Over 300 reviews in 20 chapters. I think that's a new record for me!
The Doctor was off somewhere working and they hadn't seen any sign of Solomon, which meant he'd either left on his own or had been kicked out. So when Tallulah, bright eyed and excited, asked them to come watch the show, they agreed since they had nothing better to do and they were curious. They stood in the wings back stage safely beyond the view of the audience, but close enough to have a good view.
The dancers flounced onto the stage and got into their places behind the curtain. There were nine of them total: eight devils—dark haired with red sequin dresses not unlike Tallulah's, feathered horned hats, and a single large red feathered fan each—and Tallulah herself. The announcer introduced them over the loud speaker and the music began to play. Rose flashed Tallulah a thumbs up as the curtains opened. The crowd applauded and whistled appreciatively.
Tallulah danced down the isle between the rows of devils up to the microphone. When she started to sing the devils began their dance routine.
"You lured me in with your cold grey eyes
Your simple smile and your bewitching lies
One and one and one is three
My bad, bad, angel, the Devil, and me."
"Bit better than Shakespeare, yeah?" Rose muttered to Martha.
She grinned, moving her shoulders to the music.
"You put the Devil in me
You put the Devil in me.
You put the Devil in me.
My bad, bad angel
You put the Devil in me."
Tallulah sashayed away from the microphone and joined the dancers. It was about this time that Martha noticed another person watching from the wings and for a moment her heart literally stopped beating. It was one of them! A pigman! Here, now!
Wait, is he watching the show?
Yes, that was what he appeared to be doing. He wasn't moving to attack them or lure them in he was just watching. But he was still on this side of the manhole, which meant there might have been others. Were they here to steal the dancers? Were they here for them? Where was the Doctor?
She tapped on Rose's shoulder quickly and pointed across the stage. When she spotted him her eyes widened and she swore under her breath. Martha jerked her head towards the pig and stepped out onto stage, ducking behind one of the dancers.
"What are you doing?!" Rose hissed loudly but her voice was drowned out by a dancer who demanded the same thing.
"Come back here, Martha!"
Martha didn't hear her over the music and darted to hide behind the next girl and accidentally grabbed her tail, causing them both to fall. Rose rolled her eyes and smacked her forehead. A quick glance at the pigman showed that he was still just watching the stage and if he'd noticed Martha, she didn't worry him.
Instead of going out onto stage, Rose circled back and found a path through the curtains behind the stage. He didn't see her coming. From this close, she noticed something very, very crucial. He wasn't entirely a pig, not like the others. So, either the species didn't look like the ones that had chased them in the sewers until a certain part of life, or he only half pigman. What was the other half? Human? He looked somewhat human. But if one of his parents was human than he or she must've been seriously drunk…and desperate.
She was literally just feet away from him when he suddenly jumped, startled, and stared in horror at the stage. Then she heard a woman scream and he bolted. Rose lunged, missed, and he yelped. She ran after him shouting, "Hey! Wait! Stop!"
Martha ran off the stage and for a moment, stared at Rose, dumbfounded, as if walking around the stage hadn't occurred to her. Then she shook her head quickly and followed Rose and the pigman.
He ran down the hallway where the dressing rooms were, heading in the direction of the prop room, no doubt hoping to escape down the manhole.
"Just wait!" Rose shouted after him as he disappeared into the prop room. She followed and Martha arrived just a moment later.
"Where'd he go?" she panted. They heard a clanging sound, like metal on metal, and knew that he was gone.
Rose took a few deep breaths then scowled at Martha. "Walking across stage? That was your brilliant plan? If you'd just gone around we coulda had him!"
"I didn't even think about it," she admitted.
Rose saw the pigman but had no time to react before it grabbed Martha. It was a full pigman, as dangerous as the ones below. Martha screamed and Rose jumped at the pig, hitting and scratching at its face with her nails. It squealed and hit her with its forearm, sending her careening into a prop table. Pain flared in her hip and arm where she made contact with the table. It collapsed under the force, props clanging and scattering across the floor. She hit the ground hard.
She moaned quietly and by the time she opened her eyes, Martha and the pigman were gone.
"MARTHA! ROSE!"
The Doctor burst into the prop room, looking around wildly, and saw her on the ground. He dropped to his knees beside her and touched her arm. "Rose? What happened?"
She moaned again and lifted her head. "There was…there was this pigman, Doctor. He didn't look like the rest." She sat up, rubbing her bruised arm. "We chased him in here then another one showed up and grabbed Martha."
"Where is she?"
Rose blinked, noticing Tallulah for the first time. She stood just behind the Doctor, her halo and wings gone and her eyes wide.
