(3) Daleks in Manhattan

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It was up in the theatre's lighting gallery that the Time Lord had highjacked a spotlight, aiming its light on the gluttonous green jellyfish-looking blob all hooked up to a scanner he had managed to throw together.

"That's it," he uttered quietly to himself, making some final adjustments to the spotlight and making a step back over towards the scanner, "We need to heat you up," Taking his glasses out from his jacket pocket, the Doctor slid them up his nose as he crouched before the blob giving it a closer examination.

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"Girls," at this very moment, Tallulah calls for her fellow showgirls dressed head to toe in her Angel costume, fluffy wings and a grin on her face, gazing back at them as they stopped what they were doing, "It's showtime!"

"Lois," one of the girls dressed all in as a devil, just as all the other girls, "You spoil my chaise tonight. I'm going to punch you."

"Aw, quit complaining, Myrna. Go buy yourself some glasses."

"Come on, honeys," the blonde calls to Martha and Alice, both young women grinning as Tallulah beckoned them to her, "Take a look," she points to the stage as the other girls head down the hallway towards it, "Either of you ever been on stage before?"

"Oh, only a little," Martha uttered.

"Yeah, it was just the one time, really," Alice shared a knowing look with her best friend before returning to face Tallulah, "You know Shakespeare."

"How dull is that?" the blonde pulled a face of distaste to smile cheerily once again before dragging both girls along by their hands, "Come and see a real show."

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"This is artificial," the Doctor uttered, frowning, altering one of the dials on his scanner.

"Ladies and gentlemen..." the announcer's voice echoed through speakers, but the Time Lord was too lost in his little world to have heard it, all his attention focused on the blob, "The Laurenzi..."

"Genetically engineered," he says over the announcer, "Whoever this is, oh, you're clever."

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".... with Heaven and Hell!"

The curtains drew open as Alice and Martha watched from the stage in awe, all the chorus girls sparkling in red sequins with pretend horns on their heads and tails. As they now part, revealing Tallulah dressed all in white, donning a halo and wings sashaying up to the microphone, she starts to sing.

"You lured me in with your cold grey eyes. Your simple smile and your bewitching lies. One and one and one is three. My bad, bad angel, the Devil and me. You put the devil in me," both girls continued to watch on smiling, "You put the devil in me. You put the devil in me."

That was when the young redhead noticed someone, or something, watching over the other side of the stage and giving her friend a nudge.

"What?" the other asks in a whisper, glancing in her direction.

"Look over there on that side of the stage," Alice returned calmly, nodding at the figure watching the performance.

"Oh, you don't think it's him, do you?" Martha asked the figure watching intently from the other side, especially Tallulah with such a longing in their eyes, "Lazlo?"

"Only one way to find out," Alice is about to step out of the wings, only for Martha to pull her back.

"What? You're not going to talk to them, are you?" Glancing over, still seeing the pigman, Martha is distracted and hasn't noticed them looking yet, "Maybe we should just go round to the other side."

"No, it would take too long," the young Noble shook her head in disagreement, "He'd be long gone before we even got there," she said before stepping out without another second thought.

Knowing there was no other choice, Martha followed along behind her friend, not taking any chances of letting her go by herself. However bad this idea may seem, they would go unseen when crossing the stage doesn't exactly go as planned.

"What are you doing?" one of the showgirls hissed at both women as they passed. Martha offered a look of apology as Alice went on to almost trip and nearly fell flat on her face, only for her friend to catch her, only to miss and accidentally grab one of the showgirl's tails to right herself in, only pull them down with her.

But it seemed the audience found it rather amusing to think it was all part of the show as they cheered and clapped, yet both girls were blushing with complete embarrassment.

"What are you doing?" Tallulah asked in aggravation through gritted teeth, pretending to be all smiles as the showgirl had still failed to get up, but Alice had finally managed to stand upright again.

"You're on my tail!" the showgirl hissed up at the redhead, her foot now standing on the said tail, "Get off my tail!"

"We're sorry, "Martha tried to apologise to both young women, still blushing as she helped her friend sort herself out.

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Pulling out a stethoscope, the Doctor rests it on the blob, "Fundamental DNA type 467-989. 989. Hold on, that means the planet of origin," he can't even believe the very words coming out of his mouth, yet his face said it all, they couldn't be here they just couldn't be of all the bad things to happen.

Daleks, no matter what had happened then or now, past, present or future, you could never truly escape them. And now, as he finally uttered his worst enemy planet of origin, "Skaro."

