Jessie yelped as the TARDIS jerked. "What the - "

"OK, maybe not the dinosaur age," the Doctor commented, working at the console. "Hang on!"

She clung to one of the coral structures as the TARDIS kept jerking, and the Doctor kept trying to fix it. After a few moments, everything stilled.

The Doctor scratched his head, looking at the readings. "Huh." He went for the doors.

Jessie followed. "So what is it? What's wrong?"

"Don't know," the Doctor replied, looking around what appeared to be a dark hallway. "Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course."

"Huh," she repeated his words, getting a chuckle out of him as she looked around. "Where are we?"

"Earth," he replied. "Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

"Back home in the States," she said happily, then frowned. "And when are we?"

"2019."

"Wow," she commented as he investigated what seemed to be a glass case. "That's close. I'd be twenty-seven." She grinned. "Get Stark to finally let me into his alcohol cupboard."

The Doctor snorted, then flipped a light switch. Jessie looked around in surprise when she saw more cases. "My God," she whispered. "You landed us in an underground museum!"

"An alien museum," he agreed, walking past cases. "Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this! Chunks of meteorite, moon dust . . . that's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship!"

Jessie leaned down next to one case and grimaced. "Apparently stuffed Slitheen arms are good for a collection," she told him, narrowing her eyes at it.

"Oh, look at you!"

Jessie turned, raising an eyebrow when she saw him examining a case with what appeared to be a robot's head. "What is that?"

"An old friend of mine," he replied absently. "Well . . . enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit."

"Quite an exhibit."

"I'm getting old," he agreed.

"So is this where the signal's coming from?"

"No." He nodded at the head. "It's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out."

"Calling for help, then."

The Doctor reached out to touch the case, but when he did, alarms began blaring. Jessie on instinct drew the gun holstered on her hip now - first thing she'd done when she'd gotten back onboard the TARDIS, get her utility belt fully equipped - and aimed at the oncoming guards. "Well," she said slowly as even more poured in. "If this guy's collecting aliens . . . that'll make you Exhibit A."

***

Surprisingly, the guards didn't check her for any other weapons besides her gun . . . which was held in the hand of their escort, a woman named Diana Goddard. The Doctor leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Any chance you got a backup?"

She snorted loudly, and he grinned and continued walking. They made it into an office, and Jessie heard the end of a sentence: " . . . must be to channel something." English, she thought. Aren't we in the States? "I think maybe fuel."

Two guys were standing over something most likely alien. Neither of them she paid attention to, but she saw the Doctor shoot the "prettier" one a look before adding something of his own. "I really wouldn't hold it like that."

"Shut it," Goddard told him sharply.

"How about you, cuz he doesn't stop when he gets started," Jessie retorted. Goddard just glared at her.

"Really, though, that's wrong," the Doctor insisted.

"Is it dangerous?" Pretty Boy asked worriedly.

The Doctor and Jessie shrugged. "No, it just looks silly," he replied.

He reached for the device, but froze when guns cocked all around them, and Jessie's hand grasped his arm protectively. "They shoot, they'll go right through us," she whispered softly.

"Fantastic," he whispered back. The older man handed the object to the Doctor. "You just need to be . . . " He stroked it slightly. Jessie smiled when she heard a note vibrate out of it. "Delicate."

Jessie poked her head over his shoulder. "Can I . . . ?"

The Doctor handed it to her, and she tentatively played a few other notes. "It's a musical instrument," the older man realized.

The Doctor nodded as Jessie handed it back to him. "And it's a long way from home."

"Here, let me." The Doctor handed it back, and Jessie made a face as when he tried, harsher notes were brought out.

"I did say delicate," the Doctor advised. "It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision." Jessie smiled as the man finally got the hang of it. "Very good! Quite the expert."

"As are you." Jessie winced as he threw the instrument away without further ado. The Doctor merely blinked. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," he replied promptly. "And who are you?"

"Like you don't know!" the man scoffed. "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artifacts in the world, and you just stumbled in my mistake."

"Pretty much sums me up," the Doctor admitted cheerfully, making Jessie snort. "Yeah."

"Question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice!" Jessie pointed to herself raising an eyebrow. "Quite a collector yourself. She's rather pretty."

"She's pretty, she knows how to use a gun, and she will bitch slap you if you keep calling her she," Jessie snapped, making the Doctor chuckle.

"American!" the man said, sounding surprised.

"This is Mr. Henry Van Statten," Pretty Boy introduced them.

"Please tell me he's not this at home," Jessie said.

"Mr. Van Statten owns the Internet."

Jessie burst out laughing. "No one owns the Internet!"

