Chapter 20
Ian was numb as he stared at the destroyed casing of the Dalek Supreme. He couldn't get his mind around the fact that only seconds ago the Dalek Supreme had ruled over Skaro with an iron fist. That iron fist had almost killed them all. He was also finding it hard to think that it was him who had killed the Dalek Supreme.
He had never killed anyone before. But since he had started travelling with the Doctor he had been in fights. The fights he had gotten into had been to protect the others in their adventures.
His heart started to thunder in his chest. He was vaguely aware of the beeping of his heart monitor at the spike of his heartbeat. His breathing hitched in his lungs as the ventilator in his casing tried to assist his breathing. His vision, connected with the eye stock started to flicker with the edges starting to blur.
"Good job, my dear boy." a familiar voice spoke up. Ian knew the voice, but it was distorted as if the speaker was under water. Or was he under water? Inside the casing was sometimes hard to tell what was happening outside. "Chatterton? Are you still in there?" the voice spoke up again.
A sudden gentle hand being placed on his domed head made Ian flinch inside the casing. The casing reacted to his movement and jerked backwards. The hand that had been placed on his domed head was removed quickly from his sudden movement.
Ian wanted the hand to remain on his domed head to remain on his domed head. The sensation of something touching his casing kept him grounded. He could pretend that he was still human. He could forget that he was trapped inside of his casing.
On the other hand he did not want to pretend what had happened to him. He had been turned into a Dalek. There was no denying that. There was no way that he could pretend to himself that he was human. The Daleks had destroyed his body and forced him to rely on the casing.
Ian turned his eye stock around. The Doctor stood close to him. A worried expression was plastered on his face as he looked directly into Ian's eye stock. Ian could also feel that there was something else about the look the Doctor was given him. The Doctor didn't trust him.
Ian couldn't trust himself either. That quite voice in the back of his head. It was still quite but it never shut up. He knew what it was, but he wasn't going to name it. If he named it, it would become reality. He needed to ignore it. That was the best thing he can do. And it that was what he was going to do.
Movement stirred behind the Doctor that gained Ian's unblinking gaze. He watched as both Barbara and Susan had stepped in to stand on either side of the Doctor. His eye stock flicked between the two girls were looking at him with worry.
Inside his casing, Ian found his tentacles wrapped around each other to form tight balls. Once again he found his lungs freezing and his losing the ability to breath. Instantly the casing started to fight him for control over his breathing. The medical computers connected to him started to scream at him. Their message was simple: calm down.
But he couldn't. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time. There was too much for him to process. It was too much.
Keeping his eye stock fixed on them he quickly backed away from all of them. He did not look away from any of them as he kept backing away from him. All eyes in the Control Room were looking at him as he kept backing away from them.
His eye stock kept switching between all of them. His casing both inside and out kept twitching as he fought the voice inside of his head. It kept whispering to him. It would not be silent.
He kept moving backwards until the back of his casing bumped into something. Ian turned his eye stock around to see what he had bumped into. It was the destroyed Dalek Supreme's casing. Green ooze dripped down the side of the destroyed casing.
Ian quickly moved away from the destroyed casing. Was that blood? Was that blood of the Daleks? Had his blood turned from red to green? What other changes had happened to his body?
Once again Ian was starting to find it hard to breathe. The ventilator in his casing once again fought him to get air in and out of his lungs. His vision started to swim as he worried what else the Daleks had taken from him.
He could not return to Earth. Not like this.
He couldn't go back to his family. What would his mother and siblings think of him. He had not seen his father in a long time since his job required him to be in Wales and London most of the time.
He couldn't go back to teaching. Both the teachers and pupils would think he was a robot. At this point he was more robotic than organic. Just like the Daleks.
"Ian?" a gentle voice asked him. The gentle voice was enough to break him out of the anxiety attack that was attacking him. He focused in on Barbara as she slowly stepped into his field of vision.
Barbara moved slowly towards Ian like dealing with a cornered animal. In some ways that was what Ian was at the moment. His casing was moving in ways that she had never seen a Dalek move. Both the appendages kept twitching in the sockets in the casing. The lens at the end of his eye stock brightness kept alternating between being very bright and then becoming very dimmed. While that was happening the lights on the top of the dome kept flashing as if he was trying to speak to them, but no words came out.
Barbara had seen what was happening to Ian before. It happened every year during the exam period at school. Students at the time of exams always came under pressure from needing to do well in exams.
She had seen many different ways that her students fell under the pressure. Some of them became very chatty while others had gone silent as all their thoughts went into the exams. There was others who fidgeted with anything around them.
Then there was the students who had a full blown panic attack. She got it. The exam period was always a stressful time in the academic year. This was the time in the school where they started to head towards what they wanted to do with their lives. And this also made it stressful for the teachers. Barbara did not want to be the one to ruin a promising young future.
This however was not school. This was something that she couldn't explain. She could understand what Ian was going through inside that casing. Sure she had seen what had happened to him inside the casing. He had not told her what had happened to her. Maybe in time he would tell them. Or if he told the Doctor maybe the Doctor would tell them.