"It took her."
The Doctor's jaw tightened. "Can you walk?"
"Think so," she grunted as she got to her feet. He held onto her arm to steady her and she winced, rubbing her hip.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," she said and pointed at the open manhole. "But Martha's down there. Come on."
She pulled her gloves out of her pocket and put them on and the Doctor retrieved his coat from where he'd hung it on a hook.
"Ooh. Where are you going?" Tallulah asked.
"They've taken Martha. We're going to get her," the Doctor said, pulling his coat on.
"Who's taken her? What are you doing?"
The Doctor didn't respond, pushing the cover out of the way, and started down.
"Stay here," Rose told her then followed him.
"I said, what the hell are you doin'?" Tallulah called down.
The Doctor pulled out a small torch from his pocket and Rose went over to the ones they'd discarded earlier when they fled. Only one of them still worked. There was a small clang and they looked up to see Tallulah descending the ladder, wrapped in a fur coat.
"No, no, no, no, no way. You're not coming." the Doctor said.
Tallulah paused. "Tell me what's going on." She demanded without her usual accent.
"There's nothing you can do. Go back."
She started back down the ladder. "Look, whoever's taken Martha, they could've taken Lazlo, couldn't they?"
"Tallulah, you're not safe down here."
"Then that's my problem!" she ground out. "Come on. Which way?" With an icy glare, she walked past him and down the tunnel Rose was standing by.
He met Rose's gaze for a moment and she nodded. He gritted his teeth and started in the right direction. "This way," he sighed.
Tallulah trailed behind them, whimpering every few seconds, stepping around the water when she could. Her heels clicked against the stone floor, magnified in the enclosed space, and grated against Rose's nerves. She and the Doctor knew how to move quickly and quietly and how to complain internally—the showgirl knew neither, it seemed. More than once they had to hiss at her to be quiet or flat out shush her and that was before even started talking.
"When you say 'they've taken her', who's 'they,' exactly? …And who are you, anyway? I never asked."
"Shh," the Doctor whispered as his sensitive ears registered noise coming from up the tunnel.
"Okay, okay," she rolled her eyes.
"Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh!" He held up his hand for her to be quiet and stared ahead.
A horrifyingly familiar shadow slid along the wall and Rose's heart stopped.
"I mean you're a handsome enough—"
The Doctor jumped back, throwing his hand over Tallulah's mouth and grabbing Rose with the other. He dragged them away from the split, back around the corner, and into an alcove. Rose found herself sandwiched between the cold wall and the expanse of the Doctor's back. He heart galloped in her chest and she had to press her face into the Doctor's shoulder to muffle the sound of her breathing as the metallic rolling got closer. She watched over the fabric of his suit as a Dalek glided past their hiding place. If it turned its eyestalk just a bit to the left then it would see them.
Don't turn, don't turn, oh God, don't turn.
The TARDIS pulsed angrily in her mind, her song dark and dangerous.
The Dalek rolled past without noticing them and Tallulah wrenched the Doctor's hand away from her mouth. When he took a step forward, Rose held onto his suit, completely terrified. They should be gone—locked in hell with the rest of their kind.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," the Doctor murmured, stepping out of the alcove to watch it go, Rose peering around him. "They survive. They always survive."
Rose emerged from behind his back and slid her hand into his. His fingers curled around hers, squeezing tightly, and he looked down at her. She looked back, her eyes sad and terrified…and yellow and ancient. His beloved ship, so afraid for them that she was revealing her presence in Rose's mind through her eyes. It'd been weeks since it'd happened. Months. Not since Shakespeare. And in that moment, he hated the Daleks a little bit more. He hadn't even known that was possible.
"That metal thing? What was it?" Tallulah, for her part, figured there was something bad about that metal thingy that had rolled by based on their reactions alone. But she wasn't expecting the answer she got.
"A Dalek," Rose said darkly without turning. Tallulah didn't need to get the wrong idea about her. She guessed from the Doctor's expression that her eyes were doing that weird gold thing again. Didn't surprise her, really, with all the emotions running through her and the way the TARDIS had sounded in her head.
"And it's not just metal," the Doctor added in a growl. "It's alive."
Tallulah laughed, "You're kiddin' me."
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" he snapped and her smile faded. "Inside that shell, there's a creature, born to hate, whose only thought is to destroy everything and everyone that isn't a Dalek, too."
Tallulah glanced at him like he was nuts.
"And it won't stop until it's killed every human being alive." he added quietly.
