Desire and Hope
888
"Behold!" announced the radiation scorched vocal cords of Davros. He lifted the stone above his head, between his forefinger and thumb was a blue cuboidal stone. Surrounding the decrepit man, sitting in his dalekanium chair was a small squad Daleks that twitched; their eyestalks focusing and unfocusing on the stone. "The deliverance of the Daleks! With the power of the Ghost of Desire and Hope I shall deliver the ultimate defeat to the Time Lords! I shall sweep aside the Time Lords' military, I will wash aside any resistance against the Daleks!" He took a long belabored breath. "I shall make my children the supreme life form of the universe!"
"I never thought of you as the type to believe in magical wish giving stones." A voice came from the far side of the cave.
Davros narrowed his eyes and slowly his chair swiveled. His craggy lips curled into a sneer as he looked at the auburn haired man walked out of the shadows into the middle of the cavern. His green jacket was dingy but still bore the glittering iridescence of the golden interlacing woven into the fabric. The man's hands were in the gray cotton pants he wore as he walked slowly forward.
"I am simply investigating every opportunity, Doc-tor." Davros growled, his sneer slowly morphed into a smug smile. "The reports say this stone has the power to grant the bearer's greatest desire. I shall destroy the Time Lords with the Hazandra, Doc-tor. They - Will - BE-"
"Yes, exterminated, yes." The man said shaking his head. The Daleks in attendance lifted their gun stalks. He looked up. He looked down to Davros who fumed. "What? Did I steal your line?"
"I will grant you the chance to ob-serve." Davros said swallowing his rage. He swiveled his chair away from the man. "I will let you watch as I lift my children up, turn them into Lords of Time, they will be masters of this reality, the unrivaled power of the universe, conqueror of all other species, and when my Daleks have become the pinnacle of evolution, the last race standing in reality, then Doc-tor, I shall achieve my final vic-tory! I shall finally see you fall to your knees in front of me!"
"You can't use the Hazandra to destroy the Time Lords." The Doctor said. Davros turned and looked up at the man, he was frowning.
"I will do it, Doc-tor." Davros replied. "No one can stop me, not even you!"
"Are you very sure?" the Doctor asked. "Because I don't think you can do it!"
"I am in possession of the stone, Time Lord! Do not antagonize me!" Davros snarled holding the stone up. "I will unleash the power within the gem and destroy you!"
"Oh that's all fine and good, but you don't have the guts to do it!" the Doctor said, leaning forward. "If you did, it'd be done already! But I'm still here, Gallifrey stands!" The man looked to the Daleks in attendance. "See what he's done? He's failed you again! Betrayed you! He secretly desires that you fail!"
"NO!" Davros roared. He swiveled to the Daleks. "I have not failed you! I have not! BEHOLD NOW! I WILL USE THE HAZ-AN-DRA NOW!"
There was a blast of blue light that swept outwards through the cavern. Davros shielded his eyes as the light burned through his bionic implants. He breathed hard, his chest heaving as he felt the stone burn in his hands. The light finally faded. Davros looked down at the stone in a peach-pink hand. He blinked, and then the concept of blinking hit him. He turned, his legs agile as they swept around in a circle. He looked down to see white pants and white shoes. He lifted his arms, covered in white sleeves that extended to a white, buttoned-down shirt. He felt his eyebrows bunch as he looked up to see the Doctor standing before him.
"What trickery is this?" he said. His voice smooth, young, untortured by years of radiation and chemistry.
"We were looking for the Hazandra in hopes of using it to seal a rift in the Medusa Cascade." the Doctor said, circling around Davros, "but they are mildly sentient and grant the bearer what the stone believes to be the user's greatest desire."
Davros looked down and then ran to a piece of metal fitting on the cave wall. The metal glinted and rough reflection appeared on its surface. A dark, black mop of hair capped his head. His face was young again, his blue eyes flashed in the reflection as his fingers ran over his smooth pale skin.
"This, this is impossible-" Davros heard his new voice hiss. He instantly looked around him. "Where are my Daleks? My children!?"
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "Your children, Obra and Nygan are probably still on Skaro with your wife, Bernal…"
"Bern-al?" Davros's eyes narrowed. "That is a Thal name-"
"Yeah-" The Doctor walked forward and pulled his hand out of his pocket revealing a wallet, he flipped the wallet open. There was a picture that was of him, or rather of him as he was now, standing next to a blonde woman. There were two boys, both red-heads, standing with them. "You got married about oh, five years after the war ended."
"Ended?" Davros shook his head. "Who won?"
