The heat intensifying behind him, Paul fled back to where the unprocessed Daleks hid, finding the door sealed, and no matter what he did, it would not unseal.

Inside he heard them screaming for help.

Help!

Begging someone to let them out, calling for the Doctor.

Struggling, Paul attempted to break through the door another way, ripping out every component from the lock, trying to rewire it into opening, but ultimately, nothing worked.

The door wouldn't unseal and Paul can feel the heat coming closer.

"Save. Us!" Paul heard the Daleks shout in unison.

He had to think of something… there had to be a way to save the Daleks… there had to be…

The door he had been trying to get into started getting hot, impossible for him to touch without burning himself, sweat evaporated from his face, in the corner of his eyes, Paul sees the encroaching fire.

"Save. Us!" The shrill grew erratic, desperate, and there, Paul had to make a choice.

He had no other means to save them and he already spent too much time trying that it was too late.

Smugly, Cassius was right.

"I… I'm sorry!" Paul couldn't say without his lungs hurting from the heat.

Forced away from the fire, the screams of the Daleks behind him, Paul fled again.

He didn't stop until he was well into the tunnel, his skin reddened from the exposure to the heat, burns started forming on his hands, and a helpless look on his face as he turned around.

Paul failed.

Promising the Daleks, he would save them and here he was, watching the fire tear through the outdoor area of the underground laboratory.

Turning his head as he heard a noise, the TARDIS appeared behind him.

Forcing himself, Paul hurried through the opened door into the safety of the TARDIS as the fire continues encroaching further into the tunnel.

Just before it touched the TARDIS, it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

A despondent look on his face, Paul moved towards the console as he looked up at the monitors.

"Could I have saved them?" Paul asks the TARDIS.

He saw the words appear on the screen, "You couldn't."

The TARDIS didn't believe that Paul would have been able to rescue the trapped Daleks in time before the fire reached them.

He had to make a call and he is standing.

"But not them," Paul bitterly exhaled.

He briefly closed his eyes as he asks, "Where did Cassius go?"

When he opened his eyes, Paul glances up to see the words, "Cassius is dead."

Stunned, Paul shifted in his spot as he gestured, "But, I saw him!"

Honest to God, Paul saw Cassius smugly talking to him, but the TARDIS showed him a news report about Cassius found dead in his home.

Disturbingly, it'd appear he had been dead for a while, having been found stuffed in his walk-in freezer with one singular wound to the chest.

"But… if that wasn't Cassius… then…?" Paul's stunned at the revelation that the man he had been talking with wasn't the real Cassius.

He sees the TARDIS tell him, "I don't know."

Chewing on his bottom lip, Paul asks what he should do now, and the TARDIS tells him to go to the committee and inform them not to take any word from the look-alike to heart.

"Who killed him?" Paul wanted to know, but once again the TARDIS answered that it didn't know.

With that, the TARDIS took him to the committee and there he informed them of everything that transpired, causing a shock among the twelve members, all wanting answers that Paul didn't have any to give.

Eventually they settled and affirmed that they'll begin discontinuing all work Cassius might've done out of concern while investigations were underway to hunt his killer.

Couldn't tell them that he saw Cassius shortly before the fire, else Paul risks them not believing him, so he remained vague.

Once he finished speaking with the committee, Paul returned to the TARDIS where it then took him to the outside of the museum, just as Taylor reached the bottom steps, instantly she knew something wrong when she saw Paul.

"What happened?" Taylor wrapped her arms around Paul, her emerald eyes looking into his angel eyes.

Sharply, he exhaled as Taylor led him to the steps where they sat down, his head in her lap as she comforted him.

"I promised them," Paul murmured as Taylor strokes his hair.

Her burgundy lips forming a frown, Taylor mustered, "You did everything for them."

It's more than what other people would have done, but Paul felt like a failure.

"You can't win them, all," Taylor reminds him.

Frowning, Paul admitted that she wasn't wrong, but the fact that he heard Daleks emoting more than just unbridled rage got under his skin far more than he expected.

As she continued to gently stroke him, Taylor questioned if Cassius had a clone stowed away, but Paul suspected that it wasn't a clone that confronted him.

Knew more than he let on.

Fled before Paul could do anything.

It made Paul angrier than anything that he didn't know who the person was that pretended to be Cassius or that he didn't think something was wrong the moment he met him the first time.

"He'll turn up, again," Taylor tried telling him, trying to find something in this.

Whoever stole Cassius's identity would have to turn up eventually and feel the wraith of the law upon them, but Paul doubted that it'll happen.

Seeing the time, Paul moved away from the warmth of Taylor's lap, and took control of the console.

The TARDIS recommended him somewhere he can rest and think to his lonesome and Paul opted to take the recommendation.

The TARDIS disappears from the bottom of the steps leading up to the Bembridge Museum, somewhere that Paul and Taylor can catch up on what else happened, and rest until their next adventure.

Later that night, Paul awakened from his slumber, Taylor in his arms, and all he heard was the silence.

Elsewhere…

"I don't understand," Cassius shook his head as he spoke to another person in the darkness, "why would he want to save them… they're… horrible… creatures… why?"

He heard back a posh, "He is the Doctor. It is his weakness."

Tilting his head, Cassius asks, "When do I kill him?"

The posh man goes, "Not yet. We have more to do."

A subtle nod, Cassius then said, "They found the body."

He can't be seen like this, anymore, else someone will surely alert the committee.

Waving his handing, the posh man informed Cassius that they done what they set out to do, the Daleks have been properly destroyed, and there is no evidence of their doings.

"What are my orders, now?" Cassius asks the posh man as moved through the darkness wearing a black suit.

The posh man ordered Cassius to turn his attention on the Cybermen, now.

"They can never find out," the posh man vowed.

THE END