The Doctor and Kayla stared at Dalek Sec, the Dalek/human hybrid that had just told them the entire Dalek plan and was asking them to help make it so that Daleks were not Daleks.
'I can't have read that right,' the Doctor said mentally, his arms crossing as he ran through the entire conversation again. Perhaps he had missed the major signs of this being a trap.
Kayla just blinked and also ran through the conversation. As a former Time Agent, she knew set-ups well. Whatever Dalek Sec was doing, it wasn't a set-up. 'No, you heard him right,' she corrected the Doctor.
Somehow sensing their discomfort, Dalek Sec spoke up, snapping the two to attention. "Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours. The new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts," the Dalek/human hybrid explained.
The Doctor shook his head, still not really following. "But you're the template. I thought they were getting a dose of you," he pointed out.
"I want to change the gene sequence," Dalek Sec agreed.
Kayla frowned. "To what? Make them even more human?"
Dalek Sec nodded. "Humans are the great survivors. We need that ability."
The Doctor held up a finger, a rather horrible thought occurring to him. "Hold on a minute. There's no way this lot are gonna let you do it," he pointed out while gesturing towards the Daleks nearby, who just moments ago had spoken up and protested the plan Dalek Sec was doing.
The Dalek/human hybrid blinked. "I am their leader," he pointed out simply.
Moving subtly so that Kayla was behind him, should the Daleks fire, the Doctor turned around to face the other Daleks. "Oh, and that's enough for you, is it?" he asked them loudly, half-expecting one of them to kill him for just talking to them.
"Daleks must follow orders," One Dalek replied promptly.
"Dalek Sec commands, we obey," the other Dalek agreed.
The Doctor turned around and looked over at Dalek Sec, his brow furrowing. 'Should we do it?' he asked Kayla. 'Should we really help the Daleks?'
'This is a chance to stop Daleks from killing more people…like my father.' Very slowly, Kayla reached out and took the Doctor's hand and gave it a squeeze. 'I say we should.'
The Doctor nodded and squeezed back.
"If you two don't help me…nothing will change," Dalek Sec practically pleaded.
"There's no room on Earth for another race of people," the Doctor pointed out warningly, though he had truly already decided on the matter.
"You have your TARDIS. Take us across the stars. Find us a new home and allow the new Daleks to start again," Dalek Sec said.
The Doctor nodded. "When's the solar flare?"
"Eleven minutes," Dalek Sec informed him promptly.
The Doctor grinned, which made Kayla roll her eyes. "Right then. Better get to work," he said with a clap of his hands.
Having moved to a small lab near the chamber they had been in, the Doctor had gotten Dalek Sec to spread out the papers, which the Dalek/human hybrid had done promptly. Staring down at them, he frowned at the equipment and readouts the Daleks had done.
"There's no point in chromosomal grafting. It's too erratic. You need to split the genome and force the Dalek-human sequence right into the cortex," the Doctor informed Dalek Sec.
Dalek Sec nodded. "We need more chromatin solution," he agreed.
A Dalek came rolling in. "The pig slaves have it," it announced. Behind it, the pig-men were carrying a rather heavy looking crate which they set down with a thud before wandering off.
Kayla, feeling her heart thud at the idea of being turned into a simple slave for something as horrible as a Dalek, frowned and turned towards Dalek Sec. "What happens to the pig slaves once you've finished your plan?"
Dalek Sec blinked at the question and then shrugged. "Nothing. They're just simple beasts. Their lifespan is limited. None survive beyond a few weeks." The Dalek/human hybrid turned away to order the engine feeds on, giving Kayla time to send a quick message to the Doctor.
'Is there anything we can do about the pig-men? Perhaps make their death more humane?'
The Doctor frowned and looked up at her. 'No, there isn't. When I scanned the pig-man in the sewers, it showed me that everything the Daleks did is irreversible.'
'That's…horrible,' Kayla closed her eyes and snapped the connection shut, making the Doctor look over at her with worry in his eyes. Knowing in his hearts that she wanted to be alone then, he went back to his work.
