered unfocusedly around the church, seeing the scared guests as the creatures outside tried to force their way in, a part of Rieka felt as though she had possibly made a mistake.
"When time gets sorted out..." Rose's rather hesitant tine drew Rieka from her musings, and the red head was glad for the distraction and turned to the blonde sitting on the pew behind her next to Pete.
"Everyone forgets what happened," the Doctor finished, tearing his gaze away from his Nesdra. "And don't worry, the thing you changed will stay changed," he added, causing Rieka to turn to him in alarmed confusion.
"But-"
"You mean I'll still be alive," Pete interjected, cutting across Rieka. He wasn't an idiot, already having realised what his daughter hadn't been telling him. Me, reading bedtime stories?! And when Rose just stared at him, not saying anything, her silence was all the information he needed. Pete nodded, "Though I'm meant to be dead. That's why I haven't done anything with my life. Why I didn't mean anything."
"It doesn't work like that," the Doctor stated.
Rieka kept quiet, her eyebrows ever so slightly furrowed as her eyes darted between the two men. A small part of her was glad she had sent Luka off to find Mickey, knowing that this really wasn't a conversation that she'd want him to overhear.
"Rubbish," Pete scoffed, "I'm so useless I couldn't even die properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened."
Rose grasped her fathers' arm, and Rieka looked away under the guise of keeping an eye on her nephews as the blonde said, "This is my fault." The red head bit her tongue, unable to think that it was Rose's fault for what happened. Along with the Doctor. But the witch could also sympathise with the younger woman's desire to have wanted to see her father again. And if the Doctor truly was the last of his kind... Rieka would have given anything to have seen her father once more, but she understood that it was both impossible, and highly dangerous.
She could understand and see how wanting to soothes another's pain could have led to a situation like this. Though she still wasn't too sure what to make of the Reapers. For guardians – or whatever they were named – they seemed quite... maladroit.
"No, love," Pete shook his head again, "I'm your dad. It's my job for it to be my fault," he told her.
Rieka stood up, finding the conversation far to uncomfortable. Though she didn't get very far when there was a familiar voice that suddenly cut into Pete and Rose's moment.
"Her dad?" the older blonde asked, appearing beside the pews with baby Rose in her arms. "How are you her dad? How old were you, twelve?" she continued, her expression scrunched up in disgust at the thought.
"Oh, this will be good," Rieka muttered as she turned back to face the others, barely managing to hold back a jump when she realised that the Doctor had also gotten up and followed her.
"Oh, that's disgusting," Jackie continued as she glared at her husband.
Pete also got to his feet. "Jackie, listen. This is Rose," he said as he gestured to the younger blonde, trying to get his wife to see the truth in his words.
Just as Rieka had expected however, Jackie grew both angry and upset. And as the older blonde spoke, the witch was quite glad that the woman kept her voice down, knowing full well that Jackie Tyler had a set of lungs.
"Rose? How sick is that?" she spat at her husband, "You give my daughter a second-hand name? How many are there? Do you call them all Rose?"
"Oh, for god's sake, look!" Pete exclaimed as he grabbed his baby daughter from Jackie, "It's the same Rose!"
Rieka's eyes widened, and both she and the Doctor took a step towards the small group when Pete suddenly put the baby in her younger-self's arms.
"Rose!"
"No!"
The pair shouted, but it was too late. As the Doctor took the baby from his companions' arms and gave her back to Jackie, a Reaper gave off a screech as it appeared in the middle of the church; sending guests screaming and scurrying away from it.
The Doctor's hand was around Rieka's without a thought as he shouted, "Everyone! Behind me!" He tried to get his Nesdra to move behind him and with the others who were gathering there, but the red head didn't move, her gaze locked onto the Reaper; her eyes narrowing.
"I'm the oldest thing here!" the Doctor shouted as he instead stepped in front of Rieka as the creature above them chirped menacingly; spreading its wings wide.
