Giving you all another chapter insanely early becAUSE OMFG DAVID AND BILLIE ARE GOING TO BE IN THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL. THE BBC HAS SAID SO. THE DOCTOR WHO TUMBLR HAS SAID SO.

TEN AND ROSE ARE COMING BACK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL I REPEAT: THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

In the end it was Martha that figured out where they needed to go, with a little help from Frank, of course. The Empire State building. Of course the Daleks would use the biggest, most famous building in the city as their base. It was so super villain-esque that it was funny. With this new revelation, assuming they failed to stop the Daleks, none of them would be surprised if the first thing they did was to stick a giant eyestalk into the forehead of the Statue of Liberty. Or maybe they'd blast her down and build a giant Dalek monument in its place. Super villains did those kinds of things.

They exchanged theories about it on the walk to the Empire State. Frank was convinced that if they messed with the Statue of Liberty, then they would have Mount Rushmore (still a work in progress) finished to resemble Daleks as well.

It was completely ridiculous, discussing the enemy's possible victory plans, but any distraction was welcome. About ten minutes after they left Central Park a man started following them. He was totally sloshed, it was obvious from the moment he opened his mouth, but they'd all had experience with drunks. They were content to just ignore him until he calling Frank names and insinuating things that made the poor Tennessean boy's ears turn pink. Rose ended up threatening to knock the man cold if he didn't leave them alone and something in her expression (or maybe it was her eyes, not golden anymore but still not quite brown) made him back off. Still, having a drunk bloke questioning their virtues was better than thinking about the Doctor with the Daleks, Laszlo as one of the pig slaves, and Solomon as a corpse back at Hooverville.

When they arrived, there were two armed security guards stationed in the lobby. Rose didn't hesitate, whipping the psychic paper out of her pocket, and flashed it at them.

"Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Tallulah Angel, and Frank Parker," she said promptly. "Architects and engineers. We were called in to inspect the progress."

The man looked down at the paper, then up at the four of them. He nodded after a moment, told them where the service elevator was, then sent them on their way.

"Frank Parker?" Frank muttered when they were out of earshot.

"What? You live in the park. Give me a break, I had to think of names on the spot." Rose protested.

Riding up a hundred floors was slow enough in an elevator in the 21st century, never mind a1930s service one. At the rate they ascended, they may as well have walked. Martha insisted they go to the top where there was still work being done. If the Daleks were going to install an energy conductor they'd want to be as high as possible, and inconspicuous. Bit odd to put something new in a finished floor, but not in a floor that's still in progress. Three minutes and several ear-poppings later, the lift stopped and the four bored passengers stepped gratefully onto the hundredth floor.

Tallulah gasped. "Look at this place. Top of the world!"

She and Frank gazed around, completely taken by the vast room they were standing in, and they weren't even looking out the window yet. Rose had been in the building before in the year 2020. She'd been impressed then. Right now? Not so much.

"Okay, now, this looks good." Martha strode over stacks of building plans resting on an easel. Frank and Rose joined her and peered at the papers.

Rose bit her lip, tucking her hair behind her ear. It might help if she knew anything about architecture.

Frank tapped his finger on the top sheet. "Hey, look at the date. These designs were issued today. They must've changed something last minute."

Martha lifted the sheet and looked at the one below. "Do you think it was the Daleks?"

"Yeah, could be."

"The energy conductor?" Rose suggested. "I doubt the original designs would've included that."

"Then, if these are the ones before, then we need to check them against the other. If we see something different then that's gotta be it."

"Right." Frank reached for the clasp holding the papers together.

"The height of this place!" Tallulah exclaimed from near the window. "This is amazing!"

"Careful," Martha cautioned. "We're a hundred floors up. Don't go wondering off."

"I just want to see." She waved off her concerns and drifted towards the open space where the wall hadn't been finished.

Rose didn't look up from the plans. "Just let her go."

She lifted the top stack off the ease and set them on the ground. Martha brought down the old plans and they spread them out side by side and went to pouring over them. Frank went to stand watch in case any one—humans or pigmen or worse, Daleks—came sniffing about.

"There's a hell of a storm movin' in." Tallulah said from behind them.

"Do you know what we're looking for?" Martha asked Rose.