It was only a few minutes until the solar flare was going to strike that a Dalek announced, "The line feeds are ready."
The Doctor instantly rushed over to the tubes that were the line feeds and started to extract the liquid from them.
"Then it's all systems go," the Doctor said, spinning around to show Kayla and Dalek Sec the syringe filled with the liquid.
Kayla grinned, though it was strained. She was beginning to become worried about how long it had taken to ready the line feeds and just the general way the Daleks were watching the Doctor and Kayla move.
"The solar flare is imminent. The radiation…will reach Earth in a matter of minutes," Dalek Sec warned, making Kayla pull out of her thoughts and look over to the Doctor for his reply.
"We'll be ready for it." Turning back around, he inserted the solution from the syringe into the main feeding tube and stepped back to admire his handing work. Grinning widely, he turned and called over to the pig-men and Dalek, "That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure in a brand new pattern. Power up!"
Two pig-men turned on the power switch and Dalek Sec ordered, "Start…the line feeds," which made a Dalek start the machinery.
Going over to the Doctor and taking his hand, Kayla watched along with the Time Lord and the Dalek/human as the solution started to go through the feeding tubes.
"There goes the gene solution," the Doctor said as he pointed out to Kayla.
Dalek Sec nodded next to him. "The life blood," he agreed as the solution started to travel into the bodies that the Daleks had collected.
Proud of his work, the Doctor went over and sat down to wait. Seeing room, Kayla sat down next to him and leaned in. Normally she would have closed her eyes, but she didn't feel quite safe enough to do so. Instead, she just stared blankly at the wall as she waited for everything to work.
But that was not what happened. A sound, an alarm of sorts, started to blare through the labs along with red flashing lights. Kayla winced at the noise and covered her ears, which did little to muffle out the noise, yet it was something.
Following the Doctor with her eyes, Kayla felt the flash of panic go through his mind. Dropping her hands she hurried over to him next to the controls. "What's going on?!" she called over the alarm.
"The gene feed! They're overriding the gene feed!" the Doctor yelled back.
Kayla's eyes widened. There was no need to specify who was overriding the gene feed, they all knew who that was, even Dalek Sec. In fact, the Dalek/human hybrid seemed disgusted by this news. "Impossible. They cannot disobey orders," he tried to reason.
In answer, two Daleks glided up behind the Doctor and Kayla, making the Time Lord mover her behind him, pressing her back against the controls to block her from any attack that the Daleks would make.
"The Doctor and Kayla will step away from the controls," one Dalek ordered, its weapon steadily on the Time Lord. Holding up his hands, the Doctor moved away from the controls and Kayla followed him.
"Stop! You will not fire," Dalek Sec ordered the two rouge Daleks.
In response, the Dalek that had spoken swiveled its eye stalk to stare directly at its once leader. "He is an enemy of the Daleks."
"And so are you," the other Dalek put in.
'Kayla. They're going to try and kill you. But I need you to run. Get up to the top of the Empire State Building. Martha should be there.'
Kayla buried her face into the Doctor shoulder and hugged him from the back. 'We will both get out of this,' she informed him, even as she felt a tear slide down her cheek from the pure fear of it all.
The Doctor nodded. 'Run!'
And Kayla did. She had been a Time Agent for a long time, and Time Agents knew how to get out of problems, no matter how bad the problem was. Granted, Daleks were not what she had trained for, but they were similar enough to other creatures. Rolling out from behind the Doctor, she pushed the pig-man that had come to grab him away from her. Hearing a Dalek swivel around she scrambled her feet and ran fast, making sure to tip over a table to create some sort of space between her back and the Daleks' gun. The lift, which had already been summoned by the Doctor's screwdriver, dinged open and she went inside of it. Leaning against the railing in the elevator, she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing as the elevator kept climbing up.
'Doctor, how's it going?' she called to the Time Lord.
'I found Lazlo!'
'Who?'
'That show girl's boyfriend.'
And then, with a cheery ding, the door opened and Kayla was greeted by the sight of Martha and Frank.
"Kayla?" Martha gasped, her eyes widening.
