Once on a Blue Moon
Chapter 3 - An Accord
The universe had ways of humouring itself the Doctor had always come to find over the centuries, that humour often had a biting edge to it.
The Doctor and Two-One-One looked up as the thunderous stone cracking sounded above them. Scratched and stained bronze metal was slowly emerging through the pale grey stone as if it were malleable.
Two-One-One reversed in time for the charred, melted remains of a dead, broken Dalek to emerge and drop from the ceiling with a loud crash between the both of them. Its twisted remains barely recognisable.
It had started to corrode and melt together, parts of it looked like it was disintegrating, rusting at an unnatural rate.
His Dalek companion gave a strange noise that was suddenly like a distressed cry of anguish but it was so brief that it was hard to tell. There was no time to ponder such things, however.
"We need to get off this moon right now!" The Doctor turned on his heel and ran back towards the entrance they had come from.
"Stop-!" Two-One-One shouted but before the Doctor could even respond, the ceiling in the corridor before him cracked with a deafening sound and fell inwards, almost collapsing on top of him. He stumbled backwards and fell with a loud shout.
"Not that way then!" He found himself yelling as he scrambled to his feet and hurrying back towards Two-One-One who was watching him, panic radiating from the Dalek. "Come on! We need to move!"
As he spoke, another Dalek corpse suddenly emerged through the ceiling.
"It's pulling your friends into its core, turning the Dalekanium and minerals into raw materials as it absorbs them," he called to Two-One-One as the Dalek struggled to keep up with him.
"We are putting ourselves into a more dangerous position!" The Dalek shrieked at him, its repulsors screeching and shuddering as they struggled to work. It was right but they didn't have a lot of options right now.
"Well unless you've got a better plan, this is the best we can do!" The Doctor yelled back at it. "The best we can do is try to find my TARDIS! It must have been pulled through along with those Daleks!"
Around them, the temple seemed to rumble and groan, tremors shaking the ground beneath them and the walls around them.
Not only did the broken, horrifying remains of Daleks start falling through the ceiling but bones of numerous creatures began to be uncovered by the ground beneath them. almost as if the moon itself was taunting them.
The Doctor noticed that Two-One-One was lagging behind. He was almost tempted to leave it behind.
Almost.
"Oh come on!" The Doctor grunted before tracking back and returning to where the Dalek was struggling to keep up.
Its eyestalk followed him as he circled it, threw his weight behind it and began pushing the Dalek along. The Dalek gave a yell at his initial action but quickly stopped protesting when he realised what the Timelord was doing.
"You could stand to lose a few, you know," the Doctor teased the Dalek trying to calm himself rather than any malice and a burst of irritation erupted from the Dalek. It was quickly replaced by that fear that he until now, hadn't realised Two-One-One had been projecting.
He was probably projecting his fear too, which was probably not helping their situation. They seemed to be trapped in a feedback loop of terror.
"The ground is unstable," Two-One-One stated, agitated and panicked. "It will not hold for long."
"That could be a very big problem," The Doctor muttered to himself.
"That is obvious," Two-One-One ground out with dry humour. The Doctor would have laughed had the situation not been so dire.
Its eyestalk roamed before it settled on a specific point.
"That outcrop is stable," Two-One-One gestured with its manipulator arm. The Doctor gazed over to where it was pointing and saw a patch of what looked like an exposed vein of white marble.
"Brilliant! Should give us time to find my TARDIS! It should be in this direction!" The Doctor exclaimed before shoving his entire weight behind the Dalek who elicited a yelp of surprise at the sudden movement.
Two-One-One made sounds of annoyance but otherwise did not protest or resist. It's movement had staggered, the machinery making a horrid din.
"Can't you help!?" The Doctor grunted, straining under the Dalek's weight. "I thought your travel units could self-repair themselves."
"There is- there is no power, it is being drained too fast! I require significant power to do so," Two-One-One croaked out weakly, its voice strained and laced with pain. "All power is being redirected to life support. I cannot spare it."
A brief impression of terror slipped past the Dalek's mental defences and the Doctor felt a sudden surge of familiarity.
He had sensed that terror before. He was certain of it.
More and more he was convinced that he knew this Dalek, this Dalek was so incredibly familiar to him and yet, he wasn't. Not yet at least.
It frustrated him, the answer was right there, in front of his face, quite literally and metaphorically.
Was it one of the Cult of Skaro? It had to be. No other Daleks had such individuality save for the Time Sensitive ones but they had a certain 'tell'. Maybe the Emperor but the Emperor did not go wandering off to join simple attack squads. That said, even the three bronze Daleks of the Cult's psychic impressions stood leagues above others of their species.
It had to be one of the Cult, but which?
"Hurry!" The Dalek suddenly called, urging him on with haste. The Doctor could feel the mutant within writhing and wriggling. It was scared and agitated about something, now acting like a spooked horse.
Terror was filling his heart as well. The overwhelming presence of the moon was enough to make him feel claustrophobic but on top of that was the fact he was trapped inside it with one of the worst creatures in the universe. Such was his luck.
"Hurry!" Two-One-One repeatedly croaked, every time, its voice sounded higher and betrayed its rising panic. Just what had the Dalek seen that he had not?
"Almost there, I can only go so fast and you are cumbersome!" The Doctor grunted in protest. "You used to be so much lighter you know! Those first Daleks on Skaro are practically feathers compared to you!"
There was no response from the Dalek, only its trembling.