"Won, no one won. The Kaleds and the Thals came to a ceasefire after a muto attack on both domes, in the battle the two sides saw they worked better together, learned they were more alike than different." the Doctor said, closing the wallet. "That ceasefire became a peace treaty, you and Bernal met at one of the conferences. The collaborations between the Kaleds and Thals resulted in a nanite treatment that restored your body. Skaro became a shining beacon of peace and tranquility and knowledge. They leapt ahead in technological capability quickly mastering faster than light travel and even time travel…"
"No, that's not-" Davros stopped, the memories were hitting him. The Skarosians' first interstellar ship, one of his own design. His memories flooded in as the Skarosian ambassadors mediated the great Draconian-Human peace treaty, mediated the cease fire between the Sontarans and the Rutans. They discovered a way for the Mondasians to survive without engaging in conversion of other races. Skaro's first contact with the Time Lords, his first meeting with the Doc- he winced and shook his head. "NO! NO!"
"What is it, Davros?" the Doctor asked moving to help him.
"These memories, this history, everything is wrong!" Davros roared. "Where are my Daleks!? What have you done, Doctor!? What trick is this!?" Davros felt his voice get hoarse. "WHERE ARE MY DA-LEKS!?"
"Daleks?" The Doctor shook his head. "You mean those war machines you were designing? Unnecessary, once the Thals and the Kaleds came to peace. Relegated to the dust bin of history with so many other bad ideas. I helped you re-configure the technology towards repairing Skaro to keep the peace…"
"I don't believe you!" Davros growled. "You are my greatest enemy, why would you help me!?"
"Enemy? We may sometimes disagree academically but-" The Doctor started.
"SILENCE!" Davros screamed. He clutched his head, he felt his fingers run through his hair. He curled his fingers and pulled his hair. "You have done something, you have warped my history, you have averted the Daleks' creation! I had the Hazandra in my hand-" Davros reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out the stone. "I was prepared to destroy the Time Lords, end the Time War, and make the Daleks lords of time…"
"Davros-" The Doctor looked at Davros, concern filling his blue eyes. "Are you feeling ok? Have you been taking your treatments for Reslin's disease?"
"This is not psychosis!" Davros snarled glaring at the Doctor. "You are my enemy; you'd have done anything to rob me of my victory. You must have tampered with the Ghost of Desire and Hope. I will find a way to undo this! I swear to you, Doctor!"
"Davros, please listen to yourself-" the Doctor pleaded. He reached out and grasped Davros's arm.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Davros shouted and pushed the Doctor away. He glared at the blue gem stone in his hand. "I never want you to touch me again! I want to see you beg for me to spare your life, I want to see your home, your people exterminated! I want Gallifrey to burn, beneath the gaze of Dalek soldiers! I will-I will!" Davros growled loudly. He lifted his hand, holding the stone and curled it into a fist. "I will crush you and your pathetic quorum of Time Lords in the palm of my hand!"
The stone burned blue. Davros closed his eyes as the light exploded outwards. The Doctor lifted his arms over his eyes as he backpedalled away from the light. Davros laughed loudly as he felt the old twinges of pain. The burning sensation of inflamed vocal cords and breaking skin. He felt his spine curl in on itself. He felt the metal probes stabbing deep into his scalp.
The electronic eye embedded in his forehead flared to life and he looked up suddenly. He breathed heavily as he glared at the Doctor who was kneeling before him. One hand still in his pocket the other raised to protect his eyes from the light.
"Davros, what have you done?" The Doctor asked, flecks of spittle on his lips.
"I dispelled whatever trick you've created." Davros intoned as he looked up. His Daleks were still there looking down on him and the Doctor. He glared at the stone in his hand. "The stone is nothing but a trick, a fairytale, a delusion." Davros threw the stone to the ground and it clattered to the Doctor's feet. Davros's snarl slowly wormed into the form of a smile. "None the less, this day may yet be fruitful." Davros cackled lightly as he lifted his hand and extended his finger. "My children, the Doc-tor is yours to ex-term-in-ate as you please."
The Doctor glared up at Davros. The Daleks glided down and pointed their gun stalks at the Doctor. The Doctor stood, his glare fixed upon Davros. The Daleks lifted their guns and fired.
Bolts of energy flew around the cavern, ricocheting off of metal pylons and finding homes in the Daleks. The creatures inside screamed as they were assaulted by their own firepower. Davros snarled as he watched the Daleks explode around him. He glared up at the Doctor. The man was holding a stone in his hand, this one was red.
"My Daleks, what have you-" Davros growled as the Doctor clutched the red stone.
"For that brief second, my greatest wish was for a personal force field that reflected Dalek firepower back at them." the Doctor said, inspecting the red stone. "This is the Ghost of Love and Wishes, I picked it up to counter-act the Ghost of Desires and Hopes."