Kayla stepped out of the elevator and watched as the doors closed before she turned around and hugged Martha. "I never thought I'd see you again," she breathed.
Martha laughed slightly, but it was hollow. "That bad?" she asked, pulling away from the Time Lady.
Kayla rubbed her stomach slightly and then nodded. "That bad. The Doctor's coming up any second-"
The door dinged and Kayla whirled around to see the Doctor and a pig-man who looked more man then pig step out of the elevator.
"Doctor!" Hurrying towards him, Kayla hugged him tightly and then kissed him.
The Doctor grinned and wrapped his arms around her in return before he kissed back. "Kayla," he said in a much calmer voice.
Lazlo stepped out behind him and nodded at Martha, which made the woman blink. "Doctor?" she asked slowly.
The Doctor pulled away from Kayla, though that was with a groan through their link, and then, realizing what Martha was question, wrapped an arm around Lazlo's shoulders. "Martha. Lazlo. Lazlo. Martha," he said quickly. "And Lazlo. Frank," he added as an afterthought with a slight shrug.
The elevator behind them dinged, making the Doctor pull away and pull open the panel. Sonicing it, he kicked the wall, which made Kayla wince, for the screwdriver had not worked, marking a deadlock seal.
"Where's it going?" Martha asked, a frown forming.
Kayla sighed. "Straight down to the Daleks, which means we will not be alone much longer," she warned.
Martha blinked and her mouth made a small 'o' of surprise. "Oh," she said in a higher voice than usual.
The Doctor pointed at Frank. "Right then. What's the time?"
Frank looked taken aback but took a watch out to answer, "11:15."
The Doctor nodded. "Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits."
"If I asked would I be able to follow?" Martha asked in a low voice to Kayla.
"I haven't," she said with a shrug, which made the black woman grin.
The two women hurried after the Doctor and a surprised Frank, who had wandered outside to see what had to be done. At the sight of not only how high up they were but the city, the Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh, that's high. That's very- Blimey, that's high," he remarked.
Martha nodded and then pointed up even higher up the building. "And we've got to go even higher. That's the mast up there, look. There's three pieces of Dalekanium at the base. We've got to get 'em off."
The Doctor turned around and quickly shook his head. "That's not 'we.' That's just me," he corrected with a stern look not just to Martha but Kayla as well.
Martha huffed. "I won't just stand here and watch you."
Kayla shook her head and placed a hand on Martha's shoulder, making the women turn to her. "Martha," she started in a low voice, "what the Doctor is rather badly asking of you, is will you please protect me from the swarm of pig-men and maybe Daleks that are going to come up in that elevator?"
The Doctor nodded, though there was a slight pout on his face at being corrected. "Exactly," he agreed.
Martha nodded slowly. "Alright then."
"The lift is coming up," Kayla warned. She was standing over to the side, watching the numbers on the elevator as Frank and Martha worked.
They had realized that no matter what, lightening was going to hit the pole the Doctor was currently climbing up. With Lazlo, the pig-man, watching him, it left the trio little option but to improvise. They were currently hooking up long metal rods to the elevator with the hope that it would fry the pigs. Kayla had made sure that the rods weren't touching the floor and so far, everything seemed to be going well.
In fact, Kayla had decided to not pull Martha aside, as she was going to do, and wait to tell her about Hamlet being Hamnet until they got back to the TARDIS.
"Done!" Martha cheered.
Frank grinned and stepped back from his work. Holding out a hand, he helped Martha up and the two surveyed what they had done. "Is that gonna work?" Frank had to ask. "I mean, I've got it all piped up to the scaffolding outside, but…" his voice trailed off and he shook his head.
"It's going to work," Kayla promised.
Martha nodded and then squeezed Frank's hand. "Come here, Frank and sit in the middle and don't touch anything metal," she instructed while leading him over to the spot.
Kayla quickly backed up to the corner, facing away in the hope to keep her child safe.
And then…the lightning struck the tower that the Doctor was still on. Kayla could feel the effect the electricity was having on the Doctor's body, as she clenched her own hands into fists to keep quiet. But the plan that they had set up worked. The lightning went through the metal rods and hit the pig-men, causing them to fall, dead.