"Hey!" someone shouted from behind the Doctor, though neither Rieka nor the Doctor took any notice as they continued to stare down the Reaper.
With another screech that seemed to be the pair's last warning, the Reaper dived towards the Doctor and Rieka. Rose shouted the Doctor's name – only for it to seem as though time had come to a sudden stop when the Reaper's attack came to a rather abrupt halt; hovering in mid-air almost as if it was frozen.
The guests slowly straightened from their cowering positions; confusion written across every face as they stared at the creature.
"I told you that you wouldn't have them."
The Doctor's head snapped to his Nesdra, while the others closets to her were a little slower on the uptake. That was until the red head took a step towards the Reaper, her eyes swirling as her magic crackled around her and whipped up an unnatural breeze.
"Move it!" someone snapped from amongst the guests, but no one was paying any attention.
The Reaper tried to move – to do anything to get at the red head – but found that it couldn't and let out an angry screech.
"I don't care why you came here," Rieka snapped, taking another step toward the creature, "I told your friends earlier that they weren't going to have them, and neither will you."
"Ari..."
The Doctor trailed off, his question as to how she could understand the creature slipping from his mind as the piece that he had been missing since he had first heard Stuart call his Nesdra 'Eris' slid into place.
"Eris," he breathed, feeling like an idiot at the knowledge that his Nesdra had saved his life.
How could I have forgotten that? he pondered, before another thought occurred, Better yet, how did she take that memory from m-?
The Time Lord was suddenly yanked backwards and away from Rieka. He stumbled, just managing to catch sight of the brunette he had seen speaking with Rieka earlier pull something from her coat as she rushed towards his Nesdra before everything was suddenly plunged into darkness. He gasped, feeling the air in his lungs being ripped from him. There was a roaring in his ears, and for a second he could have sworn there was a hurricane raging through the church as there was a sudden flash of gold and blue lights.
The light started to return, though the Doctor found that his eyes were still locked on the flashes of gold and blue light that was swirling in a vortex the likes he'd never seen before. A flash of red caught his eye, and they widened when he saw the brunette standing front of Rieka, closer to the Reaper. Red tendrils of energy twisted around her skin, and her eyes were now the blackest black he had ever seen.
"I'm sorry," he heard the woman tell his Nesdra, her black gaze meeting Rieka's red before – just like the first time – her hand shot out and latched around the red head's.
"No!" the Doctor shouted, watching as those same tendrils of energy started to snake their way from the woman and to his Nesdra. He tried to take a step forwards, and his hearts started to speed up when he found that he couldn't. "Aries!" he yelled, but she acted as if she hadn't even heard him.
He watched on hopelessly as Rieka looked to the brunette before she stepped through the vortex. It closed behind her, leaving no trace of it having ever been there.
"Aunty!" the Time Lord heard Luka shout from somewhere behind him, but he didn't take his eyes off the brunette as she turned her black gaze to him.
"What did you do?!" he demanded, struggling to move. He wanted to know what she had done to his Nesdra. "Where is she?"
The brunette's expression softened as the red tendrils faded from her skin; her black eyes slowly returning to a rather golden brown. "You know where she went, Doctor," she said before a smile lifted the corner of her lip. "And the better question would have been, 'Who am I?'" she added before disappearing when the Reaper reached her; the spell that had once held it back having been broken with the loss of its caster.
"No!" the Doctor shouted once again as the only person who knew what had happened to his Nesdra vanished before his very eyes.
He barely even reacted when the Reaper collided with his TARDIS, causing them both to vanish and the once glowing key to fall to the floor as he stared helplessly at the spot that Rieka had disappeared.
When Rieka stepped through the other side of the vortex, the red head blinked in surprise when she found herself standing in what looked to be the dead end of a corridor; the bulkhead door in front of her closed.
Turning around to see if she could figure out exactly where she was, Rieka's eyebrows shot upwards as she watched the vortex start to close. She reached towards it, almost as if been drawn, but stumbled back in alarm when she noticed that her hand was covered in tendrils of red energy.
