The Doctor was in panic mode. What he was witnessing, the birth of a human and a Dalek was everything the Time Lords, including himself, feared. And, what made it worse was that his Bonded, his Kayla, was on the same planet, mere minutes away, from this…this abomination. For centuries, the Daleks and the Time Lords had been bitter enemies, but for an unholy combination of the two to not only be born, but to be born in front of a Time Lord…it was just wrong. Every part of the Doctor was screaming at him to destroy the Dalek/human hybrid. If it got out, his Bonded would be in danger. So he slipped behind some machinery while the horrible thing that used to be human started to speak to the other Daleks and the humans who had been selected for their intelligence.
"These…humans will become like me. Prepare them for hybridisation."
The Doctor didn't look up from his work, even as what sounded like the pig-slaves started to close in on the humans, and even as Martha started to yell, "Leave me alone! Don't you dare!" No, he did not look up or pause from his work. If anything, these noises made the Doctor work faster, harder, so that his plan worked. And of course, it did. The speaker in the Doctor's hand started to boom 'Happy Days are Here Again,' and everything in the room paused to look around for the source of the music and who had started it.
Finally, just as he knew it would, the Dalek/human asked, "What is that sound?"
Smirking, the Doctor stepped out with the speaker still in hand and waved at the Daleks. "That would be me." Knowing if anything went wrong, he set the speaker down on the boxes next to him. He rather like that speaker and, if he remembered, he decided he would pick it up later so that he could play some music in the TARDIS for Kayla and the baby. "Hello. Surprise. Boo. Et cetera," he added on with a wave of his hand.
"Doctor," the Dalek/human stated.
"The enemy of the Daleks," one of the surrounding Daleks said.
And then, of course, one of the other Daleks cried out, "Exterminate." For what was supposed to be Skaro's best minds, which now that the Doctor thought about it that really wasn't saying much, the Cult of Skaro were really easy to predict. Then again, they were just Daleks.
However, what did surprise him was that the Dalek/human held up its hand and ordered, "Wait."
This order made the Daleks pause and the Doctor to tilt his head slightly. The fact that it had ordered to wait before killing him was…mercy, or at least close enough to it. Just what exactly was going through this thing's mind? Seeing his chance, however, he addressed it. "Well, then. A new form of Dalek." He started to walk forwards, his eyes on the Dalek/human and not on the twitching Daleks who wanted to kill him. "Fascinating and very clever."
"The Cult of Skaro escaped your slaughter," the Dalek/human informed him. Oh yes, that had been a slaughter for the Daleks and the Cybermen and the humans, but it had saved Kayla, so the Doctor did not regret it in the slightest.
"How did you end up in 1930?" he asked the Dalek/human.
If anything, and this was very bizarre to the Doctor, the Dalek/human almost looked ashamed when he answered "Emergency Temporal Shift." But the Dalek/human couldn't be ashamed. Daleks only felt hate, and feeling shame wasn't hate.
So the Doctor scoffed out loud, partly at himself for thinking the Dalek/human was ashamed, and partly at the Daleks for running away. "Oh, that must have roasted up your power cells, yeah?" He guessed. Turning away, he started to stride around the room, taking in the unfinished nature of it and the Daleks and the pig-men and the humans in just a few gazes. "Time was, four Daleks could have conquered the world but instead your skulking away, hidden in the dark, experimenting." Shaking his head, the Doctor turned back to the Dalek/human and took a deep breath. "All of which results in you."
"I am Dalek in human form," the Dalek/human merely responded, which made the Doctor pause. Just how human was this Dalek?
Smirking and his mind only on the test at hand, he hurried towards the Dalek and leaned in. By the way the Dalek/human was ordering the others, the Doctor figured this had to be Dalek Sec, the leader of the Cult of Skaro. This meant he had a name, and names were very, very powerful.
"What does it feel like? You can talk to me, Dalek Sec. It is Dalek Sec, isn't it? That's your name? You've got a name and a mind of your own. Tell me what you're thinking right now," the Doctor pushed at the Dalek/human.
