Author's Note: So i actually wanted to post the second chapter of this pretty quick after the first one but i had to do some heavy editing as i didn't quite like how it turned out, and still don't like it too much to be honest, i just couldn't seem to get this chapter to work too well :/ but im posting it anyway. All constructive criticism and tips are welcome. Sorry for any typos or scene transitions that seem a little off as this wasn't beta'd but i tried my best although i may miss some things from time to time.
I smiled as I casually leaned against the console, watching the Doctor mess around with all the various buttons spread across the surface, I was pretty curious about it all but didn't dare ask him about any of them, I had to constantly make sure I wasn't hitting any of the buttons either, didn't want to accidentally hit something and send us into a black hole or anything like that. We were currently waiting for rose to get changed, she had said her other ones got covered in dirt from climbing out of the rubble and I honestly couldn't blame her for wanting to get them off. The doctor had apparently heard me shuffling about trying not to hit anything, because when I looked up from moving my hand he just had this silly little smirk on his face.
"So, you excited for your first trip?" He asked, barely able to contain his excitement at showing me some new planet.
Just as quickly as the smile appeared, it left. He started frantically messing with the controls and muttering about something to do with signals and something to do with the tardis never taking him to the right place. The tardis jerked in response to his muttering and a snort escaped me just as Rose entered the room, having finally gotten changed.
"So, where are we off to now Doctor?" said Rose as she skipped her way over to him and peered over his shoulder at the monitor. "What's wrong?"
The doctor had a frown on his face and it only deepened when the tardis jerked again, and this time it was for an unknown reason "I don't know… let's find out." He pulled the breaks and sent us to some unknown place, as the wheezing sound filling the air I let the smile finally break out on my face.
I was actually in the tardis, with the actually real Doctor probably on our way to an actually real alien planet with actually real aliens. I squealed as I grabbed onto the console, the whole room shaking from traveling through the time vortex and I muttered under my breath "Here we go then…"
I was hoping that when the tardis landed I wouldn't end up face first against the grating below my feet. As a resounding thud echoed around the room I let out a breath I hadn't been aware of holding. The actual tardis just actually flew to an actually new place.
A small laugh escaped me and a smile slowly spread across my face as I turned to the Doctor, who was currently on his back with Rose next to him, the both of them giggling away "Is it always this shaky, or are you just a terrible pilot?" I asked with a smile still on my face, nothing could wipe it off. Not anything.
The doctor half-heartedly glared at me as Rose let out a loud laugh, they both climbed up from the floor and passed by me heading for the door, Rose giving me a high five on the way. I honestly hoped we would become good friends one day. I let go of the railing and quickly followed behind them, I lagged behind a little until they had both left the tardis as I didn't really want to go out first, if this really wasn't me just going loopy then there's no way I was stepping out first, I knew how dangerous it could get traveling with the Doctor. And stepping out of the tardis first sometimes resulted in a gun being shoved in your face.
As I stepped out of the tardis a shiver suddenly tore through me and I quickly rubbed my arms in the hope of keeping the cold at bay. I noticed the place we landed in was dimly lit, from what I could see there were glass display cases lining the sides, although, how far they went remained a mystery. I took a moment and looked down at myself noticing I was still in my light grey joggers and thin but long sleeved light grey cardigan with my purple tank top and purple converse. No wonder I was cold.
"So… what is it? What's wrong doctor?" Rose piped up, her voice echoing off the walls.
I winced slightly and made a shushing motion at her as she mouthed 'sorry' in response. Ever since I had woken up here, my hearing and eyesight had been extremely sensitive. I'd have to ask the Doctor about it later when we had a moment to spare.
"Don't quite know,"
'We can't all know everything doctor'
He gave me that weird look again but I quickly dismissed it as nothing more than thinking I was an idiot for wearing these clothes. Realistically I should have changed in the tardis when I had the chance. A moment later though he started to peer around the room, clearly unable to contain his curiosity.
"Some kind of signal drawing the tardis off course."
"So, where are we then Doctor?" I whisper asked, the smile still on my face as my eyes bounced around the small visible area, "Where has my first trip landed us?" The excitement I felt was woven through every word and breath that came out of my mouth. I was almost tempted to start bouncing slightly on my feet, I couldn't contain it much longer.
