Dedication to Tje1415 because I think I may be killing her with feels at the moment... Sorry, my Lovely! Izzi xxx
Phina:
"Demon." I turned, seeing a man walking towards me, with big blue eyes that just looked so afraid. They reminded me of the Doctor's eyes, back when I first met him. He was always scared of what we had to do, of the lessons, of not being good enough. Now, he had jade eyes that were cocky and never scared. "Please... M, my daughter. It is said that you can help. I, I can pay you"
"I am not for hire, man. I go where I am needed, and if I can save lives as I go, then that is good." I told him, bowing lowly as I always did, playing the good Sarani. "What trouble does your daughter lie in? Has she been taken by the people who rule this planet for slavery, or as a wife to some noble?"
The man looked around, as if worried someone would over hear us in this dark, dense forest, before moving closer. "She is not on this world, she was taken by someone else, and I fear for her life. Please, save her." Then he grabbed my hand in an iron tight grip, his skin like ice on my own burning hot.
"Unhand me, lest you wish to taste the fire in my gun!" I snarled, trying to rip my hand free, but the man's face went still and his eyes dead as a Dalek eye stalk pushed its way through his forehead, his hand suddenly red hot on my wrist as they shot me with a stun beam.
"Seraphina Dark is Acquired."
DW
When I woke up, I was still hooded and masked, luckily, but also in a large domed area with a multitude of Daleks in tiers around them, and the White Supreme Dalek nearby, along with an organic Dalek and the TARDIS. This was not good, I was keeping my distance from my ex husband because I didn't want him to know one of the most feared Bounty Hunters was really his dead wife.
And then a platform rose in the middle of the room, showing Amy, Rory, and the Doctor. I made to teleport out, but my device was on the floor next to TARDIS, meaning that by the time I got to it, they'd have seen me anyway, or I'd have been shot. And all my weapons, well, nearly all, were in a bundle leaning against it.
"Where are we? A spaceship, right?" Amy asked, and then looked over at me. "Who's she, and why does she look like she's about to kill someone?" Oh, that was nice, thank you, dear little Amelia.
The Doctor looked over at me, and then back at my sister. "Not just any spaceship. The Parliament of the Daleks. Be brave. Especially of her. The Demon, Sarani Bounty Hunter, most feared in the quadrant of the universe. Luckily, they appear to have taken her weapons. Ryoko Tanaka." Try Seraphina Dark, my Angel.
"What do we do?" She asked, and then I twigged there was something wrong with her. Rory was stood too far apart from her, he was always ready to defend her when there was something going on, and we were in the Parliament of the Daleks.
Rolling my eyes, I tried to edge to my VM, but the Dalek man grabbed me, throwing me closer to the TARDIS Gang, making me hiss and snarl. "Vermin, don't touch me!"
After the Doctor gave me a wary glance, he stood in the middle of the arena. "Make them remember you. Well, come on then. You've got me. What are you waiting for? At long last, it's Christmas! Here I am." He closed his eyes, expecting to die and I readied myself to save him. He was on his last regeneration, I still had many left.
But then the Prime Minister spoke. "Save us. You will save us."
We both stared at the creature in shock. "I'll what?" We both said, and I had to quickly remember that I was supposed to be mostly deaf, thickening my voice.
Then all of the Daleks started saying the same. God, no... I was never saving them, not in the slightest. "Well, this is new."
Then he started pacing in the middle of the room, looking around worriedly while I just planned out my escape, working out how I could move forwards, grab the teleport, get Amy and Rory out without any of us dying, or revealing who I was. Safe to say that it wasn't actually possible. "What's he doing?" Rory asked Amy, not getting close, but speaking in a way that wouldn't alert him to the Daleks.
"He's chosen the most defendable area in the room, counted all the Daleks, counted all the exits, and now he's calculating the exact distance we're standing apart and starting to worry. Oh, and look at him frowning now." She said, watching him intently. She looked amazing, her modelling job obviously going well. "Something's wrong with Amy and Rory, and who's going to fix it? And he straightens his bow tie. "
The big boss guy spoke again then. "We have arrived."
"Arrived where?"
"Doctor. Demon."
"The Prime Minister will speak with you now." The man who tricked me, and the ginger who probably tricked my ex husband said, indicating for us to both to go towards them.
"Do you remember who you were before they emptied you out and turned you into their puppet?" I asked the man, hoping that I sounded convincing. It was really annoying, I'd learnt to hate speech.
He shrugged and the woman answered for him. Our memories are only reactivated if they are required to facilitate cover or disguise."
"You had a daughter. Together, by the look of thing." The Doctor told them, seeing their matching wedding bands. Mine was on a necklace, as well as my engagement ring. The Doctor still had his on.
They both smiled. "We know. We've read our files."
Then we walked up to the Prime Minister, my near black eyes burning with hatred. "Well?"
"What do you know of the Dalek Asylum?" It asked us, and I was really glad he didn't say my name.
"According to legend, you have a dumping ground. A planet where you lock up all the Daleks that go wrong. The battle-scarred, the insane, the ones even you can't control. It's never made any sense to me." The Doctor replied, while I just watched his lips, pretending to lip read. Maybe I should just turn my headphones on, so it was easier to play deaf.
"Why not?"
I could answer that one. "Because you'd just kill them."
"It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred."
My ex husband seemed bemused. "Offensive?"
"Does it surprise you to know the Daleks have a concept of beauty?"
That made me snarl through my mask, wishing my hands worked to reach in there and pull apart the Kaled within. "I thought you'd run out of ways to make me sick. Hello again. You think hatred is beautiful."
"Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you, or your wife."
The Doctor glared at the creature. "My wife is already dead, and she was more than any of us. Don't you dare, don't ever, slander her name."
Oh, shut up, I'm right next to you. A hole opened in the middle of the floor, making us all walk back towards it, a planet visible. "The Asylum. It occupies the entire planet, right to the core. "
"How many Daleks are in there?" I asked, ready to go down there and rip them apart if necessary, I'd do anything to get out of this, and get back to the life I lived now.
The woman shrugged. "A count has not been made. Millions, certainly."
"All still alive?" That was the Doctor.
"It has to be assumed. The Asylum is fully automated. Supervision is not required."
Amy spoke up now, looking ready herself. She was terrified of Daleks... "Armed?"
"The Daleks are always armed."
"What colour?" Rory, really? What colour? The colour models had all been destroyed by yours truly, their model was actually easier to design than most. All apart from Supreme Boy, anyway. He alluded me. "I'm sorry, there weren't any good questions left."
"This signal is being received from the very heart of the Asylum."
Then Carmen came from over the speakers, and it took a lot to not wince at how loudly it was playing. "What is the noise? Explain. Explain." White asked.
"Er, it's me." Not it wasn't, you just liked to say that, moron.
Rory was very confused, and I felt sorry for him. "Sorry, what?"
"It's me, playing the triangle." We all rolled our eyes at him. "Okay, I got buried in the mix. Carmen. Lovely show. Someone's transmitting this. Have you considered tracking back the signal and talking to them?"
That made me laugh a little, the first time I'd laughed in years. "He asked the Daleks." Then I patched into the system quickly, letting myself show off without the sonic, before nodding when it was done.
"Hello? Hello? Carmen hello? Come in. Come in. Come in, Carmen?" He asked, repetitively, making me want to hit him.
And then a girls voice came through, sounding desperate. "Hello! Yes, yes, sorry. Do you read me?"
"Yes, reading you loud and clear. Identify yourself and report your status."
"Hello." She repeated, sounding unsure. "Are you real? Are you actually, properly, real?
That made him laugh, which wasn't very nice if she'd been alone for a while. "Yes, confirmed. Actually, properly, real."
"Oswin Oswald, junior entertainment officer, starship Alaska. Current status, crashed and shipwrecked somewhere not nice. Been here a year, rest of the crew missing. Provisions good but keen to move on."
"A year?" That's what I was thinking, but I had to hold my tongue. I couldn't hear, and that was awkward. "Are you okay? Are you under attack?"
"Some local lifeforms." Oswin told us, sounding so relieved. "Been keeping them out."
The Doctor was a little worried now. "Do you know what those lifeforms are?"
"I know a Dalek when I hear one, yeah."
"What have you been doing on your own against the Daleks for a year?" Good question.
"Making soufflés?"
"Soufflés? Against the Daleks?" He laughed and then got a little serious. "Where'd you get the milk?"
And then big old Whitey decided that we'd spoken to this poor lost girl for long enough. "This conversation is irrelevant."
"No, it isn't." The Doctor said quickly, while I went to get her back, but the man pulled me away, making me try and hit him but my hands twisted, making me miss. Stupid arthritis. "Because a starliner has crashed into your Asylum, and someone's got in. And if someone can get in, then everything can get out. A tsunami of insane Daleks. Even you don't want that."
"The Asylum must be cleansed."
"Then why is it still here? You've enough fire-power on this ship to blast it out of the sky." I told them, pulling my hood further around my head when Amy looked at me, genuinely curious as to who I was. I really didn't need a family reunion right now.
The ginger shook her head. "The Asylum forcefield is impenetrable."
"Turn it off."
The man who tricked me now. "It can only be turned off from within the Asylum."
"A small taskforce could sneak through a forcefield. Send in a couple of Daleks. Oh." And then the Doctor came to the same conclusion I had reached, applauding them. "Oh. Oh, that's good. That's brilliant. You're all too scared to go down there. Not one of you will go, so tell me, what do the Daleks do when they're too scared?"
The Supreme spoke instead now. "The Predators of the Daleks will be deployed."
"You don't have Predators, and even if you did, why would they turn off a forcefield for you?" I asked them, knowing that my voice was going back to normal. Stop it, just stop speaking!
"Because you will have no other means of escape."
The ginger stepped a little closer, the shell of her husband still holding me. "May I clarify? The Predators is the Dalek's word for you and the 'Demon'."
"Me? Me? Her I can understand, I've seen her at work, but me?"
"You will need this. It will protect you from the nanocloud." Two other humanoids put wristbands onto us.
I was really getting confused now. "The what? The nano what?"
"The gravity beam will convey you close to the source of the transmission. You must find a way to deactivate the forcefield from there." We were told, and I gave up, knowing that I had to do it anyway.
"You're going to fire me at a planet? That's your plan? I get fired at a planet and expected to fix it. While working with the deadliest woman in the Universe?"
Rory gave him a sarcastic look. "In fairness, that is slightly your M O. Though the Demon... A little different to your last partner." Thanks, I'm theoretically the same person, Roranicus.
"Don't be fair to the Daleks when they're firing me at a planet, Rory!" And then my sister and her husband, at least I hoped they were still together, had wrist bands put on them. "What do you want with them? And why do you want me with the Demon?"
"It is known the Doctor required companions, as well as his wife."
Nope. Don't you dare, Mr Mayonnaise, I was dead, you weren't telling him. "My wife is dead, I don't know what you're talking about!"
His eye stalk turned to me and focused. "Remove your mask and hood."