Surprisingly, the Dalek/human paused and seemed to think on his question. "I…feel…humanity," the Dalek/human admitted.
The Doctor nodded. "Good. That's good."
And then, the Dalek/human just had to be more Dalek. "I…feel…everything we wanted from mankind, which is ambition, hatred, aggression and war. Such…a genius for war."
The Doctor gritted his teeth and shook his head. The Dalek/human had failed in its test. "No, that's not what humanity means."
"I think it does. At heart, this species is so very…Dalek," the Dalek/human countered.
Pushing away from the Dalek/human, the Doctor started to stride around the room, making it seem like he was aimlessly wandering when really, his eyes were on one tiny little object. It seemed that Kayla would not be getting her radio after all.
"All right, so what have you achieved hen? With this Final Experiment, eh? Nothing! 'Cause I can show you what you're missing with this thing," pointing at the radio, the Doctor grinned widely. "Simple little radio," he added in and then pat the radio for good measure.
"What is the purpose of that device?" One of the Daleks asked.
This was exactly what the Doctor wanted and his smile got wider. "Well, exactly. It plays music. What's the point of that? Oh, with music, you can dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it. Unless you're a Dalek of course. Then it's just noise." And with that, the Doctor turned straight towards the radio and pointed his sonic screwdriver at it. Instantly, the radio blasted a high-pitched noise that made all the Daleks spin and jerk and the Dalek/human hold its head in agony.
Not wasting a single moment, the Doctor turned to the prisoners. "Run!" he yelled. The prisoners didn't wait to be told twice and ran out of the room. Looking back on his work, the Doctor turned and followed the prisoners, the cries of the Daleks to protect what used to be Dalek Sec echoing in his ears.
In Hooverville, a camp set up in the middle of Central Park for those who were down on their luck, as many were in the 1930's, Kayla sat in a small tent with the default leader, Solomon, staring at her with wide eyes. She had just told him that she and the Doctor were aliens, Time Lord and Time Lady to be exact, and that they, along with Martha, were time travelers. The TARDIS, which she did not show him, was their spaceship. By the way his mouth was hanging open, he wasn't taking it well.
"You mean to tell me that you're an alien?"
"Yes," Kayla said with a nod, only barely holding back a sigh.
Solomon shook his head. "How can I believe this…this insanity?"
Suddenly, Kayla ran out of the tent, her head ringing with the mental yell from the Doctor. Worried for her, Solomon hurried out after her. "Kayla! Kayla are you alright?" he called after her.
Kayla waved her hand. Turning on the spot, her eyes widened and she grinned as she saw a mass of people, their clothes dirtied from the sewers, coming towards her. And then, a lanky figure broke through the ranks and ran towards her. Soon, the Doctor was hugging her, and Kayla sighed in relief and laid her head on his shoulder. The Doctor ran a hand through her hair and then kissed her forehead. "We don't have long," he warned her softly.
Kayla looked up at him, her forehead furrowing in concern. "What should we do?"
Pulling away, the Doctor took Kayla's hand and addressed the crowd that had gathered around everyone. It seemed that the prisoners had woken their families, and their neighbors, and now the entire group of Hooverville had made a ring to find out just what was happening.
"You're families are back, but we are not safe," the Doctor informed everyone bluntly. At this, people started to hiss at each other in complete terror. Those whispers silenced when Solomon held up his hand. A box of matches was in his hand and he had started to light the barrels to create a fire so that people could see the Doctor. "Thank you," the Doctor said with a nod to the black man, who grinned slightly back. "They were taken by pig-men slaves, who work for the Daleks. These Daleks want to bred, to spread out among the stars, and they want Earth to be their starting point."
The Doctor shook his head, which made Kayla give him a reassuring squeeze. Giving her a grin, the Doctor continued on with his speech. "The Daleks are going to come after us, they will use you all as cattle, your age and gender will not matter. The only way we can do this is if we fight. We need to set up a sentry to guard the camp. When the pig-men come, they will warn us."