"Earth. Utah, North America."
'Oh my god don't you dare say it'
"About half a mile underground."
'And that's exactly where I didn't want to be...great' Letting out a sigh, the smile that had been on my face since I stepped foot in the tardis was suddenly wiped off my face 'There goes the smile and so much for an amazing first adventure'
"And when are we?" asked Rose suddenly, the excitement in her own voice could be heard.
I was surprised she even still got excited, but I guess that was the great thing about traveling with the Doctor, there was always something new and exciting to see.
"Two thousand and twelve." He said, looking at us from over his shoulder but his attention was quickly being grabbed by a nearby display case.
"Wait, it's obvious that we moved positions, and it's not that hard to wrap my head around that, considering it's a spaceship and all but you just said twenty twelve, so does that mean the magic box to narnia can also travel in time?" I quickly cut in before either of them could speak, I still had to play the clueless companion until I was ready to tell the Doctor everything. And even then, I still wasn't fully convinced that this wasn't some wacky out there dream that I'd never experience again after waking up.
The doctor shook his head at my narnia comment and sighed "Yeah, pretty much. And It's not a magic box to narnia!"
"Keep telling yourself that Doctor." I smirked as he huffed but I could see a smile trying to break out on his lips. Success.
"God, that's so close, like think about it, though. I'd be about 26" She said softly, still trying to mind my sensitive ears "Speaking of which, Danielle was it?"
I only nodded in response
"How old are you? I mean you look what, 18?"
I noticed the Doctor peering out the corner of his eye at us, although he was still trying to look like he was actually doing something, he never was subtle about eavesdropping. What an adorable idiot.
"I'm 17"
"Huh, so only two years younger than me then." She sent a little smile my way while standing on her tiptoes, trying to see if she could see anything to indicate where we were.
After the Doctor had found out my age from eavesdropping he wandered off, looking for the light switch, a few moment's later the room was flooded with light, I looked around the room we were in, the whole place was filled with display cases, a lot of which were occupied by various alien items, I only recognized about two or three of the items including the cyberman head a little ways up. My eyes roamed over all the strange objects in the cases, there was such a variety of items ranging from pieces of actual creatures and them having been stuffed to pieces of rock and debris from both spaceships and what I assumed was from meteors.
"Blimey. It's a great big museum innit?" She looked around the room in wonder, her attention was as hectic as mine, her eyes going from item to item as she was clearly fascinated by it all.
"An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby."
I looked over at the Doctor who had made his way back over towards us, letting my eyes roam over more of the cases before I added my own comment "They must have spent billions, maybe even more on this stuff. How do you even come by half of it anyway?"
"You look for it, very very carefully." He walked past a few cases, naming off the stuff as he went "Chunks of meteorites, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship right there." He said pointing to one of the cases some ways off.
Rose had walked up to another case, disgust evident on her face "This is a bit of slitheen! A slitheen arm and it's been stuffed."
The Doctor shook his head at the Slitheen arm, while Rose kept staring at it. It looked like she was half expecting it to jump out of the case and attack her but after what had just happened, it was no surprise she was so jumpy about it. I made my way over to one of the cases and took a peek at what was inside it. There, sitting on a pedestal inside the case was a piece of blue wood, and I could bet that if you held it up next to the tardis, it would match. How Van Stroodle got a hold of one of the exploded pieces of tardis was a mystery. I just hoped the Doctor didn't see it, or I'm positive he would freak out a little. Maybe more than a little.
The doctor's voice suddenly startled me out of my thought's, he sounded almost nostalgic "Oh..look at you." He had walked up to a case a little further down that had the cyberman head in it.
It looked a bit different from the newer models that I was used to seeing. I walked up beside him and stared at the head, tilting my own to get a better look at the side of it "What is it?" I looked at him and he glanced at me from the corner of his eye, not taking it off the cyberman head for very long.
"An old friend of mine. Well, I say friend but what I actually mean is an enemy. The thing of nightmares reduced to nothing but an exhibit for the rich." He sighed "I'm getting old."
