Victory of the Daleks

The TARDIS materialized in a small sort of storage room, the Doctor and Professor stepping out, only to see a few soldiers pointing guns at them. The Doctor glanced at the Professor but she simply stood there, a bit tense, but not drawing her blaster just yet, a far cry from her last persona. She glanced back at him and sent him a small wink, making him shake his head, it would take a bit of doing to get used to this new her.

A moment later the soldiers parted as a larger man entered the room.

"Professor, Amy..." the Doctor grinned, introducing them, "Winston Churchill."

"Doctor?" Churchill gaped, "Is it you?"

Amy stepped out of the TARDIS, the Professor having told her to stay inside till they called for her. They'd seen the soldiers on the monitor the Professor had brought up and wanted to be sure she'd be safe first. She couldn't help but stare at the man in amazement.

"Oh, Winston, my old friend!" the Doctor moved to shake his hand but Churchill just held out his hand, as though he wanted something, "Ah, every time!"

"What's he after?" Amy asked.

"TARDIS key, of course."

"Think of what I could achieve with your remarkable machine, Doctor!" Churchill cried, "The lives that could be saved!"

"Ah, doesn't work like that," the Doctor shook his head, closing the door behind Amy.

"Must I take it by force?"

"I'd like to see you try," the Professor laughed, "You'll be hard pressed to get past me."

"But you are merely a woman," he countered good naturedly, "It would be very easy."

She smiled, "Technically I'm a Time Lady…and I can disable all your men before you could blink."

The men glanced at each other a moment, not sure if she was being serious. Churchill looked at the Doctor.

"She can," he nodded, putting his arm around her waist. He loved that, just because she really could disable them all, she wouldn't. She was really so, so different than how she had been. Last time, she wouldn't have even let him out of the TARDIS until she'd taken care of the men, and look at her now, just standing there calmly with him, partially joking about taking out the men around her. He couldn't help but give her a squeeze.

"At ease," Churchill called and the soldiers lowered their rifles.

"You rang?"

Churchill motioned for them to follow as he turned and walked out of the storage closet and into a corridor, the sound of bombing above them, "So you've changed your face, again," he remarked.

"Yeah, well, had a bit of work done," the Doctor shrugged, "The Professor as well, though I personally don't think she needed it," he grinned at her, making her roll her eyes playfully at him, "Beautiful then, beautiful now."

"Got it, got it, got it!" Amy cheered suddenly, "Cabinet War Rooms, right?"

"Top secret heart of the War Office, right under London," the Professor nodded, looking around.

"You're late, by the way," Churchill added.

"Requisitions, sir," a young woman came up and handed him a clipboard.

"Excellent," he took it, handing his cane to the Doctor to hold.

"Late?" the Doctor frowned.

"I rang you a month ago…"

"Really? Sorry. Sorry, it's a Type 40 TARDIS."

"Yes, of course," the Professor nodded, before turning to look at Amy with a secretive, joking smile, "It's the TARDIS's fault."

"I'm just running her in," the Doctor agreed.

Amy smirked at that and the Professor couldn't help but laugh, sarcasm was entirely lost on this incarnation.

"Something the matter, Breen?" Churchill asked as he handed back the clipboard, "You look a little down in the dumps."

"No, sir," Breen hugged the clipboard to her, "Fine, sir."

"Action this day, Breen! Action this day!"

"Yes, sir," she nodded, casting a glance at Amy and the Professor, before leaving.

"Excuse me, sir," another officer called, "Got another formation coming in, Prime Minister. Stukas, by the look of them."

"We shall go up top then, Group Captain!" Churchill ordered, "We'll give 'em what for! Coming, Doctor?"

"Why?" the Doctor frowned.

Churchill snatched back his cane, "I have something to show you."

The Doctor's eyes widened and he mouthed 'ooh,' before taking the Professor's hand and heading off after Churchill, Amy following behind.

~8~

They stood in the lift of the War Rooms, Churchill puffing on a cigar as the Doctor and Professor tried to wave away the smoke, the Professor's nose crinkling a bit at the smell.

"We stand at a crossroads, Doctor," Churchill began, "Quite alone, with our backs to the wall. Invasion is expected daily. So I will grasp with both hands anything that will give us an advantage over the Nazi menace."

"Such as?" the Doctor asked.

The lift stopped and Churchill opened the gate, "Follow me," he led them out, onto a rooftop, midday, looking out at London. There were sandbags on the roof as a man in a white lab coat stood, watching the sky with binoculars.

"Wow!" Amy breathed, seeing barrage balloons all over London, German planes in the distance.

"Doctor, this is professor Edwin Bracewell, head of our Ironsides Project," Churchill introduced.

The Doctor flashed him a 'V for Victory' sign with the Professor gave him a light salute.

"How d'you do?" Bracewell, an older man in spectacles, waved down at them, before turning back to the sky.

"Oh, Doctor...Professor, it's..." Amy was at a loss for words.

"History," the Professor nodded.

"Ready, Bracewell?" Churchill called.

"Aye aye, sir," Bracewell gave him a thumbs up, "On my order! Fire!"

From within the sandbagged area of the roof, a laser shot out at the German planes, destroying them in an instant.

The Doctor and Professor tensed, recognizing the laser.