"You'll have to kill me first!" I snarled, fighting to get free of the Dalek man holding me, but his body was as hard marble. "Let me go!"
"Remove your mask and hood, or your sister will die!" He told me, and aimed his gun at Amy, who was staring at me in horror, her eyes desperately trying to see how I could be her sister. "Remove your disguise and show them your identity!"
I was then released, and expected to do it myself, looking at the gun aimed at Amelia. "If I do this, you must promise not to harm either her or Rory. Do you swear, Dalek Supreme?"
"I swear your family will not come under my fire, nor fire of any Dalek in my command" He told me, and then I looked at her, my eyes burning gold for a moment before I pulled the mask off my face, and the hood down. I was older, a good 10 years from what they had seen, with grey laced through my hair, now reaching my hips in tight curls like Melody's. My face.. it was lined around my mouth and eyes, as well as scarred. "Look at your missing beloved, Doctor! Look at what you turned her into after faking your death."
They were all staring at me in horror, the Doctor looking like he was about to cry as we were all then pushed into the beam. He knew then. Lets see if this changed anything.
The Doctor:
She was alive... Oh, my Seraphina was alive...
As we were falling she passed out, so I pulled her to me, cradling her and making sure that it was me who hit the ground as we landed, stroking her long hair. "Sera, my Sera, I'm so, so sorry. Oh, I love you I love you so much...
And then a series of eyepieces popped up and down from under the snow, looking at us as Seraphina started stirring, the snow starting to wake her up as I mock laughed at the approaching scout. "Oh, ha, ha, ha."
Carmen then came through the speakers. "Sorry, sorry. Pressed the wrong switch." A familiar voice came out, the music stopping.
"Soufflé girl?" Sera asked, sitting up, looking at it, and then me. "Shit." She'd realised that her mask was down, and that we knew where she was. "Don't say anything, Doctor. I have nothing to say to you."
Soufflé girl laughed a little then. "Ooh, trouble in paradise. Plus, you can always call me Oswin, seeing as that's my name. You okay?"
"How are you doing that, eh? This is Dalek technology. Not even I've been ever able to hack it and I'm the brain of the Universe"
I could practically see the joyous expression on her face. "It's very easy to hack."
"No, it isn't." I agreed with my wife, who seemed to be angry still. It had been longer than 2 years for her, it looked more like 10 or 20, seeing as Time Lords age slower. "Where are you?"
"The ship broke up when it hit. Somewhere underground, I think. You two love birds coming to get me?"
Then Amy started up the snow drift towards us. "Doctor? Sera?"
"Hey! Oi! Soufflé girl!" Sera shouted, hitting at the scout eye that was fizzing a little. "Come back!"
"Doctor! Sera!"
"Amy!" I shouted, while Sera quickly pulled the mask back up, obviously ashamed of how she looked. Why? She was beautiful no matter what. "Hey, where's Rory?"
A man with her, bundled up with a massive white coat spoke up, and he looked at my wife cautiously. "There was another beam. There. Over there. Are you the rescue team?" He asked, running back along the snow with us, seeing that there was a shaft drilled through the snow and the rock.
Oh, Mr Pond... "Rory?" Amy called down, sounding worried. "Rory! Rory!"
Obviously we couldn't get down there after him, and then we followed Harvey to his ship, hoping that there was a way down to Soufflé girl from here, though Sera was more interested in the mission. "We came down two days ago. There's twelve of our escape pods. I don't know what happened to them."
He scraped the snow off of a cover, showing a hatch with Alaska written across the top. "Alaska? That's the same ship as soufflé girl."
"Yeah." I agreed, watching Sera jump right down, landing lightly as a cat. "Except she's been here a year."
"We should have some climbing rope long enough for that hole." He told us, and then paused, seeing Sera staring at the people in here, who were just sat there, doing nothing. Her eyes were dead.
"Won't you introduce us to your crew?"
He stopped, looking at her, her mask covering her nose and mouth. "Ah, yes, sorry. Guys, this is the Doctor, the Demon?" She nodded, and I sighed. She wasn't a demon, no matter how lost she was. "And Amy." There was no response from them. "Guys?" They were all desiccated corpses. "Oh, my god."
Sera gave a big sniff, looking at each. "They're dead. All of them."
"That's not possible. I just spoke to them. Two hours ago. We were doing engine repairs." Harvey tried to say, but her eyes flashed gold at me, and I knew that she'd worked it out. Oh, she was always smarter that I was, I missed her so much...
"You're sure about that, are you?" I asked him, as Seraphina pulled a knife subtly out of no where. How the hell did she manage to get that undetected? "Because I'd say they've all been dead for a very long time."
He was still incredibly confused. "But they can't have been."
"Well, they didn't get in this state in two hours." She sighed, rolling his eyes.
Harvey then paused, his eyes going lifeless. "No, of course. Stupid me."
That made Amy incredibly confused, more than the fact her sister was alive. "Of course what?"
"I died outside, and the cold preserved my body. I forgot about dying." And then a Dalek eye piece popped out, meaning Sera leapt into action, slashing where the gun would have come out and then kicking him towards a door.
"Amelia, the door! I can't multitask, do it!" She shouted, and then Amy got it done, pushing him through and closing it.
She looked at the both of us, focusing on me as her sister hadn't actually said anything nice to her. Seraphina was scaring even me in that mask and her hood. "Explain. That's what you're good at. How'd he get all Daleked? And why the hell didn't you find me?! I thought you were dead, I thought that we'd lost you both!"