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Great. Wish the Doctor were here. Oh, sorry," she added quickly

Rose dismissed her apology with a shake of her head. "Don't waste time trippin' over your words. I'm fine. But you're right. He'd know."

She ran her fingers through her hair, unconsciously mirroring the Doctor's nervous habit, a motion that did not escape Martha's notice. Despite the situation, it brought a grin to her face.

"So tell me…where did you first hook up?" Tallulah asked. "You and the Doctor."

"Oh, at my old job in London. An alien was controlling all the shop window dummies and they nearly killed me. He showed up and saved me. We've been together ever since."

"What about you, Martha? How'd you meet them?"

"In a hospital."

"'Course—him being a doctor." She slapped her knees and knelt down next to Rose.

"Actually, I'm the doctor." Martha said, lifting one of the sheets. "Well, kind of."

"So you're really a physician?"

"I was training. Still am, whenever I go back."

Rose smiled. "Didn't you realize she was a doctor earlier in Hooverville? All those people she helped."

"You helped, too. I thought he just taught you a bit of medicine or somethin'."

"He did, yeah, and I've had plenty of practice over the years," Rose said. "I know enough to help, but that's about it."

"Well, at least you can actually do something." Tallulah sighed in frustration. "All I could do was boil water. Look at you two. You work together so easily. You're a doctor and you fight aliens. And you've got yourself a nice guy."

"So do you."

"Yeah, and I should be down there, lookin' for him. Not a hundred stories in the air watching you two sort through papers."

"Hey, if the Doctor's down there with Laszlo, there's every chance that he could get him out." Martha assured her. "I've seen him pull off some amazing rescues."

"And then what?" Tallulah asked, shaking her head. "Don't talk crazy. There's no future for me and him. Those…Dalek things. The one good thing I had in my life and they destroyed it." Her voice broke on the last word. She stood up and walked away from them towards the open area again.

"Yeah," Rose murmured. "Daleks are good for that."

She lifted the full building sheet away and set it aside. They looked down at the schematics of topmost part of the building. They must've noticed the differences at the exact same moment because Martha let out a small, "ah-ha!" just as Rose opened her mouth to do the same.

Tallulah knelt down next to them again. Martha pointed at the tiny additions to the pole. "There, on the mast, those little lines? They're new. They've added something, see?"

"Added what?" Tallulah asked.

"The Dalekanium!" Rose hissed triumphantly.

They called Frank back in to help them gather up the papers. They rolled up the useless ones and set them aside and put the two up close schematics of the mast side by side on the easel. Outside, the thunder rumbled ominously and the air began to tingle with electricity, a sign of the coming storm. The wind that drifted into the room smelled like rain. Rose shivered beneath her jacket.

The main lift dinged and Rose turned. The doors opened revealing the Doctor with one hand on Laszlo's shoulder. The half-pigman was leaning heavily against the side of the lift, looking miserable.

"Doctor!" she cried.

"First floor, perfumery," he said lightly.

Tallulah and Laszlo ran for each other.

Rose didn't even know her legs were moving until she was halfway towards him. The Doctor stepped out of the lift and caught her in his arms, she threw her own around him, and he hoisted her off the ground. One of her hands gripped the back of his neck, and she buried her face in the fabric of his suit. He murmured something unintelligible near her ear as he set her back on her feet. She smiled, holding him as tightly as she could for a moment longer, then drew back and stared right into his eyes.

He kept his arms around her loosely and smiled. "Hello."

"Hello," she replied with a soft smile that never left her face, even as she went on. "Doctor, if you ever do something like that again, I swear, the next time I see you, you will be regenerating."

"Well, it all worked out, didn't it? We're here, and I know what they're planning."

"So do we!" She broke his grip and pulled him over to the easel. "Look, on the schematics, there's—"

Behind them, the lift dinged once in farewell as it was called elsewhere. "No, no, no!" the Doctor shouted and raced over to it. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and shined it on the call button. "Argh! Deadlock seal." He smacked the wall and muttered a few words that the TARDIS did not translate.

"Where's it going?" Martha asked.

"Right back down to the Daleks, and they aren't going to leave us alone up here—what's the time?"

"Uh, 11:15," Frank said.

"Six minutes to go. Did you find the Dalekanium?" He asked them.