"What was that?" Amy breathed in wonder.

"That wasn't human," the Doctor muttered, "That was never human technology."

"That sounded like..." the Professor looked at him, startled.

"Show us!" he ran to a ladder, climbing up to the roof with the Professor behind, "Show us what that was!"

"Advance!" Bracewell ordered.

"Our new secret weapon!" Churchill cried as a Dalek trundled out from behind the sandbags, painted in army khaki with a utility belt around it, a small union flag under its eye stalk. The Doctor and Professor could only look on, horrified, "What do you think? Quite something, eh?"

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor demanded of the Dalek, subtly grabbing the Professor's arm to keep her from grabbing her blaster, more from habit than anything.

"I am your soldier," it replied.

"What?" the Professor shook her head.

"I am your soldier."

"Stop this," the Doctor ordered, "Stop now! You know who we are, you always know."

"Your identity is unknown."

"Perhaps I can clarify things here, this is one of my Ironsides," Bracewell added.

"Your what?" the Professor looked at him.

Bracewell just turned to the Dalek, "You will help the Allied cause in any way that you can?"

"Yes," it replied.

"Until the Germans have been utterly smashed?"

"Yes."

"And what is your ultimate aim?"

"To win the war!"

~8~

The Doctor and Professor stood in Churchill's office, looking at the diagrams and blueprints of the Daleks.

"They're Daleks," the Professor tried to tell the man before them, "They're called Daleks!"

"They are Bracewell's Ironsides, Professor," Churchill shook his head, "Look! Blueprints, statistics, field tests, photographs. He invented them!"

"Invented them?" the Doctor scoffed, "Oh, no, no, no!"

"Yes! He approached one of our brass hats a few months ago. Fella's a genius."

"A Scottish genius, too," Amy smiled, "Maybe you should listen to..."

"Shh!" the Doctor hissed, "He didn't invent them! They're alien."

"Alien?" Churchill eyed him oddly.

A Dalek glided by the doorway and the two aliens within froze, waiting till it moved on.

"And totally hostile!" the Professor hissed.

"Precisely," Churchill nodded, "They will win me the war!"

He turned over a blueprint to reveal a propaganda poster of a large Dalek before heading out of the room.

"Why won't you listen?" the Doctor cried, frustrated, as they followed him, "Why call me in if you won't listen to me?"

"When I rang you a month ago, I must admit, I had my doubts. The Ironsides seemed too good to be true."

"Yes! Right! So destroy them! Exterminate them!"

"But imagine what I could do with a hundred! A thousand!"

"We are imagining," the Professor frowned, watching cautiously as another Dalek passed them.

"Amy, tell him," the Doctor turned to her.

"Tell him what?" Amy frowned.

"About the Daleks!"

"What would I know about the Daleks?"

"Everything. They invaded your world, remember? Planets in the sky, you don't forget that!"

"Amy..." the Professor eyed her, "Tell us you remember the Daleks."

"Nope, sorry," she shook her head.

"That's not possible," the Doctor frowned as they entered the Map Room, women and men manning the radios, moving figures over a map.

"And 6...2357, over!" Breen was on a radio, "2357, over!"

The Professor spotted yet another Dalek down a hall as they entered the room, that made three so far, "They're up to something," she determined as they stood in the back, by the wall, eyeing the Dalek as it entered, "But what is it? What are they after?" there were too many probabilities, possibilities of what the Daleks could want, they would need more data before a solid theory could be established...

"Well, let's just ask, shall we?" Amy walked over to it.

"Amy...Amelia!" the Doctor hissed.

Amy just tapped the Dalek on its head and it swiveled to look at her, "Can I be of assistance?"

"Oh," she smiled, "Yes. Yes! See, my friends reckon you're dangerous. That you're an alien. Is it true?"

"I am your soldier."

"Yeah. Got that bit. Love a squaddie. What else, though?"

"Please excuse me. I have duties to perform."

The Doctor shook his head, going back over to Churchill with the Professor, snatching the cigar out of his mouth, "Winston, Winston, please."

"We are waging total war, Doctor!" Churchill retorted, "Day after day, the Luftwaffe pound this great city like an iron fist."

"Wait till the Daleks get started," the Professor scoffed.

"Men, women, and children slaughtered. Families torn apart. Wren's churches in flames."

"Try the Earth in flames!"

"I weep for my country, I weep for my empire. It is breaking my heart."

He moved around the table but the duo followed, "But you're resisting, Winston!" the Doctor tried to get through to him, "The whole world knows you're resisting! You're a beacon of hope."

"But for how long?" he signed more papers, "Millions of innocent lives will be saved if I use these Ironsides now!"

"Can I be of assistance?" a Dalek walked over.

"Shut it!" the duo snapped.

"Listen to us," the Professor turned to Churchill, "Just listen! The Daleks have no conscience, no mercy, no pity. They are our oldest and deadliest enemy. You cannot trust them!"

"If Hitler invaded hell, I would give a favorable reference to the Devil!" Churchill cried, "These machines are our salvation!" a siren sounded, "Oh, the all-clear. We are safe. For now."

And with that, he turned and left the room.

The Doctor and Professor just watched as the Dalek turned and left as well.

"It's the all-clear," Amy walked over to them, "Are you ok?"