I glanced at him from the corner of my own eye, a small smile playing on my lips "And how old are you, Doctor?" I asked softly, raising an eyebrow at him.
He didn't immediately respond so I assumed he hadn't heard. I was about to ask him again when a stupid smirk appeared on his face. Yeah, he had heard me alright. That cheeky little git.
"Is that where the signal is coming from then?" asked Rose, suddenly having stepped up to the other side of him to look at the head.
"No it's stone dead." He instantly replied "The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." He reached out to the display case, his fingers mere inches away from the glass when the alarms went off.
My hands quickly shot up to my ears, trying to prevent any lasting damage to them, the Doctor threw me a worried glance as guards surrounded us from all sides, effectively cutting us off from our escape route. I'm honestly surprised none of them noticed the tardis, dense, the lot of them.
Rose leaned over and whispered in the Doctor's ear as we all raised our hands "If someone's collecting aliens...then that makes you exhibit A."
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The three of us were escorted through the base, and when I say escorted what I mean was we were roughly pushed around until we got to our destination. We were standing in some sort of office, my curiosity getting the better of me as I peeked around at the stuff before finally noticing Van Stroodle and Adam behind the desk. Goddard quickly entered after us and took her place next to Van Stroodle just as the man himself spoke up.
"Well, what does it do then?" He asked, sounding a little impatient.
"Well, do you see these tubes on the side?" Adam asked, showing Van Stroodle the item a bit more, turning it about in his hands "It must be to channel something, like fuel, maybe." The tail end of his comment didn't sound as confident as the rest of what he had said.
'Too right as well, that ain't no fuel channeler you got there boy-o'
The doctor sighed and sent me a silent glare as we stopped in front of the desk, me on the left of the Doctor and Rose to the right of him "I really wouldn't hold it like that." He nodded his head slightly at the item in Adam's hand
Goddard stepped forward slightly and snapped at the Doctor "Shut it!"
"Really, though. That's the wrong way to hold it." He said sounding a little impatient himself. Probably thinking about how stupid humans were. Again.
"Is it dangerous?" Adam asked.
"No," The doctor glanced at me from the corner of his left eye, a little smirk trying to wriggle its way out "It just looks silly." He reached out his hand for the item, the guards instantly reacting, raising their weapons towards him.
I let out a huff of air under my breath 'Why does it always come down to the guns. Ugh'
Van Stroodle raised his hand from his lap, and silently motioned the guards to back off. He took the device from Adam and stretched over the desk slightly, handing the device to the Doctor who took it gently into his hands, it was almost as if he was afraid to break it with how delicate he was being, almost as if it held a special place in his heart's, and for all I knew, maybe an item like this brought back memories.
"You just need to be a little," He ran his fingers across the item, and while the noise that I remembered it making in the tv show was nice, in reality… it was so much more beautiful "Delicate." He ran his fingers over it again, causing it to create a few more beautiful notes.
"It's a musical instrument then?" Van Stroodle asked the Doctor.
The Doctor just nodded in response and quietly replied, "And it's a long way from home." He looked down at the item sadly, as if remembering a time long forgotten to those around him.
'Just like you..ugh i need these random thoughts to stop popping up jeez'
I didn't notice the Doctor smirk at me again, instead I was focused on Van Stroodle as he held out his hand for the instrument, he attempted to copy the Doctor's motions but failed, an ear splitting high pitched noise being produced from the item, I had to quickly raise my hands to cover my ears and by the time he had gotten it to sound similar, not identical but similar to what the Doctor had produced, I thought my ears were bleeding. I had been so focused on keeping my ears covered that I hadn't heard what the Doctor had said. I figured it out pretty quickly, as Van Stroodle carelessly threw the instrument behind him, missing Goddard by only a few inches. I lowered my hands just as Van Stroodle spoke up again.
"Who exactly are you then?"
"I'm the Doctor, and who're you?" He raised one of his eyebrows at Van Stroodle, waiting for a reply.
"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artifacts in the world, and you're trying to tell me you just stumbled in by mistake?" Van Stroodle said with an almost mocking tone and a raised eyebrow.