Barbara slowly stepped closer to Ian who once again backed away from her. The eye stock of her casing kept twitching as the blue lens flickered. Raising her hands up in a sign of peace as she gentle said, "It's alright, Ian."
Again the lights on the top of the casing's domed head flashed but no words came out. The blue lens flickered.
Slowly Barbara kept approaching him. She made her movements slow and steady. She knew Ian but she didn't know the casing he was in. Would it defend him and fire at her? Did he have a similar sound weapon as the Dalek Supreme. Slowly she was so close to Ian that she could gentle place a hand on the casing domed head.
Under her hand she could feel the smooth metal. A faint electrical charge zapped at her hand, but it was weaker than before. His shield had taken a beaten from the Dalek Supreme's attacks. Hopefully it would come back in time to defend him should there be more Daleks in the City.
"Ian?" Barbara gentle asked him again. "Ian are you okay? The Dalek Supreme shot you. Are you hurt?"
Ian's eye stock swirled from Barbara to look at the burning casing of the Dalek Supreme. He silently observed the strange green ooze dripping out from the casing. Once again his mind wondering what colour his blood had become. He hoped it wasn't green. It was too alien for him.
He looked back to Barbara. Her worried face filled his full vision. "Yes I am alright." he responded back to her. His eye stock switched away from Barbara to once again look upon the Dalek Supreme's destroyed casing. "I just did not think I needed to do that. I have never killed anyone before Barbara. I am not killer." he hesitantly continued to her, but his case was still upon the destroyed Dalek Supreme.
Barbara keeping her hand on his domed head also looked towards the destroyed casing of the Dalek Supreme. Heavy black smoke lifted up into the air as flames consumed everything inside the casing. A horrible smell of burning flesh mixed in with that of burning chemicals.
Nothing saying anything Barbara looked back to Ian. His eye stock was looking right into her face. She was blinded by the bright blue lens that was looking right into her face. Under her hand she could feel the Dalek casing trembling.
"If you didn't destroy the Dalek Supreme he would have killed all of us." Barbara gentle reassured Ian. "That monster needed to be killed. After everything that he had put all of us under."
Ian's casing reversed away from Barbara. His sudden movement freed his domed head from her hand. "And what makes me different from the Dalek Supreme? I am no different to him." he asked Barbara.
"Ian you are not like the Daleks and Dalek Supreme." Barbara reassured him gentle. Her hand reached out to him again but he jerked away from her. A clear message that he wanted space, and she was not going to invade his personal space.
Once again Ian's eye stock was fixed on Barbara. "Am I?" he asked her. "What makes me different to them? That I was once human? How long can I uphold that argument before it no longer means anything?"
"Ian-"
"Chatterton this is not the time for this emotional moment." the Doctor interrupted Barbara. "The entire Dalek City has been rumbling for some time. And I do not intend to be here when the City crumbles all around us." he continued as once again the entire Control Room rumbled around them.
"Yes, I agree Doctor." Alydon spoke up as he helped Dyoni regain her balance. He looked to Ian as he reassured the Dalek, "We are only putting this conversation on hold for the moment Ian."
Ian moved closer to the group. Barbara walking beside him as they approached the Thals. "There is a ten minute delay to the full destruction of Dalek City. I had made sure that it was deep underground that started to be destroyed first." he explained to them all. "So it would be best to make our move now."
"Then that is what we should be doing." Calavius said as he reached a hand out to Nyla who was still on the floor. Once again the Control Room and the sound of rumbling could be heard far under their feet. "I think it is high time that we all went home." he continued as he helped Nyla stand up.
The older Thal's blue eyes jumped from one destroyed Dalek to another. She was holding onto Calavius arm with a white knuckled grip. Her body trembling with both fear and anger.
"But what about the Thals who are still inside the City?" Johor asked as he looked at his fellow Thal councilmembers. "They have been from other camps but they are still our people. And we must help them. No matter where they are from." he continued to speak.
Calavius nodded his head in agreement to what the youngest member of the Thal Council had said. There was many Thals scattered all across Skaro. Many years ago they had lost contact with the others, and assumed they were dead or captured by the Daleks. Sometimes Calavius wondered what worse. Death or captured by the Daleks. But seeing the blank Robomen in the City he had his answer. The Daleks had no care for them as being from Skaro as well.
"I agree my young friend." Calavius hummed back to Johor. Wrapping an arm around Nyla as she kept using him as a balancer he turned to look to Ian. He felt pity for Ian. He had not meet him when he was human. Instead he had meet him when he became a Dalek. Their first interaction had not been the best.
Even with Calavius showing his anger towards the Daleks at Ian, Ian had helped them. He didn't know why Ian would help them after everything that had happened. Briefly he had wondered if it had been trapped. His worries were not needed. Ian had destroyed the Dalek Supreme and had set about the destruction of the Dalek's City.
Ian, to Calavius was a hero. Calavius just hoped that Ian understood what he had done for all the Thals left on Skaro.
