A/N: Welcome to part two!
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC Katy and this story.
Please review and no flaming will be tolerated. Cheers!
THE RISE AND FALL OF A HUMAN DALEK
"One, twenty-one guns.
Lay down your arms, give up the fight.
One, twenty-one guns.
Throw up your arms, into the sky, you and I."
– Green Day: '21 Guns' (21st Century Breakdown [2009])
Works Office
Katy, Martha, and Frank spread out the blueprints on the floor, going over them with a fine toothcomb. Tallulah comes back in, and in the distance, they could hear a storm brewing. Frank looks a bit concerned and gets to his feet.
"I'll go and keep an eye out. Make sure we're safe up here," He decides before walking off. "Don't want nobody butting in." He adds over his shoulder as he goes. Tallulah crouches down in between Katy and Martha.
"There's a hell of a storm moving in." She commented, but both Katy and Martha ignore her, too distracted on trying to figure out exactly what the Doctor was counting on them finding out, to prevent the Dalek's plans from coming to fruition.
"This would be so much easier if the Doctor were here pouring over these with us. He'd know what we're looking for." Katy was getting frustrated.
"So, where did you two first hook up?" Tallulah asked both of them how they first met the Doctor.
"He blew up my sister's job, after making sure she and I made it out of the building safely," Katy deadpanned absently, earning a shocked look from Tallulah.
"Are you serious now?" Tallulah gaped at her, and Katy looked up from the blueprint and gave the blonde a very serious look. The same type of look the Doctor had given her when he all but admitted that he was an alien when she, Tallulah and he were hiding out of sight from the Daleks when they were attempting to rescue Martha. "You're not kidding…" She looked a bit disturbed, which caused Martha to jump in with how she first met the Doctor to take the heat off of Katy.
"Well, I met the Doctor in a hospital, sort of." Martha stated, shrugging when Katy mouthed 'thank you' to her.
Tallulah grinned.
"Well, of course. Him being a doctor…" She easily took the offering, much to Katy's relief, as she wasn't in the mood to elaborate what she had meant by the Doctor blowing up Rose's job.
"Actually, I'm a doctor. Well, kind of." Martha admitted earning an impressed look from the blonde.
"You're a physician? Really?"
"I was training," Martha nodded. "Still am, if I ever get back home."
"You could be doctors together," Tallulah looked excited by the idea. "Oh, what a partnership!" Then she sighed, looking at Martha sympathetically. "Oh, it's such a shame. If only he wasn't so different. You know what I mean?"
"Honey, you just said a mouthful…" Katy muttered. "You have no idea how different he really is."
"Yeah, he's a man, sweetheart. That's different enough." Tallulah points out, and both Katy and Martha nodded in agreement.
"The Doctor and I travelled with my sister a while back; way before we first met Martha." Katy explains, still a bit sad about it. "Then she was taken away from us, and we've been on our own ever since."
"You mean she died?" Tallulah looked horrified, and Katy hesitated for a moment before nodding a little.
"Something like that…" She agreed, reluctantly. Martha just looks a little downtrodden.
"But you know, sometimes I say something or do something, and he looks at me, and I just sort of think that he's not seeing me. He's just remembering." Martha confesses, and Katy immediately stops what she's doing and looks at Martha guiltily.
"He does?" She bites her bottom lip. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that. But you gotta know that he's not comparing you to Rose. I can promise you that." Katy reassures her, and Martha nodded but still doesn't look entirely convinced.
Tallulah looks between both girls with sympathy.
"Oh. Listen, girls. You want to get all sad? You want to have a contest with me and Laszlo?"
"Not really, no." Katy stated, firmly.
"Me neither," Martha seconded that. "But listen, if the Doctor's with Laszlo now, there's every chance that he could get him out."
"And then what?" Tallulah frowned. "Don't talk crazy. There's no future for me and him. Those Dalek things took that away. The one good thing I had in my life, and they destroyed it."
Tallulah gets to her feet and walks off to be by herself, leaving Katy and Martha watching her go, looking helpless, and at a loss about how to help her.
Dalek Laboratory
The humans were immediately connected to the chromatin solution that the pig slaves had brought into the room as ordered by the Daleks. The entire procedure went against everything the Doctor stood for, but he reluctantly cooperated on pain of death.