"Look, right here," Martha pointed to the schematics. The Doctor crossed the room and looked where she was pointing. "See these two lines? They're the only things not on the old plans. Got to be the Dalekanium, right?"

"Right up on the mast," he murmured. "I've got to get them off before the gamma radiation hits."

"'Gamman' radiation?" Tallulah, still in Laszlo's arms, made a face. "What the heck is that?"

The Doctor ignored her and sprinted across the room to the open area. He grabbed onto the beam over his head and looked down at the city of New York below them. Rose did, instantly regretting it, and her stomach did a weird little flip. She shook her head, feeling the blood leave her head, and backed away from the edge as the world spun.

"Oh, that's high," the Doctor observed. "That's very—blimey that's high."

"And we've got to go even higher." Martha said. She turned around, grabbing hold of a ladder, and nodded upwards. "That's the mast up there, look. There's three pieces of Dalekanium on the base of the mast. We've got to get them off."

"That's not 'we.'" he turned. "That's just me."

"We're not just going to stand here and watch you!" Martha protested.

"Actually, I don't think I'm going to watch at all." Rose's arms tightened on the beam she was currently clinging to for dear life. "Sorry, it's just…really, really high and—"

"No, it's alright," the Doctor said. "You're going to be busy down here, anyway. I'm sorry, but you've all got to fight. I'll see you when I get back. Whatever you do, don't let them follow me." He looked between the five of them, lingering on Rose for a moment longer, then scurried up the ladder like a squirrel.

Rose took a deep breath and backed out of the open space completely. "Alright, we're…we're gonna need weapons. Preferably something that pierces Dalekanium and works more than once."

"Why did I leave that gun behind?" Frank muttered.

"Well, this is a construction sight. So there must be tools somewhere," Martha reasoned.

"Oh, over here! I saw 'em earlier." He loped across the room to several stack of crates near the lift. He removed the topmost lids and shouted once. "Yeah, here! C'mon, arm yourselves!"

He hefted a thick sledgehammer out of the crate and turned it over in his hands. Martha, Laszlo, and Tallulah rummaged through the tools for things heavy enough to cause damage that they could actually swing. Martha chose a metal pole that looked like some sort of screwdriver, Tallulah had a large wrench, and Laszlo had a hammer.

Rose shook her head at them. "Those won't work on Daleks. Their skin is almost impenetrable."

"Then we just have to hope they send up pigs," Martha said. Rose gritted her teeth and hefted a large ratchet out of a crate. They heard the lift whirl to life behind them and the little arrow above it began to track the lift's progress upward.

"Oh, here we go." Rose adjusted her grip.

"I should've brought that gun!" Frank said through his teeth.

"Tallulah, stay back!" Laszlo ordered. "You, too, Martha, Rose. If they send pig slaves, they're trained to kill!"

Tallulah shuffled back all-too willingly, but Rose and Martha held firm. "Like we can't handle a few pigs," Rose retorted contemptuously. Laszlo tried to push them back with his arm.

"The Doctor needs us to fight!" Martha said, pushing right back. "We're not going anywhere."

"No, but they're savages!" he shouted. "I should know. They're trained to slit your throat with their bare teeth."

Martha made a face and glanced at the arrow above the lift again.

Laszlo's breath came in heavy pants and his legs seem to give out beneath him. He dropped to the ground, catching himself on the column. Tallulah shrieked and dropped her wrench. "Laszlo! What is it?"

"No, it's nothing. I'm fine. Just leave me." He slumped against the column, his breath coming in laborious pants.

Tallulah felt his forehead with her hand. "Ooh, honey, you're burnin' up. What's wrong with you? Tell me."

Frank shook his head. "One man down. We ain't even started yet."

"It's not looking good," Martha agreed.

"Nope."

"Not how I wanted to die, getting killed by mutant pigs."

"I don't wanna die at all."

Thunder rumbled around them again. Her eyes fixed on the door, Rose didn't notice that Martha had turned around until she spoke again. "Wait a minute. Lightning!"

She dropped her weapon and ran towards the open area. "Rose, c'mon!"

"What's she doin'?" Frank demanded.

"Help me!" Martha shouted, struggling to lift a metal pole on her own.

Imminent lightning strike, metal rods, approaching pigmen—oh!