"You have no idea." I mumbled at the same time as the Doctor replied.
"Pretty much sums me up, yeah." He nodded his head slightly.
"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down and with your little cat burglar accomplices. You're quite the collector yourself, they're rather pretty."
Van Stroodle locked eyes with me for a few moments and I was determined not to let the creep win the staring match when I felt a hand take mine, I shifted my eyes away from him to look at the Doctor, who was trying to silently convey with his eyes to let the subject go.
Rose suddenly spoke up, sounding right pissed off as she crossed her arms over her chest "They're going to smack you if you keep calling us they."
"She's English too! Hey, little lord Fauntleroy, got you a girlfriend."
"This is Mister Henry Van Statten." Adam said, shifting from one foot to the other, his eyes kept straying to Rose and I tried not to laugh at how obvious the guy was being.
"And who's he when he's at home then?" She asked, still sounding super pissed off with the situation at hand.
"Mister Van Statten own's the internet."
"Yeah right… Nobody owns the internet." I spoke loud enough for the others to hear.
"And this one's Scottish, got quite the mix with you there Doctor." Van Stroodle said with a smirk on his face while looking at me "And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, shall we?"
"So let me get this straight, you're just about an expert in everything, except the thing's in your museum, anything you don't understand, you lock it up. Now, why doesn't that surprise me?" The doctor furrowed his brows at Van Stroodle as I squeezed his hand, trying to dim his anger a bit.
I could tell by the scrunched eyebrows he was starting to get a little peeved at Van Stroodle, although I couldn't blame him. The guy was a complete Arse bag. After a moment his face returned to a neutral look, which sometimes I wondered if that was maybe worse than the furrowed brows.
"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Stroodle asked, almost looking pretty pleased with himself.
Seriously, this guy needed someone to peg him down a few notches. He was even worse in person than when I had watched the show, they made him out to be such an asshole but in reality, he was a hundred times worse.
"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."
"And yet, I captured you, right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?"
"You tell me."
"The cage contains my one living specimen."
"And what's that then?"
"Like you don't know." Van Stroodle flashed a smile on his face but the Doctor's face remained neutral.
"Show me."
"You want to see it?"
It was about then that Rose piped in with a comment of her own "Blimey, you can smell the testosterone in here, right Dani?"
I gave her a little nod trying not to laugh at her comment.
"Goddard," Van Stroodle slowly stood up from his chair "Inform the cage we're heading down. English. Look after the British flag, go and canoodle or spoon or whatever you British do. And you Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."
Van Stroodle started to leave the room and the Doctor let go of my hand, ready to follow, but just before he left he turned on his heel to face us, pointing a finger between us "You two behave while I'm gone, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
I snorted at his comment, he had pretty much just given us a free pass to snoop around down here.
"Yeah, we won't." Rose snorted and the Doctor just threw her a silly little glare as he left the room.
"Come on then you two." Adam said, motioning for us to follow, and we did.
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We stepped into Adam's office, and I kid you not it looked like a mini nuke or something had been set off in here. The place was a dump, pieces of metal and plastic and who knows what was scattered across every surface available, some of it was even carelessly lying on the floor, just waiting to be stomped on and broken.
"Sorry about the mess, Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods." Adam picks up a piece of metal off his desk and passes it to Rose "What do you think that is?"
"Er, I don't know, a lump of metal?"
I started to tune the two of them out as I almost tiptoed around the room trying to avoid the floor clutter, and picking up various pieces of 'alien' things as I went to inspect them, some of which I knew weren't even alien and others were probably some dodgy experiment from Area 51 or something Torchwood tried to get rid of. Like that tub of weird orangey green stuff that I saw sitting off to the side.
"-so how'd you end up down here?" Rose asked, leaning next to Adam at his desk.
"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."
"Oh right, you're a genius."
"Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever, when I was eight I logged onto the US Defence System. Nearly caused world war three." He had a small smirk on his face as he sat down on his chair.
'Bad move buddy-o'
"What, and that's funny is it?" She crossed her arms, probably in an attempt not to smack the guys arm or something.