"What the...?" she breathed, watching as they disappeared before her very eyes.
When they had faded, the witch looked back to where the vortex had been and found that it was gone. A frown formed on her lips, wondering what had just happened and a little confused about her obvious lack of concern. She knew that she should have been wary and alarmed as to appearing in some random corridor... Okay, so she was still a little wary, but as she looked around, Rieka was suddenly hit with an odd feeling.
It was as if the red head knew that she needed to be here. Though Rieka didn't have the foggiest as to why.
"... did you make it?"
The voice was muffled, barely audible, and Rieka's eyebrows furrowed as she turned in the direction it was coming from and spotted a phone. Rather perplexed, she picked it up and held it to her ear, only to wince and quickly pull it away when someone shouted on the other end.
"Rose, where are you?!"
"Doctor?" Rieka asked in surprise, recognising his voice and started to really wonder what was going on.
The Doctor froze, his face contorting in horror as he felt as though time had stopped around him.
The Time Lord could recognise that voice anywhere.
"Aries?"
His voice was barely heard as he prayed to whatever deities out there that whoever he had just heard was his Nesdra. It couldn't be her. There was no possible way that she could be here.
But when Rieka replied, the Doctor sunk back into the chair he had jumped out of not moments earlier, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of him.
"Doctor, what's going on?"
"Doctor?" Rieka repeated when she didn't get a response. She could still hear that he was there, listening to his breathing, and the thought that something was most definitely wrong begun to grow in the witch's mind. "Doct..."
Rieka didn't get a chance to ask her question, trailing off when something caught her eye as it trundled around the corner of the corridor.
"Impossible," the red head breathed, her eyes wide as she lowered the phone from her ear and took a step back.
A Dalek stopped a few meters in front of her, its eyestalk moving up and down as it took her in, and Rieka's heart felt as though it was going to burst from her chest at any moment.
How is it here?
She felt a tingle trickle down her spine, and the witch wasn't too sure if it was because the Dalek had possibly scanned her, or just plain fear. There was one thing that Rieka was certain of, however. She didn't bloody well like the feeling of being stared at by the Dalek.
"Aries."
The Time Lords' voice finally came through the mobile, but Rieka was barely listening to him as she kept her focus on the alien before her; unable to tear her gaze away from it.
"Where are you? Aries?!"
Raising a shaky hand, Rieka spoke quietly as she took another slow step away from the Dalek. "Doctor, there's a Dalek here," she told him, freezing when the Daleks' eyestalk twitch. She tried to keep her voice level, but it was hard to do so when she was being starred at by one of the most deadliest aliens that she had ever read about.
"Aries, get out of there!" the Doctor shouted, and Rieka winced at his pitch as she quickly spared a glance behind her, finding that she was basically cornered with the bulkhead closed behind her. She looked back to the Dalek when she heard it move, finding that it was a few feet closer now.
The witch knew that she could apparate, but without knowing exactly where she was, that idea was quickly disregarded.
"You will cease communications or be exterminated," the Dalek stated, its voice sending shivers down her spine.
"Doctor?"
Rieka took another step backwards and away from the Dalek, stiffening when her back came into contact with the door behind her.
"Ari-" the Doctor was cut off when the Dalek suddenly screeched, "Exterminate!" and fired its laser at the red head, though Rieka was quick to throw up a shield and apparate to the first place she could think of.
"Aries!" the Doctor shouted as he once again shot out of the chair, ripping the earpiece from his ear the hearts-stopping moment he realised that the line had gone dead. His hearts constricted painfully at the thought of just having lost Aries, his Nesdra, his soulmate to his greatest enemy.
There was a stunned silence in Van Statten's office before it was broken by the distraught Time Lord.