"Because you were better off that way, Amelia. And because he wasn't wearing one of these. The nanocloud. Microorganisms that automatically process any organic matter, living or dead, into a Dalek puppet. Anything attacks this place, it automatically becomes part of the on-site security." She explained to us both, slipping the knife back up her sleeve.
Amy gulped. "Living or dead?"
"These wristbands protect us." I nodded, agreeing with Phina. "The only thing stopping us going exactly the way he did. Oh, and no one is better off without you."
"Doctor, shut up! Living or dead." And then the corpses grew glowing eye stalks, starting to move. "Dead. Oh dear." She round house kicked the zombies into each other, and fought them off so that we could get into the cockpit, but her arm got caught in the door as it closed, but I pulled it out of the zombies grip.
Amy was laughing a little, hugging her sister, even though she didn't hug back. "Is it bad that I've really missed this?"
"Yes." Seraphina told her little sister, stepping back and securing the mask around her mouth. "Yes, because I didn't want to be missed."
"You were always going to be missed, no matter what happened, Alice. You were my sister before all this happened and you'll be my sister long after it too."
There was an awkward pause, before someone spoke over the tannoy. "Unauthorised personnel may not enter the cockpit."
"Shut up."
"Oh, Mrs Grumpy." Oswin complained, laughing a little. "Bad combo. No sense of humour in those big black eyes, or your Chin Boy's chin."
"Is that her again, soufflé girl?" Amy asked, looking away from Phi.
"Yeah, she-" I stopped, replaying what she said in my head, sticking my face in the camera. "Oi, what is wrong with my chin?"
Both her and my wife laughed at that. "Careful, dear. You'll put someone's eye out."
"Scanning you." Soufflé girl told us, and I wished that I could actually see her as I moved around the capsule. "You're in another of the escape pods from the Alaska, right? Same ship I was on."
That made Seraphina move towards the camera herself, her eyes flashing gold at her. "How can you hack into everything? It should be impossible. You're in a crashed ship! I've never done it using the most brilliant piece of tech in the known universe, and the only Sentinel computer on the planet Earth."
"Long story. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?"
"Demon. You call me the Demon." She smiled into the camera, and I realised that she was flirting. Oh, no, I was right here!
"See what you did there." She laughed, and that was a little bit of a flirt back. Then there was a beep. "Check the floor. I'm picking up a breach at floor level. There could be a way out. See you later."
I bent down to check on it, laughing as I found what she wanted us to see. "Ah ha! Hatch. Looks like it's been used already and they've tried to block it off behind them."
"Can't imagine why." Amy muttered, looking down as Phina, or Demon or whatever she was calling herself now, fumbled in her pocket to find something, which looked like a gravity cushion. Great, she was free falling it.
Then she bent down herself to have a look, hovering a small scanner over the top of it. "The lower part of the pod is buried, so this must go straight down to the Asylum."
"Where Rory is." Amy nodded, and then Phina looked right at her.
"Speaking of Rory, is there anything you want to tell me?"
Amelia stared hard at her sister. "Are we going to do this now? Miss, I'm going to pretend I'm dead for 2 years. Not even your daughter knows that you're alive!"
She rolled her eyes. "You deserve better, besides, it's been 20 years for me. What happened?"
"Oh, stuff." Amy told her, and that didn't really help. "You know. We split up. What can you do? What about you two, are you splitting up? Because you two are the last of your species, you really can't avoid each other forever and look, take this stupid mask off, I don't care how old you look!" She reached over and pulled it down, showing her beautiful face, lined and scarred. "Oh, look at you..."
Her eyes were still dull and lifeless, but now they couldn't see anything but her sister. "What can I do?"
"Nothing. It's not one of those things you can fix like you fix your hair or your bowtie." She told us, as we both looked. Oh, really, don't get Seraphina started. "Don't give me those big wet eyes, and yours had better start tearing up because I really, really don't want you like this forever, you're my sister, Magickal Princess. It's life. Just life. That thing that goes on when you're not there." And then I got the hatch open and saw a shaft leading down into the planet, a flexible metal ladder hanging down it. "Okay, so somebody else got out this way, then."
"Yeah, let's go and find them. Oh, hello, hello, hello. What are they up to?" I paused, looking at the monitor on the wall, the Zombies waving something at the the camera.
Phi glanced over, then frowned. "What's that?"
"One of these." I indicated my wristband. "But where did they get it?"
There was a pause, and then Seraphina stood up, holding out her wrist. "Doctor, they got it from me."
"Oh, Phina..." I breathed, going to hug her, forgetting everything that had happened, but she growled softly, her nearly black eyes narrowing.
"Doctor, what's going to happen to her? Seriously. Tell me what." Amy asked, and I started explaining as we climbed down, her suddenly not using the gravity cushion. Good, there was a reason that product was recalled.
"So tell me, what's going to happen to me?" Phi asked, for the 4th time. "And don't lie. Because I know when you're lying to me and I will definitely fall on you, because a, I can survive this height, and b, I'm sick of your lies." I didn't want to lie! I did it for her!
Sighing, I started to tell her, again. "The air all around is full of micro-machines. Robots the size of molecules. Nanogenes. Now that you're unprotected, you're being re-written. I don't know how long it will take, what with you being Time Lord, but it'll happen."
That made her laugh a little and I looked up at her. "I'm half Sarani. Mr Smith said the cells are self replicating so my biology is literally half and half now. Regeneration might not even get rid of it." God, the Demon Seraphina for eternity, that was a really scary thought. "So, what happens? I get one of those things sticking out of my head? Always wondered what it would be like for the world to be blue." Was this funny to her?
