Souls Revealed
It took all of Caroline's strength not to collapse because her leg felt like it was about to fall apart, but it was easier because she wasn't focusing on the pain, not really, she was focusing on the Doctor and the golden light streaming from him.
And how he was turning, redirecting the energy towards his spare hand, letting it all get absorbed and him fall back, shaking slightly, cracking his neck, and look up at them with a grin. "Now then. Where were we?" The four of them could just stare in shock. The Doctor bent down to the hand, which was glowing now. "There now." He blew on it and the glowing stopped, letting him stand again. "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to." He shrugged. "Why would I? Look at me. So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand." He pointed at it again. "My hand there. My handy spare hand." He looked at Rose. "Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"
Rose stepped forward slowly, studying the Doctor carefully. "You're still you?"
He nodded. "I'm still me."
Rose hugged him tightly, and they stood like that for a few seconds, just hugging, before they stepped apart and the Doctor looked towards Caroline, who'd completely forgotten her leg. His look earned her a glare from Rose, though no one but Donna actually noticed it. "Caroline," the Doctor said, holding out a hand, and Caroline stepped forward and took it, stepping closer. "Are you all right?"
She touched the side of his face gently, just with her fingerprints. "I knew it…"
He frowned. "What?"
"You're a member of a highly advanced alien race that can live for centuries, and you have a time machine." She grinned. "I was almost certain you had a way to cheat death."
The Doctor laughed. "Brilliant Caroline." Then they hugged and Caroline didn't care about Rose's expression. The only thing that mattered was that the Doctor hadn't died.
They were forced to step apart when the power was suddenly cut in the TARDIS. Caroline stepped back to let the Doctor have full control of the TARDIS console. "They've got us," he said, flipping switches. "Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop."
The TARDIS tilted to the side suddenly, throwing them all that direction, though the Doctor held onto the console. Jack pulled himself back up. "There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets," he told all of them. "They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."
"You said these planets were like an engine," Donna called. "But what for?"
"Rose," the Doctor turned to her, "you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was this?"
"It's the darkness."
Donna nodded. "The stars were going out."
"One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this…er…this travel machine, this…this, er…dimension cannon, so I could," she paused. "Well, so I could…"
The Doctor frowned, raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"So I could come back!" The Doctor's expression changed, and even Caroline didn't quite understand it. "Shut up," Rose said, before continuing. "Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."
"In the parallel world," Caroline said, making Rose look at her, "you said something about Donna and the timelines." She'd been able to pay enough attention to hear that, but not enough that she fully understood it.
Rose looked, momentarily, like she'd forgotten Caroline had been in that world, that Rose had gone to find her, though for what reason Caroline didn't know. "The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's…it's weird, Donna," she turned to the woman, "but they all seemed to converge on you."
"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick."
The scanner beeped and the Doctor glanced at it. "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard." He turned back to his companions as they heard a Dalek shouting outside. "We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in."
Rose frowned. "You told me nothing could get through those doors."
Jack nodded. "You've got extrapolator shielding."
"Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISes, they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood."
Jack turned to Rose. "What about your dimension jump?"
"It needs another twenty minutes." Rose straightened her back. "And anyway, I'm not leaving."
"What about your teleport?" the Doctor asked Jack.
"Went down with the power loss."
The Doctor nodded. "Right then. All of us together. Yeah." He looked towards Donna, who was staring at something, but when they followed her gaze there was nothing there. "Donna? Donna?"
She turned back to them, blinking. "Yeah."
"I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."
Donna nodded. "No, I know."
The Doctor turned to face the door, all of his companions, minus Donna, walking forward to stand beside him. "Daleks," Rose said quietly, laughing shakily.
"Oh, God."
The Doctor took a deep breath, turning back around to look at all of them. "It's been good, though, hasn't it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did." He looked at Donna. "You were brilliant." And Caroline. "And you were brilliant." And Jack. "And you were brilliant." And, finally, Rose. "And you were brilliant. Blimey." With a final breath, he turned back to the door and opened it, leading the way out of the TARDIS.
"Daleks reign supreme!" a Dalek called once they spotted the Doctor. "All hail the Daleks!"
"Daleks reign supreme," the other Daleks caught up the chant. "All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!"
The Doctor looked up at the ship and all the Daleks above them. "Behold, Doctor," the first Dalek said. "Behold the might of the true Dalek race."
He turned back around to look at the TARDIS and frowned, seeing Donna still inside. "Donna! You're no safer in there." But just as he spoke, just as Donna looked up at him, the doors to the TARDIS slammed shut. Immediately, he ran back to it. "What?"
