Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who I wouldn't be writing fanfiction
The Witch's Familiars – Part Four
"Where is the human?!" the Supreme Dalek demanded again, "You will tell us! You will tell us! You will tell us!" he ranted. The other Daleks began to join in with the incessant chanting, when suddenly every one of them fell silent, weapons and lowering to point at the floor. The Corsair, Emily, Flavia and Missy stared at the Daleks in bewilderment…Missy stopped dancing to the rhythm of the chanting and asked, perplexed, "I'm sorry. Was I, err, was I boring you?"
The Daleks did not move…and then, much to the Time Lord's horror, began to glow with an unmistakable orange golden hue… "No, they can't, no!" the Corsair cried out; he ran for the door that he surmised led to Davros, calling over his shoulder, "Stay here!"
"Not likely!" Missy retorted, pausing to wrench a gunstick from a nearby unresisting Dalek and following him out of the room.
"What is happening?" Clara-Dalek demanded, the dome swerving left and right as the human inside tried to see what was going on.
Flavia looked around at the glowing Dalek's, her terror increasing every moment. "They're…they're absorbing regeneration energy…Emily, where are you going?" she demanded, her voice rising a few octaves, when she spotted the youngest Time Lady striding towards the second door. Emily spun around and insisted, "I have to help my parents; they needme".
With that, she left in pursuit of the Corsair and Missy. Flavia flung her hands out in a frustrated gesture; the Corsair could handle it, and now Emily had put herself at risk…and she didn't expect Missy to bail them all out a second time… "Oh for the love of Rassilon's underpants!" she growled under her breath.
"Flavia!" shouted Clara-Dalek, "What do we do?"
"I – I don't know!" Flavia snapped back, her nerves frayed enough by the sewers and the Daleks and now this…with a shudder, she realised the glow was lessening, and she swore that one Daleks' gunstick twitched… "Err, stay calm" she said at last, trying to breath evenly, "We need to catch up with the others" she decided, picking her way past the Daleks and out the door. Clara thought about following her, and gasped as the travel machine began to trundle after Flavia. Taking a deep breath, the terrified human tried to keep her emotions under control.
/
"There was a prophecy, Doctor, on your own world" said Davros, all but revelling in the pain and horror in the faces of his oldest enemy and the Doctor's wife. Soon they'd join their child; they should be overjoyed at his compassion!
The Doctor screamed in pain, struggling with all his rapidly dissolving strength. "Please you must, you must stop this. You must stop this!" he begged, desperate. Romana couldn't even scream; the serpent wrapped around her was curling tighter, crushing her ribs, making her gasp…they were dying…
"It spoke of a hybrid creature" Davros continued, unheeding of their plight, "Two great warrior races forced together to create a warrior greater than either. Is that what you ran from, Doctor? Your part in the coming of the hybrid? Half Dalek, half Time Lord?" he asked rhetorically. Romana glared at him, tears of pain in her eyes, and gasped out, "S-stop this!"
Without warning, the door was flung open, and the psychic shielding crumbled like paper in a flame, as two very angry, very armed and very much alive Time Lords (or one Time Lord and one Time Lady), strode into the room. "You get the other one!" Missy told the Corsair, hefting the Dalek gunstick she'd stolen and firing at the cables and snakes trapping the Doctor. The door slid closed behind them, much to the annoyance of Emily, who pulled out her sonic screwdriver and began trying to undo the locking mechanism again.
When the Corsair moved into view, Romana still couldn't quite believe her eyes; she saw Sarff hiss menacingly, his jaws open wide…the Corsair fired an alpha meson blast right down the serpent's throat, without a flinch. Another blast in the neck that tore away flesh, and the serpent writhed and uncoiled and fell to the floor, dead. Romana scrambled out from the coils, grabbing onto the Corsair when he rushed forwards to help her. "Y-you're alive?!"
