"Come on! This way! Come on!" The Doctor urged the Daleks he had humanised to come with him to reach the Emperor to complete the plan he had thought of the moment he had learnt what the Daleks were doing; like Alpha, Beta, and Omega, the three original humanised Daleks, these new 'super Daleks' were child-like in nature and attitude, but they would learn quickly. But they still retained their Dalek instincts and knowledge, the destruction of the few Daleks who'd confronted them was proof of that.
"I will obey," one Dalek replied.
"But not without question," a second Dalek spoke in a childlike tone that seemed rather more endearing than the usual grating tones.
Once the Doctor had found his granddaughter reading the Harry Potter books. One of the Hogwarts Houses that intrigued him the most was the House where Draco Malfoy was sorted and where Harry was due to be sorted, but he made a different choice; the Doctor had been intrigued enough to read all seven books and while some things made no sense, the Doctor - in his second incarnation - thought with a more Slytherin mindset, coming up with plans and manipulating events accordingly.
The Doctor was pleased his plan for the Daleks was coming along nicely.
"That's right," the Doctor nodded encouragingly. "Question!"
For the life of him, the Doctor had never understood what it was about questions that the Daleks found so wrong. Was it because they didn't want other Daleks to get ideas?
His earlier meeting with the Dalek Emperor seemed to point that out.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor was astonished when he saw Edward Waterfield standing close to a Dalek, his coat thrown over the eyestalk. The Dalek had been sneaking up behind them.
"The Black Daleks are attacking every man," the Doctor took advantage of the attack.
"Hurry, man!" Waterfield shouted impatiently.
"The Emperor has commanded it," the Doctor went on, determined to continue to whip the Daleks into a frenzy.
"Why?"
"Why?" A Dalek the Doctor identified to be Omega repeated.
"Because you question. Defend yourselves. Destroy the Emperor or be destroyed yourselves!" The Doctor shouted.
"Hurry," Waterfield shouted.
"Destroy the Emperor!"
"We must go, Doctor," Waterfield said.
The Doctor took a moment to think and he realised that there was little else he could say or do now; it was up to the Daleks. For a moment he considered the possible consequences of what was going to happen now.
The Dalek race was going to be split apart by a devastating civil war. On one side there would be the humanised Daleks and on the other were the pure-strain Daleks. And the Doctor had no idea which side was going to win. He had told Jamie in Maxtible's lab the humanised test Daleks would grow and mature very fast, but would the humanised Daleks evolve fast enough to convert more pure-strain Daleks in time?
The Doctor didn't know.
But he hoped the humanised Daleks emerged as a major threat against the pure-strain faction; if the war lasted for centuries, then it would give the universe a breather.
"Yes, I know," the Doctor turned his attention to Waterfield, "I've finished now….Waterfield, look out!"
A Black Dalek had appeared, just as the Doctor shoved Waterfield to the ground just in time before the Black Dalek opened fire. The blast flashed past the two men's heads, and they felt numb from the high electrical blast passed over them. The blast impacted one of the humanised Daleks. It let out a terrible scream but was otherwise undamaged. Daleks were extremely resilient thanks to those casings. The humanised Daleks retaliated and they blasted the Black Dalek to death.
"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked.
"Just about, yes. You saved my life, Doctor, thank you."
The Doctor smiled back at him. While he didn't like what Waterfield had done, the Time Lord could understand his reasons. He had been prepared to sacrifice a great deal for his companions and Susan many times in the past. Movement out of the corner of his eyes made him look up, and he saw more friendly Daleks arrive.
Sitting up and pulling Waterfield with him, the Doctor addressed the Daleks, seeing they were looking at their fellow who was wounded.
"The Emperor has commanded your destruction!"
"Why? Why? Why?" The Daleks chanted.
"Because you're different from the Emperor and his loyalist Daleks," the Doctor explained, feeling somewhat strange to have to explain this malicious aspect of Dalek philosophy to Daleks, "and they're afraid of anything different, and they are going to try to wipe you out. But your friends are fighting for you!"
The Daleks repeated the word curiously, "Friends?"
"Yes, friends. Down there," the Doctor pointed. "Help them."
"The Emperor Dalek and his followers don't want you to live, fight with your friends to stay alive!" Waterfield added.
"Friends," the Daleks glided off down the corridor.
Xxxx
It was amazing how much damage could be done in a short time, the Doctor reflected as he and Waterfield both watched the chaos from the doorway. The Dalek Emperor was ablaze, its casing smashed while the numerous metallic voices formed a chorus of unintelligible words.
"This was what you had in mind the whole time, wasn't it?" Waterfield asked.
The Doctor turned to the Victorian scientist, who was studying him closely. He didn't see any recriminations in Waterfield's voice or his face, just curiosity.
"More or less; some time ago, I stopped the Daleks from conquering the galaxy with a temporal weapon. Three of my friends were killed during the whole mess," the Doctor's face was grim as he thought about those dark days which culminated in the mad dash chase through time and space as the Daleks tried to recover the taranium for the Time Destructor, resulting in the simultaneous deaths of Katarina, Bret, and Sara while the Daleks worked with the likes of the Monk, who was out of his depth. "I swore they would never try something to change history again. When they revealed they wanted the human factor, I assumed I could use it against them."