"Doctor?" the companions could just hear Donna's voice coming from inside the TARDIS. "What have you done?"
"It wasn't me. I didn't do anything!"
"Oi! Oi, I'm not staying behind!"
The Doctor turned back to face the Dalek, glaring. "What did you do?"
"This is not of Dalek origin."
"Doctor!"
"Stop it! She's my friend. Now open the door and let her out!"
The Dalek didn't care. "This is Time Lord treachery."
The Doctor frowned. "Me? The door just closed on its own."
"Nevertheless, the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed." Below the TARDIS, a hole opened up and it fell through.
"What are you doing? Bring it back! What have you done? Where's it going?"
"The Crucible has a heart of Z-neutrino energy. The TARDIS will be deposited into the core."
The Doctor shook his head. "You can't. You've taken the defenses down. It'll be torn apart!"
Rose stepped forward. "But Donna's still in there!"
"Let her go!"
The Dalek didn't care. "The female and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe. The last child of Gallifrey is powerless." A holographic screen appeared before them, showing an image of the TARDIS bobbing in the core, Donna trapped inside.
The Doctor stared at the image in horror. "Please. I'm begging you. I'll do anything! Put me in her place. You can do anything to me, I don't care, just get her out of there!"
"You are connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die."
"Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels," another Dalek said. Caroline stepped forward, taking the Doctor's hand. "Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."
And the TARDIS was gone. "The TARDIS has been destroyed. Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"
The Doctor nodded, his jaw clenched, and he tightened his grip on Caroline's hand. "Yeah."
"Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?"
"Yeah?" Jack called. "Feel this!" he pulled out a small revolver and shot the Dalek, though the blast just bounced off the shell.
"Exterminate!" the Doctor didn't flinch when the Dalek fired on Jack, making the human scream in pain.
Immediately Rose ran towards Jack's limp body, grabbing him. The Doctor held Caroline tightly, quietly whispering, so quiet that the Daleks wouldn't be able to hear, that he would be fine, he promised that Jack would be fine. Once she nodded he stepped away to take Rose's shoulders, needing to guide her away. "Rose, come here. Leave him."
"They killed him."
The Doctor nodded. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Escort them to the Vault," the Dalek said.
"There's nothing we can do." The Doctor brought Rose beside Caroline, all of them turning to be escorted by a group of Daleks out of the room. He touched Caroline's back as he neared her, glancing over his shoulder back at Jack, and Caroline had to fight doing the same.
"They are the playthings of Davros now."
|C-S|
The Daleks escorted them deep within the ship until they reached a dark room. The Doctor barely removed his hand from Caroline's back and the woman knew that Rose kept looking at them in slight confusion. They hadn't really had a chance to talk in the parallel world, since soon after Rose managed to find her Donna decided she was ready. She had no idea how much the woman knew about her.
Caroline knew that, once, the Doctor and Rose had had a relationship. He, and Martha, had made that quite clear, even if he hadn't intended it. But Rose had been lost to a parallel world and the Doctor had been certain he would never see her again. He had mourned her, he had suffered, but he had healed.
And now Rose was back and they had barely spoken. There was no clue about what their relationship would be like now, not that they really had the chance to develop anything, fighting the Daleks and all.
But Caroline didn't know what Rose felt now. She didn't know what Rose wanted, or what Rose expected. Because it had been years since she had seen the Doctor, they were both different.
She was almost certain, though, that Rose still felt a claim over the Doctor. She could see it in the woman's expression, that possessiveness over the Doctor. Caroline knew it, she recognized it. She felt it, especially with Rose there.
She'd never actually felt it before. But now, facing down Rose, facing down all of this danger, she couldn't help but feel glad that the Doctor was gravitating towards her.
But she'd never admit it.
Once they reached the Vault, the Daleks separated the three of them. They stood in silence for a moment, looking towards Davros, before he spoke. "Activate the holding cells." Bright spotlights turned on above each of them. "Excellent." Davros wheeled forwards. "Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained."
"Still scared of me, then?" the Doctor reached out and touched the edge of the light, exactly what Caroline had been about to do, to reveal the invisible wall.
"It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long."
"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor shook his head. "We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison." His eyes widened. "You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?"
"We have…an arrangement."
"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor laughed. "No, I've got the word. You're the Dalek's pet!" Caroline eyed the Doctor, wondering if Rose was doing the same behind her, because the Doctor was baiting Davros. The Doctor was angry, he was getting dangerous.