A sudden, unnerving chill coursed down the Doctor's spine as he rushed off. If there was one thing, it was the lives of those he cared about and putting them in danger. The last thing the Doctor would ever want was for Alice and Martha to come face to face with a Dalek, yet something deep down told him something terrible was about to happen. But not if he had anything to say about it, hearts pounding away in his chest.

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"We should have gone around like I had suggested," Martha moaned quietly to her flatmate, cheeks still flushed, and the audience had grown more hysterical with laughter from their antics on stage.

"Yeah, thanks for pointing out that, Mar," Alice returned, feeling mortified for having disrupted the current performance.

"Get off the stage!" Tallulah directs at Alice, the audience still laughing and clapping and the young Noble feeling awful she might have cost the girl her job having invited them to watch her perform, "You're spoilin' it!"

"I'm sorry, Tallulah, alright," the redhead apologises before pointing to the pigman in the wings opposite her and Martha had been trying to reach, "But you need to look over there!"

Now realising they've been caught out, the pigman is startled, making Tallulah scream as they flee, but Alice could see instantly that the pigman wasn't like the other they had encountered down in the sewers.

"Oi, wait!" Alice goes tearing off after them.

"Hey!" Martha yelled, not far behind, as they chased him through the theatre's halls.

"Stop!" the young Noble continued to call after them but showed no signs of stopping, "Wait, you don't look like the others!" she went on chasing the pigman as it now slipped into the prop room, "Please stop!" Alice begged as she and Martha entered the room.

They hear a loud metal clanging as they stop, "Where did they go?" Martha asked her best friend as both girls' eyes scanned around their surroundings, "Think they went back down to the sewers?"

"Looks like it," Alice returned with a nod, her ribs aching as she tried to catch her breath, not noticing the shadows of creatures creeping up behind them.

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"It was like something out of a movie show," a showgirl cried, shivering as they recalled the monster huddled with the other girls backstage.

"Oh, that face. I ain't never gonna sleep," another spoke fearfully, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

Right at that moment, the Doctor comes charging around the corner and to a very shaken up Tallulah, asking her urgently, not seeing either girl in sight, "Where are they?" she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze before looking at him, "Where's Alice and Martha?"

"I don't know," Tallulah shook her head in response, "They both ran off the stage."

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Alice's eyes now widened, catching sight of the shadow behind her friend, feeling her locket warm unpleasantly against her skin, "Mar..." her voice shook as she whispered to Martha, who was now going stiff as a board when the redhead instantly let's out a shrill scream as she is forcefully grabbed from behind.

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At that moment, the Time Lord hears a young woman scream and runs like his life depended on it towards where he had heard them. Tallulah was on his heels not too far behind him before another scream pierced the air, one less familiar but at the same time he recognised.

His feet pounded harder on the ground in desperation. His hearts pounded, bursting forth into the prop room, eyes darting about swiftly in panic as he moved through the room, too preoccupied to have noticed Tallulah still had been following him, "Alice!" he yelled, "Martha!" The Doctor stops, noting that the sewer lid is askew off the entrance. Quickly, he snatches his coat from where he had slung it earlier, hurriedly pulling it on before starting towards the sewer entrance filled with nothing but determination to save both women.

"Oh, where are you goin'?" Tallulah now asked, almost startling the Time Lord, but the last thing he needed was more distractions.

"They've taken Alice," he replied before noting his slip up himself, not seeing the knowing look the blonde had like she knew something he didn't before correcting himself, "They've taken them both," he grunted, pushing the sewer lid off its entrance.

The Time Lord never realised he cared about her that much until now that what he'd been feeling was nothing more than a crush. Surely it was. Then why was he in such denial over it still?

"Who's taken them?" Tallulah demanded as the Doctor began climbing into the sewer, only to ignore her, "What're y' doin'?" she went on questioning him as he climbed down the ladder, "I said, what the hell are ya doin'?" she now huffed before shaking her head, "Crazy guy," she muttered under her breath. She shook her head before spotting a long black furry coat. Tallulah grabbed it, pulled it over her costume, and followed him down the ladder.

"No, no, no, no, no way. You're not coming," the Doctor voiced, adamantly dropping down. Tallulah could tell he wasn't in the mood to discuss anything right now just as she got to the bottom of the sewer.

"Tell me what's going on," the blonde demanded, hands on her hips.

"There's nothing you can do," he returned bluntly, "Go back," he now insisted with some urgency in his voice, wanting to head off as soon as he could to find Martha and Alice.