The Doctor peered around Two-One-One's heavy bulk and to his relief he saw that they were only a few metres away from the outcrop that it had indicated.
With a heaving grunt and one last shove which almost unbalanced and made him stumble, he managed to push the Dalek onto the outcrop.
"There we are, finally!" The Doctor gasped out of breath as he quickly pulled himself onto the outcrop beside his Dalek 'friend'. "Let's never do that again, shall we?"
Two-One-One simply turned its dome to look at him and gave him a long stare, but said nothing as its limbs quivered in shock. Adrenaline perhaps? The Doctor wasn't sure but he knew that the Dalek was terrified of something.
"What is it? What's wrong? What did you see?" The Doctor asked instinctively, not anticipating a response from the Dalek. To his surprise, he received one and it was not at all what he was expecting.
"I saw death," Two-One-One replied and the Doctor stared at him, flabbergasted.
"Death? What do you mean death? Are you going all abstract on me, Dalek?" The Doctor leered into his eyestalk but Two-One-One was in no mood for games.
"This is a Chaon Hive," he informed the Doctor. "They must have transported their hive from deep space into the La'arysis System in an attempt to invade it. But these structures trapped the Chaons here, unable to move their Hive. The Draconians then used it as a defence. Using the Chaons as a trap, destroying any threat that would invade this system."
The Doctor was staring at him a blank look upon his face.
"I have no idea what a Chaon is," there was a strange glint in the Timelord's eye. A curiosity that felt more like hunger began seeping from the Timelord. "Never encountered them before, tell me more, oh knowledgeable one!"
He was aware of the Doctor mocking him and irritation rolled off of Two-One-One. How could the Gallifreyian be so facetious in such a dangerous situation? Perhaps it was how the inferior creature masked his anxiety.
"They feed on anything, they consume all the resources from worlds and leave nothing but dust," Two-One-One explained. "They destroy everything in their wake."
"Kind of like Daleks really," the Doctor scoffed and anger rose in Two-One-One's tentacles.
"Daleks conquer, for we are supreme!" Two-One-One snapped back at him, incensed. How dare he! "Chaons consume everything and leave nothing behind! Their avarice would render even the stars nothing but dust!"
The Doctor was looking at him strangely now. It was not with the appropriate panic nor was it fear.
"I do know you, don't I?" The Doctor muttered, staring at him. The Timelord trailed off in thought. "No, you can't be."
The Timelord was shaking his head in disbelief. He had no idea what the Doctor was implying. Nor did he care.
"You are wasting time we do not have!" Two-One-One shrieked. He did not care what the Timelord was wittering on about when their very existence was in peril.
"Dalek Caan?" The Doctor muttered under his breath. "He did always have a way with words. Well, after he went insane that is."
A strange feeling overcame Two-One-One and he had no idea what it was. He recognised that name but… not yet? Two-One-One shook its dome in annoyance. They did not have time for this!
"Doctor!" Two-One-One screeched. "You are wasting time! We must flee this place immediately!"
The Doctor glared at him, revealing no psychic impressions before gazing over at the outcrop and the landscape beyond. Two-One-One watched as he retrieved his sonic device and turned on the irritating thing, pointing it in various directions before he put it back in his jacket. He made a strange soft noise before turning back to the Dalek.
"Well, my TARDIS is within a kilometre of where we are the only thing is, it could be half a mile back where we came from or it could be a few metres in front of us behind a rock," the Timelord admitted unhelpfully.
Two-One-One narrowed his eyestalk's lens at him. He was growing tired of this ridiculous facade.
"Can you pinpoint your TARDIS more accurately?" Two-One-One asked frustrated, making sure to project his annoyance.
"Not without something to amplify its signal," the Doctor frowned looking at Two-One-One with a look that the Dalek did not like. He was looking at him as if he were one of the Chaons, sizing him up for its next meal. "Those sense globes on your skirt would be able to do the trick."
Two-One-One was dismayed. The only way to access the data from his sensor array was by the control panel that his foremost limbs currently rested upon. Was the Doctor suggesting that he make himself completely vulnerable to his greatest enemy?
Two-One-One hissed at him, sending resistance to his mind and a curse or two for equal measure. The Timelord guffawed at him and turned his nose up, disgusted by his foul language.
"Oh hush now!" The Doctor quipped at him with a dismissive hand. "You were the one just a moment ago telling me to hurry! Because unless you've got another idea, we're all out of options."
"You are going to trick me!" Two-One-One shrieked. "You are going to tamper with my life support systems! You are going to kill me!"
The Doctor looked genuinely offended at his words.
"I would never!" He exclaimed. "Besides, I know how dangerous you little squishy things can be without your casings. So, desperate times call for desperate measures. If we don't get out of here soon, then all your buddies are going to die. Your Command saucer has probably already sent a squad to investigate."
The Doctor turned to face him completely and to his surprise, took down the psychic barriers that hid his mind from the Dalek. Two-One-One was allowed complete access to the Timelord's thoughts.
Two-One-One gave a hesitant probe before gazing at the Doctor with scepticism. He sent out curious tendrils into the Timelord's mind. He could find no signs of deception but the Dalek was still wary. Minds were often bigger on the inside than the outside and the Doctor's was impossibly expansive.
A flicker of movement and a light in the distance caught Two-One-One's eye and a flash of panic and adrenaline flowed through his body.
The Chaons were coming and they would kill the both of them. Nothing would have been achieved here.