Once the charge was gone from the room, Kayla turned away with a cry of "Doctor!" Running out to the rain-slicked floor, she knelt beside the Doctor. He had fallen from the mast and had landed on his back. As anyone would be after a fall and an electrical charge, he was unconscious.
Martha gasped behind Kayla but was soon next to the brunette and offering the sonic screwdriver. "I nearly tripped on this," she explained.
Kayla nodded and took the screwdriver before going back to watching the Doctor's face. She watched as his eyes fluttered open and he sat up a bit, his hand going to the back of his head. "Oh my head," he groaned.
Kayla took his other hand and squeezed it tightly. "It's okay. No rush," she told him soothingly.
"Actually…" Martha's voice trailed off, causing the two to look at her. "I can't help noticing….there's Dalekanium still attached."
Kayla looked back at the Doctor, who was suddenly trying to scramble to his feet. Getting up, she helped him up as well and wrapped an arm around his waist, supporting him as he looked up at the tower. Just as Martha had said, the Dalekanium, the metal from the Daleks' own casing, was still attached to the tower.
"There plan…it worked," the Doctor breathed with a shake of his head. "The Daleks will have gone straight to a war footing. They'll be using the sewers, spreading their soldiers out underneath Manhattan."
Kayla let out a whoosh of breath. "That's….that's really not good," she remarked, and the Doctor nodded.
Her eyes widening, Martha shook her head. "But we can stop them, right?" she protested. Throughout her brief travels with the Doctor and Kayla, she had seen them survive everything. This had to be no different.
Thinking, the Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "There's only one chance. I got in the way. That gamma strike went zapping though me first."
"But what does that mean?" Martha pushed.
The Doctor waved a hand at her. "We need to draw fire. Before they can attack New York, I need to face them. Think, think, think, think. We need some sort of space, somewhere safe, somewhere out of the way. Lazlo!" Shouting the name at the end, making the pig-man jump, the Doctor pointed at him.
"Yes?" he asked slowly.
"The theater. I know you used to work there. Can you get us in?"
Kayla grinned, her eyes widening at what the Doctor was planning. "That's right! The theater, it's above where they would be in the sewers."
Lazlo blinked and then nodded. "I think so, it's just after midnight so Tallulah wouldn't see me."
The Doctor nodded and then whirled around to look at Martha. "Is there another lift?"
Martha paused and then grinned. "We came up in the service elevator."
"Perfect," Kayla kissed the Doctor on the cheek.
The Doctor smiled and hugged her tightly. "Allons-y!"
Having snuck into the theater, which was dark as it was the middle of the night, the Doctor switched on his sonic screwdriver as he got to work. Realizing that there was no chance that he was going to say anything else to the others, Kayla turned to Lazlo, Martha, and Frank. "Thanks," she said to the pig-man.
In response, the pig-man nodded…and then fell back into a chair. Martha and Frank rushed over. "Lazlo! I'm an actual doctor. What's wrong?" Martha asked him urgently as she checked his temperature. "He's burning up," she remarked softly to Frank and Kayla, making the boy take a small step back while Kayla frowned.
"It's just so hot," Lazlo panted.
Martha frowned and looked over at Kayla. "What's happening to him?"
"He's a slave to the Daleks," Kayla pointed out with a shake of her head. "They weren't meant to survive for so long."
Martha gasped. "Is there any way we can stop it?" she asked.
Kayla shook her head. "The Daleks never made a reversal."
Martha frowned and turned to the Doctor, who was being oddly quiet only to see the Time Lord listening intently to his sonic screwdriver. "What are you doing?"
"If the Daleks are going to war, they'll wanna find their number one enemy. I'm just telling them where I am." Having found the correct frequency, the Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver and turned it on. After a few moments, he turned it off and pointed at Martha. "Martha, take Lazlo and go with Frank back to Hooverville."
Martha shook her head. "I'm not going," she replied stubbornly.
The Doctor glared at her. "I'm telling you to go. Frank can take you back to Hooverville."