"I will," One man offered.
The Doctor nodded to him. "Thank you. The rest of you, prepare for a fight and also prepare to leave Hooverville forever." It seemed that a general cry of "what" rose up from the crowd. Having expected this, the Doctor waited for everyone to calm down before continuing, "They will use you as breeding stalk. We can fight them off now, but then you guys need to leave. Daleks…they are unstoppable. Go somewhere else, go to a different state, do whatever, but just leave!"
Everyone in the crowd seemed to stare at Solomon for answers. The black man sighed. "I…I don't know about these things…I…I think you should listen to the Doctor. Pack your things. I know that we have no were else to go, so we'll make a new place out of New York." Seeming to be satisfied, the crowd dispersed. Solomon sighed and turned to the Doctor and Kayla. "Are these Daleks like you? Are they alien too?"
"They're alien, yes," Kayla answered as she felt the Doctor tense next to her at the idea of being compared to Daleks. "But he and I are nothing like the Daleks. They're pure evil."
Solomon chuckled to himself and shook his head. "They sound like it. Evil and the stuff of pure nightmares. And they wanna breed?"
The Doctor nodded. "They're splicing themselves into human bodies. If I'm right, they've got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville. We've got to get everyone out."
Solomon stared at the Doctor, his eyes wide. "There's got to be a way to reason with these things," he suggested.
Martha, who was standing further away from the Doctor and Kayla than normal, interjected in the conversation with, "There's not a chance."
Next to her, Frank added in, "You ain't seen 'em, boss."
"Daleks are bad enough at anytime, but right now they're vulnerable and that makes them more dangerous than ever," the Doctor finished darkly.
Sighing, Solomon turned away to the fire, which gave Kayla a chance to go over to Martha. "Hey," she started in a soft voice, "you alright? The Doctor told me you yelled at the Daleks. That's pretty impressive."
Martha's brow furrowing and she lightly led Kayla away from the Doctor and Frank, the brunette only allowing this because she was so curious to see what was up with the black woman. "Did you know?" Martha asked in a soft voice.
"Did I know what?" Kayla asked back, her arms crossing.
Martha shook her head. "The Doctor. He left Frank behind to those pig-men! He could have saved him but he didn't, and thank god that Frank is still alive."
Kayla stared at Martha. In her mind, she could feel the Doctor's worry at her tension and his want to come over. But she quickly shot that down. "Martha," Kayla sighed, "he told me, so yes I did know that that happened. But it's…when a Time Lord's Bonded is in danger, they focus in on that. He felt me get knocked out and he panicked. He focused in on me and anyone who was in danger gets left behind unless they happen to be on the path to me." Martha opened her mouth to speak, but Kayla held up her hand. "It's not right, and the Doctor feels horrible about it. He is going to speak to Frank about it once this whole mess is over. And once we're back to the TARDIS…there's something I have to tell you too."
Before Martha could respond, the sentry that they had set up, the one who was watching for the pig-men, suddenly rang his bell and then started to run towards the middle of Hooverville. "They're coming! They're coming!"
The Doctor was suddenly at Kayla's side, his hands on her shoulder as if he was prepared to move her using them. "You're not safe!"
Kayla's whose arms had uncrossed, placed a hand on her stomach. "Where do I go?"
The Doctor looked around and then spotted Solomon's tent. "There!" Kayla instantly went over and the Time Lord turned to Martha. "Please, go be with her. If something were to happen…" his voice trailing off, he shook his head.
Martha just nodded, knowing what the Doctor meant. If something were to happen to him, then Kayla would be alone and pregnant. If she stayed with her, she would at least have someone to help her. So she went over to the tent and stepped inside. She tried to smile but that failed, so she just sat down in the chair opposite of Kayla.