"THE FEED LINES ARE READY!"
"Then it's all systems go," the Doctor declared.
"The solar flare is imminent," Sec stated. "The radiation will reach Earth in a matter of minutes."
"We'll be ready for it." The Doctor promised as he fills a large syringe with some blue liquid and deposits it into a brass still. "That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure in a brand-new pattern." He turns towards a nearby pig slave and gives an order. "Power up!" The pig slave throws one set of breakers, and Laszlo throws another one.
"Start the line feeds," Sec orders. The blue liquid goes up the plastic tubes to all the suspended human bodies floating above their heads on stretchers. It has lots of bubbles in it.
"There goes the gene solution," the Doctor muttered.
"The life blood," Sec confirms.
Works Office
The three girls stumble across something in the blueprints and simultaneously experience a 'eureka' moment.
"Look, there! On the mast." Martha points out. "Those little lines? They're new." She indicates to the highest point of what would soon become known as the observation deck. "They've added something, see?"
"Added what?" Tallulah frowned, as Katy pales as white as a sheet.
"Dalekanium!" She exclaimed with horror.
Dalek Laboratory
A klaxon sounds overhead causing everyone to look about in confusion.
"What's that?" the Doctor questioned.
"What's happening? Is there a malfunction?" Sec demands, then frowns at the Doctor. "Answer me!" The Doctor checks over everything, then reacts in horror when he realises what's happening.
"No, no, no. The gene feed! They're overriding the gene feed!"
"Impossible. They cannot disobey orders," Sec defends the other Daleks. That is until one of them rolls forward and confirms what the Doctor suspects all along.
"THE DOCTOR WILL STEP AWAY FROM THE CONTROLS."
"Stop!" Sec orders. "You will not fire."
"HE IS AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS."
"AND SO ARE YOU!" The Daleks all mutinied against a stunned Sec when they point their guns at both him and the Doctor, who didn't look altogether surprised by this act of betrayal.
"I am your commander!" Sec reminded them, a little pointlessly.
"YOU HAVE LOST YOUR AUTHORITY."
"YOU ARE NO LONGER A DALEK!"
"What have you done with the gene feed?" the Doctor jumps in and questions them. The Daleks turn towards the Doctor.
"THE NEW BODIES WILL BE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DALEK." It tells him and Sec reacts in both outrage and dismay.
"No! You can't do this!" He protested, but the Daleks ignore him in favour of turning towards their pig slaves and addressing them instead.
"PIG SLAVES, RESTRAIN DALEK SEC AND THE DOCTOR!" A handful of pig slaves, with Laszlo included, rush forward to do their bidding. Laszlo is the one of those who 'restrains' the Doctor, who doesn't put up a fight when he notices who has got him.
Sec struggles, unused to being turned on by his fellow Daleks.
"Release me. I created you! I am your master!" Sec implores them, but his begging goes unheard as another alarm suddenly goes off, coming from the direction of the lift.
It was coming down.
"SOLAR FLARE APPROACHING." One of the Daleks reports.
"PREPARE TO INTERCEPT."
"There's the lift," Laszlo silently mutters to the Doctor, who nodded in understanding. He tilts his head slightly in Laszlo's direction as to not immediately reveal his deception to the Daleks at the last minute.
"After you…" the Doctor insists, before he and Laszlo run for the lift. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to get the lift doors open.
"THE DOCTOR IS ESCAPING. STOP HIM! STOP HIM!" the Daleks shout in agitation as the lift doors shut in the pigmen's faces. Inside the lift, Laszlo leans heavily against the wall; momentarily unnoticed by the Doctor who was regrouping.
"We've only got minutes before the gamma radiation reaches the Earth. We need to get to the top of the building." Then the Doctor really takes note of Laszlo's condition and comes over to him, looking very concerned. "Laszlo, what's wrong?"
"Out of breath," Laszlo lies. "It's nothing. We escaped them, Doctor. That's all that matters." He insists firmly, obviously eager to change the subject away from himself, much to the Doctor's concern and suspicion.
Works Office
The lift dings, indicating that the carriage had reached its destination, and both the Doctor and Laszlo immerge from it.
Both Katy and Martha were relieved.
"Doctor!" Martha greets him, happily.
"First floor, perfumery!" the Doctor quipped with a cheeky grin. Tallulah instantly runs towards Laszlo and squeezes him into a tight hug.