"What does hate look like, Amy?" the Doctor asked her.

"Hate?"

"It looks like a Dalek," the Professor replied.

"And we're going to prove it," the Doctor tossed a cap in his hand onto a table, before walking out of the room with the Professor.

~8~

The Doctor, Professor, and Amy strode into Bracewell's lab, the two quickly starting to check the equipment as Amy went to just look around.

"Alright, prof!" the Doctor called, "The PM's been filling us in. Amazing things, these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them."

"Just doing my bit," Bracewell smiled.

"Not bad for a Paisley boy," Amy picked up a spanner as the Doctor dropped into a chair and looked at a file with the Professor reading over his shoulder, her hand resting on it in comfort.

"Yes, I thought I detected a familiar cadence, my dear."

"How did you do it?" the Professor looked at him, "Come up with the idea?"

"How does the muse of invention come to anyone?"

The Doctor tossed the file onto the desk behind them, "But you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?"

"Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head! Wonderful things! Like...let me show you," he moved them over to another desk and pulled out more files, "Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight. Gravity bubbles that could sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere! Came to me in the bath!"

"And are these your ideas or theirs?" the Professor asked him.

"No, no, no, no. These robots are entirely under my control. They are..." a Dalek brought him tea, "Thank you...the perfect servant and the perfect warrior."

"I don't know what you're up to, Professor Bracewell," the Doctor began, "But whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them! Call them what you like, the Daleks are death!"

"Yes, Doctor," Churchill entered with a Dalek behind him, "Death to our enemies! Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich!"

"Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too!" the Professor shouted. Why were these humans not listening to them?

"Would you care for some tea?" a Dalek trundled up to them.

The Doctor smashed the tray off of its sucker arm and glared at it, "Stop this! What are you doing here? What do you want?"

"We seek only to help you."

"To do what?" the Professors snapped.

"To win the war."

"Really? Which war?"

"I do not understand."

"This war, against the Nazis? Or your war? The war against the rest of the Universe? The war against all life forms that are not Dalek?"

"I do not understand. I am your soldier."

"Oh, yeah?" the Doctor scoffed. He glanced at the Professor, 'Have you got my back?'

'Always,' she nodded, her hand moving for her blaster.

"Ok," he turned around and picked up a giant spanner, "Ok, soldier, defend yourself!" and then he smashed it against the Dalek.

"Doctor, what the devil..." Bracewell moved forward to try and stop him but the Professor deftly stepped in his way, her blaster out, forcing him to step back.

"You do not require tea?" the Dalek asked, but the Doctor just kept striking it.

"Stop it!" Bracewell shouted, "Prime Minister, please!"

"Doctor, please, these machines are precious," Churchill tried, but neither could move closer with the Professor's blaster aimed at them, keeping them back from the Doctor.

"'Dalek' and 'precious' should never be used in the same sentence," she called.

"Come on!" the Doctor egged the creature on, "Fight back! You want to, don't you? You know you do!"

"I must protest!" Bracewell tried once more.

"What are you waiting for?" the Doctor glared, "You hate us. You want to kill us. Well, go on! Kill me. Kill me!" he struck it again.

"Doctor, be careful!" Amy pulled him back.

"Please desist from striking me," the Dalek requested, "I am your soldier."

"You are our enemy!" the Doctor hit it again, "And we are yours! You are everything we despise! The worst thing in all creation. We've defeated you time and time again, we've defeated you. The Professor destroyed millions of your kind. I sent you all back into the Void! We saved the whole of reality from you! She is the Professor! I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!" he kicked the Dalek and it went rolling back.

"Correct," the Dalek swiveled back to him, "Review testimony."

"'She is the Professor. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks!'" a recording played.

"Testimony?" the Professor frowned, her mind racing at the possibilities of what that could mean, "What are you talking about, 'testimony?'"

"Transmitting testimony now," the second Dalek wheeled over to the first.

"Transmit what, where?" the Doctor demanded.

"Testimony accepted!"

"Get back!" the Professor shouted, pushing them back as she aimed her blaster at the Daleks, "All of you!"

"Marines!" Churchill called, "Marines! Get in here!"

Two Marines entered but a single Dalek killed them with its laser.

"Stop it!" Bracewell shouted, "Stop it, please! What are you doing? You are my Ironsides!"

"We are the Daleks!" the first Dalek shouted.

"But I created you!"

"No," it shot Bracewell's hand, revealing a stump of wire and circuitry, "We created you!"

"Victory!" the Daleks cheered, "Victory! Victory!"

The Professor sent a blast at them but they teleported out a split second before.

"What just happened?" Amy breathed.

"We wanted to know what they wanted," the Professor murmured, "What their plan was…"

"We were their plan!" the Doctor shouted as they ran out of the room.

"Hey!" Amy ran after them, following them back to the storage room where the TARDIS was hidden.

"'Testimony accepted!'" the Doctor muttered, "That's what they said! Our testimony."

"Don't beat yourself up. You were right," Amy paused, watching the Doctor unlock the TARDIS, "What do we do? Is this what we do now? Chase after them?"

"This is what we do," the Professor corrected her, "It's dangerous, so wait here."

"What, so you mean I've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the London Blitz?" Amy asked as Churchill ran up.