"Now's as good time as any to tell me what you wanted to tell me in the TARDIS," Martha pointed out, trying so hard to ignore the sounds that had started outside.
Kayla, however, wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were closed, but she seemed too focused and alert to be asleep. It took Martha a moment to realize that she had to be doing something to contact the Doctor. "What do you see?" she asked in a soft voice. "What's going on?"
"Pig-men, everywhere. Hooverville is surrounded. This can't be their only move, one is coming. Must protect Kayla. She and my child must live on. Dalek!" At the end, her eyes flew open and the monotone she had been speaking in broke and her voice cracked slightly with the cry. Stumbling slightly to her feet, she started towards the tent.
"Kayla! The Doctor said to stay in here-" Martha turned around, her eyes wide as she heard the explosions start. Her hand fell off Kayla's shoulder, which allowed the brunette to hurry out to the Doctor. Martha, shaking her head, followed. "I tried," she muttered as soon as she was next to the Doctor.
It seemed that the Doctor didn't hear her, or if he did he didn't seem to care. His arm was around Kayla, who had wrapped both her arms around his waist and was refusing to let go, not that the Doctor was trying to get her off. Instead, he was just watching the attack on the people, his mouth opened slightly and his eyes widening.
Next to him, Solomon stepped forwards. The Doctor held out an arm and shook his head. "No, Solomon. Stay back," he warned in a low voice.
Solomon ignored him. Instead, he called out to the attacking Daleks, "I'm told that I'm addressin' the Daleks, is that right? From what I hear, you're outcasts, too."
The Doctor shook his head. "Solomon, don't," he tried to warn again.
"Doctor, this is my township, you will respect my authority," Solomon retorted, and then sighed. "Just let me try," he pleaded.
Shaking his head, the Doctor stepped back with Kayla, and watched as Solomon tried to ask for peace with a Dalek. But what the black man didn't know, what he would never know, is that Daleks killed.
"Daleks…ain't we all the same? Underneath, ain't we all kin?" Solomon pointed out, and then, he dropped the rifle he had been holding. "Cause, see, I've just discovered this past day God's universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was. And that scares me. Oh, yeah. Terrifies me. Right down to the bone. But it's got to give me hope…hope that maybe together we can make a better tomorrow. So I…I beg you now if you have any compassion in your hearts then you'll meet with us and stop this fight. Well…what do you say?"
It came as no shock to the Doctor and Kayla that the Dalek promptly replied, "Exterminate!"
"Oh no!" Frank cried as the Dalek shot Solomon and killed him, on the spot. The boy ran over to Solomon and knelt by him, shaking his head. "No! Solomon!"
"They killed him. They just shot him on the spot," Martha gasped, her eyes huge.
Kayla turned her head from the Doctor to look at Martha and shake her head. "They're Daleks. That's what they do. Kill." At her words, the Doctor suddenly, but still gently, pulled away from Kayla, which made the pregnant woman gasp and cry out, "Doctor!"
Ignoring her, he yelled out at the Dalek that had shot Solomon, "Daleks!" He then moved forwards and held his arms out to his side, exposing his chest. "All right, so it's my turn! Then kill me! Kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people!"
"Doctor, no!" Kayla yelled from behind him, but the Doctor didn't turn around. His mind was just too consumed with anger to the Daleks for killing innocent people, for endangering his Bonded, that he refused to really see what he was doing, which was leaving his child to be fatherless.
"I will be the destroyer of our greatest enemy," the Dalek said, shaking in the air at the mere excitement it was feeling for the kill it was about to commit.
"Then do it! Do it! Just do it!" the Doctor yelled at the Dalek. "Do it!"
"Extermin—" Just as the Dalek was about to kill the Doctor, just as Kayla was about to shove the Doctor out of the way and literally take the kill for him, the Dalek's voice cut off, which made the Doctor's arms fall to his side and Kayla to run over to him and hug him so tightly he could barely breathe. He instantly wrapped an arm around her and rubbed her back with his hand.