"I never thought I'd see you again," the blonde tearfully admitted, and Laszlo hangs his head, looking slightly bashful.
"No stopping me." They both hug. Katy straightens up from her perch above the blueprints they had been going over just before the lift appeared and turns to address her boyfriend, eagerly.
"We've worked it out. We know what they've done. There's Dalekanium on the mast." Katy reveals, then smiles coyly at him. "Hello again, by the way…" She greets him, and the Doctor grinned back at her and scooped her up into a hug.
"Oh, come here, you…" He sweeps Katy off her feet … then abruptly let's go of her when the lift doors shut. "No, no no!" He groaned in frustration. "See, never waste time with a hug."
"For once, I agree" Katy stated. The Doctor scans the lift with his sonic and grimaces at the result.
"Deadlock seal. I can't stop it."
"Where's it going?" Martha asked, looking worried.
"Right down to the Daleks. And they're not going to leave us alone up here," the Doctor clarified. "What time is it?"
"Er, eleven fifteen." Frank consults his wristwatch.
"Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the Gamma Radiation hits." The Doctor realises.
"Gammon radiation? What the heck is that?" Tallulah frowns. Everyone ignores her question and runs towards the open area. The Doctor sticks his head out and looks up towards the unfinished part of the Empire State Building and grimaces.
"Oh, that's high. That's very… Blimey, that's high…"
"And we've got to go even higher," Katy states with regret. "That's the mast up there, look!"
"There's three pieces of Dalekanium on the base. We've got to get them off." Martha chimes in. All three of them look up a nearby wooden ladder that leads towards the base of the mast.
"You're about to do something incredibly stupid, aren't you?" Katy realises when she sees the Doctor eyeing off the ladder.
"Well, if not me, then who?" the Doctor retorted. "I'm not letting you go up there. I've got a stronger chance of surviving this than you do at the moment." He added, and Katy glowers at him.
"We're not just going to stand here and watch you!" Martha backs Katy up.
The Doctor heads straight for the ladder.
"No, you're both going to have your hands full anyway," the Doctor stated, and looks a bit guilty when he sees the angry look on Katy's face, but easily recovers. "I'm sorry, but you've got to fight." Katy sighed heavily, before rushing up to him and grabbing his face.
"Just do what you need to do and come back to me in one piece. Please?" She urges him before kissing him once firmly.
"Always," The Doctor grinned at her before starting the climb.
"The lift's coming up!" Martha shouts. Katy gathers up her patience and returns back to the others.
"Lock and load, baby!" Katy snatches up a nearby two-by-four and wield it as a weapon against what was likely to come through those lift doors. Frank grimaces, searching for a weapon himself before settling for a wrench he found.
"I should've brought that gun…" Frank muttered, exasperatedly. Laszlo and Frank stand protectively in front of the three girls, with Laszlo using a sledgehammer as a weapon. Not taking his eyes off the doors, he addresses the women; in particular, Tallulah.
"Tallulah, stay back. You too, Katy, Martha." He instructs, urgently. "If they send pig slaves, they're trained to kill."
"Is that supposed to frighten me?" Katy retorts, not even remotely fazed as she had faced down worse aliens than these human-turned-pig hybrids. "I've fought worse."
"The Doctor needs us to fight. We're not going anywhere!" Martha agreed.
"They're savages. I should know." Laszlo reminded them, indicating to his partially changed appearance. "They're trained to slit your throat with their bare teeth." He can barely lift the sledgehammer, and immediately loses balance. Tallulah hovers around him worriedly.
"Laszlo? What is it?" She fretted, but he impatiently pushes her away.
"No, it's nothing. I'm fine. Just leave me." He reassures her, unconvincingly. However, Tallulah ignores him and places the back of her hand on his forehead. Her eyes widen in shock.
"Oh, honey, you're burning up. What's wrong with you? Tell me?" She begged.
Frank notices this and groaned.
"Great. One man down and we ain't even started yet…" He muttered and Martha nodded looking a little doubtful.
"It's not looking good, Frank."
"It never does, but we keep moving forward." Katy attempts to bolster everyone's flagging spirits.
"Are you always this optimistic during hopeless situations?" Frank raises an eyebrow at the brunette, and she just looks at him, a little sheepishly.
