IMPORTANT: THIS IS AN ALTERNATE ENDING. It diverts from Part Four of Viera, my main Doctor Who project. If you haven't read that then this won't make a whole lot of sense.
Supplemental Soundtrack:
Alt 4:3 - End of the Crucible: "Tip of the Spear" by Epic Score
ALTERNATE PART FOUR – JOURNEY'S END
Diversion Three - Sacrifice
"Enough," echoed the voice of the Supreme Dalek over the ship's speakers. "Engage defense zero-five."
"Transmit engaged!" another Dalek replied. Light engulfed the group and they were snatched from where they stood. Energy fizzled through Viera's body; she could feel it carrying her away. The Daleks… Viera panicked and instinctually threw all her might into pulling away. The transmat fought against her, but she'd been built to force energy to her bidding.
The beam shifted in the wake of her influence and released her. Viera dropped to the cold metal floor of the Crucible, far away the others. Alone. She stayed there on her hands and knees, shaking as she tried to catch her breath. There weren't any Daleks in sight, but Viera didn't know how long it might take them to find her. She was alone and unarmed and the universe was about to end. It was almost too surreal to be truly terrifying. Almost.
You can't afford to fall apart right now, Viera chided herself, tamping down the nearly overwhelming urge to find a vent a just go into hiding until it was all over. If that was the Daleks' doing then it's safe to assume the others were captured. Donna and the TARDIS are around here somewhere, but the Daleks know what room they're in. Donna's only safe if she stays trapped. So unless the Doctor had some brilliant plan up his sleeve that he forgot to mention, I'm the only one who can stop this. Brilliant. Hysterical laughter bubbled up in her throat; Viera shoved the back of her knuckles against her mouth to hold it in. Oh God, help me.
Viera struggled to her feet and leaned against the wall, looking around for anything to give her an idea. Her gaze fell on the thick routing cords lining one wall the same moment the ship began to vibrate. The building power hummed beneath her skin as the planets aligned and the Crucible began pulling in the power. The energy poured into receivers all over the ship, which then channeled into thicker cords like the ones built into the wall of Viera's corridor. Those, in turn, lead straight to the weapon, the Reality Bomb.
Something akin to horror closed up her throat as realization settled in, making it hard to breathe. Viera knew what she had to do. She also knew it would kill her.
Viera didn't have time to second guess herself or look for another option. She could feel the power gaining strength behind the casing of the cords in a quickly rising flood. It made her feel sick and jittery and she hadn't even touched it yet. Panic rose as Viera stared at the thick plastic casing. She didn't have any way to break through it. Her plan nearly died before it had begun, but as Viera patted down her pockets, praying for something, anything sharp enough to cut through it, her hand fell on the pendant hidden beneath her shirt. Viera pulled out the Obetovat Stone and stared at it.
It was her salvation and her destruction. A surge of power that made her stomach turn shook Viera abruptly from her contemplation. She fumbled with the tiny latch that held the sharp, triangular shards in place with fingers made clumsy by adrenaline. Please give me strength. Let this work. I don't want to die for nothing, Viera prayed as one of the shards finally slid free. She braced the wide end against the curve of her fingers and before fear could stop her, she plunged the shard into one of the cords.
It was worse than Nenavist, worse than her experience in the vent. There was so much power. It was impossible to hold it back once she was connected. In white-hot waves of raging energy it began to eat away at the channels burned into Viera's body. She let it. Like a reed bending in the wind, accepting the destruction was the only way to keep from being torn away completely. Her power channels overflowed and the energy ripped apart every cell in its wake. Viera couldn't breathe. Bright pain flared everywhere the energy spilled out, but a tingling numbness soon followed.
The Obetovat blazed against her chest as it consumed far more energy than it could handle.