"Physical changes come later."
"What comes first? How does it start? Come on, I'm more brawn than brains now-a-days, it'll take me twice as long to work it out." You were still always smarter than me.
"With your mind. Your feelings, your memories, and I'm sorry but it's started already."
Phina peered down at me then. "How do you know?"
"Because you've had this conversation four times, sis." Amy told her, right at the top of us because it meant we all had a chance to catch her before she went past. Phi wanted to go at the bottom, but I wanted to be able to catch her as well. She may not love me, but I would always love her.
Her eyes flashed gold, and she smiled. "Okay, adrenaline kicking in now."
"Hang on to hyper, Phi. Adrenaline hype isn't Dalek."
Phina:
We got to the bottom of the shaft, heading towards a door. I could hear the Daleks a little while away, repeating their favourite word. This was a real kick, I was loving the thrill of this. Daleks had learn to stay away from area's I was working in, so I didn't get to defeat them all too often recently. Now, I could help destroy a planet of them.
But then I paused, sniffing as my ex-husband did the same, and then we backed out again, confusing Amy. God, her and Rory... I probably broke them up, both thinking that I was dead, meaning that they were both angry and upset, taking it out on each other. I needed to fix that, before I left again. I couldn't keep going as a family, I was too different now.
"Keep a look out." I told my little sister, trying to stop my headache from over powering me. I hadn't had one this bad since I was human. "Don't open this door. Oswin! Oswin, can you hear me?"
"Hello, black eyes and the chin. I have visual on you."
Come on, she sounded cute, why couldn't I see her? "Why don't I have a visual on you? Why can't I ever see you?"
"Limited power, bad hair, take your pick. I do rather like your hair though, if I'm honest. Very Marvel, like Rogue. She was always my favourite." Me too, touching someone and knowing everything about them, the ultimate cheat. Just like my visions. "There's a door to your left. Open it. I'm going to send you a map to that screen. I put your little friend somewhere safe. I can get you to him."
The Doctor and Amy pushed me out of the way then, and I knew that she still loved him then. "Rory. You found Rory?"
"I call him Nina. Personal thing. Hush now."
Wandering off back down the hall, I looked through panels in the door, seeing a man in a suit in the chamber. What? That wasn't right, there were only Daleks here, not people. "Who are you? Doctor?" I looked back, but they were both looking at the camera again, talking to Oswin. There were lots of people in there now, and my head went all swimmy, making me feel like I was drunk. Formal party goers, a little red haired girl in a tutu. Looked fun, so I wanted in.
Opening the door, I went inside, looking around at all the people. I made it pretty far in before either of the others noticed. "Phina!"
"Shush. It's okay, it's just people in here. It's just people." I told them, my head getting worse and I felt like I was going to pass out.
The Doctor stopped a little way into the room, looking alarmed. "Seraphina, it's the nanocloud, it's altering your perception. Look again. Look again. Those aren't people. Trust me, please, you used to trust me." What was he talking about? But I looked again, seeing Daleks now, my hearts thudding in my chest. "Phina, come out. Take my hand. Run! Run!"
I took it, unsure what else to do, and we ran back to the rope ladder, moving under the weight of the descending zombies. "Look, they're coming down!" Amy shouted as we approached, and I really just wanted to sleep now, sleep sounded so good...
"Er, oh yes, they are."
And then we were found by a Dalek, making us run and hide in the cubby hole Oswin opened for us, waiting for it to run out of power. "It's damaged." I told them, rubbing my eyes.
"Okay, but what do we do?"
Taking the Doctor's hand again, I walked out in front of it. "Identify us. Access your files. Who are we? Come on. Who's your mummy and daddy?"
Pause. "You are the Predators."
"Access your standing orders concerning the Predators." The Doctor told it, understanding what I was doing. Who was I kidding, I was always smarter than him, no matter what I'd been doing for the last 2 decades.
"The Predators must be destroyed."
"And how are you going to do that, Dalek?" I smirked, remembering the last time we fought a Dalek together, when we weren't even married yet. I missed those days, once I regenerated, everything went to pieces. "Without a gun you're a tricycle with a roof. How are you going to destroy us?"
"Self-destruct initiated."
Amy didn't like the sound of that. "What's it doing?"
"It's going to blow itself up, and us with it. Only weapon it's got left." The Doctor explained, as I took off my gloves, my long grey nails easily slicing through the top lid of the creature.
"Self-destruct cannot be countermanded."
The Doctor took over then, scanning with his green ended sonic. "I'm not looking for a countermand, dear. I'm looking for reverse." And then it whizzed back into the chamber, bumping into his colleagues and exploding. The noise made my legs buckle, and the Doctor grabbed me, holding me bridal style as we walked through the burning remains, my head resting against his shoulder.
The smoke made me cough, so he nodded to Amy and she lifted my mask back up, the life support within starting, and I could breathe again as Rory ran through the smoke, calling out to out new friend. "Oswin? What happened? Who killed all the Daleks?"
"Who do you think?" I told him, my eyes, weakly open as we went back into a teleport room with him. "Hi, Rory..."
The Doctor lay me down on a teleport pad, explaining what was going on as Rory bent down, taking off my mask to check my breathing again. "Will sleeping help her? Will it slow down the process? Because you look shattered, Sera."
"Phi. My name is Phi or Demon, Rory..." I muttered, trying to get up but my limbs felt too heavy. "Sera is dead, she died fully on that beach, and Phina was born when my Melody brought me back with her love."