"But if that's not a human being, that kind of implies it's from outer space." She smiled nervously, hoping they'd contradict her. He just looked at her. "Yet again, that's a no with the kiddin'. Oy… Well, what's it doing here in New York?"
The Doctor said nothing and simply glared in the direction the Dalek had gone.
"Well?" She was standing right beside them now.
"Same thing they're always doin': trying to kill everyone." Rose looked at her and when Tallulah gasped she remembered why she hadn't wanted to do that.
"What's wrong with your—"
"There's nothing wrong with them." she said quickly.
"A-a-are you…are you from outer space too?"
"No, I'm human."
Without warning, the Doctor seized their arms and started hauling them back the way they came. He was angry and afraid, she could feel it in his grip, and she wasn't the least bit surprised. There was a Dalek here and she prayed there was only one.
One was bad enough on its own. "You could hide an army down here," Frank had said. Hopefully there wasn't. Well, there was an army of pigs, but they would be easier to deal with than an army of Daleks. Nothing short of the Bad Wolf could deal with that, especially in this day and age.
"Leggo of me!" Tallulah yelped. "Get your mitts off!"
"Every second you're down here, you're in danger. I'm taking you back, right now."
"You are not gonna—" Rose said before he could even finish his sentence, but she was interrupted by Tallulah's startled shriek. She screamed once, too, as they found themselves face-to-face with a pigman.
It skidded to a stop when it saw them, looking around wildly for an escape, then scrambled back and ducked into the shadow of an alcove.
"Where's Martha?!" the Doctor demanded harshly, approaching it. "What have you done with her?" He stood on the other side of the pigman, cutting off the other escape route, and shined his torch at it. "What have you done with Martha?"
"I didn't take her," the pig man said in perfect English.
The Doctor's eyes narrowed in surprise. "You remember your name?"
"Don't…look at me."
"Do you know where she is?" Tallulah lowered her hands from her mouth and walked towards them.
"Stay back!" the pigman held out his hand but didn't turn. "Don't look at me."
"What happened to you?" the Doctor asked.
"They made me a monster."
"Who did?"
"The masters."
"The Daleks," he corrected. "Why?"
"They needed slaves," he explained. "They needed slaves to steal more people, so they created us—part animal, part human."
While he spoke, Rose closed the distance between herself and the Doctor. The pig man glanced at her for a second, eyes widening with horror, and when he saw her face properly in the light, he relaxed and continued on.
"I escaped before they got my mind, but it was still too late."
"You were there," Rose said. "In the theater."
"So were you."
"We saw you."
"You chased me."
She took a step forward, her expression icy. "You led us into the room, disappeared, and then one of your mates got her."
"You shouldn't have been there. I'm sorry, I really am. She's probably with the other people taken tonight."
"Hang on a minute," Tallulah interrupted. "You were in the theater?"
"I never—" he started to say then closed his eyes. "Yes."
"Why? Why were you there?"
"I never wanted you to see me like this."
"Why me? What do I got to do with this?" Arms wrapped around her chest, she took a few steps closer. "Were you following me? Is that why you were there?"
The pig man turned around, but not before Rose saw the mournful expression on his face, and sighed. "Yes."
No, no. It couldn't be. It couldn't be. But it made sense and Rose hoped she was wrong, because it was too cruel. But Daleks were cruel and their very existence made life darker. The people in Henry van Statten's bunker, the people on the Gamestation and 200,100 Earth, Canary Wharf, the Time Lords, everyone in the Time War. And now the people being turned into slaves
Tallulah stared at him, open-mouthed. "Who are you?"
"I was lonely."
"Who are you?" she asked, voice breaking.
"I needed to see you."
"Who are you?"
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
He turned to go but she reached out and grabbed his arm, turning him around. "No, wait. …Let me look at you." She moved him back into the light trickling down from somewhere above. He sighed as her eyes searched his face.
"Laszlo?" He gave her the barest of nods. "My Laszlo?" Her lower lip trembled and she touched his face. "Oh, what have they done to you?" She straightened the collar of his coveralls and smoothed down the front before resting her hands on his shoulders.
"I'm sorry," he repeated softly. "I'm so sorry."
The Doctor had been standing back to give them space, but now he had to interrupt them. The more they stood here the greater the chance that Martha would be turned into a pig herself. "Laszlo, can you show me where they are?"
Laszlo turned. Of course he could. "But they'll kill you."
"If I don't stop them, they'll kill everyone."
He exhaled softly and nodded in agreement. He looked at Tallulah and she nodded with an encouraging smile. "Then follow me," he told the Doctor.
Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other then followed the half-pig man down the tunnels. He told them they had about a mile to go until they reached the laboratory where the Daleks were based, but to keep quiet because the slaves were always patrolling the tunnels with orders to capture anyone they found. Rose wished, not for the first time, that the Doctor carried some sort of weapon besides his sonic screwdriver. At least something they could bash a pigman over the head with if one came along.
When they heard voices and pig snorts coming from up ahead they slowed and crept along the last few lengths of the tunnels. They hadn't gone anything close to a mile yet. They peeked around the corner and saw a group of pigmen standing guard over a cluster of humans. Rose sighed in relief when she heard Martha's voice over the squealing, followed by Frank's.
"What are they doing? What's wrong? What's wrong?"
"SILENCE. SILENCE."
Rose literally jumped half a foot in the air at the harsh, grating voice straight from her nightmares. Laszlo ducked back around the corner and Rose gripped the Doctor's hand so tightly that she wouldn't have been surprised if it ended up breaking.
"YOU WILL FORM A LINE. MOVE! MOVE!"
The pigs squealed and grunted, shoving the poor humans against the wall. Some of them struggled, of course, because they were human and humans had always been a stubborn lot.
"Just do what it says everyone!" That was Martha. "Just…obey!"
"THE FEMALE IS WISE. OBEY."
"REPORT," another Dalek rolled around the corner.
"THESE ARE STRONG SPECIMENS. THEY WILL HELP THE DALEK CAUSE. WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE FINAL EXPERIMENT?"
"THE DALEKANIUM IS IN PLACE. THE ENERGY CONDUCTOR IS NOW COMPLETE."
"THEN I WILL EXTRACT PRISONERS FOR SELECTION."
A pig grabbed a black man in a cap and pulled him forward as the Dalek stated, "INTELLEGENCE SCAN. INITIATE"
Rose gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth when she saw the Dalek raise the suction on the end of its arm towards the man's face, recalling what had happened the last time she'd seen that happen. Thankfully her noise had gone unnoticed by everyone down the tunnel.
"READING BRAINWAVES. …LOW INTELLEGENCE."
"You calling me stupid?" the man asked crossly.
"SILENCE! THIS ONE WILL BECOME A PIG SLAVE. NEXT!"
"No, let go of me!" the man shouted as two pigs hauled him away. "I'm not becoming one of them! NO! LET ME GO!"
Laszlo looked at them, his still-human eyes sad. "They're divided into two groups," he explained—high intelligence and low intelligence. The low intelligence are taken to become pig slaves like me."
"Well, that's not fair," Tallulah protested. Dear God, did that woman not know how to whisper?
The Doctor shushed her.
She glanced at him then whispered, "You're the smartest guy I ever dated."
"And the others?" he asked.
"They're taken to the laboratory." Laszlo said.
"But why? Why for?"
"I don't know. The masters only call it 'The Final…Experiment.'"
Frank was deemed intelligent and Martha was as well, mere seconds after the scan started.
"THIS ONE WILL BECOME PART OF THE FINAL EXPERIMENT."
"You can't just experiment on people!" Martha shouted at it. "IT'S INSANE!"
Ignoring her, the Dalek rotated and addressed the remaining pig slaves. "PRISONERS OF HIGH INTELLIGENCE WILL BE TAKEN TO THE TRANSGENIC LABORATORY."
"Look out. They're moving," the Doctor hissed, pulling Rose back.
Tallulah and Laszlo were going to make a run for it. "Doctor! Doctor, Rose, quickly!"
"I'm not coming," the Doctor whispered. "I've got an idea. You go!"
Laszlo sent Tallulah on her way and, though she protested, she did flee on her own and Laszlo rejoined them. Once again Rose found herself pressed between a wall and the Doctor's back as the Daleks rolled past. There was a terrifying moment when she thought the Daleks may turn and head down their tunnel, but luck was on their side this time and they went down the opposite one. The Doctor waited until Martha passed in front of them then he slipped into the line. Rose moved in behind him, just in front of Frank who squeezed her shoulder in greeting.
"Don't turn around," the Doctor murmured to Martha. "Just keep walking."
She gasped softly. "Oh! I am so glad to see you."
"Yeah, well, you can kiss me later. You, too, Frank, if you want."
Frank sniggered.
Rose poked the Doctor's back and he managed to smile over his shoulder at her.
"Is Rose with you?" Martha asked.
"Yeah, she's right behind me. We found Laszlo, too."
"You did?"
"Mmm, and he escaped halfway to becoming a pig, so don't stare."
"Doctor, those metal things…are they—"
"Yes," he said flatly.
"They're the ones who—"
"Yes."