"Better than losing hope," She pointed out and Frank shrugged, conceding. Martha was looking increasingly nervous.
"We're going to get slaughtered." Then suddenly thunder and lightning cracks and rumbles over the city, and both Katy and Martha brighten up simultaneously. "Wait a minute. Lightning!" Martha stated triumphantly.
"Good thinking 99!" Katy quotes, before she, Martha, and Frank run towards some sections of metal scaffolding and use chairs to trail them in from outside. Tallulah attends to a visibly weakened Laszlo.
"Aw, you'll be alright, sweetheart. Don't you worry!" She coos at him, before frowning disapprovingly at Katy, Martha, and Frank. "What are you clowns doing?"
"Even if the Doctor stops the Dalekanium, this place is still going to get hit." Martha declares.
"Exactly! Great big bolt of lightning, electricity all down this building. Connect this to the lift and they get zapped!" Katy added, brightly.
"Oh, my God, that could work!" Tallulah grinned.
"Then give us a hand…" Frank muttered exasperatedly.
Working together, the four of them manage to put together a lineup of metal from the lightning conductor all the way to the lift doors. Tallulah looks doubtfully at the hastily constructed, improvised weapon.
"Is that going to work?"
"Don't see why it wouldn't." Katy responded, as Frank finished putting the last piece of metal into place.
"I've got it all piped up to the scaffolding outside." He announces, and Martha waves him over to where she, Katy, Tallulah and Laszlo were hunkering down out of range of the potentially lethal MacGyvered weapon they had created.
"Come here, Frank. Just sit in the middle and don't touch anything metal." She warns and Frank nods and comes over, crouching down beside Martha and taking hold of one of her hands for luck.
It doesn't take long before lightning suddenly hits the building – and unbeknownst to them, the Doctor – and the electricity flows down the conductor, along the scaffolding poles and straight into the pigmen in the lift when the doors slid open. When it is over, all the pigmen are dead; smoking and blackened from the electricity that had flowed into their systems.
"We did it!" Tallulah cheered triumphantly.
However, Martha looks upset as she stares remorsefully at the pig slave corpses littering the floor of the lift. Katy is indifferent despite knowing that these deaths were needless.
"They used to be like Laszlo," Martha realises, remorsefully. "They were people, and we killed them." However, Laszlo manages to go over to her and places a comforting hand on her shoulder, directing her attention towards him, as he firmly reassures her of her innocence.
"No, the Daleks killed them. Long ago."
"What about the Doctor?" Katy reminded them, before making a beeline for the open area, and thus the ladder that led the way up to the highest point of the building, where the Doctor was supposed to have removed the Dalekanium from the conductor.
Martha and Frank are quick to follow her. About halfway up, they spot something small, silver and blue lying abandoned on a lower level. Katy picks it up and swore underneath her breath when she recognises it as the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
"Shit! He must have dropped it!" Katy panicked.
"Not surprising. It must be freezing up there. The North Atlantic wind can be very icy at high altitudes, so it must have really numbed his hands." Frank reasoned, and Katy nodded before shoving the sonic into the pocket of her peacoat and resumed climbing the ladder.
Lightning Conductor
They found the Doctor lying spreadeagled just below the lightning conductor and smoking slightly. His normally spiky brown hair was standing on end a little more than usual, and his brown trench coat was blowing gently in the wind.
"Doctor!" Katy gasped when she sees him and immediately rushes over to check him over to make sure that he was alright. He was; just a bit unconscious. She lightly taps on him on the cheek to wake him up. "Doctor, sweetie?" He calls out to him and the Doctor slowly regains consciousness, blinking up at her like a newborn. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty…" Katy joked, earning a smile and a slightly exasperated roll of the eyes from him as she helped the Doctor sit up.
He groaned slightly in pain.
Martha examines him.
"He's alright," she confirms. Katy pulls the Doctor's sonic from her pocket and holds it up to him.
"Look what we found halfway down…" She shows him, and the Doctor smiles gratefully at her and takes it back.
"You're getting careless." Martha doesn't hesitate to tell him.
"Oh, my head…" the Doctor complains.
"Hiya!" Martha smirks at him, relieved that he was somewhat okay. He grins back, clutching onto Katy's hand to comfort her, since she still looked a bit concerned about him.
