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The Majestic Tale (of a madwoman in a Dalek)
Part Two
Rory blinked.
And blinked again. What he was seeing didn't make any sense.
He was lying on a blank empty space, next to a still-unconscious Amy. And next to her, sitting on apparently nothing, was...
"Doctor!" he exclaimed.
The man in question gave him a small wave and a smile. "Hello, Rory."
"What- what are-"
"We doing here? Yes, that's a very good question. I missed you, Rory Pond." The Doctor gave him a wry grin. "You're the one with all the questions! Questions, questions, questions!"
"You're supposed to be the one with all the answers," Rory pointed out. "And you don't seem to be answering anything."
"Ah, yes. Answers." The Time Lord grimaced. "Unfortunately, today, I'm all out."
Amy stirred weakly on the ground, and moaned. Both of the men immediately rushed to her side.
"Amy?" Rory said gently. "Are you alright?"
She groaned, and mumbled something.
Rory and the Doctor glanced at each other.
"Sorry, what was that?" asked the Doctor.
"I said," Amy pulled herself quickly to her feet, and dragged herself back a few steps. "I will be, as soon as you get away from me!"
The Doctor looked hurt. "What did I do?"
Rory sighed, and sat down with a bump. "She's talking to me."
The Doctor snapped his fingers together a few times, glanced between Rory and Amy. "Lover's spat?"
"...you could say that," admitted Rory.
A large hole opened in the empty nothingness, admitting a single Dalek with green roundels and bronze metal in.
"You will come with us," it blared.
The Doctor didn't look at all surprised, only a bit grim. "Right then," he said, crossing his arms casually. "Take me to your leaders."
He didn't sound the least bit cheery about it.
"You knew that the Daleks were involved?" Amy asked, stumbling a little as she attempted to keep in pace with the Doctor's fast walk.
He kept his gaze focused on the Dalek in front of them. They were being led down a long hallway that was completely white, just like the room, and rather hard to see properly in. "Well, when an old friend requests to meet you on a Dalek planet, informs you that she needs help rescuing a friend from a Dalek prison camp, then turns out to be a Dalek herself... which, to be honest, wasn't very nice of her... yes, you could say that I knew they were involved."
The Dalek approached a pair of metal doors, crudely made, and out of place in the scene. It pressed its plunger against a pad, and the doors swung open.
"Geronimo," said the Doctor quietly, and followed the Dalek through the doors. Rory and Amy hurriedly followed.
Surprisingly, the Doctor didn't focus on the thousands upon thousands of Daleks arranged in neat little lines on the grotesque parody of a football grandstand. He didn't focus on the disgusting creature in a glass jar that was the equivalent of the Dalek Emperor. He didn't even focus on his TARDIS, that stood proudly and defiantly at the far end of the clearing he was currently in.
He strode straight up to the ordinary-looking woman that was in the middle of it all, looking calm and unconcerned.
"Do you even remember who you are?" he asked.
"I am a Dalek. I serve the Dalek empire," she replied in a voice that completely suited her demeanor.
Rory started. "But that's..."
"...Ace," Amy completed. "That's the girl who turned into a Dalek."
The Doctor gripped her shoulders. "You're Ace McShane. You make Nitro Nine, and I tell you not to carry it around. You are not a Dalek."
A spark of electricity flashed along the-girl-who-was-Ace's collarbone, and the Doctor let go as if he was shocked.
"Do not touch me again," Ace said matter-of-factly. "I was Dorothy McShane once. No longer."
"I am the Doctor!" he said, his tone rising. "Don't you know who I am?"
"You are the Doctor," Ace echoed. "You are the enemy of the Daleks. You must be exterminated."
The Doctor reacted, striding back to stand in front of Amy and Rory protectively.
"But first," the Woman-Dalek continued. "We require your services."
There was a long, long silence.
And then the Doctor began to laugh. "My services!" he spluttered. "What would you possibly need me to do that you couldn't do for yourself?"
"We require your assistance," Ace said. "You will help us."
"You will help us," all the other Daleks began chanting. And there was an awful lot of them. The noise rattled around the grand chamber. "You will help us." The noise was deafening.
"You will help us. You will help us. You will help us."
Rory and Amy looked at the Doctor in utter shock. He looked back at them with the same expression, only with a touch of childish happiness.
"I am the Doctor," he said, a maniac smile beginning to drift across his face. "I've lived for a thousand years! I've seen many incredible things! But the one thing I've never seen is a entire parliament of Daleks begging me for help!" His eyes glowed with glee, and he raised his hands up above his head. "I can tick one more thing off my bucket list!"
The Doctor was pacing again, which meant that there was something wrong. Rory watched him nervously, and Amy's eyes kept flicking from the massive legions of Daleks to the grotesque Emperor.
"So, let me get this straight," the Time Lord said eventually, wheeling around to stare at the Emperor. "You want me," he pointed at himself. "to go down to that planet," he pointed out the window to a desolate planet outside. "to do what, exactly?"
"We require you to go to the Asylum to seal the matrix surrounding it," grated the Emperor.
Rory raised a hand tentatively, and the Doctor pointed at him. "Yes, Mr Pond?"
He chose to ignore the misplaced use of his surname, and asked a question instead. "What exactly is the Asylum?"
"Ooh! Good question! Brilliant question, in fact! I now realize how much I've missed you and your questions." He turned to the Daleks with an expectant look. "Well, you heard the man. What's the Asylum?"
It was the Ace-Dalek that answered. "It is the place where we keep all our rejects; our outcasts."
"What," interrupted Amy. "You don't just destroy them?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No, they wouldn't do that, would they? For them, hatred is beauty."
"Correct," Ace said.
Amy visibly shuddered.
The Doctor gave a short, barking laugh. "And why should I help you? You've taken my friend here," he pointed at Ace. "You've hollowed out her memories, you took everything that she was and made it into you." He crossed his arms and stared at the Emperor. "You disgust me. Every time we've met, you've tried to kill me, or destroy the universe. And I'll ask you again. Why should I help you?"
"We need you," Ace stated simply.
The Doctor punched a wall, hard.
And then Carmen began to play.