"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way," Van Statten replied. "Right, kids?"

"I'm no kid!"

"She's definitely no kid," the Doctor agreed. "So, first off: give her back her gun before she slaps you, because if her team is anything to go by, you'll get hell." Jessie waved sweetly at everyone there before holding out her hand expectantly. Goddard looked at Van Statten worriedly, then handed Jessie's gun back to her. She cocked it expertly, flipping the safety, then pushed it into its holster. "Right. Now, Van Statten, you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten asked.

"I don't need to make claims," the Doctor retorted. "I know how good I am."

"And yet I captured you. Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"Signal?" Jessie asked the Doctor.

The Doctor winked at her, then turned to Van Statten, expressionless. "You tell me."

"The Cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know," Van Statten scoffed.

"Show me," the Doctor replied.

"You want to do it?"

"Testosterone scent rising," Jessie said in a mimic close to the computer from Platform One, making the Doctor smirk. "Testosterone scent rising."

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down," Van Statten ordered, standing. "You, English, look after the girl - "

Jessie gasped when the Doctor's arm came out and snagged around her before Pretty Boy even moved. "She stays with me," he said lowly.

"You're lucky I'm even letting you come," Van Statten replied, leaning forward. "She can't."

"Está bien," she whispered to him as the Doctor tensed to argue. "Continúa." (It's all right. You go on.)

He shot her a look. "Casi te pierdo en Downing Street," he replied back, and she didn't miss the confused looks. "No te perdere otra vez." (I almost lost you at Downing Street. I'm not going to lose you again.)

"No me perderas," she assured him, squeezing his hand. "Ve." (You won't. Go.)

He stared at her for a second, then gestured to the Pretty Boy. He swallowed and walked over, and the Doctor whispered something in his ear. Whatever it was, it made Pretty Boy start nodding vigorously, and the Doctor finally nodded to Van Statten. "Let's go."

***

The Doctor was definitely not happy. On the upside, he knew Jessie had a good knowledge of Spanish. Leaving her with Pretty Boy, who he'd learned from Goddard was named Adam Mitchell, did not boost his mood up.

Although . . . if she knew that much in Spanish . . .

"We've tried everything," Van Statten was saying, snapping the Doctor out of his thoughts. No more Spanish thoughts. "The creature has shielded itself, but there's definitely signs of life inside."

"Inside?" the Doctor repeated. "Inside what?"

"Welcome back, sir!" The Doctor looked at the man who'd spoken as he looked up from a monitor. "I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

The Doctor blinked. "Metaltron?" Even FitzSimmons could've come up with a better name than that.

"Thought of it myself," Van Statten replied proudly, and the Doctor rolled his eyes when the man wasn't looking. "Good, isn't it? Although I'd much prefer to find out its real name."

"Here. You'd better put these on." The Doctor accepted the gauntlets in confusion. "The last guy that touched it burst into flames."

"I won't touch it, then," he commented, but he put the gauntlets on anyway.

"Go ahead, Doctor," Van Statten told the Doctor. "Impress me."

The Doctor had the urge to roll his eyes yet again, but he stepped into the Cage. He didn't react when the door shut and locked behind him. He looked around in the dark. "Look, I'm sorry about this," he said to the alien, wherever it was. "Mr. Van Statten thinks he's clever, but never mind him. I'm the Doctor. I've come to help."

He turned, startled when he saw white lights blinking next to a blue glow. "Doc . . . tor?"

His blood ran cold as he recognized that voice from a war long ago. "Impossible," he breathed.

"The Doctor?"

When the lights came on to reveal one of his worst, if not the worst enemy, the Doctor knew he was in trouble. "Exterminate!" the Dalek began shouting. "Exterminate!"

"Let me out!" the Doctor shouted, banging on the cage door.

"You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!"

The Doctor turned to look at it, then stopped when he saw its gun wouldn't work. "It's not working," he said out loud just to make sure. When nothing else happened, he began laughing, mainly in relief. "Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless!" he told it as he approached. "The great space dustbin. How does it feel?"

"Keep back!" the Dalek warned.

The Doctor leaned down so they were eye to eye-stalk. "What for?" he asked bluntly. "What are you going to do to me? If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing. What the hell are you here for?"

"I am waiting for orders."

"What does that mean?" the Doctor asked, beginning to wonder if the Dalek even knew what happened during the Time War.

"I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders."

It didn't know. It honestly didn't know. "Well, you're never going to get any," he managed to say. "Not ever."

"I demand orders!"