"Ian, can you communicate with the Thals and Robomen that are still in the City? If so can you tell them to leave the City quickly and head to the forest?" Calavius asked the human turned Dalek.
Ian's eye stock twitched towards Calavius and he came under the bright blue glowing lens. "I can. But you need to quickly leave. We only have seven minutes left before the city is destroyed." came his response back to the Thal.
Ian turned his eye stock swirled around to look at the Doctor. The Doctor had wrapped his arm around Susan who stood in shock at what had happened in the Control Room. "Doctor, get Susan and Barbara out of the City." he told the Doctor.
"Of course my dear boy." the Doctor gentle reassured Ian. "We will meet you back at the Thal's camp."
"Come along Susan." he gentle said to his granddaughter as he started to lead her our of the Control Room.
Susan still being led towards the doors of the Control Room looked over her shoulder. She saw that Ian was rooted to the spot. She stopped walking much to the Doctor's annoyance. "But what about Ian?" she asked her grandfather. "We can't leave him alone in the City when its going to be destroyed." she cried as she struggled to get out of the Doctor's hold, but he was stronger than he looked.
"My child, Chatterton knows what he is doing." the Doctor gentle reassured Susan as he kept pulling Susan to the door. In front of him was the Thals. They were allowing them a chance to deal with this small issue that had appeared between them.
"Susan it's alright I will stay with him." Barbara gentle said as she stepped to stand beside him. She stood her ground as she heard the whirling of his domed head to her. Folding her arms over her chest as she looked right into the unblinking blue lens that looked to her. "Don't argue with me, Ian. I am staying." she sternly told Ian.
"Barbara-"
"That goes the same for you Doctor." Barbara said as she looked away from Ian's blue glowing lens and back to the Doctor. He and Susan had stopped just in front of the doors of the Control Room of Dalek City.
Deep bellow their feet in another level Dalek City rumbled. The rumblings aftermath travelled all the way up to the Control Room. Red lights flickered and the computer screens frizzled as the effects of Ian's actions started to be shown all throughout the Dalek's City.
"Doctor, you and Susan need to go now." Barbara continued when the rumbling stopped. Deep beneath her feet she could hear strange noises. She didn't know what they were and hoped that the Daleks didn't have some strange monster lurking underneath their city.
"But Barbara it is too dangerous to be in the City." the Doctor stated as once again the Control Room rumbled. That rumbling noise far under their feet was starting to get louder and louder.
Barbara looked away from both the Doctor and Susan. Looking back to Ian she watched his eye stock flicking between the three of them. She looked back to the Doctor and Susan. "Like you said Doctor. Its too dangerous." Barbara stated back to him. "And I am not leaving Ian alone. Not after everything that he had been put through."
The Doctor was quite as he looked between Barbara and Ian. He mainly focused on Ian. He had been too quite and still throughout all of this. It may not seem like it to the others, but he was worried for Ian. He looked back to Barbara and could see that she was determined to remain with Ian.
The Doctor sighed in acceptance to Barbara, "Very well, my dear. We will meet you back at the Thal's camp."
"But grandfather, we shouldn't be splitting up. Not after everything that has happened?" Susan argued.
The Doctor's attention moved away from Ian to look back to his granddaughter. "We do not have the time to argue this, Susan." he sternly told her as once again he led her out of the Control Room.
Ian didn't say anything as he watched the Doctor and Susan leaving the Control Room. He was glad that was encased in metal and that Barbara could not see just how scared he really was. The medical computers of his casing kept beeping at how high his breathing was. His heart was still thundering inside of him. It was so loud that he could hardly hear anything else. And Barbara staying was not helping him.
Not saying anything to Barbara as he glided towards a computer terminal that had not been destroyed by the Dalek Supreme's rampage. He kept silent as his manipulator arm reached up to the touch screen beside the computer. Once again his mind connected to the computer systems of Dalek City.
It was a simple task in opening the City's communication systems. Swiftly he spoke into the intercom wired through the whole City, "This is a message to all the Thals in Dalek City. Escape into the petrified forest. You will find High Councilmembers, Calavius, Nyla, Johor, Dyoni and Alydon waiting for you there. They will take you to safety."
Ian had to stop. His stomach had started to churn. The nutrients that his casing provided for him suddenly felt heavy in his stomach. Tentacles churned in time with his stomach. His heart was still beating rapidly inside his body as his lungs argued with themselves.
His eye stock swirled away from the computer screen to Barbara. She had quietly approached him and was standing beside him. She was close but not too close to be in his personal space. He was just glad that she was standing beside him, but he also didn't like it. She should be heading back to the Thal's camp.
Turning his eye stock back around to the computer. "And this is the final order for the Robomen in Dalek City: free any and all prisoners of the Daleks and also lock the Daleks deep in the City. Once that has been also retreat into the petrified forest with the Thals." he ordered through the intercom.
Ian backed away from the computer. His mind was no longer connected to the Dalek City's computer system. Turning his entire casing around to look to Barbara. She stood close to him with her hands clasped in front of her.