"So very full of fire, is he not?" Davros asked, rolling closer to Rose. "And to think you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find him again."
"Leave her alone," the Doctor called.
"She is mine to do as I please." Davros turned to look at Caroline. "And you, so quiet, the one he turns to when he suffers, a mystery of the universe."
Before Davros could continue, the Doctor called again, "leave her alone!"
Davros chuckled and Caroline straightened her back. "Why are we still alive?"
"You must be here. It was foretold. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan." Davros pressed a button on his machine, lighting up where Dalek Caan was sitting, looking much the same as when they had seen in on the broadcast.
"So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames."
"What is that thing?" Rose asked.
"You've met before." The Doctor turned back to look at her. "The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War, unprotected."
"Caan did more than that. He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you." Davros looked between the three of them. "All three of you."
"This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die." Dalek Caan ended with a laugh, gleeful and horrible.
"Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna? Why did the TARDIS door close? Tell me!"
Davros laughed at him. "Oh, that's it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is." The Doctor clenched his fists. "Why so shy? Show your companions. Show them your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that too."
"I have seen! At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed."
The Doctor frowned. "What does that mean?"
"We will discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins." Davros turned to roll away.
"Testing of what?"
"The Reality bomb."
"Testing calibration of Reality Bomb," a Dalek announced, the prisoners in the Vault hearing it being projected throughout the ship. "Firing in ten rels, nine, eight, seven…"
"Behold," Davros said, pressed a button on his control panel, activating another holographic screen that showed people, humans, in a testing chamber, "the apotheosis of my genius."
"Two, one, zero. Activate planetary alignment field."
The Doctor's eyes widened as he watched the screen. "That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string. No, Davros." He tried to step forward, stopped by the cell walls. "Davros, you can't! You can't! No!"
As they watched, all of the people in the cell were vaporized, turning into light that faded into the air.
"Doctor," Caroline asked, staring at the empty screen, "what happened?"
The Doctor couldn't answer. But Davros could. "Electrical energy, Miss Attwater. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."
"The stars are going out," Rose said quietly.
"The twenty-seven planets, they become one vast transmitter…blasting that wavelength."
Davros nodded. "Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, ever parallel, every single corner of creation! This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"
Behind him, another holographic screen appeared; it was Martha. "This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat: can you hear me?"
The Doctor looked towards Davros. "Put me through."
"It begins as Dalek Caan foretold."
Dalek Caan laughed. "The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die."
"Stop saying that! Put me through!"
"Doctor!" Martha called. "I'm sorry, I had to."
Davros rolled forward. "Oh, but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent."
"I've got the Osterhagen Key." Martha held up a square. "Leave this planet and its people alone or I'll use it."
The Doctor frowned. "Osterhagen what? What's an Osterhagen Key?"
"There's a chain of twenty-five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I could use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart."
His eyes widened, and Caroline was horrified. "What? Who invented that?" he shrugged. "Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?"
Martha swallowed. "The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option."
He shook his head. "That's never an option."
"Don't argue with me, Doctor! Because it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty-seven planets for something. But what if it becomes twenty-six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"
Rose raised her eyebrows, nodding in surprise. "She's good."
Martha frowned, noticing Caroline and Rose there for the first time. "Who's that?"
"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler."
Martha's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "Oh, my God. He found you."
A second screen appeared, sliding Martha to the side, with Jack, Sarah Jane, a woman who vaguely looked like an older Rose, most likely her mother, and Mickey. Jack was in the center of the frame, holding up a necklace connected to a series of wires. "Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls. Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off."
Rose stepped forward, looking at Jack. "He's still alive. Oh, my God. That…that's my mum."
The Doctor nodded. "And Mickey. Captain, what are you doing?"
"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe. I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."
"You can't!" the Doctor paused. "Where did you get a Warp Star?"
Sarah Jane stepped forward. "From me. We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners."
Davros stared at Sarah Jane in shock. "Impossible. That face. After all these years."
"Davros." Sarah Jane nodded. "It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?"
"Oh, this is meant to be. The circle of Time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation."
"And I've learnt how to fight since then. You let the Doctor go, or this Warp Star, it gets opened."
Jack nodded. "I'll do it. Don't imagine I wouldn't."
Rose nodded, impressed. "Now that's what I call a ransom."
Caroline, however, turned and looked at the Doctor. He was shaking, practically vibrating, and she wanted nothing more than to take his hand because he was flexing his fist. "Doctor?"
He looked at her and Caroline had never seen so much guilt in the man's eyes.
