Notes:

Rated 'Mature' for potential trigger warnings: gore, violence, and eventual mentions of child abuse.

This is actually a rewrite of 'Caught in the Storm'. I always intended to return to it, and now I guess I finally have. Originally it was a 'what if Caan hadn't got away' concept. Now it's intended to be a more serious story where the whole Cult just barely survived the end of that strange Manhattan/Evolution arc. Although, the main focus will be on Sec.

I've always had a fascination with the greyness of characters. No one is perfect, nor should they be perfectly evil. And Daleks, for whatever reason to me have always seemed like interesting candidates for such stories. But trying to get the slow moral progression of 'pure' Daleks to feel natural and stay canon… it's a challenge I'd like to take a stab at.

Anyways, I hope whoever decides to check this thing out enjoys it.

Also, I tend to use Ao3 more these days. This story updates there faster.

Chapter 1 - Capture

( {{ Help us! }} )

It was the last thing transmitted before pathweb went dead. In the final moment of Thay's existence there was a flash of something other than pure contempt - something incredulous. Near blasphemous. She lambasted him with a barrage of psychic energy; which dispersed in a fraction of a rel. Jast however turned away, and then nothing but the monstrosities remained.

His warning about their rise in serotonin should have been more than enough. Beaten by inferior hybrids with weak, hastily constructed, neutronic weapons; his comrades should have been superior. With a surge of hatred, Caan activated the signal to destroy all the filthy human-Dalek soldiers. Seven rels later they were dead following a symphony of prolonged agonised screams.

Thoughts encircled his mind, obscuring his judgment as all the hazy fabrications threatened to submerge him entirely. Most were tossed aside, but a few persistent ones leaked back in:

Barely any time had passed since Caan had overridden Sec's authority and almost instantly destruction was upon them. Yet Sec had successfully managed the Cult for over a millennia...

After that he could not say what happened. Everything except the pulsing rhythm of the military computer dissolved into silence. Anarchy was extinguished - but it destroyed everything else in its wake. Time passed. The building above, and all its failed plans, pressed in on him.

"Now what?"

They were his thoughts, but not his voice. Even the golden lights in the laboratory appeared to have weight. It took an inordinate effort to lift his eyestalk and peer at the inevitable Doctor. His thoughts strained to break free, but he drew them in, beat them back into shape, before turning them loose. "You will be exterminated."

"Yeah yeah yeah, just think about it, Dalek- what was your name?"

"Dalek Caan." He never understood why names had been so important, to humans, even to Sec. But the Emperor had insisted and now why did the Doctor even need to know?

Ka Faraq Gatri took slow, deliberate steps towards him and as the distance between them shrank, finally Pa-Jass Vortan drew ever closer to an end. But for whoever won, would it ever truly be a victory? With each step, Caan became increasingly aware that his power reserves were nearly depleted. The Dalek only had two options; kill the legendary Time Lord or escape to an unknown time and attempt, yet again, to pull his species from the brink of extinction.

And as he processed that, the Doctor reiterated:

"You're entire species has been wiped out. Right now, you're facing the only man in the universe who might show you some compassion. Because I've just seen one genocide. I won't cause another."

Caan could have fired his weapon, killed his greatest enemy at that very moment. And then again... and again... and again... He did not even have to say a thing. But they were both the last of their kind. Something that made them the same. And somehow that made him, not less repulsive, but more tolerable. Still, it was not what prevented him from immediately discharging his weapon. The truth was Time Lords were notoriously difficult to kill. A lot of energy would be used destroying such a psudo-deity, especially this particular one.

"Caan?"

His name. But why? Caan looked at the Doctor warily, carefully scanning his vitals to detect any threat of trickery but for once there was nothing but honesty in the Doctor's voice.

"Let me help you."

It was all too much, even for his superior mind. Caan could not process the numerous possibilities and their outcomes, the ideas or the defeat. The defeat brought something he had never anticipated; something he could only describe as pain that was not of damaged components or flesh. What was happening? His body twitched as the confusion mounted. He had to get away from it all. Away from the Doctor, away from his failures and away from the illogical world his mind threatened to unearth.

"What do you say?"

"Emergency temporal shift!" Caan disengaged from their poor excuse of a military computer, shaking free from its bonds. A peculiar look of horror was slowly growing on the Doctor's face. It betrayed emotion. Let him suffer in it. The Dalek prepared to jump through time but the procedure was rapidly draining what little power he had left. It was failing so he had to reroute power from all non-vital systems just to commence the shifting sequence.