"You real should have left with the Doctor and the others, Barbara." he told her.
Barbara shifted on her feet as a small smile spread on her face. "I had a feeling that you were going to play hero." she told him with still a stern voice. It was the same voice that she used when she was speaking to her pupils. "And also," she said with a calmer voice, "Susan was not going to stop fighting the Doctor until she knew that someone was going to stay with you."
Ian turned his eye stock away from Susan and looked to the Control's door. "I thought she was going to keep fighting the Doctor all the way back to the Thal's camp." he admitted to her as his eye stock flicked back to her.
"But it is done now? The Daleks have been defeated and the Thals saved?" she asked Ian as she looked around at the destroyed Control Room. Her nerves were on fire at everything that had been destroyed from the Daleks themselves to the computers.
There was a horrible smell from the burning of flesh mixing with the metallic and chemical smells. The red flashing lights was also not helping her nerves. Then there was Ian himself.
Barbara couldn't help her emotions that stormed all the way through her when she looked back to Ian. He looked like any of the other Daleks. The only thing that marked him differently to them was the strange round marking that Susan had drawn under his eye stock.
"Barbara," Ian spoke up getting her out of her spiralling thoughts, "we need to move. There is not much time left on the count down. And I don't want to be here when the City is destroyed."
Barbara's were fixed on the two lights on the top of Ian's domed head. Every time he (or any of the other Daleks by that matter) spoke they would always lit up. Daleks did not have a visible mouth so those lights were a good visual for her to know what Dalek was speaking.
"You're right. This place gives me the creeps." she said as she stepped closer to Ian. She wrapped her arms around her chest as they booth started to move towards the door.
Silence fell between them. The only noises that they made as they walked to the door was Barbara's heels clicking against the floor and the mechanical whirling of Ian's casing moving beside her. Somewhere else in the City there was shouting and screaming as rumbling got louder.
Barbara kept close to Ian as they walked towards the door. She felt the static electricity from his shield gentle zapping around him. It was weaker than before, but it was still there. She stepped closer to him as they walked past more of the destroyed Dalek casings.
The Daleks that had once terrified her were nothing more than destroyed machines. Thick black smoke was still drifting up from the wreckages of their casings. That horrible smell still lingered in the air around the destroyed Daleks. Barbara felt sick on smelling the burning toxic smell. The once clean white floor of the Control Room was starting to turn green from the green ooze that dripped down from the destroyed casings.
Squelch. Squelch. Squeak.
Barbara stopped in her tracks in order to look behind her. Her eyes not blinking once scanned the ground in search for what was making that noise. She couldn't see anything that would have made the noises that she had just heard. The destroyed Dalek casing's crackled and hissed as the flames consumed their occupants. The computers made strange sizzling noises as sparks danced about their destroyed terminals. There was also that low rumbling from elsewhere in the City.
There was nothing at all in the Control Room that could be making the noises that she had heard. Panic stated to consume her as she looked for what had made the noise. She couldn't see anything that would have made it.
"Barbara?" Ian suddenly asked her from her side. The blue glowing lens of was fixed on her. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
Looking away from him to once again look for what had made that sound she had heard. Beside her she heard the mechanical whirling of Ian's casing moving beside her. She didn't look at him as she kept looking for what could be making that squelching noise.
"Come on Barbara. We cannot wait too long." Ian urged her gentle.
Finally Barbara looked back to Ian. Biting her lips as her ears kept straining for the sound again. "I just thought I heard something there." she explained to him.
Ian's eye stock swirled away from Barbara. His eye stock scanned over the Control Room. The sensors on his eye stock for hearing picked up a lot of noises that was happening around them. There was no noise that should have picked Barbara's attention. Not with the countdown to see the Dalek City being destroyed.
"There is a lot of noises, Barbara. It could be anything." Ian told her. Swirling his eye stock away from her he looked to the Control Room's door. The entire room trembled as underneath them an explosion rumbled. "We have to move if we want to catch up with the others. Before the City is destroyed with us still inside it."
Barbara watched as Ian's entire casing rotated around to also be facing the door. Her shoulders slumped as she turned to follow after him. She had thought that she had heard something, but Ian had not believed her. He always believed her. Did her stress play a part in her hearing things? Or was Ian becoming more and more like a Dalek?
Squelch. Squelch.
Barbara tensed up upon hearing that noise again. Her head whipped around in all directions as she looked for what was making the noise. She stepped backwards towards the door. Her eyes wide as her ears strained to hear the noise again.
Her hand reached backwards in hopes that Ian was close by. Her hand dropped when she remembered that he did not have hands anymore. He could no longer take her hand. But she hoped that he would still be close to her.
Barbara took another step back. And then another. Her heels clicked against the metallic floor. Her eyes kept scanning the destroyed Control Room. Once again nothing.
Her heart was dancing in her chest as she felt her body freeze when she stood on something soft. Barbara froze in her steps. All around her the Control Room rumbled as yet another explosion happened beneath them.