"Martha that's brilliant!" Rose cried elatedly and dropped the ratchet. "Come on, Frank!"

It was mad, so mad it would probably work. Frank and Martha carried the rods and Rose created a path for them with chairs and stands. Laszlo watched them blearily and Tallulah tried to soothe him. The thunder rumbled louder than ever and the air was positively humming with electricity.

"What the hell are you clowns doing?!" Tallulah shouted.

"Even if the Doctor stops the Dalekanium, this place is still gonna get hit." Martha explained quickly without stopping. "Great big bolt of lightning, electricity all down the building."

"We connect this to the lift and the pigs get cooked." Rose finished gleefully.

Tallulah smirked. "Oh, my God. That could work!"

Martha connected the metal chain to the lift with two smaller rods, one on either side, and Frank went to make sure the lightning would carry through. Rose made a quick trip up the line to make sure all the poles were touching as much as possible. The thunder rumbled again.

"Is that gonna work?" Tallulah asked.

"If not, well, at least you don't gotta worry about being turned into a Dalek." Rose said. She and Martha dropped down onto the ground next to Tallulah and Laszlo who was struggling just to stay upright with no support.

"I got it all piped up to the scaffolding outside." Frank pointed over his shoulder.

Martha reached for him. "Come here, Frank, just sit in the middle. And don't touch anything metal."

Frank gathered them all in his arms, like an older brother would protect his younger siblings, and they huddled in a heap on the ground. The wind blew harder and Laszlo's breathing was heavy in all their ears. Rose and Martha gripped each other's hands tightly and prayed that the Doctor was well out of the way when the strike hit. The elevator dinged, the doors opening to reveal at least half a dozen pigmen inside, snorting and looking around.

Martha gasped.

The sky flashed white and a single deafening boom seemed to shake the building. They all flinched away from the bright light suddenly racing along the metal line towards the lift. They gasped and the pigmens squealed in pain. Rose squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her face into Frank's shoulder. It seemed to last forever, though in reality it was probably only twenty seconds at most. When the light finally faded, they opened their eyes and curled out of their tight huddle, staring in shock at the bodies on the floor.

Martha scrambled to her feet and raced over to the lift, stopping just short of the metal pole. Rose, Tallulah, and Frank followed her. The elevator was completely fried and the pigmen appeared to be dead, their bodies smoking. She almost smiled for a moment. But then she thought of Laszlo behind her and her stomach twisted in guilt. He'd escaped before the Daleks had converted him, but these hadn't. They'd been human.

Frank laughed, shaking her shoulders and she felt even worse.

"You did it, Martha." Tallulah congratulated.

"They used to be like us," she said quietly. "I suppose that makes me a murderer now."

"Hey, come on, Martha, look at me." Rose rubbed her friend's arm. "They would've killed us. They didn't even remember being human."

"Exactly," Laszlo said from behind them. He was on his feet and that was something. "The Daleks killed them. Long ago."

"Oh my God, the Doctor!" Martha gasped suddenly, spinning around, and raced back to the open area. Rose lingered far enough back that she couldn't see over the side while Martha looked up through the opening at the mast.

"Do you see him?" Rose called.

"No!" she shook her head and gripped the ladder. "We gotta get up there."

Rose sucked in air through her teeth and strode towards the ladder purposefully. Martha looked at her questioningly but didn't protest. Laszlo was in no condition to climb so Tallulah waited behind with him. Frank followed the girls up the ladder.

Rose was once again grateful for her gymnastics skills, as well as the climbing skills she'd picked up after years with the Doctor. The ladder didn't go up very far and once there wasn't another ladder waiting for them.

Don't look down, don't look down, she repeated the mantra in her head over and over. She kept her eyes trained firmly upward except when she had to check for a foot holding. Even that time she'd dangled from a barrage balloon she hadn't been this high.

Not that she was thinking about how high she was—about four hundred and thirty meters at this point—and that if she fell from here she would be dead before she hit the ground or she'd die on impact. No, she wasn't thinking about either of those things.

Not at all.

"Look!" Martha exclaimed suddenly, pointing at the base of the mast where a small, familiar object gleamed in the moonlight.

Rose made a strangled sound and lunged for it. She gripped the screwdriver tightly in her hands and looked up at the top of the mast, pushing her hair out of her face. She couldn't see him? Had he fallen? A fall from this high would kill him for sure.