"I do not understand. It is the Doctor," the Dalek cried out suddenly, making the couple stare up at the Dalek in alarm. After a pause, it said, "The urge to kill is too strong."
"Kayla, run," the Doctor ordered, trying to move Kayla away from him.
Kayla shook her head. "Never without you."
Realizing that he was likely going to die along side with his Bonded, the Doctor returned the hug in full and buried his face in her hair just as the Dalek said, "I…obey."
The Doctor looked up at the Dalek, his mouth dropping open slightly. "What's going on?"
"You will follow," the Dalek ordered instead of answering.
The Doctor pulled away and looked at Kayla. "You need to-"
"To hell with staying here! I'm not letting you go off to a mass of Daleks by yourself!"
The Doctor shook his head. "Kayla, you're pregnant. They could kill you!"
"Then at least I'll die next to you."
The Time Lord sighed and looked down. "Fine," he huffed. "But I don't like this. And if something goes wrong you run."
Kayla nodded and then took the Doctor's hand. Suddenly, Martha ran over with a cry of, "No! You can't go!"
"We got to go, Martha. The Daleks just changed their minds…and they never change their minds," Kayla said in a soft voice.
Martha shook her head. "But what about us?" She protested as she gestured to the people of Hooverville who had gathered around.
Looking at them, the Doctor turned to face the Dalek. "One condition! If I come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here! And, you will let me take Kayla with me! Do you hear me?"
If Daleks could, this Dalek clearly would have sighed. After a pause, it replied, "The humans will be spared and you can take Kayla. Doctor…Kayla…follow."
"Then I'm coming with you," Martha stated, her arms crossing.
The Doctor whirled around and shook his head. "Martha, stay here. Do what you do best. People are hurt. You can help them. Let us go." Trying his best to ignore the hurt expression on Martha's face, the Doctor took Kayla's hand and started to walk away before he turned around and winked at her. "Oh, and can I just say, thank you very much." And, then the two walked off.
'Did you give it to her?' Kayla asked mentally, squeezing his hand.
'Yep,' even through the mental link, the Doctor popped the 'p' in the word. 'She has the psychic paper.'
Behind the two, Martha frowned and opened her hand to see the psychic paper in it. She grinned widely. It seemed that the Doctor had need of her after all.
Having walked all the way to the Empire State Building and then into a chamber, Kayla and the Doctor walked towards Dalek Sec. Kayla hung back, her eyes wide as she saw the state of the Dalek/human. The Doctor was less horrified. Sure, he took a step back and closed his eyes, but he already knew what the Dalek/human looked like, so he was able to quickly recover and yell at Dalek Sec.
"Those people were defenceless! You only wanted me, but no, that wasn't enough for you! You had to start killing 'cause that's the only thing a Dalek's good for!" He yelled at it.
"The deaths…were wrong," Dalek Sec admitted slowly.
The Doctor paused, his mouth open to continue yelling at the Dalek/human. Kayla took a step forwards, her eyes wide. "What did you say?" she asked softly.
"That man, their leader Solomon, he showed courage," Dalek Sec elaborated.
Kayla took another step forwards. "And do you think that's good?"
Dalek Sec nodded. "That's excellent."
The Doctor looked over at him, his head tilting slightly. "Is it me or are you just becoming a little bit more human?" the Doctor asked, glancing at Kayla as he spoke.
"You two are the last of your kind and now I am the first of mine," Dalek Sec pointed out simply.
Frowning, the Doctor crossed his arms and looked around. "What do you want me for?" he finally asked.
"We tried everything to survive when we found ourselves stranded in this ignorant age. First we tried growing new Dalek embryos but their flesh was too weak."
"We found one of those in the sewers," Kayla informed him. "Couldn't you have at least destroyed it?"