"And I'm telling you I'm not going."
"Martha, it wasn't a request," Kayla said softly. "It was a direct order. Unless you never want to travel in the TARDIS again, then you will follow it and get yourself to safety with Frank and Lazlo in Hooverville!"
Martha took a step back and even the Doctor looked rather surprise. He had never really seen Kayla get so worked up over something like this. But a brief tap into her head made him draw her closer. He could instantly feel her anger at how Martha was reacting to the Doctor trying to keep her safe and could feel the headache forming from lack of sleep. Her emotions were running high and Martha just kept pushing them. Of course, he did feel bad for Martha because how Kayla had snapped at the end…that was pretty harsh.
But then, Martha retorted, "And who are you for yelling and ordering about? Some kind of Dalek?"
The Doctor glared at Martha and half-shielded Kayla away from her, even when the black woman showed a face of pure regret at saying that. Instead, he snarled, "How dare you!" Before he continue, which he dearly wanted to, the door to the theater banged open, causing the group to turn around to see the mass of humans with Dalek DNA standing, with guns, standing in the doorway.
"Humans…with Dalek DNA," Martha gasped, her eyes widening as she stared at the group of them.
Frank hurried forwards, preparing to fight them, but the Doctor held his arm out, holding him back. "It's all right. Just stay calm. Don't antagonize them," he warned.
"But what about the Dalek masters? Where are they?" Lazlo asked in a labored voice.
In answer, an explosion occurred on the stage, causing the Doctor, Kayla, Martha, Frank, and Lazlo to duck behind the seats in front of them for cover. As the smoke cleared, causing the Doctor to cough lightly, the Time Lord peered up over the seats to see two Daleks leading a chained up Dalek Sec, who was crawling, onto the stage. His eyes widening, the Doctor got to his feet while everyone peered over the chairs to see what he was going to do.
"The Doctor will stand before the Daleks," one of the Daleks ordered.
Stepping over the chairs, the Doctor walked all the way until he was in the front row, right in front of the Daleks.
"You will die, Doctor. It is the beginning of a new age," the other Dalek informed him.
"Planet Earth will become New Skaro," the first Dalek added in.
The Doctor shook his head. "Oh, and what a world. With anything just the slightest bit different ground into the dirt. That's Dalek Sec. Don't you remember? The cleverest Dalek ever and look what you've done to him. Is that your new empire? Hmm? Is that the foundation for a whole new civilization?"
"My Daleks…just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you," Dalek Sec warned from the floor.
One of the Dalek's eyestalks looked down at him. "Incorrect. We will always survive."
"Now we will destroy our greatest enemy, the Doctor," the other Dalek cried out.
Dalek Sec shook his head. "But he can help you."
"The Doctor must die," the Dalek informed Dalek Sec.
Dalek Sec started to crawl in front of the Dalek. "No, I beg you, don't," he protested.
Ignoring him, a Dalek pointed its gun at the Doctor. "Exterminate!" It yelled just as Dalek Sec got to his feet. The shot hit him in the chest, making him fall to the ground, dead.
The Doctor glared at the Daleks, a snarl on his face. "Your own leader. The only creature who might have led you out of the darkness and you destroyed him." Shaking his head, he turned and waved at the humans with Dalek DNA. "Do you see what they did? Huh? You see what a Dalek really is?" Turning away, he glared at the Daleks once more. "If I'm gonna die, let's give the new boys a shot. What do you think, eh? The Dalek-Humans. Their first blood. Go on, baptize them."
Kayla let out a gasp and started to get to her feet, but a quick look and a shake of his head from the Doctor made the brunette stop and stay crouched, even as the Doctor held his arms out while a Dalek cried out, "Dalek-Humans, take aim."
Following the order, the Dalek-humans took aim, and the Doctor called to them, "What are you waiting for? Give the command!"
"Exterminate!" the Dalek cried out, causing Martha to turn to Frank and hug him, burying her face into his chest and Kayla closed her eyes, a tear nearly leaking out…but nothing happened. "Exterminate!"
When nothing happened again, the Dalek yelled at the Dalek-human, "Obey. Dalek-Humans will obey."