"Look," Tallulah huffs, "Whoever's taken Martha and Alice, they could've taken Lazlo, couldn't they?" she tries to argue her cause for coming with him, lip trembling a little.

"Tallulah," the Time Lord sighed. Patience is now beginning to wear thin with this woman who is as stubborn as anything, and he thinks Alice is bad when it comes to being stubborn, "You're not safe down here."

"Then that's my problem," she returns sternly, "Come on. Which way?" she asked before walking down a tunnel to the left.

"This way," the Doctor said with an aggravated sigh, calling after the woman turned to go down the tunnel before him. Tallulah was not far behind, pulling a face of disgust as she went, not believing she was doing this.

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As Alice and Martha were forcefully marched through the sewers, both young women were sacred and possibly would get killed as they tried to struggle to get free from the pigmen.

"No!" Martha pleaded as the pigmen shoved against the slimy sewer walls, "Let us go!"

"Get you bloody trotters off me!" the redhead snapped, wriggling about, trying her best to shove whatever they had for hands off her, but it was useless as she shared equally frightened looks with Martha as she, too, now gets pushed against the wall beside her friend.

Their attention gets diverted by more pigmen bringing more humans down the tunnels towards them in a line when a familiar voice of a particular young Texan man calls out to them catches their attention, who they thought had been killed, "Martha! Alice!"

"Frank, you're alive!" Martha exclaimed, quickly hugging him before pulling away.

"We thought that we lost you!" Alice now went to hug him, "Good thing we haven't," a pigman now shoves them to get into line, which made the redhead grumble under her breath, "All right! All right, we're moving."

"Wait. Where are they taking us?" Frank asked both women nervously.

"I don't know," Martha responded with a shake of her head, uncertain herself, "But we can find out what's going on down here."

"I don't know, maybe they are taking us to their leader," Alice suggested with a shrug... Then, the locket heated up around the young redhead's skin in warning, like it had done several times before since she had started travelling with the Doctor. With another shove from the pigmen, they carried on in silence.

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"When you say, 'They've taken them.'" Meanwhile, in another tunnel, Tallulah was yapping nonstop to the Time Lord as they ducked under a portcullis, walking through the rank-smelling sewer system, not noticing how tense he was, "Who's they exactly?" she gave him a curious look, "And who are you anyway? I never asked."

"Shh," the Doctor hushes her through his teeth, eyes narrowed, keeping his ears open for anything.

"Okay, okay."

"Shh, shh, shh," the Doctor tries, silencing the young blonde again in the dim light of the tunnel before them. The shadowy figure of a Dalek is gliding across the wall in their direction, sending fear through him. Knowing Martha or Alice hadn't met them yet, he dreaded to think what would happen if they did.

"I mean, you're handsome and all..." yet Tallulah was oblivious to what was happening around her or the Doctor's inner turmoil until he spun around, covering her mouth with his hand to shut her up, pulling them both back down the tunnel and into a hidden recess a short moment later the Dalek glided past having not seem them.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," the Time Lord stepped out of the alcove, shaking his head in denial once it was finally gone after releasing Tallulah, "They survived," he now swallowed harshly, "They always survive while I lose everything."

"That metal thing?" Tallulah frowned, looking at him, "What was it?"

"It's called a Dalek," the Doctor responded angrily through gritted teeth, "And it's not just metal. It's alive."

"You're kidding me," but the young woman laughs, not taking him seriously.

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" he turned on Tallulah, glaring back at and she gulped from the look on his face, "Inside that shell is a creature born to hate, whose only thought is to destroy everything and everyone that isn't a Dalek too. It won't stop until it's killed every human being alive."

"But if it's not a human being, that kinda implies it's from outer space," Tallulah began to protest, still finding it hard to believe the Doctor glared back at her again, causing the same reaction from before, "Yet again, that's a 'no' with the kidding. Boy... Well, what's it doin' here, in New York?"

He couldn't give her a definite answer just yet and shook his head, looking away for a moment, frowning hearts beating wildly against his chest, fists clenched, knuckles almost going white, swallowing harshly, knowing he can't lose anyone to those monsters he can't, especially...Alice because Donna would have his head for sure.

"You care about her, don't you?" Tallulah asked the Time Lord, seeing a particular look in his eyes, but right now, he didn't have time to give her an answer.

He now roughly grabbed the showgirl by the arm, "Every second you're down here, you're in danger," dragging her back towards the direction they had previously come from, "I'm taking you back right now."