Two-One-One decided to make an ultimatum.
What choice did he have?
"I want to make an accord," the Dalek implored the Doctor and the Doctor gazed at him curiously.
"A Dalek making an accord, how oddly quaint," the Doctor was amused, but Two-One-One did not have it. "Alright, Two-One-One, let's hear it."
"I will unseal my casing and make myself vulnerable to you on one condition," Two-One-One declared. "That you will warn the fleet of the Chaon threat. So no more Dalek lives will be lost. The Daleks must survive this even if I do not! I will sacrifice myself for a greater cause and I do not want it to be wasted!"
Two-One-One was expecting the Doctor to scoff, to mock his suggestion but the reaction he received was nothing he could have ever imagined.
The Doctor's eyes widened impossibly wide, his mind projecting the feeling of realisation, shock and awe. Two-One-One was confused, he had no idea what was going on but the sudden change in demeanour from the Timelord irked him.
The Doctor's expression then changed to one of wonder and of all things, respect. Two-One-One edged warily away from the Timelord, nervous now.
However, what the Doctor said next, Two-One-One could have never predicted.
"It's you," the Doctor whispered, his voice almost reverent as he stared at Two-One-One with wonder. "Of course, why didn't I see it before? The Cleverest Dalek ever."
Of course, Two-One-One was Dalek Sec at an earlier period in time. It all made sense now. A Dalek so willing to sacrifice itself for its squad, for its race. It couldn't have been anyone else.
Two-One-One was Dalek Sec. Before all the madness, before all the universe was almost ripped asunder by the Last Great Time War and he was just as unique and clever as he was in New York.
The Doctor had assumed that the Cult of Skaro had been altered to think the way that they had but now it appeared not. Dalek Sec had been born creative and curious. Dalek Sec had already evolved past his brethren even before his cleverness had been recognised.
The Doctor was delighted, perhaps there was hope for the Daleks after all.
Dalek Caan must have forced his TARDIS to land here, knowing that he needed to save this Dalek to preserve the timeline. Or perhaps, because Caan felt guilty about betraying his former commander, only realising too late that Sec had been right.
He had never confronted Caan on that fact. He had never found the right words to try. Caan was always quiet when it came to speaking on the former members of the Cult of Skaro, never answering his questions and proceeding to sulk like a child.
He should have had a few choice words with the Basement Dalek at the bottom of UNIT HQ once he got out of this little skirmish.
But this young Dalek Sec was just as bit as clever and guile as his post-war self. The desperate attempts to save his fellow Daleks and now, giving up everything for them, for his people.
If only he wasn't a Dalek. In any other race, any other species, Sec would have been a hero, a powerful and celebrated leader. But unfortunately, all that cleverness, that compassion towards his race, it was wasted in a Dalek.
He knew where this Dalek's life ended. In betrayal and dejection.
Knowing that Sec had been self-aware of his differences made his ultimate fate just that bit more tragic.
"Answer me!" The Dalek that would one day be Dalek Sec shrieked impatiently, his eyestalk not looking at him but something behind him in the distance.
These Chaons had unnerved the Dalek. And if a Dalek feared something then he should be paying attention. He quickly refocused on the situation at hand. They did not have the time.
"I promise," the Doctor nodded to Dalek. "So long as you keep your tentacles to yourself, then we have no reason to antagonise each other, correct?"
"Correct!" Two-One-One agreed.
The Doctor nodded and stood before the Dalek, Sonic Screwdriver in hand as he heard the click of the locks within the Dalek's casing disengage and with a painfully slow motion, the casing began to hiss and pull open.
The Doctor could see that Two-One-One's true mutant form was quite small in the dim light of the blue crystals dotted around. It still had some growing to do. The Doctor wondered how young or old Dalek Sec was at this point. Perhaps he was simply a lot smaller than the average Dalek.
The mutant recoiled, not used to air or light being so harsh and the Doctor hesitated for a moment, afraid that Two-One-One would forget their accord and attack him. The Mutant was staring at him, fear and apprehension in its gaze.
It was scared, vulnerable and the Doctor did not blame it.
Thankfully, the Dalek regained its senses and its control panel swung outwards so that the Doctor could easily access it.
"You alright, no second thoughts?" He hesitantly asked and the mutant's eye flickered to him.
It looked frightened of him for a moment but then its eye narrowed and it motioned to its control panel with an appendage.
"Proceed!" It rasped, the tone telling him to get it over with. The Doctor was more than happy to oblige.
Being careful of the Mutant mere centimetres from his hands he quickly adjusted the settings on the control panel to display the sensor array.
"Oh boy, that surge took a toll on your systems huh?" He tutted as he saw that it was only working at 57% capacity. The Mutant shifted nervously, uncomfortably silent. It did not like him being so close. So vulnerable. "This should be more than enough though."
He raised his sonic screwdriver and the mutant flinched, giving a noticeable low growl as if to warn the Doctor he was about to bite. The Doctor almost chuckled, amused by the Dalek.
"I know you don't like it but I need to extend to range of your sensor array and the only way I can do this is with this, okay?" The Doctor warned showing the mutant, who was staring at it fearfully. The Doctor gave the mutant a gentle smile. "Tell you what, why don't you take hold of my hand, if it becomes too much for you to handle then you can squeeze it and I'll stop."
The mutant stared at him for a long moment. It looked like it was about to respond when suddenly a loud haunting howl echoed through the cavern.