"You interfered with my wish!" Davros snarled.
"No, I only tweaked it, the stone gave you what you secretly have always desired." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
"LIES! Davros snarled. "I would never have hoped for that!"
"I'm sorry, Davros." The Doctor said, he walked forward and snatched the blue stone from the ground, pocketing it quickly. "All of my wishes couldn't overcome your rage though, I tried so hard, I wanted that so badly, I wanted to see you fly forever forward, but-"
"So you did interfere!" Davros snarled.
"The only way of stopping you was to find one of the other Hazandra, and use it to counteract any wish you made." the Doctor said, as he walked around Davros who was slowly turning to keep his eyes on the Doctor. "But that which you saw was mostly you! You have always just wanted your people to survive and rise to the top of the universe. You always have wanted to be a father! In that reality you had all of that!" The Doctor looked to Davros, his eyes sorrowful. "We could make the universe a better place, Davros, together. We could use the Hazandra to bring peace to the universe. Never mind end the war, with the power of the Hazandra we could make the war never happen. Skaro could be at peace, rebuilt, beautiful once again. It can give you everything you ever wanted, a wife, a family, prestige and respect of all life on the planet. Skaro could be the greatest world in the universe the Skarosians, your descendants, could be even greater than the Time Lords, the supreme species in the universe, beings of intellect and peace and tranquility, unmatched in reality-"
"Never!" Davros snarled. He pointed his metal-clawed finger at the Doctor. "You will never trick me again! I will never submit to that delusion!"
"It wasn't a delusion, Davros! It was your deepest desires, your deepest hopes. I just added my wishes, my love of peace into the mix." the Doctor shouted. He walked forward and pleaded. "For one brief second, the impossible happened, for one brief moment, Davros, you and me together found the formula to save the universe from the Time War, all we have to do is accept the solution-"
"And exterminate my Daleks?" Davros snorted as his seat hummed as he maneuvered around the smoking husks of the Daleks that had just died. "Consort with a dirty Thal, submit my people to servitude to the universe!"
"It wouldn't be extermination, they'd never exist, they wouldn't be needed! The people of Skaro would not submit to servitude, they would freely give the universe service; you would not consort with a Thal, you would fall in love with your wife." the Doctor returned. "We can do this, Davros! We know it can work, we saw the result!" The Doctor reached into his pocket had pulled out the blue stone and extended his hand to Davros. "Please, Davros, just this once think of the universe, think of your family. Help me save the universe, on the same side, just this once!"
Davros looked up at the Doctor, and then to the blue gem in his hand. He remembered the fleeting memories that had filled his head. Already, like a dream, they were fading, shredding from his memory. He grasped up to them some part of him unwilling to relinquish them, if he concentrated he could bring them forward, but it was constant work as the fog of memory swept between them. He felt pain in his heart as Bernal's, Nygan's, Obra's faces started to fade from his memories, replaced with the screams of millions of Kaleds in the bombardments of the dome and the screams of Thals being tortured under his watch. He started feeling his breathing become hard as his lungs burned from damage done by a chlorine attack that had hit his labs. He remembered the vague feeling of his body restored, his strong muscles, his clean lungs, his voice smooth and robust only now to be replaced with this - suffering.
With effort he lifted his weaker hand. Slowly he reached towards the blue stone the Doctor was offering him. He lifted his head to the Doctor, who nodded his head encouragingly and smiled. There was a flare of rage at that smile. Davros then slapped the Doctor's hand, the jewel flew from the Doctor's fingers and bounced into the shadows of the cavern. The Doctor looked down in shock as Davros smiled lifting his other hand and pointed his finger.
The blast of bioelectrical energy sent the Doctor flailing backward, crashing against the wall of the cavern. Davros cackled loudly as he thrust his hand again and lightning flashed forward slamming the Time Lord, sending the man hurtling across the ground.
"Doc-tor! If you think I am that much of a fool! Then you gravely underestimate me!" Davros laughed as he watched the Doctor crawl to his knees.
The Doctor looked up at Davros with a pained expression and Davros pointed at him again. Electricity flew from his metal claw and struck the Time Lord in the chest. The Doctor screamed as the lightning coursed through his body and Davros laughed as he watched the Doctor drop to the ground panting his face screwed up into contortions.
"How long, Doc-tor? How long shall I indulge in this torture before I break you once and for all?" Davros asked as he glided towards the Doctor. The Time Lord winced but laid on the floor, his face pressed against the ground. "Or shall I simply take us back to the saucer in orbit, and kill you now? Would that be too much of a mercy? Or would you rather endure more of this?"