"Safe as it gets around us," the Doctor nodded, waving as they ran into the TARDIS, leaving the humans to watch it disappear.

~8~

The TARDIS appeared in a small room off to the side of the main chamber of the Dalek ship, the three Daleks were positioned before a gate-like chamber when they stepped out. The Daleks automatically swiveled to look at them.

"How about that cuppa now, then?" the Doctor grinned, rubbing his hands together.

"It is the Doctor and Professor!" one of the Daleks shouted, "Exterminate!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" the Doctor shouted as the Professor grabbed her blaster and aimed it dead at its eye stalk, "I wouldn't if I were you!" he pulled out a small, round, yellow object with a red center, holding it out before him, "TARDIS self-destruct. And you know what that means. My ship goes, you all go with it."

"You would not use such a device," another Dalek remarked.

"Try me," he threatened as the first Dalek tried to move forwards, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No scans! No nothing! One move and I'll destroy us all, you got that? TARDIS bang-bang, Daleks boom!" the Dalek moved back, "Good boy," he glanced back at the Professor who stepped back to examine the equipment, his gaze lingering on her before he managed to pull it away. The way she looked, holding out her blaster, sent a shiver down his spin, and not a bad one. He shook his head, he needed to focus on the Dalek threat and not how appealing she looked just then. It was odd to think of her with a weapon appealing, given how much his last body had been against guns and violence in general, but there was just something about her now...he shook his head, now was REALLY not the time...

The Professor didn't seem to catch his thoughts, far too focused on examining the equipment while still keeping her attention on the Daleks. She knew she couldn't fire at them, really only using the blaster to give them more pause in attacking. She was fast, yes, but by the time she'd fired the first blast the other two would have retaliated. She didn't care if she was hit in the process of ending them, but she was not about to risk the Doctor.

"The ship's beaten up," she reported, "Running on empty."

"When we last met, you were at the end of your rope," the Doctor turned to the Daleks, "Finished."

"One ship survived," the second Dalek replied.

"And you fell back through time, yes? Crippled? Dying?"

"We picked up a trace. One of the Progenitor devices."

"Progenitor?" the Professor frowned, going through a mental catalogue all the Academics had compiled of every bit of Dalek technology utilized during the war, trying to figure out what it was.

"What's that when it's at home?" the Doctor wondered.

"It is our past," the Dalek replied, "And our future."

"Oh, that's deep," he looked at the Professor, just slightly impressed, "That is deep for a Dalek. What does it mean, though?"

"It's a device that contains pure Dalek DNA," the Professor told him.

"Thousands were created," the last Dalek added, "All were lost, save one."

"Ok," he nodded slowly, "But there's still one thing we don't get, though, if you've got the Progenitor, why build Bracewell?"

"It was...necessary," the second Dalek replied.

"But why?" he frowned, "Oh I get it. Oh, I get it! I get it. Oh ho, this is rich!" he looked at the Professor to see her nodding as well.

"The Progenitor wouldn't recognize you," she reasoned, "It saw you as impure, the DNA is unrecognizable as Dalek."

"A solution was devised," the Dalek stated.

"Yes, yes, yes," the Doctor nodded, "Us. Our testimony. So you set a trap, you knew that the Progenitor would recognize one of us. The Daleks' greatest enemies! It would accept our word. Our recognition of you," the Dalek turned to the instrument panel behind it, "No, no, no. What are you doing?" he held out the button again.

"Withdraw now or the city dies in flames," the third Dalek threatened.

"This ship is a wreck, you don't have the power to destroy London," the Professor stated.

"Watch as the humans destroy themselves," the Dalek turned to a panel and its sucker extended, a hum starting up, collecting a beam of light, jettisoning it towards London. They watched in horror as a small speck of light lit up on the planet below.

"Turn those lights off now!" the Doctor shouted, realizing that almost every light must have been turned on for them to see that speck, "Turn London off or I swear I will use the TARDIS self-destruct!"

"Stalemate, Doctor," the second Dalek turned to him, "Leave us and return to Earth."

"Oh, that's it? That's your great victory? You leave?"

"Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again."

"No, no, no! We won't let you get away this time! I won't!"

There was a whoosh and then a thrumming.

"We have succeeded, DNA reconstruction is complete," the third Dalek reported.

The Daleks glided back from the gate, now enveloped in a red light. The doors slid open.

"Observe, Doctor, Professor, a new Dalek paradigm!" the second Dalek cheered. They watched in horror as new, larger Daleks rolled out, each in a different color, red, orange, yellow, blue and white, "The Progenitor has fulfilled our new destiny. Behold, the restoration of the Daleks! The resurrection of the master race!"

"All hail the new Daleks!" the first Dalek said, "All hail the new Daleks!"

"Yes, you are inferior!" the white Dalek replied in a deeper, more sinister voice.

"Yes."

"Then prepare."

"We are ready!" the three Daleks stated.

"Cleanse the unclean! Total obliteration! Disintegrate!"

The blue Dalek fired at the first and third Dalek while the red one took care of the middle Dalek.

"Blimey, what do you do to the ones who mess up?" the Doctor breathed.

"You are the Doctor and Professor!" the white Dalek turned on them, "You must be exterminated!"

The Doctor held up the button, "Don't mess with me, sweetheart!"