The Doctor stopped at turned, looking out across the dark cavern. Something was moving in the distance, something that glowed with a sickly green-blue light and had no real form. It was moving towards them, fast.
"Hurry! They are coming!" The Dalek exclaimed as quietly as it could, the mutant's eye wide with fear and its tentacles writhing in panic. The Doctor suddenly felt the Dalek wrap its tentacles around his arm and squeeze hard.
It was not out of malice, but terror. The Mutant was quivering and trembling in utter fear. Like a frightened child clutching onto its mother for support.
The creatures, the Chaons grew closer, their horrid shrieks louder and louder.
"Hurry!" Two-One-One screeched again, terror in its voice.
"Alright, alright! On it!" The Doctor hurriedly used the sonic screwdriver to access the Dalek's sensor array system.
Two-One-One shrieked in pain at the noise but the tentacles gripped around the Doctor's arm did not tighten. It understood that time was of the essence and so it would bear the pain.
The alternative was a horrid death after all.
Over the shrill squeal of the sonic device, the sound of the Chaons became all the more louder and more threatening.
Dalek Two-One-One wondered what death would be like.
Would it be quick he wondered? Would it be painful? Would the Chaons draw it out and feast upon his casing and them himself?
He did not want to find out but as the rels painful drew out, an eternity between each one one, he was becoming convinced that he and the Daleks' greatest enemy was about to become Chaon food.
He knew he shouldn't show fear, fear was forbidden in a Dalek, especially in the presence of his greatest enemy but he did not want to die for nothing. He did not want to die on some forsaken moon a billion light years from Skaro.
"They are approaching!" He shrieked frantically. "Hurry!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!" The Timelord cried out in a panic, the shrill whine of his sonic device penetrating the Dalek to his core.
His entire body was screaming in pain. The sound the device was making was like a thousand needles stabbing into his flesh, relentlessly. He was used to pain but the sensations the device was causing were nothing like he had felt before.
Still, he tolerated it. The pain was nothing compared to failing his fellow Daleks.
He could not allow another Dalek life to be lost to these disgusting, hideous abominations of lifeforms. Even at the cost of his own.
"Got it! It's 300 metres west perched on some rock!" The Doctor proclaimed excitedly and he pulled away, almost taking Two-One-One off of his casings 'throne'. The Timelord muttered a quick apology and allowed him to quickly unfurl his tentacles from him, all the while, the Dalek gave him a hateful glare, hissing curses directly into his mind.
He'd almost been yanked clean out of his life support, the tubes and catheters going into his flesh exploded with sharp, unrelenting pain.
Two-One-One immediately resealed his casing and pushed the Doctor away from him with his manipulator arm and a snarl.
"You will hurry!" The Dalek demanded desperately. "Warn the fleet!"
"I'll come back for you," the Doctor nodded to him. "I promise."
"There is no time for false promises, you will move at once!" Two-One-One demanded.
"You don't believe me-" The Timelord almost looked saddened but the Dalek did not care for whatever crisis the Timelord was going through in his mind.
"You will move NOW!" Two-One-One ordered the Doctor, advancing towards him with great effort.
The Doctor gave him a quick gesture of his head and then turned and ran, disappearing into the darkness, a strange expression on his face leaving Two-One-One alone to his fate.
The Dalek stared after him for a long moment. He hoped that the Doctor would not go back on his word.
Maybe he had made a mistake. Maybe he had been tricked and the Doctor had simply taken information about the Daleks to use against them in future.
Two-One-One hadn't had much of a choice, that was true but in his defence, if it saved Gold Fleet then he was more than willing to take that risk. He did not for one second believe that the Doctor would come back for him. Why would he?
He had nothing to gain, there was no strategic advantage to doing so. He could have gotten all that he wanted from the Dalek and left him there at the mercy of the Chaons.
Perhaps it was fate.
Only time would tell.
He could only watch as the shimmering, ghastly lights of the Chaons slowly encroach on his position.
If this was the end, then Dalek Two-One-One would die in the knowledge that he tried his best and that was all he could ever do.
Normally the Doctor would not give a Dalek a second thought but Two-One-One was no normal Dalek. Not only was this Dalek important to the timeline but he was the only one that the Doctor had come to respect. Something that he had never thought was possible.
Certainly, there had been individuals that had caught his attention, but never his respect, not like Dalek Sec. The Dalek was wholly unique in a way that he had never seen before.
He knew, oh he did not doubt that Dalek Sec and his three little friends had most probably wiped out countless worlds and death and destruction beyond imagination. He was not so naive to forget that at his core, Dalek Sec was a ruthless Dalek Commander and one of the most dangerous.
The Timelords had suffered millions of deaths under the Cult of Skaro possibly more. But then again, billions of Daleks had suffered under his own hands.
But for a Dalek his calibre to finally realise the truth of the Daleks. He would have never believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.
The sounds of the Chaons, as Two-One-One called them were getting louder, closer and even more threatening.
He followed the pulse on his sonic screwdriver, Two-One-One's array had been badly damaged but it had managed to project a relatively complex topographic impression of the landscape around them. He would have marvelled at the technology was he not currently running for dear life.
His foot slipped and he stumbled as the ground beneath him began to shift and rumble. His foot began to sink much to his horror and he quickly took hold of it and began sprinting, full pelt towards the location pinpointed on the scan from Two-One-One.
The ground beneath him was becoming more and more unstable and every step was becoming more and more of a struggle to move forward.