Waterfield sighed as they hurried to the corridor where the ventilation shaft would take them out. "I thought I could find something to undermine them as well, Doctor; when they invaded the house, took my daughter…I...I wanted to fight them, but it was impossible. Maxtible was on their side and seemed determined to stop me from fighting them back. All for gold!" He hissed in anger as he thought of how many of his plans to resist the Daleks had been wrecked because of his so-called friend's obsession with alchemy.
"Mm," the Doctor nodded, his expression making it clear what he thought about Maxtible's bargain with the Daleks. "Maxtible's not the first person to be manipulated by the Daleks, you know."
"What do you think will happen to the Daleks, Doctor?" Waterfield flinched as an explosion rippled through electrical conduits, sending sparks and a terrible stench of burnt metal and plastic into the air.
The Doctor waved the smoke with his handkerchief. "I don't know. I'm hoping the two factions will fight it out, but I suspect the pure-strain Daleks will win since there are probably more of them, but with a bit of luck, the humanised Daleks will survive and find a way off this planet. They might head out somewhere and begin their own Dalek race."
"And that will mean a long bloody war?"
"It might be the only hope; there are dozens of peoples and empires out in the universe, who fight and hate the Daleks. After they invaded your world, the Daleks found an enemy in humanity," the Doctor explained as he and Waterfield got to the shaft.
The Victorian scientist paused as he gaped at the Doctor. "The Daleks invaded Earth?"
"Yes, in the 22nd century; I was there in the final days of the occupation. The Daleks were trying to convert the Earth into a giant spaceship to conquer the universe," the Doctor explained briefly as they both got into the shaft.
Just as they were about to leave, they stopped when they saw the still Dalek-ised Maxtible walk past. The Doctor watched him go sadly. Maxtible's greed and arrogance had led to this; all the things he'd been willing to do just to learn how to transform other metals into gold (it wasn't a difficult scientific trick if you knew how to do it); hurting Victoria Waterfield and being a willing accomplice to her kidnapping, allowing Terrell to be brainwashed, being the accomplice to several murders in the 19th and 20th centuries, not saying a word while knowing of the Daleks plans while Kemel and Jamie were forced to undergo those tests.
And for what?
Only for the Daleks to test him for their process.
And now Maxtible was gone.
Maxtible was ranting, "The Daleks must not, cannot be destroyed. The race will survive! The Daleks will live and rule forever!"
The Doctor shook his head in disgust. Typical Dalek mindset. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to face Waterfield, and the Time Lord knew what the Victorian scientist was going to say.
"Is there any way to cure him?"
The Doctor nodded, "He just needs to go back through that arch, but I don't think we can get him back to the laboratory in time. The city is beginning to fall apart." A series of terrific explosions which echoed through the city emphasised his words.
"And we'd also have to deal with him," Waterfield added as he realised he didn't have the mental or physical strength needed to knock Maxtible out, but on further reflection, he realised he didn't want to help him. His friend had betrayed him in the worst way possible and he hadn't cared about the misery he'd gone through, nor did he seem concerned about the thought of the Daleks changing human history.
All Theodore Maxtible cared about was learning how to turn metals into gold; while the scientist in Waterfield was interested, as a father he couldn't care less.
Xxxx
Outside the Dalek city, Waterfield and the Doctor reunited with Jamie and Victoria.
"Father!" Victoria cried in relief as she hugged her only parent.
"Victoria, my dear," Edward sobbed as he held onto the only thing he had left, the only good thing in his life. "I've missed you so much!"
"Doctor," Jamie said as he and the Doctor reunited.
"Jamie," the Doctor sighed with relief when he saw his friend. "Jamie!"
"A Dalek nearly caught us," Jamie gave him a brief account of their adventures, "but I tossed it over the edge. But, poor Kemel."
"Kemel?" The Doctor suddenly realised the large Turkish man was not there. "What happened?"
"Aye. You see, he was trying to protect us from Maxtible, but he got shoved off the cliff," Jamie said sadly. They might have had a rough first meeting, but they'd quickly become friends.
The Doctor glared down at the city, now pleased he hadn't helped Maxtible. How many more lives would have been in danger because of his senseless greed?
"What do we do now, Doctor?" The Doctor turned to the Waterfields, who were now looking at him. The look of loss in their eyes and their hope broke his hearts.
But before he could speak, Jamie turned to him, "We can't leave them alone, Doctor."
The Doctor made up his mind. "We're not going to leave them. They're coming with us. I know you think time travel is evil, Edward, but it's both amazing and inspiring. Your experiments might have attracted the Daleks, but that was not deliberate. It was an accident. Sadly, I won't be able to take you back to your own time, but you both have each other. And that's enough," the Doctor smiled and the three humans followed them to the police box, but before they left, the Doctor turned and looked down at the city. It was ablaze and in shambles as it began to collapse. "The end," he whispered, "The final end."
So why did he feel nervous that somehow the Daleks would survive?