"She's gone," he breathed, the earpiece slipping from his hand as it started to sink it as to what just happened. His mind was trying to tell him that it wasn't her, that it was impossible for his Nesdra to have just suddenly appeared. But his hearts knew. They knew that it had been Aries. She'd be the only human on this planet that would know a Dalek on sight. He knew that Aries would have most likely read about them in one of those book she'd been left with.
"I'm sorry," Van Statten said, though his expression was confused. He had no idea as to who the Time Lord had been talking to.
His words cut through the Doctor's swirling thoughts, and the Time Lord's mind immediately focused on the man, his horror being replaced with rage at the knowledge that the man - no – the stupid ape hadn't stopped him from killing the Dalek when he had had the chance, Aries would still be here.
His Nesdra would have still been alive.
"You're sorry?!" he spat, causing Van Statten's eyes to grow wide at the sudden shift in the Doctor's emotions. "I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me," he took a step towards the man, his fists clenched at his side – shaking, "Now the one person that meant everything to me... My Nesdra is dead because of you!"
"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten exclaimed, only to find himself shoved up against the wall behind him; the Doctor's hand wrapped firmly around his throat.
"Doctor!" Goddard called out in alarm, though the Time Lord took no notice of her, his eyes locked onto the ape in his grip.
"Your collection?!" the Doctor snarled; the Oncoming Storm having been released at the apes' audacity at thinking that his collection was worth more than Aries. Worth more than the one person he didn't think he would ever get to meet after the things he had done. "Your collection is nothing compared to all those men's deaths. And..." his hand tightened around Van Statten's throat, causing the man to gasp for breath, his hands clawing at the Time Lords' as he tried to get the Doctor to release him, "It is nothing... nothing compared to Aries."
The lift doors opened, and Rose and Adam stepped out. Thought the pair froze at the sight of the enraged Time Lord holding Van Statten against the wall by his throat.
"Doctor!" Rose exclaimed as she tried to rush over to the pair, but Adam stopped her. "Let me go!" she snapped at the young man before she turned back to the Time Lord. "Doctor, let him go!"
When Rieka reappeared, she was now at the conjunction of the corridor, behind the Dalek.
Sparing a glance to the mobile in her hand, the red head winced at the knowledge that it had been destroyed by her hasty apparation. She now had no way to communicate with the Doctor.
The Dalek in front of her must of sensed her, as it was quick to turn and face her. Rieka pulled her shoulders back, letting the fritzed device slip from her hand. If the alien was going to try and kill her again, she wasn't going to go down without a fight.
She was confused however, when all the Dalek did was watch her; unmoving.
"What do you want?" she asked, but was only met with more silence. "How are you here?" she continued, growing equally confused and alarmed as the seconds ticked by and the Dalek still didn't move. From what she knew of Daleks – and the witch had found quite a lot of information on them in the small library that she had been left with – they were known as a species that had no qualms with wiping out anyone who they found to be impure.
Which just so happened to be anyone that wasn't a Dalek.
The witch almost jumped when the alien finally spoke, its voice still causing her to shiver.
"Senses indicate you are not of this world."
Rieka stiffened.
"Neither are you," she stated bluntly, her voice coming out far steady than what she felt standing before the Dalek. It was hard, but Rieka dug deep, tapping into skills she hadn't used in decades to bury her emotions in the farthest reaches of her mind.
"Why haven't you killed me?" she questioned after a few more moments of silence passed between them. The witch was understandably confused as to why the Dalek hadn't.
"I am armed. I will kill. It is my purpose," the Dalek screeched, though Rieka frowned at its response.
So, why hasn't it?
"I know," she said flatly, her eyebrows creasing ever so slightly as she studied the alien. There was something decisively wrong going on here. "So, what are you waiting for? What's stopping you from killing me?"
"I felt her fear," the alien replied, and Rieka's eyebrows drew even more together, her frown deepening at the thought that the Dalek sounded... scared?
The red head wasn't a hundred percent certain, never one to take facts straight from the books she read without researching further, but she had concluded that Daleks couldn't feel anything but hatred and anger, having read all she could about them. So, why is this one afraid? she asked herself, while aloud she questioned, "Who's fear?"