Please, please don't let him have fallen, she prayed and pocketed the screwdriver.

From here there were no more ladders and they had to use the construction beams to pull themselves, level by level, to the very top of the mast. Frank took the lead so he could help the girls up. By the time they reached the top of the mast five minutes later, their muscles were aching and sore.

When Frank pulled her up onto the final level, she looked around for her Time Lord and saw him on his back, dangerously close to the edge. "Doctor!" she shrieked and threw herself to her knees beside him.

"Oh, don't be dead. Please don't be dead." she whispered, checking for his pulse. She sighed in relief when she felt the double beat under her fingers. It wasn't as strong as it normally was, but it was definitely there. He was alive and still in this body, that was something. "Doctor, wake up!" she put her hands on his cheeks and turned his head towards her. "Come on, open your eyes. It's me. It's Rose."

He groaned, his face scrunching up in pain. "Owww, my head…"

She laughed breathlessly in relief and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Oh you stupid, bloody alien! What happened?"

He opened his eyes the tiniest bit and smiled at her. "Hello. You survived, then. Martha?"

"She's fine, she's right here. Frank, too. And Tallulah and Laszlo are down below." She pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket. "I think you dropped this. You're so useless."

"Mmmm," he agreed, shutting his eyes again.

"Why were you out cold?" Rose asked.

"Um…"

"Doctor," Martha said loudly. "I couldn't help but notice that there's still Dalekanium attached over here."

His eyes flew open at that and he sat up with a grunt. "Oh, yeah. That's why."

Rose helped him to his feet and handed over the sonic. He ordered them to just leave the Dalekanium where it was—the deed had already been done and they didn't have much time. The trip back down took more than twice as long as it took to get up. Most of that was spent trying to descend from the mast, which was tricky enough without having to keep one hand on the Doctor at all times since he wasn't at one hundred percent yet. She had to let go once and there was a terrifying moment when he seemed to sway backwards. Once they got down to the ladders things went much more smoothly, but Frank and Rose always went down before him just in case.

Arriving on the hundredth floor, they found Laszlo leaning against the wall just beyond the open area and Tallulah pacing anxiously. "Oh, you're alright!" she exclaimed in relief. "I thought you must've fallen for sure!"

"No, we're all alright." the Doctor told her. "But we're not out of this yet. I couldn't stop the gamma strike—wait hang on, what's that smell?" He sniffed at the air and stepped inside. He stopped just before bumping into a rod and lifted his head, following the line all the way to the elevators. "Oooh," he made a face. "Nice one. Who's idea was that?"

"Mine."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: Martha Jones, you are a star."

Even if she wasn't entirely proud of the act that had earned it, Martha still beamed at the praise.

"But we still have the little problem of an entire army of humans beneath us that have had their minds completely erased and replaced with Dalek ones."

"There's a what?" Rose yelped.

"Yeah," he turned around and walked back out into the open area and looked down at the city below them. "I dropped my screwdriver before I could get them all off. There wasn't time to go after it. So they now have a fully active army of over a thousand. The Daleks will have gone straight to a war footing. They'll be using the sewer system, spreading the soldiers out underneath the Manhattan."

"How do we stop them?" Laszlo asked.

"I could do it." Rose said just loud enough to be heard.

"No!" The Doctor glared down at her. "Don't even think about it. There's still a chance that there won't be a slaughter. I got in the way of the gamma strike—it went through me first."

"Yeah, but what does that mean?" Martha asked.

He didn't answer her. "We need to draw fire—before they can attack New York, I need to face them—where can I draw them out? Think, think, think, think, think." He muttered and rubbed his chin, then ran his fingers through his hair. "I need some sort of space—somewhere safe, somewhere out of the way. TALLULAH!" He spun around.

"That's me. Three L's and an 'H.'"

"The theater—it's right above them—and, what? It's gone midnight. Can you get us inside?"

"Don't see why not."

He spun around, but upon seeing the fried pigs he remembered that particular way down was out of the question. "Is there another lift?"

"We came up in the service elevator." Martha said and led the way.

"That'll do! Allons-y!"

*gasps like a dying fish*

Review. Yeah. Cuz. AIYEEEK.