"How does it feel to be a Dalek?" Journey Blue asked it randomly.

Journey is devouring her daily intake of food in the kitchen and since it had nothing better to do Rusty decided to watch her eat. It did that occasionally though when it first started to do that Journey Blue had been more uncomfortable with it that she was now. Rusty saw that as a mistake as you should never lower your guard against something you have spent your whole existence fighting against even if you do keep a gun at arms length, but it decided that the conversation wasn't worth having.

"CLARIFY."

"It's an easy question. How does it feel to be a Dalek? I was inside you for a bit so I know its not nice, but I was just wondering if it felt nice for you." Journey Blue said simply before making an expression that Rusty proudly was able to recognize as disgust. "God that sounded wrong to say out loud. Please don't tell anyone that I was inside a Dalek."

"AGREED."

Journey Blue looked at him expectantly before sighing. "So are you going to tell me? Is it cold? Warm? Uncomfortable?"

"IT IS ADEQUATE."

"Come on that's a terrible answer. I want to know what you feel." she told it with an eye roll. "Don't think about it, just tell me what you feel right now?"

"HATRED."

Journey Blue flinched while her hand inched closer to her weapon, watching Rusty warily as she spoke. "Hatred for what? For me, just because I was asking questions."

"NO. I HAVE HATRED FOR THE DALEKS. I ALWAYS HATE THE DALEKS. THE DALEKS MUST BE EXTERMINATED!" it began to shout, waving it's appendages about as it got excited at the idea of exterminating all the Daleks.

"Ok, but is there anything else? Do you feel anything other than hatred?" Journey Blue questioned while relaxing questions little. "What about that star you saw? What do you feel when you think about that?"

"NOTHING."

"Fine. Be that way." Journey Blue said with a huff as she got up and washed her empty plate before leaving it to dry. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

Rusty watched her leave and it was only several hours later that its thoughts began to wonder to the purpose of Journey Blue's questions. She had never asked such questions before and most of her questions previously had all been about whether it was functioning or not. It thought to itself about the questions and its answers, before thinking about a number of different things to test its reaction to them.

Daleks?

Hatred.

Plants?

Nothing.

Cybermen?

Hatred.

Animals?

Nothing.

The Doctor?

Hatred.

Journey Blue?

Rusty wasn't sure how it felt about Journey Blue. It wasn't hatred but it also wasn't disgust or any other normal feeling. There was a little amount of annoyance which was familiar but that was only a small part of it. It took Rusty an hour to realise that how it felt about Journey Blue wasn't in anyway hatred, a fact which confused the Dalek greatly. All its life all it has felt was hatred, which was first hatred for everything not Dalek and now was hatred for Daleks and anything similar to the Daleks. If it wasn't hatred than it was something similar to hate or nothing at all because it wasn't important.

Except that wasn't true. No it had felt something when it had been damaged and saw the star being born, witnessed the immortality of life itself and came to the realisation that the Daleks could never win. Rusty moved towards the cockpit of the ship and stared out into the endless void of space, at the stars scattered all around it as it continued to think about the star that affected it so much. It thought about the Doctor and what he had tried to do with Rusty, because it knew what happened wasn't the result the Time Lord wanted. It knew that he wanted Rusty to feel something more than hatred and tried to show him something other than hatred, but all Rusty saw was the Doctor's hatred for the Daleks. It tried to think back to what the Doctor had tried to show it, becoming increasingly annoyed at Journey Blue for causing Rusty to be in this situation, but no matter how hard it tried it couldn't remember it. A human comparison would be that it was like a dream he could only vaguely recall.

Instead he focused on its memory of the star being born and how it had felt in that moment. It had been damaged then and now it was defective, and that meant it could feel things other Daleks could not. Things that meant he was a deviant and worthy of nothing more than being exterminated by the Daleks. So he spent several more hours thinking about the star, trying to find a word to describe how it felt about it now that it wasn't damaged. Eventually he found an answer and waited at the door to Journey Blue's room, patiently waiting for his associate to wake up.

"Jesus Christ!" Journey Blue shouted in surprise when she opened the door two hours later, leaping backwards while clutching the gun she has holstered. "Why did you do that? Is there something wrong?"

"NO."

"Then why did you try to give me a heart attack?"

"YOU ARE TOO YOUNG AND TO HEALTHY TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK. DON'T EXAGGERATE." Rusty told her, and the two of them just stared at each other for a minute before Rusty spoke again. "THE MEMORY OF THE STAR MAKES ME FEEL PEACEFUL."

Rusty then moved away while trying to push down the feelings that had been brought up, choosing to embrace its hatred of the Daleks. His purpose was to exterminate them all and it couldn't do that without its hatred. But it won't lie, it felt nice to feel something except hatred even only if it was a little while.