"Well, it was one of those 'had to be there' moment's, you should have been there just to see them running about like headless chickens. Fantastic!"
"You sound like the Doctor." She said, finally unfolding her arms and letting them swing by her side for a moment before picking something out of the box on the table that she was standing next to.
"Are you and him?"
"No! We're just friends." She shook her head quickly while responding.
"Good.." Adam let out a little sigh of relief.
I mentally facepalmed, it wasn't as funny or interesting as I thought it would be watching Adam falling over his feet trying to flirt with Rose.
"Why is it good?"
"It just is."
"Could you two please cut the flirting out? You're giving me a headache." I rubbed my forehead with one hand while tucking the other under my armpit. Rose sent me a thank you glance, and I near enough snorted. She was so uselessly adorable sometimes.
"So, wouldn't you rather be downstairs where all the action is? I mean, you got all these bits of metal and who knows what but Mister Van Statten's got a living creature down there." She put the item she had been fiddling with back in the box and let out a little sigh.
"Yeah yeah, well I did ask, but he keeps it to himself. Although," He smirked at Rose, getting ready to show off to her "If you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. System."
"Let's have a look then." She nodded her head to the computer and Adam begun typing away, bringing up a little screen.
I walked over and stood behind Adam, what greeted me was the image of a very real, very deadly, probably very pissed off patient Dalek. I gulped the saliva down my throat and let out a breath of shaky air.
"It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird, It's kinda useless. It's just this great big pepper pot."
We watched as the Dalek screamed as it was being tortured by someone down in the cage with a drill, I couldn't remember the guy's name for the life of me, or what his fate was.
"It's being tortured! Where's the doctor?!" She shouted frantically at Adam.
"I don't know!"
"Take us down there, now!" She shouted as she grabbed my arm, rushing out the door and towards what I knew would be a pretty tough time.
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As we reached the cage entrance someone stopped us before we could enter, but Adam quickly spoke to the guard quietly and a few seconds later he let us pass. We stood outside the giant metal door waiting for it to be opened, I could hear the muffled screams of the Dalek inside. Rose was anxiously biting her nails and I had the sudden urge to bat her hand away and scold her for doing that. A moment later the metal or steel or whatever door opened and out came the torturer, Rose threw him a dirty glance as we stepped inside.
"Don't get too close." Adam said as the door closed behind the three of us which caused me to jump a little.
"Hello," Rose took a step forward towards the Dalek cautiously "Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler, and this is Danielle Wicker. We've got this friend, he can help. He's called the Doctor." She paused for a moment, nodding for me to come closer, and against every cell in my body that wanted to hightail it out of there right that moment, I took a step forward "What's your name?"
"Yes." The Dalek replied in It's robotic voice, it sent a chill straight down my spine.
"What?"
"I am in pain. They torture me, but still they fear me, Do you two fear me?"
I was about to say yes when Rose cut me off "No."
"I am dying."
"No, we can help."
"I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die, I have met humans who were not afraid."
'I don't quite know about that one mate, considering I apparently aint even human'
"Isn't there anything I can do?"
"My race is dead, and I shall die alone."
Rose reached out for the Dalek's head.
"Rose, no!" I quickly rushed forward grabbing her right arm in my hand, but the forward momentum of my feet took me a little too far and I reached out my hand to balance myself on the nearest object, which just happened to be the stupid salt shaker's dome. I pulled my hand away and a faint golden glow appeared where my hand had connected with the Dalek, quickly grabbing Rose's arm I pulled her back with me. Suddenly the Dalek sprung to life, pulling at It's chains as a man rushed in behind the three of us.
"What the hell have you done?!" Simmons, that was his name. He grabbed the drill and walked up to the Dalek
"Wait, no get back!" I tried to move forward to stop him getting closer but Rose gripped my arm and pulled me back, just as the Dalek raised it plunger.
"What are you gonna do, sucker me to death?" Simmons said, cockily.
I would have face palmed if I weren't so terrified as I watched Simmons drop the drill and the Dalek literally sucked the life out of him. We rushed out of the cage, Rose screaming at a nearby guard to do something. We quickly ran over to a nearby screen when the doctor popped up on it. I couldn't quite make out his face as the screen was so small and Rose was mostly in the way.