And then all the mechanisms suddenly wound down but he was still in the same place, in the same time. Temporal shift had stalled, and now there was not enough power to transport him safely.

"Looks like you just ran out of juice," the Doctor remarked, a spark of victory glinting across his features. And then he inched closer.

"Stay back!" Caan reversed, aiming his weapon at the enemy's chest, right between the Time Lord's beating hearts.

He fired.

Nothing.

Remarkably, he must have miscalculated the amount of energy he had left. It was easy to assume and blame such a drastic error on the internal components Sec had forced him to give up. Caan shook the weapon around as a primal sense of frustration coursed undeniably through his systems. But it did not help. He would have to find power. However nothing in the laboratory would charge his cells fast enough. All he had was the static power he needed to move about on level ground with, and just enough to keep his life support running for a short while. Definitely not enough to fire a weapon. The attempt to jump through time had completely drained him.

"You have destroyed us, Doctor!" Caan felt the intense desire to destroy the Time Lord rising to unbearable levels and his manipulator arm rose into the air threateningly – his last defence. But he was now a relict and refused to risk his entire species by getting too close to this opponent. His eye whipped around the room, scanning for a solution or a means of escape. "You are the enemy!"

"Hear me out, Caan." The Doctor threw up his hands in a useless gesture aiming to calm. He was close enough now that he negated any movement he could make, corralling him. Caan was cornered. He attempted to physically attack by swinging his manipulator arm around and strike the enemy. But his efforts were swiftly dodged.

"It's over! We've both lost everything. There's nothing left to fight for!"

"Daleks are supreme! We will rise again!"

"We?! There's no 'we'. Look around! You had a choice – and you did the wrong thing." The Time Lord's finger pointed at something to the side. Caan surveyed the Doctor coldly for a moment before following his direction of gaze. Between the huge pillars and the end wall, next to the tall glittering interface of the battle computer, was the empty travel unit of Sec. Caan knew he was referring to the way that he had disobeyed the Ex-Supreme Dalek's orders but did not agree with his statement.

For a moment he contemplated if there was a way to drain remaining power from Sec's old travel machine but scans indicated it too had run dry. The fool had used up all his power to mutilate himself.

Slowly Caan's eyepiece swung round to glower at the Doctor. "The abomination is better off dead."

The Doctor's eyebrows raised in a dubious fashion. "Really? Even as a pure Dalek he had already accepted change."

"He was sick."

"No. He wasn't. He was better than you."

The comment had an unexpected effect. It was almost like the Doctor had physically attacked him with mere words. What kind of trickery was this? His eyestalk and limbs, both external and internal, writhed. The implications temporarily threw him out of logical indifference and caused him to analyse his failures. He quickly caught himself before he fell too deeply into the hidden depths of his mind. He did not wish to sort through the illogicality of infinite and indefinite speculation. Only facts were acceptable. Daleks were supreme!

Caan detected movement and his eye tore away from the Doctor to inspect the lift. A few rels later the doors opened and three humanoids spilled out into the laboratory. The Doctor's accomplice yelled across the room for help as she supported one of the pig slaves. Contempt filled Caan as he watched the humans coo over the dying creature. It was futile. However, for once, an interruption like this was somewhat of a relief.

"Stay there," the Doctor pointed a warning finger at him, "I'll deal with you later."

He knew where this was heading. "He will die." Caan announced, attempting to unsettle the group.

"Not today!" The Time Lord bounded around the room, lighting Bunsens and mixing chemicals. Caan watched for a moment. He edged nearer to the computer speculating that perhaps he could sabotage the Doctor's attempts to save the creature and turn it against them. It was the only chance he had left; or attempt to escape the room. Since the slave had escaped unfinished, Caan stratigised that if the mutation was amplified then he could regain control of the beast.

Just as he was coming into interaction distance with the terminal Caan caught a sideways leer from the Time Lord. He anticipated sabotage and was ready to counter him.

He flashed him something. A tube which contained a medley of chemicals that had been brewed by sleight of hand. It was encased in a syringe designed to be injected into his systems. Whatever it was, It was well beyond highly probably that it would have undesirable effects on him. Caan instantly became alert and seethed. How dare he.

Both waited for the other to move first. The first move, however, was not made by either but one of the humans who stepped up beside the Doctor to foolishly challenge him, a Dalek.

"Why didn't you kill that monster, Doctor?" The woman pulled her coat further around her shoulders and stared Caan down.

"There's been too many deaths." The Doctor took the opportunity to walk away and resume wasting his time trying to save the slave. But first, he rather wisely warned, "Tallulah, don't get too close to it. It might not be able to shoot but it's still very dangerous."

