The Crucible
...when suddenly, he spun on the spot and directed the regenerative energy in to the jar containing a severed hand. After the regeneration finished, the Doctor was still just the same as ever.
"Now then...where were we?" he asked the group, as though this were something they all saw everyday. "There now," he spoke to his hand, as though it were a living person. He then began to launch into a rambling explanation – one which was directed at the Humans. "I used the regeneration to heal myself, but once that was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't wanna change – why would I wanna change? So I siphoned the rest of the regeneration energy...into my spare hand." The Doctor turned to Rose. "Remember? Sycorax? Christmas Day? Lost my hand in a swordfight?"
For a moment, Rose was speechless. Eventually, however, she found her voice again. "You're...still you?" she asked hesitantly.
The Doctor just nodded. "Yep," he confirmed, emphasis on the 'p.'
Romana decided to cut in. "You really shouldn't have done it, you know," she sighed, a weak, mischievous smile on her face, but there was a forced quality to it – which the Doctor did not fail to register.
"Well, you're one to talk!" he mock-scolded her, pointing a finger at her. "You once regenerated into a copy of someone else's body!" At this, Rose and Donna looked shocked, while Jack laughed. "And then tried on three others before settling on this!"
Romana's smile became wry. "That was different!" she chortled, laughing. "That was the same as you regrowing a hand! I just had the energy to change my entire body!" After a few moments, her laughter faded, to be replaced by a serious tone. "And while we're on the subject of regeneration, need I remind you of two things. One; you're ripping through your lives, as a Human would put it, willy-nilly. Two; you just used up a life to stay the same!" Her tone was now an exasperated, frustrated one.
"Well, pardon me if I didn't wanna go!" the Doctor cried in protest. "I like being me! I don't wanna be..." his voice faded to a mutter, "...not-me."
"Oi! Spaceman!" interjected Donna, at which Romana laughed – a musical sound to the Doctor's ears – but not for long. "And you, Spacewoman! Mind explainin' what ya mean by 'ripping through your lives?'" They both tried to explain at once. "And don't try to out-Time Lord each other – it'll just give us a headache...and besides," her voice lowered to a whisper, "Romana'll probably win."
The Doctor just pouted in mock-hurt, so Romana took over. "Alright, I'll try and explain as best as I can," she began. When she spoke again, her voice was the sound of total calm. "A Time Lord has thirteen lives...and some Time Lords were very careless with theirs – the Master, by way of example." She paused for a moment, which gave both Rose and Jack a chance to cut in with some questions.
"Who's the Master?" asked Rose, puzzled. She'd heard the name spoken on the Subwave Network by Martha Jones, and also heard Romana describe him as a parasite – well, words to that effect.
Jack's question was directed at the Doctor. "And if he'd used up all his regenerations – it's still cheeky, by the way," he added, grinning roguishly. "Why was he able to regenerate when we found him at the End of the Universe?"
"The Time Lords needed a perfect warrior to fight in the Time War, Jack," the Doctor pointed out. "So the High Council gave him a new life-cycle, complete with twelve new regenerations. But what they didn't bargain for was his desertion when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform."
"As for your question, Rose," Romana cut back in, "the Master was an evil Time Lord who used to be a friend of the Doctor's." At this, Rose stared in blank shock, while Donna gasped in horror. "I know. I still have trouble believing it sometimes. Don't worry though – it doesn't change who the Doctor is." This caused the pair of Humans to lose their shock and horror. Romana then decided to finish the explanation.
But before the reunions could commence, the TARDIS was shaken about by an unknown force. When it stopped, all the Systems were powered down.
"We're locked in a Temporal Prison!" cried Romana. "We can't dematerialise!"
The group now had no choice but to accept whatever fate the Daleks would bestow upon them...
*DW*
"No doubt we're being taken to the Daleks' base of operations," Romana speculated with an educated guess.
"It's a planet-size ship they're calling the Crucible," Jack informed her hesitantly. He was still wary as to what this Time Lady thought of him, given his status as a fixed point in Time, as an Immortal.
Romana picked up the hesitation. "I can get used to your being immortal, by the way – it's just going to take Time." Those words appeased him for now, which meant the occupants could now get to know each other better. "How about you three," she inclined to Jack, Rose and Donna, "tell me how you met the Doctor, starting with Donna."
"Well...it was the day of my botched wedding," Donna began, smiling in amusement. "I was walking down the aisle. Then suddenly," she clicked her fingers, "next thing I know, I'm in Martian-Boy's Time Machine. It turned out that my fiancé was putting Huon Particles in my coffee for six months, tryin' to feed me to Spacespiders – Racnoss, I think the Doctor called 'em."