"You've got to keep it in that cell!" He shouted at us and the nearby guard who had just sealed the door.
"Doctor," I spoke up, a slight raspiness to my voice, I was terrified, and pretty close to tears "It's all my fault, I'm sorry."
The guard next to us piped up "I've sealed the compartment, It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations."
"A Dalek's a genius." He stated with finality in his voice "It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat."
I turned from the screen to watch in horror as the Dalek did exactly just that, I had never been so terrified of a salt shaker in my life, it was as if it was encoded in my DNA to be terrified of that thing. I let out a shaky sigh as I saw a few more guards show up at the entrance to the room. It took the Dalek about 3 seconds to open the door.
"Open fire!" A guard nearby shouted as the Dalek rolled out of the cage, while on the screen Van Stroodle was giving the order not to fire on it, what an idiot.
"Rose, Danielle, get out of there!" The doctor shouted at us through the screen.
The main honcho guard, couldn't remember his name, ordered De Maggio to take us and pretty much run for our lives, safe to say we did just that. We ran.
We kept running down the corridors, around corners, up a few flights of stairs until we were half way up another corridor that was full of guards and De Maggio ordered - pretty much screamed at them - to let us through the incoming horde of guards, they were like a swarm, we ran through them and a sudden thought crossed my mind. Those men and women, they had families, parent's, children, mothers, and fathers, and they were going to their death.
That one guard I couldn't remember the name of spoke up "Cover the north wall! Red division, maintain suppressing fire along the perimeter, Blue divis- Arghh!"
I heard his scream and turned my head, just in time to see him being shot, his skeleton becoming visible, the guards opened fire pretty much instantly but the Dalek just absorbed the bullets like they were going out of style. It swiveled its gun towards another guard, killing him instantly. It was at that moment Rose grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the staircase and up a few steps.
"Stairs! That's more like it eh Dani? It hasn't got legs, it's stuck!" Rose shouted in glee with a smile on her face.
I tried to tug at her arm to get her up more of them but she hardly budged, and De Maggio had to shout at us to get up the stairs, we ran up about a flight when Rose and Adam stopped to look back and see the Dalek at the bottom, staring up at us.
"Great big alien death machine defeated by a fli-"
"Shut up Adam! Rose, Maggio, Adam get up the stairs right now!" I managed to drag them up more stairs as the thing engaged flight mode. De Maggio insisted on staying behind to buy us more time and Adam dragged Rose with him up the stairs. A determined look crossed my face and I grabbed De Maggio's arm and pretty much yanked her off her feet and up the stairs. I couldn't let everyone die, I had to save someone. Anyone. We continued up the stairs and eventually straight into the loading bay in view of all the guards who were setting up a firing line.
"Hold your fire! You four, get the hell out of there!" The Commander shouted at us as we ran straight past the guards and headed for the exit, as I was about to go through the doors I turned around and saw the Dalek, I could feel it looking straight at me. Like it was looking into my soul, searching for answers I didn't have. Rose came back a second later and grabbed my arm, pulling me out of there and out of the little trance I had slipped into.
"It was looking at you!" She turned to me briefly before quickly moving forward again.
"Yeah it want's to slaughter us." Adam piped up.
"I know, but it was looking right at her."
"So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking everywhere."
"I don't know, it's like there was something inside, looking right at her, almost like... Like it knew her."
I shivered at that thought 'I'd rather it not know me, thanks'
We got to another set of stairs when Rose's phone suddenly went off, she quickly answered it.
"This isn't the best time Doctor!" She paused for a moment "Level Forty Nine."
We ran up another flight of stairs before she answered again.
"Can't you stop them closing?"
I tried to keep everyone in front of me, I knew what was coming next and I was determined to get them all through the door. I didn't matter so much, just as long as Rose got through. I wasn't risking Rose getting killed because of me taking a stupid chance on this being a dream. Although I was nearly one hundred percent positive that It wasn't one. It couldn't be, dreams didn't feel this real, and one thing I knew, I was terrified. Right and proper terrified. And I was never scared in a dream.
