Doomsday, Part One
Clara and Rose grabbed hands and Rose grabbed Mickey's. Mickey grabbed the man's and they all took a few steps back as the four Daleks landed and glided forward.
Clara had never faced the Daleks for real. One of her echoes had become a Dalek, as she was now forced to remember, and many of them had fought Daleks while protecting the Doctor, but Clara didn't really remember them. Still, she was aware of how dangerous they were. They were the Doctor's worst enemy for a reason, after all.
"Exterminate!" The Daleks kept shouting. "Exterminate! Exterminate!" Rose took a brave step forward.
"Daleks!" She called. All four of them paused and turned their eyestalks to look at her. "You're called Daleks. I know your name." Clara stepped forward as well.
"Think about it, how can she know that?" Clara asked, eyebrows raised in hope to make the Daleks curious. "A human who knows about the Daleks and the Time War. If you want to know how, then keep us alive."
"All of us." Rose cut in. "Me and my friends." Mickey nodded.
"Yeah, Daleks." Mickey muttered. "Time War. Me, too."
"Yea. And me." The man stammered. The black Dalek looked all of them up and down.
"You will be necessary." It told them. It turned to the other Daleks. "Report. What is the status of the Genesis Ark?" It was then that Clara noticed the odd contraption behind them. One of the Daleks inspected it.
"Status: hibernation." It announced.
"Commence awakening." The black Dalek declared. "The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else." Clara looked at Rose and Mickey.
"I thought the Daleks were all dead." She said weakly.
"Yea," Mickey added. "That's what you said, Rose. You said you killed them all." Rose waved her hand.
"Never mind that," she hissed. "What the hell's a Genesis Ark?" Clara gritted her teeth.
"Well, let's ask." She suggested. She stepped forward again, standing as tall as she could. She had read once that standing tall gave a person more confidence. So far, Clara didn't think that it was true.
"Daleks," she said, trying to gain their attention. "What is that? What is a Genesis Ark?" The black Dalek wheeled over to her, eyestalk inches from her nose. She tried to keep herself from shaking, but failed.
"Which of you is least important?" It asked her, ignoring her question. Clara's eyebrows shot up and her hands curled into fists. Still, her fists shook.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, wincing when her voice wavered. The Doctor wasn't there, and Clara was finding that a lot of her courage came from him being near her.
"Which of you is least important?" The Dalek repeated, eyestalk bobbing. Clara shook her head at the Dalek. Rose came forward, holding gently to Clara's elbow. Rose glared at the Dalek, but Clara could feel that she, too, was quivering in fear.
"No, we don't work like that," she told the Dalek. "None of us are the least important." The Dalek didn't like that answer.
"Designate the least important!" It insisted, getting agitated. The man- the one who actually worked for Torchwood- stepped forward bravely.
"This is my responsibility." Clara and Rose grabbed his arm simultaneously.
"No," Clara said fiercely.
"You're not doing this," Rose added. The Torchwood employee shook their hands off, facing the black Dalek. He kept his head high as he spoke.
"I- er- I represent the Torchwood Institute. Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone." He said.
"You will kneel." The black Dalek commanded. Without questioning it, the man kneeled. Clara bit her lip, knowing what was going to be coming soon.
"The Daleks need information about current Earth history," the black Dalek stated.
"Yeah, well, I can give you a certain amount of intelligence," the man told it, "but nothing that will compromise Homeland security." The Dalek stared him down, while Rose, Clara, and Mickey could only watch.
"Speech is not necessary. We will extract brainwaves." The black Dalek and two others placed their plungers on three different spots on the man's head.
"Please!" Clara cried, not noticing the tears running down her cheeks. "Don't! Don't kill him!" The Daleks ignored her, though, and began to literally suck the information out of his head. The man let out the most heart wrenching scream Clara had ever heard. Clara's knees buckled, and she had to hold on to Rose to keep from falling to the floor. She felt so guilty. She should have offered to give the Daleks information. She should have at least asked the man his name.
The Daleks rolled away from the man's emaciated body, allowing it to crumple to the ground. Clara had to fight to tear he eyes away from the awful image.
"His mind spoke of a second species invading Earth infected by the superstition of ghosts," the black Dalek told everyone in the room. Clara assumed it was speaking mostly to the Dalek that wasn't a part of the information sucking.
"You didn't need to kill him!" Rose yelled. One of the Daleks swung its eyestalk to look at her.
"Neither did we need him alive." It stated. The black Dalek turned to face one of the other Daleks.
"Dalek Thay, investigate outside." The black Dalek commanded. Dalek Thay bowed via eyestalk.
"I obey." At that moment, Clara realized that each of these Daleks had a little logo by their eyestalks, but each of them had a slightly different one. She wondered why.
Just after Dalek Thay rolled away, a screen appeared out of nowhere with a Cyberman on it. The Cyberman and the black Dalek conversed for a while. Just as both Daleks and Cybermen figured out what species the other was, Clara's went off. Luckily for her, she usually kept it on vibrate. She discretely checked it, seeing that it was the Doctor. She kept the phone by her side, tapping the screen to answer it so the Doctor would know she was alive.
Clara's heart pounded as the Daleks and Cybermen began arguing. The Cybermen were proposing an alliance with the Daleks, who readily refused. In response, the leader of the Cybermen came on the screen.
"Daleks, be warned," it began. "You have declared war upon the Cybermen."
"This is not war." The black Dalek corrected blankly. "This is pest control." If Clara hadn't been so terrified, she would have snorted. To be fair, that was a pretty good comeback.
"We have five million Cybermen." The Cyberleader told the black Dalek. "How many are you?"
"Four."
"You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?" The Cyberleader asked. If it hadn't been void of all emotion, Clara suspected that it would have spoken disbelievingly.
"We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek." The black Dalek replied. This time, Clara did snort. She tried to muffle it with her hand, but kind of failed. Rose elbowed her, shooting her a look that told her to shut up. Clara quickly settled herself, mouthing "sorry" to Rose.
"You are superior in only one respect," the black Dalek went on, ignoring Clara's laugh.
"What is that?" The Cyberleader asked.
"You are better at dying." Clara bit her lip to not laugh again. "Raise communications barrier!" Just as the barrier was being raised, the Doctor was seen on the screen, standing behind the Cyberleader.
"Wait!" One of the Daleks cried. The screen went blank and Clara's phone made a noise to indicate that it had lost service and dropped the call. "Rewind image by nine rells." The Dalek commanded. The screen came back to life and rewound. "Identify grid seven gamma frame. This male registers as enemy." The black Dalek swung its eyestalk to Rose, Clara, and Mickey. It turned its body, approaching them.
"Both females' heartbeats have increased." It stated. Mickey snorted lightly.
"Yea, tell me about it." He said. The black Dalek shoved its eyestalk in Clara's face once more.
"Identify him." It turned its eyestalk back and forth between Clara and Rose. Every time the eyestalk came towards Clara, she flinched. It was so close that she kept thinking it was going to hit her in the face.
"Alright, then." She said, sounding braver than she actually felt. The moment where she was able to laugh had passed, the fear settling back in its place. "If you really want to know, that's the Doctor." All of the Daleks rolled back at her statement. Rose laughed out loud.
"Five million Cybermen, easy." Rose said. "One Doctor? Now you're scared."
A/N: Yay, another chapter! I seriously love this part of the episode, just because it's funny. The second half is so sad, so I love this half all the more. Did you guys like it? Let me know in a review!
Until next time, sweeties.