"Hi!" He returned the greeting and inspected the three of them briefly. "You survived then."
"So did you, just about." Martha stated.
"However, can't help noticing there's Dalekanum still attached…" Katy points out, and the Doctor looks over in horror.
Works Office
The four of them make their way back down to where Katy, Martha, and Frank had left Tallulah and Laszlo. The very second they get there, the Doctor gets straight to the point, knowing that the Daleks were likely to have put their plan into fruition moments after the Dalekanum had finished doing what it had been installed for.
"The Daleks will have gone straight to a war footing. They'll be using the sewers, spreading the soldiers out underneath Manhattan." The Doctor explains, looking a bit stressed, since he was partially responsible for what had happened.
"How do we stop them?" Laszlo questioned, ignoring the fact that he was literally in no condition to really fight, and stubbornly persisting.
"There's only one chance," the Doctor looked surprisingly triumphant. "I got in the way—"
"—You what…?" Katy exclaimed, shocked that the Doctor was still in one piece and still standing after being hit with 300 million volts of electricity and 30,000 amps. It certainly proved that he was definitely an alien.
"—That gamma strike went zapping through me first!" The Doctor continues, pretending that he hadn't noticed the irritation on his girlfriend's face when she had heard that he had deliberately put himself in the path of a deadly lightning bolt. Martha frowned, having not quite cottoned on to what the Doctor was getting at about 'getting in the way'.
"What does that mean?" She asks.
"It means that the humans aren't going to be 100% Dalek," Katy explains, reluctantly impressed with the Doctor's quick thinking, but still looking a bit pissed off with him. "I'd say, it's more likely to be 70% Time Lord, 30% Dalek…" She predicts, and the Doctor nodded.
"If it works out that way," He theorises. "We need to draw fire. Before they can attack New York, I need to face them." The Doctor stated, firmly. "Where can I draw them out? Think, think, think, think, think." He muttered out loud to himself as he impatiently attempts to sift thought his many thoughts. "We need some sort of space. Somewhere safe. Somewhere out of the way…." Then he gets a lightbulb moment. "Tallulah!"
The blonde comes to attention.
"That's me. Three Ls and an H." She responded with a determined look on her face.
"The theatre! It's right above them, and, what, it's gone midnight? Can you get us inside?" the Doctor requested, and Tallulah shrugged.
"I don't see why not."
"Is there another lift?" He asks Katy and Martha.
"We came up in the service elevator." Martha explains, pointing in the direction of said transportation, and the Doctor grinned triumphantly.
"That'll do! Allons-y!" He grabs Katy's hand and runs for the service elevator, with Martha, Frank, Tallulah, and Laszlo bringing up from the rear.
Theatre
Tallulah successfully manages to sneak them all into the deserted theatre. They head towards the stage with the Doctor taking the lead. He looks around, approvingly.
"This should do it. Here we go." The Doctor confirms, as Tallulah looks around the empty theatre, looking uncomfortable.
"There ain't nothing more creepy than a theatre in the dark," She admits before looking over to the Doctor who was scanning around the room with his sonic. "Listen, Doctor, I know you've got a thing for showtunes, but there's a time and a place, huh?" Laszlo suddenly collapses into a nearby seat, he is extremely lethargic and sickly looking, and Tallulah goes to him, looking very concerned for her boyfriend's health. "Laszlo, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," he reassures her. "It's just so hot…" He moaned feebly.
Tallulah frowned at him in confusion.
"But it's freezing in here…" She glances over at the Doctor helplessly. "Doctor, what's happening to him?"
"Not now, Tallulah. Sorry..." the Doctor replies shortly, still fiddling with his sonic, prompting Katy and Martha to come over to him to figure out what was going on.
"What are you doing?" Katy prompts him.
"If the Daleks are going to war, they'll want to find their number one enemy. I'm just telling them where I am." He holds up his sonic in the air, and it emits a beeping noise. The Doctor then sternly looks down at Katy and Martha. "This time, I'm telling you both to go." He orders, firmly. "Frank can take you back to Hooverville."
"Sweetie, I'm not going anywhere. You know that!" Katy retorted, folding her arms stubbornly over her chest.
"Like it or not, Doctor, we're not going!" Martha agreed.
"Katy, Martha, that's an order!" the Doctor presses the issue and Katy glares at him.