Silently she pleaded for Ian to be at her side, but he wasn't. She could hear the whirling of his casing getting closer to the door. He was the only Dalek moving about in the Dalek City.
Slowly Barbara looked down to what she had stepped on. A single bloodshot eye blinked up at her.
"Ian!" Barbara screamed as she jumped off the Dalek mutant. "Ian get back here!" she screamed again as she backed away the Dalek mutant she had stepped on. Its bloodshot eye never leaving her as its clawed web hands dragged its deformed body towards Barbara.
Barbara kept walking backwards as the Dalek mutant dragged itself closer to her. Her eyes did not look away from it as it kept dragging its distorted body towards her. Beside her she heard Ian coming to be at her side. The static electricity of his shield zapped her gentle as he came to her side.
"Stay away from us!" Barbara shouted at the Dalek mutant as it continued to drag itself towards them. She backed away from it and stood closer to Ian. She heard the whirling of his gun stick as he aimed it at the Dalek mutant.
The Dalek mutant was unphased with Ian's gun stick aiming towards it. It's bloodshot eye jumped between Ian and Barbara while it dragged itself towards them. Its sharp claws scratched into the metal floor of the Control Room. Its many tentacles were useless as it dragged its body towards them.
"Help me." the Dalek mutant rasped. Its single eye jumping between Barbara and Ian. It stopped as its sides expanded then deflated with a wheezing noise. "Help me!" it rasped to them again.
"Help you?" Barbara asked from where she was standing beside Ian. "You're a Dalek. You're the reason why so many people are dead." she continued as she stepped forward.
"Barbara stay back." Ian suddenly spoke up as he followed after her. His gun stick was still aimed at the Dalek mutant but his eye stock flicked between Barbara and the Dalek mutant. "Do not get any closer!" he ordered the Dalek mutant when he saw it getting closer to them.
The Dalek mutant stopped. Its single bloodshot eye focused on him. "You should help me, Ian Chesterton." it rasped towards Ian. Not once did it look away from him. "It was my invention and Project Savior that made you a superior version of yourself." it continued to rasped to Ian.
Ian went still as he stared at the Dalek mutant. Once again he felt his heart thundering inside his chest. His blood was chilled inside his veins as he looked at the Dalek mutant before him. The casing's ventilator once again wrestled controlled of his breathing as panic set in. He had hoped that the Dalek Supreme had killed this Dalek, but it seemed that was not the case.
"The Dalek Head Scientist." Ian growled out in an electronic growl. Slowly he advanced towards the Dalek mutant on the ground. His gun stick kept twitching as he slowly got closer to the mutant on the ground.
Barbara suddenly stepped in front of Ian and blocked his way to the Dalek Head Scientist. She stood in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest in defiance in front of him. She looked right into the blue lens of his eye stock that was looking right at her. Through clenched teeth she sucked in air as she watched Ian's gun stick twitching towards her.
"Barbara get out of my way! He is the one that done this to me." Ian snapped to Barbara. His eye stock flicked away from Barbara and fixed in on the Dalek mutant on the ground. "He must be Exterminated!" he screeched out in a Dalek voice. His gun stick kept twitching as Barbara kept standing in front of him.
"No, Ian." Barbara calmly said to him in the same tone she used for the pupils back at Coal High. "I'm not getting out of the way."
Ian's eye stock flicked back to Barbara. She was pinned under the bright blue glow of his lens. For a brief second she almost faltered but she had to keep standing her ground. The next words that Ian screamed at her shattered her heart.
"Then you will also be Exterminated!" Ian screamed at her. His entire casing trembled as he screeched out the word that every Dalek knew. "I will have my revenge!" he shouted as he glided closer to Barbara as his gun stick twitched in anticipation of killing.
"Ian," Barbara gentle said as she stepped closer to him her hands raised in front of her, "take a breather. I know you want revenge. But listen to yourself."
Ian's entire casing trembled as his eye stock flicked between Barbara and the Dalek Head Scientist who was silently creeping closer to Barbara once again. His gun stick twitching was enough to make the Dalek mutant stop crawling towards Barbara.
"Ian," Barbara said his name as she placed a gentle hand on his domed head she felt the casing jerking under her hand, "do not be like them. If you start shooting everything up screaming 'exterminate' you will let them win."
Ian's eye stock slowly twitched up to look her in the face. "What am I then, Barbara? I am not human. And I am not a Dalek. What am I?" he asked her. Desperation was creeping into his voice.
Barbara gentle patted his domed head. The clunking of the metal of his casing being hit was not heard over the blaring alarm, but Barbara knew he had heard it and sensed it. "You are Ian Chesterton. It should not matter what you look like." she gentle spoke to him. "If you act like him," she continued as she pointed at the large Dalek mutant on the ground, "then you are no better than him or the other Daleks."
Ian fell silent as his eye stock twitched between her and the Dalek Head Scientist. His blue lens narrowed as he looked at the single bloodshot eye that glared back at him with nothing but hatred.
"Ian." Barbara gentle said to him. Her gentle voice was enough to make Ian look away from the Dalek Head Scientist back to her. "You may no longer look human, but don't let them strip you of your humanity." she continued to gentle say to him.