Turning the corner, the Doctor stops a pigman catching his eye, making the young blonde scream at the very sight, but it hid itself as though it were ashamed to be seen by what had happened to them.

"Where's Alice and Martha?" he demanded, voice raised, approaching the creature, "What have you done with them? What have you done with Alice and Martha?" his sudden fear of losing Alice wasn't making him think clearly. He needed to get both her and Martha back.

"I didn't take either of em'," the pigman swore to him, still hiding his face from view. It surprised the Time Lord that this one wasn't like the others.

The Doctor paused before asking softly, "Can you remember your name?"

"Don't look at me," the pigman pleaded, still hiding their face in the sewers' shadows, cowering against a wall only for the Doctor to take another cautious step forward.

"Do you know where they both are?" Tallulah inquired, now approaching carefully, eyeing the creature as she went.

"Stay back!" the pig man warned the young blonde, holding his hand out for her not to come any closer, "Don't look at me!" he continued to plead, still hiding away.

"What happened to you?" the Time Lord asked, narrowing his eyes and trying to get a closer look only to notice they appeared more man than a pig, unlike the others chasing them through the sewers earlier.

"They made me a monster."

"Who did?" the Doctor went on to ask.

"The masters," the pig man returned bitterly.

"The Daleks," the Doctor nodded, frowning, having figured out this had something to do with them, "Why?"

"They needed slaves," the pigman explains, not looking anyone in the eye, "They needed slaves to steal more people, so they created us. Part animal, part human. I escaped before they got my mind, but it was still too late."

"Do you know what happened to Alice and Martha?" the Time Lord asked, knowing he needed to find them both.

"They took them," the pigman replied, sounding somewhat guilty, "It's my fault. Both of them were following me."

"Were you in the theatre?" the showgirl asked him with a frown.

"Yes."

"Why?" she went on frowning still, trying to understand the creature's reasoning, but he wouldn't look at her, "Why were you there?"

"I never wanted you to see me like this."

"Why me?" Tallulah asked, still not entirely understanding, "What do I gotta do with this? Were you following me? Is that why you were there?"

Finally, the pigman slowly turned to face them, but his eyes were only for Tallulah, "Yes."

"Who are you?" Tallulah took another step forward.

"I was lonely," he spoke only to avoid her question entirely.

"Who are you?" she asked once again more insistently as her heart fluttered in her chest and her eyes scanned over the creature, but there was something about them that Tallulah found all so familiar.

"I needed to see you," the pig man apologised.

"Who are you?" Tallulah asked one last time, not wanting to give up trying to place them.

"I'm sorry," they make a turn to leave.

"No, wait." the blonde eagerly grabbed his arm in desperation to stop them even though they wouldn't look at her, "Let me look at you," she moved them into the dim lights of the sewer. Tallulah gasped, recognising their face, "Lazlo?" he responded with a nod, "My Lazlo?" she began crying, taking in his changed appearance, voice cracking, touching his face, "Oh, what have they done to you?"

"I'm sorry. So sorry," Lazlo looked away, feeling ashamed.

However much the Doctor didn't want to break this moment between them, he needed to get Alice and Marth back. He interrupted, "Lazlo," drawing the other man's attention away from Tallulah, who had been gazing at her lovingly, "Can you show me where they are?"

If there was any chance of the Time Lord getting lost in these sewers, he needed the right help to guide him through them to find Alice and Martha because if he went by himself. He would be too late and never forgive himself.

"They'll kill you," Lazlo warned, staring back at him, but he looked unfazed.

"If I don't stop them, they'll kill everyone," the Doctor spoke up seriously, knowing it was something he wouldn't let happen.

Lazlo gazed back at him for a moment, seeing nothing but desperation in the other man's eyes in needing to save those he cared about and with a nod, he now agreed to take him, "Then follow me."

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"What are they keeping us here for?" Frank whispers as he, Martha and Alice are currently being kept prisoner with other people in another section of the tunnel in the sewers.

"I don't know," Martha replied, somewhat unsure, looking around them, "I've just got a nasty feeling that we're being kept in the larder."

"Something tells me it isn't good, whatever it is," Alice frowned, playing with the chain of her necklace. It hadn't cooled much since, but it was heating up by the second, "What do they need us for anyway?"

It was now the Doctor, Tallulah, led by Lazlo, who knew where to find the Daleks but soon would need the pair to leave. It was too dangerous to have three of them down here in the first place. It was enough that they had Alice and Martha. As they now crouched behind a corner, some pigmen nearby some prisoners, and to the Doctor's relief, amongst them were the girls with Frank.