"We're almost there give us two seconds!"
We ran for the doors as fast as we could, Adam got through first and then Rose, I had to practically shove De Maggio through so she would make it causing me to slam straight into the door. I stood there in silence for a few moments before I heard the Dalek behind me, just as it reached me I heard Rose's muffled voice on the other end of the door.
"Yeah, i made it - Dani though. Doctor, you have to get her out of there!"
I turned around to face the Dalek, subconsciously reaching for the pendant around my neck and twisting it around in my fingers, I took a deep breath and gathered all the strength in me which was surprisingly more than I thought I had.
"Exterminate!"
Squeezing my eyes shut, I felt the laser thing hit the door beside me. After a few seconds, I opened my eyes to look at the Salt shaker in front of me and sighed "Go on then. Do it, just get it over with, Kill me." I paused for a moment trying to remember the dialogue but before I could say anything else the Dalek spoke up.
"I am armed. I will kill. It is my purpose!"
"You killed them all. All those men and women are dead because of you, they had families!"
"They are dead because of us."
Taking in a deep shaky breath I paused my thoughts for a moment and letting my anger dissipate slightly because even though it was a giant salt shaker, it was right. Those deaths were on me. I could have done something but I just stood back and watched. I'd never forgive myself for that.
"Now what? What are you going to do now? Go on then, what are you waiting for?" I could feel the tears swell up behind my eyes as I took in another shaky breath of air.
"I feel your fear."
"Congratulations, gold medal to the salt shaker, very observant of you." My voice wavered slightly, the strength I had gathered before quickly draining the longer I was here.
"Dalek's do not fear, Must not fear."
"Good for you then." I squeezed my arms to my body and my back closer to the bulkhead doors as it let off another few shots, when I looked to where they hit my hearts nearly stopped, the shot's having just missed by a few inches, and I was pretty sure they were further away than that in the show...Shit.
"You gave me life! What else have you given me? I am contaminated!"
The Dalek ordered me to stand in front of it, and who was I to argue with a salt shaker. A few seconds passed before the screen in front of me flickered to life and I saw the Doctor, Rose and Adam staring at the screen. The Doctor, though. He looked so distraught like his world had just been torn apart for the second time. I felt my chest constrict and the tears that had been threatening to escape finally made their way freely down my cheeks.
"Open the bulkhead or Danielle Wicker dies!"
"You're alive!" I saw the relief wash through him like a tidal wave and he let out a small laugh, the sadness in his eyes quickly being replaced with relief and happiness and a little bit of guilt.
"Can't get rid of me that easily Doc."
"I thought you were dead." There was so much sadness in his voice, it was painful to listen to him, or even look at his face but mustered my courage and kept looking at him on the screen.
"Open the bulkhead!" The Dalek screamed right in my ear, nudging me forward roughly as if to try and get it's point across.
"Don't do it! Please, Doctor!"
"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you care for so deeply?"
"I killed her once. I can't do that to her again."
"Doctor, no!" It was too late, as I heard the bulkhead's open behind me, I whipped my head around just in time to see it fully open, and raised my hands to my cheeks and quickly wiped the tears away as the salt shaker dug its gun into my spine shoving me through the door, we followed the corridor until we reached a lift and got into it, as the doors closed an almost awkward silence fell over the small space before I sighed and decided the best thing to do would at least try and talk some sense into the little salt shaker.
"You know, you don't have to kill. There's plenty of other things you could do. Just, please...Even though Van Stroodle is a torturing Arsehole, he doesn't deserve to die, none of them do."
"But why not? Why are you alive? My function is to kill. What am I? What am I?!"
"I wish I knew."
The lift came to a halt and the Dalek pushed me through the doors, instantly being greeted by Van Stroodle himself and some guards.
I quickly raised my hands in front of me and quickly stepped in front of the Dalek "Don't move an inch! Don't breathe! It's questioning itself, just., don't move."
The Dalek just rolled out in front of me and towards Van Stroodle. It quickly raised its gun towards him in a threatening manner "Van Statten, you tortured me. Why?"