"They're never going to come!" The Doctor swallowed, memories of the Time War spinning through his head. "Your race is dead! You all burned, all of you! Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen." He swallowed. "I made it happen."

"You destroyed us?"

"I had no choice."

"And what of the Time Lords?"

"Dead," the Doctor replied shortly. "They burned with you. The end of the last great Time Lord. Everyone lost."

"And the coward survived."

"Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me," the Doctor told it hotly. "Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cos there's no one else left!"

"There's me," Jessie's voice in memory came back into his head.

"I am alone in the universe," the Dalek seemed to realize.

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed.

"So are you. We are the same."

"We're not the same!" the Doctor snapped, turning to go, but he stopped. "No, wait." He turned back, his anger brimming almost over. "Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, OK, you've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve." He stormed over to the console nearby. "Exterminate."

He pulled one of the levers, and the Dalek lit up with electricity. "Have pity!" it cried at him.

"Why should I?" the Doctor demanded. "You never did!"

"Help me!"

The Doctor made to amp the electricity up, but the door to the Cage opened, and guards swarmed, grabbing him. Van Statten marched up to the Dalek as the controller walked to the console. "I saved your life!" Van Statten shouted at the Dalek. "Now talk to me. Goddamn it, talk to me!"

"You've got to destroy it!" the Doctor shouted.

"The last in the universe," Van Statten said as he looked at the Dalek, the controller turning off the electricity. "And now I know your name. Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek. I am Henry Van Statten. Now recognize me!" He growled when nothing happened, turning to the controller. "Make it talk again, Simmons. Whatever it takes."

Simmons? Now I just need to find the Fizzy boy and we get the science team from SHIELD, the Doctor thought as he was dragged out. What did I get us into?

***

"Sorry about the mess," Adam told Jessie as she looked around his workshop. "Mr. Van Statten sort of let's me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods." She started when he handed her a big thick piece of metal. What do you think that is?"

"A lump of metal," she deadpanned, handing it back to him.

"Yeah," Adam agreed before putting on a look Jessie called the "trying to be impressive" face. "Yeah, but I think - well, I'm almost certain - it's from the hull of a spacecraft. The thing is, it's all true!" No shit, Sherlock, she thought as she snorted. "Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist!"

"That's amazing!" Jessie said in mock enthusiasm, putting her chin in her hands.

"I know! It sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life!"

"I'm gobsmacked, yeah," Jessie snorted, waving a hand. "And what d'you do, just sit here and catalogue it?"

"Best job in the world."

Jessie decided to just play along and she where she got. "Imagine if you could get out there. Travel amongst the stars and see it for real."

"Yeah, I'd give everything," Adam agreed. "I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes."

"Oh, you never know." She shifted her position. "What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?"

"I think they're nutters."

Jessie couldn't help but laugh at that. "How'd you end up here?"

"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

So does SHIELD, and you never popped up once. "Oh, right," she said sarcastically. "You're a genius."

"Sorry, but yeah." Jessie did a facepalm as he began bragging. "I can't help it. I was born clever. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defense System. Nearly caused World War Three."

"And you think that's funny?" Jessie demanded, standing up straight to glare at him.

"Well, you should've been there just to see them running about!" Adam replied. "Fantastic!"

Jessie grimaced. "You sound like the Doctor now."

He eyed her with interest. "Are you and him - ?"

Jessie shook her head quickly. "No. We're just friends."

"Good," he said with satisfaction.

She eyed him warily, standing up and brushing her hand against her leg where she checked to make sure she still had one of her knives strapped there. "Why is that good?"

"It just is," he replied.

She didn't like the look in his eyes one bit. "Wouldn't you rather be downstairs?" she asked quickly, changing the subject before he could talk again. "You've got these bits and metals and . . . stuff, but Mr. Van Statten's got a living creature down there."

"Yeah," Adam admitted. "Yeah, well . . . I did ask, but he keeps it to himself. Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through the comm system."

She made a helpless gesture. "Then what're you waiting for?"

Adam went to his computer and began typing. "It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot."

Jessie's eyes widened when she took in the screaming alien as the worker took a big drill to its metal casing. "It's being tortured!" She looked around the room where the alien was. "Where's the Doctor?"

"I don't know!"

She grabbed his arm. "Get me down there. Now."

***

"The metal's just battle armor," the Doctor tried to explain as they got into the lift. "The real Dalek creature's inside."

"What does it look like?" Van Statten asked in interest.

"A nightmare," he replied darkly as the Time War kept running through his head. "It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate."

"Genetically engineered . . . by whom?"

"By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world." He looked at him pointedly. "You'd like him."

"It's been on Earth for over fifty years," Goddard told him. "Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?"