What the Dalek said next was not anything Rieka had been expecting.
"Rose Tyler. I fed off her DNA, extrapolating the biomass of the time traveller to survive. But Daleks' do not fear. Must not fear!"
The witch didn't have a chance to ask how it had managed to do that, instead throwing up another shield when the Dalek fired its laser wildly; though none of its blasts came remotely close to hitting Rieka.
"She gave me life," the Daleks' voice had grown slightly hysterical as it continued, "What else has she given me? I am contaminated!"
"Doctor."
Rose had somehow managed to get out of Adam's hold and rushed over to the Time Lord. She hesitated, seeing the look on his face before placing her hand on the arm that was holding Van Statten; gently pressing down as she tried to get him to release the man. "Doctor, it's fine. I'm fine," she told him, "I got away."
The Doctor didn't acknowledge her – didn't even hear her as he glared hatefully at Van Statten as the man continued to struggle in his hold. The man was slowly starting to turn blue, and the Doctor knew that it would be so easy to just squeeze, the idea of getting rid of the ape that thought Aries was nothing compared to his collection burning through his mind.
But...
The voice was small, all but a whisper in the back of his mind. But it had the Doctor pausing.
What would she think?
He could recall the expression that had been on his Nesdra's face when she had hesitated at telling Mickey how to kill the Slitheen; knowing that she held the life of not one, but three people in her hands and had to choose who survived. He could see her determined gaze that had met his when she realised that the only way to stop the Slitheen was to blow up Downing Street.
Aries had been so willing to sacrifice herself – just as much as he was willing to do the same – if it meant that they put a stop to the Slitheens' idea of starting another World War.
His grip slackened from around Van Statten's throat.
No, she wouldn't want this.
Letting the man go, the Time Lord took a step away, his face twisting in disgust as Van Statten dropped to a heap on the floor; gasping for breath as he rubbed his red throat. He stared at the pathetic man for a moment longer before he turned on his heel and walked away, deciding on focusing his anger on something more proactive.
Stopping the one who had taken his Nesdra from him.
Aries may be dead, but there was still a Dalek alive. And there was no way in this universe or the next that the Doctor was going to allow the alien to leave the museum alive.
Rose glanced at Van Statten, who was still slumped against the wall as he continued to catch his breath before she followed after the Doctor, silently wondering what had happened since she had lost her phone. A feeling welled up in her chest at the thought that the Doctor had been so worried about her, though as she moved passed the screen that the Doctor had been watching, Rose paused when something caught her eye.
"Doctor," she called as she stepped towards the screen, seeing he Dalek on it along with-
The blonde scowled, unable to help herself as the feeling in her chest vanished the moment she recognised the red head standing beside the alien. How the hell is she here? Rose asked herself as she glared at the image on the screen. Or more specifically, Rieka. The blonde's view on the red head was somewhat clouded with irritation, having been annoyed when she realised that the woman seemed to know more about the Doctor than she did, even when it was clear that the Doctor had no idea who she was. But what had irked Rose more was that the moment that he had met the red head, it was as if Rose hadn't even existed.
The Time Lord in question turned to see what his companion wanted, only to notice what had caught her eye. "Aries," he breathed as he took an uncertain step towards the screen, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"Open the bulkhead, or the abomination dies," the Dalek stated, confusing everyone in the office, as well as Rieka herself.
The Doctor, however?
Well, he took no notice as he took a few more steps towards the screen, his eyes solely on Rieka as relief and joy spread through him. "You're alive," he exhaled heavily as he took another step closer, almost as if he was in a trance. He didn't see Rose's scowl, though if he had, the Time Lord probably wouldn't have even cared.
Aries – his Nesdra – was alive. And that was all that mattered to him.
