Danielle could only hold on as Jack and the Doctor worked the controls of the TARDIS. It made her feel rather useless as she couldn't do anything to help, and all she wanted to do was be of use considering the day they were all having. However, she also knew that if she tried she would just get in the way and so she just clung to the railing around the middle of the room.
"We've got incoming!" Jack called in warning, just in time for the TARDIS to shake with the impact of whatever the Daleks were firing at them. She tried to squash her scream as she almost fell over but she still squeaked as she squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't know if we can survive another one!"
"The TARDIS can survive anything," the Doctor snapped back. "Danielle, are you alright?"
She nodded. "Terrified. I'm fine," she said.
"If you can just give me one more minute, I think I can plumb something together," Jack explained.
"Hurry up," he barked, as if Jack wasn't trying his hardest to work as quick as he could. Danielle, who was curious and wanting desperately to take her mind off being shot at by a fleet of the most terrifying creatures in the universe, used the momentum of the TARDIS to move quickly to Jack's side.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "What is that?"
"It's from the door of that stupid game you were in," he explained around the wires he had clenched between his teeth. "It was…" He was about to tell her how it was a part of the door that she'd been locked behind, and how it was supposed to keep the people on the inside of the game from escaping, but considering he could still see the scotch marks on her temples he decided she didn't need to know the details. "It will give us a forcefield, just big enough to wrap around the outside of the TARDIS. It's not a lot, but it will do."
"More on their way," the Doctor called over. He eyes never left the screen he was using the navigate the TARDIS, but he attention never quite left the red-head who was stood on the other side of the console. She seemed to be coming back to her normal self, he guessed that it was from the revelation that Rose was alright, and he was incredibly grateful.
Also, incredibly angry, but he could use that to power him along so he didn't need to let it show.
The TARDIS shuddered again, but not the same extent. Still, Danielle clung to Jack's arm. "It's working," he told the pair. "We've got a fully functional forcefield." The console sparked slightly and both he and Danielle darted out of the way. "Well, sort of."
"It will do," the Doctor replied, which was fine praise indeed. "And for my next trick." He pulled a large lever down towards him purposefully. Jack had already grabbed his giant gun and pulled Danielle over to the Doctor as Rose began to materialise by the door. With a Dalek. Danielle's heart raced in panic again. The Doctor was saving Rose, but there was a Dalek as well!
"Rose, get down!" the Doctor called when it was clear they had both full appeared in the TARDIS. Rose, too shocked to really hear him, just looked around until their eyes met. "Get down, Rose!"
"Exterminate!" cried the Dalek, shooting and barely missing. Jack quickly shot it with his gun, causing the casing to explode and very much killing the machine.
"You did it," Rose declared as stood back up.
"Rose!" Danielle cried, rushing over before the Doctor could even react. She hugged Rose tightly, and the blonde was very happy to hug her back. "I was so worried, and then upset, but then the Doctor said…" She looked over at him and couldn't help but smile. "I knew he'd save you," she finished softly.
"Nice to know the atmosphere hasn't changed," Rose joked, although she never thought she'd be glad to see their timid romance like she was at that moment. "It feels like I haven't seen you all in years."
"You all right?" the Doctor asked as he joined the pair. She nodded.
"Yeah, you?"
"Not bad, been better," the Doctor explained before heading over to examine the Daleks. One Dalek surviving the Time War was the worst thing that could have happened. But an entire fleet was something else. He needed to work out what had happened. After all, no one should have survived the war but him.
"You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive?" Rose asked.
"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space," Jack added.
"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War," the Doctor explained. None of it made any sense, and nothing felt right. It took his entire species to take out the Daleks, and now it turned out that even the near-extinction of an entire species wasn't enough to stop them.
"I thought that was just a legend."
"I was there," the Doctor replied, confirming to the other man that it was very much not a legend. "The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."