Ian backed away from her. Her hand still on his casing. The lights on his domed flashed but no noise came from him. He didn't have words to say. He couldn't think of any words to say back to her.
"Ian do not let the Daleks win." Barbara said to him as she tapped his domed head again.
Ian was motionless. His blue lens in the light of the red flashes in the Control Room was almost purple. His eye stock twitched away from Barbara to the Dalek Head Scientist. "They have already won, Barbara. What else can I lose?" he asked her, but his sight was still focused on the Dalek Head Scientist.
The Dalek Head Scientist let out a rasping cackle. His single eye jumped between Ian and Barbara who slowly turned to look at him. "You admit that Daleks are superior to humans!" he laughed at Ian.
The Dalek Head Scientist kept laughing as he watched Ian's entire casing tremble in anger. He was still laughing as Barbara stomped up to him. "Daleks are the superior beings." he continued to screech as Barbara got closer to him.
The Dalek Head Scientist single bloodshot eye blinked when Barbara's shoes appeared inches away from him. He looked up from the black shoe on the floor beside him up to her face. His tentacles squirmed as he backed away from her. His claws scratched on the metal floor as he got further away from him. "Keep back, human!" he screeched as he looked up to her face.
Barbara stared down at the Dalek Head Scientist. Her face was bathed in the red lights that flashed in the Control Room. "You are not supreme. You are just a sad little creature with a twisted mind that matches your twisted body." she remarked to the Dalek Head Scientist.
"You are inferior!" the Dalek Head Scientist screamed back to Barbara. His tentacles and stubby webbed hands clawed scrambled as he backed away from her. His single eye never leaving her anger filled eyes as she glared at him. "You do not know the superiority of the genetics of the Daleks!" he continued to scream at Barbara.
"You may have turned Ian into a Dalek with your superior genetics." Barbara hissed at him as she bent down to get closer to the Dalek mutant. She narrowed her eyes as she watched the Dalek mutant backing away from her. "But you want to know what is superior?" she asked him when she looked right into his yellow eye.
"What can be superior to the Daleks?" the Dalek Head Scientist sneered back at Barbara with venom in his raspy voice.
Barbara stood up straight and walked back to Ian. Ian's eye stock followed her as he asked, "What are you doing, Barbara? Trying to make him attack you?"
"No." she gentle responded back to him. "The both of you are just not seeing what is superior than the Daleks." she continued to speak to him.
"Tell me!" the Dalek Head Scientist screeched to Barbara making her look back to him. "Tell me what you think is superior to the Daleks!"
The Dalek Head Scientist tentacles curled close to his body as his stumpy arms propped his bulbous head up off the metallic floor. His large single bloodshot eye filled with madness and rage looked right at Barbara as he spoke again, "Tell me!"
Ian's blue lens glared at the Dalek Head Scientist. His glare was so intense that once again the Dalek mutant slunk further away from them. "Stay where you are and don't move." he warned the Dalek mutant.
His eye stock flicked back to Barbara. "Yeah Barbara. What are you getting at?" he asked her.
Barbara ignored Ian as she looked at the Dalek mutant on the floor. She was disgusted with that bloodshot eye looking right at her. She ignored the disgust feeling as she stepped forward. Beside her she heard the whirling of Ian's casing following her. "You want to know what is superior than Daleks?" she asked the Dalek Head Scientist.
"Yes I tell me! I must know. If there is something superior to the Daleks I can use it. I can make the Daleks far superior than what you see as superior." screamed the Dalek Head Scientist as his tentacles thrashed about his body.
Barbara stopped in front of the Dalek Head Scientist once again. She looked down at the little creature before. He was not what she expected. Then again she had seen what they had made Ian into. A part of her felt sorry for the Dalek, but another part didn't. The Daleks had caused them all so much trouble and killed so many Thals on Skaro.
"Barbara we need to move quickly." Ian said as the Control Room trembling made the red lights flicker all around them. His eye stock swirled all around the Control Room that was trembling worse than before.
Barbara ignored him. She was aware of the rumbling all around them, but she was focused on the Dalek mutant before them. Keeping her eyes on the Dalek mutant she simple said, "Humanity."
The Dalek Head Scientist's bloodshot single eye blinked blankly back at her. "Humanity?" he sneered back to her.
"Yes, humanity. Not like you know what that is." she responded back to the Dalek Head Scientist. She folded her arms over her chest as she looked at the deformed mutant at her feet. "Whatever humanity you had was stripped away when you done all of that to yourself."
The Dalek Head Scientist let out a raspy noise as their single eye glared up to Barbara. "Daleks were never humans. Our ancestors were nothing like humans." He rasped back at her.
"I can tell." Barbara coldly replied back to him.
A loud wailing siren filled the Control Room. The sudden increase in noise caused Ian to back away from Barbara. The sensors in his casing too sensitive for the sudden screeching noise that filled the room. The red lights that were flashed only got brighter. The computer terminals along the circular walls exploded with a rain of sparks. Smoke puffed out of the destroyed computer terminals as flames came to life.