Viera's body burned away, vibrant energy taking the place of every physical cell. It was all over in an instant. The pain, the fear, the doubt was washed away. Viera was calm, confident, unwavering in her power. There was no more adrenaline to make her heart stutter. There was no more heart to falter anyways. Viera was peace and purpose and little else. Coursing white energy coiled and crackled into a human shape, only held together by the strength of her mind and force of will. For the moment, at least, she was a being of pure energy, and the Crucible was hers to command.
The Reality Bomb shut down with an unspoken command. The power of twenty seven planets suddenly had no purpose; it fed into the core of the ship and Viera felt the Crucible shudder. She couldn't disperse the energy, couldn't save the ship even if she'd wanted to. The Daleks were about to fall prey to their own destructive ambitions. Viera couldn't bring herself to care, genocide or not; the universe was better off without them.
Her friends, on the other hand, could not be allowed to perish with them.
Viera reached deeper into the Crucible's programing, barely feeling the Daleks' attempts to firewall their systems. She shut them out with a flicker of thought. The force fields holding the Doctor and Rose captive vanished as their power was cut off. The Daleks were drained of power well before they could fire, rendered helpless. Davros as well. The only remaining threat to her friends was the self-destructing ship.
With a faint smile Viera reached for the TARDIS.
Davros was reveling in his victory. "The final prophesy is in place. The Doctor and his children all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek... the time has come!" he shouted, almost shaking with excitement. "Now, detonate the Reality Bomb!"
"You can't, Davros!" the Doctor shouted desperately, pleading. He was helpless, trapped in the force field. "Just listen to me! Just stop!"
Davros only laughed, his voice wild with triumph and insanity. "Nothing can stop the detonation! Nothing! And no one!"
Just then the Crucible gave a massive shudder. An alarm went off overhead, then cut off abruptly before it could even reach full volume. Everyone looked a bit startled at the sudden interruption. Without warning the holding cells flickered blue briefly before blinking out of existence. The Doctor stumbled forward as the ship rocked again, startled to find himself free.
"Impossible," Davros stuttered as Rose waved a hand in front of him to find that her cell was gone too. "Stop them! Exterminate!" Davros ordered the Daleks, frantically pointing at the Doctor.
He braced himself as their weapons turned toward him with cries of "exterminate!"
"No!" Rose shouted helplessly.
Nothing happened. The Dalek's weapons flailed ineffectually. Rose ran to the Doctor and gripped his hand.
"What are you doing?" Davros demanded. "Kill them!"
"Malfunction!" one of the Dalek bleated, sounding as frightened as a Dalek could. "Weapons systems offline."
With a fierce grin Jack kicked one of the Daleks guarding them out of the way. It was sent spinning towards the wall, no longer able to control its own navigational systems. Jack ran to the Doctor and Rose, the others following.
"What's going on?" Rose asked, but the Doctor had no answer.
The holographic screen flared into life, showing the Supreme Dalek. "The Reality Bomb has been compromised. The Crucible will self-distruct."
"Shut it down!" Davros shouted.
"We cannot. The systems have locked. There is no escape, for anyone." The Supreme Dalek seemed to find pleasure in the fact that at least those in the vault would die with them.
The Doctor and his companions were looking at each other with mingled disbelief, hope and fear. The Daleks and Devros were momentarily ignored.
"This your doing, Doctor?" Jack questioned, half grinning.
The Doctor shook his head, just as puzzled as the rest of them. "I've no idea what's going on," he admitted, still clutching Rose's hand.
"We can figure out the hows and whys later," Martha broke in. "Is there any way to get off this ship?"
The Doctor looked frustrated as he thought up ideas and discarded them just as quickly. "The TARDIS is onboard but with the systems going haywire we've no way to find it."
Sarah Jane was more worried about her son. "What about the planets? What happens to them?"
The Doctor never had a chance to speculate an answer. The blessedly familiar sound of TARDIS materialization had them all spinning around.
"I've never been so happy to see a big blue box in my life," Mickey breathed as it landed without a hitch. They ran to it, the Doctor reaching his ship first.
