Leslie had sat down as soon as they made it into the room, and ignored the following conversation. Each the destroyer of the other's race but one, the Doctor and the Dalek were likely to see whether or not they could annihilate each other completely. But Leslie didn't really need to hear much of it, just one line...

"You would make a good Dalek." There it was, and that was so, so wrong. Daleks killed for the sake of it- the Doctor killed his race and the Daleks, going against everything he stood for, just so the universe wasn't destroyed in the crossfire.

"No, you wouldn't," Leslie told him, and he turned around, his face filled with self-hate.

"Really?" he spat. "Why not? Why isn't it right?"

"Daleks don't like leather," they told him seriously, and his face softened into a small smile.

"They would look awful in it," the Doctor affirmed, and that was that.

oOo

"Leslie!" the Doctor called, "C'mon! We're going adventuring."

Leslie nodded, glad that the conclusion had finally been reached. It was inevitable, yet it was still a thing that needed to be discussed. Is logic alive?

"Where?" Leslie asked.

"I need a weapon," the Doctor admitted, "Adam's taking us to his workshop."

A weapon? For what? Leslie asked themself. It's been a while since I saw this one... there was a gun, right? To kill the dalek. It's reasonable. It dies anyway.

"Okay. Can I get a trinket?" Leslie asked, never one to turn down the opportunity to get something useful. Or useless.

"Sure," he said, grinning.

He stepped back to give them room, and they swung their legs off the chair onto the ground. They stood up and shook their feet, before joining the Doctor in walking down the stairs.

oOo

Leslie sat on the desk beside the box as the Doctor went through Adam's collection. His workshop was rather messy, with clutter covering most of the surfaces.

"Broken, broken, hair-dryer," the Doctor muttered. Leslie reached into the box, and pulled out what appeared to be needles or wands, except with small... pores? in the handle.

"What's this?" they asked the Doctor.

He picked it up and examined the white sticks. "Electric wands, of some sort. They focus electrical current into a beam. Like magic, except using natural currents generated by the body."

Leslie took it back gently, not letting their fingers touch the pores. "So, does it aim using the brainwaves? Can it distinguish between currents?"

"Yes, but you may not be able to use it, even though it does magnify the energy - the technology was made for aliens with much stronger brainwaves and electrical output. But you should be able to do it - humans are fantastic at this kind of thing," the Doctor said.

He went back to scavenging through the 'space junk' as Leslie pocketed the wands. Perhaps my talent with the piano means that I can dual-wield. Either way, equip wandkind.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor said, lifting a cylinder, "Lock and load. Let's go, Leslie."

He ran out the door and started going up the stairs, taking two at a time. Lez looked at Adam before following the Doctor, running at an equal pace just behind him. When they arrived in the area near the sun, the Doctor had his gun aimed at the Dalek. But Rose was standing in front of it.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants," Rose pleaded. Leslie looked over to the Dalek. Its casing was open and the creature inside had a tentacle reaching into the sunlight coming through the hole in the roof.

"But it can't-" the Doctor said in disbelief, not wanting to consider that the being that had helped cause the destruction of his race could ever change.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's changing," Rose persisted, "What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?"

"Rose!" Leslie said, scandalised.

"I couldn't-" the Doctor swallowed, "I wasn't-" he took a shaky breath, and dropped the gun. Leslie wrapped their arms around him, despite their hair only just brushing his chin. Hugs make everything okay, eventually.

"Oh, Rose. They're all dead," the Doctor said shakily, holding Leslie tight, who in turn leaned into him.

"Why do we survive?" the Dalek asked him. Leslie let go, allowing the Doctor to interact with his final sworn enemy.

"I don't know," the Doctor said truthfully.

"I am the last of the Daleks," the Dalek told him.

"You're not even that," the Doctor told it, "Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?" the Dalek asked.

"Something new," he paused, "I'm sorry."

Rose looked from the Doctor to the Dalek and back again. "Isn't that better?" she asked the Doctor.

"Not for a Dalek," the Doctor told her sadly.

"I can feel so many ideas," the Dalek said in wonder, "So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die!" it demanded.

"I can't do that." Rose said. I'm only a year older than her. I couldn't make this decision either.

"This is not life," the Dalek yelled, "this is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction. Obey! Obey!"

"Do it," Rose told it sadly, tears in her eyes.

"Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?" it asked her.

"Yeah." Rose admitted.

"Are you frightened?" Leslie asked the Dalek.

"Yes," it answered, "I am frightened to not exist."

The end of the statement as a human would say it was left silent. Aren't you?

"Exterminate," the Dalek uttered, sealing its fate as the casing sealed it inside.

Rose ran towards the Doctor, stumbling slightly on the rubble from the ceiling.

The Dalek slowly rose into the air, the spheres that adorned its outer shell separating to form a forcefield around it. Then the Dalek imploded in a burst of golden-white light.

oOo

"Little piece of home," the Doctor said stroking the TARDIS, "Better than nothing."

"Is that the end of it?" Rose asked, "The time war?"

"I'm the only one left," said the Doctor, "I win. How about that?"

"The Dalek survived," Rose pointed out, "Maybe some of your people did too."

"I'd know," said the Doctor, "In here." He tapped his temple. "Feels like there's no-one."

"You know, just because you don't think anyone's there doesn't mean there isn't. It just means that you need a little help to find them," Leslie said, reminded of when they thought they were alone.

The Doctor blinked, as if committing the statement to memory via audio photograph. Is logic alive? Rose mentioned Adam, and the Doctor began complaining about the man as Leslie slipped away into the TARDIS.

Leslie ran down the coral halls, the metal floor clanging as they did so. They turned two corners and ran down a flight of stairs, at which point they found themself in a kitchen.

"Thank-you TARDIS!" they said to the roof. From the stars in a midnight blue sky, the TARDIS gave a whirring hum.

Five minutes later they were sitting at the small table shaped like a crescent moon in the centre of the room, eating a bowl of space-themed cereal soaked in a portion of the slowly-dwindling amount of milk.

"TARDIS," they started, "what do you want me to call you?"

On the wall opposite them, they saw a word being written in reply.

"Home." Leslie read, and they smiled. Then a headache hit them. They groaned, quickly finishing their cereal and slurping down the milk.

"This comes at the worst of times." Lez complained, and the TARDIS gave a whir in agreement. "And I was really hungry, too - I was going to have some toast."

They disappeared in a white light, and when the Doctor came to find them to ask where the trio should go next, all he found was a blue bowl and the word 'Home' written on the wall.