"We all are" he reassured her; a movement behind her caught his eye, and he raised his blaster again…Davros was approaching them, but Romana swiftly leapt forward, snatched another Dalek gunstick off the table and aimed it at Davros' head. "Don't you dare" she warned fiercely, keeping Davros at bay. The Corsair whistled through his teeth, impressed...then out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Doctor collapse, free of the cables.
"Help him" he told Romana, taking the gunstick from her and aiming both it and his blaster at Davros. "Hello, Davros, can't say it's a pleasure to meet you. I haven't seen you since the battle against the Nightmare Child" he told the insane genius conversationally. Romana hurried over to the Doctor, all but pushing Missy out of the way (ignoring the other Time Lady's huff of mock outrage), and cradled his head in her hands. Wake up, Theta. Please, love, you need to wake up…
Out in the corridor, Flavia and Clara-Dalek had caught up with Emily. "I can't get in!" she exclaimed, frustrated, "The Corsair's blaster fire warped the mechanism on this side, I've tried using my sonic but the signal keeps bouncing back, Flavia, what if they're trapped in there?!" she demanded a little hysterically.
"Emily! First of all, we need to remain calm. Remain calm and"- Flavia was cut off by the sounds of the Supreme Dalek intoning, "We are renewed. We are more powerful. The experiment has succeeded. All praise Davros!"
"All praise Davros!"
"All praise Davros!"
"All praise Davros!"
Flavia gulped as the chanting continued. "Stay calm and…hope for a miracle" she said at last, feeling helpless.
In Davros' room, Romana was still struggling to wake her husband. "Oh, just slap him, already" Missy said impatiently. Romana resisted the urge to glare at her; slapping him wouldn't work, he wasn't just unconscious, he was weakened, trying but unable to slip into a healing coma…there was only one thing for it, she realised. Her own regeneration energy bubbled to her lips…she pressed them against her husband's, letting the energy flow into him. Not much, just enough to boost his reserves…she pulled back when she felt him awaken, and smiled down at him. "Hello, dear".
"Where's our daughter?" he asked immediately; Missy and the Corsair were there, which meant that Emily, Flavia and Clara were alive as well.
"Outside with Flavia and Clara" replied the Corsair, reaching down to help the Doctor to his feet. "I think I might have broken the lock, and not in a good way. I should really get out of the habit of shooting doors open".
"Are all of you alright?" the Doctor demanded.
"Yeah – well, we're alive, which is always a plus".
"What happened? How did you escape?" asked Romana.
Missy cleared her throat pointedly and remarked, "Ah, that would be thanks to moi, you're welcome. Also, I'm fine, thank you for asking".
"Oh, you are not fine" Davros chuckled, and they turned to face him suspiciously, "Thanks to you, Doctor, my creations shall grow to yet greater supremacy, and my own life is prolonged. This is the final defeat of the Time Lords. Have you nothing to say, Doctor?"
You know that plan I mentioned? The Doctor asked Romana. Aloud he simply said, "Three". He walked over to the table, stepping over the remains of Sarff, and put his personal effects (starting with his Confession Dial) in his pockets.
"Do you understand what has happened?" Davros demanded, "Hear my children sing".
"Two…"
"Oh, I know that face" said Missy, and she began to grin in anticipation…her expression soured slightly when he walked back over to Romana and wrapped an arm around her, but still, she couldn't wait to see what he had up his sleeves.
"All praise Davros, creator and saviour of the Daleks!"
"One" the Doctor finished…just before the room, indeed the whole city, shook with a force from below.
"What is that?" Davros demanded, "What is happening?"
"That is my plan, being enacted" the Doctor replied, "I knew exactly what you were doing, and I let you do it. You transmitted regeneration energy into every Dalek on this planet. Every. Single. One".
"What have you done?!"
"One word; err, no, two words, actually. First word, moron" the Doctor stated bluntly. The other three smirked and sniggered. "Second word, sewers".
"Oh!" the Corsair exclaimed, "Or rather, the Dalek dumping grounds. Oh, you are in trouble" he told Davros with a grin.
"No. This cannot be correct. How can this be?" Davros demanded angrily, fearfully.