Martha took a shuddering breath and her blood ran like ice water through her veins. She knew he and Rose had managed to stop the Daleks the last three times they'd faced them—even if only just barely—but would their luck continue? One Dalek alone could kill hundreds before being vanquished and who knew how many were hiding under New York. At least two, and they were enough to bring the city to its knees, for sure.
The half-mile trek to the Dalek's base was long, but over far too quickly. Part of all of them wished they would simply roam the tunnels forever and never reach their destination, but a part of them wanted to see where they'd end up.
The first indication that they were nearing the laboratory was when the wet bricks became dry, and then turned into smooth stone, and when they passed through a door, they became the walls of a building. Slowly they began to hear the rumbling of machinery, the hum of electricity, the crackling of flames, and a bizarre hissing noise. One of the Daleks paused and ordered them to keep moving. The Doctor ducked his head when they passed the Dalek and Rose stared at the floor. It either didn't notice them or didn't care. It probably had never seen either of them before and wouldn't have recognized them as a threat anyway.
The Dalek's base was a great room supported by columns that extended upward into the dark, further than Rose could see. Lamps and electric lights on each column illuminated the lower area. The tables and counters were littered with beakers and test tubes, some filled with mixtures, others empty; and there were stacks of machines here and there, all of them equipped with controls operable only by Daleks. The whole place was cold and reeked of pigmen, death and illness, burning flesh, and a peculiar odor that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
A single Dalek stood near the far wall, shaking with smoke issuing from its black casing. There were four Daleks in total, including the black one, and she knew without a doubt who they were: the Cult of Skaro. They'd somehow escaped the pull of the Void and wound up in 1930. All of the others had been sucked in, except for the ones who'd caused the whole mess in the first place. She clenched her teeth against a scream of rage.
"It's the Cult of Skaro," she hissed through her teeth. The Doctor nodded once.
"REPORT!" One of the brass-colored Daleks shouted at its two comrades that were watching the smoking black one.
One of them turned. "DALEK SEC IS ENTERING THE FINAL STAGE OF EVOLUTION."
"SCAN HIM. PREPARE FOR BIRTH!"
"'Evolution?'" the Doctor muttered.
"What's wrong with old Charlie boy over there?" Martha asked.
"Ask them."
Martha gasped. "What, me? Don't be daft. You do it, Rose. You've done it before."
"Exactly," Rose murmured, "they know who I am. If they see me or the Doctor they'll kill us. It's got to be you."
"Now ask them what's going on," the Doctor commanded quietly.
Martha took a deep breath and stepped away from the group. She took a deep breath and, shaking like a leaf the entire time, called out, "Daleks!" The three Daleks spun around almost immediately. "I demand to be told—what is this…Final Experiment?"
Laszlo and Frank moved to conceal the Doctor and Rose as one of the Daleks rolled towards her.
The Dalek considered her for a second and she exhaled loudly. "Report!"
"YOU WILL BEAR WITNESS."
"To what?"
"THIS IS THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE."
"What does that mean?"
"WE ARE THE ONLY FOUR DALEKS IN EXISTENCE, SO THE SPECIES MUST EVOLVE. A LIFE OUTSIDE THE SHELL—THE CHILDREN OF SKARO MUST WALK AGAIN."
With that, the Dalek backed away and spun back around. The other two Daleks backed away from Dalek Sec. The black metal monster slowly stopped shaking and the blue light behind his eyestalk died. The casing his as it parted, revealing a crouched humanoid figure below the place where there'd once been a shapeless genetically engineered mass. But unlike the one she'd seen so long ago, this one hadn't been altered by Rose's DNA to question itself.
The humanoid slowly pulled itself from the casing. It had ugly brown, blotched skin, clawed hands, and a head with six tentacles on either side with bands of skin holding in a large pink brain. A single green eye, like that of a Cyclops, opened and closed as its neural receptors adjusted to the light. The most horrifying part, however, were the black suit and spats it was wearing. That wasn't something a Dalek would choose to be born in. They must've used someone's body.
"What is it?" Martha gasped.
The creature slowly straightened up, its hands uncurling as it looked at the ceiling. Rose gasped, her mouth working in soundless horror, and she took a step back. The Daleks moved away from it as well.
The creature lowered its head and looked directly at them. "I…am…a human Dalek. I…am your future!"
Hmm... I do believe you all will like the next chapter.
Now you should all review. :D Maybe I can get 400 reviews by chapter 25 (fat chance, but a girl can dream.) Also, a reminder to the anonymous reviews: I can't reply to any of you! So if you want a reply, sign in!