Kayla stared at the Doctor, her eyes wide open as she realized that he, and she, were still alive. "Did it work?" she breathed.
The Doctor grinned and nodded. "It did," he replied.
Not picking up that something was very wrong, one of the Daleks ordered, "You will obey. Exterminate."
"Why?" a man spoke up, causing the Doctor to look over at him with a wide, knowing smile.
"Daleks do not question orders," the Dalek informed him.
"But…why?" the man questioned once more.
"You must not question," the Dalek ordered.
The man shook his head. "But you are not our master. And we…we are not Daleks."
Smiling, the Doctor cut in. "No, you're not, and you never will be," he informed the others and then turned to the Daleks. "Sorry, I got in the way of the lightning strike. Time Lord DNA got all mixed up. Just that little bit of freedom."
The Dalek sent a look towards the Doctor. "If they will not obey, then they must die." And with that, the Dalek started to shoot at the man who had spoken, killing him.
"Get down!" the Doctor yelled as he ducked down behind the chairs. In the back row, Kayla, Martha, Frank, and Lazlo did as well. All of them stayed down as both groups, Dalek-humans and Daleks, fired on each other.
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!" the two Daleks cried out as they killed the group of Dalek-humans, but a few got in some good shots and with a cut off scream, one of the Daleks died and then, just like its brother, the other Dalek died as well.
As the shots died down, the Doctor went over to the Dalek-humans and Kayla joined him, the brunette holding him. "It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. You did it. You're free," the Doctor said, a soft smile on his face.
Suddenly, the group that were still alive gripped their heads in obvious agony and screamed. "No!" Kayla cried out.
The Doctor shook his head and pulled Kayla closer to him, hugging her as the Dalek-humans crumbled to the ground. "They can't! They can't! They can't!" Kayla repeated into the Doctor's chest while the Time Lord stroked her hair.
Martha hurried over and knelt by one of the bodies. "What happened? What was that?"
"They killed 'em. Rather than let them live. An entire species. Genocide," the Doctor explained in a rough voice.
Lazlo shook his head. "Only two of the Daleks have been destroyed. One of the Dalek masters must still be alive."
Pulling back from Kayla, the Doctor's face hardened and he glared at the hole that the Daleks had created. "Oh, yes. In the whole universe, just one."
The night had been a long one for the trio of time travelers. The Doctor had gone to confront the remaining Dalek, which turned out to be Dalek Caan, but it had transported out, leaving him alone. Then, Lazlo had died. He had tried, and so had Kayla, but the pig-man, without having Tallulah there to support him, he felt as if he had nothing to live for. He passed away in his sleep, leaving Frank to bow his head and make a grave. He promised to speak to Tallulah for them, tell her how Lazlo had died and how he was hero and had never left her.
But now it was morning, as morning always came, and the Doctor, Kayla, and Martha stood with Frank on Liberty Island, the place where the TARDIS had landed.
"Thank you, Frank," the Doctor said while shaking the man's hand.
Frank nodded. "Thank you, Doctor."
Kayla took the Doctor's hand and then leaned in to the Time Lord's chest. "What are you going to do now?"
Frank shrugged. "Do what Solomon would do, I guess. Run Hooverville like he would until things turn for the better."
Martha grinned and hugged Frank. "You'll be amazing," she vowed.
As she pulled away, the Doctor and Kayla stepped into the TARDIS, leaving Martha to say her goodbyes to Frank in private. After a few moments, Martha came in, blushing, and sat down in the chair in the console room.
"Alright, what now?" she asked.
Kayla and the Doctor exchanged a look and Kayla nodded with a sigh. Turning to Martha, she crossed her arms. "Martha…there's something I have to tell you. Something about William Shakespeare."
Oh dear, Kayla has to tell Martha about Shakespeare...that won't go well. This is the second time the Time Lords have lied to her so I doubt that she'll be pleased.
So the Doctor and Kayla seem to be becoming a force.
And now...review time:
NicoleR85: Thank you! I hope you enjoyed.
grapejuice101: Thanks!