Danielle moved to his side as he glared on the remains of the Dalek. She remembered feeling sorry for the one they had found in Utah, who had been warped and twisted and just wanted to see the sunlight. But she felt worse for the Doctor, who was glaring at the creature like it had destroyed his life and on some level it had. She took his hand and linked her fingers through his. She could feel how tightly he held back and she wondered how long he really had gone without anyone there to help him.
"It'll be okay, sweetie," she reassured him softly. "We'll work it out."
"There's thousands of them now," Rose protested. "We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"
The Doctor gave Danielle's hand a quick squeeze, very glad that she was there, before sighing, exasperated. "No good stood round here chin wagging," he declared. "Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers," he grinned and clapped his hands together. "Let's go and meet the neighbours."
"You can't go out there!" Rose protested but the Doctor, as ever, used his confidence to push himself to step out of the door. The ship outside looked depressingly familiar, as did the army of Daleks who were waiting outside. Everything was so uniform. He hated it.
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!" they all cried at one – again, everything in unison – and they shot at him. He hadn't moved far from the door, but he did sigh internally in relief as they bounced off the forcefield the Captain had managed to put in place. Not that he doubted his skills, but it was always nice to not die by Dalek.
They all stopped, obviously a little confused but more likely annoyed over how their attack didn't seem to kill him. "Is that it? Useless! Nul points," he mocked before looking over his shoulder. "It's all right, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything."
Jack stepped out first, followed by the two girls. "That may not be strictly true," he offered.
The Doctor shot him a look. "Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks."
Jack shot him a sheepish look. "Sorry."
He didn't have time to tease him, although he would have had they been in a less dire situation. "Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So, tell me; how did you survive the Time War?"
"They survived through me."
It was like the entire room was waiting for the voice. Lights came on, shining a spotlight on what Danielle could only describe as the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. It was obviously a Dalek inside the giant casing, she had seen one in person after all. But it was so much bigger than she could ever imagined it would be, staring down at them from above.
"Rose, Captain, Danielle, this is the Emperor of the Daleks," the Doctor explained quietly. Even he was stunned at the sight of it. That definitely wasn't a good sign and she took a step closer to him out of reflex, for comfort.
"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive," the monster explained.
"I get it," the Doctor cut in. He didn't want to give any Dalek a chance to speak.
"Do not interrupt," one Dalek exclaimed, outraged. It was quickly followed by the rest of the Daleks, who all repeated the phrase.
"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up—" he turned, anger contorting his face, "-it's you!"As quick as it was there, the anger was gone and he was his happy-go-lucky self again. "Okay dokey. So, where were we?"
As the Emperor of the Daleks told the horrifying tale of how he rebuilt the Daleks from the excesses of humanity, Danielle felt her stomach turning. All those people, the poor girl who had risked her life to give them the location of the Daleks, were all in tiny little pieces inside metal casing, screaming at the four people in the middle of the room who had dared to not be Dalek. Everything that had been themselves was gone, and now they were just angry killing things, who were destroying humanity just because they thought they should die.
"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek. I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!" the Emperor declared to the cries of his created disciples.
"They're insane," the Doctor breathed. He looked around at all the Daleks who were staring back at them with one, glowing blue eye each. All he could see was the hate behind them. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever." He looked up at the Emperor. "We're going."
"You may not leave my presence," the Emperor cried but the Doctor didn't listen. He grabbed Danielle by the hand and forcibly dragged her from where she had been stood and into the TARDIS. Jack and Rose had no choice but to follow, and the moment the Doctor closed the TARDIS doors the Daleks outside starting shooting.
He pressed his head against the cold wood, closing his eyes. He had thought that it was over, and then the Dalek in Van Staten's bunker had shown up. But then, again, he'd been given the vague hope that the Time War really had been over and that, despite being the only one left, at least there was no one else trying to destroy the universe. Would it never end? Did he always have to fight?
Danielle watched him, seeing his pain and it broke her heart. She just wanted to help, but she could do very little more than hold his hand and let him feel his hurt. She was much too young and much too terrified to have any idea on how to stop an army as evil as the Daleks.