But move forward he did. Because he knew that history was counting on him.
If Dalek Two-One-One died here then there was no telling what would happen to the timelines. For all he knew, Dalek Sec's was one of the lives that held the universe together. He had no idea what the Cult of Skaro had done or achieved during the Time War but he had a very bad feeling that they were necessary for things to play out as they did.
At last, the TARDIS came into view, the glow in the windows acting like a beacon of hope. As he had suspected, the moon had pulled her down to where she now sat, precariously perched upon a rock, leaning against a cliff face haphazardly.
"Am I glad to see you!" The Doctor exclaimed with relief. He went to climb the rock that she sat upon only for his foot to slip and sink into the ground beneath. "No!"
He could feel the ground trying the squeeze around his leg, trying to drag him through the mantle into whatever hellish depths lay beneath the ground below him. He managed the stretch himself and grab the bottom of the TARDIS.
"Come on, a little help old girl!" The Doctor called to his TARDIS and his complete surprise, the doors opened on his command. "What?"
He didn't remember the TARDIS doing that before. He frowned as a thought crossed his mind but that was for later. The tugging on his leg was more insistent now, desperate even.
Aiming his Sonic Screwdriver at the console he switched it on and to his relief, the console flicked a lever and the open TARDIS surged forward with a creak and a groan, the open doors falling directly over him allowing him to grab the rails of the ramp and put himself up into the TARDIS.
As he awkwardly climbed up into the TARDIS a horrifying yowl sounded through the cavern. Whatever these Chaons were, they were angry. They knew that he was about to escape.
With a swift, well-aimed kick, the Doctor managed to slam the TARDIS doors shut and, with a mighty effort, climbed like some strange lanky ape up the lopsided TARDIS and grabbed onto the console.
"Right, you behave cos we gotta pick up a very special passenger," the Doctor grunted and with a yell, he threw a lever and to his relief, the Time ship began to dematerialise.
The Chaons were almost upon him now. Part of him was disappointed. Part of him felt betrayed.
He knew that the Doctor would not come back for him. It was illogical for the Timelord to do so. Why would the Daleks' greatest enemy, a being who had destroyed millions upon millions of Daleks in his many lives, save one singular unimportant drone such as he?
Yet, part of him had hoped. Part of him desperately wanted him to be rescued.
Part of him didn't want to die. Didn't want to succumb to the cold, feelingless abyss of death.
What would death entail he wondered? Did the Daleks have an afterlife?
He supposed that most Daleks never had a chance to think of such things. Such meaningless things. But here he was now, considering what came after life.
The Chaons snarled and growled, their hideous formless bodies rolling towards him, hungry and furious.
Two-One-One felt paralysed with fear. He could not move but he promised himself that he would not scream. He would stare these creatures in the eye and he would not give them the satisfaction of hearing him scream.
He would die with some dignity.
He was a Dalek after all and Daleks did not fear, they did not scream or plead for mercy.
He may not think like the typical Dalek. He might have considered himself an aberration compared to most of his kin, but he was not a coward.
He turned his eyestalk and stared at the Chaon that was closest to him and stared at it. It did not appear to have what would constitute a face but, Two-One-One stared at it, almost challenging it to take him.
The Chaon momentarily paused, confused before it leapt towards the Dalek with a mighty roar.
Two-One-One shut his eye within his casing and waited for the inevitable.
Instead of the ripping and tearing of Dalekanium, there was a thud of something striking against a barrier and the pained screech of said Chaon.
Two-One-One opened his eye and looked around confused. What had happened?
Before the Dalek, the Chaon snarled and repeatedly ran at it, trying to destroy him but to his shock an invisible barrier stood between it and the Chaon.
Slowly, the phasing and twisting of time and space began to materialise around it.
The Doctor had come back for him?
The image of the Chaon before him disappeared, replaced by the interior of a strange and impossible ship.
The Doctor's legendary TARDIS.
Finally, the ship fully materialised and the Doctor peered around the central console's pillar with a nauseatingly cheerful grin.
"See, I did tell you I'd come back for you didn't I?" The Doctor beamed. "And yet you doubted me!"
Two-One-One did not answer. He was at a loss for words for the first time in his life.
The Doctor had come back? He had rescued him?
"One second he- ha! One Second and I'll just get us off this moon before those Chaon thingamys try to bite off more than they can chew!" The Timelord exclaimed brightly before hurriedly roaming about the console as if he were running from danger. Two-One-One watched him with great curiosity.
The Doctor threw some levers and once again, the central column rose and fell, Two-One-One felt compelled to watch it, mesmerised, his limbs twitching in excitement.
He was on the TARDIS.
The Doctor's legendary Time Ship.
He had an opportunity for reconnaissance. To gain knowledge. To strike at their greatest enemy's core.
He could feel steam hissing and rising from his circuits as they repaired themselves now the power was no longer being drained from his systems, the warmth of his repulsors returning to normal. If he waited long enough, his systems could repair themselves and he could take the ship by force.
A fine trophy for the Emperor himself.
His main priority was to get back to the command saucer and prevent any more deaths but rest assured he would make the most of this opportunity. As discreetly as he could, he sent the command for his sensor globes to map the ship.
"Well, do you like it? You're the first Dalek I've picked up willingly! Well, that's not true but still! You're the first one I respected!" The Doctor exclaimed proudly raising his hands out wide in what would be considered a welcoming gesture to a humanoid. It wasn't to Two-One-One, for him the gesture was an invitation to shoot but his gunstick was painfully slow at repairing itself.