"Because I'm here," the Doctor replied simply. "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite," she reported. "It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burned in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it, and all that time, it was screaming. It must have gone insane."

"It must have fallen through time," the Doctor decided, swallowing. "The only survivor."

"You talked about a war?"

The Doctor nodded, seeing the Daleks firing and hearing the shouts of "exterminate!" "The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived, too," Van Statten told him.

"Not by choice."

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth anymore." The Doctor slowly stiffened as Van Statten turned to face him. "Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence."

***

That was pretty much how he found himself spread eagled in a cage of his own. "Now, smile!" Van Statten told him.

The Doctor bit down a yell as a laser scanned down his body, knowing what the man would find. "Two hearts!" Van Statten exclaimed as the Doctor winced in pain. "Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this!"

"So that's your secret," he bit out. "You don't just collect this stuff. You scavenge it!"

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries," Van Statten replied. "All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year, my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold." He shrugged. "Kept it strictly within the laboratory, of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?"

The Doctor shook his head, trying to clear out the pain. That just made it worse. "Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I will be true to myself and continue."

Stupid apes, the Doctor thought angrily. "Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"

"Nothing can escape the Cage!" Van Statten denied, blasting him with the laser again.

He grunted with the pain. "But it's woken up! It knows I'm here! It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one in this base is safe. No one on this planet!"

That earned him yet another laser, and he couldn't contain the scream of pain this time.

***

Jessie followed Adam, unzipping the jacket she wore over her catsuit and tossing it onto a chair as they approached the Cage. "Hold it right there!" one of the guards told them.

Adam held up an ID. "Level three access. Special clearance from Mr. Van Statten."

The guard nodded, sparing a look at Jessie in confusion. "Excuse me, ma'am, but what are you wearing?"

"You complaining about my uniform?" Jessie snapped. "Get out of our way."

He gulped and nodded hurriedly before opening the door.

"Don't get too close," Adam advised her as they went in.

Jessie slowly approached the Dalek, tilting her head as she examined it. "Hello," she told it softly. "Are you in pain? My name's Jessie Nightshade. I've got a friend. He can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"

"Yes."

She blinked. "What?"

"I am in pain," it replied, and she nodded slowly. "They torture me, but still they fear me. Do you fear me?"

Without the Doctor here, she had no idea what this alien was. Currently . . . "No."

"I am dying."

"No," Jessie told it firmly. "We can help!"

"I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die, I have met a human who was not afraid."

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Jessie whispered.

"My race is dead . . . and I shall die alone."

Jessie swallowed and reached for the Dalek's head. "Jessie, no!" Adam shouted at her.

Jessie touched the Dalek's head and gasped when a burning spread through her arm. She quickly brought it up, seeing a golden handprint where she had just touched it, and it faded. The Dalek lit up, becoming animated. "Oh my God," she whispered.

"Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction!"

"No!" Jessie shouted as Adam grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

The Dalek's chains broke, and the technician burst in with the drill. "What the hell have you done?" he shouted at her before turning to the Dalek, who raised its sink plunger. "And what are you going to do? Sucker me to death?"

Jessie blanched when the Dalek did just that. "It's killing him!" she screamed to the guards as they made it outside. "Do something!"

***

"Condition red! Condition red!" The Doctor looked up wearily, breathing heavily as the announcement rang through the air. "I repeat, this is not a drill!"

He could hear a faint screaming in the background, some belonging to guards trying to defend the place, but among them, he could hear Jessie. He looked at Van Statten with a glare fueled by his anger, and his fear for Jessie's life. "Release me if you want to live," he warned.

***

He finally did something smart, the Doctor thought as they arrived in Van Statten's office. Van Statten typed something on his computer, and the Cage scene pulled up. The Doctor was immensely relieved when he saw Jessie there, along with other guards. "You've got to keep it in that cell!" he told them.

"It's my fault," Jessie told him abruptly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry!"

"I've sealed the compartment," one of the guards added, sending her a look. "It can't get out. That lock's got a billion combinations."

"A Dalek's a genius," the Doctor told him. "It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat."

There was the sound of an electronic beep, and Jessie spun from the camera, drawing her gun in a speed the Doctor was impressed by. "It's through!"

One of the other guards, obviously the leader, gave another call. "Open fire!"

"Don't shoot it!" Van Statten blurted out, and the Doctor glared at the man. "I want it unharmed!"

Plan B, then. "Jessie, get out of there!"

***

Jessie really didn't want to, but she walked over to where the guards were talking. "De Maggio," the leader was saying. "Take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job. Got that?"