"Then I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to disobey your order!"
"Who are you, then? Some sort of Dalek?" Martha spits at him.
But before the Doctor could lose his temper with the stubborn girls, the theatre doors are broken into and people armed with Dalek-like weaponry march two-by-two in from both sides. Tallulah's eyes widen in alarm.
"Doctor! Oh, my God! Well, I guess that's them then, huh?" She states the obvious and Katy rolled her eyes.
"You think?" She muttered sarcastically.
"Humans, with Dalek DNA?" Martha was a bit sceptical. The Doctor immediately jumps down from his perch on some of the seats and shields Katy and Martha behind him, talking calmly.
"It's all right, it's all right. Just stay calm. Don't antagonise them." He warns everyone.
"But what of the Dalek masters?" Laszlo pointed out, looking concerned. "Where are they?" He makes a valid point. Then right on cue, there is an explosion on stage, drawing everyone's attention towards it. Two of the Daleks appear, with Sec leached on a chain and crawling on all fours between them, like a dog.
"THE DOCTOR WILL STAND BEFORE THE DALEKS!" One of the Daleks bellows and the Doctor, stony-faced, walks forward on top of the seats. "YOU WILL DIE, DOCTOR. IT IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW AGE!" It declares.
"PLANET EARTH WILL BECOME NEW SKARO!" the other Dalek added.
The Doctor sneers, unimpressed.
"Oh, and what a world. With anything just the slightest bit different ground into the dirt." He states scornfully as he raises a finger and points towards a humiliated Sec, who looks up at him helplessly. "That's Dalek Sec. Don't you remember? The cleverest Dalek ever and look what you've done to him. Is that your new Empire, hmm? It that the foundation for a whole new civilisation?"
"My Daleks," Sec speaks up defiantly. "Just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you." He doesn't hesitate to remind them.
"INCORRECT. WE WILL ALWAYS SURVIVE!"
"NOW WE WILL DESTROY OUR GREATEST ENEMY, THE DOCTOR!"
"But he can help you!" Sec insisted, pleadingly.
"THE DOCTOR MUST DIE!" His pleas go unheard, but Sec is determined to make a stand and get his point across at the last minute.
"No, I beg you, don't!" He pleaded getting to his feet and stumbling clumsily towards them to stop them. One of the Daleks swivels and aims at him.
"EXTERMINATE!" It shouts, and Sec is electrocuted with the Dalek's green laser energy.
He dies instantly. The Doctor is disgusted.
"Your own leader," His voice practically dripped with derision. "The only creature who might have led you out of the darkness, and you destroyed him." The Doctor turns his attention towards the supposed Human-Daleks surrounding him, Katy, Martha, Frank, Tallulah, and Laszlo, and addresses them. "Do you see what they did? Huh? You see what a Dalek REALLY is?" The Doctor climbs across the tops of the seats to the middle of the auditorium and spreads his arms wider, making himself look like an easy target. "If I'm going to die, let's give the new boys a shot. What do you think, eh? The Dalek humans? Their first blood. Go on, baptise them!"
"NO!" Katy and Martha protested.
"DALEK HUMANS, TAKE AIM!" One of the Daleks orders, and they do. You hear the sounds of guns clicking and aiming. The Doctor squeezes his eyes shut, waiting impatiently for the gunfire.
"What are you waiting for? Give the command!" the Doctor growls.
"EXTERMINATE!" The Daleks order once again, and the Doctor tenses. But nothing happens. Everyone looks confused; what the hell is going on?
"EXTERMINATE!"
"OBEY. DALEK HUMANS WILL OBEY!" If the situation wasn't so serious, Katy could've been laughing, believing that the two Daleks were having a massive dummy-spit because their 'creations' were essentially defying them.
"They're not firing. What have you done?" Martha questioned him.
"YOU WILL OBEY. EXTERMINATE!"
"Why?" All heads swivel towards one of the Dalek-Human who was looking at their 'masters' with genuine confusion.
"DALEKS DO NOT QUESTION ORDERS!"
"But why?" the man insisted.
"YOU WILL STOP THIS!" The Daleks were getting irritated.
"But why?"
"YOU MUST NOT QUESTION!"
"But you are not our master," the man frowned defensively, and a small triumphant smile spreads across the Doctor's face; much to the suspicion and curiosity of Martha who was observing this like she were watching a session of tennis. "And we, we are not Daleks."