"You'd better hope she too sleepy to move because pretty soon she's going to try and kill you." Oswin decided to tell my old family, while I groaned, making myself sit up and look at them, my hands swollen as the Doctor bent down next to me.
"Seraphina." I ignored him again, fumbling in my pockets for my syringe, needing to stop them from getting painful again. "Phi, it's me. Do you remember me?" There weren't any left, so I just slapped him, not caring about the jarring feeling that went rocking up my hands. "She remembers me."
Then Amy laughed a little. "Same old Seraphina."
"Do you know how you make someone into a Dalek? Subtract love, add anger. Doesn't she seem a bit too angry to you?" Oswin asked, so I flipped her off as I got to my feet.
"Well, somebody's never been to Gallifrey. We need to get this sorted, the Dalek's took my meds, meaning that my hands are going to end up dead in about 2 hours. I don't want that, because then I can't do anything."
"What about you, though, Oswin. How come you're okay?" The Doctor asked suddenly, still rubbing his cheek. "Why hasn't the nanocloud converted you?"
She laughed a little, and something told me that she was a little more than she seemed, whether she knew so or not. "I mentioned the genius thing, yeah? Shielded in here."
"Clever of you." I muttered. "Now, this place. The Daleks said it was fully automated. Look at it. It's a wreck."
I could practically see her shrug. "Well, I've had nearly a year to mess with them, and not a lot else to do."
"A junior entertainment manager hiding out in a wrecked ship, hacking the security systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen. But you know what really gets me about you, Oswin? The soufflés. Where do you get milk for the soufflés?" The Doctor asked her, and then looked around the rest of us. I was more wondering the eggs, milk you could synthesize. "Seriously. Is no one else wondering about that?"
Rory rolled his eyes at my ex husband. "No. Frankly, no. Twice."
"So, Doctor, Demon/Writer/Seraphina. I've been looking you up. You're all over the database. Why do the Daleks call you the Predators?" Oswin asked us, while I tugged my gloves back on my hands, trying to keep them moving.
"I'm not the Predator, I'm just a man with a plan. Phina, well, she's always been deadly, but she knew when to kill and when to forgive back in the day." The Doctor said solemnly, looking at my knife that was somehow in his hand. I snatched it back, slipping it up my sleeve. I needed something to protect myself.
Oswin sounded a little hopeful. "You've got a plan?"
That made me smile a little, pulling my hood up. "In no particular order, we need to neutralise all the Daleks in this Asylum, rescue Oswin from the wreckage, escape from this planet and fix Amy and Rory's marriage."
"Okay, I'm counting three lost causes. Anyone else?" Amy asked, not sounding hopeful. "I more want to fix the two Time Lords as they're the only ones of their kind, they need each other."
"Amelia, what he did was unforgivable for me." I snapped, my eyes flashing gold at her. "Oswin, there's a Dalek ship in orbit."
"Yes. Got it on the sensors"
The Doctor continued as I pulled open a panel in the wall, looking at something. I knew what this was... "The Asylum has a forcefield. The Daleks upstairs are waiting for me to turn it off. Soon as I do, they'll burn this whole world and us with it. So, Oswin, my question is this. How fast can you drop the forcefield?"
"Pretty fast." The lost girl admitted. "But why would I?"
I laughed with joy, confirming my suspicion. "Because this is a teleport. Am I right, Oswin?"
"Yeah. Internal use only."
"I can boost the power. Once the forcefield is down, I can use it to beam us right off this planet." I smiled, not that they could see through the mask.
Rory had a complaint, well, he always did. "You said when the forcefield is down, the Daleks will blow us up."
"We'll have to be quick, yes."
"Fine, we'll be quick." Amy sighed, giving me a sulky look. Come on, she didn't really think I was getting back with him after he caused my death, did she? "But where do we beam to?"
"The only place within range. The Dalek ship."
"They'll exterminate us on the spot."
"Ah, so this is the kind of escape plan where you survive about four seconds longer." Rory realised, making me roll my eyes. I was very sarcastic today, it was getting fun.
"What's wrong with four seconds? You can do loads in four seconds. Oswin, how fast can you drop the forcefield?"
"I can do it from here, as soon as you come and get me." Wait, what?
The Doctor shook his head at the camera. "No, just drop the forcefield and come to us."
"There's enough power in that teleport for one go. Why would you wait for me? The Demon wouldn't, she'd class me as collateral." No, I liked you, and no one was ever collateral. Everyone had a right to live until that way risked too many other people. Then I intervened.
"Why wouldn't I? You're innocent." I told her, and I really hoped she was. Every time I tried to get a fix on her, I saw too many images, too many lives to be able to focus. She was an enigma.
"No idea. Never met you. Sending you a map so you can come get me."
Rory had yet another complaint. "This place is crawling with Daleks."
"Yeah. Kind of why I'm anxious to leave. Come up and see me sometime." Oswin joked, making me laugh a little.
"So, are we going to go get her?"
"I don't think that we have a choice." I admitted, taking the knife back out and slashing to wires to reattach to some others before getting to my feet. "Okay, as soon as the forcefield is down the Daleks will attack. If it gets too explody-wody in here, you go without me, okay?"
"And leave you to die? For real this time?"
"Oh, don't worry about us." The Doctor smiled, putting his hand on my shoulder, looking hurt as I flinched and pulled away. "You're the one beaming up to a Dalek ship to get exterminated. I'm the one dealing with my assassin wife."
He considered this. "Fair point. Love this plan. What about the conversion?"
"I'll keep her remembering, keep her focused. That'll hold back the conversion."