She nodded, and beckoned to Adam and Jessie. "You, with me."

***

"We're losing power," Goddard announced, and the Doctor turned to her as she began reading off of her screen. "It's draining the base." A look crossed her face. "Oh, my God. It's draining the entire power supplies for the whole of Utah!"

"It's downloading," the Doctor told them.

"Downloading what?" Van Statten demanded.

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down," Goddard whispered.

"It's not just energy. The Dalek just absorbed the whole Internet. It knows everything," the Doctor explained.

"The cameras in the vault have gone down," Goddard added a few seconds later.

"We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else," the Doctor told Van Statten angrily. "You've got to kill it, now!"

Goddard raised a hand to her earpiece. "All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately."

And enough with the Metaltron!

He listened to the sound of guards chattering, then heard the sound of gunfire and the Dalek's own gun. Van Statten looked up. "Tell them to stop shooting at it."

"But it's killing them!" Goddard disagreed.

"They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique." The Doctor and Goddard shared exasperated looks as Van Statten shouted into the comm. "I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me? Do you hear me?"

The gunfire stopped, and the Doctor figured he knew the reason why. He sighed as Goddard pulled up a schematic of the base. "That's us, right below the surface," she told them, pointing. "That's the Cage, and that's the Dalek."

"This museum of yours," the Doctor told Van Statten. "Have you got any alien weapons?"

"Lots of them," Goddard replied. "The trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive," Van Statten told them, and the Doctor's annoyance level peaked. "We could seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

"Leaving everyone trapped with it!" the Doctor snapped at him, swallowing. "Jessie's down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that?" He didn't wait for an answer as he pointed to the schematic. "It's got to go through this area. What's that?"

"Weapons testing," Goddard supplied.

"Give the guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone," he ordered. "Only then have you got a chance of killing it."

***

There were times that Jessie loved to take the stairs. This was one of those times as they made it to the stairwell. "Stairs!" she cried. "That's more like it! It's hasn't got legs. It's stuck!"

De Maggio looked behind them and urged them on. "It's coming! Get up!"

Jessie led the way up the first flight, occasionally throwing looks down at the Dalek. "Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs!" Adam taunted.

De Maggio aimed her gun at the Dalek when it came into view. "Now listen to me," she ordered. "I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate, then I can guarantee that Mr. Van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?"

"Elevate."

Jessie's eyes widened as the Dalek began to hover and begin to glide up the stairs. "Oh my God."

"Adam, get her out of here," De Maggio ordered.

"Come with us!" Jessie told her, even when Adam began to drag her up. "You can't stop it!"

"Someone's got to try," De Maggio replied. "Now get out! Don't look back, just run!"

They did, and Jessie closed her eyes when she heard De Maggio's dying scream behind them.

***

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek?" The Doctor was at this point ready to throw the man against the wall. "It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs! Everything needs something."

"What's the nearest town?"

"Salt Lake City," he replied immediately.

"Population?"

"One million."

The Doctor shook his head. "All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs."

"But why would it do that?"

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing, and you, Van Statten," he replied, turning to the man. "You've let it loose! The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible." He activated the comm he had in his own ear. "If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece," he told the guards. "That's the weak spot."

"Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot. Positions!"

The Doctor sighed, hearing calls of reply. "Come on, Jess," he whispered. "Come on. Get out of there."

***

Jessie ran fast, her legs pumping as she struggled to keep up with Adam. She might've been fast, but he was, too. A guard jumped up from where he was behind a crate. "Hold your fire!" he called, and Jessie skidded to a halt as other men were visible, guns aimed at them. "You two, get the hell out of here!"

"Working on it!" she spat back and as she kept running.

As they did, she realized something and faltered when they made it outside. "It was looking at me," she said slowly.

"Yeah," Adam replied. "It wants to slaughter us!"

"But it was looking right at me," she told him.

"So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking all around."

"It was looking right at me!" she shouted at him as they kept moving. "Like . . . " She paused, realizing what she was thinking. "Oh my God. Like it knows me."

***

The Doctor shook his head as he heard the dying cries of the men. "Perhaps it's time for a new strategy," Van Statten suggested. "Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."

"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir," Goddard pointed out. "We can't get out."

The Doctor remembered something, turning to them. "You said we could seal the vault."

Van Statten nodded in confirmation. "It was designed to be a bunker in the event of a nuclear war. Bulkheads, made of vibranium and steel."

"There's not enough power," Goddard said. "Those bulkheads are massive!"

"We've got emergency power," the Doctor reminded her. "We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors."

"We'd have to bypass the security codes," Goddard told him. "That would take a computer genius."