"We are the paradigm of a new Dalek race. Scientist, Strategist, Drone, Eternal, and the Supreme."

"Which would be you," the Professor eyed the white Dalek, stepping closer to the Doctor so she would be more in line with the white Dalek's eye stalk should she need to fire her blaster.

"Well, you know, nice paint job," the Doctor remarked, "I'd be feeling pretty swish if I looked like you. Pretty supreme. Question is, what do we do now? Either you turn off your clever machine or I'll blow you and your new paradigm into eternity."

"And yourselves," the white Dalek remarked.

"Occupational hazard," the Professor shrugged.

"Scan reveals nothing!" the blue Dalek announced, "TARDIS self-destruct device non-existent!"

"Alright," the Doctor bit into the cookie, "It's a Jammie Dodger, but I was promised tea!"

A siren sounded and the blue Dalek moved to a scanner, "Alert! Unidentified projectile approaching!" the Doctor ran to a second scanner as the Professor aimed her blaster at the Daleks, guarding him, "Correction. Multiple projectiles!"

"What have the humans done?" the white Dalek demanded.

"Don't know," the Doctor shrugged.

"Explain! Explain! Explain!"

The comm. crackled to life, "Danny Boy to Time Lords! Danny Boy to Time Lords! Are you receiving me? Over."

The Doctor stood up and grinned, "Oh, Winston! You beauty!"

"Danny Boy to Time Lords! Come in. Over."

"Loud and clear, Danny Boy!" the Professor shouted, hearing the noise of an RAF biplane soaring, "The big dish on the side of the ship, take it out! Over!"

There was the sound of small firing and lasers, a crash here and there as the biplanes were destroyed.

"Exterminate the Doctor and Professor!" the white Dalek cried.

The Doctor ran for the TARDIS, the Professor shooting back at the Daleks as they ran.

"Danny Boy to Time Lords..." the pilot came in over the TARDIS comm., "Only me left now. Anything you can do? Over."

"Time Lords to Danny Boy..." the Professor picked up a small comm. as they worked around the console, "Time Lords to Danny Boy. We can disrupt the Dalek shields, but not for long. Over."

"Good show! Go to it. Over."

The Doctor started up the TARDIS as they both danced around the console, working frantically at the controls. Listening in on the comm. until there was a massive crash that shook the ship.

"Danny Boy to Time Lords...going in for another attack!"

They cheered, realizing the pilot had destroyed the dish.

"Time Lords to Danny Boy," the Doctor took the comm., "Time Lords to Danny Boy. Destroy this ship! Over."

"What about you, Doctor?"

"We'll be ok."

"Doctor!" the Professor shouted as a projection sprang up above the doors.

"Doctor!" the white Dalek appeared, "Professor! Call off your attack!"

"Ah ha, what?" the Doctor scoffed, "And let you scuttle off back to the future? No fear. This is the end for you. The final end!"

"Call off the attack or we will destroy the Earth."

"We're not stupid, mate! You've just played your last card!"

"Bracewell is a bomb."

The Professor paused, she hadn't touched the man, there was no way she could know for certain if they were lying.

The Doctor hesitated as well, "You're bluffing. Deception's second nature to you. There isn't a sincere bone in your body. There isn't a bone in your body!"

"His power is derived from an Oblivion Continuum! Call off your attack, or we will detonate the android."

"No! This is our best chance ever! The last of the Daleks! We can rid the Universe of you, once and for all!"

"Then do it. But we will shatter the planet below! The Earth will die screaming!"

"And if we let you go," the Professor frowned, "You'll be stronger than ever. A new race of Daleks."

"Then choose, Professor! Destroy the Daleks or save the Earth. Begin countdown of Oblivion Continuum! Choose, Doctor! Choose! Choose!"

The Doctor looked at the Professor, both of them sharing a grim look. They had both been responsible at one point or another for the destruction of a civilization, whether it was on a planet-wide scale like Gallifrey or a thriving city like Pompeii…they couldn't destroy another.

The Doctor picked up the comm., "Time Lords to Danny Boy. Time Lords to Danny Boy. Withdraw."

"Say again, sir," the pilot called, "Over."

"Withdraw," the Professor ordered, "Return to Earth. Over and out."

"But ma'am…"

"There's no time," the Doctor cut in, "You have to return to Earth now! Over!"

They turned to the controls, getting to work.

~8~

The TARDIS materialized in the storage room once more, the Doctor and Professor running out and back to the Map Room.

The Professor ran in and, doing the first thing that popped into her head, quickly chopped Bracewell in the shoulder junction of his neck with her right hand before grabbing it as it came in contact with the metal beneath the skin, bruising it soundly. Bracewell, though, fell to the ground in pain.

"Professor!" Amy gasped, appalled, while Churchill looked on, stunned, the girl, it seemed, really was a fighter.

"Ow!" she shook her hand, "Sorry, Bracewell."

"You're a bomb!" the Doctor told him, "An inconceivably massive Dalek bomb."

"What?" Bracewell breathed.

"There's an Oblivion Continuum inside you," the Professor told him, cradling her hand to her chest, it was most certainly at least partially fractured, "A captured wormhole that provides perpetual power. Detonate that, and the Earth will bleed through into another dimension."