"Can't get rid of me that easily," Rieka replied, her lip twitching upwards somewhat. Though her gaze flickered to the Dalek beside her, still rather uncertain as to what the alien was after. The witch felt as though she was in uncharted territory after its outburst about being contaminated, and was rather wary as to the Dalek's motives.
"I thought you were dead," the Time Lord replied, and it had Rieka looking back to him, a confused expression appearing on her face momentarily before it was gone.
"Open the bulkhead!" the Dalek exclaimed, cutting off their reunion and reminding the Doctor that they weren't out of danger yet. That she wasn't safe.
"Doctor, don't!" Rieka quickly interjected, shaking her head, "You open that bulkhead, and there's no telling what a mutated Dalek would do."
The Doctor's mouth was open, about to retort that he wouldn't leave her with the alien, but there was something about Rieka's words that had him pausing. A mutated Dalek? he thought, thinking that Daleks had been mutated enough to become nothing but blobs of slimy skin, tentacles and hatred crammed into a salt shaker. Though the Time Lord's eyes widened minutely when he realised that something more – if his Nesdra's expression was to go by – had occurred when the Dalek had used Rose's DNA to save itself. Something that even the Dalek hadn't anticipated.
But that realisation came with the possibility that the Dalek was even more dangerous than it was before.
As if the Dalek could sense the Doctor's internal struggle, it said something that had the Time Lord growing surprised, as well as concerned.
"What use are emotions if you will not save the hybrid you care about?"
It was the second time that someone had brought up the assumption that his Nesdra wasn't human – well, fully human – and although the Doctor was curious to know what both the Slitheen and the Dalek meant, he knew that now wasn't the time to ponder such things. The Daleks words had, however, confirmed what Rieka had hinted at; telling him that the alien had indeed been more affected by absorbing his companions DNA to heal itself.
The Time Lord glanced around to the others in the room, internally rolling his eyes when he caught sight of the scowl that was on Rose's face before he turned his attention back to the screen. The pair were still standing there, both waiting to see what the Doctor was going to do, but he felt torn. If he opened the bulkhead, there was no telling if it would kill Rieka the moment it was free. And even despite her odd ability, the Time Lord highly doubted that she would survive another confrontation with the alien.
But if he didn't, he could lose her anyway.
It was his hearts that made the choice for him, and the Doctor looked to his Nesdra with an expression that she wasn't too certain what to make of; willing her to understand his decision. "I'm sorry," he said before moving to the computer. He glanced back to the screen and saw his Nesdra's eyes widen the moment she realised what he was going to do, and continued before she could say anything. "I can't lose you," he admitted, causing Rieka's mouth to snap closed and her eyebrows to crease in confusion.
He left her no time to think over his admission, hitting the return key on the keyboard and the bulkhead on the screen started to rise. Rieka gave the Doctor one last confused glance before she was forced to walk through the now opened corridor; the Dalek right behind her.
The moment she disappeared from the screen; the Doctor's eyes dropped as he hoped that he had made the right decision. Though the Time Lord knew that there had been no way he was going to leave his Nesdra locked in the Vault with the Dalek – even if it was changing.
Rose watched the Doctor with a frown, not having thought he would have let the Dalek go free. She felt that small bubble of jealousy in her gut grow at the thought of him doing it to save the red head, but she pushed it back down with a thought, knowing – from what she had seen in the past – that the Doctor wasn't the type of person to let someone get hurt if he could stop them. Though a part of Rose, a side that she didn't want to acknowledge, felt that she would have been happy to leave the alien trapped in the Vault with Rieka.
"What do we do now? You bleeding heart, what the hell do we do?" Van Statten questioned, his voice a little scratchy, though desperate as he looked to the Doctor.
"We kill it when it gets here," the Time Lord replied rather coldly, levelling his hard gaze at Van Statten that had the man taking a step away from him.
His words also had Rose blinking, startled by what he had said. Apart from when he had let Cassandra die on their first trip, she had assumed that the Doctor would have been the last person that would want to kill anyone. And although she knew a little about the Time War and what the Doctor had lost, the blonde was getting the feeling that it wasn't only the Dalek that had him acting this way.