Romana gasped in horror that those monstrous creatures had survived the ancient Gallifreyan's purge. But they had only a limited amount of Time to get to know each other, so she didn't press. "Rose?" she asked curiously.
"He blew up my job after I got attacked by shop-window dummies," Rose smirked at how absurd that could sound to most people. But Romana just smiled, before turning to Jack.
"I accidentally dropped a Chula Warship, full of nanogenes, on a child – but those two," he indicated the Doctor and Rose, "managed to fix it."
Before Romana could enquire further, the TARDIS was once again shaken. They had arrived at their destination. "The Crucible," the Doctor told them. He then announced; "All aboard!"
Moments later, a deep, booming Dalek voice thundered outside. "DOC-TOR, YOU WILL STEP FORTH, OR DIE!"
The Doctor just sighed. "We'll have to go out...cos even if we don't, they get in."
"You told me nothin' could get through those doors," Rose protested.
"You've got Extrapolator Shielding!" Jack added.
"But those Systems are reliant on the Power System," Romana told them sadly. "Once you cut the Power, you've lost all of those Systems."
"And even if we hadn't, what we're dealing with now is completely different to the Daleks we faced before," the Doctor joined in. "When Romana faced the Daleks with me, they were automatons, enslaved to logic. When we," he gestured to Jack and Rose, "fought them, they were scavengers...and hybrids and mad. This is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire. At the height of its power, the Daleks are experts at fighting TARDISes, they can do anything."
"That wooden door is merely wood, now," Romana finished for him.
"What about your Dimensional Teleport?" Jack asked Rose, hoping she had a way out. No such luck.
"It still needs twenty minutes...and besides, I'm not leavin'!" Rose told him firmly.
"What about your Vortex Manipulator?" the Doctor questioned Jack, as Jack, being as resourceful as most Time Agents, had such a device given to him.
"It went down with the power loss," Jack sighed sadly.
"The Temporal Prison disables all forms of Time Travel device, except for Time Rings," Romana explained to the others.
"What abou' your way of gettin' 'ere?" Rose asked the Time Lady.
"The Cosmic Projector would just take us back to E-Space," Romana shook her head. "We'd be powerless to stop the Daleks then..."
"Donna?" asked the Doctor, curious as to why she was staring into empty Space. He walked up to her to get her attention. "Donna?"
"Yeah," she replied, confirming that her mind was in the here and now.
"SUR-REN-DER, DOC-TOR, AND FACE YOUR DA-LEK MAS-TERS!" the voice shouted again.
"So...Daleks," Rose laughed.
"Oh God!" Jack cried in mock-fear.
The Doctor laughed, before turning to Donna. "You were brilliant," he told her. He turned to Jack; "And you were brilliant..." he said this almost as a sigh of admittance. Then to Rose; "And you were brilliant," he said. Finally, to Romana; "And you were as wonderful as can be." He knew he'd echoed the word his 4th self used to describe her, shortly before they parted company.
His lover smiled a weak smile. "And you were full of incredible surprises to the end," she whispered to him. She'd said something similar to the curly-haired Doctor, the one whom their son looked like. With that, the team headed onto the Bridge of the Crucible, where they were greeted by the propaganda of the chanting Daleks...
*DW*
"DA-LEKS REIGN SU-PREME! ALL HAIL THE DA-LEKS!" the Dalek Army chorused.
"BE-HOLD, DOC-TOR...BE-HOLD THE MIGHT OF THE TRUE DA-LEK RACE!" boomed a Dalek that was positioned on a podium, as if overseeing every other Dalek present. Romana needed just one glance to tell her that this was not a normal Dalek. Its livery was coloured blood-red, with its trim coloured a brighter shade of gold than other Daleks. It also had thick bars around its mid-section, situated in a crown-like manner, and as it turned its dome, she could see it had not two, but three headlights. Romana could almost feel it scrutinising her. "WHAT ARE YOU?! YOU ARE IM-POS-SI-BLE!"
"Nonsense!" Romana snorted. Long ago, she could remember being terrified of the Daleks. Now though, after her travels with the Doctor, she had learnt that frustrating an enemy could distract them enough for them to make a mistake. "Nothing is impossible...just unlikely."
"I-DEN-TI-FY YOUR-SELF!" a Drone Dalek screeched.
"Romanadvoratrelundar," she replied, a sneering tone in her voice. "Otherwise known as Romana."
"DA-LEK DA-TA-BASE RE-PORTS AN IN-DI-VI-DUAL TI-TLED 'RO-MA-NA' TO HAVE PE-RISHED ON OUR HOME PLA-NET OF SKA-RO," reported another Drone. "CAUSE OF DEATH; RA-DIA-TION POI-SO-NING."