"They were-" The Doctor wheezed. "They could've been great - Your sons, your wife-"
"I have no family, only the Daleks! They are all I need." Davros growled, trying to dispel the false memories in his head. "You would take my greatest, purest creations from me and replace them with disgusting hybrids."
The Doctor struggled to his hands and feet. "I was giving - I was giving you hope! Something to care for, something to aspire to-"
"I have something to care for!" Davros growled. "I have an aspiration!"
"No, you only have the Daleks-" The Doctor said looking up at Davros. "You could have so much more- We could be so much more!"
"We would be so much less." Davros growled, glaring at the Doctor. "Collaboration is for the weak, for the pathetic who cannot do for themselves. I would never be so weak as to ask for your help!" Davros raised his hand again. "My Daleks need no assistance! WE ARE THE SU-PREME SPE-CIES! THEY WILL HAVE ULTIMATE POWER!" Davros stabbed his claw forward, lightning fired forward. "WE WILL BE UN-"
The lightning exploded into the stone as the Doctor lifted up it in the path of the lightning. The red Hazandra absorbed the energy. The Doctor rolled backward and staggered to his feet. He held up the stone as Davros lifted his finger.
"It doesn't have to be this way!" shouted the Doctor. "I remember the wedding, I remember your first born son, Nygan. You were so - happy. I'd never seen anyone so happy in my long life. I was so proud of you!"
Davros stayed his hand and glared at the Doctor. The memory stabbed out from the dreaming fog of his mind. He remembered the baby so tiny in his arms. He shook his head, they were not his arms, they were the arms of another man, a weaker man, a pathetic man who fell for the wiles of a Thal whore, who loved a monstrous pair of born of miscegenation.
"I am not that fool-" Davros growled. "I am not that weak! I don't need your approval! I don't need your pride! If that reality is so precious to you, use the Hazandra."
"It takes us both, together, I can't do it without you." The Doctor said.
"Good-" Davros said a smile cut across his face. "I will deliver unto you a grave defeat. You will always know that there was a chance, that for one fleeting moment you were on the cusp of the greatest victory you could ever have, and that I, Davros, creator of the Daleks, stole it away from you!" Davros lifted his hand. "Now, Doc-tor fall to your knees!"
"I'm sorry." The Doctor said, looking at Davros mournfully.
The lightning flew, the Doctor lifted the stone. The electricity swarmed around the stone and then fired back. Davros screamed as he felt his arm burn with the surge of electricity. He felt it course through his body. His heart stopped for the briefest second as the lightning forced the chair to reboot. He screamed loudly as his organs started to fail. He could feel them explode in inflammation as the cells died without the support of his chair. His vision was filled with darkness as his brain swam with histamine messengers.
The sound of the deep throated b-dmps filled Davros's ears. His bionic eye slowly came online and his vision slowly came into focus. He jerked into wakefulness. He was in his cell, on the Dalek saucer. A Dalek was stationed at the entrance of his cell.
"What - what is going on?" Davros growled as he glided to the edge of his cell.
"Da-lek forces in-spect-ed the Haz-an-dra cham-ber." the Dalek reported. "All Da-lek u-nits with you had been de-stroyed. You were found un-con-scious. The Haz-an-dra was not in the cham-ber!"
"The Doc-tor, he arrived, he interfered." Davros said. "He must still be on the planet! We must capture him!"
"Neg-a-tive! The Doc-tor is not pre-sent!" the Dalek retorted. "The Da-lek Su-preme has de-term-ined that the Haz-an-dra is too un-sta-ble for mil-i-tar-y use! We are re-turning to Skar-o! You will be de-tained there! You will o-bey! You will sub-mit to Da-lek com-mand!"
Davros was about the argue, but centuries of experience stopped him and he simply glowered. He turned and glided to the small port in his cell and stared out of the window. The universe was sweeping by as the saucer cut through the universe. Davros watched the universe slice by. His mind wandered, past the history, past the parsecs of space. Deep in his mind Davros remembered memories that never happened. The sound of children laughing. The laugh of a wife. The gentle sensation of her holding his hand. Davros swallowed quietly. He felt it, deep down he felt it. He felt the regret. His chin became taught as he clenched his teeth. How dare the Doc-tor inflict this upon him? The Doc-tor and the Time Lords and the universe would all pay for this! It will be his final victory! He will deliver unto the Doc-tor the same as the Doc-tor delivered unto him, he would reveal the Doc-tor's true self! And the Doc-tor will suffer from the knowledge! Some day he will uncover the Doc-tor's greatest failing, his own self!