Two-One-One considered the Doctor's words and allowed his dome to roam around, his eyestalk scanning the surrounds as he moved around the console room slowly and purposefully.
Respected? The Doctor was lying to him. There was no way that the Doctor would ever respect a Dalek.
His eye stalk caught sight of miscellaneous items strew around the floor. He had an impulse to scoff and be snide.
"It is very untidy," Two-One-One sneered and the Doctor's arms dropped, his once jovial expression now looking crestfallen. Above him, the ship groaned as if it had been annoyed by the Dalek's comment. Two-One-One decided to displease the Doctor further. "You are a very messy creature."
"Really now!" The Doctor humphed annoyed. "Messy? Messy! I invite you onto my TARDIS and you have the gall to call it messy?!"
"I am simply observing your TARDIS and stating what I see," Two-One-One noted, not understanding why the Doctor was getting upset. He was a messy and untidy creature. "It is a fact. You are an untidy creature."
To the Dalek's approval, his gunstick had repaired itself and had gained sufficient firepower. The steam was rising off of him now and the Doctor had now just noticed it and his face paled.
Excellent.
Two-One-One had had enough of playing coy and being amicable.
It was a gambit that might cost him his life but to pass up an opportunity such as this would be foolish.
"Ah, I see you've repaired yourself," the Doctor nodded to him, nervousness leaking out of his mental barriers. "That was very quick."
"Correct!" Two-One-One proudly claimed. "Dalek technology is superior!"
"And yet it seals you off from the rest of the universe, you can't even do something so basic as touch," the Doctor pointed out and a blinding rage descended over Two-One-One's vision.
"Silence!" Two-One-One shrieked. He had no idea why the Doctor's words were affecting it so but something within the Dalek was enraged and in pain. He didn't understand. And yet, part of him did. "Daleks do not need touch!"
"Yet you clung to my arm like a frightened spawnling in the Chaon Hive," The Doctor pointed out. "Did it make you feel comfortable? It's alright to admit that you needed help to ease your anxiety. It's only natural to seek the touch and comfort of others-"
"Silence! You will be silent!" Two-One-One shrieked hysterically and alerts were flashing in his eye as his heart rate soared to dangerous levels, his life support groaning and wheezing as it struggled to contain the surge of emotions and chemicals now rushing through his bloodstream.
Two-One-One looked away, trying to focus on the TARDIS console, maybe to get some intel to report back to the Incursion Squad.
Anything, anything to stop the sudden surge of unfamiliar emotions that was currently surging through his blood.
"Did you feel better? Being able to touch, have someone to share the burden?" The Doctor goaded him and Two-One-One snarled at him furiously.
"Do not mock me! You will not mock me!" Two-One-One screeched furiously, writhing in his casing. Despite his fury, he noted that suddenly the Doctor's demeanour ever so slightly shifted.
He was more wary now. He did not like things he could not predict and his cautiousness had saved his metal on more than one occasion. He had to calm down, to refocus.
The Doctor would turn his anger on him if he did not.
"You will take me back to my squad!" Two-One-One demanded pointing its gun at the Doctor.
He knew there was a high chance that the Doctor's Time Ship would have defences and he probably wouldn't be able to fire, but there was a chance that he could.
Regardless, he needed to not only get back to his Squad to save them and the fleet but to warn the Empire about this new incarnation of the Doctor.
Oh, he had been so foolish, caught up in his excitement at learning to true identity of this Dalek that he forgot the rather important fact that he was dealing with a Dalek.
Steam was rising off the Dalek and a quiet sizzling could be heard as the creature slowly repaired itself. The lens in its eyestalk was growing in intensity and that normal burning aura of hatred and anger had returned.
This was not the Dalek Sec of the future, this was a young, deadly Dalek who the Doctor could feel ambition and fury radiate. It wanted to kill him. It so very much wanted to kill him.
"Easy there buddy," the Doctor warily exclaimed keeping an eye on that gunstick. "Doesn't our little adventure in that Chaon hive mean anything to you? We had an accord, don't you remember?"
"Accords with Timelord's hold no validation," Two-One-One sneered as it edged around the console towards him. "You have also been goading and insulting me. I do not appreciate that."
"It's just banter between friends!" The Doctor exclaimed, waving his arms around ridiculously. He was just a little bit stressed, Dalek Sec or not, a Dalek was still a Dalek. "Come on, I thought you were different."
"I am different, but I will use my differences to serve the Daleks! The Daleks shall be victorious!"
"The other Daleks are going to kill you for being different," The Doctor pointed out sadly and the Dalek stared at him.
Its mind contemplated something and for a brief moment, the Doctor felt a glimpse of something… strange.
It was content. The Dalek was content with knowing it would be killed for being so different.
"I know this," Two-One-One conceded. "I accepted it long ago."
The Doctor felt his heart sink at that.
It shouldn't have to be this way.
"I'm so sorry," the Doctor muttered sadly. And he was. He was sorry for this Dalek, he was sorry about its fate. It's eventual end.
The Dalek predictably did not understand. Nor did it seem to care.
"Cease wasting time! Return me to my squad or you will be exterminated!" Two-One-One snarled more insistently.
"Right oh, just one thing," the Doctor nodded to the Dalek. "Can't let you go back with all this information now can I? You're not supposed to have information on this beautiful face!"