"I-I wanted to help you, I just. I don't know, I was trying to help! I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you. I wanted you better, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I swear, I just wanted you to talk!" Van Stroodle shouted, sliding down against the wall he was leaning on.
"Then hear me talk now, Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"
"Stop! Stop! Don't kill him, please! Remember what I said in the lift? You don't have to kill anymore! Is there nothing else you want to do?" The words rushed out of me so fast I didn't have time to completely register what I said.
"I want freedom."
As the Dalek wheeled or hovered or whatever itself out of the room I turned back to Van Stroodle as he stood back up and I kicked him in the balls, hard. He let out a yelp and within seconds was reduced to rolling on the floor trying to hold himself together. Serves him right. I followed the Dalek all the way to level 1 where it proceeded to blow a hole in the roof. Shielding my eyes from the dust debris I looked up, sunlight at last.
"So… you're out, you finally made it. Never thought I'd see or feel the sun again to be honest." I let out a sigh of relief, it was almost over now.
"How does it feel?"
The Dalek's casing began to open and revealed a small octopus looking thing, it reached it's tentacle forward as if trying to reach the sun. It was kind of cute to be honest, if not for the whole thing being extremely sad and heart breaking.
"Get out of the way Danielle, Get out of the way now!"
Hearing the doctor's voice from behind me, I slowly turned around, shaking my head.
"No Doctor, I can't let you kill it."
"That thing killed hundreds of people, it nearly killed you!"
"It's not the one currently pointing its gun at me is it?!" My brows furrowed, I knew this was hard for him, but I couldn't help but sympathize with the salt shaker. Just a little though.
"I've got to do this Dani, I've got to end it. The Dalek's destroyed our home, our people. I've got nothing left but you, and I nearly lost you." I could see the tears threatening to escape his eyes but never falling.
"Look at it Doctor." I moved out the way ever so slightly to show the octopus thing.
"What's it doing?"
"Sunlight, that's all it wanted… the sun."
"But it can't." He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, as his eyes darted around it, searching for some form of deceit. Ever the soldier looking for a lie.
"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't even kill me. It's changing. I haven't known you properly for more than 24 hours but I know a good man when I see one, but right now? What the hell are you changing into?"
"I couldn't. I wasn't." He dropped the gun from his hands and took a hesitant step forward "Danielle, They're all dead."
The Dalek suddenly spoke up, near enough scaring the crap out of me in the process "Why do we survive?"
"I don't know."
"I am the last of the Daleks."
"You're not even that. Dani did more than regenerate you, you absorbed her DNA. Her Time Lord DNA, No Dalek is supposed to have that. You're mutating."
"Into what?"
"I don't know."
"I can feel so many ideas, so much darkness. Danielle, give me orders. Order me to die."
"I can't do that." My eyes strayed back to the Dalek as I let out a shaky breath "There's been too much death already."
"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"
Looking over my shoulder to the Doctor he nodded his head, taking one last look at the Dalek I spoke in nothing but a whisper "Do it."
"Are you frightened, Danielle Wicker?"
"Yeah."
"So am I. Exterminate."
I stepped back until I was right in front of the Doctor, He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I buried my face into his neck, catching a glimpse of the Dalek casing closing, I couldn't help but flinch when it exploded, causing the Doctor to pull me in tighter, running his hand through my hair and whispering in a language the tardis wasn't willing to translate.
-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-vworp-
After sorting some things out we headed straight off to the tardis, but not before Rose had pulled me into a bone-crushing hug and scolding me, telling me never to do that to her again, I couldn't stop the tiny smile that crossed my face at her words, she sounded like a mother scolding her young for doing something stupid, but then again I guess that's what she was doing. She was so much like her mother.
Once we got back to the tardis I went inside instantly after the Doctor unlocked the door for me, not wanting to stay there any longer than I had to. Sitting down in the captain's chair I let out a shaky breath. I wasn't built for this type of adventure. All that death. I don't think I could be strong enough to stomach it all. I could feel a headache starting to build and I rubbed my hand across my forehead in the hopes of fending it off, deciding the best thing to do was to lay down I pulled my legs up onto the captain's chair and curled up falling asleep instantly.