"And the prophecy unfolds," Davros said, watching the Doctor with a grin.
"The Doctor's soul is revealed. See him! See the heart of him!"
"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."
"They're trying to help."
"Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."
The Doctor pulled his gaze from Caroline to look at Davros. "Who was that?"
"Harriet Jones," Rose said. "She gave her life to get you here."
"How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name? The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame." Davros lifted his chin. "This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."
Martha didn't wait long before speaking again. "It's the Crucible or the Earth."
But before either group could do anything, all five of them vanished in a blue light, reappearing in the vault. Martha stumbled, but Jack grabbed her. "I've got you. It's all right."
The Doctor reached for them. "Don't move, all of you. Stay still."
"Guard them!" Davros rolled forward. "On your knees, all of you. Surrender!"
The group looked to the Doctor. "Do as he says." They very clearly didn't want to, but they did, slowly, with grimaces.
"The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses." Davros rolled to the screen. "Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now…detonate the Reality bomb!"
"Activate planetary alignment field," the Dalek said. "Universal Reality detonation in two hundred rels."
"You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!"
Davros laughed maniacally. "Nothing can stop the detonation! Nothing and no one!"
He was interrupted by the very familiar sound of the TARDIS materializing, and everyone in the room turned to stare in shock.
"But that's…" the Doctor breathed.
"Impossible."
The TARDIS materialized fully, a bright light shining through the windows, and…the Doctor stepped out. But it wasn't the Doctor because the Doctor was right beside Caroline, the Doctor didn't know what was going on. And this man was holding a weapon.
He ran forwards, the Doctor reaching out to stop him, but not before Davros shot him, making him convulse and drop the gun.
"Activate holding cell." A cell appeared around the second Doctor, trapping him as well.
"Doctor!" Donna shouted, running out of the TARDIS, grabbing the device. "I've got it. But I don't know what to do!"
And then Davros shot Donna, sending her flying backward, the gun going in the other direction. "Donna! Donna! Are you all right, Donna?" the Doctor called, but the woman didn't answer.
"Destroy the weapon." A Dalek shot the device, frying it completely. "I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic."
Rose looked between the two men. "How comes there are two of you?"
"Human biological metacrisis. Never mind that. Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb."
"Stand witness, Time Lord. Stand witness, humans." Davros activated the hologram screen again, this time showing the twenty-seven stolen planets. "Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and…oh, the end of the universe has come!"
"Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."
But nothing happened. The screen flickered off and an alarm sounded, making everyone look around.
"Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop." It was Donna. Donna Noble, the one and only. "That button there."
"Donna," the Doctor said, eyes wide, "you can't even change a plug!"
She grinned. "Do you want to bet, Time Boy?"
"You'll suffer for this," Davros said, pointing towards her, but Donna just flicked another lever and sent the electrical shock back down his arm.
"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion."
"Exterminate her!"
"Exterminate." Daleks began to roll forwards, and Donna began to work much quicker. Caroline could just stare at her in shock. "Exterminate. Exterminate." And, again, nothing happened. "Weapons non-functional."
"Phwor. Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix."
The Doctor shook his head. "How did you work that out? You're…"
"Time Lord," the second Doctor said with a grin. "Part Time Lord."
"Part human. Oh, yes. That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna."
Caroline nodded. "The Doctor-Donna. The Ood said it, didn't they? They say it coming."
Donna messed with a few more things. "Holding cells deactivated. And seal the Vault." No one moved. "Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work!"
That snapped the two Doctors into motion and they ran to join Donna at the control panel. "Stop them!" Davros called. "Get them away from the controls."
Donna just smirked. "And…spin." All of the Daleks began to spin in circles, making all of the companions laugh. "And the other way!"
The second Doctor looked to Donna. "What did you do?"
"Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator."
"But that's brilliant!"
The Doctor frowned. "Why did we never think of that?"
"Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for me. Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship. Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute." Donna got to typing and the two Doctors got to helping in any way they could. Jack ran back into the TARDIS as Donna continued. "Come on then, boys. We've got twenty-seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron."
"Stop this at once!" Davros ordered, but Jack just ran back out of the TARDIS, guns in hand.
"Mickey!" he handed one to the man.
"You will desist!"
Mickey pointed his weapon directly at Davros. "Just stay where you are, mister."
A/N: A bit of a hint at Rose's feelings of Caroline here. It's sad we're almost at the end of this story, but I'm looking forward to the next one. Quite a lot happens in...Awake My Soul.
Look forward to that, and the final chapter of this, next week :)