Yet he couldn't help but notice how agitated the redhead was, who seemed to be fiddling about with her necklace as it annoyed her somehow.

"What're they doing?" Frank asks as the pigmen begin squealing nervously, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Right then, the young man got his answer as an alien that nothing of the likes that Alice nor Martha had ever seen before encased in metal now glided down the tunnel, giving orders in the most horrible voice, "Silence. Silence."

"What the hell is that?" Martha asked as the young redhead felt Frank grabbing her hand tightly as the Doctor watched from his hiding place. He can't help but feel jealous or why he suddenly felt that way.

"You will form a line. Move," the Dalek ordered as the pigmen pushed everyone into line, and Frank let go of Alice's hand.

An image suddenly flashes before the young redhead's vision as her locket now burns against her skin: an almighty battle, a city in flames and those metal alien things shooting lasers, killing people. It was like Alice was being told she knew what these aliens were, yet for her life, she had never seen these things in her life. Honestly, Alice was becoming more confused and scared with what was happening to her, letting out a small gasp, now coming back to reality.

"Ally, you all right?" Martha whispered, frowning at Alice with worry, "You've gone a little pale," she went on to ask, noticing her best friend now had almost gone white as a sheet but not wholly, cheeks still having colour.

Alice nodded silently in response.

The Time Lord had also noticed this, and it concerned him somewhat. It looked as if Alice had spaced out for a moment or had seen something utterly terrified her. Something told him it might have been to do with the Chameleon Arch around her neck.

"Maybe we should just do what it says, everyone, okay?" the redhead spoke up, clearing her throat and mustering as much courage as she could to calm everyone, "Just obey."

"The female is wise. Obey!"

"Report," another now appeared, making the Doctor wonder how many he would have to deal with.

"These are strong specimens," the other Dalek's dome swivelled to face the first one to inform, "They will help the Dalek cause."

"Dalek?" Martha uttered softly to herself. She shares a brief, knowing gaze with Alice, recalling the Doctor had told them about them not too long ago.

"What is the status of the Final Experiment?" the first Dalek asked. The Time Lord certainly didn't like where this was heading.

"The Dalekanium is in place. The energy conductor is now complete," the second Dalek replied.

"Then I will extract prisoners for selection," the first Dalek goes rolling forward as a pig man brings one of the prisoners brought forwards, an older black man and the Dalek places its sucker upon his face, "Intelligence scan. Initiate. Reading brain waves. Low intelligence."

"You calling me stupid?" the man questioned, taking offence and snapping at the Dalek.

"This one will become a pig slave."

"No, let go of me!" the man yelled as two pigmen began dragging him away, "I'm not becoming one of them!"

As the Dalek moves to the next person in line, "Intelligence scan. Initiate."

"They're divided into two groups," Lazlo explained the process to the Time Lord as all three of them continued watching on from their hiding place, "High intelligence and low intelligence. The low intelligence is taken to become pig slaves like me."

"Well, that's not fair," Tallulah spoke aloud with a frown.

"Shh," the Doctor hushed her, his eyes not having left the girls or Frank as the Dalek descended the line.

"You're the smartest guy I ever dated," Tallulah whispered to Lazlo.

"And the others?" The Time Lord inquired, eyes still on Alice and Martha.

"They're taken to the laboratory."

"But why?" the Doctor asked with a frown, glancing in Lazlo's direction, "What for?"

"I don't know," Lazlo replied, shaking his head, just as the Dalek was now about to scan Frank, "The masters only call it the Final...Experiment."

"Superior intelligence," the creature announced its findings before turning to Alice, "Intelligence scan," its sucker reached out to her quickly, grabbing hold of Martha's hand and tightly squeezing it, "Initiate," she felt it seel around her face eyes screwed shut trying to pretend it wasn't happening. Still, finally, it pulled away to announce, "Superior intelligence," It eventually moved on to Martha, and Alice offered her the same support as it now moved out to declare, "Superior intelligence."

It had relived the Doctor that the Daleks hadn't detected anything unusual from Alice, glad the Chameleon Arch around her neck was doing its job in keeping her identity safe.

"Both will become part of the Final Experiment."

"Are you mad you can't just experiment on people!" the young redhead began yelling angrily at the metal creature before her.

"She's right, it's insane, no, forget that it's inhuman. That's what it is!" Martha called out, also agreeing with her.

"We are not human," the Dalek tells her before rolling away, "Prisoners of high intelligence will be taken to the transgenic laboratory."

