Etched In History
"It's All About Us…"
"What do you mean 'she's got two hearts'?"
"What else do you think I could possibly mean?"
"But-but that's impossible, yeah? That would mean that she's-"
"A Time Lord." The staccato tones that left Dalek Caan's vocal unit should have been full of wonder and a million happy questions, but the Doctor seemed almost scared by the prospect, and a dark shiver felt its way down Martha's spine. The two other, guarding Daleks then spun their eyestalks to face their leader as if in silent question. "She is complete and will now finish the manuscript! The human will wake her!"
Both other Daleks could have been described as speechless if they weren't so obviously static in their expression. One of them – it was impossible to tell them apart, after all – moved itself so it was at her head and then started a scanning procedure. "Bioscan correct. The DNA is Time Lord! Exterminate! Exterminate!"
"She will not be exterminated!" Dalek Caan's response was something else. What was going on? How did any of the Dalek's responses make sense? "The girl is important to us! There will be no extermination!"
"But she is a Time Lord!"
"You are forbidden to exterminate!"
The unnamed Dalek moved back a step, the eyestalk lowering itself for a moment in what must have been a gesture of respect. At exactly the same time, the two units replied to the command in unison. "We hear and obey!"
It must have been obvious on the faces of both the Doctor and Martha that they were surprised, but the last surviving member of the Cult of Skaro just ignored them, sight now focussed on the girl, still lying on the ground. Her breathing was deep and steady, almost as if she were in some kind of deep sleep. "Wake her!" Obediently, Martha had to comply, knowing that she was expendable in the Dalek's grand plan. What else could she really do? It would be better to just play along for the moment and see if an opportunity appeared a little later in the proceedings than give the Dalek a reason to kill her now.
Softly cupping Rynne's cheek, Martha whispered. "Rynne, are you okay? Rynne?" At first, there was nothing, so the medical student gave a small shake to her shoulder, trying again. Watching the girl intently, the dark skinned companion suddenly felt terribly inadequate in a space full of beings that she had never dreamed existed a year ago, confused about exactly what was going to happen. Glancing briefly at the Doctor for support, it was clear that he was still in shock, the mixture of joy and grave fear something awful to see in the Time Lord's eyes. "Rynne!" Even if the last was more a hiss than anything else, Martha kept trying. If she couldn't wake the girl up, then she had outlived her usefulness, and –
She wasn't about to keep thinking about what could be her demise. She just wasn't. Anyway, before Martha could worry about anything else, there was a noise from her new charge, as if she were just waking up from such a long night's sleep. "Wh-what?" Groggily, the student opened her eyes, exhaustion plain on her face as she tried to balance herself. Nothing made sense to her as memories from the hours before began to shift and sort themselves out a little more quickly. Like an icy bucket, the realisations of what had truly happened rushed through the girl's system, along with a wave of sensations that didn't make sense to her all at once. Letting out a moan, this was worse than any hangover that the girl had ever had, as if she could feel the entire world spinning beneath her feet. As her hands lifted to cover her now closed eyes, her face was contorted into a combination of pain and confusion, concentrating on something that she really couldn't understand. "No… no…"
Martha then looked back from Rynne, then to Jane, but the expression that haunted her the most was the Doctor's. It was almost as if he was unsure as to which emotion should be the one he should be feeling. A hand was clenched, resting on his chest where there must have been a gap in the centre of his binary cardiovascular system. His jaw was loose, where words should be flowing in his current silence. Tears fell down his cheeks of their own accord, the shock obvious. "A Time Lord." The Doctor repeated Dalek Caan's original diagnosis, leaning forward once more to check the pulse in Rynne's neck with his fingers. It was just as he expected, though, that unusual pattern beating through his own body, recognising it as a natural sound from his native planet. The fingers moved then to stroke the girl's hair, moving her hands from her face as she tried to cope with all of the new information in her mind. "Rynne. I'm here."
"Doctor… I can see…"
"Too much." Sighing, the Time Lord closed his own eyes at that point, his own system getting re-used to sensing another like himself. It was just the next step in admitting that he was no longer the only one. So much time had passed, forcing himself to live with the loss of his homeworld and his people that he could barely believe the events unfolding before him, almost thinking that he must be asleep, dreaming something impossible. Rynne allowed her own eyes to open then, blinking back to normal as she was becoming a touch more comfortable with the situation. Comfortable was probably a strong word, though she had been exposed to so much in the past few days, it was doubtful that there was anything that had happened that had really sunken in for her, the information staying at the surface until the true acceptance came later on.
Her hand moving, holding the Doctor's, they just looked at each other, their gazes filled with the same terror and uncertainty as the other. That originally forbidden touch had become a lifeline, with the Doctor holding onto the last surviving part of his planet's bloodline, along with Rynne knowing that he was the only one that would ever be able to understand her. "It's all about us, isn't it?" He said nothing in reply, although the girl didn't need the answer. Her gaze then travelled around the room, seeing Jane still shaking, with Martha still beside her, concerned. The Daleks were perfectly still and silent for the moment, and there was something that gave Rynne a new sense of courage near them. If that was an inherited memory from her true heritage or a symptom of her completely losing it was unclear, though. Lowering her voice, the girl looked right back at the Doctor, giving his hand a squeeze. "We're the only ones in the room that know what they want to know, aren't we?" A nod, and Rynne gave a shake of her head. "But… but we can't. If what I see – what I think I know – is real, then they could take over everything!"
"And they will. But you have no choice. If you don't, they'll start killing, and the killing won't stop. As long as they don't hurt you, you could be waiting forever, the Daleks wiping out race after race, blaming you for it all." His voice became much more gravelly because of the emotion, although his tears were now restricted to just building up in his eyes.
Slowly sitting up, Rynne looked at Dalek Caan. "I can't carry on now, not after all of this."
A few moments passed, and Caan finally replied. "You will carry on, or your friends will die." It was so matter-of-fact, it could have been discussing something bland and boring.
"I need to rest! Didn't you just see that? And… and I can't concentrate on anything. Wouldn't you… wouldn't you want all of the writing to be accurate?"
Turning the eyestalk, the Dalek looked up and down, seeing the despair evident in the room. It presumed that their spirits had already been broken, and escape was impossible, considering the amount of Dalek drones that it had created using his superior intellect and imagination. "You will be permitted to sleep. Then you will complete the manuscript!" Pausing, Caan swivelled its head to the two guarding monstrosities beside him. "Take the prisoners to rest. Keep them under surveillance. The Time Lords will be brought to me in six hours."
The Dalek moved away, with the two right beside the small group forcing them back out of the control room and into a the corridor. The prisoners were caught, the plan was set, and there was no way out. What was worse, the fact that the Doctor and Rynne would be used for information in the morning, or the fact that it sounded as if the Time Lords were the only useful beings in the Daleks' cells? After all of the centuries, the Doctor knew that the malevolent machines never kept anything that was of no use to them, and lives meant nothing…
A/N: Sorry about the delay on this latest chapter... you know, extra reading and reviews make me work faster... :P