"Doctor," she said softly, giving his hand a little tug. "We should move."
"She's right, Doc. The forcefield is gonna break any minute," Jack added. The Doctor stood a little straighter and looked down at the red head. She was young, but then again everyone was compared to him. Something about her, though, made him feel less alone.
He took her face in his hands, and placed a kiss on her forehead. Immediately, despite the situation, she smiled and blushed. It gave him a little extra push to walk up to the console and fly them back to Satellite 5.
He needed to stall as he tried to figure out a way to save everyone, so the moment the TARDIS landed, he stormed out into the main control room. It was practically empty, now, which was good. Less people to worry about, more people were safe. "Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!" he commanded.
Davitch did as he was told, which was a rare occurrence the Doctor had found. "What does this do?"
"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"
"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."
Danielle looked up at Lynda, who stood slightly to the side, looking a little out of her depth. She immediately sympathised. "You should have gone," she scolded lightly.
"I didn't think it right, leaving you all up here," she replied and even though Danielle smiled at her, they both knew the happiness wasn't all there. Neither of them commented.
"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here," another of the controllers said. "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."
"Oh, my God," Davitch breathed. "The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."
The Doctor looked around, trying to put his plan together. He didn't have much to work with, did he? However, he'd worked off less. He could be resourceful. Surely he could find something in a satellite that transmitted thousands upon thousands of television shows all at once to an entire planet.
He grinned and rushed forward to the middle of the room, where there were conduits sending out singles all across the satellite. He grabbed the front of one and chucked it to the side. "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"
Jack stated back as his brain connected the dots. "You've got to be kidding."
The Doctor shot him a giant grin. "Give the man a medal."
"A Delta Wave?"
He pulled out two circuit boards, waving them in the air like they were a winning prize. "A Delta Wave!" he cried before tossing them away and went back to ransacking the conduits.
"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asked for the rest of them.
"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed," Jack explained.
"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" the Doctor finished, once again holding some of the parts that he'd torn from the equipment. "Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days?" He looked over at Davitch. "How long till the Fleet arrive?"
"Twenty-two minutes."
Danielle watched him work, sensing a change in him. Now he had a plan, he was enthusiastic, grinning and hopeful. It was the best news he'd heard, his own plan, and she felt her own hope lifting with his. Once the Doctor knew what to do, there was no stopping him.
She stepped forward. "How do we help?" she asked.
"Come here," he replied. She walked over and crouched next to him and he began taking the wiring apart.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked when she realised that he wasn't going to instruct her. He shot her a little sideways look, one that looked a little smug.
"Exactly what you're doing," he said. "I need someone to see how smart I'm being."
She shot him an incredulous look before giggling. "Fine, be smart, Spaceman. Just tell me what you're doing as you are. "
~0~0~0~
"We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky," Jack explained. As the Doctor had worked on his plan, he had worked on helping his new friends, building them in some defences using the same parts that he'd wired into the TARDIS console to get them aboard the Dalek ship. He showed off his work on a blueprint of the satellite. "But that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."
"Do they know about the Delta Wave?" Davitch asked.
"They'll have worked it out at the same time," he replied. "So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the forcefield around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."
"Who are they fighting?"
There was no easy way to break the news, and they didn't have time for pleasantries. "Us."
"And what are we fighting with?"
"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."
"There's six of us," the other worker pointed out.
"Rose, Danielle," the Doctor called over, right on cue. "You can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare."
With an apologetic smile, and a little sense of relief, the pair walked over to him and started to help. "Right, now there's four of us!"
Jack barked his orders like he was used to being in command of a squad of people, and chances are he had been once. He was a Captain, after all.
He walked over, looking a little awkward, which was not something Danielle was used to seeing from the normally confident man. It immediately put her on edge. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye," he said softly.
"Don't talk like that," Rose scolded lightly. "The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."