"Good thing you've got me, then," Van Statten told her.

The Doctor blinked. Was the man finally seeing the light? "You want to help?"

"I don't want to die, Doctor," Van Statten retorted. "Simple as that. And no one knows this software better than me."

"Sir."

The Doctor looked at Goddard, then turned to the TV screen as the Dalek returned to the ground. "I shall speak only to the Doctor," it announced.

"You're going to get rusty," he pointed out in reply.

"I fed off the DNA of Jessie Nightshade. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveler and an Asgardian regenerated me."

The Doctor felt like face palming. Of course. Asgardian regenerative powers. "What's your next trick?" he asked.

"I have been searching for the Daleks. "

"Yeah, I saw, downloading the Internet. What did you find?"

"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes."

"And?" the Doctor prompted.

"Nothing. Where shall I get my orders now?"

"You're just a soldier without commands."

"Then I shall follow the Primary Order: the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer."

"What for?" the Doctor asked. "What's the point? Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for!"

"Then what should I do?"

The Doctor had an idea, but he doubted it would work. "All right, then. If you want orders, then follow this one. Kill yourself."

"The Daleks must survive!" it protested.

"The Daleks have failed!" the Doctor countered. "Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct? Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don't you just die?"

It paused. "You would make a good Dalek."

The Doctor sighed as the screen went blank. "Seal the vault," he decided.

Van Statten began working. "I can leech power off the ground defenses, feed it to the bulkheads. God, it's been years since I had to work this fast."

"Are you enjoying this?" the Doctor couldn't help but ask.

"Doctor." He looked up at Goddard, feeling his hearts race as she looked at him in worry. "She's still down there."

***

Jessie was still running behind Adam when her phone rang. "God," she growled as she pulled it out and answered. "This had better be good, because this isn't the best time!"

"Where are you?" the Doctor demanded.

Jessie looked at the walls as they passed by. "Level 49."

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at Level 46."

She stumbled, but kept going. Adam really was too fast. I need to find a track back on the TARDIS, she noted. "Can't you stop them from closing?"

"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait, and I can't help you." Jessie swallowed. "Now, for God's sake . . . run!"

Jessie added a burst of speed. As if sensing her urgency, Adam picked up his pace as well.

***

"Done it!" Van Statten announced. "We've got power to the bulkheads."

"The Dalek's right behind them," Goddard added tightly.

"We're nearly there!" Jessie told them. "Give us two seconds!"

"Doctor, I can't sustain the power," Van Statten told him. "The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads."

The Doctor closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he apologized, then hit the enter key.

***

Jessie looked up at the doors ahead as the bulkhead began closing. "Come on!" Adam shouted to her as he rolled under it.

Jessie braced herself to phase through, but she crashed right into it. She yelped, falling to the floor, startled. The bulkhead crashed down in front of her, and she stood, trying to phase her hand through. She began to panic. What was going on?

And with a sinking feeling, she realized what the problem was.

"The vault is sealed!" Van Statten announced through her phone.

"Jessie, where are you?" the Doctor asked worriedly. "Jess, did you make it?"

Jessie panted, leaning her forehead on the door. "Vibranium," she said. "The one thing so far that I can't phase through. I can't get through." She turned as the Dalek rounded the corner. "Doctor . . . no matter how much Saleen will probably blame you, it wasn't your fault. Remember that, got it? It wasn't your fault." She fully faced it. "And you know what? I wouldn't have missed this for the world."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, ready to meet her end.

"Exterminate!"

***

The Doctor heard the zap on the end of the line and swallowed, reaching up and taking the comm from his ear. "I killed her," he said blankly.

"I'm sorry," Van Statten apologized.

The Doctor rounded on him, anger boiling over. "I said I'd protect her! She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me."

"It was the prize of my collection!"

The Doctor growled, beginning to pace, trying to walk off his fury. It wasn't working. "Your collection?" he spat. "But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Jessie? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater."

"Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!"

The Doctor turned to Van Statten, slamming his hands down on the table. "You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them," he growled. "You're about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you!" He swallowed again. "She was twenty years old, and you just got her killed."

***

It hadn't killed her yet. "Go on, then," Jessie challenged it. "Kill me. Why're you doing this?"

"I am armed," the Dalek told her. "I will kill. It is my purpose."

"They're all dead because of you."

"They are dead because of us."

Her DNA. Her fault. Everything was her fault. She swallowed. "And now what?" she asked, her voice cracking a little at the end. "What're you waiting for?"

"I feel your fear."

"What do you expect?"