"Generations of Daleks just woke up very cross, and they are coming up the pipes. Or to put it another way, bye!" the Doctor said cheerfully, grabbing Romana's hand and pulling her towards the door. The Corsair covered them in case Davros tried anything…Missy simply walked right up to the Kaled and remarked, "Can I just say, it's been an absolute pleasure to finally meet you?" She mock-curtseyed and held out a hand, as if to shake his hand, before poking him in his optic lens and skipping over to the door.
The lock was less damaged on this side, and the Doctor's sonic made short work of opening it. "Mum, dad!" cried Emily, rushing up to them the moment the door opened wide enough.
"Emily!"
They wrapped their arms around her, holding her tight; their relief was almost palpable. The Corsair squeezed past them and hugged Flavia; then almost immediately let her go, clearing his throat and looking awkward. "Oh, my precious girl" Romana sighed, kissing Emily's forehead, "Are you alright, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, mum. I can handle myself" Emily insisted. Romana simply pulled her into another hug; the Doctor reached out to steady them both when the building shook again, and viscous goo began to ooze out of a wall grille. As happy as Clara was that the Doctor and Romana were alive, she was thinking they better get out of there…
"Guys, we have to go!" she called from inside the Dalek casing; it came out as "We must move!"
Her heart nearly stopped when the Doctor stared at her – no, at her prison – in alarm and wrenched a Dalek gunstick from the Corsair's hand, aiming it right at her. "This city is about to be sucked into the ground. Your own sewer is about to consume you. There's no way you can win, there is nothing you can do, so just get out of our way" he threatened.
"No, no, it's me! It's Clara!" she cried, but to her frustration, the casing 'translated' her words to "Negative! Negative! I am a Dalek!"
The Doctor glared even more fiercely, misinterpreting the words as a threat. "And I am the Doctor! You are my enemy and I have lost"-
"Negative! Negative! Doctor! I am a Dalek! Mercy!" the Dalek shouted. Inside, a teary eyed Clara was yelling "No, no! Doctor, it's me, Clara! Don't shoot, please!"
He frowned in bewilderment, lowering the weapon a bit. Emily pushed her father's arm down and said urgently, "Dad, that's Clara!"
"What?"
"Missy made her hide inside a Dalek travel unit" the Corsair explained. Missy frowned at them, and protested, "I didn't hear any of you complaining too much! Besides, I was saving her life".
"You were going to use her as leverage!" Flavia snapped accusingly. She turned to Clara-Dalek and said, "Clara, you need to open the casing".
"Explain!"
"It's telepathic, remember. Just think 'open'" the Corsair reminded her. There was a pause, and then the casing began to split open. The moment he got a glimpse inside, the Doctor dropped the gunstick in horror, and made to help Clara out of the casing. "Oh, Clara, I'm sorry. Here, let me…" he pulled the wires from her head, and she winced, but managed to smile at him. "It's okay. I know you'd never hurt me" she told him…and he wanted to yell at her, scoff at her faith in him, because…it was dangerous.
Romana rounded on Missy, furious, and demanded "How could you do that to her?!"
"You think the Daleks would have let a mere human prisoner live?" Missy shot back, before looking over at the Doctor, who was glaring at her as well, "Whatever my reasons, it saved her life!"
"Missy, run".
"Besides, in a way, this is why I gave her to you in the first place" she went on, "To make you see. The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend. Everyone's a bit of both. Everyone's a hybrid".
"I said, run" he repeated more coldly. They all stood aside to let her pass. Missy glared at them, particularly the Doctor, and said scathingly, "It wasn't me who ran, Doctor. That was always you". With that, she pushed past them all (and the abandoned Dalek casing) and headed off down a side corridor.
"Now what do we do?" Clara asked quickly. Another tremor hit, and they staggered…Flavia nearly toppled into the gunge dripping down the walls, but the Corsair pulled her back. "Eugh! Oh, thank you…I think escaping would be a good start" she suggested.