He turned to the blonde and realised that, whether consciously or not, she'd not realised what was happening. He reached out and cupped her face. "Rose, you are worth fighting for," he told her before placing a kiss on her lips. He let her go to turn to the Doctor. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward," he replied before doing the same to him.
Then he turned to Danielle. She was staring at him, grey eyes wide and shining. She may have been like Rose, and a little naïve at first, but she was suddenly and very painfully at the right conclusion. He was saying goodbye because he fully expected not to be coming back. He was going off to his death at the metaphorical hands of the Daleks, and not only that he was going freely. It was volcano day and he wasn't running away, and for the first time she wished he would.
He cupped her face, much like he had done with Rose. "Look what you've done to me," he scolded playfully.
"You're a good man, I did nothing," she whispered, voice barely audible as she was on the brink of tears.
He had so many things he wanted to say to her, but instead settled on a smile. "Thank you, Danni-Girl," he replied. He didn't kiss her on the lips, it didn't feel right. Instead he placed one in the middle of her forehead. He went to move away but she reached out and clung to his waistcoat, like a child holding on to her father. He kept the smile on as he took hold of her hands, gave them a squeeze, then forcefully removed them.
He clapped his hands together, and his voice broke slightly. "See you in hell."
As he ran off to join the meagre troops, Rose turned to the Doctor. "He's going to be all right," she started, but then saw the look on both of their faces. Her optimism waivered. "Isn't he?"
The Doctor didn't reply, and he couldn't look at Danielle knowing that she was starting to cry. Even though he had a plan, it was sketchy at best and he didn't know if he could pull it off. Instead he went back to work. "Those wires need stripping," he commanded.
Danielle was the first one to sit back down, crossing her legs. Her hands were shaking slightly, but she did as he asked, stripping the wires back to the metal inside. Slowly, Rose sat back down as well, and they worked in silence together.
"Suppose…" Rose spoke up, not taking her eyes off the work they were doing.
The Doctor did glance up at her. "What?"
"Nothing," she quickly replied, as if she changed her mind.
"You said suppose."
"No, I was just thinking," she explained. "I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"
"Because if we warn them, then this won't happen," Danielle replied for him. Her voice was low, and monotone, but she continued working as it was the only thing that she could focus on that wasn't Jack dying to stop the Daleks wiping out the entire universe. "If this doesn't happen, we won't go back and warn them, so then this does happen. Round and round we go. There's no stopping it."
Rose nodded to herself. "Yeah, thought it'd be something like that," she muttered.
The Doctor glanced back up at the two girls. This was no place for them. "There's another thing the TARDIS could do. It could take us away," he pointed out. "We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."
Danielle's nose wrinkled up in slight disgust, and even under dire situations it was very adorable. "Who wants to go to Marbella?" she replied. "Never saw the appeal, myself."
"No, but you could ask," he pointed out. Neither of them said a word, and it just reminded him of why he was fighting to save all humanity. Those little apes could have absolutely giant hearts. "Never even occurred to you, did it?"
Rose shrugged. "Well, I guess we're just too good," she offered. They all shared a look, and for a moment it was like they were just travelling around the universe, and not waiting to die.
The broadcasting console beeped and broke them out of the moment. He looked over at it. "The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" he said, jumping up and rushing over. The pair of girls followed and stood either side as he read the results.
"Is that bad?" Rose asked as his head hung, until he was resting on his hands. "Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"
Suddenly, startling both of them, he spun on the chair. "Rose Tyler, you're a genius!" he declared. His face lit up like he had an idea and he jumped up. "We can do it. If I use the TARDIS to cross my old timeline. Yes!" He ran over to the TARDIS. "Rose, with me! Danielle, wait there!"
Rose followed him into the TARDIS as Danielle waited outside, anxiously moving from one foot to the other. He seemed so happy, so energetic, and she just knew he'd found out a way to save them. Her faith in him had never wavered, but it was nice to see it backed up with some results.