The Doctor knelt to the left of the man and pulled out the sonic, ripping open Bracewell's shirt, "Now keep down!" he flashed the sonic over it and his chest opened to reveal the metal skin underneath. There was a circular pad in five sections, glowing blue, in the center of Bracewell's chest.

One section started to turn yellow.

"Well?" Amy looked on as the Professor knelt down across from the Doctor on the right of Bracewell.

"I dunno, I dunno, I dunno!" he shook the sonic, "Never seen one up close before!"

"I have," the Professor remarked, "But never inside a living organism," she looked at the Doctor, "If we open him up, he'll die. And if he dies before we defuse the Oblivion Continuum it'll activate."

"So, what, they've wired him up to detonate?" Amy frowned.

"Not wired him up!" the Doctor shook his head, "He is a bomb. Walking, talking…" he made an exploding effect, "Exploding! The moment that flashes red."

"There's...a blue wire or something you have to cut, isn't there? There's always a blue wire," the Doctor stood up, "Or a red one."

"You're not helping!"

"It's incredible," Churchill breathed, "He talked to us about his memories. The Great War..."

The Doctor tossed the sonic between his hands, trying to think.

"Someone else's stolen thoughts, implanted in a positronic brain," the Professor reasoned.

"Tell us about it," the Doctor knelt down again, "Bracewell! Tell us about your life!"

"Doctor, I really don't think this is the time!" Bracewell began.

"Tell us and prove you're human," the Professor told him, seeing the Doctor's idea, "Tell us everything."

The section turned red, the next fading to yellow.

"My family ran the post office. It's a little place just near the abbey. Just by the ash trees. There used to be eight trees but...but there was a storm."

"And your parents?" the Doctor hurried him, "Come on! Tell us!"

"Good people. Kind people. They...they died. Scarlet fever."

"What was that like? How did it feel?"

"Please..."

"How did it make you feel, Edwin? Tell us! Tell us now!"

"It hurt. It hurts, Doctor, so badly. Like a wound…"

The second section was red, the third turning yellow.

"It was worse than a wound," Bracewell continued, "Like I'd been emptied out. There was nothing."

"Good. Remember it now, Edwin! The ash trees by the post office and your mum and dad and losing them and men in the trenches you saw die...remember it! Feel it, because you're human."

The third section turned red.

"You're not like them," the Professor reminded him, "You are not like the Daleks!"

"It hurts!" he moaned, "It hurts so much!"

"Good!" the Doctor nodded, "Good! Good! Brilliant! Embrace it…"

The fourth section turned red.

"That means you're alive!" the Doctor tried, frantic, "They cannot explode that bomb, you're a human being! You are flesh and blood! They cannot explode that bomb! Believe it! You are Professor Edwin Bracewell! And you, my friend, are a human being!"

The fifth section began to turn yellow.

The Doctor looked at the Professor, alarmed, fearful, "It's not working, I can't stop it!"

The Professor reached out her left hand, grabbing his right, holding it tightly as she raced to think of something, they needed to calm him down...

Amy eyed them a moment, looking at their hands, before stepping forward and kneeling down by the Doctor, "Hey…Paisley. Ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?"

"W...what?" Bracewell looked at her.

"Hurts, doesn't it?"

The last section froze.

"But kind of a good hurt," she smiled.

"I really shouldn't talk about her."

"Oh," the Professor began to smile, glancing at Amy to grin broadly, before turning back to Bracewell, "There is a her."

The fifth section turned blue.

"What was her name?" the Doctor asked.

"Dorabella," Bracewell breathed.

The forth section turned blue.

"Dorabella?" the Doctor smiled, "It's a lovely name, it's a beautiful name."

"What was she like, Edwin?" Amy asked.

"Oh...such a smile," he murmured.

The third section turned blue.

"And her eyes..." he sighed, "Her eyes were so blue...almost violet. Like the last touch of sunset on the edge of the world..."

And the second became blue as well.

"Dorabella..."

And finally the first.

"Welcome to the human race," the Doctor laughed.

"Amy you were brilliant!" the Professor leaned across Bracewell and gave the girl a one armed hug.

"Now!" the Doctor jumped up, "We gotta stop them!" he took the Professor's uninjured hand and tried to pull her out of the room, "Stop the Daleks!"

"Wait!" Bracewell called, "Doctor! Professor! Wait...wait," they stopped and Bracewell sat up, "It's too late. Gone. They've gone."

"No, no, no! They can't! They can't have got away from us again!"

"No, I can feel it, my mind is clear. The Daleks have gone."

The Doctor fell against a pole beside him, drained, the Professor letting her head drop with a breath, her forehead resting on his shoulder, their hands still tightly clasped.

"It's ok!" Amy tried to cheer them, "You did it. You stopped the bomb. Doctor? Professor?"

"We had a choice Amy," the Professor sighed, feeling...stupid. She should have seen this coming, she should have spotted it. She was typically so good at spotting traps and ploys, her training had made sure of that, but with these Daleks...she'd let herself grow angry, it clouded her judgment. She had always told the Doctor that anger was the shortest distance to a mistake, and she'd allowed herself to reach that point. She should have had more control over herself. She rubbed her head and looked at Amy, "They knew we'd choose the Earth."