"Excellent idea, come on!" said the Doctor, heading off down the corridor. The others followed, although the Corsair paused to pick up the dropped gunstick. he led them back to the control room where, just as he'd hoped – err, knew, rather – the Daleks were a bit busy fending off their own ancestors to pay attention to the Time Quintet and their companion. "Emergency! Dalek control is compromised!" the Supreme Dalek screamed, spinning about on its dais. A piece of the ceiling fell in with a loud crash, but they didn't even flinch.
"Where was the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked urgently, "It was over there somewhere, wasn't it?"
The Corsair, who was pointing the gunstick (a more effective weapon against them than his blaster) at any Dalek who looked like it might try to shoot them, said "It was opposite Red over there, I think", nodding at the Supreme Dalek.
"What is happening? Explain! Explain!"
"Dalek Supreme, your sewers are revolting" the Doctor informed it with a straight face.
"Father, your puns are terrible" Emily told him, with a not so straight face.
"Shh, young lady; all of you come over here!" the Doctor insisted. The six of them hurried over to the indicated spot, gathering close.
"You will assist, or you will be exterminated!" the Supreme Dalek threatened them.
"Oh, well, go on, then. Exterminate away" the Doctor said unconcernedly, much to Clara's alarm.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed, flinching as the deadly lasers fired at them…only to be repelled by an invisible barrier.
"Oh, right, the TARDIS force field" the Corsair face palmed, "I forgot it was still active, we could have just stood here".
"But…but the TARDIS was destroyed" Clara said uncertainly.
"Dad wouldn't let them blow up his ship that easily, Clara" Emily said with a grin.
The Doctor nodded and explained, "It just redistributed itself for a moment. Hostile Action Dispersal System. I'll give it a quick blast from my sonic, and the real time envelope will reassemble right here".
"Wait, but Davros still had your screwdriver" Romana frowned, puzzled. What was he up to now?
He winked at her and said, "Oh, yeah, I'm over screwdrivers. They spoil the line of your jacket. These days, I'm all about wearable technology". He put on his sunglasses, and she raised an eyebrow. "You didn't…you did!"
"Seriously?!" Clara nearly laughed. Sonic sunglasses?!
The Doctor adjusted his shades, and the air around them began to shimmer as the TARDIS coalesced. "What is happening?" the Supreme Dalek demanded an explanation.
"Oh, same old, same old" the Doctor said casually, putting an arm around Romana's shoulders, "The Time Quintet and Clara, in the TARDIS". The time machine reformed fully, and dematerialised immediately.
/
They landed on a high ridge above the city, watching it disintegrate. "It's hard to believe all this started because you didn't save Davros as a child" Emily commented to her father.
He frowned, not at her, but in thought… "Clara?"
"Yes, Doctor?"
"When you were trapped inside the Dalek casing, you made it say 'mercy'. How did you do that?"
"I…I was trying to tell you not to shoot me".
"Then why didn't it say 'Do not shoot'? Why would the casing use that particular word? I mean, how on Skaro does a word like 'mercy' even enter the Dalek's vocabulary?" he rambled, pacing back and forth in front of them.
"No offence, mate, but you're really slow sometimes" the Corsair remarked, holding up the Dalek gunstick. The Doctor glared at him for a moment, offended, before the light finally dawned. "Everyone into the TARDIS" he ordered, ushering them all inside. He piloted them back in time, and a little bit through space, put the TARDIS on silent and invisible mode, and told them all, "Wait here".
Before they could protest, he stepped out of the TARDIS, gunstick in hand. The boy, the younger Davros, and the hand-mines turned to face him. "Who are you? I don't get it. How did you get there?" he asked fearfully.
"From the future" the Doctor replied.
"Are you going to save me?"
"I'm going to save my family, the only way I can. Exterminate!"
Davros flinched, but the Doctor didn't fire the weapon at him. He fired at the hand-mines, blasting them all to oblivion. Then he walked forward and held his hand out. "I'm going to need that back…please" he said, nodding to the sonic screwdriver in the boy's hand. He was willing to show the child Davros mercy, but he didn't want his own sonic to be what helped the adult Davros create the Daleks. He'd interfered too much with their development as it was.