Ian's blue lens focused on Barbara's back. She was still looking down at the Dalek mutant that was the Head Scientist. "Barbara we need to go now. Just leave him." he shouted over the wailing alarm to her.
Barbara looked over her shoulder to look to him. The blue lens was so bright that it cut through the intense red flashing lights. She didn't say anything to him before she looked back to the Dalek Head Scientist. She took a step forward her heels clicking louder on the metallic floor with her steps. Slowly she approached him. Her face was blank as she stopped right in front him. She showed no emotion as he backed away from her.
"Barbara!" Ian shouted as he moved his casing after her. His manipulator reached up to her. He didn't know if this was going to work but he planned on using the manipulator arm to grab her. He was prepared to drag her out of Dalek City itself. They were both getting out of there.
Barbara ignored Ian, but she could hear the whirling of his casing as he approached from behind. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end as she could the electric field that surrounded his casing getting closer. She ignored him as her focus was on the Dalek Head Scientist.
His single blood shot eye never blinked as backed away from her. His long tentacles curled in closer to his main body. "What are you doing? Leave me! Leave with what is left of Ian Chesterton!" he screamed at Barbara.
"No not yet!" Barbara quietly said back at the Dalek Head Scientist. Her tone was cold as she looked down to the Dalek Head Scientist. "Not until you pay for what you have done. Not just for what you have done to Ian but also the Thals." she continued to speak in a cold tone as she lifted her right foot off of the ground.
The Dalek Head Scientist's bloodshot eye widened as he watched Barbara's hell descend towards him. He tried to move out of the way of her heel but he was to slow to dodge it. Air wheezed out of his deformed lungs as her heel stabbed into his body. The little air he had left inside his body was enough to allow him to scream out in pain.
The Head Scientist's drive for survival kicked in. His tentacles that had been curled close to his body unfurled. The tentacles whipped around Barbara's legs. Their clawed tips scratched her legs as she stomped her foot into him again.
Barbara ignored the stinging sensation of the Dalek mutant's claws scratching her legs. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she kept stomping into the Dalek's mutant body.
"You are not a superior being." she said as she stomped into the Dalek mutant. "This is for what you have done to the Thals." she said as she once again stamped into the soft flesh of the creature. "This is for Ian!"
The last stomp into the creature was the last stomp that the Head Scientist could handle. Without any bones and out of his casing the Head Scientist was nothing more than a lump of hate filled flesh. The defeated body of the Dalek Head Scientist deflated as Barbara stepped away from him.
"Barbara!" Ian shouted as he used his manipulator arm to move her away from the Dalek Head Scientist. His eye stock turned to regard the deflated Dalek Head Scientist's body. "That's enough. He has had enough." he told Barbara as he looked back to her.
Barbara gasped at breath as she leaned into Ian. His metal casing was firm to keep her balanced where she stood. Steadying her breathing she looked at what she had done. The Dalek's bulbous body had been stabbed by her heels so many times that green blood oozed out of the many stab wounds that covered his body. His single bloodshot eye was gone. His tentacles lay limp on the floor around his destroyed body.
"Barbara?" Ian gentle asked her.
Barbara looked away from the Dalek Head Scientist. She closed her eyes as she leaned her face into Ian's dome. The smooth cold metal was soothing as she felt tears streaming down her face. She could hear the gentle metallic tapping of her tears dropping onto his metal domed.
"I don't know why I done that. But it felt so good." she cried into the metal of Ian's casing.
"Barbara, not to sound cold but we need to get out of here." Ian calmly stated to her in his robotic voice. All around them the entire Control Room trembled. Cracks of all sizes started to appear on the floor and ceiling of the room.
Barbara sniffled as she stood up straight. She placed one of her hands pressed into Ian's domed head. Her free hand whipped the tears that freely streamed down her face. "Your right Ian." she sighed. "Lets go." she said as she stood up.
Ian watched Barbara walking away from him. Green footprints were left in her wake from the shoe that she had used to stomp the Dalek Head Scientist. Her shoe was covered in his green blood. His eye stock swirled around to look at the dead Dalek. His green blood was drying up on their brownish skin.
"Ian?" Barbara asked from the Control Room's door. She waited until his eye stock swirled back to her before asking, "Are you coming?"
Ian did not say anything back to her as he moved his casing towards her. All around them the Dalek City was crumbling and rumbling all around them. His eye stock was focused on the corridor in front of them.
The pair quickly made their way down the crumbling corridor. All around them was destroyed Dalek casings and the dead bodies of the Thals unlucky to meet their end within the City's corridors.
"Barbara why where you talking about humanity?" Ian suddenly asked her as they kept moving down the corridor. His eye stock focused on the corridor in front of them. His sensors were on high alert as he waited for a Dalek to suddenly appear and stop them from leaving the City.