"The Daleks have won," he swallowed hard, squeezing the Professor's hand, sensing her thoughts. She was by no means stupid, she was brilliant, they both were, and they'd both fallen for it, "They beat us. They've won."

"But you saved the Earth," Amy reminded them, "Not too shabby, is it?" they looked up at Churchill and all the other humans, all gathered around them, smiling, "Is it?"

"No," the Professor smiled slowly.

"It's not too shabby," the Doctor agreed.

"It's a brilliant achievement, my dear friend," Churchill held out a cigar, "Here, have a cigar!"

"No..." he waved it off, his arm moving around the Professor's shoulder, both still hurt from the loss.

~8~

"Where's the Doctor?" the aliens heard Amy ask as they entered the Map Room where she and Churchill were standing.

"Tying up loose ends," the Doctor called, "We've taken out all the alien tech Bracewell put in."

"Won't you reconsider, Doctor?" Churchill turned to him, "Those Spitfires would win me the war in 24 hours!"

"Exactly," the Doctor took a sip of a tea he'd picked up from the table and spit it out back into the cup as he moved to lean against the map table.

"But why not? Why can't we put an end to all this misery?"

"Oh, it doesn't work like that, Winston," the Professor told him as she looked up at him, flexing her fingers just a bit from inside the white cast the Doctor had put on her hand, as it turned out, yes, she had broken her hand chopping Bracewell.

'Catch me doing that again,' she laughed to the Doctor silently.

'That couldn't have happened earlier, could it?' he asked her, rubbing the juntion of his own neck in memory of the times he himself had been chopped by her.

She just shook her head and moved to sit beside him, giving him a small kiss on the cheek, 'Better?'

'A bit,' he smiled at her.

"It's going to be tough, though" she added to Churchill, out loud, "There are terrible days to come. The darkest days. But you can do it. You know you can."

"Stay with us and help us win through!" Churchill pleaded, with the Doctor's brilliance and the Professor's obvious experience in the field of war the Nazis wouldn't know what hit them, "The world needs you both."

"The world doesn't need us," the Doctor waved him off.

"No?"

"The world's got Winston Spencer Churchill!"

Churchill laughed, "It's been a pleasure, as always."

"Too right," he reached forward and hugged the man.

"Goodbye, Doctor."

"Oh, shall we say adieu?"

"Indeed," Churchill pulled back and went to hug the Professor as well, "Professor," before turning to Amy, "Goodbye, Miss Pond."

"It's…it's been amazing," Amy told him, "Meeting you."

"I'm sure it has!"

Amy kissed him on the check and he turned to head for the door, "Oi, Churchill!" she held out her hand, "TARDIS key. The one you just took from the Doctor."

The Doctor nearly choked on his tea and patted his pockets, looking at Churchill in shock.

"Oh, she's good, Doctor," the man laughed, "As sharp as a pin!" he moved his hand to his pocket and felt for the key, before frowning.

The Professor smiled and held up the key herself, "You and Amy aren't the only pickpockets around here," she laughed before placing the key in the Doctor's pocket, safe and sound.

The Doctor had to admit she was a dab hand a pick pocketing, half the time she got his sonic off him before he even realized she had it.

"Just as sharp as me!" Churchill laughed again, lighting his cigar, "KBO!"

~8~

Bracewell was standing stoically in his office, waiting, as the trio stepped in.

"I've been expecting you," he sighed and turned around, a black leather glove now over his stump, "I knew this moment had to come."

"Moment?" the Doctor frowned.

"It's time to deactivate me."

"Is it?" he glanced at the girls beside him, "Oh...yeah..."

"You have no choice. I'm Dalek technology. Can't allow me to go pottering around down here where I have no business."

"No, you're dead right, professor Bracewell. 100 percent right. And by the time we get back here in..."

"Ten minutes?" the Professor suggested.

"More like 15," Amy shrugged.

"Fifteen minutes," he nodded, "Yeah, that's exactly what we're going to do. You are going to be so deactivated. It's going be like you've never even been...activated."

"Yeah."

"15 minutes?" Bracewell frowned.

"More like 20, if we're honest," the Professor added.

The Doctor nodded, "Once Pond, the Professor, and I see to the urgent thing…"

"Yes!" Amy pointed.

"…we've got to see to. The...the...see?"

"Very well, Doctor," Bracewell nodded, "I shall wait here and prepare myself."

Amy turned to the Professor quietly, "That Dalek tech's a little bit slow on the uptake," the Professor could only nod as Amy turned back to Bracewell, "That thing we've got to do. Gonna take half an hour, realistically, isn't it, Doctor?"

"Easily!" the Professor answered for him, "Maybe even an hour, especially knowing the Doctor and his timing…"

"So no running off, that's what we're saying," the Doctor looked pointedly at Bracewell, "Don't go trying to find that little post office with the ash trees or that girl...what was her name?"

"Dorabella…" Bracewell started to catch on.

"Dorabella. On no account go looking for her. Mind you, you can get a lot done in an hour."

Bracewell smiled and laughed, "Thank you Doctor! Thank you, Professor!"

"Come along, Pond!" the Doctor called, taking the Professor's free hand as they turned to leave.

~8~

"So, you have enemies then?" Amy asked as they headed for the TARDIS.

"Everyone's got enemies," the Professor reasoned.

