Ten watched this all with careful eyes. He did his very best to seem unconcerned. He had to be strong for them all, especially Donna and Emily.
"What does it do?" Emily asked, jumping right in. It made him so proud, but knew once again someone had been too much like him for their own good.
The closest Dalek seemed to consider her before it finally answered.
IT IS DEATH. ONE DROP ON ANY PLAN-ET WILL KILL EVERY-ONE
Emily raised her hand to scratch her face, seeming to be thinking. She was trying to find a way in, trying to figure out enough information to stop this. Three Doctors in the room, and somehow she thought this fell on her.
But in a way it did.
"So you are just going to commit genocide across the universe?" It was Donnas' turn to ask. She didn't sound surprised, but she knew that summed up the Daleks.
YES
"How? I mean how are you going to spread it?"
WE HAVE OPENED A PORTAL TO EVERY IN-HAB-ITED PLANET
"You see the problem though, don't you? Emily asked.
Everyone's eyes were now on her, even the Daleks eye stalk.
PROB-LEM? THERE IS NO PROB-LEM.
Emily made a face. She was lying, Ten knew she was lying, but she said it in a way that was very convincing. As if she could really see the Daleks big mistake.
"Well, of course there is. You can see it right, Doctor?"
She didn't specify which she was talking to, but they all agreed at once.
"Big problem," Ten agreed, still trying to protect her.
NO PROB-LEM.
The Dalek managed to sound a little pouty, like a child who was told no. Or maybe that was just how he chose to hear it.
"Fine, on your head…or whatever you have…" Emily shrugged it off, and looked around the room casually.
After a long time, in which he imagined three by-passes where forced to be used by breath holding the Dalek approached her.
YOU WILL SHOW US THE PROB-LEM
"I thought there wasn't one," Emily remarked.
"Em," Ten shook his head, "maybe don't push it."
She looked at him, "Only Mum calls me Em."
He shrugged. She wasn't upset, just confused. He knew. But it wasn't time for the big reveal just yet. He could only hope that there would be time.
YOU WILL SHOW US
"Fine," Emily acted like she was conceding with a long sigh. "But I need their help to fix it. All of them."
YOU WILL FIX IT
"That's what she said, isn't it?" Nine growled.
Ten felt for him. He was so broken still, so fresh from the war, and it was killing him. He wouldn't remember this though, not until standing here as ten, and again at eleven.
That Dalek he would see in that bunker would be the first in his mind.
It was a small gift, but one all the same.
With a push of a button the force field cells fell from around them. Emily walked over to the glass.
"That room, it's isolated. If there were a spill it wouldn't escape, right?"
YES
Emily simply nodded, and suddenly Ten could see the line end. It was only minutes away. He didn't have to look to understand what was about to happen.
Fortunately the Daleks still thought they were in control of the room.
She gave them all a look that would have to serve as goodbye. Ten looked to Donna who was somehow holding on to her emotions, and only took in a deep breath when Emily sealed her fate.
"I need in that room, they will fix the calculations from out here," she told the Dalek.
THERE IS NO MIS-TAKE IN THE
Emily interrupted, "Do you want me to fix it or not, oh, and by the way the price is immunity. You let us live."
It sounded like betrayal. It sounded like she was trading the universe for their lives, but she wasn't. She was doing what the Daleks expected.
If it was a real deal they would just kill them of course but it gave Emily a reason to be doing this. It seemed to be enough to convince the Daleks to open the door.
"Deal?" She persisted.
DEAL
The door was opened, and a single Dalek followed her into the room.
They were cut off from her by several doors and air locks.
It was time for those on the outside to get to work. Ten remembered that Nine manned the room, keeping them in, and finally venting it.
Ten would handle closing down the portals, and that left controlling the Daleks. Without words they fell into the spots where there were computer screens. They were being watched, but it didn't take long before Donna and Eleven had them blind and weaponless.
Donna was good at that.
"Well done," Ten praised. "All right, Doctor," he told Nine, "take care of them in there."
DW
"Emily," he spoke to her through an intercom.
"Yeah?"
"I need you to throw all those switches on the far wall to the right, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed. "Can we get them out first, Doctor?"
Nine swallowed. His finger was hovering over a button that would seal them in, that would cut them off until the virus was dissipated.
There really wasn't time. The Daleks were dangerous even in this state, and Ten was working quickly to shut off the portals.
But this was to be her last request; she wanted so much to do it.
"Okay, hurry," he agreed.
Ten spared only a look of thanks.
In a few seconds about half a dozen people left the room in a hurry, the Dalek was pushed out in the end, and then the door was closed again.
There were only two people left in the room- the man who had dared to look up at them before, and Emily. He wanted to tell her to leave it to him, but it was already done.
He didn't know why, but she had to be in that room.
"Ready?"
"Ready," she said- the sound of switches moving filled the quietness outside the room. "I love you. All of you."
"Love you too," Nine told her. He wondered how it had become true in such a short amount of time, but it was.
With a few buttons the sound of an alarm filled the room, and a large light began to flash red. In seconds the fluid would react with the air, and that would be it.
It would take hours to naturalize itself, enough time to kill a planet, and then it would simply be gone.
He could only hope it just stopped body functions, and left her whole. He didn't think he could handle something happening to her actual body, as silly as it seemed. She was gone either way.
He heard the hiss, but looking over he saw that the virus hadn't spilled over; he pushed some more buttons, but it wouldn't spill.
She would have to break the glass. They couldn't leave it here, someone would get their hands on it eventually, or it would leak out into space. That room was the only safe place for it to happen, and the only way it was going to happen was if she made it.
He couldn't do anything out here.
She seemed to understand, and looked around. She found a hammer, and she looked to the man in there. His light green eyes understood. Nine watched as he found another tool, and together they approached the glass.
He heard them count off, and on three they swung the tools. By that time all of them had gathered around the window. They watched the glass shatter, and the liquid turn to gas as it reached the outside air.
He saw Ten pull Donna to him, and Eleven pull River to him, and Nine felt all alone. But he stood and watched, because she was too much, too good, to have to die without a witness.
He watched their bodies fall, twitching until they were finally still. He placed a large hand on the glass and cried.