"Daleks do not fear. Must not fear." Jessie squeaked, dodging energy blasts as the Dalek shot on either side of her. "You gave me life! What else have you given me? I am contaminated!"

"Don't kill anyone else," Jessie told it desperately. "Just kill me."

"Why are you still alive?" the Dalek asked desperately. "Why? My function is to kill. What am I? What am I?"

Jessie shakily stood from where she had slid down the bulkhead, cautiously approaching. "Maybe you don't have to do this anymore," she suggested. "There has to be something else, not just killing. What else is there? What do you want?"

There was silence from the Dalek. Then - "I want freedom."

***

Adam was the next one to get the Doctor's wrath when he ran into the office. "You were quick on your feet, leaving Jessie behind!"

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" Adam retorted.

"I told you to make sure she wasn't hurt!" the Doctor snapped at him. "And now that Dalek's got her!"

"What do we do when it gets here?" Van Statten asked.

"Kill it," Adam suggested.

Goddard shook her head. "All the guns are useless, and all the alien weapons are in the vault, where the Dalek currently is."

"Only the catalogued ones," Adam corrected.

***

"Broken," the Doctor muttered as he dug through Adam's stuff. "Broken." He picked up something else, then made a face. "Hairdryer." He threw it off to the side.

"Mr. Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does, he wipes their memory," Adam was saying as he kept trying to find a weapon. "I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."

The Doctor snorted, looking up. "What? You, in a fight? I'd like to see that."

"I could do."

"Jessie could do, and she was an agent specially trained to survive," the Doctor snapped. "Also half Asgardian. Look at where that got her now." He swallowed, shaking his head as her words rang in his head. "Vibranium. The one thing so far that I can't phase through. I can't get through." "What would you do, throw your A-levels at 'em?" He pulled out a gun that he could use, nodding. "Oh, yes." He cocked it. "Lock and load."

***

Jessie found that her powers over the air still worked hundreds of miles underground. She raised herself and the Dalek through the floors, heading towards the top. At the top level, she stopped them. The Dalek raised its gun and blasted a hole through the roof, and sunlight began streaking down to its eyepiece. "You're out," she praised it. "You made it." She smiled, tilting her head up. "I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again."

"How does it feel?" the Dalek asked. Part of its middle opened up, and Jessie's eyes widened at the one-eyed mutant inside as it stretched out a tendril to feel the sunlight. "Why do I survive?"

"I don't know," Jessie admitted, squatting so she could look it in the eye.

"I am the last of the Daleks. I can feel so many ideas . . . so much darkness. Jessie, give me orders. Order me to die."

"I can't do that!" she protested, standing.

"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Your DNA has changed me. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"

Jessie swallowed, accepting what she had to do. "All right. Do it."

"Are you frightened, Jessie Nightshade, Deathbringer of Asgard?"

Jessie nodded, wondering how it knew that name. "Yeah."

"So am I." The Dalek began to elevate, shutting its eye as its armor closed. "Exterminate!"

Jessie watched as it imploded with a force field around it, then winced as she checked her hands, seeing the burns on them. She ran back down the hallway, the events of the whole day catching up with her.

"Hey! You there!"

She turned and held up her hands, showing she wasn't armed as guards ran up to her. "Hey," she whispered breathlessly.

"Are you OK?"

And with that, Jessie finally let the tears burning in her eyes begin to fall. "No," she choked out.

***

As the Doctor and Adam ran through the halls, they came across a group of armed guards heading for them, Goddard behind them smugly, Van Statten being dragged away. Goddard joined them, a pleased look on her face. "By tonight, Henry Van Statten will be a homeless, brainless junkie living on the streets of San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento . . . " She shrugged. "Someplace beginning with S."

One of the guards stopped, listening to his earpiece. "Thanks," he said into it, then turned to Goddard. "Ma'am, one of the patrols found a rather distraught young woman upstairs at Level 1 with burns on her hands. They found her where the Dalek's signal was lost."

The Doctor stopped. "Lost?" he asked incredulously, swallowing. It can't be.

"What does she look like?" Goddard asked.

The guard listened, then looked at her. "Dark hair, dark eyes, freckles."

"Wearing a catsuit?" the Doctor asked, and Adam hitched a breath, realizing what he did at the same time. "Logo looks like an eagle?"

The guard repeated the description, then nodded in confirmation. "Spot on."

"Level 1?"

"Yes - "

The Doctor was off and running with Goddard and Adam before he'd even finished the sentence.

***

"Thanks," Jessie whispered as one of the guards wrapped her hands in gauze, covering the burns.

He nodded. "Those are some bad burns, ma'am. I'm surprised you're not crying worse than you are."