"All the guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the Vault," Goddard spoke up, having stayed silent since the Doctor had – rightfully so – shoved her boss against the wall. The woman felt as though Van Statten had deserved what he had gotten, and could tell that whoever the red head had been, the Doctor clearly felt something for her.
Adam cleared his throat, causing the others to glance at him curiously. "Only the catalogued ones," he informed them, offering his boss an apologetic smile when Van Statten raised an eyebrow.
Rieka frowned, trying not to fidget as she kept her gaze on the lift doors in front of her. The pair were in the lift, taking it up to Van Statten's office, and the atmosphere, for the witch at least, was filled with tension. Her eyes darted to the alien when she noticed its laser arm twitch, and the red head couldn't help but wonder if it could feel the tension as well.
It felt as though it was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Or a dagger, the red head mused, her mind drifting to a certain box that sat in her lab. Though she was quick to shake the thought away, knowing that there was nothing she could do about them now. And it wasn't as though I was actually looking for trouble.
Instead of mulling over the could-haves, Rieka instead took another glance at the Dalek beside her before asking, "What do you plan to do when you get up there?" and having to quickly move out of the way when the Daleks' eyepiece spun around to look at her.
There was a pause before the Dalek spoke, and Rieka's eyebrows furrowed once again as she could hear the confusion that coloured its tone.
"I... do not know."
"Well, I hope you don't plan on killing them," the red head stated, before quickly adding, "Because for whatever reason, you didn't kill me."
"But why not?" the Dalek asked, its voice raising a few octaves, "Why are you alive? My function is to kill. What am I? What am I?"
Rieka frowned when she felt a small twinge of sympathy for the alien. The Dalek may be one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, but a small part of the red headed witch felt sorry for the alien. Sure, it may have used Rose to heal itself, may have even killed people, but so had Rieka. She wasn't innocent when it came to taking a life, and although their circumstances may be vastly different, the witch could understand that it was frightened and confused.
It hadn't known that in absorbing Rose's DNA, it would be absorbing so much more than the energy required to regenerate itself. The Dalek had no idea what to think, or even do about the emotions that were probably overwhelming it, but Rieka also understood that she would need to tread carefully. It was becoming something new – unknown – and the red head didn't know if that would make the alien more dangerous than before.
"I don't know," she finally admitted.
And her words were the truth.
She didn't know.
Rose watched the Doctor, a small frown on her face as the Time Lord continued to rummage through a basket of Adam's un-catalogued weapons. The moment that Adam had led them to his office, it was the first thing the Doctor had done, and although Rose wanted to ask him why he had attacked Van Statten, the blonde thought better of it.
And it wasn't as though she expected the Doctor to tell her why, seeing that the moment he had opened the bulkhead he hadn't said a word to anyone, and Rose felt both confused and jealous at the words he had spoken before falling into silence.
"Broken," the man in question's voice sliced through her musings as he tossed a weapon aside before quickly moving on to the next. "Broken," he repeated, doing the same thing as the one prior before pulling out another. "Hairdryer," he commented with a roll of his eyes. That one too joined to others on the bench.
"Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of the staff," Adam explained, though the Time Lord had no idea why as he continued with his search, ignoring the younger man. "And when he does, he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."
A scoff escaped the Doctor as he discarded another unusable weapon to the side, and he barely glanced over his shoulder as he said, "What, you in a fight? I'd like to see that."
"I could do," Adam replied rather tersely, offended by the Time Lord's words.
Rolling his eyes again, the Doctor went back to his search, looking for a weapon that he knew would be suitable for taking a Dalek down. "What are you going to do, throw you're a-levels at 'em?" he retorted sarcastically before his eyes fell upon a weapon that was exactly what he was looking for. "Oh, yes," he said, pulling out a large gun that had Rose's eyes widening, "Lock and load."