The Doctor advanced towards the Dalek and panic began to seep from the creature. It pointed its gunstick at him and tried to fire but it clicked harmlessly. Two-One-One cursed angrily.
"The TARDIS has a special trick to disable the atoms in a Dalek gun from ionising, a little trick I learnt after- well nevermind, you'll find out," the Doctor explained dismissively as the Dalek began to twitch and panic, trying to back away from him but instead cornering itself into a railing. The Doctor went to touch the Dalek but it jerked away from him.
"Keep away from me!" Two-One-One shrieked, sucker arm raised in defence.
"I have to take away your memories of this event, they'll be a little jumbled but you'll be fine," The Doctor nodded to him. "All you will remember is that you encountered some poor sod trapped on that moon who you managed to manipulate into giving you a ride off the Moon."
"No! Stay away! Do not touch me!" The Dalek shrieked terrified, its eyestalk twitching erratically.
A wave of psychic energy suddenly burst from the Dalek, taking the Doctor completely by surprise. He was surprised at just how intense it was. Daleks weren't usually quite that powerful but then again Two-One-One was no ordinary Dalek.
The energy hit him like a migraine. This Dalek was trying to overwhelm him, kill him with its mind and that just would not do.
"Alright then, I was gonna do it the nice way but since you won't behave," he quickly withdrew his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the Dalek. "Sorry about this but since you won't play nice."
He switched the sonic screwdriver on and the Dalek snarled in pain, his limbs twitching erratically. Now that the Doctor had been given access to the Dalek's controls, he was able to find the right setting to disorient it.
Two-One-One shook violently at the noise and shrieked, it panicked like a cornered animal and reverted to it's base instincts.
"Exterminate!" The Dalek screamed at him.
~~~0000000000000
Two-One-One shrieked in pain as a sudden wave of sound assaulted him. It was interfering with his systems, making it impossible to discern what was going on.
What he was aware of was the sudden touch of a hand on his dome beside his eyestalk and a powerful, ancient psychic presence suddenly drilling down, down into his own relentlessly.
It made him feel small.
Impossibly small. As if he were nothing more than a grain of sand floating in an endless, boundaryless void that howled and screamed at him. The winds of time shrieked and howled, ripped and pulled at his limbs.
It felt… familiar somehow.
This hadn't happened yet, yet it had.
He was no longer aware of his own physical body.
It was the TARDIS. The sentient presence of the TARDIS had surrounded him with its impossibly expansive spirit and crushed him into a singularity, the ancient ship's digging into his mind, ripping, changing his memories.
The Dalek clung to them desperately. He would not break so easily, he would not relinquish his control on his mind as if he were just hatched.
But the TARDIS was impossibly ancient and impossibly powerful.
It was overwhelming him, crushing him as he saw images appearing in his mind. Images he couldn't make sense of. Images of strange alien cities, of the universe on fire and of a place between worlds where only the howling nothing existed, populated by not things, horrors beyond comprehension and eldritch entities that could change the universe to its very atoms.
Had he been a lesser being, Two-One-One may have faltered. Given up and been consumed by madness. But he was not.
Until he was and then he screamed in anguish.
Two-One-One screamed in pain and terror until the entire world around him went black and he fell silent.
"Stop! That's enough!" The Doctor shouted up at the roof of the TARDIS as Two-One-One began screaming in terror. "Let him go!"
Immediately the atmosphere in the TARDIS changed from tense and electrifying to calm and quiet. The Dalek before him that had been twitching and shuddering violently abruptly fell still and deathly silent.
The TARDIS had taken the Daleks' memories of recent events and altered them, yes, but it had also taken the chance to torture the poor thing.
"You didn't have to do that," the Doctor muttered bitterly as he examined the now-unconscious Dalek. "He was already well on the path to where he would end up."
The TARDIS gave a low, disapproving rumble but made no more protest at his request. The Doctor knew that attitude, she was telling him she was 'making sure'. The Doctor frowned and shook his head before turning his attention to the now-unconscious Dalek.
"It's been fun, old pal, but you need to return to your buddies," he nodded to Two-One-One. "I'll be having a word with your future minion after this, don't you worry. I've grown a little tired of him bouncing my ship around the Time Vortex as he pleases."
The TARDIS gave a hum of approval as the Doctor began to push the Dalek out of his ship and towards the doorway.
He opened the doors to his ship and saw the Dalek Command Saucer floating ominously below him, a threatening brutalist disk that hung like an omen in space, the blue Chaon HiveWorld below.
He had a suspicion that it wouldn't be there for very long once his Dalek 'companion' regained consciousness.
"Alright, you, out!" The Doctor humphed and with a few grunts, pushed the Dalek out of his ship and into space.
Two-One-One floated gently off towards his command saucer, almost graceful and elegantly. He did so, the Dalek began to twitch, the blue light of its eye steadily groaning stronger as it became conscious.
The Doctor watched him go for a long moment, his thoughts far away on Earth in an old time period, upon a stage in a little-known district of a city named New York.
As Two-One-One began to twitch and regain consciousness, the Doctor slowly closed the doors and paused a moment.
"Farewell Dalek Sec."
Two-One-One was confused.
Had ejecting himself out of an airlock knocked him unconscious? How degrading and pathetic! He had passed out like he was some mere hatchling.
A Dalek being knocked out by the vacuum of space, how ridiculous! Yet that was where he had found himself upon regaining consciousness floating near his Command Ship.