He burst back out into the room and over to her. "What's happening?" she asked.
"I'm going to power up the Game Station," he explained before he pulled her close. She hadn't expected the kiss, and she definitely hadn't expected it to be so forceful, but she leant into it all the same. She was still so unsure on what to do, other than the fact that she liked it, that when he pulled away she was a little dazed.
Not enough to tease him, though. "Is that why you wanted me to wait out here?" she asked and he nodded.
"I'd rather not have a crowd, I don't know about you," he replied cheekily before falling back into command mode. "Rose is in the TARDIS holding the buffers in position. I need you to watch the monitor carefully. When the TARDIS is ready, you'll see some instructions on what to do next. Follow them, they'll tell you what to do." He motioned to the console. "Let me just sort this out."
She nodded and quickly dashed into the TARDIS and up to the console. Her and Rose shared two big grins. "I knew he'd work it out," Danielle bragged.
"You weren't the only one," Rose pointed out. "You don't have to be in love with him to see how smart he is."
Danielle didn't argue with her, although normally she would have. Instead she just stuck her tongue out at her friend. It was great, that feeling of hope had really been missing…
The engines started, the time rotor lighting up and moving within its glass casing. The pair looked at each other, confused.
"Doctor, what're you doing?" Rose called. "Can I take my hand off? It's moving."
There was no reply, and the door didn't open. Danielle's heart dropped, a mad panic rushed over her. He wasn't saving the planet. He was saving them.
"No!" she cried, running over to the door. She tried to open it, but she couldn't. Rose was quick to her side. "Doctor, let us out!" she begged.
"Doctor!" Rose joined in, and they both tried to get out. It was no use, though, and the TARDIS set off into flight with the two of them inside. "Doctor!"
"This is Emergency Programme One," the Doctor's voice declared, startling them both slightly into turning around. A hologram of the Time Lord was being projected into the console room and was looking at the pair. "Now listen to me, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."
"No!" Danielle exclaimed, almost screaming.
"And that's okay. Hope it's a good death," he continued. "But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you both home."
Danielle could only stare at him, heartbroken, but Rose quickly pushed off from the door and headed to the console. "I won't let you," she swore firmly.
"And I bet Danielle is fuming and Rose is fussing and moaning. But hold on and just listen a bit more." His words caused Rose to pause and look at him, waiting for what he was about to say, hoping it was something that would tell her how to save him. He'd shown her so much, the idea that he was just going to die hurt so badly. "The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Programme One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do. Let the TARDIS die." Her head shook slightly, but he couldn't see her. He wasn't there. "Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it. No one'll even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world'll move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing." And it was if he knew where they would both be stood. His gaze moved slightly and locked with Danielle's, causing her breath to catch. "Have a good life. Do that for me, Danielle Song and Rose Tyler. Have a fantastic life."
And, with that, he flickered out of existence. Rose shook her head and rushed to the controls, trying everything she could to stop the TARDIS and turn them around. "You can't do this to us. You can't," she sobbed, desperately wanting to save him. "Take us back! Take me back!"
Danielle slowly slid to the floor by the railings to the console, to where Rose's jacket had sat and had reminded her of how she'd thought her friend was dead. She'd been devastated then, but this felt so much more, so much deeper inside. There was something inside of her screaming to save the Doctor, that she had failed, that she was supposed to save him. All that had happened was that he'd tricked her onto the TARDIS and flown them both away because that's just what he did. He might not always be able to save everyone, but he would save everyone he could. He would always save her.
The TARDIS landed with its trademark thud and Rose dashed past her, but Danielle couldn't even get off the floor. All she wanted to do was save the man she loved, who was sacrificing everything to save the universe. All she wanted to do was see him again, but she never would. It was over. Neither of them knew to fly the TARDIS, and there was no guarantee that she would ever let anyone fly her who wasn't the Doctor.
She wrapped her arms around her knees as her head fell forward and she cried. It was hopeless. Everything was absolutely hopeless.