"No, you're not." The Doctor confirmed with a calm voice. "And you never will be." The Doctor looked at the Daleks on stage with a 'sorry, not sorry' expression on his face. "Sorry, I got in the way of the lightning strike. Time Lord DNA got all mixed up. Just that little bit of freedom."
"I KNEW IT!" Katy crowed enthusiastically, earning a small grin from the Doctor before he became serious again.
"IF THEY WILL NOT OBEY, THEN THEY MUST DIE!" the Daleks threatened, before taking aim at the man who spoke out in protest. The Doctor's eyes widened in alarm.
"Get down!" He shouts, recognising a shoot-out when he saw one, and proceeded to jump down to where Katy was standing and pulled her down out of range. The others followed suit as the Daleks and the mutated humans all start firing at each other.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" the Daleks shout angrily. "DESTROY THE HYBRIDS. DESTROY!" In the chaos, one of the Daleks is destroyed. "EXTERMIN—" and the other gets its head blown up. Cautiously, everyone stands up and looks around in bewilderment, while the Doctor approaches the Dalek-humans to reassure them.
"It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. You did it. You're free." He congratulated them, with a calm soothing voice. The mutants suddenly clutch at their heads when a high-pitched sound suddenly appears, and one by one they all die and collapse to the theatre floor. The Doctor, Katy, Martha, Frank, Tallulah and Laszlo watch this, horrified and helpless to stop it from happening.
"No! They can't! They can't! They can't! They can't!" the Doctor protests.
"Oh, but they can, and they did." Katy confirmed, tearfully.
"What happened? What was that?" Martha was shocked by the genocide that had taken place before her eyes.
"They killed them, rather than let them live." The Doctor was enraged. "An entire species. Genocide!"
"Only two of the Daleks have been destroyed," Laszlo points out. "One of the Dalek masters must still be alive."
"Oh, yes. In the whole universe, just one." The Doctor agreed, a very dark expression on his face that made both Katy and Martha shudder when they saw it. Both were very grateful that it wasn't directed towards them.
Dalek Laboratory
A lone Dalek waits patiently in the middle of the laboratory, just waiting for the arrival of the Doctor. However, it was unconcerned with this. Just as it was unconcerned that the Doctor would be baying for its blood after the mass genocide it had just committed only moments earlier back in the theatre. The lift dings and the doors' part, revealing a livid Doctor striding towards it with a look of determination on his face. Behind him, Katy, Martha, Frank, and Tallulah, supporting a very sick Laszlo follow.
"Now what?" the Doctor demanded angrily.
"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED." The Dalek responded nonchalantly. The Doctor waves a dismissive hand at it.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." He responded. "Just think about it, Dalek … what was your name?"
"DALEK CAAN."
"Dalek Caan. Your entire species has been wiped out. And now the Cult of Skaro has been eradicated, leaving only you." The Doctor listed the facts. "Right now, you're facing the only man in the universe who might show you some compassion. Because I've just seen one genocide. I won't cause another. Caan, let me help you. What do you say?"
"EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT!" Dalek Caan shrieks before teleporting away. The cables that had been attached to it fall off and clatter to the floor.
"Coward…" Katy muttered with disgust. Suddenly, Laszlo begins collapsing to the ground, almost taking Tallulah and an assisting Martha with him.
"Doctor!" Martha shouts at him, and the Doctor turns and his eyes widen in alarm when he sees Laszlo's condition. "Doctor! He's sick!" The Doctor comes over to examine the ailing Laszlo for himself as Katy and Frank watch sadly. "It's okay. You're all right…" Martha attempts to soothe Laszlo. "It's his heart. It's racing like mad. I've never seen anything like it." Martha reports to the Doctor, who looks very grave.
"What is it, Doctor?" Tallulah asks frantically. "What's the matter with him? He says he can't breathe. What is it?"
"It's time, sweetheart…" Laszlo wheezes painfully, as he reaches over and takes Tallulah's hand in his to bring them both some comfort in what he assumed was going to be his final moments.
"What do you mean, time?" Tallulah demands. "What are you talking about?"
"None of the slaves survive for long," Laszlo explains. "Most of them only live for a few weeks. I was lucky. I held on because I had you. But now, I'm dying, Tallulah…" Laszlo confesses.