Jessie used her knuckles to rub the tears from her cheeks. "It's not because of the pain."

"Why is it, then?"

She swallowed. "'Cos - "

They both looked up when they heard the voice of Diana Goddard demanding orders. The guard stood when she rounded the corner, stopping short, her eyes widening when she saw Jessie. "Ma'am, we found her - "

Jessie shot to her feet and ran across the floor, phasing through the guards in her way. The Doctor caught her instantly, hugging her tightly as she began to sob. "Shh," he whispered in her ear before whispering in Spanish. "Está bien. Le tengo." (It's all right. I've got you.)

She sniffed and buried her face further into his jacket, hearing his double heartbeat. "The Dalek - "

"What happened?" he asked, stiffening and looking down at her.

"It ordered me to tell it to destroy itself."

The Doctor didn't say anything before looking at her hands. "What happened?" he repeated.

"Touched it once, touched it again getting up here," she replied, voice muffled by his jacket. "Doctor . . . all it wanted was to see the sun."

He nodded, then looked up at Goddard. "I'm taking her back to the TARDIS, get her helped. Thank you for everything."

She nodded. "I'll let you know when we're going."

***

The Doctor led Jessie into the infirmary, guiding her to one of the beds. "You're sure you're OK?"

She nodded, licking her lips. "Yeah . . . it's just that I ordered something to kill itself. I've never done that before."

He looked over at her, seeing her staring blankly down at the floor. "You've never done that before?"

She shook her head. "No. I've given orders . . . but never to someone to kill itself."

He sat down across from her, taking one of her hands and slowly unwrapping the bandages. "Daleks don't like different," he tried to explain to her. "It was different because it absorbed your DNA. Don't blame yourself for that."

Jessie sighed as he ran his sonic screwdriver up her burns. "I know, but it's still just . . . " She struggled to find the right word.

"Not normal?" the Doctor suggested, moving to her other hand.

She snorted. "Yeah, put it that way."

***

She stood in the doorway of the TARDIS as the Doctor checked her over. "A little piece of home," he said. "Better than nothing."

"So is that that?" she asked, stepping out next to him. "This the end of the Time War?"

"I'm the only one left," the Doctor confirmed before blinking. "Huh. I win." He looked at her. "How about that?"

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

He was already shaking his head. "I'd know, in here." He tapped the side of his head.

Jessie tilted her head curiously. "Telepathy?"

"In a way. All Time Lords are. And I can usually feel them." He looked around. "Feels like there's no one."

"Well," Jessie said, leaning against the doorframe of the TARDIS and giving him a grin. "Good thing you're stuck with me, then."

He smiled back at her. "Yeah."

The sound of running caught their attention, and Jessie silently cursed as Adam ran up. "We'd better get out," he told them. "Now that Van Statten's disappeared, they're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed."

"Good riddance," Jessie commented.

"I'll have to go back home."

"Better hurry up, then," the Doctor advised. "Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

Jessie considered Adam for a moment, then sighed and reached out to stop the Doctor when Adam turned to go. "He said all his life, he wanted to see the stars."

He looked at her incredulously. "Tell him to go and stand outside, then."

"Crossed my mind. But he's all on his own, and he did help."

"He left you down there."

"So did you."

"What're you talking about?" Adam asked. "We've got to leave."

"Plus, he's a bit pretty," the Doctor added.

Jessie looked at him in mock surprise. "Do I detect jealousy there, my Doctor? I hadn't noticed a thing."

The Doctor finally simply shrugged and unlocked the TARDIS. "On your own head."

"Understood."

"What're you doing?" Adam called, coming back. "She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in!"

Jessie followed the Doctor inside and draped herself in the captain's chair, leaving the door open as the Doctor stood by the console. They both grinned at each other, waiting to see if Adam joined them.

He did, his voice coming closer. "Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box? Jessie?"

The moment Adam stepped into the TARDIS, the door closed, and the Doctor started her up. "Welcome aboard, Adam," he told him.

Adam was staring around in shock. "What is this?"

"A police public call box that's huge on the inside," Jessie supplied, smiling. "So, Adam . . . ready to see the stars?"

***

Yes. Adam is coming. Jessie's not as attracted to him as Rose is, but he's pretty critical in what's going to be upcoming. After all . . . she needs to spill at some point, right?

And I know there was that one line that I left out from when the Dalek was talking to the Doctor while the Dalek had Rose. Maybe it'll come out some other way. Maybe . . . in Bad Wolf?

Anyway, now it's the Doctor's turn to open up a little bit more in the next interlude!