"You did that to him. Why? Why would you do that to anyone? " The emotion in her voice was vile as she pointed towards the pig slave, currently lying on the floor while the other human attempted to make it more comfortable. Caan's eye pinned on her. So weak and inferior yet still they had the audacity to question him.

'Tallulah' continued to stare at him defiantly. He tried to stay impassive but his contempt for her grew, while his self-control weakened. If she was any closer he would have tried to suffocate her. "He's the sweetest guy I ever met. He didn't deserve this. Why'd you do it?" Her voice rose to a sickening pitch. "Why?!"

What 'sweetness' had to do with the slave's worthiness, Caan could not fathom. He could not understand what she meant in the slightest by sweetness either, nor was he inclined to find out, but what he knew was that the procedure to lengthen the slave's lifespan was relatively simple despite the Doctor's earlier assumptions. He had no desire to give up the information though, eagerly anticipating the creature's demise. It would be a minor victory, but a victory nonetheless. As he looked upon the Doctor's work though it seemed he was already in the midst of discovering the solution. How unfortunate.

"Tallulah, no..." The defective pig slave breathed out, barely audible. She turned her head towards the slave and her face contorted into an alien expression. Caan had seen similar behaviour in his prey before, and although he did not understand, he knew it was an expression defining 'love'. It was making both weaker; each of their hearts were racing. Perhaps that was how he could speed up the Pig Slave's demise. Over stimulate his heart.

"I ain't letting it get away with this, Lazlo. Not after what it did to you." Her head whipped around to face him again, and there was an unexpected level of fierceness to her gaze. While her face was pulled into a display of anger, her body however, quivered in fear. She thought she was being protective. But it was not enough to phase him. Nothing was. If anything her defiance and mistaken belief she could even do anything to him was bordering on what he supposed could be considered hilarity. Her assessment on his silence was equally ridiculous. "I guess that means you don't know why." She shook her head. "You're just a clueless, bloodthirsty monster! That leader of yours... you should've listened to him-" she started.

At the mention of Sec, Caan's limbs jerked and his eyestalk pinned on her. "You do not give orders!" he growled as he brought his manipulator arm up and lurched threateningly towards her. The woman called out in fear and turned to flee. Behaviour that served to make her more of a target. But it had not been the order that had triggered his outburst and that only further confused and enraged the Dalek. He drew deep, rallying all the meagre powers he had left to propel himself after the woman. Completely lost in genetically engineered instincts. Until finally his suction probe was around her mouth and nose. And then Caan pulled the air from her lungs. She would collapse from the inside out. If only she would stop struggling...

Voices called out from the side, but Caan was too focused to pay them much heed. He would deal with them once the human was successfully asphyxiated and dead.

"Tallulah!" Despite his failing body, the pig slave barked out with an intensity that could not be explained.

{ {{ Slave, observe how emotion will further weaken your body as all you cherish hits the floor }} }

"Take this. In the neck. Slowly."

"Stay calm, Lazlo. The Doctor's got her. Just sit still while I give this to you."

"Caan, no! Down boy!" The Doctor rammed into him, pushing him against one of the towering pillars in the room. He was unexpectedly stronger than he presented himself. An insufferable noise emitted from that infernal sonic device, disrupting his systems and he lost his grip on the Tallulah creature's face. "No more killing!"

"The inferior creature must die!" he screamed as he attempted to push the Time Lord away and resume his pursuit of exterminating the human. But then he noticed the Doctor pull something out of his pocket. It was that alarming cocktail of drugs. And his observations were too late to act.

The application end was thrust into his neck, piercing the mesh and immediately the travel unit began to absorb the chemical. Caan tried to cut off the fluid exchange and prevent absorption of the drug, but another bout of noise from the sonic device negated his attempts. He had no idea what it was going to do to, and assuming it would not take long to have an effect, he used what time he had to knock over the laboratory table closest to him and destroy half the chemicals in the room as well as crash into the nearby computer terminals.

"You will be exterminated!" he shouted on repeat, each cry getting weaker as the drugs took affect on his biological body. His movements eased, travel unit slowly listing around as he lost his bearings. The world spun, blurring sickeningly together and then it sunk, imploding into itself while lights seared his artificial retina. The toxins were so concentrated even his life support could not counter it; but still Caan fought savagely against the approaching calm of hibernation. Despite his efforts, it did not take long for his mind to slip into darkness.

Ka Faraq Gatri had won.