"That information was catalogued on a false assumption," Romana told them. "As you can see, and as Davros will attest, I'm alive and well. I faked that death." At that, Jack and Rose looked incredulously at her.
"HOW DID YOU SUR-VIVE? NONE ES-CAPE THE DA-LEKS A-LIVE!" the Supreme Dalek growled angrily.
"Well, I think I've just proved otherwise, haven't I?!" she snapped back. She'd had enough of this. "It just goes to show you that you're not as superior as you'd like to believe. And spare me the propaganda...who are you trying to convince? Us...or yourselves?"
"And more to the point," the Doctor cut in, steering the topic away from Romana's faked death, "where's Davros? I'd have thought he'd want to see this – the Doctor and Company, powerless before the Dalek Empire."
"DAV-ROS IS IN THE VAULT," the Supreme Dalek answered for him.
"Ah! So he's bungled it again, has he?" the Doctor laughed, which made Romana smile – this incarnation of the Doctor was like her first Doctor – both were mad, incredible, and very talkative. He turned to the others. "The Daleks only let Davros in charge if they need him for something – once he's outlived his usefulness, they get rid of him." He noticed that Donna was not among the group. "Donna?" he called into the TARDIS.
"We told you that you're no safer in there," Romana joined in. But before Donna could leave the TARDIS, the door snapped shut.
"Doctor? Romana?" she cried in panic.
"Donna? What's happening?"
"OI!" Donna shouted furiously. "You're not leavin' me outta this!"
"What have you done?" Romana spat at the Supreme Dalek.
"THIS IS NOT OF DA-LEK O-RI-GIN," the Supreme denied her implied her accusation. "THIS IS TIME LORD TREA-CHE-RY!"
"Me? The door closed on its own!" the Doctor protested.
"NE-VER-THE-LESS, THE TAR-DIS IS A WEA-PON...AND IT WILL BE DES-TROYED!" the Supreme announced. At once, the TARDIS was sent hurtling down a shaft.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" the Doctor demanded, before running up to the Supreme Dalek. "WHERE DOES THAT SHAFT GO?!"
"THE CRU-CI-BLE HAS A HEART OF ZED NEU-TRI-NO EN-ER-GY," the Dalek told him. "THE TAR-DIS WILL BE DE-PO-SI-TED IN-TO THE CORE."
"But the Defences have been taken offline!" Romana protested. "The TARDIS will be ripped to pieces!"
This got Rose and Jack joining the conversation. "But Donna's still in there!" Rose cried in protest.
"LET HER GO!" shouted Jack demandingly. But they were merely ignored.
"THE FE-MALE AND THE TAR-DIS WILL PE-RISH TO-GETH-ER!" the Supreme shot back in a smug tone. "OB-SERVE!"
"Please...I'll do anything!" the Doctor pleaded. "PUT ME IN HER PLACE! JUST GET HER OUT OF THERE!" But his pleas fell on deaf auditory sensors.
"YOU ARE CON-NEC-TED TO THE TAR-DIS! NOW FEEL IT DIE!" the Supreme Dalek commanded him in a disgustingly merciless tone.
"TO-TAL TAR-DIS DES-TRUC-TION IN TEN RELS!" a Drone Dalek announced. "EIGHT...SE-VEN...SIX...FIVE...FOUR...THREE...TWO...ONE!"
"THE TAR-DIS IS DES-TROYED!" the Supreme told them in a triumphant manner. "NOW TELL ME, DOC-TOR – WHAT DO YOU FEEL? AN-GER? SOR-ROW? DES-PAIR?"
The Doctor didn't have the strength of heart in him for much talking, and he could tell Romana was feeling the same pain. "Yeah," he answered in a hollow whisper.
"THEN, IF E-MO-TIONS ARE SO IM-POR-TANT," the Dalek reasoned in a mocking tone, "SURE-LY WE HAVE EN-HANCED YOU?!"
Jack finally snapped in fury. "OH YEAH? FEEL THIS!" With that, he fired his revolver at the casing of the Supreme – to absolutely no effect.
"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" the Dalek cried, firing its blaster at him. Its aim was true – Jack screamed in pain as his skeleton was illuminated by the shot.
"Oh my God!" Rose cried in horror. "They just killed 'im!"
"Rose," Romana told her. "Get back..."
"But..."
"We know..."
"ES-CORT THEM TO THE VAULT," the Supreme Dalek instructed a group of Drones.
"There's nothing we can do..." the Doctor told Rose, as Daleks surrounded the trio.
"THEY ARE THE PLAY-THINGS OF DAV-ROS NOW," the Supreme informed the Drones. With that, the Daleks ushered them to the Vault, but not before Romana caught Jack giving her an only noticeable wink.
It was time to become reacquainted with old enemies...