"Oh, you beautiful thing," he gasped, running one hand over the door as he scrambled for his key with the other. He didn't need it. The door was flung open from the inside and there Donna stood.
"What are you lot waiting for?" she demanded. "Get inside!"
"Did you do this?" Rose asked as they filed inside.
"Not me," Donna replied.
The Doctor was the last to enter. He tried to get Davros to come with him, but the mad man turned down his offer venomously. The Doctor didn't have time to argue. He rushed inside the ship and headed straight for the console. The TARDIS shook as the Crucible gave a threatening rumble.
"Let's get out of here!" Martha urged.
"We can't," the Doctor gritted out. "Viera's still somewhere on this ship." Surprise and worry crept across Donna's expression. He flipped a dozen switches in quick succession, searching for Viera's life signs. "We can't leave her behind."
"Yes you can," Viera's quiet voice came from the speakers inside the TARDIS. The Doctor looked up to see the monitor showing video of a woman made of crackling white energy. Her 'skin' glowed, the surface constantly shivering with minute flickers of lightning. Even her eyes burned white. She retained Viera's shape, but there was nothing else human about her.
"Of course we can't," Donna denied.
The Doctor's expression twisted in pain as his brain processed a truth he wasn't quite ready to accept. "You're coming with us," he stated, tone brooking no argument. "Where are you? We'll come pick you up."
"I'm sorry, Doctor, Donna. It's too late. I am already dead," Viera stated calmly. Her voice was filled with sympathy rather than fear. "This is all that is left of me. I will not last. I am the power of twenty seven planets. I am the Crucible. I cannot leave. We will die together, the ship and I."
"The planets," Sarah Jane interrupted, looking pained at Viera's loss but no less determined.
"I will send them home," Viera promised. Even as she spoke another monitor flickered on, showing the planets vanishing one by one, returning to the systems they'd been stolen from. The TARDIS shuddered violently again.
"Viera, don't do this," Donna begged. "Come with us. The Doctor can fix you. Right, Doctor?" She turned to him with desperate hope, but he couldn't answer. Rose slipped her hand back into his, offering what comfort she could.
Viera already knew he couldn't. "You must leave," she repeated, insistence overtaking the calm in her voice. "I can't hold it back much longer. You have to go now." She could see the pained reluctance in the Doctor's expression, but she knew how to get around that. "It is not just your life at stake, Doctor. Save your companions," Viera urged. "Leave."
"I'm sorry," the Doctor breathed. Viera gave a soft, understanding smile before the monitor went black. The Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS was away.
They rematerialized a safe distance away. The Medusa Cascade was empty except for the single Dalek ship at its center.
"We have to go back," Donna gasped. Tears slipped unbidden from her eyes. "There has to be a way to save her."
The Doctor's expression was tormented as he stared at the console, his mind scrambling desperately for a plan. There wasn't time. The Crucible exploded with enough force to rip it apart completely. There was nothing left of the ship outside, not even rubble. The whole thing had been vaporized.
"No," Donna whimpered, covering her mouth. She slumped onto the bench and stayed there as the Doctor put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. He looked tired, one more loss weighing on her shoulders. Rose ducked under the Doctor's free arm to give him a tight hug. His expression didn't change but he clung to her like a man drowning.
"She saved everyone," Jack observed quietly, caught somewhere between attempting to comfort and shell-shock as he sat beside Donna. She stared at him, crying for a moment, then let him pull her into a hug. He looked over her shoulder to share a weary glance with the Doctor. They'd both lost a lot of people over the years; it was hard not to feel them all with every new loss.
The group was silent for several minutes, still trying to process everything. Finally the Doctor took a deep breath and let Rose go to reach for the controls.
"Let's get you home," he murmured.
The TARDIS dematerialized and the Medusa Cascade was left in stillness. There was no one there to see a ghostly strand of white light slip into the rift and disappear.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One more chapter to go.