Barbara walking beside him placed her hand on his domed head. As she kept walking she leaned more on him. She felt the electrical current of his shield as she leaned against him as they walked. "It's simple Ian. Because, on the inside you are still human. You may look like a Dalek. Sound like a Dalek and move like Dalek. But you do not think like a Dalek." she explained to him like it was the simplest thing in the world around them.
Ian kept his eye stock straight forward as they kept moving along the crumbling corridor. "How can I have humanity and not be human, Barbara?" he asked her.
All around them Dalek City rumbled and crumbled. Metal and stone groaned as flames slowly consumed its way through the corridors.
"Tell me what is your name?" Barbara asked him such a simple question.
Ian's eye stock swirled around to get Barbara in his visual senses. The sudden movement of his eye stock made Barbara step away from him. She came into his view as they kept walking down the corridor. "Ian Chesterton." he responded back to her.
"Tell me about where you were born. And tell me about your family." Barbara urged him as they kept walking.
The blue lens of his eye stock narrowed as he regarded Barbara closely. "I was born in Reading, England. My father's name is Jack and my mother is Elizabeth. Thomas is my brother and Sarah is my sister." he responded back to her. "But you know that already, Barbara. You've met my mother and siblings."
"Just bear with me Ian." she pleaded to him. The twitching of his eye stock was her invitation to keep talking. "If you were a full Dalek you would not call yourself by your name. The only names that the Daleks really have is their ranks." she calmly responded back to Ian. "Tell me about your life with your siblings?" she asked him.
"Barbara." Ian said with an annoyed tone creeping into his robotic voice.
"Ian tell my your childhood memories with your family?" she asked her as she kept walking down the corridor with Ian beside her.
Ian's eye stock rotated around and dipped. "I remember me and Thomas always fighting. We would always pretend to be cowboys and Indians running around. I remember," he started with a small chuckle in his tone, "when the rationing stopped we along with Elizabeth went to the sweet shop to get as much sweets as we were allowed to get. We got so sick after that. There was a few times that I remember my dad coming from Cardiff to spend a few days with us. He would pretend to be an alien while me and Thomas were bounty hunters sent by the Time Agency to capture him. I didn't really spend much time with Elizabeth, she was always reading books or in the garden watching the birds."
"Ian, a Dalek would not laugh at remembering their past. If you were fully a Dalek you would repress those memories and deem them being beneath you." Barbara calmly told him.
Ian's eye stock swirled back around to look at Barbara. She was walking bedside him. Her hand gently on his domed head. The sensitive sensors on his domed head registered the contact of her hand on his casing. The sensors were so sensitive that he could pretend to himself that he was still human, but there was still that daunting thought in the back of his head.
"Maybe you are right Barbara. I am just not sure what I am now." Ian responded back to her. He swirled his eye stock away from her and focused in on what was the end of the corridor they were walking along. The door of the lift that would take then to the surface of Skaro. He just hoped that even with everything happening around them the lift was still working.
"Ian, I think you will find I am correct." Barbara responded to him with a smile. She patted his domed head. The clanking noise made from her action lead the way down the empty City corridors. "But please, Ian promise me that you won't forget where you came from. Yes, you are a Dalek but you are also still human. I think you just need to learn where you stand between those two parts of yourself." she continued to him as they slowly got closer to the lift door.
Ian's eye stock swirled back to look at her. The blue lens stared unblinkingly at her as he asked, "How?"
Barbara shook her head as she bite her lip. "I am not sure Ian." she responded back to Ian.
Ian's eye stock swirled away from Barbara. A low rumbling mechanical growl escaped from him. He was unaware of Barbara's worryingly looking at him. The lights on the top of his domed head flashed as he slowly spoke, "It is because of the Doctor that all of this happened! It is his fault!"
Barbara sighed, "I can agree with you there, Ian. But you have to remember we did storm our way into his life. He made it clear on so many times that he did not want us to be with him."
Ian fell silent as they both kept moving down the long corridor. They passed by many destroyed Daleks. The Daleks had been destroyed by the Robomen. There was some Daleks that had not been destroyed but they were to confused to deal with the human and Dalek that past them.
Ian's domed head kept rotating around as he watched the Daleks mindlessly roaming around the corridor. All around them their world was crumbling around them. Without the Dalek Supreme or the Dalek Emperor to give them orders they did not know what to do. What a life the Daleks lived in.
His eye stock swirled back to look back to Barbara. She kept close to him as the got much closer to the lift. Her eyes jumping at all the dead Thals and destroyed Daleks all around them. "We should hurry back to the Thal Camp. The Doctor and Susan should be waiting for us there." he said as he picked up speed.
"Yes, lets get out of here. This place is creepy." Barbara agreed with him as they approached the door of the lift. She stepped away from Ian as his manipulator arm reached for the touch screen panel beside the door.
The lift upon being summoned opened and golden light flooded into the corridor bathed in red. The sudden gold light blinded Barbara for a brief second and she stepped in closer to Ian. Once again she was so close to him that the electric shield that surrounded her zapped against her skin.
"Let's get out of here." Ian gentle said as he moved into the lift. His casing turned around inside the casing as Barbara followed him into the lift.