Dalek Sec ignored her and choose to continue. "It forced us to conclude what is the greatest resource of this planet—its people." Going over to a large switch, he flipped it up. This caused the ceiling above the three to light up, which revealed hundreds of what had to be human bodies lying, suspended. Kayla let out a small gasp and the Doctor hurried over to her and wrapped his arms around her. She swallowed hard, trying not to vomit as one of the bodies, thankfully it was shrouded, was lowered down.
"We stole them. We stole human beings for our purpose. Look…inside."
Holding Kayla's hand, the Doctor walked over to the shroud and carefully opened it. Inside was a brutish man, his skin pale and his eyes closed.
"This…is the extent of the Final Experiment," Dalek Sec informed them, actually sounding upset about how far the plan was going.
Kayla looked over at the Dalek/human and shook her head. "Is he…is he dead?"
"Near death with his mind wiped ready to be filled with new ideas," Dalek Sec explained.
The Doctor frowned at this. "Dalek ideas," he stated bluntly.
"The Human-Dalek race." Dalek Sec agreed.
Kayla closed the shroud carefully and then looked up at the ceiling. "How many?"
"We have caverns beyond this storing more than a thousand."
"Is there any way to restore them? Make them human again?" The Doctor asked.
Dalek Sec shook his head. "Everything they were has been lost."
"So they're like shells. You've got empty human beings ready to be converted. That's going to take a hell of a lot of power. This planet hasn't even split the atom yet. How're you gonna do it?" the Doctor asked, his voice hardening as he questioned the Daleks plan.
In response, Dalek Sec called out, "Open the conductor plan."
A hologram appeared, showing the Empire State building. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Empire State Building. We're right underneath that. I worked that out already, thanks. But what, you hijacked the whole building?"
"We needed an energy conductor," Dalek Sec informed them.
Kayla frowned. "Why? What's it for?"
"I…am the genetic template. My altered DNA was to be administered to each human body. A strong enough blast of gamma radiation can splice the Dalek and human genetic codes and wake each body from its sleep," the Dalek/human explained.
"Gamma radiation? What are- Oh, the sun. You're using the sun," the Doctor gasped, realizing the plan.
Dalek Sec nodded. "Soon…the greatest solar flare for a thousand years will hit the Earth. Gamma radiation will be drawn to the energy conductor and when it strikes—"
"The army will awaken," Kayla finished.
The Doctor nodded. "Exactly. But I still don't know what you need me for."
"Your genius. Consider a pure Dalek; intelligent but emotionless."
The Doctor frowned and crossed his arms. "Removing the emotions makes you stronger. That's what your creator thought all those years ago," he pointed out.
And then, the Dalek/human said something that completely caught the Doctor and Kayla off guard and made the Daleks, who had been lingering back until then, twitch and look at each other. For Dalek Sec said, "He was wrong."
"He was what?" Kayla asked, her brow arching while the Doctor just kinda stared at the Dalek/human blankly, still trying to process the words.
"It makes us lesser than our enemies. We must return to the flesh. And also…the heart,"
"But you wouldn't be the supreme beings anymore," Kayla pointed out.
Dalek Sec nodded. "And that is good," he greeted.
One of the Daleks rolled forwards. "That is incorrect."
And then another Dalek joined it. "Daleks are supreme."
"No, not anymore," Dalek Sec disagreed.
"But that is our purpose," the second Dalek protested.
Dalek Sec shook his head. "Then our purpose is wrong! Where has our quest for supremacy led us? To this. Hiding in the sewers on a primitive world. Just four of us left. If we do not change now then we deserve extinction."
The Doctor frowned and crossed his arms. "So you want to change everything that makes a Dalek a Dalek," he said slowly.
"If…you and Kayla can help me," Dalek Sec agreed.
So Kayla went with the Doctor. I really couldn't see her not going with him, especially if there's the threat of him dying. I love Martha in this episode so I'm excited about when she shows up.
Also, Doctor Who is back on prime! Thank god, I can finally watch these episodes while I'm writing them.
And...review time:
grapejuice101: Thank you so much!
NicoleR85: Thanks!