"Look out, they're moving!" peering around the corner, the Time Lord flattens himself against the wall just as Lazlo grabs hold of Tallulah, about to head down the tunnel.

"Doctor," Lazlo glanced back at him, indicating for him to leave, "Doctor! Quickly!"

"I'm not going," he replied with a shake of his head, knowing he couldn't leave the girls here, "I've got an idea. You go."

"Lazlo, c'mon!" the showgirl urged as she headed down the tunnel.

"Can you remember the way?" Lazlo checked as he turned back to her.

"Yeah," Tallulah replied, a little uncertain, "I think so," then nodded, glancing up at him.

"Then go. Please."

"But Lazlo, you gotta come with me," she begged of him.

"Where would I go?" he asked her, seriously shaking his head, "Tallulah, I'm begging you, save yourself. Just run. Just go. Go," before insisting she does what he's asking of her.

Knowing there was no choice, Tallulah nodded in agreement and left as Lazlo returned to rejoin the Doctor, watching as the Daleks passed them in the tunnel sneakily. The Doctor stepped into the line between Alice and Martha Lazlo, pretending to act like one of the guards.

"Just keep walking," the Doctor's familiar voice instructed with a whisper from behind the young Noble.

"Spaceman, am I glad to see you," the young woman said, sighing in relief.

"Yeah, well, you can kiss me later," the Time Lord muttered quietly, making Alice roll her eyes, wondering why he would joke at a time like this, "You too, Frank, if you want."

"What, and attack me with your lips like last time," the redhead recalled with a scoff, playing him at his own game of not taking things seriously, "No thanks, think I'll pass."

"And like I had told you before," the Doctor voiced, cheeks going red a little, clearing his throat, coming all over awkward but getting a little annoyed, "It was only a genetic transfer."

"Whatever you say, Spaceman," Alice said, smirking and lightly shaking her head.

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They don't know how long they went on following the Daleks, for unknowingly, they had gained an extra prisoner until finally entering a laboratory filled with all sorts of devices and whatever else there was for the Daleks to destroy humanity.

"Report," a Dalek demanded from across the room as the prisoners gathered before another three of the aliens.

"Dalek Sec..." the Doctor suddenly went cold all over when he heard that a name he recognised from that of the Cult of Skaro, the ones who had killed his family and his friends all those years ago on Gallifrey, "...is in the final stage of evolution."

"Scan him," the other Dalek in the tunnels now demanded, "Prepare for birth."

"Evolution?" Alice heard the Time Lord utter curiously from behind her a frown upon his features, and she was just as confused as every other person in the room.

"What's wrong with old Charlie boy over there?" Martha turned to him, asking him to nod towards the stationary Dalek smoke billowing out of its casing. Alice was looking as well.

"One of you ask them," the Doctor suggested to the two young women.

"What?" the redhead hissed, her eyes going wide at the Doctor as if he'd gone mad even to suggest that either she or Martha should talk to those things as both women turned their gazes to the Daleks, "Don't be daft."

"I don't exactly want to get noticed," he returned quietly, "Ask them what's going on," the Time Lord gives them both a gentle nudge forward.

Knowing there wasn't much choice, both young women shared an uncertain look. Martha took a deep breath and was the first to speak up, trying to sound confident even though she was terrified, "Daleks, I demand to be told. What is this Final Experiment? Report!"

"You will bear witness," another Dalek returned somewhat cryptically.

The young Noble had been having a hell of a day. She stunk of sewage and had been chased by pigmen only then to get kidnapped by them. Top it all off. There are now aliens to deal with. Once she had a vision of, honestly, she had enough. 

"To what exactly?" Alice now asked, trying to pretend brave in the face of danger that these creatures couldn't scare her so quickly, but they did.

"This is the dawn of a new age," the Dalek replied.

"What does that mean?" Martha went on to ask, feeling the palms of her hands getting sweaty.

"We are the only four Daleks, so the species must evolve a life outside the shell. The Children of Skaro must walk again."

It was now the black shell of Dalek Sec began to power down, smoke no longer billowing out from its casing, eyestalk fading to nothing, all other Daleks turning to face it as it finally opened. A human figure stepped out of the familiar suit. If Alice wasn't mistaken, it was that Diagoras had been wearing. Its head looked like a jellyfish's; it had tentacles, a mouth, a single eye and claw-shaped hands.

"What is it?" the young Noble asked in a terrified whisper, both her and Martha taking a step back.

"I am a human, Dalek," the creature responded slowly, "I am your future."

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