I rolled my eyes, yet again. "I'm not an assassin, I'm a Bounty Hunter, and I really am not listening to you if you're going to talk about the times that you pretended to love me. So, have fun, I'm going to get Oswin."
Taking off at a sprint, I ran down towards the point Oswin was on the map, and heard footprints after me, meaning that he was still coming. "Okay, look at me, Seraphina. I'm going to be logical. Cold and logical, okay? For both of our sakes, for both of us, I'm going to take this off my wrist and put it on yours." He told me, stopping me when we were just out of earshot of the other two.
"Why? Then it'll just start converting you. That's not better. You have working hands, I don't." I reminded him, showing him the stiffness under my gloves.
He rolled his eyes this time. "Yes, but it'll buy us time, because it'll take longer with me."
"Sorry, what?"
"It subtracts love, that's what she said." He told me softly, and I stared hard. "And you know it's true."
"What's that got to do with it?" I asked him, incredibly confused. "What does that even mean?"
"It's arithmetic. It'll take longer with me because we both know, we've always known, that. Ryoko, the basic fact of our relationship is that I love you more than you love me, which today is good news because it might just save both of our lives. It's obvious that you don't love me any more, though I still love you, no matter what you've become, how old you look."
I narrowed my eyes at him, stepping away. "How can you say that?"
"A thousand years, waiting for you to be mine. I helped you through the depression, the regeneration, stopped you from killing yourself as a human and I was helping you through the rage you succumbed to. Don't say it isn't true, you know it's true. Give me your arm. Phina!"
I didn't know what else to say, so I let my actions speak louder than words, slapping him hard across the face again. "Don't you dare say that to me. Don't you ever dare."
"Seraphina, you knew I wasn't dead after the space station, you lied to me about who you were. I understand why you did at first, because you were angry and thought me dead. I thought that you were dead too, and when I found out you weren't, I was so, so happy. But you're acting like you wish I was."
Shaking my head, I pulled down the mask again, letting him properly look at me, look at who I became after I died for him. "You made me this, the Dalek's were right." I told him softly. "You were my control and my stability, something that I couldn't have even without the Sarani inside me. I needed you, and you knew it. Melody knew, didn't she? She knew that you were going to survive. You didn't tell her your name, you told her the truth, about how she wasn't really killing you. I had let you go, and I had made the most of who I was, Legacy."
The Doctor tried to take my hands then, but I pulled back, the shaking things going into my jacket pockets. "Yes, she did know. But I was coming to find you after. But when I found Amy and Rory... They told me that you were dead, and I felt like my hearts were going out the same way. Because I love you so much, that I will do whatever you want me to do to just be able to hug you, or see you when you're not hiding under a hood and a mask, because you're my wife, Seraphina. I love you through anything."
"At death did us part, dear husband." I muttered, trying to move back and head towards Oswin, knowing that we needed to get her out. "And who said I ever stopped loving you. But loving you got me killed once, and who said it won't kill me again, for good this time. The thing is, no matter your reasoning, you killed me when you faked your death. I am only here for Melody, our daughter who currently resides in prison for a murder that didn't happen, let alone commit. I've been watching over her, and not once have you been to visit. I haven't, but I've made sure she gets a card and something on her birthday, just from someone anonymously."
"I didn't know what to tell her." He whispered, then pulled at my arm, going to put on his wristband, pausing as he saw two already there. "Amy and Rory, when they checked on you. God, those two love you more than anything."
Growling, I put the mask back on and started running. "Well they shouldn't! Oswin, I think I'm close." I told her, seeing her blue dot not too far from my black one.
"You are. Less than twenty feet away. Which is the good news."
The Doctor sighed, running up next to me, out of breath. Old man. "Okay. And the bad which I suddenly feel is coming?"
"You're about to pass through Intensive Care." She told us and we looked to see Daleks in cages, chained up.
"What's so special about this lot, then?" I asked, heading into the room, my knife ready to at least go out fighting.
"Don't know." Oswin told us. "Survivors of particular wars. Spiridon, Kembel, Eridius, Vulcan, Exxilon. Ringing any bells?"
The Doctor and I looked at each other for a moment, and then back at the Daleks. "All of them."
"Yeah? How?"
"These are the Daleks who survived us." We muttered together, and then froze as they all started recognising us.
Oswin got a little confused. "That's weird. Those ones don't usually wake up for anything."
"Yeah, well special visitors. Okay, door, but it won't open. We can't be far away, though." I told her, scanning it myself but finding that you had to be in Dalek control to be able to open it.
"Hang on. Not quite sure. There's a release code. Let me just-" A pause where nothing happened. "Anything out there?"
"Nada."
She groaned, and kept trying. "Hang on, I'm trying to think."
A Dalek that had been disarmed, literally, and chained up started coming towards us, pulling at the chains until they broke, knowing who we are. "Oswin, get this door open. Oswin, open this door!" We shouted, banging hard on it as they got closer, meaning that we had even less of a chance at living.
"I can't!"
"Oswin. Just get this door open! Oswin! Oswin, please! Get this door open! Help us!" A plunger was heading for my face, and the Doctor saw, wrapping his arms around me and protecting me, my face pushed into his chest. But then they all stopped, turning away.
Oswin laughed through the comms, sounding delighted with herself. "Oh, that is cool. Tell me I'm cool, chin boy and Black Eyes."
"What, what did you do?" We asked, still pressed together. Oh, God... This felt so nice... Being back in his arms, feeling so, so safe... No, no stop it, please, he hurt you, again... But he didn't mean to. He didn't know.
"Hang on, I think I've found the door thingy." She told us, but we shook our heads.