The boy handed it back hesitantly. The Doctor pocketed it, and said "Come on, I'll take you home".
"Which side are you on?" Davros asked suspiciously, "Are you the enemy?"
"I'm not sure that any of that matters, friends, enemies. So long as there's mercy" he reasoned, "Always mercy. Now, I hope you're ready for a shock" he warned, raising a hand to snap his fingers…
/
Later, after they'd deposited a mind wiped and unconscious Davros back at the Kaled community, the Corsair went to store the Dalek gunstick in the TARDIS armoury (his own personal collection). Flavia, Emily and Clara went to their rooms to freshen up, leaving the Doctor and Romana alone in the console room. "What are you going to do with your screwdriver?" she asked him, as he turned it over in his hands.
"I'm not sure…I wasn't expecting to get it back. You can keep it, if you like".
"Why don't you?"
"Well, I've been using a screwdriver for over twelve hundred years. Perhaps it's time for a change. Besides" he said, donning his sunglasses once more, "I'm rocking this look".
Romana chuckled; her amusement soon faded, and she asked, "Doctor…why did you lie to me?"
He frowned, taking the sunglasses off again. "Which lie, specifically?"
"You didn't tell me that you were going to let Davros take your regeneration energy. A lie of omission is still a lie…you could have died, Theta".
"But I didn't, evidently".
"I could have died" she insisted, and the casual smile on his face disappeared immediately.
"…I'm sorry" he said at last.
"You asked me if I trusted you" Romana reminded him, "And I do, but part of trust is honesty. And you promised, remember, you promised to tell me when you trying to make a hard choice so I could help you make the right one. I wish you would be honest with me".
"Then you probably shouldn't have married an impulsive liar. That was a mistake".
"Don't be ridiculous; marrying you could never be a mistake" she shook her head at him, before sighing, "I married you because I love you, Theta. And as your wife, I suppose I ought to set a good example". She took a deep breath, and admitted, "When you weren't waking up, I"-
"Gave me some of your regeneration energy?"
"How did you know?"
"Well, I guessed, but I wasn't sure until just now" he teased her, and she rolled her eyes at him, blushing slightly. "Well then, we're even. We can either stay angry at each other, or we can kiss and make up…that is the right phrase, isn't it?"
Romana nodded. "Yes…and the latter sounds good…"
/
Flavia was in the kitchen, making herself a cup of tea to soothe her nerves. She looked up when the door opened; the Corsair walked in. "Oh, hi V – I mean, Flavia" he greeted.
"Corsair" she nodded to him. He walked over to the fridge and took out a bottle of beer, snapping the lid off with a bottle opener. There was an awkward silence, broken only by him swallowing the alcohol, and Flavia stirring her tea…at last, Flavia inquired, "What were you going to say, before?"
He stifled a burp behind his hand, and said "Sorry…what do you mean?"
"Back on Skaro, when we…we thought we were going to be exterminated" Flavia explained, "You were trying to tell me something. You said that you'd always thought I was…what, exactly?" she inquired curiously.
The Corsair's eyes widened slightly. "Huh? Oh, yeah, that. Err, don't worry about it Flavia. It was just the, err, the fear talking…"
"It's rather rude to not answer a lady's question, Corsair" Flavia remarked primly, raising an eyebrow at him.
"It is? I mean, err...okay, what I was going to say is, I always thought you were…um…pretty!" the Corsair exclaimed.
Flavia blinked in surprise. "R-really? Well…thank you, Corsair" she smiled politely. He gave her an awkward smile back, and raised the bottle he was holding in a sort of toast.
"No problem, Flavia".
"It really is a nice thing for you to say. You and I might have our differences now and again, but at the end of the day, I'm glad we're good friends. In fact…" she set her cup of tea on the counter, and much to his surprise, walked over and hugged him.
"Err…yeah. Me too" he answered, hugging her back… "Just friends" he murmured.