Embarrassed, he quickly switched on his anti-gravity system and regained control of himself.
He looked around to look at the Bounty Hunter's ship that he had been ejected from and found nothing. No sign of debris from the self-destruct the foolish Draconian had activated in an attempt to stop him from getting back to his ship.
Strange.
The small voice in the back of his mind called foul. Something, something wasn't right here. Something didn't make sense…
Two-One-One shuddered but it did not know why. He held still, observing the space around him as if he was looking for evidence of something but it was like he wasn't entirely sure what.
He was missing something. He knew it but he, he didn't know what.
His attention was suddenly drawn as the Command Saucer's hangers began to open and he turned back to his ship.
A recon squad of Daleks were about to descend upon the Chaon Hive. They were about to be sent to their deaths! He had to stop them!
There was a pause and Two-One-One could have sworn that he heard the sound of a TARDIS dematerialising.
His limbs trembled, why he did not know but he willed them to stop and hurried towards the recon squad, his mission clear in his mind.
There was no time for doubt, only the success of their mission.
After all, Daleks had no concept of doubt.
"A MERE SOLDIER WAS ABLE TO RETRIEVE AN ADVANCED SCHEMATIC OF A TARDIS, HOW?" The booming, threatening voice of the Dalek Emperor thundered across the floors of the Great Hall of New Kalaan, the Dalek City.
"It encountered a Timelord, however, when questioned by the Time Strategist, it had no memory of meeting one," The Red and Gold Dalek Supreme reported to the grand visage of its Emperor.
"It is my opinion that the Timelord wiped the Dalek's memories but failed to take into account the Dalek's Casing," A Purple and Gold Dalek similar in profile to the Supreme spoke. Unlike the Supreme, however, this Dalek had odd spinning rings of temporal power around its grating. "The soldier was able to retain the information due to an oversight by the enemy."
The Emperor looked between the two Daleks and then at the report that the subject of their conversation had submitted to the pathweb.
"WHERE IS THE DALEK THAT MADE THIS REPORT?"
"It is currently the Commander of the Seventh Incursion Squad. It led a successful attack into the La'arysis System," The Dalek Supreme answered. "However High Command has concerns about this Dalek. Before this conflict, it was exhibiting signs of… deformation."
"I AM AWARE OF THE ANOMALIES INTO DALEK TWO-ONE-ONE'S MENTAL FACILITIES," The Emperor interrupted his Second in command before it could continue.
The Purple and Gold Dalek inched forward slightly.
"Emperor, if I may speak?" It asked its voice smooth and with a snide edge. The Dalek Supreme turned its head to gaze at it, narrowing its lens in a glare. If the Emperor noticed the interaction, it was ignored.
"SPEAK, TIME STRATEGIST!" The Emperor boomed.
"This Dalek, Two-One-One, it appears in the Timelines as a vital part of the-" The Time Strategist paused and looked around nervously before it continued. "Pa-Jass Vortan. This Dalek is vital to the Daleks surviving beyond such a conflict."
The Dalek Supreme did not look convinced by the Time Strategist's claim.
"A Dalek that does not conform must be exterminated!" The Red and Gold Supreme barked. "Dalek Two-One-One's strategies are unorthodox! They are unDalek!"
"And yet, without this Daleks' abnormalities, we would not have vital information that could lead to a victory against the Timelords!" The Time Strategist claimed. "This schematic is of the Doctor's TARDIS! This Dalek outsmarted the Doctor at the cost of its memories being tampered with! This is a victory!"
The Supreme Dalek was about to reply but it fell silent when the Emperor spoke.
"THE TIME STRATEGIST IS CORRECT," The Emperor exclaimed, pointedly looking to its Second in Command. "EVEN IF THIS WAS NOT THE DOCTOR'S TARDIS, THIS INFORMATION HAS OPENED UP OUR CAPABILITIES AGAINST THE TIMELORDS! TWO-ONE-ONE HAS PROVEN ITS WORTH!"
"High Command wishes for a decision on Dalek Two-One-One and several other soldiers of similar 'abnormality'," The Dalek Supreme concluded. "There are 17 individuals of note. Their advice is to destroy them."
"THEY ARE TO BE TESTED, EXCEPT TWO-ONE-ONE," The Emperor insisted. "ONLY THE SURVIVORS WILL PLAY A PART IN THE PA-JASS VORTAN AND TWO-ONE-ONE WILL LEAD THEM!"
The Dalek Supreme shuddered as if it was about to argue but several black-domed Imperial Guards moved to stand between it and the Time Strategist indicating that the Emperor was dismissing them.
"You are dismissed! Move!" The Imperial Guard leader screeched at the both of them.
The Time Strategist made no hesitation to obey, immediately turning and departing gracefully with a look of ire at the Dalek Supreme. Said Supreme only stared at it, then turned back to the Emperor who glared down at it, its mind pressuring the Supreme to leave.
The Dalek Supreme stared for a long moment at its Emperor then spun around to follow the Dalek Time Strategist.
The Dalek Supreme would not live long enough to even see the Ja-Pass Vortan begin.
Ja-Pass Vortan is Dalek language for the Last Great Time War.
The Dalek Time Strategist is a Dalek from the Big Finish Audios and often acted as the primary leader in the Time War under the Emperor.
Also a correction, I misbelieved that 211 was the episode code for The Army of Ghosts, the first story which Dalek Sec appears in. It's actually 2x12 but that's okay, Dalek 211 works just as well.