"No, you're not! Not now, after all this!" Tallulah was in denial and looks up at the Doctor desperately. "Doctor, can't you do something?"
The Doctor, during Laszlo's explanation, had gotten to his feet and turned away, pacing out of despair that he was about to lose another innocent person. But the moment Tallulah pleaded with him to help Laszlo, he decided, screw it! I'm not just going to stand here and watch him die, when there could be something I could do to help. He turns back to Tallulah, looking at her stoically.
"Oh, Tallulah with three Ls and an H … just you watch me!" He rushes over towards a nearby worktop and takes stock of what he had on hand. "What do I need?" He muses rhetorically. "Oh, I don't know. How about a great big genetic laboratory? Oh look, I've got one!" He gestures enthusiastically all around him.
"So, what are you waiting for?" Katy demanded, a little exasperated with the Doctor's theatrics.
"Absolutely nothing, love!" the Doctor retorted brightly. "Laszlo, just you hold on. There's been too many deaths today." He picks up and starts working with several coloured liquids. "Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age-old enemies. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now, I'm not having one more death! You got that? Not one!"
The Doctor finishes mixing chemicals, before rushing away from the worktop and approaching where Laszlo was lying on the ground, wheezing and gasping for breath, and looking at the Doctor quizzically. He gently shoves Tallulah to one side.
"Tallulah, out of the way. The Doctor is in…!" He quipped as he pulls out his stethoscope and shoves the buds into his ears as he dives in to fix Laszlo's condition.
Central Park
It was the next morning.
Bright, warm sunshine filters down upon the Doctor, Katy, and Martha who were waiting patiently beside Tallulah, and a heavily disguised Laszlo, who was wearing a heavy woolen trench coat and fedora, which he had pulled tightly down over his face to hide his prominent pig snout. Tallulah was clutching his arm tightly, unwilling to be parted from her boyfriend, and Katy observes this with a small smile on her face, as she too links hands with the Doctor. They all turn towards Frank, who runs up to them, looking happy about something.
"Well, I talked to them," Frank was referring to the other squatters living in Hooverville, which was where Laszlo was going to be living for the duration of the Great Depression. "… and I told them what Solomon would've said, and I reckon I shamed one or two of them." He grinned, mischievously.
"What did they say?" the Doctor asked.
"They said yes," Frank confirmed. "They'll give you a home, Laszlo. I mean, er, don't imagine people ain't going to stare. I can't promise you'll be at peace but, in the end, that is what Hooverville is for. People who ain't got nowhere else."
Laszlo nodded, looking relieved and grateful.
"Thank you. I can't thank you enough."
Bedloe's Island
The Doctor, Katy, and Martha made their farewells to Frank, Tallulah, and Laszlo and headed back the way they came from to the Ferries; hitching a ride back to Bedloe's Island, where the Tardis stood idling by, waiting for them to return. Katy looks back towards the mainland, in the vague direction of Central Park, looking thoughtful.
"Do you reckon it's going to work, those two?" She wondered, referring to Tallulah and Laszlo. The Doctor shrugged, obviously thinking along the same lines as Katy was.
"I don't know. Anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York? That's what this city's good at. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…" and maybe the odd pig slave Dalek mutant hybrid too." He grinned down at Katy who smiles back at him.
"The pig and the showgirl," Katy stated.
"The pig and the showgirl," the Doctor confirms. They finally reach the Tardis and both Martha and Katy stand to one side while the Doctor pulls out his Tardis key and unlocks the double doors.
"It just proves it, I suppose. There's someone for everyone." Martha was optimistic, while Katy just shrugged.
"Maybe…"
"Meant to say, I'm sorry." Martha looks at the Doctor solemnly, and he blinks at her in surprise.
"What for?"
"Just because that Dalek got away," Martha elaborated. "I know what that means to you." The Doctor nodded but didn't say anything else. "Think you'll ever see it again?"
"Oh, yes. One day…" the Doctor confirms, darkly.
"They're like bad pennies; they always turn up." Katy added on, just as worried.
A/N: That's a wrap. Thanks for your patience. Uni demanded a lot of my focus, and I used every spare moment that I wasn't studying or sleeping to continue writing this. So, thank you! Stay tuned for the next chapter update. TTFN!