"Yeah, but mine's the woman outside Budgens with the mental Jack Russell. You've got, like, you know, archenemies."

"Suppose so," the Doctor shrugged, leaning against the TARDIS, his arm around the Professor's waist.

"And here's me thinking we'd just be running through time, being daft and fixing stuff. But no, it's dangerous."

"Yup. Very. Is that a problem?"

"I'm still here, aren't I?" she eyed them a moment, "You're worried about the Daleks."

"We're always worried about the Daleks," the Professor sighed, resting her head on the Doctor's shoulder.

"It'll take time, though, won't it? There's still not many of them. They'll need a while to build themselves up."

"You don't know the Daleks," she murmured.

"And that's just it," the Doctor agreed, squeezing her, "There's something else. Something we've forgotten. Or rather you have."

"Me?" Amy frowned.

"You didn't know them, Amy," the Professor told her.

"You'd never seen them before," the Doctor nodded, "And you should have done. You should."

He turned and unlocked the TARDIS, stepping in with the Professor, a confused Amy following a moment later.

~8~

Amy sat in the chair by the console, eyeing the two aliens as they seemed to dance around the console, setting the controls. It was like a dance they both knew the steps to, both knowing their roles flawlessly, matching each other as they so often did.

"Have you ever loved someone you shouldn't?" she couldn't help but ask them. The question had been flittering around her mind since she'd said the words to Bracewell.

"My best friend," the Professor remarked, steadfastly keeping her gaze on the console, "My godson's father. My rival's pseudo-brother. My cousin's ex-husband. A madman…"

Amy paused a moment, "Five people?"

"Oh no," the Professor looked up with a little smile, "They were one in the same."

Amy blinked, a bit surprised, "What about you, Doctor?"

He frowned a moment, his gaze having been locked on the Professor since she had spoken, "No Amy, I've never truly loved anyone I shouldn't…but I did try to force myself to love someone I didn't."

"What happened?"

"Worst mistake of my life," he admitted, his gaze still on the Professor, "And I would give anything to go back and never make it."

The Professor frowned, "But some good came from it."

He swallowed, "Not enough."

Her eyes widened at his admission.

He loved his son, she knew he did, but her godson, bless his soul, took far too much after his mother than his father. It was hard for her to look at the child, seeing him look so much like her Theta, but act so much like Mayra. She could only imagine how painful it must have been for him…

And then he opened his mind to her, showing her everything. It wasn't that the child acted like Mayra for him…it was the fact that every time he looked at his son, he couldn't help but wish he belonged to her, that it was his child with her and not Mayra. He could imagine what the child would look like with her features, her personality…what their child would have been like…

He didn't regret having a son, but he did regret the fact that it wasn't with her.

And to hear that, even though he loved his son, he would have given him up to be with her first…to him, the only good thing that came out of that marriage was his son, and even he wasn't enough…

She walked around the console to him and reached out, taking his face softly in her hands before leaning his head down to rest his forehead against hers. She opened her mind, allowing him to see all the different combinations of children she had ever pictured the two of them might have when she was younger. The girls that blended his third incarnation and her fifth, the boys of his seventh and her fourth, the twins from her first and his first…all the different ones she had pictured over the centuries, even the more recent ones.

He opened his eyes and stared deep into hers, "Oh…" he breathed, smiling as he reached up a hand and brushed her cheek.

He wanted that, so much.

He leaned forward and kissed her deeply.

Amy looked between the two, feeling like she'd entirely missed something.

A/N: What did I tell you? Keta withdrawl does wonders for fluff packed Keta scenes :) I've said in a few chapters when the Doctor or Professor talk about regeneration that they carry things over from one life to the next. Here, their relationship was so strained in Relapse and still not quite there for most of Rebound that they only really had their wedding and honeymoon before they regenerated. I feel like that almost longing for the closeness they once had and the closeness/openness/affection they had after the wedding was what carried over into their new bodies. They're being so fluffy because they've both been so starved of it recently and their wedding/honeymoon really opened the floodgates for them to express how much they do love and care about the other. The Professor also really hadn't gotten to be quite that open with the Doctor before, first with Rose there, then still trying to work through her fears and balance herself, then being a soldier, then trying to work past the remnants of being a soldier. She's loved the Doctor since she was 8 and, it's almost like what the Doctor said with the psychic pollen, her feelings have existed for 897 years, she has a lot of emotion to go on and here, in this body, she's really free to express it. We'll actually be seeing a bit of that idea from her in The Vampires of Venice.

As for the Professor's hand, I sort of like the idea of a few chapters where the Professor has a broken hand. She's been so...almost beyond human-like, for a while and I really wanted to show that even Time Lords get physically injured at times and need to heal. This is probably going to be the most feeling/expressive...human...version of the Professor we've seen and I felt like the hand just added to that. It's almost poetic that she broke her hand doing the one thing her last incarnation loved to do, it's like...the true end of an era, the chopping WAS her but not anymore...wow, that is deep.

Just a quick note, I'm not going to be doing the little scene crossing Flesh and Stone with The Vampires of Venice, sorry :( BUT I am giving you Space and Time, Bad Night/Good Night, and First Night/Last Night in the next story :) And...next chapter we get River Song...and quite a bit of flirty Keta :)