"No, tell us what you did."
Oswin still sounded delighted with herself. "The Daleks, they have a hive mind. Well, they don't, they have a sort of telepathic web."
"The path web, yes." I agreed, wondering where she was going with this.
"I hacked into it, did a mass delete on all the information connected with the Doctor and his wife of many, many names."
We both stared at the camera. "You made them forget us?" 964 years of warring with the Daleks, and then they just forget us...
"Good, eh?" She laughed. "And here comes the door."
The door started rising then. "I've tried hacking into the path web. Even I couldn't do it. I've been trying for 900 years, Oswin!"
"Come and meet the girl who can. Hey, you're right outside. Come on in."
No, please, no. She was so kind, so nice. She didn't deserve that, no one, no one ever, ever deserves that. I don't think that she even knew. "Oswin, we have a problem."
"No, we don't." She replied, sounding worried. "Don't even say that. Joined the Alaska to see the universe, ended up stuck in a shipwreck first time out. Rescue me, chin boy, and show me the stars."
I let the Doctor take my hand, my eyes filling with tears for the first time in 20 years. I'd forgotten that my tear ducts even worked. "Does it look real to you?"
"Does what look real?"
"Where you are right now." The Doctor said sadly, squeezing my hand in a way that didn't hurt it. Oh, my hand always fit perfectly into his... "Does it seem real?"
"It is real." She told us, but the reality was so much worse. Her normal voice was gone now, all we could hear was the Daleks.
"It's a dream, Oswin." I sniffed, the tears falling now. "You dreamed it for yourself because the truth was too terrible."
"Where am I?" The Dalek asked us, chains draped over it inside the padded cell. "Where am I? Where am I?"
We shook our heads sadly. "Because you are a Dalek."
"I am not a Dalek. I am not a Dalek!" She screamed and I hoped that she would never be able to see herself. But the truth was here, the enigma was that she wasn't real. She was just a Dalek with emotions and an imagination. "I'm human."
"You were human when you crashed here." The Doctor told her, the story of what must have happened fresh in his head. "It was you who climbed out of the pod. That was your ladder."
Her voice got a little hopeful. "You mean Human?"
"Not any more. Because you're right. You're a genius, possibly could have been smarter than me." I told her, trying to make her feel better. "And the Daleks need genius. They didn't just make you a puppet, they did a full conversion."
"Oswin, I am so sorry, but you are a Dalek. The milk, Oswin. The milk and the eggs for the soufflés." The Doctor sighed. "Where, where did it all come from?"
"Eggs."
"It wasn't real. It was never real." We told her, my eyes burning as tears ran down my cheeks.
"Eggs. Stir. Min. Ate." No, stop. You were a human to you and that was all that mattered. No... I was a demon because that's how I saw myself... She was in the body of the most perfect killer in the universe, but she saw herself as human. Perspective... What the Doctor kept telling me...
"Oswin."
"Eggs. Stir. Min ate. Exterminate."
The Doctor automatically put me behind him, as I froze, lost in my own head at the idea that I was ony a demon to escape from the life that I was living. I was scared to live without him, so I didn't live as me. Now he was back and I felt real again. I felt like I was me. "Oswin. No, no, no, Oswin. Oswin."
"Exterminate!"
"Listen." I shouted, pushing him aside and standing in front of her. "Oswin, you don't have to do this."
"Exterminate!"
"Oswin!"
There was a pause, and the way the Dalek replied it was as though she was crying. The first Dalek to ever cry. "Why do they hate you so much? They hate you so much. Why?"
"I fought them many, many times. I was the Dragon Warrior, even more feared than I am as the Demon. I don't want to be feared, I never did."
There was a sniffing type noise. "We have grown stronger in fear of you. Of the creature you have inside, the one you have let to the surface."
"I know. I tried to stop. But then I didn't have a reason to care."
"Then run."
We both blinked at her. "What did you say?"
There was a little more life back in her voice then. "I've taken down the forcefield. The Daleks above have begun their attack. Run!"
"Oswin, are you-" I tried, but she interrupted.
"I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks and I am Human! Remember me." She told us, and we back towards the door, still hand in hand.
"Thank you."
"Run!" We started running as the bombardment started, and we could hear her behind us. "Run, you clever pair. And remember."
And then we were back in the teleport room, finding the Mini-Ponds snogging, again. Well, at least all was right with them, but me and the Doctor... I probably ruined any chance with what I said earlier. "Right, go! Let's go. We're good. Let's go. Oh, for God's sake." I took the control unit from Rory, getting us off the planet just as the Daleks shot missiles at the planet, blowing it up. "You know, you guys should really have seen this coming. The thing about me and teleports, I've got a really good aim. Pin-point accurate, in fact. Or, to put it another way," We laughed, still holding hands as we ran out of the TARDIS together. "Suckers!"
"Identify yourselves. Identify. Identify." Oh, you were kidding me...
"It's us. You know me. The Doctor, Seraphina, the Writer, the Demon. The Oncoming Storm. The Predators."
"Titles are not meaningful in this context. Doctor who? Seraphina who?" The Daleks started chorusing it around us, making us laugh with joy.
"Oh, Oswin. Oh, you did it to them all. You beauty. Fellas, you're never going to stop asking." Then I bent down and picked up the bundle of weapons and went back inside with the Doctor, dropping off the Ponds, letting them both hug me tight while the Doctor watched solemnly.
Well, I guess now was the time for us to have a proper talk. If we were getting properly divorced, or if we were trying again. And I wasn't sure which one I wanted any more.